General

Admiral wrote:


You get the final say at the end of the day. You didn’t have to list it at $320K if you didn’t want to just because that’s what your realtor suggested.

My property management company want to rent out our rental property at $3000 after the first tenant moved out after being there for 2 years. They were paying $2725. I said list it at $3500 and lower it to $3300 if it doesn’t rent out in 2 weeks. They had 3 applications in the first week it was listed for rent.

Admiral wrote:

But now what? Downgrade to a crappy apartment?

After three years you can requalify as a first time home buyer!

Admiral wrote:

I'm in the opposite category, realtor talked me into putting house on market for $650k. I didn't think it would get that much and wanted to start at 600 but let her do it. Over the last month we have lowered it to 590 and nothing (but we have had more views, saves, and scheduled viewings). I wish we had started at 600 originally and we would have probably got alot more traction.

We are also in a weird pricing point I don't know what to do about. I really regret going with the realtor we did. I could tell she thought this place was going to sell itself and in my opinion put little thought or work into selling it. Now that it has been a month I'm getting updates every other day from her about what she is doing to drum up interest. Wish that was there in the beginning. Hell, the biggest selling point of this neighborhood was the pool and the close (less than half a mile) proximity to schools and a huge recreation area and it wasn't even mentioned in the listing.

Finishing my house up for sale is taking a bit longer than expected. Master bathroom is nearly finished and is looking great. Still need paint, trim, toilet installed, but that's easy compared to the tiling and shower door.

https://imgur.com/a/gL1Jhyb

About 1/4 of the way packed / thrown away / sold stuff. Trying to think if I want to sell my kitchen table. I don't particularly like it, but its big and has 8 good chairs. But its boring. I could keep the chairs and build my own table...

Getting a quote to sheetrock my shop and texture my shop. I will paint. Then I need to install like a pergo floor in there that roughly matches the rest of the house. Build better stairs for garage, probably just cover in pergo. Install trim, new light fixtures. Need to redo a small part of the roof on my out building (the overhangs). Need to paint out building. Need to paint exterior trim. Need to install interior trim in hallway, 1 bedroom, and living room. Need to paint trim in kitchen, living room. Then just needs a thorough clean and I'm ready to sell.

Neighbor 5 houses down sold for $930k, same size, bedroom, bathroom count. They have a much nicer yard but same size. But over all comparable home. That was closed in mid-July. 3 houses down closed for $750k, 500 sqft smaller, similar yard to mine (just nothing special). I'm hoping on $850k but willing to be happy with $800k.

Chad wrote:

You’re in Seattle area I think you said? I wish I had bought into that area after school. Got a nice offer but was scared off by the 300k house prices. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Yeah I'm 15 minutes of down town. I bought my place for $222k on 2/22/2011. it was the cheapest 2 bath stand alone home in my area since at least 2008 (that's all the further back redfin would show). Total piece of crap. Replaced the siding, windows, roof, had to do a full tuck point on the chimney (close to the Puget Sound), tore down 5 walls, built 4 new walls, had a structural beam installed. Hallway bathroom replaced everything except the bathtub. Master bath replaced everything. High efficiency furnace, made the central heat run to all of the house (previously didn't go to master bedroom or master bath or where is now kitchen, those were part of an addition. Upgraded wiring in 2/3 of the house. New front door, new back door, added a nice knotty pine soffit to carport instead of painted plywood. New gates. Fair bit of yard maintenance and border definition, only a few plants. Overall I've put in ~$150k, with a lot of sweat equity. Kitchen alone was $60k. Roof was $23k. Siding and windows were $30k. Those were the big ones.

A house I put an offer in on for $300k, sold for $310k, sold last year for $1.3M. That house had been on the market like 4 months, and had a few low ball offers, same weekend I put in my offer, someone puts in a competing offer, I don't bother getting in a bid war. It was a much nicer house, in great condition. Neighborhood not quite as good as mine, further from any grocery store, park, and getting onto the main road can be in a pain there during rush hour I'm sure, since it would be a left most of the time.

Good work brother. Earned.

Admiral wrote:

This was similar to what the latest bank person I spoke with had said to me that I needed about buying a home THIS TIME when I was trying to find a home to buy because the rent went up again.

Porksta wrote:

Does that mean anything today though? Are there any first-time interest rates or government programs? I remember there used to be back in like 2008-2009.

There once was a large tax credit and states provide grants if you qualify.

Master_Z wrote:

Different lenders would have different things - be it programs, waived fees, rates, etc. There may be some government grants you can qualify for.

Also much easier to get a low down payment FHA loan I think.

Feeb wrote:

That would depend on the following factors: down payment, credit score, and DTI ratio.

Sun wrote:

I mean...YEAH...but they should be the experts She sort of convinced me in a way also, by showing similarly listed and sold properties in the area...and $320k DID make sense at the time. It's just hindsight getting to me really.


See, when selling though - if you list too high, it takes your house out of search results for SO many people (who are probably "saving" houses as they find them in the seach), then it doesn't get attention. Plus, lowing the price CAN BE a bad look for a property - people think "something must be wrong with it". Furthermore, we had a place lined up to move into at the end of summer, so we really couldn't sit on our home for too long.

I don't disagree with you in theory, but we were in a unique situation I think.

Wow, great story @Chad

@beavis sorry that is happening to you :( I hope it works out sooner than later in your favor

our lease runs up next year, i'm pretty terrified of what ill find

akfa wrote:

Indeed.

And people renting right now (ME!)....be prepared for huge rent hikes when it's time to renew. My friends were paying $1800/mo for a city 2 bedroom 1k sqft apartment.

The next year, it went up to $2600. Almost a 50% increase!

My rent has gone up every year since I been here... I'm on my 4th year. It hasn't gone up too much, like $25 a year, but it's a 1 bedroom apartment and what I'm paying a month is literally likely a monthly payment for a 3 bedroom house... w/ a garage...

I can afford it, don't get me wrong. It would be nice to know why a long term tenant w/o issues has to pay more every year, besides the usual "corporate decision" spiel.

HybridCRoW wrote:

I had the same issue with a previous apartment...

Their response was "everybody else gets raises, why shouldn't we?"

While I'm sure greed is also often involved... Note that, right now, everyone's property values are jumping hugely each year -- which often means increases in property taxes. As a landlord, our rents have gone up a bit each year -- but, the last couple of years, we're actually making LESS because our property taxes have gone up so much.

Increasing the value of a property means nothing until we sell one day. And, heck, things could be worth less then even. Right now, we're paying more in property taxes for "value" that we'll likely never realize.

Yea, my property tax went up $50/month... so I had to get an appraisal done to drop my MI lol. Pays for itself in a year!

Also have to consider inflation and labor rates have also increased. Landlords now need to pay more to maintain their properties. There are also landlords that might be trying to recoup any losses they might have had from not being able to evict tenants from unpaid rent. It could also be a very smart business move to increase rent to the current market value while you can in case there is a bubble that's about to burst. Home prices and rent could be driven down so that landlords are taking a loss.

I don't live in a super desirable, but not quite terrible, neighborhood in the California capital. For context, I bought my home in 2011 for 67K. The house on my street have been regularly selling for $350-400K depending on the condition and upgrades. Pre pandemic they were selling for around 225-250. I wouldn't be able to afford the prices today, let alone fight with the all cash offers.

Someone had mentioned the first time homebuyer status. The only thing I will say about the FHA backed loans is that if you don't put any money down on the house, you will be charged pmi (mortgage insurance), which, depending on the size of the loan can be hundreds of dollars a month in addition to your mortgage payment. For most mortgages, unless you refinance later on, this fee is there for the life of the loan. It does incrementally decrease with every monthly payment, but not by much.

@ChronoLe usually PMI is only until you have a LTV of 80% or less. Usually you just beed to call a bank and ask them to take a look. You shouldn't be paying PMI for the life of the loan

On an FHA loan you do.

@mcorrado As @Porksta mentioned, I'm not sure if it differs state to state, the original loan for the house I bought for my mom, FHA, did not allow for the auto dismissal of the PMI after it hit 80%. It actually explicitly stated in the terms that it would not. Same thing with my friend's FHA loan. It required a refinance, otherwise it would have extended for the life of the loan.

Right, with FHA, PMI lasts the lifetime of the loan or you can pay the full PMI upfront at the time of closing. Most people end up refinancing to get the PMI dropped once the LTV ratio is 80% or less.

@ChronoLe somehow missed the FHA part of your post. Makes sense then, but yes that can add a considerable amount of interest like you said if you never refinance.

Reviving this thread.

Curious to hear if any of y'all have had luck lately? We're still at it. The market has definitely slowed down around here. Pricing is slowly coming down, but options are also shrinking.

The one from awhile ago that we were stoked about, we ultimately passed on, and SO happy we did! The month after it sold, the person who owned the neighboring lot, cut down ALL the trees and the value of the land feels like it dramatically dropped. Definitely glad we dodged that bullet as that was such an appealing factor of that house. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/665-Medina-Line...

We've got a new one tomorrow that we're pretty excited about, but fearful it will go fast. That and it's a bit out of our comfort zone budget wise. Would require some decent lifestyle changes, but as of now feels like a really solid candidate. Checks many boxes, but lack of a woods, and the design of the basement/family room isn't my favorite: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/35329662_zpi...

Does this check any of your boxes? https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/14955-Avenida-V...

Neighbor sold their home like a month ago. San Diego housing is crazy.

SwiftJAB wrote:

$665k for 1300sq ft!? Oh my god, that's just insane!!!

LA market is f'n bonkers right now, still.
987 Sq ft, dilapidated 2 bedroom, no lawn, with an ADU with shared driveway that's rented out. $1.1 Million.

Rental rates for comparable $3200 a mo +

This isn't sustainable.

I mean that's just insane! My buddy just left the Bay Area (went to San Diego) and was paying like $3,600 for a 1 bedroom apartment!

The income divide from West Coast to elsewhere, isn't as drastic as it used to be either, so the time old "well they make more in California" isn't as true these days. I don't know how people can afford that life style on most jobs.

Sadly, this one appears to be a bit out of range for us. Just got off the phone with a lender, and I doubt we'll be able to bid on this house ... not unless we dramatically change everything our life style, which sounds awful. Or, I could sell all of my entire video game collection, which would massively help, but my god that's so much work that I wouldn't even know where/how to begin.

This time around we signed a 1 1/2 year lease on the place we're renting. We just plain gave up trying to buy, and then gave up trying to rent a different place because it was far too competitive for places that really weren't all that great. We're just going to wait this out a bit more, it's so frustrating.

I mentioned earlier in the thread we put our house on the market in July which was probably the worst time to sell as the rate hike happened two weeks later. I was talked into putting it on the market for 650k by my realtor who said it would be snatched up immediately. This was my first house sale and I’ve now learned that realtors might be more useless than car salesman. It’s an occupation that should go away.

Anyways I basically forced her to bring the price down but we still weren’t getting any bites. We then got an offer for 425k around end of October, but at first we turned it down. It was a low ball offer (at the time) based on the market around us even in my opinion. Apparently the couple were paying cash and just sending lowball offers to a lot of houses. Thought about it for 2 weeks and decided to see if they would haggle. They agreed to 500k and we closed in November. I’m glad to have it off my plate and we made a bit of profit. I didn’t like selling to them because I guess they were investors who were gonna flip 2 years after living in it but the market literally went dead in that area (I haven’t seen a house sold in that area since mine sold).

We are seeing homes come down in the St Louis area... not in the ghetto, but nice suburbs. I've seen a lot of real nice condos I would love to buy and rent out, fully updated for 150k. I could see myself doing that down the road but not just yet.

we just had our house reassessed to see if the PMI can come off our mortgage.. turns out our house is valued $160k more than when we bought it!!!

shadyfozzie wrote:

That should definitely get it dropped and save you a chunk.

Now the question is -- how long until they can raise your property taxes to match the "new value"...

We were gonna do it... Go over budget and bid on the house. Haha... Yeah... We talked to the selling realtor, many bids over asking. There's such little inventory now and competition is aggressive. Super curios to see how much it goes for.

Probably best to wait until spring/summer regardless. Hopefully rates will come down a bit more too.