Road Trips 2012 & Real Estate

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Aage

Have you though of selling it by having a lottery, with the one and only prize the house?

Is that even legal?

It has been done, so I guess it is legal in some places. The problem is selling enough tickets. Most of this kind of thing is done by nonprofits with donated items (even houses), so they make money no matter what. I think if raffling your house worked, we'd see a lot of it. A big part is promoting it on the internet and hoping to get it on TV—despite watching Mad Men regularly, I am not an advertising guy. I could sell one half million dollar ticket—you'd be guaranteed to win. Wire the money to my bank (Canadian funds are fine).

Gene

[Fly at Night]

Hope the sale works out, Gene.


BTW, in Australia they routinely auction real estate (usually with a reserve bid).

If it can be done in your State, that might be an idea. Advertise it well and make it a real novelty event! Play up the rustic aspect.

You're probably sick of all the suggestions, but I hate to see one of my favourite Airstreamers so unhappy.

[Gene]

Not unhappy, Carla. Stressed, eager to move, trying to be calm and accept whatever comes our way (and not always succeeding in that). Trying to coordinate a sale and a purchase simultaneously is tricky, but it means we won't have to move twice.

We are mulling over the house we found to buy—it was poorly conceived in many ways on the level of decor though it has many things we like. It is cold feeling—part of that is because it is empty—so we plan on paneling in the public areas and master bedroom and new paint elsewhere. Cheap doors and trim are easy enough to replace. We will create a 4th bedroom (good for resale) out of an unfinished room used as a secondary shop next to the workshop and Barb can use it for an office. I might build a room in the workshop as a work out room (shop is nearly 700 sq. ft., heated and part of the walkout basement). Big kitchen with more cabinets than I thought possible, 2 ovens, 2 dishwashers (! not a typo, 2 of them), 2 sinks. Open floor plan, great views. Airstream parking has to be figured out—the space is there, but it may mean some fancy backing. I may have to replace windows and don't look forward to that because windows are very expensive (windows are vinyl and appear to be less than average quality). It appears well built, but not as well as I dream about. It is a challenge, but we always buy houses that need to be transformed into a warm, inviting living space. We save money and it keeps us off the streets.

In our minds, we are decorating a house we don't own and haven't made an offer on. We try to stop doing that and focus on the immediate present, but we don't do well at that. Friends visiting this weekend and that'll be nice (with a big showing in the middle of the visit—we sure do like stress).

If we can pull this off, it means we can travel without worrying about selling our house—that will be freedom, especially sweet when we need it to recover from remodeling.

Gene

[Steelegood]

Hey Gene:
Sounds like you found a house you could live in, we're keeping our fingers crossed you find a buyer so this new one becomes a reality! Like you, I can (and don't mind) manage a lot of the work myself, sans electrical.

Terry

[Gene]

Terry, I like electrical, hate plumbing (but usually do it because it costs too much to have a plumber do it). A new house means learning the systems and their quirks. The mechanical room is very small and crowded; I have a fix for that too, but all the fixes will take time. But in the end, the house is yours. It is our way of being artists.

And I'm running out of things to change in the trailer, so I have to remodel something.

Gene

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, Gene; We are looking for another house too. But hopefully, we will find and buy another house before we try to sell ours. My plan is to move everything that we need and want first and then get rid of what's left. We want a smaller house, but they seem to be hard to find. Also hoping for room to park my trailer.

[Gene]

Bob,

We've thought of buying first too, but mortgages cost extra money and we'd rather pay for a new one with the cash from this one. Mortgage interest rates are very low, but with points and closing costs, it is not so cheap. If I thought a mortgage made economic sense, I'd keep the cash from selling this house and invest it because I could make more money than the mortgage cost, but with low interest rates, low investment returns in safe securities are also the case.

Nonetheless, I may run the numbers again and try it even if we have a contract on this house really soon. Last time I did a line of credit on the house I made a profit, but the market was good for that then, not so much now.

The house we are interested in is larger than our house, but smaller than our house and shop. Anyway, I'm hoping you do move to Oregon since we are more likely to visit there than the LA area. Maybe you can move to Portland and become a character on Portlandia.

I think the house is clean and perfect for tomorrow's showing (perfection is relative). I've made copies of a draft Colorado real estate contract, required disclosures and other info I'd want to know. I've already sent them a digital copy of the survey. Barb's going to take our friends to a gallery while I'm showing the house so there's less turmoil. Last summer we were contacted on behalf of 3 guys from New England who had cash and were just about ready to make a full price offer and were working on plane tickets—then we heard they were in an auto accident and one was pretty badly hurt. We heard a little more over the next month or two, then nothing. That gave the realtor they contacted out here plenty of time to find a house where he had the listing, or they just changed their minds. The deal always felt a little weird, but we got excited and then had to deal with that. So we are trying to be cool about this.

Gene

[mstephens]

Best of Luck on the showing!

[Gene]

The last guy who was coming from out of state never showed. But I got an e-mail an hour and half ago and they should be here in a couple of hours (if the e-mail wasn't fake and sent by an enemy). Anxiety time is here.

Gene

[Lily&Me]

Fingers crossed!

Keep us posted.


Maggie

[Gene]

They're about 15 minutes away. I've vacuumed several times, turned on all the lights so the house looks bright, have a fire in the wood stove, used a candle to eliminate any odors. Barb took our friends and their dog to a gallery (the dog will lick you to death).

Gene

[Melody Ranch]

Keep us advised! I love your place.

[Aage]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

They're about 15 minutes away. I've vacuumed several times, turned on all the lights so the house looks bright, have a fire in the wood stove, used a candle to eliminate any odors. Barb took our friends and their dog to a gallery (the dog will lick you to death).

Gene

'Death by dog-lick'! What a way to go. Yikes!

What do you do when people come to look? Ask them if they want you to accompany them, or leave them alone on their tour, or...?

If you have done up a room by room document on the home, my personal preference would be to let me look alone then come to you with questions when I'm done.

But they might have already gone through. Good vibrations to you!

[Gene]

I get nervous about leaving them alone with my wife's jewelry box among other things. Realtors usually follow to make sure someone isn't taking something. I will try to be semi-invisible, but be there to answer questions. I keep hearing a car coming up the driveway, but no one is there—minutes away.

Gene

[Gene]

The showing took 2+ hours and I gave them a bunch of required disclosures and other information. I think it went very well and the wife said she loves the house. We discussed shopping, doctors, hospitals, broadband access and all sorts of other things. She flies back to N. Eng. tomorrow and then talks to her husband.

Sitting on puns and noodles now (much softer sitting arrangement).

Gene

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

The showing took 2+ hours and I gave them a bunch of required disclosures and other information. I think it went very well and the wife said she loves the house. We discussed shopping, doctors, hospitals, broadband access and all sorts of other things. She flies back to N. Eng. tomorrow and then talks to her husband.

Sitting on puns and noodles now (much softer sitting arrangement).

Gene

I think the discussion about the local area was a good idea. I just hope you didn't tell her about the local cat houses.

Hope it turns out well.

Ken

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

The showing took 2+ hours and I gave them a bunch of required disclosures and other information. I think it went very well and the wife said she loves the house. We discussed shopping, doctors, hospitals, broadband access and all sorts of other things. She flies back to N. Eng. tomorrow and then talks to her husband.

Sitting on puns and noodles now (much softer sitting arrangement).

Gene

Mmmmmm, sounds very promising,

Fingers crossed. Keep us posted.


Maggie.

[Gene]

Someone called yesterday from the foot of our driveway and wanted to see the house. I think they had been looking at it on a website. So we had another showing. It went well, but they called last night and said they wanted more water for irrigation or horses—I'm not sure. Most people never let you know anything; these were considerate people.

We've been hearing for months the housing market is picking up and we are starting to see signs of it. It makes sense to buy now before prices start going up in late spring and we hope others think the same way.

If I start thinking about the people from N. Eng., I can't do anything else but sit by the phone and check my e-mail every 5 minutes. It has finally gotten warm enough to change the oil (both Toyotas need it) and put some preservative on the new front steps, but I just want to stare at the phone. I'm also thinking about strategies to tie up the other house we are interested in.

A watched phone never rings.

Gene

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

If I start thinking about the people from N. Eng., I can't do anything else but sit by the phone and check my e-mail every 5 minutes. ..........I just want to stare at the phone. A watched phone never rings.

Gene

giggle, giggle.

Good luck! I would think they would want to snap up a house they love, before someone else takes it out from under them.

Fingers crossed (I know this is helping).


Maggie

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

.................................................. ..........

If I start thinking about the people from N. Eng., I can't do anything else but sit by the phone and check my e-mail every 5 minutes.
................................................

Disabling flash
A watched phone never rings.

Gene

I feel the same way every morning after the Powerball and Mega Millions drawings. I'm guessing you have a better chance of success though.

Ken