A time capsule of the greatest financial mania in the history of mankind, told in real-time by regular folks and patriots. May future generations better understand the madness of crowds, and how power and money corrupt.
Flipside of yesterday's question
Tell us about the person who did the smartest thing you know (in regards to the housing crash)
Oh, the brilliance...
Posted by
blogger
at
4/12/2007
Labels: bitter renters, bubble sitters, can't fool all the people all the time, good move, preparing for the storm, soothsayers
24 comments:
ME! I sold in '05 and currently rent!
Casey Serin
Me: Sold my house in November '05 and have been renting since.
I don't get it, I just don't get it. My old home in Las Vegas just went up another $5,500 on zillow. I sold it for $428,000 close to a year ago and zillow has it at $445,000 right now.
There have been numerous forclosures in the area and one home almost identical to mind sold for $334,000 after foreclosure, I'm assuming back to the lender.
Kind of depressing watching that chart go up every week, makes me think I should have stayed, especially now with the bailout coming which will effectively mean no more foreclosures.
One of the top Lawyers to the Fractional, Resort and Timeshare Developers in Orlando bought three pre-construction condos in one of the first Luxury High Rises in Downtown Orlando, which is really beautiful.
Then when the developer got the Certificate of Occupancy, and started closing to the buyers, the Attorney sold two of the three condos. He made enough profit that he got his home, the third and nicest penthouse condo FREE.
His lips to my ears.
No holding costs, no mortgagees,
just a deposit on three, and sell 2 when the building opens.
Viola, Free home.
As news broke some of the hottest markets were topping, a realtor who owned 4 condos as investments in the same building put them all up for sale in Jan. '06. This is suburban Chicago. They were all sold by March 2006. Where did the realtor move to? Why Phoenix. Same with the longtime (since the late '70s) owner of a massive rental complex in the suburbs. They sold in August 2006 and also moved to Phoenix. They're just going to sit back and pick the carcas clean...
I urge everyone to continue writing their representatives. This would be a terrible injustice to all of us who are responsible in our actions.
Even though Bush voiced opposition to such a measure... a few million emails wouldn't hurt.
The one 'kid' at work who took my advice and didn't buy at the peak and is still renting, the friends and relatives be damned.
The other ‘kid’, who didn't take my advice, was one of a few who got notice that they would be bumped down to part time starting next week! We had a special company meeting yesterday to announce (surprise, surprise!) austerity measures and cutbacks. And this in the agricultural industry, IN THE SPRINGTIME!
He was lucky (?) A lot of the low seniority people are history (laid off.)
Not to say the loosing your job isn't hard on everyone, but I feel that the emotional trauma of loosing your home due to non-payment has to devastating!
Me. I bought a house in 2001 for $146,000, sold it in March of 2005 for $310,000.
Myself - I sold the last day of the the peak of the local market, and closed escrow when prices had already dropped. The market was flat but nobody knew it when we listed (except us). To make sure this sold I low balled my self, dropped my price by 1%, we got multiple offers and it promptly went back up to our original price.
We've been renting ever since, and local prices have tanked 15% already.
Serin has signed a book deal...people are saying it is $1M up front.
One of the girls I play golf with sold her old house and bought a new one at the exact right time and made some good money. She freely admits that it was "luck" that her timing was right on!
AZgolfer
That's easy,
ME.
Already did this thread. Sold at the top, sitting on cash and renting.
Friend of mine who just stayed in the same home she bought before the bubble. Refi'ed to get a rock bottom rate for 15 years and still pays EXTRA on top of that payment. She projects payoff in about 7 years. Her goal is to be mortgage free, she still maxes out her retirement, lives simply but in a nicely appointed place. She is now on the condo board and she is taking a hard line at all the deadbeats who are blowing off the condo fee because they are stretched to meet their mortgage payments.
Condo board= reserve fund rip offerers
Not to say the loosing your job isn't hard on everyone, but I feel that the emotional trauma of loosing your home due to non-payment has to devastating!
UGHH!!!!
It's LOSING not LOOSING. Why the hell can't anyone make that distinction? I know it's only a blog and who cares about spelling, but this isn't spelling mistakes it's not knowing the difference between the two words and it pisses me off almost as much as reading Casey is going to get $1M for his book.
Me, of course. Bought in 93, sold in 05 for more than triple my purchase price.
~
Whoa, there, spelling meister, no sense blowing a gasket over a misspelled word. Get some perspective, take a chill pill.
You know. I can't think of anyone who sold at the top, and then rented.
I can list a loser or two who bought in at the top. But that should go on another page.
I don't "know" the guy, but the big shot real estate investor who sold his real estate portfolio in October 2005 (I believe that was the month) gets my nod for Housing Crash Genius. Don't remember the guy's name, but it was on the CNNMoney website back then, and I recall that Keith has brought him up at least once since then. I remember Keith saying "Man, what a call." I agree 100%.
I am attending graduate school in Cleveland, the foreclosure capital of America. Yeah, Cleveland sucks but I grew up here so I'm used to it. I pay $450 a month rent for a 800 sq ft 1/1 that includes parking, laundry, free wifi courtesy of my neighbors, and HBO (gotta have my Sopranos).
There is a building in my neighborhood (Clifton / West Shoreway) with condos for sale from 30000-65000. I called a few of the agents today on a whim and they were very happy to hear from me. One I called and didn't leave a message must have got me on his caller ID and just called back and left a message on my cell phone (which does not give my name on my voice mail response) asking me to please call.
I am considering buying but I don't know when the bottom will really hit. Cleveland has been in decline for DECADES, and I can't decide if buying a condo would make sense right now. I have ZERO expectations of making money on it, but am not sure as to the cost/benefits of buying vs renting.
I thought people like Casey were not allowed to profit off of fraud or crimes . I think it would be justice if the police picked him up and his profits would go to the people that lost money because of him .
I saw lots of guys sell apartment complexes to others who planned to empty the complexes of tenants and convert the properties to condos.
I bought an 1800 sq ft house in 1984 for 36K in Phoenix. I paid off the home free and clear in 2004.
In 1997, I moved up and purchased a 3700 sq ft custom home on an acre in North Glendale for 267K.
I kept the old house and rented it out at 1150.00 a month.
In November of 2005, I kicked out the renters and spent the next 9 months renovating and upgrading the old home.
I put up the old home on the market in September 2006 through a discount broker. I paid 199.00 for the MLS listing. I took my own photos for the MLS, I made my own flyers and sign. I held my own Open House, every weekend.
I finally sold the property in Feb 2007. It closed on March 2nd 2007. I sold the property at asking price which was about 10% lower than the comps at the time.
I sold the property for 426K
I sold the property to a private party who did not have a buyers agent and I had no listing agent which put an additional 25,560.00 in my pocket.
I bought a one year 65,000.00 CD at 5.01% to pay for the capitol gains taxes I will have to pay next year. The CD pays out about 250.00 a month.
I paid off my primary residence which had a balance of 154,000.00
It cost me 42,000.00 to remodel the old house.
So after all is said and done: I have no mortgage. Comps for my current home are running at 900K - 1.2 million. I have 165 thousand extra dollars to play with.
The feeling that my paycheck no longer goes toward a mortgage is liberating. I am free and clear of all debt and have a nice property to go home to every day.
I do not see how renting would have made for a better future. I like my home, I like the area and I like my situation. *(for now)
Guess the plan was to tax you out and off!!!!
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