Time for a rant...super frustrated with trying to find a house to buy

SID297 said:

You never want to buy at the top or bottom of a neighborhood, makes it more difficult to sell.

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100% on buying the nicest house in the neighborhood. However, we bought on of the worst houses on our block. Previous owner had it for just over 30 years and didn't do any maintenance. At all. Nothing.

We put some money into it, and it's now one of the nicest. Best believe that our return, if we were to sell it, is much greater than paying a premium for a 'done' house.

Blk04L said:

At the end of the day, the appraisal/appraiser will tell you the true worth of the house.

If recent comps are way less than asking price I doubt the banks appraiser will come close to the selling price.

Seen it a few times where a seller either loses a deal or someone gets a last second price slash in their favor once the appraisal comes in way lower than selling price.

Now obviously if the market is hot enough, the house may very well appraise for that #. It is what it is. Continue to rent if you think those prices are too high.

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I guess it may be location dependent, but over here in Maine its coming more common that the appraiser basically asks the buyer what they need it to appraise for. They are tire of the up down games. If someone wants to buy it and a bank approves them for the amount, let them buy it.

I'd rather own the shittiest house in the nicest neighborhood as opposed to the nicest house in the shittiest neighborhood

jpro said:

This is my general perspective. We will probably end up holding out for several months and waiting. However, this "crash" you and I are both anticipating (hoping for) may never come. One big reason is because the CARES ACT is giving homeowners 12 months of loan forbearance if you are impacted by COVID 19. People are going to try to ride this thing out and will stay in their homes for a year or more while taking advantage of the forbearance. Back in 08 people had no such luxury, they got ****ed raw from the jump. LOL

When we initially moved here my thought was that we will never buy. I'd rather rent for 20 years, retire, and leave town to retire to a quiet, small place somewhere in the country.

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One thing helping that market is the people fleeing California. However with so many layoffs I'm betting that market plummets by the end of the year. I'd rent a little longer and keep an eye on it.

Why not build your own ?

jrandy said:

100% on buying the nicest house in the neighborhood. However, we bought on of the worst houses on our block. Previous owner had it for just over 30 years and didn't do any maintenance. At all. Nothing.

We put some money into it, and it's now one of the nicest. Best believe that our return, if we were to sell it, is much greater than paying a premium for a 'done' house.

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True, but that's not what I meant by buying the bottom of the neighborhood. I'm talking about the small house with the sewage pumping station taking up half the front yard and some high tension power lines running through the back yard. Unchangeable negative features, not just a fixer-upper.

SID297 said:

True, but that's not what I meant by buying the bottom of the neighborhood. I'm talking about the small house with the sewage pumping station taking up half the front yard and some high tension power lines running through the back yard. Unchangeable negative features, not just a fixer-upper.

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My dads house had some 240kv trans line placed not too far their property. Still a good distance from the house due to the lot but still the view sucks looking out the front door.

Probably won't hurt the value too much due to land size/horse friendly area though.

The market in Northern Va has been crazy for a while. We sold our Townhouse last May for way over asking. Had to eventually turn away offers if they weren't so many thousands over asking regardless of appraisal. I feel for you man. How are new builds in the Vegas area might be a tad easier.

ashleyroachclip said:

Why not build your own ?

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No where to build in our school zone. We are middle of suburbia. I would LOVE to move out to the desert 15 minutes outside of town and live with the coyotes and scorpions, but due to school preference we can’t.


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Reading all this makes me want to buy a big ass destination trailer and say F it....

RedVenom48 said:

Reading all this makes me want to buy a big ass destination trailer and say F it....

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Do it

jpro said:

Based on the early days of the Coronavirus thread in the Politics section, I figured this thread would lure you in. Had been wondering if you found a place yet.

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Same excuse I've used for years. I "could" buy one tomorrow. Number wise, that's true. Having waited this long, I'm not giving in. I want a 3 car garage. My search area, from all houses under 350K to adding a 3 car garage make it go from 107 houses to 12. Of the 12, 2 are pending, 3 are pre construction, and 2 have 2 car garages and are listed improperly. Then onto the next issue, I AM NOT dealing with a gated community I'm stuck with an HOA no matter what, but non gated ones are $35-75ish a month. The gated ones can hit $250 a month. **** that! THEN...I also don't want a pool, but I might cave on that simply because I'm sick of waiting to buy. I'm already looking for a needle in a haystack.

Best advice I can give, is always look at the price per square foot.

That is the truest indication of what a property is worth. Around here, $150 per square foot gets you top of the market. Fixer uppers range between <=90 to $100 per square foot.

$150/ft2 includes either new construction or recently renovated. It must also have premium surfaces, premium flooring, new appliances, new HVAC, Etc. Basically move-in ready and clean.

The price per square foot will vary based on your location, but never pay more then the average price per square foot in your area. The same rule applies to pricing your house, as a seller. If you're asking $170 per square foot and the market only bears, $150 a square foot, you will be lucky to get any offers.

the housing market is still crazy. BUT... that's a GOOD thing. actually today in the stock market I saw REITs rising.....so we want this to keep up. The housing market is what crashed us in 2008.

That being said....a few months ago I had to pay full price for my house, ****ers wouldn't even pay for closing. And this is in AZ, not exactly like the market I am used to in CA.

If you are having trouble with offers, just build a new home. Sure it sucks to wait almost a year.....but you get all brand new shit.....and you don't have to dilly dally with sellers. interest rates are super low so it's a win win situation. After this virus bullshit, trump will get re elected, and the world will be right again. Just in time for your new home to be finished LOL.

jpro said:

However, this "crash" you and I are both anticipating (hoping for) may never come. One big reason is because the CARES ACT is giving homeowners 12 months of loan forbearance if you are impacted by COVID 19. People are going to try to ride this thing out and will stay in their homes for a year or more while taking advantage of the forbearance.

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For actual residents, yes. The issue some are claiming could happen is airbnb and rentals. There are multi blogs out about people who turned airbnb into their income. Those people have 20, 40, 80 rentals on their books. They employee full time house/apartment cleaners. Some even got in on the smaller side. I was discussing this with a friend and posted this from a recent news article...

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Smaller players have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars each buying homes for short-term rentals. Jennifer Kelleher-Hazlett of Clawson, Mich., spent about $380,000 to buy two Michigan properties in 2018. She said she and her husband cashed out their financial investments and borrowed $100,000 from employers to furnish them. The 47-year-old expected to net up to $7,000 a month from Airbnb after mortgage payments, supplementing her income as a part-time pharmacist and her husband’s as a schoolteacher. Before the virus struck, the couple was considering buying more homes. Now, they can’t make mortgage payments because no one is booking, she said. “We’re either borrowing more or defaulting.”
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It was a no lose thing in Orlando, Vegas, and I'm sure in several other cities too, but some are claiming Vegas and Orlando will get hit the hardest by the sell off of rental properties. The only issue to be seen is what will really happen. In Orlando, in the area I'm looking for a house, there's like 107 for sale, and of those, of the ones listed in the last week, 7 are airbnb rentals. Are more owners holding out with hopes? Can they hang on? Will more be hitting the market in 4 weeks? 12 weeks? That's the unknown.

If people were smart they would have been paying extra down on those rental properties. They in theory should have had enough equity in properties to be able to sell off a few during a downturn like this, and still make out well. Especially because the housing market isn't getting hit by it at this time. If people are getting ****ed, its because they were in over their head, and got greedy and didn't pay shit off and have enough equity/safety net. I find it hard to believe those banks would keep dishing out loans to people with a ****load of debt and little equity.

FIVEHOE said:

If people were smart they would have been paying extra down on those rental properties. They in theory should have had enough equity in properties to be able to sell off a few during a downturn like this, and still make out well. Especially because the housing market isn't getting hit by it at this time. If people are getting ****ed, its because they were in over their head, and got greedy and didn't pay shit off and have enough equity/safety net. I find it hard to believe those banks would keep dishing out loans to people with a ****load of debt and little equity.

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Yeah, I agree. I'm seeing homes get listed today that are asking 40, 60K over what they sold for 2 years ago. The owner can easily bail on any/all of their properties and not "lose" money, but they will lost their whole income.

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How Much Can Airbnb Damage the Mortgage Market?


The anecdotes on social media immediately spread like wildfire. Many centered on the idea that so-called “superhosts” — those who consistently meet certain thresholds including near-perfect ratings, a large number of bookings and infrequent cancellations — have taken out mortgages on several properties, banking on Airbnb income to cover those payments. Now with little to no cash flow, they’ll soon default on those mortgages, the thinking goes. In large enough numbers, that would bring about a reckoning.

This is a compelling narrative. After all, a quick online search reveals articles such as “HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH AIRBNB (OVER $10,000 PER MONTH!),” which comes from a millennial Ohio State graduate who lives in Los Angeles and manages nine listings in Columbus. It includes advice such as “by leveraging your debt capacity, you will be able to effectively invest more money than you would otherwise be able to.”

It is a challenging time to buy and sell. Honestly....I would try to wait for the right deal or wait for the housing market to drop within the next year.

Different location and cheaper neighborhood, send the kids to private school.
Sometimes living in the best school systems that are tax heavy make private school a better alternative.

GOTSVT? said:

Different location and cheaper neighborhood, send the kids to private school.
Sometimes living in the best school systems that are tax heavy make private school a better alternative.

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That or charter schools. The public schools here are bottom barrel in the nation and some charter schools cost as little as $1,500 per year. The only downside is the lack of quality athletic programs