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Bucket Joneses posted:We found a new house that is amazing (backs up to a green belt off Fauntleroy in West Seattle) and put an offer on the first day of listing (which was yesterday). Here's hoping we hear back by the morning when the seller reviews! Those pictures look really nice. Here's hoping you get it. 
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May 9, 2012 17:47
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IllegallySober posted:Those pictures look really nice. Here's hoping you get it. No other offers as of this morning so hopefully we can sneak in without escalating the price I want to live among the trees so bad!
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May 9, 2012 17:51
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We're making an offer on a house tonight. Really freaked out but of course, our realtor gets back to me after she asked the seller a question with news that the seller is now expecting another offer after a 2nd showing today. So far, this seller has been a real bitch, has been there for every showing and has indicated that she isn't very flexible. I think she's blowing smoke and is pulling anything she can to get us to pay list price which isn't happening. The house is fabulous but I don't want to deal with another realtor/house flipper if this deal falls through. I think these people feel entitled to massive profits because they dumped a bunch of money into a house. Meanwhile, another house we were interested in but was a bit out of our price range has been doing follow ups with our agent and seems desperate to drop the price and sell it. I guess these things are never easy.
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May 9, 2012 18:11
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If the seller showed up and stuck around for every showing, I'd walk. That's weird behavior.
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May 9, 2012 18:13
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FISHMANPET posted:Suburbs, at least the type we've been building since WW2, are so hosed it's not even funny. Well yes and no. That's what's speculated to happen by some planners, particularly those of the New Urbanism movement (like Kuntsler) and elaborated on in books and documentaries (such as End of Suburbia). But that's not to say when it will happen or even necessarily if it will happen in our lifetime. The truly "apocalyptic"* view is that cul-de-sac suburbs of the last 20 years will someday become the new low-income housing areas as low income families are priced out of downtowns and first ring suburbs by gentrification and upper middle class families flock back to city centers. However, many second ring suburbs built in the 60s, 70s, and even into the 80s where most middle income families live are still close enough to city centers that the demographics in those areas may not change at all. tl;dr: Basically it's speculation and theory on future trends that haven't yet become reality. *I say apocalyptic because this is usually described as a worst case scenario for public transit infrastructure and public safety. The public transit systems typically do not service the farthest suburbs very well (if at all) and police would have a difficult time policing high crime areas with cul-de-sac road patterns.
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May 9, 2012 18:15
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new home, old colors, same Arsenal
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Splizwarf posted:If the seller showed up and stuck around for every showing, I'd walk. That's weird behavior. Are they even allowed to do that? I thought sellers had to vacate the property while it was being shown, or is it just state-based/professional courtesy?
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May 9, 2012 18:18
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I Might Be Adam posted:We're making an offer on a house tonight. Really freaked out but of course, our realtor gets back to me after she asked the seller a question with news that the seller is now expecting another offer after a 2nd showing today. So far, this seller has been a real bitch, has been there for every showing and has indicated that she isn't very flexible. I think she's blowing smoke and is pulling anything she can to get us to pay list price which isn't happening. The house is fabulous but I don't want to deal with another realtor/house flipper if this deal falls through. I think these people feel entitled to massive profits because they dumped a bunch of money into a house. Breathe. It's a house, it's the beginning of the active real estate season. There will be more, even though it may not seem like it. Do NOT let emotion push you into a transaction that does not make sense. Objectively evaluate the house and make an appropriate offer. If someone comes in higher, then they valued it higher and deserve it have bought it. If they never offer and the seller refuses, that's her prerogative. All your role is is to pick a value, and offer it if you wish to purchase. Let all the other BS fall to the side. She can be a bitch, if she accepts the offer in 30-45 days she'll be out of your life forever.
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May 9, 2012 18:20
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daggerdragon posted:Are they even allowed to do that? I thought sellers had to vacate the property while it was being shown, or is it just state-based/professional courtesy? I think they can ask and you can grant them the ability to be there. I know that the last house we almost bought, the seller and her realtor wanted to be on site while we walked through the property and our realtor told them "gently caress no, you're not doing that."
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May 9, 2012 18:21
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It's their home, they can do what they want. However, the other realtors may not want to show their clients the home in that environment so they will get less people looking at the house.
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May 9, 2012 18:26
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I know that as a tenant, if my landlord is planning to sell the property they can't ask me to leave for showings, I figure it is the same for owner-occupied homes. Of course, owners actually have an incentive to sell the place, while tenants just have concerns about a new landlord.
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May 9, 2012 18:32
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I personally am not interested in ever seeing or meeting the seller (and I assume vice versa) because that has a good chance of bringing emotional tweaks and quirks into a very important business transaction. I don't know if that's normal but it seems logical. For me that opinion probably comes from when we tried to buy our first house and the sellers told us they weren't going to be able to bend much because this was Grandma's house and the sale price from it was going to pay for the rest of her life in a home (ie "You wouldn't want to cut too hard a bargain out of Grandma's "stay alive" fund, would you?"). It came out later in the sale process that she had actually died, in the house, a year previous. After 5 months of back and forth, three days from closing, it came to light that they had "forgotten" the septic inspection, and then (of course) it failed inspection rather spectacularly. Fun fact: Virginia and Texas are the only two states where building a driveway on top of a septic drainage field isn't illegal. Also, records were "discovered" documenting the cave-in of the septic tank top the previous year, which was repaired with a solid oak door. At this point we're just saving like hell to build something ourselves. Do never buy.
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May 9, 2012 18:33
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pimpslap posted:Well yes and no. That's what's speculated to happen by some planners, particularly those of the New Urbanism movement (like Kuntsler) and elaborated on in books and documentaries (such as End of Suburbia). But that's not to say when it will happen or even necessarily if it will happen in our lifetime. The truly "apocalyptic"* view is that cul-de-sac suburbs of the last 20 years will someday become the new low-income housing areas as low income families are priced out of downtowns and first ring suburbs by gentrification and upper middle class families flock back to city centers. However, many second ring suburbs built in the 60s, 70s, and even into the 80s where most middle income families live are still close enough to city centers that the demographics in those areas may not change at all. Well first of all Kunstler is nuts, and thinks we'll turn into an agrarian society very quickly, so he hates skyscrapers and anything super dense like that. Also, the distinction of city vs suburb isn't really a good one anymore, now it comes down to form. Is it built for people, or is it built for cars. There are plenty of suburbs built for people, and plenty of cities built for cars. The cities built for cars have a hope of redeveloping into something a little more sane, but suburbs built for cars have basically no hope. And you're right that we don't know when it's going to happen, but the way gas prices are going, and the current trends in car ownership and living preferences in the younger generations, I really think it's going to be sooner rather than later.
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May 9, 2012 18:54
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TraderStav posted:Breathe. Yeah, my wife and I have had a lot of back and forth about the seller and I finally just snapped and explained that we shouldn't care about her and just make an offer that we feel comfortable paying for the home. If it's not accepted, we go on to the next. We might be in a slightly different situation regarding the seller being there. The seller is also a realtor and the listing agent and is basically flipping the house. Nobody lives there so she's been there for both of the showings for some stupid reason. She's been nice enough to at least step out of the house or leave completely while we've been there. She's done a terrific job restoring this 1940s house but I'm beginning to suspect that she either thinks it's worth more than it is or her profit margin is looking lower than she expected and she's going to be really firm about the price. Hell, maybe she's pissed that we're smart people and have our own agent that's obligated to get a percentage of the sale. I don't particularly care. We're making an offer, and we have a number that we're ok with going up to when she counters.
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May 9, 2012 18:56
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Bucket Joneses posted:I think they can ask and you can grant them the ability to be there. I know that the last house we almost bought, the seller and her realtor wanted to be on site while we walked through the property and our realtor told them "gently caress no, you're not doing that." Hah. We saw houses full of crazy hoarders, dogs and one with bedrooms that were occupied by people asleep. It's kind of unsettling standing in a room discussing it's dimensions etc and then a pile of blankets moves.
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May 9, 2012 19:02
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BoA now says our short sale was handed off to "Quality Assurance". WTF does that even mean?
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May 9, 2012 22:12
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Apparently there is a second offer on the house we want to buy but my realtor doesn't think it's as good as ours since the selling agent asked if we would be willing to shorten our inspection period from 10 days to 8. I just hope shortening the inspection period is all we have to do... would hate to have to go up in price just because of one other offer (though, we were expecting multiple competing offers so...) DR FRASIER KRANG fucked around with this message at 00:16 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 9, 2012 23:46
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We submitted our offer and the seller responded within an hour explaining there is another off and that we should submit our highest offer now. I'm kinda pissed because I get the feeling that she's asking for both offers to be higher without having to accept either. Anyone experienced this?
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May 10, 2012 05:05
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I Might Be Adam posted:We submitted our offer and the seller responded within an hour explaining there is another off and that we should submit our highest offer now. I'm kinda pissed because I get the feeling that she's asking for both offers to be higher without having to accept either. Anyone experienced this? It's quite common for sellers to come back and say "send us your highest best final answer totally seriously now, the best one" kind of thing. It's their way of saying that they will not negotiate further (unless they're lying); if they don't accept your double-dog-final offer, it's because they've accepted someone else and the game is over. But everyone knows that so it's also a bullshit sales tactic. E.g., a game of chicken. Since you're not desperate to buy this house (right?!) you can stick to your original offer. Try to avoid the mind games. There's a good chance you won't get the house, but that's OK because there's tons and tons and tons of loving houses out there and you're in no super-rush. If you do get it, it'll be a price you're happy with, which brings long-term peace of mind. As for the demise of suburbia: if it happens, it will have nothing to do with Grandma's vision going. Old people don't move to inner cities, they move to retirement communities with door-to-door shuttle service. Most of those are located in suburban areas. No, the main driver of suburban expansion was cheap gas and expanding road networks: the main driver of contraction will be expensive gas and the ongoing decay of our overdeveloped road networks. Except that there are other factors at work. People move to where the school districts are good when they have children, for example, and for now at least that is very definitely not in the inner cities. People move to where there's work. Retirees don't care about how near the employment centers are, so they actually have an easier time living in distant suburbs (as long as there's senior living facilities around). Very definitely retirees move to where the weather is nice (e.g., warm) because it's much harder for old people to keep warm in snowy weather, not to mention the possibility of slipping on ice and shattering your hip. We've also got college graduates moving back in with their parents (70% of US 2010 college grads moved back home!). It's a messy situation, messy enough that pointing to a single factor and using that to make your predictions is probably pretty foolish. Instead, as a home buyer, you should just focus on meeting your needs, long term; make sure you can afford your payments, you're happy with the neighborhood, and you're happy to stay in that house for at least 8+ years or so. Beyond that, well... life's unpredictable, you know? Try to make prudent plans, but be ready to change them when the crazy unpredictable future comes along and tosses monkey wrenches in all directions, because that's what it's always done and that's what it always will do.
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May 10, 2012 07:15
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I closed on my house April 13th and am all moved in and enjoying it but keep getting crap in the mail about mortgage insurance. Is this something worth considering or is it BS and a waste of money?
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May 10, 2012 13:17
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I Might Be Adam posted:We submitted our offer and the seller responded within an hour explaining there is another off and that we should submit our highest offer now. I'm kinda pissed because I get the feeling that she's asking for both offers to be higher without having to accept either. Anyone experienced this? I can offer an anecdote regarding what I'm going through right now which is sort of similar: The house we have an offer on went on the market on Monday (5/7) and that's the day we put our offer in at list price. We knew there was a ton of interest in the property based on the amount of realtor cards on the credenza (WA state law to leave one every time you visit) so we were expecting a bunch of competing offers. On Tuesday during my lunch break I went to a broker's open house to introduce myself to the selling agent and put a face to the name on the offer in hopes of boosting my prospects. Yesterday the seller reviewed our offer and said that if were willing to a) pay $10k above the asking price and b) shorten our inspection time from 10 to 7 days, that they would not even look at any other offers that were certainly coming in.
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May 10, 2012 13:29
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NitroSpazzz posted:I closed on my house April 13th and am all moved in and enjoying it but keep getting crap in the mail about mortgage insurance. Is this something worth considering or is it BS and a waste of money? Are you referring to a life/disability policy that pays off your mortgage if you die or become disabled? Typically not worth it, especially if you already have other life insurance options available. We were also inundated with those for about a year after closing.
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May 10, 2012 13:50
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skipdogg posted:Are you referring to a life/disability policy that pays off your mortgage if you die or become disabled? I expect they mean mortgage insurance, as in, if there's anything fishy that turns up about the mortgage (previous owner didn't file proper paperwork, there's an undisclosed lein, etc) you are insured against damages. From what I've heard, it's actually one of the few things that is actually worth it, since who the hell knows what dirty banks have touched that mortgage.
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May 10, 2012 14:46
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silvergoose posted:I expect they mean mortgage insurance, as in, if there's anything fishy that turns up about the mortgage (previous owner didn't file proper paperwork, there's an undisclosed lein, etc) you are insured against damages. From what I've heard, it's actually one of the few things that is actually worth it, since who the hell knows what dirty banks have touched that mortgage. Thats "Title Insurance" I believe.
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May 10, 2012 15:16
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Ozmiander posted:BoA now says our short sale was handed off to "Quality Assurance". WTF does that even mean? Then again, lots of processes have probably changed in the 20 months since my short sale.
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May 10, 2012 15:18
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silvergoose posted:I expect they mean mortgage insurance, as in, if there's anything fishy that turns up about the mortgage (previous owner didn't file proper paperwork, there's an undisclosed lien, etc) you are insured against damages. From what I've heard, it's actually one of the few things that is actually worth it, since who the hell knows what dirty banks have touched that mortgage. As Roadhead mentioned, what you're describing is title insurance. When a loan closes there should be 2 title policies purchased as part of the closing - owner's and lender's. They cover the respective parties in the event of undisclosed liens, vesting errors, etc. So if it turns out you don't actually own your own home anymore because the seller didn't legally own it or whatever and the title company didn't catch it, they'll payout  to you and your bank. Mortgage insurance as part of the loan process is coverage that doesn't protect you, it protects the bank in the event that you default on your loan - in return for you paying additional premiums the mortgage insurance company will reimburse your lender a portion of their loss if the bank has to foreclose on you for non-payment. This would only be done as part of the loan transaction, you wouldn't add it afterwards. If you're getting bombarded now I would imagine it's probably something more like what skipdogg described.
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May 10, 2012 15:44
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and if you don't have any heirs/dependents, gently caress them. Let them recoup the value in probate. If you do, get life insurance to pay off the balance and enough disability to meet your monthly spend.
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May 10, 2012 15:58
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roadhead posted:Thats "Title Insurance" I believe. Hmmmm. I think you're right. Sorry!
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May 10, 2012 16:00
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Ok that's what I figured. I'll just continue using the mortgage insurance crap to start camp fires. I took the optional title insurance.
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May 10, 2012 16:13
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Leperflesh posted:As for the demise of suburbia: if it happens, it will have nothing to do with Grandma's vision going. Old people don't move to inner cities, they move to retirement communities with door-to-door shuttle service. Most of those are located in suburban areas. No, the main driver of suburban expansion was cheap gas and expanding road networks: the main driver of contraction will be expensive gas and the ongoing decay of our overdeveloped road networks. It's not going to be any one thing. It's going to be a mix of consumer preference and market forces. We're already seeing some of that now, today's youth aren't buying cars, they're not living car oriented lifestyles, and thus they're not living in car oriented suburbs. Part of this is because its getting expensive to own and operate a car, but another part is that they just don't want to deal with it. If old people move to the city or some suburban retirement home, they're still going to be clearing out of their suburban style single family homes. Not all of them will leave, and perhaps not even a majority, but we're still talking about a lot of people abandoning a style of housing. Rising gas prices are also going to have an effect, but I think unless the government puts some kind of $2 or $3 a gallon tax on, we're going to see the effect of the frog in a boiling pot of water. Put him in boiling water and he'll jump out, but, put him and cold water and turn on the heat and he'll cook himself. Unless there's a sudden shock in gas prices, I think people will just adapt to the higher prices, until it's just too late. There's also the matter of our infrastructure. Towns can't afford to maintain themselves anymore. They were financed by the ponzi scheme of growth, the newest development pays for the one before it. No new developments, the ponzi scheme falls apart. Police and firefighters are let go, libraries close, streetlights turn off, the local roads aren't maintained. All this stuff is going to make property taxes go up to keep funding the schools at their current level, and suddenly these suburban schools aren't so good (but unless you're in a rich suburb, they were never that good to begin with, and the rich are still going to be rich and do whatever the gently caress they want) I think there's a lot of societal level problems with how we build and pay for things in this country, and it's all going to come to a head within our lifetimes. Now if comes with a whimper or a bang I don't know, but the world is going to change, and we should all be ready for it.
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May 10, 2012 16:46
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This is turning into a derail, so while it's an interesting discussion, I think I'll just sum up my own position by saying that:FISHMANPET posted:I think there's a lot of societal level problems with how we build and pay for things in this country, I agree, quote:and it's all going to come to a head within our lifetimes. but I think that is speculation; "come to a head" implies some kind of moment-of-crisis, which I'm not convinced will come about; quote:Now if comes with a whimper or a bang I don't know, but the world is going to change, and we should all be ready for it. but I agree completely with that. History shows that change is the only reliable constant in human affairs.
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May 10, 2012 17:02
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Electric cars will make gasoline prices a moot point as far as suburbs go. It'll be interesting to see what happens with everything else. Right now property taxes in the suburbs here are much lower than in the city, they may equalize, they may not. Cities must provide a much higher standard of infrastructure, mass transit does not pay for itself.
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May 10, 2012 17:08
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Well, we can finally relax and put the house out of our minds. Seller apparently got a full price cash offer and I wasn't willing to go that high so I guess it's back to searching. I know our house is out there, just need to find it.
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May 10, 2012 17:30
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I Might Be Adam posted:Well, we can finally relax and put the house out of our minds. Seller apparently got a full price cash offer and I wasn't willing to go that high so I guess it's back to searching. I know our house is out there, just need to find it. Wow, typically cash offers are at a discount due to the lack of BS that must occur to make the transaction complete. Can't compete with that!
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May 10, 2012 20:15
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necrobobsledder posted:I think that phase was the part where they try to make sure that the numbers that they got from BPO appraisers start to match what they could actually get (and expect). The short sale I had went through this a couple times when my agents contested that the actually realistic value of the place it could sell for was $70k less than the BPO appraisal because there was just another sale that happened literally the day after for an almost identical place for $75k less than mine. I hope any differences aren't enough to further delay things since the sale price is only 60k.
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May 10, 2012 21:29
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TraderStav posted:Wow, typically cash offers are at a discount due to the lack of BS that must occur to make the transaction complete. Can't compete with that! I just had the same thing happen with a place. They were asking 15-25% over identical (same layout condo) sales from the last 2 years. We requested a second visit and had planned on putting in an offer that night way under asking price - got a response that it had just sold for cash at full asking price. The only downside is other units in the same building now have it as a reference point when I make an offer.
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May 10, 2012 21:43
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I Might Be Adam posted:Well, we can finally relax and put the house out of our minds. Seller apparently got a full price cash offer and I wasn't willing to go that high so I guess it's back to searching. I know our house is out there, just need to find it. I always wonder where the hell do these people come from? It's incredibly popular for pure cash buyers to buy up homes but I personally think homes have a ways to go especially out here.
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May 11, 2012 02:27
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Commander Hen posted:I always wonder where the hell do these people come from? It's incredibly popular for pure cash buyers to buy up homes but I personally think homes have a ways to go especially out here. There's also a lot of stupid people who will dump their life savings to own a home outright rather than pay a mortgage. In fact, there's been at least one thread in GBS where some guy brags about how he just paid off his house.
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May 11, 2012 02:34
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Commander Hen posted:I always wonder where the hell do these people come from? It's incredibly popular for pure cash buyers to buy up homes but I personally think homes have a ways to go especially out here. My ex bought his house with cash from stock dividends from the dot-com boom. He got lucky, whereas others might be investors looking for their next property to rent out, or modern-day robber barons, or children of overseas oil tycoons... Bucket Joneses posted:There's also a lot of stupid people who will dump their life savings to own a home outright rather than pay a mortgage. In fact, there's been at least one thread in GBS where some guy brags about how he just paid off his house. Out of curiosity, why is this a stupid idea? If your house is paid for and you got good homeowner's insurance, all you need to pay for is utilities and taxes while you rebuild your savings. Unless by "life savings" you mean withdraw from their 401k/retirement accounts, in which case yes, that's a monumentally dumb idea.
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May 11, 2012 02:35
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Mathematically, you may be able to leverage your money to earn more while having a mortgage. On the other hand, I'd love to live on less than 30k a year. It means that if I ever wanted to start a business and quite my day job, I wouldn't have to freaking make that much to eat. Less costs = More freedom. Life isn't all about maximizing profit.
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May 11, 2012 02:42
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Commander Hen posted:I always wonder where the hell do these people come from? It's incredibly popular for pure cash buyers to buy up homes but I personally think homes have a ways to go especially out here. Well, in my personal experience I got my mortgage from my parents, and they paid cash for the house. It lowered fees and costs, was a decent investment for them, and saved shopping around for rates for me. I don't know if that kind of situation is incredibly common but you have to think at least some people are out there doing that.
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May 11, 2012 02:52
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