Any recommendation on a home inspector?

5/18/2016 7:41:26 PM

Raleigh? Jon Supler if so

5/18/2016 7:59:56 PM

Advantage Inspection http://www.adrdu.com

5/18/2016 10:49:40 PM

stevesmallman.com

5/19/2016 8:26:07 AM

^4 Scott Fuller

I've come across his reports quite a bit at work and he seems competent.

5/24/2016 4:17:56 PM

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2626-Davis-St_Raleigh_NC_27608_M63019-18141

Bring me a buyer plz

6/3/2016 1:28:37 AM

Daaaannnnnggggggg. Nice house. Are you staying in the area?

6/3/2016 7:48:20 AM

That is gorgeous!

6/3/2016 8:22:52 AM

So who are the RE Agents that are there on TWW? I know that Str8BacardiL is the veteran agent on the site. ctnz71 too? July 1 will be my 1 year anniversary with Keller Williams Cary.

6/3/2016 8:42:34 AM

I'm a commercial broker with NAI Carolantic Realty

6/3/2016 11:40:01 AM

ctnz71 you bought the dirt for $227K, put in ~$310K (all in for $550K) and have $200K+ in equity in 2 years...not bad if my math is correct.

6/3/2016 11:42:53 AM

I've been doing real estate stuff in New York for the last 6 years. The last 2 on the tech side selling data feeds, syndication, etc.

6/3/2016 9:57:53 PM

Anybody selling land that perks, East of Raleigh? 5+ acres

6/17/2016 12:27:30 AM

Its crazy out there right now.

3/9/2017 11:41:10 PM

we got lucky 17 showings in 2 days with Multiple offers and ours got accepted. if you can't get to the house within a day and have an offer in less then 24 hours you are not getting the house. Also you basically have to offer over asking to have any chance.

We offered 10 grand over asking on another house 2 weeks ago and didn't get it.

3/10/2017 9:46:51 AM

^ what price range were you looking at? Ive noticed that the houses over $400K seem to be sitting for about 30 days and many were sold below list in Cary and Morrisville. Wonder if they were just over-priced to begin with.

3/10/2017 11:34:16 AM

I think the $350K and under have the crazy competition.

My flip in Durham was going to go back on the market for $469,900 and went under contract before I put it on the market for $456K, closing later this month. Comps support the $469,900, but I'd rather make a quick nickel than a slow dime.

3/10/2017 11:51:56 AM

Quote :

"I think the $350K and under have the crazy competition."

this

I got an offer accepted for a client today! They were so happy. The waiting for new listings, making offers, then starting over is brutal!

3/10/2017 10:30:45 PM

^You a broker?

3/11/2017 8:14:33 AM

Yes! I have been full time since 2003. The only other thing I have done is work in wireless sales some during the recession.

3/11/2017 9:27:09 AM

Interested to see your listings in Cary, Apex or near Downtown Raleigh if you get any.

I mostly dabble in foreclosures, but may also throw offers at any unreasonably priced homes that have been sitting for a while. Make an aggressive all cash bid with a short fuse and see if I can steal something.

3/12/2017 9:04:46 PM

Random real estate question...

Would it be practical and advisable to work this route...

I own the townhouse I live in, it's paid off worth about 180k and I can rent it out each month year round...

Would it be practical for me to buy a house using the townhouse value, improve/renovate it and rent out the townhome and use the rent to pay back the loan?

3/12/2017 10:32:29 PM

Absolutely use it for cash flow purposes, but don't 100% rely on the cash flow as your only means to pay the note on the new house

3/13/2017 9:36:47 AM

Do y'all think Raleigh home prices are sustainable at the rate they're going? I have a condo in center city I got in on before shit got crazy pricey and could sell it for a pretty nice profit right now. I've also increased my income/savings substantially since I bought it, although I don't have enough equity in it for it to make sense to rent out (I need that money back out plus the profit to buy the type of house I'd be willing to sell for).

I'd like to buy a small single family house inside the beltline in one of the historical neighborhoods (Oakwood, Mordecai, Boylan, Five Points, Whitaker Mill, etc.) and lock in a good amount of equity that I could potentially borrow against if I needed to for business loans, etc. but after watching the market every day for the past few years it's just insane to me how much places are going for compared to even just a year ago.

I'm very tempted to just sell now while the gettin' is good, so to speak, and either rent in the same neighborhood for slightly less, move in with a friend for way less, or just say fuck it and move in with my parents and really dump some money in the bank each month and escrow the profit on the condo so I can roll it over later.

tl;dr - do y'all think there's a bubble or anything that is going to burst and home prices will come down significantly in the next few years, or are the prices now just the new reality?

3/13/2017 10:57:22 AM

If you want to be ITB in the hoods you mentioned, you'll pay top dollar. Even the land goes for stupid pricing. If you have a house that is paid for, you should get a HELOC on it and see how much the rent would cover for your HELOC. That way, if you find another opporunity, you can hit your credit line and the rent will cover the payments, but if you don't, you make strong cash flow on the rental. That said, I didn't see if you have the means to put another down payment down without selling first.

Pricing will continue to go up as the supply is very low and folks keep moving here. Something like 2,000/month.

3/13/2017 11:00:41 AM

^^I was also wondering about a theoretical bubble. My friend has long said he thinks there will be a condo bubble of sorts with all the new additions planned ontop of some downtown buildings that historically can't sell out, but that residential ITB neighborhoods won't see a bubble. Dunno how informed he really is, though.

I'm currently a renter but have been thinking about investing in a rental unit. I don't particularly want to buy a home to settle in (as I'm single and tech career is such that I could easily get pulled to west coast), but would like something for investment value and cashflow. I don't really know if buying a place to rent out (NCSU area condo/apartment), while still also renting, makes sense. I could buy a place and rent rooms in it, but that's not really the direction I wanted to go.

3/13/2017 1:27:59 PM

There are 66 new transplants who move to the Raleigh area everyday. Housing inventory is extremely low. This is not a bubble.

3/13/2017 2:22:03 PM

are contingent offers even going through downtown these days or do you pretty much have to have everything together to pull the trigger same day in most cases?

3/13/2017 3:00:22 PM

I work for a home builder and each quarter we have a company meeting and they go over performance, where we're going, trends, yada yada. I don't remember any exact numbers but I remember someone asking about a bubble in the Raleigh area. And as others have said, the amount of people moving here is far, far more than the housing available and scheduled to be built right now.

We are having a neighborhood opening/breaking ground ceremony at one of our new neighborhoods this weekend. We've invited all the people that have contacted us saying they are interested in buying a house in the neighborhood. There are 60 lots in the neighborhood. Our sales agent said an OK list of people would be equal to the number of lots available. A good list would double the amount of lots available (because not everyone will end up buying). The list for this neighborhood is over 600 people.

3/13/2017 6:40:54 PM

I hear comments all the time from 20 somethings about "Apex? Clayton? Garner?" "I would never live there. So they buy these homes in North Raleigh that are 20 something years old and the same price as a brand new house at one of those locations for cheaper but with more of a commute. Then you meet 30 somethings and retired people all moving to those locations. Am I right to assume they are the smart ones here? Don't see why people feel the need for their address to SAY Raleigh or Cary. I would be fine with Garner and living in that white oak area. What say you TWW

3/14/2017 1:21:27 AM

Have you tried driving from Clayton into RTP? That's not a commute, its a road trip.

I think the people going out to Garner/Clayton are going because that's all they can afford. I wouldn't even lump Apex in with those two cities any more. Apex has become prime real estate for the RTP crew and the median home price is comparable to Cary now.

I suspect in the long run the people getting homes closer in to downtown/good schools/job centers are going to get the better return -- people will always covet those homes more. It just takes a lot more cash to get in the door in those areas. Its easy to see the prices in the more desirable areas and say they're ridiculous and can't possibly go any higher, but just go compare those prices to comparable home locations in a place like Austin . They will continue to go up and they'll always be desirable.

Short term, people buying in Clayton/South Garner today could see some mega return %s in the first few years if they get (got?) in early enough. The closer in parts of Garner are already getting kind of pricey though.

3/14/2017 7:47:17 AM

I guess it really depends on where you commute to. I live and work in North Raleigh (not far from Crabtree), so that was my motivation to buy one of those older, more pricey homes in the area. A 5-minute daily commute really offset the gas purchases I was making when I had a 25-minute commute from Southeast Raleigh (close to Garner / White Oak). That, plus we liked the "character" of the older, more established neighborhood. Lots of big trees, good acreage, no HOA, etc.

3/14/2017 10:11:39 AM

We bought our house in the south Garner/Clayton area a little south of White Oak a little over a year ago and couldn't be happier. Your money definitely goes a lot further. We wanted some land and privacy and were able to find an awesome house on a 2.5 acre lot. I work downtown and my commute is a pretty easy 25 minutes, but I go in and leave early so that definitely helps with the traffic.

3/14/2017 10:14:57 AM

Most of my buyers recently started their search with Apex, Cary and Holly Springs but soon realized how much more they were getting for their money in SE Wake, JoCo, Harnett Co (In between Fuquay and Holly Springs). That and not as many multiple offers out there although my last couple buyers in Garner went to multiple offers.

Seems like the same old story coming out of Apex this year. Agent from my offfice said 9 offers on a house in Apex, winning bid $10,000 over asking price with $8,000 in due diligence.

Another agent had 109 showings over a weekend at a property in West Cary.

3/14/2017 10:54:11 AM

Moved just east of White Oak. I get about everything I need done there. I am at campus everyday and it is 25 minutes. I did interview for a few RTP jobs and it took about 40 minutes. If you worked downtown White Oak east or west 5 miles would be awesome!

3/15/2017 12:49:48 AM

I moved out to Wendell in the new Wendell Falls area. Hoping that getting in early before any of commercial stuff comes along will result in a nice return on investment down the road.

3/15/2017 8:35:51 AM

Quote :

"Random real estate question... Would it be practical and advisable to work this route... I own the townhouse I live in, it's paid off worth about 180k and I can rent it out each month year round... Would it be practical for me to buy a house using the townhouse value, improve/renovate it and rent out the townhome and use the rent to pay back the loan?"

If the house you are buying to flip has problems it will be much easier to get the loan off your current home than borrow it against the new one.

Here is the other advantage to that. If you open up an equity line on it or go ahead and take the mortgage out you are now a "cash buyer". That means you can close in a week or so vs the 4-6 weeks everyone else needs. You can get a better deal on the new house since you can close fast and with much less hassle.

I just sold a listing that had 3 offers. Two were way over the appraisal we had on hand, they wanted 30 days of due diligence, 45 days to close. The other one was cash 14 days of due diligence, close in 21 days. It might seem we would have accepted the much higher offer, but the problem is that has to be appraised and there are many problems with appraisals in a rising market. It was way too much risk of lost time on my client and they took the cash one that closes faster. It is past due diligence and closes next week. If we went with the financed offer we would not even be 1/2 way through the transaction by now.

3/15/2017 7:09:17 PM

Quote :

"are contingent offers even going through downtown these days or do you pretty much have to have everything together to pull the trigger same day in most cases?"

Not really. If you have a house to sell try to qualify without selling it and leave the contingency out. I have gotten a few through in the last few years by breaking out the market data and my company's marketing strategy for the listing agent. In those situations though there were not competing offers. The only other thing you can do is throw down some crazy high due diligence fee to say to the seller you are not gonna lose out on that house.

3/15/2017 7:14:37 PM

Quote :

"they wanted 30 days of due diligence, 45 days to close. "

Those big box lenders WILL NOT come down off of that 45 day quote for closing loans. I am having the same problem too in multiple offers, i know the 40-45 day close window is too long.

Quote :

"but the problem is that has to be appraised and there are many problems with appraisals in a rising market."

I am having buyers bid $5k-$10k over knowing that it probably won't appraise but we are letting the seller agent know that they know they are overbidding and they will make up any difference between purchase price and appraisal.

These multiple offer situations are getting ridiculous. It's even happening in Garner now.

3/16/2017 8:27:54 AM

Quote :

"The only other thing you can do is throw down some crazy high due diligence fee to say to the seller you are not gonna lose out on that house."

what would you define as crazy high?

yeah everything seems to be going to multi-bid.

My coworker lives in Smithfield and its amazing what you can get over there. Gorgeous, completely renovated historic homes at like 4500 sf for like $250k.

I've also thought a lot about buying a second home or income property in downtown Wilmington. Some great deals to be had out there and I can't see that property value going anywhere but up as more Northerners move to NC.

3/16/2017 1:15:07 PM

I am looking to buy an investment rental near The Pointe @ Barclay shopping center in Wilmington that is opening this month. Wish I had got in there last year they are already starting to go up.

3/16/2017 8:04:29 PM

houses between 350-450 are going pretty quick now, which was our price range. we found a place near 40 and Chapel hill road.

my old house sold in june, in Cary near lake pine, in less than 24 hrs. It's old ranch, 1500 sqft with a .46 acre lot, nice deck and a hot tub.

Its has already gone up 15k in value since i sold it.

3/16/2017 9:54:14 PM

My old house just sold, 13 months after I moved out. 35k higher than I sold it for.
The neighborhood had 110 new construction lots sold as well in the 175-250k range.

The new construction in my new neighborhood is going for 40+k more than when I moved in last year.

3/17/2017 7:48:49 PM

https://www.redfin.com/NC/Raleigh/1304-Flint-Pl-27605/home/41328641

this house came on the market 6 hours ago. I tried going $15k over asking, $1,500 earnest, $500 due diligence contingent on the sale of my downtown condo and they were already in a multi-bid situation asking for best and finals tonight and wouldn't consider my offer (not that i'm surprised but it was worth a run).

Went to look at it and there were at least 6 cars/couples that showed up in the less than 10 minutes that I was there like it was an auction.

this market, man.

3/28/2017 5:30:09 PM

I would not want to be buying a house right now.

^ BTW...what's the size of your condo? While that house is pretty sweet...its also pretty small. I don't think a lateral move in terms of size of your residence is the best move in this market. I would just keep gaining equity at your current place and wait for the market to plateau out (or go back down) and get something bigger (and hopefully keep your current place as a rental).

[Edited on March 28, 2017 at 5:39 PM. Reason : .]

3/28/2017 5:35:42 PM

so rates are going up when?

3/28/2017 8:55:07 PM

Rates just went down the other week after the FED rate hike. total guess, if the stock market get another bump then rates might go u. There are still 2 more planned FED rate hikes.

the will probably jump at the next rate hike for sure.

but i know nothing. glad i close next wed.

3/28/2017 9:23:27 PM

Damn, Raleigh real estate is

It's not as bad here in W-S, but it can get fairly competitive in some sections of the large neighborhood I'm in. One street not too far down the road typically has houses in the 150-200k range, but one large lot was sold a year ago & has been split into 5 smaller lots, with both a refurb house & new construction for sale @ over 350k. Another house across the street from that lot is currently being renovated & for sale at around 270k, and then another renovation a little further down is adding a second story and for sale @ 300k.

This area has seen growth, but it's largely been slow/steady. Though I worry how things might change with some much growth going on in Wake/Mecklenburg.

3/29/2017 9:06:41 AM

Hoping to get another foreclosure...waiting out the 8 day upset period. Hoping to get it for $310K and clean the carpets and touch up paint and put it back out at $395K. House is only 4 years old and is in great shape - grateful the person has pictures on Realtor.com for me to see the entire inside. In a dynamite neighborhood in Apex.

3/29/2017 9:39:21 AM

Quote :

"I would not want to be buying a house right now. ^ BTW...what's the size of your condo? While that house is pretty sweet...its also pretty small. I don't think a lateral move in terms of size of your residence is the best move in this market. I would just keep gaining equity at your current place and wait for the market to plateau out (or go back down) and get something bigger (and hopefully keep your current place as a rental)."

It's 800sf plus a garage and storage unit. It's not about the space so much right now but being from Raleigh, I really want to have an actual house inside the beltline before I basically get forever priced out. I just think with the finite amount of single family houses ITB and the protections that the historic neighborhoods have, it would always go up in value as long as you took care of it. There are other things going on right now that would have made that house ideal too - I just got a puppy, I work at State, enrolled in a doctoral program at State so I'll be here for at least 3-4 years or maybe more with that. There's a lot that can be said about having even a small deck/yard and being able to sit outside and relax or grill. My condo has no amenities or outdoor space we can use.

But yeah I'm watching the market like a hawk and if it gets to where I have saved up enough for a second down payment (actually not too unreasonable) I'll just hold the condo as a rental.

3/29/2017 9:47:25 AM