House Sold

[Bobber]

Well after about 6 months on the market, we accepted an offer to sell our old house in Waterloo last week. Sold it for about 15 K less than what we had listed it for. I was tempted to hold out and wait until spring, but our real estate agent showed me a list of homes for sale that we're competing with and the price we got was actually pretty good in comparison to what prices other people have their homes listed for. Buyers will increase when spring hits, but so will inventory.

Definetly more sellers than buyer and it's a buyers market in this area. I was told by several good advisors to take care of a buyer if you have one. We met with 3 real estate agents when deciding to list it for sale and 2 of the 3 said we should list it exactly where we ended up selling it.

It's a little painful. We got 20 K more than we bought it for, but probably stuck 40K into it over the 11 years we owned the place. If you figure the loss and property taxes, it cost me about $400 per month to live there, which still would have been less than renting a comparable home. Renting isn't always a bad gig....

Our real estate agent was very good in this transaction and I doubt we would have gotten a deal done with out her. We were really far apart on price(35K) when this process started. She kept working on the buyers(and us) and finally brokered a deal. I'm sure on my own, I would have gotten frustrated with the buyers fairly quickly and told them to take a hike.

I'm not crying in my beer too much. It's all relative. I got my new place bought relatively reasonable too and was able to lock in a 30 year note at 4% interest. I can get the bridge loan paid off now since we sold and can knock 15 years off the 30 year note with the balance of this sale.

Live and learn. I've made a lot of good investments. You can't bat perfect all the time.:wink0st:

 

[Cyclonepride]

Congratulations!

We bought our current home for probably $15,000 under what I think its worth. We rented our old home for a year, then put it on the market for a year, and now are renting again until July. We had it sold for about $20,000 more than I paid for it 12 years ago, but FHA nixed the sale the day before closing because of fuel tanks at a company across the street that were 30' closer than FHA wanted them to be. :arghh:

Going to put it back on the market next summer after the lease is up.

 

[ISUJeff]

Well after about 6 months on the market, we accepted an offer to sell our old house in Waterloo last week. Sold it for about 15 K less than what we had listed it for. I was tempted to hold out and wait until spring, but our real estate agent showed me a list of homes for sale that we're competing with and the price we got was actually pretty good in comparison to what prices other people have their homes listed for. Buyers will increase when spring hits, but so will inventory.

Definetly more sellers than buyer and it's a buyers market in this area. I was told by several good advisors to take care of a buyer if you have one. We met with 3 real estate agents when deciding to list it for sale and 2 of the 3 said we should list it exactly where we ended up selling it.

It's a little painful. We got 20 K more than we bought it for, but probably stuck 40K into it over the 11 years we owned the place. If you figure the loss and property taxes, it cost me about $400 per month to live there, which still would have been less than renting a comparable home. Renting isn't always a bad gig....

Our real estate agent was very good in this transaction and I doubt we would have gotten a deal done with out her. We were really far apart on price(35K) when this process started. She kept working on the buyers(and us) and finally brokered a deal. I'm sure on my own, I would have gotten frustrated with the buyers fairy quickly and told them to take a hike.

I'm not crying in my beer too much. It's all relative. I got my new place bought relatively reasonable too and was able to lock in a 30 year note at 4% interest. I can get the bridge loan paid off now since we sold and can knock 15 years off that note with the balance of this sale.

Live and learn. I've made a lot of good investments. You can't bat perfect all the time.:wink0st:

I hope you like this kind

 

[cyclone13]

Congratulations !

A friend put a house in the market last year. After 2 weeks, the first offer came at 19k (or 15k, I can't really remember) below the list price plus the prospective buyer wanted the seller to pay all the closing costs and fees.
Thinking that they'd get another offer, they rejected the offer without giving counteroffer. One month later, they finally decided to get back to the prospective buyer with that price and immediately rejected by the buyer.
They ended up reducing the price by 20k and still had no offers and decided to take the house off the market after about 6 months.
Just a very difficult situation for the sellers. It's definitely buyers' market.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I really hate dealing with the FHA on sales. Haven't had huge problems, but picky stuff.

Yeah, 270' versus 300' seems a bit picky, especially in light of the fact that the home was purchased under USDA originally. And in light of the fact that the people at FHA in Des Moines evidently don't feel the need to return phone calls and emails.

 

[brokenloginagain]

not too many real estate agents want it known that your house would only appreciate 20K in 11 years! congrats on the sale.

 

[MeanDean]

Well after about 6 months on the market, we accepted an offer to sell our old house in Waterloo last week. Sold it for about 15 K less than what we had listed it for. I was tempted to hold out and wait until spring, but our real estate agent showed me a list of homes for sale that we're competing with and the price we got was actually pretty good in comparison to what prices other people have their homes listed for. Buyers will increase when spring hits, but so will inventory.

Definetly more sellers than buyer and it's a buyers market in this area. I was told by several good advisors to take care of a buyer if you have one. We met with 3 real estate agents when deciding to list it for sale and 2 of the 3 said we should list it exactly where we ended up selling it.

It's a little painful. We got 20 K more than we bought it for, but probably stuck 40K into it over the 11 years we owned the place. If you figure the loss and property taxes, it cost me about $400 per month to live there, which still would have been less than renting a comparable home. Renting isn't always a bad gig....

Our real estate agent was very good in this transaction and I doubt we would have gotten a deal done with out her. We were really far apart on price(35K) when this process started. She kept working on the buyers(and us) and finally brokered a deal. I'm sure on my own, I would have gotten frustrated with the buyers fairly quickly and told them to take a hike.

I'm not crying in my beer too much. It's all relative. I got my new place bought relatively reasonable too and was able to lock in a 30 year note at 4% interest. I can get the bridge loan paid off now since we sold and can knock 15 years off the 30 year note with the balance of this sale.

Live and learn. I've made a lot of good investments. You can't bat perfect all the time.:wink0st:

Congrats.

I'm still trying to sell my place in Blue Grass. Been on the market since April. Realtors sorta rushed us to put it on the market before it was ready to catch a possible $8k government handout, but it didn't work. After that, no one was really looking for a house-everyone who was even thinking acted during the stimulus so it sat all summer and fall and now into the winter. Also, some of the initial prospects were probably turned off because it was not all ready for showing, needing paint and cleaning, etc.

I've lowered the price a couple times (now $179k)and really don't want to go list it any lower figuring offers will be lower yet. It gets shown and there are open houses but nothing. It's a nice place 3 BR 1 1/2 Baths on a flat shady lot with mature oak trees, on a paved road and has a six car garage. Also, two fireplaces, one up and one in the finished downstairs. Also a deck and a patio.

I think since it was a 70's split foyer and not an "open concept" where you can see the dining and living/family rooms from the kitchen a lot of people wouldn't consider it. All new carpet in the basement family room and two bedrooms upstairs. Kitchen was redone in 2006 and the bathrooms were freshened/partially redone in 09/10.

Frustrating. I hate continuing to pay insurance, taxes and HOA's so long after I've moved. GRRRR..

 

[everyyard]

Yesterday it snowed and I scooped out my driveway.

 

[isuno1fan]

A house should never be considered an investment. That is rule #1.

A house is a home and nothing more. Chances are, all things considered, you will not make money on a home regardless of market conditions (this takes into account all the money put into the home while living in it).

 

[MeanDean]

Yesterday it snowed and I scooped out my driveway.

???

This is a post about real estate market conditions.

Weather comments would probably belong elsewhere.

Or were you thinking this is Facebook?

How many inches did you get?

What kind of a scoop did you use? I have a snow blower

Did your hands get cold?

 

[Bobber]

Congrats.

I'm still trying to sell my place in Blue Grass. Been on the market since April. Realtors sorta rushed us to put it on the market before it was ready to catch a possible $8k government handout, but it didn't work. After that, no one was really looking for a house-everyone who was even thinking acted during the stimulus so it sat all summer and fall and now into the winter.

I've lowered the price a couple times (now $179k)and really don't want to go list it any lower figuring offers will be lower yet. It gets shown and there are open houses but nothing. It's a nice place 3 BR 1 1/2 Baths on a flat shady lot with mature oak trees, on a paved road and has a six car garage. Also, two fireplaces, one up and one in the finished downstairs.

I think since it was a 70's split foyer and not an "open concept" where you can see the dining and living/family rooms from the kitchen a lot of people wouldn't consider it. All new carpet in the basement family room and two bedrooms upstairs. Kitchen was redone in 2006 and the bathrooms were freshened/partially redone in 09/10.

Frustrating. I hate continuing to pay insurance, taxes and HOA's so long after I've moved. GRRRR..

I think your real esate agent had the right idea getting it on the market soon as that was a great program for buyers. I think a slug of buyers took advantage of it and we've got a little hang over because it took so many of them out of the market.

I feel for you. My old house is what's called a legacy home. Beautiful old English Tudor with hardwood floors galor. It's a 70 year old home however and not real energy efficient. It takes a special type of buyer for it, so limited our buyer options somewhat right off the bat kinda like your home.

Quality of buyers can be suspect too. The gal who bought our house had filed bankruptcy, but we're fortunate her dad is in good shape and is buying the home for her. He was preapproved financing and not a lot of strings attached with their offer. They're paying the closing costs which isn't a minor point.

 

[Bobber]

A house should never be considered an investment. That is rule #1.

A house is a home and nothing more. Chances are, all things considered, you will not make money on a home regardless of market conditions (this takes into account all the money put into the home while living in it).

I just wanted to break even...

 

[MeanDean]

A house should never be considered an investment. That is rule #1.

A house is a home and nothing more. Chances are, all things considered, you will not make money on a home regardless of market conditions (this takes into account all the money put into the home while living in it).

Agree. Also considering inflation during purchase/sale. To make real money on a real estate transaction is mostly a matter of luck or having enough expendable cash to dally in the real estate market. And as everyone now knows if things go wrong you can lose big,.

 

[CarolinaCy]

???

This is a post about real estate market conditions.

Weather comments would probably belong elsewhere.

Or were you thinking this is Facebook?

How many inches did you get?

What kind of a scoop did you use? I have a snow blower

Did your hands get cold?

I think his point was more along the lines that his post of "hey, I shoveled my driveway" was just about as random as the original post of "hey, I sold my house".

I'm continually amazed at the information that people share with total strangers on the internet.

 

[Bobber]

I think his point was more along the lines that his post of "hey, I shoveled my driveway" was just about as random as the original post of "hey, I sold my house".

I'm continually amazed at the information that people share with total strangers on the internet.

Anonymous friends is the key word, and overall it's pretty vague information.

Today, I thought some good discussion on the current housing market with some real world information would be a good alternative to whining about our Basketball and Football team.

 

[CarolinaCy]

Today, I thought some good discussion on the current housing market with some real world information would be a good alternative to whining about our Basketball and Football team.

Definitely agree with you on that.

 

[MeanDean]

I think his point was more along the lines that his post of "hey, I shoveled my driveway" was just about as random as the original post of "hey, I sold my house".

I'm continually amazed at the information that people share with total strangers on the internet.

I guess I kinda figured that, but as usual, instead of just ignoring posts he doesn't care about he logs on and comments - just to be a butt.

I think a real estate post correctly falls under the heading of Off Topic. If a poster only wants sports posts he can find those easily enough and ignore the rest.

 

[cyclonepower]

just sold ours, didn't get what we were hoping but certainly glad to be out from underneath it

 

[greatshu]

Sold mine for 3000 less than what I bought it for (Thank god). I then bought new house for 35000 less than what they originally asked for.

It's definitely buyers market. Selling house suck right now.

 

[cjb1978]

Just starting the whole FHA process this week to get pre-approved before we go look at houses.