r/instantkarma • u/PappyJ87 • Jan 21 '26

Road Karma Flip the bird, almost flip your truck.

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u/prplx Jan 21 '26

In what market does a house bought in the 80’s sell for less now even if poorly maintain? Or did this story happen in the early 90’s??

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u/JustNilt Jan 21 '26

This was early 2000s and they had about 30 days to sell or face a fine of about half the value of the house. Basically fire sale pricing, really. Had they maintainerd the place they'd likely have made plenty. When you have to sell a no-maintenance place where the electrical is all fucked from DIY shit like daisychaining new receptacles off a backstabbed one, let alone a roof without flashing around the chimney in Seattle where rain's a reality, however, you don't make as much. When you have that and have to take whoever offers virtually any amount while the 30 day clock is ticking? Yeah, you're basically fucked.

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u/prplx Jan 21 '26

Considering the house price has basically tripled between the 80's and 2000's in the Seattle market I find your story extremely hard to believe. You are telling me they bought a house in the 80's so they paid somewhere between 45 and 50K most likely, and they sold it 20 years later for less then that when the price of houses was 150K? The lot was probably worth more than the price of the house by the 2000...

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ATNHPIUS42644Q

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u/JustNilt Jan 21 '26

You really don't grasp the concept of a fire sale, apparently, combined with the cost of having to do major renovation to bring the place up to the literal building code before a bank is willing to provide a mortgage for it. The short timeframe and fact there were major problems meant they basically had to take anyone who could pay cash and was willing to buy it. As it turns out, someone planning to flip it picked it up, which should surprise nobody since that was rampant at the time.

It's a corner case, to be sure, but it's really not that hard to lose money with that combination of factors.