I’m so annoyed by this.
It IS worth that much, because that’s what houses are going for right now. The house you’re describing DOES NOT EXIST. Stop complaining about the market and just tell me how much work you think this kitchen would need. 😅
Posted Mar 19, 2022, 10:57 PM UTC
I had a client recently get under contract at asking, with inspection and appraisal contingencies in place. Seller agreed to fix ALL inspection items including CRACKED SWITCH PLATES and topping up the Freon in the AC because it might need some eventually. Appraisal came in fine. Buyer still backed out because his mom felt like the house wasn’t worth it. People are nuts.
OMG. An adult man who backed out of a good home purchase because his mom told him to…. 🤦🏻♀️
I feel sorry for his current/future partner.
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you think you know more than your parents until a recession hits and you lose your job and you are underwater on a house you can no longer afford.
You’re not wrong. FTHB in their 20’s-mid 30’s have really only known good times as working adults. Since 2010 it’s all been a non-stop party of low interest rates, home appreciation, declining unemployment, and unprecedented retirement account gains. Sure, we might’ve seen close-up, or even personally experienced some fallout from ‘08/‘09, but most of us in that age bracket didn’t have to deal with the consequences long term.
Parents in their 50’s-60’s can def have an outdated view of the world, but they know that life happens. They’ve experienced a lot. Certain Industries die, the economy changes, business practices change, companies can go out of business, as a country we absolutely love outsourcing jobs, recessions can happen, divorce, housing market can move away from certain cities/areas etc. it only takes 1 really bad year to unravel everything. Being too cautious has its price too tho. No guarantee that we don’t continue on the path we’ve been on and waiting could make things worse. Also, anecdotally, I don’t know anyone who’s ever been hurt long term by buying a Chevy house in a Cadillac neighborhood. It’s typically only ppl speculating, or buying the best house in a mediocre area that get burned long term
Omg that makes me want to RAMPAGE.
Yeah I’m taking what they say with a grain of salt. Only including them in case they notice issues I wouldn’t see.
Man I thought this story had a happy ending!
I think he and his mom get to keep living together so it’s a happy ending for them!
Yikes. That seems like the kind of buyer where you can still see the apron strings attaching them to their parents.
When I was already under contract my MIL took me to a house that was $200k over my max and suggested I offer them $200k less. “The worst they can say is no” 🙄
😂
I got the “write them a personal letter” talk 😂
Whoever told you that has to be from the era where handing your resume to the manager got you a job.
Sounds like my mom lol
Task them to find a recently sold that they approve of.
They’d probably find one from last summer and I’d have to explain that prices have hiked a ton since then. 😅
I told my parents who were looking at listings to tack on another $100K and ask them if they would go for the house at that price.
the problem is if you buy that house and the market crashes, you are underwater on that house. negative equity is a real thing.
So many people bring up if the market crashes yet here we are in 2022 and the demand is as strong as in 2020 because of lack of inventory. I don’t see inventory going up in the short term so the basic rule of economy is what matters most, supply and demand.
Not sure if you’re in this camp but the believers of market crash have been saying this for 2 years at least and they’re still waiting on this crash to come while paying massive rent prices and missed out on building equity.
He's down voted for speaking the truth
Real estate price crashes are very rare, they're not like stock market corrections happening every 10 years or so. The crash in 2008 was the only one in most people's life time and probably will stay that way
And the housing market did recover a few years after that drop.
That’s only a problem if you lose your job or need to sell the house…otherwise life goes on as normal and you ride it out. We’ve seen exactly one massive crash before…one. Real estate goes up and down all the time, and small dips/corrections along the way are meaningless unless you are a short term owner or trying to flip a house.
If you invest your money in the stock market and the stock market crash (happens much more frequently than in housing) you’ve also potentially lost a ton of money. If you keep your money in a bank account you are losing money every year to inflation with 0 gains. Choose your own risk tolerance, and remember for most people it’s not 100% in any single option.
My MIL (God love her) doesn't understand why we couldn't buy a house for 250-300k. We found plenty but they all needed another 100k of work and/or were in high crime areas in the greater Houston area. Meanwhile, their home 45 minutes outside of the city was purchased in 2013 for 180k and is now worth almost 350 and she still.didnt.get.it.🙄😂
FIL thinks we should build and that it’ll only take six months. 🙄
like bruh where have you been the past two years? Nothing is happening in six months.
Also there’s no land for sale, either. Not that we can afford.
Right?!?!?! In what universe is anyone building at a price palatable for a first time buyer in anything remotely close to a timely manner. Everything is at least 9-12 months out and you can't even lock in your interest rate now without paying a ton extra. They're so completely out of touch it'd be funny if it wasn't so frustrating.
We ended up expanding our search zone just a little further out than we originally wanted (after being completely discouraged looking at 300k houses that needed to get completely demolished and rebuilt before being habitable) ....4 miles up the road we found a gorgeous home in a gated community with a pile of amenities off of our "would be great to have list" and checked all the "must haves" for us. Offer accepted for 340k and we close 04/15😎 Got the in laws seal of approval and everything, which was almost as nerve wracking as waiting on our appraisal 😂😂
Yay for finding something!
We just started looking, so we’ve got time to be a little picky.
Congrats! What part part of Houston? I'm also here, closing on a house in Montrose soon. Still get the feeling it's not worth as much as I'm paying...but the numbers say otherwise. I'm still clinging to the idea that Houston is dirt cheap lol
Nowhere near as cool as Montrose!! Congratulations! We have rented in Garden Oaks for YEARS and couldn't afford a square of sidewalk in this area so we pushed out a little up 290 but inside the beltway. Slowly accepting the fact we won't be next to all the cool stuff anymore, but still only about 15 mins away from most places we care about.
This gives me hope our offer gets accepted, thank you!
You can't find anything like that where I live that isn't falling down.
My partner’s dad kept asking why we were hunting “so far away” from their house. (30 min drive)
“Why don’t you find a starter home around here for like $250k?”
I pulled up RedFin and showed him that the cheapest house in his area was $750k for <2000 sqft.
Dude, you bought this house 30+ years ago. Calm down. Times change.
Ha! Sounds like my Dad. My Dad really is the best, and all he wants is for me to be close to him. We tried so hard to find a house inland San Diego, but they are either close to a million for a nice home with a yard, or complete fixers that will need hundreds of thousands in work.
The house I just closed on is about 30 minutes from my parents.
He can come out to you.
He’s satisfied with the 30 minutes lol. We both life right next to freeways / highways so it’s a “quick” feeling 30 minutes.
And i basically said unless you have a cool 500k to loan me thennn 30 mins it is haha
What did he say when you showed him?
“Oh… Huh…”
The alternative is my mom who doesn’t know what to do when they raise her rent 25% each year, has never worked, and calls my brother and I frantically whenever her AC filter needs a change.
Different kind of losing your marbles.
Ah, my father's sound advice. "Buy something you can afford on one salary"...LOL 😭
I just went under contract this past week. I got super lucky with an off market FSBO, that just wants a quick sale. My parents wanted me to try to negotiate lower, when similar houses are going for 50k more than the price the seller wanted. No thanks!
The market dictates the price. I understand what they're saying and they mean well. And I'm sure they understand this market is doo doo rn.
I live at home, and my folks say the same shit all the time about how they can't believe what houses are going for. Then we have the same old discussion about how fucked the market is. And, well then you get into why it's the way it is. Which is never fun lol
Anyway, stay strong OP! But understand that they're your parents and also say that beef shouldn't cost $10 a pound because when they were a kid it was less than a dollar.
But understand that they're your parents and also say that beef shouldn't cost $10 a pound because when they were a kid it was less than a dollar.
I feel this, change gets harder to get used to as you get older. I remember when Netflix was $9.99/mo...
😂 all true!
Are they helping you with the down payment? If not, don't involve them in your house search.
They are not. I’m asking their opinion on the structure/layout of the houses, because they’ve lived in more houses and know what will cause an issue. They’ve been very helpful so far; it’s just this one comment that I wish they’d stop repeating.
They don’t get final say. I disappoint them all the time, so it’s cool. ✌🏻
I’d say now is a good time to ask anyone else. We were fortunate enough to buy fall of 2020 and I had a couple older dudes I work with who I knew were involved in building houses and got their opinions on the 100yr run place we got. They told me what they’d watch out for and that “sure, theshiyal you can do this.” We waited til we closed and then told our folks.
Now finally I can say, my house, my rules.
I tell them to find me one and they try get frustrated say they computer doesn’t work and go back to being idiots.
If I were you, I would ask them to sign up for a Zillow/realtor.com/etc account and have them send you houses they think would be a good fit! That would probably open their eyes to the reality of the housing market in your area and make them realize what houses actually go for.
My mom did this (unprompted) and kept sending me links to houses that were already under contract, lol. Either that, or houses that we had already been sent by our realtor's automatic MLS emails. But I'd agree, it would definitely open their eyes to the realities of the market right now; I haven't heard a peep about anything being "overpriced" since we started looking.
I have this issue with my clients all the time, and have seen them having issues like this with their parents as well. It sounds like a lot, but just go on Zillow and put together list of links of the kind of houses that they’d be shocked that go for $300k+ (I do this for my unrealistic clients using MLS data, but zillow links are pretty decent at getting the job done too) that are in your search area, and then bring up that you’re going to share some research with them.
If it’s annoying enough that you want them to stop, and have more productive conversations with them about it, then you’re going to have to set them straight with facts. I do this in a very calm rational way typically with a:
“historically you’re assessments of price have been correct, but in recent years the market has seen increase in the value of these drastically, and I want to share some examples that are going to reveal how much these homes are actually selling for to ‘winning’ offerer.”
If it’s your parents you may not need to get into that much, but I’ve seen parents, especially when they are financially involved, really derail home searches. Their support financially or in morale needs to be based in reality. If you don’t need either level of support, then maybe sending these links over is your chance to respectfully relieve them of their advisory status. If you can comfortably afford it, and have decided to buy when prices are higher than they’ve likely ever been in your area, then hearing that reiterated after every showing helps 0%.
They know what houses are going for and are either convinced the bubble will burst soon or just think we should build (which is not realistic time wise or financially right now).
We don’t really need either kind of support, just extra eyes to notice little problematic details in the houses. Their opinions on price won’t affect our decision, but if they notice an issue with the kitchen or bathroom that’ll be expensive or impossible to remodel, I’ll take that into account (and still get second opinions or do more research if they might be wrong).
My parents are struggling with similar thoughts. I’m currently pending on a “starter house” at an accepted offer of 400k (3bedroom/1bathroom), which was 10% over asking. I live in a hugely competitive area with a massive housing shortage which isn’t going to change anytime soon. I’m 34F single and they are finding it very challenging to understand the whole situation. Thankfully they are minimally involved and I’m not reliant on their or any external finances. I have to give them credit though, they are really trying to be supportive. Perhaps this is flawed but I’m really trusting my realtor. If the house isn’t worth as much as you offer, you’ll end up with an appraisal gap and you’ll likely walk away.
Exactly; I trust my realtor to know what things are worth because she’s got the stats. And she has told us when things are actually over or underpriced.
I envy you! My realtor when I would ask worthiness of homes would just be like idk it’s up to you what it’s worth and if it’s worth buying
I mean if it’s accurately listed, that’s true. But some list a lot higher than they should based on comps/needed repairs, which she has the data for.
And some are listed low on purpose to start a bidding war.
She always gives us a guess at the appraisal amount and seems to have the knowledge to back it up.
I would have just appreciated a little more guidance from her, not just being a door opener as a first time home buyer. I wasn’t running her ragged either or asking a ton of questions she showed me a total of 4 houses, the last one I purchased!
Yup there ya go. You’re certainly paying your realtor enough and it’s in their best interest to help you have get a successful purchase agreement. That’s how I’m viewing it at least. It all seems like random numbers to me otherwise!
OMG yes! You know what houses are worth, what people pay for them. That’s the definition of a market. Could you imagine if people were like, this gas is only worth 2 dollars a gallon, I’m not paying 5!
Right?! It’s worth what people are paying for it. The only time something isn’t worth that much is if you can get the same thing or better cheaper.
And I’m really not convinced the market will crash that soon. It’ll be a couple years at least before supply catches up to demand.
(I also don’t care, because we want a house we can be comfortable in for 5+ years, longer if the market is insane).
Totally agree. When we bought last summer my husband was like “I still think we overpaid” and I was uh no the house is now worth what we paid. It’s only been about 8 months and it’s worth even more now and everything else around us is worth more too. Also, we needed a place to live in our school district that had 4 bedrooms and that’s what we got so it’s fine.
Exactly; we need the space and rent goes up faster than we get raises. Locking in a single price for 30 years is worth it to me, even if we end up underwater for a little while—we’ll just hold onto it until it goes up again. 🤷♀️
Also our suburb is running out of space for new builds and has a desirable school system. I don’t see prices dropping all that much, because too many people want to live here.
Same, people watch too many house flipper shows and forget the actual reason for buying a house
Oh my god, are you me? My mom keeps saying "we never bought a house for more than 150K." I keep pointing out to her that she's never lived near a larger city, and also boomers like her are trying to milk this market for all it's worth when they put their homes on the market.
"great, so when you put your home on the market you'll list it for about $150K right?"
Leave the parents out of the loop with your home search. They aren't giving any helpful input.
They’re being plenty helpful, it’s just one annoying comment.
MIL bought house for 260k in 1980. It’s worth 1.9 million today. She told us to find a nice acreage for 300k, “why not? We could do it with only one income.”
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They can look it up, though. And I want their opinions on the property itself.
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I am sucking it up and dealing with it, dude. I just felt like complaining to people who are probably dealing with the same; chill out. It’s not that serious.
Electrician here. It's always worth hiring trade skills for trade work.
I get how you feel. When I first started looking my mom told me to get a starter home that’s 300k. Well that doesn’t exist in my town unfortunately. My parents 300k house is worth 600k now :/ 300k in my town is a crack shack
Exactly!
Like you can say “this house needs a lot of work” or “this house is a bit small,” but we know how much houses are appraising for. The appraisal is literally how much it’s worth. 🤦♀️
Hmm you can say the appraisal is exactly what it’s worth, but that can be argued.
No body except you has skin in the game.
Appraiser gets paid whether the appraisal is high enough or not. There’s always the next appraisal.
Mortgage lender always has the next client if they don’t close your mortgage.
Realtor has multiple clients at a time.
You’re the one stuck holding the bag.
We’re in a period of unprecedented housing demand for a multitude of reasons. The demand is driving the supply up.
There’s probably more I could list. Basically, houses are only worth this due to the demand right now.
As I understand it an appraiser has a surprisingly limited amount of play in the valuation of a property - they assess some general characteristics/check boxes, then compare recent sales of comparable homes based on that checklist, and provide a valuation to the mortgage lender. An appraisal is basically there to ensure the bank doesn't lose money if you default and they have to sell off the house. Source - have a friend who works in the appraisal industry.
Your points about demand are spot on - we live in a historically low cost of living area and bought a whole back, but probably paid 20-30% more than when we first moved here a couple years before, and prices have skyrocketed since. It will be interesting to see how things shake out
This is bubble behavior. See tech stocks only go up circa November 2021 for how that ended.
Low interest rates on an overpriced home does not mean you are getting a deal.
If the prices never come down again is that really an overpriced home or is that just the new cost of homes? Overpriced is pretty subjective.
I live in a suburb of LA. When I was a kid, a two bed two bath home in a huge lot with a nice backyard went for about 150k.
This week, a recent construction (almost complete) just went on the market. It’s an apartment complex full of two bed two bath units. Even though construction is ongoing, the units sold out. Each unit went for a whopping $3million.
Edit: to be fair, it’s not like every single apartment in the city costs $3million - there are still apartments out there for less than $1million. Pasadena has some amazing neighborhoods and pretty average neighborhoods. But I was still surprised when I learned how much these units sold for.
Woah! Can I ask roughly what decade you’re talking about when you were a kid? I knew home inflation was bad but 20x in a lifetime…wages haven’t done half that
Gentrification. Forget inflation, dumpy area all of a sudden become desirable hot spots.
Late 80s early 90s was when my parents got their house
Wow. We’re probably the same age; I was born in the mid 90s. I wasn’t expecting that. I was expecting someone 20 years older than me.
I mean, if you mean Santa Monica or Beverly Hills or Newport Beach sure, but there’s not a lot of 2BD condos selling for 3m in LA… The new property added $ is just because we don’t build new housing in California.
Pasadena
What suburb are you in?
Pasadena
I just bought a 3bdrm SFH craftsman with lots of updates for $1.4M in a Pasadena landmark district. I can’t imagine any condo around here selling for $3M.