Originally Posted by
Brian Elfert
I get even more frustrated reading about everyone who has sold their house and already has a new house to move into while I'm still looking. I listed my house on Feb 3rd. It has now been six months and I still have no house. It has been almost three months since the purchase agreement for my house was signed.
We've been casually looking since 2008, semi-seriously looking since Jan 2010, sold our house Nov 2010 and have been in house-hunting hell since then.
We looked at a new listing on Thurs just hours after it was listed. The selling agent is known for putting no effort in his listings, overpricing them and stands in one spot in the driveway and takes a few pictures. The listing said it had 2 outbuildings big enough to fit an RV and a 1968 house on 5 acres. Doing a quick search of online records, it appeared to be owned by an elderly couple.
We arrive at the house with our agent and meet the wife. She's in her 70's. (It's so much nicer walking around an empty house so you don't feel like you are snooping in someone's closets!) The house was maintained years ago, but was in need of updating and repairs. It was almost all original and needs new windows, deck & roof. The husband arrived home and they unlocked the shop for us to look inside. He looked to be in his 90's and while mobile, he moved very slow. The gentleman used to restore old cars. Neither shop was tall enough to fit an RV. The shop near the house had a fair amount of black mold in it and needed a new metal roof. The larger building behind the shop had a paint booth as well as other auto-related stuff. That roof was barely there, black mold on the sheetrock, insulation, ... everywhere you looked. There is an enormous amount of work & money that will need to be done to that place as well as 40 years of collected stuff in the buildings to haul off to the dump. It was obvious that the owners kept it nice until their age prevented them from maintaining it.
What's sad is their selling agent has probably assured them that they can get his listed price. It is worth about $100k less. He has two other listings that have been on the market for several years and they too are way-overpriced. Our agent thanked them and planted the seed by saying we needed to research bank loans since it will be difficult to get a loan due to all the repairs and black mold. No point insulting them in the first few hours of listing their house by offering $100k less for it!
I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and I think, "Well, that’s not going to happen."