Zillow offer, now what?

[The Heretic]

Unlike the last bubble, it seems prices for homes are based on real demand and low supply, unlike the 'flipper' bubble that burst. I don't see it bursting until the employers take the employees that need the housing away.

If you've got the equity to buy and build elsewhere now, might consider selling this year or next and renting a cheaper place until retirement. At least have a monster yard sale while you're thinking about it.

I am still doing a lot of improvements and I am as far out as I can go and still have a reasonable commute into my job - as it is, it is often an hour each way unless I leave before 6 AM and leave work for home before 3 PM.

So I am staying here for now.

When I retire, I won't have to commute, and my only requirement will be that I will be less than 100 miles away from my kids, probably somewhere on the east side of the coastal range.

As long as it doesn't get too heated it will be okay, and the last bubble took a lot longer to burst than most of the people warning about it predicted. I put off buying again and again, for years because of those warnings, and then, after so many years I thought they were crying wolf and so I started shopping. Just before I was getting serious (start to make offers, etc.), I got laid off just when the bubble burst - it was a good thing too as I would have been stuck.

The job market was good back then. It was the bubble bursting that set the job market into a tailspin.

Of course, all the market derivatives on real estate, the bad mortgages, people getting in over their heads thinking the market would always go up forever and never correct, were the real problems. A number of people learned a hard lesson from that, and yet, here we are, with the market heating up again.

If I got laid off tomorrow I could retire, but I would only be able to survive, not thrive like I want to, and I would not be able to leave a good inheritance for my daughter. So I keep working another five years and then sell.

 

[clearconscience]

And besides the low to non-existent inventory driving prices up, we have californians migrating in herds north to escape what they've plunder in cali and are buying up our"cheap" houses by offering ridiculous amounts over asking price.

Look at Bend's inflated market.

I had a coworker trying to buy a bouse last year in forest grove, tualatin area.
He was over bid on every house by at least $30-$50k!

He finally got smart and bought a house in vancouver.

 

[The Heretic]

Well in order to build on some property I would need at least $400k. And we won't have that much.

We will have to see how this year pans out with our jobs. It may get pretty rough.

Yes - my employer is seeing a significant market downturn for their product. They have already laid off much of a production line at a plant, and word is that if things don't turn around by fall that there will be more layoffs.

For now, none in my group (IT), just a cutback on expansion in staff and budget, but I always budget for the possibility that I could go into work this morning and have a pink slip waiting for me.

 

[The Heretic]

And besides the low to non-existent inventory driving prices up, we have californians migrating in herds north to escape what they've plunder in cali and are buying up our"cheap" houses by offering ridiculous amounts over asking price.

Look at Bend's inflated market.

I had a coworker trying to buy a bouse last year in forest grove, tualatin area.
He was over bid on every house by at least $30-$50k!

He finally got smart and bought a house in vancouver.

It will get worse with immigration from CA in the coming decades as their weather continues to worsen and they experience more population growth.

They have had good weather this year and the reservoirs have refilled to a point, but that won't refill their aquifers where they get most of their water. Unless they cut back drastically, they will have ongoing problems with water shortages. They want us to pipe water from the Columbia down to them.

 

[clearconscience]

Not only that but it's the middle and upper class moving out. They already have too many people sucking the welfare system dry, the more tax payers they lose the more that state will become a bankrupt wasteland.

 

[jbett98]

There's a cheaply built 1965 track home down the street from me that just came up for sale.
The druggies living there were finally kicked out after the bank foreclosed on it.
It's listed at $168,000 and after walking through it over the weekend, I couldn't believe how much damage three pit bulls could do to the insides of a house. A total dump and you can bet it will sell to a desperate couple looking for a fixer upper.

 

[kilimanjaro]

My neighbor has two Bassets, they're good dogs, but when I swapped out my cheapie interior doors for better 6-panel doors, I gave her 8 good doors for nothing. The local Habitat shop didn't want them, they had dozens of them, so she got them. Even docile Bassets will ruin your house if you keep them indoors.

In 1959 I saw the Los Angeles Water Dept. plan to bring water from the Columbia River to LA. You need to pump the water up to the Medford-Grants Pass area from Hood River, then from there it's just about all downhill. It would act as a giant siphon once you get it going and become very efficient to run.

 

[CoastRange57]

And besides the low to non-existent inventory driving prices up, we have californians migrating in herds north to escape what they've plunder in cali and are buying up our"cheap" houses by offering ridiculous amounts over asking price.

Look at Bend's inflated market.

I had a coworker trying to buy a bouse last year in forest grove, tualatin area.
He was over bid on every house by at least $30-$50k!

He finally got smart and bought a house in vancouver.

The Bend market is such a false economy. It is completely driven by out of state buyers who have huge amounts of money to spend, and make little or no other contribution to the local economy.

My son in a journeyman plumber in the Bend area, he is in a rental house right now, just piling up money so when the economy over there crashes again, and it will probably in 3 to 4 years, he will be able to scoop up something decent for a good price. The run up in pricing is driving out the lower middle income home owners from buying. We spent some time over there looking at properties and it only took us a few hours to figure out there are no good or even reasonable deals to be had, but lots of bad ones.

The Bend area just loves a good screaming real estate economy, there are tons of service and low end industry jobs topping out at about $ 17 per hour. Bend goes up first and fast, then Bend crashes first and hard. That area was a ghost town in late 2008, 2009. Beautiful place to live and play as long as you do not have to depend on the local economy not related to building.

 

[clearconscience]

It's kind of sad what bend has become.
It has been a false economy for years.
In the late 90s early 2000s it was a poor place then the vacation market went crazy and a boom hit, then 2008 hit and contractors walked away from half build
Neighborhoods. Then you could buy a million dollar home for $400k.

My parents were trying to build their retirement home out their in 2006 and it cost them a ton of money and took forever. If they would have waited a couple years they probably could have saved $40k and 6mths.

Bend's market has always been comprised of a vacation market and then floods of retirement buyers that don't contribute much.
So their whole economy is base jobs. There's not much of an economy.
The good paying jobs are in building homes and buildings. But then the bubble pops and 60% of the workforce is just gone overnight.
What's left is minimum wage jobs.

I used to want to live there so bad. Now it's barely a nice place to visit.

 

[CoastRange57]

I used to build golf courses and sports fields back in the day. Bend experienced an explosive amount of recreational growth when the Commieforians came up there in the first wave in the early and mid nineties. The fake money that poured into that area was unreal. At one time there were 6 golf courses under construction in the Bend area. It is really overbuilt for golf, but in a recreational based economy, the upper end resort courses struggle to be profitable.

As soon as you cleared the timber south of Sisters you could see these huge plumes of dust rising from where the courses were being built. Of course most of the original owners and some of the subsequent owners all have went bankrupt and these courses have changed ownership multiple times.

 

[clearconscience]

Yeah I used to golf there seceral times a summer. But the big fancy courses will not last.
The whole $400 a round is ridiculous.

I played at a private course there that you had to be a property owner to play at and you had to pay some unbelievable annual fee for, and it really wasnmt any nicer than the regular courses you pay $40 tonplay at. Only the beer was more expensive.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

PENDING! Now the inspection and closing
I used to be fond of this house, now I can't wait to be homeless again.

Advice to those posting on Zillow. Somewhere in the description you write, contact owner directly please! And maybe, Realtors commission negotiable.

 

[IronMonster]

This thread made me curious about what would happen if I listed my house on Zillow. So last night I did, put it up at what I think is top dollar ($458,000) with just a little info and three pictures.

I have had 8 calls this morning and an appointment to show it at 3 today.

 

[kilimanjaro]

Now you know what would happen.

Expect a bidding war.

 

[mjbskwim]

This thread made me curious about what would happen if I listed my house on Zillow. So last night I did, put it up at what I think is top dollar ($458,000) with just a little info and three pictures.

I have had 8 calls this morning and an appointment to show it at 3 today.

From what I heard now the bidding wars start

 

[CoastRange57]

I am in a position where I could put my house and property on the market and probably pocket around 580 net. A friend who is a broker / realtor keeps calling me and jabbing me to list it.

1. I have lived here 30 years.
2. Outside of a somewhat screwball neighbor, the birds are the only noise makers in the area.
3. I can walk out my door, pull any weapon I want and target shoot / trap shoot.
4. I have a nice garden and large yard.
5. Nobody gives a RA when I start up the pickup with open headers.
6. There is nothing but 800 acres of farm land and low ground behind me.

I am staying here, hopefully until I die. Where else would I go and keep my sanity.

 

[Tomoko]

my family has lots and lots of property in WA, OR, ID and Montana. I used Zillow to help them list property for sale.. a duplex in Idaho and wow..yeah..the bidding wars was insane.

 

[Tomoko]

I am in a position where I could put my house and property on the market and probably pocket around 580 net. A friend who is a broker / realtor keeps calling me and jabbing me to list it.

1. I have lived here 30 years.
2. Outside of a somewhat screwball neighbor, the birds are the only noise makers in the area.
3. I can walk out my door, pull any weapon I want and target shoot / trap shoot.
4. I have a nice garden and large yard.
5. Nobody gives a RA when I start up the pickup with open headers.
6. There is nothing but 800 acres of farm land and low ground behind me.

I am staying here, hopefully until I die. Where else would I go and keep my sanity.

Im on 7 acres and my property line borders the Wenatchee National Forest. Sounds similar to where I live. I can literally step out my back porch and start poppin off rounds.

 

[Goosebrown]

Im on 7 acres and my property line borders the Wenatchee National Forest. Sounds similar to where I live. I can literally step out my back porch and start poppin off rounds.

I sort of hate you... In a friendly way.

 

[SkeetAt40Below]

Unlike the last bubble, it seems prices for homes are based on real demand and low supply, unlike the 'flipper' bubble that burst. I don't see it bursting until the employers take the employees that need the housing away.

I wouldn't characterize it as a "flipper" bubble so much as a "completely and insanely unqualified lending" bubble. Seriously- a guy I used to work with who couldn't qualify for a DEBIT card or a checking account... he literally had to cash his paycheck and pay his rent with cashiers checks... somehow got a mortgage. I'm talking- this guy had dope-addict credit. When he bought a house I knew the market was due for a ":correction:"