If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund • Hacker News Board

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#161

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

davidw wrote: post #125

Here's why investors buy up houses: they know your neighbors will do the dirty work of artificially constraining the housing supply, which makes it a good investment. Here's one who comes right out and explains this: > Meanwhile, local opposition to building is so commonplace and the approval process so cumbersome, time consuming, and expensive, even when a proposed project complies entirely with requirements, approv…

In Queens and Brooklyn, before the Amazon NYC Headquarters was derailed, they had bus tours of Chinese investors, driving around, looking for for sale signs. It was crazy.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#162

Post by ransom1538 » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

Yes.

This just happened to me. I put my home up for market %15 over market - was offered cash that same day by an investor. I didn't use an Agent to list (this is my 3rd home sell) and set my own buyer agent compensation on the MLS. Anyhow, they seem like pros.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#163

Post by JKCalhoun » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

gfodor wrote: post #107

nathan11 wrote: post #29

Probably worth pointing out this twitter account is promoting the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. To me that casts suspicion on their other assertions.

I follow this account and others like it because it allows one to be exposed to things like the idea that COVID leaked from a lab a year ago. Skepticism is warranted in all cases, of course, but I think it's extremely healthy to keep in tune with a variety of subcommunities who are in and of themselves skeptics of many mainstream narratives.

Something else to be skeptical of: skepticism.

A good amount of skepticism is great. Questioning everything is belligerent and actually close-minded rather than open.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#164

Post by beervirus » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

nathan11 wrote: post #29

Probably worth pointing out this twitter account is promoting the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. To me that casts suspicion on their other assertions.

Do you cast aspersions like this on people who think the 2016 election was stolen? They tend to be a lot more respected, but they’re just as incorrect.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#165

Post by thinkingkong » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

Lots of houses are bought in blocks as well. In denser parts of cities or in areas near major throughfares, land assemblies are fairly common. These take all the properties and bundle them into a new property worth way more.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#166

Post by alexgmcm » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

matthoiland wrote: post #65

cosmojg wrote: post #32

If only so many people didn't treat land and houses like investments, there wouldn't be such a disastrous hoarding problem. Henry George's Land Value Tax [1][2] seems like an obvious economic fix that would require a large fraction of the population to change how they think about land and natural resources, but most of them are invested in such a way (i.e. owning multiple houses on multiple parcels of land, often wit…

> Everybody works but the vacant lot. I paid $3600 for this lot and will hold 'till I get $6000. The profit is unearned increment made possible by the presence of this community and enterprise of its people. I take the profit without earning it. for the remedy read Henry George. - Billboard posted in an empty lot, Rockford Illinois, 1914

It's a bit discouraging that over a century later the same problem still remains.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#167

Post by ddtaylor » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

I thought HN had a policy of doing direct links to articles?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-sell-a-house-these-days-...

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#168

Post by world_peace42 » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

cortesoft wrote: post #151

yabones wrote: post #102

Things went off the rails at the end... > Well, the banks are controlled by and in bed with the same cabal buying everything up. You think this will be corrected by market forces when it is a financial and political pincher movement pushed by the same cabal that stole the 2020 election & hid COVID Truth? You are fucked. https://twitter.com/APhilosophae/status/1402449561864577024 IMO, weakens the entire 'thread' and m…

If you think that was disturbing, check out the substack linked to the twitter account. Full on nut job.

I clicked it. Looks like he's a Republican and a Christian (and has pretty standard opinions for that intersection) who likes to write long political essays. Are you sure he's a nut job, or could you possibly just be a bigot?

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#169

Post by scotuswroteus » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

davidw wrote: post #125

Here's why investors buy up houses: they know your neighbors will do the dirty work of artificially constraining the housing supply, which makes it a good investment. Here's one who comes right out and explains this: > Meanwhile, local opposition to building is so commonplace and the approval process so cumbersome, time consuming, and expensive, even when a proposed project complies entirely with requirements, approv…

You lost me at the end. You lack political acumen if you think this is how politics works: " If there's a credible threat to build plenty of housing, they'll move on."

The Yimbies supported Mayor Breed. She hasn't changed the political problems in SF that you're (for the most part, accurately) diagnosing here.

The problem with most anti-activist government screeds like this is that they lack the same nuance and sophistication they would bring to, for example, commenting on a market analysis. I'm almost certain your position here is "end zoning." I'm fine with that. But it takes way more than shit posting, and the people who believe what you do are literally at the top of the city's government in San Francisco, and nothing has changed.

You need a better understanding of politics and a sharper theory of change. Just applying your own premise to this comment, investors are actually relying on people like YOU failing to learn more about politics and failing to understand how to better communicate about politics. YOU are part of the problem, not above it.

Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund

#170

Post by seanp2k2 » Wed, Jun 09, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

cosmojg wrote: post #32

If only so many people didn't treat land and houses like investments, there wouldn't be such a disastrous hoarding problem. Henry George's Land Value Tax [1][2] seems like an obvious economic fix that would require a large fraction of the population to change how they think about land and natural resources, but most of them are invested in such a way (i.e. owning multiple houses on multiple parcels of land, often wit…

I’ve ranted about this before but CA Prop 13 not only makes housing a good investment, but one that you’re extremely incentivized to hold onto forever and never move. Two people can be living in houses next to each other valued around 1.5m, and one of them will be paying 1/10th the tax. If anyone wants to buy a house, they have to first be able to afford the property, so the barriers to entry are so much higher for those who didn’t have the foresight to purchase a home 40 years ago.

It’s not even residential that’s the most disturbing though. One of the biggest beneficiaries of this tax break is Disney: https://www.ocregister.com/2010/06/03/disneyland-businesses-...