[BikeRider]

I live in Virginia. In the rural areas we are just not in that big a hurry and I think care more for our neighbors. Just my opinion of course. I take back roads to work (25 mile ride), never going faster than 50mph. I sure as heck would rather get where I’m going ten minutes late, rather than kill someone on the highway (or be killed). I do see that in the bigger cities things are getting worse. I live in the country and when I drive to Washington DC (rarely), the people are driving much faster and more aggressive. They are starting to see real congestion on the roads in DC and I guess the frustration levels are rising. Think about it really, people are normally just worried about themselves and their own family. That is their focal point. It is rare when someone actually thinks about another. I make a point to try and be curtious when driving, but so many times I get cut off and pulled in front of.

A friend of mine was almost T-boned recently. He and his wife were having an argument, which caused him to delay a few seconds before pulling away at a light (his wife still claims she saved their lives!). So, he is late pulling off, but not the van beside him. The lady pulls out and this car runs a red light, zooms past my friends bumper and T-bones the van. The driver of the van is hurt bad, as are some children. The driver of the car running the light… some young lady with a child…. gets her child out of the car and goes to the side of the road, NEVER looking at the car she hit. Never asking if anyone was hurt. You know all she is worried about is her insurance and that they are now late for soccer practice.

[BikeRider]

A fool and his money…………

I re-read the tulip craze of 1600’s.

If you like graphs, you’ll always like the tulip bubble graph…

http://www.stock-market-crash.net/tulip-mania.htm

The statement at the end of the article is says it all…

“The financial devastation that followed the tulip bulb crash lasted for decades, crippling Dutch commerce. The price of tulips at the height of the mania was $76,000; 6 weeks later they were valued at less than one dollar! The only people who prospered from the insanity were the smart money who liquidated at the top.”

[BikeRider]

Yes, Fox is typically one sided, mindless stuff. You can get some good laughs. But they aren’t the only show (and channel) sounding like this 300 mil population is going to cause changes. Like it was some magic number. I just find it strange. Like 299,999,999 was nothing. But 300,000,000….things are going to change. They were saying that in the next 40 years our population will increase another 100 million. And those people will need houses. Yeah, sure, IF they have jobs and can AFFORD the houses. Of course non of us know what is coming. The Fox participants just seemed more clueless than usual.

And don’t get me started on O’Reilly…. I’d like to beat the crap out of him. I could too. I’m 6’2″, 225 lbs and keep fit for an old guy (48).

[BikeRider]

The housing thing is really interesting to watch. It comes down to what owning a house means to the individual. For me and my wife, it is a place that provides shelter. A place we feel safe. We own it and as long as we pay our taxes, we will always have a place to call home. We love our yard and I have a place in the country to shoot my guns and play around with my tractors. Now it appears some people are really hung up on how much the house is worth. To me it really matters not except that the more it is valued, the more the county charges me in taxes. We don’t use our home as an ATM, so I could give a hoot how much equity is there. The only time it is ever going to matter is when (if) we sell. As long as our jobs remain good and we like the area, we’ll stay put. Been there nine years and may be dug in for the duration. My own opinion is that home prices are way out of whack with salaries. But, if there are enough people willing to use exotic financing, the housing bubble could go on forever. One idiot loses the home due to a reset, but another one steps up and finances with a new loan, with a teaser rate. They lose the home and yet another idiot steps up. The losers are the “homeowner wannabe’s”. I think as long as the banks can get a loan on the home, they will be fine. Look at what people are willing to pay for a car. They are willing to take on a loan as long as 72 months now. That, is crazy. So, they continue to fuel things. Instead of car prices dropping, the length of payoff has been extended. Hard to say how things will play out. At some point maybe people will be so burdened by debt that something will give.

[BikeRider]

I was getting my truck inspected this morning. Talking with a fellow that builds decks and other jobs related to residential homes. After his truck was fixed he was on his way to pressure wash some driveways for a “Parade of Homes” that was going on this coming weekend. I asked him how things were, did he think there was a housing bubble. He got real serious looking and state that “yes, there is some kind of bubble deflating”. He said that even six months ago he saw people bidding against each other for homes. He said now if they have twelve homes listed they are lucky to have one couple come look. He stated that he wants to see interest rates go back down to around 5% and fuel prices go down so people will start buying. I’m on the East coast in central Virginia. We aren’t really in a bubble area, but realestate has slowed dramatically. About a year ago a sub-division started going in and the sign said “Homes from the 800’s” For our area, that would be a friggin mansion. And these homes are now getting completed and they look like mansions. They must be 4500 sq ft, all brick. And I don’t see many cars in driveways. I am wondering if they will even sell now with the slow down.

[BikeRider]

I think I read that the main concern with the short sale is that the seller is still responsible for paying taxes on the money the bank forgave them. Right? The bank basicaly lets the seller off the hook for some amount of money. But, the seller is still liable for the taxes on that, which could be substantial.

ABOUT has info on the short sale.

http://homebuying.about.com/od/4closureshortsales/

Exerpt-
“Be aware the I.R.S. will consider debt forgiveness as income, and there is no guarantee that a lender who accepts a short sale will not legally pursue a borrower for the difference between the amount owed and the amount paid. In some states, this amount is known as a deficiency. A lawyer can determine whether your loan qualifies for a deficiency judgment or claim”

“Now if everything goes well, the lender will approve your short sale. As part of the negotiation, you might ask that the lender not report adverse credit to the credit reporting agencies, but realize that the lender is under no obligation to accommodate this request.”

[BikeRider]

“No, Powayseller should post as many times as she wants provided she has something interesting/meaningful to say.”

I think the rub is that some people feel they know exactly when something is “interesting/meaningful” to THEM, and the THEM part is the problem. I guess they feel they are entitled to what THEY want to read. Entitlement??? in the blog??? what the?????

[BikeRider]

This is a crazy thread. This blog is in America, right? Or did it get redirected to China or something? You want to cast out an individual because they are enjoying something? Powayseller hasn’t driven her SUV through a group of people. I didn’t see her beat any baby seals over the head. She tends to post alot. She appears to be very dedicated to her cause. If EVERYONE had something to say and said it, then Powayseller wouldn’t really be standing out at all. I like reading all the posts. I admit sometimes I skip past some of Powayseller’s more long winded entries, but it never crosses my mind that she needs to be tared and feathered over her writings. Lighten up.

[BikeRider]

I think people should be free to do what they want, within reason of course. If you don’t want to read someone’s posts, the name is listed at the top of it, just skip the darn thing.

[BikeRider]

I have first hand experience with having a HELOC. How scary it can be and how stupid you feel later. My wife and I were (WERE) living beyond our means. Not by much really. Never to a point where we even thought we were out of control. A few years ago a friend kept telling my wife that we should take out a HELOC. Have it sitting there for emergencies. They had bought their cars with theirs, to write off the interest. Anyway, we did take out one and the rate was really, really low. Like 3% AT THE START. We started using it, little bits at a time. Even paid off some other higher interest fixed rate loans (stupid), and of course the credit cards, thinking that we were saving money and could write off the interest. Ok, so then rates started going up and we had this $30K monster that was growing, staring at use each month. It was really upsetting. For one, I realized that why they heck would we want a HELOC for emergencies? I mean, if you are having trouble, you don’t want more debt. We should have been growing our savings for emergencies. Anyway, we buckled down and got the friggin loan paid off. It was tough. I went to close it and the bank says that I would have to pay a penalty unless I waited another year. So I closed it later. The things are a trap. Now we have things paid off and even with that, even with just utilities and incidental stuff, we struggle to save. I know now that we should have been living off one salary all the time. So, in case one salary was lost, we could keep going without much upset. We always paid our bills on time, but it was sometimes a juggling act. If the upcoming ARMs and HELOCs are all resetting, rates rising, people are going to really struggle. I’m sure most families are blindly going along as we did. Not thinking about the what if’s. Not planning even six months down the road. They will probably be blindsided. Sorry, I ramble.

[BikeRider]

When we bought our last home around 1997 (on the East Coast), the seller (a Builder, spec home) was asking 180K. We offered $145K, about 20% under their asking price. Now, we aren’t in any kind of bubble area, so we were dealing with what is probably normal pricing. The realtor told us it was an insult to the seller. I said “what do I care, I don’t live with them and they aren’t going to be paying my mortgage.”. The realtor took them the offer. The builder countered with $155K. We liked that number, but we countered with they pay the closing costs. I was like, what the heck. The realtor said “Sellers never pay closing costs in this price range.”. I was like, I don’t care, I want closing costs. I had gone to the county, found out when the builder got his final inspection. I knew how long the home had been sitting on the market. Knew that he was paying his construction loan and hoped he was hungry. He accepted our contract. As someone said above, you can always raise your offering price, but you can’t lower it once the countering starts. Go REALLY low on the first offer. Say 20% below what would be a non-bubble value and work up from there. If the seller wants to sell, they will start dealing. I am still blown away that people ever get into a bidding war for a home. It’s like Ebay I guess, they just don’t want to lose and go crazy. I think sometimes people could have built new homes for what they ended up paying for an older home after the smoke cleared from the bidding war.

[BikeRider]

That was the commission and I think lamoneyguy is correct on the selling price. This X-boyfriend must have been out for more than just his home sold. Near the end of the show the seller was regretting that his X-girlfriend was the agent and was representing both parties. And the buyer stated that she thinks it was bad the agent was so emotionally involved with the seller.

I think if these shows even survive for 30 years, and we haven’t destroyed the earth by then, people will find all of these reality shows totally nuts. Or maybe, the direction TV is heading, there will be even more bizarre goings on and this stuff will be ho-hum. 40 million dollar fixer uppers on water front property in Nevada (since California finally fell into the ocean back in 2020).

[BikeRider]

Sometimes I feel guilty about the money I’m spending on cable. Some of what bothers me is I can’t choose the channels I want. To get channels like TLC, Discovery, etc, I have to buy a package that contains other channels I could care less about. But then this past weekend our dish crapped out. We were cable-less for three days while I resolved the problem (ended up being bad coax from dish to receiver). Anyway, I was in withdrawal and realized that I really do appreciate some of the shows I like to watch.

Even though you only get to see what the director (or I guess editor) lets you see, these ‘reality’ shows can be really facinating. Though how real are people being with a camera in their face. Maybe after a while they forget it is there. Anyway, I feel I have learned a lot watching shows like Property Ladder, Flip This (and That) House. Not real estate, but I really like Over-Haulin (I guess because I am restoring an old 1973 Bronco) and other shows about restoring old machinery.

The real estate shows can be really fun to watch. My wife and I will be watching, see something crazy going on and look over at each other wide-eyed.

[BikeRider]

I guess it was three shows back to back. I saw that too. Man, the realtor was trying to be some kind of model. Too made up for my taste. Wasn’t it funny how she wouldn’t walk around with anyone at the open house until the young guy came in and she was interested in him, so THEN she walked around with him. And you are right, she was not properly representing the seller once she was getting both commissions. She stood to get $110K in commission until the seller (her x-boy friend) pulled the listing. And wasn’t he something…. the buyer asked to have a light switch wallplate replaced. He is all pissed off about it and says no way. He stands to make $710K off the sale and won’t replace a wall plate (at a cost of probably $1). These people are from some planet that I have not visited.

[BikeRider]

SDappraiser is probably looking for a job:-).Probably makes him (her) want to fight and also try to justify the really high appraisals done in the past, creating this bubble.

[Author]

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