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Congrats OP on your new house!

All you young Cyclones out there- get that first house as soon as you can, even if it’s not the one you want. Build that equity and pay it off as fast as you can, rent it, and then go buy another one. Repeat repeat repeat.

Narrator: And that, kids, worked great right up until 2007...
 
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My agent just showed me a run down 1000sq foot house not far from me he listed for 800,000 that sold for 1,050,000. Tiny one car garage, all 30-40 years outdated needing a complete renovation.

I know because I was looking in the area a year ago it would have been listed around 750,000 and sold for 800,000 back then. (still over ask but not 200k over ask)

Did Tarek El Mousa buy it?
 
They don't have to accept anything. There were at least a half dozen houses than randomly went off the market with no warning that didn't have public sale offers.

If you list at $450,000 and multiple offers come in above that, how do you choose which one to take if you're required to take "full list". Most people don't care who is buying their house (in regards to illegal discrimination) but when everything is above list price the sellers look at who has waived inspections, who has an appraisal gap (we had garunteed $15,000 over appraisal for our sale), etc. They want the easiest transaction.

Our relator said he has clients who have FHA funding and they are locked out of everything because prices in those ranges are sold to all-cash investors. We made an offer on a $475,000 house in Plymouth that ended up going to an all-cash investors with no inspection. Who the heck does that??

Our house was listed at $450,000 and we offered $1,000 over next best price up to $490,000. We didn't waive inspection but we did say we promised not to ask for any money to fix any issues found (but it did give us an "out" if we needed it). We said we'd cover any appraisal gap up to $15,000 and all closing costs. In MN the buyers pay that. We're selling our house in Iowa and I sure hope it's the same thing here.

Anyway, we got it for $463,000 and the inspection was decent so we're moving forward. Like I said in the OP, the sellers told us our letter was the difference-maker.

That last bit seems insane to me. Not asking for money to fix stuff. Truly is a sellers market right now.
 
They don't have to accept anything. There were at least a half dozen houses than randomly went off the market with no warning that didn't have public sale offers.

If you list at $450,000 and multiple offers come in above that, how do you choose which one to take if you're required to take "full list". Most people don't care who is buying their house (in regards to illegal discrimination) but when everything is above list price the sellers look at who has waived inspections, who has an appraisal gap (we had garunteed $15,000 over appraisal for our sale), etc. They want the easiest transaction.

Our relator said he has clients who have FHA funding and they are locked out of everything because prices in those ranges are sold to all-cash investors. We made an offer on a $475,000 house in Plymouth that ended up going to an all-cash investors with no inspection. Who the heck does that??

Our house was listed at $450,000 and we offered $1,000 over next best price up to $490,000. We didn't waive inspection but we did say we promised not to ask for any money to fix any issues found (but it did give us an "out" if we needed it). We said we'd cover any appraisal gap up to $15,000 and all closing costs. In MN the buyers pay that. We're selling our house in Iowa and I sure hope it's the same thing here.

Anyway, we got it for $463,000 and the inspection was decent so we're moving forward. Like I said in the OP, the sellers told us our letter was the difference-maker.

I see a lot of similarities in your story and mine. I had been looking for over a year. I don't think I could afford my neighborhood or any remotely close areas right now if I had not bought when I did. A year of looking and five serious offers before the sixth one worked, and likely only because of the very brief 2-3 week pandemic lull at the height of "lock down" timing. There were many places we were interested in based on asking price but didn't even offer because we knew there would be 50+ ridiculous high offers.

When we finally got an offer accepted, we were one of just 3 offers and right around list. On the 5 we lost out on we'd typically be one of 30-50 offers with the majority all cash way above asking (10-30% above) and I suspect often foreign investors. There's a new growing industry of companies presenting an offer as an all cash offer for a fee of course, the way I see things going I think it may be a necessary expense in many areas of the country unless things change.
 
I am in the same boat, looking in the western suburbs. Just missed out on our 6th offer last night.

Our worst loss was we went 40k over asking, and the winning bid went (at least) 55k over. just stupid.

And we are not looking at houses as high as the home you just won on.
 
Fed is keeping interest rates low until 2023 according to their dot plot. Home prices are only going to flatten or go up.

My agent told me he can't see how things can get near 4 for a few years with so many currently locked in around or under 3, thinks 3.25-3.5 could be norm and that a few months ago really was the bottom. One guy but it makes sense.
 
Sucks to appraise the houses. You see the market, but no comps can support it. I have no idea how they make it work (I do but that is supposed to be taboo)

Appraisals should be hired by the buyer and have laws prohibiting them from contacting the mortgage originator and seller until after the appraisal has come in. Current system is as quid pro quo as it gets
 
Appraisals should be hired by the buyer and have laws prohibiting them from contacting the mortgage originator and seller until after the appraisal has come in. Current system is as quid pro quo as it gets
Appraisals are only good for whoever hires it done. So if the buyer hires it, the lender can’t use it.
 
Appraisals should be hired by the buyer and have laws prohibiting them from contacting the mortgage originator and seller until after the appraisal has come in. Current system is as quid pro quo as it gets

Yeah, I've bought two houses, one in 2016 and one this month. Both appraisals came in $1,000 above my offer.
 
We bought our house in September 2017. We put it on the market last month and had 10 offers in 24 hours, 7 were over asking, 2 were at asking price and 1 was under asking (lol). I was floored.

We sold for 22.8% over what we bought it for in 2017, as-is condition - no inspection.

The only upgrades we did when we lived in it was re-painting basically all of the rooms and we put in new tile in the half bath.

Buying a new house sucked but it was totally worth it to cash that check we got.
 
Appraisals are only good for whoever hires it done. So if the buyer hires it, the lender can’t use it.

And there in lies the problem. Appraisers have to come back inflated values to justify the current market sale price for the back to issue the mortgage.

It reminds me of the "ratings" the agencies put on securitized tranches in the 08 mortgage bubble. No real basis. Just doing it so they can all collect their fees and move on
 
Those of you that are selling should consider not using a realtor. You’ll probably be able to sell the house within a few days, and all you need is to spend 500 bucks on an attorney to prepare the documents for you, instead of tens of thousands of dollars to a realtor.
 
And there in lies the problem. Appraisers have to come back inflated values to justify the current market sale price for the back to issue the mortgage.

It reminds me of the "ratings" the agencies put on securitized tranches in the 08 mortgage bubble. No real basis. Just doing it so they can all collect their fees and move on

The lack of down payments also factor in. Like I mentioned before FHA is backing a huge amount of houses. Even houses valued at what would be tagged as jumbo loans in some markets. Gotten ridiculous. If current market conditions weren’t factored in, and only available sales comps used, then most people would be required to put the full 20% down even with FHAs light requirements. My question is, if everyone thinks these houses are extremely over valued, why are people offering those values.

I also think a range would be best for appraisals, say 450-465k type of thing, but people want an exact number but that number may change up to 5% due to buyer or seller needs/situation. Not very many banks are doing in-house loans that I know because the big talk of probable foreclosures coming.
 
The lack of down payments also factor in. Like I mentioned before FHA is backing a huge amount of houses. Even houses valued at what would be tagged as jumbo loans in some markets. Gotten ridiculous. If current market conditions weren’t factored in, and only available sales comps used, then most people would be required to put the full 20% down even with FHAs light requirements. My question is, if everyone thinks these houses are extremely over valued, why are people offering those values.

I also think a range would be best for appraisals, say 450-465k type of thing, but people want an exact number but that number may change up to 5% due to buyer or seller needs/situation. Not very many banks are doing in-house loans that I know because the big talk of probable foreclosures coming.

I agree on 20% down. But I believe it's at least 25% of Americans don't have $1000 saved for an emergency...

Another thing not many people talk about is that older generations have A TON of their net worth tied up in equity in their homes. That is their nest egg. They are also the most active voters. So it's beneficial to keep the system prompted up.

How you fix this is by making multi unit and higher density housing easier to build and more zoning friendly. While making single family housing as expensive as possible. We need more housing in the US. Fastest, most cost effective and best for our planet is to go up and not out with that housing. But the American dream is a cul-da-sac on a half acre lot in Waukee. Not a duplex in Windor Heights or a 4 story condo in Beaverdale
 

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