The feeling is mutual, Roseanne. "Bag of rocks."

 

Today I dropped in at my friends house at 12:45. There was a photographer taking the "obligatory" 25 pics for the listing and the Realtors Open House was happening in 15 minutes. My poor friend Paul was down in the basement...furiously trying to move piles of crap from one side to the other in the storage/shop/laundry area I helped for a few minutes and then both of us did this: He told me that he and his son moved loads of STUFF and excess furniture into a rented storage locker yesterday, and he looked exhausted.

If there are interesting updates, I'll come back to this thread in the days/ weeks ahead. It's happened to them so fast that it's like a soap opera.
[/quote]

Our friends had NINE showings by Realtors in the past 24 hours, and the owners have to vacate the premises. Our friend Paul stopped by our house on Thursday afternoon and he looked exhausted. They are going to have anyone interested in submitting an offer do so on Monday afternoon; hoping to get several offers and see what happens. They have bought/sold a lot of properties at the NJ shore in the past, so they know the ins and outs pretty well. They might get an acceptable offer w/ no contingencies, which would be great for them

 

Today I dropped in at my friends house at 12:45. There was a photographer taking the "obligatory" 25 pics for the listing and the Realtors Open House was happening in 15 minutes. My poor friend Paul was down in the basement...furiously trying to move piles of crap from one side to the other in the storage/shop/laundry area I helped for a few minutes and then both of us did this: He told me that he and his son moved loads of STUFF and excess furniture into a rented storage locker yesterday, and he looked exhausted.

If there are interesting updates, I'll come back to this thread in the days/ weeks ahead. It's happened to them so fast that it's like a soap opera.
[/quote]

Our friends had NINE showings by Realtors in the past 24 hours, and the owners have to vacate the premises. Our friend Paul stopped by our house on Thursday afternoon and he looked exhausted. They are going to have anyone interested in submitting an offer do so on Monday afternoon; hoping to get several offers and see what happens. They have bought/sold a lot of properties at the NJ shore in the past, so they know the ins and outs pretty well. They might get an acceptable offer w/ no contingencies, which would be great for them
[/quote]

Good thing they did not listen to you and wait till Spring.

 

Must be one great decorator if I read that right… 1979 = $95k, 2012 = $795k. But it does look like a nice house in a nice location.
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that spread doesn't account for the improvements over those 34+ years, Dave, which will increase their basis:

-converted garage to MIL apt (now calling is a "great room/office" ) ...probably 50k about 15 yrs ago
-new upscale kitchen and master bathrm....over 100k invested recently
-central air added 10+ years ago....say another 20k in a older stone house

those items would change our friends figures to 265k vs. 795k; what is THAT gain over 33 yrs on an annual basis?

our numbers would be similar but over only 30 yrs: 1984 >>> 2014. i think that you've owned for a long time too....so would likely have a similar % gain (unless your corner of MI is still in the RE doldrums )
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I am not really a numbers guy but since we bought in 1983 the current value is up maybe 270% which means based on my upgrades I will only take an 11% loss if I were to get close to my estimated 'market' value. Yep, where I live "RE doldrums" will be around for probably my lifetime but since I don't plan to move I don't care - we are very happy with where we are. I'll bet my RE taxes are maybe 5% of yours. I look at East coast and West coast prices and think OMG the price/sq ft is insane. Like I said, we are happy where we are and the house we have - especially since it was PIF maybe 15 years ago.

 

The feeling is mutual, Roseanne. "Bag of rocks."
[/quote]
Bag, box. All the same.

Admittedly I have no idea how things are on the east coast, but out here in Los Angeles, the residential housing market has recently gotten VERY active. Houses that are put up for sale are getting offers within 24 hours of listing. Anything on the market for more than a month right now is being called "stale." Crazy. I also know it's that way in the Phoenix area too. Close friend sold his house here in LA a few months ago (over the summer) and it went within 2 months even though he was asking on the high end of the house's value. He's also been shopping for rental property in Phoenix area and he said that places are getting scooped up very fast and you have to get offers in quickly or the places are under contract already within days.

 

Told ya. In a competition like that, you don't have to accept any contingencies. If the buyer is smart, s/he won't have any. And maybe bid over asking to get it done.

 

When we had our house on the market, we always left if someone was coming to see the house. We saw a few homes where the owners were around while we looked at the house. VERY uncomfortable. I think real estate people should insist owners vacate when potential buyers are coming to see the house.

 

Oh, and regarding the original topic... I'm not downsizing. I have upsized and downsized and various stages of whatnot in between. Currently though, I'm as downsized as I see myself being. I might decide I don't want to be on the second story of a building with no elevator eventually, but I'm not going smaller than a one bedroom with a loft, that's for sure! LOL!

That stated, my sitch is not necessarily typical. I never had kids. I never scaled up for reasons of accommodating a larger family and the stuff that goes along with that.

If I scale up, ever, I want a two bedroom house with a five car garage.

When I scale down, it will probably be to a small box which I hope only houses me long enough to transport me to where I would like to be scattered to the winds off of Mulholland Highway.

 

The feeling is mutual, Roseanne. "Bag of rocks."
[/quote]
Bag, box. All the same. [/quote]

No, it's not the same. Box of rocks is funnier. Oops.



...I've been spending way too much time on Trulia.com looking at houses. The more I look, the more I realize how great my current home is and that it suits me. I loved the very woody interior of one house I saw, and it came with acreage, aka dirt, but to see the outside, you'd never have any idea the inside was worth looking at. It looks like the same building style my dad used when he built the house I grew up in, in the 50s. The outside walls are brick and the flat roof is tilted with open beams inside and windows on the top of the inside high wall. The couple who bought my house after my dad died told me it was some certain style and that it was the reason they bought it. I didn't know what they were talking about. Woody interior Sunol house.

 

This looks pretty interesting for a place so close to San Jose/ San Francisco/ etc. Looked at the map and it sure is REMOTE....no road even appears to extend to the property I sort of like the exposed beam design and open plan, but a lot of it sure is "dated". No requisite 3-car garage but lots of space to build one