Hi, We are Matt and Nancy . We live in Arlington WA. We put are house on the market in April. The market here is dead. WE are both 54 years old. We can't wait to go full time to meet all of you that are out there. We are really looking forward to the rally in 2008, If we can sell are home. We have been reading this forum for two years. We have a Mountaineer TT 35foot, and a gmc 2500.
Gummy said
03:53 AM Aug 10, 2007
Hello Matt and Nancy, We also have our house for sale, it's been on the market since May 1st. We had one offer but the young couple couldn't make the deal. I 'm very hopeful that we will be gone before the first snow flurries arrive here in Maryland. We will also be at the rally, looking forward to meeting all the nice folks on here that are also coming to Branson. Best of Luck. Gummy
Darrell and Judy said
06:21 AM Aug 10, 2007
Hi Matt and Nancy Hi Jim
I just read that Ken and Cindy sold their home very quickly after offering a $5000 bonus to the selling agent rather than lowing the price. Look at "Fingers Crossed". That sounds like an interesting idea.
Hopefully you homes will sell soon and you can join us on the road. It is great to see so much interest in this lifestyle and we can tell you that it is worth it.
Darrell (and Judy)
ahoweth said
07:24 AM Aug 10, 2007
Hi folks!
I mean this as just a suggestion. Something to think about. We sold our house at auction. We were allowed to set a minimum bid selling price and not sell if the highest bid didn't meet the minimum. The auction company showed the house on 2 occasions and ran the entire thing. Bidders have to be pre-approved for the amounts they bid so there wasn't any of that waiting to see if the buyer can swing the loan. The property also sold "As Is" so there was no negotiating over things like, the roof needs work or we want a paint and carpet allowance. Our house sold in the first 10 minutes of the auction and above our minimum bid. The auction company helped us determine what our minimum bid would be and we verified that with an independent real estate firm. We were gone with the money in hand in 2 weeks after the date of the auction. By the way, every thing else that was left in the house after we had removed what we wanted to keep, also sold that evening and was gone by noon the following day. Of course the auction company has to be a licensed real estate agent.
Think about it. It might just work for you too.
blackoak99 said
08:02 AM Aug 10, 2007
Matt & Nancy,
We wish you the best of luck!
We, too, have our house on the market to sell so we can go full timing. We are located in Mountain View, Arkansas. We are getting anxious to get on the road with all the fine folks living out their RV Dreams!
We listed our cabin six weeks ago, have had some lookers, but no buyer yet. We are holding an Open House tomorrow, so we are looking forward to some potential buyers. We are listed on www.homesbyowner.com/37721.
Good luck and hope to meet you soon!
Froggi said
09:10 AM Aug 10, 2007
We are selling more and more homes by auction where I work (here in TN you have to be an licensed auctioneer and most are also licensed agents). We have two types of auctions - the kind just mentioned where you set a reserve price and an absolute auction.
The absolute auction can be scary because the sale is absolute...goes to the highest bidder. So obviously this can be risky. BUT we've found that absolute auctions attract more bidders so if it's a good piece of property, they bid the price up and you often end up getting more for the home.
Just something to think about....
Grant said
06:27 PM Aug 10, 2007
Darrell and Judy wrote:
Hi Matt and Nancy Hi Jim
I just read that Ken and Cindy sold their home very quickly after offering a $5000 bonus to the selling agent rather than lowing the price. Look at "Fingers Crossed". That sounds like an interesting idea.
<snip>
Darrell (and Judy)
Wouldn't it be better to offer to pay $5,000 in closing cost for the buyer? After all it is the buyer you need to appeal to. Just a thought.
Froggi said
07:34 PM Aug 10, 2007
Grant, it depends on how much the house is being shown. If you're not getting many showings the selling bonus motivates the agents to try to show it (some agents don't like to show anything but their own listings or those listed by their agency - this encourages them to branch out and maybe show yours <g>).
Now if you were getting a lot of showings, then the buyer credit might be wise.
Another option is to split it with part as a selling bonus and part as a closing credit.
I just opted to put a $2k selling bonus on mine to encourage more showings.
But regardless, it's all a gamble....<g>
ken and cindy said
08:23 PM Aug 10, 2007
Grant,
Its really not about the buyers, its about motivating the real salespeople to not only show your house first, but actually try and sell it.
After putting up the bonus ,the best agents in town started showing it and a platinum remax agent sold it in one showing four days after the bonus was put up, not only did she sell it she also had the closing done in seven days.
There's a seat for every chair out there, you just need as many as you can get, to sit down in it.
Ken
debken said
08:04 AM Aug 11, 2007
In a dead market it doesn't seem to matter what you do. Either the buyers are there or they're not. We've done ALL those things and more. Offered to pay all closing costs, put in a bonus for the selling agent. Still nothing. Our house has been on the market for almost 16 months now with hardly any showings. We even do our own Open Houses on the weekends. Most of the time nobody shows up. We live in So Florida in a nice family neighborhood but it's just a dead market.
wmalefyt said
09:47 AM Aug 11, 2007
debken wrote:
In a dead market it doesn't seem to matter what you do. Either the buyers are there or they're not. We've done ALL those things and more. Offered to pay all closing costs, put in a bonus for the selling agent. Still nothing. Our house has been on the market for almost 16 months now with hardly any showings. We even do our own Open Houses on the weekends. Most of the time nobody shows up. We live in So Florida in a nice family neighborhood but it's just a dead market.
Debbie and Rod:
We're at the other end of "Alligator Alley" from you in Naples, FL. We haven't put our condo on the market yet, but from what I read and hear the situation is the same here!
We live in a large condominium development with a clubhouse, 3 pools, tennis and boccie courts. We're close to I-75 and only 4 miles from Vanderbilt Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. This area of north Collier County is growing like crazy in spite of the slow market. We now have a Wal-Mart Super Center and a Target Super Store close to us and 2 large hospitals are only about 3 miles away.
I have read there is a 2-3 year supply of resale homes and condos on the market in this area! At that rate we might find a buyer in 2010! We're hoping to put the condo up for sale around October as the "snowbirds" start to return. Hopefully we'll get lucky and find a buyer by January 2008.
Good luck with yours! Have you tried burying a statue of St. Joseph in your backyard? That's supposed to bring you good luck with the home sale!
debken said
10:40 AM Aug 11, 2007
Bill & Linda
Yes, we have a St Joseph statue and we say our prayer to him every single day. I have a cousin who lives just north of you in New Port Richey and she's a realtor so she does give me the scoop on what's happening and it's not good. I sure wish we could get out on the road.
Good luck to you on your sale. Maybe yours will be "the one".
-- Edited by debken at 11:55, 2007-08-11
Tim & Robyn said
11:38 AM Aug 12, 2007
None of this is good news. We (my brothers and sisters) need to sell our parents' home in Pembroke Pines. I'm counting on it for a chunk of our fulltimer setup costs, and everything I hear about the Florida real estate market is worse than bad... And what makes it worse is the fact that every time we go down to south Florida I thank God we don't live there, and I would never want to live there again... If others have the same impression, why would they want to buy property there??
debken said
01:13 PM Aug 12, 2007
Tim & Robyn
Pembroke Pines is literally just a few miles from where we are. It's a nice neighborhood also. Be prepared to sit on the house for awhile unless you're looking to sell it under market value (which IS what a lot of people here are doing). We can't afford to do that because we are also counting on the proceeds to fund our fulltiming setup. There are a few houses that do sell and you just never know. Yours might be just the one that somebody is looking for. Good luck to you.
If you're ever in the area look us up. We're always home.
-- Edited by debken at 21:11, 2007-08-12
wmalefyt said
09:07 PM Aug 13, 2007
Tim & Robyn wrote:
None of this is good news. We (my brothers and sisters) need to sell our parents' home in Pembroke Pines. I'm counting on it for a chunk of our fulltimer setup costs, and everything I hear about the Florida real estate market is worse than bad... And what makes it worse is the fact that every time we go down to south Florida I thank God we don't live there, and I would never want to live there again... If others have the same impression, why would they want to buy property there??
Florida has a history of boom or bust in real estate going back to the 1920's. Actually, Florida is not the only depressed real estate market these days, most of the country is in the same boat!
As far as living here and buying property, we think southwest Florida is about the best place to spend the winter if you want to be warm. In the winter the humidity is much lower and it's warm enough to open the windows and turn off the AC. We have many beautiful beaches along with the inland waterway for great swimming and boating. However, from May to mid October it's hot and humid and we would prefer to be somewhere else!
This too shall pass and the market will come back. Have faith!
debken said
10:21 AM Aug 14, 2007
Absolutely I agree with Bill & Linda. This is a wonderful place to live in the winter. If we could afford to keep a condo here for the winter we would. But because of the recent rash of hurricanes the taxes and insurance rates are out of control.
-- Edited by debken at 11:22, 2007-08-14
wmalefyt said
02:36 PM Aug 14, 2007
debken wrote:
Absolutely I agree with Bill & Linda. This is a wonderful place to live in the winter. If we could afford to keep a condo here for the winter we would. But because of the recent rash of hurricanes the taxes and insurance rates are out of control.
-- Edited by debken at 11:22, 2007-08-14
I guess we're in the right place as our taxes on a mid $200's condo are less than $1100.00 per year. A year or two ago we could have sold the place for $300,000+, but we weren't thinking about fulltiming then!
Our property insurance is another matter. Allstate notified us they will not renew us in November, as they are doing with many policy holders in Florida. We have never had a claim, they just want to reduce their exposure to the "hurricane threat". Until 2005 Naples hadn't had a hurricane make landfall since 1960 when Hurricane Donna hit.
Our insurance agent has another company that will pickup our coverage for about 60% more than we paid this year. We are 4-5 miles inland and considered in a safe area for storm surges unless we get a direct hit with a Category 4+ hurricane!
In spite of everything we still enjoy living here during the winter months and hope to continue that in the future even if we no longer own property here.
Tim & Robyn said
05:51 PM Aug 14, 2007
We moved from Detroit to south Florida in 1958 when I was 12. (Ooops... now you know what an old f**t I am). Donna was my first hurricane. We lived on NW 199th St (Honeyhill Drive) in north Dade... Back then, it was a quiet two-lane residential street and we could look out our front windows and see Broward county to the north. Now the street is six lanes wide, with lights that open/close traffic in either direction... It's the major east/west access road to Pro Player Stadium.
So what I meant by saying I would never live there again is that it is so overcrowded and overdeveloped that the quality of life that drew us there in the first place has been destroyed.
The developers don't seem to be satisfied until they have built on every last square inch of land. I hope that doesn't happen on the west coast, but when we moved down there even Marco Island was a wilderness...
debken said
06:22 PM Aug 14, 2007
Tim & Robyn
We've only lived here for five years. Moved here from WA for a job offer with a cruise line. It's amazing to me how much it's grown even here in that time. This was just a residential neighborhood. Sawgrass Mills (huge outlet mall) has been here and just about anything else you would need. We never have to leave our area except to go to work. There was a huge vacant area right by the Sawgrass expressway that there was talk of building a stadium for the Marlins. Instead they started construction on a HUGE condo complex resort type place. Only four stories high but really spread out. I couldn't believe it when construction was also started on two huge condo towers that are 25 stories tall in the parking lot of the outlet mall!!! I can't even imagine what that's going to do for the traffic in the area. That is, if they can even sell them. Thank goodness for the Everglades or they would build all the way over to Bill & Linda's.
wmalefyt said
08:40 PM Aug 14, 2007
The talk around Naples is that we will be the next Miami! I can believe it as the growth has been nonstop for 10+ years and is just now slowing down a bit until the bubble starts growing again.
They just completed the first overpass or "flyover" as they call them here. All it does is take the east/west traffic over a busy north/south street. The idea is to speed up the "rush hour" traffic which is debatable! I think the cost was close to $40 Million! Unfortunately I think it's just the first of several.
I can remember my parents talking about Naples as a place to retire to in the early 1970's but they were afraid it was too remote and with minimal health care facilities. They settled in Venice and enjoyed 25+ years of retirement there. Naples (Collier County) now has 3 large hospitals and doctors offices on every corner!
Tim, I graduated from high school in 1957, so you think you're old!
sprintcar said
02:55 PM Nov 12, 2007
We finally sold our house. It is suppose to close on 12/1/07. Our house has been pretty much empty since July.All we have in itis a bedand some things in the garage.We even gave our lawnmower to our son .We have had to borrow one from our neighbor. That is what happens when you think you are going to sell your house quickly. On 1/3/08 we will be in Tuscon. We start a job their .It looks like this full time dream is finally coming true after 20 years of talking about it.Thanks to all of you for keeping our spirits up by just readinr this forum every day. we will be traveling in 35 foot Mountaineer TT.
bjoyce said
05:28 PM Nov 12, 2007
Congratulations from another Western Washington full-timer. It is worth it. We don't miss our house in Woodinville, WA at all, especially in the winter.
leilani59 said
02:12 PM Nov 30, 2007
We too have place our house on the market twice within the last year and STILL can't sell.. what or what are we going to do.. we want to fulltime.. we live in jacksonville fl.. ( atlantic beach) we have already dropped the price by $40,000 no more we have to pay off the mortgage..
leilani59 said
10:43 AM Jan 2, 2008
Hi Bill and lLnda.. Any luck with the sale of your home? Did the St. joseph statue did not work..
wmalefyt said
02:38 PM Jan 3, 2008
leilani59 wrote:
Hi Bill and lLnda.. Any luck with the sale of your home? Did the St. joseph statue did not work..
We don't actually have it on the market yet. We wanted to wait until the peak season down here which is just starting now.
There have been some delays in getting the place painted and decluttered so not sure when we'll put it on the market, besides the news is sure doom and gloom about real estate. There is so much for sale around here that we're afraid we will get lost in the crowd! We are trying to decide if we should go ahead or wait another year.
We have to buy the St. Joseph statue too as we'll need all the help we can get when we do decide to sell.
phyllen said
07:33 AM May 17, 2008
Wish us luck! We put house on market 5 weeks ago. We FINALLY are having our first showing this afternoon.
Judy said
05:01 PM May 17, 2008
Best of luck with the selling. I do hope you both enjoy the road. southwest judy
WE are both 54 years old. We can't wait to go full time to meet all of you that are out there. We are really looking forward to the rally in 2008, If we can sell are home.
We have been reading this forum for two years. We have a Mountaineer TT 35foot, and a gmc 2500.
Hi Jim
I just read that Ken and Cindy sold their home very quickly after offering a $5000 bonus to the selling agent rather than lowing the price. Look at "Fingers Crossed". That sounds like an interesting idea.
Hopefully you homes will sell soon and you can join us on the road. It is great to see so much interest in this lifestyle and we can tell you that it is worth it.
Darrell (and Judy)
I mean this as just a suggestion. Something to think about. We sold our house at auction. We were allowed to set a minimum bid selling price and not sell if the highest bid didn't meet the minimum. The auction company showed the house on 2 occasions and ran the entire thing. Bidders have to be pre-approved for the amounts they bid so there wasn't any of that waiting to see if the buyer can swing the loan. The property also sold "As Is" so there was no negotiating over things like, the roof needs work or we want a paint and carpet allowance. Our house sold in the first 10 minutes of the auction and above our minimum bid. The auction company helped us determine what our minimum bid would be and we verified that with an independent real estate firm. We were gone with the money in hand in 2 weeks after the date of the auction. By the way, every thing else that was left in the house after we had removed what we wanted to keep, also sold that evening and was gone by noon the following day. Of course the auction company has to be a licensed real estate agent.
Think about it. It might just work for you too.
We wish you the best of luck!
We, too, have our house on the market to sell so we can go full timing. We are located in Mountain View, Arkansas. We are getting anxious to get on the road with all the fine folks living out their RV Dreams!
We listed our cabin six weeks ago, have had some lookers, but no buyer yet. We are holding an Open House tomorrow, so we are looking forward to some potential buyers. We are listed on www.homesbyowner.com/37721.
Good luck and hope to meet you soon!
The absolute auction can be scary because the sale is absolute...goes to the highest bidder. So obviously this can be risky. BUT we've found that absolute auctions attract more bidders so if it's a good piece of property, they bid the price up and you often end up getting more for the home.
Just something to think about....
Now if you were getting a lot of showings, then the buyer credit might be wise.
Another option is to split it with part as a selling bonus and part as a closing credit.
I just opted to put a $2k selling bonus on mine to encourage more showings.
But regardless, it's all a gamble....<g>
Grant,
Its really not about the buyers, its about motivating the real salespeople to not only show your house first, but actually try and sell it.
After putting up the bonus ,the best agents in town started showing it and a platinum remax agent sold it in one showing four days after the bonus was put up, not only did she sell it she also had the closing done in seven days.
There's a seat for every chair out there, you just need as many as you can get, to sit down in it.
Ken
We're at the other end of "Alligator Alley" from you in Naples, FL. We haven't put our condo on the market yet, but from what I read and hear the situation is the same here!
We live in a large condominium development with a clubhouse, 3 pools, tennis and boccie courts. We're close to I-75 and only 4 miles from Vanderbilt Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. This area of north Collier County is growing like crazy in spite of the slow market. We now have a Wal-Mart Super Center and a Target Super Store close to us and 2 large hospitals are only about 3 miles away.
I have read there is a 2-3 year supply of resale homes and condos on the market in this area! At that rate we might find a buyer in 2010! We're hoping to put the condo up for sale around October as the "snowbirds" start to return. Hopefully we'll get lucky and find a buyer by January 2008.
Good luck with yours! Have you tried burying a statue of St. Joseph in your backyard? That's supposed to bring you good luck with the home sale!
Yes, we have a St Joseph statue and we say our prayer to him every single day. I have a cousin who lives just north of you in New Port Richey and she's a realtor so she does give me the scoop on what's happening and it's not good. I sure wish we could get out on the road.
Good luck to you on your sale. Maybe yours will be "the one".
-- Edited by debken at 11:55, 2007-08-11
Pembroke Pines is literally just a few miles from where we are. It's a nice neighborhood also. Be prepared to sit on the house for awhile unless you're looking to sell it under market value (which IS what a lot of people here are doing). We can't afford to do that because we are also counting on the proceeds to fund our fulltiming setup. There are a few houses that do sell and you just never know. Yours might be just the one that somebody is looking for. Good luck to you.
If you're ever in the area look us up. We're always home.
-- Edited by debken at 21:11, 2007-08-12
As far as living here and buying property, we think southwest Florida is about the best place to spend the winter if you want to be warm. In the winter the humidity is much lower and it's warm enough to open the windows and turn off the AC. We have many beautiful beaches along with the inland waterway for great swimming and boating. However, from May to mid October it's hot and humid and we would prefer to be somewhere else!
This too shall pass and the market will come back. Have faith!
-- Edited by debken at 11:22, 2007-08-14
Our property insurance is another matter. Allstate notified us they will not renew us in November, as they are doing with many policy holders in Florida. We have never had a claim, they just want to reduce their exposure to the "hurricane threat". Until 2005 Naples hadn't had a hurricane make landfall since 1960 when Hurricane Donna hit.
Our insurance agent has another company that will pickup our coverage for about 60% more than we paid this year. We are 4-5 miles inland and considered in a safe area for storm surges unless we get a direct hit with a Category 4+ hurricane!
In spite of everything we still enjoy living here during the winter months and hope to continue that in the future even if we no longer own property here.
So what I meant by saying I would never live there again is that it is so overcrowded and overdeveloped that the quality of life that drew us there in the first place has been destroyed.
The developers don't seem to be satisfied until they have built on every last square inch of land. I hope that doesn't happen on the west coast, but when we moved down there even Marco Island was a wilderness...
We've only lived here for five years. Moved here from WA for a job offer with a cruise line. It's amazing to me how much it's grown even here in that time. This was just a residential neighborhood. Sawgrass Mills (huge outlet mall) has been here and just about anything else you would need. We never have to leave our area except to go to work. There was a huge vacant area right by the Sawgrass expressway that there was talk of building a stadium for the Marlins. Instead they started construction on a HUGE condo complex resort type place. Only four stories high but really spread out. I couldn't believe it when construction was also started on two huge condo towers that are 25 stories tall in the parking lot of the outlet mall!!! I can't even imagine what that's going to do for the traffic in the area. That is, if they can even sell them. Thank goodness for the Everglades or they would build all the way over to Bill & Linda's.
They just completed the first overpass or "flyover" as they call them here. All it does is take the east/west traffic over a busy north/south street. The idea is to speed up the "rush hour" traffic which is debatable! I think the cost was close to $40 Million! Unfortunately I think it's just the first of several.
I can remember my parents talking about Naples as a place to retire to in the early 1970's but they were afraid it was too remote and with minimal health care facilities. They settled in Venice and enjoyed 25+ years of retirement there. Naples (Collier County) now has 3 large hospitals and doctors offices on every corner!
Tim, I graduated from high school in 1957, so you think you're old!
we have already dropped the price by $40,000 no more we have to pay off the mortgage..
There have been some delays in getting the place painted and decluttered so not sure when we'll put it on the market, besides the news is sure doom and gloom about real estate. There is so much for sale around here that we're afraid we will get lost in the crowd! We are trying to decide if we should go ahead or wait another year.
We have to buy the St. Joseph statue too as we'll need all the help we can get when we do decide to sell.
southwest judy