[XBoxBoy]

Gotta love it, there’s zillow saying that this house is worth $1,146,173. What an incredibly worthless POS zillow is.

[XBoxBoy]

Gotta love it, there’s zillow saying that this house is worth $1,146,173. What an incredibly worthless POS zillow is.

[XBoxBoy]

Listen to your own advice!

Abbey, that’s the best advice I think any of us can give you! You said it yourself. Most of the market has not corrected. And I’d add that particularly the top end of the market has not corrected.

Given that the dollar is still falling, that the housing market has still got a lot of correcting to do, why buy anything? Why catch a falling knife? And for God’s sake why listen to this realtor that keeps calling you and that you can see is just looking out for himself?

Abbey, you sound like you’ve got a lot of this figured out already. Don’t rush into anything. You’ll only be able to get something better the longer you wait. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need to buy now, or it’s going to go up. It will sit at the bottom for a long time before you “need” to make your move. Things change very slowly in real estate.

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

Listen to your own advice!

Abbey, that’s the best advice I think any of us can give you! You said it yourself. Most of the market has not corrected. And I’d add that particularly the top end of the market has not corrected.

Given that the dollar is still falling, that the housing market has still got a lot of correcting to do, why buy anything? Why catch a falling knife? And for God’s sake why listen to this realtor that keeps calling you and that you can see is just looking out for himself?

Abbey, you sound like you’ve got a lot of this figured out already. Don’t rush into anything. You’ll only be able to get something better the longer you wait. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need to buy now, or it’s going to go up. It will sit at the bottom for a long time before you “need” to make your move. Things change very slowly in real estate.

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

This article really gets at the issue that rubs me. When I’m out buying a house, my agent is really working for the seller. After all it is the seller who is going to pay them. I was working with one agent and I can’t tell you how often the question, “Hey whose side are you on?” crossed my mind as we looked at houses and talked about developing a strategy to get a low price for the house. There is something so wrong about the whole agent commission thing. I probably haven’t expressed it well, but I can’t shake the feeling that this is one deceitful business relationship.

[XBoxBoy]

This article really gets at the issue that rubs me. When I’m out buying a house, my agent is really working for the seller. After all it is the seller who is going to pay them. I was working with one agent and I can’t tell you how often the question, “Hey whose side are you on?” crossed my mind as we looked at houses and talked about developing a strategy to get a low price for the house. There is something so wrong about the whole agent commission thing. I probably haven’t expressed it well, but I can’t shake the feeling that this is one deceitful business relationship.

[XBoxBoy]

Another important thing to do that is often overlooked is to have the house checked for mold. My wife and I moved into a house that although was a recent remodel, had mold growing in the crawl space. My wife developed asthma and it took us several months and lots of doctor visits before we figured out what was the issue. After having my wife stay with friends for a couple weeks and making significant recovery we knew the house was the issue. Fortunately it was a rental and the landlord was cooperative about letting us out of the lease. (It would have been a real nightmare had we bought the house!) But now any offer I would write to purchase would have a provision for a mold and environmental inspection. And I highly recommend that to anyone buying a property.

[XBoxBoy]

Another important thing to do that is often overlooked is to have the house checked for mold. My wife and I moved into a house that although was a recent remodel, had mold growing in the crawl space. My wife developed asthma and it took us several months and lots of doctor visits before we figured out what was the issue. After having my wife stay with friends for a couple weeks and making significant recovery we knew the house was the issue. Fortunately it was a rental and the landlord was cooperative about letting us out of the lease. (It would have been a real nightmare had we bought the house!) But now any offer I would write to purchase would have a provision for a mold and environmental inspection. And I highly recommend that to anyone buying a property.

[XBoxBoy]

The reason that the federal government doesn’t subsidize earthquake insurance but does subsidize flood insurance has to do with politics. Some states receive lots more handouts (subsidies) while others receive far fewer handouts. If you are in a state that the politicians want to court, then your state will get lots of subsidies.

The states that win in this little game are those with few voters per electoral vote, and those that have close elections between democrats and republicans. California, where the earthquake insurance would be needed, is neither of these. We have way too many voters per electoral vote and we overwhelmingly vote democrat. That’s also why the republicans hardly campaign at all in California in the presidential elections.

This also leads me to believe that many politicians (particularly senators) are not going to be very inclined to bail out the SoCal housing market. There’s just nothing in it for them. They may allow lots of speeches and they might nod their heads approvingly, but getting something through the senate that helps mainly california is a tough task.

[XBoxBoy]

The reason that the federal government doesn’t subsidize earthquake insurance but does subsidize flood insurance has to do with politics. Some states receive lots more handouts (subsidies) while others receive far fewer handouts. If you are in a state that the politicians want to court, then your state will get lots of subsidies.

The states that win in this little game are those with few voters per electoral vote, and those that have close elections between democrats and republicans. California, where the earthquake insurance would be needed, is neither of these. We have way too many voters per electoral vote and we overwhelmingly vote democrat. That’s also why the republicans hardly campaign at all in California in the presidential elections.

This also leads me to believe that many politicians (particularly senators) are not going to be very inclined to bail out the SoCal housing market. There’s just nothing in it for them. They may allow lots of speeches and they might nod their heads approvingly, but getting something through the senate that helps mainly california is a tough task.

[XBoxBoy]

Here’s the UT’s article on this months numbers

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20071016-9999-bn16housing.html

[XBoxBoy]

Here’s the UT’s article on this months numbers

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20071016-9999-bn16housing.html

[XBoxBoy]

When I bought in ’98 my realtor flat out told me, “don’t buy it, if we have an earthquake and your house is damaged the government will come in and pay for reconstruction. Buying earthquake insurance is just throwing money down the drain.”

Given all the other bailouts I’ve seen in recent years, I gotta say this encouragement to be irresponsible makes a lot of sense.

[XBoxBoy]

When I bought in ’98 my realtor flat out told me, “don’t buy it, if we have an earthquake and your house is damaged the government will come in and pay for reconstruction. Buying earthquake insurance is just throwing money down the drain.”

Given all the other bailouts I’ve seen in recent years, I gotta say this encouragement to be irresponsible makes a lot of sense.

[XBoxBoy]

From watching the La Jolla market, I can tell you that there is plenty of craziness and only a couple of people pricing their houses realistically. And btw, that house on lamplight you refer to was on the market for months before they bought it at $1.8m. With a bunch of open houses and lots of marketing, so I can guarantee you they didn’t get it at “below market”. More likely the seller popped a champagne bottle when it finally sold.

Here’s another house that is similar. Bought in 2005 for 1,950,000 and now wants to sell for $2.3m to $2.6m. (Hah! Lots of luck!)

http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-076081009-5582_Calle_Miramar_La_Jolla_CA_92037

Maybe these guys should talk to the owner of this property:

http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-076045532-5348_Chelsea_La_Jolla_CA_92037

They bought for $2.9m in 2006 and have been trying to sell at $2.65m (a $250k loss not counting fees and costs) with no takers for months. So, I don’t think you can say the La Jolla market is going up.

[Author]

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