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Trying to Purchase a Home in COVID-19 - Continually Lose Out, with Offers over Asking Price?

Brett

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View attachment 26558

This is the house we paid the mortgage on for almost another year after buying our current home in June 2010. Sucker took until May 2011 to sell. The realtor, our friend, went on and on about the color being the reason it wasn't selling. Um, no, it is a perfectly acceptable color for this type of house. In fact ten years later it is still this color. We took it away from him after 6 months of following the market down, and were HAPPY to get $200K less than we started. It wasn't me who invited him to do a walk through at our current pumpkin colored home this January, and it isn't me who is saying "I wish he wasn't involved" (he's not really "involved" until they have a unit at the old folks home for us). The new owners have let those crepe myrtles completely obscure the house now -- we had the trees cut every other year or so. BTW, when we were refinancing our current home a year later, they used the Victorian as a comp and the comment was "undesirable style" left the house sitting on the market 10 months. Undesirable my ass -- you either want a Victorian, pink or otherwise, or you don't. Zillow claims it is now worth $300K more than it was sold for. I LOVED that house -- it was my dream house, although not in my dream neighborhood. FYI the neighbors to the left hate the new owners, just like they hated us, just like they hated the owners before us who remodeled the home extensively. Thought we were all putting on airs in their not-the-best neighborhood, I guess.

ETA, our friend the realtor has sold us three homes (including the one above and our current home) and a lot -- he's a bulldog when he's putting a deal together to get us into a house. But certainly ripped his britches (as my MIL would say) on selling the pink house.

Victorian style is popular in coastal Virginia
(including pink !)
 

Glynda

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Victorian style is popular in coastal Virginia
(including pink !)

I think the magazines and HGTV like TV shows, for the most part, are trending towards white/or light houses with black or bronze windows. People love CHS for its colorful houses but then buy and repaint their own a light color. We do have to paint wooden exteriors about every three years due to humidity and salt air even with the best grade of paint. Perhaps the light colors do not fade as much. The wooden addition to our brick house is painted a medium aqua color.
 

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I have a neighbor that watches too much HGTV. Her DH just told us she wants to paint her White House with black trim. Yuck. They have an orange Spanish tile roof.

I feel sorry for him. She needs a new hobby or a job.
 

klpca

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I have a neighbor that watches too much HGTV. Her DH just told us she wants to paint her White House with black trim. Yuck. They have an orange Spanish tile roof.

I feel sorry for him. She needs a new hobby or a job.
Well we have someone in one of our walking neighborhoods that just painted their red-tiled-roof house pale pink. My husband suggested that maybe it was a gender reveal :p
 

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What I'm seeing on a lot of HGTV-type shows, and new homes here in my development, is a trend toward white and grey interiors. White or grey cabinets, with white or gray counters, white ceramic tile floors, grey carpeting, grey paint, and so forth. It has zero variety, and absolutely no warmth. In a development like mine, with southwest-colored stucco homes with red tile roofs, these "cold" interiors seem very out of place. The rental house we're currently in has white-with-grey-streaked ceramic tile floors, grey carpet in the bedrooms, light grey wall paint, and white trim. Boring. The kitchen has dark wood cabinets, which I understand were an upgrade. I blame the builders, too, for trying to cheapen things up.

A comment about white ceramic tile flooring: I am not a fan. They show every mark, every bit of dirt, and look awful most of the time. Very difficult to keep clean. And since Martha Stewart does not live in my house, I'm always having to fill in for her. I can't wait till we move to our new house, with the hardwood flooring. :D

Dave
 

WinniWoman

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What I'm seeing on a lot of HGTV-type shows, and new homes here in my development, is a trend toward white and grey interiors. White or grey cabinets, with white or gray counters, white ceramic tile floors, grey carpeting, grey paint, and so forth. It has zero variety, and absolutely no warmth. In a development like mine, with southwest-colored stucco homes with red tile roofs, these "cold" interiors seem very out of place. The rental house we're currently in has white-with-grey-streaked ceramic tile floors, grey carpet in the bedrooms, light grey wall paint, and white trim. Boring. The kitchen has dark wood cabinets, which I understand were an upgrade. I blame the builders, too, for trying to cheapen things up.

A comment about white ceramic tile flooring: I am not a fan. They show every mark, every bit of dirt, and look awful most of the time. Very difficult to keep clean. And since Martha Stewart does not live in my house, I'm always having to fill in for her. I can't wait till we move to our new house, with the hardwood flooring. :D

Dave

Sounds like our house (and the others being built). Lol!

Which is why in a way it is good I brought our farmhouse furniture here, as it has blacks, dark and light wood, etc. to warm things up. Not to mention my giant multi colored cow face pallet knife painting that sits above our brown couch. Ceiling fans= one wood and one black. Chandelier black wrought iron. My big old oak desk. Wood floors also in kitchen, dining and living room and hallway.

Breaks it all up. And saved us tons of money to boot!
 
Last edited:

Brett

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I think the magazines and HGTV like TV shows, for the most part, are trending towards white/or light houses with black or bronze windows. People love CHS for its colorful houses but then buy and repaint their own a light color. We do have to paint wooden exteriors about every three years due to humidity and salt air even with the best grade of paint. Perhaps the light colors do not fade as much. The wooden addition to our brick house is painted a medium aqua color.

yes, fading could be a factor. The closer you get to the coast the brighter the colors
Victorian pink or yellow style houses are not prevalent in Williamsburg or Charlottesville Virginia
 

joestein

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View attachment 26558

This is the house we paid the mortgage on for almost another year after buying our current home in June 2010. Sucker took until May 2011 to sell. The realtor, our friend, went on and on about the color being the reason it wasn't selling. Um, no, it is a perfectly acceptable color for this type of house. In fact ten years later it is still this color. We took it away from him after 6 months of following the market down, and were HAPPY to get $200K less than we started. It wasn't me who invited him to do a walk through at our current pumpkin colored home this January, and it isn't me who is saying "I wish he wasn't involved" (he's not really "involved" until they have a unit at the old folks home for us). The new owners have let those crepe myrtles completely obscure the house now -- we had the trees cut every other year or so. BTW, when we were refinancing our current home a year later, they used the Victorian as a comp and the comment was "undesirable style" left the house sitting on the market 10 months. Undesirable my ass -- you either want a Victorian, pink or otherwise, or you don't. Zillow claims it is now worth $300K more than it was sold for. I LOVED that house -- it was my dream house, although not in my dream neighborhood. FYI the neighbors to the left hate the new owners, just like they hated us, just like they hated the owners before us who remodeled the home extensively. Thought we were all putting on airs in their not-the-best neighborhood, I guess.

ETA, our friend the realtor has sold us three homes (including the one above and our current home) and a lot -- he's a bulldog when he's putting a deal together to get us into a house. But certainly ripped his britches (as my MIL would say) on selling the pink house.

A painted lady. My kids love that style of home.
 

joestein

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Is Zillow even reliable? Or it can set unreasonable expectations. To me that just goes off or previous sold price and maybe stuff registered with the county. Not a fan of real estate agents as 6% adds up but sometimes they can get results. If they can get people through.


In my area most of the sales prices are anywhere from 50K to 100K over Zillow for houses that are valued by Zillow at 500K - 600K. My house is valued at 545K, but my agent had suggested listing it at $619K to get a bidding war and said I should expect $630K to $650K. A house in my development, which is on a busier street (I am on the deepest street in the developement) and is surrounded by neighbors (I have green acres on 2 sides) just listed their house for $700K today. They do have a lovely stone patio with a very small inground pool.

Some houses that are valued by Zillow for $700K are listing for $850K or $900K.
 

klpca

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In my area most of the sales prices are anywhere from 50K to 100K over Zillow for houses that are valued by Zillow at 500K - 600K. My house is valued at 545K, but my agent had suggested listing it at $619K to get a bidding war and said I should expect $630K to $650K. A house in my development, which is on a busier street (I am on the deepest street in the developement) and is surrounded by neighbors (I have green acres on 2 sides) just listed their house for $700K today. They do have a lovely stone patio with a very small inground pool.

Some houses that are valued by Zillow for $700K are listing for $850K or $900K.
Yeah, zillow is terrible. Zillow still lists our next door neighbors house, about 300 square feet smaller than ours as a higher value. The only problem that I see with their estimates would be the unrealistic expectations that it gives to buyers.
 

Glynda

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What I'm seeing on a lot of HGTV-type shows, and new homes here in my development, is a trend toward white and grey interiors. White or grey cabinets, with white or gray counters, white ceramic tile floors, grey carpeting, grey paint, and so forth. It has zero variety, and absolutely no warmth. In a development like mine, with southwest-colored stucco homes with red tile roofs, these "cold" interiors seem very out of place. The rental house we're currently in has white-with-grey-streaked ceramic tile floors, grey carpet in the bedrooms, light grey wall paint, and white trim. Boring. The kitchen has dark wood cabinets, which I understand were an upgrade. I blame the builders, too, for trying to cheapen things up.

A comment about white ceramic tile flooring: I am not a fan. They show every mark, every bit of dirt, and look awful most of the time. Very difficult to keep clean. And since Martha Stewart does not live in my house, I'm always having to fill in for her. I can't wait till we move to our new house, with the hardwood flooring. :D

Dave

Actually, the gray and white theme has been going on for about four or five years now. I agree that gray and white can be very cold. Gray and white paints are two of the most difficult to choose. Both can look so different according to light and time of day. Both have so many undertones. And yes, every new construction house looks alike now. Gray and white. Certainly not very desert like tones.

But good news! This too shall pass. Some magazines are featuring rich dark green sofas, blue and white interiors even a rich purple piece here and there even if they still have a gray and white bathroom. A major furniture store in High Point, NC. actually has some color back in stock. A year ago when I walked through, I was excited not to just see the beige and white or gray and white I had been seeing for past four years but those same dark green velvet sofas, rich blues, and more traditional wood furniture, I had started seeing in magazines.

Next to travertine, I dislike white tile floors. They do show everything. Worse than white though, someone put travertine in our kitchen, half bath and laundry room and it has all these natural indentations, holes, that stuff can get ground into. Impossible to get all out even though I get on my hands and knees with a stiff brush and a toothbrush! I’ve had a stone person here to clean them, fill the indentations and then seal them but it didn’t last long. They are going after we get new french doors across the back of our house and at the same time we get our cabinets re-painted. Though all floors, counters and backsplashes in our kitchen and bathrooms are natural stone, I am ready for some good ole but large porcelain tile!
 

DaveNV

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I knew white and grey had been happening for awhile, but this was my first experience with it directly away from television. And I also note all the grey flooring, and grey furniture I see - everywhere. There may be hope, though - the paint store guy said a new trend is bright blue accent walls. Not sure if they were just trying to sell paint. LOL! :D

I'll take my earth tones and Southwest colors. I want my house to feel warm and inviting. With grey and white anything, I can't do that.

Dave
 

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I knew white and grey had been happening for awhile, but this was my first experience with it directly away from television. And I also note all the grey flooring, and grey furniture I see - everywhere. There may be hope, though - the paint store guy said a new trend is bright blue accent walls. Not sure if they were just trying to sell paint. LOL! :D

I'll take my earth tones and Southwest colors. I want my house to feel warm and inviting. With grey and white anything, I can't do that.

Dave
Grey and white decor can be warm. You just need to add some earth tones correctly. My new home will have grey and white and when I am done it will feel warm. My home 35 years ago was with grey and white. Everything comes back in style eventually.
 

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Is Zillow even reliable? Or it can set unreasonable expectations. To me that just goes off or previous sold price and maybe stuff registered with the county. Not a fan of real estate agents as 6% adds up but sometimes they can get results. If they can get people through.

To me Zillow is not reliable at all...My subdivision has been selling like crazy since June. One of our friends one street over put their house on the market and the first of 6 bids they got was based on zillow that showed the home was only worth $30K less then what they listed it for yet all of the other homes in our sub had prices higher then their home, their home with 6 bids sold $10K over asking and had no issues with the appraisal coming in correctly.
 

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Grey and white decor can be warm. You just need to add some earth tones correctly. My new home will have grey and white and when I am done it will feel warm. My home 35 years ago was with grey and white. Everything comes back in style eventually.

Yes, I agree - it can be warm, but you have to add your own color to get there. On its own, it's not. At least, in my experience, that's been the case. But what do I know? :D

Dave
 

DaveNV

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To me Zillow is not reliable at all...My subdivision has been selling like crazy since June. One of our friends one street over put their house on the market and the first of 6 bids they got was based on zillow that showed the home was only worth $30K less then what they listed it for yet all of the other homes in our sub had prices higher then their home, their home with 6 bids sold $10K over asking and had no issues with the appraisal coming in correctly.

I tend to agree. I don't know where Zillow gets some of their numbers. In my old neighborhood, Zillow consistently said my house was worth less than just about every one of my neighbors' homes. But mine was the exact same floorplan, and same lot size as three others on the block, even property taxes were the same. The best I could ever figure out was that my house was the third of the 33 houses built in the neighborhood, so when some of those later homes were being built, my house was already a year or two old.

When my house sold, it went for more than any house in the neighborhood had ever sold for. And now, when reviewing the neighborhood, Zillow says my house is worth even more than it sold for two months ago. I just don't get it. :shrug:

Dave
 

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Americans with mortgages have accumulated nearly $10 trillion in home equity thanks to a decade of rising home prices. Yet millions of them have fallen behind on mortgage payments and risk losing their houses.

It is a potential bonanza for rental-home investors. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, big single-family landlords have raised billions of dollars for homebuying sprees.

Even if there isn’t a surge in repossessed homes to buy cheaply off the courthouse steps—which led to the emergence of Wall Street’s landlords during the foreclosure crisis a decade ago—there is likely to be a lot of forced sales and new renters......

.....People behind on their payments aren’t being kicked out of their houses yet because of federal and local restrictions on foreclosure enacted during the pandemic. Many with federally guaranteed mortgages have entered forbearance, which allows them to skip payments for up to a year without penalty and make them up later.

Some 3.5 million home loans—a 7.01% share—were in forbearance as of Sept. 6, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Many more borrowers are behind on their paymentsbut not in forbearance programs with their lenders......


 

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Americans with mortgages have accumulated nearly $10 trillion in home equity thanks to a decade of rising home prices. Yet millions of them have fallen behind on mortgage payments and risk losing their houses.

It is a potential bonanza for rental-home investors. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, big single-family landlords have raised billions of dollars for homebuying sprees.

Even if there isn’t a surge in repossessed homes to buy cheaply off the courthouse steps—which led to the emergence of Wall Street’s landlords during the foreclosure crisis a decade ago—there is likely to be a lot of forced sales and new renters......

.....People behind on their payments aren’t being kicked out of their houses yet because of federal and local restrictions on foreclosure enacted during the pandemic. Many with federally guaranteed mortgages have entered forbearance, which allows them to skip payments for up to a year without penalty and make them up later.

Some 3.5 million home loans—a 7.01% share—were in forbearance as of Sept. 6, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Many more borrowers are behind on their paymentsbut not in forbearance programs with their lenders......






A big bubble could be brewing!





.
 

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The problem with Zillow may be that the market is ratcheting up faster than their system can keep up with it...

George
 

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I'm so excited our carpeting is finally going in this Thursday after multiple delays from Lowes...One step closer to listing this house....


Happy to report that our carpeting went in yesterday and not sure I would ever use Lowes again for carpeting the guys they sent this time out were great and they got it installed. Now I just have to put the house back together. They give you a list of everything that needs to be moved. Our kitchen and bathrooms are stacked high and now this weekend we put everything back together and do final touch ups and hopefully I can list this house in about a week.
 

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I knew white and grey had been happening for awhile, but this was my first experience with it directly away from television. And I also note all the grey flooring, and grey furniture I see - everywhere. There may be hope, though - the paint store guy said a new trend is bright blue accent walls. Not sure if they were just trying to sell paint. LOL! :D

I'll take my earth tones and Southwest colors. I want my house to feel warm and inviting. With grey and white anything, I can't do that.

Dave

I'm seeing a lot of dark blue lower kitchen cabinets or just on the island. Accent walls too and wallpaper is popular again..
 

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Grey and white decor can be warm. You just need to add some earth tones correctly. My new home will have grey and white and when I am done it will feel warm. My home 35 years ago was with grey and white. Everything comes back in style eventually.

It can be! There are warmer grays and cooler grays as well as whites. It's a study of undertones to get it right and still can vary a lot through the day and night. Adding the right accessories and accent colors can do wonders. I don't think I've ever had gray and white interior colors until this house. The upstairs bathrooms are gray and white marble with gray walls and white trim. Not the right gray wall paint though. I detect a green undertone that at times of the day doesn't quite match or blend well with the marble. Choosing paint is one of the most difficult things for me to do.
 

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What I'm seeing on a lot of HGTV-type shows, and new homes here in my development, is a trend toward white and grey interiors. White or grey cabinets, with white or gray counters, white ceramic tile floors, grey carpeting, grey paint, and so forth. It has zero variety, and absolutely no warmth.

A comment about white ceramic tile flooring: I am not a fan. They show every mark, every bit of dirt, and look awful most of the time. Very difficult to keep clean.
Whitish ceramic tile (ideally with other shades blended in) - it's actually perfect if your pet sheds mountains of white fur every other second!

I agree about the white and gray - yawn and brrr. Recently we needed some LVP for a rental unit - almost every one was gray, or else very dark. Who wants gray floors? We finally found something closest to oak-look, it took a lot of hunt-time.
 

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Whitish ceramic tile (ideally with other shades blended in) - it's actually perfect if your pet sheds mountains of white fur every other second!

I agree about the white and gray - yawn and brrr. Recently we needed some LPV for a rental unit - almost every one was gray, or else very dark. Who wants gray floors? We finally found something closest to oak-look, it took a lot of hunt-time.

The only way I can tell I have a white cat is when I put on ANY article of clothing. LOL! :D

Dave
 

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It can be! There are warmer grays and cooler grays as well as whites. It's a study of undertones to get it right and still can vary a lot through the day and night. Adding the right accessories and accent colors can do wonders. I don't think I've ever had gray and white interior colors until this house. The upstairs bathrooms are gray and white marble with gray walls and white trim. Not the right gray wall paint though. I detect a green undertone that at times of the day doesn't quite match or blend well with the marble. Choosing paint is one of the most difficult things for me to do.

The exterior of our cottage is gray- but it is a warm gray. It is actually called cactus and has a green tone to it. This is why I painted our front door yellow.

This compared with a couple of neighbors who have a gray siding called granite. It is a cool gray- like almost a blue gray or actually a dark slate.

My kitchen, however, has the white upper cabinets with the light gray bottoms and that "ice" white glass blacksplash tile with the stainless steel appliances and gray/white/purple granite. Definitely cool, but the wood floors and cream paint help to tone it down a bit.
 
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