Frustrated Builder Extends San Diego BOGO Luxury Housing Offer
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008A highly motivated seller, Escondido, Calif.-based Michael Crews Development, has extended its already unbelievable luxury housing “Buy One, Get One Free” offer. Although the deal originally was slated for expiration on May 31, CNBC reports that Michael Crews has extended it through the end of June.
In case you’re wondering what kind of entrepreneur would make such an outrageous offer, developer and self-styled real estate mogul Crews got his start in the business selling real estate at age 19. He has even written an independently-published book on his career’s success ethos: “HARD WORK: Success Made Easy.” Its first sentence muses: “I recently ran into someone I haven’t seen in a long time, and got a surprisingly enthusiastic reaction.”
No kidding.
The $1.6 Million Catch
To get the free house, buyers must first buy one of the Michael Crews Development’s Royal View luxury homes, in a gated San Pasqual Valley community of Escondido, Calif. Starting at $1.6 million, many of these homes feature swimming pools and RV parking.
The free home described in the offer is in the builder’s Escondido Cityscape development. The 2,000 square-foot row-homes, now valued at around $400,000 were reportedly selling for $529,000 last year. Home value depreciation in the Escondido area sometimes appears to be ruled by the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate, but for many it is no Laugh-in.
San Diego Real Estate Shows Widespread Depreciation
Median home prices among San Diego County neighborhoods varied wildly in the Q1, reports the San Diego Union Tribune. In one Escondido zip code, median home prices are reportedly down nearly 43 percent. Even in the traditionally affluent west end of Escondido, high foreclosure rates have taken their toll. According to DataQuick, Q1 foreclosure resales in that area accounted for about half of the 24 homes sold.
Lots of Buzz but Buyers Aren’t Taking the BOGO Bait
So far, no one has taken advantage of this highly unusual offer that has many saying is is an ominous sign of even harder times to come in SoCal’s battered real estate markets. Michael Crews staff told CNBC that this BOGO offer is the firm’s way of coping with the down market and generating traffic. No doubt the latter was a complete success, garnering far more free advertising than the current value of the quaint Escondido row house Crews is looking to unload.
