<p>Good for you, jym! Closure is a very good thing - put it in the rear view mirror, and a couple of months from now you’ll feel so much better. </p>
<p>Congratulations!!</p>
<p>jym626…congrats.</p>
<p>Yay jym! Done is wonderful. It’s in the past, it’s history, and you don’t have to think about it!</p>
<p>That’s great, it was a long time coming. I can’t say I’m not jealous. We just signed a new listing agreement yesterday. We took the house off the market last July when my parents’ situation got very difficult and I just couldn’t deal with one more thing.</p>
<p>Good luck 1moremom. Are you selling your house or theirs?</p>
<p>Mine. My father says he’s never moving, despite the fact that my mother can no longer live in the house.</p>
<p>1moremom, that’s difficult. I’m sorry. Our older parents aren’t always realistic about their situations, are they?</p>
<p>I had a similar challenge. Change is scary to older adults. When my mom was alive they looked into senior communities because my mother had Parkinsons and needed increasing help. Dad looked again briefly after she passed away, but was then pretty insistent on staying in his house, regardless of the cost (well it was his money, what was left of it) and challenges it posed to provide/arrange the care he needed from far away. Sandwich generation responsibilities are not easy.</p>
<p>I think the folowing report tells the housing market is heading back to normal</p>
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<p>I think the market in my area is coming back at the upper end. Last summer there were a lot of big “plan book” houses that weren’t selling. The folks who had to sell eventually cut the prices to a point where we could not compete price-wise. Now the bargains are gone and the inventory has tightened up quite a bit.</p>
<p>jym, so happy for you!</p>
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<p>Foreclosure inventories are released slowly, over time so as not to saturate the market causing a total collapse. Many houses could have been foreclosed years ago but owners are still allowed to stay, some are staying 3-5 years without payment.
We really have no idea how many more foreclosures are in the pipeline.</p>
<p>Another story about institutions buying real estate.</p>
<p>If this works this should stabilize housing in many areas…maybe increase housing prices…</p>
<p>I am not sure about this because these programs could crowd out the smaller invester or potential homeowners…like our kids…</p>
<p>[Insight:</a> The Wall Street gold rush in foreclosed homes - Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/news/insight-wall-street-gold-rush-191730652.html]Insight:”>http://finance.yahoo.com/news/insight-wall-street-gold-rush-191730652.html)</p>
<p>“Dan Magder recently gave up a top job with private equity firm Lone Star Funds to strike out on his own and become a landlord.
He’s joining a growing list of big and small investors who see fat profits to be made in renting out foreclosed homes, especially now the U.S. government is moving ahead with a trial project to sell big pools of single-family homes that Fannie Mae currently owns in some of the hardest-hit housing markets.
Investors seeking higher yields are drawn to foreclosures because the rental market is red hot. But the heated competition for foreclosed homes is reminiscent of the frothy expectations that seem to accompany each new Wall Street investing craze.”</p>
<p>
Yet, from above:
Who owns the other 600,000 houses? 
</p>
<p>Why should the 1% get to reap the benefit?</p>
<p>Everyone who is renting one of those houses should get the opportunity to buy it at whatever price the investor has bid. Then the investor can have the leftovers.</p>
<p>Or just put them all on the market now to sell to individual buyers. If big investors want them they can buy them one at a time like everyone else.</p>
<p>I think they are kidding themselves about the returns, anyway, especially if they are counting on future appreciation. The vast majority of foreclosures I’ve been in are run-down and beat up because no one has maintained them for years. They will require significant capital investment.</p>
<p>Of course, I wouldn’t put it past FNMA to skim the cream and package up just the nice ones to sell to their PE buddies. Maybe I’m being too cynical.</p>
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<p>You are absolutley correct. However, on the auction front, I saw noticible drop in the number and quality of homes being offered. For example, in California, there were over 700 REO’s for sale by Auction before January 2012 on the site I follow. Today, there is only 70+, that is a significant reduction of REO homes. I hope it is a flag for the end of massive foreclosures.</p>
<p>here is some thing to consider, now it is the time to think of real estate:</p>
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<p>From 700+ to 70 is good sign.</p>
<p>After losing out on 2 apartments in NYC, we may finally go into contract. It is a modest 1700 sq ft apartment (at our favorite neighborhood, full service building), but it will cost the same as my sister’s 7500 sq ft house in NC (it’s on the market). We are buying it sight unseen. Now we will go through the board approval - recommendation letters, interview, showing our financial so they could see we have 2 years of mortgage & maintenance payments in liquid assets. This feels a bit like college application.</p>
<p>Wow oldfort…</p>
<p>I feel like I am too old to ask for anybody’s approval. :)</p>
<p>You gotta do what you gottta do…</p>
<p>Location trumps sq footage…at least to me…</p>
<p>Good luck…</p>
<p>Back from a week in LA dealing with MIL’s estate stuff. Her church would like to buy the house, and use it for one of the single ministers and some frail parish members. But, we’re not yet to an agreement, so a bit of a holding pattern. If the church buys it, they want it as is so that they can make the mods that make sense for an assisted living type home. But, if they don’t buy it there are some things we need to do. So for now we wait and see how they respond to our counter-offer. </p>
<p>The home next door to hers is closing tomorrow after being on the market nearly a year. Unfortunately it is going to hurt us from an appraisal standpoint, I think. He had to drop the price, but that was after putting in a lot of improvements…but not taking down the fusty drapes, or emptying any of the closets, or the garage, or the entire bedroom filled with dead electronics. And all the rooms crowded with furniture. Sigh. (His mom died two years ago, but the kids weren’t mentally able to cope with emptying out any of their mom’s belongings until this past weekend. They were carrying the clothes out of her closet on Saturday, with the requirement that the house be emptied and turned over to the buyers on Wednesday. They also had the joy of trying to load the huge U-Haul in the rain.)</p>
<p>Meanwhile, I keep seeing really fabulous mid-century modern redos that show the potential for MIL’s house. </p>
<p>Good luck OldFort – I hope you get your acceptance, and soon.</p>