Well - I have never been one to boast (ahhemm), but sometimes when you're right, you're... well, you know.
The saga begins...
In June 07 we were given a 30 day notice by our Landlord after she decided that since her house had been on the market for months with no sale in sight, that we, the tenants were the cause of this conundrum. She was adamant that an "empty house sells much better than an occupied house." Interesting... I had always thought the opposite was true - but OK.
The back story...
We sold our house in April 2006, right at the very beginning of the down slide. I saw it coming and advised my boyfriend that we needed to sell the house NOW or we were going to loose all our equity. Thank goodness that was one of the times he took my advise and we put the house on the market immediately. We did all the right things, emptied it of all our personal chatchkies, redid the back yard landscaping, priced it 10k below all other houses in neighborhood and made it as cute as a button. We got 10 offers in 1 week. Bam - Sold for asking price.
We were going to rent for a couple of years after the sale, so we picked this lovely house in Woodland Hills, that was "perfect" for us in every way. Our new landlord promised she would not be selling her house for at least 2 years since she had only owned it for 6-7 months at that point. Great! We moved in July 06.
Fast forward to Feb 07 when she called to inform us that, regrettably, she would have to sell due to personal reasons and she needed the money out of her house now. She asked if we would like to buy it and she even offered to carry the paper for a year, as long as we could give her at least 50K down now. What price would you sell it to us for, we asked earnestly? Well... since we had been such great tenants she would be willing to let it go to us for only $730K. After all, she bought the house for $689K in 05 and put 40K into improvements and just wanted to get her money out of it.... Let's see - we pay you $730 for this house, when every other house in the neighborhood is listed between 680-690K.... Hhhmmm... Thanks for the generous offer, but we'll pass.
At the time, she offered to wait until our lease was up before she would list the house. And at the time, I was still in a "helping mood" so I advised her that no - she should list the house now since it was February and well before the summer when the market would be inundated with homes. Plus the market was really taking a dive and she should get moving fast. And by the looks of it - it would probably take 6-7 months to sell - if she was lucky! She was grateful for our willingness to accommodate. She went ahead and listed it for $740K and so then the saga of the "quintessential seller in denial" began...
February, March, April, May, tick, tock, tick ,tock. She starts to get really antsy... why was no one coming by to see the house? In four months only 4-5 people came by? It must be you guys. She would call us weekly to check to make sure everything was OK on our end...CODE for "what are you doing to prevent this house from selling?" Now I'm starting to become annoyed. She has not lowered the price at all, the market has crashed and she is blaming us. So after I received an irritated email from her, I "encouraged" her to consider lowering her price to what the other houses were listed for which was $680K at the time. Well - that was it, she was insulted beyond comprehension and she advised me that she knows more about the market than I do, since she used to be a real estate agent and her best friend - the listing agent knows what he is doing. And another thing! Even though she lived in San Diego now - she was well aware of what the market was like in our neighborhood! Well... I guess she told me...!
Well that was pretty much the beginning of the end of our saga - hers on the other hand, still goes on today. After that email, for the month of May, she was unbearable. The message was sent on June 1st that she wanted us out in 30 days.
At the point I was eager to leave her tangled web, so without hesitation we went out and found a bigger, better house up the road and all was well. On June 29th she called us to let us know that she had reconsidered the 30 day notice and that she would be OK if we wanted to stay until the end of July. We advised that she was too late, we had found a place and we are moving in that weekend!
Now October - the house sits empty still.
I Drove by the house the other day...
There was sincere sadness when the "I told you so" thought came to my mind, when I saw how desperate the For Sale sign looked - with it's hand written yellow message and new 24 hour recording banner.
She has now lowered the property to $670K...
Now - no one can even qualify for a $670K loan.....
Oh yeah, after we moved her agent called us with some questions about the house, and he let it slip that she actually received an offer two weeks after she first listed. The offer: $720K. He said he begged her to accept the offer and she flatly refused. She wanted full price - period!
You guys! If you're not already excited with what is going on with REO's - please start NOW! Look at this message we received from 
WHY? How in the hell could you not see this coming? I saw it coming almost 4 years ago! Jeez it's not brain surgery. People that cannot afford homes are buying them with these ridiculous loans, the new homes industry was building gazillions of homes and selling them for ridiculous prices in neighborhoods that were there was selling for half and sometimes a quarter of what their new homes were selling at. And don't get me started on Inland Empire. I was a sales manager for a company that serviced new home construction sites throughout Southern California. I would go down to Inland Empire and just shake my head wondering who the heck was driving out there to buy those homes and how could they be selling at those overinflated prices!
kes me almost realize that those “who didn’t see it coming” and not just the suits today, I mean everyone who is in real estate – that say they didn’t see it coming all had something to gain from not seeing it coming.
