someone's gonna get a bargain

Homegrown Tomatoes · October 09, 2008, 10:05:12 AM

Sigh. I lowered the price on our house in WI to more than $10K below what we paid for it... not to mention that we put at least $25K into it. All the other houses in the same price range are dilapidated and on postage stamp lots. However, God is good, because though we certainly won't come out ahead, DH's company offered to make up the difference so we can at least break even and just get out of the house so we can settle here. Meanwhile, the 40 acres we'd fallen in love with sold last week, so it must not have been the place for us after all.
$:-\$

desdawg · October 09, 2008, 10:17:51 PM

I bought a couple of rental houses in 2005 for 85K each. In a recent voyage into Realtor dot com I saw a couple of homes pretty similar homes in the same neighborhood listed for about 50K. SUCKS. These properties I have were my version of the 401K. I feel the pain.

October 10, 2008, 08:48:09 AM

Ain't it depressing? Well, I looked in our area in WI, and our house is the best looking thing in that price range now, and it has lake rights and a swim beach a block from the front door. The other houses in the same price range are far smaller, and not in good shape at all. It is 5 minutes from the commuter train into Chicago. It's got so much going for it I just hope someone makes an offer this month. If not, then it probably won't sell until after the spring thaw, if then.

I saw a thing on the news the other night about houses that are now only worth a few months' mortgage payments on them.

I feel your pain, Des. Hopefully eventually it will get better again, but the way things are going, it is kind of hard to be optimistic.

glenn kangiser · October 10, 2008, 09:11:45 AM

I read of one that went for $175 and $8000 back taxes the other day.

desdawg · October 11, 2008, 09:54:40 AM

Don't let me get started about taxes. I am so tired of getting nailed every time I turn around. And what we get for what we spend just isn't much. Government maintains these huge payrolls and employ so many people who do so little. If we as individuals were that wasteful we would perish. Nuff said.

October 11, 2008, 10:43:34 AM

Bad attitude, des. You are not looking at it properly. You need a little government education and attitude adjustment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvsADU2OOWM

Sassy · October 11, 2008, 12:59:15 PM

Quote from: desdawg on October 11, 2008, 09:54:40 AM
Don't let me get started about taxes. I am so tired of getting nailed every time I turn around. And what we get for what we spend just isn't much. Government maintains these huge payrolls and employ so many people who do so little. If we as individuals were that wasteful we would perish. Nuff said.

ummmm, I'm one of those gov't workers

I can say that on most days we work our butts off - no breaks, not even a lunch break on a 12 1/2 hour shift... but that's in an ER - we do have down time sometimes, but that just makes up for all the breaks, lunches & time we stay over that we don't put on the clock... but I complain about the gov't probably more than anyone

and all the waste... I see lots of inefficiencies all the time & people that just like to smooze their way up the ladder...

But then you get the really BIG parasites like Paulson & Kashkari... and the rest of the blood sucking politicians... now that's where the real big money & inefficiencies are... ie criminal behaviors...

Homegrown Tomatoes · October 11, 2008, 04:22:30 PM

Sassy, I'm glad you bellyache freely about the government and their wasteful ways... see, I decided that if they're considering a break from the markets until they figure out what to do, I probably needed a break too. So, I decided to take a break from criticizing the government. But it is really hard. I wonder, who will step up to the plate if I take a holiday from it? But I am so relieved to see that you aren't letting me down!

Sassy · October 11, 2008, 05:18:58 PM

Quote from: Homegrown Tomatoes on October 11, 2008, 04:22:30 PM
Sassy, I'm glad you bellyache freely about the government and their wasteful ways... see, I decided that if they're considering a break from the markets until they figure out what to do, I probably needed a break too. So, I decided to take a break from criticizing the government. But it is really hard. I wonder, who will step up to the plate if I take a holiday from it? But I am so relieved to see that you aren't letting me down!

Not a chance

October 11, 2008, 05:29:46 PM

I might consider helping cover the slack, Homey.

Homegrown Tomatoes · October 11, 2008, 08:28:24 PM

The two of you together might be able to take up the slack for me, according to DH.

desdawg · October 11, 2008, 09:30:41 PM

Sassy I wasn't thinking of you when I made that comment. I was thinking more in terms of what we have here at the state level. There was a neswpaper article a month or so ago about how AZ missed there sales tax prediction for July by $90 M. Of course that 90M was budgeted to be spent. As the state was figuring out how to rearrange their finances they stated they would maintain essential services. Now just which ones those are I can't tell you. I have been to the state offices and seen a lot of people that were busy doing not much. Their entire function is to police us. How many cops do we need with college degrees in various areas, drawing top pay and eagerly anticipating their next coffee break and lunch. The largest employer in AZ is the State of AZ.
Recently I met with the head of the County Supervisors here in Pinal County, AZ. I asked him since he had championed the enactment of an Impact Fee in our County what residential permitting looked like. If you want a permit to build your home the first thing you do is pay an $8800.00 Impact Fee for which you will receive two hands full of air. He indicated that permit levels were down to those in 2003. To which I replied, "So you have been able to cut back on staff?" His answer NO but we did put a moratorium on new hires. So apparently we will just have to make up the difference with taxation since all of those permit fees aren't rolling in anymore. That staff was grown to keep up with a workload that isn't there anymore. I venture to say you could sort through every level of government and find that kind of logic and that kind of waste and inefficiency. If we did that in the private sector we would be bankrupt.

Sassy · October 11, 2008, 09:44:05 PM

I knew you couldn't have meant me, Desdawg

desdawg · October 12, 2008, 08:49:36 AM

Quote from: Sassy on October 11, 2008, 09:44:05 PM
I knew you couldn't have meant me, Desdawg

Of course not Sassy but I did want you to know where I was coming from.

October 13, 2008, 08:20:57 AM

Well, we had at least one showing over the weekend. No feedback yet from it, though.

glenn kangiser · October 13, 2008, 09:44:32 AM

Hope things work out for you.

muldoon · October 13, 2008, 11:08:29 AM

Quote from: Homegrown Tomatoes on October 13, 2008, 08:20:57 AM
Well, we had at least one showing over the weekend. No feedback yet from it, though.

keeping our fingers crossed for you.

In somewhat related news, a good friend of mine who works at the fire department just signed a contract on Friday to buy a foreclosed house in my neighborhood. Deals are still being made so don't give up hope.

MountainDon · October 13, 2008, 10:04:11 PM

Best of luck HomeGrown.

Homegrown Tomatoes · October 14, 2008, 10:16:46 AM

Well, the showing over the weekend yielded nothing but feedback on things we cannot change...ie. the two downstairs bedrooms were "too small" and the upstairs bath is "only a half bath". What the heck do people need to do in their bedrooms and bathroom that requires them to be the size of the olympic stadium? And do they really think it is going to be the Taj Mahal for that price?? I get the feeling that a lot of people want a whole lot of something for a whole lot of nothing. It's frustrating, but what can you do?

Should have never bought up there in the first place...we just couldn't find a place to rent that allowed BOTH dogs and kids. Or, we should have put it on the market six months earlier and sold ourselves out of a place to live....I could've moved back earlier and stayed with my Grandma for a few months while DH rented a cheap place close to work until he could follow us. Hind sight is always 20-20.

glenn kangiser · October 14, 2008, 10:20:09 AM

$300.000 houses here a year or two ago are now under $200k

Whole developments of new $500k houses sit abandoned and unsold.

October 14, 2008, 10:31:03 AM

Illiquid assets. I need a bail out. I promise to provide transparency and accountability. 2008 buzzwords. I guess I better get to work I have a couple of shoppers.

glenn kangiser · October 14, 2008, 10:38:15 AM

I somehow have grown to hate buzzwords -- remind me of hollow people --- between the ears. Better get into my spandex jogging suit, grab my speed walking weights and go get a low CARB lunch. Speed walking --- wonder if I should try it in Speedo's? hmm

I especially hate the word CARB referring to food.

Homegrown Tomatoes · October 14, 2008, 01:04:43 PM

I seem to recall that... so I'm sitting here at the computer eating a chicken chili relleno... it doesn't have a lot of those, but it is cram-packed with delicious fat.

desdawg · October 14, 2008, 06:30:15 PM

Carb, sounds like something to turn liquid gas into a vapor. Is that where the name came from? Here, pull my finger I just had my carbs.

MountainDon · October 14, 2008, 07:16:08 PM

California Air Resources Board, comes to my mind for some reason.

... probably spent too much time tinkering with automobiles.