duhtroll
02-20-2011, 03:35 PM
Whoever said there was a recession forgot to tell Iowa. (I am not saying there isn't, but you would never know around here right now.)
My wife and I are living in our first home that we bought in '98. We always thought we might move to something that uses space a little better, but we have liked this house since we have owned it. Since we have the kid now and would like a little more room we thought last year might be the time, given interest rates, etc..
We found several listings in our price range and started the "going to open houses, bug the realtors" type weekends.
Last year every house we were interested in (about 15 or so) sold in under 72 hours (from time of listing, not when we could see it). A dozen more we couldn't even get into before they sold. The ones remaining had obvious issues or were overpriced and had clueless owners who were likely upside-down.
We made an offer that was 7% under list for a house we liked. The owners didn't even counter and instead waited a week and sold it for list (can't really blame them - it obviously worked).
This weekend we got enthusiastic and decided to go out and see what was available, so we got on the local websites and we found maybe 8-10 possibilities to walk through.
6 of the 10 have been sold in the last 24 hours, and the other 4 are not what we want after driving by and walking through them. One open house (the one we liked the best, of course) we walked in the door to find the Realtor sitting on the couch watching NASCAR. He immediately said "It's been sold, but you can still look around if you like."
We aren't the type to jump on anything, but at this rate it looks like it is either be first in the door or build our own.
Sheesh.
My wife and I are living in our first home that we bought in '98. We always thought we might move to something that uses space a little better, but we have liked this house since we have owned it. Since we have the kid now and would like a little more room we thought last year might be the time, given interest rates, etc..
We found several listings in our price range and started the "going to open houses, bug the realtors" type weekends.
Last year every house we were interested in (about 15 or so) sold in under 72 hours (from time of listing, not when we could see it). A dozen more we couldn't even get into before they sold. The ones remaining had obvious issues or were overpriced and had clueless owners who were likely upside-down.
We made an offer that was 7% under list for a house we liked. The owners didn't even counter and instead waited a week and sold it for list (can't really blame them - it obviously worked).
This weekend we got enthusiastic and decided to go out and see what was available, so we got on the local websites and we found maybe 8-10 possibilities to walk through.
6 of the 10 have been sold in the last 24 hours, and the other 4 are not what we want after driving by and walking through them. One open house (the one we liked the best, of course) we walked in the door to find the Realtor sitting on the couch watching NASCAR. He immediately said "It's been sold, but you can still look around if you like."
We aren't the type to jump on anything, but at this rate it looks like it is either be first in the door or build our own.
Sheesh.