patrick.net

Former Apt Broker,
I totally agree. Just a few years ago, the biggest, baddest, most desireable car to have was a 57' Belair. People ate them up, paying as much as 50k for the things- even the 4 door models. Companies went into business just to make replica parts, and magazines were full of new trim, hoods, door shells, and interior parts.
Everyone bought the things and these days if you head to a Goodguys show, there are so many Belairs, people just don't really care because there isn't anything special about 300 of the same car, in the same color configuration and same boring straight 350 V8. That's why I got a Mercury because most of them were scrapped in the 60's because they had more durable engines for racing. So they wound up being fairly rare for a car of that vintage. Finding parts is near impossible for the body. I've seen maybe 3 other Montereys since owning this one for 4 years. Is it worth anything? Nope. Zilch. In fact, if I sold it now, I would probably lose money on what I've sunk into it.
It's interesting to see what the kiddies fix up these days. Hondas and Acuras complete with big exhaust, cam and engine performance kits, and little trinkety alluminum accessories. In some ways, it's no diffrent than what kids did 30 years ago, which was take some old boring car and hop it up with some monsterous engine. I can respect that, but I can't help but know that in 30-40 years, the old farts walking around car shows will be looking at 91' Honda Civics. Sort of depressing.

To add, HEMIs are the most overated mechanical item in history. The gimick was simply a hemispherical combustion chamber. woopty-doo.The additional power was neglible. If you want just a classic HEMI engine, expect to pay a minumum of 15-20k. Insane.

WW2

That Harvard report was interesting. What income level do you think they set to be middle class? I presume that would vary greatly by region.

One item that makes that point is aircraft. In the 60's - 70's, one could buy a Cessna 150 for the same price as a new Buick. Every county had a small airport with lots of planes. Average Joe could afford a Cessna or Piper, Rich Joe could buy a Beechcraft or multi-engine. All these plane were made in the good ol' USA. Poor men could afford used planes or rent them cheap.

Today, a new aircraft costs as much as a house in the suburbs. Rental of a Cessna is typically $100/hr, for an old one.

Of course, legalman had something to do with it. In the 80's, Cessna claimed that $20,000 of each new Cessna 152 was to cover assessed legal fees/payouts.

John M,

"The loan was completely handled by the builder"

See, this is the type of incestuous relationship that just gets me fuming! Oh, so it must be a "good deal" otherwise the builder wouldn't have handled the whole enchilada! O.K, I gotcha! I have friends and clients (and clients that are friends) doing this kind of thing to me all the time. It just feels so defeating. I have a client that is putting down 150K on a 3 mil. home next week! Oh, I'll provide as directed but I wanted to make sure the guy had plenty of ways to walk away from it. His wire (from another bank) didn't come through in time so the builder's realtor said they now have the right to sell the home to another buyer. Well along comes the builder, tells my client "don't listen to her" and offers the guy 7% on his money! I told my client that the going rate is 8% and half of the profit! Maybe this weekend will chill him out!

Headset,

Ever consider a homebuilt? One of my old client's brother puts out an all steel model called the RV 9? They do them right here in Aurora, OR? I think sans powerplant (Lyc. 120) the kit is 20K. Must do alright, his brother tells me he sells a lot of them and they're pop pop popular with enthusiasts. Full aerobatic capability.

Headset,

I worked at NAS Cubi Pt. in the "I" and after launching a "floatilla" of F-4 Phantoms a Lycoming 120 may not excite me as much as it used to.

DinOR,

I have been looking at homebuilts on and off through the years, I just have not made the plunge. I will google that RV9, though.

Why wouldn't the Lyco be exciting? If it powers an aerobatic plane, tell me that isn't fun? Are you saying the F4 has spoiled you?

A motorcycle or MG isn't any less fun just 'cause it ain't a Formula One racer

Headset,

I've done just about everything one can do with an airplane EXCEPT fly. And I'm O.K with it, really. In truth, yeah I'm pretty spoiled. I was just old enough to see most of the warbirds that served in Nam' get decommssioned. The A-3 Whale (huge), of course the F-4, the F-5 which were used by the Philippine Air Force and many other now obsolete airframes. I worked the "Transient Line" so we had to service/repair just about everything including MAC (C-130/C-141). It was fun b/c everyday was totally different. I had friends at VRC-50 and VC-5 (Adversary Squad. that flew the A-4) and they were hating life. I stay in touch with a lot of those guys and we laugh at how "brainwashed" we still are! Before I complete any work (even if it is on a lawnmower) I still "inventory" my tool box and inspect the area for F.O.D. Sad really.

Jon,

"clearly a sign you can't hack it"

That is what's so sad about what we're regrettably conveying to younger people. "Living with enormous amounts of debt dangling over head provides incentive to work and builds character". Really? So I can be a used up character on his 3rd. marriage (and second bankruptcy) just like you dad? What are we doing!

new thread Realtors™ Using “Econ” to Push Overpriced Homes

Being a Gen-Xer, I can’t think of a single domestic car when I was 16-23 that got my blood boiling.

Yeah, I'll second that. I guess if I had to pick one, it would have to be the 300Z. I still remember the cute little nickname for IROCs: Italian Retard Owns Car.

Jon,

Yeah, even though I'm in my late 40's I get that assbag garbage too. The bottom line is that I can't change what college costs these days. The only thing I can do about the cost of RE is to complain about here and to anyone that will listen. (But I feel better about it everyday) We've talked my oldest daughter out of buying for now (no dear, we won't be dissapointed if you are not decorating a nursery). The only thing I can do for them is to teach them to absolutely minimize the use of debt leveraging and then show them ways to deal with that debt in a sane an responsible manner. Believe me younger people are not oblivious to the cost of living and if you've got a plan they're open to it!

I bought a '68 RS Camaro convertible from the original owner in 2000 for $6k, kept it 4 years, put about 1K in it and sold it for 14K. The thing is that car is now worth 25K easy. Ahhhh free money from the house ATM. Magic I tell you, and richly deserved. What can I say, either the 30-40 yo crowd waits until the great boomer die off, moves out of state, or resigns oneself to being an indentured servant. The boomers have a full nelson on the housing market/economy and they aren't going to let go until they vi@gra fueled boner goes down. I'm predicting sometime in late 2015, give or take.

ScottC
ScottC

Greetings from total FOOL. I bought 2 houses without an agent several years ago. But then, the sellers had no agents either.

You are assuming buyer's agents work for the buyer. They are typically paid from the seller's commission and thus first and formost are interested in closing the sale. Second is selling the house for as high a price as possible. A buyer's agent is just as likely to work to convince the buyer to "come up" as to convince the seller's agent to get her client to "come down."

I have a Supra Turbo I bought new in 91 and still drive. I think it's nice, but I did not think it would be a classic. I got a good deal on it, since 1991 was when the Savings and Loan collapse occured, and car loans were hard to get. With Joe HowMuchAmonth out of the picture I was able to crank down the dealer price.

I hope something like this happens with houses.

Welcome back, Scott C.

Funny you should recommend buyers using an agent vs. sellers. The board seems to be running unanimously in the opposite direction: they recommending sellers using an agent, while buyers use a good RE attorney to look over the contract.

I have far less experience than most of the people on this board, many of whom have bought and sold homes several times, but this seems to make more sense to me. I can't really see what value a buyer's agent brings to the transaction, other than take his cut of the 5-6% commission (which of course makes the seller's agent reluctant to steer their clients to you). Both agents don't get paid until a sale is made, and both get paid based on a % of the sale price, so basically BOTH are really representing the seller's interests (getting maximum $$ for the place).

Posted before I refreshed the screen and saw Headset's reply --we basically said the exact same thing.