10-21-2009, 01:53 PM
Punafish,
I wasn't trying to say you were painting all buyers with a broad brush, so much as trying to head off another round of buyer bashing. When we were looking for a house there was a lot of bashing of buyers who were shopping short sales and foreclosures here on punaweb. We ended up buying a foreclosure after deciding that we did not want the hassle of trying to negotiate the short sale process. We simply could not find a house in our price range that was not either a foreclosure or short sale, and we looked for 2 years.
I was accused here on punaweb of wanting to profit off of someone else's tragedy, and told that I was courting bad Karma for buying a foreclosure, but I was not going to pay a mortgage for 30 years based on an inflated price, just so someone who paid too much in 2003-2005 could get their money back. A buyer has to deal with the reality of the current market, not past markets, and a seller has to deal with the consequences and timing of their decisions. Many of the current foreclosures and short sales in Puna are houses that were bought as investments by off island buyers looking to make a quick buck buying a house for no real money down and then either taking out second mortgages for every penny they could get, or flipping the house right away. These people inflated the market for everyone and did a lot of damage with their greed. They are the bad guys here, not the buyer trying to find a house at a price that has room for some more downward movement.
We have watched prices continue to fall since we bought this house and we could now pay MUCH, MUCH less for a similar house. But it was time to quit renting, and we are planning to stay here until I am too old to make it up the stairs, so I am not focusing on how our house has "lost" value on paper since we bought it. We owned our last house for 25 years and will probably own this one for as long. If you think of your home as a long term investment, not a way to make a quick buck, it is much easier to ride out the ups and downs of the market.
I have genuine sympathy for people like GENXOR who have no choice but to sell and leave in this market, it is a really tough place to be in. But the current market reality is what buyers have to look at, and that means much lower prices than what people were paying a few years ago. On the other hand it does mean that young local families who were priced out of the market can now try to buy a house here, and that is a good thing.
Carol
I wasn't trying to say you were painting all buyers with a broad brush, so much as trying to head off another round of buyer bashing. When we were looking for a house there was a lot of bashing of buyers who were shopping short sales and foreclosures here on punaweb. We ended up buying a foreclosure after deciding that we did not want the hassle of trying to negotiate the short sale process. We simply could not find a house in our price range that was not either a foreclosure or short sale, and we looked for 2 years.
I was accused here on punaweb of wanting to profit off of someone else's tragedy, and told that I was courting bad Karma for buying a foreclosure, but I was not going to pay a mortgage for 30 years based on an inflated price, just so someone who paid too much in 2003-2005 could get their money back. A buyer has to deal with the reality of the current market, not past markets, and a seller has to deal with the consequences and timing of their decisions. Many of the current foreclosures and short sales in Puna are houses that were bought as investments by off island buyers looking to make a quick buck buying a house for no real money down and then either taking out second mortgages for every penny they could get, or flipping the house right away. These people inflated the market for everyone and did a lot of damage with their greed. They are the bad guys here, not the buyer trying to find a house at a price that has room for some more downward movement.
We have watched prices continue to fall since we bought this house and we could now pay MUCH, MUCH less for a similar house. But it was time to quit renting, and we are planning to stay here until I am too old to make it up the stairs, so I am not focusing on how our house has "lost" value on paper since we bought it. We owned our last house for 25 years and will probably own this one for as long. If you think of your home as a long term investment, not a way to make a quick buck, it is much easier to ride out the ups and downs of the market.
I have genuine sympathy for people like GENXOR who have no choice but to sell and leave in this market, it is a really tough place to be in. But the current market reality is what buyers have to look at, and that means much lower prices than what people were paying a few years ago. On the other hand it does mean that young local families who were priced out of the market can now try to buy a house here, and that is a good thing.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb