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[compdoc]

Dad's house not only sold, they moved the closing up to Monday.

Yes, that is a good thing.

Still no bites on our house.

[octoprof]

We have our first offer... After 17 months.  That's the good news. The bad news is it's low enough that we'd need another $25,000 MORE than we currently have in savings/checking/pockets to make it close (and we've saved up a healthy pile).

The realtor thinks we'll get another competing offer tomorrow by noon (I'll believe it when I see it) so we aren't countering this one yet. I looked up mortgage pay off and such and the offer would have to come up about $24,000 to make it doable. I don't these folks who made the offer today will come up that much, even though that price would still be $50,000 less than we paid for it three years ago.

<sigh>

[prytania3]

We have our first offer... After 17 months.  That's the good news. The bad news is it's low enough that we'd need another $25,000 MORE than we currently have in savings/checking/pockets to make it close (and we've saved up a healthy pile).

The realtor thinks we'll get another competing offer tomorrow by noon (I'll believe it when I see it) so we aren't countering this one yet. I looked up mortgage pay off and such and the offer would have to come up about $24,000 to make it doable. I don't these folks who made the offer today will come up that much, even though that price would still be $50,000 less than we paid for it three years ago.

<sigh>

I don't know why you just don't rent the place and wait for the market to get better.

[octoprof]

We have our first offer... After 17 months.  That's the good news. The bad news is it's low enough that we'd need another $25,000 MORE than we currently have in savings/checking/pockets to make it close (and we've saved up a healthy pile).

The realtor thinks we'll get another competing offer tomorrow by noon (I'll believe it when I see it) so we aren't countering this one yet. I looked up mortgage pay off and such and the offer would have to come up about $24,000 to make it doable. I don't these folks who made the offer today will come up that much, even though that price would still be $50,000 less than we paid for it three years ago.

<sigh>

I don't know why you just don't rent the place and wait for the market to get better.

I think we've been through this before many times. It was brand new when we bought it and it's still pristine and it won't bring in much rent in the current climate and we don't want to be landlords from 600 miles away.

[barred_owl]

We have our first offer... After 17 months.  That's the good news. The bad news is it's low enough that we'd need another $25,000 MORE than we currently have in savings/checking/pockets to make it close (and we've saved up a healthy pile).

The realtor thinks we'll get another competing offer tomorrow by noon (I'll believe it when I see it) so we aren't countering this one yet. I looked up mortgage pay off and such and the offer would have to come up about $24,000 to make it doable. I don't these folks who made the offer today will come up that much, even though that price would still be $50,000 less than we paid for it three years ago.

<sigh>

I don't know why you just don't rent the place and wait for the market to get better.

I think we've been through this before many times. It was brand new when we bought it and it's still pristine and it won't bring in much rent in the current climate and we don't want to be landlords from 600 miles away.

I'm in almost the same situation as you, Octoprof.  We ARE renting, but--daaaaammnn--we can't charge rent to cover the mortgage payment (no one would rent it for that, considering the location and rents for comparable properties).  Our current renters claim that they want to buy the house, but haven't been able to make the down payment yet, so on we go...$350/month in excess mortgage payments, plus water plus sewage bills (not to mention our payments on the new HVAC equipment and basement waterproofing--which we'll still be paying on after the house is sold).  All told, it's still costing us about $800/mo to RENT the damned place!

My fingers are crossed for you, Octo!!  We all need whatever luck/fate/kharma we can muster these days, right?!

[southerntransplant]

When we left the Former Location (now the Undisclosed Location where STpouse is), we had two mortgages going on for a while. When it finally sold (a fluke brought on by the lack of single-family homes in the area in the wake of Major Meteorological Event), it was the last home sale of its size in the area for about five years, and it happened just as we were completely up against the wall financially.

STpouse is renting a place in that same area now. A colleague asked me why I didn't buy a house there "because you could always sell it later." Fortunately for him, we were in an elevator at the time and I had nothing to hurl at him other than my sense of indignation (which, as swollen as it was, lacks sufficient mass).

Good luck to all those selling homes!

[madhatter]

Good luck with the offer, octo! An offer is better than no offer -- at least you can counter, and hopefully through some back-and-forth come up with a deal that you can make work. I hope you have a creative and flexible agent.

Have your agent run a new CMA so you have a current set of comps to work with. You should also consider sending a note along with your counteroffer asking the buyers to provide their own comps to justify the offer price. They might not have any, suggesting that they're just making an offer based on what they think they can get the house for. Alternatively, they might have a set of comps that are reasonable enough to demonstrate that their offer price is not too far from current market value for your home. That would be really unfortunate, but at least you'd have the information to work with as you decide if you want to pursue a short-sale strategy.

[octoprof]

Good luck with the offer, octo! An offer is better than no offer -- at least you can counter, and hopefully through some back-and-forth come up with a deal that you can make work. I hope you have a creative and flexible agent.

Have your agent run a new CMA so you have a current set of comps to work with. You should also consider sending a note along with your counteroffer asking the buyers to provide their own comps to justify the offer price. They might not have any, suggesting that they're just making an offer based on what they think they can get the house for. Alternatively, they might have a set of comps that are reasonable enough to demonstrate that their offer price is not too far from current market value for your home. That would be really unfortunate, but at least you'd have the information to work with as you decide if you want to pursue a short-sale strategy.

We have not yet countered because the realtor says she expects we will get another offer from someone else by noon today. I'll happily eat my hat if we get two offers in less than 24 hours after 17 months of silence.

She has run a CMA, which I saw yesterday. There's just been almost nothing much selling and nothing at all similar to our little townhouse. We have only two bedrooms (two master suites) and no others are like that (all the others are 3 with one or two that are 4) and we have two sundecks and no others are like that (some have one), and we have a garage big enough for four cars and no one else has that except a couple of neighbors in the same building and theirs last sold before we bought ours. So, all the recent comps are single family homes and ours is a townhome (in the vertical brownstone style). :-\

We are not candidates for a short sale as we have never missed a payment (despite living elsewhere and paying for another place to live and so forth) and we have a high income so the bank knows we are going to pay the mortgage regularly even if the house is empty. They have no incentive to approve a short sale.


southerntransplant, you made me spew while sitting in a classroom given an exam. You crack me up.

[madhatter]

We have not yet countered because the realtor says she expects we will get another offer from someone else by noon today. I'll happily eat my hat if we get two offers in less than 24 hours after 17 months of silence.

Good luck! Two offers would be great, especially if the second one is higher.

She has run a CMA, which I saw yesterday. There's just been almost nothing much selling and nothing at all similar to our little townhouse. We have only two bedrooms (two master suites) and no others are like that (all the others are 3 with one or two that are 4) and we have two sundecks and no others are like that (some have one), and we have a garage big enough for four cars and no one else has that except a couple of neighbors in the same building and theirs last sold before we bought ours. So, all the recent comps are single family homes and ours is a townhome (in the vertical brownstone style). :-\

I'm sorry to tell you that this IS the norm for comps, especially in the current market. You still have to work with the data you have.

So, take your comps from the SFHs and look at the fact sheets on each one, and start making adjustments -- it's not an exact science, but you can try to make some rough corrections for the # of bedrooms, the garage, the home style, location, etc. We did that when we looked at comps for our new home. There was nothing quite like it or in its price range, so we adjusted the existing comps based on our best guess. Your agent can be helpful in this regard (if s/he's competent, which not all are!) in identifying which differences have a significant effect on valuation. For example, three bedrooms probably adds significant value over two, but four bedrooms doesn't add as much value over three. The four car garage might not be worth more than a two-car, or might even be worth less.

It really depends on what buyers find valuable. At one point during our house-hunting trip, the March Hare commented on how much she liked the sauna in a house. Our agent said, "I'm glad you do, because it has no value." (He was a tough, very pragmatic character with a real focus on the financial value of any deal. A good guy to have in our corner.)

We are not candidates for a short sale as we have never missed a payment (despite living elsewhere and paying for another place to live and so forth) and we have a high income so the bank knows we are going to pay the mortgage regularly even if the house is empty. They have no incentive to approve a short sale.

So you've said ... how many years until you pay off the mortgage and own the townhouse free and clear? I guess you can plan to pay if off until that point and then sell it for a loss. You'll probably pay a lot in interest, though, especially if it's a 30 year mortgage and you've only had it for a few years. Perhaps you could make extra payments into principal to reduce the length of the mortgage and speed the day when you can sell it for a loss?

[octoprof]

I have a lot of confidence in our realtor, who is one of the largest grossing in the area (most often she's tops). If anything, she's a bit TOO aggressive.  She is the second one we've contracted with. The first probably did everything alright (given the horrible economic situation) but we wanted someone more aggressive.

There does not appear, however, to be any second offer materializing.

We have not yet countered because the realtor says she expects we will get another offer from someone else by noon today. I'll happily eat my hat if we get two offers in less than 24 hours after 17 months of silence.

Good luck! Two offers would be great, especially if the second one is higher.

She has run a CMA, which I saw yesterday. There's just been almost nothing much selling and nothing at all similar to our little townhouse. We have only two bedrooms (two master suites) and no others are like that (all the others are 3 with one or two that are 4) and we have two sundecks and no others are like that (some have one), and we have a garage big enough for four cars and no one else has that except a couple of neighbors in the same building and theirs last sold before we bought ours. So, all the recent comps are single family homes and ours is a townhome (in the vertical brownstone style). :-\

I'm sorry to tell you that this IS the norm for comps, especially in the current market. You still have to work with the data you have.

So, take your comps from the SFHs and look at the fact sheets on each one, and start making adjustments -- it's not an exact science, but you can try to make some rough corrections for the # of bedrooms, the garage, the home style, location, etc. We did that when we looked at comps for our new home. There was nothing quite like it or in its price range, so we adjusted the existing comps based on our best guess. Your agent can be helpful in this regard (if s/he's competent, which not all are!) in identifying which differences have a significant effect on valuation. For example, three bedrooms probably adds significant value over two, but four bedrooms doesn't add as much value over three. The four car garage might not be worth more than a two-car, or might even be worth less.

It really depends on what buyers find valuable. At one point during our house-hunting trip, the March Hare commented on how much she liked the sauna in a house. Our agent said, "I'm glad you do, because it has no value." (He was a tough, very pragmatic character with a real focus on the financial value of any deal. A good guy to have in our corner.)

Value depends on the buyer's taste, for sure. We loved that townhome and it was perfect for us. One spare bedroom was enough and both bedrooms are fantastic with fantastic baths. And, the four car garage was perfect for folks with 2 motorvehicles and 10 nonmotorized vehicles. We really miss that house, actually, as here we have only a 2 car garage of the smallest possible sort, so small that I gave up my car when we moved here. And, here, we have too much space in our house, relatively.  Clearly, we are very unstandard home buyers...

We are not candidates for a short sale as we have never missed a payment (despite living elsewhere and paying for another place to live and so forth) and we have a high income so the bank knows we are going to pay the mortgage regularly even if the house is empty. They have no incentive to approve a short sale.

So you've said ... how many years until you pay off the mortgage and own the townhouse free and clear? I guess you can plan to pay if off until that point and then sell it for a loss. You'll probably pay a lot in interest, though, especially if it's a 30 year mortgage and you've only had it for a few years. Perhaps you could make extra payments into principal to reduce the length of the mortgage and speed the day when you can sell it for a loss?

We've been making extra payments like crazy. In fact, I was about to make a $10,000 payment on principle when we got the call with the offer. Every extra little consulting job I do goes straight to the mortgage, every tax refund, or other odd bits of money that come in, straight to the mortgage.

We joke that we lived living in old Octoville, so we could retire there in 20 years and move back in...

[octoprof]

The potential buyer countered our counter offer and is now $13,000 or so lower than our price-we-can-sell-it-at-and-take-all-our-liquid-assets-to-closing-and-then-be-free-of-it (and $15,000 lower than our counter offer). So, have looked into an unsecured loan from our credit union to make up whatever difference results in the final analysis if we do get it sold, and we will counter again on Monday if no other better offers emerge. Our realtor thinks this potential buyer cannot get a mortgage much closer to our desired selling price.

Two other parties looked at the house today, I'm told.

[barred_owl]

Wishing you luck, whatever happens, Octo.  I know what you mean about the "just be rid of it" part--I hate feeling that way, but, like you, we can't hold out forever waiting and paying on a house we'll never live in again.  My fingers are crossed for you and Mr. W.; hopefully, the recent 'lookers' will consider making a better, more reasonable offer!

[octoprof]

No other offers have materialized. Today, we countered the counter to the counter to the original offer. We received a contract by email agreeing to this counter-counter-counter-offer just now. So, that means we'll only have to take our entire life savings of cash and borrow $4,000 to get rid of the house. WOOHOO!

And, I'm so thankful I spent a chunk of my Christmas break working on a consulting gig that brought in $7,500 (and a chunk of last summer bringing in $2500 on another little consulting job and I'm so thankful I mismanaged our taxes thus that we received a $10,000 refund last month. Thank you, Lord!  Hallelujah!

[madhatter]

Congratulations!!!

[schoolmarm]

WHoooo Hoo, Octo!

And I have just faxed over the inspection resolution for my "no contingency but financing" offer. I have a back-up offer on the house, as well. 

What's left?

1.  they have to confirm the inspection repairs
2.  they have to get financing
3.  the house has to appraise at the offer price and be insurable (it is).
4.  close

I have to find a new place to live, get a moving van that can store my stuff for a while.  My new area has a funky "possession 30-days after closing" deal.  And most of the vacant houses are foreclosures and I can't even put in an offer on a foreclosure until this one closes.

I am thrilled that this is coming right along.  I've had several deals fall through, so my excitement is tempered.

Doing an out-of-state move in the middle of the semester is NUTS!  But I'll do it....listed the house at the end of August/beginning of September.