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Thank you, Barb. It is hard. Yes, Morro Bay is a beautiful place, but I now really understand the meaning of the saying, "It's a nice place to visit, but ... "
I will miss that house and being so near to Big Sur and Montana De 'Oro, and the beauty of it all, but the people, although very 'pleasant', were just not "us".
From the outside we had everything there, good jobs, a beautiful home ... but we just couldn't connect with the people. Ten years and we didn't have one close friend. (And we are not people who are hard to get to know.) People are very 'nice' there, but they want to keep their distance.
On top of that, I don't think that I could have ever gone farther in my job than I had been for the past 9 years. I guess we are just 'big city' folk. I'm from L.A. and my husband is from NY. We missed having things to do and people to talk to.
I found it interesting the comment on your profile for 'location.' "Not where we want to be." That's how we felt. I loved that house and the beauty, but it just wasn't where we wanted to be if we could have no social contact.
We moved to San Diego where he and I met. Already the difference is palpable. But it was a miserable move -- the hardest I've ever gone through physically -- and we are in a temporary place until the house sells and we can get enough money out of it for a down payment for a new home. We are fortunate to have a decent amount of equity in it. I've been religious about paying more towards the principal every month since the day we bought.
But in the meantime, I'm sort of in limbo which makes it harder. I'm actually still teaching a class up there, (they've let me do the last 3 weeks online, so my 650 mile round-trip commute to work is over as of last week, thank goodness) but I do still feel a tie up there until the semester is over.
Then, when I saw that virtual tour, I really felt the nostalgia you spoke of. I thought of the holidays and the cats we lost while there ... we sure can accumulate a lot of memories over time, can't we?
Where are you in California and where do you 'want' to be?
Thanks for your words and insight. They help.
Best,
Caat
Hi Caat...we are actually living in Southern Utah now, since 2005. Long story, talk about not belonging..we are originally from southern ca and will probably either buy a smaller house here, near friends we have met or NorCal, where our youngest son lives...Just need to sell!
Great choice, San Diego...if we could afford to live in San Diego county, we would in a flash..but being retired we are on a limited income..
Great choice, San Diego...if we could afford to live in San Diego county, we would in a flash..but being retired we are on a limited income..
Take care, glad to chat anytime! Barb
You would be surprised at the prices here now. They have really taken a nose-dive. I think harder than some other places. (Of course, I have no idea about Utah, except to say the homes, high or low, must be so much cheaper than here, even in a depressed market.)
I'm just hoping our home sells quickly, and then the market keeps going down. Maybe in 6 or 9 months we can get something we wouldn't have thought we could otherwise.
Utah. Hmmm. Must be a long story. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around a SoCal-ite living in Utah. I hope you can make it back to California soon.
You would be surprised at the prices here now. They have really taken a nose-dive. I think harder than some other places. (Of course, I have no idea about Utah, except to say the homes, high or low, must be so much cheaper than here, even in a depressed market.)
I'm just hoping our home sells quickly, and then the market keeps going down. Maybe in 6 or 9 months we can get something we wouldn't have thought we could otherwise.
Utah. Hmmm. Must be a long story. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around a SoCal-ite living in Utah. I hope you can make it back to California soon.
Best,
Caat
Caat, yes I hope this California girl can make it home soon, too. The market here has dropped, lots of homes, not so many buyers, very PICKY buyers. I understand picky, I am picky about what I want in my next home. We have had a lot of traffic in 7 months on the market and several price drops..all we are waiting for is 'that' offer...something we can work with...it was a bad move here, my parents are elderly and were having some issues so we thought it would work to have them sell their home in Palm Springs and move here. We found this house, it's one story, with two big bedrooms on one end and a bath, and a large master on the other end..there was also an office Mom and I could share, and a guest casita for visitors. almosst 2700 sq feet, large lot. We bought here in Oct. 2005. We extended the block wall so we could gate off the back yard, put in a jacuzzi spa, nice artificial turf in the backyard for easy maintenance, more plants and trees. Well, things did not work out with my parents and they ended up moving back to Palm Springs, my brother and nephews are there and they bought a nice home, much nicer than what they had, at a great price, it was bank owned.
We really thought we could handle the payments, but we are on a fixed income and it's a big stretch. We can do it, but we really can't travel and do those things we looked forward to doing...the house is way too big for the 2 of us, I would really like between 1600 and 1800 sq feet ideally, that would be manageable. But the biggest thing is I don't even like the house. I don't have any good memories, or very few, here because we had so much stress and anxiety with the folks, we really lost ourselves and found ourselves by last summer living in our bedroom just about.
And it's Utah..we have been shunned by neighbors, although we have made a few wonderful friends. Whatever happens we need to sell so we can get our life back on track. This is a beautiful home, all the upgrades, stainless, granite, travertine tile in the bathroom, etc...someone needs to come along and see how nice it is and how it could fit THEM. I hope. And it's a good time for us to buy something else, we can drop our price a bit more, we can make it up on the buying end. Listing expires mid June, if not sold by then, God help us...No, we have a teeny mobile home in western WA state we bought last year to escape the heat, we will just pack up necessities and the dogs and head up there. Take the house off the market for a couple weeks, give it a rest, and re list and let our agent take it from there. Not much else we can do...I just want to move on
In 31 years of marriage, this adventure is probably right up there with the biggest bonehead thing we have ever done, lol.
Our house just went on the market. When we signed with the agent, she sent us an email that said we could price it between $419 and $439. I misread it and thought it said that the top of our comps was $439. It's actually probably more in the $450-$460 range.
While searching for my home on the MLS I saw two homes, not nearly as nice as ours listed for $449 and $445 respectively. We priced ours at $429.
Granted, we would like it to sell quickly, but not at the expense of losing a lot of money. Everyone on the realtor 'caravan' said it was priced 'very well' and that they thought it should sell quickly.
Did we price too low?
Caat
Caat, I had a post typed out, then my USB keyboard / mouse stopped working. Hopefully I can remember what I researched.
First, you should go to zillow.com. Put your address in and claim your house, then list it for sale (free) put some photos up. You can also give your agents info. Both of your competition did this as well.
Doing a realtor.com search, you are priced the least out of the 3. I would talk to your agent to see how accurate she is on price. It could be the one smaller then you is priced too high, it also could be that you should have started at $440k
CA is a bad market. I know someone that used range pricing last year, started about $425k to $440k - got low balled a few times (under $400k). I don't recall if she even got $400 in the end.
With houses in that price range, you are counting on someone qualifying for a jumbo loan (if they still call it that), and last time I looked, they were at $416k beginning of the year. This means the seller needs to have a lot of cash on hand.
you can't price a house too low, but most sellers are pricing homes too high. How long has your house been on MLS, how many showings, second showings and offers have you had. Please keep us updated. If your house is priced correctly, you will see all of this activity in the first two weeks as buyer agents scramble to get their clients in before the house is snapped up. I see this happen all of the time even in a slow market. The buyers are out there, but until they see value, they are sitting on their hands. Please keep us updated on this thread!
I agree with the previous posters. From the facts you posted, it sounds like you priced your home just right! I hope you get a great offer, better yet, a bidding war!
the way i feel today, we should just knock another 50,000 off the price and get out. blah
I don't know where you need to break even on your house but, we're prepared to slash our price just to move ours. I checked on a couple of comps in our neighborhood today and we can make it work, even at rock bottom prices ...
If we get lucky we might make $10K on the sale but, if not ... no biggie. As long as we get our costs back ... it's worth it just to live where we want to live.
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