<p>Yes, I think that is exactly what is happening here, dstark, but how strong is the market? Can the supposedly strong demand absorb all this new supply?</p>
<p>The actual prices of transactions will depend also on the sellers… how low they are willing to go. How serious they are about selling.
I personally think the buyers right now are pretty picky about what they want- house features, location.</p>
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<p>I don’t see why not. With the settlement, I paid about $2K extra for a 140K cost, I intended to sell it for at least 200K. If I have to put in 10K, I will raise the price to 220K. If I want to wait, I will rent it for 1500, lets say the net expense is 400/mo I still can net 12K/year(counting only 11 mo/year on rent), cash on cash is around 7.5%(12K/160K) after 15K repair cost.</p>
<p>On the auction front, REO homes in Auction has decreased to a point that the auction house is no longer advertising Northern California properties by email. There are maximum 10 homes in the “Northern CA” category. Nothing in the Bay area to speak of, one in Marin(Novato), two in Brentwood, one in Oakland…so my future inventory has shrinked to nothing. last year, there were always 100’s REO homes online at any time.</p>
<p>Maybe people will start thinking about housing as a place to live, create memories and not their retirement vehicle, and that would be constructive for housing</p>
<p>Ok…post 2242…</p>
<p>And wow…looks like auctioneers are going to have to look for new jobs.</p>
<p>Here in coastal-central FL there are still many foreclosures and pre-foreclosures holding the market back. On a bright note people who are not willing to do the extensive rehab most of these properties need are now electing to buy regular sale homes or even build new. The house price bottom here was reached a year ago. No real rise yet but we’re not complaining. We bought at a 55% discount, a great conditioned home in a much sought after neighborhood, to where it sold in '07. Much pain was felt here.</p>
<p>The BOA’s decision to take out 200K homes in foreclosure circle and start to modify the loan voluntarily has profound affect on stabilizing home values. For one thing, it created jobs. My friend in Houston was hired by the Title company to review document from title insurance point of view, they hired 800 for just ONE title insurance company. I am sure BOA has to hire more to review the docs and apps.</p>
<p>Interesting…</p>
<p>We’ve had five showings of the house so far and I’m already sick of it.</p>
<p>Any people going to your house more than once, veryhappy?</p>
<p>Nope.</p>
<p>10 chars</p>
<p>What’s wrong with these people, veryhappy? :)</p>
<ol>
<li>They’re in no hurry to find something</li>
<li>They want certain features that our house doesn’t have</li>
<li>They don’t like our bathrooms or our land (hell, neither do I)</li>
</ol>
<p>But my first floor, including my fabulous kitchen and family room, and my basement – with 600 square feet of walk-out finished area that we used for a “nanny suite” – are awesome.</p>
<p>What is wrong with your land?</p>
<p>What is your house missing?</p>
<p>My land is 2 acres – yippee!! – which is not that unusual for where I live. Unfortunately three quarters of it is “environmentally protected wetland,” meaning that one is not permitted to build on it, landscape it, or touch it at all. It’s great for two things: privacy, and having lots of land that one doesn’t need to manicure. However, many people want a nice, flat expanse of two empty acres so they can build a pool, a volley ball court, patio, whatever.</p>
<p>I see…</p>
<p>There was an interesting article in the paper here in Toronto, in conjunction with all the Facebook IPO articles, about how the demand for housing in San Francisco is very strong. One particular small home (1400 sq. ft) sold for $1.4 million, after 51 bids, and a whopping $500,000 over the asking price. The average sale price is now over $1 million. One number I found surprising was that the number of homes sold in a year is generally less than 6,000, with 500-600 in the $1.5 and up price range. In Toronto, the <em>monthly</em> numbers are usually around 3000, with about 150-200 of those more than $1million. I imagine that part of those number are reflective of the difference in size but it’s still a large gap.</p>
<p>Tile reglazing vs. ripping it out & replacing:</p>
<p>OK, we’re back to doing some work on MIL’s house. Bathrooms (all three) have different tiles on the lower part of the showers & for the shower pan than for the uppers. Plain regular size bathroom tiles below, 1960’s era multi-colored mosaic tiles from about knee height up. Looks awful.</p>
<p>So…
<p>I think it is likely that the buyer will do a major redo on the master bathroom, but the two stagers who’ve been through have both said we need to do something with the shower in that room to make it not attract the eye in such a bad way.</p>
<p>arabrab, since this is for staging/selling now, and you won’t be enjoying any of the changes yourselves, it seems to me that glazing should suffice. As you say, the buyers may re-do anyway, so you’re not going to please them 100%; and all you want to do is give them something they feel they can live with until they’re ready.</p>
<p>You don’t mention the fixtures. As long as the glazing gives the bathroom a better look/feel, you may want to change out the fixtures to make sure they’re up to date and attractive. The buyers will focus on what most catches their eye. If the glazing means the tiles don’t stand out in a bad way, the buyers will probably look at the faucets and lighting. Much cheaper to update.</p>
<p>51 bids!!! :eek:</p>