[jwcarguy]

Originally Posted by olecapt

YOu bought the house at its market value. Likely the neighbors will point that out to you as you are berated for destroying the neighborhood.

RealtyTrac makes little sense. Any Realtor has a much better view of the properties available and they work cheap. Note that non-foreclosure houses in foreclosures neighborhoods often have to come to the same price as the REPOs to unload.

You must be a realtor by that statement! Very wrong! The house that we purchased was previously owned by a realtor and his investor buddy. They used it it as a RENTAL (which typically doesn't help the neighborhood values) They proceeded to draw up a bunch of fradulent financial loans against the property, lost their tenants (multiple times) had multiple liens against the property from the HOA and sub-contractors. Then let the bank foreclose on them after non-payment.
The house ended up vacant and neglected.
We then bought it for our main family home. Every neighbor has said they are thankful that a family bought this home and has done extensive repairs and has it up to par with the other homes in this gated community of houses valued between $525,000 - 650,000 (in this market!!) We haven't been "berated" or we haven't "destroyed the neighborhood"!!!
So do your research before you run your mouth with a ignorant opinion.
We are not realtors, nor did we know one. The ones that we did talk to, didn't "listen" to what we wanted, and wasted our time looking at the "wrong" house.
In my opinion, RealtyTrac.com did help us find our dream house, in a great neighborhood, that has only had other foreclosure besides ours, out of 400 homes. That isn't easy in this market!
I hope that you can learn to look at things in life from all side, rather than just one.
Have a great day!!

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by jwcarguy

You must be a realtor by that statement! Very wrong! The house that we purchased was previously owned by a realtor and his investor buddy. They used it it as a RENTAL (which typically doesn't help the neighborhood values) They proceeded to draw up a bunch of fradulent financial loans against the property, lost their tenants (multiple times) had multiple liens against the property from the HOA and sub-contractors. Then let the bank foreclose on them after non-payment.
The house ended up vacant and neglected.

So you bought a neglected beat up home in a $600K community. That generally lowers the value about 100K. So you got it for $160K less that puts the price you paid at $340K. And no one in the neighborhood cared that you had lowered the comp in the neighborhood to $340K? They are either really christian people or brain dead. Why would you or I or anyone care who owned it? Or what they did with it?

We then bought it for our main family home. Every neighbor has said they are thankful that a family bought this home and has done extensive repairs and has it up to par with the other homes in this gated community of houses valued between $525,000 - 650,000 (in this market!!) We haven't been "berated" or we haven't "destroyed the neighborhood"!!!

Ignorant opinion? All I do is quote you! It is strange you would call yourself ignorant. Do you hate your parents?

So do your research before you run your mouth with a ignorant opinion.
We are not realtors, nor did we know one. The ones that we did talk to, didn't "listen" to what we wanted, and wasted our time looking at the "wrong" house.

Well having already established that you consider your own views ignorant it is not really strange that you confused your agent. It is hard to deal with a customer who suffers from self loathing.

In my opinion, RealtyTrac.com did help us find our dream house, in a great neighborhood, that has only had other foreclosure besides ours, out of 400 homes. That isn't easy in this market!
I hope that you can learn to look at things in life from all side, rather than just one.
Have a great day!!

So you used Realty Trac to find neighborhoods that don't have foreclosures? I guess that goes with some of your prior statements. Be kind of like using a list of home owners to find renters. I suppose it could work but it seems a little strange.

Ohh you have given me a whole new set of ways to view the universe...that is for sure.

And I did....have a great day that is...This is the final cherry in the Manhattan.

[Daddys///M3]

Originally Posted by jwcarguy

You must be a realtor by that statement! Very wrong! The house that we purchased was previously owned by a realtor and his investor buddy. They used it it as a RENTAL (which typically doesn't help the neighborhood values) They proceeded to draw up a bunch of fradulent financial loans against the property, lost their tenants (multiple times) had multiple liens against the property from the HOA and sub-contractors. Then let the bank foreclose on them after non-payment.
The house ended up vacant and neglected.
We then bought it for our main family home. Every neighbor has said they are thankful that a family bought this home and has done extensive repairs and has it up to par with the other homes in this gated community of houses valued between $525,000 - 650,000 (in this market!!) We haven't been "berated" or we haven't "destroyed the neighborhood"!!!
So do your research before you run your mouth with a ignorant opinion.
We are not realtors, nor did we know one. The ones that we did talk to, didn't "listen" to what we wanted, and wasted our time looking at the "wrong" house.
In my opinion, RealtyTrac.com did help us find our dream house, in a great neighborhood, that has only had other foreclosure besides ours, out of 400 homes. That isn't easy in this market!
I hope that you can learn to look at things in life from all side, rather than just one.
Have a great day!!

olecapt is right. If you paid $340K then the home, prior to repairs and upgrades, is worth $340K. Let's say that after a cost approach appraisal that takes into consideration the repairs and upgrades, I can't imagine you will see more than $50K in value for those. Of course this is dependent on the extent of repairs and upgrades done. So maybe the property, and subsequently the comparable properties, are now worth $390K. That is how properties are appraised. They will look at your home as the most recent comp, and many lenders have instituted new appraisal guidelines. Per these guidelines, unless a home has sold in your neighborhood in the last 3 months for $600K+ to support your opinion of market value, the purchase price of your home has effectively reduced market value of the surrounding comparable homes by about 35%. This is also very dependent on listings. If there are listing comps in the area (appraisers are now required to show these) that say $400K or less then these listing comps will be given incredible credence as to the current market value of the home, as well as market turn times.

On the other hand, I'm sure that the neighbors do have somewhat of a good feeling about people moving in to the house, cleaning it up, and using it as a primary residence as opposed to the vacancy, liens, and general state of disarray the home was previously in. If it was me, I would look to the future of the neighborhood in this respect. Over time value will come back, and this particular unit will not hold the neighborhood back.

[airics]

daddy and olecapt right, you bought it at market value, counts as a comp, and when the neighbors go for the equity loan, it lowers their chances

[dynimagelv]

ahhhhh another person buys a house and becomes an 'instant expert'.........

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

ahhhhh another person buys a house and becomes an 'instant expert'.........

Hey he is on my side. Must be right...

[airics]

if that was referring to me as the instant expert, i never said i was, it is a no brainer about comps

[jwcarguy]

I do not believe that anyone here on the board has refered to or considers themselves "a expert". As for all your statements about this home purchase "lowering the neighborhood values" and all future comps will be based on the price / sq.ft. that we just paid for this house. Everyone is correct! But....
Please show 1 neighborhood / community in this city, state or even most of the country that doesn't have or will have in within this year, unfortunately, one or two foreclosures in the neighborhood.
This down real estate market effects each and everyone of us. Besides the home that we purchased, the general market has taken a big drop. So please don't put blame on the families that are able to purchase their dream home in this market. It is much better (IMO) to have a homeowner who takes great pride their home, rather than a bank or a absent investor (not saying that all investors neglect their properties, some give the others a bad name)
Olecapt, We took that as a personal attack that we had done something destructive to the neighborhood. I agree that the sale price wil have a adverse effect on the rest of the area in the short term, but long term, prices / values will return (hopefully !!)
And please remember, I did not set the price or value of the house that we purchased, nor does anyone else who is purchasing one of the thousands of foreclosures out there. The bank / credit crisis has forced this problem.
I would rather see alot of people absorbing this glut ofa inventory of foreclosures quickly, rather than it lingering for a long time, so that the market/ comps will only be effected a shorter time by the "discounted foeclose" inventory.
I hope that this clears up where my family and I stand on this. We are not experts or even feel that anyone we know is. We just feel that we had gotten lucky to buy our dream home at the price that we paid. And your right, that price probably is "market price" now, but we are here for the long term, so we are not disappointed at all.
Thanks for everyones comments, we do appreciate it.

Now can we help Wes find a good area for a rental property, since that was the start of this thread, before it got of track.
Wes, maybe you could take some of the advice from other members here about taking to a good realtor about your search. I agree that they have a better "view of the current market". As with any profession, We had a person with less experience that we worked with and we found this house by our own research.
Both the southwest and southeast parts of town have and will be expanding, more so the southwest. You may want to look around there for properties with convienent strip / freeway access.

[olecapt]

Hey I take it all back jwcarguy...you are OK...

There are many neighborhoods with quite low impact from the mortgage disaster...those are the best places to buy a foreclosure. But there are not very many and they are hard to find and often hard to buy.

Note though that these neighborhoods have come down in price. Maybe 20% or more. I know of individual models that have actually bucked the trend but I don't know any community that escaped the base down trend.

There are also neighborhoods that are really taking a beating from it. The tracts in heavy new sale for the 2005/2006 period are just bleeding. I tend to try to talk my clients out of those if they are going to owner occupy. The damage done is far reaching and may well not run its course for many years.

You are probably OK as the tract is more upscale. They tend not to attract the investors and stabilize as new owner occupants buy them.

And I think buying up the REPOs is exactly what a smart buyer should do. It is easier for investors but good for owner occupants as well.

[ZX14TJ]

Originally Posted by cjski21

Ummmm... Didn't the county just pass a new ordinance prohibiting short term rentals?

Yes I believe they did. No less than 30 days.

Back to the topic of the thread, can anyone confirm if this law was passed?