Fooled Fools

Property in the Bay Area is ridiculously expensive. The average home sales price in the Bay is the highest in the US at just under five hundred thousand dollars. At work we are always looking online for the deal of deals on houses and land. We found it- a descent sized plot of land that could easily fit two four-bedroom houses. We checked the price on two different real estate sites and they were the same, so after work, Dan and I drove our cars in excitement to Los Altos Hills to check out this piece of land that we would both split.





What we found was more than we expected. It was as if the plan was all coming into place. Two driveways had already been paved on the east and west ends of the lot. For only about $90,000 I could own one of those driveways.



The foundation of the old house still sat on the lot and gave us a general idea of how big the lot is- two houses easily with a huge sloping backyard big enough for a monster sized deck. If I'm not going to build a house here, I know I could easily sell it for way more than what its being offered for.


Being atop one of the highest peaks in Los Altos, you can see everything... downtown San Jose, NASA in Moffitt Field, Shoreline Amphitheatre, and San Francisco. I was thinking how could Dan and I pass this up, both of us having our own families to think about, and wanting the best. Thoughts were running through my head... "How good is my credit?... How much do I have in my 401K?... Why is this deal too good to be true?".

It was too good. After thinking of all the possibilities and imagining what life would be like up here, I finally noticed the Coldwell Banker sign staked in front of the lot and pulled out the flyer.






Damnit Terri and Dave. Fuckers forgot one zero on their website. $189,500 on their original online posting was supposed to be $1,895,000. We called them on the spot and they said they already received a lot of inquiries about it and corrected the site. I wonder if anyone made a claim for false adverstising? At the same time, even lots this size in the most ghetto of areas in the Bay Area aren't this cheap and I feel foolish for not thinking that something was not right from the start.





My heart is still sinking...