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Thread: Real Estate is a Circus Right Now

  1. #106
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    E TN, near Knoxville
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    Quote Originally Posted by eugene thomas View Post
    so what we all care about. how big can the shop be?
    Curious. Do you mean how big can/should a typical shop be or specifically how big Jim's shop can/should be?

  2. #107
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    Jan 2020
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    Hoschton, Georgia
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    I'd like to find an Amish farm. Small, well built house with a GIANT barn.

  3. #108
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    May 2009
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    black river falls wisconsin
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    well. i ment how big can be for zoning. usually is what determs the size. now if was out in country with no zoning... have amish neibor that built somethinh like 60 by 130 for his shop. hes 22 so will have plenty of time to fill up.

  4. #109
    Real estate has another ten year run at least. Millenials just began buying about 2 years ago. Gen Z is right there almost ready to buy (some are). Rates won't rise b/c it will crash the entire economy. I'd say try to setup an exchange where you bid and buy contingent upon yours selling.

  5. #110
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
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    Cambridge Vermont
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    2,280
    Real estate has changed thanks to the virus. With work from home now being a real option for millions they are realizing that city life isn't all it's cracked up to be. They can now move without looking for a new job (as long as they have good internet). The virus has shown that large cities quickly become a hot spot where one has a very hard time avoiding contact with lots of people just to get the basic stuff needed to survive. The markets are reflecting this as people search the internet for a new home. I think in 10 years the suburbs and rural areas of this country are going to look vastly different than they do today.

  6. #111
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Kalamazoo, MI
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    280
    Had a buddy here looking for property in the UP. Found a piece, drove up there (7 hr drive) to look at it. Didn't even dicker, offered them full price and a couple hours later the seller called saying they had 2 other interested parties and wondering if they'd want to submit a higher bid. Around here they sell faster than the yard sign can be put up.
    If over thinking was an Olympic event, I'd win Gold every time!

  7. #112
    Quote Originally Posted by John Serna View Post
    Real estate has another ten year run at least. Millennials just began buying about 2 years ago. Gen Z is right there almost ready to buy (some are). Rates won't rise b/c it will crash the entire economy. I'd say try to setup an exchange where you bid and buy contingent upon yours selling.
    The problem is that income is not rising that rapidly. In many situations today, both spouses have to have jobs to afford a house. Housing prices may get limited by affordability. There will be people who make the big bucks and can afford any house, but whether there's enough of them to support rapid price increases is a question.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  8. #113
    Quote Originally Posted by Alex Zeller View Post
    Real estate has changed thanks to the virus. With work from home now being a real option for millions they are realizing that city life isn't all it's cracked up to be. They can now move without looking for a new job (as long as they have good internet). The virus has shown that large cities quickly become a hot spot where one has a very hard time avoiding contact with lots of people just to get the basic stuff needed to survive. The markets are reflecting this as people search the internet for a new home. I think in 10 years the suburbs and rural areas of this country are going to look vastly different than they do today.
    There's a downside to remote work. Once work can be done from anywhere, companies will not be limited to hiring (or more likely "contracting") with American workers. There are a lot of well educated people across the world, who also speak English, and will be available to do the work.

    Towards the end of my career, a lot of engineering design work got contracted out to India and China. An Indian engineer who made $25,000 a year was considered highly paid.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  9. #114
    Quote Originally Posted by Robert D Evans View Post
    I'm heating and cooling 3 empty bedrooms. Downsizing is something we have considered but it's a lot of hassle. Maybe we'll think about it some more next year.
    Look into "zoning" your house (if you have a forced air system). We did that to our house a few years ago. Set up three zones and only heat or cool the part we need at the time. Secondary advantage is that you can set the temperature to different levels in each zone. If my wife is working in one part of the house and wants it warmer (or cooler) we don't have to do the whole house that way.

    You can zone with a single source - you don't need multiple air conditioners (for example). They just install dampers that control and direct the air to the part of the house that needs it.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  10. #115
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Henderson View Post
    The problem is that income is not rising that rapidly. In many situations today, both spouses have to have jobs to afford a house. Housing prices may get limited by affordability. There will be people who make the big bucks and can afford any house, but whether there's enough of them to support rapid price increases is a question.

    Mike
    What I've noticed is they're taking in roommates and other hacks like this to afford the home, and that's making up for the income issues.

  11. #116
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    Sep 2006
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    Las Cruces, NM
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Serna View Post
    Real estate has another ten year run at least.

    That might be true for residential real estate, but locally, commercial real estate looks in bad shape - lots of vacant buildings. Of course, I don't understand how commercial real estate works. Even in boom times, there are buildings and lots that stay vacant for years. How do companies afford to pay property taxes on non-income producing properties? Do they get a break on the taxes?

  12. #117
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
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    Doylestown, PA
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    7,551
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Henderson View Post
    There's a downside to remote work. Once work can be done from anywhere, companies will not be limited to hiring (or more likely "contracting") with American workers. There are a lot of well educated people across the world, who also speak English, and will be available to do the work.

    Towards the end of my career, a lot of engineering design work got contracted out to India and China. An Indian engineer who made $25,000 a year was considered highly paid.

    Mike
    The company I work for has about 3000 employees. 2400 of them are offshore. That's one benefit of working on "real" things. Somebody in the Far East is not going to replace your water heater or figure out why that light won't come on, at least not anytime soon.

  13. #118
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    Feb 2004
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    Perth, Australia
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    9,467
    Congrats Jim!

    This thread is interesting as it mimics what is happening in Australia to a large degree. After 5 years of falling house prices, and a poor economy, suddenly it is a seller's market, prices are going up, interest rates are rock bottom, and we are living in boom times here in Western Australia. The house over the road just sold for double its cost 4 years ago.

    Housing in Australia is amongst the most expensive in the Western world, easily 2-3 times as much as the equivalent in the USA. The average house in our area ranges from $800K to $3 million. It varies across Oz, with Sydney and Melbourne about 50% more expensive than Perth and Brisbane. Perth was relatively cheap when we moved here from Sydney all those years ago. We have been on our current property for 31 years, on a 1/4 acre in a good suburb situated 2 minutes stroll from the Canning River. It's a prize area for great schools, and so is in demand. In spite of this, property has been dead for several years, a result of a severe economic downturn.

    16 or so years ago, we added a studio over the garage to use as professional rooms for my private practice (in clinical psychology). This was expensive, but the desire to move from an office in the city centre to a home office in the suburbs was so emotionally attractive. A few years ago, thinking ahead to retirement and downsizing, I began to list the items that future buyers would not want that we have: large garden and lawn, pool, and an office at home. Five years ago the market was anti all these, with compact properties and compact dwellings. Pools were being filled in, gardens were sold off for housing development ... I could see my investment struggling to find a buyer.

    Five years ago, with an eye on retirement, we also purchased another, smaller house around the corner from where we live, and 50 metres from the river front. My wife does not want to be too far from her friends. And I did not want to be too far from the river, along which it is so wonderful to walk or jog ...



    Those are dolphins frolicking in the water This runs for miles ...

    My enduring concern was that the value of our current home was continuing to drop, and there would be no buyers when we were ready to sell up.

    The pandemic has changed everything. You cannot buy a house now for love or easy money. I could now get what I was hoping for, and the market is still rising. So many are again seeking homes with gardens and pools, and now everyone wants to work from home. I should be saying that I planned it this way, but I know I am just at the right place at the right time. May it continue until I am ready to retire ...

    I do believe that the times have changed. Covid forced many into isolation in apartments, and many families are now seeking an escape route in case this happens again. We all discovered that it is possible to work from home, but not everyone was set up to do this. For many businesses, it is profitable to have smaller offices and employees at home. Commuting stress and expenses can be a thing of the past for those fortunate to find a piece of suburbia.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  14. #119
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    Mt Pleasant SC
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    721
    I posted a joke previously about making your shop large and your wife will use part of it, like for storage. The biggest reason not to have a huge shop when you get older is the difficulty of moving across it and all the extra time it takes to walk from machine to machine. You never think about it until it happens.

  15. #120
    thats why it should be big., My neighbour is 90 and she walks like 70 her lot is 300 feet wide and 150 deep, she maintains the whole thing herself. She is better shape at 90 then the old guy was at 80 because he wound down, kids cut the lawn and and. She was shovels snow whatever. Have to keep moving as we are turning to dust.

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