"100% of people who do not save money do not have any!"--Dave Ramsey

[Fat Charlie]

Don't buy a house with pretend money.

Buy an investment house with pretend money, as long as you can afford the worst case fallout.

[Xist]

Buying houses is fine, but the real money is in purchasing hotels!

[hayden55]

Originally Posted by Xist

Buying houses is fine, but the real money is in purchasing hotels!

I do love that idea. I have noticed airbnb'ers are much much gentler to the property than long-term'ers who I swear try to destroy it. (roommates vs daily room rentals while you're home)

[Xist]

The only real estate that I expect to buy anytime soon--houses or hotels--would be with Monopoly money.

[hayden55]

Originally Posted by Xist

The only real estate that I expect to buy anytime soon--houses or hotels--would be with Monopoly money.

They are a hell of a lot easier to maintain.

[Xist]

Who am I to determine the value?! I am not a realtor!

No, I do research and math, not wishful thinking.

So, updates:
The tiny blue house with bars on the windows and a bad foundation is off the market.
The ugly house with a converted garage that Dawn tried to sell me is accepting backups. They put it for sale in February for $198,900, dropped the price three times, and it seems they tentatively accepted an offer below their latest price of $169,900 ($93 per square foot).
I liked this house, but nobody else did. It is on a hill high enough that it gets substantially more snow, has a gravel driveway, and is on a gravel road. They are accepting backups after 3 weeks with an asking price of $185,000 ($143 per square foot)
This uninspiring house is pending after 5 weeks. They asked $179,000 ($156 per square foot).
Large yard down a dirt road and accepting backups. They asked $128,500 ($102 per square foot) and accepted an offer after 10 days.
This house is slightly larger than the rest. They asked $189,900 $156 per square foot), accepted an offer after 3 days, and are accepting backups.
Gravel in front, one-car carport, small lot, and the washer and dryer are in the kitchen. They asked $178,500 in March, raised it to $188,500 in May, and it is pending for $170,000 ($156 per square foot)
A lady on the next street took her house off of the market after 3 weeks. She was asking around $185 per square foot with bare dirt front and back.

The only price-per-square-foot that I believe is the last one, $156. The rest just show the last asking price, but two more were $156. The others were $93, $102, and $143. Those six homes average out to $134.33, but since half of them were $156, you might argue that is the value, although they are not final.

Another neighbor sold for $170,000 in December and is similar to Mom's and the neighbor's, but she is asking around $233,000. When she told me that she considered selling it she said that someone showed her a similar house, but it didn't have some feature, and it was worth $190,000.
"Was that the asking price or the sale price?"
[indifferently] "I don't know."
This has it the feature the other house was missing. It sold for $180,500 ($110 per square foot) in March. It is 29% bigger, but she is asking 29% more?
Dawn's house came down 15% and they are accepting backups, so it probably sold for even less. I am sure that I will find better examples.

The neighbor is asking $183 per square foot. The description boasts vaulted ceilings in the kitchen and living room (a whole 3'), spacious laundry room (significantly smaller than Mom's), "Mature oak tree in the front yard [barely visible in the 7 pictures of the front] and [unenthusiastic] grass in [half of] the back."

Mom doesn't think that it has air conditioning.

I do not know why it would be worth even $156 per square foot, let alone more, but she is asking 17% more ($35,000).

I do not believe that it is worth more than the house across the street that sold for $170,000 in December ($133.65 per square foot).

Prices rose during the pandemic!

36 percent of renters and 30 percent of homeowners failed to make full on-time payments in July.
How many of those houses would be in forbearance otherwise?

Honestly, I don't know, but all forclosure was halted, so houses that normally would have been forclosed are in limbo.

I do not believe that the government should give people several hundred dollars a week if they were not earning that before. I do not believe the government should allow mortgage forbearance and halt nonpayment evictions if people are receiving several hundred a week in unemployment.

Some people stopped paying just because they can, but still, this is not a strong housing market!

Actual Data:
60 houses sold since 5/13/2019 (12 months before I started keeping track) for an average of $114.61 per square foot:

I tried including the dates of sale across the bottom, but it did crazy things to the graph!
The highest price-per-square-foot was $176.36, but was an overpriced flip, although the kitchen was new and modern.

The eighth most expensive house per square foot is the first one without major features like a remodeled kitchen or large covered patio. However, the house and yard are both bigger and they sold for $148.94 per square foot.

Eight houses sold in the past 90 days between $200,000 and $250,000. The smallest was 1,349 square feet and the largest was 1,732.

The 1,732-square-foot house has a remodeled kitchen, fancy bathrooms, covered or enclosed patios on two sides, a 2-car garage, a 1-car garage, and a 1-car carport.

The ceiling is corrugated metal!

It sold for 1% more than our neighbor is asking. Her price has been weighed, measured, and found wanting.

[Xist]

To summarize #365, Mom owes $37,000 at 5.875%, which they already refinanced from about 9% with a bankruptcy on their record. If I put $9,000 a year into Mom's mortgage, we will pay it off in 24 months, and save $4,500 in interest, so in a way that is a 25% return in 2 years.

Otherwise, Mom will pay off her house in 5 years and 11 months.

The interest rate is less important when you aggressively pay down a debt, but I still transferred my credit card balance when I was paying it off. I don't know if I ever calculated how much I was saving, but after pulling numbers from several different sites: If Mom refinances for 15 years at 3.199%, but continues to make the same payments, she will pay off her mortgage in 5 years and 5 months, saving $2,774.48. If she refinances, continues paying the same amount, and I pay an extra $750 a month, we will save something like $5,450 total.

[redpoint5]

Can you find a place that will refi $37k without huge fees?

[Xist]

Some site said that fees were usually around 1.5%, which would be $555.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Can you find a place that will refi $37k without huge fees?

I couldn't find a place that would refinance $90,000 at even a close to market rate. The place I ended up with had a $120,000 minimum.

On a different note - we will be landlords on Wednesday. We found a 1800 sq ft, all brick, duplex in Michigan for $95,000.