Open House Picks

{there must be text limit}

…it’s hard to know what is going on, and, if/when a neighbor calls you to let you know something’s up, it is hard or impossible to ask for her to solve the problem. If you’re gone for two weeks here and there, you can make arrangements, but otherwise if it is ongoing, you have a handyman who comes by all the time.

We don’t know if the market is okay for a house that needs work. I would love to price it low to see if anyone is interested. 1.3 or 1.4 or so and it’d probably fly since the extra work needed wouldn’t add up to all that much in terms of what comparable houses have recently sold for…but maybe those recent buyers who paid top dollar will end up regretting their purchases.

The big question…I can’t believe I’m musing about this on a blog!…is how to keep any proceeds relatively safe during this market upheaval. My grandfather would have said that an annuity would make sense, but I don’t know if the financial firms/insurance co’s that offer them are really that sound. Any suggestions of annuities or other safe vehicles is welcome. What are you guys who have sold recently done? And, don’t tell me to split money between FDIC insured accounts because it is only insured for a certain percentage. If we have a meltdown, all bets are probably off on FDIC accounts.

I don’t feel our CFP or broker know what they’re really talking about. One’s too stuck in the 80’s and the other is too much of a hotshot.

Any suggestions are welcome, particularly where to plunk hundreds of Ks during this market volatility.

Thanks!

[Signed]
Grey Texter

PS, I actually skipped a lot of the dark text above (except for Aussie’s) because it was nothing but

5.10 “Aussie – please show me evidence that Paris is more expensive than NY. I have many friends who own property in Paris and what you are saying strains credulity”

Latest figures I found are from Sept 2006 Paris was the third most expensive city in the world (property wise), NY is way down the list and I think we can agree that the dollar has depreciated massivly since then making NY property comparitivly less expensive again. Also Paris property kept going up when the US dropped. Search for the Caldwell Bankers House Price Comparison Index. London is stagnant just like NY but affordably is way less in the UK. I have sold my property in London a year ago.

I know the rental markets fairly intimately in a number of parts of NY and rents are increasing. It seems odd to me and maybe it is not market wide… but it is something to think about.

Sellers accepting price reductions of 10-15% from ASK are normal during normal markets. We have not been in a normal market since about 1997.

Look, there may be misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric flying around this blog, which is the nature of the beast. But truly, who can deny that the market is shifting? Sure it may not be crashing but all indicators are showing the market is not what it was in past years, and history shows that markets are cyclical. For it to soften 10-20% is really nothing extraordinary or catastrophic, but it can meaningful to potential buyers, many of whom are expecting this, with plenty of evidence on their side.