I agree.

5/15/2008 9:53:02 AM

Quote :

"Last I checked the state of the real estate market around here was pretty good."

in comparison to the rest of the country, sure. but obviously we're not totally insulated from whats been happening around the rest of the country. i know people like to think we are because of our jobs etc...but i'm not sure thats the case. i haven't done much research on it but i'll begin looking into it.

http://realtytimes.com/rtmcrcond5/North_Carolina~Research_Triangle_Park~larrypulley

http://realtytimes.com/rtmcrcond5/North_Carolina~Raleigh~rickfreeman

5/15/2008 10:00:45 AM

According to your link

2007 WAKE COUNTY AVERAGE SALES MARKET STATISTICS
Homes Up To $1,000,000
Average list price of homes SOLD in Wake County - $252,985
Average sales price in Wake County - $249,862
Ratio Sales Price/Original List Price - 98.76%

5/15/2008 10:10:30 AM

yeah i saw that percentage. i was curious about tww people

5/15/2008 10:15:47 AM

Well, I paid 100% and they gave me $1500 towards closing costs.

5/15/2008 11:25:29 AM

not in nc, but i paid 92%, no help on closing costs.

pretty much priced to move in a week though, appraisals cam in at ~125% of purchase price.

(i ended up offering the 2nd day it was on the market, lol)

5/15/2008 12:09:00 PM

damn, wish somebody would do that to me

5/15/2008 12:28:23 PM

^ well im sure if you slice 20% off the price it'll sell

5/15/2008 1:32:44 PM

i already dropped 25%.. not a single fucking offer.

it's priced way under all other properties in the community I'm in and is furnished much more nicely.. 2 bedroom ones are around the price of my 3 bedroom... but nobody is selling shit

this is at the beach btw.. the market for condos there is absolutely fucked

5/15/2008 1:39:15 PM

Quote :

"for those of you who have bought a house/townhome in the last 1-2 years. what percentage of the listing price did you end up paying?"

New construction, paid 100% thought they gave me $5,000 to either use on whatever I wanted in the townhouse/just have. So technically 97%, I guess.

5/15/2008 2:04:03 PM

FSBO, so i paid 99% of his asking price, which was 91% of the price of the exact same house on the adjacent street

5/15/2008 2:40:39 PM

whats 320k out of 350k ... ok, around ~91% ...

Didnt help the seller that there was a house 7 houses up going for his same listing price ... they countered and we only raised our offer by 1k, and they took it since they needed out badly (parent paying for their daughters old house ... ugly story)

5/15/2008 11:34:08 PM

So my loan officer calls me today, 3 days before I close, to tell me that she just found I most likely qualify for $10k grant. Unfortunately you have to apply and be approved for it before you close, and that takes 2-3 weeks. Considering I have to be out of my apartment by the 1st, and its already rented out by the 5th, I pretty much have to turn down $10k...so awesome.

5/20/2008 4:08:09 PM

^what kind and what were the conditions for the grant?

5/20/2008 4:17:58 PM

Sweet. My service rep gave me bright red stickers to put on all my cosmetic problems for my 11th month follow up.

5/21/2008 10:16:08 AM

10k grant?

5/21/2008 10:23:32 AM

http://www.nchfa.com/Homebuyers/HBwhatweoffer.aspx#7k

i though it used to be a 10k grant...but it looks like a 7k interest free deferred second mortgage now.

Quote :

"The agency in North Carolina that provides assistance to first time home buyers is The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. There are no outright first time home buyer grants available, but there is one program that is very close: The American Dream Downpayment Initiative. First time home buyers can get up to $7,000 for use toward the down payment and closing costs. This is actually a loan, but carries no payments and has a zero percent interest rate. The $7,000 doesn't have to be paid back for 30 years. In effect, you are getting a grant of the value of interest on a $7,000 loan for 30 years, which at 7% interest rate, amounts to over $9,700 in interest that you would save. To find out more about this program, please visit the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency website page specifically describing all the grant programs."

5/21/2008 3:02:30 PM

anyone know where i can see current appreciation numbers for the different neighborhoods around raleigh?

5/21/2008 3:10:42 PM

dont do nchfa if you can do the usda loan.


the usda loan is at 6% today with no pmi.

the nchfa loan has pmi and is around 5.75.


the usda loan can go to 102% financing and doesnt have recapture.

the nchfa loan only goes to 97% and has the recapture plan.

5/21/2008 10:48:17 PM

we close in 2 days!

then comes 3 days of cleaning the place up (it's been a rental for a while, and so needs some work).

i'm just gonna keep reminding myself that we made an INVESTMENT.

5/26/2008 6:23:09 PM

So much for getting my newly accessed property value lowered. Time to file an appeal.

5/27/2008 11:42:11 AM

Quote :

"anyone know where i can see current appreciation numbers for the different neighborhoods around raleigh?"

I'd be interested in this as well. You always hear realtors spouting off numbers, but I trust them slightly more than used car salesmen. I'm sure the statistics can be manipulated very easily.

5/27/2008 12:17:10 PM

^ well i was reading Freakonomics over the weekend, and there's a chapter titled "How is the Ku Klux Klan like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?" And it talks about information asymmetry...

Quote :

"The authors assert that information asymmetry is one of the most powerful economic tools. Entire industries have flourished and many significant historical events have transpired as the result of an imbalance in the flow of information. In keeping with this theory, the authors offer the story of a man who helped cripple the racist Ku Klux Klan simply by widely disseminating their secrets. Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the group in the World War II-era and systematically documented the secret rituals and codes of the organization. Kennedy then supplied the records to Hollywood writers, who used the information to create a long-running story arc on the wildly popular Superman radio serial. Children across the United States imitated the shows in their schoolyard games, and gradually, the mystery, grandeur, and influence of the group were profoundly diminished. The authors relate a number of other instances of information asymmetry being used as an economic tool, including, most prominently, the practices of real estate agencies. By analyzing data about real estate agents common practices when they are selling their own houses, Levitt discovered that they may not always have their clients’ best interests at heart. The Internet, the authors note, has prompted a massive shift in many industries simply by providing consumers with more information than they have ever readily had access to. Other examples of information asymmetry and resulting misjudgments are explored in the behaviors of game show contestants and users of Internet dating services. "

so the real estate agents hold the keys to this type of information (some website that they pay for probably), and they're not all that willing to share it. without access to information like this, why would we need them?

i feel like we should be able to find this appreciation data on the internet somewhere (and probably have to pay for it), but I have been unable to find it so far.

scratch that last part, heres a site:

http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neigh-appreciation.jsp

starts at $20 for 7 days access...I'll split it with someone if you're interested enough. I'm hoping there's a way to print out the data for Raleigh

I did see this:

Quote :

"Free educational licensing is available to schools, universities, and non-profits. The software can be used by all those affiliated with those institutions such as teachers, researchers, and students. Access to the software is granted through an institution's web interface, so those requesting free licenses must be able to place a link to the program on the institution's website."

but i don't even have a .edu email address any more so that doesn't look good...

5/27/2008 12:50:33 PM

closed on my house last friday...this was my first home and i didn't use a realtor...it's so easy, i can't quite understand why you might NEED a realtor...i found the home myself, found the loan myself, found the documents myself (filled them out with a guidance document i found online) and the closed by myself (i mean, technically, i had a lawyer there, but we shared the lawyer for the actual closing)

'twas fairly painless, all things considered...tax break 2008!

5/27/2008 1:18:49 PM

someone dropped the ball with regards to our loan.

closing has been postponed from tomorrow to thursday at the earliest

5/27/2008 4:30:55 PM

^ that seems to happen a lot. I work for a home builder and I get a little bonus every time we have a house close. I can't tell you how many times the closing has been pushed back because the bank had the paperwork for a 20 yr mortgage instead of a 30 yr, etc.

Pisses me off when I have to wait longer to get my bonus

5/27/2008 4:41:31 PM

Quote :

"Ratio Sales Price/Original List Price - 98.76%"

OUCH

5/27/2008 5:51:40 PM

My new house:
"Ratio Sales Price/Original List Price - 86.02%"

5/27/2008 6:26:52 PM

where was it at though? in raleigh? if so what were the circumstances?

5/27/2008 6:39:18 PM

^^ yeah thats wild. We haven't had to discount any of our houses more than ~5k

5/27/2008 7:20:45 PM

well for what it's worth we got it for what it's estimated worth was (estimate by CMA & taxes) we kinda knew they were over price by at least 10%, no idea why. (Denver, CO)

i guess they figured if they high-balled their asking price and got low-balled, they'd get it for what it was estimated worth was... and they did.

[Edited on May 27, 2008 at 8:02 PM. Reason : .]

5/27/2008 8:01:16 PM

we managed to close early thursday afternoon. after working our asses off thursday evening/night and all of friday, we got the house fixed up enough to move on in on saturday.

it's definitely a "starter home" but i think we'll avoid trying to buy another house for at least 5 years based on the headache alone.

[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 5:26 PM. Reason : for anyone doing FHA- keep on their asses or you'll NEVER get to closing ]

6/2/2008 5:25:54 PM

mine was FSBO and 92.94% (paid/asking) and 90.8% (paid/appraisal)...not too bad for my first home

[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 6:02 PM. Reason : .]

6/2/2008 6:00:55 PM

speaking of percentages...what percentage of your paycheck is your mortgage payment (not incl roomate $)

6/2/2008 7:47:14 PM

paid/appraisal = 87%
% of paycheck = 35% (that's after tax and base not including bonuses or raises)

6/2/2008 7:54:54 PM

% of paycheck is way too subjective to ask

First off, that could mean gross or it could mean net. Furthermore if it's net then that number would be after my stock + 401K contributions + HCSA have been deducted. Even on top of that, I don't escrow so my % would be virtually useless to you.

6/2/2008 9:04:53 PM

Quote :

"Furthermore if it's net then that number would be after my stock + 401K contributions + HCSA have been deducted."

of course its net, that's why i'm asking for paycheck, the net,the take home, whatever. after all deductions.

so your percentage would be relevant, but of course if you don't escrow then i would take that into consideration in combination with the number.

i read 33%-34% of take home as a good rule of thumb, just wondering what tww peeps pay. the marriage thing gets a bit more complicated, so I'm mainly interested in the single people.

6/2/2008 11:17:13 PM

Fine, 36%

6/2/2008 11:46:40 PM

thx yo

6/3/2008 9:19:17 AM

39% after taxes, retirement, etc etc

6/3/2008 9:45:14 AM

yeah that's what i'm looking at, and I'm hoping it won't make me too house poor (if i ever had to pay it all by myself)

6/3/2008 9:46:18 AM

32, but i escrow and that's w/o hoa

with hoa it's ~35

6/3/2008 10:29:59 AM

^^ it's really not that bad...mine's a 4-bedroom/2-bath and ~1700sqft...the gf and i split utilities (though she doesn't pay rent or anything)...i'm debating getting a roommate, but i really like having no one there but us

$100/month in electric, $35/month in intarweb, $20/month water/trash...i'm only paying about 40% of my total after-tax income between the mortgage and utilities right now, and, while it would be nice to get an extra ~$600 month, i'm not sure it's worth the loss of complete privacy

6/3/2008 10:38:20 AM

11 month follow up today. Bye bye nail pops.

6/4/2008 2:32:30 PM

haha, the worst is that a lot of them come back, and then a few years later you'll have more.

I spent a whole weekend fixing nail pops in may. I think i counted around 20-25.

pain in the ass.

6/4/2008 3:09:07 PM

No Bobby. The won't be coming back. They will never come back!

6/4/2008 3:16:04 PM

I just had my first nail pop after 14 months.

6/4/2008 3:28:18 PM

I push on all my walls to force any to show themselves before my warranty expired.

6/4/2008 3:36:23 PM

Quote :

"I just had my first nail pop that I noticed after 14 months."

we noticed a few more afterwards - even with using the flashlight trick

6/4/2008 3:54:06 PM

your builder fixes nail pops? I've worked for two seperate custom home builders (as well as the builders we currently work with often) and neither of them will fix nail pops for warranty. Unless you've got like 50 bazillion of them, they are considered a normal occurance from a settling house

6/4/2008 4:07:46 PM