Love Letters. Real Estate

[California]

Cheap deal......must have sold quickly.
Elegant looking out buildings!
Low CA taxes too!

I looked online. Various realtors have slightly different estimates for the Stoetz Lane vineyard in that postcard above. Approximately:

Annual taxes $6,500.
(I pay less than a quarter of that. CA Prop 13 rules. I inherited Dad's 1973 assessment plus it increases 3% per year. Prop 13 was awful policy but I personally have benefited!)

Ok taxes don't look overwhelming. But lets see what the payments are:
Hypothetical financing on that place: $390,000 down payment.
Then easy payments of only $6,600 per month for 30 years.
Not including taxes and insurance.

An offer for 1% over listing price was accepted within less than a week.

CA real estate prices are insane.

 

[Pixguy]

I received a text today saying they wanted to buy my empty lot in Florida that we sold 7 months ago. Time to update your records guys.

 

[goeduck]

I looked online. Various realtors have slightly different estimates for the Stoetz Lane vineyard in that postcard above. Approximately:

Annual taxes $6,500.
(I pay less than a quarter of that. CA Prop 13 rules. I inherited Dad's 1973 assessment plus it increases 3% per year. Prop 13 was awful policy but I personally have benefited!)

Ok taxes don't look overwhelming. But lets see what the payments are:
Hypothetical financing on that place: $390,000 down payment.
Then easy payments of only $6,600 per month for 30 years.
Not including taxes and insurance.

An offer for 1% over listing price was accepted within less than a week.

CA real estate prices are insane.

Does Prop 13 tax basis pass through an estate?

 

[California]

Does Prop 13 tax basis pass through an estate?

Yes. It passes to a legal descendant so long as that is the next owner. I think now the descendant has to make it their primary home. I was surprised to learn there was no residence requirement to maintain it when I bought sis's half interest in the orchard out of dad's estate in 2001. Maybe non-residence was a concession to farm families to avoid breaking up the family farm? (Our home is over in the Central Valley, we spend about 40% of our time here in this old and simple farmhouse).

But I think now the descendant has to declare it as their primary home, for the continuation to pass through upon recording the new deed.

Kids today start at artificially high property tax rates to carry all the old farts riding on their backs. My newer neighbors pay around $6k, I pay less than a quarter of that.

Prop 13 is bad public policy and I voted against it back then. Today it's part of why kids refer to boomers as the entitled generation.

 

[fried1765]

I looked online. Various realtors have slightly different estimates for the Stoetz Lane vineyard in that postcard above. Approximately:

Annual taxes $6,500.
(I pay less than a quarter of that. CA Prop 13 rules. I inherited Dad's 1973 assessment plus it increases 3% per year. Prop 13 was awful policy but I personally have benefited!)

Ok taxes don't look overwhelming. But lets see what the payments are:
Hypothetical financing on that place: $390,000 down payment.
Then easy payments of only $6,600 per month for 30 years.
Not including taxes and insurance.

An offer for 1% over listing price was accepted within less than a week.

CA real estate prices are insane.

I very seriously doubt that the buyer ever considered payments of $6,600 per month.
Most probably..... cash on the barrel head!

 

[TheMan419]

It’s been probably 25 years ago we put an offer in on a house. Nice place, bigger than we wanted. Only problem was it needed a well. We went back and forth with the owner twice, he came down something like $250. We gave up quickly and a short time later bought the place we have lived in since.

A week or two later the first guy called me, your not suppose to do that, your suppose to go through the realtors. He didn’t think we were serious buyers and he had done some checking and found out we could afford it. He wanted to know if we were still interested? NO!

Now that I know about the love letter thing maybe if we had written him one we could have made the deal happen.

When we bought the farm we live on now our initial offer got rejected and a counter offer made. The original asking price and counter offer were quite high based on the market at the time. We elected to just walk away.... thinking our original offer was very fair.

Three days later we got a call from our realtor. The sellers wanted to accept our original offer as they found the house they wanted to buy. We negotiated to get them to pick up more of the closing costs than was normal.

 

[oosik]

I got a letter from a local real estate company yesterday. They had aerial photos of the house, outbuildings and entire property.

This letter indicated they had a buyer for the property and wanted to come out and get pictures inside my house.

THIS one I called back. Advised that I have NO intentions of selling anything, any time. Advised that they or any of their representatives are not welcome on my property. And if they are ever on my property - it will be considered as trespass, with aggressive consequences.

Some of these companies have a lot of nerve ..........

 

[ponytug]

I got a letter from a local real estate company yesterday. They had aerial photos of the house, outbuildings and entire property.

This letter indicated they had a buyer for the property and wanted to come out and get pictures inside my house.

THIS one I called back. Advised that I have NO intentions of selling anything, any time. Advised that they or any of their representatives are not welcome on my property. And if they are ever on my property - it will be considered as trespass, with aggressive consequences.

Some of these companies have a lot of nerve ..........

Sheesh is right.

How is there not an aspect of fraud in this?
Realtor to buyer; "I have just the place for you. You can by it for $X, look at these photos."
Buyer to realtor; "Great we will buy it for $X."
...Later realtor to buyer "Oh, actually that one isn't for sale."

Don't get me wrong, I think that you have an amazing place, and if it were for sale and I was looking I would buy it in a heartbeat.

All the best,

Peter

 

[fiddlearound]

We too get at least one letter or postcard a week offering maybe half the tax appraised value.
Yesterday, someone decided to come out and try a personal offer on some investment lots. I
asked for twice the appraised value, didn't have to ask them to leave!
This area of Central Texas is growing rapidly.

 

[Jstpssng]

Wait six months, the boom will have died to a whisper.