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The San Elijo Hills auction happened today.  The 2,568 sf house that originally sold for $806,500 when new in February, 2005 has been on the market since February, but no takers.  The NOD was filed in May, 2008, so time was running out.

The seller hired an agent who tried the auction format, and held a few open houses in advance to drum up buyers.  The opening bid was $399,000, which was artificially low - or was it?

The house backed up to San Elijo Rd, and had dead grass - but the biggest bummer was that they took out the horns!

The agent carried on about how recent sales nearby had been around $600,000, then hedged later and said sales prices had been around $550,000, which, in his mind, made this an obvious bargain.  But the atmosphere was the same hokey, circus experience that we saw before - well no wonder, it was the same auctioneer as we saw in Fairbanks Ranch a few months ago:

Just like at the Fairbanks auction, it got off to a slow start, but this time after some prodding the four bidders reluctantly responded - the highest bid was $455,000.

The agent and auction people were aghast that people wouldn't pay more - obviouly this was a great bargain, at least in their minds.  But buyers do their homework these days, and knowing that they'll have to endure months of the short sale process, it had to be a deal to get someone to bite.  The original loan amounts total $745,100.

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Let's follow up on a few others while we're at it:

Wachovia foreclosed on this 4,213 sf one-story gem in La Costa Oaks with a big ocean view. 

The loan had been $1,632,000 in 2007, and at the trustee sale on July 31st the opening bid was $1,425,500, but no takers. 

I had guessed that their list price would be $1.395 million, but they came out hot and listed for $1,245,000 instead.  It went pending in the first week.

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We also mentioned some professional sellers - listings we could watch to gauge how tough it is on flippers.  So far, two of the nine went pending:

The house on Whimbrel in Aviara that was purchased for $636,231 at the trustee sale last month went pending after 21 days on market - it was listed for $799,000, we'll check the final sales price, but he probably did well.

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Swashbuckling Captain Jack got this one into escrow too.  He had paid $51,173 to the second mortgage holder who was foreclosing, and took ownership subject to the $305,000 first mortgage.  He listed for $519,900 in May, 2008, and in June started lowering his price $5,000 to $10,000 every three weeks until he got down to $484,900.  After 111 days on the market, he found a buyer.

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One I didn't mention was another of Jack's deals, this on Adams in Old Carlsbad.  The same type of package - he picked it up at the trustee sale of the second mortgage holder in July, and has about $400,000 into it.  He listed for $619,900 originally, and came down to $579,900 before finding the buyer - it went pending last week too.  It was on the market for 26 days.