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Sold the condo in Chicgao and have been house shopping in Austin now and holy fuck is it a sellers market.

Good houses last a few days tops before going under contract and always have multiple offers to choose from.
We specifically just lost a house we were obsessed with to a cash buyer despite our offer being REALLY fucking good. House buying is stressful enough as is but Austin right now takes that to a totally new level. Pray that my wife and I don't get divorced over this shit.

Anyway rant over, I'm upset we lost the place we lost, would have been fucking amazing but oh well i guess. Not much we can do vs people with enough to just buy a $450k house in cash.

$450k house? Wow. Austin might be tough right now but the Seattle area is brutal.

Best of luck. It is a rough process no matter what. Hoping you find the right house at the right time fir the right price!

It’s been that way for several years from what I understand. I know some property owners that get cold called regularly from people looking to buy their rentals. The market is so hot investors are looking for houses that aren’t even on the market at all. I’ve even been cold called and I only own one home and it’s never been a rental. That company was literally manually calling random homeowners looking to see if they want to sell. That’s crazy.

you may be able to buy a 1 bedroom condo for 500k out here , look it up 90066 zip , I make a darn good wage but I will never be able to buy around here . Rent isn't getting cheaper either .

mortatone wrote:It’s been that way for several years from what I understand. I know some property owners that get cold called regularly from people looking to buy their rentals. The market is so hot investors are looking for houses that aren’t even on the market at all. I’ve even been cold called and I only own one home and it’s never been a rental. That company was literally manually calling random homeowners looking to see if they want to sell. That’s crazy.

Good idea actually, I'm just going to start knocking on doors and making offers.

Seriously this shit is wild. These interest rates are making shit CRAZY.
Especially with all the folks like me who are fully remote now looking for extra space thats close to but not in downtown(s).

I’ve also heard of buyers that were the highest bidder but lost out to lower cash offers because it was faster. That’s gotta be infuriating.

fretless wrote:you may be able to buy a 1 bedroom condo for 500k out here , look it up 90066 zip , I make a darn good wage but I will never be able to buy around here . Rent isn't getting cheaper either .

Thats what I left too my man.
I sold my 2 bed condo for $418k.

Houses in my neighborhood in Chicago started at $750k and thats a townhouse. You couldn't get into an actual single family home for under a $900k. Then after that you have to figure out how to afford the taxes let alone the mortage.

I'm less complaining about the price (our combined household income is pretty decent) than I am about the competition from other buyers.

We're definitely buying "below" the range we could get approved for but we're in a place where our only debt is whatever mortgage we get next and THATS IT so if we can stay lean and save like crazy or even just have extra cash laying around thats the goal.

mortatone wrote:I’ve also heard of buyers that were the highest bidder but lost out to lower cash offers because it was faster. That’s gotta be infuriating.

Yeah don't know if the cash offer was above or below ours but regardless it sucks when you find something that checks EVERY box you have and then even has a few bonuses you weren't necessarily looking for and you lose to cash. I doubt they'd take less since they were wanting to do a lease back (basically they rent the house for another month from you) so it was probably equal or greater than our offer.

Stick with it KB, something will come up soon. Its so crazy that the economy is in the shitter but with an APR under 3%, home sales and refi's are just booming right now. Hopefully you are using a team of realtors to give you the best chance of getting into a home. I've had some friends / colleagues lately that write a letter to the seller, describing their situation and even pulling at the ole heartstrings occasionally. Sounds cheesy, but it works!

itchyfingers wrote:Stick with it KB, something will come up soon. Its so crazy that the economy is in the shitter but with an APR under 3%, home sales and refi's are just booming right now. Hopefully you are using a team of realtors to give you the best chance of getting into a home. I've had some friends / colleagues lately that write a letter to the seller, describing their situation and even pulling at the ole heartstrings occasionally. Sounds cheesy, but it works!

Oh we did that. Our realtor is a 20 year veteran/pro and he practically gave me all the bullet points the cheese letter needs to hit. We even included pictures of us with our dog.

Thing is the economy is in the shitter for some but doing quite well for others. Those others are people in situations just like ours me thinks.

Those letters do indeed work though. We got one when we sold our condo and while her offer was the best offer we received it legit made me WANT to sell it to her. She really fluffed us up quite a bit, flattery will get you everywhere.

Dude I've got a buddy shopping in central jersey right now and they're running into the same thing. People are so desparate to get out of NYC that they are coming up against offers 20-30k over asking. Its wild.

I'm so damn happy I bought my house last year and refinanced this year

The local market passed me by a few years ago. Since then it has only gotten worse. The pandemic has made it completely fucking insane.

_ej_ wrote:Dude I've got a buddy shopping in central jersey right now and they're running into the same thing. People are so desparate to get out of NYC that they are coming up against offers 20-30k over asking. Its wild.

I'm so damn happy I bought my house last year and refinanced this year

Yeah that seems to have been the smart move.
One of our friends places down here she paid $240 for less than 2 years ago and refied this year.
Her payment is CRAZY low for what she's got.

Based on what I'm seeing I bet she could get over $325 and sell within days.

K-Bizzle wrote:

itchyfingers wrote:Stick with it KB, something will come up soon. Its so crazy that the economy is in the shitter but with an APR under 3%, home sales and refi's are just booming right now. Hopefully you are using a team of realtors to give you the best chance of getting into a home. I've had some friends / colleagues lately that write a letter to the seller, describing their situation and even pulling at the ole heartstrings occasionally. Sounds cheesy, but it works!

Oh we did that. Our realtor is a 20 year veteran/pro and he practically gave me all the bullet points the cheese letter needs to hit. We even included pictures of us with our dog.

Thing is the economy is in the shitter for some but doing quite well for others. Those others are people in situations just like ours me thinks.

Those letters do indeed work though. We got one when we sold our condo and while her offer was the best offer we received it legit made me WANT to sell it to her. She really fluffed us up quite a bit, flattery will get you everywhere.

Right on man, sounds like you guys are in with a good realtor. Some seller is gonna get the feelz from your letter and pic of your fam, I know it! Positive vibes being sent to Austin, KB!

I've thought about selling mine right now and buying an RV until the market goes down.

What part of Austin are you looking? Like Cedar Park or does South off of Mopac?

I'd recommend holding out for 6 months to a year. There is a massive housing mortgage crisis brewing with the massive unemployment. Market is bound to saturate and prices will drop.

Mike Oxhuge wrote:I'd recommend holding out for 6 months to a year. There is a massive housing mortgage crisis brewing with the massive unemployment. Market is bound to saturate and prices will drop.

I was reading about it yesterday. Deliquencies are up.

I just don't understand the housing market... It seems that it would be difficult to sell homes during a pandemic when millions are out of work, regardless of interest rates. I don't envy the process you're undertaking. At all. That just sounds like sheer hell to me.

I literally just went through this, bizzle. We have a 1 bathroom home on a busy street in a very desirable school district, 20 miles from NYC in long island. We wanted to upgrade and take advantage of the mortgage rate (4.5% to 2.87).

We found a house we really wanted and made an offer 20k above asking and wrote that cheese dick letter. We were first place losers to a offer that had "unbelievable terms". Whatever the fuck that means.

We were about to give up and finally got a house in a lesser school district with lower property taxes that was better than the house we really wanted. We had to go 25k over asking to beat out 2 other offers that didn't have to sell anything, as this house was a flip and they wanted their money quick.

Keep trying buddy. Look at that stupid app every morning. You know you have to be first in line if you even want to be considered.

IndyWS6 wrote:I just don't understand the housing market... It seems that it would be difficult to sell homes during a pandemic when millions are out of work, regardless of interest rates. I don't envy the process you're undertaking. At all. That just sounds like sheer hell to me.

Everything seems to be 'Reverse Logic' in 2020. My property taxes went up a bunch due to some idiot down the street paying around 100k more for a home than its worth He will be surprised in the future if his career changes and he needs to sell

linthat22 wrote:What part of Austin are you looking? Like Cedar Park or does South off of Mopac?

South, below 290 as far south as about Slaughter give or take.
I'm WFH and wife's new gig is in Buda.

I'd love to live somewhere like Bouldin or Zilker but I just don't have that level of money.

Mike Oxhuge wrote:I'd recommend holding out for 6 months to a year. There is a massive housing mortgage crisis brewing with the massive unemployment. Market is bound to saturate and prices will drop.

I've been wondering about this.
The thing is what about rates? We're at historic lows, any chance that will change?

Its just literally so cheap to borrow right now and according to our realtor there is no shortage of buyers at any price range down here right now.

RyanDistortion wrote:I literally just went through this, bizzle. We have a 1 bathroom home on a busy street in a very desirable school district, 20 miles from NYC in long island. We wanted to upgrade and take advantage of the mortgage rate (4.5% to 2.87).

We found a house we really wanted and made an offer 20k above asking and wrote that cheese dick letter. We were first place losers to a offer that had "unbelievable terms". Whatever the fuck that means.

We were about to give up and finally got a house in a lesser school district with lower property taxes that was better than the house we really wanted. We had to go 25k over asking to beat out 2 other offers that didn't have to sell anything, as this house was a flip and they wanted their money quick.

Keep trying buddy. Look at that stupid app every morning. You know you have to be first in line if you even want to be considered.

At least I'm not alone eh?
I almost feel guilty that things are going so well for my wife and I while for others things are getting pretty tough.
Its really wild how some are doing so well and others are totally out of work. This pandemic certainly isn't turning out to be "fair" economically.

By my calculations overall I'm guessing those that were just able to switch to remote without a hiccup are more in the buyer category and more of those that are getting hit hard (service sector) tend to be renting so its pretty weird market out there. We may see a lot of landlords selling in the coming years depending on how it all shakes out.

In my case, all of the 5 Burroughs of NYC collectively decided to leave the crowded living during corona for a house with some space with the mortgage being the same price as rent in those areas. Manhattan is a ghost town and they're all moving to my suburbia. We sold our house and made a very pretty penny. Buying was very difficult due to inventory and those cash toting assholes. The pandemic only helped my wife and I, financially