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What’s going on with Zillow?

Well?

by Anonymousreply 83November 24, 2021 4:23 AM

Apparently the bought too many houses and are selling them all to black rock? These hedge funds are going to own all of residential property when it’s all said and done.

by Anonymousreply 1November 6, 2021 6:45 AM

“The fundamentals are sound”

Famous last words.

by Anonymousreply 2November 6, 2021 6:46 AM

Is this connected to the Chinese housing market collapse?

Can someone explain all this to me?

Will a regular person ever be able to buy a house again?

by Anonymousreply 3November 6, 2021 6:47 AM

I always preferred Trulia.

by Anonymousreply 4November 6, 2021 6:51 AM

R1 That sounds like a present plotline on Hollyoaks right now.

by Anonymousreply 5November 6, 2021 7:00 AM

Zillow thought the market would just keep going up and up. The CEO must be in his early 20's.

by Anonymousreply 6November 6, 2021 7:24 AM

I’m confused.

by Anonymousreply 7November 6, 2021 7:29 AM

I thought Zillow was like a dating app for finding a house?

by Anonymousreply 8November 6, 2021 7:35 AM

Isn’t she a lesbian?

by Anonymousreply 9November 6, 2021 7:39 AM

Short term holding of property with the intention of quickly flipping it, using data accrued from their services to game the system.

I would guess that certain times of the year this kind of investing is going to be more expensive, our property tax bill arrived Nov. 1st.

Also the market has chilled a bit and more new construction is coming on line which will affect valuations of older condos and complexes. Lack of construction and renovation resources has dragged out the timing, some of the units in our building have sat empty for months, costing thousands. These pockets are only so deep…

Or they ran out of college kids willing to double up on a $5000 a month rental!

by Anonymousreply 10November 6, 2021 7:44 AM

Although I don't care much for her music, Zillow is always great on Red Table Talk with he mother, Jada.

by Anonymousreply 11November 6, 2021 8:04 AM

I thought Zkllow was just a real estate app for listings. They were buying up housing, too? Were they doing so to screw with specific markets or was this something they always did?

by Anonymousreply 12November 6, 2021 8:07 AM

This isn’t getting much news coverage

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by Anonymousreply 13November 6, 2021 3:22 PM
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by Anonymousreply 14November 6, 2021 3:23 PM

They lost 30 billion dollars?

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by Anonymousreply 15November 6, 2021 3:24 PM

Stinky Link r13.

by Anonymousreply 16November 6, 2021 3:29 PM

[quote]I thought Zillow was like a dating app for finding a house?

That's what a lot of us thought. I thought it was part of some shared industrywide consumer real estate market database like Redfin and Trulia. Though maybe those companies are in on it too.

by Anonymousreply 17November 6, 2021 3:40 PM
by Anonymousreply 18November 6, 2021 3:55 PM

Well?

by Anonymousreply 19November 6, 2021 4:10 PM

Any real estate types?

by Anonymousreply 20November 6, 2021 5:15 PM

I thought Zillow was like Realtor.com

by Anonymousreply 21November 6, 2021 5:23 PM

So Americans are clueless about the hedge fund takeover of private property.

This is sickening.

by Anonymousreply 22November 6, 2021 5:24 PM

Hoisted by their own algorithms.

by Anonymousreply 23November 6, 2021 10:20 PM

[quote] I always preferred Trulia.

R4 Zillow bought Trulia back in 2015.

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by Anonymousreply 24November 6, 2021 10:24 PM

Zillow is selling thousands of homes in the U.S. Here's a look at the top markets.

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by Anonymousreply 25November 6, 2021 10:32 PM

R16 works fine for me

by Anonymousreply 26November 6, 2021 10:35 PM

R19 Everything has been answered, what the fuck else do you want? Well???

by Anonymousreply 27November 6, 2021 10:35 PM

My partner's parents just sold their rarely used vacation house to Zillow. Closed just a week ago. I wonder if the company now trying to offload 8,000 properties across the country will trigger a cooling effect on the market.

by Anonymousreply 28November 6, 2021 10:50 PM

I always though Trulia sounded more like a Prep or HIV drug.

by Anonymousreply 29November 6, 2021 11:04 PM

Yaz / Yazoo "Situation"

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by Anonymousreply 30November 6, 2021 11:15 PM

R29 that's super funny

by Anonymousreply 31November 6, 2021 11:16 PM

They bought houses but during shutdown, then they couldn’t hire contractors to cheaply renovate and flip them. Duh. Now they’re unloading them at bargain prices to LLCs and Black rock.

by Anonymousreply 32November 6, 2021 11:24 PM

[quote] They lost 30 billion dollars?

No, R15, the market value of their publicly traded stock has declined by $30 billion from its high.

by Anonymousreply 33November 6, 2021 11:24 PM

[quote] They bought houses UP during shutdown

by Anonymousreply 34November 6, 2021 11:25 PM

I hate flipping and it’s all over my city. They all use the same shade of blue paint for the exterior (or the faux-sophisticated black-and-white). I wouldn’t touch a flipped house given some of the foundation, electrical, and weight-bearing wall damage that’s been reported in flipped houses near me.

by Anonymousreply 35November 6, 2021 11:28 PM

Housing prices won’t go down. In fact, they’ll go up because investment firms got bargains from Zillow and were able to scoop up far more houses than they’d originally planned on hoarding. Now they will look to make even more profit from the houses. Shutdown is over. Contractors are back at work. Investors will improve the houses, hoard them for several years and force prices higher.

by Anonymousreply 36November 6, 2021 11:40 PM

What does this do to the average working family? The America dream is DEAD!

by Anonymousreply 37November 6, 2021 11:43 PM

What exactly is a Zillow, it sounds like a reproductive component of a flower.

by Anonymousreply 38November 6, 2021 11:46 PM

R28, the reason they're unloading the houses, and have stopped acting as a realtor is BECAUSE the market has cooled and people aren't paying their inflated prices.

by Anonymousreply 39November 7, 2021 12:25 AM

Ok so what I can gleam is that investment groups have been buying up houses at an increased rate dinting the pandemic causing prices to skyrocket.

Even if you had the cash in 2020/2021 to buy a house, in some markets, these groups were outbidding regular families by paying up to an additional 20% of asking price Families we’re getting desperate so some had to match the bids. And buy houses with no inspections.

Zillow sees this trend because they are in the business and decided to hop in the bandwagon and join the hedge funds in bidding out regular families. And using buyers and sellers own data to do so. Very sinister.

As a result, and due to skiddish sellers during the pandemic, there was little inventory to go around, so families just gave up and the hedge funds, along with Zillow, went on a buying spree.

After realizing that they bit off more than they can chew, Zillow publicly announces a halt to their buying and offers the homes up wholesale to the other hedge funds like black rock. And lays off most of their staff.

So this would be good news for families accept the hedge funds are swooping in on the raw meat. Their plan to rent out their massive stock at sky high rates in perpetuity just got a huge jackpot. They can really crank up the rent when their market share hits a critical mass.

Where else are you going to live? You can’t buy a house so now you’re forced to rent from them.

American Homes for Rent is a nasty hedge fund that just went on Bloomberg and essentially said ‘we’re gonna do this in larger and larger numbers and we are not stopping anytime soon’.

by Anonymousreply 40November 7, 2021 12:44 AM

Another layer to this is the open collusion between the hedge funds. The American Homes for rent rep seemed to be signaling to other hedges to stay in the fight. I think they realize if one hedge fund gets scared, and decided to sell some homes, then the whole thing collapses.

He had a nervous and pleading energy. I can’t find the clip but will keep digging. He was overboard with the fake confidence. Like he was saying “please guys just hang in there a little longer and we will own every home in the US, but if you sell, we’re f’d)

I hope one of the hedges gets cold feet.

by Anonymousreply 41November 7, 2021 12:49 AM

This housing thing is scary. They hedge funds now control the market. Does this remind anyone else of the serf days of Europe?

by Anonymousreply 42November 7, 2021 3:04 AM

Crazy.

by Anonymousreply 43November 7, 2021 2:24 PM

I guess the same hedge funds that bought all the houses also bought up the media companies because this is not on “the news”

But all those stupid social modes generated issues are on 24/7.

by Anonymousreply 44November 7, 2021 4:07 PM

[quote] the reason they're unloading the houses, and have stopped acting as a realtor is BECAUSE the market has cooled and people aren't paying their inflated prices.

No it’s because they continued buying like lunatics during the shutdown without fully checking out houses & lining up contractors to fix them up. They overpaid for a shitload of houses because in many areas they’d cornered the market on contractors. They signed up contractors to fix houses and the shutdown prevented anyone from working. So Zillow

1) overpaid for houses

2) Bought too many houses in a frenzy

3) Paid contractors to fix houses

4) Contractors were unable to fix houses during shutdown

5) Supplies were not being shipped during shutdown

6) Everything is still backed up

It’s a classic case of groupthink. Sticking with the original plan even though there’s been an ongoing emergency for 18 months.

by Anonymousreply 45November 7, 2021 10:37 PM

Here’s where I’m confused.

If it’s good enough for Blackrock to buy these homes in bulk, why isn’t good for Zillow to keep them?

Presumably Blackrock would have the same problems with labor, no?

Something stinks here.

by Anonymousreply 46November 8, 2021 2:03 AM

They just laid off a huge chunk of people at hq here in Seattle. I know about a dozen people, exec level, just let go on Friday.

by Anonymousreply 47November 8, 2021 2:15 AM

Blackrock probably has the funds to sit and wait with the losses on the houses until things get going again. It sounds like Zillow ran out of money and needs cash now.

by Anonymousreply 48November 8, 2021 2:24 AM

And Blackrock’s buying bushels of homes at a discount.

by Anonymousreply 49November 8, 2021 2:37 AM

Just wanted to make sure that I understood correctly that the average home buyer is now permanently screwed.

And current homeowners are trapped because if they sell, then they have to duke it out with hedge funds to try to buy another.

by Anonymousreply 50November 8, 2021 2:44 AM

Surely they could have borrowed some money. I just hope that this gives pause to gambling on housing for greedy hedge funds but looks like that is not the case.

by Anonymousreply 51November 8, 2021 2:46 AM

This is why housing should not be a commodity. Greedy Corps.

by Anonymousreply 52November 8, 2021 2:49 AM

[quote] the reason they're unloading the houses, and have stopped acting as a realtor is BECAUSE the market has cooled and people aren't paying their inflated prices.

What alternate universe are you posting from?

by Anonymousreply 53November 8, 2021 5:13 AM

God, why VERMONT! it’s nice a couple of months out of the year, but that’s it.

by Anonymousreply 54November 8, 2021 2:17 PM

I have not heard a single politician mention what’s going on in the housing market. It’s like there is a nationwide blackout on what’s really happening to the family housing stock.

by Anonymousreply 55November 8, 2021 3:20 PM

I think the government will have to get involved at some point to encourage more building and / or offer tax incentives for selling to a buyer who will use the property as a primary residence.

by Anonymousreply 56November 8, 2021 3:32 PM

How about regulating these hedge funds who are up to all kinds of crazy stunts. They are hollowing out the country and taking anything with value for themselves leaving customers, homebuyers and even medical patients the bag.

by Anonymousreply 57November 8, 2021 3:39 PM

R54: "God, why VERMONT! it’s nice a couple of months out of the year, but that’s it."

Can't we say that about nearly every place in the US now? Either heat-strokingly hot or people-dying-from-the-cold most months.

by Anonymousreply 58November 10, 2021 5:40 AM

the politicians are all in the pockets of the cunts in the real estate industry. of course, we won't hear about the crisis

by Anonymousreply 59November 10, 2021 5:51 AM

[quote]So Americans are clueless about the hedge fund takeover of private property.

I heard about it a while ago. It is disgusting beyond belief. They're easily out-bidding families.

How does it not occur to middle class and lower class morons that this is why you cannot vote Republican. If someone like Elizabeth Warren didn't have to contend with scummy Republicans, we could have regulations to prevent this insanity.

by Anonymousreply 60November 10, 2021 5:55 AM

In AZ I have noticed Zillow buying way over list price. Their algorithm has always been wrong on value and I think they've fucked themselves but if another hedge holds and rents them they should earn a decent return 6-8%. The word here is the hedge funds are all looking for a certain market share to appear valuable.

by Anonymousreply 61November 10, 2021 8:02 AM

*Putting on my conspiracy tinhat* This is about controlling where people move thanks to affordable housing. It could be used, like making a decrepit area like Detroit prosperous again. Or push people into workhouses from the old days when employers controlled their workers' living situation.

by Anonymousreply 62November 10, 2021 8:16 AM

The market hasn't cooled yet. We have another year at least until the supply disruption works itself out.

Zillow's reasons for selling are explained earlier in the thread, and it's not because the market has cooled.

I think the panic over hedge funds buying up all the homes is overblown, but there should definitely be laws on how many homes one person or entity can own in a market.

by Anonymousreply 63November 10, 2021 8:40 AM

What the hedge funds are doing should be illegal. And we should have limits on how much inventory foreign countries can buy. We will soon be totally Controlled by China.

by Anonymousreply 64November 10, 2021 9:36 AM

What a shame.

by Anonymousreply 65November 10, 2021 3:25 PM

R64, honestly, I don't see the difference between getting fucked over by China vs fucked over by American hedge funds and other US-basedcorporations. It's all the same evil.

by Anonymousreply 66November 10, 2021 3:31 PM

based corporations*

by Anonymousreply 67November 10, 2021 3:31 PM

Give a huge, refundable tax CREDIT to a person who sells their house to someone who will use it as their primary residence. Big fines for people caught abusing the credit.

by Anonymousreply 68November 10, 2021 5:04 PM

She whipped her hair back and forth.

by Anonymousreply 69November 10, 2021 5:21 PM

I wish that there was a politician who had the balls to chase legislation preventing corporations from owning single-family homes in order to artificially buoy the housing market in their favor.

But it will never happen as BlackRock will buy everyone off left and right. Too many favors, too many bedfellows...

by Anonymousreply 70November 10, 2021 5:42 PM

BlackRock is not large enough to buy all the homes.

by Anonymousreply 71November 10, 2021 6:20 PM

Dealing with renters is not the easy paycheck the corporate overlords may envision it to be.

by Anonymousreply 72November 10, 2021 6:23 PM

R71 Not yet..

by Anonymousreply 73November 10, 2021 6:24 PM

^and if even they can't buy all the homes it will still fuck up the housing market for everyone else.

by Anonymousreply 74November 10, 2021 6:25 PM

Zillow simply sucked at what they were trying to do!

OpenDoor posted Q3 earnings that are off the hook, apparently they know more about home flipping than Zillow!

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by Anonymousreply 75November 11, 2021 3:40 AM

More...

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by Anonymousreply 76November 11, 2021 3:43 AM

This s so obscene.

by Anonymousreply 77November 11, 2021 4:12 AM

Fuck these companies for causing already over priced homes to surge. My parents were factory workers in SoCal and owned a home. I make 150k and can’t afford a home in SoCal.

by Anonymousreply 78November 20, 2021 8:30 PM

This is happening everywhere. Even in places you would never expect. Even Oklahoma.

by Anonymousreply 79November 20, 2021 8:44 PM

Don't like this scenario? It all derives from the motherfucking bailouts in 2008. The rich propped themselves up and their wealth and power grew exponentially. Boomers and their stock portfolios, etc etc. Everything's rotten.

by Anonymousreply 80November 20, 2021 10:00 PM

Now Zillow is backing out on those deals where they offered over market value.

[quote] Zillow cancels hundreds more home contracts across the country

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by Anonymousreply 81November 24, 2021 2:24 AM

This is why home prices are so ridiculously high in so many markets?

by Anonymousreply 82November 24, 2021 2:45 AM

I believe speculation has come to a halt.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what the brand new complex units were going for near my home in Tampa, and out of over 30 new townhomes built- only one was actually listed for sale. I believe the developer is sitting on the rest of them because the aspirational price is so high, once it sells, it would dictate the price for every other unit. If he offered them all at once the haggling would dilute value with the various bidders. Many of these units have sat empty for over a year and they simply cannot afford to sell them for less.

This same waiting game is happening for rentals, through some wizardly accounting, corporate landlords are able to write off an empty unit at a loss so they don’t have to accept lower rents. They’d rather have wealthy students double or triple up into one unit like Manhattan has been doing for decades. Something’s gotta give soon though.

by Anonymousreply 83November 24, 2021 4:23 AM
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