2nd Investor House Under Contract After Only Three Days on Market

[Barbisi]

Carmella , you are right on about the panels!
A solar panel lease is the worst possible rip-off contract one can unwittingly enter into because when the lease ends, one either pays the exaggerated remaining value in full to own the solar system outright, enters into another lease (!) or has them removed at considerable cost (to restore regular electricity and repair or maybe replace the roof). With a solar panel lease, one only has three options: pay off the lease, remove the panels when one moves to a different house and place them on the rooftop of the new location, or (as we were lucky enough to do), transfers the lease to the next buyer.
IMHO, more people need to be educated about the many hazards of a solar panel lease - not only the financial ones discussed above, but fire danger too!

[Carmella]

Barbisi makes me feel sad for the sucker that buys that house! Or any house that is flipped with minor changes and people given the impression it's more. And the solar panels sound like a nightmare. I feel that solar power is good, but not quite developed enough to do the job at this point in time.

A co-worker had someone try to sell her solar panels, she was interested, but when she calculated some of the long term costs that they down play and only mention a little as possible she found it would be a HUGE cost, with the sales pitch you pay less for the solar power than the traditional electric. They down played you still need regular electric because the solar isn't enough so you still have an electric bill at a lower rate since it wouldn't be used 100% of the time. And in this part of the country we don't always have enough sun. She was also concerned about snow on the panels and couldn't get a good answer.

Now I have some outdoor solar lights in are we have full sun and sometimes they light up at night a few hours sometimes all night depending on how much sun is available. I know that is very simplistic, but it highlights that the amount of available sunlight varies.

[Barbisi]

Of course you're right about the house sophieanne ! We were lucky to get out from under the burden of an ageing house we once again couldn't fix up without financially ruining ourselves in the process.
I think I just resent these investors and their enormous profits.
If we ever buy another house, we certainly don't want one of these cheaply remodeled, faceless flips where all the character of the home is removed and what's left is a utilitarian shell with no soul just a hollow front.
O, another tragedy we avoided by unloading the solar panel lease on this wily realtor: a social media acquaintance posted about his leased solar panels catching his roof on fire and he is still on the hook to pay for them until his lease ends sometime in the next 20 years. He is warning everyone on that platform not to put solar panels on your roof - thank God we no longer have to worry about that lease..........

[sophieanne]

Barbisi Hi - the market has slowed down but houses are still selling. I think this house selling is a good thing ..you can now focus on your new life and going forward and let the house you left behind be nothing more than a bad memory that you no longer want, or will think about. I am in a second marriage. When we split up, I lost absolutely EVERYTHING. I am happy that part of my life is over ..I have a new life and I am happier now ..got to let the past go. (But that’s me)

[Barbisi]

The house we were able to sell and end up making some money on for our post-BK13 "start over" quickly went under contract, meaning the investor realtor either made a windfall (100K more than listed) or maybe broke even (sold at listed price or slightly above). One house just sold for 5K below asking price and there are now 7 houses (2 listed in the last 24 hours!) in the neighborhood for sale but 5 of those would probably be considered stale, since a couple of them have been continuously active listings for three months already. I think this market is definitely cooling down and only a "cutting-edge state of the art" investor flip will sell now, meaning the pitifully outdated version of our now "luxuriously appointed" former house would never have sold at a price which would have allowed us to clear as much money as we walked away with!
It's sad to think all older houses with unique built-in recessed storage (like bookcases and fireplaces with mantels), individually styled bathroom vanities, lights and mirrors and kitchen countertops and cabinets with varying designs, shades and colors, are becoming extinct and are being replaced by faceless flips thanks to the millionaire investors who buy them up and churn then out into cheaply redone "modern" versions of the originals.