Buying A House: C or D?

That's a way more sensible system. The lack of transparency in the U.S. real estate sales is so bizarre to me. How can I beat a competing offer if I can't know what that offer is?

Also when the brokers can hypothetically lie. It does seem like there should be some kind of objective bid system even if a blind one.

OTOH the owner can accept or reject an offer for whatever reason. I have had sellers take lower offers over mine twice in my life.

True -- when a friend of mine bought his house, his wasn't the highest offer, but the owner sold to him because all the other prospective buyers wanted to demolish it or add another story, and it had been that owner's home for like 40 years or something

Sarahell OTM. There are various factors.

Man alive is right. Sure, the system isn't transparent. But it gives agency to people who want to steer their property to one buyer rather than another, for a variety of reasons. Now that I am a homeowner I... kinda think that might be good, not bad.

Of course this will seem bizarre to an Australian human, or to anyone whose only goal is maximizing profit. But. There are reasons why a seller would prefer one offer over another, irrespective of which offer was highest. And some of those reasons are okay! It may have to do with differing contingencies. Or it may have to do with emotional stuff.

For example. I bought an older house - pretty much as is - because I wanted an older house. And my intention was (and is) to love the house and live in it. Everyone else who submitted an offer was a developer offering cash. They all would have torn the house down and put a new McMansion in its place. Whether for aesthetic reasons or sentimental ones, the previous owners preferred to have the house go to a young family who intended to live in the house more or less as is.

Is that important? I don't know. But I kinda like that our system gives sellers that option.

To be clear, the reasons can't be stuff like "nO BlaCks! No gAys!"

But giving the right of approval/refusal to sellers is not inherently wrong. A strict "highest bidder gets it" system omits all other considerations.

Finally, the process allows for back-and-forth negotiation on contingencies: Buyer A will pay $X but only if you repair the roof. Buyer B will pay $Y and doesn't ask you to repair anything. So you (as seller) can decide based on how much you think repairing the roof will cost.

Some sellers will be like "gawd, I just want to get this over with" and go with the offer that doesn't require them to do anything. Other sellers will be like, "no thanks, I will hold out for a better offer." Our system allows that flexibility. Is that bad, or maybe a little bit good?

vendors in australia can choose who they sell to. its only auction sales (about 10% of all sales) that have rules requiring the highest offer be accepted. this prevents the bidding process from being corrupted.

the top offer dropped out on the old farmhouse. so we are the new #1. first offer dropped because $60k of foundation work recommended.

this is a raised foundation. posts are sitting on sandstone. Perimeter foundation walls are substandard.

seems like every house we look at has a crazy hidden bill attached.

and you can't really ignore recommended foundation repair when you're bringing two kids into the house in the land of earthquakes.

We are now eyeing a house that is 690 square feet. I mean we have lived for extended periods of time in 400 square feet and we do like each other a lot, but this may be even too small for small vintage house fans.

How's the lot size?

875 I think

oak park bath st

you really want to be close to the ice cream

and the pot store. dangerous combo.

ha true. place has the good old house style. I wish daily grind made better coffee. Handlebar is a short trip up. Location will probably be quieter than previous, but a tradeoff being a bit further away from downtown.

We’d reno kitchen immediately

yeah that's what we did with current place

Our place was a totally rehabbed former trap house, so while some elements and original details remain and are rather nice, others-- such as the wall-to-wall in most of the upstairs rooms-- are clearly covering up damaged wood they were too cheap to fix.

The people who bought the place a sheriff's auction, rehabbed, and flipped it were clearly not too happy we are gay, but we were clearly not too happy that they were both FBI agents, so whatever.

they have a show, "Love It or List It or Go to Jail for Planted Drugs"

Fall nesting is hitting me so hard I've watched about 100 tiny house videos on youtube in the last week and visions of wood stoves are dancing in my head. While at the same time living in my OWN tiny house, which is actually a spacious NYC apartment that's overly full of things I don't need.

Our place was a totally rehabbed former trap house, so while some elements and original details remain and are rather nice, others

elements and details of its past as a trap house??? Like, in order to preserve the original charm, we elected to keep the plywood over the windows rather than replace with double-paned glass?

While it would have been an improvement to life-safety and create a cleaner aesthetic, we chose to keep the half-dozen or so long-ass orange extension cords the previous occupants used in place of getting the electrical fixed? Idk, orange is a nice color! Especially in the kitchen, it does have associations with comfort food.

Bidding on a house we never set foot in went so well the first time, we're doing it again. This one has known foundation issues lollllll.

Where is this one

Not on foothill i hope

Oak Park. Was under contract but buyers got cold feet when they did inspection(s). I'm no wuss so bring it.

I mean apparently the owners went ahead and fixed the carbon monoxide leak, so truly what do I have to worry about.

Too close to hope ranch to burn down

you have to spend time a house to fall in love with it

And for it to fall down on YOU *golf swing*

xxxp Nice. Same situation but different houses.

is it a slab or raised foundation?

been really into foundations

raised

Need post and pier replacement, perimeter wall, or floor releveling?

post and pier, maybe.

if we even get the house.

not only is there no dishwasher

there is also no clothes dryer

"i don't even own a dishwasher"

or AC, but I believe the consensus was that Real Santa Barbarans (?) don't do AC.

That's right. We derisively call people with AC "Spanos" and they're excluded from the solstice drum circle.

Having AC would be amazing

You’re in a damn desert Hang ur clothes

^this

It smells good in Santa Barbara

xp
Well, hang your clothes, but SB isn't a desert (even LA isn't a desert).

dry your clothes in the Santa Ana winds as you drink Kirschwasser from a shell

think of the lack of clothes dryer as a favor they are doing you, so that you can purchase a new one yourselves, as opposed to dealing with an existing one with expensive annoying problems you have to get fixed.

tbh if you don't have kids and you live in southern california then you should not use a dryer 11 months of the year (3 weeks of the year it's on fire, 1 week it's raining). i mean "should" here in the moral sense. if you get one, get an electric one and pay the utility company extra for green power.