Friday, March 27, 2009

Grappling with changing market

It's been a loong time since I posted last... I do not have anything new to report regarding properties under contract. We still have our last set of condos to get sold but nothing as of yet. There was a promising call yesterday but haven't heard anything so far today. It was from the guy who bought my very first and second set. If he buys them I will most likely break even or even lose a little but I'm totally okay with that, I just want to be out from under them. Hey, you can't win them all, right?

My market seems to be changing which is weird for me. I haven't gone through a "market shift" before and don't really know what to make of it?! All of the lower priced properties have disappeared. The ones I've been watching that have been on the market FOREVER are now gone. It seems more people are buying! This is good for selling but it's making me change my focus on buying. Up until now I have been focusing on $125k ARV or below but, again, those properties are long gone (at least in my area). I'm not saying the homes are going up in value I'm just saying homes in that price range are few and far between. Soooo, I have moved my price range up to $150k or below. My realtor has been seeing a lot of sales in this price range and I feel comfortable moving up a bit. I am still sticking to the 70% rule but it's just weird looking at houses that have a $113k price tag vs. a $70k price tage. Because of this little shift I've been feeling kind of lost, trying to figure out what to do next. I haven't had this feeling for a while and I'm not liking it! ha, ha. I know other people have said they are seeing fewer REO's on the market but are expecting a flood and I'm hoping for that too. It seems I've been at a stand still since I got my last property under contract and that was probably over a month ago. I don't even have any HUD properties to bid on... they are my favorite!! I'm a little frustrated! I'm still pluggin' away though. Last night my realtor and I looked at 7 properties and are submitting offers on 5, so far. We submitted a few offers over a week ago and still haven't heard from the banks. Seems they are all backlogged now. URGH! I wish I had something better to post!

I still have not called the local bank. I don't know WHY I am putting this off. I MUST do it next week!!! And, I want to get Nate's call about selling to o/o. Once it's out I'm going to get it.

I also have not been re-reading the realtors exam handbook or whatever. I decided I am going to get my license but I am going to have to pass the test first.... I need to get crackin' on studying!

3 comments:

Steph said...

I'm in the same boat, Eileen.

The amount of REOs in my price range (50k and under) has decreased dramatically.

I have also started looking in the higher price ranges, although I'm not very comfortable doing so.

I was planning on the REOs drying up eventually (like in another year or two), but am not prepared for them to dry up this soon.

I just need to make more offers, I guess.

Keep your chin up.

Steph

Eileen-WI said...

Doesn't it suck?!?!?! Right when I felt like I was getting in the groove of things, it starts to change. Frustrating.

Do you have a plan when REO's do eventually dry up? Well, they'll never completely dry up but they will definately get fewer and fewer.

My ultimate goal of quitting my full time job and doing this FT seems to be slipping through my fingers... urgh! I'm definately keeping at it. Hell, I'll probably never stop in this lifetime it's just too easy to make a couple bucks. BUT, I may not be able to leave my day job any time soon. That's the sad part to me.

Steph said...

Yeah, it sucks.

I talked to Steve about it the other day and he told me to just keep making offers.

I know that there are still a ton of lis pendens being filed in my county (roughly 2000/month), so I'm guessing they are eventually going to hit the market. I guess I just have to be patient.

Steph