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Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

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281–290 of 634 posts

Re: Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

#281
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In less than 3 years the rent in our working class city went up 45%. I sympathize with that but I want to make sure people understand the dynamics. Prices are driven by supply and demand. If there's only one empty apartment in the city and you're willing to pay $2000/month, I am gonna have to pay $2100 month if I want to live there instead of you. That's sort of separate (though related to) prices of houses. What w…

> one way to drive prices in your city down is to have some even that renders it undesirable (..., defund the police ...) there are so many problems with your post but the assumption that defunding the police is necessarily going to cause prices to collapse is probably the most obviously biased one. the idea that you should view housing as simply a matter of supply and demand and not consider any externalities is an…

> the idea that you should view housing as simply a matter of supply and demand and not consider any externalities is an abominable position

Comrade, I am speaking about "how it works" not "what would be really nice if..."

> Income from residential rentals is taxed at the same rate as ordinary income, the kind you get from actually doing something.

I can tell you have never owned an apartment or a house. The amount of money and time that goes into maintaining a property, managing risk of bad tenants, etc is really high. Not to mention property taxes which is likely something you've not heard about (or, at least you don't mention that in your post when talking about the tax burden.)

Re: Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

#282

Former real estate finance professional, here. If you were hoping this was a sign of the real estate market falling and perhaps its your chance to get a bargain, think again. > The company is seeking roughly $2.8 billion for the houses, which are being pitched to institutional investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Institutional investors (Blackstone, Blackrock, Colony, et al) will be being in bulk,…

I'm a 39 year renter flush with cash from 15 years of a professional job while living in austerity for the entire time. Soliciting free advice. You sound bullish so I wanted to share five risks in the short term that have been on my mind lately: 1) Evictions now allowed in 43 states after a pandemic moratorium on them. My state allowed them October 3rd. Supply. 2) A China conflict at any point. Disruption. 3) Taxes g…

What's your dilemma? If you're gonna live there for 10 years, get a large utility out of the house in general and also owning your own place, then just go for it.

If you're buying just to buy, then hold off.

Re: Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

#283

Former real estate finance professional, here. If you were hoping this was a sign of the real estate market falling and perhaps its your chance to get a bargain, think again. > The company is seeking roughly $2.8 billion for the houses, which are being pitched to institutional investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Institutional investors (Blackstone, Blackrock, Colony, et al) will be being in bulk,…

I'm a 39 year renter flush with cash from 15 years of a professional job while living in austerity for the entire time. Soliciting free advice. You sound bullish so I wanted to share five risks in the short term that have been on my mind lately: 1) Evictions now allowed in 43 states after a pandemic moratorium on them. My state allowed them October 3rd. Supply. 2) A China conflict at any point. Disruption. 3) Taxes g…

A note on the mortgage: I understand your aversion to debt, but choosing a shorter duration mortgage can increase the probability of default, even if it shortens the time to the point that you are debt free, because for any given amount of cash reserves you have it shortens the runway you have if you lose your income.

As long as mortgage money is cheap, the most profitable course of action is to use the 30 year mortgage, but keep a large chunk of money in reserve and invest the rest in the market for the long term. And never allow yourself to not be well-cushioned.

Debt gets people in trouble when they use it to get things that put them on the edge, where losing a job causes them to miss a payment. For people who stay far away from the edge, and are good with money, it's very profitable.

Re: Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

#284

Former real estate finance professional, here. If you were hoping this was a sign of the real estate market falling and perhaps its your chance to get a bargain, think again. > The company is seeking roughly $2.8 billion for the houses, which are being pitched to institutional investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Institutional investors (Blackstone, Blackrock, Colony, et al) will be being in bulk,…

Aren't all these homes required to be listed on the MLS before being sold? My understanding is a home (at least in California) can't be sold unless publicly listed for X days on the MLS.

Absolutely untrue elsewhere. I sold two houses in PA without them ever appearing on the MLS, which is a privately run, privately owned database. It might also be untrue in CA, but I can't comment on that.

Re: Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

#285

Former real estate finance professional, here. If you were hoping this was a sign of the real estate market falling and perhaps its your chance to get a bargain, think again. > The company is seeking roughly $2.8 billion for the houses, which are being pitched to institutional investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Institutional investors (Blackstone, Blackrock, Colony, et al) will be being in bulk,…

Aren't all these homes required to be listed on the MLS before being sold? My understanding is a home (at least in California) can't be sold unless publicly listed for X days on the MLS.

"Pocket listing".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_listing

Re: Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

#286

Former real estate finance professional, here. If you were hoping this was a sign of the real estate market falling and perhaps its your chance to get a bargain, think again. > The company is seeking roughly $2.8 billion for the houses, which are being pitched to institutional investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Institutional investors (Blackstone, Blackrock, Colony, et al) will be being in bulk,…

Aren't all these homes required to be listed on the MLS before being sold? My understanding is a home (at least in California) can't be sold unless publicly listed for X days on the MLS.

Sure, but they aren't required to accept any offers. And the odds of a private buyer making a better all cash zero contingency offer than an institutional investor is pretty slim.

Re: Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

#287
post #15

This is a good example of the fallacy of youth: buying too far into hype and being all "the sky is falling" with negative news. It wasn't long ago that we were reading how Zillow et al were going to buy up all the housing stock and keep millenials and Zoomers homeless forever. The people saying this have obviously never gone through a "bust" cycle. This is unsurprising as we've now been in the longest bull market in…

They just need to hold all that inventory long enough for it to go black. But of course the market can remain irrational longer than they can remain solvent so that's not how it will play out. Also good luck convincing the sociopaths of VC to get rich slow here: they want their capital back so they can throw it at more promising get-rich-quick schemes.

> the market can remain irrational longer than [you] can remain solvent

This deserves to be stated on its own.

Re: Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They simply overpaid. My neighbor received an offer of $150k over the z-estimate in Tucson. He felt that it would be stupid not to sell and wasn't even thinking about selling before the offer came in, so he sold. He paid a slight premium to buy his new house out in the boonies, but the gain offset the rise in price. They are currently listing his old house at the zestimate... I doubt they find a buyer even at that pr…

I think you highlighted an important concept. Rather than overpay, people can look further out from a city center and get cheaper housing. Sure the commute may be longer but there has been a lot of remote working over the last year or so, many companies going fully remote. Home buyers have many choices and at a certain price, its simply too much and they go elsewhere. I think zillow is trying to unload their mistake…

>look further out

This is what has driven up housing prices where I live. It's having a ripple effect as those with more flexible WFH schedules decide they can now afford to buy a home outside of the city, and those outside the city realize they can get a significant upgrade in home quality for no extra cost by moving still further away.

As people begin to make choices like this at a systemic level, I really think the WFH genie is well & truly out of the bottle for good: When people can get a significant boost in quality of life & w/l balance with nicer living quarters & more flexible schedule, we simply won't be willing to take a job that doesn't allow for this. Especially once we've made the move away from central business hubs already and would otherwise have to move back.

Re: Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

#290

Former real estate finance professional, here. If you were hoping this was a sign of the real estate market falling and perhaps its your chance to get a bargain, think again. > The company is seeking roughly $2.8 billion for the houses, which are being pitched to institutional investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Institutional investors (Blackstone, Blackrock, Colony, et al) will be being in bulk,…

Aren't all these homes required to be listed on the MLS before being sold? My understanding is a home (at least in California) can't be sold unless publicly listed for X days on the MLS.

I bought a condo in Seattle from a friend with zero MLS involvement. We agreed on a price, found a purchase and sale agreement online, hired a title company. Took about a week.
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