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    Sale of Irvine family home, and a great example of Prop 13

    If any of you are familiar with Corona Del Mar you have probably seen the large blue house on the bluffs above Bayside Drive and the large blue structure on the water below it. These two pieces of property are owned by the Irvine family and they have been in the family for 140 years. I went to...
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    Question about property tax

    I've noticed a few homes on Redfin that have a property tax base that is lower than the last purchase price of a property. 31568 Eagle Rock Way in Laguna Beach, for example, is listed for sale for $1.075 million, was last sold in 2006 for $1.095 million, but it has a property tax base of only...
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    Qualifying for loan when you haven't sold or rented your existing home

    I just thought I'd share my recent experience applying for a mortgage in case anyone else is in the same situation. We currently own a home in Irvine and have been looking at buying another home, so we went through the process of submitting our financial information to our loan guy at Bank of...
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    Flipper in Woodbridge? 11 Laurelglen pops up again.

    I just saw a listing pop up that looked familiar. http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/11-Laurelglen-92614/home/4697345 11 Laurelglen was listed at around $750,000 about 2 months ago - it was a short sale. The traffic in the open house was impressive due to the low price (for the neighborhood)...
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    Wood Burning Fireplaces - Gone for Good?

    Does anyone know the straight story on installing or using wood burning fireplaces here in Orange County? From what I have been told, you can no longer install a true wood burning fireplace (like most of us probably grew up with) in a new home or even on a remodel. Furthermore, it seems that...
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    Eastshore Elementary School, Woodbridge - Any input?

    We have been looking at some homes that feed in to Eastshore Elementary School in Woodbridge, and we were surprised to see the relatively low ranking of 114 for this school vs. other Woodbridge schools such as Meadow Park, which ranked #9, and Springbrook, which ranked #28. Does any one have...
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    Realtor Black and White Photo Trick on Newport Beach Listing

    There is a house in Newport Beach that keeps showing up on my e-mail alerts that is really ridiculous. http://www.redfin.com/CA/Newport-Beach/2027-Commodore-Rd-92660/home/3559262. It has been listed since June of 2007 with no sale, and in the past the listing has referenced various reasons...
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    WTF "Lot Value" Pricing in the Port Streets, Newport

    Like others on this blog I have been following the "family" neighborhoods in Newport Beach. Today I saw a new listing for a home in the Port Streets that is listed for $1.495 million. http://www.redfin.com/CA/Newport-Beach/1939-Port-Edward-Pl-92660/home/4720073 I initially thought ok...
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    What defines the 'heart" of Irvine to you?

    I moved to Irvine quite a long time ago - 1989 to be exact. Back then, Irvine was defined in my mind by the lakes in Woodbridge, the hills of Turtle Rock, and the campus of UCI. In a sense, the "old" Irvine landmarks that have something unique about them vs. rows of look-alike houses and strip...
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    Lamest Excuse for a House Not Selling (Plus a Candidate for most spelling errors)

    I just read a listing that, in addition to containing a ton of spelling errors, contained the following excuse for why the house had been on the market for 237 days - "TENANTS OCCUPIED IS ONLY REASON FOR LONG LISTING TIME. " Ok, so if they received an offer they wouldn't accept it because their...
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    Longest Time on the MLS with No Sale (690 days)?

    I ran across a listing in Westpark that appears to have been originally listed for sale in March of 2006. The original asking price was $1,800,876 (in Westpark?) and they have reduced the price a couple of times, and are now down to $1,395,000 with no takers. So, according to Redfin, they have...
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