<p>Montegut…has your area recovered after Katrina?</p>
<p>So was the price too high?</p>
<p>Doubtful that houses are overpriced, BC. In this awful market people cant get rid of their current homes so have trouble moving up. Add to that the mortgage challenges. With my dad’s home, which is in a good area, its like a friggin’ gas war. Each time one person lowers the price another lowers a smidge more. Ugh.</p>
<p>I was referring to dstark - he had two issues with the house next door - wife’s best friend lives there and the possibility that the price was too high which would trump problem #1.</p>
<p>Houses in our block actually had no flooding. There was some wind damage in some houses: Trees falling on a couple of roofs, shingles blowing off and causing roof damage, leakage into the interior. The house next door, I suspect, had some roof damage, as they were doing some gutting.</p>
<p>The house for sale on the corner, however, had no damage, as did most of the others in the surrounding blocks.</p>
<p>ok Montegut…thanks…</p>
<p>jym626…there are plenty of overpriced homes for sale…I don’t get your post…</p>
<p>BCEagle91…I think the price is going to be a fair price…the price we were told it is going to be is a fair price…close to what we expected…maybe a few percent overpriced…hard to tell…Some nut case, in a down market, overpaid for a similar unit a couple of years ago…or we could have gotten this unit cheaper…</p>
<p>And who knows? Maybe now that we have expressed an interest, the price is going to be raised…</p>
<p>We are going to look at the unit before it hits the market.</p>
<p>My wife talked to her friend, and now my wife wants the place…the friend laid out two rules…one doesn’t matter…and the other was she doesn’t want to hear my wife and I having sex. 
I wonder how thin these walls are …lol</p>
<p>We are going to find out more by the end of the week when we see the place…</p>
<p>I don’t see a lot of people on this board stating that they sold their homes this season…</p>
<p>In the northeast, it was so cold for so long, it seems like the Spring selling season never got started. I’ve heard of a handful of houses selling, but even last year had more activity. </p>
<p>I think people are still very uncertain about a) the economy b) whether or not prices have bottomed. Of course, you only know that prices have bottomed after it’s happened, but at some point, with or without Case-Shiller, people may perceive that a bottom has been reached and they may feel safe bidding on houses again.</p>
<p>A house here in New England, my mother-in-law’s, she’s 92 and “her evil children and their spouses forced her out of her home and into assisted living”. It’s very dated, on a busy highway route with no sidewalk, sitting up on a hill, 4 detached garages at bottom of said hill, and needs serious updating especially kitchen and bath. On the market 3 weeks and very few showings to date. It took us 4 weeks to de-clutter enough to get it ready to show, some furniture remains…all clutter is gone or out of sight. Any updating we might do would be expensive, and not a do it ourselves project…and probably unlikely to off-set the location/hill issues. Mother-in-law not interested in paying for any updates that we can’t do ourselves (= for free). Nor can she understand why someone hasn’t swooped in and grabbed this beautiful house off the market yet…hmmm, let me count the reasons! The house is not being marketed ‘As Is’ nor is it priced as such. We are wondering if the price should be reduced immediately. I know it’s early yet, but it’s the lack of showings that is most troubling to us. My sympathies to those of you on this thread who are encountering the same problem with elderly family members and very out-dated homes. There are so many issues dealing with a situation such as this, not the least of which is the slow housing market.</p>
<p>I think that the uncertainty has to do with jobs; at least in the northern half of New England. Unemployment in NH is below 5% and I think that it is below 8% in MA (those don’t include discouraged and the underemployed) but I believe that a lot of people are working part-time jobs and perhaps multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet and that they don’t feel secure about what they have.</p>
<p>My parents listed in NorCal about 5 years ago, 18 months later they sold in a deal where they carried the paper. Then 18 months after that I foreclosed on it. We decided to keep the renter in it and just signed a new 2 year lease.</p>
<p>20 years ago they paid $230kish, 6 months before they listed their neighbor sold at $520k. They sold at $440, but now it looks like comparable homes are in the $300s. I talked to all the siblings, since the rent covers the taxes, insurance, assoc & repairs, we are going to keep it for a couple of years and see what happens in the market. She cannot make anything to speak of in conservative investments and is not rolling it into real estate, so we figure we might as well see what happens to the market.</p>
<p>In 1990 that market took a real beating, stayed low until at least 1994, but I know in by 96/97 is was fully recovered. I am willing to manage the rental, especially since we have great tenants, and watch for another couple of years before I am willing to go so low.</p>
<p>I think the housing market is a lot worse than people believe, even though that is bad enough. There are a significant number of houses that would be on the market if people really thought that prices were going to fall another 15-25%, which is quite possible…its just that no one believes it.</p>
<p>The other thing that is affecting the market mightily is that in a hot market (read the last 35 years, with a couple of pauses) people can easily free up their equity in order to make the down payment on the next house. Currently everyone has shrinking equity, not to mention the fact that it is locked up because of the slow market place, and people perceive that they have to take a discount to extract it. </p>
<p>Dstark has the right idea about renting. That may be a good place to be for a long time. If some of the current tax proposals are enacted the market will get even lousier.</p>
<p>Dstark wants to own something (that’s my read). Our main home is down about 20% and, sure, we could have saved a few bucks by selling at the peak but it would have been rather disruptive. The benefit to moving would be in getting closer to work which would save me about 25 minutes a day. I could just work from home more often to achieve that goal. In the calculus for making such a move, I don’t if what the market is doing matters.</p>
<p>My sister sold a home for her mother-in-law in May and I think that they sold it in a week. It was a huge townhouse that I think went in the threes or fours in a suburb of Boston. I think that demand for housing is still decent along Route 95 in towns with a lot of tech jobs.</p>
<p>Just to put in some humor: Dstark- Just exactly what are you going to find out this weekend? How thin the walls are? :)</p>
<p>My d is putting her house on the market in the next week. I am hoping that lower price homes are still selling.</p>
<p>My company is in the building products business. Housing has NOT come back and 2012 is going to be just about as bad as 2011. However, it REALLY varies from place to place. Texas is still a relatively strong market. </p>
<p>We are going to be putting our house on the market in Sept (probably). Houses in our area are selling, but it is a buyer’s market. We bought high in 2006 and will not get our money out of the house. However, we are also paying less for the new home we are building. I’m not thrilled with the timing, but this is my husband’s thing. He wants to build.</p>
<p>In our area, the house you are selling must look like a model home. No shampoo out, very few personal items… We are tempted to take the double payments and not list until we are out of the house, but then we would miss the fall selling season (bad enough to miss summer). It is going to be horrible. We have animals and LOTS of clutter. H has a “man cave” that is FILLED with broken computers that he works on, other electronics, papers etc.- not to mention his complete workshop and bike shop in the garage! We are going to have to rent a POD AND a storage space just to move enough stuff out to make it show well. I’m not sure I can live through it. We moved from Dallas 5 years ago but my company bought our old house and paid for the entire move. This time we are on our own. I am having nightmares about it. H is retired, so he gets stuck with most of the work.</p>
<p>My post was in response to what looked like bceagle asking montegut if the house up the street was priced too high, which led to a price drop. I commented because many of us have houses we are trying to sell that are priced to sell, but aren’t moving for a variety of reasons. Mine is similar to that which cellomom wrote about above (selling parents older, dated home needing some gently loving updates). We’ve dropped the price , but there just is very little action int he housing market int hat area, unfortunately. Neighbors told me that they know of people who would love to move to the area, but they have condos they can’t sell so cant get out of them and move up. Vicious cycle.</p>
<p>jym626…thanks for the clarification…</p>
<p>“Dstark- Just exactly what are you going to find out this weekend? How thin the walls are?”</p>
<p>lol…not quite…we do have an appointment today to see the place…and to figure out if the place works…it needs updating…it is not in the shape of a house MomofWildChild is mentioning.</p>
<p>And it is not priced for perfection either…which is good…</p>
<p>I want the place because the area is exactly where I want to live for the next 20 years or more…so the question is do I pay what I think is a few percent too much to lock it in before it hits the market…or take a chance that my assessment of the market is correct and the townhouse is slightly overpriced? If I am right about the pricing…I can get it cheaper…but if I am wrong, I lose the place and a place like this comes to market every two years or so…</p>
<p>I think because I expect to live there for a very long time…I should just pay up…I don’t want to lose the place when 3% over 20 years is not huge…then again it is a game of chicken…the seller wants to sell the place… :)</p>
<p>As far as renting vs buying goes…it gets complicated…there are pros and cons for either choice…</p>
<p>Sounds like the kind of decision that I make on a long-term dividend stock. If I’m going to hold something for a long time, then I’ll just buy it at market. The dividends will dwarf the difference in a limit order and I know that I have it and then don’t have to worry about it for a long time.</p>
<p>You could also negotiate the terms: you sold your old place so you’d be a cash buyer, right? I think that many sellers would take cash buyers over those that have to get a mortgage. Maybe that’s worth a point or two.</p>
<p>“You could also negotiate the terms: you sold your old place so you’d be a cash buyer, right? I think that many sellers would take cash buyers over those that have to get a mortgage. Maybe that’s worth a point or two.”</p>
<p>I have been thinking about that…no mortgage…quick close…the seller doesn’t have to stage the place…we are not going to use a broker either…( my wife is a licensed broker but she doesn’t practice))…so there is potential commission savings which we can share with the seller and other broker…</p>
<p>I also think it is hard for people to get loans for townhouses and that won’t be an issue for us.</p>
<p>I am hoping things will become clear after we see the place…</p>
<p>A similar unit sold a couple of years ago…and I still have the pictures… the place needed updating as this unit does…and we didn’t buy it then…I really don’t think we are going to change our minds about buying this unit…but you never know :)</p>
<p>I just went back to read the chain of posts over the past week. Do see that there were 2 conversations going. Sorry to confuse, dstark.</p>
<p>As for the TH: coupla thoughts. Is the adjoining wall on the far side of the townhouses or do the master BRs really share a wall? If so, what has the friend been able to hear through the walls with the current neighbors, and vice versa, what have the current owners been able to hear from your wife’s friend’s unit? These are important and very fair questions.</p>
<p>As for the price, if you are considering purchasing without realtors involved, you should be able to negotiate a lower price as there will be no funds going from the seller to the realtors. Be sure, no matter what, to have an inspection done, and not by someone the seller or (if a realtor is involved) the seller’s realtor recommends. </p>
<p>Lastly, you can also negotiate on closing costs, if you are getting a mortgage. If they won’t budge on price (that would be surprising) they can pay the closing costs instead.</p>
<p>Is this a fee simple townhome or are there association fees to pay? How old is the unit? Have you considered asking them to provide (ie pay for) one of those homeowner warrantee insurance policies for a year (covers appliances, a/c, etc)</p>
<p>Just thoughts…</p>
<p>** oops just saw you addressed some of these in your last post.</p>