[cabal]

We were in a similar, but somewhat reverse situation earlier this year. Our plans were to accelerate our sell date and downsize for eventual retirement. Although we purchased well before the bubble and would have recovered our investment plus some, the decline relative to the 2006 peak was still hard to reconcile.

Here’s a brief summary of our experience.

We had planned on interviewing several realtors including a few on this site whom I would recommend consideration should you decide to sell. I’ve read their posts on and off for the past 2 years and find them very knowledgeable on local neighborhoods, measured, and usually balanced unless trolled into no win arguments. Unfortunately, my wife mentioned our intentions to a friend and before you know it, we were inundated with calls. We eventually selected with a local, top producer who was an acquaintance. Only real issue was asking price as we settled on a price higher than what this person recommended.

We received the most activity within the first two weeks. After that, the traffic dropped precipitously to probably 1 showing per week. Of interest was that 70% of the potential buyers surveyed thought the house was priced at market value and 20% thought it is was above market value. Unfortunately, the offers we received were all extreme lowballs, which we promptly rejected usually without any counteroffer. With respect to buyer profile, 40% were Asians who knew the local market inside out and probably go around making lowballs hoping one would bite. 30% were out of state professionals relocating to SD.

I think the biggest frustration for non-distressed sellers are the comps being biased low due to short and foreclosure closings. It’s unfortunate for sellers that comps are based on sales price rather than the appraised value. For example, if a foreclosure appraises at 500K but a shrewd buyer negotiates a deal at 400K, a follow on buyer for a similar house will baseline his purchase price at 400K, not the correct 500K. In effect you have a circular death spiral in home prices to the benefit of the buyer. For this reason and others, some homes have overcorrected as basic purchase metrics such as rent to PITI parity have been mutilated beyond recognition. Imo, the smart money began leaving the herd in late 2008 when fear was high, competition light and quality abundant.

Another interesting development was that many of our neighbors immediately assumed we were in financial difficulty and readily offered up all kinds of advice ranging from loan mods to rent with option to buy. In retrospect, the buyers probably made the same assumptions. Eventually we pulled the house off the market and will stay put until this storm passes. If you decide to sell your 720K house, be prepared for offers as low as 600K. Good luck.

[cabal]

Congrats on your purchase. Alta Loma is one of the better locations in the Inland Empire is terms of value retention; sticky on the way down and bullish on the way up. If I remember correctly, the rule of thumb was to stay north of Foothill, north of Baseline if possible, and obviously west of I-15 away from Fontana. I owned two houses in Alta Loma in the late 80s before moving down to SD in the early 90s. It was there that I first tasted the RE Kool-Aid (yummy). The last house was in the Victoria tract near Baseline & Haven. Where abouts is your home? What is the area like these days? From memory, Alta Loma and the adjacent towns of Upland and Claremont were beautiful communities, particularly in winter when the smog is sparse and the views to the mountains are simply majestic. Some of the homes particularly on the northern fringes of town are simply spectacular, certainly on par with homes in SD communities like Olivenhein. On balance, it’s a great area to raise a family. I miss the 30 min drive time to ski Mt Baldy, the charm of old Claremont and the Claremont Colleges, the fairgrounds, and Vince’s Spaghetti (is it still there?).

[cabal]

Congrats on your purchase. Alta Loma is one of the better locations in the Inland Empire is terms of value retention; sticky on the way down and bullish on the way up. If I remember correctly, the rule of thumb was to stay north of Foothill, north of Baseline if possible, and obviously west of I-15 away from Fontana. I owned two houses in Alta Loma in the late 80s before moving down to SD in the early 90s. It was there that I first tasted the RE Kool-Aid (yummy). The last house was in the Victoria tract near Baseline & Haven. Where abouts is your home? What is the area like these days? From memory, Alta Loma and the adjacent towns of Upland and Claremont were beautiful communities, particularly in winter when the smog is sparse and the views to the mountains are simply majestic. Some of the homes particularly on the northern fringes of town are simply spectacular, certainly on par with homes in SD communities like Olivenhein. On balance, it’s a great area to raise a family. I miss the 30 min drive time to ski Mt Baldy, the charm of old Claremont and the Claremont Colleges, the fairgrounds, and Vince’s Spaghetti (is it still there?).

[cabal]

Congrats on your purchase. Alta Loma is one of the better locations in the Inland Empire is terms of value retention; sticky on the way down and bullish on the way up. If I remember correctly, the rule of thumb was to stay north of Foothill, north of Baseline if possible, and obviously west of I-15 away from Fontana. I owned two houses in Alta Loma in the late 80s before moving down to SD in the early 90s. It was there that I first tasted the RE Kool-Aid (yummy). The last house was in the Victoria tract near Baseline & Haven. Where abouts is your home? What is the area like these days? From memory, Alta Loma and the adjacent towns of Upland and Claremont were beautiful communities, particularly in winter when the smog is sparse and the views to the mountains are simply majestic. Some of the homes particularly on the northern fringes of town are simply spectacular, certainly on par with homes in SD communities like Olivenhein. On balance, it’s a great area to raise a family. I miss the 30 min drive time to ski Mt Baldy, the charm of old Claremont and the Claremont Colleges, the fairgrounds, and Vince’s Spaghetti (is it still there?).

[cabal]

Congrats on your purchase. Alta Loma is one of the better locations in the Inland Empire is terms of value retention; sticky on the way down and bullish on the way up. If I remember correctly, the rule of thumb was to stay north of Foothill, north of Baseline if possible, and obviously west of I-15 away from Fontana. I owned two houses in Alta Loma in the late 80s before moving down to SD in the early 90s. It was there that I first tasted the RE Kool-Aid (yummy). The last house was in the Victoria tract near Baseline & Haven. Where abouts is your home? What is the area like these days? From memory, Alta Loma and the adjacent towns of Upland and Claremont were beautiful communities, particularly in winter when the smog is sparse and the views to the mountains are simply majestic. Some of the homes particularly on the northern fringes of town are simply spectacular, certainly on par with homes in SD communities like Olivenhein. On balance, it’s a great area to raise a family. I miss the 30 min drive time to ski Mt Baldy, the charm of old Claremont and the Claremont Colleges, the fairgrounds, and Vince’s Spaghetti (is it still there?).

[cabal]

Congrats on your purchase. Alta Loma is one of the better locations in the Inland Empire is terms of value retention; sticky on the way down and bullish on the way up. If I remember correctly, the rule of thumb was to stay north of Foothill, north of Baseline if possible, and obviously west of I-15 away from Fontana. I owned two houses in Alta Loma in the late 80s before moving down to SD in the early 90s. It was there that I first tasted the RE Kool-Aid (yummy). The last house was in the Victoria tract near Baseline & Haven. Where abouts is your home? What is the area like these days? From memory, Alta Loma and the adjacent towns of Upland and Claremont were beautiful communities, particularly in winter when the smog is sparse and the views to the mountains are simply majestic. Some of the homes particularly on the northern fringes of town are simply spectacular, certainly on par with homes in SD communities like Olivenhein. On balance, it’s a great area to raise a family. I miss the 30 min drive time to ski Mt Baldy, the charm of old Claremont and the Claremont Colleges, the fairgrounds, and Vince’s Spaghetti (is it still there?).

[cabal]

[quote=scaredycat]i do feel like young guys get sold a bill of goods in society. we need to go back to arranged marraiges with family support. young people really cannot support themselves and afamily early on. arranged marriages. no reproducing without a care plan in place. if one party will stay at home, they have to sign binding agreements that they will do so. love stinks. we need some govt regulation[/quote]

Scaredy,
Your posts always read somewhat incoherent but nonetheless entertainng. You were born in the wrong era. Here’s a link to the infamous 1955 Good Housekeeping article for your enjoyment – “Good Wifes Guide”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goodwifeguide.jpg

[cabal]

[quote=scaredycat]i do feel like young guys get sold a bill of goods in society. we need to go back to arranged marraiges with family support. young people really cannot support themselves and afamily early on. arranged marriages. no reproducing without a care plan in place. if one party will stay at home, they have to sign binding agreements that they will do so. love stinks. we need some govt regulation[/quote]

Scaredy,
Your posts always read somewhat incoherent but nonetheless entertainng. You were born in the wrong era. Here’s a link to the infamous 1955 Good Housekeeping article for your enjoyment – “Good Wifes Guide”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goodwifeguide.jpg

[cabal]

[quote=scaredycat]i do feel like young guys get sold a bill of goods in society. we need to go back to arranged marraiges with family support. young people really cannot support themselves and afamily early on. arranged marriages. no reproducing without a care plan in place. if one party will stay at home, they have to sign binding agreements that they will do so. love stinks. we need some govt regulation[/quote]

Scaredy,
Your posts always read somewhat incoherent but nonetheless entertainng. You were born in the wrong era. Here’s a link to the infamous 1955 Good Housekeeping article for your enjoyment – “Good Wifes Guide”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goodwifeguide.jpg

[cabal]

[quote=scaredycat]i do feel like young guys get sold a bill of goods in society. we need to go back to arranged marraiges with family support. young people really cannot support themselves and afamily early on. arranged marriages. no reproducing without a care plan in place. if one party will stay at home, they have to sign binding agreements that they will do so. love stinks. we need some govt regulation[/quote]

Scaredy,
Your posts always read somewhat incoherent but nonetheless entertainng. You were born in the wrong era. Here’s a link to the infamous 1955 Good Housekeeping article for your enjoyment – “Good Wifes Guide”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goodwifeguide.jpg

[cabal]

[quote=scaredycat]i do feel like young guys get sold a bill of goods in society. we need to go back to arranged marraiges with family support. young people really cannot support themselves and afamily early on. arranged marriages. no reproducing without a care plan in place. if one party will stay at home, they have to sign binding agreements that they will do so. love stinks. we need some govt regulation[/quote]

Scaredy,
Your posts always read somewhat incoherent but nonetheless entertainng. You were born in the wrong era. Here’s a link to the infamous 1955 Good Housekeeping article for your enjoyment – “Good Wifes Guide”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goodwifeguide.jpg

[cabal]

[quote=lindismith]We are in manufacturing, right here in San Diego.

My business has increased A LOT in the last 7 years, mostly because we use a lot of technology, despite the fact that commercial sewing is a somewhat old-fashioned type of process. We don’t have any high tech specialty cutting machines in the factory per se, we just utilize high tech marketing (blogs, SEO, email etc.)and software for running the business as much as possible. So the high tech element is on the front end.

Sometimes when my competitors go out of business, they call me to see if I want to buy equipment. It’s interesting to see, but they often have high tech stuff in their factory, but not in their office, which is the opposite of us.

You can see what we do at http://www.garymanufacturing.com, but we manufacture very basic items, despite stiff competition from China.

The other high tech element we use is reading the blogs, like Piggington and CR. I would say those two single-handedly helped me ramp up prior to the recession so that I was prepared for it.

Ultimately I was surprised by how fast and how far the economy dropped, but still, I felt like I had access to really great data thanks to Rich and all the Piggs.

Hope all is well with you guys – have had a busy summer, but still lurk once in a while. Like, today.

Belinda[/quote]

Nice to see examples of local manufacturing businesses finding a way to compete globally, rather than complain about unfair trade practices. My employer is also a manufacturing intensive company, competing domestically as well as globally with powerhouse European and Asian businesses. Fourth quarter 2008 and 2009 has been extremely challenging, but thanks to a proactive management team, we executed our recession scenario business plan flawlessly allowing us to still met business targets with minimal layoffs. Although a hiring freeze is still in place, I’m happy to report no more layoffs are planned for the forseeable future.

I don’t see how, but more power to you if find blogs like Piggington helpful in managing your business. As a former small business owner with upwards of 20 employees at the peak, I found the biggest challenge hands down was managing, motivating and retaining quality employees. It was a wild ride for 6 years. I don’t miss it at this stage in life as I prefer the relative safety and abundant resources of the corporate world. If you happen to check in, I would be interested in hearing about the unique challenges of your business. Good luck.

[cabal]

[quote=lindismith]We are in manufacturing, right here in San Diego.

My business has increased A LOT in the last 7 years, mostly because we use a lot of technology, despite the fact that commercial sewing is a somewhat old-fashioned type of process. We don’t have any high tech specialty cutting machines in the factory per se, we just utilize high tech marketing (blogs, SEO, email etc.)and software for running the business as much as possible. So the high tech element is on the front end.

Sometimes when my competitors go out of business, they call me to see if I want to buy equipment. It’s interesting to see, but they often have high tech stuff in their factory, but not in their office, which is the opposite of us.

You can see what we do at http://www.garymanufacturing.com, but we manufacture very basic items, despite stiff competition from China.

The other high tech element we use is reading the blogs, like Piggington and CR. I would say those two single-handedly helped me ramp up prior to the recession so that I was prepared for it.

Ultimately I was surprised by how fast and how far the economy dropped, but still, I felt like I had access to really great data thanks to Rich and all the Piggs.

Hope all is well with you guys – have had a busy summer, but still lurk once in a while. Like, today.

Belinda[/quote]

Nice to see examples of local manufacturing businesses finding a way to compete globally, rather than complain about unfair trade practices. My employer is also a manufacturing intensive company, competing domestically as well as globally with powerhouse European and Asian businesses. Fourth quarter 2008 and 2009 has been extremely challenging, but thanks to a proactive management team, we executed our recession scenario business plan flawlessly allowing us to still met business targets with minimal layoffs. Although a hiring freeze is still in place, I’m happy to report no more layoffs are planned for the forseeable future.

I don’t see how, but more power to you if find blogs like Piggington helpful in managing your business. As a former small business owner with upwards of 20 employees at the peak, I found the biggest challenge hands down was managing, motivating and retaining quality employees. It was a wild ride for 6 years. I don’t miss it at this stage in life as I prefer the relative safety and abundant resources of the corporate world. If you happen to check in, I would be interested in hearing about the unique challenges of your business. Good luck.

[cabal]

[quote=lindismith]We are in manufacturing, right here in San Diego.

My business has increased A LOT in the last 7 years, mostly because we use a lot of technology, despite the fact that commercial sewing is a somewhat old-fashioned type of process. We don’t have any high tech specialty cutting machines in the factory per se, we just utilize high tech marketing (blogs, SEO, email etc.)and software for running the business as much as possible. So the high tech element is on the front end.

Sometimes when my competitors go out of business, they call me to see if I want to buy equipment. It’s interesting to see, but they often have high tech stuff in their factory, but not in their office, which is the opposite of us.

You can see what we do at http://www.garymanufacturing.com, but we manufacture very basic items, despite stiff competition from China.

The other high tech element we use is reading the blogs, like Piggington and CR. I would say those two single-handedly helped me ramp up prior to the recession so that I was prepared for it.

Ultimately I was surprised by how fast and how far the economy dropped, but still, I felt like I had access to really great data thanks to Rich and all the Piggs.

Hope all is well with you guys – have had a busy summer, but still lurk once in a while. Like, today.

Belinda[/quote]

Nice to see examples of local manufacturing businesses finding a way to compete globally, rather than complain about unfair trade practices. My employer is also a manufacturing intensive company, competing domestically as well as globally with powerhouse European and Asian businesses. Fourth quarter 2008 and 2009 has been extremely challenging, but thanks to a proactive management team, we executed our recession scenario business plan flawlessly allowing us to still met business targets with minimal layoffs. Although a hiring freeze is still in place, I’m happy to report no more layoffs are planned for the forseeable future.

I don’t see how, but more power to you if find blogs like Piggington helpful in managing your business. As a former small business owner with upwards of 20 employees at the peak, I found the biggest challenge hands down was managing, motivating and retaining quality employees. It was a wild ride for 6 years. I don’t miss it at this stage in life as I prefer the relative safety and abundant resources of the corporate world. If you happen to check in, I would be interested in hearing about the unique challenges of your business. Good luck.

[cabal]

[quote=lindismith]We are in manufacturing, right here in San Diego.

My business has increased A LOT in the last 7 years, mostly because we use a lot of technology, despite the fact that commercial sewing is a somewhat old-fashioned type of process. We don’t have any high tech specialty cutting machines in the factory per se, we just utilize high tech marketing (blogs, SEO, email etc.)and software for running the business as much as possible. So the high tech element is on the front end.

Sometimes when my competitors go out of business, they call me to see if I want to buy equipment. It’s interesting to see, but they often have high tech stuff in their factory, but not in their office, which is the opposite of us.

You can see what we do at http://www.garymanufacturing.com, but we manufacture very basic items, despite stiff competition from China.

The other high tech element we use is reading the blogs, like Piggington and CR. I would say those two single-handedly helped me ramp up prior to the recession so that I was prepared for it.

Ultimately I was surprised by how fast and how far the economy dropped, but still, I felt like I had access to really great data thanks to Rich and all the Piggs.

Hope all is well with you guys – have had a busy summer, but still lurk once in a while. Like, today.

Belinda[/quote]

Nice to see examples of local manufacturing businesses finding a way to compete globally, rather than complain about unfair trade practices. My employer is also a manufacturing intensive company, competing domestically as well as globally with powerhouse European and Asian businesses. Fourth quarter 2008 and 2009 has been extremely challenging, but thanks to a proactive management team, we executed our recession scenario business plan flawlessly allowing us to still met business targets with minimal layoffs. Although a hiring freeze is still in place, I’m happy to report no more layoffs are planned for the forseeable future.

I don’t see how, but more power to you if find blogs like Piggington helpful in managing your business. As a former small business owner with upwards of 20 employees at the peak, I found the biggest challenge hands down was managing, motivating and retaining quality employees. It was a wild ride for 6 years. I don’t miss it at this stage in life as I prefer the relative safety and abundant resources of the corporate world. If you happen to check in, I would be interested in hearing about the unique challenges of your business. Good luck.

[Author]

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