Can Someone Please Cheer Me Up?

[hwillm1977]

To help cheer you up, I can't believe the low cost of a house in your area--around here the average house price is $466,844 and the median selling price is $395,000. That's average and median, what normal people are paying for houses here--your basic 1000 sq ft 3 bedroom/1 bath rancher or equivalent two-story home.

if you come out east things are a lot cheaper... course there's also few good jobs We paid $25,000 for our 3 bed, 1 bath home and 6 acres of land, but it needed TONS of work.

Don't worry Leta, things always happen for a reason... we offered on a farm last year and our offer for $80,000 was accepted (it was a 4 bed farmhouse, one barn, two car garage and 60 acres) and then our financing fell through at the last possible second and someone else bought it... I cried for weeks.

Now a year later we're trying to buy an absolutely 100% nicer place with 48 acres, it's a little more money but we're in a better place financially... and now I know that if we don't end up getting this farm, another property will come along and someday we'll be in the place we were meant to be in. I just have faith now that things always work out the way they were meant to. everything for a reason so they say

 

[Neiklot]

I can cheer u up with a smile! ->

 

[Leta]

I had done some digging before we made the offer. I know the specifics, but in order to respect the seller's privacy, I won't get too deep into them. Let's just say that she is young (under 30) and in a period of many life transitions. She's already moved out of state and has a tenant in the house. When she bought the house in 2007, she got a mortgage for $85,000. Playing with an amortization calculator, I determined that she owes about $78,000. Assuming that the realtor is going to be paid 6%, she is *just* covering her costs.

That's why we started out where we did. We wanted to be reasonable. If we had gone up to $86,000 with $3000 in concessions (which we were more than willing to), that would have left her with $77,840 after she paid the real estate agent. So she would be able to pay off that mortgage.

I am green when it comes to negotiating. We bought our current house from people we knew, FSBO, no agent and no real negotiating. I thought we should start out making a reasonable, albeit lower, offer so that we could see where we got.

But this response was just so... unexpected, that now I don't know if we should bother counteroffering at all- now, or in the spring.

 

[moolie]

I can cheer u up with a smile! ->

I like this, here's one from me as well

To help cheer you up, I can't believe the low cost of a house in your area--around here the average house price is $466,844 and the median selling price is $395,000. That's average and median, what normal people are paying for houses here--your basic 1000 sq ft 3 bedroom/1 bath rancher or equivalent two-story home.

if you come out east things are a lot cheaper... course there's also few good jobs We paid $25,000 for our 3 bed, 1 bath home and 6 acres of land, but it needed TONS of work.

Yup, the job is the important part--hubs works in IT so needs a city with enough industry. We came out to Calgary 13 years ago to get out of renting in Vancouver which was beginning to eclipse the possibility of ever buying. Back then Calgary was cheap, an average house was less than half of what we would have had to pay to buy in Vancouver.

We bought that average 1000 sq ft 3 bed/1 bath 1950s rancher here 13 years ago for $160,000. We updated the kitchen and bathroom and finished the basement over 10 years. Then we sold it 3 years ago for $400,000 and bought an 1800 sq ft 1980s 2-story split with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and a totally finished basement with a family room, spare bedroom/another full bath for just over what we sold the old house for. We're a few miles further from downtown but in a newer and nicer neighborhood plus have more space and the same size yard we had in our former older neighborhood (although it is just a city lot so nothing like the real property everyone here is talking about). And 3 years later our house appraises at just over $500,000 for property tax purposes, so things are still going up here with no sign of stopping, although it slowed a bit for a few months in 08.

It's all relative to where you live I guess. We're in a booming city.

When I read the "other people's bills" thread and regular posts all over the forum about what groceries cost in some areas I'm truly amazed at how little people have to pay for things.

But even though we earn more, we have no more extra at the end of the month than people who earn less because the cost of living is higher here. And we're seriously frugal people with very little debt (10 year mortgage, a bit on the credit card left over from when hubs was out of work for half of 2010 that will finally be paid off by the end of March). Then we can start slowly building our savings again, being without work totally wiped us out (no Employment Insurance for the self-employed, hubs works on contract with no benefits).

To Leta, and everyone else looking for property, hang in there. The right place will be yours some day.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and could be you have just been handed a big ol' blessing in disguise. I know that doesn't do much to cheer one if you had your heart set on a house....but I had a similar experience and, knowing what I know now, I thank God every day that I didn't get to purchase the house that I wanted. Sooooo thankful!!!