Author Topic: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic  (Read 2758 times)

spartana

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Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« on: May 31, 2020, 10:13:18 AM »
I posted awhile ago about a couple of former neighbors who wanted to sell their homes when a new giant 2 story house plus 2 story ADU was being built lot-to-lot next to them. One sold successfully last year but took a much lower price cash offer. The other planned to sell in April when most of the construction next door was done. However the covid pandemic stopped that but she is wanting to give it a shot again in June since the big houses next door are done and they have begun renting out individual bedrooms (this is a 9 bedroom place) with no parking except street parking. Sales volume is down big time but prices seem stable for now.

So has anyone tried to sell their home lately? Good time in a previously hot SoCal market or bad time? What about trying to rent it out (she may not want that option though)?
« Last Edit: May 31, 2020, 10:18:52 AM by spartana »

ysette9

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2020, 11:46:05 AM »
We aren’t selling but we are about to try renting our house out in the Bay Area. From what our real estate agent has been telling us, things are selling, just more slowly.

I was reading an article recently about why this isn’t impacting the housing market, and why SARS and MERS didn’t really impact housing markets in their areas either. There is reduced demand but also reduced supply, so the two are moving in tandem sufficiently to keep prices stable.

So no idea, but my guess would be that it would sell but could take longer than usual.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2020, 12:35:46 PM »
We sold a week before the pandemic, but our buyers sold their house for a reasonable price during the pandemic. As long as the buyer category still has money, they will buy. But if too many loose their jobs, I expect that will gave a stagnation in housing prices in some housing segment.

ysette9

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2020, 09:23:11 PM »
Yeah, I could absolutely see things changing if the economic recovery and job losses take a long time to reverse. But real estate is a lagging indicator so it hasn’t really shown up yet, at least not in my area.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2020, 05:18:00 AM »
In Norway so far, they didn't notice any price fall yet, but it takes a lot more time to sell.

SailingOnASmallSailboat

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2020, 06:03:43 AM »
We're not in SoCal but in Central Virginia. We put our house on the market 2 weeks ago (FSBO for now anyway) and have had 3 showings but no offers. Houses for sale in our area are few and far between and are moving fast as long as they're listed with a realtor.

Suggestion might be to track homes for sale in the area where your friend lives (your friend can do this!), how long they take to sell and at what price vs asking. That might be a good way to see specifically what the market is doing locally.

ysette9

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2020, 07:47:01 AM »
Places are selling in my neighborhood but far fewer and more slowly than I would expect for this time of year

LostGirl

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2020, 08:48:30 AM »
I've been keeping tabs on the market and there was a pause in March but now its mostly picked up. I say mostly because there are some regions where it hasn't but all the regions I track are having relatively normal markets at this point.

Cassie

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2020, 12:49:58 PM »
Houses are selling in Northern Nevada. They could put it on the market for 3 months and take it off if it’s not going well.

bacchi

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #9 on: June 02, 2020, 10:52:46 AM »
There still seems to be a long pause in sales here (same area as friend I mentioned above) and I think most recent sales were for houses that were already under contract before or shortly after covid. Now I'm starting see on Zillow some "price reduced by $x" for lots of places. Since it is a HCOL area the reductions are usually in the $10k or higher amount. Also seeing the same thing with rentals - both price reduction and longer time to rent.

I've noticed the same price reductions.

I'm trying to rent a place and traffic is slow. Even the people who are taking a look have been cautious. There's a lot of, "We'd love to take it but we've decided to stay in our efficiency for now and see what happens."

FLBiker

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #10 on: June 02, 2020, 02:16:42 PM »
Interesting.  Here (just outside of Tampa) houses are tending to sell very quickly and at a good price.  We're planning to list next week.  We had been planning to list in April, and we're thinking we'd have to sell at a much lower price, but our agent is actually suggesting we can be a bit more aggressive.  Fortunately, we bought in 2010 so we're fine either way.

Where we're looking to buy (Nova Scotia) is acting much the same way -- things are going very quick and at asking price for the most part, unless they have issues.  We just virtually toured a place today and are hoping to make an offer.

researcher1

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2020, 02:50:08 PM »
Where I am in the Midwest, houses are selling EXTREMELY QUICKLY.

90% of houses are under contract within 12 hours of being listed, with multiple offers within the first few hours.

ysette9

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #12 on: June 06, 2020, 05:08:54 PM »
We had our real estate agent over this afternoon as it so happens. We asked about how things are now. He said there was a dip initially when shutdown occurred and has since started rising again. He personally has had one of the best/busiest starts to a year in his entire real estate agent career. He was surprised at how busy he is. He said that things are taking longer but the good properties are still getting multiple offers. So who knows?

ysette9

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #13 on: June 07, 2020, 09:22:23 PM »
We had our real estate agent over this afternoon as it so happens. We asked about how things are now. He said there was a dip initially when shutdown occurred and has since started rising again. He personally has had one of the best/busiest starts to a year in his entire real estate agent career. He was surprised at how busy he is. He said that things are taking longer but the good properties are still getting multiple offers. So who knows?
That's good since our housing markets are pretty similar. I'm sure the low interest rates are helping to keep things humming along. I'm still seeing prices dropping, and sometime by a  huge amount if a very expensive house,  but my friends house is a modest place (despite a behemoth next door) so might do well. I VERY curious to see if having the giant house and ADU next door (full of many individual room renters and about 10 or more outside security cameras ) will increase or decrease the value of her place. I think she doesn't care any more and just wants to GTFO asap.
That is a tough spot for your friend.
I’m quite curious to hear how that story plays out.

partgypsy

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #14 on: June 07, 2020, 10:18:47 PM »
Yes, please give us an update how it plays out.

FLBiker

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #15 on: June 08, 2020, 12:05:47 PM »
Here in Tampa, things still seem to be selling well.  We just had photos taken and are listing ASAP.  Our realtor wants to start at $269,900.  When we started talking about this in January, I was thinking like $240,000.  We did a bit of work since then (replaced the roof, did some landscaping, replaced the floor on our porch) but I was blown away by that number.  And I don't think he's particularly aggressive, either, as he knows we're ready to move (we just made an offer on a house in Canada).  We bought for $143,000 in 2010, so we are very happy with this potential price (but, honestly, would also be happy with much less).  We owe ~$87K.

MissPeach

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #16 on: June 11, 2020, 03:03:55 PM »
I've noticed there are about 30+ places with for rent signs within a 10 minute walk of my house that have been vacant since March here. I was seeing places turn over quickly before the pandemic - usually within days if they price/value was there. I haven't seen pricing fall much yet though.

I don't see buying here (HCOL area) so haven't looked too much into that other than to confirm it's still HCOL.

BikeFanatic

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #17 on: September 06, 2020, 09:57:25 AM »
Here on the East coast houses are selling fast and prices are up and per our real estate rep, low inventory of single family homes. We are going to try to sell and take advantage of the market. My spouse was convinced that this isn’t a good time to sell, but people in real estate saying they don’t know what is driving it besides low interest. Crazy times.

Cranky

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #18 on: September 06, 2020, 03:43:58 PM »
We are buying a house in Wisconsin. The housing market is so hot that the seller is going to have to move into an AirBnB because she hasn’t been able to snag a condo at the price she wants to pay - and she bought this house 5 years ago for $100k less than we’re paying .

mm1970

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #19 on: September 07, 2020, 11:28:40 AM »
Well I contacted a realtor and made the decision to sell my house too. Don't really stay there much (stay at BF or travelling) and this crazy covid housing thing makes me things will crash eventually.  Wish me luck!
Good luck!

A HS classmate of mine and his husband have decided to sell their flat in San Francisco and move back east again.  They are just starting the process.

The market in Santa Barbara is HOT.  Well priced houses go for over asking with multiple offers.  Overprices houses sit for a year or more.

Low interest rates, really low inventory...house prices are really high right now.  An agent I know says if you want to trade up, it's a great time to sell, rent for awhile, and buy back in a year.  I dunno... 

Here, there are LOT of folks who suddenly can work remotely who are moving in from the Bay Area and Los Angeles to get away from crowds.

SailingOnASmallSailboat

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Re: Selling or renting your house during the pandemic
« Reply #20 on: September 07, 2020, 06:01:51 PM »
Well I contacted a realtor and made the decision to sell my house too. Don't really stay there much (stay at BF or travelling) and this crazy covid housing thing makes me things will crash eventually.  Wish me luck!

Good luck! Once we listed with a realtor our house was under contract in 3 days; we closed on August 10. May you have similar (or better) luck!

 

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