Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Perth Property Princess Ends Up Losing $1,200,000 Speculating

Self proclaimed "Perth Property Princess" Sasha DeBretton has finally managed to sell her own "Million Dollar" makeover in Sorrento.

This house was bought by Sasha on the 11th September 2007 for $2,175,000 & with Stamp Duty of $105,000, $250,000 Renovation Costs & $75,000 selling costs Sasha needed to sell this house for at least $2,600,000 just to break even.Then there is the interest she had to pay to hang on to this speculative property play.

First advertised for sale July 2008 for $3,100,000 plus Sashas speculative play in the Perth property market finally come to a end when she is forced to sell on the 23rd December 2011 for  

        $1,900,000  a loss of over $1,200,000

Yet Sasha have the front to claim on her Website:

"As long as you've got the right strategy you will always make money through renovation."

Sasha needs to wake up & smell the Coffee if she could not do it for your own property why should people trust her skills to do it for them?

Anyway look below to see the full story that I posted last year, just thought anyone following the adventures of Sasha would like to know the outcome. 

Million Dollar Makeover or Million Dollar Mistake

Beware of False Prophets

Remember when reading the following to keep in the back of your mind the fact that Sasha had complete control of the project. It was not a property she had to work with. But it was a property that she went out & bought specifically to do up for a profit. It was her own money & choices. All her skills & judgement were at work here selecting the right property & paying the right price knowing the cost of renovations etc so we can now judge just how good Sasha's talent to turn a buck really are. Now remember if she can get it so so wrong with her own money & she had complete control, what faith can you have that you wont suffer the same outcome as Sasha in this market?
 
Back in April 2011 I put up a article about failing Professional Property Flipper Sasha DeBretton 
CEO of home renovating company 
"Million Dollar Makeovers"
(Below is a update that's rather interesting)
Sasha is a great proponent of "Self Promotion" & makes some outlandish claims about her ability to renovate your property in a couple of weeks & add hundreds of thousands of dollars to it's value (If not millions?) But lets just look & see if the claims she makes are all they are cracked up to be. 

Sasha appeared in the following article in this weeks Sunday Times "Home" liftout (27th Nov 2011) 

On her Website Sasha has a link to "Case Studies" of projects she has renovated in the past & she shows how much was spent on renovations & then how much profit was made in the end. Most of her claims of extraordinary profits are difficult to substantiate because there are no names or exact addresses that can be checked & verified. Those that can have not come onto the property market "For Sale" to have their price verified by the buying public. It is very simple to get a Real Estate agent to give a arbitrary price or opinion of what a house might sell for or how much value a makeover may or may not have added, it is a completely different matter actually getting that price in this market.
 

Fortunately one of Sasha's "Million Dollar Makeovers" has come on the market 
#37 Seaward Loop Sorrento
And as luck would have it it is Sasha's very own house. So we couldn't hope for a better example to test Sasha's claims of being able to add Millions of Dollars value to a property even in these "Difficult Economic Times" in fact Sasha goes so far as to claim it is a "Sure Fire" thing.

So lets see how the CEO of "Million Dollar Makovers" went renovating her own home for a "PROFIT"?
# 37 Seaward Loop
Sorrento 
This house was bought by Sasha on the 11th September 2007 
for $2,175,000 now with Stamp Duty of $105,000, $250,000 Renovation Costs & $75,000 selling costs Sasha needs to sell this house for at least $2,600,000 just to break even. So let's see how she went in the real world shall we?


Original owner First Advertised this house for sale 23-05-2007 for $2,500,000.

Property is then Bought by Sasha (Current owner) 
11th September 2007 for $2,175,000
(Talk about timing right at the peak of the Perth property cycle but that's OK because prices only ever go up don't they?)

Sasha First lists this house for sale 20-07-2008  as "EOI"
{ Very Smart Girl waiting 1 year to avoid capital gains taxes but by doing so missed timed the market. House is listed 3 months trying to get $3.5mil price. Clearly nobody willing to pay her target price of $3.5 mil Plus?} 
 
Actual Price wanted finally advertised 18-10-2008 $3,000,000
{Interest rates in 2008 were 9.5% & the GFC has just hit so price reduced to shift the house fast }
Price further reduced to attract buyers 10-01-2009 $2,990,000  
(Another 3 months pass lets reduce it $10K that will pull in the buyers?)

Further Price reduction 28-03-2009 $2.59 mil to $2.89 mil 
(Still No Takers)
20-02-2010 Advertised as "EOI"
(Fishing for buyers but No takers so property rested for a few months.)

Back on the market 6-03-2011 $2,680,000
(Still no takers after 3 months property taken off the market & rested)
Now November 2011 Sasha is coming to her senses & has reduced the price to $1,990,000
Sasha has been holding $2.5 mil debt on this property for close to 4 years. 
However if her strategy  worked all she intended to do was flip it in under 12 months!! 

So now  the interest on this has cost her $700K Plus!! 
Yes she has had a house to live in but she could have rented a house just like this in Sorrento for under $150K for the same period.
So her actual holding / speculation cost has been over $500,000 This is why she needs $2.68mil to try and break even. 
On top of the interest bill she has had to fork out for advertising etc for 3 years of marketing the property.
So what do I think Sasha's property is worth in this market?
Sorry but I would not pay more than $1,500,000 not in today's market!!
Why? 
Well look at this substantially better house listed in Sorrento for 
$1.53 Million: 

A far Far better home that needs no more than 21 days & $1,000 worth of paint from Bunning's.

I like to call this a $1,000 Makover.
Below are Images of Saha's Million Dollar Mistake
Before

 
AFTER
37 Seaward Loop, Sorrento, WA 6020 
 37 Seaward Loop, Sorrento, WA 6020

18 comments:

  1. So Sasha has lost $250,000 on the sale price alone, not counting stamp duty, interest, establishment and other fees, not to mention the whopping $250k she spent in rennovation costs. As for losses. I think that $1.2 million is not quite right. That's the price reduction she's been forced to accept (I think she was lucky to get $1.9 million). But the losses were $705,000 PLUS whatever she's forked out on interest payments. Amazing if she still has the gall to claim that her make-over increased the value by $925k - or is Sasha suggesting she would have had to sell for less than $1 million without her $250k in renovations?

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  2. @PT Sasha actually had this house empty as a rental for several months , several times whilst it was being "Marketed" for sale over the years. It is currently rented @ $1500 per week till May 2012. I estimate that it was empty without a tenant paying rent for half the time so only factored a rental income of $750 pw Vs Interest & holding costs of $3750 pw over 3.5 years=$546,000 Then you have erosion in her dollar value over 3.5 years $2.5 m with +CPI @ 2.8% pa = $2.9 million or $400K lost by inflation.

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    1. I take your point "Not Fooled". After I'd posted I realised that I'd neglected to allow for inflation (at least an additional 10% since 2007), and I'd neglected to account for the agent's commission! Unlike our "property professional" pontificating on "Perth Now", Sasha used an agent to sell the house, rather than let the property "sell itself" with only a good quality sign with letters and numbers that "peel off" to alert the savvy investors know it was on the market. I was trying to be "conservative" in the estimate of her losses, but erred on the side of caution. At least selling at a loss, she doesn't have to pay CGT! Given some of the property "bulls" going on about a rate rise being "good" as it will mean a bigger "tax write off" I suppose they'd see that as a plus! But from someone whose alledgely built a successful business out of the property game, Sasha getting burned is a poor outlook for other "investors" who bought close to the peak.

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    2. I still think she was lucky to get $1.9 million (although I actually rather like the house, I think it isn't really worth the price). Did that place 25 Pine Valley Pass sell, or is it being "rested"?

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    3. 25 Pine Valley Was listed by Alan Burke Realty (EX REIWA President) they have it listed as sold 25-11-2011 for $1.79 mil but landgate show no transfer details yet? Could be long settlement? House has been listed in the name of:"GRAND PROPERTIES CAYMAN LTD" Cayman Islands since 2000 & is still in that name.

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    4. You have not added the cost of the pool, landscaping, glass balustrades ect in 2010. About $140000. $450000 was the total suggested for all the work done.

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  3. I've done some digging... there are a LOT more than this that don't make any money.....

    She's just done another one for herself in Claremont.

    She also uses an out of area agent to 'appraise' and provide the valuations, who also happens to be partnering sasha in a wealth creation system, which aims to create value by reno's and then buying investment properties. Interesting that the valuations aren't backed up by the sale prices... and now they refer work to each other...

    And here is another question... how is it that all the builders she dumps on have to obtain building licences to do the works when you start knocking out walls? I know for a fact that one of the projects she is spruiking had no licence.

    Reminds me of Cathy Pearce in Adelaide all over again..

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    1. Reply to July 15. Getting a lot of storys about no licences, non compliance ect. One of the many leaks she seems to have said the pool enclosure at her Claremont house was not compliant a couple of weeks befor the auction. Hearing about a real shit fight to do with compliance on another house. Sasha seems to have a far bit of leakage at the moment. Is the out of aria agent Samantha?

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  4. Hello

    Are you keeping this current?

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  5. DO YOU HAVE ACCESS TO SALES EVIDENCE? I HAVE DONE SOME DIGGING AND THERE ARE A LOT MORE EXAMPLES LIKE THIS THAT DON'T STACK UP.

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  6. Have almost all of them. Can I PM you somehow? Thinking it would not be fair to publish addresses of clients.

    Her own properties are

    15 College st Claremont (telling that she isn't putting any figures on this one....)
    15 Beach Rd Waterman

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    1. Claremont property was listed July 2011 $1.395m & then reduced to $1.295m (No Sales) I think this has sold June 2012 but price is unknown as settlement had not gone through? Advertised for rent July 2012 @ $1,800 pw

      Waterman house is actually in Marmion (Cheaper side of the road) last sold April 1999 for $480K

      Neither of these houses have been owned by her as far as I can see?

      She has a Apt @ Burswood (Mirvac Towers) & Warden St Claremont

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    2. 15 College RD Claremomt is registered to Sasha Debretton-Gordon of 1805 Bow River Crescent, Burswood. Mortgage to NAB 16.11.2011. Was this refinanced twice in 10 months like Seaward?

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  7. Great job Not The Greater Fool! As my wife owns 37 Seaward Loop, I am a huge fan of yours and now a follower. Keep up the good work.

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  8. Ernst & Young Entrepeneur of the year, you have got to be joking. It would be interesting to see how Sasha scored in PERSONAL INTEGRITY. Raising equity and debt finance or is it losing equity? Truly amazing.

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