‘The Times, They Are A-Changin’ In Chicago
The Chicago Tribune has this update from Illinois. “Tom and Sandi Gollinger really, really, really want to sell their Naperville home. They point out to prospective buyers that the century-old house has several goodies. And, oh, yes: There’s the Hummer.”
“All this could be yours, if the price is right. In this case, it’s somewhere around the Gollingers’ $1.475 million asking price. ‘We have to be creative in these times,’ said Sandi Gollinger.”
“Inventories of homes for sale have exploded, and it’s increasingly clear that sellers, particularly in the upper brackets, which were the first to feel the drag of the slowing market, need to do something to stand out. ‘The times, they are a-changin’,’ said David Hanna, CEO of Prudential Preferred Properties in Chicago.”
“The Gollingers’ isn’t the only automotive incentive in the Chicago real estate market. A Hinsdale seller is dangling one as a reward to the real estate agent who produces a signed contract. ‘I’ve got the cuter car,’ said Hinsdale agent Jaime Adams. ‘It’s a Mini Cooper convertible. Pick your color.’”
“‘Reaction has been super-duper,’ she said. But it hasn’t sold the house. ‘I thought I would be beating them off with a stick,’ she said. But there have been no offers, and they’re going to extend the car promo, which expired on Monday. ‘It’s a tough one. The buyers just aren’t out there.’”
“In Naperville, for example, the Gollingers have plenty of competition, according to appraiser Chip Wagner. He said that in the past 12 months, 28 homes there have sold in their price range. Currently, there are 89 on the market, a 30.2-month supply.”
“‘It’s frustrating to people,’ said Hinsdale agent Tina Porterfield, who said that in her experience, incentives aren’t particularly effective. They can attract attention, she said, but it’s usually the price that gets the sale.”
“On Jan. 23, Glen Ellyn agent Beth Gorz listed a home in that western suburb for $797,000. The house is still for sale, down to $739,000. On Tuesday, she sent out a mailing to agents offering a week’s stay for four in a beachfront condo in Maui. ‘Being creative is worth the try,’ Gorz said. ‘I’ve been selling for 16 years, and this is one of the more challenged markets I’ve worked in.’”
Thanks to the reader who sent in this link.
This place is raffling off a Mini.
http://www.lasalleflats.com/
Buy any condo at The Flats on LaSalle and you will automatically be entered to win a brand new MINI Cooper worth over $20,000. Purchase is necessary to enter or redeem prize. Contest ends after last unit is sold and buyer closes on their condominium. The drawing will be held the week following the last closing. Winner is guaranteed to be chosen by random drawing, which will be supervised by an independent accounting firm. Officers, employees, employee affiliates, and associates of Metropolitan Development Enterprises are not eligible to claim the prize. Prize is non-transferable. GRAND PRIZE: MINI Cooper valued up to $25,000 or $10,000 cash in lieu of vehicle at the option of the winner. Model and options of MINI Cooper are at the discretion of Metropolitan Development based on product availability. Delivery of the vehicle is subject to dealer availability. Winner assumes all responsibility for all local, state and federal taxes, freight, licensing and insurance of the vehicle. Sponsors of this promotion and/or their agents are not liable for loss, injury or damage of any kind resulting from acceptance or use of this prize. The odds of winning are determined by the total number of entries received or 1 in 250. Vehicles displayed may be examples only and may not be the actual vehicle to be given away. Winner will be notified by US certified mail. Winner has 30 days from notification to claim prize. Winners agree to the use of their names, statements, and photos by the sponsor for future promotions or press releases.
Hey are people declaring the incentive gifts from the builders on their taxes ?
OHHHH, GOOD QUESTION!
“‘Being creative is worth the try,’ Gorz said. ‘I’ve been selling for 16 years, and this is one of the more challenged markets I’ve worked in.’”
Beth, honey, it wouldn’t be such a “challenged market” if you’d get your sellers to lower the price to something reasonable.
“Being creative”? If I were a buyer and If found out that my agent had accepted incentives to get me into a particular house, I wouldn’t call it creative. I’d call it collusion.
I’m simply flabbergasted that this goes on, and that it’s ADVERTISED! How can this be legal? What about the ads on TV about how a Realtor works by a code of ethics? Very strange. I thought the the buyer’s Realtor was supposed to be working for the buyer. Times they are a changin’ indeed.
Perhaps I’m just thick, but I really don’t understand something. Why offer a Hummer? Why not just lower the price?
To prop up the comparables for the neighborhood and the local market in general. And of course there are the “benefits” to the buyer –
1) Buying a car on a thirty year loan;
2) paying property tax on your car.
Nope. To unload a gas guzzling albatross from around the seller’s neck. Feels kinda like a kick in the groin to spend $80 to fill up every 3 days. Ouch.
$80 my a$$ try $100+ to fill up one of those beasts.
Stealing one from politico speak: It’s the price, stupid!
I know, why not just lower the price of the house the amount that the hummer is worth. Maybe the Hummer is actually part of the house (think HELOC).
Know that I think about it, it’s probably because these effing greedy shits just want to throw the towel in on their ever more expensive former dream, which happens to include the Hummer. The hummer was the accessory that went with that bloated, recently-antiquated, slefish lifestyle. Plus, the actual trade-in value of the hummer is far less than the amount they want to keep the price up on the house. They’re basically trying to unload the whole dysfunctional, highly expensive, kit and kabodle on some other sucker. All I can say is “Sorry, user, deal with your excesses.”
I get great pleasure out of seeing these smug selfish phucks finally choking on their own excessive greed. Kind of like whatching the fat German kid get sucked up the chocolate tube in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
good point.
I think the “hummer” offer may actaully make the property deal worth less.
Those people getting that hummber would then have to find someone willing to buy that gas guzzler from them. They also will have to pay sales tax and registration for that beast, in addition to having to make space to park it.
“A Hinsdale seller is dangling one as a reward to the real estate agent who produces a signed contract”
Ok, stop, stop, stop, stop, Stop, STOP!
Why do people think that giving the AGENTS incentives/deals will cause BUYERS to buy things?
You don’t really need to entice the Agents. They’ll starve if they don’t show buyers homes.
you neede to entice the Buyers. If you give the BUYERS a car, perhaps they’ll bite. (or a plasma screen, etc).
However, we’re much too far for that now. People simply can’t afford the asking prices. They can’t afford the asking price if you throw in a Hummer, if you throw in a TV, if you give the agent a car, etc.
If you want to entice a sale.
Drop your price.
It is infuriorating to see these stupid gimmicks!
clouseau
Agreed. Whether the seller throws in a new Hummer or cuts the price by an equal amount, they are still realizing a lower net sales price. So why do they dicker around with these gimmicks rather than just cutting the price outright?
Is it a psychological thing where the sellers will feel better about their sale if the gross price isn’t lowered, even though the net price is? Do sellers not want to feel like they missed the top of the bubble?
I just don’t get it.
It’s because they want you to take even more debt off their greedy hands. If they cut the price on the house, they have to short sale AND they still have a hummer on their hands that must have a terrible trade-in on it these days. They probably stand to lose only half as much if they convince you to buy the hummer as part of the deal.
From an economic standpoint, the offer of a car makes less sense than a simple price reduction. Not everyone wants a Hummer, and the bundled offer of a Hummer with that house narrows the prospective buyer pool to those with a double-coincidence of wants (for that house and the Hummer as well). Generally speaking, the sellers would do better (get higher sales proceeds) by selling the Hummer and the home separately, than by presuming to enjoy the market power needed to move the bundled car and home in a weakening market for both commodities.
“not everyone wants a Hummer”
yes, who wants a gas-guzzling Hummer nowadays with gas prices on the rise? wrong price for the house and wrong car to “give away” - maybe they should try a hybrid instead.
Yes. Also note that they are selling two status simbols that few if any person with money would want. Most people with a lot of money that I know will not buy a hummer because it costs too much to run, and will not buy an overpriced depreciating assett like a “high” end house.
Sorry, but the people with money that I know generally have a Toyota or a Lexus and are extremely aware of how much it costs to run these things. Also, most of them bought their houses during the last slump. My uncle bought 200 houses in texas for 25K each in the mid 1980’s!, and still drives his 1978 Lincoln Continental!
These people are nothing more than bagholders with two hugely depreciating assetts!
I doubt that…1985 was pertty much the high point for the decade. 1989/1990 was when the Federal Resolution Trust took ownership and started auctioning off the properties of the failed S&L’s.
http://recenter.tamu.edu/data/hs/
yet he did… Houston was extremely hard hit in the mid ’80s with the oil patch slowdown, before the RTC even came into the picture. By 1989 most of the oil patch was out of the RE market. You are confusing Houston with the housing bubble in the east and west coast and resulting implosion that happened later that decade, and did not hit bottom untill 1994 in New England, and 1996 in Cali.
You can ask TXchic all about the implosion, as I believe that she saw it first hand.
Oil was $35/barrel in 1985…in today’s dollars thats about $55/barrel. Houston wasn’t hurting…yet!
Don’t doubt it. RE crashed hard and early in Houston. I bought a house in 1981, 80k, 16 1-2%. It was worth 60k in 1984, 45k in 1986. My aerobics teacher bought her apt (condo) for 5k on a credit card. BY 89-90 we knew we were at the bottom and looked forward to that 3-5% appreciation per year, a long slow way back from 45k. I hope the whole nation doesn’t have to go through what we experienced in the 80’s in Houston, but I suspect it is going to happen again.
A permanently depreciating asset with Peak oil on an overinflated asset (a house). The GF (if he exists) who buys the house would not be “greater” but “Greatest!”
Bingo! These chowderheads might take the cake for head-in-the-sand , state-of-denial, nothing-but-contempt-for-everyone-else FB’s. Do they think people are really stupid enough to overpay for a house because they’re throwing in gigantic trinket?
Buyer: Yeah let me buy a currently declining in value asset because the seller is throwing in an immediately depreciating, expensive-to-own asset that requires boatloads of a cost-increasing commodity to drive around. What a deal. Thanks!!!
The car would not move very fast on it’s own. So now it’s a ‘package’ with the house. And hey, “who can resist the package” they must smarmily think to themselves. After all, all their co-workers and friends they’ve been competing with for year ‘obviously’ wish they had the Starter Castle and Hummer Chariot. Now that it’s for sale, they assume everyone will come flocking.
The only sellers who have reason to offer incentives like cars are the builders with many more houses to sell. They hope that the incentives don’t make a tanking of the market so obvious as decreased prices do. For seller of single houses giving incentives doesn’t make any sense (except for getting rid of something you don’t want anymore anyhow). Maybe the seller just heard form the builder’s strategy and copied it without thinking it through - it wouldn’t surprise me.
It is infuriorating to see these stupid gimmicks!
Be honest, you (and I ) love seeing sellers grovel. What could be better than owners of a $1.475mil home with the “Hummer” die on the vine.
These gimmicks typically work in a “true” buyers market. The reason it’s not working now is that the chant of it’s a buyers market is false. Sellers and Agents are not taking into account that affordibility is the real issue and we are far from a true buyers market. People typically offer those types of incentives to compete with R.E.O.’s especially when they really have to move. The climate is not right yet for those types of incentives. Folks are jumping the gun. A little too much late night guru it seems
Remember Suzanne? For the right price, she will “research” your house
Just shows how little buffer they have. That is, zero. What the hell would possess someone that had zero buffer to go ahead and take out a $700k loan. Where was the loan originator on this one, or any of them? Don’t bother answering that, it’s rhetorical.
can someone explain GM’s earnings to me? they lost $3.4B but made money? huh? are they saying the auto division lost but the lending division made them money?
I noticed car sales are up 17% YOY for June. maybe a highwater mark when the refi spigot dries up?
(sorry to post this here but my comments aren’t showing up in the other thread)
Houndini was the world’s most famous magician…when vaudeville died, he became an accountant for 500 companies.
All these numbers are an illusion, and yet people put their retirement in the hands of these con men.
Yes, they’ve actually been losing money on the cars themselves for years. The largest and most profitable section of their business is there finance division. Scary huh?
My wife is doing a contract job in Chicago now. So we have an apartment in Lincoln Park West overlooking the zoo and the Lake.
That area of Chicago is inundated with “luxury” condos. many are nice, but they ain’t cheap.
Anybody know the status of the Fordham Spire? I think it’s really cool and hope they build it. IF completed, it’ll be the tallest building in the world. Imagine, a condo the tallest building in the world. (this neglects the secret plans of Dubai, where 2 towers might have their height changed to compete with Fordham Spire)
clouseau
I think the land for the Spire was sold to another developer, which is acquiring the design rights and plans to continue along with the project. But I haven’t followed it closely, so I might be wrong.
Living three buildings down from where the spire would go up, I personally hope they don’t build it. More people regularly surging into south streeterville beyond the Navy Pier crowd. . .
Why are sellers so hell bent on incentives and gimmicks? I would just lower the price. Get the buyers in, and get it moving. These incentives baffle me. I understand the builders’ motivation for incentives over price reductions, but not individual sellers.
Amen. I am with you and House Inspector Clouseau on this opinion.
No Kidding. The other day I was watching CBS news here in LA, they had a report on a couple who were selling their Newport Beach home for around 1.5 mil. It hadn’t sold so now they are offering a trip for 2 to Hawaii for the agent as well as the buyer. After the clip of the interview the newscaster in the studio shook his head and said “You’d think someone who could afford a 1.5 million dollar home could afford their own trip to Hawaii”
I hope those sellers were watching LOL
I think the agents know something we don’t know — perhaps the last round of buyers really really do want that Hummer and this is an easy way to justify buying one? I dunno but there’s got to be a reason that they are throwing in these gimmicks rather than just lowering the price.
I beg to differ.
If you put up a sign in front of the house saying “Free Hummer upon closing”, the lines for the open house would be around the block.
You must think there are lots of stupid people still qualified and out looking for overpriced homes to buy. In fact, they would have to be so stupid that they did not notice the “free Hummer” was already more-than-priced-in to the list price of the home.
maybe I am reading too much into it, but I think jjinla meant a different kind of “hummer”
Errr? Off color humor? Nah, not here.
Thank god someone got the joke!
Sorry if I am clueless about the double-entendre in “Hummer”…
That would be one very expensive “hummer” However you might be on to something as far as getting people into open houses. Remember the story about the condo development open house party with the topless models? Someone could take it to the next level. But they still won’t sell their overpriced home/condo.
Hummer = oral sex
C’mon - i’ll give it away with no dirty words …
Hummer = oral sex
Maybe Bill Clinton will buy the house!
Hmmmmm…
Zillow estimates the Naperville house is worth $1 million….a house a few doors down sold for $880,000 last summer…nothing in the area has sold for over $1 million. These people are just smoking crack thinking they will get anywhere close to $1.4 million. The damn reportes should really do a little background work before they accpet/ print these sob stories from equity bandits.
It sounds very expensive to me… I didn’t think Naperville was that expensive. Mostly new construction. These folks probably paid $500k for it a few years ago and a looking to hook a HUGE sucker FB. Not going to happen.
Reminds me of an open house I looked at a few weeks ago (Seattle suburbs). The guy bought it in ‘03 for $575k. He’s asking $1.2M. The county assessor has it pegged at $700k. I’d say that is closer to reality (he did some remodeling to add to the value). It will take some time for people to lower their expectations. I think that is the process we are currently witnessing in many places.
“Reminds me of an open house I looked at a few weeks ago (Seattle suburbs). The guy bought it in ‘03 for $575k. He’s asking $1.2M. The county assessor has it pegged at $700k. I’d say that is closer to reality (he did some remodeling to add to the value). It will take some time for people to lower their expectations. I think that is the process we are currently witnessing in many places. ”
Exactly. These sellers expectations are completely unrealistic. As if 20-30% appreciation over the course of a year or two wasn’t enough, some greedy scumbags are trying for 100%. It is remarkable, yet despicable. It is only a matter of time until reality sets in for EVERYONE selling real estate. Properties will languish for month/years, and the motivated will lower their prices and sell, the rest will dream on and on and on…..
As far as Im concerned if you give a incentive gift the receiver of the gift has to pay taxes on that gift in the year of the gift . Does anyone agree?
Nope. This is part of the purchase. You have paid 1.5M and you are receiving a house and car. There is no gift.
To be completely kosher, the price of the car probably should not be ALLOWED in the loan price, but that is a problem for the lender, not the IRS (at this point of course).
But I’m thinking because the incentive is advertised as a incentive gift ,and the lenders aren’t deducting it from the price of the home ,(as they should), its a taxable gift .The builder is going to take the incentive as a right off expense . I’m betting , depending on how its declared that a car or a pool or 50K in upgrades would be taxable as a incentive gift to the receiver .Isn’t there a limit to how much you can gift in a year also without creating a tax liability . ?
I think a letter should be written to the builders asking them if they are disclosing to their buyers that they have to pay taxes on the incentive gifts the builders are giving . That will stop this incentive bullcrxx. I just think there is a valid IRS question here .
Take yer free vacation package in Maui and shove it where the sun dont shine!! Bagholder!!
These sellers have been watching too many hgtv shows. And come on, who wouldn’t want to pay a premium to live in a 2nd best city to live in USA.
But seriously,
Incentives don’t do squat in Chicago. This is still a financially conservative midwest town. People want lower prices, period!!!
LFC,
Agreed. This ploy isn’t going to motivate anyone. I will say though that having grown up in that area I’m surprised that things got this out of hand. There always more than enough “snobbery” to go around in the western suburbs but 1.4 mil?
And I thought the Loop, Lincoln Park and the north burbs had the market cornered on snobbery.
1st incentive is dump the agent- that gives you 5% for free
Is there anyone so math-challenged that they can’t calculate the cash-value of the incentive and arrive at the actual sales price of the house? And likewise, are there any ‘incentive’ items/trips that people can’t just buy for themselves with the money they save on a lower home price?
Incentives are just another example of how sellers are counting on a ‘greater fool’ to come along.
Guess what? The world is fresh out of fools. Time to slash your prices.
even if you price away that ‘incentive’ it’s still way overpriced. but you’re right, it’s a start.
“even if you price away that ‘incentive’ it’s still way overpriced”
You sir have provided the answer to the million dollar question. There’s no value in the incentive. As an example price it back to 1999 and throw in a hummer then you are talking about value.
They’re in denial. They can’t believe that they were the last stupid person in to buy that POS, so now they’re essentially ‘burning the furniture’ to keep warm. The last thing they’re mentally prepared for is to actually have to lower the price after being potty trained by the Fed for the past 6 years that house prices only go up in a straightline forever and that taking out an ARM when rates are low was actually a smart thing to do. Clueless people. Next these people will take it off the market (take their ball and go home) to deny everyone their wonderfully overpriced POS now that no one has fallen over themselves trying to get and ARM at 7% to buy the POS.
“‘Reaction has been super-duper,’
One can only imagine the bubbleheaded ex-sorority ex-cheerleader that springs to mind.
It’s peachy-keen !
“‘Reaction has been super-duper,’ she said. But it hasn’t sold the house. ‘I thought I would be beating them off with a stick.”
Well golly-gee-willikers Jaimie, I wonder why. Keep that stick handy though, buyers could be swamping you real soon!
“‘It’s frustrating to people,’ said Hinsdale agent Tina Porterfield, who said that in her experience, incentives aren’t particularly effective. They can attract attention, she said, but it’s usually the price that gets the sale.”
Frustrating? I’m not frustrated. Anyone here feeling frustrated after 1-2 years of delayed verification of our collective wisdom? When we start seeing “submit all offers” then we’ll know people are seroius about selling. The real problem is as I’ve said before, no one selling a home now has any experience with selling for less. I don’t mean just the bagholders, the realtors, the banks, everybody including the munivcipalities have lost all knowledge of how this works. The buyers seem a little confused as well. They aren’t buying in part because they don’t know how to offer 30% less as even David Lereah suggested this week on Good Morning America.
No frustration here. If anything, maybe a little fear that I’m going to get more than what I was hoping for.
i’ve seen lots of homes on the mlsli that state “owner wants to hear all offers” but doubt the offers are pouring in. guess you’re right, no one is doing much of anything right now (selling or buying) because they’re not sure what to do. of course, that will have to change soon, meaning significant price declines.
i can wait.
When i buy it will be only my second buy - but I will be practicing my lowball methods in front of a mirror like I did back in speech class - and won’t make any offer that doesn’t cause both myself and my wife to wince in pain.
I can’t imagine what there could be to become frustrated about. If we’re wrong I’ve lost a little pride maybe, at worst. If these guys are wrong about the future of housing they’ve basically ruined themselves financially to live like people on MTV cribs for two years. I’ve got nothing at stake, so patience comes easily.
“‘It’s frustrating to people,’ said Hinsdale agent Tina Porterfield, who said that in her experience, incentives aren’t particularly effective. They can attract attention, she said, but it’s usually the price that gets the sale.”
Wish that they could have expanded on this. Like they need to lower the price 25% to get som e traffic.
My husband and I might be in the Naperville housing market (to buy a house) not earlier than next Christmas. We are not going for that range but if we would and the seller is trying to give us those kind of incentives…we’ll just offer several hundreds th lower than their asking price! We rather have a reduction on the price (hence in taxes) than a stupid Hummer (too much gas) or a mini (impractical) or a trip to Hawaii (we can afford it by ourselves).
My husband thinks that due to the type of high end jobs in Naperville, those sellers could, very well, come from originally SF Bay area or Silicon Valley, explaining the absurdity of inflating the price up to 1.4mil
“On Jan. 23, Glen Ellyn agent Beth Gorz listed a home in that western suburb for $797,000. The house is still for sale, down to $739,000.
- Memo to Beth - lower price 20% to $637.600.00 for starters.
What a joke! Perhaps the idiots should offer a lower price instead. this is the Midwest folks, not SoCal! Drop the hummer…
The flagrant and unwarranted use of “incentives” brings home the point of the blurring of lines for the American consumer. It’s as if everything from a consumption basis is now hopelessly inter-related. Big screens, hummers and vacations? It’s so insulting. I would never consider buying something, anything from a seller that made the assumption that I am this shallow a person. It’s grossly insulting. How about we’ll pay for kids first year off college or give you an equivalent amount in “savings bonds”? Why not? We all know why not. It’s NOT SEXY! The housing boom is supposed to be about sexy! No one that buys a bombshell of a house like this wants anyone else to think the could actually benefit from a years free tuition? People that buy homes like this want H2’s and “elective surgery”. Now that’s sexy!
If they’re going to offer incentives, why not make it something these buyers can really go for, like free bus tickets to the Sturgis Biker Rally.
I might be interested if he’d let me blow the Hummer up in his driveway.
This http://tinyurl.com/rjnlj is not a $1.475Million house. Puh-lease. Seems like they spent a couple hundred grand on rennovating this “historic” home. Sick of this bubble already.
I would have expected much more than that for the asking price. I thought Chicagoland was more affordable then NYC or SF.
It’s a myth that there’s no bubble in Chicago. Prices have skyrocketed in the western ‘burbs. But it’s catching up to us now. Zip Realty had inventory in my town of 42,000 people at 501 yesterday. 70 of those listings are over $1 million.
The downtown Chicago condo market is worse than the burbs. Prices arew getting ridiculous. When they price these units out I don’t think the realize what someone haas to gross to afford it. Folks, wages have been flat for 6 years!
Good Lord! I drove past that place a hundred times. I seen the renovations the last couple years.
Never would have imagined $1.4 M
Yikes
I really like that house. I know it is grossly overpriced, but at least it is of a much higher quality than a lot of the new crackerboxes being built on the west coast.
Yep. Very nice house. It actually has some character (and trees!). You Chicago posters need to see what we get in So Cal for that money. San Diego has lots of pink/beige boxes, on small lots, with very few trees.
DinOR,
I have a coleague who bought a 1.2mil house in Naperville last year. Every snob wants to live here now…..except, unlike on the north shore, where there is old money and people actually buy mostly with cash, homeowners in Naperville are new money and strapped. They have 4-5k homes on 7k lots. It’s stupid…but any older town in DuPage county is going through this right now. But as you read the supply is almost 3 years, prices will be coming down hard.
I really hope that prices will be coming down…there is no way I would buy a house with a 1,000 bottles wine cellar…are they crazy?
And anyway who would want to live in Naperville if you have to work in Chicago!? isn’t it a little far to commute?
I am not a “qualified” real state agent, I just have common sense, but I don’t think that house is worthed 1,475mil…no way! If I would have that kind of money I’d custom built a house.
If you are near either the Burlington’s Route 59 stop or the downtown Naperville stop, the commute is less than 40 minutes by an express train.
Obviously it’s been awhile since I’ve been in that area (4 days in 1986) to be exact. But I have followed the area through friends, family and articles. The last article I read about Naperville is that it was one of those bedroom communities that was without a soul. They practically had to go back in and “re-invent” it so it would have a faux “downtown”? I’d heard it was like a town built around a strip mall. I thought us mid-westerners were supposed to be a picture of sensibility! How could we let this happen?
My brother is a teacher in Naperville. The kids used to laugh at him for driving a Dodge Neon.
I could see a barter thing…kind of like a car dealership owner saying he’ll give them free cars. In fact maybe that’s what this is.
The cardealer gets a write-off…he loses 20K or whatever on that car. Meanwhile he sells his home for 20K more than he otherwise would.
No, no, ridiculous. I hate to be rude, but learn accounting. Gawd, there is soooo much complete ignorance about what “write offs” are. I hate to tell you… no, I love to tell you… that write-offs are a Bad Thing in business, something to eb avoided. Sure, the business can (usually) use them to offset income, and thus gain back 35% or so in income tax, but they still lose the other 65%. We’re talking legal write-offs, mind you, not tax fraud.
Unfortunately, there are millions of people in this country who are under the false impression that write-offs are quick and easy money makers. Hey, would YOU like to get a write-off? How about you make me a loan of, say, $500k right now, OK? A non-recourse loan, with my 1992 Toyota as collateral. And then when I don’t pay you, which I maybe just might not, then you can write it off! Yippee! Free money! (Guess whose. Hee hee.)
Write-offs for everyone!
All I have to say is thank god I sold my condo in January(and now rent for like 1500/month less). There is not a listing within 10% of my sale price anymore and some are larger units. As a little test I went to Craigslist and RE for sale and did a search for “motivated”-I got like 100 hits and this is for Westchester County alone. I did NJ and got like 500 hits.
Hell, I’d be motivated to rip off some GF too at ridiculous prices but truly motivated sellers drop prices before the curve instead of surfing it down.
In fact, I’m coining a new term “Price Surfer” for someone always behind the curve in listing price.
What these motivated sellers don’t realize is just wanting something does not make it happen. I am with Robert Cote when he says we will truly be in a buyers market when submit all offers starts popping up. When we also start to see offers for Hummers of a different kind, buyers(single men usually) will step up and buy.
No, I think it’s the married men who will step up and buy for that incentive. How many of them are getting any at home?
Don’t answer that
“This http://tinyurl.com/rjnlj is not a $1.475Million house. Puh-lease. Seems like they spent a couple hundred grand on rennovating this “historic” home. Sick of this bubble already.”
wow, that looks like a great $700K home. Can anyone find what they paid and when. down here in FL. I can go into the tax records.
I bet they are trying to re-coup their costs from the remodeling. It wouldn’t be surprised if they HELOC’d the heck out of this home as well. Can someone check?
Hmmm…and bad feng shui with the overhead beams.
BayQT~
zillow doesn’t have any sales history on the house, but they put it at $957,683. And RE taxes are only $14,700! (hey, that’s only $1225 a month, just for your taxes)
I lived in ‘Chicagolant’ for a bunch of years, and Naperville always struck me as part of the vast suburban wasteland. But that’s just me — I’m an Evanston kind of gal.
Too bad they sucked every bit of charm out of the house when they did the renovation. But all those medium oak cabinets from Lowes must have set them back a bit!
$14700 (2.2% on fully assesed value) in yearly taxes implies an assesed value of $688k. A FAR cry from $1.475 Million.
Here is Naperville house sales info…can’t seem to get link to post
http://tinyurl.com/nr52k
looks like posted after all
It sold in Dec of 1989 for $180,000 and 17 years later they’re trying to sell it for more than 800% more than they bought it for. INSANITY!!!!
that is hilarious-the place looks like a muasoleum and what’s up with the cabinetry-it looks like a wood store exploded on the wall.
OT: Just a funny bubble cartoon.
Ok, it didn’t want to post the link. Trying again…
Third times’ the charm…
I give up.
Oh yeah! A Hummer! I want to buy the house because I want that Hummer! Hahahaha!
Hubbert’s Peak world tour, next venue in the Middle East! Can you say $200 per barrel and $8.00 per gallon?
right on.
M. King Hubbert’s calculations are why places like Naperville will completely fall off the radar of “best places to live” lists within 5 to 10 years.
With $3+ per gallon gas, performance and handling of somewhere between a drunken elephant and a refrigerator, and famous GM quality and dependability to boot, how can anyone NOT be enticed by such a valuable incentive? Especially considering its value is a whopping, earth-shattering 1.1219 e-11 %. The only answer is that an apocalypse is coming.
I was cruising around Chicago’s north shore communities of Evanston, Wilmette and Skokie Sunday before a flight. I counted 32 open houses in Wilmette and Skokie alone in the CAGE area. Most of these houses used to be wonderful early 1900’s places that have been torn down and Neo Georgan McMansions installed instead. For every open house I saw, I did not see one - NOT ONE - car other than the realator’s boat parked near or at the house.
I did, however, see a BMW 740 delivering Dominos pizza, and I was lucky enough to get a picture of it. Look for it on Ben’s photo site when he updates it. I grew up in this area, its very sad to see what this has become.
what a POC house. it has to be HELOC’d to the top of the ugly beams. i know naperville. good schools, but to say that downtown naperville is charming is the same as saying mainstreet USA in disneyland is charming. cute, but nothing behind the facade. this place is about as plastic as one can get.
test
not much of a sacrifice when you own the dealership-
“The car idea came up after Sandi Gollinger searched for “real estate incentives” on the Internet and came up with a report of agents on the East Coast who were giving them away. It probably helped matters along that her husband owns Woodfield Hummer.”
Ah hah! I should have known. They certainly aren’t going to give away a Prius then are they? So they get the Hummer at wholesale but their incentive is calculated at full price. Of course they have to hope they come across a GF with tons of money who can’t work a calculator, and who happens to want a Hummer. I’d say they’ve got plenty of time to organize and pack.
And they may be realtors who have used the loophole in the tax code to write off the cost of the hummer. And now that the tax benefit is completely exhausted, they hand it over to someone else, and buy another SUV to take advantage of the SUV loophole in the tax code. See SUV as Tax Haven
In Australia, it used to be the case that a similar loophole was offset by the need to get a truck license to drive any vehicle over 2 tonnes in weight. Plus you had to keep logbooks when you drove it.
Most of the Japanese manufacturers at the time in fact had a special ’stripper’ version of their small trucks (like the Toyota Dyna) that came in under the 2 tonne limit, specifically so they could be driven with a normal car license.
I myself got a truck license in 1989 so that a sporting team I was involved with could hire a Toyota Coaster instead of a Hi-Ace for weekend trips.
Mucho, mucho bitching ensued from the monied set when vehicles like the Range Rover and the S-class Mercedes crept over the 2-tonne limit, and the limit was firstly increased to 3 tonnes and now I think it’s 4.
Ugh…not my old home county of DuPage Ilinois too??? This bubble has infected this whole country now I can’t even go home again.
I think their creativity is sub par at best. Hows this for creativity; offer a free Yacht with purchase.
How about 2 houses for the price of one?