The San Diego real estate market is on fire right now, home prices in my area are up 20% over last year and in nearby neighborhoods like North Park 92104 there is only 1 month of inventory at the current sales pace! It’s putting a real damper on the local house flippers as they are having trouble finding properties to rehab. 3 guys I personally know are going to Phoenix, Las Vegas and Palm Springs to find projects.
Strategically, I put it on the market on a Tuesday to give everyone time to react before an MLS advertised double-open house weekend. The strategy worked out perfectly, by the open house we already had 3 offers to work with. In this market its common to have 10-15 offers within the first few days, but this is generally true for entry level houses or high demand markets in the suburbs. By leaving the house on the market a whole 8 days, I felt it gave adequate market exposure yet didn’t irritate any of the first buyers by waiting too long and playing the game.
We had a specialty product for a very special buyer, in an inner city neighborhood where median sold home prices are in the low 500’s. To illustrate the market appreciation this year, when I bought this vacant lot I calculated a house built there would have sold for $629,000 based on comps. Half way through the build there were 2 comps at $685,000. By the time I was done we had sales comps in the low 700’s for remodels, not new construction, so I put a value on the home of $750,000. Not having a back yard was a definite negative so I had to price this in. You know that the seller does not set the sales price, the market does. A house will sell for whatever a buyer is willing to pay. Furthermore, houses are not sold, they are bought, so listing agents don’t “sell” houses in my opinion.
I used value range pricing and listed the house at $749,000 – $799,000. The first offer came in at $710,000. The second at $749,000 and a third at $750,000. When the smoke cleared, and after everyone had a shot to go higher, we countered the strongest buyer of the 3 offers and they came up to $765,000, or $413.50/s.f.
Listing this house and getting it under contract was the easy part, getting SDG&E to install the gas meter so we could close would prove to be the hard part and took almost 8 weeks! Our wonderful buyer hung in there so we finally closed today, congratulations to the new owner and we hope you enjoy the home as much as we did building it.
Congrats Tom. Looks like you found a low competition way to make great homes in existing neighborhoods.
Jason
Thanks Jason, this project was really satisfying, just grateful to be given the opportunity.
Congrats Tom! Glad to hear you have another project in the works…can’t wait to hear more about it.
Hey JtrW nothing under contract but I’m real close on some deals that have been brewing for a long time. You never know which one is happening first but either way they are both huge projects with a lot of new wood! Thanks for the congrats!
WOW, awesome! I’ve really enjoyed following this entire project. Thanks for sharing so much detail on the journey and letting us be a part of it!
glad you enjoyed Jakob and thank you for taking the pictures!
Another great one! Great job Tom!
Wow!! Love the house, you did a phenomenal job!
Awesome work!
Woo hoo!!
From concept to finish, amazing project Tom. Night shots of the house are rad. Great use of different materials. I got a lotta love for the garage door and interior doors. Definitely going into my idea book.
Thanks Daniel. I feel so lucky to be given the opportunity to build this and learn along the way. Cant wait to build another one.
Love watching the entire process. You couldn’t have finished at a better time. The market is crazy
I love your work!
Another amazing project, Tom! Each one is different, and I enjoy the way that your style has grown over the years.
I also noticed you used a lot of new ways of doing things on this one. Like the floorplan changes and way the foundation was excavated instead of pilings being used. Do California laws that require that a deep foundation or was it the location? I look forward to seeing the next one!
Congrats on the sale Tom! I’m sure the new owner will be very pleased.
I love these vids!
@ Gottaknow Yes, this is a California raised foundation commonly referred to as stem wall. All the floor joists sit right on top of the wall. The footing Code for California is 15″ deep for one story or 18″ deep for a 2 story house. These footings went 3-6 feet deep to reach native soil.
Normally with a stem wall here, guys still use piers and posts in the middle of the house to support the span. I came up with my own design that has an additional spine stem wall down the middle, that way there are no posts or beams.
Looking back, those Texas pier and beam additions I was doing were a walk in the park. Thanks for following!
Awesome work!Tom!
Tom,
We love how the modern design can fit right into many neighborhoods. Wish this listing was available when we were looking last year, would of bid for this one. We bought our first home west of 4S ranch in the new community Del Sur. But it is my goal to make a home similar to this one. Any similar listings, or plans for one in the north county, or central San Diego area? We’d love to get in touch. Thanks