“Palms Are Starting To Sweat” In Arizona
A housing report from the Arizona Republic. “Mark Wray’s Glendale home has been on the market for almost a year. Andy and Jill Leebrick of north Phoenix put their ‘for sale’ sign up nearly five months ago. After more than a year, Charley and Gerda Zenith finally are poised to sell their home in Cave Creek.”
“It has been difficult for some sellers to adjust to the market realities and reduce prices. Real estate agents point to these key reasons for slow sales: Sellers are holding out for boom prices. There are so many houses that buyers can be picky. Single-family resale inventory stood at more than 42,000 in November 2006. Using November figures, that compares with nearly 23,500 in 2005, and almost 9,400 in 2004.”
“The Zeniths changed agents after seeing too many ‘looky loos’ going through the house, poor communication and worries their price was off the mark. ‘Time went by, the nibbles weren’t there,’ Charley said. ‘I asked the Realtor, ‘Maybe we’re overpriced?’ She said, ‘Oh, no, no, no.’ We saw houses selling. Ours wasn’t moving and you get concerned.’”
“Original listing: $1.8 million. Now under contract for a little more than $1 million. Days on market: More than 500. Their previous agent brought them an offer of $1.45 million but advised the couple to make a counteroffer. They did, at about a $500,000 higher. The buyers walked. Now, the couple wish they had accepted the offer.”
“‘It was an iffy situation,’ Charley said. ‘Looking back, maybe we should have done something.’”
“Frank and Brenda Bijak in Cave Creek. Original listing: $771,000. Latest listing: $698,000. Days on the market: About 130. They are selling the house themselves and listed it when they built another one nearby. Frank says the couple priced it in the high range for their area because they just wanted to generate some traffic but not necessarily sell too soon before the new house was being built.”
“Now, they’re in the new house and there’s more urgency to sell the old one so they can stop paying two mortgages. They made upgrades to lure buyers. One agent brought the couple an offer of $695,000, with the stipulations that the deal include the couple’s refrigerator, a home warranty and a two-week move-in time. The offer also required them to pay closing costs of up to 4 percent, or nearly $28,000.”
“‘I said, ‘I’m not paying any closing costs until I find out the dollar amount,’ but their Realtor couldn’t give me an amount and I wasn’t going to write an open-ended check.’ Frank said. ‘You scratch your head and say, ‘I know it’s Christmas but I’m not Santa Claus.’”
“The deal also would have included the 3 percent fee to the buyer’s agent, nearly $21,000. And the buyer’s agent wanted an answer in four hours.”
“He said people should not expect a quick sale. ‘It’s a lot about expectations. If you think you are going put a house on market and sell it in 30 days, you are going to get a rude wake-up call.’”
“They expect the market to pick up now that the holidays are over. If not, they may consider hiring an agent or renting the house.”
“Mark Wray in Glendale. Original listing: $465,000. Latest listing: $420,000. Days on the market: About 300. Wray moved down the street and would like to sell the house. When he listed it, he was confident it would sell quickly but that didn’t happen. ‘We were coming off a dynamite year,’ he said. ‘I thought it would take maybe a month or a month and a half to sell.’”
“He initially signed with a limited-service company that got the house on the multiple listing service. Then he tried selling the home himself. He held his own open houses. But there were no offers. He quickly learned a fundamental fact about the Phoenix housing market: Builders have a glut of unsold homes and are offering heavy discounts to sell them.”
“Sellers like Wray who have new subdivisions nearby compete not only in a resale market that has more than 42,000 homes but also with the financial firepower of big public companies worth billions that are pushing to clear inventory.”
“‘I get probably a brochure once a week from the home builders around the corner and they have up to $60,000 incentives,’ Wray said. ‘How can the general person compete with that? That’s crazy.’”
“He knocked $45,000 off the price. A lowball buyer offered $365,000. Wray said he’d think about it and call back. He did, with a higher counteroffer that was rejected.”
“But the buyer kept shopping in the neighborhood and eventually bought for around $375,000. That knocked down the neighborhood comparable price level. There were also several liquidations at $370,000 to $390,000.”
“Even still, he’s holding to his price. ‘I would love to have it sold,’ Wray said. ‘I’m still making monthly payments on the darn thing and not living in it. I’m going to keep pushing on,’ Wray said. ‘If worse comes to worse, I can rent it out or lower it further and just get rid of it.’”
“Andy and Jill Leebrick in north Phoenix. Original listing: $714,999. Latest listing: $645,000. Days on the market: About 130. The couple moved to the Tramanto community a couple of years ago, expecting to take advantage of the rising market. Now, they have another house under construction and expect to close soon. If they don’t sell, they’ll have two mortgages and they need money from the old house to finance the new one.”
“They knew their listing price was in the top third of houses in that area and also knew the market had slowed. ‘But I was optimistic the price we had at that time was competitive enough to sell it in the time frame,’ Andy said.”
“But a price cut was in order as the market languished, and the couple wanted to make it a dramatic one. So they got creative. The Leebricks went to their builder with a proposition: They would cut the price of their old home by $70,000 if the builder would knock half of that amount off of their new house. The builder agreed, and threw in an extra $7,500 reduction in price and $5,000 in free upgrades.”
“‘I was more than willing to make an adjustment but when that was recommended to us, that shocked me,’ Andy said. ‘I didn’t buy into that price because I thought it was too deep.’”
“It made them rethink whether they would get enough from the old house to buy the new one. At one point, they talked about having to get out of the contract, which would have cost them $27,500.”
“‘For us, that is a lot of money,’ he said. ‘Actually, the possibility still exists today. If we don’t get a buyer we still face the possibility of having to back out and lose that money. I think about it every day.’”
“‘We have open houses three Saturdays in a row in and around Thanksgiving,’ Andy said. They will consider upgrades if the deal doesn’t materialize quickly. ‘My palms are starting to sweat,’ Andy said. ‘We have to get something done soon.’”
‘$27,500. ‘For us, that is a lot of money,’ he said.’
Interesting that these amounts are a ‘lot of money’ going down, but many folks were fine with much larger sums in the run-up.
Funny how that works…
$27,500 is a “lot of money” for him, and yet he’s trying to sell a home for $645K to trade up to a more expensive one?!
If he thinks $27,500 is a lot of money then what in the name of David Liarrhea is he doing spending the better part of $1 million on his new house?
I guess when you actually have to pay the bill, it’s a lot of money. But when it’s a just number with a bunch of zeroes after it on a mortgage document, then it’s just playtime Monopoly funny money so who cares.
Hmmm…if $27,500 is a lot of money to them, perhaps they shouldn’t be buying/selling homes in the $600-700K range?
When $27,500 was a lot of money to me, I was worried about buying a house for $200,000.
I don’t understand the financial acumen of these types of people.
Exactly. It’s a lot of money when HE is the one paying. When it comes to gouging the buyer of his home, well then it’s ONLY $27,500. I can’t stand these types of people. And yeah, if $27,500 is significant, he should NOT be buying that expensive of a house.
People “feel” a loss far more painfully than the enjoy a comparable gain.
Human nature. That’s why prices are sticky (even when they are ludicrously over priced and there’s tons of profit, still left, to enjoy). Our instincts are to first; avoid pain, second; seek pleasure. Pain can kill. Pleasure’s nice but not all that important (too most people).
The original listing was 1.8 million and they countered 1.45 million for 1.95 million?
Maybe the reporter meant 50K. Perhaps large numbers are hard for him.
Guessing from the time frames mentioned, this was when sellers thought they could get the moon, so maybe half a million is right. A good example of chasing the market down.
Don’t feel too sorry for the Zeniths; they’ve had this house for 19 years, so they probably did alright, even with the upgrades.
“they’ve had this house for 19 years, so they probably did alright, even with the upgrades.”
After 19 years they get a windfall and you can bet they pi$$ed it away on their next purchase. And this article says it is only “under contract”. How likely is a million dollar deal to fall through in Phoenix now days?
The original listing was 1.8 million and they countered 1.45 million for 1.95 million? Maybe the reporter meant 50K. Perhaps large numbers are hard for him.
Or maybe the seller was just very bullish!
“He knocked $45,000 off the price. A lowball buyer offered $365,000. Wray said he’d think about it and call back. He did, with a higher counteroffer that was rejected.”
“But the buyer kept shopping in the neighborhood and eventually bought for around $375,000. That knocked down the neighborhood comparable price level. There were also several liquidations at $370,000 to $390,000.”
This seller is still asking $420K with the market at $375K. People shop around to save $10 on sneakers. Does he think some GF fool will not notice at $420K the house is almost $50K over-priced? Seller might be the greatest GF.
“Seller might be the greatest GF.”
Especially if the subprime money dries up (which seems to be occurring very quickly since mid-Dec-’06). Once the subprime money is gone, the supply of greater fools willing to pay $50K over the comps will basically evaporate. Subprime money makes it oh-so-easy for GFs to accidently Shanghai themselves into an extra year of hard labor to make up for a reckless moment of stupidity.
That lowballer who got himself a “steal” at $375K, won’t be feeling quite so clever after the comps drop another $100K below what he paid.
Greedy sellers are getting their just desserts. Just keep turning down offers. Sellers will just ride down this market. You just gotta love it.
I just remember going to parties in 2004 and 2005 when homeowners were crowing about how much their homes appreciated. Now all I here is how this person can’t sell and that person pays 2 mortgages.
Idots.
I have a friend who is leaving town (Boston) and selling her house, just in time. But she is operating under a delusion that her house is ’special’ and ‘unusual’ and that it will sell quickly. I don’t have the heart to break it to her. But I can picture her turning down offers just like these other folks are doing.
Special might equal unusual but not vice versa. Give her something that might bring it into context.
Jessica Alba = special
Rosie O’Donnell = unusual
They ain’t the same……
Greedy sellers are getting their just desserts. Just keep turning down offers. Sellers will just ride down this market. You just gotta love it.
I just remember going to parties in 2004 and 2005 when homeowners were crowing about how much their homes appreciated. Now all I here is how this person can’t sell and that person pays 2 mortgages.
FB anecdote of th day:
Some aquaintances of ours are set to move into a new home this week here in Chandler. Unfortunately, they decided not to sell their old one and simply “rent it out until the market improves”. They now have two I/O ARMs both of which are worth between $370K and $400K. Pretty soon they’ll be moving into another house: the poor house.
I’ve been tracking the Phoenix market for the last three years. The huge price disparity within the same neighborhood between the exact same model houses is highly amusing and so easy to spot since there are a gazillion cookie cutter houses in each of the cookie cutter neighborhoods, all slapped together by the same handful of builders spread across the entire Phoenix metro area. I wrote a realtor an email why one of his clients house (Estrella Mountain Ranch) was priced 50K higher than two other exactly the same model on the same block, when his didn’t have a pool and the other two did. He actually wrote back and said he needed to consult his clients on the changing market and ask them to re-evaluate their pricing. Then he naturally went into a long diatribe about why now is a good time to buy and he would be happy to help me out.
“Original listing: $1.8 million. Now under contract for a little more than $1 million. Days on market: More than 500. Their previous agent brought them an offer of $1.45 million but advised the couple to make a counteroffer. They did, at about a $500,000 higher. The buyers walked. Now, the couple wish they had accepted the offer. ‘It was an iffy situation,’ Charley said. ‘Looking back, maybe we should have done something.’”
Ya think?
They countered with a price higher than the original list price! Surely that’s not what their agent had in mind. Idiots!
there is a house down the street from me, It was listed at 749K over a year ago, still for sale, now houses with more sq ft, better lots etc are being priced at 599-625, the ability for self delusion is astounding.
This one near my neighborhood is my personal favorite:
http://snipurl.com/16rfe
For those without a ZipRealty account here’s the pricing history. Talk about chasing the market down!
Price Reduced: 01/18/06 — $736,000 to $699,000
Price Reduced: 02/25/06 — $699,000 to $679,000
Price Increased: 04/19/06 — $679,000 to $686,000
Price Reduced: 05/25/06 — $686,000 to $663,000
Price Reduced: 06/03/06 — $663,000 to $659,900
Price Reduced: 07/02/06 — $659,900 to $639,900
Price Reduced: 11/09/06 — $639,900 to $610,000
Price Reduced: 01/02/07 — $610,000 to $599,000
On Market: 382 days
I love the price increase on April 19, 2006!
Here is my favorite (Seller is a realtor)
Price Reduced: 08/15/06 — $737,000 to $730,000
Price Increased: 09/22/06 — $730,000 to $750,000
Price Reduced: 09/24/06 — $750,000 to $725,000
Price Reduced: 10/02/06 — $725,000 to $710,000
Price Increased: 10/20/06 — $710,000 to $729,000
Price Increased: 10/22/06 — $729,000 to $785,000
Price Reduced: 10/23/06 — $785,000 to $729,000
Price Increased: 10/24/06 — $729,000 to $795,000
Price Increased: 11/21/06 — $795,000 to $950,000
Price Reduced: 12/08/06 — $950,000 to $910,000
Listing #2593277
I can’t even begin to imagine what thoughts are going throught that clown’s head.
Seller is a realtor….
More like a moron delusional idiot…
“I love the price increase on April 19, 2006!”
‘Maybe we can attract rich buyers into thinking our home is worth more than it was last week by increasing our asking price…’
Those prices are amazing. 1.8 million or 1 million, when you can get an ocean view home in San Simeon for less! But then Phoenix has a lot of good jobs and the winter here is hard to beat.
“Even still, he’s holding to his price. ‘I would love to have it sold,’ Wray said. ‘I’m still making monthly payments on the darn thing and not living in it. I’m going to keep pushing on,’ Wray said. ‘If worse comes to worse, I can rent it out or lower it further and just get rid of it.’”
How will he hold on to his price in case he has to exercise his backup plan: “Just get rid of it” … “if worse comes to worse (sic)”?
http://www.bartleby.com/68/2/3102.html
Didn’t you see Good Fellas?
” The couple moved to the Tramanto community a couple of years ago, expecting to take advantage of the rising market.”
This is the first sign of greed that led up to their self created demise.
“‘I was more than willing to make an adjustment but when that was recommended to us, that shocked me,’ Andy said. ‘I didn’t buy into that price because I thought it was too deep.’”
They were shocked! How shocked have we been watching this unnatural chain of events happening around all of us for the last five years?
“It made them rethink whether they would get enough from the old house to buy the new one. At one point, they talked about having to get out of the contract, which would have cost them $27,500.”
Hey, they finally started thinking, to bad they came out of their delusional fog to late.
“‘For us, that is a lot of money,’ he said. ‘Actually, the possibility still exists today. If we don’t get a buyer we still face the possibility of having to back out and lose that money. I think about it every day.’”
I would say that losing 27,500 is NOTHING in comparison to what that house will actually sell for.
“If they don’t sell, they’ll have two mortgages and they need money from the old house to finance the new one.”
No kidding, and I bet they are heavily mortgaged on the first one. Who can afford two mortgages of this size, hell who can afford one mortgage like this, combined with taxes and insurance.
If all of these sellers did their research prior to listing and priced their homes 10-15k below their neighbors, they would have sold and sold quickly. Instead, they have all followed the comps down over several long months. As a result, I expect some sellers will wise up and cut prices dramatically this Spring.
I did the exact thing in August … and what do you know … the house sold in 30 days.
A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.
I have a question for the board. Last August (?) wrote about checking out several new subdivisions in Sahuarita,AZ by KB. In phase one already completed and occupied literally one sign after the next of For Sale. The partially completed phase two ditto many For Sale in the recently completed homes. These were area realtor signs not KB.
I recently checked it out again. In phase One there was only one or two For Sale and one of those was from an out of state realtor which I recognized the sign from the summer. Others were gone.
In phase two saw only one For Sale sign and that was a KB and one very tiny For Rent sign up next two a house. It is hard to tell whichof any of these are occupied and which are not unless there is a vehicle in the driveway. People don’t have or sit or porches or hang out these days, drive into their garage and disappear. I do not believe more thana few could have been sold(probably 100 home in phase one, more in the second and a third phase nearly completed as they would be competing with KB, let alone humongous inventory in Tucson area. Any ideas ?
Desertfox - the reason you don’t see all the for sale signs now in the KB development is most likely because the builder has banned them under their power of being in control of the HOA rules, which they just have to add a ‘no for sale signs allowed’ clause as long as they still are trying to sell their new homes. Hurts and competes with the builder. I see this reported everywhere now, post boom times.
Exactly - I am renting in Phoenix, but did look into purchasing. When we looked at for sale homes, many did not have a sign, just a lockbox on the door. The realtor said that it looked bad for the neighborhood with so many for sale signs.
“The realtor said that it looked bad for the neighborhood with so many for sale signs.”
That is priceless….somebody needs to do a video and have one giant sign at the entrance to the neighborhood that reads “Entire neighborhood for sale; take your pick”…lol
LOL. I’m thinking about printing up a bunch of “Unreduced” stickers to slap on all those For Sale signs.
If you know the name of the subdivision, check the Maricopa County Assessor’s Parcel Search page at
http://www.maricopa.gov/Assessor/ParcelApplication/Default.aspx
Use the Subdivision search at the bottom. This will list all properties that match the name you enter and the owners of the properties.
‘My palms are starting to sweat,’ Andy said. ‘We have to get something done soon.’”
It should be his arse that is sweating.
These people switch homes the way my wife and I switch apartments. I guess they want the freedom of renting but they want that “skyrocketing appreciation” that owning offers them. Don’t they realize that the big difference between renting and buying is the level of mobility that you have? When we switch apartments it costs us just our moving costs, maybe $1,500. To move out of a $500,000 house costs about $35,000 or so. The ability to do simple math is dead.
Rent and live free!
I like the one posted here the other day, ‘I’m renting all the way to the bank!’
I love when the idiots tell me that I “have to” buy something. I tell them the wife and I are closing in on $250,000 in our 401k accounts and they get the deer in headlights look for a moment. They shake it off and go right back to their cliches but you can tell it stuns them because they are thinking about the $6,000 of net worth they have outside of their home.
“These people switch homes the way my wife and I switch apartments.”
Too bad that in all games of musical chairs, the music eventually stops.
emotion and greed cloud their thinking. They were also brainwashed by slogans “you are throwing your money away by renting.” These are in the same camp of well-debunked slogans as “they are not making any more land,” “real estate prices always go up,” “raise the minimum wage and everyone will be wealthy,” “outlaw guns and there will be no more murders,” “the death penalty is cruel and inhuman,” “raise the taxes on the rich and the middle class and lower class will be better off…”
…Kind of wandering afield, there, uh, Bill…
You don’t like useless, meddling govmt. Got it. Those damn socialist Scandinavians. That damn FDR.
Now go get your mail.
…and now back to 2007 — the Year of RE Carnage, caused mostly by insane ‘conservative’ fiscal policy — already in progress.
lol
“caused by insane ‘conservative’ fiscal policy”…explain please.
What “conservative” policy dictated “liar loans”? What conservative policy told Greenspan to reduce rates to 1%?
What conservative policy suggested “flip this house” type investments? What conservative policy dictated builders to go nuts?
Maybe you don’t accept the proposition that individuals should be responsible for their personal financial affairs, fine. The alternative is for “government”, of course, to dictate such decisions.
Please, share with us how well the systems, where the government controls the production and distribution of personal wealth, have fared in history?
I know of a few….and they’ve never turned out too well. Maybe freedom is too much for too many “idiots”…. so maybe we should never let anyone make dumb decisions, no?
Must split a few hairs here: “conservative”, in the traditional sense, wouldn’t tolerate/sponsor these activities. However, the folk who oddly refer to themselves as conservatives who have been running the guvmint since ‘94 certainly are at the root of these issues. Deregulation policies little considered the dope who can’t comprehend a calculator…. They were merely another tool to separate the ignorant from their money. Hey - works fine, for awhile. Conservative? My sweet a$$. Bunch of greedy, radical ideologues, who sold an entire generation on their b.s.
‘They were also brainwashed by slogans “you are throwing your money away by renting.”’
I PITI anyone who falls for this nonsense.
the point is: Dumb people are believing the same slogans that have been debunked by the social laboratory. It’s too bad for believers in justice that they have to remind the dummies that the communist slogans have been debunked in the last 2 decades. Communism: “We will bury you.” Capitalism witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall along with the socialized cradle to grave programs such as health care, education, social security in what was once the iron curtain countries. Question for libs back then (and question to them now): What direction over the Berlin wall were people trying to go? From Communism to individual responsibility? Or vice versa? No answer, only snide remarks, change of subject.
This all is no wonder Hayek wrote “The Road to Serfdom 70 odd years ago. Dummies forget. Their leaders are gleeful the dummies forget. Dummies forget Mao ordered 10s of millions of people killed. Dummies forget the Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot of Cambodia led the group). The leaders of the dummies know: Repeat the same lies over and over, and they will be regarded as truth. We need Milton Friedman. I’m very sorry he passed away last year. The leaders of the dummies dreaded him.
Bill from Phoenix says: “The leaders of the dummies know: Repeat the same lies over and over, and they will be regarded as truth.”
Hmmm. Sounds kinda like Bush & his neo-con wire-pullers.
They certainly must have learned that one from Bush and Cheney…
Yeah, but Bill from Phoenix is an ardent believer in THOSE liars.
Isn’t that the New Hampshire state motto?
Just want to say thanks again to Ben all you other knuckleheads for contributing to this board. I recently convinced a cousin of mine in London to NOT buy, and now she’s emailing me info about the bubble in England. It’s amazing to read as the reader’s comments are identical to what you’d read here:
http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2006/12/where_are_house.html
As you will notice, apparently it is a great time to buy in Scotland. BUY! BUY! BUY!
If inflation takes off like crazy in the next couple of years, your “knucklehead” description may prove painful for some of us too-clever-by-half renters… (Then again, how far lower can affordability go once it has reached single-digit percentages?)
Stucco, all of those gold hoarding renters will have some hedge against that eventuality. The knucklehead renters are buying every non-housing tangible asset that the genius real estate speculators have to sell to shoehorn into all of those large vinyl coffins they’re living in. Gold might be a dead asset (according to Gekko) but you don’t have to pay any property tax on it every year.
“Gold might be a dead asset (according to Gekko) but you don’t have to pay any property tax on it every year.”
Right. I PITI those who think real estate is a better investment than gold under current market weather conditions.
A house is like an elephant. It costs a fortune to keep and eventually it is going to $hit on you. I love that analogy.
And like elephants, houses are very hard to hide under rugs. Especially when they start sh!tt!ng all over their owners.
NYC, you described me to a T with “gold hoarding renters”. I rent in Jersey City after having bought in 2000 and sold in Sept 2005. Half my windfall went into additional physical gold (1 oz. Canadian maples) and added more into a top silver producer now up over 100% since. My biggest challenge when moving to the rental was transporting all the silver. I work in midtown NYC and have nobody to relate to when it comes to investing. Nobody. I’m anticipating the upcoming 3rd wave in the gold & silver bull. We should meet for a drink in NYC one day.
Give me your address and I’ll help move your silver and gold!
hehehehe
You got that right
Anyone sweating over 27K doesn’t belong in a 700K house, unless he’s there to install the pool.
Or scrub the toilets.
-“It made them rethink whether they would get enough from the old house to buy the new one. At one point, they talked about having to get out of the contract, which would have cost them $27,500.”
“‘For us, that is a lot of money,’ he said. ‘Actually, the possibility still exists today. If we don’t get a buyer we still face the possibility of having to back out and lose that money. I think about it every day.’”
-Can anyone get me Andys phone number…..he is going to need some consoling very soon - about 27k worth.
Naaa… I would not want to deal with a pool installer with insufficient resources either
Also, a 700k house doesn’t belong in Phoenix.
If you can afford a 700k house, why, for f*ck’s sake, would you move to a crappy replica of L.A. (which itself is quite crappy), minus the nearby ocean and sans greenery? Yes, sign me up for a stucco box with a view of some other stucco boxes and some dirt. 700k? Great. Sign me up.
Finally, an affordable McMiniMansion for the FBers.
http://sd.craigslist.org/rfs/258468492.html
I’m very comfortable with a cheap and reasonable lease, my 3 bedroom duplex, two car garage, freedom/mobility and lots of money in the bank and investments. My landlord take care of my apartment, my CPA counts my money and my lawyer takes care of my infrquent speeding tickets and problems while I travel or go skiing with my girlfriend. Although I could buy a very nice house for cash, why in the HELL would I BUY a house at this time and ruin my lifestyle with these problems to make some housepoor Flipper rich ? Sorry Charlie….NOT INTERESTED.
Shortly, many of these house investors will realize that all they have is the temporary use of the BANKS HOUSE and lots and lots of DEBT. 2007 and on will Prove that there is a LIMIT, EVEN among the Village Idiots and Bigger Fools, for what people will pay for a ROOF over their heads.
Good luck as your American Dream turns into the Nighmare on Elm Street because you slept through undergrad Math of Business and Finance 101 .
Two reasons why I DON’T like renting:
1. I’m now on a month-to-month, so we have a (slight) worry of the owner someday saying “time is up, you need to move”. Blech.
2. We want to make modifications, but can’t. Carpet in the bathroom and dining room sucks with young kids.
HOWEVER, the benefits of renting a house currently outweigh the headaches, at least in my little spot of Cali.
Andy and Jill Leebrick in north Phoenix. Original listing: $714,999. Latest listing: $645,000
I checked the pulice records. This couple took out a $172K mortgage in 2002 and a $170K HELOC in 2006. At worst, they owe around $340K. Yet, they’re trying to net another $300K. Talk about greed. Although I’m sure they need that much to buy the new McMansion.
How do you check for that information??? Can you do that for any house???
Are you sure that’s accurate? Maricopa.gov shows that they purchased the home on 9/1/2004 for $445,000 (no loan info avaiable).
http://www.maricopa.gov/Assessor/ParcelApplication/Detail.aspx?ID=203-26-381
I don’t see how they could have a mortgage from 2002 on that house.
I would also be interested in the source of the data.
I asked the Realtor, ‘Maybe we’re overpriced?’ She said, ‘Oh, no, no, no.’ We saw houses selling. Ours wasn’t moving and you get concerned.’”
So much for the myth that realtors “understand the local market.”
They forgot the part where the realtor says “I’ve been in this business for three years, so I know what I’ve been talking about”.
Their previous agent brought them an offer of $1.45 million but advised the couple to make a counteroffer. They did, at about a $500,000 higher. The buyers walked. Now, the couple wish they had accepted the offer.”
Forgive me, Lord, but this just keeps getting funnier and funnier. I’d love to start a “Greed-cam” web site, featuring time-lapsed webcam diaries of greedy sellers as it dawns on them that the sub-wish price offers they rejected, were as good as it gets. My site would have a feature where we could send them complimentary bottles of their favorite adult beverage to fuel their webcam rantings and recriminations.
I know the property with the orig $1.8 mil price and its actually in Carefree, Az. not Cave Creek (adjoining town), Address: 6847 E. Stagecoach Pass Carefree, AZ. 85377. The owner ,(in his late 70s), who is frankly quite arrogant but dim,(listened to realtor and rejected $1.45 mil offer), made another blunder about 4 years ago when he had a two story structure, masquerading as a guest house, (to beat zoning laws),built next to the original ranch house. Result: two ugly stucco boxes with a high maintenance factor with a view of a pile of rocks near a busy road , (Carefree Highway), in a town primarily populated by very senior citizens. The town motto should be: “Carefree, the town that old people go to visit their parents.”
So no major windfall even though purchased 19 years ago as much money poured in. Furthermore, the houses in this area sit at the base of Black Mountain well known in herpetological circles as an area richly populated by a variety of snakes, especially rattlers, who make a neighborhood of the surrounding properties (ask me how I know).Like someone else posted, why would anyone with over a mil to spend on housing settle in the greater Phoenix metro area? Only thing ,IMO and experience, would be a very, very lucrative income earning opportunity not available elsewhere.
digged up some additional info on Frank and Brenda Bijak in Cave Creek, you know the guy that didn’t want to be Santa Claus. link. oh, while you’re there you can check out the new inventory #’s in Phoenix since the first of the year.
‘I get probably a brochure once a week from the home builders around the corner and they have up to $60,000 incentives,’ Wray said. ‘How can the general person compete with that? That’s crazy.’
I thought about this question for a long time. It had me really puzzled. It’s clearly quite a conundrum. But finally, I came up with the answer. How can the general person compete with builders offering $60,ooo in incentives? Ummmm …… to compete, the ‘general person’ can reduce their price by $60,000 or more. Yes? … No? ….
Geez Raven, I think I split a stitch on that town motto. Good one.
I want to feel sorry for the clueless sellers, but they’re just so dang funny!