The Wannabees Club
 

Still the TV Wannabee but my faith is fading.

Yesterday's headlines in my local newspaper read "Home ownership no longer a dream ~ Grants Pass resident (name) found the perfect home for the perfect price of $220,000 originally listed at $369,000".

Still stuck in the Oregon boonies :ohdear:

CIB, I know that it is discouraging to see house prices falling. But don't forget, the house prices in your area may have deteriorated. BUT ... the house prices in TV are also less expensive than in previous years! There are some real bargains out there. My belief is that by the time house prices recover in your area, the prices in TV will have taken a gigantic leap!

There are two ways of looking at the current real estate market.

1. The attitude: "I want top dollar and I'm not giving my house away". This means you will stay where you are, indefinitely.

2. The attitude: "I'm willing to sell at market value". This means you will sell and be free to spread your wings and soar into the next phase of your life.

I think as seniors, while we have good health, we need to try to realize our dreams. Make hay while the sun shines!

Many times have I seen folks "stuck in place" holding on to property for years and years waiting for "their price" while others sold at or below market to facilitate a change in their lives and move forward.

There is a value in "peace of mind" that cannot be measured in money. WE, each and every one of us, are more important than money. Time is money, money is time. One can save it, spend it or waste it, but one can't get it back once it's gone. One pays for everything in time or money.

Dirigo

Barefoot.....
 

What you say is TRUE..... but I just can't get over the fact that I purchased my Oregon Dream Home for $cash$ and now the market value is $100k less than my investment :rant-rave: How many people would take that loss ? :rant-rave: Money vs. Lifestyle ......... I'd like to say I would choose lifestyle but then again ~ the option is alive but not now.

Bottoming out??????
 

The housing prices still have not bottomed out, according to a lot of so called experts.They expect a second leg to the downturn with more inventory on the market, because of Banks releasing more of their holdings and tax breaks ending in April.Having just visited TV , i found houses in every price range, and "most" priced at current market values.There will be a home for you when the time comes, i still believe everything works out for the best in the end :)

It stinks! In hindsight, I sure wish I paid $cash$ for my Villages home in 2007, but how could my investments possibly not make 5.75 % which is what my mortgage is?:grumpy::shocked:

Oh great, now you got me thinking about my savings and IRAs :cryin2:.

What time is happy hour anyway, there is a place I can double money for sure!

cib:

Mighty glad to see you back with us. Haven't seen a post in ages. In fact, I asked a couple of folks at last week's TOTV luncheon whether they knew what was happening.

Hang on to your original thought of coming to Florida's Friendliest Hometown. Somewhere before too long things will look better $$$$-wise at both ends, and maybe then you can say, "Oh, H***, just do it, girl!"

Just think! When there's no more new homes going up in TV, in several years, there'll still be all kinds of awesome pre-owneds on the market.

And, best of all, all of us "old people" who are encouraging you to join us will, cross your fingers, still be here. Granted, we'll be using walkers, confined to wheelchairs, in bed by 8pm, hard-of-hearing, not allowed to drink anymore, etc., etc. But, we'll still be fun and have fun! :a040:

SWR
:beer3: :beer3:

Oh Coney, I too am glad to hear from you. I thought Dirigo's post was just so completely right and Swrinfla's too!!.:coolsmiley:

All of us have faced change when we decided to move to TV full time, and almost all of us have made some kind of sacrifice to do it, be it money, friends, family, or a home we really love.

I am 70, many are much younger, but now is the time to live and enjoy this day and this moment.

Just please come down for a life style visit, Coney. Many of us want to hug you. Than maybe you will become a part timer here. Something good will come of it, I am sure.

Who knew that the real estate people in The Villages DON'T pressure, but some of the residents do?
:1rotfl:
Sure would like to meet you Coney Island Babe.

Hello fellow Pacific Northwester
 

If you are like us you sunk allot if not all of your retirement money in the house. The Pacific Northwest housing market was booming for so long we thought what better investment could there be. Minus a few short slumps, the market went up steady from 1990 till 2001. I am hoping this is just a longer repeat of the 2001 - 2002 slump. Hubby lost job so had to move to GA for work in 2002 sold house for 525 rehired and moved back to Seattle in 2006 the house we had sold for 525 was on the market for 790. Sunk all our $ in another fixer and boom:sigh:. I have to believe it will rebound even if slowly. The non metro areas seem to be coming back slower, but the pristine beauty of the pacific northwest outlying areas is still a real draw and I have to have faith the value of your place will come back.

Thank you all for the encouraging pep-talk !!
 

I am surrounded by nature's awesome natural beauty and friendly critters, human and otherwise but I miss the social lifestyle.

SWRinfla you really make me :a20: and I would love to meet all of you someday ! My wannabee faith has been restored !

CIB, I've seen pictures of your home and the nature setting. Very beautiful.

It is true that eventually your Oregon Dream Home will increase in value by $100,000. And that will allow you to get out your original investment.

But while your house is increasing in value, the houses in The Villages will also be increasing in value .... perhaps by more than houses in Oregon.

None of us are getting any younger, and you could be having a whale of a good time in TV! I'm stepping off my soapbox now. :girlneener:

:wave: CIB,

I think Bare has an excellent point that if you buy and sell a home in the same market conditions, you don't necessarily lose much by selling low, because you will also be buying low. If you wait to sell when the market rebounds, you probably are going to give back your higher selling price by paying more for your dream home in TV.

We purchased our modest vacation home in TV in October '09 for approx. $45k less than the previous owners had paid. I suspect that they made up the "loss" by purchasing the larger house for which they opted at well-below its previous market price.

Anyway, we all love you and want you to come live in TV.

Pturner

p.s., Another thought. Is it an option for you to buy in TV now, use it as a vacation/rental, and sell your home in Seattle when the market rebounds? (That is what we chose to do, as we have no mortgage on our Atlanta home either, and in our case, we are still a couple of years from retirement.) With any luck-- we're not banking on it, but it would be nice-- we will have bought low and will end up selling not-so-low. Might you consider that as an option?

Oregon Vs Florida
 

CIB,
My husband and I are thinking of moving to TV in a few more years. However, before we make the decision of moving there full time, we plan to just rent a place for a month or two hopefully at least once a year. At this time we are not sold on living there year round. The extremely hot weather, all the insects, and the economy in Florida are a few of the concerns we have.

Since you can't sell your home (and I am with you regarding taking such a huge loss), why don't you rent a place and just enjoy the time you spend there whether for a few weeks or months?

Oregon is a lovely state and you may decide after you stay at TV that you would prefer to divide your time between both places.

Annabelle

If you can sell your home and for what you get, pay off the mortgage and but your dream house here....who cares what you get for it?

The dream goes on.

Yoda

Ok - But I thought I have been reading that the homes in TV have not dropped in price like the rest of the country. Didn't they just raise the prices on the new construction? I thought she was saying prices have dropped over a third in rural Oregon. TV hasn't dropped a third, has it?

And Yoda if like me you are counting on investing at least half of the equity in your house so that you have the money to retire you do care.

I am just hoping for all of us wanabes that things improve and stabelize.

Home selling price is all relative to location and market conditions. Yes CIB may lose 100K on the home she is in now, but may be able to buy lower in TV. If she waits until her home recovers, she will just spend that extra money received here. And the downside to any plan like that is TV swings are not as wide as other places. Who knows what home prices will do in the future? We may very well see more foreclosures and bigger drops. We may see increases. But TV swings are less then the rest of the country.

CIB, I advised you over a year ago, if TV is where you want to be, sell and move there. Life will pass us all by and we will still be wishing we had done it.

And Pturner, there is no guarantee that you are buying in TV low today and will sell your home for more later. The market could get worse and your buying high and will have to sell low.

Just figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life and make it happen. Time is flying by and even if you sell your home for 50 million, you can't buy more time. Nobody sells it.

And a post like this is the reason I love this forum and all of the wisdom that is presented here. What a way to begin this day! I will claim that last quote as my own,12ride!:pepper2::eclipsee_gold_cup:

:agree::clap2: What a great post! CIB, you would be wise to listen to 12ridehd!

Good point, I keep forgetting that we are (myself included) not 30 years old and time moves fast, that we need to grab what we want. My brother couldn't believe we were going to retire before the full age 66, untill he had a health scare. Now he says go for it you never know whats around the corner. I am such a control freek and number cruncher I try to force the world into equations, unfortunatly they don't work with question marks.

That said hope springs eternal. The peak buying period for the Pacific Northwest is June though Aug or any months with any sunshine, maybe the right someone will walk in and fall in love with your place just like you did. Also the newspapers have a tendency to print the most dramatic example they can find, it may not be indicitive of your place. I am holding good wishes for you and the rest of us wannabees.

We have decided to wait a year to list. But everyones situation is different.

:mornincoffee:

PS One of the realtors we talked to said that after awhile on the market she throws another Brokers open with food to bring the agents back in and keep the listing fresh in their minds seeing the garden in full bloom gives a renewed positive feeling. She said we should fill the yard with blooming bedding plants the week before. If you decide to lower the price a little or even if you don't maybe that would help. Just a thought.

Such Wisdom !
 

Of course y'all are wise from experience learned by living life to the fullest. I'm working on doing the same.

Thanks again for renewing my faith in TV for my future :thumbup:

CIB,

We are selling a condo in Fairfax, VA for over $100,000 loss. We also paid cash for it so we know how you feel. Luckily for us, we are still able to purchase our home in TV. I hope if you are able, even with the loss, move to TV that you will. We figured it could be 10 years, maybe longer, before the price comes back.

If you are in Grants Pass it is a beautiful area. We visited last year and went to the Antique Car parade. We had a blast!

Good Luck - think positive, be happy!

Just to put my two cents worth in. My wife and I have been contemplating moving somewhere warmer for several years. We're both retired. She is on disability and can't work because of fibromyalgia. This past September she developed a partially paralized diaphragm while we were on a trip to Florida, of all places. Then we got hit hard by this past winter and decided we've had enough! We were back in Florida the first of May and visited TV. We were both so overwhelmed by the atmosphere and hospitality that we revisited and made a deposit on our little piece of dirt. We came back home and have been frantically trying to get our house ready to sell and listed with a realtor. It may take us the entire year to get it done, but each day we're getting closer. We decided we want to enjoy whatever time we have left and the sooner we get started, the more we'll get out of it. Hope this didn't bore you to tears.

Welcome Greg.

I feel a moisture in my eyes but it is not due to boredom. I know that part of the joy I feel in The Villages comes from meeting and enjoying folks just like you...and me, who are old enough to really enjoy life.

Good for you two.

Hope to meet you soon.:a040::super:

Just do it CIB i did and took and took a beating on my condo in Stuart Fl but how much time is realy left and you are a long time dead.
So take the plunge. You can stage it buy the lot first lets say in the new neighborhood next to mine in St.Charles i think its St. James for $3,000 Put your house on the market. Now you got a little presure on you (which is a good thing). Drop your price on your house put some more money down on your lot. Play this game to get yourself off the dime and do it.

We just returned from closing on our house in TV. We are no longer waanabes ! It took us about 4 years to get there. We're gettting older each day so we said let's just do it !! Still have to sell our house in Tampa, it'll all turn out OK. Sometimes we just have to take risks.

Well, we weren't quite that adventuresome. We put a deposit on the land and have up to a year to start construction. My wife said to me after we signed the papers, "What if we can't sell our house?". I said, "We'll manage somehow". I'm not 100% sure she bought the idea, but we're having our FIRST yard sale tomorrow. The first realtor came by today and gave us their proposed selling price. We have to hear from the other and then we'll be ready to get it listed. Still a lot of stuff to go through and get rid of though.

A wise post, as usual, l2!

The time we spend in TV-- which is every chance we get-- is the only certainty we have that it was a great investment. As I said, if we're lucky, the market timing also will have worked out well. That would just be icing.

But, living your dream-- how can you put a value on that?