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Buy-one-get-one free– houses?

Date:June 3, 2008 | Author:Sarah Mann | Category:Real Estate

It’s not news to anyone that in much of the country, the housing market has seen better days. We’ve written on this blog a few times about some of the more creative things sellers are doing to help market their homes to potential buyers, adding various incentives along the way. But this is a first.

A developer in the San Diego area recently offered home buyers a free, 2,000 square foot home in Escondido if they purchased a home in the Royal View Estates development in the San Pasqual Valley of San Diego. These homes start at $1.6 million. Check out more details on San Diego Channel 10 site, including a news clip.

Interested? Sorry, but we’re a little late to the game as the deal ended on May 31st. I have a feeling, however, that this isn’t the last deal of this type we’ll be seeing.

Thanks to the LA Land blog for bringing this story to our attention!

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Responses (8)

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Don Davis 11:40 AM - Jun 3,2008

I hope this gets posted. I am a mortgage lender. I also happen to own three rental homes and have use zillow for comps and have listed a home on zillow. Now zillow wants to offer mortgages. this is a lead system that I’m sure will end up as a cost for a mortgage lender to buy a lead from zillow. If a portntial home buyer wants to obtain financing for the largest purchase in their life to a website…well. Then some loan officer, somewhere in the country will pay zillow for that lead. It disappoints me that zillow is headed in this direction. Especially in light of the current market with the credit crisis and the mortgage meltdown. There is little to help a potential buyer obtain financing if they can anonymously submit a loan request. In order to get REAL rates and terms, a professional mortgage consultant needs real information. Understand this, you can call any bank and get current rates. look in the newspaper or on line and you’ll get rates and term anonymously. If you want real loan programs and rates and terms, find a reputable mortgage professional close to home. Someone that you can meet face to face and create a relationship with. After all THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FINANCIAL DECISION YOU’LL EVER MAKE. Deal with someone you know and trust and who’ll take the time to meet with you personally. Someone who understands the credit scoring system and can explain why with a 679 score you’ll pay more than if you had a 670 credit score. I doubt anyone at zillow could answer that and you won’t find the reason on line. In today’s lending environment you need to have all the facts and a real approval before shopping for a new home. Call any Escrow office and ask the closer how many times people complain that the “Good Faith Estimate” wasn’t even close to the real closing statement. A mortgage professional will make certain you inderstand all of the options, rates, and programs available to you and how your credit score affects those terms. also what you could do to increase those scores in a short peiod of time to get better rates. Go find a professional!
David Gibbons 4:58 PM - Jun 3,2008

Don -

You’re jumping to all the wrong conclusions here. Please check out the Mortgage Marketplace and let us know what you think. Lenders do not buy leads on Zillow. Borrowers don’t just get rates, they get real, customized loan quotes that are prepared by professionals and tailored to their scenario. A mortgage is absolutely an important financial decision and so it’s essential that borrowers shop around for the best price, product and service. That’s the goal of the mortgage marketplace.

To get a feel for it, I suggest you start by reviewing local loan requests and quotes. You’ll find all WA loans here:
http://www.zillow.com/mortgage/LoanRequestSearch.htm?loc=Washington

And don’t just take my word for it; check out what participating lenders have to say in the Mortgage Discussions on Zillow:
http://www.zillow.com/forum/site/ViewCategory.htm?tcid=24
Ideal4Investors 7:15 AM - Jun 4,2008

What we’ve been hearing from our network is that this developer has been using this tactic for about 2 years. He was offering a free car a while back. He sure has gotten a lot of free media for this stunt!

http://idealinvestment.blogspot.com/2008/06/san-diego-developer-offering-buy-one.html
Overland Park Real Estate 9:50 AM - Jun 5,2008

That buy one get one free might be great for grabbing headlines but is a rip off in all reality (IMO). A buyer would be much better off buying one of the homes for half price. Then your paying taxes and insurance on only 1 home, at $600K value. Going the buy one get one free route and your probably paying property taxes and insurance on $2.4 in real estate. Also, how could they appraise this out and what lender would lend on it conventionaly? What are you going to do with the second home? Rent it? Want to see your 1.2M new home (that is only worth 600K) get trashed and become worth 300K? Do you want to live in a new home community with half of the new homes as rentals? Just a headline grabbing gimmick IMO. Im sure you can buy a home for 2x value anywhere and get the second one for “free”.
Buy To LetMortgages 6:16 AM - Nov 3,2009

Buy one get one free sounds like a great idea!
Otha 5:15 AM - Aug 5,2010

That’s interesting like in supermarket when you buy wine , but still I think that the price is too high.