Real Estate Question (Ping Flasch!)

[Chubby]

Ok so we're looking at a house (will get into specifics about situation if needed but I don't think it's really relevant) and am getting some wierd info when digging into the neighborhood.

The house we are looking at AS WELL AS 3 other houses close by on the same side of the street (and a few on the other side of the street) all are listed as being last sold on the same day and for the same price. The other two houses on the same side of the street are listed as last selling for $1 and $54K (way underpriced).

These houses all range in # of bed/bath and SF (can post details if it would help)...

Basically what does this mean/look like?

I'm pulling all info from zillow.com

[henry296]

The $1 price may be an internal family sale to transfer ownership type of transaction, not sure about the others.

[wade moore]

Are you sure those aren't lot sales? Are they new houses?

[Chubby]

Yeah I'm pretty sure the $1 sale was a family sale which is fine, I'm just having trouble figuring out what's with all the sales on 6-10-04 for $128,500 for like most of the street...

wade - they are all houses built in the 50s. Is it possible zillow doesn't have the sales data (i don't see why they wouldn't, one house on the street further down was sold in 95) and this is placeholder data? I'm obviously going to have our agent check into (we're in the "look around for a good house in a good school district at a good price" group, in no hurry to move but if we find a good deal then we'll look further into it) but figured I'd try and see if anyone had any ideas here too

[Chief Rum]

All the same owner?

[Tasan]

I'd guess 6-10-04 is when the database was contructed, and the house was bought maybe in the 60s/70s/80s, and they didn't have the data on hand to enter. The then used an average or something for the neighborhood.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by Tasan

I'd guess 6-10-04 is when the database was contructed, and the house was bought maybe in the 60s/70s/80s, and they didn't have the data on hand to enter. The then used an average or something for the neighborhood.

That's one of my thoughts or it's all the same owner. It just seems weird that they'd have one of the houses on the street listed as last selling in 95 but not have the data for all these other houses tho I'm sure it's possible.

[Flasch186]

lots of possibilities. Sometimes on a tax only sale the transfer agent/lawyer ends up putting the fees in for some stupid reason. I ran into that here last week....retarded. Could also be, these days, that an investor bought a bunch of houses at the same time (that happened a lot back in the day - 3 years ago). Just so many possibilities it'd be hard to narrow it down. Contract now and wait 2 months to close as rates seem to be unable to find footing and you could see 4.5 here before too long.

[wade moore]

Did you look at County/City data for records? A lot of locality websites also have sales data - see if it matches, maybe Zillow just has bad data.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by Chubby

I'm pulling all info from zillow.com

Fail

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Did you look at County/City data for records? A lot of locality websites also have sales data - see if it matches, maybe Zillow just has bad data.

We will be if we get serious. Visited the house today for a first look and to try and get a feel for why such a house is still on the market. They've had 2 offers in the past year but both fell thru. It could be a situation where they bought the house, sunk a lot of money into it (the master bath is... WOW... probably 20k into it) thinking they'd be there forever and now a divorce (the agent kept saying "she this, she that" and someone in the neighborhood was telling us about how "they built the grill in the patio and he did this")

rizon - of course zillow = fail if that's all you do but as a starting point I think they have a lot of useful info when trying to take a first look at a house.

[kcchief19]

Zillow has decent information but I don't trust it as far as I could throw it. Our home's sales data isn't in there and the values for our neighborhood are off by about 30 percent. The sales data for our next door neighbor is missing, and two homes are listed for sale that haven't been for sale for quite a while.

Short way of saying that Zillow is nice but no substitute for real info. Are you working with an agent or broker? If so, they should look up that info for you. If not, check into your county's Web site -- as mentioned earlier, a lot of counties will list property tax information that will list appraised values and whatnot. Sales are public record so you can request info from the county on that data. Just contact the appraiser's office (or your equivalent).

Like Flasch said, if the data is accurate my guess is that they are investment properties, probably rentals. Definitely not unheard of for investors to buy several homes in the same neighborhood for rental properties. Could by they sold the properties, and they might have sold them to friends or family.

[Flasch186]

My Best friend and I spoke to a realtor friend of ours (coincidentally he sits for our competitors on the competitor's sales agent's days off) about looking for a couple foreclosures, short sales, or pre-foreclosures for us. My company has offered us (me and BF) 2 homes near eachother in a nice community down south but we know that the competitor in the community has sold off it's lots at a heavy discount and is in the process of selling its models and pulling out. This will create some MORE downward pressure on valuations in there and the nearby communities so we're not really close to being willing to pay what our company wants for the homes eventhough theyre willing to secure us 4% loans....

regardless, the point is that perhaps it means something for the market that were looking to upgrade homes this year (while renting out the starter home).