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Thread: making a living from gentrification

  1. #11
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Teacher Terry View Post
    WE are seeing that here as well with wealthy people from Cali moving in.
    Eventually someplace is going to see SO and I moving in from California. The cost of living is simply too high for us to ever retire in San Francisco.

  2. #12
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    A couple of years ago, I browsed condos in Walnut Creek, and they were still affordable. I could live there pretty happily. That's probably changed.

  3. #13
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    Can't touch one for less than $500,000. now.

  4. #14
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    I keep hearing that in Seattle hot spots, houses are going for $100,000 more than list price PLUS it is customary to write a fawning letter to the sellers telling them why the buyer wants the house.

    http://www.seattlepi.com/realestate/...rs-4280034.php

    Madness. Coastal values, cant grok them.

  5. #15
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    I keep hearing that in Seattle hot spots, houses are going for $100,000 more than list price PLUS it is customary to write a fawning letter to the sellers telling them why the buyer wants the house.

    http://www.seattlepi.com/realestate/...rs-4280034.php

    Madness. Coastal values, cant grok them.
    Yes, my sister and her wife just sold their house in Seattle this way for 50% more than they paid for it four years ago. They listed it, held an open house and had a one week deadline for offers. Four contenders sent inspectors over during that week, and ultimately they got seven offers. The accepted offer had no contingencies, was all cash, and was $120k over asking.

  6. #16
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    I keep hearing that in Seattle hot spots, houses are going for $100,000 more than list price PLUS it is customary to write a fawning letter to the sellers telling them why the buyer wants the house.

    http://www.seattlepi.com/realestate/...rs-4280034.php

    Madness. Coastal values, cant grok them.
    The people who bought my parents' house wrote one of those "fawning letters." It worked, obviously. You're right--It's de rigueur now.

    Zillow says my house is worth $620K. It isn't, but there are only two houses/condos for sale in my zip code--at least under $500K, so I suppose it's a matter of supply and demand. I amused myself last night by wistfully looking at condos in my old neighborhood. I loved the layout, if not the herd living. And, as I've said before, I love it here...

  7. #17
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    I HATE those fawning letters. We got one with one of my SC houses, but the sender sent it to my husband, and his name wasn't even on the title. It was my house only. She was all over him. It did not work in her favor. She was also kind of nutty, and wanted to sue our realtor, and blamed us for buying the house when she wanted to buy it the first time!
    But I HATE those letters. I also hate the fawning seller letters about how great the house is. I have had two of those, and both times we rejected the houses, and were left with a feeling that the owners were trying to guilt us into buying the house. ONe was telling us about how somebody in the family had cancer, and they needed the money from the house to pay medical bills.

    Yikes.

  8. #18
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Yeah, I'm not a fan of them either. I'm all for vetting the buyers/sellers in person, ,though.

  9. #19
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    I also hate those letters. I don't care why someone is selling and I don't care what someone does with the house once they own it. What I do care about are how much $ I get and the best, cleanest offer. I have redone old homes that I loved living in but the fact is once I decide to sell it is purely a financial transaction at that point.

  10. #20
    Senior Member jp1's Avatar
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    Our fawning letter, if anything close to resembling honesty, would have to go something like this:

    Dear home seller,

    Please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are JP and JP's SO. We are a middle aged gay couple that eagerly looks forward to being part of the gentrification of your neighborhood for the next three to five years before we resell the house at twice the price we paid. Despite the obvious shortcomings of this house, and the hideous price that we will have to pay because the market is already so hot we are very much looking forward to living here. We don't have any children, and frankly neither of us ever wanted any, so one of our first projects will be painting over that awful mural that one of you supposedly spent months painting on the nursery wall. JP will probably be using that room for his den where he will likely be watching porn, at least occasionally, so having babies and unicorns on the walls would really creep him out.

    The brown carpet throughout, on the other hand, is much more suited to our needs! We have two cats. One regularly eats his food too quickly and pukes it back up. We affectionately have nicknamed him Karen Carpenter. :-) The other doesn't like to waste food that way (which is why that fatty weighs 22 pounds...) but, like most cats, he does occasionally hack up a hair ball. We have found that having carpet that is similar in color to cat puke makes housekeeping much easier.

    The other thing that we really appreciate about your house is the oversized wine fridge. Our friends are all a bunch of drunks and can easily drink a dozen bottles of our wine when we have them over for dinner parties. Oh the stories our current neighbors could tell you if you ever met them!!! That fridge will be perfect for our entertaining needs!

    To conclude, we really hope to make some serious cash on your house in a few years so that we can afford to retire to Palm Springs, and need a place where the neighbors will be cool with our non-kid -friendly lifestyle. We hope you pick us!

    Sincerely,
    JP and JP's SO

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