$782k over asking for a house in Sunnyvale • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by gnicholas » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:56 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #65

victorNicollet wrote: post #13

In France, there's no such thing as paying over the ask price. You are forced to sell to the first buyer who offers to pay the ask price. I suspect that this is done to prevent prices from rising too quickly.

The USA is like that as well. If you receive a cash offer with no contingencies for your asking price then you can't refuse. This is specifically to prevent discrimination against minorities. In most real world transactions there's some back / forth with the lawyers about details (ex: " We want your ugly drapes! ") as well as non-cash considerations. A seller may accept a lower cash offer over a higher mortgage based…

Interesting. I've heard people talk a lot about foreign all-cash buyers coming in and driving up prices. But if a non-contingent cash offer for asking price cannot be refused, then why would prices be driven up? Wouldn't these buyers just offer the asking price and save hundreds of thousands?

I'm curious to know more about how the non-discrimination laws apply here, since I know there definitely are laws, but if they are as blunt as described, then we'd expect to see more cash-offers-for-asking-price around here.

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

#92

Post by Bedon292 » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:56 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #59

> The four-bed, two-bath house — less than 2,000 square feet — listed for $1,688,000 and sold for $2,470,000. Using a ballpark figure of $500/mo per $100K of house, this comes out to $12,500/mo. That's $150K/year, mostly after tax (there's a bit of a deduction for interest but let's ignore that for now). Using the standard 30% rule, that means you should have a gross income of about $500K. What I'm questioning is, ho…

Maybe it is because I am not from that area, but I just don't see how anyone can justify that as a reasonable investment. The house prices have to come down eventually right? A house like that in the DC suburbs (depending on exact commute time) is probably only worth 10-15% that. Something about those prices has to normalize eventually, and when it happens the value tanks. You lose a million dollars, and possibly have to take a big credit hit for short selling the house....or hold it even longer and lose even more money. What am I missing? Why do people do it?

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

#93

Post by Iknowsecurity » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:56 PM UTC

ryandamm wrote: post #53

Iknowsecurity wrote: post #39

A colleague that was looking to buy a house last Spring said that the house he put a bid on in San Francisco sold for 100% above the listing price.

I assume that's last "spring," and not that your team is doing agile real estate sprints. But I'd be happy, and rather curious, to be wrong....

Fixed. Thanks!

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

#94

Post by francisofascii » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:57 PM UTC

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…

Price is a big, but not the only factor when choosing a buyer. The highest priced bid doesn't always get the house. Factors such as inspection contingencies, settlement dates, financing, what the buyer plans to do with the house, etc all play a role in the transaction. If a person wants to buy your house and tear it down, you should not be obligated to sell.

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

#95

Post by BoorishBears » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:57 PM UTC

vasilipupkin wrote: post #79

BoorishBears wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but not enough to justify spending $2.5M on a smaller house, or 12x more per square foot. Maybe it's just the wording but I don't get that. If they're paying enough that 2.5M is within reach where it wouldn't be in Phoenix is it really a problem? I'm in the middle of a job search right now and I'm finding that while absolute numbers sound appalling (ie. 2.5M for a 2,000 sq.ft. house) the income:COL is not as dramat…

No, you people don't get it. That house is on a large lot. You could knock it down, build a much bigger house for a 1 million and have a 4-5 million dollar house for 3.5 million. it's a good deal.

I do get that, 2.5M for that plot is still a large amount of money.

The point is that even a 3.5M for the new house will be a lot, but by virtue of it's location and salaries at Apple it's justifiable

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

#96

Post by victorNicollet » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:57 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #65

victorNicollet wrote: post #13

In France, there's no such thing as paying over the ask price. You are forced to sell to the first buyer who offers to pay the ask price. I suspect that this is done to prevent prices from rising too quickly.

The USA is like that as well. If you receive a cash offer with no contingencies for your asking price then you can't refuse. This is specifically to prevent discrimination against minorities. In most real world transactions there's some back / forth with the lawyers about details (ex: " We want your ugly drapes! ") as well as non-cash considerations. A seller may accept a lower cash offer over a higher mortgage based…

In France, it doesn't even have to be a cash offer (although it mustn't have any contingencies beyond "buyer will get a loan"). This is mostly because most people in France don't have that kind of cash lying around, so if you only accept cash offers the rule applies to almost no one.

Of course, sellers prefer an asking price offer in cash, rather than with a loan that might be denied, so there's usually some (illegal) leeway if offers are received by mail. If you intend to make an offer contingent on a loan, make sure you print out the offer and bring it with you, and have the seller sign your copy. This lets you answer "There was another offer before you" with "That's not what it says on the paper you signed".

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

#97

Post by EvanAnderson » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:57 PM UTC

bagels wrote: post #81

koolba wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA is like that as well. If you receive a cash offer with no contingencies for your asking price then you can't refuse. This is specifically to prevent discrimination against minorities. In most real world transactions there's some back / forth with the lawyers about details (ex: " We want your ugly drapes! ") as well as non-cash considerations. A seller may accept a lower cash offer over a higher mortgage based…

Do you have a citation for "seller must accept cash offer"?

Agreed-- sounds fishy to me, too. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a licensed real estate sales agent in my locality either, but I did complete a course of training to that end. I never heard such a thing. If a seller were discriminating against a protected class in refusing such an offer that would be illegal. Holding-out for a better offer (whatever that memans) however, AFAIK, the seller's prerogative so long as they're not discriminating against a protected class.

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

#98

Post by thriftwy » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:57 PM UTC

dagw wrote: post #86

thriftwy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read that in Sweden, participation of recent immigrants in economy is lower than in most other European countries. Why not create some jobs for them at building new homes and propping price down? Genuine question.

You can't build houses without land to build on, and desirable land makes up most of the price of desirable housing.

I don't think of Sweden as a country that lacks land.

Population of Sweden is comparable to that of Bay Area but seriously.

I imagine if you could just go and buy a home in "the next suburb by the road" really affordably, it would deflate prices for most desirable places too.

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

#99

Post by dmoy » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:59 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #78

stygiansonic wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two people working at a big tech company in the area will easily gross > 500K total comp.

$250K/year isn't chump change either. Let alone both having such jobs. Salaries in SV are high but they're not that high for most. At the single income level it's rare to have employees (NOTE: not contractors or business owners) surpass $3-350K. Plus, if you plan on raising a family[1] then you'd have the added costs of a full time nanny as I doubt anyone with a $250K+ job is going to be around much to raise their ki…

You get promoted once at a place like Google or Apple after 4 years and you're making like 250k/yr (as a software person). 300-350k is easily attainable.

I think there's a lot of people on HN who are unaware of how high comp is at the big 4/5 tech employers.

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

#100

Post by wehadfun » Wed, Sep 13, 2017, 3:59 PM UTC

austenallred wrote: post #29

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #15

It's a 13k lot a mile from Apples new campus. The person who bought it knows it's potential. Even if you make 10% of that initial investment you're still doing amazing.

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.

Is apple paying these people tens of millions or are these stock programs?