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Does Buying In A Live Auction Make Sense

At an auction held earlier today in Mountian View CA the following properties were auctioned:

  • 453 N Rengstorff Ave #4, Mountain View CA 94043
  • 38500 Paseo Padre Parkway #308, Fremont CA 94536
  • 3300 Wolcott Common #212 Fremont, CA  94538

The Auction was held at the first property address but all three properties were auctioned.

Besides several guidelines, instructions, and disclosures the most important thing to know is that there is an additional 5% fee on the top of the winning bid (not including closing costs). It was also stated that the buyer cannot sell the property for more than 120% of the purchase price (winning bid) in the following 3 months.

My goals for these auctions were:

  1. Check the property, its condition, and the areacommunity.
  2. See how many people show up.
  3. See how low below market a property is sold at an auction.

The Property

I was only able to see the first property in the list. It looked just fine. Carpets were in ok shape. Kitchen seems relatively new. All seemed to be in order and in move-in condition, at least from the quick look I took.  Read More

Trulia.com Introduces Rent vs. Buy Index

Dollars !
Creative Commons License photo credit: pfala

Today Trulia announced America’s Top 10 Cities to Buy vs. Rent and the Top 10 Cities to Rent vs Buy.  Trulia calculated the price-to-rent ratio using the average list price compared with average rent on 2 bedroom apartments, condos and townhomes listed on Trulia.com. To create the list, Trulia analyzed the largest 50 cities in America, by population.

Top 10 Cities to Buy vs. Rent

City Price-to-Rent Ratio
1. Minneapolis, Minnesota 8
2. Arlington, Texas 8
3. Miami, Florida 8
4. Fresno, California 8
5. San Antonio, Texas 8
6. Mesa, Arizona 9
7. Jacksonville, Florida 9
8. Phoenix, Arizona 10
9. El Paso, Texas 10
10. Las Vegas, Nevada 11

“At the peak of the real estate bubble, cities like Miami, Phoenix and Las Vegas were not affordable for many. Now the opposite is true,” said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “Home sellers in these hard hit areas are forced to lower their prices to compete with all the foreclosures on the market. As a result , these unattainable markets are so affordable it makes better financial sense to buy than rent.”

Top 10 Cities to Rent vs. Buy

City Price-to-Rent Ratio
1. New York, New York 33
2. Omaha, Nebraska 26
3. Seattle, Washington 25
4. Portland, Oregon 22
5. San Francisco, California 22
6. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 21
7. Kansas City, Missouri 20
8. San Diego, California 20
9. Cleveland, Ohio 20
10. Dallas, Texas 19

“It is not a surprise to see cities like New York and San Francisco on the ‘Rent’ cities but I was surprised to see areas like Omaha, Oklahoma City and Kansas City on our rental list, “said Flint “We’re not suggesting that it’s unwise to buy in these areas, though – just that it’s significantly more expensive than renting. In many of these cities, even though home buying is much more costly thanrenting, prices are still much lower than they have been in a long, long time.”

To see the Top 50 City Rent v Buy Index, please click here to download.

Read Full article on truliablog.com