A realtor we have loosely been working with said her husband bought a small one recently to process trees they and friends lost in the derecho.
Housing market
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A realtor we have loosely been working with said her husband bought a small one recently to process trees they and friends lost in the derecho.
So basically the housing market is operating like college loans are handled? Oh you want $250K for your ivy league English degree? Ok here you go!
Note: not trying to know English majors.
Im curious what the story is here if you don’t mind telling.
Look at lumber futures. Appear to have peaked and are on downtrend. Does that mean you’ll find cheaper lumber next week? Probably not. I think common line of thinking is we need to get through the major 21’ building cycle and allow stock piles to be replenished before you see a return to “normalcy”. However the new baseline prices will probably be higher than they were originally, just not 130% higher
All I know is that sellers aren't the ones driving whether an appraisal is needed or not. That's completely on the buyer side of the transaction, and the the appraisal is there to protect the buyer and bank. If the buyer is bringing a ton of cash to the table or there's been an appraisal recently, the bank can waive it. If the appraisal comes in light, it's on the buyer to potentially bring more cash to the table.
Sellers only entertaining cash offers in order to close quickly in this market would be the only scenario where they could have any impact.
Think this is about right. I don't claim to be an expert, but in my line of work I talk to some people in the industry and the relative consensus is that we've hit the peak. It may take 6-9 months for things to drop back to whatever the "new normal" is, but hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I sure hope so as we recently purchased some land with the intent to start a build in the next ~12-18 months. Of course any reduction in building material costs could be offset, or exceeded, by increases in interests rates. Tough to guess what the best timing is. It's going to be better than buying in our market currently regardless however.
Hired a contractor last Spring to do a major remodel of a house we bought in the country. We had several bids and he was in line with the others but a little cheaper because he said he could do everything himself (e.g. - dirt work, plumbing, electric, etc...). No formal contract just a piece of paper saying what he'd do for what price. We had a couple references from people we know but not for anything this big. We had some issues with the bank, then the derecho and covid delayed us a lot last spring/summer. Then this winter he decided to have a surgery on his shoulder (totally elective). But all this time he could have been buying material but he waited... When he came back we started having issues with him... didn't follow the plan, would do things without asking. For instance, I specifically told him I wanted to make sure the garage floor had plenty of slope to the door so water in the winter wouldn't pool. Showed up the day after the pour and he had put in a floor drain... to a pit... with no outlet. Definitely would not have agreed to that but too late. Then after he had the garage door installed I noticed the door wouldn't seal because the floor is so unlevel and rain comes in under the door but there's not enough fall to get the the floor drain so it pools between the door and the drain
This is just one of the example of the ****-ups he would have had to fix. But instead, he just cleaned up all of his tools and left. Got a letter from a lawyer last week saying he thinks it would be beneficial to both of us to part ways. He's drawn ~75% of the construction loan but we have way more than that left to finish especially with the ****-ups to fix. Obviously we have a lawyer involved too now but I can't image this ending up with anything other than us going way over budget on this house.I have heard that lots of contractors are just walking away from jobs rather than taking the hit of the material increase.
TL;DR; - contractors suck.
Hired a contractor last Spring to do a major remodel of a house we bought in the country. We had several bids and he was in line with the others but a little cheaper because he said he could do everything himself (e.g. - dirt work, plumbing, electric, etc...). No formal contract just a piece of paper saying what he'd do for what price. We had a couple references from people we know but not for anything this big. We had some issues with the bank, then the derecho and covid delayed us a lot last spring/summer. Then this winter he decided to have a surgery on his shoulder (totally elective). But all this time he could have been buying material but he waited... When he came back we started having issues with him... didn't follow the plan, would do things without asking. For instance, I specifically told him I wanted to make sure the garage floor had plenty of slope to the door so water in the winter wouldn't pool. Showed up the day after the pour and he had put in a floor drain... to a pit... with no outlet. Definitely would not have agreed to that but too late. Then after he had the garage door installed I noticed the door wouldn't seal because the floor is so unlevel and rain comes in under the door but there's not enough fall to get the the floor drain so it pools between the door and the drain
I have heard that lots of contractors are just walking away from jobs rather than taking the hit of the material increase.
TL;DR; - contractors suck.
That sucks...
We put a deck on last summer and this was in front of the first lumber spike. We had a signed agreement with the guy, but he must have been left exposed to the lumber yard, and tried very hard to back out of price. I give him credit, did stick to his word, we might have paid an additional $500 when it was all said and done ( and i did offer to do a little of the work to help him).
Feel bad a bit for the little guy/contractor here as obviously this move was a little unprecedented and they are the ones taking the brunt of the hit. The larger contractors can work it out over time and have staff just for procurement. Hard for smaller guy to significantly lay off risk and their knowledge and skill set is mainly on construction not markets. Not an excuse for the service you got, but not a good situation for anyone.
We actually paid him some money for the materials price increase ($2500 to be exact) even though I don't think it should have been our problem. That was early this Spring.
If anyone is looking for contractors in the Marshalltown area and want to know who to avoid, PM me. Probably won't be able to answer until this is settled though.
I think we’re finally jumping on the refi train. Moving from a 30 to a 20 (knocking off 6 years) for the same monthly payment between the lower interest rate and ditching the PMI. My goal is to get this ***** paid off by 50 and keep my wife from wanting to move until then.
Greetings fellow Aussie owner. Ours gets too hot and won't sleep in bed with us, ha.
the one we rescued will hop back and forth between the bed and the closet all night, and then the one who my fiancée had before we started dating sleeps either right next to me or at my feet all night (he pretty much became my dog after a few months). hopefully can find a house with a somewhat fenced in yard to let them out and run a bit more during the day.
I can add to this list, my parents had a tree fall through the roof from the derecho and 9 months later the contractor still dinking around. Hoping he finally finishes up this month.
You find something you like get on it like blue bonnet and be prepared to pay more than asking in this area.
Not very true. The appraisal is bank and transaction specific. There are only weird circumstances when this is allowed. Most appraisers will not sign off on allowing it due to possible changes. May get a 1/4 to 1/2 charge for a quick look over but even that is rare.
Generally when we hire someone we pay for materials upfront so the contractor locks in the prices. Only time I’ve been but was when we did our 3rd garage stall. Wife wanted her cousins kid to do it. This was just before things took off. We paid for materials but he apparently didn’t buy them right away, well when it was done, we had an uninsulated garage door, one less rafter and we still owed him a bud more. The garage door Pd me off. I would have paid the 90 bucks to have the right door.
In-laws, worse then dealing with relatives.
Finally got around to getting a refi. Went from 4.25 to 2.75 which saves us $700/mo.
The appraisal came back 40K over what we purchased our home for just over 2 years ago.
Best decision ever.
The appraisal came back 40K over what we purchased our home for just over 2 years ago.
Best decision ever.
seems like the market is cooling down a bit here. more homes being listed (nicer and a bit cheaper than sold the last month). interesting