[spdrun]

Have the foreclosures gone away, or just been delayed for a few years by the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights?

The timing of the market rise in late 2012 to 2013 was suspiciously coincident with that law coming into force. But banks will adapt, and quite a few mortgages that are HIGHER than peak values still exist, so there’s meat for the machine.

I’m still seeing a sizable % of short sales at the lower end of the market, BTW. e.g. person has a $200k mortgage, no payments in years, property was worth $180k at peak, $95k at bottom, and s/he/it is trying to sell for $130k. I suspect that there are still plenty of people that need a short sale. They’re just sitting tight as the bank goes through the motions required by the Bill of Rights.

[spdrun]

I’m in NY(*). I have not seen price appreciation of the same type as San Diego in the past year. You have moderately low inventory, but not the same type of decrease as in San Diego.

Other than the very wealthy suburbs, the ‘burbs are also riddled with foreclosures and short sales right now, some coming in the market after being foreclosed 2-3 years ago. Interesting times!

(*) – it’s nice that a lot of the housing stock is co-op, and co-op boards can restrict whom apartments are sold to. So foreigners looking for a pied-a-terre that will be vacant 95% of the time or to be an absentee landlord are out of luck in many buildings. As it should be.

It’s also a special case because there were virtually no foreclosures in Manhattan. A lot of buildings required 20% down, which sort of nixed the type of mortgages that were prone to foreclosure.

Also, the nice thing about the NJ ‘burbs is that they don’t have Moonbeam Brown or Kamala Harris to protect people who made terrifyingly stupid financial decisions from themselves.

[spdrun]

But you’re biased by seeing the San Diego market. It’s an outlier in that it crashed hard and recovered unusually strongly in a short time period.

[spdrun]

How could offers decline 100% in Vegas? This would mean no offers. Do you mean that active inventory is up 103%? Vegas is a hot, dusty pesthole. I can’t blame people for not wanting to buy and “live” there.

All I can say is that I’m CHEERING!!!! the fact that there are 1.5x the number of listings on auction.com as there were last year in the lovely state of NJ, and 2.5x the number of listings on Home(less)path(etic).com. I’m in NJ right now, actually, looking at a couple short sales and fork-losers today. Hopefully this will mean another rental in a month or two.

BTW – it’s not only in the “bad” areas any more. As to the people who took idiotic mortgages and are now having the chickens come home to roost, them’s the breaks. Glad that Gov. Krispie Kreme has vetoed any sort of extraordinary assistance for them.

[spdrun]

If you’re the one installing new tiles, then just buy 10% extra and keep it for repairs.

[spdrun]

Nope. Got pictures of the area? Maybe someone can suggest something.

BTW – all of the slumlords that I’ve heard of would NOT fix the area. Epoxying/sanding/matching an enamel color would already be a very non-slumlordy thing to do.

If you have someone that won’t take a unit because of a 1″ x 1″ discoloration on a tile, I’m pretty sure you don’t want them anyway. Imagine them obsessing about tiny things (“the faucet has a little bubble in the chrome”) and calling you about them at 2 am…

[spdrun]

As long as you’re getting rent and the tenant isn’t complaining, who cares about feeling like a slumlord?

Other thing you can do is take off all the tiles facing the step and put in a decorative area of tile, call it a threshold. Then center position wouldn’t matter.

[spdrun]

Center tile just after coming off the stairs? Remove and put in a decorative/mosaic tile.

Or patch the hole with a good two-part epoxy with a bit of chopped glass fiber mixed in, then paint with a model enamel. This stuff is used to repair engine blocks. A high heel won’t faze it. Worst that will happen is that the enamel will peel off eventually, but that won’t kill anyone.

[spdrun]

(2) might not be a selling point, especially for someone older or with kids. Ground floor is nice if you’re lugging two bags of groceries and a screaming kidlet.

[spdrun]

5-6% (or even 8-9% in the NY suburbs which are riddled with foreclosures right now 😀 ) still beats 2.3%….

[spdrun]

G-d bless you, I like your way of thinking. May there be many more people who think like you in SD in the upcoming year!

[spdrun]

Carpet is vile, nasty stuff that traps dirt and allergens and reeks of toxic solvents when new. Get wood or Pergo flooring.

[spdrun]

What is the rent right now? 5% increase if it’s two grand isn’t too crazy. You can increase up to 10% legally with 30 days notice, more with 60 days of course.

[spdrun]

On weekends, mow the lawn, wash the cars, clean and maintain the house, laundry, more kids activities, birthday parties, etc.. and that’s it.

This crap can be kept to a minimum if you live in a condo/townhouse where the exterior is maintained for you and hire a maid to come once a week. Car washing? Lol, take it through a car wash once a month…

Takes 5 mins and is a lot better on water than manual washing.

[spdrun]

I’d probably be throwing some tools at that point! Ugh.

[Author]

Posts