Great point.

Go ahead and ask your parents and grandparents how much they bought their home for back when. I bet they shake their head in disgust when they tell you.

My Grandparents bought their home in Sacramento once my Grandfather retired from the Air Force around the late 60's. They bought it for $15,000 :wow: . That area sells consistently for $350,000 to $450,000 now.

The funny thing about the two deals I’ve recently lost is they weren't investors. Funny huh? They were regular home buyers looking to occupy the property. I gave an honest answer to them like I do everyone else I work with. I said nothing is guaranteed in any type of investment but I doubt things would ever go sour (something like that).

I stressed the fact that the market is merely becoming a "normal market" and that it might even be a better idea to make an offer on a home of their choice. This way they'd have a better chance of having the asking price offer go through instead of competition from a savvy investor willing to offer $30K+++ extra.

 

I just found out that the guy who remodeled his place down the street has that place up for sale for 209k and I bought my place for 130k last year. He only has 130 more sq. ft than me, although he is ahead of me on the remodel stuff. I will be very interested to see what he actually sells for but as of yesterday it had a sale pending sign on it.

:banana:

 

salty,

if you dont read it already, you should subscribe to the Sacramento Business Weekly (I think that's what it is called). You might be able to glean some good info pertinent to home buyers i.e. the fact that UC Davis is moving their entire medical school to their Sac facility and they are currently building a huge new facility

 

That's great material. I'll look into that.

 

Oh, btw, I had mentioned that the local market had slowed... I was mistaken. Around Christmas time, several houses were sold for $30 over asking prior to any open house... now they generally sell around $30k over, but the day of (or after) the open house. It is still "white hot!"

I thought the market had peaked when the prices were 20% lower.... the current prices are totally insane.

This is in the bay area, CA... in small single family homes slightly about a 1/2 Million. My friend said he had a similar experience in the last two weeks in Sunnyvale, for a 2400 sq ft house... near a million dollars, and they wouldn't even consider his offer since he was only 30k over asking.

The realtors are the snobbiest folks you could imagine... printing cheap, barely readable broshures in black and white... not even a value add.

 

Ouch! And thats the main reason I love Austin. The housing market is not doing so well as it use too. But certain parts are, concidering my sister bought a house in central Austin for around 300k that is less than 1000 sq ft. While one of my parents rental homes is 2000+ sq ft (not sure exactly how much bigger) and they bought it for 120k about 10 years ago and now its worth 50 or 60 thousand more. (Its in the burbs though.) So if your looking for a starter home you can easily find one for half of what you guys are paying!