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$782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

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Re: $782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

#161

Post by lsadam0 »

lightbyte wrote: post #64
lsadam0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aside: I don't think it should be legal to not accept the asking price for a home. You're attacking basic supply and demand here. Let's say I set a list price and then figure out I could have asked for more...you want to legally bind me to sell for less than what the free market is willing to offer? Where does this stop? Should we ban speculative investments as a whole?

Would you then be okay with a grocery store demanding you pay 5x the list price for the last gallon of milk they have because the guy who also wanted it said he would be willing to pay that much?

That's not a good example. If a supply shortage drove price that high, what choice would I have? However if the store clerk is demanding 5x asking price without basis, I'll just go to another store. That's just how supply + demand works. That house went for 782k over the asking price because it can. This isn't a case of the supplier being unreasonable.

Re: $782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

#163

Post by lsadam0 »

ahakki wrote: post #49
lsadam0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aside: I don't think it should be legal to not accept the asking price for a home. You're attacking basic supply and demand here. Let's say I set a list price and then figure out I could have asked for more...you want to legally bind me to sell for less than what the free market is willing to offer? Where does this stop? Should we ban speculative investments as a whole?

I think he simply wants the same rules that apply to McDonalds to also apply to homes. If McDonalds has their BigMac Meal labeled with CHF 12.50 (the current price in Switzerland IIRC) the cashier won't be able to refuse to sell it to me for that price even if I look particularly hungry and it's 4 O'Clock in the morning (and might thus be ready to pay more than 12.50). At least in Switzerland you are generally oblige…

I understand, but where does that stop? What if McDonalds raises the price in the next minute, should they be required to honor the previous price? This just screams of unnecessary, unenforceable regulation.

If the average market price for my neighborhood raises after my listing, am I not permitted to raise the price? How would you apply this reasoning to a stock market?

Re: $782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

#164

Post by OrwellianChild »

habosa wrote: post #5

Aside: I don't think it should be legal to not accept the asking price for a home. With any other thing I want to buy, if I agree to pay the list price I get the item. Sometimes I can haggle the price down but the listed price is always accepted. This system of listing a price to 'get people in the door' and then igniting a bidding war makes it impossible for anyone to shop for a house except for realtors who are 'in…

It might help to think of this like a "Reserve Price" on an auction. The listing price illustrates the lowest price at which the seller will sell with no questions asked. This doesn't mean they can't sell lower - it just requires negotiation. Likewise, if there are multiple competing bids, it clearly has to go to the highest bidder.

There are instances of this kind of price movement in commodity products too, depending on demand. A rapidly selling product will get a bump to its MSRP, while the introduction of a competitor will cause price competition. It's not all that different in methodology - it just moves slower.

Be grateful that your local supermarket is no longer a street market, where each price has to be negotiated and haggled. Price discrimination there is rampant, so each buyer gets a personalized price tailored to extract as much as possible while still completing the sale.

Re: $782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

#165

Post by BoorishBears »

favorited wrote: post #134
CPLX wrote: post #84

Greetings from New York. You people are fucking insane, for the love of God please consider building some apartment buildings. Cheers.

Several apartment buildings by me in Sunnyvale just went up, if you want to pay $2940 for a studio[0]. In my experience, anything in the South Bay or Peninsula (in a decent area) that is managed by a large company (AvalonBay, Alliance, etc.) is going to start in the 2ks and go up a couple hundred each year. [0] https://www.481mathilda.com/Apartments/module/property_info/...

Is that really so bad? Here in CT I payed 1.2k for studio with similar amenities. A mid-level developer making 75k +-20k is normal here. A mid-level developer making 170k +-20k is normal there.

You obviously lose some disposable income, but in exchange you're in Sunnyvale. The job market there makes CT's look like a joke and for growth as far as income is concerned in incredibly limited in most parts of CT compared to any areas around Sunnyvale, making it a great deal for younger people.

Re: $782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

#166

Post by exclusiv »

jondubois wrote: post #55
jarjoura wrote: post #7

Yes South Bay is so overpriced right now it’s ridiculous. Keep in mind that 5 years ago that same house would have sold for 650k and even then people would have been complaining that’s it was way overpriced. One things certain, east bay across the 84 is still under a million at the moment. I suspect that will change soon.

Yes, I bet that in the near future, a modest house will cost $20 million, Bitcoin will be $100K per coin and Facebook will be a $10 trillion company. Poor SV suckers will spend their lives paying off their $20 million shoeboxes with their $500K per year salaries. Meanwhile I will be living in some exotic place in a mansion which I will have bought for $200K. I like where the future is going.

Yeah I'm in Southern California and I could buy a primary but I'd have to spend at least $1.25M for a small place where I'd want to live. It just doesn't make sense though. I rented a $2M house last year for $4.3k/mo. It's just way cheaper to rent at that level. You're either renting the house or renting the money (mortgage).

I've been buying investment properties for $500-600k each that cash flow instead. I don't want to rely on appreciation and I don't want to come out of pocket to cover the debt. The cash flow offsets your liability and improves debt to income so you can get approved for buying more cash flowing homes (once you can show income). So you should be able to buy a home at least every 2 years.

I may buy a primary if the market corrects, but otherwise I'm perfectly fine renting my primary. Too many people get infatuated with the idea of owning a primary residence. If you live in an expensive area, it's best to earn the higher salary there and rent, invest elsewhere and move somewhere cheaper later.

Re: $782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

#167

Post by bogomipz »

csomar wrote: post #146
bogomipz wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes they have a new campus and yes Apple is rich but that does not mean their employees are rich. How do you imagine employees "made a killing"? Do you think that Apple just hands out stock grants to everyone? Company stock is an asset like anything else, why would would they just be giving it away?

Stock options are a part of the compensation especially for startups. But regular companies do it too. They do it because it is "free" money at least at the time of issue. Apple new campus is both huge and the "flagship". It means Apple top employees will work from there. It has a 12,000 employee capacity. There will be hundreds or maybe thousands of top executives, top managers and high-grade engineers. I'm pretty s…

It is not "free money" at all, it is an asset like any other on the company's balance sheet.

For a publicly traded company such as Apple it wouldn't be options but RSUs and they are a percentage of you salary. And you still have to pay tax on them just like normal salary.

Just because the built a new large campus it doesn't mean that the majority of people there will be worth tens of millions of dollars. Very senior management sure, rank and file engineers - not so much.

Re: $782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

#168

Post by sulam »

rtpg wrote: post #56
sulam wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can, with a modicum of effort, learn the market as well or better than a real estate agent. You're only interested in a small slice of the houses that are on the market (at least in the Bay Area, supply is very low here). It's worth going to open houses, looking at asking prices, and then following up on what happened to that property. Spend at least 6 months getting to know the market for the neighborhoods and t…

>You can, with a modicum of effort, learn the market as well or better than a real estate agent This is the sort of reasoning that people say that pay for the used car salesman's boat. You are going to buy, what, 5 houses in your life? If you're a big mover. Real estate agents spend their entire life doing the thing you do once every couple of years at most. Why do you think you'd be better than them? This is like sa…

I used to know how applets worked really well. That knowledge isn't so useful anymore.

Real estate agents have the same problem.

Of course they know more than I do about the process of buying a house. But knowing whether a house is worth more than asking and roughly how much over -- I can learn that specific piece of info for the houses I care about and my knowledge will be roughly equivalent.

Re: $782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

#169

Post by Techonomicon »

BoorishBears wrote: post #165
favorited wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several apartment buildings by me in Sunnyvale just went up, if you want to pay $2940 for a studio[0]. In my experience, anything in the South Bay or Peninsula (in a decent area) that is managed by a large company (AvalonBay, Alliance, etc.) is going to start in the 2ks and go up a couple hundred each year. [0] https://www.481mathilda.com/Apartments/module/property_info/...

Is that really so bad? Here in CT I payed 1.2k for studio with similar amenities. A mid-level developer making 75k +-20k is normal here. A mid-level developer making 170k +-20k is normal there. You obviously lose some disposable income, but in exchange you're in Sunnyvale. The job market there makes CT's look like a joke and for growth as far as income is concerned in incredibly limited in most parts of CT compared t…

170-200 is not normal for mid level when average is 150 despite what people like about.

Re: $782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale

#170

Post by austenallred »

bogomipz wrote: post #102
austenallred wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are an incredible number of Apple employees worth tens of millions of dollars that would love to not commute. The potential to rebuild a monster house on this lot next to Apple is definitely quite valuable. Location, location, location.

>"There are an incredible number of Apple employees worth tens of millions of dollars that would love to not commute" Is there really? Can you quantify what an "incredible number of employees" is here? Thousands, 10s of thousands? Do you have a citation for that statement? Why would so many people worth 10s of millions of dollar be competing for the same properties/ Also why are so many people worth 10s of millions o…

Because Apple pays most people with some amount of stock and that stock is worth 150x what it was 15 years ago.

Those (now rich) people still work at Apple, as do tens of thousands of other wealthy people.

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