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Markets in everything: home tending
CW McCullagh sends me this:
Home tending is the practice of allowing someone to live in a home while it's for sale. Real estate experts say this strategy helps sell homes a lot faster than vacant homes. It's also a great way for some Houstonians during these tough times to stretch their dollar.
The first house we saw had a gourmet kitchen, an elaborate chandelier and a grand master bath. The asking price? Be ready to shell out $794,000.
"The house is mine, while I am here," said home tender Eurika Coleman. Coleman tends a River Oaks home. She pays $750 a month plus utilities.
"I am saving money, I am a recession sheik chick," laughed Coleman.
Coleman started home tending about eight years ago and since then has lived in lavish homes for a monthly fee.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 11, 2009 at 02:03 PM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
I doubt this is new. Many years ago a friend was in the business of buying and renovating houses, and he routinely found people to live in them while they were for sale and otherwise unoccupied.
The houses weren't lavish, and the only fee was free rent, but this reduces insurance costs substantially, among other things.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov at Mar 11, 2009 2:32:05 PM
"sheik"? I'm guessing she said "chic".
Posted by: Alex F at Mar 11, 2009 2:38:17 PM
"recession sheik chick"
local news is awesome
Posted by: stanley fatmax at Mar 11, 2009 2:39:43 PM
Chic.
Oops. See that others already picked up on this.
Posted by: Dave at Mar 11, 2009 3:25:08 PM
"Live in my house cheap until it sells" seems to me like a pretty bad case of misaligned incentives between the seller and tenant.
Tenant would want to leave something smelly in the basement and dent a wall and live on cheap rent indefinitely, I expect.
Posted by: Andrew Edwards at Mar 11, 2009 3:36:11 PM
How far are supplies of vacant homes to be minded and would be minders shifting? When I started reading the post, I ssumed that the owner was paying her since the housing bust has left so many properties unsold.
Posted by: Diversity at Mar 11, 2009 3:42:53 PM
How is this any different, in the eyes of the law, from being a tenant? They are, after all, paying rent.
So what legal guarantees would the owner have if the home tender went rogue and refused to move out? In many jurisdictions, evictions are a long, difficult and expensive process.
Posted by: at Mar 11, 2009 4:05:26 PM
There is a much greater cost than the $750, however. As anyone who has tried to sell a home knows, it's a pain in the a$$ to vacate a home for an hour or two in the middle of the day every time a prospective buyer wants to spend five minutes to see what a nice home looks like.
Posted by: Marginal Toad at Mar 11, 2009 4:08:46 PM
Yes, this can be a sweet deal. There's one on our block: she's the church janitor, her husband is, I believe, a shift manager at McDonald's. They are paying a modest rent and she has a short commute to work (across the street) until Ben sells the place, which he doesn't figure to do soon.
I don't know whether Ben has a formal agreement that she must leave on a moment's notice, or it's informal.
They are both happy. Some of the posters upthread are overthinking this.
Posted by: ZBicyclist at Mar 11, 2009 4:18:21 PM
$750/month and selling for for $794,000.
Hrm...maybe that asking price is a bit too high, ey?
Posted by: Robert Olson at Mar 11, 2009 4:35:52 PM
You want a real sign of the times? I know a woman who was evicted, following a foreclosure on her home. But the market is so depressed that the bank isn't trying to sell the house right now. So she asked her real estate agent what would happen if she quietly moved back in until such time as the bank actually wanted to move the place. And the agent told her 'nothing, most likely'. So she's squatting there until things change. As far as I can tell, no one has any real incentive to kick her out; if the place is vacant, it'll get torn apart by midnight plumbers, so the bank even wins by having her there for now. As do her neighbors.
Posted by: bbartlog at Mar 11, 2009 4:58:00 PM
maybe she's living like a shiek...
Posted by: doode at Mar 11, 2009 8:22:49 PM
My real estate agent handling the sale of my father's house advised me against having someone rent while it's on the market. She said the houses tend to go for lower prices.
Posted by: Matthew Ernest at Mar 12, 2009 2:42:47 AM
I did this in 2000 in a megamillion house in los gatos CA. Very nice solution to a tight real estate market where I couldn't find a summer rental at any price
Posted by: Dk at Mar 12, 2009 10:09:45 AM
Raivo Pommer
raimo1@hot.ee
OECD-Papiergeld
Der Satz ist kryptisch: Liechtenstein akzeptiere die OECD-Standards für Transparenz und Informationsaustausch in Steuerfragen und unterstütze die internationalen Maßnahmen gegen die Nichteinhaltung von Steuergesetzen. So teilte es die Regierung des Fürstentums mit. Hinter diesem Satz verbirgt sich jedoch eine echte Revoulution: Liechtenstein beugt sich dem internationalen Druck - und hebt sein striktes Bankgeheimnis teilweise auf. Damit will das kleine Land sein Image von der unkooperativen Steueroase abstreifen.
Mit den USA hat das Fürstentum bereits ein Abkommen geschlossen, wonach Informationen in Steuerfragen ausgetauscht werden können. Es tritt 2010 in Kraft. Damit wird deutlich: Das Land wird sich im Kampf gegen die internationale Steuerflucht künftig nicht mehr auf das Bankgeheimnis berufen.
Seit Juni 2000 steht Liechtenstein auf der OECD-Liste der Steueroasen. Auf dieser schwarzen Liste zu finden sind derzeit auch Andorra und Monaco. Schärfster Kritiker des Liechtensteiner Bankgeheimnisses ist Deutschland. Denn viele Deutsche haben versucht, über den Umweg Liechtenstein dem deutschen Fiskus Steuergeld vorzuenthalten. Prominentester Steuersünder war der ehemalige Postchef Klaus Zumwinkel. Dieser wurde im Januar vom Landgericht Bochum wegen Steuerhinterziehung zu zwei Jahren Gefängnis auf Bewährung und einer Geldstrafe verurteilt.
Posted by: zumwinkel story at Mar 12, 2009 12:28:14 PM
Raivo Pommer
raimo1@hot.ee
Die Bank von England krise
Die Bank von England hat in dieser Woche als erste große Notenbank mit einer Politik der direkten Ausweitung der Geldmenge (quantitative Lockerung) begonnen. Ihre erste Auktion, in der sie für 2 Milliarden Pfund britische Anleihen (Gilts) von Investoren kaufte, wurde am Markt als voller Erfolg gewertet. So wurden der Bank von England Gilts im Wert von 10,5 Milliarden Pfund offeriert, also weit mehr, als die Notenbank kaufen wollte.
Gleichzeitig sind die Anleiherenditen britischer Staatspapiere seit Ankündigung der Politik der Mengenlockerung um mehr als einen halben Prozentpunkt gefallen - genau diesen Effekt wollte die Bank von England mit ihren Maßnahmen erreichen. Nach der Auktion lag die Rendite zehnjähriger Gilts mit 3,08 Prozent gleichauf mit der Rendite entsprechender Bundesanleihen (3,07 Prozent).
Posted by: rendite at Mar 13, 2009 7:21:00 AM
Home tending is so stupid and the biggest rip off.
Posted by: blue at Jun 9, 2009 9:04:16 PM
