421–430 of 684 posts
Has anyone seen an analysis of why their pricing models were above market, and/or worse than OpenDoor?
- https://www.mikedp.com/articles/2021/12/16/opendoor-vs-zillo...
- https://www.mikedp.com/articles/2021/11/3/zillow-exits-ibuyi...
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It’s very hard to do good real estate pricing models from raw data. You can get all sorts of metrics on the property statistics but one important factor in the cost of the home is the state of renovation. Since most listings don’t have a historical listing of work done in the home your best hope of accurately assessing this comes from something like computer vision on the listing pictures. Assessing the quality of wo…
What was stopping Zillow from having a human look at the property and adjust the price based on factors that their algorithm didn't consider?
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> Someone can move in and refuse to pay rent, refuse to leave, use your house as a drug den, destroy your property and lots more, and you can do nothing about it. This is one of those things that really just confuses me. It's like no one could agree on happy medium between "landlord can eject you whenever they want for whatever reason" and "no one can make you leave, ever, for any reason". And to whoever downvoted yo…
I had a friend who let someone move in as part of an apartment share. Person NEVER paid them a nickel, never paid landlord anything, claimed they felt unsafe and got a restraining order. It was actually genius. My (female) friend HAD TO MOVE OUT of the house she was renting, the landlord required she still pay rent on the lease. "self-help" (changing locks) was totally out. All this would have been fine I think if sh…
Did she even bother to draft a contract with the subletter? Or was this all just, "sure, stranger, move right on in to the property for which I am legally obligated? I'm sure this will all work out fine."
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I'm arguing that people should lower their standards. It should be easy to understand that not everyone can afford own property walking distance to the city center. I fully agree with you on prioritizing primary residence.
Everyone can with smaller cities. Living in a megacity and expecting it is the problem.
I am especially annoyed at Zillow SF holding "Data Science" meetups in San Francisco at the penthouse place, while advertising for TWO data science positions.. meanwhile, frat guys are at the golf course by the dozens, across three states. The people that they hired at that time, probably built this setup exactly as required by the frat guys. Happy banking Zillow!
There's some poetry in older banks claiming they're pivoting to being tech companies (i.e. Capital One) while some tech companies are heading straight towards being banks.
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> In areas where home prices are high, the vast majority of homes have people living in them. When the very rich park wealth in real estate, it is precisely in the ares where prices are highest. Not much point in parking wealth in a cheap house in the midwest. https://nypost.com/2021/08/05/nearly-half-of-luxury-units-em...
The problem here is that there are something like 3.5 million housing units in New York City and Billionaires' Row is like 5 buildings. It just simply doesn't matter if every single one of those units is empty. We're not talking about enough units to matter.
So even if 5 buildings out of 300 skyscrapers are at 50% occupancy on their own don’t matter much they still impact the market when combined with similar investments. Worse they prime the bubble by convincing more people to invest without putting them up for rent.
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Thing is if people start hoarding medicine then new companies can pop up and fill in the gap, or existing ones can increase production, making the whole thing pointless to do. Same goes for every other "necessary to life" product. Temporary disruptions will be handled by the market in the long term, and in the worst case government can step in and regulate. Housing is probably the only sector where all the laws and r…
This is missing the point that land is a finite resource and homes aren't fungible. It doesn't help most Californians that more homes can be built in rural Arkansas.
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Yes? Do you think the house magically takes care of itself?
This comment made me see red, seriously the maddest I've been in weeks. You couldn't have known that and I'm not upset at you. _I_ take care of the house in this situation. The landlord doesn't shovel snow or mow grass, I do. They do carry some of the burden specifically in taxes and liability, yes I know. I also know the maintenance responsibilities aren't inherently and legally mine, and so I can be blamed for ente…
Yes, that's right, they are legally the landlord's. And if they stopped maintaining it, they are breaking the law, and you can sue them. If, instead, you choose to live with it, or deal with it yourself and pay for everything, then that's a horrible mistake.
It's fine for that comment to make you see red, but it should be the slumlord you are angry at, not the guy who pointed out that you're being a doormat.
Landlords are one option for people who cannot afford to buy a home. Some of them are bad, some are good. They offer a service for a price, and if the price is too high or the service is too poor, then they are taking advantage. Plenty of them aren't like that. Your anger seems a little irrational.
The scary thing is that it's easy to see how something how like this could drive a market boom and bust cycle. I'm imagining a scenario where two iBuyer companies try to outbid each other algorithmically, driving the prices further and further out of reach of people who are looking for a primary home. Tangentially related, I talked to a friend who works on geospatial data for one of the big vacation rental companies,…
It is going to get interesting when the millennial generation suddenly starts mass inheriting baby boomer houses - not sure how that is going to play out honestly.
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Should doctors work for free? Should farmers?
Do landlords labor?
As someone who's moved around a lot (to London, then to Zürich) I definitely appreciate being able to rent, and hence landowners. Without them, I'd have to live 2-3 year homeless until I saved enough for a downpayment, then be saddled with 30 year monthly commitment (i.e. mortgage) and unable to move anywhere else.