Bank Announces Intent to Force Sale of PUSD Superintendent's Home

The bank that holds the note on the home of Poway Unified School District Superintendent John Collins has moved forward with a sale of the property by publishing an official legal notice last week. But Collins asserts that he is still in negotiations with the bank to restructure the mortgage and that the home will not be sold until then.

The trustee for Wells Fargo Bank, which holds the mortgage on the 3,000-square-foot home owned by Collins and his wife, Lisa, published the legal notice in the North County Times advising that the property will be sold Nov. 9 at the entrance of the East County Regional Center in El Cajon.

The legal notice, published Oct. 27, noted that the sale will be conducted to settle estimated unpaid “obligations” of $1.1 million, which includes accrued interest on the Collins' six-year-old loan.

Collins told Patch that the one-story stucco home, located at 14197 Palisades Dr., is not for sale, though he did admit his home is in foreclosure.

“I am working with the bank on a loan restructuring,” he said. “And until that is done the property is not supposed to be sold at auction.”

He said the bank has told him that his house will not be put up for auction while he is in negotiations, but that the bank continues to publish auction notices.

“But, it’s not for sale, period,” he said.

He declined to discuss the issue further, stating the situation was a “personal issue.”

Collins and his wife are listed as the trustors, or owners, of the property, in the notice. Public records show the Collinses are not behind on property tax payments.

According to the notice, the current deed of trust, or mortgage, on the property was executed on Sept. 29, 2005, which would have been at the height of the 2000s residential real estate boom.

At the depth of the decline in 2009, home prices were down as much as 40 percent to 45 percent from purchase prices in the middle part of the decade.

The Collinses paid $1.25 million for the home, according to real estate records.

The residential real estate evaluation website Zillow.com lists the estimate of the current value of the property at $837,800, or more than $300,000 less than the 2005 purchase price.

The 3,000-square-foot home was built in 1993, and features three bedrooms and three and a half baths, with a backyard pool, according to Zillow.com.

The size of the lot is 43,560 square feet, or just about one acre, and the home originally sold for $441,000, according to the site.

The 2011 tax assessment is $892,000, generating a tax bill of $9,924 for the fiscal year 2010-11.

The legal notice said the property would be sold to “the highest bidder … as is.”

Sue Herndon, a longtime Poway residential real estate agent, said the property could be worth as much as $900,000 to $950,000 in a normal sale, depending on the “amenities and the interior.”

She said she wonders why Collins didn't try to sell the home in a so-called “short sale,” where the bank agrees to take a loss on the property in lieu of a foreclosure, or take other remedial actions to avoid the prospects of an auction.

Given his stature in the community, Herndon said she questioned why he didn't take action sooner to prevent the embarrassment of a public sale.

“You've got just a $250,000 loss, so why would you go through that for such a low amount?” she said. 

Collins, appointed to his post in July 2010 after serving as the deputy superintendent, agreed to a reduction in his base salary to $225,000 from $235,000, or 4.3 percent, according to news reports at the time.

However, his total compensation package was listed at $291,000, according to those reports, which is as much as is paid to the superintendent of the much larger San Diego Unified School District. In September, the PUSD Board voted to extend his contract through June 2015 at the same base salary. Collins also voluntarily continued the salary reduction through this school year.

The official legal notice reads, “Unless you take action to protect your property, it may be sold at a public sale. If you need explanation of the nature of the proceedings against you, you should contact a lawyer.”

According to RealtyTrac's latest report, 217,929 U.S. properties were scheduled for first time foreclosures in the third quarter of 2011. The number was down by 41 percent during the same quarter in 2010.

Editor's Note: Patch is attempting to reach the bank for comment. A follow-up story will be posted once comment is received.