Ball "Exits" Blackburn

Tuesday's early game featured a battle between the corporate sell-outs. Recently renamed Mr. Electric and Exit Realty battled hard to jockey for some key points before the playoffs.

In a game that saw Exit Realty go down early and hard, Exit's bats came alive on Tuesday night. After giving up a 3-run homerun in the top of the 1st to the hot hitting Steve "My wife loves my swollen finger" Walman, Denis "Pickle" McNicol seemed to settle into a pitching groove. Unfortunately, Exit's defense didn't get into the same groove until about the 3rd.

Thankfully, Exit had the long ball working. With 3 homeruns, a couple of balls off the fence, and a handful of other base hits, Exit made Mr. Electric's ace look old (he's only about 20, so it's hard to do). Will "I am a cartoon" Mood hit 2 dingers while "Pickle" had 1 single dinger. Eric "Pedro" Sanchez had a hard line drive off the fence in right center. Of Sanchez' hit I commented, "Hey Pedro, trouble getting it up, eh? They've got drugs for that now."

Later, Pedro had a chance to respond after I hit a ball to the warning track. "Nice hit Chugger, but it looks like you're a typical young guy. You can get it up, but not for long enough."

It's fun when we are hitting.

Nothing much to report.

My house is still listed and I am still getting quite a few showings. It certainly does appear as if my place is overpriced as I am not really getting many offers. It probably has more to do with the condition of the house, and not the "true" value of the home. However, it likely means that I will be definetely moving in in September. This was my original plan, and I am not losing out as a result.

Secondly, I have given a deadline to sell the house. I am going to go and visit my sister in Thunder Bay in a couple of days, for a few days. When I return, I will begin showing the house for renters. I need to get some people before September actually arrives. I have no doubt that I will be able to find some people to rent, but I will not be seeking any buyers for the home. The deadline will probably be about a week from tonight.

More showings...

The other night I made the decision to remain firm on my price, and every day I become more and more confident that I made the right decision. Each day I receive a phone call from Remax about showing the house again. I feel bad for my current tenants for all of the intrusions, but business is business, and I need to sell my house.

Well, I don't need to sell my house. I need to sell my house at a price that I will be very comfortable accepting. When I listed the house, I was not expecting to sell it. I was merely trying to help establish a solid base for which my house is worth. With the neighbors house on the market, I want him to sell his place to set a new precedent for the value of a house in the neighborhood. Given that I am directly next door, his house is the most relevant comparable, so I need for him to sell at a premium.

Little did I know, our houses weren't priced out of the market. We have had showings left, right and centre. I've gotten a couple of offers, but nothing worthwhile at this point. It gives me a lot of hope that my neighbor will be able to sell his home very soon and establish that new threshold that I am looking for.

The biggest problem that I have is the fact that I know that, if my house was fixed up, I could draw an offer closer to $300,000, if not more. A similar house went on the market recently for that amount, and given a little bit of market appreciation, I could stand to make even more money. That being said, mo' money, mo' problems is the rationale for trying to sell the house now. If I can make a quick buck without the headaches and hassle, I plan on doing so. It will free up a lot of cash for me, and I will have many other options in which to invest in.

Up the ante...

The offer of $224,500 has increased. It's up to $231,000. Jeff and I wanted some more movement on their part before negotiations got serious. Verbally, Jeff and I agreed that we would counter with $257,000. I have 2 more showings, so I feel no pressure to have many significant deviations from my original asking price.

The neighbor's house should sell before any deal on my part. His is listed at a lower price, but I am not planning to undercut my competition. I want to set a new precedent for my house. When his house is sold, I will have that much more leverage and will be able to make that much more money.

Another offer...

I got an offer last night while I was playing some ball. $224,500. This offer is better than the first offer and its in writing this time. Again, I am very doubtful that this will turn into anything as the neighbor's house is still listed. I am going to remain firm on my price, but we'll see if things do pan out.

Jeff still needs to get back to me about what our course of action should be because I trust his experience. I know what I want to do with the house, and Jeff has been great about trying to achieve that goal, but I'd like to use his experience to see how we should react given this particular situation.

I want to remind people that I am under no duress to sell this place. If I don't get close to my asking price of $259,000, I do not plan to sell the house.

Blackburn tournament

Exit Realty finished the weekend with a 3-2 record. This meant a trip to the semi-finals in a game which we lost to the eventual victors, Mr. Electric.

Despite some really close games on the weekend, the game between Mr. Electric and Exit Realty must have been the most dramatic. Keanu Reeves could not have even provided for that much drama. In a close 1-0 game going into the bottom of the 7th, Mr. Electric scored the tying run with only one out remaining. To them, it would be like picking up a hot chick at closing, nearly impossible, but an amazing finish.

Exit Realty opened the scoring in the 4th inning. While pitching a perfect game until that point, Nick Bowmann walked the first batter of the inning (me). I advanced on a beautiful sacrifice bunt by Terry Jones. I later scored on a ground ball that went through the infield.

Will Lowe, Exit's pitcher, was pitching an equal gem of a game. After pitching 7 innings in the quarters, Will never looked tired in the semis. With two outs already in the 7th inning, Exit Realty looked poised to win the game. Unfortunately, the defence behind him got unlucky.

With Nick Bowmann running for Steve Walman, Shannon Borho hit a slow grounder towards emergency 2nd baseman, Will Mood. Mood, waiting for the grounder, positioned his body directly behind the ball, but the ball hit a divot and the game became tied as it rolled past him. Exit would get out of the inning without any further damage.

With international base running rule in effect for the 8th inning, Exit Realty was able to score Al Tomlinson from 2nd base. This was no easy task. Terry Jones mentioned that he was going to time Al's speed from 2nd to 3rd, but he didn't bring his calendar. Regardless, Wayne Hunter was able to single him in. Exit Realty, however, could not provide any more offence in the inning.

In the bottom half of the inning, Mr. Electric didn't waste any time. On an attempted sacrifice bunt, the runner was able to make it to first before the throw. The runner from 2nd made it safely to third as well. Exit Realty was in a big hole. Will Lowe could not stop the bleeding and Mr. Electric would eventually score 2 in the inning on some clutch hits. They got advance to the finals.

It was a great game for the fans to watch. There was some classic small ball, and Mr. Electric were deserving champions. They eventually beat the Good ol' Boys in another tight 3-2 game.

4 showings this weekend

Just to keep people informed, I had 4 appointments to see the house this past weekend. I've received no offers so far. I doubt I will see much of an offer until the place next door sells. It is listed $20,000 less, so I definetely expect it to go first.

I want to remind everyone that I am not really trying to sell my home. I'm more or less testing the market. I am getting a lot of viewings for the place, but the general consensus is that people want to move into a home where renovations do not have to be done. Listed at $259,000, this means that I can put a lot of money into renovations and still expect to get people interested in the home because I only spent $200,500 on on the home.

In a way, I hope that the neighbour's house does not sell. At first, it would have provided me with a new basis on which to value my home. With the new listing price, I can now see what the guy is likely to accept upon an offer in the future, from me. With all of the viewings, I know that I can make some quick money on the properties if I am able to renovate.

House next door...

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but the house next door to my house is for sale. It is part of the reason that I have listed my home. I thought it might make for a good investment opportunity for someone to own both homes. Except, I'm not really offering any sort of market discount to encourage this type of sale.

Anyways, the point of this blog posting is to update the status of the house next door. They have a new price. The owner has listed it at $239,000 from $249,000. I'm slightly disappointed by this as I would have preferred the base price for my hom to be higher, but there is very little I can do about the market. The thing I don't understand is the fact that I had approached the owner about a month ago and pretty much agreeing to pay about $230,000 in a private deal next year.

The reason this does not make sense for the guy is the fact that real estate commissions are going to eat away at his profits. Realistically, he will have to settle for about $230,000 and then he will lose 5% on commissions. Essentially, he will walk away with only $218,500. This will be in addition to any adjustments and legal fees he incurs.

This guy does not know business. If the house does not sell during the listing period, I think I know what kind of price I will be able to offer him when I am prepared to purchase. In fact, I've seen a couple of more places that would be a prime investment. I'll discuss these later.

Videos posted

The other day I posted some videos that I found of a guy named Bo Burnam. I'm not sure if you guys had seen him before, but I thought I would post his videos on the blog. I think he's hilarious.

2 types of showings tonight

First, I will be taking a local student around the house tonight to see if they are interested in renting one of the rooms. This will mark the first showing of the house and it will give me an idea of the interest there is from the rental market on the home. I had decided to begin the showings before August as the number of viewings of the house have declined since the past weekend. I expect the number of viewings to continue to decline over time.

That being said, I did get a call last night for another viewing tonight to see about selling the place. As much as it would be nice to take the money from a sale and run with it, it makes more financial sense for me to continue to rent the property and sell the property at another point in time. Therefore, I have convinced myself to remain very firm on my price.

High School Party!

My Whole Family

Rehab Song

Apple pie

A Love Ballad

This is bo yo!

Math is now cool!

1st offer...

Not much to get excited about here. I received a call yesterday from Jeff, my real estate agent, while I was playing at Hope Beach Volleyball. Jeff had left a message on my phone, but with all of the music playing at Hope Beach, I could not make out what he was saying. It didn't help that I might have had a couple of Gin and 7's at that point.

Nonetheless, I did end up finding out that there was a verbal discussion with another agent in the amount of $221,000. This is somewhat encouraging. When I bought the house for $200,500 in February, I didn't really think that I could have made so much money so quickly. It's nice to know that my house is appreciating in value without any work done to the place.

Now, with a listing price of $259,000, there was no way that I was going to sell. In fact, 221 is almost insulting. Mind you, I did the same thing essentially when I bought the place. Call it business...

Anyways, the offer is a start. I'm not expecting to sell within the next month for my asking price, so I will likely be taking it off the market shortly. It's more of a market experiment. It's good to gauge what people are looking for when it comes to a home purchase. I've already learned a lot about my house.

The next step will be to find some roomates. I'll be trying to show the house in August when I have some time off of work for my study period. For now, I have been receiving a lot of requests to see the place, so I have no fear about finding roomates. It will be tricky though to find some good ones.

Some new pics of my home...

As expected...

As expected, I have not received any offers on my downtown Ottawa home. I think the market is hot in the area, but people do not necessarily want to take the time and money to make the home into its true value. I had two showings last night and there was another appointment this afternoon, but these individuals came to look at the home without seeing any of the interior pictures. I'm not optimistic yet about receiving an offer.

As excited as I am about selling the home, I am pessimistic about my opportunities to sell it at this point in time. This is not necessarily a bad thing as I found out yesterday at lunch it only takes me 4 minutes to go home from work. I really like this feature about my home. The access to the Queensway will be a key component to making the house work for me. It is probably the single biggest reason I purchased the home. This will also be the biggest reason for me to hold firm on my asking price.

The other reason to hold firm on my asking price is the fact that another home has been placed on the market in the same neighborhood as my home. 225 Arlington has been listed at $349,000. This is a single family home in a good condition. This gives me some indication as to the upside potential of my home. Since my home is a semi-detached, I am probably looking at the neighborhood of $320,000 as the upper limit of the market. I'd have to do a lot of work to get that price, but it still leaves me with a lot of wiggle room for improvements.

To further support my argument, there was a home recently listed at $300,000 that sold within a couple of days on Arlington. This was a semi-detached similar to mine and was obviously in decent shape. I have the opportunity to do a nice flip, but at this point, I'm hoping to make the money without sweating.

We'll see what happens.

Downtown market report

Pictures to come...

The house is listed and today Jeff and I are going to go and take some pictures of the interior. I'm hoping that the showings will yield an offer. I'm doubtful as I am not sure the buyers are necessarily aware that the house is in need of a little bit of TLC.

Again, here is the the listing.

FOR SALE!!!

My house is listed on MLS here.

A little fun...

I've decided to add another poll to the blog. Please vote on whether you think I should sell or hold my downtown property. For those people that read my site through facebook, please visit featherslam.blogspot.com.

Another whim...

Tonight I go and visit Jeff. I've convinced myself to try and sell my downtown property. What prompted this? Simple. Money!!!

The house next door, which I once considered purchasing, is now listed on the market for $249,000. Now, I believe that my house is in better shape. Therefore, I think I should be able to get a decent return on my original investment of $200,000. This is a nice little chunk of change. There are many costs on my end that I need to worry about, but I am going to discuss this with Jeff and we're going to see if the numbers are going to work for me.

There is still a strong chance that I keep my place. I'm thinking that I will offer my home up in the hope that an investor would be coming along that wishes to purchase both halves of the semi. If that's the case, I'm hoping that he's going to pay a slight premium and that I will have made some money without actually doing anything to the property except hold it.

If I sell the place, I think I will go with a condo centrally located. Realistically, I do not really want to live with anyone. I'd like the privacy that I get with a condo. The place would also be smaller so I wouldn't have to spend a fortune on furnishing the place either.

This is my latest whim, but I expect that not much will happen from it. I have set a short timeline to help gauge interest, but if nothing happens too soon, I will continue to look for renters and move in September 1st.