The Brewmeister

Beautiful place, by the way. Got a little caught up in the moment.

FLYT993

Congrats, Steve. Looks to be a beautiful place. And you've got the only 993 on the block too! Hope everything works out!

Steve 96C4S

Well, they countered yesterday for only $10k less than they're asking price. Ughhhh. We're still working on it. We're $65k apart! We countered again today. My 993 NEEDS to be in this garage and soon. We have 60 days to be out of our house.

I just found out this garage doesn't even have a garage opener! It's manual. That will be my first house "mod", to call Sears and for $229 plus $119 they do a garage opener. So cheap, I'm surprised these people didn't install one. They obviously didn't put there car in here but it's just for storage. Totally non-car people... Some people could care less what they drive. Rennlisters don't fit that mold

Here's the alley and the garage...


Here's what's in the garage.

The all important hose that I'll use to clean my 993 with. Guess I'll be cleaning it... in an ... alley! How strange.


Lastly, the carriage house above the garage. I could put all my Porsche framed pics and posters in here maybe...


This is where my daily driver BMW would have to park...on the side street where this green van is. Our house, if we get it, would be the 2nd house in. It's weird not having a street in front of a house. Builders... they had a different way of building this neighborhood than I've ever seen. Stuffed as many houses into a small area as they could!



At least they put woods in front of the house instead of alot more houses.


Steve R

Mark Wilson

You offered $75K under their asking price?

NOH20

Typical for where I live, Michigan. Housing is dropping really fast.

AOW162435

Not unheard of around here. I just ratified a contract for a client where we initially came in $95,000 under asking price ($900,000). Many sellers refuse to price their homes appropriate to today's market conditions. As a result, buyers and becoming more and more aggressive with their offers. It's a very cyclical business.

Andreas

Steve 96C4S

I wish all sellers were as desperate as your seller was Andreas ($95k under?). The sellers of the house we want aren't dropping much at all

I am so sick of looking for a new home for my 993... it was fun for a while, now it's starting to be a real drag. 3rd house, 3rd contract, 3rd seller pretty much holding out for close to asking price in a buyer's market. I don't think it's much of a buyer's market for the area we're looking to buy! Or, the buyer's are unrealistic. The other 2 contracts that fell through - 1 is now for rent, they never found a buyer, the other is still on the market with a lower price and they still won't fix the cedar shake roof that is totally shot.

It's all good though. Looking forward to Nov 18th to another meet and drive here in Maryland.

Steve R

bill d cat

Volume tends to shrink to a trickle in bear markets. The sales tend to be the ones that really are forced.

I've read these stories from Florida, California ... and now Minnesota.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/us...hp&oref=slogin

We're looking for a larger house -- but my guess is the market won't see a bottom for a couple of years.

lucycan

Its really slowing down here in MN but many good areas are still pretty solid. I think thats typical.

Berkley

Don't get down in the dumps....real estate markets are very fickle now....Ten days ago, I put my home on the market and two folks looked and the second family offered a full price offer......But it was location driven and I priced it at current market value. A year ago, maybe $100,000 higher and four months ago likely $50,000 higher.

I bought it two years ago and I was realistic about the market...I recovered the hard dollar improvements, the broker's fee and made a nominal return...Unfortunately a lot of sellers still think their home is worth what other neighbor homes sold for six to eighteen months ago......

On the other side, over a month ago I bought a small horse farm and it had been on the market since Feb. 2007.....My offer was a $175,000 below the original asking price.....The sellers accepted the my cash offer as presented..... as they had bought another farm in Kentucky.....the carry cost was to heavy and they were emotionally in Kentucky

With your home sold...you are in the driver's seat

PS: Go back to the first home with a clean offer a tad higher...give them 12 hours to accept or counter...having sold your home is "big" in the eyes of a seller

Greg Fishman

Re: garage door openers. Get a Marantec instead of Sears or something else. And pay someone the $100 or so to do the install, you will be glad you did.


It is like the difference between a Chevy and a BMW in terms of quietness.
http://www.marantecamerica.com/

Arrwin

The real estate boom certainly skewed sellers' perception on the worth of their homes. Most refuse to believe the downturn of the real estate market and the ones that can are holding out for a turnaround, a la the seller that pulled their house off the market and is now renting it. If the rental market is strong enough (which is usually a converse of the for sale market), to sustain their mortgage then sellers can afford to hold out for the market to come back up, whenever that happens. I think if the rental market there cannot sustain their mortgage payments, then more people will be willing to deal and come back to reality.

In NYC, the market is still pretty strong and definitly not consistent with the downward trend of the rest of the nation.

Be patient, i'm sure you will find that perfect house for you and your family...and of course the 993.

Best of luck!

Steve 96C4S

Thanks guys, we got it! At least, pending something awful in the home inspection. We got $35k off their asking price. They originally asked $185k more for the home this summer in June! This is alot of money for us, and we'll be a bit broke for a while, and I need to find a new job as mine ends soon, but ... I got my 993 to keep me happy when skies are grey.

Marantec garage door opener? Never heard of it but I'll google it and get one maybe. They're that much better than Sear's best one?

The buyer for our home want us to split a new roof with them. They say ours is 20 years old and it's a 20 year roof and needs replacing... Ouch. There goes another $10k...

Steve R

Portugal993

Really nice house! It's pretty strange how different the architecture is over there. In portugal we don't get wooden houses at all, and they've all got sum pretty weird design. Really like the kitchen in yours.

AOW162435

Steve,
Congrats on getting the new home!

As for the buyer of your existing home - don't give in so soon. Are there problems with your current roof? Does it leak? If not, I would be reluctant to simply give up $10k. What did the home inspector say about your roof?

Andreas