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Unpleasant Surprises for Online Real Estate Buyers
prostoalex writes "Buying expensive items online from the people you've never met without any guarantees on the seller's part might seem a bit risky even for an experienced Internet shopper. The 'hotness' of the real estate investment market apparently influences some cash-heavy investors to look for opportunities online. When the entire transaction is done via a click of the mouse, and the deed for newly bought real estate arrives in the mail, some unsuspecting buyers might discover that a cozy house near the bus line in the middle of a busy street might imply a criminalized neighborhood and proximity to crack house. The New York Times investigates negative experiences of people buying investment real estate online."
"Buffalo has been particularly hard hit by online flipping, as the city's persistent population decline and high foreclosure rates have created a glut of some 20,000 vacant houses."
Lots of fresh water, summer temps don't go above 90, winter temps above 0, sports teams, cheap housing...
I never could understand why Phoenix is gaining population and Buffalo is losing population.
If you buy something as expensive as a house without even bothering to take a look at it beforehand, you can't blame anyone but yourself. This is not a piece of bread -- you can't just shrug and throw it away.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Real estate, of all things, is something that someone should look at first. Is the entire world becoming a shut-in?
These speculators are no different than penny stock "investors" ... who could possibly feel sorry for them.
Buying items from a reputable, well-tested online company like (for example) Newegg or Amazon is one thing.
Buying collectibles off eBay is one thing.
Buying a big ticket luxury item - ANY such item - cars, real estate, houses, deeds...that's misguided at best unless you live in proximity to the seller and can see it (inspect it) yourself presale. We have a term for people who will buy things like this with full and total trust in the seller. It's called "sucker."
Or, if you're a proponent of our legal system, "plaintiff."
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
If something sounds too good to be true, it most likely is. Why do people stop thinking when greed becomes a factor?
Someone sells you something for FAR less than what it should be worth, provided they're not lying. Bonus question for $1000: Why should they? Would you sell your house without at least getting a rough quote from some online service how much your hut is worth? Hey, we're talking a few 1000 bucks at the very least here, it's not like I'm selling some old junk that might be someone's treasure, a house is a house, and by its very nature, it has value! And everyone, literally everyone, knows that.
So why should you think someone does NOT know that a house is worth more than a few 1000 bucks, especially when it's somewhere in downtown?
Just like with used cars. When the year old car that's been driven only by a cute old granny, always just to church and back goes for less than 1000 bucks, would you buy it?
I wouldn't even buy the story, and certainly not the car!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
from the article:
"Mr. Hoyt said he had repeatedly appealed to eBay officials, asking the company to make specific changes, like informing sellers that they must comply with New York State disclosure laws and requiring a copy of written sales contracts. But Mr. Hoyt said he had received little cooperation from the company.
"What eBay is doing, in my opinion, is immoral," he said. "They have a responsibility to not facilitate activity like this."
Wait a minute, eBay has a seller rating system, eBay has an escrow service, so who in there right mind buys a HOUSE sight unseen, from an unrated or negatively rated seller, without using escrow? I think this is a problem with some people, they make stupid buying decisions and then turn around and want the listing agent (or the government) to take some sort of responsibility for it.
I'm not trying to relieve any of the responsibility for this off unscrupulous sellers (it is in fact immoral to intentionally rip off buyers), however at some point buyers need to have enough common sense to do at least a modicum of due diligence don't you think? Apparently people think that caveat emptor doesn't apply on the Internet, when in fact it's probably the most important consumer protection mechanism, especially when most of the tools you need to do your due diligence are at your fingertips (MLS services, city records, etc..,)
Also from the article, this one IMO is a true "gem"
"Mr. Krug said Mr. Tanner had asked him the same question. "I told him the first thing he did wrong was buy a computer," Mr. Krug said."
Amen Mr. Krug, Amen.
I read this article yesterday - the guy bought a house for THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS! Come on, you can't buy a good used car for that. All this article really tells us is that a leech who was trying to flip houses for a quick profit got burned by a bigger leech.
May not be the super nice advertised place hey said, but they could at least give it to a charity working with these type of people (read : homeless, prostitutes, etc.) and let them turn it into a safe house of sorts to supply food to people if nothing else.
Unless of course the cost of getting the building up to code or tearing it down is greater than the value of the place, in which case a charity isn't going to take it, since they would in effect be paying you to take the property off your hands. I'd imagine that's the goal of some of these Real Estate "flippers", sell it for way less than the value of the land and pass along the incumberances of the house to somebody else, in essence they are making the seller pay for the priviledge of paying the liabilities on the property. Which ends up being a ponzi scheme, everybody in the chain makes money except the last guy (who can't even then give the property away).
All this article really tells us is that a leech who was trying to flip houses for a quick profit got burned by a bigger leech.
It's not being a leech to buy something that you think is undervalued by the seller. Quite the opposite. It has the effect of smoothing out pricing in a market and making it more liquid.
No need to be jealous of those who find good deals before you do.
I believe it's because racism, bigotry, etc.. etc.. are generally fuled by fear. Therefore, cowards are the ones making the comments.
The guy spent 10k. On THREE houses.
A deal like that, one would expect them to be on the edge of an active volcano.
At this point, you level those houses and rebuild on the property. 3k doesn't get you a house, it gets you land with house shaped debris on it.
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
That's not imagination, that's just "greed", plain and simple. The 80s seem to have helped people forget that greed is generally a Very Bad Thing (one of the seven deadly sins and all...)
Really, before you dropped a few thousand on a house you had never seen, wouldn't you at least
look at it in Google Maps?
search the local papers for stories mentioning the street, streets nearby, the neighborhood?
call someone who lived near to it - maybe a business - and ask what they thought of the place?
check any online information from the city/county/state - assessed values, etc?
I know jack about real estate, and I would be doing those in the first ten minutes after the thought to invest came to me.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
I haven't known anybody who HAS NOT gotten scammed from eBay at least once.
Well I haven't (ever been scammed on eBay) and I've bought literally thousands of items so I'm not "one of those suckers" but apparently everybody you know IS to some degree. My comment regarding escrow and seller ratings were not intended to be all inclusive, in other words based on the article it does not appear that these buyers even went that far. eBay attempts to provide the minimal protections that can be implemented without interfering with the free market nature of their service and I for one think they do a decent job given the intent & limitations. This would be why I specifically pointed out Caveat Emptor and that many of the tools for DUE DILLIGENCE (such as MLS, City Records, etc.,) were at your fingertips, but apparently you didn't read that far.
If you get a buyers agent make sure that you pay a flat rate or they will have some incentive to walk the price up on you. They are suppose to be on your side, but if they are getting a percentage then they have incentive to raise the price.
Excellent advice, except for...
The buyer's agent normally gets their cut from the seller.
Run, do not walk, from anyone presenting him/herself as a buyer's agent, but being paid by the seller. By definition, the agent's interests then align with the property seller, not yours.
The check needs to come from you, preferably as a retainer + post-close commission, rather than set-fee up front.
I bought a 6 acre freshwater island sight-unseen on-line two years ago. Of course I did call around to make sure that the local planning office knew of the island and would give me a building permit for it. I also checked google satellite imagery to check on the overall shape and location of the island before I bought it. But I had 24 hours to do all of the research and make all of the connections before I signed on the dotted line.
Result? In my case I couldn't be happier. It is exactly what I was hoping for (well, except for the really bad case of poison ivy I got there last summer...) Bottom line: Use *all* of the technology you have access to if you have to make a decision like that. Even antiquated ones like the telephone.
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.