The Home-ownership Thread

[Doohicksie]

We have the inspection on our house today.  I'm kind of expecting the buyer to come up with reasons to drop his price.  I plan to hold firm and tell him no.  Not moving is an acceptable option.

 

I found out a coworker has real estate investor friends.  He said he will see what his friends would offer just in case the current offer falls through.

I'll play d4rk ...

 

This is one near us ...

 

https://www.viewpoint.ca/map#eyJvdmVydmlldyI6eyJsaXN0aW5nIjp7Imxpc3RpbmdfaWQiOjIwMTYxNjQ5NSwiY2xhc3NfaWQiOjF9LCJwcm9wZXJ0eSI6eyJwaWQiOiI0MDExNDM1NyIsImNsYXNzX2lkIjoiMSJ9fSwic3VtbWFyeSI6eyJsaXN0aW5nIjp7Imxpc3RpbmdfaWQiOjIwMTYxNjQ5NSwiY2xhc3NfaWQiOjF9LCJwcm9wZXJ0eSI6eyJwaWQiOiI0MDExNDM1NyIsImNsYXNzX2lkIjoiMSJ9fX0=

 

We could have it 15 years ago for about $375,000.  Back then we could have sold out house for about $225,000 (now we would get close to $500,000 for ours).

 

Oh look!  Canadian Zillow.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

We have the inspection on our house today.  I'm kind of expecting the buyer to come up with reasons to drop his price.  I plan to hold firm and tell him no.  Not moving is an acceptable option.

 

I found out a coworker has real estate investor friends.  He said he will see what his friends would offer just in case the current offer falls through.

 

Oh look!  Canadian Zillow.

 

That site is just for NS.  Not sure if there is the equivalent in other parts of Canada.

 

The site is awesome.  All the realtors in our area hate the guy who set it up.  It's great.  You can browse at your leisure and only see ones that are real good options.

[North Buffalo]

not rediculous... ours in Pelham ma on 3.1 acres... 2600 sq feet plus 2300 sq foot basement, pool, sun room, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths 2 living rooms, vaulted ceilings and 2 fireplaces with vermont castings stoves, hot tub and soon to be 600 sq foot lofft above 3 car garage goes for around $400,000. Very good school district.

[josie]

Good lord. 

 

My parents just bought a huge new house- 3284 sq. feet, 4 beds, 4 bath, right next to one of the best schools in the area, 3 floors, 3 car garage, new roof, sunroom, etc.  $315,000. And at the time (and now still) I was like, guys, that is SO much money.

 

But that's NW Ohio for you... Everything is sticker shock to me. We're looking at things in the 60k range that are ex crack dens. I mean, I was checking to see if I'm eligible for food stamps earlier this week. 

Edited February 14, 2018 by ABBA_älskare_69

[Doohicksie]

It's a total ripoff of Zillow then.

[elcrusho]

realtor.com has the most up to date  MLS listings, zillow is terrible 

[LTS]

realtor.com has the most up to date  MLS listings, zillow is terrible 

 

Do you or do you have families/friends who work in real estate?  

 

That sounds like the real estate broker/agent response I would hear when I worked in the industry.

[ubkev]

Truth ... my taxes in N.Atlanta are about a 1/3 of what they'd be in WNY.

Shoot, my taxes in Pennsylvania are at least half of what they'd be in CNY. Housing prices from CNY to North East PA are about the same, and way cheaper than Fort Worth evidently.

 

And I'm with Wild Card, I like stairs. Raised ranch, bi-level, daylight basement, 2 story, whatever you wanna call it. I like having stairs. And a garage is always on my list of must haves.

[Winston]

Do you or do you have families/friends who work in real estate?  

 

That sounds like the real estate broker/agent response I would hear when I worked in the industry.

 

If you live in a hot market, Zillow is great to see what WAS listed. And that does serve a purpose. It's great to see what an area has to offer, what comps are going for, what taxes are like, all the pictures, etc.

 

But if you have honed in on an area and want to see available listings that you could actually purchase, then forget Zillow.  In a place where homes fly off the market, Zillow is days and days behind. "Active" listings were active <5% of the time we asked our realtor about a Zillow listing. So it's really just a false hope.

Caveat being that we were looking in highly desirable suburbs of a major city.. Most listings in our price range sold the day they were listed. Mostly cash offers. Zillow may prove far more accurate in cooler areas where houses sit on the market for days or even weeks, as opposed to hours :P

[sabills]

I would say look in Kenmore. Me and my wife really loved the area of North Buffalo (Hertel) but hated the prices and lack of amenities (plowing, parking, etc.).

 

We bought our house in Kenmore right in the center of the village and have loved it. We are close enough to Delaware & Delaware that we can walk to shops and restaurants we like in the area, and are still a short drive to the main restaurants and bar scene on Hertel.

 

Plus then you guys could live super close and we could be besties and do all sorts of adventures even though I am just a random guy you kind of know on the internet that is definitely not creepy... :unsure:

 

 

Just moved a couple of friends into a house right near there. I always liked that area. I worked on a couple houses over there when I was doing my electrical gig.

[Drunkard]

I'll play d4rk ...

 

This is one near us ...

 

https://www.viewpoint.ca/map#eyJvdmVydmlldyI6eyJsaXN0aW5nIjp7Imxpc3RpbmdfaWQiOjIwMTYxNjQ5NSwiY2xhc3NfaWQiOjF9LCJwcm9wZXJ0eSI6eyJwaWQiOiI0MDExNDM1NyIsImNsYXNzX2lkIjoiMSJ9fSwic3VtbWFyeSI6eyJsaXN0aW5nIjp7Imxpc3RpbmdfaWQiOjIwMTYxNjQ5NSwiY2xhc3NfaWQiOjF9LCJwcm9wZXJ0eSI6eyJwaWQiOiI0MDExNDM1NyIsImNsYXNzX2lkIjoiMSJ9fX0=

 

We could have it 15 years ago for about $375,000.  Back then we could have sold out house for about $225,000 (now we would get close to $500,000 for ours).

 

That site is legit. I was even able to pull up the Sunnyvale Campground. I aspire to be a drunk trailer park supervisor someday to replace the dearly departed Mr. Lahey and I figure I might as well aim for the best one.

[spndnchz]

I look around Trulia at stuff.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

That site is legit. I was even able to pull up the Sunnyvale Campground. I aspire to be a drunk trailer park supervisor someday to replace the dearly departed Mr. Lahey and I figure I might as well aim for the best one.

 

Hey if you are going to dream, dream big, eh.

[Gramps]

I'm semi-retired - in a few more years, this will be my home. 

 

 

 

[darksabre]

If you live in a hot market, Zillow is great to see what WAS listed. And that does serve a purpose. It's great to see what an area has to offer, what comps are going for, what taxes are like, all the pictures, etc.

 

But if you have honed in on an area and want to see available listings that you could actually purchase, then forget Zillow. In a place where homes fly off the market, Zillow is days and days behind. "Active" listings were active <5% of the time we asked our realtor about a Zillow listing. So it's really just a false hope.

 

Caveat being that we were looking in highly desirable suburbs of a major city.. Most listings in our price range sold the day they were listed. Mostly cash offers. Zillow may prove far more accurate in cooler areas where houses sit on the market for days or even weeks, as opposed to hours :P

This is what I've come to notice too. In the areas around Buffalo where I want to buy I can't rely on current listings to gauge prices and availability or else I'd get discouraged. Looking at the "Sold in the last year" results is what works best because houses here often sell before they ever hit Zillow, Redfin, etc.

[Samson's Flow]

Just moved a couple of friends into a house right near there. I always liked that area. I worked on a couple houses over there when I was doing my electrical gig.

That's neat - small world :beer:

This is what I've come to notice too. In the areas around Buffalo where I want to buy I can't rely on current listings to gauge prices and availability or else I'd get discouraged. Looking at the "Sold in the last year" results is what works best because houses here often sell before they ever hit Zillow, Redfin, etc.

Yep. Every once in a while I check the "sold in the last year" in my area and realize that i seem to have timed the market pretty well. My house is probably worth double on the market now based on the updates I have done and the price uplift in the area. Hertel's growth has really helped real estate prices in N. Buffalo.

... the word is "sh!tty" - seriously?! :unsure:

[LTS]

This is what I've come to notice too. In the areas around Buffalo where I want to buy I can't rely on current listings to gauge prices and availability or else I'd get discouraged. Looking at the "Sold in the last year" results is what works best because houses here often sell before they ever hit Zillow, Redfin, etc.

 

At one point, and this was around 5 years ago, there were a good collection of agencies that would block the distribution of their listing to Trulia and Zillow.  So it wasn't even so much that the homes sold too fast.. it was that they were never going to be listed anyway.

 

That battle may still be raging... 

[spndnchz]

That's neat - small world :beer:

Yep. Every once in a while I check the "sold in the last year" in my area and realize that i seem to have timed the market pretty well. My ###### house is probably worth double on the market now based on the updates I have done and the price uplift in the area. Hertel's growth has really helped real estate prices in N. Buffalo.... the word is "sh!tty" - seriously?! :unsure:

Just wait until they reassess all the medical triangle homes.

[Doohicksie]

realtor.com has the most up to date  MLS listings, zillow is terrible 

 

But I've seen cases where Zillow has more and different pictures than Realtor.com.  I kind of bounce around.

[LTS]

But I've seen cases where Zillow has more and different pictures than Realtor.com.  I kind of bounce around.

 

That's because they use pictures from prior listings of the house.  So if a house was on the market 5 years ago, Zillow would have those pictures handy and use them.  The problem is that they are not recent and things may have significantly changed.  We had a house around us that was in that situation.  It had been neglected and in need of serious repair.  It went on the market and was sold at a very low price (to be expected).  The house was fixed up and lived in for about 5 years.  It was put on the market at 3x the sale price from 5 years earlier.  Zillow still showed the dilapidated house photos.  I am sure that did not help the sale in any way.

 

The most recent photos have to come from the listing broker/agent.  Zillow won't get anything different on a new listing as they are getting a syndicated feed from the MLS.  (Of course FSBO (for sale by owner) homes would be a different story).

[sabills]

That's because they use pictures from prior listings of the house.  So if a house was on the market 5 years ago, Zillow would have those pictures handy and use them.  The problem is that they are not recent and things may have significantly changed.  We had a house around us that was in that situation.  It had been neglected and in need of serious repair.  It went on the market and was sold at a very low price (to be expected).  The house was fixed up and lived in for about 5 years.  It was put on the market at 3x the sale price from 5 years earlier.  Zillow still showed the dilapidated house photos.  I am sure that did not help the sale in any way.

 

The most recent photos have to come from the listing broker/agent.  Zillow won't get anything different on a new listing as they are getting a syndicated feed from the MLS.  (Of course FSBO (for sale by owner) homes would be a different story).

 

Can attest, if you look at my house on Zillow (it is not for sale) its all pictures from before we bought it. Its very handy for me; I use those pictures when I put the apartment up for rent.

[Doohicksie]

That's because they use pictures from prior listings of the house. 

 

Nope.  The pics I saw of one house we were looking were new pics; easy to tell because the house was extensively renovated.  For whatever reason, Zillow had them and Realtor.com didn't.

Edited February 15, 2018 by Anordning

[woods-racer]

realtor.com has the most up to date  MLS listings, zillow is terrible 

 

Looking for houses on both sites, and in the Chattanooga TN region I would say Zillow has more houses on it on average than Realtor.com. Think more and more people are giving it a go themselves.  

[LTS]

Nope.  The pics I saw of one house we were looking were new pics; easy to tell because the house was extensively renovated.  For whatever reason, Zillow had them and Realtor.com didn't.

 

Interesting.  Was it listed through an agency or was it one of the for sale by owner situations?  I don't go on Zillow but I wonder if they allow people to send up pictures on their own as well.  Otherwise the trend would be that the listing agency gets the information, enters it into the system and then via the syndication gets sent out on the MLS.

 

It's possible that the syndication for realtor.com did not get the pictures as quickly.  But if you were to say that realtor.com never got those new pictures then that would really change things.

[Doohicksie]

It was a real estate listing.  Not sure why Zillow had pics Realtor.com didn't.  It was puzzling to me too.

 

So the "safe" house I thought we were going to offer on?  My wife decided she doesn't want to live there.  We went to Plan C (the previous one was Plan B), but we have a few questions into the seller (foundation repairs, age of roof & AC, etc.) before we jump off.  And even then.... my wife still wants to look at other houses we haven't seen yet. (She's seriously driving me crazy.)