Speaking of pulling houses off the market, my buddy’s grandmother died, leaving a very plain house and small rental on a good sized lot in North County. There are 8 heirs, and it was supposed to be sold according to her wishes. It was appraised at something like $750-800k, and it’s basically a couple of boxes. They were offered $650k for it a couple weeks ago, and turned it down. No kidding. They didn’t think it was enough.
Here’s the kicker: They’ve colluded and decided to pull it off the market, and hold on to it for 2 years…when the market “will be better and we can get more for it” (their words). It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Mind you…we’re talking about 8 people in their 60’s and 70’s, native San Diegans, who’ve been through multiple real estate cycles and should know better. But they’re buying into the soft landing premise and the concept that this little crap property tripled in price over the last 8 years because of sound fundamentals, and will continue to go up. This time, you see, it’s different. Uh huh. Pure greed is what it is.
I’ve pretty much given up explaining to people about stock bubbles, real estate bubbles, real wage decline, and well…common sense. It’s pointless. I’ve been pointing them to the many sites like this and they still don’t get it. As I said, it’s pure greed.
