Housing update thread !

[melmel48]

Jun 5, 2021 15:52:12 GMT -5 cuadrado said:

Jun 5, 2021 8:14:24 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

There are many reasons I am not selling my condo, even though I could make a handsome profit..one of them being I can't afford the asking prices of a new place, never mind over asking. I also do not think I can mentally handle the shit show of a bidding war. 

Good luck!

We saw a house we loved and it was under contract within 12 hours. It’s crazy.

My favorite that we are seeing up here is bidding over asking... sight unseen! WTF?!

[scm1011]

We’re currently looking and put in an offer yesterday (for a house 4 doors down from our current home lol). I’m not particularly optimistic because our offer is only 25k over asking, but it’s def not as turn key as the last one we bid on and lost at 100k over asking. We’re hoping our relationship with these neighbors will help.

[noodleoo]

Jun 5, 2021 8:42:04 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

Jun 5, 2021 8:12:43 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

I am roughly 20 miles north of Boston! 

Good luck on both your sale and purchase. 

Thanks! It really is an insane market. My 925 ft ranch with 1 bathroom is selling for 620k 🤣🤣

Holy shit! Are you staying in the same town? I desperately want a bigger house but prices are insane and even with the appreciation on our house, houses we would want are out of reach. It’s depressing, but I’m glad we own a house at all. 

[imimahoney]

Jun 6, 2021 21:23:04 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Jun 5, 2021 8:42:04 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

Thanks! It really is an insane market. My 925 ft ranch with 1 bathroom is selling for 620k 🤣🤣

Holy shit! Are you staying in the same town? I desperately want a bigger house but prices are insane and even with the appreciation on our house, houses we would want are out of reach. It’s depressing, but I’m glad we own a house at all. 

We are! Just moving 1 mile closer to my kids school. We were lucky to find a house in the exact location we wanted. We waited to list our place until we were under contract since we knew how fast it would go.

[namasteak]

We bought 2 weeks ago and close 6/18. We got it at asking and they paid $5k in misc minor repairs. They are leasing it back from us for about a month at $200/day.

We have yet to sell our current home but haven’t listed it yet.

[Susie]

Jun 5, 2021 18:22:57 GMT -5 Doggy Mommy said:

Something I’ve noticed is that people aren’t selling without a plan in place. 

That has mostly been what I've seen too, with one main exception:  pandemic-related financially distressed sellers.    I'm pretty sure that was our sellers' situation.  They had like 3 different plans in the 2 months from listing to selling, which I think boiled down to "sell this house and go somewhere else."  When they listed it in late March, they listed it "Contingent on sellers finding a home of their choice," and I almost didn't even want to go see it.  That's a tease in this market, sellers might never find home of their choice!  But their agent said they were house hunting that day, were motivated, etc. so we made an offer and gave them a 60 day window to find something, extendable at our option.  They accepted our offer without exercising that period at all, and they chose 5/26 as the closing date at the outset.  We were surprised, but fine with it.  Then they changed their minds and supposedly decided to move in with family.  Then when we saw them at closing they had moved to a rental nearby.  At closing their attorney remarked that they did a good job scheduling closing for exactly 2 years + 2 days after they had bought, meeting the 2 years owning primary residence to avoid capital gains tax.  They were like huh?  We had no idea!  Oh boy.  But I got the feeling not much has gone according to plan for them lately.  I hope it all works out for them, they made a nice profit, they (luckily!) avoided a major tax issue, and hopefully they can move forward in a way that works for them.

Aside from that sort of scenario, everyone I know who is selling had their next home lined up ahead of time, which I know is part of the inventory problem.  My old house isn't perfect but it sure beats PODS, two moves, and temporary housing.  

We didn't list ours until several weeks after our purchase contract was accepted.  Our next door neighbors listed after they had a date from their builder (although that is now pushed out and they have to figure something out, which sucks).  We listed our houses a week apart, next door to one another, and both of us had multiple offers/well above asking on our respective first weekends, so we didn't overlap being active on the MLS at all.  

[scm1011]

Our offer was accepted today, wooohoooo!! I will be moving approximately 30 yards down the same street, lol.

I will soon be venturing to H&G for advice on how to get rid of popcorn ceilings, plant privacy hedges, and add a front porch.

[Susie]

congrats scm1011!

[scm1011]

I know these boards have mixed feelings on letters to the seller (and I absolutely understand the criticism), but I wanted to update/note that in our bananas market ours was what made the difference. The sellers raised their family in this house (they are now in their late 70s) and I wrote a gushy letter about how much we love the neighborhood and want to raise our family there, and specific things about the house we really loved (mostly upgrades that they made). It was all genuine, but I definitely upped the gush factor. Also, they're native Italian speakers (with spotty English) so I had an Italian friend translate the letter for me (Google Translate's version was apparently horrific). Their realtor told mine that we didn't have the highest offer, but that they were really moved by the letter and are so happy to sell the house to another young family.

[namasteak]

scm1011 We also wrote a letter to the sellers and I think it is why we got our house too!

[Susie]

That's really interesting, we did letters when we bought our last house (none of them worked), and this time around our realtor told us that letters were not a thing in our market anymore, because of concerns about housing discrimination.  Instead it's the sort of thing that gets quietly alluded to, from agent to agent.  E.g. our agent told our sellers' agent about how much the creek in the back, and the backyard would be enjoyed, but not explicitly that we had kids/etc.  It totally works though.  Our sellers accepted our offer before they let offers come in from their open house.  

I wish we were able to get letters on our sale.  It was so hard to choose from basically anonymous buyers.  We knew their names from the written offers, but nothing else.  I really wanted to feel good about who I sold to, and it's hard to feel warm and fuzzy about someone you know nothing about.

[scm1011]

Jun 8, 2021 8:53:08 GMT -5 Susie said:

I wish we were able to get letters on our sale.  It was so hard to choose from basically anonymous buyers.  We knew their names from the written offers, but nothing else.  I really wanted to feel good about who I sold to, and it's hard to feel warm and fuzzy about someone you know nothing about.

I get that. In our case, the husband was clearly SO proud of touches he added to the house (they were there during our viewing and walked around enthusiastically pointing things out - untraditional I know, but we have lived down the street from them for 12 years so we were already acquaintances). I think us appreciating those touches on a house they clearly loved, and seeing DS run around the yard excited about the gardens and and the rainwater system he rigged up made a difference.

ETA: aaaand now the wife has found DH on FB and sent a message saying that she loved raising her kids and grandkids in the house and she hopes we live there a long time lol


namasteak , I'm glad it worked out for you too! 

[raangoli]

Jun 6, 2021 21:23:04 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Jun 5, 2021 8:42:04 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

Thanks! It really is an insane market. My 925 ft ranch with 1 bathroom is selling for 620k 🤣🤣

Holy shit! Are you staying in the same town? I desperately want a bigger house but prices are insane and even with the appreciation on our house, houses we would want are out of reach. It’s depressing, but I’m glad we own a house at all. 

Same here. I will remind myself to be happy with what we have. It works for us for the most part and that is what matters. 

[liveintheville]

scm1011 congrats! I would have loved you coming to union but I appreciate that you get to stay in Davis.

[scm1011]

Jun 8, 2021 13:17:51 GMT -5 liveintheville said:

scm1011 congrats! I would have loved you coming to union but I appreciate that you get to stay in Davis.

Thanks! I'm just happy to have found an elusive single family in the ville. I'm really curious what the house we bid on in Union ends up going for. 

[HoneySpider]

We're moving OOT and last week went under contract on the house we're buying and this morning went under contract on selling our house! Very excited for this next chapter for our family.

[liveintheville]

Jun 8, 2021 13:27:25 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Jun 8, 2021 13:17:51 GMT -5 liveintheville said:

scm1011 congrats! I would have loved you coming to union but I appreciate that you get to stay in Davis.

Thanks! I'm just happy to have found an elusive single family in the ville. I'm really curious what the house we bid on in Union ends up going for. 

That’s really great you got a single family! I’m dying to know what the other house sold for, too.

[mrsd2006]

Jun 7, 2021 18:45:35 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Our offer was accepted today, wooohoooo!! I will be moving approximately 30 yards down the same street, lol.

I will soon be venturing to H&G for advice on how to get rid of popcorn ceilings, plant privacy hedges, and add a front porch.

30 yards away?? How much different can the houses be LOL. 

Everything has been selling like crazy where we have our second home. Our realtor sends a monthly email with listings, one sold for $40k over and one sold for$60k. I guess everyone wants to get out of the big city (Atlanta). 

[scm1011]

Jun 8, 2021 15:54:21 GMT -5 mrsd2006 said:

Jun 7, 2021 18:45:35 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Our offer was accepted today, wooohoooo!! I will be moving approximately 30 yards down the same street, lol.

I will soon be venturing to H&G for advice on how to get rid of popcorn ceilings, plant privacy hedges, and add a front porch.

30 yards away?? How much different can the houses be LOL. 

Everything has been selling like crazy where we have our second home. Our realtor sends a monthly email with listings, one sold for $40k over and one sold for$60k. I guess everyone wants to get out of the big city (Atlanta). 

It’s a single family vs a multi-family I live in an urban area so singles are really hard to find. I’m also ready to hang up my landlord hat!

[scm1011]

Jun 8, 2021 15:14:14 GMT -5 liveintheville said:

Jun 8, 2021 13:27:25 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Thanks! I'm just happy to have found an elusive single family in the ville. I'm really curious what the house we bid on in Union ends up going for. 

That’s really great you got a single family! I’m dying to know what the other house sold for, too.

I was totally on the look out for a set up like yours too, I just don’t want to be above someone else anymore. I have constant anxiety about the kids being too loud with their running / jumping / stomping.

[brooke77]

Well - our house hunting has been unsuccessful so far. We took a trip to look at houses and toured about 15. We put in offers on three over the course of a week. We just got news that our last offer was not accepted. I’m super, super discouraged. We were offering 10% over asking, other perks like post-close possession, cash towards their closing, using whatever attorneys they wanted, and have very strong finances (20% down and guarantee to meet offer price if appraisal comes in low). AND we still lost every offer ☹️ I feel really stuck and don’t know where to go from here.

Are people thinking this market will cool off?

[ny96]

I just got an email from Zillow. They are valuing my house at about 200k over what is was a couple months ago. I really don’t think I could ever get that much. Has anyone else seen this weird uptick in value from Zillow? For reference we bought for 1.1 3 years ago. We think our house is worth about 1.25 to 1.3, and now Zillow is valuing it at 1.46. PDQ numbers.

[coffee]

I don’t get Zillow. We bought in 2019 for 420K at the “zestimate”. The last couple months, the “zestimate” started going up like crazy, to over 500k. Then last week it went drastically down to 430k and it has stayed like that. Housing market is still hot here, not sure what happened for Zillow to make that extreme change. Houses in our neighborhood keep selling high and over asking price. No idea

[formerlyak]

Jun 1, 2021 12:28:11 GMT -5 Susie said:

Wow! $1M over asking (Chevy Chase, MD): www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/01/a-million-over-list/

This article makes me feel better about the house we are buying at “only” $200k over asking.

[quesyrah]

I sold my parents house.

Listed on a Tuesday, had 31 showings by Sunday and went under contract on Tuesday. Sold it for $100,000 over asking and closed after a 30 day escrow.

[coffee]

@hiphopanonymous thank you!!! I missed that

[jlt19]

We're about to sign a contract on a house that hasn't even been on the market for about $9k less than Zillow's estimate (but it's actually what it was estimated at when we saw it). We're just waiting on the seller's attorney to give the final go-ahead. I won't feel great about it until we sign! I'm sure she could get more if she listed, but I also thinks she just wants to be done, which is perfect for us.

Our house's zillow estimate has gone up about $20k over the last week, which is actually odd b/c I changed the details to go from a 4 bedroom to a 3 bedroom (4th bedroom was split into 2nd floor laundry, and a custom master closet-there's two now), so I'm shocked it increased so much, but seeing as we haven't listed yet, I'll take it! We do have a 4th bedroom in the basement with a bathroom, but w/o an egress window, can't list it like that.

[mommin]

I’m excited to finally add a housing update! Dh accepted a job offer out of state yesterday, we toured a house on FaceTime this morning and our realtor is putting in an offer for us in the morning, and we had a friend of a friend over to look at our house this evening and he’s planning to buy it. It’s been a crazy 36 hours. 😳
We built our house 8 years ago for $258k and the offer today was for $375k. That some pretty good appreciation. I’m almost certain we could have gotten more for our house but it was important to us to sell it to someone that will care for it and be a good neighbor. We live in a family neighborhood with a ton of kids and I love my neighbors. I feel really good about who we are selling to.
The new house has been listed for two weeks which is pretty unheard of in this market. We offered $20k less than asking but our realtor feels good about it so dingers crossed. It’s more than double the cost of the house we’re selling to that makes me a little pukey but I think I can handle it. Haha.

[bdubs419]

Jun 30, 2021 21:43:01 GMT -5 coffee said:

I don’t get Zillow. We bought in 2019 for 420K at the “zestimate”. The last couple months, the “zestimate” started going up like crazy, to over 500k. Then last week it went drastically down to 430k and it has stayed like that. Housing market is still hot here, not sure what happened for Zillow to make that extreme change. Houses in our neighborhood keep selling high and over asking price. No idea

Same thing just happened with us. We bought in 2018 and it’s definitely up big in value. Our zestimate showed that until a few weeks ago and then randomly plummeted back down even though sales have been higher than ever near me. Who knows!?!

[jwright]

A guy in my neighborhood posted on our FB page that he would be listing his house soon (he’s a realtor and would be representing himself). He’s finishing up a small project then putting it in the market. He included a link to the Zillow listing.

Zillow said $913,000. He’s planning to list for $1.2M. WTF