Crappy Old Crap Crap Market. Crap

This crappy old crap crap market is dragging my little jewel through the mud! This jewel is not like a Tiffany & Co. jewel, okay? But it's totally like the small birthstone ring a teenage girl gets when she's around 15. It's her first real gemstone ring and it's small, but it's delicate and shiny and serves the purpose of making her feel beautiful and sophisticated.

I have a house like that little birthstone ring. It's blue and white. It's cute and has flower boxes with flowers in them. It has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a nice backyard and a huge kitchen. We made it eco-friendly with attic and floor insulation and low-flow toilets. We repaired the plumbing and electricity where necessary. The entire house has been painted, it has new carpets, new subfloors and new flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms. There are new light fixtures, a new closet and new hardware. We will buy a new refrigerator and stove for the buyer. This little blue topaz is surrounded by other cute birthstone rings. The house is just 4 miles from downtown and one block from an elementary school. It would be a perfect home for a young couple or family.

Look at it and try not to say, "Aww...."

The living room/dining room area:


The master bedroom:


The 2nd bedroom:


The full bath:


The third bedroom:


The 1/2 bath:


The kitchen:

Tell me that furniture doesn't make you just want to move in yourself. But now I feel like a pig just pooped on my peridot. The original broker price opinion for the house after rehab was for $88,000. The house appraised for $90,000. We listed for $87,900. No traffic. $85,000. The market remained unimpressed. Now we are down to $83,000. $83,000 for allllla that!! Still, I think we are going to face the same stony silence. Why, you ask? Because the comparative market analysis showed that nothing but foreclosures and unrenovated wrecks have been selling in the neighborhood. The average sale price is down to $25,000. Even though my house is a sassy little sapphire, people in this area are very fretful about purchasing and with other houses selling for pennies down the street, they think that something selling for more than 3 times the average should be a palace. Expectations in this market are completely insane. I don't think $80,000 woud buy a palace even in Kabul. Sigh.

Plus, I just found out from a neighbor that the last owner of the house was an investor who had a family renting the home. They were paying the rent, but the investor was not paying the mortgage. The house went into foreclosure and the family was evicted by the bank. They had been there only 6 months. How I wish I could find them now. We'd give them a great opportunity to own and never be at the whim of an irresponsible owner again.

Crappy old crap crap market.