WEDNESDAY

kvruns · June 2021

I think it is Wednesday, I've been confused all week.

kvruns · June 2021

I still have a horrible cold - it was very mild Mon-Thurs last week and took a turn Friday. My voice started going out Saturday although it is still here, just hoarse and I have to work to talk for long. Sucks bc I have clients that keep calling to talk through situations and not email. Keep thinking it has to be getting better soon and each day I wake up and it is worse wtf

Office is closed Friday and I'm off all next week though it's my busy season and I will likely still work some. I haven't had any time off other than holidays since last year so I went ahead and took this week. Used to always take a week in June when H would go on a week long car trip so I'm keeping it up even though the trip isn't until August now.

Feeling very discouraged on the house front. Every week prices continue to go up, houses I'm looking at are selling for 100K more than 5 years ago, often even 30K more than last year. Every time I see a possibility the reality is it will sell 20K more than asking price and asking price is already toward my top range. I just want to cry bc I'm so close yet so far away. I dont want to rent bc it is a waste of money when I'd spend more in rent than a mortgage and can't predict if prices wouldn't just continue to climb for another year anyway and I'd be more screwed.

charlotte989875 · June 2021

That sucks @kvruns! Are there houses you like and they’re going too much over asking or are you not even finding what you want? I looked at Zillow the other day and our house is estimated at $60k more than what we bought it for 3 years ago- without any significant changes. It’s wild. The 30 day change was around $15k. And our house is pretty median for the area (2000sq) so it’s not huge or super fancy.

That said I do think this is a trend we’ve seen the past 4 to 5 years and I don’t think it’s slowing down. Which definitely sucks when you’re trying to buy.

kvruns · June 2021

@charlotte989875 a little of both, but mostly just going to high. I'm not even being picky aside from having 3 school districts in mind and then there are some neighborhoods within those districts I'm not interested in (at least not until I'm desperate). It would be different if I had one to sell so then I'd also being experiencing the increase to lessen the blow but it 100% sucks to be only buying in this market. Not to mention investors have been buying a lot of properties with cash which I can't compete with

climbingsingle · June 2021

I keep thinking it's Thursday.

I fell asleep so early last night. Woke up at 4:30 to the dog whining to get back on the bed (she needs help sometimes). Was up for a while and then I guess fell back asleep eventually. I woke up again and I swear to god, the sun was so bright and so high that I convinced myself I slept through my alarm. I panicked, couldn't find my phone, almost had a heart attack. Then realized it wasn't even 6am yet..haha.

SSDD. Work is nuts. Half my team is out. Everything is out of stock. Blah. I do have a date tonight though so I'm looking forward to that.

charlotte989875 · June 2021

kvruns said:

@charlotte989875 a little of both, but mostly just going to high. I'm not even being picky aside from having 3 school districts in mind and then there are some neighborhoods within those districts I'm not interested in (at least not until I'm desperate). It would be different if I had one to sell so then I'd also being experiencing the increase to lessen the blow but it 100% sucks to be only buying in this market. Not to mention investors have been buying a lot of properties with cash which I can't compete with

I don’t know how anyone can really compete with those all cash offers. We’ve started to see some of that around here and it sucks. Like, I understand the value and I know there needs to be more affordable rentals but it makes buying homes for single families so difficult. Hopefully you find someone who doesn’t want to sell to an investor!

short+sassy · June 2021

@kvruns, I cannot get it out of my head that it is Wed. and not Thurs.! I was confusing that all day, yesterday. And did it again this morning. I'm sorry houses feel out of reach for you right now. That does sound really frustrating.

For my totally unqualified and uneducated opinion, lol, I think there is going to be a correction in the housing market. When? My guess is 2-3 years. Some of what we are seeing is "pent up buying". People put off buying houses last year because of the pandemic, so now the number of buyers in the market have "doubled up", to an extent. I don't think houses will lose a lot of their value in the correction, but they will lose some as the housing market cools.

Those are also generalized thoughts because real estate is very area specific. HCOL densely populated urban areas, like NYC and SFC, have seen housing prices drop. In NOLA, rents have gone up in some areas by a surprising clip, but housing prices are only up a little bit and I'd chalk that more up to the normal amount that houses appreciate. It's still a seller's market, but not a hot one like in some parts of the country.

Here is some additional food for thought that I observed after Hurricane Katrina, but has some similarities to the market forces going on right now, because of the pandemic. As people started coming back to the city, housing and rent prices went through the roof. Crazy, crazy through the roof. Houses were 50-100% more and rents were double/triple. Because in the blink of an eye, huge swaths of housing had become uninhabitable. Furniture, appliance, and car industries were also having a wild and hectic time. Insanely busy and making money hand over fist.

But fast forward 1-2 years? All of those same industries were crushed. Because now that people had their lives back settled, no one was moving. You couldn't find a renter or house buyer to save your life (I wasn't in the biz back then). No one was buying new furniture/appliances/ or cars because the majority of people had just bought all of that.

At least for the house buying/renting part, it won't be to the extreme extent that I saw after Katrina, but I think there will be some of that. The pandemic caused an uproar in a lot of ways that affect housing. People got different jobs. Some people are WFH permanently. The suburbs flourished as people moved to get out of crowded cities. But as people who wanted to move, either to a different area or buy/rent a new home, do that. We will see a pull back in the future and fewer people in the housing market, as everyone gets into their new normal.

mrsconn23 · June 2021

DefConn and I are still struggling with sinus/allergy crap. I broke down and took some mucinex today which I hope helps, but the side-effects make me feel more blerg than I already do.

Ugh. Three days until vacation and I'm under the weather for the first time in almost 18 months. This is BS.

Our planning meeting last night actually went pretty well. DH also got a lead on a job that would be huge if it works out.

DH and I need to work on packing tonight. I also need to go to bed early. Ha.

MissKittyDanger · June 2021

First week back in office and I've been exhausted. Definitely not use to it $:\$

So a bit more on BK's situation - we've been told to mirror her play {ex: she makes animal "eat", we make animal "eat"} then once she acknowledges us, we can do something else.
We have to try and get at least half hour of this, because she needs to engage with others/us - but I also asked for her to email me the info so I can let daycare and grandparents know what's the best way to play.

Also if she comes up to us with say a blue butterfly card, as long as she acknowledges "butterfly" we basically confirm and add "yes, that's a blue butterfly"

charlotte989875 · June 2021

MissKittyDanger said:

First week back in office and I've been exhausted. Definitely not use to it $:\$

So a bit more on BK's situation - we've been told to mirror her play {ex: she makes animal "eat", we make animal "eat"} then once she acknowledges us, we can do something else.
We have to try and get at least half hour of this, because she needs to engage with others/us - but I also asked for her to email me the info so I can let daycare and grandparents know what's the best way to play.

Also if she comes up to us with say a blue butterfly card, as long as she acknowledges "butterfly" we basically confirm and add "yes, that's a blue butterfly"

I’m curious- what has daycare said about her engagement with other kids, speech, etc? Are they concerned? Given that she’s there I wonder if they notice similar things or not.

I definitely think you trust your gut and if there are things that will support her learning and development then that’s awesome. But also kids learn and do things at different paces. I was talking to a daycare director yesterday (were finally looking into it for baby M) and she said that even though she’s been doing redraft& reading about what changes we might expect in kids due to the pandemic that we wont really know how it’s effected their social-emotional development and that we’re all going to have to learn how to best support them together. Just remember development timelines are developed based on kids who weren’t living through a pandemic, and lockdown, and quarantine, and social distancing requirements. You’re doing a good job with her!

charlotte989875 · June 2021

Not much here. Work is busy, our calendars are getting busy. Things just feel hectic these days.

My mom said she’s thinking she wants to go back to work. I know she wants to have money coming I (she’s 66, is taking social security starting in August, my dad is an ass with money and she wants her own) so we’re looking into day care. I know the time was going to come but I’m sad. I like having baby M here and I like having him with family. It’s going to be hard to send him somewhere else.

MissKittyDanger · June 2021

charlotte989875 said:

MissKittyDanger said:

First week back in office and I've been exhausted. Definitely not use to it $:\$

So a bit more on BK's situation - we've been told to mirror her play {ex: she makes animal "eat", we make animal "eat"} then once she acknowledges us, we can do something else.
We have to try and get at least half hour of this, because she needs to engage with others/us - but I also asked for her to email me the info so I can let daycare and grandparents know what's the best way to play.

Also if she comes up to us with say a blue butterfly card, as long as she acknowledges "butterfly" we basically confirm and add "yes, that's a blue butterfly"

I’m curious- what has daycare said about her engagement with other kids, speech, etc? Are they concerned? Given that she’s there I wonder if they notice similar things or not.

I definitely think you trust your gut and if there are things that will support her learning and development then that’s awesome. But also kids learn and do things at different paces. I was talking to a daycare director yesterday (were finally looking into it for baby M) and she said that even though she’s been doing redraft& reading about what changes we might expect in kids due to the pandemic that we wont really know how it’s effected their social-emotional development and that we’re all going to have to learn how to best support them together. Just remember development timelines are developed based on kids who weren’t living through a pandemic, and lockdown, and quarantine, and social distancing requirements. You’re doing a good job with her!

She's solo at daycare, and has been since Sept 2020 because the 2 girls started school $:\$
Daycare has noticed, and she even said she'll speak more but only if prompted.

Part of my concern was/is that we aren't teaching the way she learns - which benefit of this place {idk about others} is they actually teach the parents how to teach the child to their benefit.

Luckily things are opening, so we can take her to stores and stuff so she can also heard other people talk. We wanna hit the beach and splash pads more also. Like over the weekend she didn't speak much, but she interacted with 2 boys while there - which is good

short+sassy · June 2021

charlotte989875 said:

kvruns said:

@charlotte989875 a little of both, but mostly just going to high. I'm not even being picky aside from having 3 school districts in mind and then there are some neighborhoods within those districts I'm not interested in (at least not until I'm desperate). It would be different if I had one to sell so then I'd also being experiencing the increase to lessen the blow but it 100% sucks to be only buying in this market. Not to mention investors have been buying a lot of properties with cash which I can't compete with

I don’t know how anyone can really compete with those all cash offers. We’ve started to see some of that around here and it sucks. Like, I understand the value and I know there needs to be more affordable rentals but it makes buying homes for single families so difficult. Hopefully you find someone who doesn’t want to sell to an investor!

It's a little out of the box thinking but, if you want to compete with "all cash" investor buyers, then be like an investor.

Do you think those people actually have "all cash" sitting in their bank accounts? They don't. At least not most of them. They have a private loan already set up, which funds fast. So it feels like an all cash offer to the seller.

The downside is those are more expensive loans...1-2% higher interest rate...and you'd need to have at least a 20% down payment. Some of them also don't work with owner occupants, which is an obvious non-starter. But I'd think a lot do. Because money is money.

My brain just started churning. I may have hit on a gold mine of an untapped market! Alas, I'm in no position to own a private lending company. But I could write an ebook on how the average person can make an all cash offer, even when they don't have the money to do that. Put together a website to sell it. That will also have affiliate links to private lending companies that will work with owner occupants (and affiliate links in the book). Hmmm. It would be a lot of work, but I'm buzzing a little thinking about it!

At any rate, @kvruns, if that's something you want to look more into and have questions. Feel free to send me a PM or post it.

MissKittyDanger · June 2021

charlotte989875 said:

Not much here. Work is busy, our calendars are getting busy. Things just feel hectic these days.

My mom said she’s thinking she wants to go back to work. I know she wants to have money coming I (she’s 66, is taking social security starting in August, my dad is an ass with money and she wants her own) so we’re looking into day care. I know the time was going to come but I’m sad. I like having baby M here and I like having him with family. It’s going to be hard to send him somewhere else.

Could you potentially keep baby M with her and pay her?

short+sassy · June 2021

I know I keep gabbing on about real estate today, but I think this will amuse you all.

It's not just you all and other consumers complaining about escalating housing prices, the investors on the real estate investing forum I frequent are super bummed also, lol.

There are a lot of forms of real estate investing. But the two most common and well known are "flipping" and "buy and hold".

Flipping is buying a house that needs work, rehabbing it, and then selling it as soon as the renovations are done. Those people aren't as much complaining because, yeah they need to pay more for a house, but then they actually reap more benefits when they sell it a relatively short while later. However, they are getting killed with increased lumber/material costs and labor shortages.

"Buy and hold" are people like myself who buy properties to keep them and rent them out. Many of them are NOT buying houses right now. Either because they think prices are too inflated and are waiting it out or, because of higher house prices, properties no longer meet their monthly cash flow profit criteria. Or both of those things.

banana468 · June 2021

@short+sassy I'm hearing the increased lumber/home construction costs are forcing contractors to requote their work mid process because some of the items are coming in with cost increases quickly. To boot everything's taking longer. The marina owner bought a house in town and gutted it. It didn't have windows til this week and he doesn't think he'll be able to move in until September.

MyNameIsNot · June 2021

@kvruns, I'm sorry about the housing quandary. It really is hell to buy right now. Someone was telling me the other day that people here are running into issues with appraisals. Houses are going for 20-50k over asking, but appraisals haven't really caught up to the market yet. Of course cash buyers aren't reliant on appraisals and get an edge there. So in order to compete, people are doing these side deals where the buyer pays the seller an additional cash "incentive" on top of the purchase price at closing. And of course that's not recorded in the purchase price, so it doesn't show up when the next house goes for appraisal, so they have to do the same thing.

Markets are always cyclical, it has to cool at some point, but it's hard to tell if it's going to be next year or 5 years from now.

Nothing much going on here. I'm so tired this week and am just trying to make it to the weekend. My backfill that was having all those issues learning the job abruptly resigned last week. I know she wasn't right for the role, but I feel bad for her. I hate to see someone feel like they have to quit a job because they just aren't capable of the work.

kvruns · June 2021

hey @short+sassy how much do you think it would cost (ie hiring it out, not DIY) to add an overthe range microwave where there is just currently a vent. It is gas stove if that matters

CharmedPam · June 2021

I also thought it was Thursday. I enter my time card on Thursday’s and was about to enter it when I realized I’d be a day early (and ok to do it).

The housing market is bananas. My appraisal was done exactly a year apart. One for a refi and this one for a HELOC and they’re 30k apart (but with work being done).
Last night I hung out with some friends. We had apps and drinks. Such a great night. Haven’t seen one since October of ‘19 and the other two Oct ‘20 right before another Illinois shut down. I told them my breakup story and one gasped when she heard that M called me an alcoholic and my other friend said “does he not know what one is?”... so that validated me.

Other than that, I’m either going home to do laundry, going out to dinner with the work crew, or maybe a dinner with my meetup. Not even sure yet.

@MissKittyDanger, so glad things are opening up. Apparently there’s going to be an announcement on non essential travel across the border on the 22nd. If it works out for me, I’m planning a trip back home!

short+sassy · June 2021

banana468 said:

@short+sassy I'm hearing the increased lumber/home construction costs are forcing contractors to requote their work mid process because some of the items are coming in with cost increases quickly. To boot everything's taking longer. The marina owner bought a house in town and gutted it. It didn't have windows til this week and he doesn't think he'll be able to move in until September.

There are also fewer new construction homes being built right now because of lumber prices/scarcity, which further tightens the housing supply.

I was just reading a fun article that was talking about some of the wacky things people have been offering sellers to make their offer more enticing.

My favorite one was a buyer noticed during the showing that the seller had TONS of sports memorabilia. Along with an "over asking" offer, he also threw in buying season tickets for any local sports team the seller wanted. The buyer still lost out. But I loved the personalized creativity, lol.

MissKittyDanger · June 2021

@CharmedPam they're just allowing Ontario and Quebec boarders to open, so fingers crossed for you!!

Jstump2 · June 2021

I 100% feel you on the crazy housing market @kvruns. We are extremely fortunate to now be in the position to sell in this market. Best of luck to you on your search!

Our appraisal on the house we bought is coming up and I am nervous for how that is going to play out. Ugh!

We took both girls for doctors appointments last night and they went extremely well! Girls are both healthy and were on their best behavior. My oldest had he “kindergarten screening” and she passed with flying colors! I was a little nervous because we forwent preschool because of the pandemic but she is right where she needs to be developmentally and is a social butterfly so I think she will be fine.

short+sassy · June 2021

kvruns said:

hey @short+sassy how much do you think it would cost (ie hiring it out, not DIY) to add an overthe range microwave where there is just currently a vent. It is gas stove if that matters

That isn't something we've done, so I'm not really sure. It sounds like it would be fairly simple and not time consuming. The labor is about $75 to hang a tv and about $100 to install a ceiling fan. So I'd roughly guess $200 for a microwave. Plus the cost of the microwave. I'm always shocked at how much those over the range microwaves cost when I see them in a store, lol.

short+sassy · June 2021

CharmedPam said:

I also thought it was Thursday. I enter my time card on Thursday’s and was about to enter it when I realized I’d be a day early (and ok to do it).

The housing market is bananas. My appraisal was done exactly a year apart. One for a refi and this one for a HELOC and they’re 30k apart (but with work being done).
Last night I hung out with some friends. We had apps and drinks. Such a great night. Haven’t seen one since October of ‘19 and the other two Oct ‘20 right before another Illinois shut down. I told them my breakup story and one gasped when she heard that M called me an alcoholic and my other friend said “does he not know what one is?”... so that validated me.
Other than that, I’m either going home to do laundry, going out to dinner with the work crew, or maybe a dinner with my meetup. Not even sure yet.

@MissKittyDanger, so glad things are opening up. Apparently there’s going to be an announcement on non essential travel across the border on the 22nd. If it works out for me, I’m planning a trip back home!

Is that good news for you then? I hope it was a pleasant surprise for the value. I know you were a little worried about that.

CharmedPam · June 2021

short+sassy said:

CharmedPam said:
The housing market is bananas. My appraisal was done exactly a year apart. One for a refi and this one for a HELOC and they’re 30k apart (but with work being done).

Is that good news for you then? I hope it was a

Based on the comps I researched, it was exactly where I thought I’d be. I’ll get a heloc I’m happy with, at the very least.

kvruns · June 2021

short+sassy said:

kvruns said:

hey @short+sassy how much do you think it would cost (ie hiring it out, not DIY) to add an overthe range microwave where there is just currently a vent. It is gas stove if that matters

That isn't something we've done, so I'm not really sure. It sounds like it would be fairly simple and not time consuming. The labor is about $75 to hang a tv and about $100 to install a ceiling fan. So I'd roughly guess $200 for a microwave. Plus the cost of the microwave. I'm always shocked at how much those over the range microwaves cost when I see them in a store, lol.

they are! I had to replace mine in my old house and I got lucky and found one at a scratch and dent place but I still feel like it was like $150. My parents don't have an OTR one and still have a big microwave sitting on the counter. Luckily they have decent counter space but OTR would be better

ILoveBeachMusic · June 2021

Our contractor for our bathroom (also built our house 22 years ago) said all these people who are paying so much over asking and above what houses are appraising for are going to be in trouble when the market corrects because the houses won't appraise for what they paid for them. A friend of mine's son sold his house for $100K over asking cash, no inspection, 30 day closing. Crazy! If DS2 gets a job here, we told him he can live with us until the market corrects and he can buy a house. There is no reason for him to pay these crazy prices for either rent or buying a house. We have plenty of room and he pitches in when he is here. That way he can sock away money for more of a down payment and still buy groceries here!

levioosa · June 2021

I am back at work and so tired. I barely slept last night. I would have gotten more except FI woke me up for some BCBC which was fine, but I should have known better. Once I’m up, I’m up. Essentially I took a three hour nap last night. Then there was a ton of traffic which I was not in the mood for. Im hoping there was something going on this morning and it’s not a reflection of what traffic will be like going forward. Yesterday CA fully reopened. I have a lot of thoughts about it but only time will tell if we’ll be okay.

Otherwise, kind of SSDD? I dunno. Yesterday the company laid off about 60 people out of the blue. It’s looking like our financial situation is dire. I have a lot of thoughts about the future of everything. Sadly I’ve been about 90% right about every single move so far. (I still have a job and made it through the pandemic with one so -10% for that prediction although there’s still time to lose it). I need to work on my resume again and put out some feelers.

short+sassy · June 2021

My lunch report from yesterday. Sadly, the KFC chicken sandwich is very meh. I was surprised. I thought the breading was supposed to have their iconic "secret herbs and spices", that their Original Recipe chicken has. But it does not or at least doesn't taste like it. It didn't taste like it had any seasonings at all. Both Popeyes and BK have a much better one.

I'm glad I also bought a dark meat special they had going on. That helped me tamp down my disappointment, lol.

short+sassy · June 2021

kvruns said:

short+sassy said:

kvruns said:

hey @short+sassy how much do you think it would cost (ie hiring it out, not DIY) to add an overthe range microwave where there is just currently a vent. It is gas stove if that matters

That isn't something we've done, so I'm not really sure. It sounds like it would be fairly simple and not time consuming. The labor is about $75 to hang a tv and about $100 to install a ceiling fan. So I'd roughly guess $200 for a microwave. Plus the cost of the microwave. I'm always shocked at how much those over the range microwaves cost when I see them in a store, lol.

they are! I had to replace mine in my old house and I got lucky and found one at a scratch and dent place but I still feel like it was like $150. My parents don't have an OTR one and still have a big microwave sitting on the counter. Luckily they have decent counter space but OTR would be better

I see them a lot on Home Depot kitchen packages. Which will show the price for the "package", but then also list the individual prices so people can see what a "deal" they are getting. Sometimes those OTR microwaves aren't too far off from the price of the dishwasher!

I've never had one, but I know I would hate it. There are enough things in my kitchen I need a step stool to reach. And the microwave most definitely doesn't need to be one of them! Lol.

kvruns · June 2021

how tall are you? I'm only 5'4" and i canreach mine just fine

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