Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

stickguy

I say the house went for about 900

tjc78

@ab348 said:
It's odd in that decades ago when I first got into whisky the only JD around was Old #7 which was and is atrocious as a sipper and is best used mixed with Coke. But who knew that JD employed people who knew how to make really good whisky that has only recently come into broader availability? Some of their high-end offerings compete with the very best now.

Just had this conversation with my cousin the other night… regular Jack really is terrible. When we were young we would shoot it, but we didn’t know any better lol

stickguy

tjc78 said:

@stickguy said:

I was in Latham today picking up my truck at the Ford dealer. About 25 minutes now, but once we move about 10 minutes +/-. Where's the store? If you come up to visit it, let me know, I can take you out for a beer!

It’s right on New Loudon Road. There is a Hobby Lobby and Raymour and Flanagan in the center.

I’ll hit you up when I visit. Won’t be for a few months until it gets further along.

Funny thing… in my past company this was one of our locations and I’ve remodeled it twice and now I’m gutting it as a new store with a new company.

I sent a picture of it demo’d but with one detail that all my old colleagues would know and texted it out. Good laughs from it…

Know right where that is. just about 10 minutes south of our new place.

nyccarguy

@Michaell

I'm going to guess high @ $915,000

qbrozen

I’m gambling that it stayed fairly reasonable since it happened so quick: 815k

nyccarguy

No picture of glasses or a bottle, but I did take 2 gummies and alternated watching Sopranos & Married With Children clips!

mjfloyd1

@Michaell - I’m at $849k

[Deleted User]

Michaell said:

Moms house is in escrow. Anyone want to guess the final price?

Reminder - asking was $799,900

$825k

Michaell

@qbrozen was closest - we sold the house for $810k. Only two offers, one was all cash and the other came in with $300k down and pre-approved for the balance. Both were at our asking price.

We countered asking for their best and final price.

The cash offer had a “family emergency” and didn’t respond by our deadline. The other bid came back with the $810 price, which we accepted.

And, the buyers are also interested in purchasing some of the furniture we staged the house with.

Not the bidding war we thought might happen, but we are happy with the results. We’d been told that there were two houses coming on the market soon that were both newer and less expensive ($775k, I believe).

explorerx4

@michaell,
Hard to be disappointed with a result like that result.

tjc78

@nyccarguy said:
No picture of glasses or a bottle, but I did take 2 gummies and alternated watching Sopranos & Married With Children clips!

I could watch either of those anytime anyplace. I wish they made TV that good now!

tjc78

So I finally ditched traditional cable TV.

I was paying $366/ month for Gigibit internet, Security, phone we never used and the top TV package with Netflix

We also pay $55/‘month at the shore for 300 mb/s internet only.

Comcast doesn’t allow the Stream app on Roku or smart TV unless you are in your home network so I couldn’t even use most of what I was paying for when I was down the shore

So .. I ditched the phone and TV service and my Comcast bill at home is $154. I signed up for You Tube TV which is $72 a month and we can use it at both houses. I’ll probably grab Netflix for $22 and still be over $100 less for a service I’ll get more use out of. Yeah I lost some channels but it’s doubtful we will miss them.

YT TV so far is pretty nice. Has all the locals and most of the networks (TBS, CNN, Hallmark etc) regular cable does. Also unlimited DVR and on demand.

fintail

Michaell said:

@qbrozen was closest - we sold the house for $810k. Only two offers, one was all cash and the other came in with $300k down and pre-approved for the balance. Both were at our asking price.

We countered asking for their best and final price.

The cash offer had a “family emergency” and didn’t respond by our deadline. The other bid came back with the $810 price, which we accepted.

And, the buyers are also interested in purchasing some of the furniture we staged the house with.

Not the bidding war we thought might happen, but we are happy with the results. We’d been told that there were two houses coming on the market soon that were both newer and less expensive ($775k, I believe).

Well done, the parental units would be proud. I am still amazed the housing market in most of the country is as robust as it is with ~7% rates, given how prices have fared over the past decade or so (locally I believe most have doubled since 2016-17, and many maybe have tripled since around 2010-12 when lucky ones got in during a weak market).

nyccarguy

fintail said:

Michaell said:

@qbrozen was closest - we sold the house for $810k. Only two offers, one was all cash and the other came in with $300k down and pre-approved for the balance. Both were at our asking price.

We countered asking for their best and final price.

The cash offer had a “family emergency” and didn’t respond by our deadline. The other bid came back with the $810 price, which we accepted.

And, the buyers are also interested in purchasing some of the furniture we staged the house with.

Not the bidding war we thought might happen, but we are happy with the results. We’d been told that there were two houses coming on the market soon that were both newer and less expensive ($775k, I believe).

Well done, the parental units would be proud. I am still amazed the housing market in most of the country is as robust as it is with ~7% rates, given how prices have fared over the past decade or so (locally I believe most have doubled since 2016-17, and many maybe have tripled since around 2010-12 when lucky ones got in during a weak market).

Inventory is tight. Lots of people with low interest rates (I'm very proud of the 2.99% I refinanced at a few years back) unwilling to move out of their current home. Even though they'll be cashing out of their current home with a ton of equity that will wash out the high interest rate.

qbrozen

@Michaell said:
@qbrozen was closest - we sold the house for $810k. Only two offers, one was all cash and the other came in with $300k down and pre-approved for the balance. Both were at our asking price.

We countered asking for their best and final price.

The cash offer had a “family emergency” and didn’t respond by our deadline. The other bid came back with the $810 price, which we accepted.

And, the buyers are also interested in purchasing some of the furniture we staged the house with.

Not the bidding war we thought might happen, but we are happy with the results. We’d been told that there were two houses coming on the market soon that were both newer and less expensive ($775k, I believe).

Darn. I had 810 typed but then talked myself into a smidge higher.

andres3

fintail said:

Michaell said:

@qbrozen was closest - we sold the house for $810k. Only two offers, one was all cash and the other came in with $300k down and pre-approved for the balance. Both were at our asking price.

We countered asking for their best and final price.

The cash offer had a “family emergency” and didn’t respond by our deadline. The other bid came back with the $810 price, which we accepted.

And, the buyers are also interested in purchasing some of the furniture we staged the house with.

Not the bidding war we thought might happen, but we are happy with the results. We’d been told that there were two houses coming on the market soon that were both newer and less expensive ($775k, I believe).

Well done, the parental units would be proud. I am still amazed the housing market in most of the country is as robust as it is with ~7% rates, given how prices have fared over the past decade or so (locally I believe most have doubled since 2016-17, and many maybe have tripled since around 2010-12 when lucky ones got in during a weak market).

I wonder how much of that is pushed by the "you can just refinance when rates go down" salesmanship crowd.

andres3

nyccarguy said:

fintail said:

Michaell said:

@qbrozen was closest - we sold the house for $810k. Only two offers, one was all cash and the other came in with $300k down and pre-approved for the balance. Both were at our asking price.

We countered asking for their best and final price.

The cash offer had a “family emergency” and didn’t respond by our deadline. The other bid came back with the $810 price, which we accepted.

And, the buyers are also interested in purchasing some of the furniture we staged the house with.

Not the bidding war we thought might happen, but we are happy with the results. We’d been told that there were two houses coming on the market soon that were both newer and less expensive ($775k, I believe).

Well done, the parental units would be proud. I am still amazed the housing market in most of the country is as robust as it is with ~7% rates, given how prices have fared over the past decade or so (locally I believe most have doubled since 2016-17, and many maybe have tripled since around 2010-12 when lucky ones got in during a weak market).

Inventory is tight. Lots of people with low interest rates (I'm very proud of the 2.99% I refinanced at a few years back) unwilling to move out of their current home. Even though they'll be cashing out of their current home with a ton of equity that will wash out the high interest rate.

You only washout the high interest rates if you truly have a ton of equity, but if you are trading up, you are using that equity up more than likely. The other problem with trading up is CA property tax.

fintail

nyccarguy said:

fintail said:

Michaell said:

@qbrozen was closest - we sold the house for $810k. Only two offers, one was all cash and the other came in with $300k down and pre-approved for the balance. Both were at our asking price.

We countered asking for their best and final price.

The cash offer had a “family emergency” and didn’t respond by our deadline. The other bid came back with the $810 price, which we accepted.

And, the buyers are also interested in purchasing some of the furniture we staged the house with.

Not the bidding war we thought might happen, but we are happy with the results. We’d been told that there were two houses coming on the market soon that were both newer and less expensive ($775k, I believe).

Well done, the parental units would be proud. I am still amazed the housing market in most of the country is as robust as it is with ~7% rates, given how prices have fared over the past decade or so (locally I believe most have doubled since 2016-17, and many maybe have tripled since around 2010-12 when lucky ones got in during a weak market).

Inventory is tight. Lots of people with low interest rates (I'm very proud of the 2.99% I refinanced at a few years back) unwilling to move out of their current home. Even though they'll be cashing out of their current home with a ton of equity that will wash out the high interest rate.

Yep inventory still below pre-covid I think, and maybe some FOMO remaining, too. Makes me think of when I bought in the summer of 21 (2.75%), and the appraiser mentioned "panic buying" in the local market analysis. I still have to be surprised that there hasn't been at least stagnation - maybe there is in the higher price ranges, but more average houses have been more than solid, and reasonably priced offerings sell quickly here. Those like myself who bought during low rates, or you who refi'd, aren't going to sell unless there's a personal cataclysm or one has to move for work. Golden handcuffs - I couldn't afford my place now due to rates alone, factor in appreciation, and it's even worse. Nothing but dumb luck on my part. I think a lot of demand today is either lucky cash buyers or those using equity built during the run up.

explorerx4

In my sub, just under 300 homes, there are at least half a dozen houses being put up right now and it shows no signs of slowing down.

kyfdx

When we built in 1998, our rate was 7.625% for 25 years. The last mortgage was a 3% for 10 years.

Waiting for prices to rise another 10% to save 2% on your mortgage means you'll never buy another house.

explorerx4

Last year I purchased a couple of 'brokered' CD's from Vanguard.
Interest rate paid was higher than most banks.
They work a little different than other CD's I had gotten through banks.
Credited interest was paid into your settlement account every 6 months and when the CD matured that amount also was put back in your settlement account.
Funny thing is, I moved the money from a bank to my Vanguard settlement account, which then went to the CD from a different bank.
On renewal, I ended up getting a CD from the bank the money originally was from but at a higher rate than I could get driectly from that same bank.

kyfdx

I bought brokered CDs from Schwab, recently. Works the same way. Only, the ones I bought pay monthly.

The ease of payment and redemption are a lot better than dealing with the actual bank. I’m a big fan.

I’m not much for CDs, but I inherited one that matured in April, and my portfolio is already heavily weighted into equities, that keeping this amount in CDs is a nice hedge. Plus, picked up an extra 1.20% over the old CD.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

Ford dealer is a mess. Brand new building and lot is so jammed you can barely get through to the building. For the back story from the service writer. But they need more parking bad.

It was better than their old place which had been there since the 50s.

laurasdada

roadburner said:

It was an option but my car doesn’t have it; that and the HUD are the only options I miss.

Thanks, your thoughts on the C43 have me intrigued. But, given my neck of the woods, once you've had a heated wheel, no going without (for me, at least). Heated armrests and center console lid would just be outstanding too (I'm looking at you, MB S Class coupe for sale down the road)!

oldfarmer50

dad23 said:

Michaell said:

Moms house is in escrow. Anyone want to guess the final price?

Reminder - asking was $799,900

$825k

As I mentioned before, my BIL just sold 5 vacant acres down the road from me. Asking price $231k sold for over that in 24 hours. I figure $47-48k/acre.

Who has all this money? When I bought my land I paid $3k/acre.

laurasdada

And 76 degrees with a cloud-kissed blue sky. A gentle breeze from the ocean, humidity seemingly at bay. A day that was invented for a convertible drive, which I did as I was given a honey dew list. Including picking up pastries from a French bakery in a fabulous town (Duxbury) a few miles up the road. Wow, what a pretty drive and town. The road leading to the village area bisected the Duxbury Yacht Club golf course, maybe I could caddy there?

Wife has planned a dinner party with some neighbors tonight. She has been preparing and cooking for the last three days. I was told I was not allowed to have breakfast at the dining room table this am as it is set for dinner with table settings I didn't even know we had. I'm pretty sure she's spent one of my IRAs for this little get together (the pastries alone were a couple of hours pay...), so looks like my retirement is pushed back a bit.

Don't tell her, I had pizza en route, I'm not really that hungry.

Michaell

Once mom's house is sold, I'll have some money to invest, after paying off some bills. I've thought about keeping it simple with T-Bills, rolling them over every 4 weeks, but this idea of a brokered CD has me thinking. Looking to generate a little cash flow to help with the revenue side of the household budget.

Someone I know has about $250K in T-Bills, and he generates about $1000/mo in interest.

tjc78

I love Facebook Marketplace.. a post for my audio guys.

Needed a little system for the shore to watch movies. Came back from the beach and looked to see what was around.

Integra Receiver (mid range maybe 5-6 years old)
4 PSB Towers
PSB sub and center
Pioneer Elite disc player
All cables and remote.

$100.

A steal. People down here at the shore always giving deals

stickguy

Farmer, an acre out there figure a million $ house. So the land is 5% of the total. Sounds about right!

suydam

We put money received that way into TBills until we can come up with something else. Just now we can’t really deal with anything fancy.

Michaell

suydam said:

We put money received that way into TBills until we can come up with something else. Just now we can’t really deal with anything fancy.

Thanks for the feedback!

explorerx4

The CD that just matured was a Schwab CD.
The highest rates are 'callable' CD's but your multi year CD may end up as a 6 month.
Here's a link to what's current at Vanguard. I am not saying they are the best choice.
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FixedIncomeHome

oldfarmer50

Michaell said:

Once mom's house is sold, I'll have some money to invest, after paying off some bills. I've thought about keeping it simple with T-Bills, rolling them over every 4 weeks, but this idea of a brokered CD has me thinking. Looking to generate a little cash flow to help with the revenue side of the household budget.

Someone I know has about $250K in T-Bills, and he generates about $1000/mo in interest.

I have a few bucks sitting in a Vanguard federal treasuries money market that gets 5.29% currently. I’m sure if you look around you can do better than that.

Back around 1980 I used to buy t-bills directly because they gave 1/4% better than the bank CDs. I was chicken and only bought 6 month issues but if I was more daring I could have gotten 16% on a 30 year. Imagine getting that return until 2010.

kyfdx

explorerx4 said:

The CD that just matured was a Schwab CD.
The highest rates are 'callable' CD's but your multi year CD may end up as a 6 month.
Here's a link to what's current at Vanguard. I am not saying they are the best choice.
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FixedIncomeHome

Yeah, I don't buy callable CDs. Mine are traditional, fixed rate for the term. I split between a 48 month and a 60 month CD.

qbrozen

About 7 mos ago, our CU had specials on 9-mo CDs. It was about 5% for 9 mos… whatever that APR comes to. I put I think about $50k between ours and ours boys’ savings (mostly theirs). Gotta figure out what to do when August comes.

snakeweasel

explorerx4 said:

In my sub, just under 300 homes, there are at least half a dozen houses being put up right now and it shows no signs of slowing down.

In my neck of the woods I am seeing a lot of new subdivisions going up. And it also shows no sign of slowing down. It makes me worried.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

explorerx4 said:

In my sub, just under 300 homes, there are at least half a dozen houses being put up right now and it shows no signs of slowing down.

In my neck of the woods I am seeing a lot of new subdivisions going up. And it also shows no sign of slowing down. It makes me worried.

You have to wonder what kind of debt load these new buyers are carrying. I remember when we were first starting out it was recommended that housing take no more than 25% of income. Years later that was raised to one third. Now, I understand that many home owners are paying half their annual income for a house.

That seems pretty unsustainable. No different than somebody taking on $1200/mo car payments.

fintail

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:

explorerx4 said:

In my sub, just under 300 homes, there are at least half a dozen houses being put up right now and it shows no signs of slowing down.

In my neck of the woods I am seeing a lot of new subdivisions going up. And it also shows no sign of slowing down. It makes me worried.

You have to wonder what kind of debt load these new buyers are carrying. I remember when we were first starting out it was recommended that housing take no more than 25% of income. Years later that was raised to one third. Now, I understand that many home owners are paying half their annual income for a house.

That seems pretty unsustainable. No different than somebody taking on $1200/mo car payments.

Build quality too. I know someone in the industry who says to be very careful of covid/post covid builds - go over it with a fine tooth comb before taking delivery, and get a second opinion too.

Lending is still relatively tight, the structures themselves concern me just as much as masses either taking on too much debt or lying/having the broker lie about their resources.

explorerx4

I would guess that just about every home currently being built by me is not the buyers first home.
3 years ago, the prices were more affordable.
There are lots of different real estate markets depending where you are.

stickguy

IIRC it was 33% of gross income to debt and 25% for the mortgage by itself. So you could have 8% going to car payments!

New builds (at least in a more expensive area like this) other than maybe a basic townhouse are really hard for 1st time newbies to swing I think. Partly because you need to put a big chunk down at contract, and not a lot of people starting out have 50K laying around to put up 9 months before getting a house! But if you do, then go for it.

the real issue is probably that new builds tend to cost more, and 1st time buyers are shopping in the lower price ranges. From looking at who is moving into the new neighborhood up the road from us, there are a lot of obvious empty nest downsizers, and the younger buyers look like they are not first time (or all that young!). The old people though do seem to be putting up the smaller ranch houses.

stickguy

got ambitious today and did a detail on the Maverick. I had it done by a pro right after I bought it (so about 12 months ago) and this is the first time I did anything buy wash it. Was really starting to need it (getting spots, feeling gritty). So tried out my new clay mitt. Seemed to work very well, and man, so much quicker and easier than clay bars. Then did a wax job with the Meguires cleaner wax, and not it seems to be shiny again, and very smooth to the touch. Should clean up a lot easier too after our upcoming trip to the beach where it always gets a coating of salt spray and some sand. and bugs.

Looks like brand new, and holding up surprisingly well. I think I found one tiny little paint chip on the front edge of the hood.

Michaell

When we bought our first house in 2000 or 2001, we paid $160k for a starter home - 3+2.5, two car garage, no basement.

I don’t think there are any starter homes now - that first house is now worth close to $550k, according to Zillow. Inflation alone would make the house worth $282k.

Nobody wants to build starter homes, much for the same reasons that nobody wants to build subcompact cars - there’s no money to be made with them.

stickguy

still some townhomes or twins going up, but even those are pretty price. Starter homes (at starter home prices) are going to be older places, that need some updating. Basically, just like the old days and the way it should be!

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

got ambitious today and did a detail on the Maverick. I had it done by a pro right after I bought it (so about 12 months ago) and this is the first time I did anything buy wash it. Was really starting to need it (getting spots, feeling gritty). So tried out my new clay mitt. Seemed to work very well, and man, so much quicker and easier than clay bars. Then did a wax job with the Meguires cleaner wax, and not it seems to be shiny again, and very smooth to the touch. Should clean up a lot easier too after our upcoming trip to the beach where it always gets a coating of salt spray and some sand. and bugs.

Looks like brand new, and holding up surprisingly well. I think I found one tiny little paint chip on the front edge of the hood.

————————————————
Believe it or not wax doesn’t make your car shine. Clean paint makes it shine, wax just protects the paint from the elements. OK, these quicky cheater spays might make your car shine but only because it makes the paint look wet. Give it a rain or two and the shine is gone.

BTW, I just saw this on the internet. The source didn’t pull in but I think it was Car and Driver:

What car wax gives the best shine?

Our Top Picks:

Best Spray Car Wax. Meguiar's Quik Wax.

Best Liquid Wax. Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax.

Best Paste Car Wax. Collinite No. ...

Easiest Paste to Apply. Formula 1

High Performance Carnauba Car Wax.

Honorable Mention — Spray Wax.

Griot's Garage Best of Show Spray Wax.

Honorable Mention — Liquid Wax.

FWIW, I’ve been using Collinite cream type wax for years and I’m very satisfied with it. Better than anything I’ve ever used and I’ve used many over the years. It comes in a very plain Jane plastic bottle. So plain I don’t think anyone even notices it on the shelf next to all of the other prettily wrapped packages.

jmonroe

explorerx4

@jmonroe1,
I've never used any of those products on my 33 year old car.

kyfdx

Wax? What is that?

roadburner

laurasdada said:

roadburner said:

It was an option but my car doesn’t have it; that and the HUD are the only options I miss.

Thanks, your thoughts on the C43 have me intrigued. But, given my neck of the woods, once you've had a heated wheel, no going without (for me, at least). Heated armrests and center console lid would just be outstanding too (I'm looking at you, MB S Class coupe for sale down the road)!

At one point we had a couple of cars with heated wheels- the E90 328i and the F22 M235i. The 3er was swapped for an X1 without a heated wheel as was the 2er for the C43. Now the Sahara 4xe is the only vehicle with a heated wheel- and it gets really hot.

jmonroe1

explorerx4 said:

@jmonroe1,
I've never used any of those products on my 33 year old car.

————————————————-
I can tell.

jmonroe

stickguy

JM, I had collonite 412 (some number like that) written down on a post it under my desk blotter for years because of you. Never actually bought it. But last year when I had the new truck detailed, that is the brand he used. One thing he said that I liked was that it was (I think) clear, so didn't turn the black trim white if you got wax on it.

I like the meguires since it is a cleaner/wax combo. easy to me to put on, and take off (no power tools involved) and makes the car look real nice and very smooth. and seems to protect nicely from water and dirt and easy to wash off.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

got ambitious today and did a detail on the Maverick. I had it done by a pro right after I bought it (so about 12 months ago) and this is the first time I did anything buy wash it. Was really starting to need it (getting spots, feeling gritty). So tried out my new clay mitt. Seemed to work very well, and man, so much quicker and easier than clay bars. Then did a wax job with the Meguires cleaner wax, and not it seems to be shiny again, and very smooth to the touch. Should clean up a lot easier too after our upcoming trip to the beach where it always gets a coating of salt spray and some sand. and bugs.

Looks like brand new, and holding up surprisingly well. I think I found one tiny little paint chip on the front edge of the hood.

Is that an aluminum hood? Keep an eye on them as Ford hasn’t seemed to learn how to paint aluminum and some of those hood edges will chip right off. I had to have a repaint on the Mustang twice. Once under warranty, once as good will. Look underneath at the seam for bubbling and take it to the dealer before the warranty expires.