I have been off the board here for a while. Wife and I are still trying to find a house we like. We made an offer on a house back in November but it was one of those "Short Sale" homes the news has been talking about lately. Means that is pre-forclosure. Anyhow the seller accepted our offer (of course) and it took the bank until the first week in March to turn our offer down and then increase the asking price of the house another $10K

My wife was pretty bummed out, but we have picked up and moved on. We found another house a couple weeks ago that is a lot nicer and closer to the water. Its not in forclosure or does not have any other encumbrances on it.

We are excited about it but now working with a lender to get us the amount of money we need to close. The seller has accepted our offer on this one and we have a contract.

Here are some pics of the place. Its in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland - about 35 miles from Washington, DC.

Link to House Pics

That's a nice lookin' house!

Things are wacky with the real estate market around here. We get these little updates from the local realtor and it's really interesting what's been on the market for a while (meaning about 90 days) and what goes quick (a couple days).

The house two doors down - I went out Friday at lunch, noticed the for sale sign on it. By 5:00p, there was a sold sign on it. I assume the sale must have already been in the works, but if it wasn't? Damn.

yea, the house up from us was more than likely some kinda estate sale. The owner was an elderly gent (retired engineer) who passed last fall. It has laid rather dormant since. They tented it for bugs and cleaned up, but it does need some work/updating. Hense, I suspect a family member bought it from the estate.

When I moved here back in 2004, it wasn't uncommon for a house to be on the market for 1 day and the sale price being $15~$20k MORE than asking. These days, the same house is selling for upwards of $100k under asking and taking 90+ days to sell.

BG - the house you found looks nice! Is it near the Bay? PG county area? Looks newer, too.

Around here houses are sitting on the market for six months or longer now. Its pretty sad compared to how things were a couple years ago.

I moved here (MD /WashDC) from South Carolina in 2004 which was like the height of the houseing bubble here. Homes were priced out of this world and still going up at that time. We could not afford to even consider buying a house then. We sold a beautiful house in SC for $140k and couldn't even come close to the same house here for under $500k - That is a fact and probably on a small 1/4 acre lot if that.

I'm glad to see housing prices dropping, but I know its killing others that bought high or signed crazy loans.

Very nice house. Garage...Polebarn...a dog house big enough for a vette? You know, the really important stuff. :thumbright:

The bubble, as with any bubble, is a false event. Those that can identify them and make money off of them are the smart ones.

We are waiting another year before buying here. I am about as sure I can be that the pop hasn't happened yet.

Beautiful Home

Gary

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Andy you may be correct, but here I don't think there will be a pop, just the air letting out slowly!

I think the Washington DC area still has a little padding because of all the government jobs in the region.

Home.......'nuff said!!

Best of luck to you !

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Two car garage with very high ceilings. No shed or pole barns since the lot is only about a third of an acre.

Oh yeah, two car garage...Life is goooood. Cheers!

Now we'll be coming to your house for a corvette-guru bbq on your new deck!

Matthew

Nice house! It's not very old is it? What are asking prices in your area for something like that? I bet that I'm glad that I live in rural Kansas!

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Oooh, oooh, we even have BBQ Aprons!

We could have a contest to see who can keep their apron the cleanest longer.

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A friend of mine from work lives down the steet from the house and says it was on the market a little over a year ago for $529; Then dropped to $475; and then taken off the market for a while.
The house was put back on the market about 3 or 4 months ago for around $425 as a new listing, and recently lowered to $400K. When it went to 400 she told me to go take a look since she knew we were in the market and loved the water and the town. The house had been rented once in the interim and has been empty now for a while. It's in great shape and was totally gone through with paint and updates to kitchen after the renters moved out. The colors suck pretty bad inside and the garage needs insulation, drywall and the floor pressure washed and tiled.

I initially low balled the offer at 362 just to see how the seller would react, but they blew off my low offer. I decided to get humble and offered $399 but the seller pay all closing and put 3% to my downpayment. They took my offer but raised the price to $406.

I just had the home inspection on Monday and found a few little things but I'll ask for a few grand back to cover the things we found on the inspection.

We are crossing our fingers everything goes alright with the mortgage as I haven't locked yet, I'm still waiting for some other products to come to market prior to settlement.

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Come one,, Come All - I will definitely have any gurus over for a cook out that wants to come. I'll keep this on the list of cool things to do on my deck.