[Navydoc]

I’m not so sure you should jump up and say all these people were/are wrong because some greater fool bought a depreciating asset. Still think the property is worth $870,000 today? I’m not so sure. If you’ll note, most of the responses you referenced state the decline may take YEARS, not days or weeks. I have a cousin that lives in this neighborhood, and I’d give you mid 700’s low 800’s for their place right now, but I don’t htink a future value of low 700’s is out of the qestion.

[Navydoc]

I’m not so sure you should jump up and say all these people were/are wrong because some greater fool bought a depreciating asset. Still think the property is worth $870,000 today? I’m not so sure. If you’ll note, most of the responses you referenced state the decline may take YEARS, not days or weeks. I have a cousin that lives in this neighborhood, and I’d give you mid 700’s low 800’s for their place right now, but I don’t htink a future value of low 700’s is out of the qestion.

[Navydoc]

I’m not so sure you should jump up and say all these people were/are wrong because some greater fool bought a depreciating asset. Still think the property is worth $870,000 today? I’m not so sure. If you’ll note, most of the responses you referenced state the decline may take YEARS, not days or weeks. I have a cousin that lives in this neighborhood, and I’d give you mid 700’s low 800’s for their place right now, but I don’t htink a future value of low 700’s is out of the qestion.

[Navydoc]

I’m not so sure you should jump up and say all these people were/are wrong because some greater fool bought a depreciating asset. Still think the property is worth $870,000 today? I’m not so sure. If you’ll note, most of the responses you referenced state the decline may take YEARS, not days or weeks. I have a cousin that lives in this neighborhood, and I’d give you mid 700’s low 800’s for their place right now, but I don’t htink a future value of low 700’s is out of the qestion.

[Navydoc]

Probably is, but the fact that someone thought it was funny enough to add one is disturbing enough.

[Navydoc]

Probably is, but the fact that someone thought it was funny enough to add one is disturbing enough.

[Navydoc]

Probably is, but the fact that someone thought it was funny enough to add one is disturbing enough.

[Navydoc]

Probably is, but the fact that someone thought it was funny enough to add one is disturbing enough.

[Navydoc]

I agree with Rustico on this one (I hope he still doesn’t hate me for the gun thread). Has anyone here ever been house-poor? Let me tell you, it’s the worst feeling EVER. You literally perseverate constantly on how you’re going to make each payment, whether it be mortgage of electricity or food. Its sucks the life out of you. I intend never to feel that way again, which is why I havn’t bought in this market. I certainly would have had to stretch to afford what I want.

Raptorduck, your analogy to EBAY is spot on. I recently caught someone shill bidding on an item I really wanted. I bid on like the 3rd day of a 7 day auction, and wouldn’t you know it? 30 min before the auction closed I was outbid! Better hurry up and bid again! I had a price in mind I was willing to pay, bid up to that, when I still didn’t get it I found another one with a buy-it-now option for my max price, so I bought that one instead. Got a message 10 min after the auction closed stating “congratulations, the high bidder is unable to complete the transaction, you can have it for your last bid!” I ignored it, 10 min after that I received a message that the sale had been cancelled due to shill bidding.

In this housing market you are describing the equivalent of shill bidding. the secret to not getting burned is have an idea what you’re willing to pay, and don’t go over it. It is after all, your money. I realize removing emotion from a home purchase can be difficult, but trust me, you really don’t want to overextend, especially if you’re doing it because of some jerk Realtor/seller.

[Navydoc]

I agree with Rustico on this one (I hope he still doesn’t hate me for the gun thread). Has anyone here ever been house-poor? Let me tell you, it’s the worst feeling EVER. You literally perseverate constantly on how you’re going to make each payment, whether it be mortgage of electricity or food. Its sucks the life out of you. I intend never to feel that way again, which is why I havn’t bought in this market. I certainly would have had to stretch to afford what I want.

Raptorduck, your analogy to EBAY is spot on. I recently caught someone shill bidding on an item I really wanted. I bid on like the 3rd day of a 7 day auction, and wouldn’t you know it? 30 min before the auction closed I was outbid! Better hurry up and bid again! I had a price in mind I was willing to pay, bid up to that, when I still didn’t get it I found another one with a buy-it-now option for my max price, so I bought that one instead. Got a message 10 min after the auction closed stating “congratulations, the high bidder is unable to complete the transaction, you can have it for your last bid!” I ignored it, 10 min after that I received a message that the sale had been cancelled due to shill bidding.

In this housing market you are describing the equivalent of shill bidding. the secret to not getting burned is have an idea what you’re willing to pay, and don’t go over it. It is after all, your money. I realize removing emotion from a home purchase can be difficult, but trust me, you really don’t want to overextend, especially if you’re doing it because of some jerk Realtor/seller.

[Navydoc]

I bought the home in 1989 while I was making a fair living as a furniture salesman. I had an FHA loan at the time, and could afford the payments easily. I lost my job in 1990 when the furniture market declined, and started the process to get my real estate license (amazing the parallels to today). While working on my license I took a job working night as a Nurses Aide in an elderly care facility to pay my bills, and afterward kept the night job while I tried to sell houses during the day.

I learned I preferred washing asses to kissing them for a living (sorry SDR and sdr, and I posted in an earlier thread how I got out of real estate), so I decided health care was the life for me. I enrolled at Penn State as a 25 year-old undergrad in 1991, lived in the home for the first year, but found the payments were getting too tough to keep up with, so I moved in with my brother and rented the place out for a year. The tenants trashed the place, and left me with $2000 in unpaid gas and electric bills which took me two years to pay off. In the meantime the housing market declined and the house was worth less than I had paid for it, and still owed. I calculated that selling the home at current market value would have required I bring at least $7500 to the table, which was money I didn’t have at the time. I made the logical decision to walk away and live with the consequences.

For those that think I should have dropped out of school and make good on my debts, you have a valid point. But if I hadn’t made the decision I did, I’m quite certain I wouldn’t be where I am today. I think what happened to me is going to happen to a lot of people, just to a much larger extent. Remember, the house I bought was only $42,000, but the fundamentals will prove to hold just as true today as they did back then.

[Navydoc]

I bought the home in 1989 while I was making a fair living as a furniture salesman. I had an FHA loan at the time, and could afford the payments easily. I lost my job in 1990 when the furniture market declined, and started the process to get my real estate license (amazing the parallels to today). While working on my license I took a job working night as a Nurses Aide in an elderly care facility to pay my bills, and afterward kept the night job while I tried to sell houses during the day.

I learned I preferred washing asses to kissing them for a living (sorry SDR and sdr, and I posted in an earlier thread how I got out of real estate), so I decided health care was the life for me. I enrolled at Penn State as a 25 year-old undergrad in 1991, lived in the home for the first year, but found the payments were getting too tough to keep up with, so I moved in with my brother and rented the place out for a year. The tenants trashed the place, and left me with $2000 in unpaid gas and electric bills which took me two years to pay off. In the meantime the housing market declined and the house was worth less than I had paid for it, and still owed. I calculated that selling the home at current market value would have required I bring at least $7500 to the table, which was money I didn’t have at the time. I made the logical decision to walk away and live with the consequences.

For those that think I should have dropped out of school and make good on my debts, you have a valid point. But if I hadn’t made the decision I did, I’m quite certain I wouldn’t be where I am today. I think what happened to me is going to happen to a lot of people, just to a much larger extent. Remember, the house I bought was only $42,000, but the fundamentals will prove to hold just as true today as they did back then.

[Navydoc]

I’m going to try to take the TG route and try to be nice, while still trying to explain why we feel the way we do. Let me ask you a question, did the couples you describe continually gloat about how much money they were making, and how if you’re not in on the game now, you’ll never get in? I know many people like this, and they would continually try to get me to “invest” in the market, one even trying to get me to buy one of their own properties! (They’re having some trouble unloading it now) I resisted, as the only finacing I would consider was 20% down and a fixed rate mortgage. The only problem was I was in the top 5% income bracket, and could only afford the median home! That simply insn’t fair, and doesn’t sit with the fundamentals. I understand that some people are going to learn a painful lesson from this, and I don’t really like to see people suffer but I can’t truly feel sorry for them if they chose to believe that the fundamental nature of the real estate market had changed. I bet they won’t forget it now though. And in order for me to enter the market at the level I desire and should be able to afford, I NEED a correction to take place.

Oh, and I agree, JWM can come off as a little insensitive, but the content of his posts tend to be quite accurate. I’ve learned a great deal from him over the months. Stay with us, you’ll come to understand us a little better in time.

[Navydoc]

I’m going to try to take the TG route and try to be nice, while still trying to explain why we feel the way we do. Let me ask you a question, did the couples you describe continually gloat about how much money they were making, and how if you’re not in on the game now, you’ll never get in? I know many people like this, and they would continually try to get me to “invest” in the market, one even trying to get me to buy one of their own properties! (They’re having some trouble unloading it now) I resisted, as the only finacing I would consider was 20% down and a fixed rate mortgage. The only problem was I was in the top 5% income bracket, and could only afford the median home! That simply insn’t fair, and doesn’t sit with the fundamentals. I understand that some people are going to learn a painful lesson from this, and I don’t really like to see people suffer but I can’t truly feel sorry for them if they chose to believe that the fundamental nature of the real estate market had changed. I bet they won’t forget it now though. And in order for me to enter the market at the level I desire and should be able to afford, I NEED a correction to take place.

Oh, and I agree, JWM can come off as a little insensitive, but the content of his posts tend to be quite accurate. I’ve learned a great deal from him over the months. Stay with us, you’ll come to understand us a little better in time.

[Navydoc]

As someone who hs personnally recovered from a foreclosure back in 1994, I think I have something to contribute. The foreclosure stayed on my credit history for 7 years, but I was able to begin rebuilding my credit after about 3. At first I was the equivalent of a junk bond, then by 4 years I was about a B. Granted, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get a mortgage until after the 7 years, but I was able to get a used car loan in 1997.

Couple of comments about the situation: bear in mind that the clock doesn’t start ticking until after the judgement has been filed. I made my last mortgage payment in April 1993 after a DISASTEROUS year renting the place out; my judgement wasn’t final until Sept 1994. The other point I have to make is you CAN recover from this. I was an undergrad while I was trying to keep the home above water, foreclosure occered in my senior year, and I reconstructed during medical school. Now my credit rating last time I checked was 809, well into AAA category. I used to think the home purchase/foreclosure was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but now I look at it as a situation where I was saved from making a purchase now which could have been an order of magnitude worse.

I believe the correction must come, and while it will be painful, the majority of people will recover from it, and hopefully be the wiser as a result. My only question is what kind of condition the financial community will be in as a result. I have a feeling it’s going to look quite a bit different than it does today.

[Author]

Posts