$$$ homes for sale

Hensley is the best at it.

Carry Bean wrote:Hensley is the best at it.

Agreed. She runs a good sale and gets decent prices for all the "stuff".

gringal wrote:

Lady Otter Latté wrote:I agree, Trailrunner.

The best way to get rid of "stuff" is to turn the selling process over to someone in the business.  Garage sales are not only a poor way to do it, they're sort of humiliating to the seller.

I rarely go to the garage sales anymore but I do check BBBS often and have bought several things. Some people price high though and the stuff doesn't sell until they lower the prices.

Agree, Julie is very good at what she does.

CanuckBob wrote:We are seeing better activity. The houses that are selling are priced right and in desirable locations. I have seen some houses sell in days, not weeks, months, or years. They were priced to sell. Many of the houses on the market were purchased in the high times and the owners think they can recoup their money. It ain't gonna happen. They should be priced 40%  to 50% lower.

Cbob, are you saying that the lakeside market values are 40-50% lower than 12 years ago?  You buy a house in 2005 for $200K USD and need to price it at $140K USD for it to sell it today. (at least the Canadians won't lose as much if they sell for USD'S).    

Why hasn't the Lakeside area RE market recovered and values appreciate like other areas of Mexico?  Why aren't prices going up? Using the posted pending sales numbers above, only 5% of the listed homes are sold. This definitely is an out of wack buyers market.  That is a terrible for anyone wanting to sell.  Is there any lakeside RE market recovery in near future?

Gringal, what is so humiliating about having a garage sale?

Another vote for Julie and Wayne.  They do a great job and know how to maximize sales.  Hensley, I assume your "Estate" sales are for people that have sold their homes.  How was your high season?  Busier than the last couple of years or about the same?

The Re boom here was from about 2004 until the economic bust in 2008. It you bought a house towards the end of that run for 200k I would say yes it is probably only worth about 140k today. Two years ago it was probably only worth 120k. Prices have risen a bit IMO.

Go take a look at the RE in places like Phoenix and Vegas. They still haven't recovered back to their peaks of 2008.

I know 5 couples who sold their homes in the past 4 years. All got estimated listing prices from 3 or 4 agents, prior to listing. In each case there was one agent (not the same one) that high-balled the house, with an estimated sales price 20% and higher than the rest of the estimates.

In the end, all these homes sold at or below the lower estimates.

Most times houses sell below their asking price unless the market is super hot, everywhere, not just Lakeside.

We bought her in 2005, currently our house is worth about what we paid according to prices in the area, maybe a little less but I don't care, I'm not selling!

BTW Playa..the place we bought in 2012 was on the market for 4 years and we paid 50% less than the original asking price when it was first put on the market in 2008.

CanuckBob wrote:BTW Playa..the place we bought in 2012 was on the market for 4 years and we paid 50% less than the original asking price when it was first put on the market in 2008.

From what I've heard, Bob got a helluva good deal.

It's one thing to buy a house in good condition and then try to sell it in a worse market for around the same price.
Probably not going to recover your investment.

It's another matter if you buy a house in wretched condition in a good location and fix it.  I doubt we'll ever recover the "fixing" costs, but who knows?  I'm not planning to sell, so no matter.

To answer Playa's question about why a garage sale can be humiliating to the owner of the stuff being sold, you had to be there while all the negative comments are being made to get the full experience.  I've never had a garage sale, but I have been to others.  People can be pretty snarky, especially if they're trying to get the price down. This can be true of trying to do a FSBO on your house, too.

I think our deal was good but was also "par for the course". 2012 was a pretty depressed RE year. The lucky thing for us was that the CDN $$$ was 1.02 to the USD so we got a 2% discount. We have made money in the exchange rate at this point......jaja.

CanuckBob wrote:BTW Playa..the place we bought in 2012 was on the market for 4 years and we paid 50% less than the original asking price when it was first put on the market in 2008.

You made my point Cbob.  It took your sellers 4 years before they found a buyer (you) to purchase the property at 50% off.  Was that a good deal for you?  Maybe!  You will only find out when you get back into the market and try to sell.

When y'all say "houses that are price right" are selling, you are really saying to sell a house in Chapala you have to "sell at a lose"

I purchased in July 2004, before the big run up in values.  After owning for 12 years, I won't even think about losing money.  I am asking less than 50 sqft.  Since the cost to carry the property is so small I will wait for the turn around.  Anybody have a guess when that will happen?

I purchased my first Mexican beach house in Dec 2003 sold, after 8 months on the market, in June 2013 for a 300% gain.

I am from Cal too. I have that Cali mentality that besides being a home, housing is an investment.  I am not expecting the Chapala RE market to be like CA.  I am not expecting the Chapala RE market to be like high demand areas such as Cancun or PV.  Las Vegas and Phoenix have both bounced back some.  Chapala is practically comatose.

Anyone here know how is SMA's, DF, SLP, and other highland area markets been for this years?

The Chapala market has lots of sellers and very very very few buyers. A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.   Demand is extremely anemic in Chapala.

Yep, you nailed it. It is only worth what someone will pay for it and if it hasn't sold it is due to price and/or location.

BTW......RE on the west coast sucks too. Prices in and around PV are also down 30% to 50% from the highs of 2008. I know a guy in Manzanillo who has been trying to sell his beach condo for two years and some people in Chacala who have been trying to sell for 4 years.

[quote="CanuckBob"]BTW......RE on the west coast sucks too. Prices in and around PV are also down 30% to 50% from the highs of 2008. I know a guy in Manzanillo who has been trying to sell his beach condo for two years and some people in Chacala who have been trying to sell for 4 years.[/quote

There are a few factors contributing to the moribund market here that aren't often mentioned.  One of them is about simple demographics:  the WWII generation, especially the ones who were retired military, came to this area and many built high end homes.  They are either dead or moved back to the states to receive care and be close to relatives.
They constituted the big "boom" in housing prices.

 The next group, the children born n the depression era, is the smallest demographic of all, and the "baby boomers"........tons of them....are just now reaching retirement age. Since the times encouraged spending rather than saving, many of them aren't moving anywhere since they have little equity in their homes and not much in savings, or they are still hanging on to their jobs as long as possible.

Whether they will want to move to the mountains or the beaches of Mexico depends on their health and their preferences in recreation.  I've met more 70 year old golfers than surfers, so far. I lost my crystal ball back on the beach in CA and have no idea whether the good times in real estate will roll again or not.

Besides supply and demand being the governing factor of real estate values in the Chapala area, is also the fact that the average time of possession for the ex-pat community is about half of what it is in the US, which always makes the market more volatile.
This is due to the age of buyers and the fact that they are a long distance from their previous habitat. The other important element of pricing is replacement cost, which due to low inflation in Mexico has remained low for people buying or constructing new residences.
All this makes marketing a "little bit different' here than California.

The only problem is that the RE prices were driven to artificial highs by gringos here and in the resort area's during the boom. When the bubble popped in the US everyone bailed on their properties. Combine that with the bad press about Mexico and we are back to the prices and activity that is probably normal for these area's.

There was a time in California when a fat profit could be made in "flipping houses", which was most profitable if one bought cosmetic fixers, jazzed them up to the "gotta have it" state and moved on to the next one.
As in all things, timing was important. You had to know when to quit.
That time, for this old house flipper, was 2004. Whew!

Marketing real estate in California was all about selling hopes, dreams and illusions. The developers knew this, especially in Southern California, and I was amazed at the cookie cutter tracts having "Gone with the Wind" staircases, but lots so small that you could pass a plate of cookies to your neighbor through the windows.

I work in real estate. The market is definitely better than in the past couple of years. (That is not to say it is a "boom" market, just healthier than 2014-15.) Everything that is desirable, well-located and appropriately priced is selling.

Anecdotally, I've closed on 4 houses just since January and have another coming up in April. Prices $203K US, $219K, $339K, $365K. All buyers from the U.S. (Portland, Chicago, Arizona, California.)

Overpriced houses don't sell in any market, and there are still a lot of them on the mls. There are virtually no Canadian buyers.

gringal wrote:There was a time in California when a fat profit could be made in "flipping houses", which was most profitable if one bought cosmetic fixers, jazzed them up to the "gotta have it" state and moved on to the next one.
As in all things, timing was important.  You had to know when to quit.
That time, for this old house flipper, was 2004. Whew!

I flipped a number of fixer-uppers in California,it's a different ballgame here.
When I was looking for a house in Guadalajara a smart gentleman advised me to find a house that I liked and not to expect to move it quickly for a profit.

viajero wrote:

gringal wrote:There was a time in California when a fat profit could be made in "flipping houses", which was most profitable if one bought cosmetic fixers, jazzed them up to the "gotta have it" state and moved on to the next one.
As in all things, timing was important.  You had to know when to quit.
That time, for this old house flipper, was 2004. Whew!

I flipped a number of fixer-uppers in California,it's a different ballgame here.
When I was looking for a house in Guadalajara a smart gentleman advised me to find a house that I liked and not to expect to move it quickly for a profit.

That was very good advice. CA was and is a different world, to say the least.

Right now in Vancouver they are flipping them 2 or 3 times before the original closing without doing a damn thing to them. The RE agent is making 3 commissions in some cases. It is totally crazy.........

CanuckBob wrote:Right now in Vancouver they are flipping them 2 or 3 times before the original closing without doing a damn thing to them. The RE agent is making  3 commissions in some cases. It is totally crazy.........

Are Americans buying those houses? lol

Rosa Venus wrote:I work in real estate. The market is definitely better than in the past couple of years. (That is not to say it is a "boom" market, just healthier than 2014-15.) Everything that is desirable, well-located and appropriately priced is selling.

Anecdotally, I've closed on 4 houses just since January and have another coming up in April. Prices $203K US, $219K, $339K, $365K. All buyers from the U.S. (Portland, Chicago, Arizona, California.)

Overpriced houses don't sell in any market, and there are still a lot of them on the mls. There are virtually no Canadian buyers.

From the horse's mouth!

Trailrunner wrote:

CanuckBob wrote:Right now in Vancouver they are flipping them 2 or 3 times before the original closing without doing a damn thing to them. The RE agent is making  3 commissions in some cases. It is totally crazy.........

Are Americans buying those houses? lol

Nope, Asian's.

The combination of buyers with USD being able to purchase or construct new homes here in the many new developments because of the favorable exchange rate and low inflation rates in Mexico plus the disincentive of mortgage pressure and low taxes and maintenance costs for sellers with existing properties, willing to sit on them, contributes to the slow movement of overpriced existing homes.
Mexicans and some foreigners, are buying in new developments, some very high end, all around the Metropolitan area.

C.B. has changed his house too much compared to when he bought it to compare prices.

Z