Current Events > Went to visit a house for sale yesterday

(+) Yeah! (+)

It got 11 offers already. It was on the market 4 days. Totally bonkers. Our realtor said the trend is to list a house on a Friday, have folks come in during the weekend and then review/accept offers by Monday or Tuesday.

We are only passively looking anyway but it was a stunning house. My friend has put 3 offers on homes that have each been outbid. I wonder how long this trend will continue?

Howd you settle on a realtor?

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R1masher posted...

Howd you settle on a realtor?

We used Redfin when buying our first house and he was assigned to us. He was great so were working with him again through Redfin.

they took house
oh no.
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Cleo_II posted...

We used Redfin when buying our first house and he was assigned to us. He was great so were working with him again through Redfin.

neat, its crazy how many people I know or my wife knows that never had their shit together growing up now have realtor licenses

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Cleo_II posted...

I wonder how long this trend will continue?

At the very least for another 3 months, after the eviction moratorium ends.

The housing market in my area has been crazy the last couple years. Houses are on the market an average of 2-3 day then they're gone. In this last year, you can't get a house for asking price. You have to put in an offer of 5% over to even be in the running.

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I just signed the paperwork for a house this morning. But yeah, that's how it's been.

Also the fun aspect of people will bid random amounts higher than the asking price. So it's a terrible game of guessing what others are willing to pay.

My wife and I were only chosen to buy the house because the family that owns it lives next door and we had talked to them a minute when we went to look. We didn't know that at the time.

We actually did not bid the highest but they liked us. They wanted a nice couple instead of an old crab or a property company to own it. Im cynical so I chalk it up to we had mentioned a few upgrades to the house which would up the property value which would also up the neighbors property value.

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There are a lot of hot markets right now. Been that way for years here for anything under 200k that's not a total dump.

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Jiek_Fafn posted...

I just signed the paperwork for a house this morning. But yeah, that's how it's been.

Also the fun aspect of people will bid random amounts higher than the asking price. So it's a terrible game of guessing what others are willing to pay.

My wife and I were only chosen to buy the house because the family that owns it lives next door and we had talked to them a minute when we went to look. We didn't know that at the time.

We actually did not bid the highest but they liked us. They wanted a nice couple instead of an old crab or a property company to own it. Im cynical so I chalk it up to we had mentioned a few upgrades to the house which would up the property value which would also up the neighbors property value.

Yeah a friend and her husband bought their house last Sept. When putting in an offer, they had to also write up an essay telling the owners why they should sell to them. It was ridiculous.

Thankfully the market wasn't that crazy when my wife and I bought our house in 2019. Our realtor was a shark though. She wrote up an offer with a 24 hour deadline. Sent that over to the owners at 10pm on a Saturday. The owners realitor begged her for a couple extra hours so they could make it home from church before the offer expired. We got the house for asking price.

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The opinion of me, a layman (not an economist):

There is also the fact that interest rates are incredibly low, with cash being pumped into the economy. Capital is basically worthless to rich people right now, as property and investment purchases can be a great way to protect your cash value until things normalize (they should at least track with inflation, theoretically). And with interest rates so low and the potential inflation high, borrowing money now may very well mean paying less total value on the loan than you received up front in real value. And the property frenzy, of course, feeds itself: people see values going up so they think it's an even better investment. Something similar is actually happening to cars as well.

Things probably won't turn around until there's a big turnaround on the value of capital. It's not like these houses are being bought by people likely to default on loans or anything. Prices may tumble a bit when this happens, but who knows.

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My wife wants to sell our house and move into an apartment until the market settles out again. Our house is currently estimated at nearly double what we paid for it (bonkers)

Last summer I visited a house for sale that was newly listed in my area.

Within 24 hours of that visit, someone else made an offer and the seller accepted. That was before I could get pre approved.

I imagine it's worse this year

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I got lucky with mine. It was a model home and I didn't have to compete with anyone.

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BlazinBlue88 posted...

Yeah a friend and her husband bought their house last Sept. When putting in an offer, they had to also write up an essay telling the owners why they should sell to them. It was ridiculous.

Yeah, our realtor had us write one of those too. It actually helped us out because by then we had already found out that we met the sellers and made a little inside joke about it. So lots of luck on our part there.


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Market's pretty crazy. Friend's former coworker's been trying to get a house in this area for months and they just keep getting outbid every single time. Browsing around on Redfin, buyers are putting bids out there tens of thousands of dollars above asking price and still losing out. Neighbor actually sold his house a couple months ago, thing was only on the market for maybe three days.

Terrible time to be a buyer tbh.

But hey if you're looking to move to the east coast we're considering selling lmao

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I'm so glad the house I bought was owned by a buddy. If he would have actually had it listed publicly I never would have gotten it because I would have been outbid.

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BlazinBlue88 posted...

Yeah a friend and her husband bought their house last Sept. When putting in an offer, they had to also write up an essay telling the owners why they should sell to them. It was ridiculous.

Forcing it is silly, but writing up a letter is a great idea. It's how we got our house. We were the second highest offer on the house, but the owners loved our personal letter. We didn't have to write it, but we had heard it was a good idea.

A lot of houses are being bought by foreign investors here. If you are an elderly couple selling the house you lived in for 30 years, you want to give it to someone that will appreciate it. Not just a rich Chinese firm that will gut the house and flip it.

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R1masher posted...

neat, its crazy how many people I know or my wife knows that never had their shit together growing up now have realtor licenses

Im not sure Id want to be a realtor in this market. So much competition and crazy hours. Sounds stressful af

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Were looking at doing a cash out refinance since the value of our house went up so much. Then we could rent it out and break even on it since rent went up. Were unsure if we should try and buy a new house at the same time or just rent somewhere, lay low and buy when the market settles. But it would mean higher interest rates so were unsure.

Weve been looking for a few years. I am pretty particular about what I want in a house. One finally showed up that was what I wanted, but it sold the day of the open house (I thought it was 40k too much anyway). We have a house that is paid off, it has some issues, but I just am not in the mood to overpay in this market.
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