House hunting blues

[quick86]

[rant on]

So everyone keeps saying how theres a million houses out there that are steals. In MY area - I cannot find a THING that doesn't immediately need $5000+ in repairs! ugh! The last one we found was GREAT, 1800sq ft farm house with a carriage barn 480 sq ft with a loft upstairs...

BUT - while the wiring was updated from 60 amp to 200 amp service, the entire house and garage run through a single circuit! with original wiring! Mind you, the house was built in 1895 and 3/4's of the outlets in the house are still two-prong ungrounded sockets! My electronics would NOT like that!

Nevermind the 1950's furnace in the basement



Ugh. I guess it's time to sit and watch the homes in the area....

[rant off]

 

[nate379]

I looked through well over 300-400 ads and set foot in about 25 different houses when I found one that worked for me.

 

[cowboyjosh]

I am always looking to move. What I find is right now that any home that is desirable to me isn't for sale or has already been sold. The ones that are somewhat desirable that I could see myself almost buying are either too big or too much money, and not practical. I am also real particular about location, if I can hear or see a major road or highway, even if the house is a perfect 10, I walk; I don't want to step outside and hear the roar of a freeway; same goes for spiffy homes built close to radio towers, or power lines. I always laugh the "perfect" locations often have the least desirable homes.

Being a builder, I could easily build myself something new, but finding the right location to build is more of a PITA then actually building the house; because truth be told the subdivisions I build in which are popular areas I wouldn't want to live in, either because the people are too snooty, or the subdivision is too close to a major freeway.

Good luck with your house hunt.

 

[Red05GT]

With all of the foreclosures I've watched and tracked a lot of properties that are being bought
back by the banks and mortgage companies. What's odd is a lot of times they will turn
down good offers, sit on the house for several more months and then take less than
what they had turned down previously. Patience. Get a good realtor. Watch for short
sales. Estate sales are good. If you want a turn key home you will pay more but there
are many homes that really only need freshening with paint, floor coverings and some
trim work. Watch the old movie "Money Pit" sometime. You did good stepping away
from your first home choice. Obviously you ran the numbers and you came to the con-
clusion that it wasn't the deal you thought.

 

[wbclassics]

We bought our second home last September. The SO took a position at a university and ideally we had to be in a house by mid-August, even though she was only hired June 30th! Anyway, it was madness finding a house that met our needs in an exceptionally short period of time. Not to mention being 300 miles away and we didn't know anyone in that area.

I made a very general list of our critical must haves and stuff I knew I didn't want. Since we couldn't be doing physical house hunting every weekend as didn't live in that area yet, I scoured hundreds of MLS listings using multiple MLS search sources (they do not all provide the same results) and compiled multiple lists that I would email our agent prior to driving up to see the homes. Our search area was large, anything with in a 20minute drive of SU was fine, which gave us about a 15-20 mile wide operating radius. The large area gave us the freedom of selection, especially since we had major time constraints.

In the end I must have looked at a 1000+ MLS listings in two weeks, narrowed it down to around 75 houses which were then sorted into "View" and "Backup/Filler" if one of the ones we wanted to view dropped out. From there over the course of two trips those 75 got narrowed down to 3, one of which we both knew was an outstanding choice, a solid #2 and #3 met our requirements but wasn't what we really wanted.

Anyway the key was to know what you want, what you need, and to be very critical so you can make viewing choices effectively without wasting our agent's time or our time. My original notes on house #1, just from my impressions from the MLS listing, was "everything we need, everything we want, and then some". Fortunately, after about 10 minutes in house #1, we both agreed that this was the house we wanted. A second visit on the next day, with a more critical eye, confirmed it was the front runner and we put together an offer immediately.

Buying a home in NY requires a real estate lawyer, what a waste of my money. Especially when she was camping in the Adirondacks and unreachable for a week when we actually needed her to do work on our behalf (issues with how the previous owners decided to handle the septic system repairs when it failed the septic dye test).

Other than knowing what you're after, it helps to be extremely organized. I didn't think much of our realtor until after we had made an offer, and that is where she earned her 3.5%... which I felt was too much considering how much work I put into putting my lists together, and very seldom did a home she suggested make our viewing list.

Ten months later and we're both still happy with our choice...

 

[quick86]

Sounds like I am not the only one who has run in to this before.


We currently live (for her) 20 miles from work and for me 25... We'd like to cut that drive down as much as possible, but not live IN the city of Lansing. Last thing I want are nazi city ordinances, ****** city schools for our future kids, and unbelievable city taxes!

So we're looking outside of town on the western side of US 127, but surrounding the city limits. Our requirements are simple. 3 beds, 1 bath or more, 2 car garage or larger, with a basement... And you know what houses we like have? Either the garage, OR the basement... Very seldom are we seeing both.



Let's see... Of the houses that met the requirements --

#1 Needed a roof. Needed appliances. One of the two bathroom's was gutted and had a tub set up with only cold water running too it confused ... Plumbing was questionable, and there were signs of pipes ready to go any day.

#2 was in need of a furnace. And that was it. We offered asking price for it and they received a second and third offer. One of them was less than ours, the other was higher than the asking price!

#3 was the one I mentioned above with the antique household wiring.

#4 had a built in pool in the basement that was only 5 inches deep. In the winter it doubled as an indoor skating rink.

#5 smelled like DEATH. + I found a water leak from the roof to above the closets. God knows how much mold would be in there. Never mind the weird fact that the well was set up absolutely weird and the garage had a home made urinal in it.





We'll find something. I told my realtor to increase my maximum price by another $5000 to see if something more pops up.

 

[RbrtAWhyt]

I found the house we bought here:

http://www.hudpemco.com/

On an acre, four bedroom, two and a half baths, around 2500 square feet plus an additional 1200 or so square feet in the unfinished basement. All it needed was appliances. Other than that it was move in ready. No damage, no issues. We've been in it almost a year now. It was two years old and I paid nearly $100K less than the original sales price. We are the second owners.

While we were looking for a house we looked at what seemed like hundreds of them. We submitted formal offers for five of them. Because of the depressed market I was low-balling the hell out of them. Around here available housing is plentiful, but it is saturated with foreclosures and "fixer-uppers".

Be patient and keep looking around. You'll find it...

 

[steven083008]

If you don't mind a house that needs some work, there are good deals out there, you just have to be patient. It seems like the ones you are marking off are the "really bad" ones, and we had to go through some of that at first. We bought in Jan. of '09 for $85,500, did some work on the place to the tune of about $21,000 and the house appraised for $137,000 at our refinance (construction loan to conventional) in Oct. '09.
28.6% profit in 9 months... we aren't complaining.

 

[sammerdog]

Hey Quick -

It's okay to say "none of your business", but curious where you're looking? Charlotte? Delta Twnsp? Eaton Rapids? Mason?

Full disclosure: I'm on the south end of GR. Wife works down in Battle Creek. We keep seeing these properties pop up for sale in the Hastings area that are tempting as all get out.

 

[quick86]

Hey Quick -

It's okay to say "none of your business", but curious where you're looking? Charlotte? Delta Twnsp? Eaton Rapids? Mason?

Full disclosure: I'm on the south end of GR. Wife works down in Battle Creek. We keep seeing these properties pop up for sale in the Hastings area that are tempting as all get out.

I work at a local dealership over here, and I'd guarantee you've heard of it.


But yeah, we're looking in Eaton County (Grand Ledge, Charlotte, Potterville, Dimondale), southern Clinton County, and currently live in Mason. She works in Dimondale and I work in the Grand Ledge/Lansing area.

 

[wbclassics]

Another thing I remember from our search was that I ended up looking above our initial top dollar threshold quite quickly. I think I expanded the search upwards by $40k after the first weekend of house hunting. I felt confident that with how the housing market has been that I could get back into our price range come offer/neg time.

Looking higher up the food chain also resulted in realizing that some of the MLS search engines don't report price reductions accurately or quickly, and don't reclassify houses that had higher original list prices that had been reduced. Consequently a house that might have been listed at $350k, and then dropped to $299k, will not show up in your search if you search upto $300k. But if you search to $350k, you'll find it... and then your agent or you can use another MLS site (that shows price reduction detail) to review that data for that MLS listing and show the dates and decreases of the price and the current price.

 

[nate379]

Wow that is a huge house! Do you have a big family? Your basement is almost the size of my house!

I found the house we bought here:

http://www.hudpemco.com/

On an acre, four bedroom, two and a half baths, around 2500 square feet plus an additional 1200 or so square feet in the unfinished basement. All it needed was appliances. Other than that it was move in ready. No damage, no issues. We've been in it almost a year now. It was two years old and I paid nearly $100K less than the original sales price. We are the second owners.

While we were looking for a house we looked at what seemed like hundreds of them. We submitted formal offers for five of them. Because of the depressed market I was low-balling the hell out of them. Around here available housing is plentiful, but it is saturated with foreclosures and "fixer-uppers".

Be patient and keep looking around. You'll find it...

 

[grog]

Be patient if you can and the right one will come along. The stress will then truly begin, closing, funding, inspections, Radon(wtf is radon and why do I have to remediate it), sewer scope, gfci outlets, contractors, coordinating out of one into the other.

We found and bought our home after casually looking for a year: 1800 sf ft, 3 bed 2 bath, 700 sq ft Mother in law apartment basement. Oh, and did i mention the oversized 3 car attached. Oh, and did I mention the 24'x37' work shop.

Our plan was to get the property, then list our current home, so we could have time to update the new home. Of course since we had done so much to our current property, it sold in 4 days, the flyers wer'nt even printed. So now we have to be out on 5-19. Which is great, but stressfull.

My wife has just discovered that since we have to be out quick, we have to work nonstop to get the new house ready. So needless to say she is sick of it and wishes I had not forced her to move out of the home she loves(1 car garage, and 996 sq ft w/996 sq ft finished basement) and worked so hard on.

Stressfull. She will be fine once we are in.

Good luck on the house hunt and get ready for the stressfull part.

Grog

 

[BigE]

If you're looking at used houses, some work is to be expected. My trick is to make sure the deal reflects that. I bought my house dirt cheap, but it needed work as it had not been maintained. A buddy of mine just bought a house and negotiated the repairs into the deal. Once the current owners finish the repairs, his house is move in ready. You can make it up in the price or contract. Just make sure you allow for it. Next I do it, I'll make the repairs part of the contract. I found that once I'm in the house, I just let it drag out. I'd rather have it done up front.

 

[Wingnut65]

The way we looked at it as we were house hunting, the only way our new house would be exactly the way we wanted with nothing to change or redo, was to find a couple exactly like us with exactly the same tastes, likes dislikes and hobbies, and all the work would have been done for us and ready to move in. Thus, we had to have a house built that was exactly what we wanted - a three car garage with a house attached.

A friend gave us some great advice when house hunting - You can change the color, the floors, teh walls, bathrooms, landscape; basically everything in and around a house can be changed, except the neighborhood! Where you buy is where you will live.

Good Luck on the search.

Jeff

 

[RbrtAWhyt]

Wow that is a huge house! Do you have a big family? Your basement is almost the size of my house!

No, its just me and the wife. What was important to us when we were house hunting was a large master bed and bathroom and decent sized master bedroom closet. It doesn't seem like they put those in smaller homes. I wanted a flat lot to build a future shop or a drive under basement so I could put my "motorcycle shop" in the basement. You don't need a high ceiling when all you're lifting is motorcycles. I figured a basement home would be out of our price range of $150K. Anyway, when I found this one it had everything we wanted and then some. It was only two years old, a gently sloping acre lot, plus the full unfinished basement, which is stubbed for a bath. The real plus is that we got it for little more than $20K less than our budget. It doesn't have a boat door into the basement, but it will by then end of this summer. In a few years I can build a regular shop out back but for now the basement MC shop will keep me occupied, as soon as I can get to it. I think we really lucked out on our place. We paid less then we had intended to pay and got more than we thought we would get. It pays to be patient and keep looking...

On a side note, I bought my first house in 1997 for $80K. I sold it in in 07 for $114K, just as the housing market here was really starting to tank. We got out of there just in time. It was on a crawlspace, 3/2 and was only 1050 SF in size. I get a kick out of telling people that my basement is larger than my first home...

 

[spongerich]

[rant on]
Nevermind the 1950's furnace in the basement
[rant off]

Our house was built in 1809... Happily the electrical system was redone much more recently and done well.

The furnace is probably from 1960. I'm sure it's not anywhere near as efficient as a modern unit, but it heats up our house amazingly quickly even on the coldest days (which is more impressive considering the complete lack of insulation in most of the walls)

Having lived in a brand new home and a 200 yr old one, and some in between I think that from a maintenance perspective, the age has much less to do with it than the quality of the workmanship and the quality of the systems installed.

Keep up the hunt.. you'll find something you like!

 

[Lippyp]

Like anything else theres cheap and then theres good and the two don't neccesarily go hand in hand even with the market like it is. We went to see a place a month or so ago and it didn't have any form of heating apart from two open fireplaces, there was a gap under the front door that a cat could have got through, the whole house reeked of damp and mould and they wanted a stupid amount for it. Added to that some of the ceilings were that low my head was brushing them.

We've been trying to sell our house for 2 1/2 years now, have reduced the price by £150K and stil no takers, we've found several we'd like and they've all sold now. Work doesn't scare me though as we renovated this house from semi derelict after it had stood empty for twelve years or so, and are in the middle of doing the same with our holiday home in France.

 

[warpedredneck]

[rant on]

So everyone keeps saying how theres a million houses out there that are steals. In MY area - I cannot find a THING that doesn't immediately need $5000+ in repairs! ugh! The last one we found was GREAT, 1800sq ft farm house with a carriage barn 480 sq ft with a loft upstairs...

BUT - while the wiring was updated from 60 amp to 200 amp service, the entire house and garage run through a single circuit! with original wiring! Mind you, the house was built in 1895 and 3/4's of the outlets in the house are still two-prong ungrounded sockets! My electronics would NOT like that!

Nevermind the 1950's furnace in the basement



Ugh. I guess it's time to sit and watch the homes in the area....

[rant off]

i feel your pain brother, we're going thru the same stuff here, getting lowball offers on our place too!
told the real estate last night if they cant find a decent offer for our place i would rent it out before taking a **** offer

 

[quick86]

Woot! May have found one that just got emailed to me yesterday by our realtor!


3 bed, 1 bath, attached 2 1/2 car garage, fenced yard (for my dog, awesome!), fireplace (a big plus in my eyes) and a 2 1/2 car garage detached in the back yard!


God, I'll have to set up not one...but TWO garages!?

 

[Art From De Leon]

The Coldwell Banker agent told us that my shop is a liability, and that if I would lower the asking price by the amount that it cost to build the shop ($50K), she could sell the place in "an instant".

She don't know it yet, but within the next week or 10 days, both she, and Coldwell Banker are fixing to get dumped on their ***.

 

[tdkkart]

The Coldwell Banker agent told us that my shop is a liability, and that if I would lower the asking price by the amount that it cost to build the shop ($50K), she could sell the place in "an instant".

Anything that's priced under the market by $50K will sell in an instant, you Bimbo. Tell her to pull her head out of her ***, advertise the shop as an asset and it will sell based on that.

 

[Sokoloff]

It's way easier to take a quick commission on an underpriced house than to take a slightly higher commission on a properly priced house.

 

[NUTTSGT]

The Coldwell Banker agent told us that my shop is a liability, and that if I would lower the asking price by the amount that it cost to build the shop ($50K), she could sell the place in "an instant".

She don't know it yet, but within the next week or 10 days, both she, and Coldwell Banker are fixing to get dumped on their ***.

I bet she has a freind or family member that wants your house.



Quick86, have you talked to any of the banks you deal with? Ask them if they have any foreclosed on properties. Who sell the bank repos at auction in your area? Here, they are sold at Sheriff's sale, you can she what is going for auction on their website.

 

[Red05GT]

It's amazing how many times a realtors solution for selling a property is dropping the
price some unbelievable number. If they did the comps when listing the house in the
first place, why did they miss the mark so badly? I had a realtor several years ago
that we had worked with listing our spec homes, list our personal residence. After we
sold and closed on the sale, we had a couple of different people say they had tryed to
get an appointment to view our home but were told it was sold, this was the first week.
Come to find out the realtor, her husband and son, all three, had a triple flip going. They
had our home, our buyers home, and the buyers, buyers home. So if they refuse to show
our home to contigent buyers which is in the realtors code of ethics, they maintain their
full commission on all sales and cut any other realtors out. Cut their *** out Art, your
garbage man knows more about the value of a home than your current realtor.

 

[Andy Griffith]

The Coldwell Banker agent told us that my shop is a liability, and that if I would lower the asking price by the amount that it cost to build the shop ($50K), she could sell the place in "an instant".

Yep, we were told the same thing. The number of people who want properties with detached shop buildings is quite small within the overall population.

I'm cutting the posts off at the ground and taking the whole damn shop with me when the time comes.

 

[Gomezy3k]

The housing crash hit Vegas hard, but while there are tons of houses cheap, getting one is almost impossible. I am disabled, using a VA loan and am having a heck of a time. The investors are killing the people who want a house to live in. Not to mention, the appraisers ****. I found a great house for $80K and everything went great till the appraiser only priced it at $65K so the deal fell through. Seems like unless you can put down $10K and buy a house for $200K you are screwed.

Plus the banks list the property for real low and then wait for the bidding war to start.

 

[MikeinLA]

Well, I couldn't be an appraiser for 30 years and NOT chime in to this discussion. Just a few random thoughts......

1. The BEST deals never see the MLS. Go to an area that you like and as you drive around, see whose sign is most prominent. That is your area expert. They have no doubt been farming the area for years and know most of the homeowners. Meet with that agent and tell them your wants and needs. Trust me, they have a pocketful of people who say, " I won't list, but if you could sell it for $X, I'd sell". In addition, when she (presumably a she) gets a new listing that would suit your needs, you'll be the first call so she can "double-end" the commission.

2. Make sure you get a pre-qualification letter from your lender in an amount sufficient to cover the loan on the house you're looking at. Everybody knows how much the banks **** these days and attaching this letter to your offer will bring you to the top of the pile.

3. Foreclosed homes will take work, period. Think about it, if they couldn't pay the mortgage, how much do you think they put into maintenance over the years? Also, most foreclosees do NOT leave quietly. They are usually pi$$ed off and most often damage the home on their way out. I've seen whole kitchens ripped out, Ready-mix poured in the pipes, you name it. Have a GOOD home inspector come up with a list of repairs and present this with your counter-offer. The bank-owner will NOT do any repairs, but will usually lower the price if you have it in writing.

4. The detached shop has what we call "value in use". It's only worth something to certain people. Out here in L.A., we run across many home studios. While they may have cost over $ 100,000 to set up, John & Mary typical buyer could care less. To get the value out of the shop, you will have to wait for that ONE buyer who will, no doubt, love you forever.

5. Many appraisers do ****. It's a relatively easy entrance field with little oversight. Recent government regulations (HVCC) designed to protect the public have actually resulted in the use of appraisal management companies who hire only rookie appraisers for peanuts. If you're worried, have your agent put together a package with the correct comparable sales and give this to the appraiser. Many appraisers are also lazy, so they will like this. I often get hired by sellers to do a proper appraisal which they then hand to the bank lackie.

6. Before you get too anxious, may I comment that until we see better employment numbers, the real estate market is NOT recovering in most areas (contrary to the realtor propaganda).

7. Lastly, you guys are really lucky. My stupid townhouse condo has FALLEN to $ 450,000 . When I see what you guys are buying for $ 150,000 I just want to cry. Good for you.

Mike

 

[Gomezy3k]

2. Make sure you get a pre-qualification letter from your lender in an amount sufficient to cover the loan on the house you're looking at. Everybody knows how much the banks **** these days and attaching this letter to your offer will bring you to the top of the pile.


5. Many appraisers do ****. It's a relatively easy entrance field with little oversight. Recent government regulations (HVCC) designed to protect the public have actually resulted in the use of appraisal management companies who hire only rookie appraisers for peanuts. If you're worried, have your agent put together a package with the correct comparable sales and give this to the appraiser. Many appraisers are also lazy, so they will like this. I often get hired by sellers to do a proper appraisal which they then hand to the bank lackie.


Mike

I have a pre-qual for $120K which is all I wanted to go for. That gave me a fair amount of wiggle room. In my case, there is NO contact with the appraiser and in fact no one has any idea who the appraiser even is. So as far as putting a package together and giving to appraiser, no way to do it. I guess it is a VA thing or something. So I am at the mercy of an unknown appraiser and just hope that he decides the house is at or just over the asking price, other wise I am screwed over again. I hate paying 500 bucks every time and not getting anything for it.

 

[RbrtAWhyt]

I have a pre-qual for $120K which is all I wanted to go for. That gave me a fair amount of wiggle room. In my case, there is NO contact with the appraiser and in fact no one has any idea who the appraiser even is. So as far as putting a package together and giving to appraiser, no way to do it. I guess it is a VA thing or something. So I am at the mercy of an unknown appraiser and just hope that he decides the house is at or just over the asking price, other wise I am screwed over again. I hate paying 500 bucks every time and not getting anything for it.

I've used VA twice. If you ask the lender to see the VA's apprasial report, they will show it to you...

Here is some helpful information on VA apprasials...

http://www.vamortgagecenter.com/faqs_appraisals.htm#lower

 

[december45]

hang in there and keep looking, I have heard that we will be hit by another round of foreclosures this summer due to loans that were fixed for 5 years only and are due to reset... I cant verify this but have heard it from quite a few sources.

 

[Lippyp]

It's amazing how many times a realtors solution for selling a property is dropping the
price some unbelievable number. If they did the comps when listing the house in the
first place, why did they miss the mark so badly?

We have this exact problem, our house has been on the market now for 2 1/2 years, we've already dropped the price by over £100K and will shortly be dropping by another £50K. We know it was overpriced to start but not by that much, but all our estate agent (realtor) has as a solution for it not selling is to keep dropping the price. We knew it was a difficult house to value as after all, valueing a house is basically a case of looking at what other similar house in the area have sold for and our house is pretty much unique but even so, they have got it badly wrong.

My big issue is that most realtors currently couldn't sell a drowning man a canoe. They've spent the last decade or so with an incredibly bouyant market here in the UK, where you just listed a house and it sold, often for more than the asking price, sometimes even on the same day, add to that the internet turning it into more of a "pull" model where customer do all the searching rather than a "push" model where the agent matches the house to the potential buyer they've become lazy and complacent. We've lit a rocket under ours recently and are calling them at least once a week to harrass them in the hope they may extract their collective digits from whatever collective orifice they may have them inserted in and actually do some damn work.

We're resigned to taking a hit on the value as we just want to move now. Its not that we don't love the house, we do BUT its more a case of the right house in the wrong area. Too many idiots, chavs and smackheads and we don't want the kids growing up amongst them.

 

[Wingnut65]

Woot! May have found one that just got emailed to me yesterday by our realtor!

3 bed, 1 bath, attached 2 1/2 car garage, fenced yard (for my dog, awesome!), fireplace (a big plus in my eyes) and a 2 1/2 car garage detached in the back yard!

God, I'll have to set up not one...but TWO garages!?

Two Garages with a house attached to One! ! ! Sounds like a great opportunity - Two Workshops... Doesn't that mean two sets of tools, two refrigerators, two of almost everything so one would be close at hand?

BTW how can you park half a car in the front garage and the other half out back...?

Let us know what you decide.

jeff

 

[DoTheMahoney]

Keep your head up, you will find what you are looking for. Many people say that there should be no problem buying a house right now, but that is simply not the case. Here in Indiana, the only houses for sale are those listed by desperate owners who need to get out of the mortgage payment. A small percentage of the small number of houses are in good condition. It is frustrating to find everything you want in a home, so consider adjusting your expectations. No one wants to give up certain items when house hunting, but there needs to be a few items you will compromise.

I have had offers on three homes since January. The first was a short sale that ended in frustration for everyone. The seller's bank wouldn't look at the paperwork, so after 3 months, I threw in the towel. A the end of March, I had an offer on a home that needed some work, and after asking the seller to fix the septic field system (mandated by the county) as well as fix the roof and some misc. items, they pulled the hosue off the market. This only happened after I had $775 in inspections. Currently I have an offer on a third home, inspections have come back in good shape, and look to close in the first week of June.

Its been a long process that involved adjusting my expectations as well as an extreme amount of patience. Im excited about starting on the garage, and soon I will have the before, during, and after pics posted.

Good luck and hang in there!

 

[kvom]

Realtors have an incentive to reduce the price for a sale. Assuming that he/she realizes 3% of the purchase price, a $5k reduction costs the realtor only $150, while the seller takes a $5K hit. So a seller and realtor do not have the same level of incentive in a deal. Realtors get a higher price selling their own homes than they do selling for others (read "Freakanomics").

If you are buying a fixer-upper, I think it's silly to require the seller to do some of the fixes prior to the deal. Just factor the cost into your offer.

Short sales are a PITA, esp. if there is ore than one bank involved. There is a superb house near me that had 3 mortgages. None of the three banks can agree on who takes the loss, so it's been vacant for over a year even though there have been several offers. As an aside, the prior owner was a mortgage broker who should have known better..

 

[warmpancakes]

hang in there and keep looking, I have heard that we will be hit by another round of foreclosures this summer due to loans that were fixed for 5 years only and are due to reset... I cant verify this but have heard it from quite a few sources.

we are nowhere near the bottom we still have the 5 year arms, 5 year baloon and those lovely "interest only" loans to reset we are probably at the 35-40% mark now the upper level homes will start to go Im talking the 3000+ sq foot mcmansions will be foreclosed on, Im in michigan and there was just a house that sold for 1.5 million 4 years ago foreclosed on

 

[Andy Griffith]

You do what you have to do in these markets if you really want to sell, and of course the nature of the markets can be dramatically different from area to area. A fellow home-shop person disassembled his shop and took it with him to his new place further out in the country.

He then had a sport-court installed on top of the now vacant concrete slab along with some fencing, lighting, and a little bit of nice landscaping. This was much more in tune to the yuppie area his neighborhood had become and made the house more marketable.

20 years ago a detached shop building was a desirable feature of a property in his area, and in most cases those properties with shop buildings were on 1/2 to 2 acres. Nowadays the people moving into the area elect to get a brand new house in a jammed packed housing development vs an older house with a shop and some property. Those who would prefer to have some space around them and a shop on the property often simply can't afford the insane property taxes that are levied on land around there.

My area had a rush of developers move in and buy up a bunch of property at the height of the market to build 'medium density housing developments'. Many of them got caught with the properties only half-way finished or not even started, resulting in a massive over supply of development lots available to build out. The few people who can swing buying a new house are getting unbelievable deals on these homes from desperate developers.

Of course everybody's property taxes have skyrocketed as a result of these new developments in the area and this has put the hurt on many folks in existing homes. In many cases it is older folks who have lived in the community for many years and they cannot unload their 1/2 acre and up properties to get out from under the property taxes that they can no longer pay. I get a kick out of people who say, 'oh you have 1,2,5 + acres, you are so lucky'. Lucky? Yeah, lucky right up until the tax bill comes due. And we are in an unincorporated part of the county, zoned rural. The folks who are within any type of city limits of course have an even higher tax liability.

 

[wineslob]

I looked at 48 homes before buying the one we live in. Within the first year or so we had to replace the heating/ac unit. I had bought a home warranty to cover such things, but the insurance company choose to repair the old unit(instead of replace, as the "terms" said they would, but there was a *clause* for repairs if they so choosed) just enough so that when the warranty ran out the unit soon failed again.
I got stuck with a $3500 bill for a new one.

 

[december45]

I agree with "warmpancakes", we have more to come, I also heard in conversation that some of the banks are only releasing/dealing on a few homes at a time, trying not to flood the market, the realtor I spoke with said that, what was once a glut of houses on the market is now a bidding war for the better homes, and buyers are using "CASH" money because the banks are not making loans. I generally dont put much stock in what realtors say, especially since on the same day i spoke with the realtor i talked to a home owner "walking" away from the house and payment, the house down the street from his sold for 1/3 of what he owes on his and is just walking away. I think there is plenty coming our way and realestate may be the least of it.

 

[quick86]

May have found "it"




Only thing I don't know the cost of is an insert for the fireplace.... Some reason this house is lacking one... hmmmm