Haddon and Fairbanks are major fixers. Major as in tear-downs, if Oakland would let you do that.

Fairbanks is collapsing before your eyes when you walk in. Haddon has been chopped up so many times into apartments, I’m not sure how you make it right again.

thats a cute penguin with a wrench, nice picture with the story.

Alma says it needs foundation work. Isn’t that a $200K “repair”? Most of the places that I see that say they need foundation work end up being tear downs. I suppose there are varying levels of foundation work though. At $699K, the numbers don’t add up for any really massive repair, which is I’m sure why it hasn’t sold.

Fairbanks is asking way too much. It looks like it was a hippie flophouse/half-way house/cult commune for the past 30 years. No livable right now, but maybe after $150,000 sunk into it.

Also, I noticed that the neighbor seems to be crazy– the front yard looks like a WWI trench network. Seriously crazy– he was singing and digging a random hole when I was there. Any thoughts on how to handle that? Can you ask the city to require him to landscape like a normal person? No joke: it looked like a bunch of bunkers.

Foundation work often runs ~$300/linear foot or so I’m told. But since it screws up the rest of the house (windows plumbing etc), your total costs are much higher after you fix the things that break when fixing the foundation.

Seriously, Fairbanks had a wall that was collapsing. That place should be red-tagged.

There was an article on the collapsing mortgage market in the Chron yesterday (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/13/MNSJVRMV1.DTL) that contained an interesting tidbit. One lender considers all of Oakland to be a “declining market,” and thus is requiring 25% down in order to qualify for one of those “jumbo light” loans.

So a buyer would need to come up with $175K for Alma, $187K for Mandana, without even considering renovation costs. Maybe its me, but it seems like the list of buyers looking to lock up several hundred thousand dollars of capital in the Oakland real estate market, even in Crocker Highlands, is going to be pretty select.

David: thanks for the heads up about Haddon and Fairbanks. It’s too bad they look like tear-downs; that would be a ver rough undertaking indeed.

Oakie: thanks!

Michelle: I agree; a $699k price tag does not fit knowing it needs foundation work plus any additional fixing; perhaps the seller is hoping to aim high knowing s/he will get $200k or less of an offer??

GFW:thanks for the drive-by; I’m not sure if anything can be done about neighbors digging trenches in their front yard, unless it is harming someone or something or has the potential to harm someone/something…there are Oakland regulations that require owners to obtain permits/approval before building structures or installing new plumbing/electricity/gas on their properties but dunno if there’s anything that stipulates landscaping. Note to buyers: check out our neighbors before you sign!!! Especially in this market when you have a choice now…

David: thanks for the pricing on foundation work…that makes sense.. When I was looking at homes in the 1000 s/f range that needed foundation work I was told foundation replacement would cost around $50k. I’m glad we didn’t go for any of them.

Toady: thanks for your comments; I can’t imagine anyone coming up with 25% down even with Oakland’s declining prices; prices will need to go even lower and stay that way for a while to give people a chance to save upwards of 100k…when you put it that way, fixers in the more sought-after neighborhoods don’t sound that appealing.

Dear Readers: as always, thanks for your comments! I am always learning from you and appreciate your knowledge and insights.

David, I didn’t see the wall that was collapsing at Fairbanks– only the steps leading up to the front door. I’m curious which wall? The back wall of the kitchen? That wall looked like it needed to be totally replaced…

The problem with Fairbanks is that if you go up the boundary line where the guy is digging (and singing etc,) to above and behind 560 Fairbanks itself, not just his side, you will find a huge, six or more feet across and equally high wall of debris – packed tightly with dirt and extending way into the 560 Fairbanks property. Just below that he is digging and throwing dirt into a pre-made wire frame already filled with boards and trash. This is how he seems to be constructing his wall – by filling a wire frame first with debris and then dirt – not cheap to get cleaned up and hauled off – much of this on the for sale house side. If you buy the house and want to clean up or build a fence there you ‘d have to get permission from the neighbor to permit removal of that dirt, including some portion on their side, and then you’d have to get permission to build the fence. If you couldn’t get that you could bring in the fence some, but would still have to clear off the tons of dirt. Then depend on self same singing/digging neighbor not to start over digging and adding to your new fence, or just singing all day and so on. At the end of this you still won’t have taken on the rest of their crazy landscaping. Seems daunting.

Thanks Susan. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who was concerned! As I thought about it some more last night, I think he might be undermining the hill by digging around (perhaps even underneath) the big palm trees on his lot. Given that on the redfin and zillow maps the Fairbanks house seems to straddle the property line, there might be some serious soil engineering, surveying, and lot-line adjustments that have to happen.

Thanks Susan for the info. It’s incredible that a lot of what the neighbor is doing is happening on the for sale lot; wonder if 560 Fairbanks owner has ever tried to address this? And perhaps there is a public record of it if complaints were filed with the city? Something to look into for interested buyers…

The wall heading up the stairs on Fairbanks. Huge crack and crushing marks on the plaster. looked like it was collapsing off to that side.

PS. I’ve done a lot of looking at “fixers” around the East Bay, and they’re generally really overpriced for the amount of $$ AND time you’d have to put in it. Even if it’s priced low enough to take into account the work–it never accounts for the time. Never mind any profit if you were the last flipper standing around town.