Currently house hunting in the Boulder, CO area. Market is pretty stale here. I have noticed several houses I've been watching for months some how manipulate their listing data so that they appear "new" on Zillow. I want to know how they can do that?

Per my realtor for my old house, the listing data is MLS record. You cant just make the history of having the house listed disappear because you pull the listing off MLS.

In one example, this house was flipped. Sold in May and listed i believe in August for 200k more. Just today its showing as a new listing, despite being on my radar for a while now. When I look at the price history, the previous August listing is missing and it shows ​listed date as 10/17. How is this possible? I've looked at the listing for this house many times in the last few weeks. It met my search criteria, has a street name thats memorable and meaningful to me and the flip makes it stand out from other listings in the area.

My childhood home, 65 years old, has been on the market 4 months in California. I own it. The house is evacuated with some furniture left and old stained carpets. Zillow zestimate is near $1M but $80K worth of outstanding repairs were identified in inspections recently. We have had many families and developers/flippers make offers. Flippers are making cash offers at $920K or so. Families have not qualified so far but they also don't like the place even with a recent added bonus room.

Down the street, a similar home sold for $60K more, just by adding $10K in paint and other improvements. Realtor wants to have me spend $14K to do this, then try again. The Realtor found out that the sellers invested $25K in improvements, some cosmetic, then got that price. The house is similar age and smaller.

We have a $920K offer right now from a developer. I just think that the cosmetic job won't work, buyers will see through the facade, and relisting will delay the sale months more, maybe put us into a worse market. $80K of repairs to foundation and roof, etc are nothing to sneeze at and will be found out eventually, or rather will be seen up front as usual and nobody is going to just ignore that.

Hi everyone, I'm wanting to buy out my aunts current reverse mortgage. She owns a home in Socal that was appraiser at $850k, the loan is nearly maxed out at $425k. The home is a duplex, I'm living in one side renting from her and she's living in the other side. I can pay her rent or the mortgage, but not both. She relies on the rent money as her monthly income. I'd like to be able to buy it out instead of the house going to the bank after her death. This was my grandmother's home and my family has lived here for 50 years. My aunt had to take out the loan to buy my mom out of her share of the property. My parents place will be relinquished to the state after my parents passing due to my father needing long term care help for my mom, so nothing will be left from their property. Is this feasible? I have options of getting a roommate or moving in with my aunt to help pay her monthly bills as well as the mortgage. Anyone have experience with buying out a reverse mortgage with another mortgage?

So little story time about 6 months ago I put in an offer for a house. About a month later we found out the seller was going through bankruptcy and neither his agent or title company disclosed it to use when we first started the process. We decided to wait for it. About 3 weeks ago a bankruptcy court authorized him to sell the property but the judge explicitly named me as the buyer of the property and granted him property to sell to ME.

I thought the light at the end of the tunnel was getting closer. I got a clear to close from my title company last Monday. I didn’t get a clear to close from my lender until end of day today because his title company didn’t give their documents and clear to close over until end of the week. However my lender told the sellers agent that we could close Wednesday this week despite the delay on title. Well today he calls me and tells me we can’t close until Thursday and their closing department cannot make an exception to get the paperwork ready faster and have strict adherence to their SLA of 72 hour turnaround time.

The seller is throwing a big fit and doesn’t want to extend an extra 24 hours which is insane to me because he held me up for half a year over something himself, his agent and his title company didn’t initially disclose and this is all because my lender promised his people, myself and my agent we could close Wednesday.

Any advice on what to do? Wouldn’t he have to get court approval to sell it again since he was given explicit permission to sell to me the named seller in the court paperwork?

We are working towards selling our house soon to move out of state. We have a very nice induction range that we are somewhat attached to (for both health and safety reasons), and are planning to take with us since it’s not financially feasible to replace it right now.

Would it be better to offer a seller credit to the buyer to go towards a new stove, or to just buy another inexpensive one and put it in before listing?

On the one hand, it’s not a great look to show a house with a giant hole where the stove should be, or telling a buyer that “oh, that nice stove doesn’t come with the house”; but on the other hand, the house is set up for both gas and electric, and a credit would allow a buyer to choose what they would prefer.

Hey everyone, looking to see if anyone has dealt with the same issue or has any advice or any higher up contact with KB homes in Houston that they can provide me with to reach out to. .

We entered a purchase agreement with them in February, the terms were:

- 5.75% fixed interest rate for 30-year FHA loan (IF we used their lender)

- $5000 towards design center or closing costs (we chose toward closing costs) if we used their lender

-$500 towards closing if documents were submitted within 3 days to their lender, which they were

So, the final terms were 5.75% fixed rate + $5500 for closing.

Well, it wasn't long after the construction process started that they told us the subdivision had no power. We got multiple delays that pushed us way out of our original closing window and so we were unable to lock that original 5.75% rate (the agreement states we needed to lock within 30 days)

Now we are 2 weeks before closing and the lender decides to tell us they have no information regarding the interest rate concession.

We mention this to our sales agent,they negotiate with higher ups and come back and state they can offer 5.99% ....fine we'll work with that.

NOW they're saying ,they can either do 5.99% OR the $5500 towards closing, not both.

We were never told it was one or the other and now we're very frustrated with this situation.

Although we have the cash to pay the additional closing costs. Why would we willingly want to when the original purchase agreement stated both concessions?

The way I see it is they're trying to play me by taking money out of one pocket and placing it in another. They want to buy down the rate using the closing cost concession and that's just dishonest and unfair.

I'm pushing back on this and requesting both concessions. The 5.99% and the $5500. But they take so long to get back and I'm basically communicating through a middle man. I want to speak to those higher ups directly and formally submit an email but I have no email address to contact.

Any advice? Anyone have contacts I can reach out to from KB home to escalate the concern in Houston area?

We're running out of time to close and we do not want to push back the date and we don't want to be forced into making a last minute rushed decision.

My girlfriend and I are considering buying a studio apartment and I'm hoping for some input on whether or not this is a good financial decision.

PROS - small space = less time spent cleaning and less money spent maintaining, great location for less money, quicker path to home ownership, same cost as renting for the first 5 years (see below)

CONS - harder to resell or issues with renting in an HOA building

I'm not worried about the size being an issue since for the last year we have been doing the vanlife thing just fine with 50 sq ft. I'm more worried there is something here that I haven't considered.

For the pros, less time spent cleaning or maintaining the space is a pretty big one since we are both planning on going back to school (nursing for me, comp sci for her). We will have to be working pretty much full time while in school as well so the less we have to do around the house means better overall balance between school/working/relaxing. We are currently renting a room in a shared house and already I am reminiscing about living in a van where it took maybe 2 hours MAX to deep clean the entire space.

The area we would be moving to would have great access to public transit so we would not need to own a car or drive to school/work/errands. I am the opposite of a homebody so being able to step outside my door and have parks/libraries/bars/museums within an easy commutable distance is fantastic. My girlfriend hates driving in the city but loves riding her bike and so being able to commute everywhere she would want to go on a bike is important to her.

Cost wise, we would be borrowing money from family for the purchase (40k) and paying them back over 5 years. I wrote out some loan terms for 5 years specifically because I think that is the minimum amount of time we would be comfortable living in a small studio, maximum is 9 years. The monthly cost of the loan ($766), plus HOA ($450), plus utilities ($100) equals $1316. In comparison, I have found a larger one bedroom for $1350 with utilities.

Personally I would prefer to own rather than rent, and after 5 years our living expenses drop to $550 a month. But my girlfriend is worried about owning a place that could be really difficult to get out of in the future. I think it wouldn't be that difficult to rent out the studio, especially to a travel nurse (it's close to 5 major hospitals) or to resell it. I know that in HOA buildings there will often be a limit on the number of rentals that can exist at one time. But this doesn't concern me too much because after we back the loan to our family, our monthly expense drops to $550 a month. Even if it takes a year to sell the apartment, we'd only be out $6600.

I'm not concerned about anything that would cause us to want to leave suddenly because honestly, I love my city and it would take a LOT for me to want to move away. In fact, the only compelling reason I can possibly think of would be if she got a job making six figures. Which, if that were to happen then we'd have enough money to move and figure out the studio later.

Thanks in advance!

First time (prospective) buyer... I have been looking for homes for about 3 years, on and off. I started looking again recently with the idea that I'd take my time. I found a house that fit most of what I wanted and needed, and really just needed a bit of cosmetic work and was in a "new to me" neighborhood.

It was a bit on the higher end of my budget, and after viewing the house twice I made an offer a bit lower, and the seller counter offered. Honestly their counter wasn't too crazy off of mine, but I figured "well if I'm going to pay that much, I think I should look at a few more houses in that range". Since, most of the homes were a bit less and this one was the only house I saw that was more.

Thing is, the neighborhood is lovely, and checks all my boxes. And after a bit of research, I saw houses don't come up too often in that neighborhood. The house went pending with another offer recently, and I had already been second guessing and now I just feel dumb.

I'm sure it's common, but I have all the feelings of where am I gonna find another house as good, in an area like that, with all the same amenities etc... I just feel like I totally screwed the pooch. I feel like i blew it, and I was trying to be "smart" and make sure I looked at a number of houses in that range, but I think I messed up.

Honestly, just feeling pretty down on myself and depressed at the moment. Like, I feel like i really messed up and am going to regret this for a long time. The thing is, while it was being offered to me, I kept thinking about why I shouldn't or how xyz could go wrong.... I just feel dumb now.

Hi, bought my first house july 2025. Two investor rental properties have sold since then and a third just went up for sale just on my street alone.

Is this a sign of something? I find it interesting.

I'm in the immediate suburbs around Detroit.

PS - if you're going to be snarky, please dont comment. I truly don't know, so I'm asking.

We are on the leading edge of boomers dying off and their kids trying to get money out of their parents house.

See flooded markets. A buyer's dream scenario

Over the last ten years, my middle class neighborhood somehow thought it'd be a good idea to allow section 8 in. We have 3 of them and they have homes so dilapidated and disgusting that it really drags down the appearance of the place. Everyone else has well manicured laws, no trash, etc. These homes have weeds growing everywhere, broken blinds, their dogs run loose at all hours of the day, trees with broken branches, porches falling apart...

I am about to list my home, but my neighbor has a broken down car in her driveway that's been there for THREE years after it was destroyed in a tornado. She has garbage bins everywhere. Her home looks abandoned. What can I do about this? Can I do anything? Surely she can afford a tow truck seeing as she drives a brand new vehicle. If i was a homebuyer and i saw her as a neighbor, I'd turn right back around. I have no hoa so that's not an option.

Hi all,

I have a budget that can withstand an offer maybe on a house soonish. I live in central Massachusetts (but near the east side) and while I could afford some of these places I’m a single person and that is unlikely to change. I’m also never going to have kids. I don’t need or want a 4 bedroom house which will be SO spooky on my own. I live in an attic of an old 1800s house right now and it’s very cozy. I rent though and eventually would like to buy but there’s almost never any 2 bedrooms ever. I saw one and it sold in I’m not kidding 5 days. Ofc I would love a cheaper house but honestly I would be willing to pay the same amount as these 4 bedrooms ever or 5+ bedroom monsters. I feel that I’ll be stuck buying a huge spooky home because there’s just no stock. I like having my own space but not that much!

Any insight into this?? Should I just wait for small houses to hit the market and fight. Just seems crazy to me.

Also house prices are either dirt cheap rough areas, like ChEAP. Or expensive and huge. Feels like there’s no middle stock at all….I don’t need a home right now so I wonder if waiting for some older folk to…move on from their stock, might be the better bet for me. All my belongings fit into my car, can you imagine the echo in a house from the lack of stuff!!!

Went under contract with the understanding theyre getting a new roof. Inspection went fine, fixed all inspection asks and they got their new roof.

In the process of the roof, the roofing supplier backed the crane truck onto the driveway and cracked it clean in half on the ‘bottom’ two slabs. The repair, which is basically an entirely new 1/4 of the driveway is $2500, the supplier is paying the repair, and the roofer agreed to toss another $2500 out of pocket for their troubles.

The concrete contractor quoted the repair, and then he quoted the cost to replace the entire bottom half of the driveway (instead of just the broken half). The buyer is demanding a new culvert pipe (another $2500 cost) because the concrete guy mentioned that it could have cracked due to the pipe, but cant confirm until he pulls the concrete out. He also said its completely normal for that to happen to a 40 year old culvert, and it was unlikely that it would have happened if they didnt drive the crane onto the driveway.

The driveway was already in terrible shape when the buyers went under contract, and, even with a repair and not a replace, they are getting a way better driveway than what they contracted for.

I have already negotiated under asking, and gave them a $20,000 roof. And at one point the buyers agent told my realtor “my hud shows them making $xx,xxx so they cant say they dont have money for stuff” when negotiating gutters; which isnt even true because that take home number was before we factored in the roof as a line item. They have been very demanding and not happy with a single thing we offer.

Is it crazy to just stand firm and offer them the repair option and if they arent satisfied we ask for a terminate? We close monday.

I'm a long-term buy-and-hold investor. Arguably, the most important part of which is choosing your location. I want to fact-check my current belief and get your opinions, whether they support or go against it.

My belief is that the most popular metros that people have historically moved to (NYC, SF, LA, Boston, Miami, DC, etc) will continue to grow and outpace the rest of the country over the long-term. I don't care about the recent migrations to TX, AZ, etc. I'm talking about the ideal locations that people frequently talk about in subreddits like r/samegrassbutgreener. The places that people from overseas know about and want to visit and move to, and the places where the highest density of jobs and skilled workers live.

Currently, you can buy a 3BR house in Cleveland, OH for a little over $100k. The same house in Palo Alto, CA would cost around $3M. I don't think that the gap is going to close. In fact, I think that it is going to widen. Why?

1. The most popular cities have immutable traits that will always make people want to move (and stay) there. Coastal California will always have the best weather. NYC will always be NYC. Cities that dominate an industry (like LA for entertainment, SF for tech, NYC for finance) will probably continue to do so.

2. Value/ "cheap" cities have gains that are short-lived. We saw this with Austin. It was supposed to be a "cheap" tech hub and to displace San Francisco. It worked until it wasn't cheap anymore. Now house prices have tanked and a lot of tech is downsizing/ moving out.

3. They have the most name recognition. Carmel, IN is often rated as a great place to live. It just might be. Most people aren't even going to consider moving there because they've never been to Indiana. Some foreigners who immigrate to the USA might not even know about its parent city, Indianapolis. The same goes with your favorite quant suburb in <insert state that most people have never been to>. Almost nobody is going to move across the country (or world) to a small town that they're never heard of, even if it is a great place to live. But plenty will move to NYC or LA, etc, even if they've never been there before.

4. Density of talent. These cities are competitive and attract highly-skilled workers that can afford the costs to live there. This competition compounds and breeds higher-skilled workers, new jobs, and new companies. The companies and innovations that define the world are almost definitely going to come from these cities. With that comes money, and rising house prices.

5. Remote work. You might argue that remote work goes against this. If you can live in Sioux Falls, SD and make an SF tech salary, then housing prices should level out across the board. I don't believe that this is true, simply due to the network effects of big cities. You may be able to work a job at a passable level remotely from a cheap city. But someone who is really pushing to the higher levels of their career and/ or growing a business, the benefits of living in a major city will make doing so more likely to succeed. As with the above, those who succeed have more to spend, and house prices will continue to rise in the most popular major cities.

Interested to hear your thoughts and if you agree or disagree.

Our current situation -

We recently purchased a home with a bridge loan, using our current home as collateral, with the understanding that our current home would sell to pay off the bridge and move new home into permanent financing. We are having trouble selling that current home due to the market (I really don't need people telling me we made a stupid decision, I already understand the position that I am in and just looking for guidance).

We have enough equity in the current listed home that we are willing to take a pay cut just to get out of this situation before the market gets worse, as a lot of data is projecting. The home we are trying to sell was built in 2021. No upgrades or significant repairs needed.

We are exploring OpenDoor, and would like any and all experiences with them. Am I crazy for looking at this as an option, or have people really had good success with them?

We have been house hunting for the past couple of months. Primarily focused on the new builds in the greater Cincinnati area. These are the experience with different builders:

1. We went and toured the house. The house was about to be completed. It seemed overprice, after a while we settled on price. But after asking about inspection/appraisal contingency, the builders agent started ghosting us.
2. We reached out back to this builder whose house we have toured before. This house has been sitting for 10 months. Settled on price but asking for inspection/appraisal contingency, the builders agent flat out refused us. We had a real estate attorney helping us out. We had no choice but to walk away.

Is this common? People just sign the new build contract by waiving the inspection/appraisal contingency? Researching further and it seems most new builders here follow the same template.

We are very close to giving up on buying new houses and start exploring older houses? Any advice/recommendations?

UPDATE:
The offer expired. The seller is worried I wouldn’t be able to repair everything and is going to rent the house instead.

For preface I am a buyer. There is a home that has been on the market over 150 days. From what I can see, there has been one offer that was later withdrawn and the asking price was lowered around $20k. I put in an offer at listing price. They messaged my realtor saying that they wanted $1 more than was I offered (the listed price) and said they will not complete any repairs or offer any concessions. I was fine with that because i will have money left over for repairs. We have also asked for a disclosure multiple times but still haven’t received anything. My realtor sent a revised offer and they have not replied since. The offer is due to expire today. To me it seems like the seller doesn’t really want to sell the home? Is this normal behavior? As a realtor would you let a seller do this type of thing?

During our inspection it wasn't working. They found standing water in the overflow pan and some gaps and fixed it and sent a receipt for $500 of work 3 days prior to closing. We moved in and even on an October fall day in Georgia, it's mid 80s outside and the system set to 70 since the morning and we're at 75 degrees upstairs. This is the upstairs unit, the downstairs has its own unit and is at 70 degrees, as it is set.

Am I just hosed because the system couldn't be fully tested?

The repairs were done and there is no sitting water in the overflow pan now, but, it's just.... Not cooling as it should.

Venting. No pun intended. Lol.

Cry.

We got the report today, and let's just say it's not pretty. The main issues were structural, electrical, and utilities. I'll start with the outside and structural issues, move into the electrical, then cover the utilities, and finish with my final thoughts.

In the first post, I mentioned the porch/deck issues. What I didn't realize is that the support poles had missing joist hangers. This means the deck was held up loosely by friction alone; the inspector said high winds could easily topple it. The roof was in "acceptable condition," but the furnace chimney was uncapped and deteriorating. The front porch had rotten wood supports. The awnings had visible carpenter bee damage from an infestation that will likely return next spring. The foundation of the additions (about 2/3 of the house) was leaning and seemed in desperate need of repairs. The attic was inaccessible from the fold-down ladder because of a lock that was not present during our tour. The inspector found an access panel in a closet; when he entered, he noticed mold and loose nails. The electrical section also mentions more about the attic. Ironically, the most structurally sound part of the house was the 100-year-old section.

On to the electrical issues. The house wiring was aluminum; however, the wires were undersized for the current amps coming into the house. This would require a full rewiring to prevent house fires. Most wiring connections lacked a junction box; the few that had one were missing a cover. Several breakers were shut off in the panel; when turned on, they immediately tripped. The breaker box itself was full of sharp metal. The inspector recommended a full electrical inspection of all connections to confirm safety. There were no GFCI outlets in the bathrooms or kitchen, and the wires under the kitchen sink were fully exposed (no insulation on the wire, just the wire itself), leading to the garbage disposal. There was no electrical shutoff leading to the furnace. There were no grounding wires throughout the entire house. Lastly, and most importantly, the attic had old knob-and-tube wiring; most was disconnected, but one was still active (the inspector told us over the phone this was one of the only things he mentioned to the seller before leaving, and the seller called him a liar).

Next, utilities (water, gas, sewer, and vents). I'll start off with water, surprisingly the most up-to-code part of this section. The main shut-off valve was corroded and seemed to be fragile; replacement was recommended. All three bathrooms were missing sink shut-off valves. The water heater had no expansion tank or temperature release valve. The copper pipes, which the owner said were “newly installed,” showed signs of previous leaks and were poorly soldered. Next, the gas lines. Several uncapped gas connections were present throughout the house, including the attic, bedrooms, basement, and den. Ironically, the laundry room had no outlet or gas line for a dryer; to access one, you had to thread it through the flooring. Several old gas space heaters were throughout the house; however, the inspector found that the gas lines were improperly connected to the heaters, potentially causing carbon monoxide poisoning or an explosion. The inspector also found no gas shut-off valves on the space heaters or furnace. Now let's get to the sewer: no sewer vents were connected to the system, causing pressure to build up. The recently installed drain lines were improperly glued; sewer gas could escape through out-of-code S-traps under the sinks, toilets, etc. The vents were probably the worst part. First, there were no return vents, unbeknownst to us. The vents were being contaminated by furnace exhaust, and then the furnace showed signs of water damage (no idea how that happened, but it did). The furnace was recently serviced according to the disclosure statement; however, the inspector found no signs of it and said the filter looked like it hadn't been cleaned or replaced in years. We were told the furnace was installed in 2003; however, dating on the furnace itself showed an installation date of 1991. The furnace had a malfunctioning control board and was improperly attached to the foundation, which could damage the gas and electrical connections. 

Needless to say, thank god for an inspection contingency! We are walking away from the offer. The seller did a great job hiding all these issues, and I can see why he was so upset we had an inspector now. After talking with our insurance and loan provider, they all agreed that walking away was the best path to take. The insurance company even said they probably wouldn't cover the house. The most slimy part was the seller locking the main attic access so the inspector couldn’t see the issues. I’m so impressed with the inspector we got, and we'll use him again when we submit an offer on a hopefully better house. Thank you to everyone who responded to the first post; it really reassured us that this was unusual and a cause for concern. 

update to original post:

we fell in love with the house, neighborhood, and even the pool. We started visiting the area and mentally picturing ourselves there. We put an offer in!
… However another person apparently put in a higher offer the same day, and we can’t go any higher, and we lost the house. It was perfect. 😔 Sigh… it’s gonna be okay. I am theoretically okay with pools now. Onward with the search.

We are looking to buy in a HCOL city and home to the #1 school district including the #1 ranked high school and #1 ranked elementary school in our state. Homes demand a premium price if they are districted for a particular sequence of schools, which we would love.

However, there is only ONE home in that particular neighborhood, that is within our budget. This could be our only chance to buy a house at a good price in that particular neighborhood.

But it has a pool.

Our agent said that it's probably why it's not selling (we live in the midwest where people are ambivalent, at best, about pools.)

Would you buy it?

... What if you had three tween boys with unlimited energy and love swimming and being in the water? (We just moved away from the lakeside.)

Spouse and I both work and would have some money set aside for running and maintaining it, but we aren't rich and wouldn't look forward to paying for repeated big ticket repairs. Filling it in for 10k$ would be an option down the road I guess.

What would you do?

I’m “right-sizing” and getting ready to sell my house and get an apartment. My biggest concern is signing a lease and moving out before the final closing and then the buyer backs out at the last minute, leaving me stuck with the ongoing mortgage payment and the new rent payment as well as moving expenses. Do buyers ever agree to let you have a couple of weeks to a month to clear out after closing? Or is there some time between the due diligence period and the closing when they can’t back out?

Hi all,

I am currently a graduate student and planning on entering a dual MBA from a Top 25 program next year. I am really interested in getting into real estate development and am looking for more guidance on certifications to help land internships and development associate roles.

I have heard CCIM and ARGUS are good ones. Any others that may help? Do you think a PMP would help? My school also offers a certificate in global real estate as part of their MBA program, so I plan on doing that since it’s just a couple of electives.

Any general career advice would also be helpful!

FT: US 10-year Treasury yields risk hitting 6% for first time since 2000, Pimco says

Dan Ivascyn, chief investment officer at bond giant Pimco, said that a further sharp rise in 10-year Treasury yields — from the current level of 5.29 per cent — is “feasible” as investors like hedge funds are forced to ditch their losing bets on bonds following weeks of heavy selling in the $32tn market.

“It is certainly possible, even from a short-term trading perspective, given that some of the activity we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks is tied to some negative technicals, some stop-out activity from the platform hedge funds and other levered investors. You can certainly get there,” Ivascyn told the FT.

I guess we should get ready for mortgage rates above 8% soon!