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UltravioletClearance t1_jd7moy0 wrote

When I was looking in Braintree the only "affordable" sub-$500K homes I found have Red Line tracks and Route 3 as their backyard.

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ThreeDogs2022 t1_jd7srmv wrote

don't know what you're on about, that house clearly has a lovely skylight.

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DDups2 t1_jd7w7u6 wrote

This week on property brothers. Some paint, open floor plan, and granite countertops 650K resale.

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ConwayPuder t1_jd80y9j wrote

Real estate agents call that an "opportunity".

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CLS4L t1_jd87yiw wrote

Sorry they just did a price increase cus it was sitting to long. Currently contingent

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BasicDesignAdvice t1_jd89sz3 wrote

I too can afford a house in a place that I don't want to live, offers no work in my field, is hours away from my family and friends, and requires my children have their lives turned upside down.

So tired of this. The market should be able to bear some level of choice from consumers. The solution of "move far away" is not a good one, and definitely does not work for everyone.

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sudden_cookie44 t1_jd8ap0w wrote

They are buying the land and will very likely tear down that house - 0.14 acres is good size to build something.

I've seen some pretty ok homes (in nice neighborhoods) being torn down to build something custom for the owner.

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KadenKraw t1_jd8bmu9 wrote

Eastern MA is too expensive. We bought our house in Worcester for 325k

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ms2102 t1_jd8bvnp wrote

I've been trying to buy my first house for a long while. It's fun to get outbid by all cash overs that are 100k over any reasonable appraisal amount. It's actually depressing as fuck I make pretty good money and still can't touch the housing market because I'm on the outside looking in.

It makes me pretty resentful not going to lie.

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TiredPistachio t1_jd8d8qw wrote

Total guess, but in 1-2 years there'll be a 4k sqft house sold for 2m there.

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thefool808 t1_jd8damv wrote

I'd assume, even if we build a shitload of housing in and around Boston, it's still going to be more expensive than western MA. If moving isn't an option for whatever reason, then you're always going to be paying that premium. It doesn't make sense to complain about having the choice to move just because that choice isn't available to you for whatever reason.

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Thatguyyoupassby t1_jd8ffqh wrote

It's funny you say that, because a year ago when my wife and I were looking for a house, we saw a listing in Braintree that was basically that.

It was this old, barn-style home in a heavily wooded area, clearly with a tiny bit of land around it. The house itself looked like a complete tear down. If I had to guess, it had not been lived in for 10+ years, and the previous owners did not do much to it when they were there. Exposed beams in the walls, all wooden kitchen that was dirty and literally falling apart.

The priced it awkwardly at $450K - as if it was a light fixer upper.

The first line in the description for the home was:

"As you enter, you are greeted by an abundance of natural sun shining through the skylight."

No, you are greeted by death and decay and maybe a touch of asbestos, but you do you, real estate agent with a creative writing background.

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BikerHikerHorse t1_jd8g77y wrote

You know, I hate that real estate agents successfully branded themselves away from what they truly are, real estate salespeople. I think we often forget that they're basically glorified used car salesmen and should be hated as much as those lemon fuckers.

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daphydoods t1_jd8hirb wrote

There’s a tiny house in my hometown on the market for 265k on a very small, undesirable plot of land. The listing on Zillow even says that the house requires a full remodel or needs to be torn down completely.

265k for a shitty peace of land across from 2 gas stations smh

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DMoney1133 t1_jd8i52b wrote

Remember to cut out your $5/day coffee purchase and then you can save up for this gem.

That's only 60,000 days to save up!

What do you mean you don't want to wait 164 years? Well then only save up for a 20% down payment.

That's still almost 33 years at 5 dollars a day.

Totally achievable /s

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Red_Sox_5 t1_jd8k8mk wrote

I’d be careful, looks like some replacement shingles on the roof. You never know what that might be covering up.

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sordidcandles t1_jd8kgx0 wrote

I’m currently saving for my first home alone, I have what I’d consider a decent salary (140k) and I still can’t afford much of anything except for a fixer upper. Unless I go incredibly far west and away from Boston, which I need to be close to for work. It’s really starting to piss me off…

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Dizzy_De_De t1_jd8khcw wrote

This won't stop until the State starts incentivizing businesses to move outside of Boston/128 loop.

The State Reps/Senators from New Bedford, Lowell, Worcester & Springfield areas need to all band together.

The chance that will happen is zero.

Our 1 party State politicians know if they buck the system, the system will kick them out, and politicians care more about their own paychecks/pensions than the people they serve.

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lizevee t1_jd8l5zx wrote

Just saw a home on the water a block away from me that was listed for $700k a year ago, outdated but seemed clean and a bit bigger than my house, totally tore down. A perfectly okay house, total tear down for $700k! Much bigger house going in that'll be $1m+ for sure.

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SandyBouattick t1_jd8m9vg wrote

With demand the way it is, that house probably sold for more than asking. People are smart not to pay more than they can afford, or commit to massive renovations they can't do or pay for, but enough people are willing to do all that and so these dumps keep selling high.

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Unfair_Isopod534 t1_jd8n2fy wrote

Yeah MA has a lot of small lots. Privacy is hard to have, even with your own backyard. That being said, my parents have giant plot of land. It's kinda sad how it just sits there without any usage. I never understood it. They just mow the lawn and never use it.

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Thatguyyoupassby t1_jd8njp0 wrote

Yup. We lost a bid in Norwell on a home that was pretty nice overall. Small, but only 25 years old, nice touches, a basement you could easily finish and turn into an in-law suite, and a decent sized yard.

Person that bought it paid $60K over asking and tore it down to build on the land.

When there is that much money in the market, you can sell anything.

We "lucked out" and bought as things stabilized a few months back, but no doubt that original Braintree home we saw went for $520K and was torn down, built into a much nicer property, and will be sold for $1M+.

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lazydictionary t1_jd8nxzl wrote

A lot of the HGTV shows started out in Canada, so the housing prices were already fucked for an American audience.

I think now the brothers are in California(?), so still more of the same.

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truthseeeker t1_jd8uf4o wrote

For residential, sure, but highway access for commercial property is usually an asset. In some places, like the South, many businesses purposely front all along the interstate for advertisement purposes.

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MammothCat1 t1_jd8ug76 wrote

Must've been a mass email. Saw one in cranberry highway for 200k but I've seen it boarded for at least a year or so....

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sneakylyric t1_jd8uj8l wrote

LOLOLOL bro that has to be a joke. That whole house looks like it needs to be scrapped. Definitely just buying land.

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sneakylyric t1_jd8xam5 wrote

In the process of closing on a 2 family in Boston. Shit is gunna cost us $800k. Monthly payments are going to be $5k. Hopefully we get a tenant fast cuz that shit is steep.

It's in livable condition, but will need a lot of stuff fixed for safety.

For background my gf and I make like $161k combined per year.

At my previous job we would have never been able to qualify. That being said everyone should check out the state's first time home buyers program. Could work for you.

The fact that the American housing market is such a huge part of our economy is stupid, and it's bound to fail again. Yet I'm diving right into it 👀

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TerryPistachio t1_jd8xgao wrote

Why do you feel the need to be so unpleasant to strangers on the internet? Why act like such a tough guy?

​

You're taking what I said to an extreme example. Of course, if they literally can't buy a house they can't buy a house. That's not who I'm talking about.

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TerryPistachio t1_jd8y708 wrote

Or maybe I misinterpreted what you said. Just like you are misinterpreting what I said.

​

When I bought a home child care was not significantly less expensive in western MA. In fact they're still some of the most expensive in the entire country. So by moving far from family you aren't avoiding that cost. Childcare is WAY too expensive in this state.

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BasicDesignAdvice t1_jd8zw03 wrote

> I also didn't tell anyone to move so I don't know what the fuck you are tired of......

Please don't pretend the spirit of your previous comments in this thread were not "well just do what I did and your can have a house." That insults the intelligence of everyone reading, and is obnoxious pedantry.

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Academic_Guava_4190 t1_jd902hs wrote

The thumping bass in my backyard once drove me to leave my house for an entire day because it started before I woke up and no matter what I did - close the windows, shut the doors, turn the tv up - it felt like I was being physically tortured. I had the shakes and could not even hear myself think. Now I live with an oxygen therapy user. I’ll take my chances with the 18 wheelers.

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gitbse t1_jd90goo wrote

My wife and I are interested. I'm a part time notary stamp collector and she cleans bird cages in her spare time. Our budget is 650k, I figure we could put some real TLC into it.

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headrush46n2 t1_jd91ksl wrote

just a little meteor damage, you can buff that out.

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commentsOnPizza t1_jd92yxo wrote

At first glance, ideas like this make sense. However, a big problem is that those locations often don't have the infrastructure necessary to support what you're talking about. While Boston doesn't build housing nearly as quickly as it needs to, places outside the Boston/128 loop often build at half the rate Boston does and often have residents that don't want to build housing faster. Most areas don't have a public transit network outside of Boston and it's really hard to add more cars.

For example, Google employs 2,100 people in Cambridge. An interstate highway can carry about 2,200 cars per hour per lane. So to support just Google's relatively small presence in Cambridge via cars would basically require adding two lanes to an interstate (one out and one in). Given that the cars would need to slow down and park, it would require a lot more infrastructure.

It's also hard to incentivize good jobs to move somewhere. For a company like Google, they want to locate their offices where they're confident they'll get workers and can continue to grow and expand. In Cambridge, Google has expanded from 441 employees in 2008 to 2,100 in 2022. If the state offered Google some incentive to open an office in Springfield or Worcester, how would Google incentivize workers to move out there? When Google opened an office in Cambridge, it was already a place where lots of software engineers lived and wanted to live. Maybe Google could pay workers more, but then there's really no state incentive for Google since they likely have to spend more than that incentive getting workers to move.

In fact, how much of an incentive could the state offer? $10,000 per worker per year? At that point, the worker would need to earn over $200,000 for the state to break even (since the state taxes on a $200,000 salary would be less than $10,000). Even then, the state is losing tons of money. If that worker were in Cambridge without a state subsidy, the state would make nearly $10,000 in tax revenue rather than losing money. Would Google take $10,000 per worker per year? Probably not. "Hey, we'd like to give you $5M per year to open a small 500 worker office in a location that puts your company at a big competitive disadvantage compared to your peers who will be able to more easily hire top talent in desirable locations." $5M is tiny to a company whose revenue is $282B - oh, $282B plus $836M; the $836M was just such an uninterestingly low amount of money compared to the $282B.

That's not to say that the state can't do things to make places like New Bedford, Lowell, Worcester, and Springfield more attractive for business. However, it takes time (like a decade or more) and there are going to be moves that many residents might dislike. Creating business districts that are nice for transit, walking, and biking will mean trading off parking and road throughput. Residents often hate new housing because they worry about traffic and parking. What happens when you say that you're going to be bringing in a truck-full of new housing because you're looking to incentivize businesses to move there? How do they react when you tell them that the parking lot they like using is going to become a building with minimal parking - and there will be a lot more people trying to get to that area too?

If you want employers to move to areas, they need to feel confident that it's a good investment. Money won't sway them - at least not any amount of money it would be sane to spend on an incentive. When Amazon was looking for HQ2, they weren't swayed by incentives. They were simply looking to milk money out of the locations they already wanted to go to - NYC and DC, places where the workers they want already wanted to live. Massachusetts can't offer Google $50M a year to hire 500 people outside of Boston. That would be $100,000 per worker. We can't give Google 20 people's taxes for every worker they hire outside Boston/128.

If we want places like Worcester and Lowell to be places where companies want to go, we need to focus on creating the environment that will make that happen. For example, if we had a higher speed express rail link between Lowell and Boston, that could make Lowell a place more easily commutable to for existing workers. A tech worker could move to Lowell and commute to Boston which incentivizes a tech company to move to Lowell. A tech company moving to Lowell could retain more workers living in Boston if it were a reasonable commute. If we started converting a lot of the parking around the Lowell rail stop to businesses and housing and allowed any building to be 5-stories tall within half a mile of the station without parking requirements, that could make sure that there would be housing and new office space available as companies and workers need it. If we put more money into public transit in Lowell and started converting car lanes into bus lanes, we could ensure people could get around (a bus lane moves more people per hour than a car lane).

But I can already hear the complaints. People don't often think about how their community has to change in order to accommodate the kinds of things you want. They want the jobs, but they don't want to have the traffic or parking difficulties - difficulties that will be compounded by the fact that you'll have to give up some of that parking while also having more people in the area. There's a lot of 1 and 2-family homes a couple blocks from the Lowell rail station. Will they be receptive to people building larger apartment buildings? People often want the jobs/money without any changes. Often times people will literally say, "can't they build it somewhere else?" That's what's already happening while they're complaining people aren't bringing all the money and building to their town!

What's a concrete example of this? Somerville. The city isn't perfect, but it has leveraged its way to the kind of thing you're talking about. I know, it's in the Boston area, but it's building itself up as a biotech hub along the Green Line Extension (and Assembly on the Orange Line). What are some of the keys? They got a rail link that ensures workers can get to jobs, they're minimizing parking, and they're making it an increasingly nice place to bike, walk, and hang out. Somerville wasn't always what it's like today.

If other cities outside Boston/128 want that kind of development, they're going to need to do similar things. What stands in the way? A bunch of things. Money is always hard to come by and infrastructure isn't cheap. The fact that suburbs like North Billerica would likely dislike being bypassed on a job-connector rail line might make an express line difficult. Boston/Cambridge/Somerville outweigh their suburbs more than Lowell or Worcester do. Ultimately, I think the biggest thing that stands in the way is that a lot of people aren't looking for their city to change. Sure, they'll complain that Boston gets all the good jobs, but most would also hate my proposal to increase housing and move people away from cars.

Creating social change like that isn't easy. Cities across the country have tried to lure workers with offers of cheap housing and tens of thousands of dollars and they've had almost no takers. Cities sometimes likewise try to draw companies with incentives and usually get burned in the process. The company milks the town for all it's worth and doesn't actually generate economic benefits for the area. What creates sustainable economic benefits are when you create a good environment for economic prosperity. However, that also means giving up some things that many residents might prize: parking minimums so that you never have to pay for or hunt for parking at the stores you go to, apartments that bring new neighbors, and more traffic and a bit of a modal shift toward public transit.

There is the potential to do it in other ways. Maybe you don't want a lot of new housing. Somerville is doing that with one of the lowest levels of new homes in Boston. At the same time, people dislike the rising rents and displacement. We could create a business-only focused Lowell or Worcester revitalization plan, but what's the point if most of the current residents won't get to benefit from it?

Ultimately, if we want businesses to move to those cities, we need to make them places people want to be and that can accommodate population growth (though more housing and public transportation) so that businesses know they can grow and thrive there. Otherwise, we're just going to get garbage businesses who will take money and deliver no benefits.

I am curious if there were specific incentives you'd like to see done. If you were governor and legislature of Mass, what would you do - keeping in mind that there's basically no reasonable amount of money you could pay a company to incentivize them to move to Worcester?

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TerryPistachio t1_jd96ash wrote

Could you elaborate on what you mean by double down? Are you referring to when I admit I misunderstood you?

​

I don't understand how I doubled down. I now know that's not what you meant. When I wrote that I thought you were arguing in bad faith.

​

Im confused.

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MrRemoto t1_jd97sie wrote

That happened on Christmas, 2020. They were lucky to get out.

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B6304T4 t1_jd98wi0 wrote

Those skylight windows are impressive.

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TerryPistachio t1_jd9a9rd wrote

Yeah, I dont think that anymore. I did when I wrote it. Upon further elaboration, I realized I misinterpreted what you said.

Kind of strange to ignore that part.

As well as this part that you are literally responding to:

>I now know that's not what you meant. When I wrote that I thought you were arguing in bad faith.

I was wrong- I admit that. Why do you want to argue about what I said that I already admit was wrong?

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LiaFromBoston t1_jd9cgys wrote

I mean what do you want people to do, spend 6 hours a day stuck in traffic commuting from Manchester or Deerfield? If we at least had good regional rail here then it might be doable but we can't have nice things in Mass.

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abhikavi t1_jd9eonc wrote

I didn't realize.... I saw a disaster of a house (had a urinal, not all the drywall had been finished, etc) listed in Shirley for $600k a year or so ago. Mind, I don't know if it sold for that, or if the seller was overly optimistic, but I remember it because fucking Shirley? And $600k wouldn't even get you completed drywall everywhere?

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go_poop_go t1_jd9ings wrote

The only time I've ever used my networking skills for something sketchy was to silence a downstairs neighbors' WiFi speakers.

Mimicked his SSID, marked his wireless router as a rogue, started spamming deauthorization frames, and left it on autopilot. Guy didn't have Internet for weeks.

Moral of the story is, fuck people who don't turn their music down.

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UltravioletClearance t1_jd9jzs6 wrote

Theres a huge gap between "spreading out a little" and moving 100 miles away into a totally separate metro area. When my parents got priced out of Weymouth they could afford to move to Taunton, about 35 miles south of Boston. At the time (1990) you could get to Boston via Route 24 in under an hour. Now that drive is over two hours one way, not that it even matters because I can't afford Taunton prices even though I make 3x what my parents made at the time adjusted for inflation.

Getting priced out and moving further away from Boston isn't new. The problem is it's been going on for so long there's nowhere left to move to. In 20 years Springfield will be just as expensive as Boston and we will be telling our kids to quit complaining, move to Albany, and enjoy that 4 hour one-way commute.

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UltravioletClearance t1_jd9lcen wrote

>I've seen some pretty ok homes (in nice neighborhoods) being torn down to build something custom for the owner.

I live in a neighborhood of 2-family homes. So many of them have been converted into massive single family McMansions. Not only are we not building enough but also we are demolishing what few multi family homes we Have.

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garvierloon t1_jd9m8d8 wrote

I don’t know why these posts keep happening. This is 1/8th of an acre of land in Braintree. If you want to buy a house that isn’t currently on fire for 25 grand, move to fucking Arkansas, you can probably hire some children to replace the roof for you

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hanner__ t1_jd9nw4q wrote

Lol we had to pour a new foundation in many spots in our house and it still cost us over $300k 🫠 anyone who thinks it’s easy to buy a house right now is insane.

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Left-Rooster9600 t1_jd9oitm wrote

There are many reasons to depend on family for child care that aren't money.

I'm on call constantly. I drop my kids at my parents in laws with no notice multiple times a week sometimes. I pay a whole lot for day care but outside those hours I depend on family.

>If you absolutely need your parents to provide child care, as in you couldn't afford to send your kids to a daycare/after-school care, you aren't earning enough to maintain a house.

I don't think anyone here thinks if you don't have money to buy a house you should buy a house... You can't, it's not really an opinion just a fact

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Left-Rooster9600 t1_jd9qui6 wrote

>Rough situation

I wouldn't say so! I work a whole lot less than 40 hours a week, and make enough that the nearly 25,000 in daycare is ok. That's for two kids and I also get to spend 4 days a week with them (only in daycare for 3 days) unless of course I get a call.

Overall I spend more time with my kids than almost anyone I know

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Left-Rooster9600 t1_jd9r9af wrote

>>They will let you buy a house even if you can't afford to keep it up. I was pre-approved for a mortgage that was half my income. It's crazy.

What's truly crazy is that people pay more than half their income just to rent a place. Tough to have an option not too if you don't make much money.

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starsandfrost t1_jd9rpcq wrote

Hard truth: you're not a homeowner because you refuse to leave Eastern Massachusetts.

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buried_lede t1_jd9v658 wrote

I’ve noticed on these agents are now writing: “price reflects condition,” in case you don’t think it’s a bargain

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Angrymic2002 t1_jd9zymk wrote

It’s a tear down. A lot in Braintree is at least 300K

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TomatoManTM t1_jda1hmg wrote

Happened to us, too… Frustrating as hell, but just keep at it. We did end up finding a nice place. You might have better luck looking at houses that need a little work… the sense that I got was that most of the batshit crazy 100K over asking all cash blah blah blah was for move-in ready houses in perfect condition. The house we bought needs some cosmetic updates, but has good bones.

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ChefBoyAreWeFucked t1_jdacuyv wrote

It would be an FCC violation to overwhelm it with EM radiation. He's overwhelming it with the protocol itself.

Probably still illegal if he's in the US, but not regulated by the FCC.

Still tempted to do this to my asshole neighbors.

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ChefBoyAreWeFucked t1_jdadsi3 wrote

Zillow only considers the basics, you need to adjust the prices yourself for things like the house being burned the fuck down. The algorithm is counting things like bedrooms and bathrooms, with no idea that they have all been reduced to char.

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Dizzy_De_De t1_jdai2u9 wrote

Found the State Legislator in the group

/s

Seriously though - there are 2 types of people in the world

Type 1 finds a problem and offers solutions

Type 2 hears solutions and looks for problems (mostly so they can maintain their privileged position)

The former creates progress through innovation

The latter makes the community a little worse every day as small issues first become annoyances and then become huge expensive impediments to growth.

Continued Boston centric growth in Massachusetts is an impediment to future growth in Massachusetts.

Every Massachusetts taxpayer bore the cost of the depression of the central artery, the Ted Williams tunnel and the Seaport district's infrastructure. Projects that all benefited the Boston area - so much so that the average weekly wage in Suffolk & Middlesex counties is now over $2200 per week.

The average weekly wage in Bristol County (New Bedford area) and Hampden County (Springfield County) is about one-half Suffolk/Middlesex County's.

It's well past time the State start investing in other regions and spread Massachusetts' miracle growth and wealth to the citizens in those other regions.

It's not just fair, it's the smart thing to do.

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friz_CHAMP t1_jdaj1i4 wrote

Well who would buy a listing if it read life this:

"Located in fabulous Braintree, this 1952 Cape was set on fire by a faulty dryer in the basement that burnt through the roof. Knob and tube wiring is throughout the house along with the original fusebox that all need upgrading. Possibly asbestos throughout the basement that need remediation as well. Previous homeowners use this as a rental after their parents died in the 1990s and nothing had been updated (hence the avocado colored dryer catching fire). Bring your wallet and/or contractor skills cause you've got a project that will occupy all your free time."

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philippos_ii t1_jdal3rm wrote

Eh more like west of Worcester. I’m right outside 495 and it’s still a hellscape wherever I look. Can’t go too far west either, I mean… family and work and all the rest aren’t there, I may as well move across the country if I go far enough.

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hemingwai t1_jdarldd wrote

A 6000 sqft buildable lot permitted for a single family in one of the most family friendly towns on the south shore which also has T access. Whats the confusion here? Buy the lot for 300k and get a construction loan, build a nice home for $400-$500k. I guess these people all think $300k is for the “house”?

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mehkindaok t1_jdarvho wrote

To be fair that $5 $7 (plus tip) daily artisanal cruelty-fee coffee typically comes with daily $20 (plus tip) sweetgreen and daily $40 (plus tip) door dash along with $120 (plus tip) weekend outings with $40 (plus tip) Uber rides two-three times a week…

−5

lobstarman23 t1_jdas3zm wrote

Better deal than the 600 square ft house in Carver for $299,000

1

Ormsfang t1_jdasb8t wrote

Donate it to the fire department as a burn house and rebuild afterwards.

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raichubestboy t1_jdawnjx wrote

A house that looked like a crack den just sold nearby me for 290k. A real deal. 🙃

1

sneakylyric t1_jdayop4 wrote

I agree. I just want the single family, but I can't afford it without more extra income. I hate that housing is not guaranteed for all. But I'm not going to keep renting and throwing $24k to another landlord every year when I can do it myself and gain equity in a home.

0

Accomplished_Ad_9288 t1_jdb2ncc wrote

You’d probably have to pay at least 300k to get it in good condition and it’s a postage stamp lot.

1

TheLyz t1_jdba5jm wrote

At first I was like "that's obscene even for land price" and then I saw Braintree. nvm

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SnacksCCM t1_jdbel3o wrote

Probably waived their right to an inspection, too.

1

Citizen-Kang t1_jdbgpb3 wrote

Nothing that some spackle and a screen door couldn't fix...

1