Saturday, August 23, 2008

Weight Loss, Defaults and Nurseries

Weight Loss centers trim the fat?:

Both of Bakersfield’s L.A. Weight Loss Centers appear to be closing amid nationwide reports that the Pennsylvania-based company is finished.

The east Bakersfield store at 2625 Mount Vernon Ave. is full of packed boxes. A handwritten sign says it is open three days a week. A manager was not available to comment.

Another handwritten sign on the door of the southwest store at 5113 Ming Ave. says it closed in July. No customer information was posted.


Options wilt as some nurseries close
Two perennial Bakersfield nurseries — businesses once hearty enough to pass from one generation to the next — may be going the way of last year’s petunias

Robby’s Nursery & Landscape Service, founded in 1962, and Cooper’s Gardens, another independent around since 1941, appear to have succumbed to economic and competitive maladies spreading among mom-and-pops industrywide.

Both nurseries’ owners pointed to the housing slump, tighter consumer spending and pressure from big-box retailers. They also blamed specific local factors: brutal weather, commercial property values that encourage selling out and shifting shopper habits.

Las Palmas Nursery on Coffee Road also closed recently. The owner could not be reached for comment


Another real estate "mogul" can't pay his bills on time:

Two residential tracts in Rosedale defaulted on more than $29.5 million worth of loans Friday, county records show. The abandoned construction sites are both on the north side of Meacham Road, near Heath Road.

One is the southern half of the Tallus Ranch development at the northeast intersection of Heath and Meacham Road. There, Modesto developer John Carter Williams defaulted on a $19.5 million loan from Colonial Bank N.A. made in June 2005. As of Thursday, the developer was behind on more than $10.5 million worth of payments, the default filing showed.

The second site is slightly west, at the northeast corner of Meacham and Wegis Avenue. The 116-acre property is bounded by Hageman Road on the north. There, Williams defaulted on a $10.3 million construction loan from Colonial Bank made in March 2006. More than $3.7 million was in arrears as of Thursday.

Both loans were made to Williams through his company, J.C. Williams Co.

22 comments:

Bakersfield Bubble said...

There are some great photos on the last story

Realestateslasher said...

1990,1990 I saw Tracts with tall
grass & weeds all over S-W is this
going to be 1990 all over ?

Anonymous said...

Not that good. We're in the equivalent of Palmdale in 1990. Look at the tentatives.

TheFunSucker said...

poor meritage homes, I'll guess they'll pull out soon as they share the 'gated' community at Tallus ranch and they aren't selling squat, they even revamped their floor plans (made them smaller)in an effort to move houses. decent development/lots but nothing but dust now.

Perfect Storm said...

Two residential tracts in Rosedale defaulted.

Well at least this will make for a good Kit Fox sanctuary or a nice high school keg spot. Go Drillers!

Anonymous said...

Anyone know what is required to buy homes at trustee auctions in Kern? I tried looking it up but any search of trustee, forclosure, auction, etc just brings up all kinds of get rich quick web sites.

Bakersfield Bubble said...

You should attend one of the auctions at the steps of City Hall. That is the first step, watch and observe. They require 100% payment.

Anonymous said...

So if I go and buy a house w/ cash, then can you just go get a loan? Would it be like getting a normal loan?
Anything I need to look out for?

Anonymous said...

If you are paying cash. what do you need a loan for?

Anonymous said...

Good article in NY Times. Just substitute Bakersfield anywhere you see the word Merced.

Anonymous said...

If you are paying cash. what do you need a loan for?

I do not want to tie up all my cash in this house. I want to be able to have a mortgage on this that is close to what the rent will be.
I'll need much of my cash to by my next house next summer. (and if I move back to OC or another area with higher values I would need a large down to qualify.
($600k+ house will require a $300k down for me to qualify) j

xs10shell said...

Coopers sold that prime property on Stockdale Highway across from CSUB developed by Bynum/ Crisp & Cole. What the heck happened?

rrastronomo said...

I attended last nights redc auction. Homes were going for 50 cents on the dollar and banks were putting those bids under contract which means the banks have agreed to the auction price. We almost bought a 1951 sq ft home for 165 including fees but I chickened out at the last minute and they had to put the property back up on the board. It went for 168K. This home was in the true sw--great neighborhood by old river and white lane area. other interesting observations--witnessed a home in southern oaks old river and campus park? go for 255k plus %5 fee--this home is 2500sq ft beautiful and was appraised at the peak for 705K/ there were many stories and i invite any of you who was there to share. I'll share more upon request. oh yeah my buddy bought a home cash for 40k east side from the picture it looked nice.

Bakersfield Bubble said...

rrastronomo -

thanks. Very interesting, it looks like the banks are getting serious.

Rob Dawg said...

Banks serious? Wake me when they get desperate.

Anonymous said...

What auction was that? It seems I missed a good one! I spent Monday at the city hall trustee auction... yawn! Almost all the auction were canceled or moved. I only saw one house sell while I was there. All the rest were bumped or no bidders.
There was a house that I wanted and the opening bid would have made it work for me, probably not cheap enough to flip but a solid one to keep. The bank put off the auction until Oct 27! This house is behind on taxes, sitting emply, etc. They put it off because of some short sale mumbo jumbo from the old listing agent. What a crock... they are going to sit on it not until ???- at least until Nov. If it does not come together as a SS it will REO in Nov, then sit around until early 2009 before getting listed. (being worth LESS in 2009 than now!)
Or, it could have gone to auction today and I would have bought it! (one less REO) The banks need to stop listening to these agents that are trying to do short sales on proprty that is so upside down that no lender is going to agree.

I am still trying to figure this out. I think I might have to rent another year. I wanted to buy now but I think the loss of seller paid costs is going to SLAM this market. I think things will come to a stand still, only investors will be buying. Very few people n this market have a down AND good credit. I still really want to get into something soon though. The rental market sucks, I don't want to spend $2000 for rent on a house that if I bought would only cost me $1200.
By the way, sorry for being anonymous... I am Bakonewbie but google NEVER lets me log in. I get to log in about 10% of the time. There is always an issue!

Anonymous said...

now I am in...
Ok, so I am not anonymous anymore. BTW, I am the guy looking for auction houses, trying to get into a house before going into the sheriff academy, etc.
It was not my intent to be anon, just googles inability to keep me logged in and use the same password!

I know about the redc auction, I saw them on TV. Sounded like a scam so I didn't pay much attention. Sounds like they were better than the trustee auction, isn't that sad!
Anyone know when they are doing another one?
Also, I am interested to know what you guys think about the ending of incentives. (no more freebies from builders)
To me, it will mean that buiders are going to have to drop prices by that amount, if not more. Giving $18k in freebies is OK, but many people were STILL getting into homes with no money out of pocket. That has made this recent buying activity happen, in my opinion. They have hyped the NEED to get in NOW! But, come Oct 1 that won't be an issue and I think many buyers will stop looking.
That should slow things dow to new levels and builders with inventory will have to drop prices, putting more pressure on appraisers, etc. I think that will push price to the lowest we have seen.
Agree? Disagree?

Bakonewbie said...

Are you kidding? I was signed in for the above post and still google screwed it up! (does google unwrite loans too, lol)

rrastronomo said...

an redc auction rep said they'll be back in bakersfield soon in nov I think he said--and he wanted us to attend. the auction was right next to rabobank arena the old civic center. the house my wife and I bid on probably would have gone for 350k at the peak maybe more.

Anonymous said...

One of the anonymous guys said...

The banks need to stop listening to these agents that are trying to do short sales on proprty that is so upside down that no lender is going to agree.

~~~

Actually, the bank needs to wise up and TAKE the short sales! With our market going downward (it used to be the kiddie slope, now its triple diamond slope!) the banks will make MORE money on homes through short sales. I had a home listed with a buyer wiling to pay $204,000 in April of '07- the bank wouldn't halt the trustee sale. They are now trying to sell it REO (after putting a town of money into the house for new carpet, paint, plus the monthly utility bills, hello?) for $100,000 LESS!

I had another house listed where the owner owed $254,000. I was trying to short sale the house, I had a buyer willing to pay $180,000 CASH, the bank said they refused to look at offers less than $200K. The house foreclosed (oh, and a transient broke in, flooded the bathroom, trashed the place) and the house sold REO for LESS THAN $120K!!! The funny thing is, the bank never even listed it for $200K!

One more boring example: I had a house listed For under $200K and had a buyer willing to pay $150K- the bank demanded $175K. The buyer was even willing to pay $175K if the bank would simply compensate him for the missing appliances- the bank refused, and foreclosed on the house. The bank then listed it for $134K! They never even tried to get $175 or even $150! It is still on the market for less than $100K!

In conclusion- short sales are the best bet to a bank- but they have so much red tape, they are losing so much more than they really have to.

Anonymous said...

rrastronomo:
On the 26th you wrote: I attended last nights redc auction. Homes were going for 50 cents on the dollar and banks were putting those bids under contract which means the banks have agreed to the auction price.

I was there as well and it seemed there were less people and more homes than the previous auctions. One thing you may have wrong is that the banks were agreeing to the auction price. Basically the REDC auction is just a bid submission opportunity. Yes the highest bidder "wins", but every sale is also "subject to confirmation" by the selling bank. They have 15 days to accept or reject the offer. What this means is that not all of those 50 cent on the dollar sales will be accepted. There were several properties that were up for bid that night that have been auctioned off 3-4 times already - The bank just keeps rejecting the high bids.

rrastronomo said...

thanks for the clarification, I thought since the board was saying under contract that it was a done deal. I thought and still think the banks should face reality and realize that the prices of homes are 50% off of current prices. best wish b. thanks again