On Jul 21, 9:52 pm, Michael Coslo wrote:
wrote:
On Jul 18, 7:28 pm, "Howard Lester" wrote:

As previously observed, one can only buy what is for sale when one is
looking to buy. There are several houses near me that I would gladly
move to - but they're not for sale, and haven't been for at least a
decade.

Respectfully Jim, I think that is just simplified too much.

Without being argumentative, Mike, I think not.

While it is true within itself, It is possible to get the house that you
want, and with the features you want.

You just might have to wait a while. We looked several times before we
bought the place we are in now. Some times we just didn't buy.

Agreed in most cases. But there are probably exceptions out there. I
don't know
what it's like trying to buy real estate in Tucson or Dallas, for
example.

This is the part that I do that is apparently foreign to many. The is no
law that says that we have to buy a house, some house, any house. One
can live in an apartment for a while, or as we did, a mobile home. It
took about 2 years, but we got a real bargain at the price we wanted, in
the neighborhood we wanted. Sold the mobile home for nearly what we paid
for it, and were out only the lot rent. House rent would have been a bit
more outlay, but it's still worth it to get the house you want.

It all depends on the situation.

For one thing, there's the money aspect, which is a big one for a lot
of us. Living in a rented space means no deductions for interest or RE
taxes, and no equity building.

When the RE market is rising, waiting too long can be a big problem.
If the house values
are rising faster than your purchasing power, you can find that this
year you can't afford a house that you could have afforded last year.
(Of course this causes people to buy *now*, which raises prices, and
the circle keeps rolling...)

It is a common story here to meet folks who could not afford the house
they live in if they had to buy it today, because the house prices
went up much faster than their income.

Besides pure $$, there are factors like the kids' education. At least
in PA, the public schools your kids attend depends on where you live,
and different school districts have very different levels of quality.
In many areas the house prices reflect that. I've seen similar houses
on opposite sides of the same street priced 20% differently, because
one was in the highly-rated Podunk School District and the other in
the good-but-not-as-highly-rated Squeedunk School District. On top of
that, pulling the kids out of one school and dropping them in another
may not be the best idea if there's any other option.

I did the same thing with a motorcycle I bought recently. I could have
bought new or what the dealers wanted and had the bike I wanted in
around 15 minutes. I looked and waited for a month to find a motivated
seller, and got a good bike for thousands less.

Sure. But everyone needs a place to live; not everyone needs a
motorcycle. More important, real estate isn't portable.

And back to Ham radio, I have bought all my used radios that way. Got an
IC-745 for $250, and my latest, an IC-761 for 300 dollars. I just had to
wait and pounce at the right time.

(cue Jacques Coustea narration)

.....ze barracuda waitz patiently for ze most taztee prey to svim
by.....

Patience will reward you. Buy exactly what you want, not the one that
you think is best when you first start looking

Agreed, but RE is different. For one thing, it costs so much more.
$300 for a rig is a different thing than $300,000 for a house. The ham
who can afford a couple of $300 rigs probably can't afford a couple of
$300,000 houses.

Plus if you choose right you can try a variety of used rigs for
relatively little money. The main cost is shipping. Buying and selling
RE you live in is a completely different game!

And in many areas $300,000 doesn't buy a lot of house.

Most of all, depending on your given set of criteria, it may be a very
long time before the house you really want comes on the market.

It seems to me that a lot of amateurs insist on a new house, or at
least a newer house, meaning something no older than 10-20 years.
Older homes are simply off the radar, for some reason. Is it just me,
or is this a real trend? What's behind it?

Jim, what I think it is is that we are hearing mostly fro
m those who
are having trouble putting up an antenna, and since they are mostly from
the newr home group, they are more likely to be people who insist on a
newer home. Just a guess.

Possibly, but the question remains: Why a new or newer house?


73 de Jim, N2EY