[quote=outtamojo] . . . It IS fraud, spoken causually because that is the way business is done these days. Pity anyone looking to buy a place to live these days, the wink wink crowd gets all the pretty shiny places at 2008-2009 prices while the common man gets to tour fixers at full market price . . . [/quote]
outtamojo, I agree that the selection for FTB’s and other similarly-situated buyers is lower right now, partly due to the “secret, backroom deals” you speak of here. The <$400K price range is VERY attractive to buy and hold investors, ESP to those who pay all cash for a property.
HOWEVER, there ARE plenty of SFR listings that have been in the MLS for 2+ weeks in MANY zip codes which "apparently" have not gotten "good enough" offers on them yet. I don't see a cosmetic fixer as a problem for these types of buyers. Those in the <$400K price range who need >1500 sf w/garage should actually expect this, IMHO.
I see only opportunities for these buyers. Your statement above assumes buyers who pay “full market price” (whatever that is, lol, it’s low to reasonable) today will not have made a good or great deal, in hindsight, tomorrow … ESP if they locked in the prevailing prime mtg interest rates.
I understand that a few of these current listings which have been languishing on the market may have structural damage and thus will only sell to a particular kind of buyer. But that leaves at least ~1500 current SFR listings in the county which are NOT “moving like hotcakes.” Perhaps investors don’t want them because the sellers won’t sell them cheap enough to effect a good rental ROI or flipper ROI. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t good houses for joe6p and his family for the time it takes them to buy and flip (abt 1-3 yrs if both have FT jobs). Hundreds of very well-located SFRs in SD County appear to be sitting on the market today waiting for good/reasonable offers while buyers whine and wring their hands, lamenting that there is nothing out there for them.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
*****
Back in the “olden days” of 10%++ mtg interest rates, we boomers (at the ages Gen Y is now) were happy to buy those cosmetic-fixer SFR’s here in SD County for between $32K and $90K. You may think those prices are “cheap” by today’s standards but it’s all relative, as is the lower profit (than today) we were able to make on each one.
I’m partly as secure as I am today because of decisions I/we made decades ago to engage in serial fixup/rehab work of local SFR’s for later sale.
If you (as a Gen Y’er who just bought a cosmetic fixer), have young children, put them in a playpen and/or a swing (now they’re elec and you don’t have to crank them up every 15 mins :-D) and let them fall asleep to the sound of power tools or rock n roll (there were no ipods back then ;-]) and get to work scraping, dumpster loading, etc. Your future net worth depends on it!
