Retirement Planning - Lessons Learned

[ultrarunner]

Or they are counting on it working out somehow…

More often then not various programs coveting housing, medical, utilities, food, etc…

 

[goeduck]

One single over the top sale near me in Washington profoundly affected all nearby property owners… at least until the property went into foreclosure 3 years later…

The event was quite a wake up call whereas California neighbors paying higher prices carry zero impact on area owners property tax wise…

Yes, that is an issue. Someone gets a crazy high price and everyone else's property taxes increase.

Soooo,,,,,, what happened after foreclosure?

 

[goeduck]

I don't really know how they calculate it, but this field is farmed, and the taxes are quite low for farm land here in Ohio. Most of the expense in our property taxes is due to our house and barn.

Good for you. We pay through the nose on property taxes out here. 5 digits left of the decimal.

 

[Frankenkubota]

My wife wrote out a check for $50 for her sister in law's birthday last week. The next day we got a check for $50 from her mom for our anniversary. I told my wife that we've been recirculating that same $50 around the family for about 10 years now. Let's throw everyone's game off and send $55 next time.

i did that 20 years ago and got the stink eye from everyone.

20-30 years ago gift cards became all the rage. Personally, i'd rather get a gift card than a sweater but not the point.

One Christmas we were all sitting around opening gifts and it was one card after another. If the one you gave wasn't as much as someone else's, kinda made you feel cheap.

Couple days later i made the formal announcement, no more gifts to me or from me unless they are hand made....period! My son was old enough to understand and he got it.

My brother is a big mucky muck in the accounting industry and so i suggested that he just post everything on a spread sheet and net it out.

 

[two_bit_score]

My wife would be glad to hear that. We paid full asking price for a field adjacent to our property with no negotiating. Part of my wife's rationalization was that, if we pay more, it will help the value of our property.

The real reason was that she couldn't bear to attempt to negotiate money away from the little old lady who was moving off the property after her husband passed away.

I recently bought a city lot without any negotiation on price. It was below the market value in my opinion, had not been exposed to the market, ie not 'listed' with a RE, was in close proximity to other property I own, I could afford to pay cash and close quickly.

I did pay less than the Central Appraisal District value and I will reduce my property tax liability by close to half by selling a building on it 'to be moved'.

Do you think the CAD values in your area are at market value? Many here are not. Most are above market, especially on lower valued properties. Mainly because people do not protest values on lower valued properties so they can get away with 'appraisal creep'. I have actually had people say their property "went up in value" because their CAD valuation increased.

 

[ultrarunner]

I have appealed many times and never lost but it does get old plus now there is a $50 filing fee and it can take two for the hearing and another 6 months to actually receive refund for overpayment... meanwhile you must pay as billed...

 

[DieselBound]

Zimbabwe.

I've been following the adventures of Noraly, a blond Dutch lady and a professional geologist who is touring the world by motorcycle. Indonesia to Europe. Patagonia to Bolivia where she got quarantined in the Covid shutdown. This year South Africa, Namibia, and this month Zimbabwe. (Essentially up the west coast of southern Africa, then crossing the wildlife tourist reserves now, toward Mozambique on the east coast). Her descriptions of the culture and natural features everywhere are fascinating.

A few days ago the comment 'They still use US dollars everywhere'. She had to go to a second ATM in Harare (Zim capital) because the first one said dollars are rationed and that bank never receives enough. She showed a local Zim dollar. Lots of zeroes on it. That poor country has suffered the same fate as Venezuela, from incredibly rich to dirt-poor in one generation, as crooked government stole everything.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEIs9nkveW9WmYtsOcJBwTg

The crooked govt is the US govt. Waging economic war on Venezuela, which has included stealing it's money and gold in addition to undermining it's oil trading, has done exactly what the US has wanted to do, and is good at, starving regular people (in order to force them to accept being occupied by trans-national corporations).

The USD is the world's reserve currency. It's quite the racket. Backed by "Good Faith." Ha, ha, ha... Forces everyone else to buy USD in order to transact: skimming via transactions. But this game is about up as many countries are opting to trade outside the USD: and its no wonder that they're also countries that are deemed "enemies". Oil is the biggest trade in the world and every day now more and more of it is being traded outside the USD: key trade is Russia, China and Iran; Europe will, eventually, have no other recourse than to shift as well [Nordstream II is just a hint of the future for them, well, for those that aren't stupid enough to stay hitched to the US/NATO suicide mission]. As this increases it pushes current USD-only oil traders toward non-USD trade: US's head-chopping friends in Saudi Arabia are going to be shifting in order to continue to buy off security for their kingdom (US will continue to sell weapons because it needs the money, but eventually the kingdom will be looking elsewhere- likely Russia as it's weapons systems are better and cheaper. As soon as the tipping point comes, which it will (ALL FIAT CURRENCIES DIE), the US will face blow-back- boomerang, inflation.

 

[goeduck]

Average Retirement Savings: How Do You Compare?

Curious how much the average person has saved for retirement? We break it down by age and provide the typical shortcoming.

smartasset.com

If this is correct, people aren't preparing for retirement

You can say that again. Wow!

 

[goeduck]

The automated email I get from my real estate agent filtered for investment opportunities had 5 new listings and 2 reduced in price. Good to see the reductions. The agent called the other day and I told her I am sitting on the fence watching at this point.

 

[ultrarunner]

I have noticed price reductions the past few weeks but homes are still selling briskly… especially using the price low to drum up traffic and accept offers which can be eye popping over asking.

Starting too high can backfire.

A well prepped 1500 square feet vintage 1955 home had the road blocked with so many showings… no exaggeration all week and is now marked sold last night. List price $899k…

I’m very curious what the final number is…

The owner of 25 years recently retired and cashing out and capturing the income tax break…

He was paying 6k property tax… imagine the new buyer could be in the 16k property tax neighborhood?

Lesson learned is Real Estate can be the cornerstone to a sound retirement...

East Oakland CA Link should anyone be interested...

11118 Kerrigan Dr, Oakland, CA 94605 | realtor.com®

View 40 photos for 11118 Kerrigan Dr, Oakland, CA 94605, a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,482 Sq. Ft. single family home built in 1955 that was last sold on 10/08/2021.

www.realtor.com

 

[goeduck]

We are not in your price bracket but my guess is that one would go for about $650 to $750K up here.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Wow. My place would need a lot of spit and polish to put on the market. Does the phrase, "Lived In" ring a bell?

 

[goeduck]

Wow. My place would need a lot of spit and polish to put on the market. Does the phrase, "Lived In" ring a bell?

When I last sold a house, the agent strongly recommended that we move out first so they could hire a professional decorator to come in. The decorator's fancy furnishings made my stuff look like junk. But hey, the house sold in one day at a price way over what most agents recommended.

 

[ultrarunner]

Staging is very much the norm…
Top Realtors often have a team in place… can be anything from new sod, refinish hardwood, counters etc… of course deep clean so everything spotless…

So many want turn key and so far willing to pay for it…

I do like the Triple Laminate Shingles.

9-10 years back maybe 350k
When sold number hits I will post…

Owner says money realized and excluded from tax is a cornerstone in retirement plan…

Again timing/luck can make a big difference…

Again this is East Oakland too where national media covers a lot…

 

[ultrarunner]

When I last sold a house, the agent strongly recommended that we move out first so they could hire a professional decorator to come in. The decorator's fancy furnishings made my stuff look like junk. But hey, the house sold in one day at a price way over what most agents recommended.

Often it is just going minimalistic with closets, cub bards, garage nearly bare…

 

[California]

I think today's buyers want move-in ready, all cleaned up for a fresh start.

If it isn't, then it goes to a flipper who will clean it up and turn a profit.

 

[ponytug]

We had a house down our way go for, wait for it, $1,000,000 over the listing price. Something like a 40% premium, and that wasn't even in a nearby town known to have lots of foreign investors buying homes there just to be there a few weeks a year.

I look at some of these sales and wonder if the buyers wouldn't be better served by an advisor walking them through their priorities to help the buyers with decision making. We looked at one property that had a jack literally holding up a corner of the garage where the soil was sliding downhill. That wasn't the remarkable bit. It was that the jack wasn't included the sale. The buyers who prevailed spent over the asking price, and went out of their way to drink with the clearly dysfunctional tenants in an in-law unit.(which they weren't keeping clean, or taken care of and had obvious paraphernalia lying around when we did a walk through...)

While everyone's decision making is different, sometimes I have to take a second look because it is so different from mine.

Given how hard it is to find and organize contractors around here, the desire for "move in ready" homes is understandable.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MoKelly]

The older the buyer the less they want to do lots of work to a house. Older buyers tend to buy more expensive places.

I had a friend list an expensive place in May. They were building a home that wouldn’t be ready until September. The realtor suggested they move and “stage” the house. The realtor believed the house was too “personalized” which would make a buyer less able to imagine themselves in the space.

My friend said “no way” his family was moving to an apartment and storing all their stuff.

The house sold a month later at full price no contingencies. He pushed closing as far out as possible but still had to move to an apartment and store his stuff until the new house was complete.

He said staging cost was quoted at $4000.

At least he saved the $4000.

I often wonder if the realtor gets a piece of the staging cost as a kick-back.

MoKelly

 

[Torvy]

The older the buyer the less they want to do lots of work to a house. Older buyers tend to buy more expensive places.

I had a friend list an expensive place in May. They were building a home that wouldn’t be ready until September. The realtor suggested they move and “stage” the house. The realtor believed the house was too “personalized” which would make a buyer less able to imagine themselves in the space.

My friend said “no way” his family was moving to an apartment and storing all their stuff.

The house sold a month later at full price no contingencies. He pushed closing as far out as possible but still had to move to an apartment and store his stuff until the new house was complete.

He said staging cost was quoted at $4000.

At least he saved the $4000.

I often wonder if the realtor gets a piece of the staging cost as a kick-back.

MoKelly

Most of the time, yes. Like a finders fee or referral fee. Not really a kickback, it is all legal and above board.

 

[Frankenkubota]

The older the buyer the less they want to do lots of work to a house. Older buyers tend to buy more expensive places.

I had a friend list an expensive place in May. They were building a home that wouldn’t be ready until September. The realtor suggested they move and “stage” the house. The realtor believed the house was too “personalized” which would make a buyer less able to imagine themselves in the space.

My friend said “no way” his family was moving to an apartment and storing all their stuff.

The house sold a month later at full price no contingencies. He pushed closing as far out as possible but still had to move to an apartment and store his stuff until the new house was complete.

He said staging cost was quoted at $4000.

At least he saved the $4000.

I often wonder if the realtor gets a piece of the staging cost as a kick-back.

MoKelly

around here many of the real estate agents will stage it themselves, mine had a storage locker full of stuff.