What would you do? Housing market stress!

[Immadismom]

DH and I have been looking for a house since mid-January. We’ve been renting a house for 8 years, but our landlord is selling it when our lease ends at the end of May. He has said he’d work with us on time if we need an extra month-ish of time to finalize our new location.

The housing market STINKS! We have had to expand our radius a LOT to get any hits in our budget. We’ve seen at least 20 houses, if not more. We’ve been outbid on two. We’re REALLY kicking ourselves for not bidding $10-15k more on house #1 (we bid $16k over asking, as it was) because it was perfect in every way (Size, location, features). Not positive that would have gotten us the house, but would have been a better shot. Now, nothing else has lived up to house #1.

We have 4-6 weeks left to find something before it’s panic time and we have to look at renting something else for another year.

I feel like our realtor is super frustrated with us. We almost cancelled a showing this afternoon because we just weren’t feeling it. But she did a FaceTime showing with us instead, because she felt the house could be “the one”. It was ok. But we didn’t get that feeling we have had on the other two we’ve bid on where we could see ourselves living there. It was simply ok. And in this market, we both feel like that’s not enough. In a normal market, this house would be $300-325k. It’s listed at $435k. Our realtor does feel it’s overpriced for the condition of the house, and recommends an offer of $400k. BUT….this is a big but for us….we will be going into this house (or any house an the moment) knowing we’ll have to stay there for quite some time to be able to recoup our investmeant, as we’ll be buying at the top of the market. This is not our dream location, by any means. We’re already settling on the location, because we’re priced out of where we’d prefer to buy.

With all of this said, do we keep on trecking & hope for something we really like/love? Or do we settle for just ok, since we’re having such a hard time finding anything?

 

[JLemaire7]

Is it at all possible to find another rental instead? Seems like that would be your best option until you can find what you want or see if the housing market cools even a little bit later on this year.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

My parents always said to buy the worst house in the nicest neighborhood you can afford. Are there any fixer uppers or foreclosures in your preferred locations? I would settle at the right price, but it sounds like you're settling and not getting a good deal. I don't think I could settle in the current market, but that's just me.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I assume you don't want to purchase the current rental from the landlord - seems like that would be an easy transition.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Is it at all possible to find another rental instead? Seems like that would be your best option until you can find what you want or see if the housing market cools even a little bit later on this year.

I agree. A house isn't something I'd want to "settle" on.

 

[Disneylover99]

I would rent something else before settling on a house I didn’t truly want.
Good luck!

 

[LilyWDW]

Only lost out on 2 offers?

Try looking since December and losing out on 12 or so.

Pretty much I have learned you need to either give up some of what you think you "need" and you have to come way over asking with cash (or at least with enough cash to cover any gap between offer and appraisals).

I actually made the call today to stop the house hunt. I am going to rent my current place for another year and try again come this December.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I'm gonna agree with the previous posters. I would find a new rental and sit the market out til you find something you like.

That happened to me in 2005 - outbid on 3 homes in 3 days...found a rental and sat out the market for 2 years.

Now, I bought in 2007, so I got some discount, but not as great as 2008...BUT, I got the exact house I wanted in the area I wanted...

 

[unrequited23]

I would find a rental for another year. If there are no kids in the picture, I would probably try to cut back on what I was looking for in the rental to bank as much money as possible for a down payment.

 

[BK2014]

DW and I started looking last year and then gave up. We re-started our home search in January. Initially we wanted a single family home for more privacy and space for the price, but then ended up settling on a new-build townhome. The two benefits (for us) of a new build are 1) we hopefully won't need to shell out cash for repairs immediately after moving in and 2) no bidding wars. We got lucky and found one that we liked in one of our preferred locations that was not bought but was mostly built, so we did not have to wait a year or so to get it built. We should move in sometime in May, and our current lease doesn't end till end of July.

 

[barkley]

I assume you don't want to purchase the current rental from the landlord - seems like that would be an easy transition.

agreed. i know someone who recently sold that would have made a very good deal to their renter to buy b/c of the savings on sale's commissions and the odds and ends of 'refreshing' the property to list it for sale. renter would have also saved b/c no moving costs and the seller would have thrown in the appliances that normally don't transition from a rental to a house for sale. renter passed-likes being a renter.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

agreed. i know someone who recently sold that would have made a very good deal to their renter to buy b/c of the savings on sale's commissions and the odds and ends of 'refreshing' the property to list it for sale. renter would have also saved b/c no moving costs and the seller would have thrown in the appliances that normally don't transition from a rental to a house for sale. renter passed-likes being a renter.

Our rental house we had for 18 months the landlords tried offering us the house even though they knew we were building our house. It was a buyer's market at the time but that rental house was built shoddy in 2006 (we moved out in 2014) by a builder who pulled out of our metro during the Recession. It was a eater of utility costs, had no basement which long-term in tornado alley did not make me feel the most comfortable but the house was more on the senior citizen feel with no stairs in the whole (small) neighborhood, the landlords offered to have us buy their washer and dryer (although we had actually won much much better front load machines so we didn't need their toploader).

The utility costs were more than what our house we had built for us was (which was more than 1,200 sq feet more than the rental house). It was also a 2 bedroom 2 bath (with a 3rd room not considered a bedroom) and only 1,500 sq feet. For renting it was great enough honestly (aside from the utility costs) but for actually purchasing it was not the right choice for us.

I mean I could feel the air from the outside on the electrical outlet in the master bedroom. It also had zero and I do mean zero storage aside from closets in the 2 bedrooms and a tiny bit in the attic space in the garage. We used the 3rd room for storage lol, just boxes and tubs and bookcases, etc.

In this market I wouldn't want people to buy on pressure and overspend too much on pressure but that goes for rental properties they are presently in too because just because you rent a house does not mean it's a house (or condo or townhouse) you would actually want to own. You may also know of potential issues with it that owning would not be desirable.

It's def. something to consider though in possible options.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I concur with others as much as you may not want to I would at least rent another place while you continue looking. Right now you're on such a short time crunch you may find yourself making concessions that once you moved into the place you look back on and wish you hadn't.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

No way. I’d look for another place to rent before buying a house I was underwhelmed by. I did the whole “settle on location” thing when I bought my first house, although I at least liked the house itself and we got a pretty good deal on it. I never learned to love the location. In fact, the longer we were there the less I could tolerate it. And you’re thinking about settling on location AND house AND for an inflated price that will essentially trap you there for a significant number of years? That’s a recipe for unhappiness. Of course one needs to be realistic when it comes to buying a house — there will be flaws and things you may not love, but those should be balanced by things you do love and that make you excited and eager to move in.

I realize looking for another rental and moving just to move again in a year or two sucks, but it doesn’t suck as much as it would to be financially stuck long term in a location you don’t really like in a house that doesn’t even work for you.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

I would probably change realtors, because they should not take out their frustration on you. It's a tough market and everyone knows that.

 

[VandVsmama]

Stop looking for a house to buy.

Look for rentals instead.

Then in a year when you start to look to buy again, use a different real estate agent.

 

[jerseygal]

Don’t settle. You are buying at top of market. Find a nice rental, relax for a bit and start looking in 6 months!

 

[nw6675]

I'm gonna agree with the previous posters. I would find a new rental and sit the market out til you find something you like.

That happened to me in 2005 - outbid on 3 homes in 3 days...found a rental and sat out the market for 2 years.

Now, I bought in 2007, so I got some discount, but not as great as 2008...BUT, I got the exact house I wanted in the area I wanted...

We bought at the height of the bubble in 2005. We sold that house 8 years later at a major loss as many did after the bubble burst in 2008. Thankfully, we made up for it in later home purchases, but my point is, I agree to wait this out and rent again instead of paying too much in this market. Hopefully interest rates won't skyrocket.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

A house is a huge investment. I wouldn't settle. I would probably just rent again and look later.

 

[slo]

I assume you don't want to purchase the current rental from the landlord - seems like that would be an easy transition.

I was wondering the same thing.
Is the rental you’re in now worth buying or no way?