posted on August 22, 2001 04:14:10 PM
I just had to jump in here:
My ebay bill has never been over 100 dollars a month. But that may soon change as I am listing more and more.
I live in the capital of Oregon, no it's not Portland.
We pay 550 for our 2 bedroom, 1 bath house, built in 1938, it's only 700 square feet with no garage! We are looking to buy a new 3 bed/2bath, it will be 135,000, about 1200 a month. I will have a whole bedroom for eBay, and for the first time a garage!
Yes, it rains a lot, in fact it's raining right now.
No, we are not all tree hugging, granola munchers.
I have never been skiing or snowboarding.
We call it the coast, not the beach.
posted on August 22, 2001 07:08:14 PM
Hello all, Just had to add my 2 cents here, and I wish that was my ebay bill, but it runs about 200-400 a month. I really feel for you that have to pay high taxes, that is a killer, I am just glad that in sunny sunshine florida, when you come to see mickey mouse, and do all that fun stuff you can do here, you help to keep my taxes really low $800 a year, so let me say thank you for visting florida, and do come back real soon. We just moved in to a 3bd 2 bath inground pool, 2 car garage[full of ebay items]and we pay $750 a month, but we put a 20% down payment on the house, we moved as, we didn't have room for all of my ebay items, so I guess you could say, I have my ebay house too. great thread, have a great night all, Terrilee
posted on August 22, 2001 07:41:38 PM
I know what you mean about the weather mommoo!
My family lived in Chicago and Chicago-area for generations. I moved South at age 10. I head back to visit relatives from time to time... but never in the winter!
We live just outside the Atlanta city limits, 8 miles from the heart of downtown. Voters here passed a property tax reduction a couple of years ago. We no longer pay county property taxes -- just school taxes & bonds. It cut our tax bill nearly in half.
Lots average 3/4 acre in our neighborhood and the elementary school was named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in May.
We're a little more than an hour & a half from the mountains and two of the most beautiful lakes in the world (Burton & Rabun -- Rabun was named 4th most beautiful, right after Lake Como). We have a tiny cottage at Lake Burton, which will become our spring through fall retirement home.
I've been working hard to reduce my eBay bill. I've cut it by more than half by drawing more traffic to my web site and using my auctions to drive buyers to my eBay storefront (while it's still closing fees only). My overall sales increase each month and I'm keeping more of it in my pocket.
posted on August 22, 2001 07:45:11 PM
Yks, I wouldn't know what to do with a house payment that big. You know if you moved a little north of Lake Forest to Southern Wisconsin you could get twice the house for half the money. Who would want to live in Lake Forest anyway, the home of the Bears when you could be a Packer Fan.
I sure wish I could have a ebay bill that big but then if I did I would have to have employees and I wouldn't want that. Give me my little bill and my apartment. Aint Life Grand....
Just dropping down from the rafters to put in my two cents worth...
Interesting thread. Nice to know where people live.
My eBay bill is generally around $100 a month, plus or minus $20.00. I'd be delighted to a $2400 eBay bill. Of course, I'd prolly be in one of those flaked out from exhaustion places if I did the listings for that much business! I'm pretty much a hobby seller. I love it when something goes away. Amazing how this stuff accumulates. I'm convinced it breeds, like rabbits. Maybe I better check those closets more often! Ha ha!
Anyway, I live in California, midway between San Fran and L.A., in a smallish city (45,000 +/-) with a big giant university. My home is just under 1500 sq. ft. It's 75 years old, 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths. My mortgage is $2800 a month and it's a bargain! Really - I'm not kidding!!
The extras? Well, no crime, unbelievably wonderful climate, nothing's more than five miles away and, of course, the university. When my kids were growing up, on a Saturday afternoon they could walk downtown to the movies by themselves and Mom had no worries. It hasn't changed.
I know there are places in our great land where housing is much less expensive but, I grew up in California and will stay here.
posted on August 22, 2001 08:27:56 PM
I guess I should have mentioned that I live in Everett, WA. About half the families in my apartment complex are navy. For a while, our rent was going up around $30/month every time our lease was up. I'm glad its leveled out some.
I used to work at MS, gave up the commute to ebay and work very part time for a small food demo company in Redmond. So now I have the commute only once or twice a week.
I'm loving the rain today! I moved out here because I was sick of snow and have always liked rain. However, I didn't love the downpour that decided to let loose as I was walking to the car after registering the daughgter for school. I was wet!
posted on August 22, 2001 08:33:08 PM
Interesting thread.
Okay our ebaY bill runs between 600 and 1200 a month.Though over a 12 month period it has been as high as 15,000 a year.
As to mortgage,we live in Cape Coral on the Gulf Coast of Florida.Its a boaters paradise with lots of canals and water access.However we do not live on the water,though I can see the river from the back of our houses between the ones across the street.
So I tell people we are 300ft in the wrong place but houses are 600,000 to 900,000 for a 2000 sq ft older home.We have the same home as they do but on dry land and we are 150,000.
We have 2000sq ft,swimming pool and mortgage is 1000.00 a month.A good portion of that is flood insurance for hurricanes.Our taxes are about 2100 a year.
Our house has gone up 20,000 in the last year as property is going crazy down here.
Especially water lots,a vacant lot bought last year between 30,000 and 60,000 is now worth 150,000 to 250,000.Thats not a joke either.
Lots of people moving is as they think propery is a steal.
We are 5 minutes from a beach on the river,5 mins to fish.30 to 40 mins to Sanibel and Fort Myers beach.
Great place to raise kids and though its hot there is always lots to do.
posted on August 22, 2001 08:33:48 PM
Triggerfish,
I'm with you! No lawn mowing for me either. The nice man comes by every other Tuesday and takes care of the whole place, which is only a quarter acre but that's way more than I'm gonna do!
He's just now finishing up putting in sprinklers and a drip system for the little stuff - bougainvilleas on the fence and so forth.
posted on August 22, 2001 08:43:21 PM
Hey Lucy! I'm every other Tuesday also!! I've never even mowed a lawn before. Wouldn't know how and don't WANNA! Don't even like to have to water altho I have to water the flowers but the sprinkler system takes care of the rest.
[ edited by Triggerfish on Aug 22, 2001 08:45 PM ]
posted on August 22, 2001 08:53:29 PM
My ebay bill keeps inching closer toward $100 per month. Should go higher this fall when I plan to hit it hard!
We live on 115 acres in Western PA, and I love it here (except for the weather in the winter). You can't see another house from my place but we're only ten minutes from major shopping, and less than 30 minutes from Downtown Pittsburgh -- Penguin Hockey, Steelers football, the (shudder) Pittsburgh Pirates. Our little town is a three-minute drive away, with a post office that seldom has more than me and one clerk in it, a decent branch of a major grocery store and a really great "smash and dent" kind of place where you can get incredible bargains.
Our land is all weeds. No animals. We used to have a guy who cut it in exchange for the hay, but he got out of the cattle biz. Nobody else wants it so it's just going natural.
No mortgage cause we paid it off with other real estate profits. The house was a total disaster when we bought it--it had been empty for more than ten years. We redid the inside completely--literally down to the studs. The outside is still ugly because we can't make up our minds what we want to do. Our taxes are reasonable at about $1200 per year--we are the "first" property in the "cheap" county, next to the main county where the City of Pittsburgh, and all the hospitals and universities hog up a lot of resources. The county line runs three feet into a neighbor's property, and his taxes are about triple ours (except for that 3-foot strip . Plus in PA, there's a "Clean and Green" act that cuts your taxes if you have more than 10 acres and don't do certain things with it. We don't do nuthin' except walk around on it.
I have a small business and rent space in our little town for only $350 per month. The space is HUGE, enough for me to have moved all my ebay inventory into it with room to spare.
posted on August 22, 2001 08:55:58 PM
Howdy Triggerfish,
I remember - I remember - I mowed a lawn in Santa Cruz in 1996!
Didn't enjoy it very much. Haven't ever done it down here. Matter of fact, I put the mower out on the curb for the free trash pick-up day, which takes place when the university students leave town for the summer.
Still, I DO try to care for my house plants. After all, the big ficus, which has been in my care since 1994, deserves some water once in a while!
posted on August 22, 2001 09:29:52 PM
Hello all you Pacific NW'rs! I live west of Redmond out in cow town! My mortgage originally was 685 a month but we keep re-financing and it's double that now.
My highest Ebay bill was 450.
A sad statistic to anyone in Western Washington.....our public school teachers are paid the same as the teachers in McAllan, TX. A teacher can actually buy a nice house on $28,000.00 down there! New teachers can't even rent a condo here on the eastside.....so sad!
posted on August 22, 2001 09:36:21 PM
My gardener person charges me $60.00 a month to do the stuff every other week. A bargain - I'm not gonna do it myself - it's outside! Ha ha!
My little 1/4 acre is lawn, except for driveways and where buildings are. I wonder how $60 a month I'm paying, versus the $125 you're paying, calculates out to the 3+ acres you have in lawn? Per square foot?
posted on August 22, 2001 10:36:29 PM
Our total eBay fees this year have been around $2400. Our highest month was a little under $300 and I nearly choked, thinking, "I gotta get my own website and get these hands outta my pocket" (ebay, auctionworks, etc.).
Anyhoo, we live in the northern San Francisco bay area. When we got this house back in 97 it was a little shy of $120K. Back then median housing prices in this city were around $150. Now the new homes here are $400-500K and the median home price is $260-275K. And the thing now is that every development has a "golf community." What's with that?
As much as I would love to live some where where the cost of living is lower, I just can't leave! Can't beat being 2 hours from skiing in the winter and an hour from beaches in the summer.
But our property taxes are extremely low in this county (1.25%) which would explain the horribly crappy, sucky, god awful, ____fill in the blank____ schools.
posted on August 23, 2001 02:13:28 AM
Thats a healthy bill, on how much revenue???
We're seeing sell through decrease considerably. As eBay make site alterations sales seem to always decline. While fee's seem to go the opposite way. Now you can list in two categories so instead of being able to select two categories that would give added visibility they add more categories and stuff some away where they dont get more/enough.
We pay about $1200 a month and are backing auctions off the site. We vend through other sites that sell through 10:1 sometimes 20:1 what eBay will sell through for us and often at better pricing. Certainly less commissions as we pay zero listing fee's at various places.
Small businessman are often "ummm" businessmen. Realize while eBay might be a site with the highest "hits" on the web MANY of those hits are the sellers looking at their own stuff over and over and over. Also realize that most buyers are bargain hunters where-as the avg. consumer is NOT a bargain hunter (though they may think they are) but are in reality impulse buyers. If you sell "computer stuff" there are sites that will outsell eBay 50:1
Signed: WhyNot!
Where are you??? You lucky dog!!! My taxes are a killer in Allegheny County!! I bend over daily- We just bought this house in April because my Ebay stuff needed room to grow.
We were looking at Butler County, but I didnt have the heart to move my 12 year old out of the school district and away from her friends so here we are paying $5500 for a 1/2 acre lot and 2600 square foot home.
My Post Office is pretty cool too, usually only me when I go in and a line of about 30 when I leave...HEHEHE
Jen
posted on August 23, 2001 05:06:34 AM
Ok, I'm probably the odd man out but I LIKE to yard work! I enjoy cruising the lawn a couple afternoons a week on the rider.
Peaceful
(can't hear the phone)
We have a horseshoe drive (no horse though) that requires a bit of edging but for the most part I cando the entire yard in about 3 hours. (a sixpack worth)
If ebay would be good to me I'd like a bigger rider some day.
posted on August 23, 2001 06:30:13 AM
I guess I'm the only one here, who rents an apartment. I live in the SF Bay Area (Calif), and pay $625/mo on my one-bedroom. My eBay fees usually run anywhere from $60-80/mo.
I too live in Iowa, North Central, and like I said in the beginning of the thread we pay $320 a month house payment, 4 bedrooms, 2 bath, taxes went up this year to about $600/yr, still not too bad.
Like you said, I shouldn't say this, but we never lock our doors unless we leave for vacation, there is almost 0 crime rate, you can go out any time of the day or night and not have to worry about anything.
Our lot size is 167X120 so not a real small piece of property, and it's in a sub division and were on the dead end, so we get no traffic unless people are coming to our house or miss the turn and are turning around.
I don't think anyone could pay me to leave my little corner of the world.
Since this is also about ebay fees, mine usually run about $100-150 but have had them as high as $300.
posted on August 23, 2001 06:54:35 AM
dannkim - no, we rent an apartment too - $710/month for 3 bedroom/2 bath & garage...
Ebay bills & sales have been WAY down for me.. been trying to get into new areas to make up for slumps in my niche market - but that hasn't taken off like I'd like it to... so we're diversifying a little more and see what happens there...
posted on August 23, 2001 12:28:56 PMJen, we are right off 22/30 on the way to Post Gazette Pavillion (nee Star Lake), and are just barely in Washington County! I feel your Allegheny County pain, as our investment properties are all there and we (or I should say our tenants) pay enough real estate taxes to fund a small commune. The PA real estate tax system is horrendous.
We are also about 20 mins. from the WV border, so maybe I should hie myself down the road for some powerball tickets....
