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Adding A New "Mustang"

our home is worth about 800k presently. When I move out, it will be worth substantially less.....
 
When I retired a year ago we moved from a nice house in Lake Forest CA to Atlanta GA. The new house is twice as big, on 1.5 acres of wooded land, has a stream running down one side all year long and cost 1/2 as much as the California house. It has a 2 car garage on the top level and about a 3.5 on the basement level (its arranged funny). Taxes on the new house are 20% of the California house- the highest taxed state in the union. We put the savings into investments. As I recall it costs 27% less to live in Atlanta than Los Angeles. It gives you more retirement $ to spend on your toys. And hey as a bonus Georgia is a Red state. To see what ruined California read this: http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/06/ec...-business-opinions-columnists-california.html. Hint- its the liberals- California is so left its falling off the left coast. The liberals like to give things away, so to pay for it they had to raise taxes to the highest in the nation. That and their wacko environmental policies have driven businesses out of the state. I worked in the appliance manufacturing industry all my career. I worked for 3 manufacturers over the years- the first two moved out of the state, the third is a small company that is still hanging on.
 
Mach1 Driver said:
When I retired a year ago we moved from a nice house in Lake Forest CA to Atlanta GA. The new house is twice as big, on 1.5 acres of wooded land, has a stream running down one side all year long and cost 1/2 as much as the California house. It has a 2 car garage on the top level and about a 3.5 on the basement level (its arranged funny). Taxes on the new house are 20% of the California house- the highest taxed state in the union. We put the savings into investments. As I recall it costs 27% less to live in Atlanta than Los Angeles. It gives you more retirement $ to spend on your toys. And hey as a bonus Georgia is a Red state. To see what ruined California read this: http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/06/ec...-business-opinions-columnists-california.html. Hint- its the liberals- California is so left its falling off the left coast. The liberals like to give things away, so to pay for it they had to raise taxes to the highest in the nation. That and their wacko environmental policies have driven businesses out of the state. I worked in the appliance manufacturing industry all my career. I worked for 3 manufacturers over the years- the first two moved out of the state, the third is a small company that is still hanging on.
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A friend of mine lives in Carrollton, GA. I ask him in January if he can go outside and bbq in a t-shirt and short pants. Usually ends up hearing the line being disconnected.... 8^P
 
Arguably California has the best weather in the country- of course it depends on where you are- its a big state. It's a wonderful place if you can afford it.
 
Yeah, tell me about it. I lived there 64 years. LA is an irrigated desert. It only had 15000 people until a civil engineer named William Mulholland brought water in from the Owens valley. Mulholland Drive is a road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains that is named for him and has been mentioned in several Hollywood movies; there is even a movie by that title. But I'm getting off track: then they tapped the Colorado River, then brought water down from Sacramento via the aqueduct. Its still not enough. There are too many people and it doesn't look like its sustainable. Another problem to add to California's lengthy list.
 
A number of folks from the northeast have the same issues with property and values. They sell their 1800 sqft house on a 1/4 acre lot (or smaller!), move here to SC into a 2500+ sqft home on an acre or more and pocket several hundred G's! The down side is that it has driven our housing market prices up!

As an update to our purchase, it is officially in limbo right now. While the loan was approved, the release of it was simply awaiting the appraiser. The appraiser was waiting on the home inspection. The home inspection was delayed 5 days due to the sellers agent not telling them of the originally scheduled date until the night before. The inspection went through this past Wed. and went through exceptionally well. Nothing but a handful of minor cosmetic items. Several hours later the wife called to inform me the appraiser valued the home less than the loan. WTF?!! They hadn't even gotten the inspection results yet. We're currently in limbo because no one has been provided any numbers yet from the appraiser. Honestly, I think they did an electronic appraisal and didn't even go to the house or area! So for now we're all just waiting!:mad::mad::mad:
 
skyrocketing property values drives businesses away. I am seeing it firsthand in the Engineering community. Companies are moving jobs elsewhere (Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, offshore) because they cannot simply get entry level engineers to take jobs in Kalifornia, as the entry level engineering salary (which is hefty) cannot support the rent of a studio apartment, nor the purchase of a home.

This state will soon be the land of the 'would you like fries with that' who work two jobs to just make rent, and those who already have homes....... Taxing the shit out of us also does not help. I guess it's ok since we don't have any water anyhow.
 
opentrackerSteve said:
skyrocketing property values drives businesses away. I am seeing it firsthand in the Engineering community. Companies are moving jobs elsewhere (Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, offshore) because they cannot simply get entry level engineers to take jobs in Kalifornia, as the entry level engineering salary (which is hefty) cannot support the rent of a studio apartment, nor the purchase of a home.

This state will soon be the land of the 'would you like fries with that' who work two jobs to just make rent, and those who already have homes....... Taxing the shit out of us also does not help. I guess it's ok since we don't have any water anyhow.
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Well at least you've got nice weather.
 
OK, here in southern Utah we are two hours from Vegas, beautiful scenery, and my weather is the same as Tehachipi. To the south it is like Bakersfield and north is like northern California.

So all in all the only good weather in CA is along the coast south of Big Sur.

If our kids and likely the only grandchild we will ever have were not on the central coast, there would be zero consideration of ever returning.

Oh, did I mention the gun laws suck too!

CA has just overbuilt for decades and now it isn't global warming's fault, it's stupidity!

Unfortunately if Amber has her way we will retire in a condo in the central coast.

Mel

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
 
A number of folks from the northeast have the same issues with property and values. They sell their 1800 sqft house on a 1/4 acre lot (or smaller!), move here to SC into a 2500+ sqft home on an acre or more and pocket several hundred G's! The down side is that it has driven our housing market prices up!

John, yes my situation was similar, and yes we did pocket a wad of cash- that was the point of moving. In LA a 1/4 acre would be very rare. Most homes have 8-10 feet on each side, and 30-40 feet front and back. Some are "zero lot line" where one side of your neighbors house has no windows, and is built on the property line. This wall becomes the "fence" between properties. Homes are crammed in like this everywhere there is room to build.
Your situation with the low appraisal is not uncommon. The prices get raised artificially by people like me and the comps for the area don't support the price. I hope it's resolved quickly and you get to move in to your new home.
 
I hate it here...I'm moving to...nah just kidding.

Your home is your home. Embrace it. There's good and bad with all locales.
 
Mach1 Driver said:
Your situation with the low appraisal is not uncommon. The prices get raised artificially by people like me and the comps for the area don't support the price. I hope it's resolved quickly and you get to move in to your new home.
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Well the word is in. The appraiser is claiming the sale price of the house is "overvalued" by 100k. The current owners paid 5k less than what the "appraisal" is coming in at. They also put about 20k in work into it since they bought it four years ago. The wife and I looked at several properties in the same "neighborhood" over the past few years. They have all sold for 100-120k less than the current house we're trying to purchase. I place the word "neighborhood", because it really isn't one. It's a actually a semi-rural area. Their are few homes and those that do rarely sell are much older, smaller and not nearly as nice. There are no homes in the immediate area that could accurately be used as comps. By simply looking up recent home sales in a one mile radius and calling it an appraisal, well, the "appraiser" has screwed us. There are two newer developments within three miles. They contain recent sales of homes that are 30-70k higher than our offer price. While new, they average 1k sqft smaller and on a maximum size of 1/4 acre lots. There's no way these were even considered by this jackass. I told the wife if I came across this asshat that calls himself an appraiser that I'd beat him within an inch of his life. He basically did nothing, screwed us and the seller over and then got paid to do it.

To add to our frustrations our agent's father passed away this past weekend and he had to go out of state. We have to wait until he gets back in order to submit new comps to the appraiser in hopes of raising the amount. We're just holding our breath now. we not out yet but the clock is quickly ticking away!
 
As a person who also lives out in the country, as if Fargo wasn't rural enough on its own. I know full well the pain of appraisers being unable to find comparables in a 'standard' radius.

We like our house, it isn't the biggest, oldest, or fanciest, but if fits us.

We have needed appraisals twice, once when we bought it, and once last Fall when we attempted a quick refinance through Wells Fargo HARP program, supposedly was going to take 2 weeks and not require any credit check or appraisal. Ended up taking 3 months, 2 hard credit checks, and an appraisal. Wells Fargo is not my bank of choice, we signed our home mortgage with a different bank who promptly sold it to Wells Fargo.

Back to the appraisals, the other comparable houses that sold were either farther away, on less property, older, or newer. it seemed to me that the magic words of the appraiser was what set the final value.

Shouldn't the seller of the property have had their own appraisal before they set a price on it for sale? Any chance you can change appraisers to one that is recommended by their realtor?

-ron
Happily sitting on 11 acres of prime farm land 20 miles outside of Fargo ND.
Its flat, its hot, its cold, its windy, we have low population, and a state gov'ment surplus, its a red state
 
phlegm said:
Shouldn't the seller of the property have had their own appraisal before they set a price on it for sale? Any chance you can change appraisers to one that is recommended by their realtor?
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The property owner and their realtor did indeed have an appraisal prior to putting it on the market. Obviously their results wouldn't be available to us originally in order to protect them during negotiations. Since this cluster has now arisen and a contract is in place their realtor provided the figures in order to help provide more comps to appraiser. Their asking price was actually set by the results (and at the mid point). Between our realtor and theirs, they've worked together closely to dispute the appraisal and provide more accurate figures. Basically, they've ended up doing the appraiser's job for him.

The whole choice of appraisers for a loan is now subject to pretty strict guidelines as of Jan. 2014. The feds changed the laws with the intent to protect consumers. While the intent was good in principle, as usual in practice it screws everyone over! I think everyone involved woulda been thrilled to swap over to the original appraiser!

We're down but not out yet. We're keeping our fingers crossed!
 
Though you are paying for him, the appraiser was hired by and works for the bank. I would look into the appraiser's credentials and experience in your area, a critical part of the puzzle to bolster your challenge to his appraisal.

Somewhat related, several years ago I had a neighbor who decided to sell and decided to give the real estate listing ot a member of his church who, it turns out, had no local experience. He performed his market analysis and recommended a listing price to my former neighbor, who took the advice. The house was so undervalued that it sold in less than 5 minutes for "full price" which it turns out was more than 25% below actual local comps. The good news is that the new neighbors are great!

My point is that an appraisal is a guess, albeit an educated guess, if the appraiser knows the market.
 
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