patrick.net

DieBankOfAmericaPhukkingDie says

There were no other bids.

Realtors just lie.

It's a reflex and a way of life.

Wrong. The homes are no longer active on mls, and instead pending or contingent.

DieBankOfAmericaPhukkingDie says

Are you going to check the recorded selling price?

Of course.

Ironman says

I agree with that, Realtors are real whores and I HATE dealing with them.

Agree. While the one is pretty patient and definitely earned her commission (should we buy) because of how much gas we've used driving around, I have yet to understand the real value of a realtor.

Ironman says

The best way to look at it is, that you're buying SHELTER and NOT an INVESTMENT. It took me a few past house purchases to get it out of my head that a house ISN'T an investment, it's just shelter and a place to live.

You need to decide how long you plan to be in the house, the total cost of ownership (including closing costs and any immediate upgrades) versus staying a renter and the loss of use of the money, as it will be locked up, non liquid, in the house. Is the piece of mind not being beholden to a landlord worth all of that?

Agree. We don't look at this as an investment, but a place to live. We've been renters for 10 years, so reality is, my wife and I would like to settle down.

This could be a short term or long term thing, but I plan on staying in my new position for 1-3 years then going into business for myself. In which case, Owning a home outright would be a huge plus.

But, it seems like we've rapidly reached a new point of insanity and most new neighborhoods are here are in the $3-500k range, when incomes out here do not match.

* cash buyer no contingency is a much stronger position than your competition. is your agent playing that up during the offer/negotiation process?
* where this really pays off is the new construction product - have you looked into those or are those out of budget?
* best and final offer is reserved for a home that you are absolutely satisfied with and would not want to lose out on - have you found any of those? if not, it may be best to keep looking, or adjust your budget and think about taking out a mini mortgage. rates are heading lower right now.
* how long do you plan on staying in the house? this is NOT the bottom of the cycle but it may also not be the top. a long term position should help allay your cycle concerns.
* the general outlook on prices is that they will slowly increase, then level-off, then perhaps move downward for a few years, but then start to increase around 2022+
* markets around the globe are taking a beating, the emerging markets are heading into financial crisis and this will likely cause the US to enter a recessionary period during 2016, 2017, etc. however, a lot of money has been moving into real estate from overseas and domestically for protection purposes. but this is usually the high-end stuff. how is your employment status/projection? jobs are the main aspect of the direction housing will take. as long as the unemployment rate stays down, people will place their money into housing in an attempt to build wealth vs. renting (when times are uncertain).

some other things to consider are the local disclosure reports and city/county planning documents. where is your preferred location heading in the future? are there plans for urbanizing or plans for conservation? are there major issues that the city discloses to the public, like a landfill or a prison close by? these are things that help people zero-in on good locations that should remain desirable. of course the school districts always help too. have a look at the employment outlook - what industries are going to grow and where? is the city/county moving towards a mixed use format with lots of public transportation or do they want to preserve historic trends? what are the housing density restrictions per planning area? is the population going to grow or decrease?

if you continue to rent, where are you going to place your cash? most investors are going run to treasuries and low-risk instruments. it's probably safe to hold cash right now, too. one thing about employment - it always reacts to the economy, it does not predict anything. if the economy moves downward, then employment figures follow behind in a laggy manner. so take the unemployment rates not as an outlook, but as a status of last month, quarter, etc.

i tend to agree with the sentiment that the best time to buy a house is when you need one. if you can safely wait a year, and you don't feel like you desperately need a house (growing family, planting roots, avoiding over-priced rents) than weigh your options more carefully.

I see they are up to their same tricks. I went through that for almost a year. I found a house in less than a week when I stopped dealing with anyone associated with the NAR.

Ditch the realtors. Find local listings through channels other than MLS listed homes.
Craigslist(requires you to be vigilant to be the first to catch the deal when it hits).
Zillow or similar services, can be good for you to find semi recent listings that were bought for cheap by an investor.
Call that owner and see if he's ready to flip it yet. Often if they bought it cheap enough, and if you're the second in line for the flip. You can still get the house cheaper than when he puts it on the market with Realtors playing their games to up the price. It's after it's been flipped after that things start to get screwy. Many investors that are still doing that today. Realize this isn't 2004 anymore. They make sure they buy houses that were distressed for very cheap for cash, say like a house that under the best circumstances, could be selling for $225 because of the neighborhood. Will buy a house for like $110K that needs about $40K in repairs. Then puts it on the market for $190K but eventually settles on $175 when you catch him at the right time. If you think about it, that's only $25K in 3 or 4 months. That's not a hell of a lot of money. And if you took time off of your job to put in the sweat equity, or if you hired people to do it, considering you found the house for $110K as well. You would end up paying about the same thing, had you just did it on your own. This might not scale up to better neighborhoods, I don't know. I know two people who bought in the last two years by how I described it there. They did OK.

Drive around and find houses for sale, then call the owner...(this is how I did it in 2010)
Find a neighborhood you like and take down the addresses of houses you like, then send them a letter with an offer

The thing is when you find houses through other channels other than the MLS that the NAR uses. Those sellers are not only motivated, they are tired of the same rat race you are. They will negotiate a fair price with you, shake hands on it, and commit. Regardless who calls them after with a so called higher offer.

Get a Real Estate attorney who should also serve as your Title guy.

You probably wont find your dream home cremepuff with these methods, unless it was just a highly motivated seller who wants to sell it NOW because they have to move.
But even if you don't find a house that wows the wife as much as those over priced listing your realtor keeps throwing at you. At least you'll save your self from a full head of grey hair.

The peace of mind I got from getting of the rat race of either rent or dance for the Realtors. Is worth more than any $500K McMansion the Realtors would have eventually put me in if I kept foolingt around with those jackasses. This is my SHIT now!

DOH! Damn lisdexia.

Tenpoundbass says

I see they are up to their same tricks. I went through that for almost a year. I found a house in less than a week when I stopped dealing with anyone associated with the NAR.

When did you buy your place?

Yeah, this is really getting on my nerves. I started looking at rentals again, and they are incredibly reasonable in this area. To wait another year doesn't bother either one of us. My wife and I are both really practical.

It's a sellers market now for sure, but it has been for the past few years. The tide has to turn at some point, I'm just wondering if we've hit the latest peak.

Ironman says

By calling the listing agent, and as a cash buyer, you can control the sale, as the listing agent works both sides of the deal.

Great point. I hadn't really thought about that.

My two cents - I'm very wary of the economy. I don't think now is a great time to buy. Congratulations on escaping from CA.

Ironman says

Unless you're really pressed to buy, I agree with mmmarvel. Based on what going on with the economy and market, the future does look shaky. If you and you're wife are OK sitting on the sidelines a little longer, parking your cash might not be a bad idea until the economy shows some better positive direction.

We aren't pressed. Renting isn't an issue. We would just like to buy.

We just let our agent go.

I think we are going to rent the next 6-12 months and see where things go.

Yeah. Atlanta never went gangbusters like California, but its still really high compared with historical data. Found this article that was pretty good and indicates we could have peaked out:

http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/27/why-are-americans-suddenly-souring-on-buying-homes/

i dunno dude - you should do a lot more research first. what happens if things don't melt down, and then when prices do cool off after years of modest gains, they are only back to what you would be paying now? there are simply many ways to look at this decision.

Source: Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2016 survey.

Atlanta (5). Interviewees and survey respondents agree that the Georgia state capital is solidly in a sweet spot with regard to growth and new supply. The market is enjoying strong growth in key sectors of the economy without the typical concerns about oversupply. The lower cost of doing business is attracting corporate relocations that are contributing to market growth. As one interviewee remarked, “If you get into this market now, you will be ahead of the curve when new development gets fully underway.”
Survey respondents have a favorable view of all sectors of the Atlanta real estate market, with no particular sector standing out significantly from the others. The local outlook for the Atlanta market is good, led by relatively strong outlooks for the local economy, investor demand, and capital availability. The weakest component of the local market is the perceived accomplishments of public and private investment.

I agree that this is a great place to be economically and a great place for jobs and all, but holding out a few months isn't going to make or break me.

Plus, last crash homes, I beleive this was one of the hardest hit areas in the country. Many ho.es are up well over 100-200k in certain areas in the last two years.

think about how hungry investors are for yield. here's another snippet:

Last year, Emerging Trends identified the rise of the 18-hour city. This year, the real estate industry is expressing growing confi- dence in the potential investment returns in these markets. We are finding a tangible desire to place a rising share of investment capital in attractive markets outside the 24-hour gateway cities.

Global as well as domestic investors are casting wider nets as they look at U.S. real estate markets. One such investor, at a large international institution, marveled at the number of secondary markets that are suddenly “hip.” Austin, Denver, San Diego, and San Antonio are examples, and rightly so. They rank in the top ten markets for entrepreneurship in the 2015 Kauffman Foundation study, and all four are in Emerging Trends 2016’s list of top 20 markets for real estate investment and development.

What supports this trend? To start, strengthening U.S. macro- economic performance is bolstering absorption and improving occupancy in the majority of American real estate markets. Secondly, the 18-hour cities have seen more moderate cap-rate compression, and so provide an opportunity for superior yields. Investors themselves are demonstrating greater risk tolerance, moving gradually from defense to offense as their playing field position improves. And, lastly, the inexorable expansion of data availability has generated more confidence that decisions about secondary market opportunities can be grounded in good statistical evidence.

The 18-hour cities have been consistently making headway in replicating pieces of what makes the gateway cities so attractive. The development and application of technology make it possible for these markets to offer the benefits of a larger urban area at a significantly lower cost. In addition, a number of the markets in the top 20 rankings of this year’s survey are consistently tagged as “cool” markets that are expanding on their own unique culture.

Should the market be concerned that this wider investor interest could diminish in the face of a downturn? Although 18-hour cities and all higher-growth markets have historically been more volatile than their gateway counterparts, there are factors that could diminish the volatility going forward. During the current economic expansion, the capital markets have demonstrated a much greater degree of restraint when it comes to funding new development. So the 18-hour cities face lower-than-average supply pressure, compared with history. Investors, meanwhile, have become more sophisticated. And the greater information across all markets, mentioned above, allows investors to have a laser focus on their investment, focused on more precisely defined areas and asset characteristics within a submarket or neighborhood. The belief that “anywhere in the market is good” is likely a thing of the past.

An ever-restless search for returns persists, and deals are framed on a risk/reward matrix. As an executive with a private equity investor explained in his interview, “In Nashville, we bought an office building for a 7.25 cap. We plan to redo the lobby, roll the leases to market, hold for four years, and then sell. Nashville is a strong secondary market with some risk, but the price was much more reasonable than core assets in primary markets.” That’s an 18-hour city story, a deal that works in a vibrant downtown that is drawing residents and businesses to the core.

Going forward, this trend should intensify. More capital is available than a handful of 24-hour markets can absorb.

joshuatrio says

When did you buy your place?

In 2010, for most all of the year, I used buyer agents, and they kept trying to break my spirity of houses in my price range. By sending me either pictures of distressed houses in slums, or sending me a house that met my specs for about 2 or 3 hundred thousand more than I said my price range was.
Finally after July 4th I decided to go it alone.

joshuatrio says

Ironman says

By calling the listing agent, and as a cash buyer, you can control the sale, as the listing agent works both sides of the deal.

Great point. I hadn't really thought about that.

They tell you to call your buyer agent and have them call him. It might be a Florida law.
If I had it to do it all over again, then I would have found the owners number and called him directly.
Or had my title lawyer do it.