A Sunday Funday in Davis

I should just avoid open houses, period. My husband refuses to go to them now because he knows what's coming. Smart man.... this is what happens when you marry a man with a better education then you >; )

There is a small, rundown house listed at 373K in Davis. The place is trashed as it had been a rental at $1600/mo since it was purchased. As you will see below, this doesn't cover the monthly nut at all. This seller are definately distressed. The sign in fornt of the house says "bring offers".

I asked the agent if the sellers were underwater and she said no (major bad move- they bought at 429k in 05 so do the math). So this is probably an undisclosed short sale. Whoopies!

Next I ask her why give a 4k credit to carpeting instead of just reducing the sales price? Never got a good answer but she did say the seller were willing to court lower offers.

So she asks, what would I offer? "215k".

Of course that will never fly. Turns out someone offered 320k and the seller rejected. I'm guessing it was the bank(s) that said nada in reality.

I ask her why should I buy this small, dirty houses for 373k when I can drive 7 mins up Poleline and buy a 2150 sqft beautiful new house for 349k plus incentives? Bless her heart, she didn't say "because this lot is bigger" because the Davis house had a smaller lot then the KB build I was referring to. She did come back with my favorite response "are you sure you would want to consider Woodland?" To my credit, I did not give her my 17 minutes lecture on why Davis sucks. I was still in a somewhat good mood.

"But 215k is why below market price!". I'm sure you can picture me standing there, rolling my eyes can't you.

Why was I willing to offer so little? "a seller can sell to me at a 09-10' price now or they can carry it for a while then let the bank have it later. Either way, someone like me is eventually going to purchase it for 215k, now or later."

So now she wants to be my buyer's agent because I'm soooo smart- oh goodie! In actuality, she wants to be my agent because I can go conventional financing and don't have a house to sell before purchasing something new. Mentioning FIVA with 10% to 20% down and seasoned assets and it's like chumming the water off the Farallon Islands during seal calving season.

So I decide to play along. I tell her my range (180k to 220k in Woodland or 200k to 240k in Davis) and restrictions (No condos, nothing attached, SFRs over 1200 sqft only, nothing with a HOA). Apparently not only did she not listen, she had her ears plugged while singing "la la la la" as she went on to tell me that there were some cute small "halfplexes" off Bidwell behind the the Davis AC.

These are the Bidwell condos, where there are multiple pre-forclosures with 200 mo HOA fees. I correct her on the term Condo and leave it at that. Regardless, she says she is excited at the idea of finding me something. I give her my card and wonder off. She will never contact me again. Shame on her for trying to mislead me. It might have worked on someone else.