Surviving the Holidays
Once the sun rises on the day after Christmas, many households awaken with the debate in their mind: take the tree down now or wait a few more days? Of course it’s an individual decision - I know people who dismantle their tree immediately and others (me) who wait several days. I don’t know why I wait except I just adore the season and want to milk it for every twinkling light that I can.
However, if you’re selling your house my advice is to take down the tree immediately and get the house back in parade condition. We are nearly into 2009 (I’m quite anxious to say goodbye to the market of ‘08) and I believe the niner will be the year that the real estate market will turn back around. It may make a slow climb back, but climb it will. And I believe the climb is beginning with people making good buys on foreclosed homes.
If you intend to invest in a foreclosure, do so with your eyes wide open. CNN Money provides four tips on buying a foreclosed property including making sure a home inspection is done in advance. Most foreclosures are “as is” which may not be an issue, but it could well turn into a nightmare down the road.
My advice is to also be very careful about where you buy. Like you would when you buy your own home, you want to check with the local police department to see how often and what types of crime calls they answer in that neighborhood. It wouldn’t hurt to investigate if and how many calls were made to the actual house you’re considering buying. Make sure there are no squatters cooking meth or no animals left to die whose insides have soaked into the subfloor.
Meanwhile shelter always has been and always will be a basic necessity and in that, people will grow tired of paying rent eventually. Giving your money to someone else and dealing with neighbors whose music is so loud your fish tank bubbles is a convincing rationale to drive people to find their own dirt, their roof, their own walls.
And why not in 2009? Interest rates are crazy delish, home prices are quite reasonable, and there are now numerous safeguards in place to protect buyers from predatory lenders. We’ve survived the holidays, we’ve survived 2008. Time to move along.
