<p>“The recent stock market down turn has discouraged some buyers to move forward with purchase, wanting to ‘wait and see’.”</p>
<p>That’s what my realtor told my wife this week. She said we would not get as good a price today as we did 6 weeks ago.</p>
<p>I feel special ! Congratulate me, everyone. I am now officially a federal brown field, or something. The abandoned oil tank which was discovered in the house’s front yard was removed, and it was discovered it had leaked oil. We now move from the jurisdiction of the local authorities, to the federal government. If we’re above the minimum guidelines, we have to remediate the soil. This could cost thousands of dollars. I wonder if our name is in some federal register or something, to be found by archeologists centuries from now. We’ve hit the big time.</p>
<p>Oh gosh, hayden, I am sooo sorry. My worst nightmare.</p>
<p>Worse than the actual oil is the government involvement and label!
Fingers crossed for you Jy,</p>
<p>Thank heavens for the oil tank insurance. Yesterday’s earthquake makes me a tad nervous.</p>
<p>Hayden…you have to be kidding. I thought that was jym626’s problem.</p>
<p>hayden, and jym, wish the best of luck… sorry to hear the oil spill, tough problem.</p>
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<p>not so in my little zipcode. just notice 5 homes went on “pending” in one day. out of 31. Inventory is down 40% to 26 whereas it was hovering at 40 just two months ago. Most REOs got off market in less than two weeks. One regular sale was off the market in 6 days, as reported before.</p>
<p>That is a much hotter market than where I was living.</p>
<p>[Financial</a> turmoil intensifies home buyers’ anxiety - Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Financial-turmoil-intensifies-apf-3250364762.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=]Financial”>http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Financial-turmoil-intensifies-apf-3250364762.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=)</p>
<p>Dang Hayden, that su*ks for sure.</p>
<p>Hopefully the contamination is minimal.</p>
<p>I’ve never trusted the tank removal companies to be honest. It seems to me too tempting to declare a spill and turn 2k or so of excavation and refill into a 20K cleanup.</p>
<p>Yup, everybody’s a crook.</p>
<p>Not everybody is a crook, but there are plenty of questionable contractors out there. Good luck, hayden.</p>
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<p>I hear you. Apparently not only the removal company try their hand at scamming, though, but also the homeowner. The town inspector must be present during the entire procedure because, as they explained to me, they need to make sure the homeowner doesn’t bribe the company into removing the tank, but telling the town there was no tank and no oil. Our town inspector was there the whole time, and he is the one required to notify the federal government. I’m told the cost for remediation may be upwards of 15K. Oh joy. At this point, I just want it all to end.</p>
<p>edited to add: Our real estate agent was there also, and said you could smell the oil in the ground. I can understand having to remove these tanks. This street was converted to gas back in the 60’s, and most tanks were just left in the ground. Now here it is 50 years later, and you could still smell the oil. Amazing.</p>
<p>you may want to investigate if the oil tank guy is telling the truth and ascertain the area to be remediated. You should contact an enviroment specialist that can do a Phase II study(your situation is beyond Phase I). They will drill holes and do a test of the soil extracted. The process by itself is very expensive, but you may have to do it because you do not want to leave any thing out if there actually has a leak. I sell gas stations and other commercial properties, its my normal job to order such service.</p>
<p>just an update. I was notified by the broker for this Menlo Park house that I was not even close, with 35 bidders, you can imagine the price. Yes, MPM, you are right, there is no bargains in the West of 101. This WEST of 101 house is next to EPA, but on the Menlo side, near Chestnut, you should know the area. The houses on the EPA side are selling at 300K range while on the Menlo side is selling at around 500K range, that is today’s price. Historically it was selling at 700K range for a 1000 sqft house on a 5000-6000sqft lot! It is amazing the price differences, basically they are in the SAME neighborhood and steps apart.</p>
<p>Amazing…35 bidders…</p>
<p>So, even with the bidding wars, the Menlo Park houses you memtioned are still down 200,000 from their highs?</p>
<p>You are right on…</p>
<p>This house was listed at 300K and ppl bid it up to close to 500k,</p>
<p>Last year, some other broker want to short sell it for 525K for a YEAR and it did not move…</p>
<p>Ok, thanks. So there are many buyers but they are very, very price conscious. </p>
<p>How hard is it for regular home buyers to get loans?</p>
<p>haydern, you are so right. We just went through it in NJ. Total cost K16K. And then the remediation company swore they submitted the paper work to NJ DEP for a reimbursement grant.</p>
<p>But NJ DEP says they never received the form. </p>
<p>The contractor says NJ DEP loses apps “ALL THE TIME”. And now we are informed that the fund is dry until at least 2014. </p>
<p>We are assessing our options. </p>
<p>In NJ the average remediation cost for a single family residence is $11K. NJ has a state grant (or used to) system. The neighboring states of NY and PA have no such grant reimbursement system. And the average cost for the same remediation job in NY and PA is between $2K and $4K. </p>
<p>“Codified Corruption” is how New Jersey works.</p>