Well folks, I was thinking of making another surprise appearance but it doesn't
look like I'll be able to pull this off. Just have too many things going on
here right now and can't get away.
For those of you who were also at the CO National Meet, here's the back story
on what's going on with Ingrid and I. As you may recall, we were talking about
our interest in buying the house we've been renting for the last few years, if
the owner ever decided to sell. Well, on the return trip from CO, I received
an email from the owner (who now lives in Australia) asking if I would be
interested in buying the house.
So we immediately start altering other plans so we can position ourselves to
buy the house. Looks like Ingrid will have to wait another year or two to get
that Jeep we were thinking about. So anyhow, the owner kept email me trying to
get me to make him an offer on the house, without giving me an asking price.
Every time I tried to get a number out of him, he kept saying that since he's
been in Australia, he hasn't been watching the housing market here and didn't
know how things were going. He just kept asking me, what do I think the house
is worth. So I basically pulled a number out of my ass and threw out
$250-$270k. He then replied that he has a Realtor coming over to do a "Market
Evaluation" of the property. That guy contacts me a week later and finally
shows up the week after that. This guy shows up wearing a pair of shorts and a
t-shirt, sandals, cigarette hanging out of his mouth, earring, messy hair,
unshaven, etc.. Looked more like he was going to the beach than a professional
realtor coming to look at a house. So he takes a really quick walk through the
house, doesn't ask any questions or even write anything down on the pad of
paper he had in hand, says he'll send the owner his report in a day or two and
then leaves.
I just didn't have a good feeling about this so I decided to hire a local
property appraiser here in town for $300. She comes out the next day, spent 2
hours going through the house, opening cabinets, closets, going up in the
addic, the basement, out in the barn, hiking around the 3.6 acres, taking notes
and photos and asking questions. The girl was very thorough. A couple of day
later I get a call from her saying it was going to take a bit longer than she
planned because there were no comparable property sales within a 5 mile radius,
in the last year. She needed to expand the circle and use data from
surrounding towns to create her appraisal, which will make the appraisal a
little on the conservative side because of her having to expand the search
criteria. 2 hours later, she emails me a 35 page report in PDF format, with
all the data about the house, photos, copies of the town records, etc and an
appraised value of $265k.
Now I wait 3 more weeks and no word from the owner who doesn't respond to any
emails and I long since gave up on his cell phone number which is impossible to
dial without operator assistance. Finally, he comes back with the Internet was
down (imagine that, the whole Internet was down for an entire month in
Australia) and he has the first guy's report. He says, "I had Dave Caughlin do
the appraisal and it is in the ballpark of what all of us were thinking. Our
asking price is 300k, but because we are selling privately and because you have
been wonderful tenants we would be willing to split the 5% agent commission
which would be half of 15k bringing the house to 292k."
Now in the time I was waiting for the owner to get back to me, I did some
research. Two websites I found Zillow.com and Realtor.Com have online
calculators that will come up with an approximate value for a property based on
tax records and other sales in the area. Both sites came up with a number in
the $275 range. We also went to a class that was being put on by a local
mortgage company that several members of my family have worked with and who has
an excellent reputation. I show them and a broker and real estate attorney they
were hosting the class with, all the data I had and they also ran the numbers.
Both the mortgage company rep and the broker said the numbers should be in the
$265k-$275k range. So when I got ($292-$300k)response from the owner, I was
surprised. I spoke with the broker again and she suggested we sit down and put
together a formal offer for the house, however when she attempted to contact
the owner, he responded, "The price we have given is already reduced from any
value that we would have marketed the house at and is only a price for them.
Deviation from this value is not negotiable because it is already been
reduced." He also went on to add that that price was only for a private sale
between him and us (without any Realtors) and as an "as is" transaction.
Apparently, he's not willing to pay any of the fees normally paid by the
seller.
So I sent him an email saying all the data I have doesn't support his asking
price and unless he's willing to negotiate a realistic price for the house,
we'll just continue to rent for the foreseeable future.
The broker has been showing us other houses and while there are a number of
houses for sale in the surrounding towns. Not much on the market for Hartland
where we are now and those that are for sale are either out of the price range
I've set for us or need some considerable work before we could move in. The
mortgage lender has pre-approved us for $400k but I'm setting our search limit
to under $300k. We looked at one place that was awesome, but simply
unrealistic for us. over 3700 sq ft, 3 bed/2.5 bath, contemporary, on 2 acres.
with an attached garage that is literally the same size as the Stieger hanger
with 2-10 foot doors and 16 foot ceilings. It even had a 25x40 finished loft
space above it, to the rear, which could easily be converted to a rental
apartment. Unfortunately, it wasn't realistic for us for several reasons. It
was a bank foreclosure, listed at $307K and while I know we could get that, as
a foreclosure, it's an "as is" sale. I didn't really have a problem with that
because all the mechanicals were fairly new. However, there were no appliances,
which would mean we would also need to buy a fridge, stove, washer, dryer,
dishwasher, etc... Not something I want to do right after spending $300k on
the house. One of the main reasons I passed on it was it is in a neighboring
town with a higher mill rate. The taxes alone on the house were almost $9000 a
year and I estimate insurance would have been another $5k. Add that to the
mortgage payment and the increased taxes on our 7 car/truck/trailer
registrations, we would be way over budget. The other reason was just down
right scary, 3700+ sq ft with numerous vaulted ceilings + electric heat = bank
foreclosure. What the hell was that builder thinking?
So anyhow, we're still looking at places on the weekends. I have one
possibility that I like but Ingrid seems to be less enthuised with.
We've looked at it twice and I think I'm going to try and talk her into it.
Have fun guys and try to stay warm and dry.
Walt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 01 2006 - 01:35:00 EST