Home buying thread

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Sludig

Sludig

Potato del Grande
10,116
10,825
Thought you were in CO? What city? Inlaw bought a apartment hes calling a condo in highlands highlands ranch, sad seeing what he gets for the same as my house was.

Related, anyone have advice if this idea is feasible. I know hard to say with so many variables but if i know its crazy to start save myself research time.

Bought house for 250 after area had already gone up 30k in like 3 months in 2015. Neighboring houses just sold for 370, kinda of the mind if things hit 400+ by late spring to try and do something. Ideally id leave state and do well in idaho/wyoming but we can't leave right now.


Hoping to get half acre up to 2-3 (shooting range) somewhere off in the plains to the east. Not too far out is challnege since she works north denver and i work north colorado so not making a crazy commute is hard.

Id like to do a steel structure home like in my water heater flooded thread, wife in love with it etc though she is trying to insist on 2 story for the look. That or a nicer system built home. Some considerations would be having other properties somewhat nearby just to make utilities less of a nightmare. Ideally a full basement.

Goal over a standard build in place home is to keep costs down and try and manage to do the whole thing for 300-350 and end up with extra equity to invest.
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
24,541
46,207
I'm in Denver. Early spring is usually a dry spell as far as inventory goes. People want to sell in summer. I'm in a good place financially in that I can afford this place easily. I just have a shit ton of space I don't use. Price per square foot being relatively equal and the insanely high increases in price the past few years just lets me tap into the equity a little if I want to. I'll end up at the same or less in terms of monthly mortgage and HOA, with the added benefit of paying off all my major outstanding debt. Will let me hurry up and put more money into my 401k and save up for a new car or whatever else.
 
Crone

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,714
3,211
Wife and I have been looking to buy a home since December in the Portland area. (Actually north in Vancouver, WA). Last tme we did this it was 2012 and in Phoenix AZ. I think back then it was considered a buyers market? We saw a ton of homes, but we found one we liked, put our offer in, went back and fourth a bit, but agreed on something, bought it, and moved in. Really easy.

So far this time around, it's a sellers market I guess? and we've lost out on one home already. We lost because the other offer was WAY above asking and expected appraisal, and they agreed to terms that they'd pay out of pocket the difference in price from appraisal and offer. Why would you put yourself immediately in the hole like that? I don't get it.

Quickly discovering that this time around it's going to take more patience. Lol. Our budget is in a weird spot where I feel another 50k, and we'd of found a house already, but because it's lower, we're trying to find the diamonds in the rough, and of course those all have more competition.
 
Khane

Khane

Got something right about marriage
20,630
14,378
Home purchases for many people tend to be emotional rather than rational. That's why someone would offer above asking.
 
Crone

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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3,211
Khane said:
Home purchases for many people tend to be emotional rather than rational. That's why someone would offer above asking.
Click to expand...
I suppose I knew that already, and I agree with you. Guess that's what makes it a sellers market right now.

So does anyone out there work with a realtor that has a better system of showing potential houses to clients than the stupid MLS emails, then I have to tell specific addresses back to the realtor? Why can't I just click "like" or something, and my realtor gets that information? Seems entirely archaic?

I mean, even when my realtor creates a "showing route" it's a fucking PDF, and then I have to manually go into Google maps and create the route and send it to my phone to make it easier. I mean really? Is MLS really that limiting?
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
24,541
46,207
Crone said:
I suppose I knew that already, and I agree with you. Guess that's what makes it a sellers market right now.

So does anyone out there work with a realtor that has a better system of showing potential houses to clients than the stupid MLS emails, then I have to tell specific addresses back to the realtor? Why can't I just click "like" or something, and my realtor gets that information? Seems entirely archaic?

I mean, even when my realtor creates a "showing route" it's a fucking PDF, and then I have to manually go into Google maps and create the route and send it to my phone to make it easier. I mean really? Is MLS really that limiting?
Click to expand...

MLS is a standardized database that all realtors use. You can go to something like zillow and find stuff on the map and plot your route that way.
 
Crone

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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3,211
moonarchia said:
MLS is a standardized database that all realtors use. You can go to something like zillow and find stuff on the map and plot your route that way.
Click to expand...
Yea, up here in the NW there is the NW MLS, and RMLS? They are just for different counties, and according to my realtor Sister in Law, all charge fees to access the information. It's dumb.
 
Xarpolis

Xarpolis

Life's a Dream
14,889
16,722
MLS is a country wide standard for residential listings. Listing a property with MLS will give it more eyes than people that do "for sale by owner". Every region is different, though. I pay for MLS access through Hawaii, but that's primarily just Oahu based listings. Other islands use a different MLS branch. The same is true for every other part of the country.

A few states allow large areas access into a single MLS branch, but this is not the norm.

Technically what makes the market a buyers or sellers market has to do with volume of properties currently listed. Right now, if you were to stop adding any new properties into MLS, the current volume would be gone in under 6 months. In Hawaii, that rate is around 3 1/2 months. That's what a sellers market indicates. 6 months or less. A buyers market is when there is a much larger stock of properties than buyers. Think of the housing crash. Suddenly the market was FLOODED with cheap houses and not enough people to buy them all. So prices plummeted until it stabilized once again.

Also, the value of a house is arbitrary at best. There's nothing at all that sets this price except what a buyer will offer. If you list your house at $350k, but the most anyone would offer after a year is $250k, your house isn't worth $350k. But maybe in a few more years if you list your house again at $350k, and within a week you have 15 offers, all for $350k or more, chances are you under valued your place. Housing value is a guessing game at best.

And it's 100% dependent upon what other people have purchased houses in your area for. There is no other metric that matters. ...except foreclosures. They ruin the sellers value.

Technically there is a little more involved in it. Future speculation comes into play in cities. Where is the new entertainment center going? Will they build a highway near here? I heard that building on the corner is going to be a homeless shelter soon.
 
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Lanx

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
66,138
150,740
Xarpolis said:
MLS is a country wide standard for residential listings. Listing a property with MLS will give it more eyes than people that do "for sale by owner". Every region is different, though. I pay for MLS access through Hawaii, but that's primarily just Oahu based listings. Other islands use a different MLS branch. The same is true for every other part of the country.

A few states allow large areas access into a single MLS branch, but this is not the norm.

Technically what makes the market a buyers or sellers market has to do with volume of properties currently listed. Right now, if you were to stop adding any new properties into MLS, the current volume would be gone in under 6 months. In Hawaii, that rate is around 3 1/2 months. That's what a sellers market indicates. 6 months or less. A buyers market is when there is a much larger stock of properties than buyers. Think of the housing crash. Suddenly the market was FLOODED with cheap houses and not enough people to buy them all. So prices plummeted until it stabilized once again.

Also, the value of a house is arbitrary at best. There's nothing at all that sets this price except what a buyer will offer. If you list your house at $350k, but the most anyone would offer after a year is $250k, your house isn't worth $350k. But maybe in a few more years if you list your house again at $350k, and within a week you have 15 offers, all for $350k or more, chances are you under valued your place. Housing value is a guessing game at best.

And it's 100% dependent upon what other people have purchased houses in your area for. There is no other metric that matters. ...except foreclosures. They ruin the sellers value.

Technically there is a little more involved in it. Future speculation comes into play in cities. Where is the new entertainment center going? Will they build a highway near here? I heard that building on the corner is going to be a homeless shelter soon.
Click to expand...
what is the difference between whatever the fuck MLS is and places like zillow/truila that just steal MLS info?

also what is the interface? just basically a huge spreadsheet? cuz when my realtor gave me comps, thats what it looked like.
 
Vinen

Vinen

God is dead
2,791
497
Lanx said:
what is the difference between whatever the fuck MLS is and places like zillow/truila that just steal MLS info?

also what is the interface? just basically a huge spreadsheet? cuz when my realtor gave me comps, thats what it looked like.
Click to expand...

Its the same information. Zillow, Redfin, etc all contract with MLS to display their data. Xarpalarp can probably high-light any differences. I'm not aware of any that matter outside of potentially to a broker (suspect Broker open-house is only shown directly from MLS).
 
Big Phoenix

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
<Gold Donor>
46,835
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MLS is the biggest scam in the world. Computers have made realtors 100% useless but theyve rigged the system so that only they have access to said computer.
 
Xarpolis

Xarpolis

Life's a Dream
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16,722
In short, yes it is. However, the real estate lobbyists are more powerful than the computers. It's actually illegal to do a lot of shit with real estate (even your own) without an agent. You're able to sell your own place, but it won't be placed in the MLS or any other type of search criteria. As such, the only people that will even see your sale are those that drive past. It's pretty shitty.

There's a slight way around that, and that's to find people that will charge you a flat rate just to enter the property into MLS. They may charge you $3-4k to do so. At least out here they will. The "scam" in those people (that they never mention to you earlier) is that you still have to pay a commission to the purchasing agent. Unfortunately, there's no real way around that. You could say you want 0-1% commission, but then agents are greedy. They won't show people your property. So you're pretty much bound to hope someone sees it on Zillow or Redfin in that situation.

Here are some screenshots from my MLS page. Just so you have an idea of what I look at. It'll be hidden behind the spoiler tag due to image sizes.

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Xarpolis

Xarpolis

Life's a Dream
14,889
16,722
Yeah. Places like that are typically referred to as a care takers residence. People purchase them if they want to be work from home nurses for elderly patients. But then again, this might be a house that's trying to cheat the system and be a major source of airbnb funds.

They could "rent out" 8 bedrooms on beach front property for good cash. It's technically not legal, but that doesn't stop people from doing it. It's not legal because the hotel lobbyists are WAY stronger than even real estate lobbyists.
 
B

Burnesto

Molten Core Raider
2,142
126
Xarpolis said:
In short, yes it is. However, the real estate lobbyists are more powerful than the computers. It's actually illegal to do a lot of shit with real estate (even your own) without an agent. You're able to sell your own place, but it won't be placed in the MLS or any other type of search criteria. As such, the only people that will even see your sale are those that drive past. It's pretty shitty.
Click to expand...

You can still list on Zillow as FSBO and people see it that way. It's how I found the house that I currently live in.
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
24,541
46,207
Any forum bros ever owned a mobile home? Am pondering it as an option over putting all my money into a new place once this one sells. How often do lot rentals go up?
 
Xarpolis

Xarpolis

Life's a Dream
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16,722
Back when I was in high school, my grand parents had a 43 foot American Eagle coach. So late 90's. They would drive down to Florida for 4 months of the year and live out of it. The place they would go is River Ranch. It was pretty dope. More of a vacation than anything else.

Regarding long term staying at RV parks, you need to ask them up front. Call now. Find out about long term (year to year) rentals.

Anyway, here's a 2017 version of my grandparents coach.
American Eagle RV – 2017 American Eagle Motorhomes – American Luxury Icon
 
Sludig

Sludig

Potato del Grande
10,116
10,825
Actual rv or just cheap double wide stayss moon? You might be of my mind, prefab type home. Years ago i was interested in some of the nicer newer parks, but lot rents were almost as bad as a shitty apartment. No financial advantage to buying one because you have a depreciating asset and a rental payment that had you over a barrel due to cost to relocate.

Id only consider it if you were able to buy a tiny plot of land and plop home down on it. Otherwise seems better to just rent whatever or but a conventional home.
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
24,541
46,207
Yeah, lot rentals go up year over year and don't cover shit. Got an offer I plan to accept on my place. Already got the next place planned. Going to look at it Sunday and make an offer. If I get 5.25% on my mortgage there I will cut my monthly mortgage/insurance/how/taxes by 300 a month. And I will get another 400 a month by having my mom and dad paid off. After that I will get another 175 back by paying off my remaining school loans. Then 401k and maybe buy a new mini cooper next year.
 
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