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I recently sold a very basic condo I bought in 2017. It was in an odd part of the city and I made about $500 after all my costs on both ends. Decent place, but better to use as a rental.
I'm renting at a nice apartment complex now. I'm also looking at better housing in better areas. Virtually any townhome or PUD type unit is going within five days on the market. As soon as something is listed, you have to pounce, or hope your realtor has an "in" with off-market prospects.
These real estate decisions are some of the most important decisions we'll make in our lives, yet we have to scramble to buy a property with often less prep time than we'd spend planning an annual vacation.
Is there a problem here?
The old saying goes. You're either paying your own rent or someone else's (with profit built in).
A real estate agent, if they're seasoned, will be trying to create urgency with you and their other clients. What I would recommend is that instead of finding a house to pounce on, or finding those off market deals. Just get an agent that knows the market and studies it on a regular basis. You may be is a heavy buyer's market and can take your time with your purchase, you may be in a crazy seller's market where you need to pounce on deals because every home will have multiple offers. Only a good agent who knows the market will be able to teach you the nuances of the area you're looking in.
Biggest thing I laugh at in my business is when I see a MLS listing that starts off with MOTIVATED SELLERS! BRING ALL OFFERS! In all caps no less. You might as well be saying, bring the lowball offers, because I'm a weak agent and my clients are desperate to not foreclose on this property! There's a professional way to create urgency and a terrible way to do it.
I recently sold a very basic condo I bought in 2017. It was in an odd part of the city and I made about $500 after all my costs on both ends. Decent place, but better to use as a rental.
I'm renting at a nice apartment complex now. I'm also looking at better housing in better areas. Virtually any townhome or PUD type unit is going within five days on the market. As soon as something is listed, you have to pounce, or hope your realtor has an "in" with off-market prospects.
These real estate decisions are some of the most important decisions we'll make in our lives, yet we have to scramble to buy a property with often less prep time than we'd spend planning an annual vacation.
Is there a problem here?
Did you sell quick did the buyer you sold to have to place an offer fast?
You can't have it both ways. if you want to live in a hot market that is what is gonna happen. Homes that are priced will will move fast. First of all pouncing does not mean you are forced to buy the home or condo. If you know what you are looking for and like it and are in a hot market make an offer and if there are problems with the inspection or appraisal you can make sure your RE agent has an out for you.
If you are a ready-to-buy buyer, the only decision to make is to make an offer or not.
If not, life goes on uninterrupted.
Then, if you want to make an offer your agent will show you comparable sales and you decide what to offer.
If you over analyze everything in your life, you will loose a few offers. It’s alright. You will learn to play the market. Real estate is a game. I play by the rules, but I play to win.
Well, at base it comes down to massive deficit spending. Rather than having it pile up in inflation of the prices of consumer goods like it did in the mid 70s, this time around the US government (and others) have implemented policies that drive the excess dollars into the stock market and housing. (Insanely low interest rates are a main driver here.) This is the biggest contributor to the two recent housing bubbles - the one that popped in 07-08, and the one we're in now.
When prices are constantly going up, it causes a "hurry get yours now before the price goes up even higher" mentality and among the results is the need to make a decision on your purchase extremely quickly. And whatever goes on in single family housing ends up rippling over into townhouses, condos, and rental properties as well.
I believe the solution is to let interest rates on long term secured loans like mortgages rise to something more consistent with the historical cost of money and the total current inflation rate. Just off the top of my head I think letting interest rates rise, slowly to minimize economic disruption, to something on the order of 8% would probably do a great deal to cool off the overheated housing market, stabilize prices, and do a controlled reduction of the real estate bubble.
Would there be adverse results? Of course, just like if you've been stuffing yourself with calories and taking no exercise for 30 years and start dieting and exercising it'll be darn uncomfortable at first. But something like this would NOT cause a calamitous collapse of the world economy. Some tough years would be ahead to be sure, but if the world keeps spending money it doesn't have and just closing our eyes to the consequences, what will be coming will be way way worse than "some tough years".
It doesn't matter whether you make an offer within a day or within a month. You will still have spent an hour, maybe two, in the property and that's it. No seller is going to vacate their house for hours on end for a wishy washy buyer to spend time there thinking.
And yes, it is kind of weird to make this type of momentous decision based on that limited amount of interaction with the house being purchased. But really, what's the alternative? No one is going to invite a potential buyer to spend the night with them, and lots of sellers need the money from the sale before they move out so they aren't selling an empty property even if all of the logistics and liability could be worked out for someone to spend a more extended period of time in a home they were thinking about buying.
So it's always going to be a leap of faith and sometimes, people are going to get it wrong and buy a house that doesn't really suit them after all. And someone who can't handle that degree of risk may be better off being a renter instead, where it's a lot easier to rectify that kind of mistake, although even with a purchased home, it can still be rectified, it's just likely to be a lot more expensive to do so.
It doesn't matter whether you make an offer within a day or within a month. You will still have spent an hour, maybe two, in the property and that's it. No seller is going to vacate their house for hours on end for a wishy washy buyer to spend time there thinking.
And yes, it is kind of weird to make this type of momentous decision based on that limited amount of interaction with the house being purchased. But really, what's the alternative? No one is going to invite a potential buyer to spend the night with them, and lots of sellers need the money from the sale before they move out so they aren't selling an empty property even if all of the logistics and liability could be worked out for someone to spend a more extended period of time in a home they were thinking about buying.
So it's always going to be a leap of faith and sometimes, people are going to get it wrong and buy a house that doesn't really suit them after all. And someone who can't handle that degree of risk may be better off being a renter instead, where it's a lot easier to rectify that kind of mistake, although even with a purchased home, it can still be rectified, it's just likely to be a lot more expensive to do so.
Actually had a seller invite my clients to spend a night in his vacated but furnished home, assuring them they would buy it when they saw the sunrise over the golf course.
The exception, for sure.
The rush comes from the fact that until there is a contract, the property is exposed to all other buyers, and if it clicks for a buyer, they need to recognize and pull the trigger.
It takes a clear head to walk through a house in an hour or so and commit to it.
And, in most contracts, the buyer can terminate for a cost and can not be forced to purchase.
OP would probably be happy to find sellers like a (dumb) friend of mind who put his house up for auction. Available for several weeks before the day of the sale.
When I say my friend was dumb, he didn't put a minimum on it and lost his shirt.
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