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drboom
ParticipantI’m in the later stages of escrow on a short sale, so it remains to be seen whether it’s a “successful” experience or not. 🙂
Expect a lot of competing offers, and expect to wait … and wait … and wait some more.
This is the second short sale my wife and I have tried to buy. On the first one, our offer was accepted rather quickly, only to disappear into the bowels of BofA’s approval process for 60+ days. When the “approval” package finally came back, the seller discovered a nasty little piece of paper requiring them to make good on any loss. Keep in mind that BofA told the seller over the phone that their short sale was “approved” and failed to mention the small matter of $270k they wanted over the selling price. The listing agent drove by and yanked his sign out of the yard the next day. That house has been vacant for several months now and will probably fetch $10-20k less than our offer as an REO.
We wised up on the second (current) short sale: fire and forget! To our surprise, our offer was accepted on this one too. Other offers were for higher dollar amounts, but they were all FHA, contingency-laden, etc., so ours looked the most attractive overall. It took 65 days for the bank (don’t recall who they are at the moment–some no-name lender) to come back with a positive answer (also a surprise), but a couple of weeks of that were due to the seller having difficulty locating some paperwork.
From there, it’s all gone fairly quickly: inspection, termite, appraisal, loan underwriting, etc. are complete (17 days into a c. 27 day escrow); the “to do” list is down to selecting from a couple of competing quotes for homeowner’s insurance and miscellaneous “i” dotting and “t” crossing. If all goes well, we should have the keys a week from Wednesday.
We never stopped looking while either of these were in the banks’ hands, but inventory has been so low this year that there wasn’t anything else we wanted to make an offer on.
The disadvantages to a short sale mostly revolve around the fact that it’s a crapshoot: the bank may or may not approve it, and you’ll grow old waiting to find out. On the plus side, full disclosures apply just like in a normal sale and there’s some room to work with the seller. We worked this to our advantage in the offer by not requiring them to remove a bunch of junk all over the property. This would give us zero leverage with a REO, but the older lady who currently “owns” the house is overjoyed to not have to deal with it.
Short sales are a pain, but just like the lottery you gotta play to win. Not that we got a great deal or anything, but this was just about the only way we could find a house in our price range.
Participant[quote=CricketOnTheHearth]Some sights just grab your eyeballs and mug them.[/quote]
Something would have been wrong with him if he didn’t look, and I bet Michelle is giving Barack a good-natured ribbing.
I know my beautiful and self-assured wife would have a good laugh at my expense if that was me in the photo.
And I agree with the other poster who pointed out Sarkozy’s expression. Tres francais, and very funny.
Participant[quote=CricketOnTheHearth]Some sights just grab your eyeballs and mug them.[/quote]
Something would have been wrong with him if he didn’t look, and I bet Michelle is giving Barack a good-natured ribbing.
I know my beautiful and self-assured wife would have a good laugh at my expense if that was me in the photo.
And I agree with the other poster who pointed out Sarkozy’s expression. Tres francais, and very funny.
Participant[quote=CricketOnTheHearth]Some sights just grab your eyeballs and mug them.[/quote]
Something would have been wrong with him if he didn’t look, and I bet Michelle is giving Barack a good-natured ribbing.
I know my beautiful and self-assured wife would have a good laugh at my expense if that was me in the photo.
And I agree with the other poster who pointed out Sarkozy’s expression. Tres francais, and very funny.
Participant[quote=CricketOnTheHearth]Some sights just grab your eyeballs and mug them.[/quote]
Something would have been wrong with him if he didn’t look, and I bet Michelle is giving Barack a good-natured ribbing.
I know my beautiful and self-assured wife would have a good laugh at my expense if that was me in the photo.
And I agree with the other poster who pointed out Sarkozy’s expression. Tres francais, and very funny.
Participant[quote=CricketOnTheHearth]Some sights just grab your eyeballs and mug them.[/quote]
Something would have been wrong with him if he didn’t look, and I bet Michelle is giving Barack a good-natured ribbing.
I know my beautiful and self-assured wife would have a good laugh at my expense if that was me in the photo.
And I agree with the other poster who pointed out Sarkozy’s expression. Tres francais, and very funny.
ParticipantI’ve lived a good deal of my life around the area, and it’s great overall if you like the semi-rural suburbia thing. Definitely pay attention to the amount of traffic on some of the streets as mentioned above. Fuerte, Grandview, Calavo, Lemon Ave., Conrad, and a few others are NOT kid-friendly: no curbs/sidewalks, blind corners, and people drive faster than they should.
Since you have kids and no one has talked about the schools yet, here’s a quick summary:
My wife teaches in the area’s elementary/middle school district (La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, which is also where I went to elementary and junior high), and it’s a pretty solid and stable group of teachers & administrators. The schools themselves vary a surprising amount: Murdock Elementary serves a middle-upper class clientele, but Spring Valley Middle School a couple of long blocks down the street has some mild gang problems. La Mesa Middle is about the same as SVMS. If you go north of I-8 to Fletcher hills, the schools are about as good as public schools get (Fletcher Hills Elementary and Parkway Middle; Northmont Elementary is said to be just a small step behind).
Parts of Fletcher Hills deserve a look if you’re thinking about Mt. Helix. Streets/areas to consider include Hacienda; the area enclosed by the loop formed by Murray Dr. along with some of the adjacent neighborhood north of the eastern end of Amaya; and Tyrone plus connected cul de sacs and dead end streets on the western slope of the El Cajon valley.
Take a leisurely drive around and see for yourself. I’d take Mt. Helix or Fletcher Hills over anything on the I-15 corridor. I like older neighborhoods, so YMMV.
High schools are all in the Grossmont Union High School District. Helix serves La Mesa proper and some of western Mt. Helix. It has traditionally had a rougher group of kids than Grossmont HS (which serves Mt. Helix proper and Fletcher Hills); Monte Vista HS (serves Casa de Oro and south to Jamacha Rd.) is traditionally on a par with Helix.
Don’t let the “rougher” schools scare you, however–all things are relative. A friend of mine went to Murdock, Spring Valley Elementary (now closed), Spring Valley Middle (Junior High in those days) and Monte Vista HS. He went on to Stanford and then law school, so it’s not like any of the schools I’m talking about are in the ghetto.
I can ask my wife for more specifics if you need them. Anything for a fellow pigg. 🙂
The funny thing is that we’re homeschooling our kids so this topic isn’t all that relevant to me.
ParticipantI’ve lived a good deal of my life around the area, and it’s great overall if you like the semi-rural suburbia thing. Definitely pay attention to the amount of traffic on some of the streets as mentioned above. Fuerte, Grandview, Calavo, Lemon Ave., Conrad, and a few others are NOT kid-friendly: no curbs/sidewalks, blind corners, and people drive faster than they should.
Since you have kids and no one has talked about the schools yet, here’s a quick summary:
My wife teaches in the area’s elementary/middle school district (La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, which is also where I went to elementary and junior high), and it’s a pretty solid and stable group of teachers & administrators. The schools themselves vary a surprising amount: Murdock Elementary serves a middle-upper class clientele, but Spring Valley Middle School a couple of long blocks down the street has some mild gang problems. La Mesa Middle is about the same as SVMS. If you go north of I-8 to Fletcher hills, the schools are about as good as public schools get (Fletcher Hills Elementary and Parkway Middle; Northmont Elementary is said to be just a small step behind).
Parts of Fletcher Hills deserve a look if you’re thinking about Mt. Helix. Streets/areas to consider include Hacienda; the area enclosed by the loop formed by Murray Dr. along with some of the adjacent neighborhood north of the eastern end of Amaya; and Tyrone plus connected cul de sacs and dead end streets on the western slope of the El Cajon valley.
Take a leisurely drive around and see for yourself. I’d take Mt. Helix or Fletcher Hills over anything on the I-15 corridor. I like older neighborhoods, so YMMV.
High schools are all in the Grossmont Union High School District. Helix serves La Mesa proper and some of western Mt. Helix. It has traditionally had a rougher group of kids than Grossmont HS (which serves Mt. Helix proper and Fletcher Hills); Monte Vista HS (serves Casa de Oro and south to Jamacha Rd.) is traditionally on a par with Helix.
Don’t let the “rougher” schools scare you, however–all things are relative. A friend of mine went to Murdock, Spring Valley Elementary (now closed), Spring Valley Middle (Junior High in those days) and Monte Vista HS. He went on to Stanford and then law school, so it’s not like any of the schools I’m talking about are in the ghetto.
I can ask my wife for more specifics if you need them. Anything for a fellow pigg. 🙂
The funny thing is that we’re homeschooling our kids so this topic isn’t all that relevant to me.
ParticipantI’ve lived a good deal of my life around the area, and it’s great overall if you like the semi-rural suburbia thing. Definitely pay attention to the amount of traffic on some of the streets as mentioned above. Fuerte, Grandview, Calavo, Lemon Ave., Conrad, and a few others are NOT kid-friendly: no curbs/sidewalks, blind corners, and people drive faster than they should.
Since you have kids and no one has talked about the schools yet, here’s a quick summary:
My wife teaches in the area’s elementary/middle school district (La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, which is also where I went to elementary and junior high), and it’s a pretty solid and stable group of teachers & administrators. The schools themselves vary a surprising amount: Murdock Elementary serves a middle-upper class clientele, but Spring Valley Middle School a couple of long blocks down the street has some mild gang problems. La Mesa Middle is about the same as SVMS. If you go north of I-8 to Fletcher hills, the schools are about as good as public schools get (Fletcher Hills Elementary and Parkway Middle; Northmont Elementary is said to be just a small step behind).
Parts of Fletcher Hills deserve a look if you’re thinking about Mt. Helix. Streets/areas to consider include Hacienda; the area enclosed by the loop formed by Murray Dr. along with some of the adjacent neighborhood north of the eastern end of Amaya; and Tyrone plus connected cul de sacs and dead end streets on the western slope of the El Cajon valley.
Take a leisurely drive around and see for yourself. I’d take Mt. Helix or Fletcher Hills over anything on the I-15 corridor. I like older neighborhoods, so YMMV.
High schools are all in the Grossmont Union High School District. Helix serves La Mesa proper and some of western Mt. Helix. It has traditionally had a rougher group of kids than Grossmont HS (which serves Mt. Helix proper and Fletcher Hills); Monte Vista HS (serves Casa de Oro and south to Jamacha Rd.) is traditionally on a par with Helix.
Don’t let the “rougher” schools scare you, however–all things are relative. A friend of mine went to Murdock, Spring Valley Elementary (now closed), Spring Valley Middle (Junior High in those days) and Monte Vista HS. He went on to Stanford and then law school, so it’s not like any of the schools I’m talking about are in the ghetto.
I can ask my wife for more specifics if you need them. Anything for a fellow pigg. 🙂
The funny thing is that we’re homeschooling our kids so this topic isn’t all that relevant to me.
ParticipantI’ve lived a good deal of my life around the area, and it’s great overall if you like the semi-rural suburbia thing. Definitely pay attention to the amount of traffic on some of the streets as mentioned above. Fuerte, Grandview, Calavo, Lemon Ave., Conrad, and a few others are NOT kid-friendly: no curbs/sidewalks, blind corners, and people drive faster than they should.
Since you have kids and no one has talked about the schools yet, here’s a quick summary:
My wife teaches in the area’s elementary/middle school district (La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, which is also where I went to elementary and junior high), and it’s a pretty solid and stable group of teachers & administrators. The schools themselves vary a surprising amount: Murdock Elementary serves a middle-upper class clientele, but Spring Valley Middle School a couple of long blocks down the street has some mild gang problems. La Mesa Middle is about the same as SVMS. If you go north of I-8 to Fletcher hills, the schools are about as good as public schools get (Fletcher Hills Elementary and Parkway Middle; Northmont Elementary is said to be just a small step behind).
Parts of Fletcher Hills deserve a look if you’re thinking about Mt. Helix. Streets/areas to consider include Hacienda; the area enclosed by the loop formed by Murray Dr. along with some of the adjacent neighborhood north of the eastern end of Amaya; and Tyrone plus connected cul de sacs and dead end streets on the western slope of the El Cajon valley.
Take a leisurely drive around and see for yourself. I’d take Mt. Helix or Fletcher Hills over anything on the I-15 corridor. I like older neighborhoods, so YMMV.
High schools are all in the Grossmont Union High School District. Helix serves La Mesa proper and some of western Mt. Helix. It has traditionally had a rougher group of kids than Grossmont HS (which serves Mt. Helix proper and Fletcher Hills); Monte Vista HS (serves Casa de Oro and south to Jamacha Rd.) is traditionally on a par with Helix.
Don’t let the “rougher” schools scare you, however–all things are relative. A friend of mine went to Murdock, Spring Valley Elementary (now closed), Spring Valley Middle (Junior High in those days) and Monte Vista HS. He went on to Stanford and then law school, so it’s not like any of the schools I’m talking about are in the ghetto.
I can ask my wife for more specifics if you need them. Anything for a fellow pigg. 🙂
The funny thing is that we’re homeschooling our kids so this topic isn’t all that relevant to me.
ParticipantI’ve lived a good deal of my life around the area, and it’s great overall if you like the semi-rural suburbia thing. Definitely pay attention to the amount of traffic on some of the streets as mentioned above. Fuerte, Grandview, Calavo, Lemon Ave., Conrad, and a few others are NOT kid-friendly: no curbs/sidewalks, blind corners, and people drive faster than they should.
Since you have kids and no one has talked about the schools yet, here’s a quick summary:
My wife teaches in the area’s elementary/middle school district (La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, which is also where I went to elementary and junior high), and it’s a pretty solid and stable group of teachers & administrators. The schools themselves vary a surprising amount: Murdock Elementary serves a middle-upper class clientele, but Spring Valley Middle School a couple of long blocks down the street has some mild gang problems. La Mesa Middle is about the same as SVMS. If you go north of I-8 to Fletcher hills, the schools are about as good as public schools get (Fletcher Hills Elementary and Parkway Middle; Northmont Elementary is said to be just a small step behind).
Parts of Fletcher Hills deserve a look if you’re thinking about Mt. Helix. Streets/areas to consider include Hacienda; the area enclosed by the loop formed by Murray Dr. along with some of the adjacent neighborhood north of the eastern end of Amaya; and Tyrone plus connected cul de sacs and dead end streets on the western slope of the El Cajon valley.
Take a leisurely drive around and see for yourself. I’d take Mt. Helix or Fletcher Hills over anything on the I-15 corridor. I like older neighborhoods, so YMMV.
High schools are all in the Grossmont Union High School District. Helix serves La Mesa proper and some of western Mt. Helix. It has traditionally had a rougher group of kids than Grossmont HS (which serves Mt. Helix proper and Fletcher Hills); Monte Vista HS (serves Casa de Oro and south to Jamacha Rd.) is traditionally on a par with Helix.
Don’t let the “rougher” schools scare you, however–all things are relative. A friend of mine went to Murdock, Spring Valley Elementary (now closed), Spring Valley Middle (Junior High in those days) and Monte Vista HS. He went on to Stanford and then law school, so it’s not like any of the schools I’m talking about are in the ghetto.
I can ask my wife for more specifics if you need them. Anything for a fellow pigg. 🙂
The funny thing is that we’re homeschooling our kids so this topic isn’t all that relevant to me.
ParticipantAs a former mobile electronics installer, I’ve seen just about every kind of DIY nightmare you can imagine. I’ve also seen a lot of “professional” nightmares: car audio installers are usually just one step up the auto shop evolutionary ladder from the Bondo slingers at body shops. I used to refer to one local shop (long since closed) as The Old Spaghetti Factory after seeing one too many of their alarm installs.
There’s a lot of truth to the article: if you have the slightest doubt about your mechanical ability, leave it to the pros. Myself, I have a ’05 Scion and maintenance doesn’t scare me a bit. Brakes, oil, plugs, belts, and the like are all within the reach of a home mechanic IF you have spent some time turning wrenches and have the ability to follow directions.
Speaking of directions, the Internet is a godsend for DIYers. I downloaded the full shop manual for my car for free (and legally). Back in the bad old days, it would have set me back $50-100 or more and occupied a bunch of shelf space.
ParticipantAs a former mobile electronics installer, I’ve seen just about every kind of DIY nightmare you can imagine. I’ve also seen a lot of “professional” nightmares: car audio installers are usually just one step up the auto shop evolutionary ladder from the Bondo slingers at body shops. I used to refer to one local shop (long since closed) as The Old Spaghetti Factory after seeing one too many of their alarm installs.
There’s a lot of truth to the article: if you have the slightest doubt about your mechanical ability, leave it to the pros. Myself, I have a ’05 Scion and maintenance doesn’t scare me a bit. Brakes, oil, plugs, belts, and the like are all within the reach of a home mechanic IF you have spent some time turning wrenches and have the ability to follow directions.
Speaking of directions, the Internet is a godsend for DIYers. I downloaded the full shop manual for my car for free (and legally). Back in the bad old days, it would have set me back $50-100 or more and occupied a bunch of shelf space.
ParticipantAs a former mobile electronics installer, I’ve seen just about every kind of DIY nightmare you can imagine. I’ve also seen a lot of “professional” nightmares: car audio installers are usually just one step up the auto shop evolutionary ladder from the Bondo slingers at body shops. I used to refer to one local shop (long since closed) as The Old Spaghetti Factory after seeing one too many of their alarm installs.
There’s a lot of truth to the article: if you have the slightest doubt about your mechanical ability, leave it to the pros. Myself, I have a ’05 Scion and maintenance doesn’t scare me a bit. Brakes, oil, plugs, belts, and the like are all within the reach of a home mechanic IF you have spent some time turning wrenches and have the ability to follow directions.
Speaking of directions, the Internet is a godsend for DIYers. I downloaded the full shop manual for my car for free (and legally). Back in the bad old days, it would have set me back $50-100 or more and occupied a bunch of shelf space.
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