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Old 11-25-2014, 05:20 AM
 
Location: Somewhere in USA
658 posts, read 720,743 times
Reputation: 571

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Quote:
Originally Posted by ringwise View Post
Not a mistake, but just "life". Bought a house in CA with my (now ex) husband. When we divorced in 2005, I got the house but we signed an agreement that he would get an amount of the profit of the house as part of his community property when I sold. The amount was based on the worth of the home in 2005. Fast forward to the housing crash, and a job in another state. I put the house on the market, and while I wasn't upside down, I got very little from the sale of the home. Nothing compared to what I would have gotten if I had been able to hold on to it for another 20 years. But holding on to it wasn't worth the risk, and I really couldn't stay. Folks have asked a lot if I had wished we'd sold at the divorce and gotten all the money out of it. Nope, because I would have done what he did - bought a house at a high price then watched the value sink. At least I came out with something. And he ended up going in to a short sale.

But I don't consider it a mistake - it was worth it to get out of the marriage and cut all ties with the SOB. LOL
thanks for sharing. I know it's a lesson learned but it has drained so much energy and most of my late 20s to work so hard to pay it down.
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Old 11-25-2014, 08:31 AM
 
Location: Philaburbia
41,794 posts, read 74,837,182 times
Reputation: 66733
Quote:
Originally Posted by ameridreamNoT View Post
Not yet....it costs a fortune for me to do repair it. For now i patched the exterior where the leaking happens and so far it works.
So maybe the lesson to be learned here is that you should be able to afford the upkeep on a house before you buy one.
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Old 11-25-2014, 11:23 AM
 
Location: Somewhere in USA
658 posts, read 720,743 times
Reputation: 571
I was young and had no experience whatsoever. Friends in the same age as mine were also just finishing off college so really I had no one to seek advice for. I must say that having gone through this experience, I know exactly what to do when purchasing a house.
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Old 11-25-2014, 12:47 PM
 
13,711 posts, read 9,190,750 times
Reputation: 9840
On the other end of the equation, there are people who got frozen out of owning homes because the market was in such a frenzy. As early as 2004, literally every day the news talked about ARM loans resetting very soon for many borrowers and how many will default because they couldn't afford the new rate. A prediction of 10-20% correction was common. Yet housing prices kept going up despite the news. And then the recession hits, and price still kept going up. I was absolutely dumbfounded. That was a time in my life when I really, really, really needed to buy a house but I wouldn't because I could see the crash from miles away.

In 2004, I convinced my parents to sell their rental house. Then in 2005 the prices went up even more and they naturally blamed me for selling low. Then in 2006, their housing market crashed (a mini crash of about 20%. A precursor of things to come) and I was exonerated. I tried and failed to convince them to sell another rental property in 2005. But yet, in my market (SF Bay Area), prices continued to go up even though the housing market just 70 miles away is already crashing. Buyers in my market had convinced themselves that they are special and immune from the national trend. Guess what, they were wrong.

Essentially, despite the fact that we were in a recession, news are reporting massive housing correction ahead, and some nearby market already crashing; real estate prices continued to raise. Don't anyone ever tell me that the market is rational.

And then after the crash in 2008; all the inventory dried up. The only thing available on the market are foreclosures where the angry owners completely trashed the places or crappy haunted houses leftover from the bubble. It wasn't until the end of 2009 when quality inventory started to appear again.

Long story short, I needed a house in 2004 and it wasn't until 2010 that I finally found one. That was six years wasted. Now, I am not complaining. There are people who suffered much worse than I did. But the thing is that the crazy market stopped a lot of people like me from moving forward in life. Imagine if you would, if you needed to buy a stove but you couldn't because prices has gone up 500% because predatory loans are given to irrational buyers who driven up the prices to level that you could not afford or are not willing to pay. In the meantime you are stuck with an old semi not functioning stove. It's that feeling.

The lesson here is don't believe the hype. Just look at the facts and evaluate accordingly. I hear the swing is in the other direction now, that housing prices are in a bubble and it's going to crash; and it's scaring off some potential buyers. Really? In an economic boom with pend up demand the housing is going to crash? All this noise is stopping people from making rational decision.
.
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Old 11-25-2014, 01:41 PM
 
Location: Morrisville, NC
9,131 posts, read 14,699,556 times
Reputation: 9037
Quote:
Originally Posted by ameridreamNoT View Post
Perhaps many of CDers can relate to my situation here. I presume we all remember the market crashed in '08 and that everything plummeted. Prior to that year, '07, I made a purchase on a single family house in a city full of potential for an investment for $490,000 (listed for $560,000); JUST BEFORE the market went south. How bad timing could it be? Came 2008, immediately I was under water by not just an inch deep but a couple of meters deep. From food, retails, cars, real-estates and so forth during '08 was so cheap. I was just gradated from an in-state University and had saved up to purchase that house and 'til this day, I wish I could have made the purchase just one or two years after '07. I was also a victim of those lenders that allowed me to loan more than I could afford . I know, if we all can tell what the future holds, we would be rich right?

Have you ever had this experience? Does it still bother you 'til this day? Right now my house value is close to what it was in '07, but with all the interests and taxes paid I wish I never bought it. It is a mistake that really bothers me for the rest of my life.

Hey, it could be worse. You could have bought a house in 2006 that was less than the banks said you could afford, but you knew what you were comfortable with. You could have put down a down payment, because the interest only and 95%+ loans seemed like trouble brewing. Then you could see the down payment essentially evaporate when because of people overextending themselves and not acting in a prudent measure. Then you could have seen many of them get bailed out of their bad decisions and walk away from the mortgage, causing depressed sales prices that affect what you could do in the future while you continued to do the right thing.
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