If you want to buy this house in Fairfax, Virginia, you’ll have to buy it without first seeing its lower level — or the non-lease-holding resident who lives there.
A permanent squatter? Really?!
In 2017, Tim Davidson was given 60 days to move out of his family’s vacation home in Florida.
Davidson had been living in the vacation home in Sarasota, Florida, for about a year when his family decided it was finally time for him to get a place of his own.
Initially, Davidson considered buying a traditional-size home.
While he was house hunting, he realized that a large home meant unused space, unnecessary belongings, more taxes, and more money.
Davidson just wanted the necessities: a bedroom, living area, small kitchen, and access to the outdoors.
A tiny home felt like a perfect solution.
BrownieBytes has a question: If he’s on an island, why didn’t he position the houses so he has a water view? Very odd fellow…
— Read on www.insider.com/man-lives-two-tiny-homes-private-island-florida-2021-3
By Candace Taylor
Thanks to hurricanes, heat and red-hot home prices, the state’s population growth hit its lowest rate since 2014 during the pandemic.
David Gewirtz never got used to the heat, even after 15 years in Florida.
Still, Mr. Gewirtz, who grew up in New Jersey, and his wife, Denise Amrich, liked their adopted hometown of Palm Bay, Fla., and probably would have stayed if it weren’t for the “brutal” hurricanes.
“Staring at those tracker maps for weeks before a hurricane hits starts to create a stress level,” said Mr. Gewirtz, a technology columnist in his early 50s. “It’s three weeks of wondering whether you’re going to have a house at the end.”
The couple evacuated their home in the path of 2017’s Hurricane Irma, kept driving until they got to Oregon and decided to stay.
— Read on www.wsj.com/articles/people-moving-to-florida-during-covid-11615463911
Cities in North-West Arkansas are making offers to workers in New York and Los Angeles that’re simply too good to pass. Incentives including cash bonuses, free mountain bikes and year-long discounted rent prices.
Are you ready to move out of the big metro areas and why?
NYC’s Financial District Faces Office Glut as Tenant Exits Loom
Manhattan has been battered with workers staying home
Our Take from Brownie Bytes: This is happening throughout the country. Bad time for commercial real estate. Great time to consider a move to Florida – a no-state income tax location with a great workforce ready to work remotely from anywhere.
Companies looking to trim costs are trying to shed space
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the latest high-profile tenant to look for an exit from the neighborhood, a historic part of lower Manhattan that is home to the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Reserve.
S&P Global and Fitch Ratings Inc. are also marketing big blocks of offices, driving an 80% surge in the amount of sublease space available. That’s more than double the rate in Midtown, according to data from CoStar Group Inc.
“The sublet spaces currently on offer at deeply discounted rates is a veritable flood of biblical proportions, with more likely to come online soon,” said Ruth Colp-Haber, chief executive officer of brokerage Wharton Property Advisors.
Manhattan’s office market has taken a big hit in the past year, with the pandemic emptying out skyscrapers and pushing cost-conscious companies to reconsider how much space they need after months of remote working.
You’ve probably spotted the signs around your neighborhood: “We buy houses,” “Cash for homes,” or “Sell us your home as/is!” You may have even groaned at how pervasive they’ve become.
If so, you’re not alone. These signs, which come from real estate investment groups that scoop up houses across the country — often paying 10% or more below the market value — are becoming more and more common in today’s hot real estate market.
The goal? Flip each house into a more expensive property, or turn it into a rental unit.
Real estate investors are offering cash for homes in just about any neighborhood in any part of the U.S. these days, no matter the condition of the property, says Nick Bailey, chief customer officer at RE/MAX. In January 2021, median existing home prices jumped to $303,900 — 14.1% higher than last year, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). For investors, who strive to purchase homes below the market value and sell for the highest price possible, “are getting more attention … because it’s easier to buy and flip when prices are going up,” Bailey says.
With home prices rising, homeowners might be tempted to sell their homes quickly, especially if they’ve lost their jobs or are under financial strain from COVID-19. And since most homeowners don’t realize how much their homes are worth, or that a few repairs could up its value for a relatively low cost, an information gap is adding fuel to the fire, according to Eric Sussman, an adjunct real estate professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
Is selling your home to an investment group always a bad idea? Not necessarily, real estate experts say. But you need to proceed with caution.
Brownie Bytes 