very odd thing

[Amethyst]

When we used to rent out a townhouse, "I'm looking on behalf of my parents" was a known looky-loo line, used by other landlords who wanted to see what the competition was charging. They would send their adult kids out to scout the competition. It gave the person an excuse not to fill out a credit application, or give any info.

I'm with some of the other posters here.
Unless your house is a one story I don't buy the "it's for my parents" thing for one second. Most parents in their 80's are looking to downsize, get out of a place with stairs, and most of the time get into a retirement-type community.
Don't let them try to affect you with a soft-pitch about parents, and unless you want a headache finding another place and moving in this real estate market tell them flatly no.

 

[boont]

Location

My view is that this all depends on where this house is located. What state and what city.

I get a monthly list of the sales in my neighborhood near San Francisco.

Last month there were about 15 sales. Each was listed with "asking" and "sold for".

Every house sold for over asking and three of them went $1million over. So a $1.2 million ask sold for $2.2.

Without putting your house on the market in this current environment you will never know what it would sell for.

If you want to sell, put it on the market and see what it is worth, then you can choose your buyer including your neighbor.

 

[Earlygirl]

In my area, if you have a buyer, you can just handle the sale through the title company. No realtor needed. Or you could pay a realtor a reasonable flat fee to handle the paperwork, as someone else suggested. The main thing is, do you have somewhere else to live?

 

[cat4ever]

Is it just me that thinks the neighbor is an arrogant snob for even suggesting he should buy your house ...I find that creepy.

Tell him you find the whole thing to be in poor taste

Think the parents story is a load too.

I don’t get this, I’d be glad to entertain anyone’s offer price for my house. What’s the harm?

 

[ivinsfan]

I don’t get this, I’d be glad to entertain anyone’s offer price for my house. What’s the harm?

Well unless I missed something OP had no intention of selling.


Neighbor asked to buy but never actually gave a firm offer, vaguely said they would pay "something" over market.


OP said they didn't want to sell and neighbor came back again with another ask.



Now if the neighbor wants to knock on the door and say I'll pay you 500K over asking that might be another conversation.

 

[frances]

us too -

When we used to rent out a townhouse, "I'm looking on behalf of my parents" was a known looky-loo line, used by other landlords who wanted to see what the competition was charging. They would send their adult kids out to scout the competition. It gave the person an excuse not to fill out a credit application, or give any info.

yup. had that happen with our rental townhouse too. Lately it's been "we want to buy your property but we need to look at it". Not for sale, it's elderly mom's income stream currently.

 

[jazz4cash]

+1



But not just spouse. Would anyone who could afford to casually buy a $800k+ house really want their parents living with them? Just saying.

I would, but I see great value in multi generational households. It’s likely the Parents would need a lot of help maintaining that home. Going through something similar with a cousin and like PB said, I suspect a spouse squashed plans for the parent to live in her own place nearby. We did it for DW’s mom and also her brother.

 

[Skitso999]

He will bail...

He will bail out in about a month or two when the housing bubble begins to burst, again.

Sell it now, then buy something less expensive when the prices drop!

 

[jazz4cash]

When we used to rent out a townhouse, "I'm looking on behalf of my parents" was a known looky-loo line, used by other landlords who wanted to see

I’ve actually used that line myself (looking for our kids) in nearby neighborhood open houses. I’m not a landlord, just nosy. Seems to be acceptable but I do sign in if requested. Realtor want to show seller lots of activity, right?

 

[wrigley]

You told your neighbor you had no plans to move and he asked again, but sweetened the pot by offering a premium. A little rude and pushy in my opinion

EVERYTHING has a price!


Mike

 

[ivinsfan]

EVERYTHING has a price!


Mike

Not to me....people that truly believe that are arrogant...I see the smiley so I'm not referring to you.

 

[Lienlord]

My neighbor came over and offered to buy our house. I told him that we had no plan to move. He said he would like to pay some premium above the current market price.
I heard some rumor that my neighbor made some significant money last year.
My house market value is about 850K. the fee (realtor/gov/insurance) is around 55k. To have a slight better house in my neighborhood, in this hot market, it needs at least 10% premium, 85K. so the total is 990K.
Is this reasonable? The 990K could give him a shock. This 55K fee eats lot of meat. My net gain is 935K. Below this, I doubt we could have a better house.
We are neighbors about ten years. We get along well. Maybe I should just say no, but he was kind of eager to have my house.

Not sure how you calculated a $55k fee, including realtor, insurance, etc?
This would be a By Owner sale, and no realtor required. You can fill out a boilerplate sales contract, take 10% earnest money (that goes hard immediately), and have a local title company execute the sale. Normally both parties split their fee, which is fairly minimal. If you prepaid insurance or property taxes, you would have them reimbursed to you at closing.

 

[rk911]

Seems silly. I assume you r happy where you are. If you’re going to get 1.5 mill, sure, move. Otherwise, moving sucks. Not worth it unless it’s a stupidly high profit.

and maybe not even then cuz it's not always about the $. another poster wrote that everything has a price. that may be the rule but we're the couple that failed to read the rule book. we are very happy with our home and neighborhood and would not sell before we are ready to move for any amount. asking again after twice asking and getting a polite 'no' each time is aggressively rude and justifies an equally aggressively rude response. based on some of the responses in this thread we may be in the minority.

 

[target2019]

I missed one thing. after we said no. he explained that he was buying for his parents, both early 80s.
that made me seriously think about it.

He's tugging on your heart strings. Trying to move you to agree. Since the market is hot now, he'll have to pay more. I agree that selling and moving sounds like a PIA.

 

[Chuckanut]

I missed one thing. after we said no. he explained that he was buying for his parents, both early 80s.

that made me seriously think about it.

That’s very manipulative on his part.

I agree with those who say give him a firm NO, then do not participate in any further talk.

 

[JT90505]

It would take a huge premium over market to deal with the hassle/stress/irritation of finding a new place and moving. Over the years we have 'tuned' the house to our tastes and like the neighborhood. Plus, there is not a lot of inventory out there right now.

Yes, if someone offered 2X market we would have a serious discussion and probably sell...but that is pretty unlikely

 

[Jim59]

Tell him he couldn’t afford to pay double what the house is worth as that is the only price that would tempt you to sell.

 

[Sojourner]

It would take a huge premium over market to deal with the hassle/stress/irritation of finding a new place and moving. Over the years we have 'tuned' the house to our tastes and like the neighborhood. Plus, there is not a lot of inventory out there right now.

Yes, if someone offered 2X market we would have a serious discussion and probably sell...but that is pretty unlikely

Tell him he couldn’t afford to pay double what the house is worth as that is the only price that would tempt you to sell.

These mentions of "2X market" and "huge premium over market" are making me contemplate how much it would take to get me to sell my house. According to Zillow and similar tools, my house is currently worth about $400k. I have virtually no interest in looking for (or buying) another house, and even less interest in packing up and moving. So, how much money would it take to overcome all this and get me to sell? I honestly don't think it can be expressed as a function of the current value of my house. It's probably something more like "How many years of spending money (at my current annual spending rate) would be enough to compensate for the short-term pain, discomfort, and disruption of selling my house and moving?"

Off the top of my head, I think three years of spending money would probably do it. I don't carefully track my spending or have a detailed budget, but I think a pretty reasonable, rough estimate would be that I'm spending about $60-65k/year. Given that, I think if someone were to offer me $590k for this house, I'd probably give the offer serious consideration. Having that extra $190k in my bank/brokerage accounts would provide a really nice "fun money" fund to spend on various lifestyle upgrades, e.g., always flying first/business class on overseas trips for the rest of my life. Ultimately, this is the way I'd look at it if I were OP and received an unsolicited offer for my house.

 

[Aerides]

...According to Zillow and similar tools, my house is currently worth about $400k. I have virtually no interest in looking for (or buying) another house, and even less interest in packing up and moving. So, how much money would it take to overcome all this and get me to sell? I honestly don't think it can be expressed as a function of the current value of my house. It's probably something more like "How many years of spending money (at my current annual spending rate) would be enough to compensate for the short-term pain, discomfort, and disruption of selling my house and moving?"
.

What it should be:

Price of the house you'd be thrilled to move up to (not zillow price, but the highest of the last 3 sales in that neighborhood since that would be higher)
Add 10-15% to that to account for the time before you'd be able to put in an offer...and realize that everything is getting bid higher
Add the costs of a fully professional move, including packers and unpackers, insured
Add another 10% to account for any taxes, hiccups, new furniture you might need

 

[Sojourner]

What it should be:

Price of the house you'd be thrilled to move up to (not zillow price, but the highest of the last 3 sales in that neighborhood since that would be higher)
Add 10-15% to that to account for the time before you'd be able to put in an offer...and realize that everything is getting bid higher
Add the costs of a fully professional move, including packers and unpackers, insured
Add another 10% to account for any taxes, hiccups, new furniture you might need

OK, if you say so. Although I have no first-hand knowledge of it, I believe what I've heard about the residential RE market being extremely hot right now.

Of course this is all just an intellectual exercise. The likelihood of anyone offering me $600k for my house is almost exactly nil. But it was fun to think about what it might take to get me to sell.

 

[ivinsfan]

OK, if you say so. Although I have no first-hand knowledge of it, I believe what I've heard about the residential RE market being extremely hot right now.

Of course this is all just an intellectual exercise. The likelihood of anyone offering me $600k for my house is almost exactly nil. But it was fun to think about what it might take to get me to sell.

Because of my broke friend I am watching the market he lives in MSP metro, many houses are just sitting on Zillow and I'm finally starting to see price drops.



I think we might have peaked, in our area anyway.. YMMV.