Is house-flipping back?

[Noirish]

I am casually looking to buy a house within the next year. I know Bay Area is expensive, but I came across some ridiculous sales during my search. This one definitely takes the crown. I don't know what it looked like before. It is well remodeled, but I just don't think it's worth the price. It is on a busy street right across from an elementary school. The area is just average. Its best school is the elementary school rated at 7/10, and middle school and high school are rated at 4/10. I wonder if it's one of those all cash foreign investors who doesn't know better...

$365k to $810k in 6 months

 

[blinblue]

I read that as Horse-Flipping and I am now disappointed that it is not a thing.

 

[BoomerD]

Back? Hell, it never ended...only the players changed.

No more "Joe and Jane Citizen" playing the "let's get rich lottery," but more big money investors who can afford to wait if necessary for the bigger pay-off.

 

[DesiPower]

Was it ever gone?

 

[Buckeye269]

Around here it isn't so much flipping anymore as it is buying a house, renovating, and then having renting it out.

 

[halik]

haah 800K for 50s ranch?

 

[Vdubchaos]

I know few that are currently flipping.

Hard to measure success though. 1 seems to be well off but I hear rumors of mountains of debt aka "30k millionaire". Other hasn't finished the process yet, yet to be determined.

 

[thegimp03]

The market in the Bay Area has cooled off a bit in terms of inventory. There are some houses available, but you'll likely be bidding against contractors. For example..one of my friends bid above asking price on a house and a contractor came in $10k above his last offer with a full cash offer - and this was a $600k+ house.

 

[SMOGZINN]

It never really went away. It just became a lot more risky and requires a lot more capital to run.
What made house flipping so common was how easy it was to get a loan. Practically anyone could get a home loan with no questions asked. Now you need to show you can actually have a chance at paying the mortgage, and they are reluctant to give you 2 or 3 of them.

 

[Kadarin]

I am casually looking to buy a house within the next year. I know Bay Area is expensive, but I came across some ridiculous sales during my search. This one definitely takes the crown. I don't know what it looked like before. It is well remodeled, but I just don't think it's worth the price. It is on a busy street right across from an elementary school. The area is just average. Its best school is the elementary school rated at 7/10, and middle school and high school are rated at 4/10. I wonder if it's one of those all cash foreign investors who doesn't know better...

$365k to $810k in 6 months

That house is not worth $810K.

 

[drbrock]

House flipping is in full effect in So Fla. I have a few friends with millions to invest and they can't find a home to buy to save their life. Market is red hot. From what I hear you have to go to Vero Beach to find a reasonably good deal on a home.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

How do they flip a house any how, they are too heavy.

 

[slayer202]

looks like a macys ad, yuck

 

[Red Squirrel]

Lots of money in that, though there is probably more money in building from scratch and selling. Though the issue with buying a house that was built for the sole purpose of selling it is that you can bet very well everything was done minimum code and you'll have lot of issues years from now.

 

[DrPizza]

Once the lot is purchased, I have trouble even conceiving how $300,000 is spent on materials and labor to improve a 1600 square foot home; at least not in a way that raises the value by anywhere near that much. Thus, since they're not breaking even, I have an even harder time understanding how less than 300k can improve a 1600 square foot home's value by that much.

 

[OlafSicky]

There are many homes on the market that haven't been updated in 50 years and if there is a shortage someone might make money on it. Just imagine the cost buying/ selling/ looking . I don't think it's that profitable if you are not actually working on these yourself. The house OP linked to is hideous.

 

[Mixolydian]

No more "Joe and Jane Citizen" playing the "let's get rich lottery,"

Thank god.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm guessing a lot of these are also done without permits and possibly even lot of stuff not to code. It's all about making it look good so it sells. I personally would rather buy a fixerupper for cheap and pay to get work done myself or do it myself, than to buy a move in ready home that was flipped.

Same deal with the houses that are being built then sold. Everything is minimum code at best.

 

[Bateluer]

Back? Pfft, it never really left in Phoenix. Housing prices dropped through the floor, and people still had difficulties buying homes because investors were buying them up for cash, sitting on them or renovating them, then selling them when the market started to rebound.

 

[Noirish]

I don't know about the rest of the country, but it's kind of surreal to see housing prices almost back at where they were before the bubble in most of the Bay Area...

 

[Miramonti]

Gotta do something to take advantage of all those cheap foreclosures.

 

[Slew Foot]

I don't know about the rest of the country, but it's kind of surreal to see housing prices almost back at where they were before the bubble in most of the Bay Area...

The crazy part is that most houses are being paid in cash. Unless you get rich in stock options, I dont know how anyone can save up enough when a nice house jumps 150K every year.

 

[PricklyPete]

Definitely happening here in Denver.

 

[Vdubchaos]

That house is not worth $810K.

That house is not worth 365k

 

[Vdubchaos]

I'm guessing a lot of these are also done without permits and possibly even lot of stuff not to code. It's all about making it look good so it sells. I personally would rather buy a fixerupper for cheap and pay to get work done myself or do it myself, than to buy a move in ready home that was flipped.

Same deal with the houses that are being built then sold. Everything is minimum code at best.

To me buying a "ready" house takes the fun out of things.

Kind of like buying a premodified car. If it's all done/ready then where is the fun in that?

But I also enjoy tinkering with cars and working on home projects. Just me.