Last Week's Biggest Sales

Miss Chiff – your assumptions could not be further off the mark and suggest that you are ignorant or perhaps just plain angry.

Regarding our old place, we were not “stupid” as you say to price slightly below market value at the time. Our broker, seeing that the market was in a potential state of flux, advised us to price low to generate interest. It worked – we had several offers over ask. Our buyers really wanted the place, and we all felt good about the sale. We were not only selling due to the writing on the wall about the market – school was a big part of it since we cannot afford private school so moving into our public school of choice was imperative and at the time, it was too hard to find a purchase so we decided to rent for a while since it seemed that prices were at worst going to stagnate so we had nothing to lose (only later did we realize just how much we had to gain).

Regarding our budget in the past – we are prudent people, but as with many New Yorkers of late, had come to accept that housing had to eat up a major part of our household budget. With our previous home, which we bought before starting a family, we were careful to keep within a budget which seemed high at the time, but proved to be modest as prices skyrocketed. As our family grew, we decided the only way to get more space was to stretch. We were still planning to spend far less than all the mortgage brokers were willing to approve us for, but of course, that’s because – as has become evidently clear – credit was being granted too easily. We knew better and wanted to keep our mortgage modest especially since, with small children, preserving time with them is also a key priority, as opposed to needing to spend more and more time working long hours to pay the mortgage. By the time we seriously started looking, there were the first glimmers that the boom might not last forever, hence our putting in offers below ask.

And to suggest that we were somehow recklessly stringing along the seller of the recent house we looked at is absurd. Believe me, we are very aware of the need for due diligence, but it’s a bit chicken and egg. That is, we are not going to waste our time nor that of our architect doing extensive research on a house if we know off the bat that the price we have in mind is totally out of the question for the seller. So, we started with our offer well below ask. Then, it was the seller/broker who repeatedly re-approached us, not the other way around. When it became clear that the seller was more and more interested in US as buyers (since we were well qualified and that became the key criteria in spite of our price being well below ask), we then decided that we would pursue research of the house with an architect. But, given what we found out, it did not seem worth pursuing and we immediately told the seller. As you must also know, homes almost involve some kind of compromise and price is a big part of that. For example, there are many homes that, with the right renovation, could be very beautiful. But that renovation can be pricey so it’s only worth it for many sellers if the purchase price is sufficiently affordable.

To say that “If you aren’t a liar, you are so painfully clueless about how this process works that you simply don’t deserve to be taken seriously on the subject” reflects a bitterness that undermines how seriously your comments can be taken.

“…low-balling. Nothing wrong with that, right BHO?”

No. Not all. Is that what you are doing?

***Bid half off peak comps***

Does anyone else remember back in the days when anonymous commenting was still allowed….the next post totally would have been sebb = miss chiff.

Am I right or am I right…?

(If you don’t get it sebb, I’m joking. I know you’re not the same person…

or do I…?)

😉

You knew when you started looking that asking prices were too high. You could have stayed where you were until prices came down – because the writing was on the wall, of course. But you sold your place anyway.

And you sold for a price that was – by your estimation – below the market at the time of sale. (And you hope they don’t need to sell in the next 5 – 10 years?! They were screwed.) That was so kind (stupid?) of you to sell at a price that was too low so you could turn around and make bids on houses that you couldn’t afford.

Despite looking at places whose asks were already out of your price range, you were reckless enough to put bids in that were still a stretch for your budget at the time. Were these places even big enough for you?

You lucked out, despite the writing being on the wall, that prices began to fall. So now you started low balling and/or looked at homes that were actually big enough for your family (and still low-balled).

Without doing enough due diligence, you put bids on places only to find that the cost of renevations was too much for your budget. (FYI: You strung that seller along because – believe it or not – it is your responsibility to take into consideration what you can actually afford given the current state of the property and what improvements you need/want to make.) So you did not bargain in good faith. And don’t tell me you didn’t know better. You have owned several properties over several years so you should know how the process works and how much things should cost to fix and renovate.

And then you post here, repeatedly, that you know where the market is going?!

We are all well aware of the current state of the real estate market and we don’t need to hear it from you over and over again.

Assuming you aren’t lying about the whole experience, it is shear luck that you aren’t underwater yourself and putting the economic health of your family in jeopardy. You are so lucky.

If you aren’t a liar, you are so painfully clueless about how this process works that you simply don’t deserve to be taken seriously on the subject.