Home buying thread

Big Phoenix said:

Real estate market absurd. Friend is thinking about moving from Vegas here to Phoenix so came down last weekend to check the place out.

In my zipcode which is 100% urban and mostly single family homes, there are a total of 7 houses listed for sale on Zillow. Of those 7, only 1 of them is listed for below $300,000. Looking at rents, only 6 houses are listed for rent. To put this into perspective 5 years ago I purchased my house for $155,000.

Im curious what everyone is paying for home owners insurance. In the span of 4 years mine has doubled while all coverage/deductible has remained exactly the same going form $650/yr to $1200/yr now. Has anyone else seen such huge increases?

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We got a quote for $720/yr. New build, $243k, subdivision in the country.

Big Phoenix said:

Real estate market absurd. Friend is thinking about moving from Vegas here to Phoenix so came down last weekend to check the place out.

In my zipcode which is 100% urban and mostly single family homes, there are a total of 7 houses listed for sale on Zillow. Of those 7, only 1 of them is listed for below $300,000. Looking at rents, only 6 houses are listed for rent. To put this into perspective 5 years ago I purchased my house for $155,000.

Im curious what everyone is paying for home owners insurance. In the span of 4 years mine has doubled while all coverage/deductible has remained exactly the same going form $650/yr to $1200/yr now. Has anyone else seen such huge increases?

Click to expand...

We're ~2 weeks out from closing after selling our house, no idea where we are going, we moved in with my MIL because she has health issues but its not long term. There is nothing on the market... this is how our selling went in the Chicago burbs.

House listed on a Thursday, open house two days later (Saturday). It was 8 degrees in Chicago that weekend. We had over 40 groups come through the house between the open house and private showings Friday/Sunday. By Sunday night we had 5 offers, 4 of those between 5k-10k over asking.

Our house price hasn't doubled in 8 years since we bought it, but we are selling it for 40% more than we paid in 2013... and we didn't do that much to it (new chimney stack, removed wood paneling in basement and replaced with drywall, new tile in one bathroom, and of course new paint over the last ~3 years in most rooms).

TJT said:

I thought people are leaving Chicago?

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Falstaff said:

in the Chicago burbs.

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A guy I work with at Wells Fargo in Chicago had roughly the same experience as Falstaff back in the fall. Detached house (inside the city limits but further out from downtown) went into contract inside of a week, up 25% from where he bought it in 2018? He's been living with family in Florida waiting for them to call him back to the office ever since.

TheBeagle said:

We got a quote for $720/yr. New build, $243k, subdivision in the country.

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Wowzor. Granted I live in an area with zero natural disasters, but our house cost $595K and we are paying $650 a year.

I paid around 1k too, maybe closer to 1100.

Anyone got any tips for finding a listing agent? I know it's probably locally dependent. But this will be our first time selling a home and I'm not entirely sure the best way to find someone to sell our house.

Like, I had mentioned finding a realtor who has a lot of sold properties, but my wife mentioned that that could also mean they're just pricing them too low and screwing their clients.

$5k less for the realtor is like $150 and pretty meaningless. But for us that'd be a big deal.

I'm not entirely sure I want to do that. In theory I do, but it's kind of daunting and I've got a lot of shit already stressing me out (like getting ready to move across the country). But what would I need if I do? Do I need a real estate lawyer? Just print off some contracts from the internet?

Gravel said:

I'm not entirely sure I want to do that. In theory I do, but it's kind of daunting and I've got a lot of shit already stressing me out (like getting ready to move across the country). But what would I need if I do? Do I need a real estate lawyer? Just print off some contracts from the internet?

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Word of mouth is your best bet, so start asking your friends

Parents sold their house about 15 years ago in quick order for more than they wanted. There was a for sale by owner site for the town that had a site you listed your house on for a fee and they came and took a bunch of pics and listed it with MLS. It went really quick and easy. Not sure if they have them anymore. The site was broken down into different areas/school systems in town and such.