Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

jmonroe1

roadburner said:

An attorney friend has a wife who is a teacher. She has a particularly bad class this year. He told her that she should have me talk to the class and give them the speech I used to give in juvie court:
"If I ever see you in my courtroom again I am sending you to a detention center in eastern Kentucky where sunshine has to be piped in and your most prized possession will be soap on a rope. There you will remain until your decaying flesh drops from your bleached bones."

Sounds good to me but is that legal in Kentucky? How many mothers do you think you’d hear from after giving that talk to their little darlings?

jmonroe

snakeweasel

henryn said:

snakeweasel said:

tjc78 said:

@ronsteve said:

@qbrozen said:

Do you have a 220 in your laundry room? What size breaker and wire go to it? If it is there, and if sized properly, you can certainly T off it; however, if you try to run a 220v dryer while your car is charging, you'll have a problem.

220, 221… whatever it takes.

I’ll make us all feel old. I said that in a meeting a few weeks back and it bombed. Too young an audience.

The conversation was perfect too, it was about adding electrical drops.

A little while ago we had a little impromptu meeting and when we broke up the meeting one of the attendees left saying "so long and thanks for all the fish". I was the only one that got the reference.

You should have come back with, "And 42 IS the answer!"

Sometimes someone comes up to me and says "I have a question" and I reply "42" So few get the reference.

driver100

Has anyone heard of these to slow down traffic?

snakeweasel

henryn said:

Just saw this in one of my newsfeeds. Is gas really that expensive in Los Angeles?

Apparently so, go to the gas buddy website and go to a map and pull out to see the whole country. Price is shown color coded and California practically has its own color. Then go to Needles, CA and look at the gas price and look at the gas price a mile away in Arizona, its like almost $2 cheaper.

ab348

snakeweasel said:

henryn said:

Just saw this in one of my newsfeeds. Is gas really that expensive in Los Angeles?

Apparently so, go to the gas buddy website and go to a map and pull out to see the whole country. Price is shown color coded and California practically has its own color. Then go to Needles, CA and look at the gas price and look at the gas price a mile away in Arizona, its like almost $2 cheaper.

I was going to say it looked like a Photoshop job but if others are saying it is real then so be it.

The difference btw Needles and Arizona sounds like California state gas taxes, but maybe not.

ab348

driver100 said:

Has anyone heard of these to slow down traffic?

We have an epidemic of the real ones here. Those look more visible than ours.

driver100

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

Has anyone heard of these to slow down traffic?

We have an epidemic of the real ones here. Those look more visible than ours.

It's been a tough year for potholes in the northern climes. Very cold and very warm, changing quickly. Hamilton Ont usually wins a few spots in the Top 10 for potholes contest in Canada....sometimes first place.
The city pays for some damage, but it is a long hard process and they get out of paying unless the pothole has been there for a certain amount of time....I think over 72 hours. It is really hard to prove your car, was damaged by their pothole.

sda

Locally roads that were repaved in the last 2-3 years are already crumbling and falling apart. Who knows when they will be repaved. The primary road in front of our neighborhood was in horrible condition for over 10 years before it was repaved 3 years ago and is in need again. Multiple, ineffective 'cold patches' attempt repair, but they fall apart after the first rain.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

Has anyone heard of these to slow down traffic?

No but I have heard of it as an advertisement for pioneer suspensions.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

Has anyone heard of these to slow down traffic?

LOL like you need to fake those this time of year.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

henryn said:

Just saw this in one of my newsfeeds. Is gas really that expensive in Los Angeles?

Apparently so, go to the gas buddy website and go to a map and pull out to see the whole country. Price is shown color coded and California practically has its own color. Then go to Needles, CA and look at the gas price and look at the gas price a mile away in Arizona, its like almost $2 cheaper.

Who wouldn’t drive across the border to save $2? It’s not like you need a passport.

mjfloyd1

@jmonroe1 said:
Sounds good to me but is that legal in Kentucky? How many mothers do you think you’d hear from after giving that talk to their little darlings?

jmonroe

Your flesh would have already have to have fallen off for your bones to bleach…so that’s backwards…

driver100

mjfloyd1 said:

@jmonroe1 said:

Sounds good to me but is that legal in Kentucky? How many mothers do you think you’d hear from after giving that talk to their little darlings?

jmonroe

Your flesh would have already have to have fallen off for your bones to bleach…so that’s backwards…

That kid would get an A+ in logic!

andres3

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:

henryn said:

Just saw this in one of my newsfeeds. Is gas really that expensive in Los Angeles?

Apparently so, go to the gas buddy website and go to a map and pull out to see the whole country. Price is shown color coded and California practically has its own color. Then go to Needles, CA and look at the gas price and look at the gas price a mile away in Arizona, its like almost $2 cheaper.

Who wouldn’t drive across the border to save $2? It’s not like you need a passport.

Maybe those "buy local" people? You support the home team to fix those potholes!

Unfortunately in CA, it more likely goes into a slush fund, empty unused bike lanes, and a bullet train to nowhere.

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

Given that I’m in the flipping biz, I’d like these wild prices to continue for a while.

To make what could have been a very long story somewhat short, when Son #1 saw what a smaller 4 bedroom flip house down the street from our flip house sold for just before Christmas he said I’m going to list this house for 30K more than what I originally thought we’d get for this place. When I said, “aren’t you pushing it a bit too much”? He said, “I don’t think so. That house is almost 200 square feet smaller and it only has 2 1/2 baths. Our house has 3 1/2 baths (we put a full bath in the finished basement) AND we put in a second floor laundry closet. Women will flip over that alone”. Guess what? We got 1 grand less than his cock-a-mayme price. Once again, if you don’t ask you don’t get.

This past weekend the young couple that lives next door came over to see the house while we were doing some last minute touch up work. They said they looked at that house down the street when they had an open house for it and said it’s looks good in the pics they saw online (don’t they always?) but the workmanship didn’t compare to our flip. My Son said, “that’s the nitch we want to fill because we think there are people out there willing to spend more for a quality flip house. So far it’s working but we both agree it takes too long for us to flip our houses.

We gotta pull the trigger faster on our pneumatic nailers maybe that’ll do it.

jmonroe

carnaught

henryn said:

Just saw this in one of my newsfeeds. Is gas really that expensive in Los Angeles?

Ah, I said it in one of my posts last week, but was ignored as usual 🙃.

fintail

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

snakeweasel

fintail said:

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

I seriously question Zillows home valuation. According to Zillow my house is the least expensive house within a block radius at least, Yet I know that the location and house model shouldn't make it so.

jmonroe1

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

I seriously question Zillows home valuation. According to Zillow my house is the least expensive house within a block radius at least, Yet I know that the location and house model shouldn't make it so.

Zillow gets its info from recently sold houses in a given area like most of these estimators do. Mrs. j likes to keep tabs on our homes value even though she knows we’re not selling. Her response is, “someday we wii be selling”. I keep telling her when we’re ready to sell that’s when I’ll be somewhat interested.

Our house has gone up and down in value based on recent sales for as long as she’s been looking at Zillow. She couldn’t figure out why. I told her Zillow looks at square footage, bedrooms and baths. So, if a house that is in good condition sells based on it’s condition that becomes the standard for the rest of the community for that type of house. Now, if the same size house that is not in as good condition sells for less because of its lesser condition (which it should) a new standard is now set.

Zillow has never been in any houses in my neighborhood, that I know of, and I think that’s the case across the country. Like I’ve told Mrs. j several times, reading what Zillow says is akin to reading the comics in the Sunday paper. Good for a laugh but who believes it?

jmonroe

snakeweasel

jmonroe1 said:

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

I seriously question Zillows home valuation. According to Zillow my house is the least expensive house within a block radius at least, Yet I know that the location and house model shouldn't make it so.

Zillow gets its info from recently sold houses in a given area like most of these estimators do. Mrs. j likes to keep tabs on our homes value even though she knows we’re not selling. Her response is, “someday we wii be selling”. I keep telling her when we’re ready to sell that’s when I’ll be somewhat interested.

Our house has gone up and down in value based on recent sales for as long as she’s been looking at Zillow. She couldn’t figure out why. I told her Zillow looks at square footage, bedrooms and baths. So, if a house that is in good condition sells based on it’s condition that becomes the standard for the rest of the community for that type of house. Now, if the same size house that is not in as good condition sells for less because of its lesser condition (which it should) a new standard is now set.

Zillow has never been in any houses in my neighborhood, that I know of, and I think that’s the case across the country. Like I’ve told Mrs. j several times, reading what Zillow says is akin to reading the comics in the Sunday paper. Good for a laugh but who believes it?

jmonroe

My brother in law used to live across the street a few houses down. he had the exact same house as ours but we have a few upgrades and we have a lot on the lake while he doesn't yet zillow has that house $37K more than our house.

explorerx4

All those real estate sites have the square footage of our house wrong.
Back in 2000, we finished most of the basement, but's not reflected in the house stats.
If you go to the town assessor site, the information is correct.
We did have a realtor do a market assessment a while back and they used the outdated info despite the fact that they came to the house and took notes.

jmonroe1

snakeweasel said:

jmonroe1 said:

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

I seriously question Zillows home valuation. According to Zillow my house is the least expensive house within a block radius at least, Yet I know that the location and house model shouldn't make it so.

Zillow gets its info from recently sold houses in a given area like most of these estimators do. Mrs. j likes to keep tabs on our homes value even though she knows we’re not selling. Her response is, “someday we wii be selling”. I keep telling her when we’re ready to sell that’s when I’ll be somewhat interested.

Our house has gone up and down in value based on recent sales for as long as she’s been looking at Zillow. She couldn’t figure out why. I told her Zillow looks at square footage, bedrooms and baths. So, if a house that is in good condition sells based on it’s condition that becomes the standard for the rest of the community for that type of house. Now, if the same size house that is not in as good condition sells for less because of its lesser condition (which it should) a new standard is now set.

Zillow has never been in any houses in my neighborhood, that I know of, and I think that’s the case across the country. Like I’ve told Mrs. j several times, reading what Zillow says is akin to reading the comics in the Sunday paper. Good for a laugh but who believes it?

jmonroe

My brother in law used to live across the street a few houses down. he had the exact same house as ours but we have a few upgrades and we have a lot on the lake while he doesn't yet zillow has that house $37K more than our house.

I have not seen that kind of disparity in our neighborhood. Since Zillow is not buying your house you don’t have anything to worry about. When the time comes that you are selling, the true colors of your house will shine through.

jmonroe

snakeweasel

jmonroe1 said:

snakeweasel said:

jmonroe1 said:

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

I seriously question Zillows home valuation. According to Zillow my house is the least expensive house within a block radius at least, Yet I know that the location and house model shouldn't make it so.

Zillow gets its info from recently sold houses in a given area like most of these estimators do. Mrs. j likes to keep tabs on our homes value even though she knows we’re not selling. Her response is, “someday we wii be selling”. I keep telling her when we’re ready to sell that’s when I’ll be somewhat interested.

Our house has gone up and down in value based on recent sales for as long as she’s been looking at Zillow. She couldn’t figure out why. I told her Zillow looks at square footage, bedrooms and baths. So, if a house that is in good condition sells based on it’s condition that becomes the standard for the rest of the community for that type of house. Now, if the same size house that is not in as good condition sells for less because of its lesser condition (which it should) a new standard is now set.

Zillow has never been in any houses in my neighborhood, that I know of, and I think that’s the case across the country. Like I’ve told Mrs. j several times, reading what Zillow says is akin to reading the comics in the Sunday paper. Good for a laugh but who believes it?

jmonroe

My brother in law used to live across the street a few houses down. he had the exact same house as ours but we have a few upgrades and we have a lot on the lake while he doesn't yet zillow has that house $37K more than our house.

I have not seen that kind of disparity in our neighborhood. Since Zillow is not buying your house you don’t have anything to worry about. When the time comes that you are selling, the true colors of your house will shine through.

jmonroe

You mean when the time comes when the kids sell our house.

jmonroe1

snakeweasel said:

jmonroe1 said:

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

I seriously question Zillows home valuation. According to Zillow my house is the least expensive house within a block radius at least, Yet I know that the location and house model shouldn't make it so.

Zillow gets its info from recently sold houses in a given area like most of these estimators do. Mrs. j likes to keep tabs on our homes value even though she knows we’re not selling. Her response is, “someday we wii be selling”. I keep telling her when we’re ready to sell that’s when I’ll be somewhat interested.

Our house has gone up and down in value based on recent sales for as long as she’s been looking at Zillow. She couldn’t figure out why. I told her Zillow looks at square footage, bedrooms and baths. So, if a house that is in good condition sells based on it’s condition that becomes the standard for the rest of the community for that type of house. Now, if the same size house that is not in as good condition sells for less because of its lesser condition (which it should) a new standard is now set.

Zillow has never been in any houses in my neighborhood, that I know of, and I think that’s the case across the country. Like I’ve told Mrs. j several times, reading what Zillow says is akin to reading the comics in the Sunday paper. Good for a laugh but who believes it?

jmonroe

My brother in law used to live across the street a few houses down. he had the exact same house as ours but we have a few upgrades and we have a lot on the lake while he doesn't yet zillow has that house $37K more than our house.

Hey, I just thought of this. Do you think Zillow knows about that cantankerous squirrel that’s been terrorizing your patio? That has to be it.

jmonroe

stickguy

I housed shopped today. It was an interesting, and somewhat terrifying, experience. We need to regroup and make a plan. But did find A couple of houses we really liked.

qbrozen

Part of zillow’s info comes from the users. If you claim your house, you can make changes to the data, such as change sq footage and when updates were made.

roadburner

@jmonroe1 said:
Sounds good to me but is that legal in Kentucky? How many mothers do you think you’d hear from after giving that talk to their little darlings?

jmonroe

I gave that talk to hundreds of kids from 1987 to 2004. In 2004 someone(I suspect one disgruntled public defender) complained to the Judicial Conduct Commission(JCC). They expected me to roll over and play dead but instead I hired the absolute best attorney in the state for handling disciplinary issues. At the end of the day I didn't even receive a private reprimand.

henryn

snakeweasel said:

jmonroe1 said:

snakeweasel said:

jmonroe1 said:

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

I seriously question Zillows home valuation. According to Zillow my house is the least expensive house within a block radius at least, Yet I know that the location and house model shouldn't make it so.

Zillow gets its info from recently sold houses in a given area like most of these estimators do. Mrs. j likes to keep tabs on our homes value even though she knows we’re not selling. Her response is, “someday we wii be selling”. I keep telling her when we’re ready to sell that’s when I’ll be somewhat interested.

Our house has gone up and down in value based on recent sales for as long as she’s been looking at Zillow. She couldn’t figure out why. I told her Zillow looks at square footage, bedrooms and baths. So, if a house that is in good condition sells based on it’s condition that becomes the standard for the rest of the community for that type of house. Now, if the same size house that is not in as good condition sells for less because of its lesser condition (which it should) a new standard is now set.

Zillow has never been in any houses in my neighborhood, that I know of, and I think that’s the case across the country. Like I’ve told Mrs. j several times, reading what Zillow says is akin to reading the comics in the Sunday paper. Good for a laugh but who believes it?

jmonroe

My brother in law used to live across the street a few houses down. he had the exact same house as ours but we have a few upgrades and we have a lot on the lake while he doesn't yet zillow has that house $37K more than our house.

I have not seen that kind of disparity in our neighborhood. Since Zillow is not buying your house you don’t have anything to worry about. When the time comes that you are selling, the true colors of your house will shine through.

jmonroe

You mean when the time comes when the kids sell our house.

I was looking around in a thrift store (DAV, Disabled American Vets) and happened to exchange a few words with a woman around my age or a little older. She said she said she liked to come to the thrift store to see where her possessions would end up when her kids inherited everything.

henryn

I don't know that I would trust Zillow, but it makes for an interesting starting point if you want to value your house. Late last year I was talking to the developer who built the 2 new houses across the street from me, and I mentioned that Zillow had my house valued at $205k, which I though was too high. He offered to buy it on the spot for that price. Yes, the market is insane.

On a brighter note, I was out dancing this evening for the first time in quite a while. The Covid threat here in my county (Harris County, Houston, TX) is now "low", so it's time to resume partying. I haven't been out dancing since July of 2021, and I forgot how much I enjoy it. My meetup group went to see a Beatles tribute band, whom we've seen before, a very good band. I danced all night, and we ended the night singing along with "Hey, Jude". A very nice way to end a nice evening.

tjc78

@qbrozen said:
Part of zillow’s info comes from the users. If you claim your house, you can make changes to the data, such as change sq footage and when updates were made.

I think it is also more accurate if it’s been sold recently as all the info is up to date.

tjc78

@jmonroe1 said:
Given that I’m in the flipping biz, I’d like these wild prices to continue for a while.

To make what could have been a very long story somewhat short, when Son #1 saw what a smaller 4 bedroom flip house down the street from our flip house sold for just before Christmas he said I’m going to list this house for 30K more than what I originally thought we’d get for this place. When I said, “aren’t you pushing it a bit too much”? He said, “I don’t think so. That house is almost 200 square feet smaller and it only has 2 1/2 baths. Our house has 3 1/2 baths (we put a full bath in the finished basement) AND we put in a second floor laundry closet. Women will flip over that alone”. Guess what? We got 1 grand less than his cock-a-mayme price. Once again, if you don’t ask you don’t get.

This past weekend the young couple that lives next door came over to see the house while we were doing some last minute touch up work. They said they looked at that house down the street when they had an open house for it and said it’s looks good in the pics they saw online (don’t they always?) but the workmanship didn’t compare to our flip. My Son said, “that’s the nitch we want to fill because we think there are people out there willing to spend more for a quality flip house. So far it’s working but we both agree it takes too long for us to flip our houses.

We gotta pull the trigger faster on our pneumatic nailers maybe that’ll do it.

jmonroe

If it takes a little longer, but you are turning a higher profit it is worth it in the end.

It also takes much longer to get permits these days so I’m sure that is slowing you down (if you even need permits for the work you are doing)

kyfdx

Zillow is so accurate at home values that they lost hundreds of millions buying, then selling houses. Lost so much that they had to exit that business.

kyfdx

Taxes filed this past Sunday. Direct deposit scheduled for Monday.

Eight days is pretty efficient.

stickguy

From talking to the RE yesterday it seems that if you don’t see something within the first 2 days, and get an offer in immediately, it will be too late. We saw 2 places and there were showings booked all day. The second place got listed while we were looking the first. She got a showing and by the time we got there a few hours later there had been 5 showings.

She said it would be shocking if both places we liked (a few others we didn’t) weren’t under contract by Monday. We weren’t quite ready to throw out an offer but it was tempting. But Monday I’m talking to an agent at home about options on unloading the old place. Might as well put my wife “on the clock” since I think our house will go quickly if we finally troll it out there.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

I seriously question Zillows home valuation. According to Zillow my house is the least expensive house within a block radius at least, Yet I know that the location and house model shouldn't make it so.

Those Zillow type valuations are useless for a one off house like mine on a big lot. The best they can do is take valuations from property tax records which are based on agricultural valuations.

snakeweasel

@henryn said:
I was looking around in a thrift store (DAV, Disabled American Vets) and happened to exchange a few words with a woman around my age or a little older. She said she said she liked to come to the thrift store to see where her possessions would end up when her kids inherited everything.

We have a few things that have been in our family for a few generations to keep them in the family they are going to my niece. She is the only one that I know for sure would keep them. But before I pass I am going to take a trip to that small Iowa town that my great great grandfather lived and give them the papers of his I have (speeches he gave there).

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

From talking to the RE yesterday it seems that if you don’t see something within the first 2 days, and get an offer in immediately, it will be too late. We saw 2 places and there were showings booked all day. The second place got listed while we were looking the first. She got a showing and by the time we got there a few hours later there had been 5 showings.

She said it would be shocking if both places we liked (a few others we didn’t) weren’t under contract by Monday. We weren’t quite ready to throw out an offer but it was tempting. But Monday I’m talking to an agent at home about options on unloading the old place. Might as well put my wife “on the clock” since I think our house will go quickly if we finally troll it out there.

I hope you’re not still up here in NY. It just started snowing and once they start throwing the salt around, your pretty new truck doesn’t stand a chance. Better drive straight to a rust proofing place or you’ll be missing a fender or two by the time you get home.

snakeweasel

@stickguy said:
From talking to the RE yesterday it seems that if you don’t see something within the first 2 days, and get an offer in immediately, it will be too late. We saw 2 places and there were showings booked all day. The second place got listed while we were looking the first. She got a showing and by the time we got there a few hours later there had been 5 showings.

She said it would be shocking if both places we liked (a few others we didn’t) weren’t under contract by Monday. We weren’t quite ready to throw out an offer but it was tempting. But Monday I’m talking to an agent at home about options on unloading the old place. Might as well put my wife “on the clock” since I think our house will go quickly if we finally troll it out there.

I check Zillow every week or so to see what is around me and to look at the pictures of houses I can't afford. It seems that houses around me stay on the market for a few months. The house two houses down from me took four months or so to sell.

snakeweasel

@oldfarmer50 said:
I hope you’re not still up here in NY. It just started snowing and once they start throwing the salt around, your pretty new truck doesn’t stand a chance. Better drive straight to a rust proofing place or you’ll be missing a fender or two by the time you get home.

Oh a little bondo and that will look brand new.

fintail

Like all algorithms, I am sure theirs has a flaw or three (we all know about the failure of their purchasing scheme). I think it mainly goes by location, local sales, bedrooms, bathrooms, and sq ft. It can't know about renovations or special features that might not appear on an assessor's report.

Median days on market in my area is 11, with 22.5% price inflation YOY.

snakeweasel said:

fintail said:

Heck, zillow (yeah yeah) claims I am up 5% in the past month and over 10% since I closed - less than 6 months ago. Which sounds insane, but my area has experienced 20% YOY increases since maybe 2014-15, and comparable sales I find in my neighborhood actually support their data. PNW is batty right now, 3/4 seems to go for over list, even in Spokane many bring 10%++ over list, many cases of Seattle metro stuff going for healthy 6 figures over list.

For the affordable end of the market, I've read that investors/hoarders are something close to 20% (there's a huge rental movement going on right now, both in affordable SFHs and build to rent developments), and ever-problematic flippers.

tjc78 said:

@sda said:

Long post about residential real estate market:

From the Charlotte Business Journal:

The median sales price of a home in Mecklenburg rose 18.3% over the course of 2021 to $355,000, up from $300,000 at the end of 2020, according to data from Canopy Multiple Listing Services Inc. The average sales price posted a similar increase, jumping 17.4% to $440,275 at year's end from $375,062 in 2020.

And prices aren't showing signs of a slowdown to start the new year either. In January, the median and average sales prices of a Mecklenburg County home soared year over year by 21.8% and 18.4%, respectively, to reach $375,000 and $451,904.

In fact, all but two ZIP codes in Mecklenburg County saw the median price of a home sold in 2021 jump year over year. That growth ranged anywhere from 4.7% to 32.2%.

This is mind boggling. A lot of these homes are nothing special, just standard cookie cutter houses that were originally modest in price. My sister who works in a realtor's office says a lot of buyers are being shut out by investment groups. All cash deals with no inspection are becoming common from those that have the resources. She also said earnest money didn't have the influence it once did as I may have this wrong, a 'Due Diligence Deposit' is made instead. That means a buyer may offer $25k as a deposit to hold the property and to keep it off the market. If the buyer changes their mind for any reason, such as bad inspection report, they forfeit the deposit. The first time buyer is finding it extremely difficult to afford and compete in this market.

The market is wild, our home is showing a value over 100K more than we paid in late 2020 (based on some more recent sales I believe it). Our shore home is up nearly 60K since last summer. When will it end?

I seriously question Zillows home valuation. According to Zillow my house is the least expensive house within a block radius at least, Yet I know that the location and house model shouldn't make it so.

stickguy

I should have grabbed a picture but yesterday we stopped for lunch and parked near a couple rusty Chevy pickups. One looked nearly that bad. Rockers, bed, doors all rotted bad. I assume the frame was crispy too. Probably dangerous as heck but still out driving!

It’s going to be 60s at home Monday. Truck getting a thorough wash job. Safely in driveway now but might be going out later. If so the thruway will kill it.

stickguy

Oh, the 2nd house I mentioned? Less than 24 hours since listed, already pending. Snooze you lose. We would have had to get a pre approval done to even put the bid in, so likely not even an option. Sad.

tjc78

Cha Ching!

tjc78

@stickguy said:
Oh, the 2nd house I mentioned? Less than 24 hours since listed, already pending. Snooze you lose. We would have had to get a pre approval done to even put the bid in, so likely not even an option. Sad.

You have to move fast, basically have to put the bid in before you even leave the place.

stickguy

Hard to do remote. Not fun.

Will probably just have to come back and hope for good timing. At least we both loved the agent I had been emailing with. But not sure we are willing to bid based on her opinion and a quick video tour (though we can send our son and his GF to tour places). That can weed out options but probably not enough time to get back up ourselves.

Our dream plan is to get a big offer on the current house with a quick close but couple of months rent back. So becomes a cash buyer, but only move once. Plan B is buy first and carry 2 houses. Distant plan C is sell and move to a rental while shopping.

roadburner

We have a lot of antique furniture that my dad collected over the years, and of course our house is almost 50 years old. As I see it our son can do whatever he wants with it when he inherits it. However, if he doesn’t want the Club Sport it’s going to the BMW CCA Foundation’s museum- I’ve already been told that they would like to have it.

jwm40517

@henryn , my wife is returning from a week in Houston today. Unfortunately it was a week at M D Anderson Cancer center getting PET scans, CT scans, echo and X-rays, blood work and meeting with Radiologist and Oncologist.
She will be returning 3-21-22 to start 6 weeks of radiation and chemo. She has type C thymic carcinoma, a very aggressive cancer with a high rate of metastasis and rare with only 200 cases known per year. Had 4 1/2 hours of surgery last month to remove a large tumor on her thymus.

We saw the local Oncologist before we knew how rare it is and could ask if he had ever treated one. Thymic cancers were mentioned on the Anderson website as one they treated, so hopefully it is not their first rodeo in regard to that type of cancer.

Not a regular here, but talking to someone seemed to help before when she had breast cancer twice in 1996 and 2004. Now I have no blood relatives and my closer friends have died in recent years and no one to really talk with. Before,I knew it was important to be positive while around her and I did and will try to again. But privately I often soak a paper towel as a tissue is not enough even as I write this.

Her daughter went with her this week and will go back with her. They have booked a 2 bed, 2 bath Airbnb apartment with parking and a shuttle to treatment. They are driving back this trip . Her daughter works at local Markey Cancer Center, knows all the medical jargon and has up to 12 weeks of paid family leave . John

ab348

jwm40517 said:

Not a regular here, but talking to someone seemed to help before when she had breast cancer twice in 1996 and 2004. Now I have no blood relatives and my closer friends have died in recent years and no one to really talk with. Before,I knew it was important to be positive while around her and I did and will try to again. But privately I often soak a paper towel as a tissue is not enough even as I write this.

John, my thoughts are with you. I think many of us are in a similar position with living solo and having relatives some distance away if there are any at all, and friends leaving us. It is a tough thing as we get older. At least we can support each other virtually.

jmonroe1

tjc78 said:

@jmonroe1 said:

Given that I’m in the flipping biz, I’d like these wild prices to continue for a while.

To make what could have been a very long story somewhat short, when Son #1 saw what a smaller 4 bedroom flip house down the street from our flip house sold for just before Christmas he said I’m going to list this house for 30K more than what I originally thought we’d get for this place. When I said, “aren’t you pushing it a bit too much”? He said, “I don’t think so. That house is almost 200 square feet smaller and it only has 2 1/2 baths. Our house has 3 1/2 baths (we put a full bath in the finished basement) AND we put in a second floor laundry closet. Women will flip over that alone”. Guess what? We got 1 grand less than his cock-a-mayme price. Once again, if you don’t ask you don’t get.

This past weekend the young couple that lives next door came over to see the house while we were doing some last minute touch up work. They said they looked at that house down the street when they had an open house for it and said it’s looks good in the pics they saw online (don’t they always?) but the workmanship didn’t compare to our flip. My Son said, “that’s the nitch we want to fill because we think there are people out there willing to spend more for a quality flip house. So far it’s working but we both agree it takes too long for us to flip our houses.

We gotta pull the trigger faster on our pneumatic nailers maybe that’ll do it.

jmonroe

If it takes a little longer, but you are turning a higher profit it is worth it in the end.

It also takes much longer to get permits these days so I’m sure that is slowing you down (if you even need permits for the work you are doing)

We don’t need permits but we have to get the work inspected. The plumbing inspector for the county is ridiculous. On the house we just flipped he failed the plumbing inspection because the water heater temp has to be within the range of 130 F to 140 F. Our water heater measured 142.5 F. Had to call him out again. Of course we had to pay again for that. Racket?

As for getting more even though it takes longer, I think we can cut down our flipping time better than we have. However, we will not cut corners to do that.

I think I mentioned before when were in the process of wrapping up work on flip #2, a couple of realtors who heard about our house asked if they could come in to look at it. My Son told them that we were already working with a realtor but they wanted to see the house anyway. After giving the house a through look they both said, “if you guys keep doing work like this you’re going to give flippers a good name. Don’t worry you’ll get your price and if your realtor can’t get it for you I will”. We heard that from two different realtors so we know we’re doing it right. But like I said we gotta move a little faster.

jmonroe

driver100

@jwm40517 @ab348 The single thing you can do to live longer is to have a social network. There are seniors clubs, rec centers, YMCAs, car clubs, volunteering, walking groups, low impact yoga, cards,.....not always easy to do it but well worth it. Some things won't work, but you will eventually find something.

Here in Florida there is a seniors club and they serve beautiful free lunches....chicken, vegetable, potato and dessert when we looked in. Before and after lunch various groups played cards, dominoes, some just talked, the lunches looked delicious.....hard to turn down but they were for people who needed them.

Of course virtual Edmunds buddies might help a bit too.