Housing Bubble? Your thoughts, predictions (Washington, Hope: lenders, bankrupt, housing market)

[moughie]

Originally Posted by Elcarim

Nope, we have Christmas break which runs from the Friday before Christmas to Jan 7th this year. We also have Spring break the 2nd or 3rd week of March every year.

Dang! Oh well....

[Elcarim]

I've thought of flying up without the kids. MIL works for Continental, so we fly anywhere for $100 per ticket. It's the long trip up, fuel, several nights there and back in a hotel, food for 5 for 10 days and lodging while we're there that makes it unfeasible for us right now. Our trip in March cost us just over $3K.

May have to look into that soon!

[WhoFanMe]

Originally Posted by Zymer

The house I am buying was originally listed at $310k, I'm buying for $160k. The sellers owe $295k total on 1st and 2nd mortgages so it's going $135k short.

I made the offer in July and specified that I could close in 28 days. It is now Jan, I took possession today, it will close in two weeks. It's been a long process.

Wow. Do you know what they paid for it? This is the classic case of taking the equity early - once you take it, it's gone!

Congratulations on seeing it through.

[WhoFanMe]

Originally Posted by Zymer

According to info from CNN Money and Moody's, there is an 11 month backlog of houses on the market. They are currently estimating the decline to continue into 2008, with recovery expected to begin in the 2nd quarter of 2009.

We run these reports called Absorption Rates for the towns we service in Southern Maine and break them out in 50,000 increments. While Portland and the immediate surrounding communites are o.k., the areas 20-30 minutes out have astronomical numbers.

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by moughie

Congratulations on surviving the long ordeal!!! Sounds like you got yourself a smokin deal - hopefully it was well worth the long wait.

Best of luck with the new home!

Thanks Moughie, it's been a long road. Apparently, much of the delay was due to the seller's agent and the short sale company, plus the banks fighting over $2500. I had to hire a lawyer to help push things along.

It seems that the short sale company had not recieved the approval from the mortgage holders before listing the house at the price I agreed to pay and I called that fraud, because they were contracting to sell something that they had no basis to believe they could deliver at the price they advertised. I don't know if that is standard procedure but I don't think it's right. I believe that the short sale company should have had pre-approval from the banks before advertising the property at a particular price.

And, I have to give much kudos to my buyer agent, she has gone above and beyond the call of duty in the work she has done for us to help us make this deal happen, even after the short sale company negotiated her commission down to 2%.

In addition to doing battle with the seller's agent and the rep from the short sale company (who both seem to be models of incompetence) she has arranged for various inspections, visited the property to check on the status of various things that needed to be done, attended inspections when we could not be present and took many photos that she e-mailed to keep us apprised of the conditions (especially when certain actions by some parties caused conditions that threatened to damage the property). She has also volunteered to check the property for us on a weekly basis until I can take up more or less full-time residence there. If I could plaster her name on every page of this site with a recommendation, I would.

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by WhoFanMe

Wow. Do you know what they paid for it? This is the classic case of taking the equity early - once you take it, it's gone!

Congratulations on seeing it through.

I don't know how much the first mortgage was for, I'm sure I could find out if I wanted to dig a little. Yeah, they made a bad mistake- a high appraisal and a second mortgage, and I suspect that a lot of the second mortgage money was used for down-payments on expensive toys that I was recently informed have been repossessed.

[WhoFanMe]

Great story Zymer, and not all that unusual in these circumstances. Transactions are getting harder and harder to keep together in this market. What part of the state was it?

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by WhoFanMe

Great story Zymer, and not all that unusual in these circumstances. Transactions are getting harder and harder to keep together in this market. What part of the state was it?

Near Bangor.

[WhoFanMe]

Originally Posted by Zymer

I don't know how much the first mortgage was for, I'm sure I could find out if I wanted to dig a little. Yeah, they made a bad mistake- a high appraisal and a second mortgage, and I suspect that a lot of the second mortgage money was used for down-payments on expensive toys that I was recently informed have been repossessed.

It's on the HUD statement on the right (seller's side) in the 500 block, you should see the first and second mortgages listed.

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by WhoFanMe

It's on the HUD statement on the right (seller's side) in the 500 block, you should see the first and second mortgages listed.

I haven't seen that statement. Should I have?