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But to me, what really stinks is while we might have had a decent 5-6% appreciation, we never saw the super high rates like lots of other places, yet we got dragged down just as badly, save for a few really bad areas.
But to me, what really stinks is while we might have had a decent 5-6% appreciation, we never saw the super high rates like lots of other places, yet we got dragged down just as badly, save for a few really bad areas.
We haven't been dragged down as badly as those areas. My son made the mistake of buying a condo in Florida when they were going up in price 10% PER MONTH. He paid $175,000 and today IF he were to sell, his condo would get him about l/2 of that.
Selling your home is like cashing in on stocks. If you don't HAVE to sell today, DON'T.
It also depends on when you purchased your home. I purchased mine 20 years ago and today, it is worth more than double what I paid. It has gone down in price, maybe $10,000 to $20,000 over the last few years but IF I were to sell it, It wouldn't be that big of a deal since I bought it so many years ago.
If you purchased 2 to 3 years ago, and you must sell, you are probably not going to like what you have to sell it for. Depending on what you paid, of course.
If you live in a townhouse community and there are 6 already on the market, you are going to have to deal with the fact that someone is going to be more desparate than you and if they reduce their price $5,000, you are going to have to reduce yours. Otherwise, your will help sell theirs. If there is not a single one like yours on the market, you'll have a better chance of selling it without dropping the price month after month. It is all supply and demand.
If you must sell, get ahead of that. List as low as you can so you can sell fast and not be following all those that are dropping each and every month. I recently did this with a seller of mine. Her home sold in 10 days, with 2 offers. We were about $10,000 less than any other houses. We sold for more than full price AND have a back up offer!
It is a GREAT TIME for buyers but not so good for sellers.
I agree with your sentiment that a home is a home and should be considered as just that rather than primarily an investment which many people had been doing in 2003 - 2006 period. However, where you have people like Vicki, who has lived in a house for 20 years, and even in this market it is worth 100% more than she paid for it, then it has been an excellent investment and she has lived rent free too (well adjusted for interest and maintenance costs)
Quote:
Originally Posted by stan4
People should look for a home they love rather than an investment. As of right now, a home is a ridiculously bad investment.
Last edited by Beermat; 08-24-2010 at 12:30 PM..
Reason: correction
We haven't been dragged down as badly as those areas. My son made the mistake of buying a condo in Florida when they were going up in price 10% PER MONTH. He paid $175,000 and today IF he were to sell, his condo would get him about l/2 of that.
Selling your home is like cashing in on stocks. If you don't HAVE to sell today, DON'T.
It also depends on when you purchased your home. I purchased mine 20 years ago and today, it is worth more than double what I paid. It has gone down in price, maybe $10,000 to $20,000 over the last few years but IF I were to sell it, It wouldn't be that big of a deal since I bought it so many years ago.
If you purchased 2 to 3 years ago, and you must sell, you are probably not going to like what you have to sell it for. Depending on what you paid, of course.
If you live in a townhouse community and there are 6 already on the market, you are going to have to deal with the fact that someone is going to be more desparate than you and if they reduce their price $5,000, you are going to have to reduce yours. Otherwise, your will help sell theirs. If there is not a single one like yours on the market, you'll have a better chance of selling it without dropping the price month after month. It is all supply and demand.
If you must sell, get ahead of that. List as low as you can so you can sell fast and not be following all those that are dropping each and every month. I recently did this with a seller of mine. Her home sold in 10 days, with 2 offers. We were about $10,000 less than any other houses. We sold for more than full price AND have a back up offer!
It is a GREAT TIME for buyers but not so good for sellers.
Oh yhea...I had clients that had a wonderful home, looked like a model home and it was CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN and it sold in 3 days. Great location, great condition and the RIGHT PRICE!
Go to home depot or lowes. Granite is not thatultraexpensive. Especially in a smaller home that's not a mcmansion where there's less counterspace
As a comparison, laminate might be $750, and the granite is $2000.
If you're buying a $200,000 entry level home, $1300 is a small amout of money. Builders make there money on upgrades. They want to spend as little as possible and do things cheaply on homes under $250,000. They don't give a crap about resale in 5 years. It's get in and get out and turn the property as quickly as possible.
There's no doubt that you'll double ++ your money back when you have granite and nice cabinets in the kitchen. It will make a cheaper 225-250k home stand out from the crowd.
But if you look at the average cost of upgrades, it's not as expensvie as you think. You can buy an average $225,000 - and spend $7500 on your own and turn it into a model home.
That's what I did in my house in Holly Springs when I bought it.
I put 5 inch Santos Mahogany floors in my home. Big crown moulding, changed out all the lights and added some classy ceiling fans. I could go to home depot and buy nicer stuff than the builder offered. It made a huge difference and was probably the only reason I sold my house as it was pretty upscale for a lower priced neighborhood.
There are probably just as many if not more people looking for a larger house with fewer upgrades in a higher priced neighborhood (the lowest priced house in a high-price neighborhood if you will) than there are people looking for a more upscale house in a less upscale neighborhood.
I've always taken the term mcmansion as a neighborhood with larger houses that aren't quite mansions (usually around 3500-5000 sq ft) that all look the same, as if they were produced off of a conveyor belt. It may have decent materials like brick, granite, mid or upper grade hardwoods (haven't seen too many homes of that size with vinyl siding, but I think vinyl siding looks bad on any house) but may have shoddy construction work because it was built en mass as fast as possible to get a subdivision completed quickly for high demand. That's what the "Mc" is for.
You can't have a mcmansion in the country IMO, or as a new build in an old neighborhood. Mcmansions are built all at the same time, very quickly, and are usually all very similar looking within a particular neighborhood (and often multiple neighborhoods started by the same builder)
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(well adjusted for interest and maintenance costs)
