Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Great Time to Buy a Home

I had this great idea of moving to Lakewood. I love the Great Lakes and a view on the lake would be intoxicating. I even took a tour of a friend's home in one of these very tall building which looked like a giant standing on shore. I also spent hours on Realtor.com oggling the best condos with my calculator to see what I could realistically afford. It looked pretty good so I called my Realtor to get a Market done.




Then I noticed that on my streets "For Sale" signs were appearing faster than dandelions even my next door neighbor entered the contest. I was shocked by her asking price, she bought her home 15 years ago and still has a small mortgage. It is freshly painted with a nw kitchen, three bedrooms and a family room in the back, she has a attached garage and the street is quiet and did I mentioned that the neighbors are wonderful?


She listed her home at $115,000 and it just sat there gathering more cobwebs than visitors. She finally had an offer at $105,000. I am pretty sure that she would have accepted except that the buyer started to make more and more demands and finally withdrew the offer and presented a new one of $95,000.


I was a Realtor in a previous life but I never encoutered this kind of greedy behavior. Buyers know that the market is saturated with inventory and that great deals are available but it is not enough to get a great deal, they want to steal the home. It is as if the Southern Carpetbaggers are back here in NE Ohio.


I called my Realtor and expressed my reservations. " You know that I made a lot of renovations and I don't have to move, I just want to live in Lakewood."


"Listen Honey, if you don't have to move and you are not willing to loose money, just wait. The buyers are locusts, they want to get great deals and this new crop are bottom feeders. They just want to low ball their offers in hope that someone will accept it because they are desperate. It is not a good time to sell."


I was a bit disappointed but even more disconcerting is the possibility of trading in my very nice next door neighbor for people who are eager to take advantage of her situation. I know that it has nothing to do with me but I am resentful of this economy which did so much for so few. I know that I have finally managed to make enough money to have the same income that I had 7 years ago. My food and gas budget has however more than doubled.


I know many people are facing foreclosure and loosing a home is a true hardship. But for people like me who continue to meet their financial obligations by swimming in place there is no assistance available, no relief. Our big American dream is falling down the drain like itsy bitsy spider and may not come around again unless we can get tax code reforms. I would like to see a payback for all the money that corporations have made by keeping their tax dollars while outsourcing good jobs oversea. You hear so much about company going "global." But it is starting to sound like a dirty word to me, a euphemism for destroying our middle-class quality of life.


It might be time for Americans to require a new amendment to the Constitution that would allow the removal of a political administration who blatantly steals from the people to favor their own friends, investments and family members. Maybe the silver lining behind the legacy of GWB, is that it made many people re-evaluate what they want for themselves, their families, and their country. Maybe next time there will be a welcome change.






5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just read your new blog and I love it. I can’t believe the real estate market there. $115000 is not enough of a bargain? Wow, where will we truly hit bottom? We are in a free fall, a recession, no depression. Just no one is willing to call it that. We are really hurting in the travel industry, but being realistic who is going to travel when they can’t afford to fill the car up with gas? Good luck with Weight Watchers. Let me know how its working out for you. I have to do something myself as exercise is not doing the job for me.
Karen

Anonymous said...

Checked it out – looks good. I hadn’t heard the comparison of buyers to locusts before – interesting. We have been quite fortunate that good homes have had serious activity. May times multiple offers. I had listing that had multiple offers in 1 week, the house they wanted had multiple offers, and then another buyer lost out to 2 homes with multiple offers. So for at least here, and people who want a house that still have appliances, doors, and plumbing – we have started to stabilize. It is definitely not over, but the mud slide seems to be stopping.

Marcie

Miss Information said...

yes, it's definitely a buyer's market right now. And it is unfortunate so many people are losing money because their homes were overvalued in the first place. But I don't know that i would let this one real estate agent dissuade you from moving to the neighborhood you have dreamed of.If you have done renovations to your home, this could bey well make it more appealing to buyers and could put you in a good position to sell and then get the home you really want.; My brother just sold his house after only 3 months on the market, just because it was really cute and a stand out in his neighborhood (also in the sagging Midwestern economy). It is actually conventional wisdom to sell your homw while interest rates are low, and right now they are. I would encourage you to check out some guides about home selling (like on this one: https://www.quickenloans.com/home-buying/learn/how-to-see-your-home-fast and see if you might want to reevaluate putting your house on the market.

Jeanne said...

Missinformation

I think that you bring out a good point that no matter what kind of market conditions some homes will still sell.

The Cleveland area has been hit very hard by foreclosures. I know that it is possible to get amazingly good homes at a fraction of what they were a year ago. I think that my home would sell quickly only if I priced it competitively in a buyer's market and would loose money.

Thank you for the website information, it looks very helpful.

Do come again and I enjoyed your website.

Thanks,

Anonymous said...

good one.... thanks for sharing....

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