haha, made ya look!

No not the car silly, Liz and I have been tossing around the idea of a new house. We want something bigger. 4 beds, 2.5 baths ect,...

So we have been dealing with a realtor from Weichert. She has been e-mailing us listings for the past 3 months. We went out last week with her to look at a few places. Ive come to the conclusion that everyone is asking WAY too much money still.

$350k here buys me a 4 bed, 2.5 bath fixer-uper. Out of the first 6 we looked at the cheapest house was $324 and the highest was $359K. None of them had a nice new kitchen and all the bathrooms were old as dirt. I think its going to be a dirty battle to get what we want but the realtor is comming over on Monday to look at out house. She is going to do a CMA and we will probably pick a price to list our house at.

Yeah I know the garage is gonna go bye-bye but I hope to end up with some walk in closets in trade. I have to have a 2 car garage so that is going to be a must.

The thing that is going to kill us is the taxes... what do you guys pay for property taxes where you live?

We are looking in Cinnaminson NJ and a 2200 sq ft house on less than 1/2 acre is in the 6500-8000 range. UGH!!! I hate NJ...

On a good note Liz and I both have good credit (she scored about 750 and I am well over 800). Our realtor tells us that is a huge leverage point when making an offer on a house. Since we are already pre-approved for the mgt and we have cash for a down payment, the credit just make us that much more of a strong buyer and we can pretty much pay only what we want to pay. In this market most sellers will drop their price considerably for a good buyer. Atleast that is what I am told...


I might have a new project in the future, but we still just haven't seen anything on the market in our area that has that wow factor.

 

i have to admit, ya had me scared a bit

good luck though man

 

move to PA u bum!

 

I am paying $9000 taxes. That was last year. Don't want to know what this year will be. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4200sq. ft on a 1/2 acre in langhorne.

 

I was running to take the back seats out of the Tahoe and drive over.....


damn.

So it will be a few more years before I get 11's. sigh oh well.


Seriously, house prices are beyond comprehension. I would shop "foreclosures". They will be more coming onto the market and maybe you can score the deal there. When it comes time to move, let me know. Pampered-z can attest to my abilities to pack a truck, tahoe, etc

 

Ron, I could have a set of heads up for sale here pretty soon if your interested . 11's would be second nature then. It would then be time for 10's Im skipping 11's and 10's and aiming high for 9's

 

Brian, now is a great time to buy. Market is down with lots of forclosures. I would recomend (if you can swing things) is that you keep your house and rent it out. Rent should cover your mortage, taxes, and race car fuel costs. You have the option to sell later when the market gets better. I live in Douglassville 50 miles west of the Jersey bridge. 2800sqft taxes are $7200. Market just dropped $80 to $110k on my house. Current selling prices are about $320k. My township does reassest the taxes upon a purchase. Some people are paying $13k to $14k in taxes for the same type of home. There are a lot of homes for sale in my area. Good location is that I'm close to a track. The commute to your job would suck. I couldn't handle the ride into Phila each day.

 

Up here in Ewing I have a 3 bedroom, 1-1/2 bath split level with a partial basement and 2 car garage. I'm paying around $7300 right now but that should be jumping $400-800 this year. I think houses like ours are listing in the $350-425K range but I don't think they are actually selling. Our neighbors house has been for sale since Jan. They're getting divorced and it's a 4 bedroom colonial with full basement and 2 car garage. They did a lot of work inside since they bought it in 2000 and I think they are now under $400K asking price.

Here's the link to their house, they're down to $364,900 which is way down from their initial listing price around $425K back in Jan. Nobody is living in the house at this point so they really need to sell. The map is a little off because the house is actually on the corner.

House next to me for sale

-

 

haha, I thought I would get a few of ya

Well it sounds like taxes in general in the area are just plain rediculious. We saw the perfect house for us in Delran. But it was listed about $50k more than we want to spend and the takes were 9200... If the takes were reasonable we might have gone to look at it and see if we could strike a deal but I refuse to pay as much in taxes each month as I am for the house...

Anyway we are looking. Trying to stay in the Cinnaminson, Mt. Laurel, Delran area. All of our baby sitters are here so no way we can move out of state. Besides, my shop is in Hammonton NJ. Its over 45 min drive now and only going to get to 1 hr if we move to Cinnaminson.

we would love to find something bigger and in the 2800+ sqft range but anything like that around here is in the $500K range. A little mechanic from Caterpillar can't afford that for sure.

So far we want 4 beds, 2.5 bath. basment, big kitchen and big closets. 2 car garage with enough parking for 4 cars + the street. I want a front porch... Gas heat and public water and sewer...

We actually have a decent list in our heads but we need to put it on paper.

Anyone intrested in a 3 bed 1 bath ranch with a Garage-mahal out back? Probably going to list ours in the $250k-$270k range. The realtor will help us figure out a good price but I wont sell it for less than 250. Honestly I think I have one of the best houses in my neighborhood. I personally feel we can list it at 260 and we will have several people bidding on it because of the garage and the big family room and deck out back.

Jeff, we are looking for something just like that. You wont find one with that kind of property here though. Too bad that house isnt in Cinaminson... I'd love to go look at it.

 

Wow, You guys make me feel better about my taxes. I thought our property taxes were high in Delaware...no wonder so many people from NJ, PA,NY and MD move here. My house is ~2300sq ft 4br 2ba and an oversizes 1 car garage (almost can fit 2 in lengthwise), 16x10 shed on 3/4 of an acre in a nice quiet development right outside of Newark, DE and about ~5 miles from I95. We bought our house in 2004 and our property taxes were ~$1400 and over the past 3 years have increased to $1800. The houses similar to our have been selling from $300-$340 depending on garages, lot and other updates, etc.
Man at $7200+ a year that is like $600 month in taxes (holy **** that is a lot!) Even if you paid off your house in 30 years you will still have a mortgage to the state (figure property taxes always go up so in 30 years the taxes would probably be $15000+). You guys in Jersey must have the best roads, schools, DMV,police force for all that money in taxes (or just high paid beaurocrats). Good Luck in your home search. Just be very patient and do not settle for anything less than what you want. It is a buyer's market now and I would def lowball my initial offer and start from there.

Later,

 

yeah NJ has it pretty bad for taxes... Unfortunately I know we dont have the best of everything. Only thing we have is cheap gas...

We are not going to settle for anything. This house will hopefully be something we can live in for 20 years + so it has to be what we want. There are a few things we can settle for but not everything.

I will NOT rent this house out. I know way too many people who have gone that route only to have it stuck in their you know what later on. Nobody will take care of this place like me since I own it. A very good family friend did that with his house and he lived in the same neighborhood I am in. Ended up just selling it because the renters broke stuff, didnt do crap around the house and he ended up doing everything. No way would I rent this sucker. Its too nice to hand over to someone who doesnt care about it. Besides I have alot of equity ($125k or so) in the house and I need it to be able to buy a new one. We are trying to keep our mgt under $200k....

That plus $7k in taxes puts it at $1900 a month just for the house and taxes... We dont want to go over that mark. Acutally our figure is $1800 a month but 100 bucks wont kill us. Start adding in little stuff like heat and water/sewer and you need to be Donald Trump to have an average house in NJ now-a-days...

 

Come up to God's country buddy! Hotel Barkasy: 3 beds, 3 baths, finished basement, oversized 2 car garage on 2 acres... Paid under $200 4 years ago and taxes are around $1200 a year.<- that right, only 2 zeros!

Oh and the F-bodies and roof top photographer not included. But that can be arranged!

http://www.97transam.com/numidia.php

And the dragstrip is EXACTLY 1 Mile away!

Jon, that is unreal! I was paying almost $5Gs 4 years ago when I moved out of Maple Point. My house was slightly small, but Damn! That allot of mod money!

 

John, you suck....

My problem with moving to God's country next door to you is that my job is then 5 hrs away And I do not work set hours being in the service buisness....

I'll have to settle for a $7000+ tax payment.

Met with the realtor last night. She thinks we should list the house around $260k-$265k. We have some work to do to get it ready for sale. There are a bunch of little things I have to take care of before it goes on the market.

 

what does your wife do for a living brian? did u ever think about a diff. job? if so what, and ill keep an eye out for you.

 

Just like my job, that why I keep my Bachelor pad down here. Still allot cheaper having both places and if the day comes I get to retire I have allot less expenses to worry about.

But I do understand. I had always planned to move up there WHEN I retire. We just happened to be up there visiting friends, look at an old house from the 1800s just because Sue loves them so much, but it was more of just a drive by thing. Then the realtor told us about a 1 year old house for sale, so we say why not, well we saw the house, everything we really wanted, and say why wait, we'd be saving a ton of money and be that many years closer to having the house paid off when I do retire.

Let me know if there is anything you need help with! JB