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Bay area housing market

Kornholio said:
When I bought my house in 2009, I didn't even have to pay my realtor a commission. The seller paid for both commissions.
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you know you paid the seller the money he used to pay the commission, right?

and now you're paying property taxes on that commission (unless you've sold the house already)...
 
HappyHighwayman said:
If all my friends who have purchased houses in the Bay Area sold right now they'd make between 50-100% profit before closing costs and commissions.
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Blankpage said:
Well he never gave a timeline. His bros may have bought a decade ago.
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a decade ago was around the peak - I moved in to my house in January 2008, prices were on the way down when we made the offer and kept going down for a couple more years. In my neighborhood the time to buy was early 2012.

We considered a neighborhood in Concord where houses were high $900's or over a mil (too expensive for us :teeth) in 2007. Friends bought a house in that neighborhood in July 2011 for low $500k. Zillow (unreliable , I know) now has their house around $900k. I just looked and there are three similar houses for sale (5/3.5 3,100 - 3,600SF) $879k, $900k and $918k so zillow's probably in the ballpark.
 

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It's tough for me to comprehend $900+k in concord. 4 years ago those were $600k probably.
 
tgrrdr said:
you know you paid the seller the money he used to pay the commission, right?

and now you're paying property taxes on that commission (unless you've sold the house already)...
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First time I've heard of that ever happening...to anyone. Certainly don't recall seeing it in any of the paperwork I signed either. I don't even know if V.A. loans allow that since there's a few other things that they don't allow, apparently. :dunno

Regardless, I sold the house in 2012.
 
bojangle said:
I know it's certainly possible, and I agree with everything you wrote, at least in theory. I still think there's a good chance you'd end up selling for less than the $14,000 you'd probably save it you go it alone. You'd better know what you're doing, have time to invest, and hope it sells quickly. The longer it's on the market, the more likely it is listed overpriced. People will also assume something is wrong with the property if it doesn't sell fairly quickly. Interest will drop off after a while. Then you have the paperwork, disclosures, contingencies, funding. I think it's certainly possible to make out better listing it without an agent. I also think the average person will make out worse without an agent.

If the buyer has to pay his own realtor fees, you'd better believe they'd be looking to discount that in the offer to buy the house.

The internet certainly killed the travel agent industry, but purchasing airfare, hotel, and vacation packages is a LOT easier for the average person than a real estate transaction. I don't see realtors going the way of travel agents.
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Why? Might as well use a broker to sell your car too then. All sale information is readily available to you, kind of like kbb. You can look it up by sq ftage , neighborhood, beddrooms, etc etc. It's all available to you, there's no good reason you'd sell significantly below market.
 
Kornholio said:
First time I've heard of that ever happening...to anyone. Certainly don't recall seeing it in any of the paperwork I signed either. I don't even know if V.A. loans allow that since there's a few other things that they don't allow, apparently. :dunno

Regardless, I sold the house in 2012.
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He's saying it was included in the purchase price. Try to keep up.
 
Kornholio said:
First time I've heard of that ever happening...to anyone.
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Say you buy a house for $500,000 and the seller pays $25,000 commission. The seller only nets $475,000 but guess what? You still paid $500,000 for the house and that's what your property taxes are based on.
 
tgrrdr said:
Say you buy a house for $500,000 and the seller pays $25,000 commission. The seller only nets $475,000 but guess what? You still paid $500,000 for the house and that's what your property taxes are based on.
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Are taxes based on purchase price or the cities assessed value?
 
Blankpage said:
Are taxes based on purchase price or the cities assessed value?
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Purchase price. However, when the housing market goes down, counties have to reassess the value of the houses, so the homeowner gets some relief in property taxes when that occurs. Once the housing market goes back up to the value, or in excess of the purchase price, the house will default back to that purchase price for tax purposes, plus any allowance in the law for consumer price index adjustments upward.

Prop 13 prevents the house from being reassessed at it's current higher value, so long as the property does not change hands.
 
JesasaurusRex said:
Why? Might as well use a broker to sell your car too then. All sale information is readily available to you, kind of like kbb. You can look it up by sq ftage , neighborhood, beddrooms, etc etc. It's all available to you, there's no good reason you'd sell significantly below market.
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I have no doubt this article was written by a realtor, so there will some bias built in. But I still believe this article sums it up pretty nicely. I would love to get the entire amount of my equity out of my house. I just think, in most cases, doing it on your own is an exercise in being "penny wise and pound foolish".

http://investfourmore.com/2014/04/always-use-real-estate-agent-sell-house-2/
 
bojangle said:
I have no doubt this article was written by a realtor, so there will some bias built in. But I still believe this article sums it up pretty nicely. I would love to get the entire amount of my equity out of my house. I just think, in most cases, doing it on your own is an exercise in being "penny wise and pound foolish".

http://investfourmore.com/2014/04/always-use-real-estate-agent-sell-house-2/
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Like I said, there are a lot of ways of checking what the estimated value of your property is. If you lived in the middle of no where without any comps one could argue it. When there's a home sale everyday within a mile of your house there isn't any guessing. Do what you want, I'm just trying to save you money :p
 
JesasaurusRex said:
Like I said, there are a lot of ways of checking what the estimated value of your property is. If you lived in the middle of no where without any comps one could argue it. When there's a home sale everyday within a mile of your house there isn't any guessing. Do what you want, I'm just trying to save you money :p
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In my case, I'm not sure I could go it alone. I'm in contact with a builder and they are requiring me to show that my current house is listed with an agent that meets their approval.

I was hoping you had actually done this though, to share some real world experience. I think it would be a lot of work with a higher risk of things going wrong, with no guarantees that you'll even save any money.

Let me ask you this. Do you know of a reliable way to get final sales prices for comps? To my knowledge, the public interweb sites only list the last price listed for the property, even when it's been updated as sold. How are we to know if the final offer was at asking, lower, or higher? Is there a reliable way to determine this?

In fact, I was looking at a recent sale near my house. It is still pending, but lists their last sales price. I found out I happened to know the buyer and the buyer told me that they actually agreed to purchase the house for $9,000 below the price that's listed on the public web sites. I'm just not sure that the actual price gets updated once the house is listed as sold.... At least for the general public to have access to. I know realtors have access to that.
 
bojangle said:
In my case, I'm not sure I could go it alone. I'm in contact with a builder and they are requiring me to show that my current house is listed with an agent that meets their approval.

I was hoping you had actually done this though, to share some real world experience. I think it would be a lot of work with a higher risk of things going wrong, with no guarantees that you'll even save any money.

Let me ask you this. Do you know of a reliable way to get final sales prices for comps? To my knowledge, the public interweb sites only list the last price listed for the property, even when it's been updated as sold. How are we to know if the final offer was at asking, lower, or higher? Is there a reliable way to determine this?

In fact, I was looking at a recent sale near my house. It is still pending, but lists their last sales price. I found out I happened to know the buyer and the buyer told me that they actually agreed to purchase the house for $9,000 below the price that's listed on the public web sites. I'm just not sure that the actual price gets updated once the house is listed as sold.... At least for the general public to have access to. I know realtors have access to that.
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You're building a new house and your builder cares about your last one? I'm not following.

If the risk is too high for you to sell by yourself the flat rate places still give you traditional service while limiting your expense. The buyers agent has zero incentive to talk down your asking price unless he does multiple transactions with his client (investors). The more the buyer pays for your property the more the buyers agent gets paid, traditionally anyways. I have zero clue where you're trying to sell, but if it's popular enough I think you could really make out by offering 2.5% to the buyers agent and going it alone.

Zillow does the final sales price, how they get the recorded information I do not know. My home sale went for over asking and the final sales price is accurately reflected on their website. Also my current home, different state, went for under asking and the final sales price is also accurate. Can't speak for any others without asking people but on a personal level their website seems to reflect accurate info. Can PM you addresses and copys of final Huds if you'd like.

Good luck!
 
Hold off on buying unless you want to be underwater for the next 20-30 years as interest rates go back up to normal levels.

People, don't be fools. NOTHING has changed since 2007 except debt is now at even higher levels. Read the writing on the wall. Hold onto your savings, there will be great buying opportunities during and after the coming crash.

This bubble is much worse than previous bubbles. The bigger the bubble, the bigger the fall. There is no way to stop the economy from slowing further, the cost of living world wide is much too high. This isn't just a USA problem.

The coming financial melt down will be epic. All the stuff the government was afraid of happening in 2007 and then some. Expect business to slow further. Expect layoffs. Expect a depression, the likes of which hasn't been seen since the last great depression. A depression is the only thing that can reset the economy and cost of living.

Only when people/investors/banks take their bubble losses, and housing and food costs go back to normal percentage ratios of incomes. Can the economy finally rebound and boom/grow. We are in the death throws of this current investor driven economy.

I say investor driven, because last thirty years the economy has been kept alive by housing prices going up up and up. People taking cash out, refi, spending. Then when that party was over, and it all was about to come crashing down. The crash was temporarily stopped, and economy kept alive last few years by huge government bailouts, fed pouring in trillions into markets. Yes TRILLIONS! The amount of debt we have accumulated as a society is unprecedented. (don't be too surprised if it leads us to more wars)

Its simple math. Consumers are strapped. The higher mortgages, taxes and rents and food prices go, the quicker the economy will choke itself out. There is NO STOPPING IT. It is impossible for the economy to rebound or boom with consumers at this level of debt. How can it with current housing and food costs? Impossible.

Bay area right now is booming due to being flush with investor capital, started by the fed pouring trillions into the markets, lowering interest rates to zero, causing the stock markets to rebound and boom. Giving bay area tech and biotech companies stupid investor money to play with, and pay incomes with. This also ran up housing and stock prices again, giving many money to play with and keeping this investor economy limping along. However that party is almost over. There is nothing to keep these stock and housing prices growing.

Stock market investors expect growth and profits otherwise they will pull their money out. Tech and biotech companies are not showing growth or strong profits. In fact many of them are losing millions each quarter. How long do you think markets can stay up, without the fed pouring in trillions? Expect a downturn and then a market crash. This time without a large government bailout, as the last bailout will be viewed as a failure.

The unicorn companies will fail and fall first. Stocks will fall, markets will collapse. Layoffs will ensue. There will be some hard times. Prices will collapse. Banks will fail. Interest rates will go up. But in the end cost of living will go back to normal percentages and we will start all over again from the bottom to build the next bubble economy. Nothing to be alarmed over, its just the normal 100 year cycle of things.




Now for pure comedy read the below, negative interest rates! Apparently Fed stupidity has no bounds. lol

Fed officials seem ready to deploy negative rates in next crisis.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fe...ploy-negative-rates-in-next-crisis-2015-10-10


Can someone here even explain how this would work?
 
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