http://www.weichert.com/40590504/ This is what I'm hunting right now. It's a interesting property. I'm going to check it out and if it is in good shape I'm going to offer 220-250 and see what happens.
Damn good fine I second with George and not go below $250 that is a big area.
So, about 6 months of looking and I'm still no closer to finding a home that I am not out bid on or is either so crappy and cheap or SOOOOO expensive.
If you really want it then bid like you mean it. When James and I were house hunting there was ONE house that was close enough to a tollway that would give be a 25 minute commute with no traffic. Every other house in our price range was a 40 minute (no traffic) commute and that meant I'd need to leave the house at like 5:30am to skip traffic. While James was ok with the cheaper/larger houses that were further away, I wasn't. So, we bid like we meant it and I've been happy in this house since then. ^_^
James also wants me to mention that if you want to get something for as little as possible you need to be patient, because there's lots of other people doing exactly the same thing as you.
Oh I know Lisa, I obviously wouldn't be doing what I am doing if I knew I wanted or needed to succeed immediately. I'm playing the long game since the housing market is not really in a place to get better quickly.
It still can be very frustrating. Plus I only know a few people in my generation that actually are able to own houses so I don't have that many people to talk to about the subject that isn't in a different life stage.
Really, if you want to get anywhere with anything, you need to do it like you mean it.
The housing market in the Albany area is starting to become a much more attractive buyer's market. Delmar, which is typically fairly overvalued, is now starting to become undervalued in some areas. Homes that should be ~200k are being listed for 150k. I've even found some for around ~130k, which is really quite low.
If only I had the money to actually make an offer. Hopefully, the market won't recover substantially in the next 2 - 3 years, and I'll be in a solid financial position to actually make a move.
You bid like you want to save money, 50k in savings when in a 300k 30 year mortgage can save you almost double that in interest payments.
Sure, it's possible to underbid a $300k house by $50k and get it. That's highly situational, though - maybe a house that's been on the market for a while, or is in a highly over-valued area. Maybe. But you're more likely to get what you're after by putting in a bid that is not such an obvious attempt at low-balling the value of the house.
Of course, if you don't expect that house to move, and you don't really need it right now, your low-balling may pay off.
I'd think that a bid of 250 is reasonable for an asking price of 270, for example. That's a bid that could see some traction.
Man, do I have a house to sell you guys. You guys are nuts and deserve to get ripped off in the market. For example the house I got out bid on was going for 414, I came in at 250 and it ended up selling for 315. Sooooo Think about that for a moment that's 100k difference.. and that was an interesting house with a lot of potential in an awesome location. Easily would have appraised for over 400k. (it was selling for 800k two years ago)
Unfortunately none of you are in the market for a house in my area, I have a nice house to potentially sell and you'd give me a great price for it.
My house was on the market for $190k, we put a bid in when we noticed it dropped to $180k, for $150 + closing costs. We got that, plus a laundry list of things they had to repair. And it's got a 500ft unfinished apartment detached from it, but on the same property. Considering that will increase our livable square footage by about 40%, once we get it fixed we MAY be able to even turn a small profit.
More if we actually put flooring into the attic, insulate & heat/cool it, and count it as a bonus room.
Man, do I have a house to sell you guys. You guys are nuts and deserve to get ripped off in the market. For example the house I got out bid on was going for 414, I came in at 250 and it ended up selling for 315. Sooooo Think about that for a moment that's 100k difference.. and that was an interesting house with a lot of potential in an awesome location. Easily would have appraised for over 400k. (it was selling for 800k two years ago)
Unfortunately none of you are in the market for a house in my area, I have a nice house to potentially sell and you'd give me a great price for it.
Wow, that's some pretty crazy over-valuation in your market. I don't think you can really expect a $100k under-bid to be successful anywhere, though. Like I said, it's highly market-dependent.
What you goes forget is that housing pricing is not really controlled by some "objective" service. If I want I can list my house for 1 dollar or 1 million dollars. The force that controls what I get is me (the seller) and you (the buyer) some houses to a particular person are worth 500k and to another it's 100k, but the buyer might value it differently then the sellers. Since there are a ton of reasons one might want a particular house and there is a ton of reason why you might be selling your house the actual price of the house can vary hugely depending on the seller and the buyer. The trick is to figure out how much they put into the house over it's life and what they bought it for with a thought towards why they are selling and what they will settle for.
If you come across a house where the person doesn't have a mortgage to repay, the amount of money they get can vary crazyily. For example if I have a 210k house but I don't own anything on it and I want to get some quick money if it doesn't sell in two months I might let it go for 150k. Just to get it off my hands. Or if my parents die and I just want to liquidate the properties quickly to stop family from bickering over the real estate I might just settle for a low price to get it off my hands...
I look for words like "Motivated" in the description. If you see that you underbid right away.
You might say that appraisals are an objective way to figure out how much a house is worth, however I've found that those can vary crazily. When the house I live in now, appraised for less then I wanted (so I could avoid a PMI) we contested and the appraisal was raised. I see tons of houses every day over 100k over or lower then their appraised values, and never use appraisals for taxes because they are always off.
Wow, that's some pretty crazy over-valuation in your market. I don't think you can really expect a $100k under-bid to be successful anywhere, though. Like I said, it's highly market-dependent.
You'd be surprised. $100k underbids work when the original value was part of a bubble and the owners are trying to salvage it.
House starts at $800k in the bubble. Drops to $500k. They put it on the market. Real value drops another $100k while it's up for sale, but they don't move the asking price down (since no one else in the area is doing so). Bidding $400k can leave you as the top bid.
Wow, that's some pretty crazy over-valuation in your market. I don't think you can really expect a $100k under-bid to be successful anywhere, though. Like I said, it's highly market-dependent.
You'd be surprised. $100k underbids work when the original value was part of a bubble and the owners are trying to salvage it.
House starts at $800k in the bubble. Drops to $500k. They put it on the market. Real value drops another $100k while it's up for sale, but they don't move the asking price down (since no one else in the area is doing so). Bidding $400k can leave you as the top bid.
No, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Again, it's over-valuation. If someone is actually willing to part with a house for $100k under their asking price, then they're either morons, or their home was purchased at an artificially high price because of the bubble, and they're trying to extend that as much as possible. Bubbles will obviously grossly skew the bids you place on a given home.
Right now, I can find a house in Delmar - 3BR, 1.5 bath, 1400 square feet - priced at $480k. That's obviously over-valued when you compare it to a neighboring house with the same layout, in the same condition, priced at $194k. That house, by the way, has been listed at that price for 4 years. Gee, I wonder why.
Sure, the tax assessment is a flawed metric, but it's more objective than prices set by homeowners who think their property should be worth more. But the best way is to look at home prices for similar properties all over the neighborhood, as well as their historical sale prices.
Zillow's quite good for that in the capital region, actually.
Tax assessment is bad in that the municipalities have a vested interest in over-estimating value (for taxation purposes) while homeowners have a vested interest in either over or under valuation depending on their current economic situation.
Tax assessment is bad in that the municipalities have a vested interest in over-estimating value (for taxation purposes) while homeowners have a vested interest in either over or under valuation depending on their current economic situation.
Sure, but at least there's a greater degree of control going into the rationale behind the municipal assessment than there is with homeowner-set prices. You have to fight with a municipality to have your assessment changed, and even then, it doesn't tend to change that dramatically. I mean, if the county assessors over-valued your house by $100k, and that was a pretty common occurrence, you'd see people at town meetings crying for blood. The odds are that the over-valuation by the municipality is going to be a lot less than the over-valuation by the homeowner.
So if a municipality tends to over-value houses by a certain percentage, you can at least account for that when looking at prospective house values, and use it to ground your bids in a degree of reality.
Basically, I can more easily account for the motivations of the municipality than I can the motivations of the homeowner.
I seldom if ever see a house assessed over what it is worth, it's always WAY under or very close to the value but always slightly under. This means to me that when your property is reassessed it's usually a very subjective and probably corrupt look at your properties value. Usually properties are not reassessed unless something major is done to them and the person doing it used a permit. So sometimes you'll see properties still assessed for 50k when they have a giant mansion on it selling for over a million dollars. It also has a lot to do with political connections and corruption and keeping your voters happy. Going around reassessing all the houses in your area to their current price will not win you voters. I could probably easily win election saying I'd return the assessments to a date in the 90's.
Take this property for example near me that I checked on zillow and the county records. It's estimate to be worth around 250k but it was last assessed in 97 at 132k. So which assessment is true?
Wow, maybe someone needs to do assessments more often. Round these parts, assessments are usually done every few years. I've seen assessments change 3 times in 10 years on many properties in the capital region. They also don't always go up - I've seen many cases where a property is reassessed to a value about 10% lower. Most of the time, the list price varies by the amount of the assessment variation.
The only time I've seen such a disparity is new construction. When a house is bought, knocked down, and replaced completely, I've seen assessments double in value.
Maybe the municipalities around you are just really really bad at assessing for taxes. New York is notorious for having one of the highest property tax burdens in the country, and I'm betting it's because municipalities tend to keep up on their assessments.
Assessments upstate magically seem to occur whenever there's a budget shortfall. And oh! Property values are really high this year! Fancy that!
Assessments magically occur around here whenever somebody sneezes. "WHY WAS THERE DUST FLOATING AROUND? DID YOU GET A NEW LAMP? BETTER RAISE YOUR ASSESSMENT."
But as I said, at least I can rely on the municipality to apply its judgment consistently to all properties. I trust someone who says, "We're saying that everyone's property is 25% more valuable than it was 4 years ago because fuck you," more than someone who says, "My house is worth 25% more than that identical house because of the feng shui of my sun room."
Of course, the municipalities that don't assess as frequently make up for it with bullshit traffic stops and other irritating things.
But if you want stuff that works, you pay taxes. That's pretty much how it goes.
I understand the construct for housing prices, but it still boggles my mind that a two bedroom, one bath, and postage stamp yard property can go for so much friggin' money in not-so-great suburban neighborhoods.
I understand the construct for housing prices, but it still boggles my mind that a two bedroom, one bath, and postage stamp yard property can go for so much friggin' money in not-so-great suburban neighborhoods.
Especially considering the poor build quality that goes into most of these structures.
I am spoiled by living in the south. Everything up here seems crazy expensive by comparison. I will never, ever be able to afford a house up here that even remotely compares to the house I grew up in (now my stepmom's house). And that one is on the market for half a million dollars in HILLSBOROUGH, NC. I don't even want to know what it would cost up here.
Comments
James also wants me to mention that if you want to get something for as little as possible you need to be patient, because there's lots of other people doing exactly the same thing as you.
It still can be very frustrating. Plus I only know a few people in my generation that actually are able to own houses so I don't have that many people to talk to about the subject that isn't in a different life stage.
The housing market in the Albany area is starting to become a much more attractive buyer's market. Delmar, which is typically fairly overvalued, is now starting to become undervalued in some areas. Homes that should be ~200k are being listed for 150k. I've even found some for around ~130k, which is really quite low.
If only I had the money to actually make an offer. Hopefully, the market won't recover substantially in the next 2 - 3 years, and I'll be in a solid financial position to actually make a move.
Of course, if you don't expect that house to move, and you don't really need it right now, your low-balling may pay off.
I'd think that a bid of 250 is reasonable for an asking price of 270, for example. That's a bid that could see some traction.
Unfortunately none of you are in the market for a house in my area, I have a nice house to potentially sell and you'd give me a great price for it.
More if we actually put flooring into the attic, insulate & heat/cool it, and count it as a bonus room.
If you come across a house where the person doesn't have a mortgage to repay, the amount of money they get can vary crazyily. For example if I have a 210k house but I don't own anything on it and I want to get some quick money if it doesn't sell in two months I might let it go for 150k. Just to get it off my hands. Or if my parents die and I just want to liquidate the properties quickly to stop family from bickering over the real estate I might just settle for a low price to get it off my hands...
I look for words like "Motivated" in the description. If you see that you underbid right away.
You might say that appraisals are an objective way to figure out how much a house is worth, however I've found that those can vary crazily. When the house I live in now, appraised for less then I wanted (so I could avoid a PMI) we contested and the appraisal was raised. I see tons of houses every day over 100k over or lower then their appraised values, and never use appraisals for taxes because they are always off.
House starts at $800k in the bubble. Drops to $500k. They put it on the market. Real value drops another $100k while it's up for sale, but they don't move the asking price down (since no one else in the area is doing so). Bidding $400k can leave you as the top bid.
Right now, I can find a house in Delmar - 3BR, 1.5 bath, 1400 square feet - priced at $480k. That's obviously over-valued when you compare it to a neighboring house with the same layout, in the same condition, priced at $194k. That house, by the way, has been listed at that price for 4 years. Gee, I wonder why.
Sure, the tax assessment is a flawed metric, but it's more objective than prices set by homeowners who think their property should be worth more. But the best way is to look at home prices for similar properties all over the neighborhood, as well as their historical sale prices.
Zillow's quite good for that in the capital region, actually.
So if a municipality tends to over-value houses by a certain percentage, you can at least account for that when looking at prospective house values, and use it to ground your bids in a degree of reality.
Basically, I can more easily account for the motivations of the municipality than I can the motivations of the homeowner.
Take this property for example near me that I checked on zillow and the county records.
It's estimate to be worth around 250k but it was last assessed in 97 at 132k. So which assessment is true?
The only time I've seen such a disparity is new construction. When a house is bought, knocked down, and replaced completely, I've seen assessments double in value.
Maybe the municipalities around you are just really really bad at assessing for taxes. New York is notorious for having one of the highest property tax burdens in the country, and I'm betting it's because municipalities tend to keep up on their assessments.
But as I said, at least I can rely on the municipality to apply its judgment consistently to all properties. I trust someone who says, "We're saying that everyone's property is 25% more valuable than it was 4 years ago because fuck you," more than someone who says, "My house is worth 25% more than that identical house because of the feng shui of my sun room."
Of course, the municipalities that don't assess as frequently make up for it with bullshit traffic stops and other irritating things.
But if you want stuff that works, you pay taxes. That's pretty much how it goes.