wiegie Posted January 23, 2008 Author Share Posted January 23, 2008 Again, what I want to know is how someone that stupid can afford a house that expensive. my bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billay Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 it sure seemed like the point Well, I'm no economist, but it seemed to me that the liking/disliking the pool lies on the demand side of the equation. It might make it harder to sell (assuming there are no buyers who want a pool), but if the bottom line value of a house were driven solely by demand, why would we have appraisals at all? If the point is to derive some sort of objective value for something, then I don;t see, outside of "common broker wisdom" why an addition to a house would lower it's value. At worst, the "value" of the house would be the same, and to a person who did'nt like pools, they would be less inclined to but it. To someone who did want a pool, it would be an incentive. This is all beside the point really. I just found the comment humorous. There are obviously bigger issues here than the house down the street with a pool. Do all you real estate and pool gurus feel that a pool should lower the value of a house by $150K? If I bought my house for $125K and then put in a pool, will I have to pay someone to take it off my hands? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Again, what I want to know is how someone that stupid can afford a house that expensive. Lot of ways they could have. Just cause they paid 1.2 million doesnt really mean they spent that much. Let's say they bougth a house 20 years ago for 200K, have paid it off in full and were able to sell it for 1 million. Thus, they only needed to finance 200K, but still got that 1.2 million dollar home. Local radio was discussing this, though it appears the details may have been slightly off as it seemed based on the discussion that the appraiser and the buying agent were different people, but, according to the radio the case was tossed for all of the defendants except for the appraiser. I have no backup for this, just heresy based on the radio discussion. Sure there may have been some shady things going on, but it certainly appears that the buyer didn't do their due diligence in this particular case. I wish I knew 5 years ago what I know now. I think I have mentioned how my wife and I would like to find a larger home. Well, turns out our friends who have the larger home and in the neighborhood we like bought right around the same time as we did. One spent a fair amount less than we did (about 10% less), one slightly more, albeit their house is quite nice in a gated community. Our agent advised us that what we were looking for at the time was not feasible for our price range. We even extended ourselves to get the house we did. Now, I'm not disappointed in our house, but in retrospect I wish I had done even more searching on my own rather than completely count on the real estate agent (who was fairly new, though did come reccomended) to provide us with listings. Lesson learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perchoutofwater Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 There are obviously bigger issues here than the house down the street with a pool. Do all you real estate and pool gurus feel that a pool should lower the value of a house by $150K? If I bought my house for $125K and then put in a pool, will I have to pay someone to take it off my hands? No, but it probably would make it harder to sell. A pool (unheated) will cost the home owner about $3,000 annually to maintain when you take into consideration the additional electrical costs, the additional insurance, the cost of chemicals, and maintenance costs. If you heat it you are talking big money. I can say without a doubt having a pool will not raise the value of a house, and probably would lower it by $10,000 to $15,000. There are also other considerations. Sure the houses may have had similar floor plans, but what about interior finishes and fixtures. Around here a house that goes for $1,200,000 had would be at least 9,000 sqft. A difference of only $16 per sqft would make a $150,000 difference in value. I can make that up by just changing the floor covering without ever even touching the millwork, fixtures, or wall covering. My point is when you are talking about a house that expensive that kind of swing between one and another is not huge, and could easily be justified. I'm not saying it is in this case, but I'm not sure that it isn't either. The bottom line is the home buyer didn't do his homework, and now is looking for someone else to blame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffeeman Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 (edited) I'm not sure how this whole topic got hijacked by a pool, but I'll hop on. Around here (SoCal) you can expect to pay about $60-70K to put in a new pool with all the fixins (spa, nice tile, lighting, hardscape, landscape, etc.) Add to that the annual carrying costs noted above and you have a big expense - not sure what the typical increased cost of buying a home with an existing one is now. I think its a wash, but the carrying costs are still there. Granted, you can use a pool many more days of the year here than in much of the country, but still...This makes me feel a lot better about the $2400/yr fee I pay to belong to my local swim/tennis club for 6 months of the year. (Works out to $100/wk cost.) Add to that the social aspect of getting together with other friends' families, and its all good. My wife and kids are there about 5 days/week in the summer, and I get there 2-3 days/wk then myself, so its $ well spent. So thanks for giving me some peace of mind about my annual decision to write that check - that time comes up in about 4 weeks. Another reason I love the huddle. Edit: I think this suit is BS, but the agent sounds like a weasel too... Edited January 23, 2008 by Coffeeman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Irish Doggy Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Sure the houses may have had similar floor plans, but what about interior finishes and fixtures. Yep. There's tons of reasons one house can go for more or less than another. Bottom line to me is that they sound like someone who bought at the peak of the market, and is having buyers remorse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 ...the fact that this case is a perfect example of the conflicts-of-interest inherent with the whole real-estate agent industry ... that is what this really boils down to IMO. if an agent is careful, he can push a buyer to buy without exposing himself. if he kept information from them however, then i could see them having a pretty good case against him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 that is what this really boils down to IMO. if an agent is careful, he can push a buyer to buy without exposing himself. if he kept information from them however, then i could see them having a pretty good case against him. Bingo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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