Wife kitteh and I have been looking for a new house. She wants a single-level place for us in our old age and I want an acre or so of yard. We both want a open floor plan for our parties.
I don't know about where you live, but right now in San Diego, real estate is in a frenzy. Yesterday, I went to see a property and had a scheduled time to meet the seller's agent. I knew there were appointments before and after me. These days, houses typically get bids in the first day or two and end up in a bidding war.
When I got to the place, there were no less than 6 families touring it. The agent hadn't planned an open house, but its mere existence on the market and the fact that he was there meant he could let them see the place on their own if he wanted. I didn't blame him. Why shouldn't he? We all know what the market is like right now.
Normally when you show a house, you get it ready for sale. That can mean new carpet and paint. It certainly means the house is clean and it might even be staged with rented furniture. The yard is cleaned up and everything looks as good as it can. Check out the photos I took yesterday from inside that train wreck of a house.
As near as I could piece together from the artifacts in the place, the owner was an old man and had recently died. It had the look of an elderly fellow who had just thrown in the towel on keeping things clean, organized and maintained. It's possible that he no longer had the mental faculties to even notice that everything was falling apart.
As far as the San Diego real estate market is concerned, this showed how crazed it is. The realtor didn't care what the place looked like. Take it or leave it, there's another load of buyers coming in half an hour.
Buying into a mania is always a bad idea, be it stocks, real estate, art or anything else. I think I'm done with trying to find a new place for now. Instead, we're pondering a remodel of the Catican Compound. We wouldn't get any more land, but we could make enough changes to meet 80% of our requirements.
Smart move. When I was doing renovations and someone wanted say to build an addition for more space I would always mention the option of selling and buying a bigger place instead but of course that was in a stable market. Nearly always they would stick with the addition, they were used to the house and the neighborhood and didn't want all the hassle of selling, buying and moving.
ReplyDeleteRight now seems like a bubble in the housing here, so normally I’d suggest sitting tight. But the way both parties have been printing money I expect a significant round of inflation, which could make even the bubble a good time to buy as the inflation might push up prices even further (plus debt is good in inflationary times). All in all I can confidently say is that this is either a good or a bad time to buy.
ReplyDeleteIs that a new winner in the Definite Maybe contest?
I could sell you my place: 2.5+ wooded acres in the middle of a city of 50K (and a county of 125K). Of course, it's a two storey, it's in snowy Ohio, it's not in the best part of town, ... and I still haven't even come close to finishing my rebuilding of it (so it looks even worse than the pictures you posted).
ReplyDeleteOhioan, it's not about the investment, it's about living. As for printing money, this is a good example of crazy inflation, but only among the middle class and above.
ReplyDeleteligneus - you make a good point. Is it worth the hassle and the added expenses? I don't think so.
Ilion - would it be possible to move your property 300 miles south? ;-)
Since I got a new job on the other side of the Twin Cities, we have been thinking about moving. I've been on zillow looking at stuff, and trying to find out what we want. 3 season porch seems high on my list. 3 car garage minimum, 4 preferred. 1 level living a plus, but still want a basement.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm all over the map.
We've cleaned out a bunch of closets. The garage and work room are a mess. There are so many things this house needs.
But since I still haven't been in the office after 8 months, we are thinking we wait another year. We are working on getting our oldest to buy a condo, as rental prices are ridiculous around here. The younger one planning on grad school in Idaho, and is thinking he will buy out there as well, as he's got a lot of money socked away.
Living near St. Louis, we get relatively mild winters and the real estate is fairly inexpensive. I', in a 2652 sqft house, 140 years old but good condition, that would sell for about 140-150K.
ReplyDeleteThough, if I were retiring and just moving in, I might prefer O'Fallon (either MO or IL), which is just a little bit more, but newer houses.