[sdduuuude]

I think that is excellent advice. Really excellent advice.

[sdduuuude]

F.Y.I. I know of a successful FSBO sale on my street, closing in a week. I was surprised, too.

I think to sell a place I would definitely use an agent now, too. I used Help-U-Sell in Aug. 2005. That worked well for me. A compromise between do it yourself and full commission.

[sdduuuude]

Maybe its the way you say it.

You come off kind of – well. Lets just say I agree with your view on the local housing sector but don’t really like what you have to say most of the time.

[sdduuuude]

You, undoubtedly need a good spreadsheet for this and should take into consideration all of the factors involved:

Appreciation/Depreciation of the asset.

Your taxable basis in the property and any capital gains taxes you may pay when selling.

Real Estate Transaction Costs – for selling, then buying again.

What portion of those Real Estate Costs are tax-deductible.

Change in Property Tax Base and how much your property taxes will increase (or decrease).

The amount of tax you will save due to interest write-offs.

The cost of moving.

The cost of maybe moving a couple of times if your new rental gets sold out from under you.

The value of your time and the state of your career. Doing this stuff (selling houses, moving, buying houses) just sucks time from your life. If you have a serious enough career to be putting $4K into housing each month, you may be able to get better use of your time by hunkering down and earning money at work rather than monkeying with real-estate.

The quality of your investments – what will you do with the cash you take out of the house? Put it under a mattress or invest in a CD, or play the stock market?

My intuition tells me that if I were in your shoes I would be more content staying put, but you really need to do some serious number crunching. If you are younger and have more energy than me, maybe the moving/shifting would be less of a pain.

Also, as the rates on CDs grows higher than the interest rate on your mortgage, you might consider making that extra payment into investments which pay better than 4.85% with no risk.

[sdduuuude]

> “I will use a realtor for my next purchase, and hope to do it on a fee per service basis.”

If you are the buyer and you are not intimidated by paperwork, a good escrow agent can do it all for you.

Also, consider – for you, realtors may move into more of a consulting role, but not everyone can handle it. People do need realtors, even to buy a home. Those who don’t are the exception.

Selling a home without a realtor is pretty tough, too.

> “So their goal of keeping the market going has backfired.”

Very interesting point. I think you are dead-on.

[sdduuuude]

So, the Japanese move is an opposing force to other forces acting to push gold higher?

Also, is it unusual that gold rises while housing decreases?

[sdduuuude]

They do if people can’t make the payment.

[sdduuuude]

> “If people cash out in favor of renting, who’s buying their house?”

The bank.

[sdduuuude]

I love this:

“friends don’t let friends buy SD Real Estate”

I’ll use it often and pretend I made it up myself 😉

[sdduuuude]

sdrealtor, I don’t think you get enough respect around here. As the coffee mug says – don’t let the turkeys get you down.

I knew exactly what you meant and found it interesting.

I also agree that the market seems amazingly resilient.
I also think the median price figures may be tricking us into thinking it is more resilient than it really is.

D

[sdduuuude]

But if a small percentage of the pendings close this month, the median price may be up, while the TITLE of the article is “MEDIAN PRICE DOWN”

To summarize, the median from last month to this month is is down, but this month could be the high point of the year.

Complete drivel, if you ask me.

[sdduuuude]

I couldn’t be more confused by this article.
I’m not sure who wrote it, but I’m quite certain it wasn’t Rich.

[sdduuuude]

I’m wondering if any evidence shows this phenomenon started in mid 2004, early 2005. Anyone? Anyone?

[sdduuuude]

When you hit the top of the market, asking prices go up, but selling prices don’t, and sales stall.

This is exactly happened in my zip code (92117) back in August (that’s 7 months ago). Many of the houses never sold – they were taken off the market or rented out.

I sold a house in August so I am intimately familiar with this zip code. My asking price was much lower than most asking prices, but right in the middle of comparable closing costs and sales started stalling right about then, too.

Also, the few things I have read about Orange County indicate they are about 6, maybe even 9 months behind San Diego in terms of the bubble deflating. Your article suggests the same thing to me, if the increased asking prices stall the market.

Keep an eye on sales volume and closing prices. They will be more indicative of the market. Also, keep in mind sales volume typically jumps about this time of year so if even it it goes up a bit, that still may indicate a stalling market.

D

[sdduuuude]

I appreciate that you provided some data regarding this realtor, because nothing speaks like data.

However, I can’t say that the number of RE transactions he has performed is relevant to his ability to analyze the data.

I’m quite sure Rich hasn’t sold any houses and he seems to be pretty good at analyzing and presenting the data.

Furthermore, one can be a true professional without having sold any houses. Not saying he is or isn’t, just want to avoid bashing him (sdrealtor) or pumping him up (powayseller) because I haven’t met the guy either.

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