would you say now is a bad time to buy? (Boston: renting, buyers)

[BostonMike7]

G/F's sister went to open house Sun. House was priced mid 300's.

I guess the new tactic is to price low, generate traffic and expect offers over ask? Anyway, they said the open house wa s a zoo. Over 50 people the first hour and they are putting a deadline on offers this week and expecting over ask. So now they have to decide within a day or so if they want to put offer in on this house, and how much to bid over asking considering they are now competing with X number of people.

Apparently this is common now. I know at least two other houses where the list price was $50-75K under market value to generate interest and it came down to a bidding war.



Anyway, had my open house this past Sat. Some good traffic, so we'll see if I get an offer.

[Whatsnext75]

'I guess the new tactic is to price low, generate traffic and expect offers over ask?'

Yes i noticed this as well. In JP a friend of mine put in an offer and someone else ended up getting the place because they put in 100k over asking. Ridiculous.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by Whatsnext75

Yes i noticed this as well. In JP a friend of mine put in an offer and someone else ended up getting the place because they put in 100k over asking. Ridiculous.

Fairly common from what I hear. It's almost like a gamble because when you find a place you really like, you are probably competing with 5 other people and need to decide how much OVER list to offer to ensure you get the house, but not high enough to needlessly waste $$$.


And yet as I say this, I'm sitting here crossing my fingers and hoping I get a few people making offers over my asking price.

[Whatsnext75]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Fairly common from what I hear. It's almost like a gamble because when you find a place you really like, you are probably competing with 5 other people and need to decide how much OVER list to offer to ensure you get the house, but not high enough to needlessly waste $$$.


And yet as I say this, I'm sitting here crossing my fingers and hoping I get a few people making offers over my asking price.

Of course! If i was selling I'd feel the same way. Another reason it's just not a good time to buy.

[Jimbo21]

Originally Posted by Whatsnext75

I think most of them simply aren't buying and know that they wont be anytime soon. Or they are buying in towns not on the top town/school list. It is kind of sad that if you make 165k a year as your salary (jimbo posted this) that you simply cant find a house in a nice house in a town that has a good school system. Even someone making 80k a year you would think should be allowed such a luxury if they were able to come up with the money and make it work.

Let me throw some fuel on the fire: on top of my $165K salary, I have $325K cash, of which I'm willing to put down as much as $250K for a down payment. This is the fruit of 9 years of my professional career, and I can't buy a decent house in a decent school district inside of 128. Some will say I'm being too conservative, to which I reply as follows: (1) taxes, (2) 1 kid in daycare, hopefully 2 soon, (3) retirement investing, (4) some emergency savings quickly eats up my salary. The way I see it, you need everything I have, and then some, if you want one of the good school districts close to Boston. Otherwise, you're looking at 2nd or 3rd tier towns (Reading, Wakefield, etc.).

[Jimbo21]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Fairly common from what I hear. It's almost like a gamble because when you find a place you really like, you are probably competing with 5 other people and need to decide how much OVER list to offer to ensure you get the house, but not high enough to needlessly waste $$$.


And yet as I say this, I'm sitting here crossing my fingers and hoping I get a few people making offers over my asking price.

Yep, I lost a decent house by overbidding only 24K. And you know, I feel pretty crappy about that, should have bid higher.

[Whatsnext75]

Originally Posted by Jimbo21

Let me throw some fuel on the fire: on top of my $165K salary, I have $325K cash, of which I'm willing to put down as much as $250K for a down payment. This is the fruit of 9 years of my professional career, and I can't buy a decent house in a decent school district inside of 128. Some will say I'm being too conservative, to which I reply as follows: (1) taxes, (2) 1 kid in daycare, hopefully 2 soon, (3) retirement investing, (4) some emergency savings quickly eats up my salary. The way I see it, you need everything I have, and then some, if you want one of the good school districts close to Boston. Otherwise, you're looking at 2nd or 3rd tier towns (Reading, Wakefield, etc.).

yeah it's not right.

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by Jimbo21

Let me throw some fuel on the fire: on top of my $165K salary, I have $325K cash, of which I'm willing to put down as much as $250K for a down payment. This is the fruit of 9 years of my professional career, and I can't buy a decent house in a decent school district inside of 128. Some will say I'm being too conservative, to which I reply as follows: (1) taxes, (2) 1 kid in daycare, hopefully 2 soon, (3) retirement investing, (4) some emergency savings quickly eats up my salary. The way I see it, you need everything I have, and then some, if you want one of the good school districts close to Boston. Otherwise, you're looking at 2nd or 3rd tier towns (Reading, Wakefield, etc.).

You could basically buy a house outright in a town with average schools and send your kids to private school with the money you're saving.

[Whatsnext75]

Originally Posted by Dm84

You could basically buy a house outright in a town with average schools and send your kids to private school with the money you're saving.

yeah i had pointed this out yesterday. Not sure if it was this thread or another. Only thing is private schools can be competitive to get into

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by Jimbo21

Let me throw some fuel on the fire: on top of my $165K salary, I have $325K cash, of which I'm willing to put down as much as $250K for a down payment. This is the fruit of 9 years of my professional career, and I can't buy a decent house in a decent school district inside of 128. Some will say I'm being too conservative, to which I reply as follows: (1) taxes, (2) 1 kid in daycare, hopefully 2 soon, (3) retirement investing, (4) some emergency savings quickly eats up my salary. The way I see it, you need everything I have, and then some, if you want one of the good school districts close to Boston. Otherwise, you're looking at 2nd or 3rd tier towns (Reading, Wakefield, etc.).

Jimbo: Looks like we are both pretty financially conservative. Even though prices may keep going up, it may be worthwhile to wait to buy in the town you really want and not settle. At the rate you are saving and with your income also increasing, you'll be able to afford a lot more with each passing year. It sucks that the timing just didn't work out for you (if only you were just 2-3 years older), but the alternative would be to stretch beyond your comfort zone and buy what you want now. If you are confident about your job position and the financial health of your company, that may not be a bad idea either. I did that on my first house and I only felt "financially squeezed" during the first year of ownership. Crunch the numbers based on your actual projected spending in the first couple years of ownership. Keep in mind that you've been saving A LOT of money for the down payment. After buying, you no longer need to put aside $3k/mo for the down payment which will free up a lot of cash to put towards a bigger mortgage.