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And so the new adventure begins
I haven't been posting much lately, due to being busy with the process of packing up all my possessions, selling my house in Oakland, and shopping for a new house in Concord. If you've been following me on Facebook, you've gotten the blow-by-blow account. But the move-related posts here on Live Journal have all been locked down for several reasons, most of which are no longer applicable now that I have title to the Concord house. (When you're house-hunting, you never want to rave about how much you love a place anywhere the seller or seller's agent could possible read it.) So if this is the only place you read me and if you're not on my friends' list here, this may be your first opportunity to catch up with all the details. So to catch everyone up, here's a summary of the whole story-arc.
As you know, back last November my car was stolen from the driveway of my Oakland house (I got it back), following hard on the heels of being burgled three times in five years. It was the last straw on that front and I decided to move. There were a number of other factors going into the decision. The biggest factor was that I wasn't being very financially successful as a landlady and I'd gotten myself into an unsustainable position. I'd let the rents remain static for entirely too long (like, for over 15 years) and in order to raise them to a market-rate level -- one that would put me in a sound financial position -- I'd pretty much have had to double them. And that would involve logistical difficulties of its own. In an odd way, solving the landlady problem by selling out was easier than solving it by raising the rents would have been. And on top of the crime issue and the finance issue, I'd been feeling for some time like I wanted to contract my sphere of responsibility to fit more closely to my own skin.
And if I were moving, then in addition to moving somewhere with a lower crime rate, I could readjust my physical surrounds to fit my living habits better. I could have a garage! I could get a single-story place! (I've discovered that my daily habits don't really encompass living on two levels for some odd psychological reason.) In the planning stages of the project, I identified Concord as my optimal goal, due to the conjunction of BART access, house prices, crime stats, and the presence of a fairly large number of people I was already friends with. (Jumping ahead somewhat, now that I've lived here for a couple months, I'm amazed and how much I feel at home here. It seems like every few days I have another new experience that reinforces the rightness of my decision.)
But going back towards the beginning more, back in January I started boxing up all my worldly possessions and shopping for a realtor. My assumption at that time was that I would be fixing up and renovating the house to put it on the market and I was expecting to put a substantial amount of investment into the process in hopes of making it up again by getting a better selling price. I tried out a couple of realtors who didn't work out for various reasons but in between those two I'd dropped a note on the Red Oak website saying I'd be interested in an appraisal and got a contact through that. So when my second prospect crapped out on me, I got back to the Red Oak guy and after an initial discussion and walk-through I figured he was going to work out.
So at that point I figured it was time to start things in motion for the renovations and gave my tenants 60-days notice. A week later my realtor made his second visit to view the rental units and to have me sign a representation agreement and he brought along a buyer's agent who wanted to look at the place. I got an offer two hours later. That was March 18. To make a long story short, I had all my stuff packed up and moved out by the end of April and on May 13 the sale was complete. It was almost dizzyingly fast. And I got the price I was hoping to get for the house "as is".
So in the mean time I'd been doing a lot of on-line research on the real estate market in Concord and had a fairly good notion of what sorts of properties were on the market and which neighborhoods I was interested in considering. And I had an extensive "shopping list" of features with varying levels of priority. (Once more jumping ahead of the story, I got pretty much my entire shopping list.) So jumping the gun only slightly, my realtor and I (and my Dad) went out to start looking at properties on May 8.
We looked at a couple of properties in my original price range ... which were all crap. And a few that were a bit higher, which were mostly nice. One was very nice. I figured what the heck and made an offer at the top of my target range (which was below asking). My realtor was a bit twitchy because it was a short sale and he warned me about how long the process could be and all the potential pitfalls. Well, as it happened, they declined the offer (rather than waiting to let the bank eventually decline it). So we moved on. Went out on another round of shopping (this time with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cryptocosm riding shotgun) on May 15. All within my original price range (note that I keep using the word "original"), one that I rather liked but that would need enough work fixing it up to put it into the same price range as the ones I was rejecting as too high. I passed on that whole lot and came to the reluctant conclusion that my original price range needed to be adjusted if I wanted something acceptably nice. So on May 22 I took a look at a bunch of properties at a somewhat higher level (but still quite affordable) and saw two that were both strong candidates. Made an offer for the one I liked better. That's the one I got title to this morning. Just a bit over a month later. Once again, my head is spinning.
Now I have a week or so of getting some minor repairs and upgrades done, getting the interior repainted (it was recently painted, but in a color I don't care for), getting a couple of appliances that weren't included in the sale, and setting up utilities and services. Then I start moving the furniture and everything else in. Mind you, I'm going to start living there tomorrow -- sort of "camping out" with my futon and suitcase.
Hmm, I'd somehow intended this to be more detailed than it ended up, but that would have made it really long. I may go back and unlock the locked move-related posts, which will have a bit more detail. I'll have to review them first. So I'll finish up with a picture.
Back on November 6, 2010 I posted a brief poem about the decision to leave my old house that ended with:
And wherever I go,
I will plant plums and roses.
There must always be plums and roses.
Well ...
Right next to the driveway, that's a red-foliage plum -- there's another plum tree in the back yard. (And an apple and a lemon and I'm not sure what-all else.) All along the white picket fence are rose bushes. About a dozen of them. (No particularly old varieties, but there's plenty of room to add more. Did I mention that the lot is a quarter acre?)
As you know, back last November my car was stolen from the driveway of my Oakland house (I got it back), following hard on the heels of being burgled three times in five years. It was the last straw on that front and I decided to move. There were a number of other factors going into the decision. The biggest factor was that I wasn't being very financially successful as a landlady and I'd gotten myself into an unsustainable position. I'd let the rents remain static for entirely too long (like, for over 15 years) and in order to raise them to a market-rate level -- one that would put me in a sound financial position -- I'd pretty much have had to double them. And that would involve logistical difficulties of its own. In an odd way, solving the landlady problem by selling out was easier than solving it by raising the rents would have been. And on top of the crime issue and the finance issue, I'd been feeling for some time like I wanted to contract my sphere of responsibility to fit more closely to my own skin.
And if I were moving, then in addition to moving somewhere with a lower crime rate, I could readjust my physical surrounds to fit my living habits better. I could have a garage! I could get a single-story place! (I've discovered that my daily habits don't really encompass living on two levels for some odd psychological reason.) In the planning stages of the project, I identified Concord as my optimal goal, due to the conjunction of BART access, house prices, crime stats, and the presence of a fairly large number of people I was already friends with. (Jumping ahead somewhat, now that I've lived here for a couple months, I'm amazed and how much I feel at home here. It seems like every few days I have another new experience that reinforces the rightness of my decision.)
But going back towards the beginning more, back in January I started boxing up all my worldly possessions and shopping for a realtor. My assumption at that time was that I would be fixing up and renovating the house to put it on the market and I was expecting to put a substantial amount of investment into the process in hopes of making it up again by getting a better selling price. I tried out a couple of realtors who didn't work out for various reasons but in between those two I'd dropped a note on the Red Oak website saying I'd be interested in an appraisal and got a contact through that. So when my second prospect crapped out on me, I got back to the Red Oak guy and after an initial discussion and walk-through I figured he was going to work out.
So at that point I figured it was time to start things in motion for the renovations and gave my tenants 60-days notice. A week later my realtor made his second visit to view the rental units and to have me sign a representation agreement and he brought along a buyer's agent who wanted to look at the place. I got an offer two hours later. That was March 18. To make a long story short, I had all my stuff packed up and moved out by the end of April and on May 13 the sale was complete. It was almost dizzyingly fast. And I got the price I was hoping to get for the house "as is".
So in the mean time I'd been doing a lot of on-line research on the real estate market in Concord and had a fairly good notion of what sorts of properties were on the market and which neighborhoods I was interested in considering. And I had an extensive "shopping list" of features with varying levels of priority. (Once more jumping ahead of the story, I got pretty much my entire shopping list.) So jumping the gun only slightly, my realtor and I (and my Dad) went out to start looking at properties on May 8.
We looked at a couple of properties in my original price range ... which were all crap. And a few that were a bit higher, which were mostly nice. One was very nice. I figured what the heck and made an offer at the top of my target range (which was below asking). My realtor was a bit twitchy because it was a short sale and he warned me about how long the process could be and all the potential pitfalls. Well, as it happened, they declined the offer (rather than waiting to let the bank eventually decline it). So we moved on. Went out on another round of shopping (this time with
cryptocosm riding shotgun) on May 15. All within my original price range (note that I keep using the word "original"), one that I rather liked but that would need enough work fixing it up to put it into the same price range as the ones I was rejecting as too high. I passed on that whole lot and came to the reluctant conclusion that my original price range needed to be adjusted if I wanted something acceptably nice. So on May 22 I took a look at a bunch of properties at a somewhat higher level (but still quite affordable) and saw two that were both strong candidates. Made an offer for the one I liked better. That's the one I got title to this morning. Just a bit over a month later. Once again, my head is spinning.Now I have a week or so of getting some minor repairs and upgrades done, getting the interior repainted (it was recently painted, but in a color I don't care for), getting a couple of appliances that weren't included in the sale, and setting up utilities and services. Then I start moving the furniture and everything else in. Mind you, I'm going to start living there tomorrow -- sort of "camping out" with my futon and suitcase.
Hmm, I'd somehow intended this to be more detailed than it ended up, but that would have made it really long. I may go back and unlock the locked move-related posts, which will have a bit more detail. I'll have to review them first. So I'll finish up with a picture.
Back on November 6, 2010 I posted a brief poem about the decision to leave my old house that ended with:
And wherever I go,
I will plant plums and roses.
There must always be plums and roses.
Well ...
Right next to the driveway, that's a red-foliage plum -- there's another plum tree in the back yard. (And an apple and a lemon and I'm not sure what-all else.) All along the white picket fence are rose bushes. About a dozen of them. (No particularly old varieties, but there's plenty of room to add more. Did I mention that the lot is a quarter acre?)
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Congratulations. I think your roof has the same shingles as our place. And Finland will be happy to see that you have a palm tree to go with your plums.
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BTW, I think that kind of palm is not much trouble, and may have been planted quite recently when they were on sale at Costco. If you don't like it, I suspect it would come out easily. You sure have it right about the fan palms. They grow all over the town and I think the birds spread them.
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* 2005 - Some nice person buys the property during the boom and has great plans for it. But ...
* 2008 - The market crashes, maybe they lose their job, they may be underwater, and they try to sell for what they owe on it. They fail (listing removed May 2009). The house has likely been unoccupied since that point.
* March-April 2010 - Not sure why the change from NRT California to J. Rockcliff Realtors, but I believe at this point this is a foreclosure.
* September-December 2010 - J. Rockcliff fails to get any offers at their original price and starts making stepwise adjustments.
* December 2010 - A prospective buyer starts investigating and the inspection report determines that not only does the house need foundation and roof work, but thieves have stolen all the copper piping and wiring they could get their hands on. This results in ...
* February-March 2011 - ... an even larger price drop, associated with a cash purchase by a house-flipping company on March 11. They replace the roof, fix the foundations, wiring, plumbing, etc. etc. and do a near-complete interior remodel. They do this in an astoundingly short period of time because ...
* May 2011 - ... they list the completed house on the market on 5//20/11. I look at it two days later and make an offer the next day. They accept the offer the day after that, but it takes a week to get it officially de-listed in response to that.
So the difference between the $175 sale price in March and the $280 listing in May is entirely value-added construction and remodeling work.
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