Yeah, that's what I do, simply run the hose with a pressure attachment and rinse the panels off. The runoff waters my garden so I don't waste much water doing it.

Perhaps you live in an area with over 30" of rain. Or, your neighbors never cleaned the panels and don't know the difference. Or, they don't get precise measurements of output pre/post cleaning.

For sure. I thought they'd at least hit me with a trip fee, or some such. Very happy to have that saga over with, and at a reasonable price.

We don’t get too much rain where I am in Central California and this particular neighbor is a bit old and starting to show signs of dementia. He’s probably not the most reliable source on this topic.

At one point Google did a study on their panels at one of their big office/campuses in NorCal (where it rains more than Central Cal for sure) and they decided it wasn't worth the expense to clean the tilted panels, but was for flat panels. The flatter they are the worse the soiling.

I recommend just hosing off if you can do that because I think it's a lot better to hose them off like once a month than to get them perfectly clean even every other month, let alone the once a year or w/e people would really clean them. People usually use numbers like 5-10% degradation for soiling, but obviously - that depends.

I don't get the chance to study systems wash or no wash after installation or anything, so this is just guessing/opinion (plus what I heard about Google).

I'm trying to buy a house in Dallas and I have no idea what I'm doing right now. All the houses I've seen are listed at at ~+8% of their value last year.

Are the values just going to plummet next year and it's a huge mistake to buy right now?

I found a great house that needs A LOT of work (about $20k+labor if the wiring is k). I tried to offer 8.5% under listing price and the listing agent told the realtor I'm working with not to waste his time because he has several offers over listing after it has only been on the market for 4days.

Someone please explain housing markets to me.

Should I rent for 12months and then try to buy?

If anyone knew the correct answer to your question, they’d be very wealthy. The market is definitely a sellers market at the moment. Interest rates are at historic lows and people are starting to realize the value of space because of covid. People are flocking away from apartments and major metropolitan areas to more rural and suburban homes.

Whether this trend continues or not is anyone’s guess. I suspect the hot housing market will cool off a bit as covid gets more under control and/or interest rates rise. But I don’t think we’ll see another housing bubble like we were in in 2007-2008.

It’s an extraordinarily difficult time to buy right now. The demand is just very very high at the moment.

Working in the mortgage industry, this is all correct. We are at all time low inventory of houses available, with a ton of buyers that cannot find a house to buy. To top it off, when you do find a property, in many markets they are going for well over listing price with multiple bids.

To top this all off, in some markets you have to do things like waiving appraisal contingencies AND pay over list to even get a deal considered. What this means is if your house comes in low at appraisal, you have to make up the difference out of pocket if you want the loan or risk losing your deposit (Earnest Money). A low appraisal usually isn't likely, but it can be devastating if your cash on hand isn't strong and you need full financing to finish the transaction. This isn't as risky if you have plenty of cash, but if you are relying on mostly financing for the purchase, it can sink the deal.

Good luck!

If more people want to buy a house than sell a house, price go up.


If more people want to sell a house than buy a house, price go down.




Based on sales prices for similar houses in my neighborhood, my house is worth 25% more now than it was six months ago. Houses rarely last a week on the market.

Dallas and Austin are seen as places to move to right now.

And any realtor with that attitude doesn't need or deserve your business.

It shocks me sometimes what people will tolerate or what they determine is a must have in a product.



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As a member of society, it sucks that many people are being priced out of home ownership.

As a homeowner, I selfishly love that my house is appreciating massively in value at the moment (given that my long term plan is retirement outside Canada where housing prices remain flat).

More in the vein of this thread - we are taking the carpet out of the remaining areas where it exists in our house; upstairs bedrooms and all of finished basement, about 1100 sqft in total. We're replacing with vinyl plank - anyone have thoughts on this kind of flooring? We're paying about $7500 CDN for removal of old carpet and installation of the new.

What's wrong with this realtor's response? If he's sitting on a pile of offers of (say) 1M+ and you're coming in saying you want to offer 900K, you ARE wasting his time and it's better to be told that directly so you can adjust your thinking and not waste your own time either by looking at houses that are going to go for more than you can pay.

I loathe vinyl plank. The softer versions look and feel like linoleum, and the harder ones are just a less durable tile, imo. I think it is a trend that will not age well, though at least it's easy to replace.

As for paying for carpet removal, I hope it is a small part of the bid. I removed at least that much carpet by myself in one day, and the only challenge was carrying the giant rolls out to the garage.

My neighbor recently passed away. His house was built in the early 60s and has had nothing renovated in 30 years. 3 bedroom, 1 level ranch with no basement in no name CT. It was on the market for 3 hrs. It went for 10% more than the listing price, which was already high. My house could use some work but I’m considering just throwing it on the market as is and seeing what happens

Yeah I was little unsure as I'd never really heard of it; the reviews I read seemed positive and it looks nice at least. I'm not really sure what to put in instead (especially for the basement which is the vast majority of it).

Quote breaks down more or less like this:

Materials and install $6000
Doorstop & Trim: $800
Carpet Removal & disposal: $500

The housing market is crazy here (Denver) as well.

Late last year, houses in my neighborhood cracked the $500K barrier. This is generic suburbia, the houses aren't special, but nice--~25 years old.

There were a couple on the market ~$515K in mid-March. I thought, "Hmmm, seems about right."

Late in the month, noticed another house with a sign. Looked them up, asking $599K. "Wow," I thought, "that's pretty aggressive."

Noticed one of the $515K house's sign went down last week, looked on zillow. Sold 3/31 for $590K. The $599K house was marked as under contract within 4 days of coming on the market.

Not surprised so much by the number, but by the rate of change.

$500 isn't bad. It will save you a sweaty day of hard work, and maybe some dump fees, though I gave my old carpet away on Craigslist.

I don't really mind vinyl plank in the basement, I guess. I'd never put it anywhere else. Have you looked into bamboo?

my parents did bamboo and loved it

Its not just the response, its the tone.

Maybe that's the way mlylt took it, but if he said it, its not cool in my view.

If you're in sales, you not only try to sell today, you try to sell yourself for the future.

Of course she could have been trying to make him take the bid regardless, so who really knows?

But I have seen way too many with an attitude in the good times.

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My brother is thinking of doing the same thing but the catch is you have to find somewhere else to live so you’ll be buying at an inflated price, too.

Unless you already own multiple homes or something, in which case I would for sure sell one of them now in this market.

Does it look, feel, and sound like more expensive hardwood? Pergo has a sound and feel that make it obvious it is not real wood.

yes, you can't tell the difference unless you really know your wood

i was expecting it to look like bamboo and ridiculed my father when he made the decision but it looks like regular hardwood - i'd have never of guessed it's bamboo if he never told me but obv not a wood expert

MLYLT misinterpret what someone said? Unpossible.

Nope, not misinterpreting. The agents are being that bold.
Just called about a house listed today and asked the listing agent if we could do a virtual tour because I'm not in the area. Her response (with attitude): "There are pictures posted on the listing." I followed up with asking if the house was available to see in person or remotely and got a hesitant yes. From those responses I can assume people are making offers just from looking at the listings online....jeez.

So basically if you aren't offering over asking and actually want to see what you are purchasing you can **** off because they have all the business they need.

Link

This was from a year ago. Of course Redfin skews towards internet users, but it's still quite a chunk of sight-unseen buyers.

My neighbor has a friend in town that listed his house and had 21 offers the first weekend, all at least 10% over asking.

100% it didn't go down the way MLY relayed it. I'm with Punker, if there's no chance my offer, under asking price, is going to be accepted please let me know right up front so I'm not wasting my time.