Real Estate is a Circus Right Now

[Alex Zeller]

Weird times we are living in. Unlike a normal recession this one has lots of companies with tons of orders and not enough workers or raw materials to complete them. At the same time others, like restaurants, are struggling. It's been going on long enough that people just want it to end and are going crazy trying to feel like the end is here. Unless it's needed I would wait. Real estate is like a pendulum. When it swings it'll swing back. Of course we also have a generation who doesn't think twice about paying to have fast food delivered to them vs going and getting it. I'm not sure if they understand the concept of saving.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Remember this generation is the first to to see sub 3% loans in the last 70 years. To think we celebrated when we got ours down to 8.5% almost forty years ago. 3% vs 8.5% would have saved us about 200K over the ten life of the loan. Loan was for fifteen years, but paid off in ten years. I HATE making any kind of monthly payments. We've been in the same place for over forty years. Paid more in property taxes than we paid for property, including house and land. But again in December, we will again have to pay taxes again. Bad part is we did all the construction, with the exception of flooring and brick work. Means I get to pay property taxes on our labor.

[Bruce King]

Weird times we are living in. Unlike a normal recession this one has lots of companies with tons of orders and not enough workers or raw materials to complete them. At the same time others, like restaurants, are struggling. It's been going on long enough that people just want it to end and are going crazy trying to feel like the end is here. Unless it's needed I would wait. Real estate is like a pendulum. When it swings it'll swing back. Of course we also have a generation who doesn't think twice about paying to have fast food delivered to them vs going and getting it. I'm not sure if they understand the concept of saving.

The below 40 crowd does save, many under 30 are making over $100k. They are the reason the stock market refuses to correct. They are dumping millions into the market.

[Anuj Prateek]

Professor Dr. SWMBO and I are "more than casually" looking for our "downsize" property. The two of us do not need such a large home and property going forward as our older daughter is already living "independently" in town (she's a special needs adult, so isn't totally independent) and the younger, who is about to graduate from Penn State, is living at her boyfriend's parents' house more than half the time. So it's just the two of us and three birds most of the time in "this nest".

The combination of low interest rates and very little inventory has created a virtual circus of the process. To-date, we've offered and lost on three properties...bidding generously and with an escalator as well as a larger deposit. We are also pre-approved for financing without selling our current property. Yet...no dice. Today's loss was to an offer that was actually less than our maximum in the escalation clause. Why? The successful bidder eschewed inspections, something we are not willing to do. We toured this house at 15:30 yesterday afternoon and our offer was in the hands of the selling agent four hours later...the only reason it took that long was our agent having one other client appointment on his way back to his office and the paperwork servers were dead slow for some reason. (it's all done electronic these days)

We are very glad we don't have to sell first as it may be a very long time before we "score" on an attractive and appropriate situation that checks most of our boxes. Sheesh...

It's was (and probably still is) like this in BC few months back when we bought our house.

We lost a nice house because other party let go of inspection. Our agent suggested to get it done beforehand. It's becomes tight timewise and there is good chance of loosing inspection cost.

House we bought, we saw in morning, got inspection done right after and made offer in night. Apart from escalation, there was no other clause in the offer.

[Mike Henderson]

It's was (and probably still is) like this in BC few months back when we bought our house.

We lost a nice house because other party let go of inspection. Our agent suggested to get it done beforehand. It's becomes tight timewise and there is good chance of loosing inspection cost.

House we bought, we saw in morning, got inspection done right after and made offer in night. Apart from escalation, there was no other clause in the offer.

That's a good idea - have your inspector ready and have the inspection done before making an offer. If you lose the house, you're out the inspection cost but that's not too bad.

Mike

[Ronald Blue]

It isn't that way here. Real estate while selling better isn't a hot item like it is in other areas. Took over 2 years to sell our other home. We didn't technically lose money but sold it for well under appraised value.

[George Bokros]

One requirement I found interesting is that you must disclose if someone died in the home in the past three years (that is, physically in the home).]

Same here in my area of Ohio, maybe state wide.

[Jim Becker]

Pre-inspection is a very nice idea. But a very large percentage of houses are selling in one day or less sometimes. There's zero time to do a pre-inspection so you have to go with your gut on the sellers disclosure statement (which is a legal document) and hope that there are no skeletons in the closet that prevent going to closing. The sellers are the bigger losers if they are not upfront on their disclosures as there are very, very limited circumstances where a deposit will not get refunded to a buyer if inspections reveal significant issues and the buyer doesn't move forward. The seller starts over at that point because other bidders have already moved on. One seller of a property we bid on had her own pre-listing full inspection done and had it included in the available documents for the property. It was pretty comprehensive and would certainly help a cash buyer...which it unfortunately did.

[Bruce King]

Where I worked we were all booked up for 5 to 7 days with inspections. When NC started requiring liability insurance which was only $500/yr about 40 percent of the “inspectors” quit. The insurance that matters the most, E&O, was not required but all the busy inspectors had it. The guy’s that got sued said it was always over things they did report or things we can’t inspect and the client signed an agreement to that effect.

[Roger Feeley]

A real estate agent I know is married to the daughter of the pastor of a very big church. By being plugged into the congregation so closely, he knows who wants to buy and sell. He almost runs his own little marketplace. You might think about hooking up with a large organization of some sort and see if you can grab something before it goes on the market.

[Brian Elfert]

The real estate market is so tight in many areas that I am sure lots of people are trying to get shown houses before they are listed on MLS. A friend of mine sold his house house in an exclusive neighborhood in October 2018 before things really started to boom. He contacted an agent and the agent had a buyer lined up in a day or two without ever formally listing the house.

I wonder if Zillow Zestimates have any basis in reality? Mine shows the value has gone up about 25% in a year and I am not in a hot market. Now, if my house was 30 miles south in south Minneapolis I could list in the morning and have my choice of offers by the next day. I might refinance if the value is anything close to the Zillow Zestimate.

[Jim Becker]

A real estate agent I know is married to the daughter of the pastor of a very big church. By being plugged into the congregation so closely, he knows who wants to buy and sell. He almost runs his own little marketplace. You might think about hooking up with a large organization of some sort and see if you can grab something before it goes on the market.

We're not "large organization" type people but I'm sure that's effective in many areas, especially those that are more rural.

The real estate market is so tight in many areas that I am sure lots of people are trying to get shown houses before they are listed on MLS. A friend of mine sold his house house in an exclusive neighborhood in October 2018 before things really started to boom. He contacted an agent and the agent had a buyer lined up in a day or two without ever formally listing the house.

I wonder if Zillow Zestimates have any basis in reality? Mine shows the value has gone up about 25% in a year and I am not in a hot market. Now, if my house was 30 miles south in south Minneapolis I could list in the morning and have my choice of offers by the next day. I might refinance if the value is anything close to the Zillow Zestimate.

I've found that the Z-Estimates are reasonably reliable, but certainly not always. Occasionally, one is high; but with the way the market is moving, many have actually been low in the last few weeks. The number for our home isn't out of line with what came out of our discussion with our agent for the future plan to put this property on the market once we have a destination nailed down.

I did a bunch of research this morning around recent sales in the immediate area for the property we are (hopefully...snow coming) going to tour tomorrow. (with a backup appointment on Friday if we get snowed out tomorrow) We already have the bones of an aggressive offer ready to "digitally print and sign" if we don't see any issues in-person. While we're prepared to be once again disappointed, this one is a great location for us, has the space to build a shop and has interior square footage below our max. Cabinetry is dated, but, well...that's not really an issue for me as it shouldn't come as any surprise. Cross your crossibles...

[Jim Matthews]

It isn't that way here. Real estate while selling better isn't a hot item like it is in other areas. Took over 2 years to sell our other home. We didn't technically lose money but sold it for well under appraised value.

This is a very important observation.

The housing shortage is in markets where employment is stable. Plenty of decent houses at below market prices, where there's an exodus.

It can't last - once all the money printing stops, and major cities are perceived safe again, prices will stabilize.

(Except in Vancouver or Toronto)

[Rick Potter]

My son has been in escrow near Fort Worth for 8+ weeks, and he was pre-approved. Both parties wanted a quick escrow, and the house is vacant. The loan company keeps adding requirements before funding. The latest one was when they thought OUR family trust was his.

Yesterday, they said it was almost done, but wanted him to sign for a third extension on the escrow. He told them NO, that he would let it die, and that today was the last day he could wire the money into escrow.

Today they magically said to wire the moola, and papers can be signed tomorrow.

He took his material reallocation business with him, just one of many companies leaving California.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Sometimes wonder if posting a "wanted to buy" ad listing what property type you are looking for and any financial incentive info you would offer etc etc would be beneficial. Don't quite know where you would post it and how it would actually but but it would get you out in front of the whole super fast real-estate biz.