We’ve bought and sold six houses in the last 14 years; you’d be shocked at the number of people who won’t spend $10 on basic cleaning products 
2 Likes
“Seriously, thought, I don’t understand where all the cash is coming from to fuel this home-buying frenzy” - Ditto. I’ve heard that sometimes there are established parents helping out young couples by buying home and reselling to them the next day. But the logistics for that kind of thing must get complicated.
Bitcoin investors parking their loot. Companies that lend 100% of purchase price as cash then help your get a mortgage loan to pay them back (or act as a lender themselves). Parents doing the same. Foreign investors (plenty of them in my neck of the woods even with Covid).
2 Likes
Our neighbor’s son is fixing up her house to sell - classic 1970’s split. She went into rehab/assisted living over a year ago and the house sat there for at least 6 months before the offspring began working on it.
The house could have very easily gone on the market and sold with what will probably be the same profit given what he’s putting into it. The housing market is on fire here in the Seattle suburbs & the time, energy, and $$ he’s putting into it are wasted. (Think planing rough cedar boards for a fence replacement because smooth boards weren’t available from the expensive local lumberyard.)
A Realtor neighbor always expects to compete for listings, it’s the done thing around here.
He suggested new roof, inside paint, and maybe new appliances. The son disagreed and has done all that and more.
is all I could say. Rough is not good enough?
On another note… A red cedar dog ear board is $3.50 at HD?? Yikes Someone’s going to steal that fence.
2 Likes
When my mom passed away and we were ready to sell her condo, we talked to three different people (two different companies). He picked the one that had the most experience in the condo complex. She also had sold a condo for a friend of his wife’s friends or something. But what that meant in the end was that she had several listings in the complex and didn’t care which one she sold, so had no incentive to push ours. We kept going to the back burner.
When her contract ran out, I asked our realtor out here in California if she could help find someone from her company’s office in my mom’s area. She talked to the head of that local office and recommended one of the realtors. She also helped consult about the best way to relist the condo, which involved mostly emptying it out and painting.
Then in just a few short weeks, we had an interested couple look at the place. At the end of the day we had an all cash offer just below the listing, short close, and no inspection.
I learned that the best Realtor is the one who cares about helping you sell your property.
When we sold our house six years ago, I knew the best price would come from a tear down developer. But my husband was not convinced so we had a Realtor come out and take a look. She said there were so many problems that would either have to be completely fixed up (and I knew some things were actually unfixable) or we would have to give $$$ concessions. In the end, we would get less than the developers would offer. It wasn’t a market like today, but it was a large lot in an excellent location. The Realtor didn’t mind coming out and gave us good advice.
Also when we were looking around at potential relocation cities, we often contacted a local Realtor who gave us info and tours of the local market, including seeing houses for sale. They were always friendly and helpful, understanding it was unlikely that we would end up there. Our Realtor here kept in touch with us for five years before we finally moved.
So I guess my point is that although most Realtors are very social and friendly people that you don’t want to insult, in the end it’s a major business decision and you need to do what you feel is best for your situation. And most of them are very understanding and don’t expect to list a property for everyone who talks to them.
4 Likes
@sushiritto I agree completely. We are avidly following the real estate market here in Northern Virginia (going wild - no surprise), but a few homes arent selling as fast or getting the kinds of offers others are. For example there is one on the market near me right now - nice location, good size, pretty outside but the pictures show like it has not been updated since it was built in the mid '90’s. Very dated colors, window treatments, etc. It is listed lower than other houses nearby. A bit of “freshening up” would help IMHO.
4 Likes
A friend here is trying to sell a home of theirs, and the carpet/wallpaper is atrocious. they have priced it relative to the condition, but not getting the offers. Personally as much as everyone can paint and pull wallpaper many cant see past all that. So that is something I will do before I sell my house in a few years. I would sell now if I had a place to go.
1 Like
The house we live in now had been on the market over a year and in fact when we offered for it had been taken off the market even though the owners had already moved into another house. It was painted pink throughout, the cheap countertops were disintigrating, pink carpet, elaborate pink curtains, and what wasn’t pink was cheasy 1960s fake wood paneling. We eventually added a fairly sizable addition to triple the tiny kitchen size and add a screen porch and a master bath and upstairs laundry.
We didn’t make any money on our old house, very much a starter house. Cute but only one bath. We added a powder room and improved the kitchen. We got a rented some storage and filled it up before we showed the house. We were moving because that house had just gotten way too small for two kids and working at home.
1 Like
Here in the Bay Area it’s simply that tech company employees are getting paid big time. With Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, etc., and then you mix in Cal and Stanford, the money is flowing here locally.
2 Likes
There always seems to be money in the DC area. And I think some of the millennial generation is now making enough money to be able to buy. In my area a lot of couples are retiring and moving and younger people are moving in.
1 Like
The house we bought had pink bathrooms!! Pink marble showers, pink quartz or pink marble countertops, pinkish vanities and pink or burgandy walls in the baths and master bedroom 
We looked at an all pink house years ago. Everything pink like you described - pink formica counters in the kitchen and all the bathrooms, pink floor tiles, pink carpet, pink walls, etc… It was pepto pink. House was already at the tippy top of our price point and there was no way we could afford to update it. Not for us ; )
Our house had pink Formica countertops in the kitchen when we bought it! They were gone 6 months later. It was easier to rip them out than deal with the other house we considered, which had a pink spa tub, toilet, shower stall and 2 sinks in the master bath. Awful!!
Want to know the funny thing; our house was built in 2002. I could’ve understood pink if it was built in the 50s, 60s or even the 80s, but this millennium 
we called it the department store house because it had 11 or 12 different types of flooring. You could see 5 from the foyer alone. We looked at over 20 houses; it needed the least amount of work. Most were purchased sight unseen within 12 hours by NY and NJ folks.
I’ve had friends sell their homes in interesting ways. They were not in today’s market, but a similar "hot"seller’s market at the time.
One put their home on Zillow’s “make me move” feature (I have not researched this, so may have the incorrect terms, and believe it might be discontinued). Upside: Sold at over-fair price, for cash, with no need for any updates, open houses, realtor fees,etc. Downside: They had to move in less than 2 months, without having a place to go. They did their research beforehand to know what the home should be worth.
Another had multiple realtor friends. They told them frankly, they could not decide between them, but agreed that whoever brought the buyer, would get 1/2 the full realtor’s commission. Upside: Paid basically 1/2 the going realtor’s fee at the time. Downside. Not sure how that was accepted by her friends, but they did sell it quickly.
The master bath was bubble gum pink with missing tiles that had been repaired with other pink tiles that didn’t quite match. Chipped white formica countertop and 13" between the toilet and the bathtub. Our house was built in 1923, but was unfortunately renovated in the 1960s.
I am loving these pink bathroom and other room descriptions!! 
We sold our Chicagoland house directly to a developer. I had followed the tear down market in our town for years, and had been in casual communication with a few developers long before we were ready to move out. When we were ready, I got back in touch with them and a few others who were building on spec in our area. One of them said he would give $5000 over any other offer. He did; everything was handled through a real estate attorney. No commissions involved. And since he was not at all ready to build (he had several properties at different stages), I got a six month post possession rent free deal. All we had to pay was taxes and utilities (and let them do surveys on the property).
I used to say our house was tearing itself down but it did get some help:
6 Likes
Oh wow. It looks like it was a gorgeous house in its prime!
3 Likes