A 960 Sq. ft Garage-Shop!!

Kevin T said:
There is even more trickery out here. A buyer can make a high offer to beat out all others, you accept, the other buyers all go away. The buyer enters the contract but then says that their bank won't loan them the full amount you accepted because the comps don't reflect the market in your neighborhood and offer to pay you 30,000 less (happened to us). The place will look tainted to buyers if you re-list so in the interest of expediency you take it and it's a bitter transaction.

The other thing is that for the properties we have in the hot spots there are so many buyers that to make your offer stand out you write them letters with family photos inside and embellish your absolute love and respect for the property and wax poetically about your deep emotional attachment to the property in question! Fun times! ... and now my kids are getting older and my wife wants to go through this all again in a few years when our little one goes off to college! :frown:
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You can protect yourself when selling by insisting on all cash or pre-approved lending letter of credit from the bank. You can also accept a backup offer, so if the first choice fails to perform, you at least have #2 in the wings and this will keep pressure on your first choice. A good RE agent will know all this.
 
Janderso said:
I think the discouraging thing is to see the demand for nice homes with a bit of property.
It wasn't meant to be.
Thanks for the kind and heartfelt comments.
I appreciate it.

Merry Christmas Eve!!
The family is coming today for Xmas :)
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Sorry to hear you don't end up in contract. I'm curious if you thought your RE agent was giving you sound advice on what the offer needed to be to land the deal. A top producing agent will have a nose for what's required, lesser agents often do not.
 
davidpbest said:
You can protect yourself when selling by insisting on all cash or pre-approved lending letter of credit from the bank. You can also accept a backup offer, so if the first choice fails to perform, you at least have #2 in the wings and this will keep pressure on your first choice. A good RE agent will know all this.
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I forget all the details about the transaction but we did all the right stuff IIRC...and still got shafted. I recall being so far along in the deal that we were looking for a place to rent since we hadn't found a new house to buy and then the games began. Our realtor said that this was a trick...maybe she just goofed and didn't cover us properly? Of course we had their emotional letter of how they would just die if they couldn't raise their kids in our house! LOL
 
Kevin T said:
Sorry to read this as a fellow garage dweller. Good luck on the search going forward. I couldn't believe how hard it was to find a house with a large garage. Listings here don't even show the garage. It's like the entire real estate market out here has no clue. I would tell the RA that we want a house with a large garage or the house situated in such a way that I can extend the garage. I would have to comb though listings she didn't show us and explain that this house works great look at all that side yard next to the garage. She would say yeah, but there is a tree there! (A small tree, 10" trunk maybe, and above ground planter box for veggies). In the end we had to find our own house, then you get to pay the RA as if they did the early work!
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Our realtor thought I was joking when I said the same thing, but she found a house with an awesome workshop where the owner rebuilt old trucks and realized I was serious when I looked at the shop first lol. We didn’t like the house, or location, but I would be in heaven with that shop in our current house.
 
davidpbest said:
Sorry to hear you don't end up in contract. I'm curious if you thought your RE agent was giving you sound advice on what the offer needed to be to land the deal. A top producing agent will have a nose for what's required, lesser agents often do not.
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Funny, I was thinking the same thing.
Our agent was out of town. Her stand in is who we dealt with.
 
Just curious if you ever considered relocating, if you could. For that kind of money, there are places in this country that could buy you not only the house you want, but the shop you really want, without all the BS.

I like where I live. We bought this place, not only for the house and property, but because it's less than 15 minutes from where we both work. Had I known 4 years ago that there'd be a global pandemic that would change the rules on working from home, we would have bought someplace a little further out, with more land, so I could build the shop I really want, without my wife vetoing it because of the yard we would lose. ;) My employer has removed almost every limitation on where I can work from, except outside the US. Anywhere else is fair game.
 
MyLilMule said:
Just curious if you ever considered relocating, if you could. For that kind of money, there are places in this country that could buy you not only the house you want, but the shop you really want, without all the BS.

I like where I live. We bought this place, not only for the house and property, but because it's less than 15 minutes from where we both work. Had I known 4 years ago that there'd be a global pandemic that would change the rules on working from home, we would have bought someplace a little further out, with more land, so I could build the shop I really want, without my wife vetoing it because of the yard we would lose. ;) My employer has removed almost every limitation on where I can work from, except outside the US. Anywhere else is fair game.
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My wife would never leave her grandkids. Granted many Californians are leaving the state to elevate home pricing across the country.
I wouldn't mind moving and the fact we have a travel trailer and all the time in the world, we could visit regularly.
Maybe I can talk her into looking at possible home sites in neighboring states.
 
When I was searching for a home I did all of my own research. Everything is on Realtor.com and Zillow. When I would find something interesting I would contact the listing agent and make the offer through the listing agent. That gives the listing agent a big incentive to be get your offer accepted. The LA gets both sides of the commission. That's huge. On an $800,000 property that's over $20,000.

My advise is to don't rely on an agent to find your new home. Spend 10 minutes each evening to check out the new listings in the areas you would like to live. When you find a place, call the LA to make an appointment to look at the home. Don't text or email. Call on the phone. You will have a better chance of getting your offer accepted.
 
There are many good places in this country, and others as well.

But, home is home.

I left California in 2001 for Arizona, then to Northern Michigan for 10 years. Got lucky and had the chance to move back last year.

Wife and I are still trying to work it out as she is happiest in the small town she grew to love as a kid.

We looked at a few other places but it seems like now isn’t the time for us to sell out and relocate. It’s hard when you can walk to the beach from either one.

We are blessed that we don’t have to make a decision right now, I suspect you are too Jeff.

One thing you could consider is once your retired hit the road in that trailer and spend some time in other parts of the country where you might like to settle. It takes quite a while to get to know a place, and maybe in that time the real estate market will cool down some. Or maybe you learn to love your current home more, it doesn’t seem all that bad.

John
 
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