I didn’t mean to be overly sarcastic to you felix but you used a few too many realtor cliches and your posts still lack enough details for you to be validated and taken seriously. You don’t have to post the address or street name but tract or community name and ballpark price you paid will afford you some credibility, otherwise you are a realtor attempting to jumpstart the market, one blogger at a time. We piggs like case studies, math, etc. and it is very possible that you found a particular investment home that is valued correctly and somewhat insulated from further declines, we all will find ours at some point, different communities have been coming in line with fundamentals at different times, unfortunately the coastal properties have been the most stubborn, which is why you are being asked for specifics.
sdrealtor made a valid point about certain markets with limited offerings and custom homes in coastal areas do require the buyer think of the property availablity vs the timing. Tract homes and rentals do not fall into that category and are much more pure math equations.
The reason I was embittered by your plattitudes in essense saying it’s a great time to buy is that in certain Southern california markets, that statement is just not true, buying now is the worst thing you can do. Here’s where we will part ways, I’ll throw down some data and specific cases as to why waiting, each and every day, has rewards.
18 days on the market, reduced 17% in those 18 days, when first listed it was the cheapest house on the street, waiting saved the future buyer 50k
This beauty came on the market today, 4000 sq ft, amost 100 a square, if you bought yesterday you would miss this record setter at more than 50% off it’s price in 2005 and now it is 47 cents on the dollar and the former model in one of the nicest subdivisions in my area, it’s presence just cost every house in the development 100k
It’s neighbor two doors away is a repo, wasn’t a model, is smaller and has a smaller lot. Despite the bank cutting 80k off it three weeks ago, they will need to chop another 100k to be in line with the one that just came up, why miss the fireworks and buy today or yesterday?
And finally this is a classic case of what almost every lising looks like that has been on the market for a few months. At each point you claim the bottom and at each point you would have thrown money in the toilet. This is what the market is doing, nothing indicates that it is slowing down. Below the map is the listing price history, for this one I’ll post it bt on the others, just scroll down.
Oct 02, 2007 $580,000
Oct 17, 2007 $575,000
Oct 30, 2007 $565,000
Nov 05, 2007 $545,000
Nov 09, 2007 $535,000
Nov 19, 2007 $500,000
Dec 11, 2007 $450,000
Jan 02, 2008 $435,000
Jan 11, 2008 $420,000
Jan 16, 2008 $390,000
Jan 25, 2008 $380,000
Feb 25, 2008 $350,000
Fundamentally this is a 2k a month rental so the 125x multiplier is 250k, at that point I will buy it, the 150x is 300k, at that point I’ll think about it, but anyone can say “now is a great time to buy,” prove it to me.