No. She had to come to my town yesterday to get something I dropped off at the PD for her. I think she drove by my place and saw my ex wife's car in the driveway. She then accosted her at her work... Yeah... Wonderful...
How does the crazy know where your ex-wife works? Or did she call her or something? There has to be some information you can use.
We looked at a house today that we are seriously considering purchasing. It has some great features including an awesome school district, low asking price for the area, a well kept house, great land (2+ acres, beautifully treed, private), an unattached rental property/in-law home, lots of parking, several sheds, a reasonably updated kitchen and main floor, 5 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, a partially enclosed porch, natural gas, public water and sewer, good drainage in the yard, as well as a nice open living room, dining room, breakfast nook, and eat-in kitchen.
The down sides are that the upstairs and one of the guest rooms/study on the main floor needs cosmetic updates, it would be unfeasible to finish the basement (the house is large enough that this isn't a major drawback), indoor basement entry/stairs needs to be reworked (Adam can't walk down them at all and I have to crouch, but there is an exterior entrance), despite being recently redone the upstairs bathtub/shower needs to be moved to the other wall (the wall it is on slopes and Adam can't stand in it, but the downstairs shower is lovely), and the main staircase needs to be reworked before children would be going up and down them (steep stairs with an awkward turn in it).
Overall, the problems are fixable and the lower asking price makes updating/changes financially feasible. It is going to take some serious thought.
After weeks of waiting on my last steal of a house, I have found another good deal.
The first turned out to be an un-advertised short sale (oh boy!). Pulled my contract in attorney review and then started looking at other houses, never heard back. Got hopeful as the seller revealed many factors pointing to desperation, but ultimately she proved delusional as she is recently divorced and struggling to pay her mortgage, so she's just gonna clutch to her emotions and ride that shit into foreclosure.
Key features: horrible curb appeal, poor photos that do not reveal that it is a corner property, has a larger-than-expected yard, or a gigantic 4th bedroom. Poorly-written listing that doesn't even include room dimensions. Let's see if I can get it for a good price.
Nice! Actually looks cool from the pictures. I like that basement. Zillow's BS estimator says it should be around 340. The issue you are going to have with that house is they bought it for 400k in 2009. So chances are to pay off the mortgage they have to go for that price. Might have to wait till Winter or a short sale.
//Also what is with the all caps description, she's yelling it :-p Fire that realtor lady.
Yeah, the only thing going for me w/ the 400k purchase is that my realtor knows from having shown it previously that the owner did essentially zero upgrades to the house, so at least they don't have a lot of sunk cost. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the house at first glance that would cause someone to flee in terror, and I know for sure the neighborhood is very desirable. I grew up fairly close by, and many of the neighbors have been there since the 90s.
I just say that because the key to a good deal is finding people who can afford to take a lower price. The reason I got my house for 260 (when it originally was listed for 315 was the owner was old and the house was paid off (and had been on the market for a long time). I've had other houses that I really wanted but the owner couldn't drop the price even if they wanted to due to the money owed on the property. So as a rule I avoided looking at houses sold after 2007 because most of those people were underwater and unable to play with the house. in terms of this lady she probably hasn't touched most of the principal yet (since it's probably a 30 year loan) so she probably hasn't paid down the principal much. As grim as this sounds, looking through at the records on a house you are interested in and then doing a Google search for the owner to see if a Obituary shows up is a good way to start. But generally you are looking for people either downsizing due to age or estates being sold off.
Oh, don't worry, I have been doing plenty of stalking, but I haven't quite gotten a clear picture. I also am taking a liberal meaning of the word "deal" here. The house is very reasonably priced, and we were considering places 75k more, so we're excited to see a place we'd be very happy living where it's a bit below our means. It's been on the market for 3 months, so I suspect she is holding out to get her price, but I just want to get her down 15-20k.
It's a bi-level, which we never thought we would like, but having seen it twice, I kinda dig it. It's also helped by the fact that it's part of a very small and desirable community within the town. Old Bridge, NJ is NOT a walking town at all, except for this little piece of <100 houses. The best elementary school in town is actually located within the community (walking, no buses), and there is a walking path to the town library, ice rink, police station, town rec center, small shopping center, and bus stop for NYC.
Here's the results of yesterday's stalking: Only person on the deed is a 49-year-old lady, and she has been the only person named on the past 3 houses she's lived in. Don't know when she got divorced, but I found her daughter's Twitter account and searched for some key words, and yes, stepdad came up. She sold in 2005, with a profit of almost $150k, into a much smaller place right as her daughter was heading off to college. 4 years later, she winds up selling for about $30k less than she paid, and her daughter comes back to live with her after graduation. Another 4 years later, daughter just moved out into her own apartment about an hour north in October 2012. Only child. Correlation for sure, but I wonder if that is really the cause.
Have you ever wound up paying for a public records search to pull up info such as divorce and such? I'm fairly sure those are scams, as birth/marriage/divorce/death are not publicly searchable in NJ, but I have never tried myself. Wonder when original dad stepped out (or if he's even still alive), and when step daddy entered the picture.
House is listed as of the afternoon of the 5th, and already we have an investment company with a cash offer. But it's $10k under our asking price. On the other hand, we have already had one showing this evening and another tomorrow afternoon.
In other house news, a close friend of mine just went under contract on a home w/ a whopping sale price of $485k. Hole-eee-shit. Even w/ 20% down, I am seriously concerned how he is pulling this off. At most, him and his wife bring in $140k. With close to $12k in taxes each year, that means it'll be close to $3k/month out of $7k in take-home pay. They've been married one year, live in a condo, and don't have any kids yet.
Comments
Call up the NSA. I'm sure they know where she is.
Crazy is crazy...
The down sides are that the upstairs and one of the guest rooms/study on the main floor needs cosmetic updates, it would be unfeasible to finish the basement (the house is large enough that this isn't a major drawback), indoor basement entry/stairs needs to be reworked (Adam can't walk down them at all and I have to crouch, but there is an exterior entrance), despite being recently redone the upstairs bathtub/shower needs to be moved to the other wall (the wall it is on slopes and Adam can't stand in it, but the downstairs shower is lovely), and the main staircase needs to be reworked before children would be going up and down them (steep stairs with an awkward turn in it).
Overall, the problems are fixable and the lower asking price makes updating/changes financially feasible. It is going to take some serious thought.
The first turned out to be an un-advertised short sale (oh boy!). Pulled my contract in attorney review and then started looking at other houses, never heard back. Got hopeful as the seller revealed many factors pointing to desperation, but ultimately she proved delusional as she is recently divorced and struggling to pay her mortgage, so she's just gonna clutch to her emotions and ride that shit into foreclosure.
In the meantime, offer is in on another house! House porn link: http://www.trulia.com/property/1068363126-84-Greenwood-Rd-Old-Bridge-NJ-08857.
Key features: horrible curb appeal, poor photos that do not reveal that it is a corner property, has a larger-than-expected yard, or a gigantic 4th bedroom. Poorly-written listing that doesn't even include room dimensions. Let's see if I can get it for a good price.
//Also what is with the all caps description, she's yelling it :-p Fire that realtor lady.
It's a bi-level, which we never thought we would like, but having seen it twice, I kinda dig it. It's also helped by the fact that it's part of a very small and desirable community within the town. Old Bridge, NJ is NOT a walking town at all, except for this little piece of <100 houses. The best elementary school in town is actually located within the community (walking, no buses), and there is a walking path to the town library, ice rink, police station, town rec center, small shopping center, and bus stop for NYC.
Here's the results of yesterday's stalking:
Only person on the deed is a 49-year-old lady, and she has been the only person named on the past 3 houses she's lived in. Don't know when she got divorced, but I found her daughter's Twitter account and searched for some key words, and yes, stepdad came up. She sold in 2005, with a profit of almost $150k, into a much smaller place right as her daughter was heading off to college. 4 years later, she winds up selling for about $30k less than she paid, and her daughter comes back to live with her after graduation. Another 4 years later, daughter just moved out into her own apartment about an hour north in October 2012. Only child. Correlation for sure, but I wonder if that is really the cause.
Have you ever wound up paying for a public records search to pull up info such as divorce and such? I'm fairly sure those are scams, as birth/marriage/divorce/death are not publicly searchable in NJ, but I have never tried myself. Wonder when original dad stepped out (or if he's even still alive), and when step daddy entered the picture.
http://propertyrecords.montcopa.org/
House is listed as of the afternoon of the 5th, and already we have an investment company with a cash offer. But it's $10k under our asking price. On the other hand, we have already had one showing this evening and another tomorrow afternoon.
Good luck with the selling! The place looks nice.
In other house news, a close friend of mine just went under contract on a home w/ a whopping sale price of $485k. Hole-eee-shit. Even w/ 20% down, I am seriously concerned how he is pulling this off. At most, him and his wife bring in $140k. With close to $12k in taxes each year, that means it'll be close to $3k/month out of $7k in take-home pay. They've been married one year, live in a condo, and don't have any kids yet.