Real Estate is a Circus Right Now

[Jim Becker]

I'm in no danger of Professor Dr. SWMBO wanting to take over any shop space...she has her honeybees...and hasn't usurped a single square foot in the last 22 years in my current shop. We don't really store much stuff in real life and there's even less now than there was a few weeks ago. I'm all for more shop space than less shop space, within reason, of course. The limit for a new shop is honestly dictated by both money and local jurisdiction building coverage/impermeable coverage ratios. (20%/25%) as well as setbacks and the desire to not remove certain trees. I like space for workflow and space for flexibility...you'll see "open" space in the shop once it becomes reality for that reason. Assuming things work out, the building will be about 24x38, give or take, with 8 feet of the length partitioned off to house the mower and garden implements (replaces a decrepit 10x16 shed) and the rest for a sound reduced room for the compressor and cyclone like I have now. My desire is for a 10' wall height to make up for the fact I'll not have an upstairs for storage. Containing lumber, etc., vertically takes care of that and a "loft" over the mower "room" also contributes.

[Jack Frederick]

My daughter is a realtor here in the foothills. Seems to be vast qtys of City money driving the market. Very little inventory. Last year she had a buyer for an $800K property that had been on the market for 82 days with not a single offer. Her buyer made and offer and on the very same day there were 8 other qualified offers. How does that happen? It sold for $1.25M.

[John K Jordan]

My daughter is a realtor here in the foothills. Seems to be vast qtys of City money driving the market. Very little inventory. Last year she had a buyer for an $800K property that had been on the market for 82 days with not a single offer. Her buyer made and offer and on the very same day there were 8 other qualified offers. How does that happen? It sold for $1.25M.

Zounds, is everyone in CA rich compared to us po country folk in TN? Or in debt?

That kind of money could buy two or three properties around here similar to ours: over 25 acres, fields and forest, timberframe house, barn and other outbuildings. Way off the road with plenty of privacy but still less than 10 minutes from grocery, banks, fuel, drugstore, hardware, auto parts, vets, farm store, and donut shop. Central to the gulf coast, the east coast, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Asheville, mountains, lakes, culture, and high tech. No chance of falling into the ocean. Power never goes out, forest fires are rare and tiny, taxes are low. And an embarrassing abundance of hardwood grows on trees here.

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On the other hand, maybe we should keep it a secret.

[Jim Becker]

THings are hopping in RE, John... In some respects, I wish we were free to relocate to a so-called "less expensive" area, but we aren't.

[Brian Elfert]

My daughter is a realtor here in the foothills. Seems to be vast qtys of City money driving the market. Very little inventory. Last year she had a buyer for an $800K property that had been on the market for 82 days with not a single offer. Her buyer made and offer and on the very same day there were 8 other qualified offers. How does that happen? It sold for $1.25M.

I don’t know all the rules real estate agents have to follow, but is it possible the selling agent contacted other potential buyers or their agents to say there has been an offer and to put in an offer if still interested?

[Brian Elfert]

The Star Tribune newspaper has a story in today's paper about how fast houses in some areas are selling. There is a picture with the story showing at least 20 people in line to see a house for sale. It wasn't clear if it was an open house, or just people having showings one after the other. The story said one house had 170 showings and 56 offers.

With my luck I would try to sell my house and not get more than one showing and no offers, but I do live in a less desirable part of the metro area because I am so far out.

[Mike Henderson]

The Star Tribune newspaper has a story in today's paper about how fast houses in some areas are selling. There is a picture with the story showing at least 20 people in line to see a house for sale. It wasn't clear if it was an open house, or just people having showings one after the other. The story said one house had 170 showings and 56 offers.

With my luck I would try to sell my house and not get more than one showing and no offers, but I do live in a less desirable part of the metro area because I am so far out.

If you have good Internet you may be in a very desirable location for "work-from-home" people

Mike

[Brian Elfert]

If you have good Internet you may be in a very desirable location for "work-from-home" people

I have no interest in selling, but I have the worst luck with selling houses. My previous house I sold in 2014 for $328,000. The new owners ended up selling it in December 2018 for $425,000. If I knew the value would go up that much I would have stayed a few more years. My finances would be in far better shape if I had that extra $90,000. Houses where I live know didn’t go up in value near that much during the same time.

I have very good Internet so no issues with remote work. I have been working remotely three of every four weeks for a year now.

[Jim Becker]

I don’t know all the rules real estate agents have to follow, but is it possible the selling agent contacted other potential buyers or their agents to say there has been an offer and to put in an offer if still interested?

Until an offer is accepted, other offers can continue to be considered and yes, the selling agent can ask for more offers. Most offers do have a time period for acceptance, however, and in the current market, that's often within one day. Selling agents will sometimes counter that slightly by saying that offers will be reviewed on a certain date/time, such as the Monday following listing and a full weekend of tours and open houses. They do this to both get multiple offers and almost assure that the price will be bid up in many cases.

[Stan Calow]

I don’t know all the rules real estate agents have to follow, but is it possible the selling agent contacted other potential buyers or their agents to say there has been an offer and to put in an offer if still interested?

Absolutely common around here. The listing agent works for the seller and their commission is dependent on the selling price. So the incentive is to get the highest price possible. An offer is just an offer.

You know, we've seen real estate bubbles before (not that long ago), so selling high, renting for awhile, then buying at a lower price, is not a bad strategy.

[Clifford McGuire]

THings are hopping in RE, John... In some respects, I wish we were free to relocate to a so-called "less expensive" area, but we aren't.

Where would that be? It seems crazy all over.

[Jim Becker]

Where would that be? It seems crazy all over.

While the market is hot in most places, there are certainly geographies where the average property prices, even with exuberant pricing/bidding, are lower than here in the NE. The current "average" property price in our township is just a hair under $700K. The equivalent would sell for quite a bit less in some nice areas for sure.

[Clifford McGuire]

Where would that be? It seems crazy all over.

While the market is hot in most places, there are certainly geographies where the average property prices, even with exuberant pricing/bidding, are lower than here in the NE. The current "average" property price in our township is just a hair under $700K. The equivalent would sell for quite a bit less in some nice areas for sure.

I read the previous post wrong.

I was wondering if there were any areas of the U.S. that were immune from the crazy residential price increases that have been going on in the past several months.

[Jim Becker]

Just to bring this back full circle, yesterday we hit the important milestone of getting our mortgage commitment for the new property. On time...go figure!! A friend recently didn't get his until 4:59p the day before closing.

So...that means...a shop build is in my future.

Now let's just all cross our crossables that the feeding frenzy hits for our current property, too, once we list it by the end of the month. (Have a few repairs that need to be completed first)

[Lisa Starr]

Congratulations! Our home was a cash purchase, but it was a short sale. The day of closing (after a month of re-schedules) the attorney's received the okay from the bank 45 minutes before the closing. Of course, I still needed to go to the bank and arrange for the wire transfer of the funds and get to the closing. I made it with a minute to spare! Hope yours is much smoother.