I also have property rage. My ex neighbor, whom we have had very good relations with, moved out of state last fall. We have been watching their house, keeping it from freezing, getting mail, etc. She said that if I found a buyer, I would get a finder's fee.

A co worker, who has been looking for a house in my area for a long time, fell in love with it. I have been intermediating between them for 6 weeks. He finally came up to her asking price, as she was not budging. He had all sorts of plans for it which would have cost 50K.

So she emails "this constitutes written acceptance of your offer, etc."

Then, a few days later, I get another email saying that the other person on the paper, a friend of hers, has decided that they do not need to sell, and they will rent it out. This other person had lived there before the one I liked. Her residency there included having a huge rusted out shell of an Airstream trailer just outside my window, among other junk strewn all over her yard, her chickens ending up dead in my yard, along with one of her cats that died and froze under one of my bushes that I did not discover until it thawed.

So anyway, instead of a neighbor I really like, and 2K in finders fees, I get a friend of this crappy woman living there as a tenant, so the mortgage is covered.

When I got the email cancelling this deal, I (possibly unwisely) shot one back saying that I don't want ANYTHING to do with any of them again. . .this will be hard to follow up on, sharing a fence, etc. but it still sucks to have this woman in my life, even as a landlady and a crappy one at that for this house.

So, sorry to derail, but I can relate. . .

i'm living with my mom.

I live with my folks too quonsar. AND IT SUCKS.

Yes, I am bitter about the fact that my job pays diddly, but unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about that until I've been here at least 6 months.

We've been trying to sell a condo that we moved out of in July for almost a year now. The market in western PA has always been slow, the place had been on the market for 8 months when I bought it so a year is not out of line, but we'd like to get rid of the darn thing. I bought it for only $110K so the money to keep paying the mortgage is not really a big deal and it's still tax deductible but it's a nice place, you'd think that someone would want it.

I'm on the other end of the property rage. We got an eviction notice recently despite being perfect tenants (agents words). Turns out that our landlord wants her house back. So we've had the minimum legal notice (2 months) to get out.

Property market being what it is here (ie: batshitinsane), it's actually become cheaper to have a mortgage than rent so we're trying to find a house.

We get one lined up - deceased estate, urgent sale - and make an offer. All within a week of our eviction notice (we move fast when we have to). And two days before we're due to go the auction, we get a call from the real estate agent to say that the owner has accepted another (and lower) offer. They were aware of our offer, apparently, but took the other one anyway.

WTF?

So now, we're looking again. I've seen the most amazing collection of disgusting wrecks over the last few days. I found a house I love, but this time the people want to go to auction (May 2, and we need to be out by May 28) and aren't accepting offers, even though we made a generous one.

*sigh*

Apparently the Aussie house market is the most over-inflated one in the developed world. It's cheaper to live in New York or Tokyo than here. Over half a million for a pretty lackluster suburban house on a tiny block? Very VERY common.

Sorry for the rant, bifter. You have my complete sympathy. Send them a pigs-head via the mail. Or lungs, if you want to save on postage (they weigh less).

It's cheaper to live in New York or Tokyo than here. Over half a million for a pretty lackluster suburban house on a tiny block? Very VERY common.

That's high, but not Manhattan-high, where, in the words of one broker I saw on TV the other day, "once you get over a million dollars in price, you start to add amenities-- like a second bedroom."

If you got any earnest money, do you get to keep it?

Lack of communication could have different reasons. I just bought a house. It was FSBO, and I had no agent, either. W/no agents to move the process along, the inspection/renegotiation, financing/renegotiation processes took forever. Then my Mom died, and it all got put on hold while I went out to the funeral. So I felt kind of bad for him, but the sale closed in early Jan. Initial offer in late Oct. Maybe the whole process took 75 days.

I went through a dreadful experience a year and a half ago. I found a house, contracted to buy it, then couldn't sell my condo despite a five month window. A buyer did appear at the eleventh hour, but the deal was far from firm. Faced with the prospect of losing $13K and the chance to buy a house I had spent four months searching for, my team put together the emergency financing so I could buy it. Then I owned two properties for about a month. My salary would not have begun to pay even my housing expenses, let alone things like food and a metropass. I shudder to think what could have happened to me. Fortunately, the last minute buyer was able to get it together and buy the condo, and things worked out, if far less than ideally, than at least livably.

I like my house, have affectionately named it Swan's End, and when I get it all fixed up I'm going to love it. The neighbourhood is super convenient and somewhat interesting. I get along well with my neighbours. I have no intentions of moving until I become too decrepit to live there. I enjoy my attic workroom and rooftop terrace daily, and I'm going to put in a rose garden this spring. Life is good.

But I have an excellent and vivid memory, and besides the Real Estate Cisis of 2006 I remember constant moves, mentally ill roommates, landlords who wouldn't fix things and who repeatedly tried to raise the rent illegally, and endless commutes to neighbourhoods located at the wrong end of nowhere. And I feel for you people.