Homes With Flair Frequently Fail to Catch Fancy of Buyers
There’s a reason why you don’t see the most progressive architects blazing a trail of new houses across San Diego County. It’s called the bottom line--economics.
Tailor-made “statement” houses are so quirky, so personal, they just don’t find the same eager resale market as the more conservative, established styles--the Cape Cods, woody beach houses or stucco bungalows.
Nowhere has this been more apparent than in ritzy Fairbanks Ranch, where architect Rob Quigley’s two award-winning designs have only sold after months on the market and at cut-rate prices. Elsewhere, Quigley’s houses have reportedly held their own economically, and other progressive designs have also done all right.
A Perfect Fit
“I’d like to emphasize the fun you have designing a house and having it perfect for you,” said Nyda Sterrett, a real estate agent with Pickford Realty in Rancho Santa Fe. “But something designed to your own personal specifications is not easily transferable.”
A Quigley house for Sterrett and her husband was completed in 1983 and featured in Architectural Digest. But the Sterretts got barely more than was spent to build it, while other Fairbanks homes had appreciated wildly.
“It was a very unusual floor plan, designed to be built in six phases. After the initial phase, the one we sold, it was a one-bedroom house,” Sterrett said, adding that she finds Quigley’s houses “dramatic and exciting.” The house was small for the area, 2,700 square feet after Phase 1, versus the 5,000 to 6,500 average for Fairbanks. The new owners have since added Phase 2, and it’s on the market again.
The Quigley house, known as “Miraflores” and designed for a speculative builder, recently sold for $825,000 after going on the market two years ago for $1.49 million. Quigley readily admits the design wasn’t right for Fairbanks. “Most clients tell us that resale value is not a primary constraint,” Quigley said. “That was not the case with Miraflores. We assumed the market would be couples with older children or none at all. Very intentionally, we separated the master suite from the kids’ rooms using the double set of stairways.”
Meeting the Competition
However, given the right location, Quigley’s designs more than meet the competition as investments.
Bart Sayer owns a Quigley house in Mission Beach, with industrial roll-up doors that open to capture beach views and breezes. He thinks his house is worth plenty.
“I get offers all the time, and I keep turning them down. I used to say, ‘Don’t even start talking until you get to a million and a half.” Now I say, ‘2 million.’ ”
Del Mar architectural firm of Batter Kay, known for sleek, white homes which pay homage to the Bauhaus, the German school that originated the modern movement, has had mixed results with its designs.
Small luxury condominium projects in Solana Beach and La Jolla took a couple of years to sell out. But custom homes by Batter Kay in Del Mar have sold quickly and at good prices.
Del Mar seems to be the perfect market for the firm’s streamlined living machines. Charrette Corp., a development company in which the architects are partners, is building an elite seven-home neighborhood called Boca del Mar must north of the race track and it will include at least two Batter Kay houses.
“These designs are better absorbed along the coastline, where people seem to appreciate the sculptural quality and treatment of space,” said Patti Joye Jelley of the Jelley Co., which will market the new Batter Kays. “We’re using a little softer approach at Boca and inviting more buyer input.”
The Pig House
One of the strangest San Diego houses apparently did just fine on the resale market. Owners of the cartoonish “Pig With a Purple Eye Patch,” designed by architect Randy Dalrymple and the company called PAPA for a client in Burlingame, had no trouble selling.
“In the $100,000 to $400,000 price range, there’s a bigger market for these homes,” Dalrymple said. The owner of another PAPA house, called “Soldiers in Argyle” because its roof peaks loosely resemble soldiers marching in formation, has had attractive offers, Dalrymple said.
Sometimes it’s not just the lack of buyers that keeps such homes from proliferating. It’s the banks. Many don’t like to lend on unusual designs.
The owner of one of architect Ted Smith’s “Go Homes,” living units with common kitchen spaces, was told by a banker that no lender would finance the purchase of such an unusual configuration. Smith reportedly bought the unit back himself.
Do bankers really turn down loans on the basis of architecture that’s too aggressive?
“Sure,” said Phil Zamora, an assistant vice president in the real estate loan division of Torrey Pines Bank’s Solana Beach branch. One instance was a home with a steel frame. Bankers are used to wood-frame houses, and Torrey Pines wasn’t willing to take a chance on something so out of the ordinary.
“We make construction loans on some of those houses,” said Dick Van Derheyden, a senior vice president with La Jolla Bank & Trust. (Construction loans are short-term loans used to build projects. They are replaced by permanent, long-term loans when construction is finished.)
“I’d have to say the main things we look at are whether there’s a qualified contractor capable of building the house, and whether the owner will be able to get a permanent loan.”
Real-World Conditions
The message here is that architects often find themselves restrained by real-world conditions. Sure, design magazines are eager to publish the latest “statements,” but owners better not have every penny tied up in them, or they better plan on staying put awhile. Selling is no sure thing.
Especially on “spec” homes, architects will have to provide such basics as enough bedrooms and adequate kitchen space while creating their art.
Some of the most inventive of San Diego architects will only find wider acceptance as the market grows more sophisticated. Happily, this is already happening, with architects such as Quigley and Wally Cunningham, and even internationally known Michael Graves doing houses here. As San Diego’s tastes come of age, many of these “statements” will become like coveted museum pieces. By the year 2020, don’t be surprised if Miraflores has outstripped all of its neighbors in value. After all, one of Irving Gill’s early 20th-Century houses near Balboa Park sold not long ago for about $350,000. And it was a “fixer.”
DESIGN NOTES: Architect Tom Grondona’s kept his sense of humor, despite receiving an Onion for a Kensington dental office he designed. Invitations recently went out asking guests to “join us for Onion Soup” at the new building. . . . The monthly SPARK forums, open discussions of architectural subjects, may be dead. Architect Spencer Lake is giving up his duties as organizer. Any architects or designers interested in taking over his role and finding a new location are invited to give him a call. He’s in the book.
