Remember all the times I have talked about trying to buy a home on this blog? Well we are still living the first time home buyer saga. Over the weekend we looked at a place here that was a possible option for us, we met a Realtor that was overly eager to make her money and we once again have home buying on the brain.
The main reason we are looking to buy is because of the economic state, it is a buyers market for sure. Houses on the market are in abundance, home prices are falling and lots of people are desperately needing to sell the homes they can no longer afford.
Plus with President Obama it is likely we’ll see some type of housing market stimulus attempt, you know to get people buying again and to turn the market around. We suspect this will be most beneficial for those who have not been sucked in to the subprime mortgage mess and whom have not lost homes or even purchased them to begin with.
We have worked very hard to get money for a down payment in the bank. Thanks to employer sponsored 401K plans and roll over options we now have a decent down payment in an IRA ready for a home purchase, we are very pleased about this.
Now we are looking at our home buying options and considering what is truly in our best interest. Obviously we don’t want to remain in a mold filled rental home especially with a baby on the way so we have reinstated our home buying search.
We are looking at unconventional purchasing options at this time. Things like contract sales and owner carry buying options. We are doing this for credit reasons and also because we know somethings are going to change with the new president in regards to the housing market and financing options.
What cracks me up right now is how delusional sellers and agents are right now, they are still trying to be as greedy and shameless a possible even though the number of sellers clearly outnumbers the number of buyers in Evansville, IN.
The place we saw over the weekend was not spectacular by any means, the basement clearly had flooding issues and there were also structural issues on the 2nd floor. The seller made some crazy offer to us that was just a crock and we just laughed about (I don’t want to bore you with the specifics).
What I am wondering is when will people wake up? We are in a recession and greed just doesn’t work anymore. Seriously you selling me your house is NOT doing me any favors. We can rent forever and just keep making interest off that down payment money in the IRA, it’ll be more saved for retirement or whatever. Or we can buy another house, there isn’t a housing shortage you know.
When you have a buyer that is interested how can you honestly make such laughable requests when YOU are the one that is struggling under 2 mortgage payments YOU can’t make? We aren’t struggling financially to pay for our housing because we didn’t get in to an agreement that was impossible to make good on.
When you get someone who is willing to make your payments for you and help YOU out how can you still be so greedy? I know you really want to make your $50,000 profit off the home sale but which is better taking a profit cut or holding out in greed and risking foreclosure?
What kills me is that so many are honestly willing to loose their homes to foreclosure instead of just cutting their losses, learning from the mistake and just selling for what they can get. Those greedy people make me feel like foreclosure is deserved and that we shouldn’t care about their suffering or bail them out, I mean they did it to themselves right?
We are going to be looking at houses soon too, Brad was in the Army so he gets a VA loan. I’m personally perfectly happy renting but Brad wants to buy. When my parents were moving out here I asked a Real Estate agent to recommend some virtual tours they could look at and the ones she sent were for McMansions over 500k! I guess she just figured that since my parents are from California they must be rich. Not the case. Problem is there is a huge glut of empty McMansions here. A lady in our homeschool co-op bought one for a knock-down price. But I don’t want a McMansion. If I have to buy something I’d like to get a duplex and rent out the other side.
Memarie Lanes last blog post..Okay so these are a little late.
I don’t pity you buying a house right now. It may be a buyer’s market, but I’m wondering if the sellers and real estate agents have figured that out yet.
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Donna B. »
I think it is more like they just don’t care. I mean the more the house sells for the more they make right? It will always be an uphill battle I think but to be all “we want to get out from under our 2 house payments” while whining about how tough things are financially when you are refusing to budge on sale terms is just asinine. Do you want to sell or not folks?
*sigh* Okay my ranting is over now…
I agree with you that sellers still want to make quite a profit. Nobody wants to get screwed but if all housing prices are affected then the only people getting screwed are the ones who would be better off staying where they are rather than panicking and selling/buying.
About the foreclosures – I agree that people should never loan more than they can handle – people really need to learn to live within their means. But I can’t place the whole blame on the people because if the bank is willing to give it to you and the bank is the one who has all the risk and is the one who checks everything out and okays it, it makes you feel reassured when getting the loan when they really shouldn’t have given it to you in the first place. What gets me mad is that the government thinks it is okay to bail out these companies who would have failed but has no problem making families homeless at all. THAT irritates me. Let the companies fail and let’s see some help for the little guys. I too struggle with the thought that they kind of deserve it because they brought it on themselves but I’m sure they figured the bank wouldn’t give it to them if it weren’t feasible. But I have no sympathy whatsoever for the companies being bailed out.
teeni, I have no sympathy for the banks or the ones getting loans they knew they could not pay back. What ticks me off is that the banks are getting bailed out, but the other side – the homebuyers – are not. How is that fair?
Sure, I’m supposed to look at the “big picture” and figure that the banks are more important to the whole economy than individual homeowners… but, when everybody is screwed, the screwing should be equally distributed, shouldn’t it?
Oh, you just shouldn’t have got me started!
As penance, I will share to valuable lessons I have learned over the last 30 years:
1) The people you talk to about what work needs to be done on your car are salespeople. They are interested in selling you services whether your car needs them or not.
2) Real estate agents work only for the seller. Their job is to talk the buyer into paying more.
Donna B.s last blog post..Random Thoughts and Links
Good luck with your home hunting – and your baby.
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I think Donna B and I are on the same page. It sounds like she is saying what I was trying to say but maybe she said it better.
teeni »
I think we are all a bit divided in tiny ways and that is okay. Bottom line is greed sucks.
I don’t think the lenders are entirely to blame and neither are the borrowers but the greed from both sides got us in to this mess and until it stops being acceptable to be that blatantly greedy things aren’t going to change.
I dont get it either. There is a house down the street from us that was up for sale for about 3 months. They were asking a crazy high number, something that maybe 2 years ago they bought it for, but it just doesnt apply to this economy!!! They actually had 2 low ball offers and they shot them down. Guess what? That was has been repo’d by the bank and is now sitting empty going on 8 months. Horrible. We keep going back to the idea of moving closer to better schools but I just dont think we would get a good sale on our house so we are staying put until things relax a bit…that and a few other reasons LOL! But…it sucks how greedy people are. If you dont want to negotiate and be realistic then dont list your house!
I had no idea the same stuff was happening there. I thought houses would still be selling like hot cakes in your area… Here there are about 8 houses within walking distance from us hat have been for sale at the same ungodly prices since we moved here. Guess what… They aren’t selling. People need to wise up if they actually want to sell their homes.
So how have you been lately?
A friend of mine used a buyer’s agent for her last two homes. She swears she saved a bunch.
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What might be happening with these people who let their homes go into foreclosure is that if they sell for less that what they’ve got into it and what they owe in loans, they have to take cash to the closing to pay off those loans. Well, they don’t HAVE cash, otherwise they’d have been paying their mortgage payments. Sometimes it’s not a choice at all. It costs them nothing to live in the home as long as the bank will let them, then walk away with a foreclosure. Sure it ruins their credit, but at least it doesn’t cost them money they don’t have.
Personally, I have little sympathy for the banks or the borrowers. I live within my means, which means that I don’t live in my dream home or anything close to being a dream home. I drive an old car that I bought used. Yet, I still get to bail out the banks. My area is FULL of foreclosures on McMansions. I don’t believe those people should get to keep their houses. I think they should get to live in WHAT THEY CAN AFFORD. Just like me.
AND… if you are looking at houses that are also flooding… RUN THE OTHER DIRECTION!! NO MORE MOLD!
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