The dreaded email arrived with the list of repairs that the buyers wanted. I laughed a bit becasue some of the items were a bit much. I took a moment and composed a reply with items I agreed to fix and that will be it.
Along the way a few emails were send between me the other realtor and I guess between her and the buyers. Bottom line is that they agreed to what I wrote.
A bug along the way was the condition of the roof. Funny that! The home is 100 years old and the timbers that support the roof are intact but where some meet the underlying beams there is a gap of 1 maybe 1.5 inches - like a give. So when the inspector walked on the roof and noticed a "give" he claimed the roof to be sagging. This has since become an issue. The roof is fine and the sag is a non-issue on my end.
I considered just walking away from the sale and keeping the house. I am always seconds away from telling them all to get lost! I try not to be so impulsive, but it is what it is. The roof could be corrected by placing a strip of wood on the cross beam and waalaa - but I am done with it.
Also, my realtor forwarded an email she received from the buyer's agent and I did not care much for the tone. Good thing I read it late because once again I would have immediately shot back a terse response.
I have someone who is handling 90% of the communication with the realtor. I need that much of a buffer, because I have a very short fuse when it comes to the selling side of the equasion.
So, we have some repairs to get started with and hopefull everything will be completed next week. We can arrange movers to pick up the stuff by the first and I fly down to pick up my dogs on the 4th. The next couple of weeks is going to be packed with activity and loads of stress!!! Should be interesting!!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
More On That...
I touched a little on the process I go through on shopping for a home and I thought I would take a moment to expand on my boring ass theories on home buying.
Currently I have begun the process of finding a home in MS. The first part if online searches to get an idea of what is available and how the market is moving. there are about five areas I have focused in on and the homes are all fairly similar. From my research I have found that MS is a bit of a depressed market (putting it mildly) and homes are sitting on the market for a while. This gives the buyer a little leverage but is a concern in a few years when I go to sell.
Once I am a little better aquainted with the area and what the inventory is like I will research tax rates, insurance rates, crime, schools and public transportation access. The bummer with MS is the insurance rates are astronomical the closer to the ocean you purchase - this has to be considered when finding the correct home.
I start to make a list of possible homes located in my target area and chare my list with someone who has an opinion I value. I listen to the feedback and eliminate some homes from the list. In the final review of my list I want to know what I would change to increase the value of the home. This time around I really want to gut a kitchen so I want a galley style kitchen because I believe this will make the process easier and less expensive. I have never done a kitchen top to bottom and it is very high on my list. I want to stay away from bathroom remodles unless it is minor. When I say minor I mean I can switch out a vanity-counter and sing but I do not want to re-tile anything.
I am also looking to maybe re-floor a whole home. Ripping up carpet and placing wood floors down. Many of the homes I have been looking at have tile throughout the home and this is so not my style and I fear it would be way too expensive to replace - so most of those homes do not make my list. I just think that tile throughout the home is so limiting and hurts the re-sale. Wood floors are most desired by buyers and it is worth the investment.
Lot wise I want to keep it small and tight. I feel I can landscape a small yard much easier than a huge yard and I do not want to spend all my weekends mowing and doing yardwork.
So I have a list, know what improvements I want to do, find an ideal location, managable yard and I need to examing the home layout to help weed down the list even more. The ideal home layout is a split floor plan. The bedrooms are on opposite ends of the home. This appeals to me as I will make one of the bedrooms a little lounge for television and the other end will be my sleep chamber!! Believe it or not this is a big consideration when you have guests or you live with someone who stays up late watching television and you are a light sleeper. I know people out there claim to want open floorplans, but I think is everything else is in line they will forget about the whole open floorplan thing.
Now my list has maybe 5 to 10 homes and now I can tour the homes and examine the neghborhoods. This is a huge step!! This is when I get the whole vibe of the area which for me is the most important step! If the area does not feel livable and I cannot see myself there the home gets cut! The will eliminate half of my homes remaining on my list. I then rank the remaining homes 1 to whatever is left and the offer process begins. I will fill out offers for house number one, but my realtor will understand I most likely will make an offer on more than one home to get the price I want and I want the seller to understand I will be making a quick decision and I have multiple homes to consider.
This is the most fun part as a buyer. I see the seller squirming in my mind and this brings a huge smile to my face and I love it when they counter with a ridiculous counter. Say the home is listed for $350 and my research tells me $310 is more reasonable and the home has been on the market for 6 months with several price drops - this is like candy! I go in with an offer of $280, the seller comes back with $348 - I always love those offers. This is when I like the realtor to tighten the screws a bit. So I come back at $290 and spill the beans that another home nearby also catches my eye - they also let the buyer know I expect to close quickly and I am a serious buyer. The offer comes back and is usually headed in the right direction. The seller is over the initial insult and has maybe had some time to understand it may be another six months for another serious offer. If all goes well I get a price I was actually aiming for and it helps to walk away for a day or two to make the seller believe he has lost the buyer - it helps to sweeten the process.
I have actually walked away from the negotiation process to have my realtor contact me days later to inform be the seller had a change of heart. They realise that a solid offer may be few and far between in this economy and sometimes you have to take what is on the table - I LOVE IT!! That is the best part about this horrible economy! If I had more money I would be out there buying as many homes as possible, because eventually the market will stabilize and things will get much better. Not that we will live long enough to see the kind of market that got us into this trouble but it move again at a better pace with far fewer foreclosures.
Currently I have begun the process of finding a home in MS. The first part if online searches to get an idea of what is available and how the market is moving. there are about five areas I have focused in on and the homes are all fairly similar. From my research I have found that MS is a bit of a depressed market (putting it mildly) and homes are sitting on the market for a while. This gives the buyer a little leverage but is a concern in a few years when I go to sell.
Once I am a little better aquainted with the area and what the inventory is like I will research tax rates, insurance rates, crime, schools and public transportation access. The bummer with MS is the insurance rates are astronomical the closer to the ocean you purchase - this has to be considered when finding the correct home.
I start to make a list of possible homes located in my target area and chare my list with someone who has an opinion I value. I listen to the feedback and eliminate some homes from the list. In the final review of my list I want to know what I would change to increase the value of the home. This time around I really want to gut a kitchen so I want a galley style kitchen because I believe this will make the process easier and less expensive. I have never done a kitchen top to bottom and it is very high on my list. I want to stay away from bathroom remodles unless it is minor. When I say minor I mean I can switch out a vanity-counter and sing but I do not want to re-tile anything.
I am also looking to maybe re-floor a whole home. Ripping up carpet and placing wood floors down. Many of the homes I have been looking at have tile throughout the home and this is so not my style and I fear it would be way too expensive to replace - so most of those homes do not make my list. I just think that tile throughout the home is so limiting and hurts the re-sale. Wood floors are most desired by buyers and it is worth the investment.
Lot wise I want to keep it small and tight. I feel I can landscape a small yard much easier than a huge yard and I do not want to spend all my weekends mowing and doing yardwork.
So I have a list, know what improvements I want to do, find an ideal location, managable yard and I need to examing the home layout to help weed down the list even more. The ideal home layout is a split floor plan. The bedrooms are on opposite ends of the home. This appeals to me as I will make one of the bedrooms a little lounge for television and the other end will be my sleep chamber!! Believe it or not this is a big consideration when you have guests or you live with someone who stays up late watching television and you are a light sleeper. I know people out there claim to want open floorplans, but I think is everything else is in line they will forget about the whole open floorplan thing.
Now my list has maybe 5 to 10 homes and now I can tour the homes and examine the neghborhoods. This is a huge step!! This is when I get the whole vibe of the area which for me is the most important step! If the area does not feel livable and I cannot see myself there the home gets cut! The will eliminate half of my homes remaining on my list. I then rank the remaining homes 1 to whatever is left and the offer process begins. I will fill out offers for house number one, but my realtor will understand I most likely will make an offer on more than one home to get the price I want and I want the seller to understand I will be making a quick decision and I have multiple homes to consider.
This is the most fun part as a buyer. I see the seller squirming in my mind and this brings a huge smile to my face and I love it when they counter with a ridiculous counter. Say the home is listed for $350 and my research tells me $310 is more reasonable and the home has been on the market for 6 months with several price drops - this is like candy! I go in with an offer of $280, the seller comes back with $348 - I always love those offers. This is when I like the realtor to tighten the screws a bit. So I come back at $290 and spill the beans that another home nearby also catches my eye - they also let the buyer know I expect to close quickly and I am a serious buyer. The offer comes back and is usually headed in the right direction. The seller is over the initial insult and has maybe had some time to understand it may be another six months for another serious offer. If all goes well I get a price I was actually aiming for and it helps to walk away for a day or two to make the seller believe he has lost the buyer - it helps to sweeten the process.
I have actually walked away from the negotiation process to have my realtor contact me days later to inform be the seller had a change of heart. They realise that a solid offer may be few and far between in this economy and sometimes you have to take what is on the table - I LOVE IT!! That is the best part about this horrible economy! If I had more money I would be out there buying as many homes as possible, because eventually the market will stabilize and things will get much better. Not that we will live long enough to see the kind of market that got us into this trouble but it move again at a better pace with far fewer foreclosures.
The Process...
Mr Toad, when does this ride end?
The entire moving and arrangement of moving is an enormous pain in the ass. Throw in the fact that we are moving out of state and doing a two part move with storage time thrown in and you reach cluster fuck levels of complications.
The house is under contract and we seem to have a couple of eager first time buyers. The home inspection was as nit-pickey as humanly possible and this led to follow-up inspections by roofers, plumbers and electricians (oh my). We are still waiting for the final requests from the buyers but the initial feedback is not that bad. I think we will have to replace a dated electrical box and have some minor wiring work completed - but that is not bad. We just need to see the request in writing so we can accept or deny.
There is the selling of as many things as possible in progress. A 3500 sq ft home with additional basement storage is crap-loads of junk to get rid of. Furniture, televisions, exercise equipment and most everything must go. I have a huge dining room set that is not selling and our next home will be much much smaller - so I am not sure what to do with the furniture. Things are selling - slowly and here and there. The more we unload the less we have to move.
The movers are coming this week to assemble their quotes. What is going to happen is we will have out belongings moved to storage and my new employer will move the items from storage to their final destination. The time frame is the bitch. Because we must pay for the first part and the final move is paid by the company. The good thing is the moving expences will be tax deductable and I have tons of deductions this year!!
So, if the repairs get straighened out and we arrange a moving company then slow bus back in pittsburgh must get in gear and organize packing and preparing for the actual move as well as arrange the home repairs - whew!
I have a plane ticket to PA for November 4th and I am renting a van and driving back to Texas with the dogs and whatever else must move with us. If all goes extremely well that will be the final trip to Pittsburgh, but I am not holding my breath. What most likely will happen is I get the dogs and items and the slow one will need to return to Pittsburgh to tie up lose ends- Yuck!
Here is the real kicker. When my company moves me I have to send someone back to Pittsburgh to supervise the move from storage provider to moving fan and they must sign on the spot. This will mean I need to arrange a POA before January.
When I return to Texas around november 6th, I will be here about another month. From here I am heading to MS to house hunt and on to Florida for holidays. If all goes smoothly and I am not expecting a smooth ride, but at least the process has started.
I have bought and sold about 5 homes now and I must admit I despise the selling process, but love the buying process. In selling you have no real power and just sit and wait until you get a nibble and must be ever so careful not to scare the home buyer away.
As a buyer I go in make an offer and low ball as much as I can. I demand everything and dare the seller to flinch. See, I do not fall in love with a home and can easily move to choice two, three or four to get the deal I feel good about. Plus, in buying I put is mad amounts of research to ensure the home will sell when I am ready to move on. I will take a dump of a home in an excellent location and do the repairs so that it sells when I am ready. The truth is the home can be changed, but you are pretty much stuck with the location so the location is the only really important factor. From location I look at layout and what needs to be changed and how difficult it will be.
The entire moving and arrangement of moving is an enormous pain in the ass. Throw in the fact that we are moving out of state and doing a two part move with storage time thrown in and you reach cluster fuck levels of complications.
The house is under contract and we seem to have a couple of eager first time buyers. The home inspection was as nit-pickey as humanly possible and this led to follow-up inspections by roofers, plumbers and electricians (oh my). We are still waiting for the final requests from the buyers but the initial feedback is not that bad. I think we will have to replace a dated electrical box and have some minor wiring work completed - but that is not bad. We just need to see the request in writing so we can accept or deny.
There is the selling of as many things as possible in progress. A 3500 sq ft home with additional basement storage is crap-loads of junk to get rid of. Furniture, televisions, exercise equipment and most everything must go. I have a huge dining room set that is not selling and our next home will be much much smaller - so I am not sure what to do with the furniture. Things are selling - slowly and here and there. The more we unload the less we have to move.
The movers are coming this week to assemble their quotes. What is going to happen is we will have out belongings moved to storage and my new employer will move the items from storage to their final destination. The time frame is the bitch. Because we must pay for the first part and the final move is paid by the company. The good thing is the moving expences will be tax deductable and I have tons of deductions this year!!
So, if the repairs get straighened out and we arrange a moving company then slow bus back in pittsburgh must get in gear and organize packing and preparing for the actual move as well as arrange the home repairs - whew!
I have a plane ticket to PA for November 4th and I am renting a van and driving back to Texas with the dogs and whatever else must move with us. If all goes extremely well that will be the final trip to Pittsburgh, but I am not holding my breath. What most likely will happen is I get the dogs and items and the slow one will need to return to Pittsburgh to tie up lose ends- Yuck!
Here is the real kicker. When my company moves me I have to send someone back to Pittsburgh to supervise the move from storage provider to moving fan and they must sign on the spot. This will mean I need to arrange a POA before January.
When I return to Texas around november 6th, I will be here about another month. From here I am heading to MS to house hunt and on to Florida for holidays. If all goes smoothly and I am not expecting a smooth ride, but at least the process has started.
I have bought and sold about 5 homes now and I must admit I despise the selling process, but love the buying process. In selling you have no real power and just sit and wait until you get a nibble and must be ever so careful not to scare the home buyer away.
As a buyer I go in make an offer and low ball as much as I can. I demand everything and dare the seller to flinch. See, I do not fall in love with a home and can easily move to choice two, three or four to get the deal I feel good about. Plus, in buying I put is mad amounts of research to ensure the home will sell when I am ready to move on. I will take a dump of a home in an excellent location and do the repairs so that it sells when I am ready. The truth is the home can be changed, but you are pretty much stuck with the location so the location is the only really important factor. From location I look at layout and what needs to be changed and how difficult it will be.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Things You Notice...
I like to run in the early morning. If I am on my game I get my run in before 9am. It is cooler that time of morning and it leaves me the rest of the day to do whatever I want.
I run a trail not to far from the apartment. The trail was build just to get San Antonioians off their fat asses and get them moving. It is a three mile lap and for the most part every morning there is a smattering of people walking the trail. A few runners but not many.
The trail crosses a street in two places and I usually stop and walk across the road. In one part there has been much construction going on and loads of Mexicans doing whatever as part of the road crew.
I have noticed over the past three weeks these road crew workers do as little as possible. In fact, the last four or five times I have run the trail I have noticed every single worker sitting in the trucks not doing anything. It is no wonder it takes 8 months to finish one small stretch of road.
Not attempting to be racist, but the people of latin decent seem to not be overly motivated to work around these parts. In the complex they are the maintence people and here they are all over 300 lbs and zip around the complex in golf carts. I have yet to see any of them walk more than 10 feet.
this part of the country is very unhealthy with obesity, heart disease and diabetes much higher than the national average. It would be a CV surgeons dream to set up shop in this part of the country and that also allows me to come here to work as a traveller. So when i read the blogs about new nurses not finding jobs and willing to move anywhere to work I think maybe they should all relocate to texas, because there are so many unhealthy here to allow all of us to work for a very long time.
I run a trail not to far from the apartment. The trail was build just to get San Antonioians off their fat asses and get them moving. It is a three mile lap and for the most part every morning there is a smattering of people walking the trail. A few runners but not many.
The trail crosses a street in two places and I usually stop and walk across the road. In one part there has been much construction going on and loads of Mexicans doing whatever as part of the road crew.
I have noticed over the past three weeks these road crew workers do as little as possible. In fact, the last four or five times I have run the trail I have noticed every single worker sitting in the trucks not doing anything. It is no wonder it takes 8 months to finish one small stretch of road.
Not attempting to be racist, but the people of latin decent seem to not be overly motivated to work around these parts. In the complex they are the maintence people and here they are all over 300 lbs and zip around the complex in golf carts. I have yet to see any of them walk more than 10 feet.
this part of the country is very unhealthy with obesity, heart disease and diabetes much higher than the national average. It would be a CV surgeons dream to set up shop in this part of the country and that also allows me to come here to work as a traveller. So when i read the blogs about new nurses not finding jobs and willing to move anywhere to work I think maybe they should all relocate to texas, because there are so many unhealthy here to allow all of us to work for a very long time.
My Two Pesos!
I have cable television once again and with it comes tons of news programs and some no so news programs. I am addicted to political opinion shows and this political season has been like crack to an addict.
We have candidates like Christine O'Donnell who was busted for claims of being a witch (delicious) and her warped views on just about everything. I spend each night watching Rachel Maddow and others point out all her many lunitic statements and it is pure entertainment. I am just thankful there are more rational voters in that state and that nut case is well behind in the polls.
Paladino is another whacko who found his name in the ballot for govenor of new York. What are these people thinking who support this freak? He is funny and keeps the one liners coming. I especially love his Soprano-like threat he make to a reporter, "I will take you out."
Meg Wittman in California who on occasion has let the three 6s in her forehead show through her thinning hair. Yikes! And in California no less.
There are a few others in Nevada and that wrestler woman in CT. What the hell is this world coming to when these Tea Baggers are supporting and financing such extreme nut jobs??
Now, the Democrats have their own issues. Obama and and his hands off approach to the whole Don't Ask Don't Tell issue is one that leaves me head scratching. he claims to support its repeal and even promised over and over again that within the year it would be history. When the vote comes to the senate floor where was Obama? Where was his support? Why was he not making call or speaking to sway republican votes? And why is the DOJ fighting so hard to reverse the recent court decision to bar implementation of the DADT based on constitionality?
I think Obama is showing very poor leadership in this whole ordeal and the latest is that he has asked Biden to remain on the ticket for 2012 effectively squashing the rumors that Hillary would have been added to the ticket. Hmmm.
Yup, this has been an interesting political season with much more to come...
We have candidates like Christine O'Donnell who was busted for claims of being a witch (delicious) and her warped views on just about everything. I spend each night watching Rachel Maddow and others point out all her many lunitic statements and it is pure entertainment. I am just thankful there are more rational voters in that state and that nut case is well behind in the polls.
Paladino is another whacko who found his name in the ballot for govenor of new York. What are these people thinking who support this freak? He is funny and keeps the one liners coming. I especially love his Soprano-like threat he make to a reporter, "I will take you out."
Meg Wittman in California who on occasion has let the three 6s in her forehead show through her thinning hair. Yikes! And in California no less.
There are a few others in Nevada and that wrestler woman in CT. What the hell is this world coming to when these Tea Baggers are supporting and financing such extreme nut jobs??
Now, the Democrats have their own issues. Obama and and his hands off approach to the whole Don't Ask Don't Tell issue is one that leaves me head scratching. he claims to support its repeal and even promised over and over again that within the year it would be history. When the vote comes to the senate floor where was Obama? Where was his support? Why was he not making call or speaking to sway republican votes? And why is the DOJ fighting so hard to reverse the recent court decision to bar implementation of the DADT based on constitionality?
I think Obama is showing very poor leadership in this whole ordeal and the latest is that he has asked Biden to remain on the ticket for 2012 effectively squashing the rumors that Hillary would have been added to the ticket. Hmmm.
Yup, this has been an interesting political season with much more to come...
The Grades are in...
My goal when I drove away from Pittsburgh and towards Texas was to use the time alone here to good use. I had a plan of things that I needed to accomplish and now 1/3 into the program I need to re-evaluate my progress.
First, I was determined to lose weight. My goal was 25 pounds and I thought within three months that was a doable goal. Not so fast, I got off to a slow start but now have only healthy foods in my kitchen. To date I have lost 4 pounds and this makes me VERY DEPRESSED. I took today off of counting calories and exercising because starting tomorrow I am to begin diligently counting every single last calorie. I giving the newer stricter plan four weeks before I move to a far more drastic plan. So after one month I will give myself a D-.
Second, on the game plan was to increase my run times along with goals set for push-ups and sit-ups. The first few runs were horrible and took some time to get back into the swing of things. A month into my runs and I am almost to where I was when I left San Antonio last December. I need to shave off about a minute from my times and increase my distance runs, but on the positive side I am not having any tendinitis and I feel great about my runs. I think with some of this weight off I could easily exceed my goals. the Push-ups and Sit-ups have almost exceeded my three month goal I set before coming down here. Grade A-.
Third, I was to save money and pay off some debt. So far I have controlled my spending and the increase in hours worked has allowed me to make a few deposits into savings. Grade A.
I still have some minor goals set that I have yet to really attack, but with two months remaining I feel fairly confident I will be in good shape when I leave here for good.
First, I was determined to lose weight. My goal was 25 pounds and I thought within three months that was a doable goal. Not so fast, I got off to a slow start but now have only healthy foods in my kitchen. To date I have lost 4 pounds and this makes me VERY DEPRESSED. I took today off of counting calories and exercising because starting tomorrow I am to begin diligently counting every single last calorie. I giving the newer stricter plan four weeks before I move to a far more drastic plan. So after one month I will give myself a D-.
Second, on the game plan was to increase my run times along with goals set for push-ups and sit-ups. The first few runs were horrible and took some time to get back into the swing of things. A month into my runs and I am almost to where I was when I left San Antonio last December. I need to shave off about a minute from my times and increase my distance runs, but on the positive side I am not having any tendinitis and I feel great about my runs. I think with some of this weight off I could easily exceed my goals. the Push-ups and Sit-ups have almost exceeded my three month goal I set before coming down here. Grade A-.
Third, I was to save money and pay off some debt. So far I have controlled my spending and the increase in hours worked has allowed me to make a few deposits into savings. Grade A.
I still have some minor goals set that I have yet to really attack, but with two months remaining I feel fairly confident I will be in good shape when I leave here for good.
Deep In The Heart of Mexas...
Okay Kiddies, I have been nestled in San Antonio for one entire month now. I have about two months remaining before I move on. I have to say, this time around in San Antonio has been nice. I enjoy the facility where I work, the parking is great and I am not in the float pool anymore - YEA!
It is also nice being on assignment where I know my way around and not needing to rely so much on the GPS. Little things like the roads are much larger here than those tiny little streets in Pittsburgh. The weather is also much better here this time of year with temperatures in the 70s to 90s and very mild. When I am working the unit is so cold that when lunch time rolls around I enjoy walking outside and soaking up the heat.
People here seem nice with the exception of an asshole physician here or there and on a recent float shift to step-down I did run across a nurse who was a major C-word, but other than that it has been pretty smooth.
It is also nice being on assignment where I know my way around and not needing to rely so much on the GPS. Little things like the roads are much larger here than those tiny little streets in Pittsburgh. The weather is also much better here this time of year with temperatures in the 70s to 90s and very mild. When I am working the unit is so cold that when lunch time rolls around I enjoy walking outside and soaking up the heat.
People here seem nice with the exception of an asshole physician here or there and on a recent float shift to step-down I did run across a nurse who was a major C-word, but other than that it has been pretty smooth.
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