House Buying Thread

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Jun 26, 2023 3:15 pm

Unless you overpaid by like $30k+, does it honestly matter? Especially if you're happy with the house that you bought. When we bought, the seller assist phase was just coming to an end, so we paid full listing price - which was the only reason we got the house, as the other offer they received had $5k seller assist. I'd have paid another $10-15k if it meant getting the house, to be honest. Best purchase I've ever made, right in front of the Costco $1.50 dog and drink.

Postby **tifosi77** » Tue Jun 27, 2023 2:30 pm

Overpaying for a house really isn't an issue unless you know you're in a sort of transient mode where you'll be buying and selling in relative short order (say less than 3 yrs between transactions). Provided you aren't doing a crazy-go-bonkers where you pay substantially more than local appreciation could possibly keep up with. Even a difference of that $30k example on a purchase price where 30k is a significant chunk, that only changes the monthly payment maybe by a couple hundred dollars at most, and the market will outstrip that price difference in relatively short order most places.

Perhaps it might also present challenges if you buy a house that needs some improvements, but you won't be able to get an equity loan to fund that work because you overpaid and the market hasn't caught up with you yet. I think that's maybe a more realistic scenario than getting bitten in the rump in a normal resale situation.

Extinction Level Events like the 2008 crash notwithstanding, of course; that would take several more years to recover value. But I don't think it's realistic for the average home buyer to plan to global economic collapse.

Postby **Shyster** » Sat Jul 01, 2023 5:39 pm

This belongs in here.

Postby **MR25** » Sat Jul 15, 2023 6:12 pm

House posted on Realtor.com 6 hours ago. I text my agent, open house tomorrow so meet at 1:30.

Text from agent an hour ago: open house cancelled. They received an offer and accepted it.

What the ****

Postby **RonnieFranchise** » Sat Jul 15, 2023 6:29 pm

I get some sellers are very motivated but wouldn’t you hold the open house, let things play out a week or so and see what offers you get?

Postby **mac5155** » Sat Jul 15, 2023 6:46 pm

Yeah my buddy's place had an open house on Sunday and had 2 offers by Saturday. They let the offers expire and they came back in after open house at $10k higher and waived inspections.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Sat Jul 15, 2023 10:50 pm

I saw a blurb about a housing shortage in this country, and how new homes are being built and bought to be rental homes. I know that’s the case in our neighborhood.

Postby **tifosi77** » Sun Jul 16, 2023 11:49 pm

It could be a healthy offer that's only good if it's accepted before the open house. Bird in the hand sort of thing; the trick is making the offer an amount that actually motivates the seller to forego the risk of the open market.

We accepted an offer on our first house before our ever got to the open; house was technically only on the market like 100 hours before contract.

Postby **count2infinity** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 7:51 am

I saw a blurb about a housing shortage in this country, and how new homes are being built and bought to be rental homes. I know that’s the case in our neighborhood.

During the pandemic, investors were buying crazy numbers of houses. If memory serves it was like 3/4 of all home sales were to investors, not people that were actually going to live there.

That number has come down now, but it’s still higher than I would have imagined. At a certain point (like, right now…) it’s going to be a problem for everyone.

Postby **Morkle** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:11 am

I think it already is a problem for everyone. $500K houses are now almost a million, and you're either going to die house poor, or an investor is going to come in and buy it because they're making a return on it.

IMO, it's a pretty dire situation right now. I've been watching the market now for like 2 years in the area I am looking into (North Hills all the way up to Zelie, and it's just garbage). I've even considered buying an older house with more land, because you can rebuild the house, you can't get more land.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:14 am

I like to browse the real estate transactions in the free local paper they give out every week. It does seem like a high percentage of deals are from XYZ TOA/LLC/whatever-short-lived investment companies. It gives me an uncomfortable feeling that larger entities are profiting at such a scale as this but at the end of the day they took the risk and its paying off big time.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:16 am

It will come crashing down though. Has to. Saturday we went to a camper dealership just to browse around. MRSP was being slashed up to 40-50% on many models. It's a niche/luxury market, but still think it will trickle down to the more "necessary" items like homes and cars.

Postby **Morkle** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:22 am

Mobile Homes, and Vans are on the rise too as people take to smaller living because they can't afford apartments or homes. If I was in a different life, I'd absolutely live in a van I think.

Postby **count2infinity** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:23 am

I’m good as we bought in early 2020… prices hadn’t skyrocketed just yet and interest rates were low. I’m going to be in this house until my kid heads off for college at least. But I couldn’t imagine trying to buy right now. Looking at local Zillow, there’s nothing middle of the road. It’s all trash or huge. Nothing for your everyday family, and it’s only a difference of 3ish years.

Postby **Morkle** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:25 am

I only ever expected one kid - so we're going to make it work in this 3BR house for the long-term future - because I can't even fathom going to buy another house, at 8% whatever interest rate and pay nearly double+ in mortgage. Just not interested, can't do it.

Maybe when the kids are out of daycare - but it's not really feasible right now.

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:38 am

Zillow and at least one other big company were buying RE left and right, and eventually invested so much that they has massive financial issues and got out of that segment. Lots of layoffs as a result, too, IIRC.

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:41 am

I only ever expected one kid - so we're going to make it work in this 3BR house for the long-term future - because I can't even fathom going to buy another house, at 8% whatever interest rate and pay nearly double+ in mortgage. Just not interested, can't do it.

Maybe when the kids are out of daycare - but it's not really feasible right now.

We bought a 4BR house looking to have two kids, but that didn't work out, so we have just the one. That said, if I were looking again, I'd probably in the same boat - 3BR max, not wanting to spend the amount for a 4BR. Our next place will be our 'forever home', and I plan on paying for it 100% in cash after selling this home so as to not have a mortgage.

Refinancing every 2 years definitely paid off for me. My 15-year is @ 1.75%, and I know more than one person who just bought a house with a 6% mortgage. Insane.

Postby **Morkle** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:43 am

Right, we're around 2% or something stupid. I couldn't fathom paying an extra $200K for one extra bedroom (albeit nicer everything else) and go in at a 6-7% interest rate.

Postby **skullman80** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:50 am

We are at 3% and very thankful, and yeah rates now are higher. With that said, I think that in general the rates over the last 50 years or so...that the timeframe we had from like 2010 to 2022 (including the crazy covid drops) were kind of outside the norm.

4-7% is probably the norm for these sorts of things when it all averages out. It seems high because we've seen such low low's, and that's why everyone thinks its crazy.

Postby **Morkle** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:52 am

Well, interest rates are higher - but now put the home sell price chart up there and see where we land. Couple that with stagnant wage increases, and we're in a very bad situation for people trying to land into a house.

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:53 am

Our first mortgage in 2011 was 4.90%. My parents' first mortgage on their current home was 14%. Both are awful.

Postby **skullman80** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:53 am

Well, interest rates are higher - but now put the home sell price chart up there and see where we land. Couple that with stagnant wage increases, and we're in a very bad situation for people trying to land into a house.

Yeah it's a perfect storm of shittiness for those looking to buy a house no argument from me there.

Postby **CBear3** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 9:11 am

Well, interest rates are higher - but now put the home sell price chart up there and see where we land. Couple that with stagnant wage increases, and we're in a very bad situation for people trying to land into a house.
Yeah it's a perfect storm of shittiness for those looking to buy a house no argument from me there.

And it puts everybody graduating and moving out behind the 8-ball for the foreseeable future. The difference on a 375k loan from 2.5% to today's 6% is $750 a month. That's nearly the entirety of what my first mortgage was.

Postby **count2infinity** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 9:13 am

Yeah… and inflation happens. I get it prices go up, things get “more expensive”, but with wages not going up at the same rate, especially at the lower level pay jobs. It sucks right now.

Postby **skullman80** » Mon Jul 17, 2023 9:37 am

Well, interest rates are higher - but now put the home sell price chart up there and see where we land. Couple that with stagnant wage increases, and we're in a very bad situation for people trying to land into a house.
Yeah it's a perfect storm of shittiness for those looking to buy a house no argument from me there.
And it puts everybody graduating and moving out behind the 8-ball for the foreseeable future. The difference on a 375k loan from 2.5% to today's 6% is $750 a month. That's nearly the entirety of what my first mortgage was.

Yeah no doubt. I just looked at our house which was 240k and at 3% it's like 1k/mth at 7% its almost $1600/mth and that is before taxes, escrow and all that other fun stuff. It really is an awful situation.

We pay like $1500/mth including taxes, escrow and insurance, so someone at 7% would likely be at like $2200 a mth or so if not more. Insane.