[quote=Russell]CAR, Didn’t you sell your house because you speculated that it would benefit you in the long run? You bought it for less than you sold it for and got rid of it for financial gain (protection against reversal in your equity position) …or in other words, flipped it?[/quote]
I wasn’t intentionally trying to time the market. We had a growing family and needed more room (former house was under 1,300 sf), and wanted to move to a safer neighborhood closer to work. We had originally made an offer on another house, but backed out because of some issues during the inspection, and I wasn’t comfortable with market prices. This was at the peak of craziness (spring 2004), and we sold our house within an hour of listing it, so needed to find a place to live. I knew prices were too high, and thought so since 2001. I also saw how people were taking on far more debt than they could ever pay off, and had a number of people tell me about their “great new mortgages” where they only had to pay 1.5% per month! That was obviously not going to end well (and yes, I told them so), so we rented and waited.
Even over this past year, I was perfectly able to engage in all the flipping, as I follow the market closely and could see where things were going, but refrained from doing so because I don’t believe in it on an ethical level. I have looked into bulk sales, but mostly because I just want the inventory to come onto the market. It’s frustrating to see the amount of manipulation going on because so many people are going to be harmed by it, IMHO.
