This just happened to me. Put my home on the market by myself without an agent - priced it 15% over market - got a corporate cash offer that day 5% more than THAT listing. Cash, no banks and little closing fees. Without agents this is an insane savings and price. We do have a pool and those are fought over.
If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
541–550 of 1001 posts
Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
#542The problem is the government mandated houses be piggy banks for middle class people, all but allowing large institutional investors to take advantage of the rule system put in place to protect and increase prices: low interest rates, local control of land use (to kill new supply), etc. It was a side effect to allow others to benefit from the scheme.
Its fine to blame gov for somethings but for low supply? Really? NIMBYs are the only ones restricting supply in the Bay Area. They are the voters too and millenials don't vote as much on such non-trivial issues.
As for CA prop 13, also voted by people. Don't like it? VOTE AGAINST IT. Else, stop complaining. The system is working exactly as voted by the people who vote. If this is such a big issue then why are people consistently voting for them?
Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
#543Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently went down the Geoist/LVT rabbit-hole myself. It strikes me as uniquely appealing across the political spectrum, since it reduces tax on wealth-creation AND redistributes wealth from the rich to the poor. Sadly, this very fact provokes enough superficial resistance to keep it out of the Overton window. Whenever it comes up, shouters on either side have plenty of ammo to blast it, saying things to the effect…
It's never appealing to make a long time member of a community leave because they can no longer afford the land they've owned for years, because other people say "I want that" I move to a cheap, small town. I embed myself in the community and help build it up over decades. And then, at the peak popularity, in part due to my presence, I am forced out, because someone who has never been here says that they would like t…
And then, at the peak popularity, in part due to my presence, I am forced out, because someone who has never been here says that they would like to live here.
This is exactly what is happening in parts of Utah. Planners accounted for natural growth and a standard rate of in-migration, but there has been a flood of people from out of state forcing out the locals who made these places what they are by living in them for decades.
Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
#544Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just experienced something similar to this and it makes me wonder if much of this is just perception. We recently dealt with an out of state builder pushing to have a property that was zoned Neighborhood Commercial to be rezoned to something more flexible so that he could build 49 town homes with 49 parking spots on 5 acres of land. Everybody opposed the rezoning and fought to defeat it. The project would have been…
> Everybody opposed the rezoning and fought to defeat it. Why? That's kind of an important point. For example, unless this is NYC or similar, 49 townhomes is going to need a minimum of at least 110 parking spots (just to hold the occupants alone, assuming no one ever has guests ever). A realistic parking minimum should be 2.5 spots per townhouse. A lot of builders outsource their pollution to the local neighborhood,…
The developer wants to build the densest housing in four counties with little parking, and nobody has asked the real question: is this planned as Section 8/affordable housing? It sounds like it. Section 8 is guaranteed income for the landlord and probably a headache for the neighbors, especially if they had no poverty in the area before. A very similar situation happened in my rural village, where a developer decided some commercial property would make a great spot for dense, low-income housing; the village fought it and got called racist by the courts, who forced the village to rezone and the village council to undergo racial sensitivity training.
Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
#545Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. If you believe that no town homes should be built in the U.S. than you might not qualify as NIMBY. But if you believe that town homes shouldn't be built next to you that's the definition of NIMBY. Of course every instance has a long list of reasons why next to them is especially bad, character of the neighborhood, parking issues, infrastructure, etc.... But the end result of everyone fighting increased density i…
The irony is that density means more people, more homes, more availability. That means more jobs open up and makes the place more lively. More desireable. That means the house property value will go up. They are thinking "will this make the property value go down in the next 5 years"? vs "will this make the property value skyrocket in the next 10 years". We are catering to short-term gains at the expense of long-term…
More homes and more people doesn't necessarily make an area more desirable. Many people prefer space, privacy, and quiet. Those things are more important to them than property values.
Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
#546Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just experienced something similar to this and it makes me wonder if much of this is just perception. We recently dealt with an out of state builder pushing to have a property that was zoned Neighborhood Commercial to be rezoned to something more flexible so that he could build 49 town homes with 49 parking spots on 5 acres of land. Everybody opposed the rezoning and fought to defeat it. The project would have been…
49 parking spaces for 49 houses seems like a disaster in anywhere other than the densest of US cities. Surely most houses have at least 2 drivers? 5 Acres is 2 Hectares, so that's about 25 houses per hectare. Typical new housing estates in the UK is about 25 hours per hectare, with minimum of 3 parking spaces (including a garage if given) for a 4 bed, and 2 for a 3 bed. Even that number of spaces is too low - especia…
Another example that cars take too much space. Public transportation is the answer.
Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
#547Here'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…
After I spent my entire net worth plus a good chunk of my future net worth on this house you can be damn right I’m going to vote to protect its value.
Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
#548Earlier quoted context omitted.
49 parking spaces for 49 houses seems like a disaster in anywhere other than the densest of US cities. Surely most houses have at least 2 drivers? 5 Acres is 2 Hectares, so that's about 25 houses per hectare. Typical new housing estates in the UK is about 25 hours per hectare, with minimum of 3 parking spaces (including a garage if given) for a 4 bed, and 2 for a 3 bed. Even that number of spaces is too low - especia…
What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car? If you require large amounts of parking everywhere and commensurately large roads, everything ends up so spread out that car based transportation seems like a necessity. It’s a self perpetuating cycle. If you don’t require so much land to be dedicated to cars you can build things denser and lower or even remove the need for personal cars.…
> What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car?
Any part of the US where a street of townhomes would be more dense than the existing status quo is not one of these areas.
Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
#549Earlier quoted context omitted.
The irony is that density means more people, more homes, more availability. That means more jobs open up and makes the place more lively. More desireable. That means the house property value will go up. They are thinking "will this make the property value go down in the next 5 years"? vs "will this make the property value skyrocket in the next 10 years". We are catering to short-term gains at the expense of long-term…
It also means you can get walkability and nice things like shops and leisure activities without having to buy a car and drive literally everywhere.
That needs a commitment to commercial space on the first floor and underground parking for tenants so that surface parking is available to customers without the need for massive lots. Builders who want to extract maximum profit with the cheapest construction won't go for it.
Re: If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
#550Here'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…
After I spent my entire net worth plus a good chunk of my future net worth on this house you can be damn right I’m going to vote to protect its value.
“Screw you, I got mine!”
The capitalistic attitude in a nutshell.