Real Estate Obsession

[Anonymous]

I am obsessed with real estate. I find myself looking at houses on the market in our neighborhood, other similar neighborhoods and in the region in general. I probably spend a total of 90 minutes (when you add every 15 mins here and there) per day researching this stuff. I track trends, look at sales records, and even sometimes drive around and go to open houses.

FWIW, I am happy with our house, and have no intention of moving anytime soon.

Anyone else out there do this?

[Anonymous]

Not to your extreme, but yes. I keep telling my husband I should become a realtor.

[Anonymous]

I think I would LOVE being a realtor, if I could afford to have a not so guaranteed income!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I would LOVE being a realtor, if I could afford to have a not so guaranteed income!

Yeah, and I also appreciate my current predictable Mon - Thurs schedule.

[Anonymous]

I also have an obsession - don't put in as much time as OP - but always follow the market in my neighborhood and the few surrounding neighborhoods. We bought our current house 6 months and maybe in the back of my mind I just want to make sure that prices are not stagnating. I've often toyed with the idea of getting my realtors license, but love my weekends too much right now!!

[Anonymous]

Me too, I'm constantly looking at real estate. Probably as much if not more than OP. I even look in cities where I don't live but would like to live or have lived. I've often thought about becoming a Realtor but I wouldn't want to sell houses but would like to be strictly a buyer's broker....is that even possible?!

[Anonymous]

What websites tell you how much a house sold for?

[Anonymous]

Me too. I do about 2 hours of looking at houses and probably another hour reading about the housing market (secondary debt market, the pending drop of conforming loans, etc.). The whole housing bubble has filled the research void after finishing my thesis in 2004. I think I may need to seek professional help for this at one point!

[Anonymous]

HA, I am the OP. I think I may have the same problem. Thesis research void. I finished in 2004 too and I still haven't gotten over the research bug.

[Anonymous]

I have the same obsession. Perhaps it's out of habit now, since it took up over a year to find our first house in 2000 - 2001 and again this time around. I like to see comps, what's on the market now, and watch the trends. We also enjoy going to open houses to get decorating ideas. Maybe we do need therapy. (side note, we do have friends looking in the area and going to open houses we are honest with the realtor showing the home).

I have found redfin.com to be my favorite site for watching real estate. I can sort the properties however I choose, and mark them so that I'm notified if there is a price change, or it goes under contract, and finally when it closes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What websites tell you how much a house sold for?

trulia but it's usually behind by a month. Also you can look up the tax records for any address on the county website and see what they paid

[Anonymous]

franklymls.com

for the obsessive few like us

[Anonymous]

Do people actually write in comments about houses on Franklymls? I've never been able to access those.

Also another obsessive here

[Anonymous]

Yay!! There are more of us out there! What are your favorite neighborhoods to research?

Mine: Capitol Hill and H Street (where we used to live), Kensington (Where we live now), Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Silver Spring and Duck, NC (Where I want to buy a second home).

[Anonymous]

18:12 here: I research Arlington 22204 like a mad dog because it's where we've lived for 11 years and also look at Arlington houses in any neighborhood under 700k. I also look at DC (Eckington/ Bloomingdale) because we almost invested there but didn't. (stupid us). I look at Chicago because it's my dream to move back and I've looked at Portland out of curiosity but I don't think I'm green enough to live there.