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

bloomberg.com

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

#491

Post by rgbrgb »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #455
jiveturkey wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious to know how and where you got that impression. There is no such requirement. There are similar private requirements for the cartel known as NAR. What this means in practice is that pocket listings actually make to to the MLS for one day before apparently being sold "in 1 day". Zillow as property owner is not part of NAR. Zillow as broker is also not part of NAR, although if they were, they'd do exactly as ind…

I think MLS would like to give you that impression. They seem to function as a cartel of some sort. (At least I have never understood their purpose.)

There are over 900 MLS organizations in the US. Their purpose is aggregating the RE listings in a region. This was super important 100 years ago, still pretty important 25 years ago, and now has little utility for consumers now that listings are aggregated online and searchable without an agent across regions with better-than-mls-portal consumer-grade shopping tools.

Today they essentially function as data brokers and unofficial labor organizers, collecting membership dues from agents in exchange for ensuring that the agent's name is on their listing wherever it's shown online and (along with NAR) pushing agents to keep "standard" commissions on their listings (5-6%).

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

#492

Post by nemo44x »

According to their call tonight they say they are out of that business permanently. I wonder if they plan on pivoting it to something less speculative?

FWIW, I'd love a system where you could "sell" a home to a broker and "buy" one without the musical chairs game of contingency offers, etc. I think there's real value in a space that completes the sale of properties based on some window of expected return for a property. Something where I could use a broker to buy a place cash for me and then I arrange the loan and the bank buys it off of them and starts a mortgage with me. And do the same for my property where they buy it from me at the same time and sell it and I get the difference minus a fee.

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

#494

Post by ok123456 »

frankfrankfrank wrote: post #391
game_the0ry wrote: post #255

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 agree. I wish people understood more of what these "institutional investors" are doing. The Fed has essentially trapped us in a system where the likes of blackrock get access to essentially free Fed printing press money right of the rollers that they then use to buy up real assets at inflated prices, which only drives up the inflation that thereby also drives up the value of previous purchases at near zero rate int…

Mao was right.

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

#495

Post by unethical_ban »

refurb wrote: post #207
unethical_ban wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the other responder, I don't think the 00s and this cycle have much to do with each other. 00s was lots of people who couldn't afford a home being provided mortgages by banks, and it falling. This is presumably a number of well-financed institutions buying up property to hold or rent. Now, perhaps you're correct that it isn't as bad as it seemed, since Zillow is selling the homes rather than getting into the ren…

Exactly! It’s different this time. Fundamentals are strong. Old rules don’t apply. Just like the last bubble.

To say there are different causes for concern is not the same as saying there is no concern.

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

#496

Post by Panzer04 »

ultraluminous wrote: post #475
gonehome wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This framing feels backwards to me - I thought the reason institutional investors see it as a valuable asset is because of NIMBYs constraining supply for them via local policy and obstruction. The institutional investors are a symptom of that policy, but the NIMBYs (and incentives that exist for existing owners like prop13) are the cause. Real Estate scaling supply to meet demand is in direct conflict with old proper…

I've seen this argument touted frequently in housing related threads and it always confuses me. Housing prices have soared over the majority of the developed world - dozens of countries[1]. Is NYMBYism and prop13 driving the housing crisis in Luxembourg? Chile? Estonia? Do you think the entire world property market, taxation and legislation is structured exactly like in the California bay area? The whole "just zone m…

What do you mean "obviously reductive"? Why wouldn't it work?

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

#497

Post by donkeyd »

game_the0ry wrote: post #255

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 wish this would anger people more

It is... But what are you going to do about it? Especially in the US, big business owns the politicians who can do something about it. And prop 22 shows that even if the public gets to decide, big business manages to control public opinion to their benefit.

I believe this is only going to get worse for the next couple of decades. Something major would have to happen for this to change.

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

#498

Post by adrianmonk »

itsoktocry wrote: post #412
cwkoss wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every person or corporation that owns more than one residential dwelling should pay increased property taxes based on the number of residential dwellings they own. This is an easy problem to legislate away, our politicians are just too cowardly to decommodify housing.

> our politicians are just too cowardly to decommodify housing I'll be 90% or more own multiple houses.

Make it 5 houses per person (10 for married couples), then.

Plenty of families out there own rental houses as an investment, which I think is a good thing. It allows people an alternative to investments like the stock market if they aren't into that, and it gives a path to turn labor into wealth through DIY maintenance, repairs, and improvements.

Plus it allows individuals to better manage situations like parents dying and leaving them a house that they may not want to sell immediately.

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

#500

Post by donkeyd »

the-pigeon wrote: post #296
game_the0ry wrote: post #255

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,…

This would be easy to fix with legislative that makes property taxes much higher for investment home properties. I don't think I've ever heard of a politician even talking about that though.

> This would be easy to fix with legislative

Whenever people say anything complex can be fixed easily with legislation, I'm pretty sure they don't have a clue.

These types of issues are never easy to fix, because they're cause by many factors that have taken years to form. There are no easy legislative fixes in practice. They only exist in theory.

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