The House Searching / Buying/ Building Thread

[wubears71]

Our builder just finished another custom home 2 blocks from our home. It was listed at $750k and sold the very first day. We were a bit nervous that our home was pushing $280/sq ft when we built it 2 years ago. Now new construction on bad lots are getting snatched up for over $280/sq foot. So we are feeling pretty good.

 

[Joshnoble01]

The Mrs and I are starting to look. It is so hard to find something in the Bay Area. Not enough homes. They all sell for above asking. You often get beat by cash offers.

We’re being really picky because we want to stay in the same town and even same schools which is a small very desirable area. So far we’ve had all 3 offers beaten by cash. I’m hoping after the holidays there will be a little bit more inventory. I love my condo and I’ve personally been here 13 years and we’ve raised our daughter in it. But it’s time for some extra space with a yard, a two car garage and an office.

 

[tahoebum]

Our builder now has our retirement home that was finished in 2018 on their website including a feature that was new to them. It looks strange and rather boring without the 15 putters leaned up against the wall, lol.

Land's End Development

www.landsenddev.com

 

[choppstixxx]

We closed/moved into our now new home end of March just before a lot of the Covid19 shut downs occurred here in WNY. It was a model home in a new track, was pretty much everything we wanted and after looking at dozens of older homes it was a no brainer to go new build for us. It allowed us to get brand new, without having to make all the building decisions and also save money since we couldn't have built it for the same price. Don't miss our old condo for a minute!
On another note my brother in law has been looking for a new house for over a year and can't catch a break. Around our area the market is crazy, he put an offer for $40k over asking on a $200k ish house and got beat out by an all cash offer. I don't envy anyone trying to buy a home right now, we def. lucked out when we bought ours.

 

[Scott F]

I’m going to be moving in the spring. We were considering having a new home built but materials costs have risen so much, it has put new construction out of my price range compared to an existing home.

 

[tahoebum]

The Mrs and I are starting to look. It is so hard to find something in the Bay Area. Not enough homes. They all sell for above asking. You often get beat by cash offers.

We’re being really picky because we want to stay in the same town and even same schools which is a small very desirable area. So far we’ve had all 3 offers beaten by cash. I’m hoping after the holidays there will be a little bit more inventory. I love my condo and I’ve personally been here 13 years and we’ve raised our daughter in it. But it’s time for some extra space with a yard, a two car garage and an office.

It's so tough in the Bay Area with the prices. We sold our home in Los Gatos in 2018 and I know prices are up from those inflated levels two years ago as my wife's sister just bought a home in Mill Valley.

 

[smgoldstein]

We are looking to move as well with the kids out of school. Double edge sword as I see it. Sure I can probably get more for my house but will have to pay more for another house.

 

[Joshnoble01]

It's so tough in the Bay Area with the prices. We sold our home in Los Gatos in 2018 and I know prices are up from those inflated levels two years ago as my wife's sister just bought a home in Mill Valley.

It's crazy. Even if you have the pre-approved loan and a 30-40% downpayment and offer over asking there just isn't enough. Houses are going for 5% over asking consistently. We've still seen a 5% increase in home values. Just nuts. Convid actually has hurt because people that were out in the City or on the Peninsula think it is cheap 20 miles east so they think nothing of the prices.

We are being picky though in areas and what type of house we get. I don't mind something that needs a little clean up but we both want a rancher with 1/3-1/2 an acre. We are fine with a 3 bedroom but want the potential to be able to expand to a 4 in case we have another kid.

Just a crappy process. For all the crap California gets about high costs it truly is the lack of good housing that is the issue. Not even affordable because you can make enough to afford them here but just decent livable housing.

 

[Kmench]

Like some of you, my wife and I got lucky in finding a house before it got nuts. We live north of Cincinnati and I heard on the radio the other day that Cincinnati has the #1 or #2 market in the country. They said houses are only on the market for about 17 days, and the area I’m in sold on average 30k over asking. We paid asking and split closing costs. I checked a few Real estate sites and our house value has gone up about 80k over what we got it for back in May.

 

[TheHeez]

It's crazy. Even if you have the pre-approved loan and a 30-40% downpayment and offer over asking there just isn't enough. Houses are going for 5% over asking consistently. We've still seen a 5% increase in home values. Just nuts. Convid actually has hurt because people that were out in the City or on the Peninsula think it is cheap 20 miles east so they think nothing of the prices.

We are being picky though in areas and what type of house we get. I don't mind something that needs a little clean up but we both want a rancher with 1/3-1/2 an acre. We are fine with a 3 bedroom but want the potential to be able to expand to a 4 in case we have another kid.

Just a crappy process. For all the crap California gets about high costs it truly is the lack of good housing that is the issue. Not even affordable because you can make enough to afford them here but just decent livable housing.

It's crazy down here, but in a different way. We are having a ton of Bay Area folks come down as it's only a few hours away, they now work remote and the housing is less expensive (although still ridiculous). We are fortunate in that our builder is accepting contingent offers. I'm hopeful that a tech worker that simply can't afford Bay Area prices, but works remote, buys my current place. There has been such an exodus to the more rural areas and our spot in SLO County definitely qualifies, we've got people from LA and the Bay moving in like crazy.

 

[Joshnoble01]

It's crazy down here, but in a different way. We are having a ton of Bay Area folks come down as it's only a few hours away, they now work remote and the housing is less expensive (although still ridiculous). We are fortunate in that our builder is accepting contingent offers. I'm hopeful that a tech worker that simply can't afford Bay Area prices, but works remote, buys my current place. There has been such an exodus to the more rural areas and our spot in SLO County definitely qualifies, we've got people from LA and the Bay moving in like crazy.

Yep. I'm going to be one of those. Just not sure when. Can't justify the move yet until I know remote work is here for good. But SLO county is where we will end up.

 

[RealPretendPsychic]

I have a couple friends who just started to look. One couple is in a time crunch and feeling the stress. The other couple is in no hurry and not looking to overpay. Two very different experiences! Three houses in our neighborhood just sold within days of listing at or above asking and the one house is way more than double the value of nearly every other home in the neighborhood. It’s a crazy market. At least rates are low!

 

[TheHeez]

Yep. I'm going to be one of those. Just not sure when. Can't justify the move yet until I know remote work is here for good. But SLO county is where we will end up.

Awesome! Well let me be the first to preemptively welcome you to the neighborhood. Do you know what town you want to live in? I grew up in SLO proper and have been living in North County for the last 4 years. We have lots of great golf in the area so be sure to hit me up once you make it down here.

 

[Mark_UK]

We are getting Bay Area folk moving down here in droves. Now that so many people can work from home, people want to escape the built up Bay Area and move out a little. That along with the fact there is very little for sale means prices are rocketing. It turns out we timed our move to perfection. If we had left it later, we wouldn’t have had trouble selling, but I don’t think we’d have found anything to move in to.

 

[Joshnoble01]

Awesome! Well let me be the first to preemptively welcome you to the neighborhood. Do you know what town you want to live in? I grew up in SLO proper and have been living in North County for the last 4 years. We have lots of great golf in the area so be sure to hit me up once you make it down here.

For sure. I'm down there 5-6 times a year. Was down there for most of September. I'll pm you next time we come. My family has a place in Cayucos. Not sure I would settle there permanently. It really depends on whether we do it while my daughter is in school or wait 10 years for the full time move. We are looking all over. We like Los Osos, Morro as well. I want land outside of the towns. Not sure my wife does.

 

[6ixOhFore]

Our front door area is almost finished . Added the rock wall facing the patio area for added sunlight. The house is coming along very well.

 

[TheHeez]

Contract signed and house is nearly framed. Going through the design folks and picking out our colors, cabinets, appliances etc etc. House should be complete by May. Pumped!

 

[TheHeez]

An update is overdue. House is coming along nicely and we are looking at completion in April. Our current house hit the market and after two days of showings, we’ve had 21 groups view the house and offers are trickling in. So far, everything is above asking. Crazy.

 

[TheHeez]

Well, despite this just being me talking to myself in here, I wanted to put a bow on this one.

Our old house sold 5.6% above asking. We had over 15 offers and ended up selling to our agent’s clients. It came down to waiving warranties and letting us stay for free as long as needed while our new house was finished. Multiple buyers threw everything they had at us.

The new house was completed last week and we have been moving since Saturday. Builder has been exemplary, the main foreman actually bought the house down the street and is my new neighbor.

 

[wubears71]

We just refinanced our house that is barely 2 years old. I had another unsolicited offer to purchase it last week. It’s crazy that our new home that is 100% custom appraised as high as it did. We were expecting to bring money to the table to refinance and instead could have taken money out if we wanted.
Crazy market!

 

[MWard]

Well, despite this just being me talking to myself in here, I wanted to put a bow on this one.

Our old house sold 5.6% above asking. We had over 15 offers and ended up selling to our agent’s clients. It came down to waiving warranties and letting us stay for free as long as needed while our new house was finished. Multiple buyers threw everything they had at us.

The new house was completed last week and we have been moving since Saturday. Builder has been exemplary, the main foreman actually bought the house down the street and is my new neighbor.

Beauty of a home