Buying a house is exhausting and soul crushing

[DreamsthatFade]

Buying a house IS exhausting and soul crushing. We have been trying very, very hard. We put what we felt like was a strong offer on our dream home today. Like two hours after we put the offer in, we got a call from our realtor telling us the seller's agent really, really liked our offer. Our realtor kept calling us all day asking us random questions and we were rolling with it, hoping the seller would make a decision today. We get a call from our realtor at 9:30 at night telling us that another party has likely offered more money + 10,000 appraisal guarantee + no inspection + letting the owners live there for 60 days free after closing before moving out. And it's like this with every house we try to get. I almost just want to fricking give up and keep living in an apartment. The competition is insane, and they always have more to offer.

 

[Cockmagic]

Terrible market if you're a buyer right now.

 

[Deleted member 70788]

Had a coworker that just got a house today. She said there were 32 offers on it they were completing with.

 

[Oliver James]

So how long are you paying these houses? I'm not married yet but my family is thinking of buying a home. I wonder if I can pay this one then get another one when I get my own family.

 

[Oliver James]

Also can I just say House Hunters is my catnip.

 

[xxracerxx]

So how long are you paying these houses? I'm not married yet but my family is thinking of buying a home. I wonder if I can pay this one then get another one when I get my own family.

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30 year mortgage is the standard I believe.

 

[KillingJoke]

My wife and I are 0/5 today. its fucking madness out there.

 

[Oliver James]

30 year mortgage is the standard I believe.

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In my country its 5, 10, 15, 20 which are common. I guess they expect you not to be able to pay beyond those years.

 

[L.E.D.]

Had a coworker that just got a house today. She said there were 32 offers on it they were completing with.

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My friends finally got a house after 8 months of searching, most houses they looked at had an average of 60 bidders. I just started 2 weeks ago and it's looking really grim.

 

[Deleted member 70788]

My friends finally got a house after 8 months of searching, most houses they looked at had an average of 60 bidders. I just started 2 weeks ago and it's looking really grim.

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Wild. I move closer to the city last year. Sold my house with about a dozen offers and jumped on one day 1 with about 2 other offers.

Refinanced two times since. Planning on staying here for a long time.

 

[Relix]

Aside from google, as someone awfully inexperienced in buying houses in the United States but looking to do so this year, where are good resources to learn more? I was in the process of buying a house in Puerto Rico a few years ago just before Maria hit, so i know some mortgage basics but over there we didn't need to deal with offers or complicated negotiations. It was mostly they set a price, you offered and then waited for financing and that was it. Fix broken stuff maybe.

 

[ThiefofDreams]

Can anyone explain to me, why in this time with people losing jobs and such, how the housing market is so poor for buyers?

I just sold my house for way more than I ever dreamed, but it was to a realtor, I imagine for prospective flipping.

I originally planned to hopefully buy a new home, hopefully 6 months after selling, because I figure there is no way the housing bubble can sustain where its at. But 2 month later, not much has changed...

 

[Commedieu]

Buying a house IS exhausting and soul crushing. We have been trying very, very hard. We put what we felt like was a strong offer on our dream home today. Like two hours after we put the offer in, we got a call from our realtor telling us the seller's agent really, really liked our offer. Our realtor kept calling us all day asking us random questions and we were rolling with it, hoping the seller would make a decision today. We get a call from our realtor at 9:30 at night telling us that another party has likely offered more money + 10,000 appraisal guarantee + no inspection + letting the owners live there for 60 days free after closing before moving out. And it's like this with every house we try to get. I almost just want to fricking give up and keep living in an apartment. The competition is insane, and they always have more to offer.

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the fuck, where is this?

 

[L.E.D.]

Can anyone explain to me, why in this time with people losing jobs and such, how the housing market is so poor for buyers?

I just sold my house for way more than I ever dreamed, but it was to a realtor, I imagine for prospective flipping.

I originally planned to hopefully buy a new home, hopefully 6 months after selling, because I figure there is no way the housing bubble can sustain where its at. But 2 month later, not much has changed...

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Interest rates are so low so you have investor's, landlord's etc buying up everything. Most houses get sold before they are listed publicly around here.

 

[molnizzle]

the fuck, where is this?

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Can't speak for that poster but this is the case in any Texas metro area. You need to get an offer in on day 1 and be prepared to win a bidding war.

 

[Surakian]

Interest rates are so low so you have investor's, landlord's etc buying up everything. Most houses get sold before they are listed publicly around here.

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This shit needs to start being made illegal. There are tons of empty houses sitting around while we are having a housing crisis.

I decided to dip my toe into looking for a home in the next five years and man, I am hearing nothing but awful news

 

[Deleted member 70788]

the fuck, where is this?

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This is the reality in most largish cities right now.

 

[DreamsthatFade]

the fuck, where is this?

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This is in Michigan. We officially lost the house this morning. They "liked the terms" of the other offer better, lol. I spoke with my agent again and she said the $10,000 appraisal guarantee is becoming the norm because the sellers don't want you to back out if the property appraises low, and they also don't wanna cover the difference. So if the appraisal comes in $10,000 low, we, as the buyers, have to bring in that difference out of pocket. We are putting in another offer on a home today, and it's the same thing, $10,000 appraisal guarantee. This time we are gonna go with it, however, because the house is priced better. This also gives us room to go up a bit on asking price. We are going in stronger on this one.

 

[Deleted member 70788]

Can anyone explain to me, why in this time with people losing jobs and such, how the housing market is so poor for buyers?

I just sold my house for way more than I ever dreamed, but it was to a realtor, I imagine for prospective flipping.

I originally planned to hopefully buy a new home, hopefully 6 months after selling, because I figure there is no way the housing bubble can sustain where its at. But 2 month later, not much has changed...

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There are plenty of people still working that are taking advantage of the low interest rates. We've been lucky enough to be in a good situation, but we moved back in 2019. It was honestly perfect timing.

 

[Metalgus]

Can anyone explain to me, why in this time with people losing jobs and such, how the housing market is so poor for buyers?

I just sold my house for way more than I ever dreamed, but it was to a realtor, I imagine for prospective flipping.

I originally planned to hopefully buy a new home, hopefully 6 months after selling, because I figure there is no way the housing bubble can sustain where its at. But 2 month later, not much has changed...

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I read in a couple of articles around here that, for the greater Montréal area at least, people in Montréal proper are looking to move out of the city and to the suburbs/smaller towns so they can have more space for themselves. I assume these are people with teleworking office jobs. This has greatly increased demand over a couple of months and I guess with the latest wave of lockdowns, the trend will continue for a while. I bought my house in mid 2019 and using comparables, I'm pretty confident I could sell it for 20K+ from what I paid for, which is incredible assuming less than two years of ownership. I don't want to move though, as I love the space and peace of mind, especially during the pandemic.

 

[ph1l0z0ph3r]

Me and my significant other have been looking since early November and after 15 houses we are finally in the process of closing out on a home. The whole process is stressful though especially coming in from the perspective of not knowing much about homes since it's me and the misses first one. Anyone have a good resource for all the different parts of home and proper maintenance?

 

[Wingfan19]

Been looking in the Seattle area (mostly Bothell, Woodinville, Mill Creek area) and it's been rough business. Everything is so over priced and there is hardly any stock. Luckily, I can move in with my g/f after I sell my place so we can save money while we look. I'm guessing we're not going to find anything until the spring when more houses go on the market. We found one house we really liked, but it was at 825. Went to make an offer just cause and 3 hours later we get a call saying it went for 950 and they put 300k cash down on it. Sigh.

 

[Metalgus]

Me and my significant other have been looking since early November and after 15 houses we are finally in the process of closing out on a home. The whole process is stressful though especially coming in from the perspective of not knowing much about homes since it's me and the misses first one. Anyone have a good resource for all the different parts of home and proper maintenance?

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The Home Improvement subreddit is a good place to browse. There are a couple of guides in the Common Questions section. I also browse the Homeowners sub but it's a bit less active. I posted a few questions in the last two years and I've always had at least a handful of useful replies.

 

[elLOaSTy]

Terrible market if you're a buyer right now.

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This is the reality in most largish cities right now.

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Interesting. SInce so many people have abandoned and left cities during COVID there suburbs are the places where the prices are way up and the bidding is nonstop. Where as in LA the amount of bids being put on homes was abnormally low and interest rates everywhere are very low and it was super easy to buy.

I guess each city must have a different story for this because for myself and a friend in NY we had very similar experiences in the last 6 months. It couldnt have been faster or easier.

 

[hom3land]

Can anyone explain to me, why in this time with people losing jobs and such, how the housing market is so poor for buyers?

I just sold my house for way more than I ever dreamed, but it was to a realtor, I imagine for prospective flipping.

I originally planned to hopefully buy a new home, hopefully 6 months after selling, because I figure there is no way the housing bubble can sustain where its at. But 2 month later, not much has changed...

Click to shrink...

Besides the low interest rates, inventory is at is lowest. People who might want to sell their house and buy something else can't because there's no guarantee they'd actually find another house. When we were looking, houses were getting 25+ different offers.

 

[LiquidDom]

I got an incredible job last year that I am very fortunate with, but my fiancée and I are getting married next month and have a baby on the way in August. We rent the first floor of a house but it's small and we're going to look to upgrade. I have about $6k in debt which I'll wipe out within the next few months but her credit score is about 700 and mine is around 650 because I've kept my utilization high for years as I could only make minimum payments. I'm sure it'll go up when I eliminate the debt but with scores around 700 or so, I'm probably screwed with getting a really good mortgage rate, but everything just makes me nervous lol

 

[GMT Master]

My wife and I bought a house about 4 months ago. Westchester NY. I think we lucked the fuck out. When we got to the open house there were several families waiting outside since they were only allowing one group at a time.

We went in, loved the place. Put in an offer at asking. 2 hours later we got a call saying our offer has been accepted.

We didn't even go in looking to buy a house. Just went out of curiosity because we thought maybe we should start looking at places. Literally the second house we looked at that day. It was crazy.

 

[Krakatoa]

I would consider waiting if you are looking for a house at the moment. Its cut throat out there, and you will probably be fighting with multiple offers.

Feels like the the last housing bubble where everything was selling and prices rocketed.

 

[cwmartin]

Had an offer accepted today, but the market is insane, and we are in the NYC radius, so that doesn't help. This is house something number 10? I think? Previous houses have had multiple offers, cash offers, denied inspections, the whole nine. It just is a bear right now.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

Can anyone explain to me, why in this time with people losing jobs and such, how the housing market is so poor for buyers?

I just sold my house for way more than I ever dreamed, but it was to a realtor, I imagine for prospective flipping.

I originally planned to hopefully buy a new home, hopefully 6 months after selling, because I figure there is no way the housing bubble can sustain where its at. But 2 month later, not much has changed...

Click to shrink...

The one reason is new construction is down due to covid so existing home sales have more people biding on them. There is also the trend of people buying houses that more people can stay in, kids moving in with their parents in 1 big home to insulate against the hard times.



Houses in my neighborhood (19050) haven't been lasting a week if they are in half decent condition.

 

[Cien]

I couldn't get the loan type i wanted, so i am essentially screwed. and my living situation is not very pleasant. I really need to find a new place to love. This is giving me stress to the point of a breakdown.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

Buying a house IS exhausting and soul crushing. We have been trying very, very hard. We put what we felt like was a strong offer on our dream home today. Like two hours after we put the offer in, we got a call from our realtor telling us the seller's agent really, really liked our offer. Our realtor kept calling us all day asking us random questions and we were rolling with it, hoping the seller would make a decision today. We get a call from our realtor at 9:30 at night telling us that another party has likely offered more money + 10,000 appraisal guarantee + no inspection + letting the owners live there for 60 days free after closing before moving out. And it's like this with every house we try to get. I almost just want to fricking give up and keep living in an apartment. The competition is insane, and they always have more to offer.

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THIS IS INSAINITY.


I just bought a house 18months ago which might as been 10 years the way things changed.

 

[Crashnburn85]

Reading this thread has got me spooked. I fortunately am a homeowner, and my wife and I have weathered the COVID storm with our jobs. We were thinking maybe with low rates now would be a good time to move into something bigger as our family grows, but these conditions sound brutal. I have been tracking listings on Redfin the past month and everything in our area (Orange County, CA) looks like it goes Pending within a day or so of listing. All my saved listings sell over list price, sometimes as low as 1%, sometimes as high as 5%.

On one hand, we could benefit from being a seller, but I am terrified of having to juggle a sale/escrow and find our next house. With things being sold so quickly, there is hardly room to nitpick or try to find a home that checks the "must haves" plus some "what to haves." Feel like we risk being squeezed to settle for something we might not fully like, and on top of that get into a bidding war to land it. I am really wondering once COVID is more contained if more houses will flood the market from those weathering the storm or hesitant to try to move without being vaccinated.

Its crazy, cause we bought back in 2011 when it was a buyers market and we casually looked at dozens of homes and probably could've put in an offer on any of them. I remember the house we ended up buying had been on the market for like 60 days and our offer was 5% lower than list price!

 

[Am_I_Evil]

Been looking for a bit with my wife...made our first offer last night (15k over asking) and while they haven't made the decision their agent let our agent know that if we want it we're currently in the middle of the offers and would have to come up...there were 17 offers...our agent thinks we'd need to go up to 30k over the list price...

This market sucks for trying to buy a home...the last few open houses we've gone to have had hours long lines...I guess the low interest rates are getting everyone out there...

 

[BringBackSonics]

The market in the seattle area is nuts.

 

[Emergency & I]

Interesting. SInce so many people have abandoned and left cities during COVID there suburbs are the places where the prices are way up and the bidding is nonstop. Where as in LA the amount of bids being put on homes was abnormally low and interest rates everywhere are very low and it was super easy to buy.

I guess each city must have a different story for this because for myself and a friend in NY we had very similar experiences in the last 6 months. It couldnt have been faster or easier.

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I'm in LA and it's INSANE.

 

[badatorigami]

Was going to make an offer on a house with a $500K asking price today. 30 minutes before the meeting with my realtor during which I would've offered a substantially-above-market $536K and an extremely-above-average down payment, she calls and tells me that they'd had many offers for above that and two for $560K. Lmao I hate it here.

 

[subpar spatula]

Terrible market if you're a buyer right now.

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If you're in a major downtown city or really close to one sure. Most folks don't realize that and still try to vy for those areas. It's easier, more affordable to look further out near schools with a projected population increase in the next 15+ years. Your place will go up a lot in value causing it to be way worth it than paying over asking with a high mortgage, but if you make loads of money then stick to the core.

 

[Lucini]

We're approaching a year in and it wasn't exactly fun but it wasn't awful either.

The search was actually fun, but the visiting and evaluation period after wasn't. I still wish I could have swung getting into a newer development, but I love our house. First home and first place my son will know as home.

 

[elLOaSTy]

I'm in LA and it's INSANE.

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crazy how much it changed since summer.

we had such a easy experience its odd. Took us a month of actually looking to pick a place but after that we put in two offers one countered but was still below asking we just aimed even lower, the other accepted at asking and we closed a month later.

Both were below 20% down payment too, must have been everyone worried the market would tank back in July before stocks really recovered

it was new construction so that made it easier buying from the builder

 

[Chrno]

Central Texas here.

A house we were interested in went on the market yesterday for $275k - it now has over 25 offers with the biggest one floating around $325k.

rip.

 

[Boondocks]

Realtor.com 2021 housing prediction


After whipsawing in tremendous fashion in early 2020, the housing market more than regained its early-year momentum to finish at new highs for home sales in the fall. For the year, we expect 2020 home sales to register slightly higher (0.9%) than the 2019 total thanks to the strong, if delayed, buying season. Going into 2021, we expect home sales activity to slow from those frenzied levels which represented underlying housing demand as well as make-up buying for a spring season many buyers missed out on plus a sense of urgency brought on by record low mortgage rates. As sub-3 percent mortgage rates start to feel less exceptional, buyers may not react with the same immediacy to take advantage of them, initially, though as rates start to rise in the second half of 2021, buyers may feel the need to hurry purchases along to lock in a low rate. Additionally, as make-up buying from the disruption of spring 2020 fades, home purchases will be propelled by underlying demand in 2021. This demand will come from a healthy share of Millennial and Gen-Z first-time buyers as well as trade-up buyers from the Millennial and older generations.

We expect home sales in 2021 to come in 7.0% above 2020 levels, following a more normal seasonal trend and building momentum through the spring and sustaining the pace in the second half of the year. While home sales are expected to lose some momentum over the last months of 2020, the shallower than normal seasonal slowdown creates a higher base of activity leading into 2021 that is roughly maintained for the first half of the year. As vaccines for the coronavirus become broadly available to the public, and economic growth reflects the resumption of more normal patterns of consumer spending, home sales gain even more in the second half of the year.

2021 Housing Market Forecast and Predictions

Realtor.com's forecast and housing market predictions on key trends that will shape the year ahead. Home prices, market trends, COVID-19, the suburban boom, Millennials, Gen Z and more as we look toward 2021.

www.realtor.com

 

[Sadsic]

Closed on my house last week, in the middle of a slow move now... it feels awesome being a homeowner at 30 but there's so much shit to do for it lol

 

[corin7]

I feel everyone's pain. Decided to skip the bidding wars bullshit and just buy a new build. Had to put $1500 down just to get on a list for a lot. Every month they release 5 lots and call people based upon time on the list to see if they want to move ahead. At that point you have 24 hours to get your earnest money in and sign a contract. Based upon where we are on the list they estimate it could take up to 8 months before we get a call, then 9-12 months for the build. The real fun part is the houses are appreciating around 10k a month in this development so by the time we buy our price could be up to 80k more than it was when we decided we wanted the place. Real good times.

 

[RisingStar]

I'm struggling a lot to find property right now as well. Given the current situation in Toronto, I decided to hunker down for Montreal but even here the prices have become incredibly high and just straight up looking like a bad investment for what's available within the city.

Truth be told, I'm more inclined to just give up and consider buying a couple of years later instead, but I just feel awful about going back to renting again. You'd think after finishing school, getting a good job, having a great credit score and no debt would make one a prime candidate to buy a home, but nope.

Straight up ruining my days lately as well with a ton of anxiety.

 

[Br3wnor]

I'm struggling a lot to find property right now as well. Given the current situation in Toronto, I decided to hunker down for Montreal but even here the prices have become incredibly high and just straight up looking like a bad investment for what's available within the city.

Truth be told, I'm more inclined to just give up and consider buying a couple of years later instead, but I just feel awful about going back to renting again. You'd think after finishing school, getting a good job, having a great credit score and no debt would make one a prime candidate to buy a home, but nope.

Straight up ruining my days lately as well with a ton of anxiety.

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You're better off renting for a few years and waiting this market out instead of getting something you can't afford or will be underwater in 5 years. This market is truly insane and at least if you're renting you can look leisurely and maybe get lucky instead of stressing every day. Just too much competition in the entry level market right now IMO

 

[Chrno]

my partner and I gave up - a house we were looking at (listed at $280k) sold in 2 days for $385k.

we're gonna get an apartment and wait for the bubble to burst. No point in spending that much just to be house-poor.

 

[Thebox]

Closed on my house last week, in the middle of a slow move now... it feels awesome being a homeowner at 30 but there's so much shit to do for it lol

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I bought my house at the same age. Yeah, it was very stressful. Only thing they didn't ask for was my child's DNA. I felt like I was signing my life away.

 

[RisingStar]

You're better off renting for a few years and waiting this market out instead of getting something you can't afford or will be underwater in 5 years. This market is truly insane and at least if you're renting you can look leisurely and maybe get lucky instead of stressing every day. Just too much competition in the entry level market right now IMO

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I'm actively considering it and just going back to Toronto in the summer and rent there. I see no real reason to stick around here and rent, when I can pay a little bit more and be closer to better job opportunities in the future, remote or not.

My pre-approval is till end of May, so I might just cool off my head and plan around my contingency in the meantime. Just nothing worthwhile at all showing up in my range and people are bidding over the asking price too, which is just nuts. My only fear is that the bubble grows so much that when it crashes, we're back to numbers higher than what it is right now.

my partner and I gave up - a house we were looking at (listed at $280k) sold in 2 days for $385k.

we're gonna get an apartment and wait for the bubble to burst. No point in spending that much just to be house-poor.

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That is absolutely INSANE. Especially considering how that's in USD. What in the hell is going on right now???

 

[Deleted member 79451]

How often do houses appraise at or above the bidding price in this market? (looking for anecdotes rather than what anyone might expect, unless you have hard data) Is it often because houses are worth so much, rare because it's a seller's market or just variable?