Nightmare for Sellers of Homes : Real estate: Temblor ‘not going to be a good ad’ for house on market, one owner complains.

Bob Wolf had his Sierra Madre house on the market for eight months, enduring a recession that drove prices down and buyers away. Then the Sierra Madre earthquake struck.

As the ground shook, it was a nightmare come true for the owner of the two-story, wood-frame dwelling that is described as a “beautiful country home� in the realtor’s handout, said Wolf, a former personnel executive.

“I thought, ‘Now the house is falling down. What do we do?’ � Wolf said Saturday. When it was over, the tall, silver-haired retiree found only fallen plaster in the living room.

But like many other homeowners in Sierra Madre, Monrovia, Arcadia and Pasadena who had “for sale� signs outside, Wolf emerged from the 6.0 shaker with yet another headache added to the process of recovery. Scores of homeowners who had tidied up their houses for sale now have to contend with damage ranging from broken windows and fallen chimneys to cracked walls and foundations.

“While you’re making repairs, it’s not going to be so presentable,� Kathleen Yoshimura said, worried over a brick chimney that had collapsed and now lay in a pile on her Sierra Madre lawn.

“The earthquake is not going to be a good ad,� accountant Tom Ayer said outside his tile-roofed, stucco home in Pasadena. And his three-bedroom home for sale on Monte Vista Street had not even suffered any damage.

The Yoshimura and Wolf homes are among 100 currently for sale in Sierra Madre, 7 1/2 miles away from the quake’s epicenter, said Elizabeth Beavers, office administrator for Webb-Martin Realtors in Sierra Madre.

None of those homeowners, whose residences list for an average of $460,000, reported major damage, Beavers said Saturday. “It’s been very quiet. From what I’ve been hearing, it’s all only fireplaces, chimneys that have come down,� she said.

Beavers said she did not believe that the quake would deter potential buyers from the area. At the Herbert Hawkins office in Pasadena, however, agent George Fiendel said he had been unable to get in touch with some of his clients.

“It could be I just couldn’t reach them,� he said. “Or it could be a few were spooked. There are less people around today than normally.�

In Monrovia, Beverly Wildish, an agent in a Century 21 office, said the shaker had presented a legal puzzle for sales transactions that were just completed.

“We had quite a few escrows that closed yesterday where there was damage to glass or chimneys or from cracks.� Wildish said, “So it’s a legal question: Who’s technically responsible, the buyer or the seller? We’re asking the Board of Realtors attorney for an opinion.�

On Michigan Avenue in Pasadena, 10-year-old Melissa Casillas gave a tour of her parents’ 71-year-old tan stucco house with blue trim.

“Here, here, here and here,� said the big-eyed, dark-haired child, pointing out plaster cracks on the kitchen walls.

The house had been on the market for three months, with few people looking, said her mother, Obdulia Casillas. She added: “When this was happening, I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’ll never sell this.’ �

“And I thought, my dad is going to be very mad when he finds out,� Melissa said. Eduardo Casillas, a painter, was away on a trip.

But given the minor damage, Obdulia Casillas thought that maybe there was a positive side, she said. “People are going to ask how bad was the damage, and we’ll be able to say, ‘Only this.’ �

Karen Valle said that she felt the same way after she and her family returned after a short trip to Jalama Beach, north of Santa Barbara, to her Wesley Avenue home in Pasadena. They have had their early-1900s, wood-frame bungalow on the market for months.

“We came home and found one window broken in the back,� the 37-year-old Valle said. “At first I thought we’d had a break-in. So we were fortunate it was not that, but the earthquake.�

Surveying the fallen chimney at her home, Kathleen Yoshimura also chose to look at the bright side.

“Providentially, this happened on Friday instead of Thursday,� the dental hygienist said. “My mother-in-law was gardening at the exact spot where these bricks fell the day before. She could have been killed.�