What Garick and jcorb wrote. Tell them that you DGAF what they do to the house after they own it, but you're not footing costs for things they want to change.

Of course, that's assuming these are cosmetic and not functional, necessary changes.

It is possible that they're not planning to cut an offer from asking. They might have $X in their budget, offer ~ $asking (where $asking < $X), but just want to be sure that $asking + $remodel <= $X.

I'm with you on that. Which is why we usually buy old houses. 1920s-30s are the best, imo, because labor was cheap and good wood was abundant, but they were also designed with indoor plumbing and electricity in mind, instead of tacked on later like the older homes. Also, the wood floors are often in great shape, because they've been hidden under carpet for decades. Only downsides are the repairs they often need and how many of the old neighborhoods have declined.

When you can find the right neighborhood with historic homes well kept and shaded by giant trees though, it is awesome.

What would be the issue if they lowball you because of the contractor? You just decline the offer. I know it’s an inconvenience to leave the house for a bit for them but selling your house is a pretty inconvenient process.

And absolutely reject the offer below asking. In this market, the seller holds a lot of power. Just wait it out. Or, if you’re really feeling irritated by the low offer, counter at a higher than asking amount!

And mention that you have a full price offer. Obv it’s not the best offer, but your realtor shouldn’t really be going into specifics outside the fact that you have a full price offer

So I got the financing info on a the buyers.
-below asking is conventional
-people with the contractor are Cash
-Full listing offer are VA

According to the realtor, the VA loan approvals are really strict on inspections and appraisals. There is a risk the house may not appraise for full asking and I would have to come down to what is appraises at. So I have to determine if the cash offer is higher than what the appraisal will be based on an appraisal 1.5yrs ago+updates made+market value increase this past year.

We have set a deadline for tomorrow at 5 for final and best offers.

Can confirm VA are strict on inspections. My neighbor’s house fell out of escrow because it came in slightly under. Hopefully, contractor people offer asking or better and the decision is easy.

I’d let the contractor see it. The people are probably just wanting to see how much it’s going to cost them to get it how they want but I would make sure your realtor is letting them know you aren’t dropping the price. Most people are aware of that in this market.

None of this is true. Buyers need to visualize how they will live in a place. This is why people stage houses. Not everyone has the magic power to just see the different things that can be done to a house, they need it shown to them. Ugly paint can be very off-putting. Replacing it costs next to zero and could help buyers overlook some of the other flaws in the room such as the tile.

And no, the buyers aren't just as likely to like dark blue ad they would a light grey. That's not even close.

The off-putting colors may keep you from getting showings, but won't be much of an issue for folks who already saw pictures online.

And I didn't say as many will like dark blue as will like gray. I said that between the people who like the blue and hate the gray, it will be about as many as hate the blue. Most people will either not care, or will want some other color.

Kitchen and front door. Those are the two areas they say to focus on to impress prospective buyers.

As for paint, yes, it matters:

https://www.realtrends.com/homes-wit...than-expected/

I think a lot of it is just subliminal. The buyer may not even be thinking about the paint but they look at the room and think it looks dated or they just aren't feeling it. Just like in an interview, you are going to want to look nice and presentable regardless of whether the job has a dress code. First impressions matter, so if you can improve something on the cheap, why not?

The house I live in was on the market for 22 months before I bought it. It had 2 major issues: it was poorly staged and it had beige paint. That's it. It took 22 months, plus a price drop of $135k, plus restaging the house, and then later repainting the entire interior of the house before someone bought it - aka me.

Once a house is on the market a long time it's much more difficult to get a buyer, which is why it's important to address these things up front.

A house in my neighborhood that was on the market for 9 months ending Feb 2020 and failed to sell at $900k has just been relisted at $1.3 million. Seems very optimistic.

Oh it’s psychological for sure. But I think to Garick’s point, we’re speaking from the angle of prospective buyers who want to live in the home. Other buyers who are more interested in an investment may be less inclined to care about the colors.

Sure, but I want as many interested buyers as possible. The pool of buyers is already cut smaller because we have a swimming pool.

Bless the Californians!!!
The cash people sold their home in California and came in with an offer 2% below asking which is ~what I wanted to list the house at. Accepted.
Working remotely and moving to bum**** East Texas lololol

Congrats!

Californians are taking over. Have one California family moving in next door and another across the street. Those are just the ones on my block that I know for certain are coming from California.

Razor - did you notice The Porches is offering four of their units as Airbnbs on their own website?

Yes. Phase 1 are all rentals and as the leases come up they are converting all of them to Airbnb's. Phase 2 and 3 will be ownership only. I really like phase 1 so far. It feels like a vacation home and it is very quiet. It's mostly all med students. We are going to build elsewhere though. Phases 2 and 3 are too close to each other and it only takes one bad neighbor to ruin it. I have doubts the concept will work in this area. We are not a high growth area but it is right in the middle of the new med school. I feel like it is way too much of a risk and we can build a 1/4 mile away in a new standard community. If this does take off, we are still right by it.

We are about to come up on the busiest months for real estate transactions (May, June, July, August) and since real estate is already booming I thought it would be interesting to see the percentage of properties on the market that are currently under contract in various cities. **NOTE: This is just the city itself, and does not include suburb data** I used realtor.com to select the data.

Percentage of listed properties under contract

Austin 71%
Phoenix 67%
Minneapolis 65%
Milwaukee 63%
Fort Worth 63%
San Diego 62%
Orlando 61%
Charlotte 60%
Dallas 58%
Portland 58%
Seattle 57%
Nashville 54%
San Antonio 50%
Chicago 47%
Washington DC 47%
Philadelphia 47%
Los Angeles 45%
Houston 44%
Miami 44%
San Francisco 39%
New York 29%
Las Vegas 26%
El Paso 23%
Boston 18%
Detroit 9%

I was really surprised Las Vegas was so low. When looking at Vegas and the surrounding areas the % under contract improves slightly to 28%.

When I zoom out on Dallas it improves from 58% to 64% so the suburbs are definitely doing better than the city. A popular Dallas suburb Frisco is at 78% under contract.

interesting stuff DC. i'm curious what happens when you zoom out on Portland to include the metro area

Portland Metro goes up to 69% of listed properties under contract compared to 58% for the city itself. (note this likely includes some less populated tertiary markets a bit outside of the metro itself)

thanks DC, you confirmed my hunch. schools are better and property taxes lower outside of PDX proper.

That Detroit number is wild. The cities “resurgence” is only about restaurants and condos in a tiny area. Meanwhile the neighborhoods get ignored. Im not sure how the city actually comes back, but I’m relatively certain it’s not by creating a 30 block Disney world for the whites in the suburbs.

I say this as a white in the suburbs that goes to Detroit every weekend. ( at least pre covid).

30 blocks is probably a stretch to be honest.

Looking to sell in Phoenix AZ.

Realtors including Redfin came in $375-$399k at 4.5-5% fees. Open door came in at $414,900 with 7.79% fees, and I'm guessing could go as high as 9.2% (for repair fees).

Mostly I'm blown away that Opendoor is providing a higher offer than the realtors are suggesting to go onto market for. Their main concern being appraisal.

Why bother going through the traditional process if Opendoor is offering higher than list price?

Have you done the math?