ARE HOUSES SELLING AT LAKESIDE?

Are houses selling at Lakeside?

Do you know anyone who has sold in the past 6 months?

What price range?

Your opinion.

Someone just sold their house in a week in Ajijic. Nicer area home, will write you a p.m.

A number of Sold signs have gone up in my neighborhood and next door in La Floresta.

Mainecoons wrote:A number of Sold signs have gone up in my neighborhood and next door in La Floresta.

So, the housing market is not as bad as some people make it out to be.

I'll post what I know soon!

johninajijic wrote:

Mainecoons wrote:A number of Sold signs have gone up in my neighborhood and next door in La Floresta.

So, the housing market is not as bad as some people make it out to be.

I'll post what I know soon!

I didn't say that. Have no idea how the general market is doing. This area has sold pretty well the whole time we've been here.

Out of curiosity, I just went to the MLS and check [u]new residential (house) listings - 21 in the last 15 days, 60 total in the last 30 days, 132 in the last 60 days and 181 in the last 90 days. And a total of 502 residential properties listed.

While I haven't done this for some time, if I remember the previous total listings number from a few months back, it would seem that some have been pulled from the market while others have sold?

When we bought 11 years ago the realtor told me the last place to be in trouble was theAjijic village. It may be why you do not see as many houses sitting on the market.

hound dog wrote:When we bought 11 years ago the realtor told me the last place to be in trouble was the Ajijic village. It may be why you do not see as many houses sitting on the market.

This post was made by my wife Brigitte inadvertently under my name and her comment is no longer available for editing due to board timing rules. That´s OK and I don´t necessarily disagree with her but to clarify; the real estate agent told her, when she was looking for a home here back in 2001 that it was better to buy in the Ajijic village within walking distance of the plaza as outlying properties were harder to sell and rent when the market slowed down the farther from Central Ajijic one ventured. This came up when she indiicated some curiosity about properties outside of Ajijic in rural areas which were on the market at that time. That was eleven years ago but it does seem probable that homes within or immediately adjacent to Ajijic would have a wider appeal than homes more geographically isolated from population centers within the Chapala municipality. It is important to understand that we had expressed no interest in either the town of Chapala itself or anywhere in the Jocotepec municipality so perhaps his advice was skewed based on his knowledge that we were primarily interested in the Ajijic area.

We drive and walk through the lower village often from San Antonio on the east to Canacinta on the west and really don´t see that many for sale signs. In fact, we have never observed a large number of for sale or "sold" signs in the eleven years we have repeatedly walked or driven through the area.

I was surprised to read in this thread that there are about 500 homes listed for sale at "Lakeside" in the MLS. That sounds like a lot of houses for sale in a relatively small population center such as this one. If there are, indeed, that many homes on the market, I´m glad we are not marketing our property at the present time nor plan to do so in the foreseeable future if ever. Leaving feet first seems practical but not too soon is better.

Dawg:

That is definitely the number from the MLS after filtering out lots (219) and commercial (3). The $64K question is what factor to use for the homes on the market that are not listed on the MLS? I have heard figures anywhere from 20 to 40% of all homes for sale are actually on the MLS. Using those figures the total could be anywhere from 1250 to 2500.

Dawg and CG - To make your posts clearer for the folks here, the "502" number is for ALL of Lakeside. The number for Ajijic is much, much smaller. In 2001, that one of you is talking about there were 1,100 homes for sale, so todays number is far smaller.

I don't believe that values in Ajijic Village can even hold a candle to the rural areas of West Ajijic, especially in the better Gated Communities, either in price or pros vs. cons. The Village has far more negatives than positives. Smelly cars and trucks, excessive noise, mosquitos, your neighbor can open any kind of business, parking issues, etc. Walking everywhere vs. driving means nothing as most everyone has a car out of necessity.

The homes in our Community have continually have held their value and I can cite what each home sold for over the past 2 - 3 years. Nothing less than $ 400 K and the highest at $ 539 K.

johninajijic wrote:Are houses selling at Lakeside?

Do you know anyone who has sold in the past 6 months?

What price range?

Your opinion.

¿What is the replacement cost of your house John?

John, there has been a huge shift in the market over the past 2-3 years. Unfortunately the trend is downwards and if things don't improve it may continue for some time. I recommend you get ahead of the slide with your pricing versus chasing it downhill every couple of weeks......

CanuckBob wrote:John, there has been a huge shift in the market over the past 2-3 years. Unfortunately the trend is downwards and if things don't improve it may continue for some time. I recommend you get ahead of the slide with your pricing versus chasing it downhill every couple of weeks......

Bob,
Until you know Ajijic RE, the prices have equalled out, not downward. We own our homes and are not pressured to sell so we can wait it out. Expensive, quality homes in good locations are selling. And I will tell you and everyone else here that 80% of the homes listed on MLS aren't worth buying, just like when I looked in 2000.

I'm already priced at or below the competition and my house has more features. There are 4 houses at $ 449 K, all with no pool, 2 with carports and none with casitas, all in non gated communities. We have a pool, a garage and a casita in a well run, well kept, small 19 home gated community, as you will see when you rent here in April. NOB types want garages.

There is a smaller house w/carport, no casita in Arroyo Alto for $ 459 K., in a 40 home large Community. There is another at $ 450 K, another at $ 475 K. and on up. There is another at $ 439 K. And most other houses cannot come close to this condition.

We are open to all offers and must get more traffic thru. There will be another open house on Friday March 23 and one during Holy Week for the Mexicans. It is now in Guad newspapers priced in pesos.

I found out yesterday that my painters wife sold 5 homes since January 1, 3 of them in Chula Vista Norte. One was over $ 500 K. A poster here said someone sold a home in West Ajijic in one week!!! My neighbor up the street, who has one of the nicest homes I've seen anywhere in Ajijic, listed on the market for $ 649 K, sold in 6 weeks.

If 80% of Homes aren't worth purchasing... generally speaking.... the Odds are.... John's home isn't worth buying....

Perhaps, now you can see the damage done by over generalizing....

snork...

I don't know about the 80 percent figure, but there are sure a lot of dogs on the market and I don't mean the barking kind. For fun, we look into open houses frequently. I am amazed at how poorly they are prepared for showing, often overstuff and dark, and how often major flaws are obvious, like big water stains on brick ceilings. That sort of stuff is death in a slow market.

The lower end market 225 and under is OK but the expensive market
even in Ajijic Village is pretty bad.

Z

John is John.........and has tunnel vision regarding the desirability of various areas around lakeside. Just the way he is....no blame intended.

I live in Ajijc Village, love the experience of walking all over. including those priceless early mornings on the Malecon by the lake..... and wouldn't trade him straight across, even though his house and his neighborhood are definitely "upscale" from most areas in lakeside.

My esposo and I weren't completely dumb when we made our choice: we didn't buy a place with no inside parking, or on the street where the buses run, or where we might as well be inside the church when the bells and cohetes reign. Our street is so quiet in the evening that you can hear the birds saying goodnight to each other. It's a nice life here, to our taste.

Based on the feedback I received in a recent event the public attended at my place......my house isn't for sale, but I probably could have sold it on the spot for a nice profit. lol. It has ambiance in spades, although, like all ancient houses, it has its flaws.

Mainecoons is right: most places are presented without the "I wanna move right in" appeal.
Two things that get in the way of a sale when the market is tough: lack of the "wanna live there" factor and failing to realize what the right price point is. In some cases, the owners should move their furniture into storage, move themselves out as well and have a professional "stage" the place. If you don't believe me, ask a top real estate agent. When we were house hunting back when, we were shown places that it looked like the owner moved there in the 1950's and hadn't changed a thing. Many were downright creepy. And those were in the "nicer" neighborhoods.

However, it's a tough market in which to sell anything at all. I have a friend who can't sell her nearly new house in a new (gated) development on the west side. There isn't a thing wrong with it, and although she's made improvements, she can't get the under-150K she paid for it four years ago. It's sad all around.

Mainecoons wrote:I don't know about the 80 percent figure, but there are sure a lot of dogs on the market and I don't mean the barking kind. For fun, we look into open houses frequently. I am amazed at how poorly they are prepared for showing, often overstuff and dark, and how often major flaws are obvious, like big water stains on brick ceilings. That sort of stuff is death in a slow market.

Exactly, and that is only some of what I meant. How many homes are in PERFECT condition??? Mine is. How many have been painted inside and out in the past year? How many have NO repairs necessary? How many have a new recoated and resealed roof, just this week? I'll bet 1%, if any. How many have a new sand filter, new pool pump, and new ceramic tile terrace? Damn few, if any. Mine has had all these major expensive items done.

gringal - No one stages houses in Ajijic. We asked the Realtor and a person he knows who stages houses, if we could improve the looks inside and put things away. the answer was no.

If your friend can't sell her $ 150 K house, she's either with the wrong Realtor or the development is not desirable or there's something you're not seeing that is wrong with the house. You don't get much for $ 150 K. Those are 10 year ago prices for dumps in Riberas and Mirasol. I know, I looked 10 years ago.

Back in 2005/2006 when we were selling in the Lake area, I happened to be doing some consulting for a National Home Inspection franchise here in Albuquerque. Since the market was still decent back in those days, we were turning out 350 to 500 inspection reports a year. Funny thing was that we never had one single inspection report that was perfect in every way and I read every single one of them because that was my department. That is just the reality of things!

When preparing our "brochure" on our house, I wrote it in much the same format and admitted to the flaws.

John If you cannot sell your house for 450 000 may be there is something wrong with it or you are with the wrong realtor...or God forbid maybe it is overpriced for the current market.
What you say about the 150 000 dollar property you have not seen goes for your 450 000 dollar house .

The house accross the street went in 1 week, obviously your price is off the mark for the market.

Reduce it to the price you paid when you bought it and you too will sell it in one week.

I have never seen a single home inspection report as perfect either since it is the bread and butter of a home inspector to find something wrong...

I have never looked for a perfect house they are too boring.

PS the dumps in Riberas 10 years ago were well below $100 000.

Brigitte:

As I am sure you know, all home inspectors are not created equal and many of the unethical ones out there generate reports based upon who hires them - the seller or the buyer. In our case, the inspections were equal and the reports no different depending on who was paying. For this reason, we tended not to be very popular with some selling agents. An inspection on a near perfect home took the same amount of time as one far from perfect (depending on size). The report generated for either were of virtually the same length with the difference being notation of minor issues on bold font and critical issues in bold & red font. I don't think that I would categorize perfect or near perfect homes as being boring since we were not inspecting esthetics but rather structural or mechanical issues.

The " perfect home" was addressed to John not to you . As far as I am concerned I have never seen a " perfect home" but I have seen lots of boring ones.
We sold quite a few homes in California since we always had two homes and we never saw an inspection report that allowed to buy or sell without doing some remedial work.

Many houses for sale do not have "For Sale" signs. The last two houses I bought had no sign and my friends who have two houses for sale now have no signs. It's a precaution against possible break ins and having people knocking at your door.