Don't buy Zillow homes

[gcode]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-03/why-is-zillow-selling-7000-homes-tale-of-failure-mistrust-hot-housing-market">//https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-03/why-is-zillow-selling-7000-homes-tale-of-failure-mistrust-hot-housing-market

Property posts on the internet usually focus more on picket fences than picket signs. But this week, Zillow Group Inc. is getting raked by thousands of angry digital protesters, some even wielding placards with a simple message: "Don't Buy Zillow Homes!"

It has been a tumultuous few days for the real estate company. On Tuesday, the firm announced it would shut down its much-vaunted house-flipping arm and cut its workforce by 25%. Zillow is also seeking to sell some 7,000 homes to institutional investors for $2.8 billion. And it plans to take writedowns of more than $500 million on the failed venture that relied heavily on its pricing algorithms.

I wonder how this will affect home prices.
Zillow has been offering me ridiculous prices on my house this year.
I'd have taken them up on it had I been ready to move

[Del.]

I like looking at Zillow. They have my house up 35% over what I paid 4 years ago. Not that I'm selling. I'm dying in this house.

I also noticed if you look at previously sold homes you can see what the owners still owe on it.

[BrianP.]

The "Zestimates" on the site are BS. It only takes a look at what other comparable houses sold for and what you paid. We bought my parents house last August. Because my parents had set it up so the house would go to the kids we paid the market price less my inheritance. Zillow has our house valued at almost $100k under the assessed value and over $150k under our neighbors.

I wonder who was sitting home watching Flip or Flop and thought it would be a good idea for them to get into that.

[gcode]

The "Zestimates" on the site are BS.

In my case I believe they are way too high.
I live in a housing track built in 1989.
It was almost like living in the country as we were on the edge of the developed land around here
Now they are building 1100 McMansions on the hills above my home.
They are selling for $600K and up. I think all those new houses are distorting their algorithms and inflating
their evaluation of my home.. It's nice to think it's worth that much, but I don't believe it .
Sadly, the tax man does  

[Del.]

Yeah I think the Zestimates are too high also by about 15% in my opinion.

[pmartin]

I wonder who was sitting home watching Flip or Flop and thought it would be a good idea for them to get into that.

My wife and I have renovated 5 houses in the last 20 years. We sold 3, live in one, and after keeping one for 10 years and operating as a vacation rental are in the process of selling. We always bought wrecks and always made over 100k in profit when selling, mostly because of sweat equity and clever changes. The last one was bought for 84k put aprox 100k into and will sell for 452k.  So yes we sat around watching flip or flop in our spare time (stupid show.)

[HTM01]

I wonder who was sitting home watching Flip or Flop and thought it would be a good idea for them to get into that.

  So yes we sat around watching flip or flop in our spare time (stupid show.)

you can get idea's but the whole thing is set up fake

[BrianP.]

I wonder who was sitting home watching Flip or Flop and thought it would be a good idea for them to get into that.

My wife and I have renovated 5 houses in the last 20 years. We sold 3, live in one, and after keeping one for 10 years and operating as a vacation rental are in the process of selling. We always bought wrecks and always made over 100k in profit when selling, mostly because of sweat equity. The last one was bought for 84k put aprox 100k into and will sell for 452k.  So yes we sat around watching flip or flop in our spare time (stupid show.)

I'm not saying doing it as you have done is not feasible. But these guys bought 9,700 homes in a single quarter.

[pmartin]

I wonder who was sitting home watching Flip or Flop and thought it would be a good idea for them to get into that.

My wife and I have renovated 5 houses in the last 20 years. We sold 3, live in one, and after keeping one for 10 years and operating as a vacation rental are in the process of selling. We always bought wrecks and always made over 100k in profit when selling, mostly because of sweat equity. The last one was bought for 84k put aprox 100k into and will sell for 452k.  So yes we sat around watching flip or flop in our spare time (stupid show.)

I'm not saying doing it as you have done is not feasible. But these guys bought 9,700 homes in a single quarter.

Hey I'm just a guy and his wife. No employees. I do 95% of the labor, she does 5%.

[YoDoug]

I think the problem with "flipping" is when too many people think they can do and get too eager. We have a few friends that have been doing it for a few decades. They say that the more shows on TV about flipping, the more people that think they can do it. It drives up prices and makes it harder to find the right deals. Then you get people that bought too high doing very crappy work to keep costs down so they can make minimal profit. They put cosmetic "fixes" over real issues. We have have looked at some houses that once you looked closely enough, you could see the intentional "cover fixes". That is probably the reason why we never got into flipping. I'm not ok with putting paint over bad walls, putting new flooring over nasty old flooring that is covering rotting subfloors, etc. In my last house There was occasionally a smell in the entry way. There was composite faux wood flooring when we bought. It was in bad shape. When I pulled it up to put in new flooring I found a two layers of nasty vinyl flooring under. when I peeled up the vinyl I found black, molded, rotting sub floor. I replaced the sub floor and put in new vinyl plank flooring, and the smell went away.

For most people home ownership is a huge deal. They work hard to be able to afford it and deserve to know the truth about what they are buying. When flippers hide real issues with cosmetic fixes it is hard for non-invasive inspections to find those issues. IMO, the flippers that do that are unethical POS humans.

[CNCAppsJames]

Zilliow has my Zestimate at $910k. We just had the house appraised. Based on comps in my neighborhood/area, improvements, etc... it was appraised at $925k. We bought it for $592k 6 years ago.

My home model is VERY desirable. It has an attached in-law's unit that can be used as a rental if so desired. It's got it's own entrance, own living room, kitchenette, laundry area, bedroom and bathroom. It's about 900²ft.-ish.

When my father in-law either moves out or passes away, my wife and I have toyed with the idea of renting it out, or setting it up as an Air-BNB. We probably won't but the fact that one can is what makes people want to offer insane amounts of money for these homes. It's all just vapor until you're actually ready to sell anyway, and until at least one of my kids gets up and moves out of state, we're stayin' put.

Zillow is a fair tool when trying to get a basic idea, but it doesn't tell near the story some think it does.

[Del.]

I'd like a separate addition for the wife.

[RobertELee]

I have my contractors license, and was actually looking into working with Zillow and Opendoor on their flips just last week. You can make some pretty good money without the major upfront home purchase costs, just materials. Unfortunately they didn't offer it in my area, just the greater Minneapolis area.

I've done a couple flips in the past and made some awesome money. Now the home prices are insane and with having a two year old and one on the way, we can't risk gambling with that much money.

[RobertELee]

They put cosmetic "fixes" over real issues.

That's definitely my experience looking at a lot of flip houses. I can see a flip house from a block away.

The last house I flipped we bought for $12k and tore everything down to the studs. Replaced all electrical, plumbing, HVAC, insulation, a small foundation issue, etc. Sold it for $250k 9 months later. Thankfully the roof had been replaced 2 years prior, that saved us a ton.

[pmartin]

I'd like a separate addition for the wife.

So would she. :ice: