I hate this market

[solarbird]

The sellers of the Briar house are getting all snotty. They're hinting that they want more earnest money (tho' this gains them NOTHING financially), and for us to drop our condition-of-sale clause for 5026 (to which I again say, "uh, no"). They've also hinted at us raising our offer above ask, I think, but that may have been me misreading PaulF.

Anyway, they say they're expecting a second offer this afternoon and will let us know tonight. I'd put our odds of getting this house at "low."

I hate this market. I really fucking do.

Comments

[firni.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware anybody in SnoHOmish County had enough money to buy a frickin' house. They should be happy anybody's even looking at it.

[solarbird]

Really. Of course, the owner lives on Aloha, so he probably thinks of the house as underpriced or something. NICE 'TUDE FOR SOMEBODY CUTTING AND RUNNING, ASSHOLE.

goddammit motherfucker sell us a house already!

[firni.livejournal.com]

BTW, raising your bid ABOVE ask? IF HE WANTED MORE MONEY, HE SHOULD HAVE LISTED IT HIGHER.

What a wanker.

[solarbird]

We've added a small escalation clause. Motherfuckers.

I've also found out that part of the reason for the sale is a divorce, so there's all kinds of bad feelings going on around there. Rah.

[annathepiper]

Especially given the horrid, wretched condition the house is in. Structurally it's sound, but it will require major work to become habitable.

[spazzkat.livejournal.com]

Which one is the Briar house?

[solarbird]

This one. Here's the SnoHOmish County record page for the property - you can click through to a plat map from there, even.

[ypawtows.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! Brier!
Not too far from Pawtowskiville. ;-)
(OK, so I need to read LJ more often....)

[alinsa.livejournal.com]

So, for those of us that have never went house-buying (or selling)... What is 'earnest money'?

[solarbird]

Money that you show up front to show them you're serious. It's largely a formality. They don't get to keep it unless you completely screw up everything, and do so intentionally.

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

[gir]Awww, somebody needs a hug![/gir]

hey, you listed it as your mood..... ;)

[solarbird]

<gir>I do!</gir>

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

Awwwwww. *hugs*

[janne.livejournal.com]

Things are certainly done otherwise in other countries. I don't think I've heard of anybody using condition-of-sale clauses over here.
I've been told britain has a non-escalable secret bidding -- everybody interested hands over one sealed bid, and the highest one on the first round wins. Also conductive to taking rather more time buying a house than here where every bidding buyer must be kept aware of the other bids in as they happen.

*crosses fingers* Best of luck on your housequest!

[wrog]

I hate this market. I really fucking do

Well, the good news is, it won't be lasting too much longer (granted I've thought this before and been wrong but anyway...). California market is already into the Final Idiot Phase (*); I figure Seattle can't be much behind. Rates are going up, in which case nobody's going to be able to afford the loans anymore --- or there's going to be some really good reason why rates can't go up that I don't even want to think about.

The bad news is,... well,... let's just hope you've got 5026/5038 sold by then.

(*) one of fleckenstein's letter writers sez

More data points on the California real estate bubble: The last few months in my industry have reminded of what my friends in the tech business said it was like in the first quarter of 2000. Everyone and his retarded cousin has gobs of money that wants to find a home in California real estate. Lenders have thrown underwriting standards out the window. Cap rates are now so low(prices are so high) that even with the low interest rates most people cannot get any positive cash flow from income properties. Everyone and his retarded cousin is trying to become a real estate developer. seasoned developers and investors are extremely bearish and selling as fast as they can out of this market. housing sales have slowed and inventory is rising due to higher rates, but building has accelerated. Everyone is running around fighting for deals that aren't even worth doing. fraud by developers and by people raising money from investors is rampant. This is truly a climax of bullish sentiment from the unwashed masses who have come to believe that no matter what happens California real estate cannot go down. this is happening just as the market is in fact starting to break due to exhaustion, no more buyers, and higher interest rates. People haven't even started to feel the impact of all the inflation and higher energy prices. When that hits it is going to get even uglier. I have been in the this business as a professional investor for 12 years and i am getting out of the principal side of the business. I think the only people who will make any money in real estate for the next several years will be service providers handling workouts and liquidations of all these horrendously bad investments people are making.

[solarbird]

The bad news is,... well,... let's just hope you've got 5026/5038 sold by then.
5026 is past inspection. 5038 has much more value innately, and we're not planning on selling it; current market for it would be on the order of $1M+ - no, wait, that was the sane market. So now, who knows? $1.5M? There's no way of telling. I've had a person calling me up from California trying to buy sight unseen. It's nuts.

And it's also why I won't buy... well, a lot of places, really. I just won't.

As i was saying before - I thought even in LJ, but maybe not - I really wish I could stand living here for another year. A lot of these houses, we'd be buying for a lot less, if not FREE, by then.

But at this point, I'm just trying to avoid overspending by more than 25%.

Guh.

ya know,...

[wrog]

for $1.5M (i.e., if you really have somebody from California offering Sane+$300K sight unseen), you could go live in a hotel; even if it's for a year or two, you'd probably still come out ahead.

Just saying...

Re: ya know,...

[solarbird]

What? No, I don't; I have random people trying to buy, yeah, but they don't list prices.

Plus, the whole "living in a hotel while we cram everything into a storage locker" thing? Kind of a last-gasp reaction. Not for me.

[solarbird]

Oh, and: we're totally into Final Idiot Stage here, too. That's why we keep losing. We won't be the Final Idiots. If we were willing to be, we wouldn't be 0 and 5. The only way to win is not to play. Aheh.