<p>Congrats, dstark!! That’s very exciting!!!</p>
<p>Thanks…VeryHappy.</p>
<p>Yeah…i see the diet and exercise thread, BCEagle 91… That has been a prior obsession…</p>
<p>I am afraid to go there…I am starting to gain weight. ;)</p>
<p>I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look. :)</p>
<p>Congrats, dstark! How soon do you close?</p>
<p>After pretty much deciding to take our house off the market I got a call Thursday from an agent who wanted to show it that afternoon. I scrambled to get it ready then decamped to the neighbors with my pooch. The potential buyers were in and out in less than 15 minutes and didn’t take the additional information I’d left. I was surprised when I got an email from the agent saying my house is one of three they’d like to see again. So, spending the weekend sprucing up the yard, washing a few windows . . . I admit, the house no longer shines the way it did when we first listed four months ago.</p>
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<p>Isn’t it obvious…fixing up your new townhouse! :)</p>
<p>Congrats. It’s been fun reading about your journey, Dstark.</p>
<p>Keeping fingers crossed, 1moremom. Good things happen when you least expect it.</p>
<p>MomLive and1moremom, thanks.</p>
<p>I am going to be in charge of the inspections, but my wife is going to be in charge of the remodeling.</p>
<p>We waive contingencies in 23 days…usually it is 17…but my wife is out of the country.</p>
<p>The deal closes in 30 to 45 days. We left that up to the seller.</p>
<p>1moremom…good luck to you…</p>
<p>Real estate people say the buyers make their decision to buy very quickly. I can’t remember but I think it is a couple of minutes.</p>
<p>dstark, congratulations on your new home! </p>
<p>1moremom, any updates from the weekend showing?</p>
<p>Our youngest will be out of the house and off to school this August and middle child will be graduating this Spring. The oldest is already out working. We are divorced and so listed our house in June at the price the broker suggested, got lots of lookers, but no offers. We dropped our price twice and got two lowball offers. I’m kinda thinking that most serious buyers (at least in our area) want to be in the house by the time school starts and so if no contract yet, it’s about time to pack it in for the year. Or at least pack in expectations, the broker agreement goes til the beginning of August.</p>
<p>I don’t know if things will be any better next year, but at least the kids will have somewhere to come back to for one more year.</p>
<p>Hayden, thanks…mhc48, why does your broker think your place didn’t sell yet? </p>
<p>Are other homes in the area selling?</p>
<p>dstark, we have an oldish kitchen and bathrooms, plus hi ranches are not that favored. Or at least those were the reasons we were given when the broker suggested dropping the price, twice. But seems to me she should have known that in the beginning, especially when I questioned the initial selling price she’d touted to my ex-wife. And we lowered the price more than the cost of nicely re-doing the kitchen and bathrooms.</p>
<p>I just think buyers believe they have the whip hand and there’s a lot on the market in all price ranges. I wonder if they realize that, just as home prices couldn’t keep going up forever, mortgage rates can’t stay this low forever either.</p>
<p>The second showing is not until Wednesday (assuming the agent gets back to me with a time). I got the yard cleaned up and DH vacuumed the pool over the weekend. The temperature here has been in the high 80s so the last time they looked I waded in the pool, left a lot of wet footprints on the deck and a dripping swim suit on a hook nearby, hoping they might imagine how lovely it would be to be able to cool off in the pool. ;)</p>
<p>mhc48…well…I am buying a place with oldish kitchens and bathrooms…</p>
<p>but I have to admit it is a pain to have to deal with this…</p>
<p>yeah…setting the price right at the beginning is really important…</p>
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<p>Maybe they can. The unemployment report on Friday was dismal - no silver lining anywhere (which is rare). There’s a fair amount of speculation that Bernanke will have to launch QE3 this fall as the recovery is at stall speed. We’re at negative real rates and it looks like we’ll be staying there for a while.</p>
<p>The continuing crisis in Europe has struck again clobber the markets at the open today. Weakness in Europe is resulting in a stronger dollar which is exactly what we don’t need to get jobs going again.</p>
<p>On mortgages - I’d guess that many of those shopping for homes are cash buyers. Mortgage rates going up and tight credit would be a benefit for them.</p>
<p>^^^^^
I was thinking more about mortgage rates for next year’s Spring selling season.</p>
<p>There’s nothing going on in the US or world economy or the US housing market that leads me to believe that next spring won’t be soft.</p>
<p>Drove down mom’s old street, where we sold her house four years ago at the beginning of the bad market, after buying it at the top price in the market. Saw the same houses back for sale again. The owners put them up for sale, take them off the market for a while, then put them back up again in the summer or Thanksgiving or when rates are low or both. Many of them are frustrated that they sank a lot of money into repairs to show to sell, and still got no bites. They take the house off market when kids return to school, so as not to disrupt their lives too much, but then put them back on the market, maybe after a few more touchups, to see if they get a bite this year.</p>
<p>The real estate market through much of Florida is still horrible. In Sarasota for example the courts are gagging just attempting to process the mountains of foreclosures with about 15,000 pending bank foreclosures in the pipeline. Homeowners trying to sell their own homes have to knock heads with all the foreclosures that eventually enter the resale market. It’s a mess! The below news story describes how the Sarasota courts had been doing upwards of 250 foreclosures per day with 2 minute “rocket docket” hearings.</p>
<p>[Foreclosure</a> ‘rocket docket’ grounded | HeraldTribune.com](<a href=“http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110710/ARTICLE/110719986/2055/NEWS?Title=Foreclosure-rocket-docket-grounded]Foreclosure”>http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110710/ARTICLE/110719986/2055/NEWS?Title=Foreclosure-rocket-docket-grounded)</p>
<p>And a lot of jurisdictions are having to cut back on court hours for budget reasons. It’s a real mess, but we won’t be able to move forward until the foreclosures are through the pipeline.</p>
<p>A house a few doors down from my old house just went on the market for 2/3 the price of my old house.</p>
<p>It is about 10% smaller and not fixed up…although, it is in good shape…it isn’t modernized…I’m shocked at the price…if that house doesn’t sell in a week…the neighbors are not going to be happy.</p>
<p>Had an appt/showing at my dads the other day, but still no offers. This one wanted all 4 BRs on the same floor, and they arent (a smaller one is on the main floor). So we wait…</p>