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At what point to I walk into a house and not feel like it's overpriced? Looked at houses for the first time with an agent and I'm beginning to realize people don't maintain their homes as well as I expected. It's pretty frustrating. Almost every home had noticeable mold in the basement or utility room. I guess it shouldn't be that hard to deal with but you would think you see it and deal with it. Also, since we're looking at older construction we need to start saving to replace the 10-15 year old HVAC whenever it breaks. Also interesting to go back to a house a second time that we really liked. Hey, the roof dips at the garage and theirs weird heating and cooling installed. And they renovates their kitchen but didn't put a lazy susan or shelves in the corner cabinets. And the cabinets in the eat-in part just shouldn't be there. Ugh. Also, gently caress fireplaces. They are useless and stink up the home. Unfortunately people in the 1950s seemed to love them.
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Jul 22, 2013 14:46
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WeaselWeaz posted:At what point to I walk into a house and not feel like it's overpriced? Looked at houses for the first time with an agent and I'm beginning to realize people don't maintain their homes as well as I expected. It's pretty frustrating. Almost every home had noticeable mold in the basement or utility room. I guess it shouldn't be that hard to deal with but you would think you see it and deal with it. Also, since we're looking at older construction we need to start saving to replace the 10-15 year old HVAC whenever it breaks. I'm sorry, but I don't see noticable mold in every house I look at. What's your price range? Are you towards the bottom of viable housing in your area of interest? Also, proper fireplaces DO NOT smell bad.
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Jul 22, 2013 15:07
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My realtor just changed our closing date without asking us. I mean, I guess it still "technically" is the same calendar date that we signed in the contract (we agreed on Tuesday evening), but I just read an email that my realtor sent to the title company basically saying "The seller has informed us that they need the funds early on Tuesday to close on their own purchase, so would it be okay if the buyers sign Monday evening and then fund on Tuesday morning?" - that was an email sent to the title company, with me simply CCed (and my husband, the other buyer, not CCed at all). The next email is from the title company saying "Yup, sure, got you scheduled for Monday evening now" - shouldn't the buyers be asked if that works for them first?? I could have had plans to be out of town tonight, or my husband could have not been able to get off work. Luckily it works for us, but I'm kind of miffed. I'm really getting tired of my realtor "team" - it's two realtors and one assistant, and they are really bad at communicating with each other about the status of our purchase. They are constantly forgetting to CC us on new developments, forgetting to "reply all" on email conversations, and have yet to ever include my husband in the CC lines with myself for important emails so I have to be sure to forward them to him myself. Not to mention when we were trying to negotiate a per diem for the sellers to "rent" the house from us a few days after the purchase, my realtor simply volunteered the number of $65 without my permission (this thread was suggesting anywhere between $125-500). They couldn't sign it into the contract without our permission, but they sure as hell showed our hand so to speak. Luckily we are pretty easy with dates since we are on the hook for our apartment's rent until August 20th, but I'm so freaking ready for all of this to be over with!! Edit: My other realtor just called to say they can't make that closing either, so we are moving it all to Tuesday morning  Just pick a day already!
Damn Bananas fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Jul 22, 2013 |
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Jul 22, 2013 15:17
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WeaselWeaz posted:At what point to I walk into a house and not feel like it's overpriced? Looked at houses for the first time with an agent and I'm beginning to realize people don't maintain their homes as well as I expected. It's pretty frustrating. Almost every home had noticeable mold in the basement or utility room. I guess it shouldn't be that hard to deal with but you would think you see it and deal with it. Also, since we're looking at older construction we need to start saving to replace the 10-15 year old HVAC whenever it breaks. Your profile says you're in DC. If that's the case, then your problem is that the DC metro area is a major seller's market and a lot of buyers are willing to pay whatever is asked and overlook almost any issue in order to get a house in a desirable location. Konstantin fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Jul 22, 2013 |
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Jul 22, 2013 15:17
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Konstantin posted:Your profile says you're in DC. If that's the case, then your problem is that the DC metro area is a major seller's market and a lot of buyers are willing to pay whatever is asked and overlook almost any issue in order to get a house in a desirable location. Agreed on this. I'm looking in DC proper right now and holy poo poo is it ever frustrating between being a seller's marker and consisting largely of very old homes.
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Jul 22, 2013 15:35
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drat Bananas posted:My realtor just changed our closing date without asking us. I mean, I guess it still "technically" is the same calendar date that we signed in the contract (we agreed on Tuesday evening), but I just read an email that my realtor sent to the title company basically saying "The seller has informed us that they need the funds early on Tuesday to close on their own purchase, so would it be okay if the buyers sign Monday evening and then fund on Tuesday morning?" - that was an email sent to the title company, with me simply CCed (and my husband, the other buyer, not CCed at all). The next email is from the title company saying "Yup, sure, got you scheduled for Monday evening now" - shouldn't the buyers be asked if that works for them first?? I could have had plans to be out of town tonight, or my husband could have not been able to get off work. Luckily it works for us, but I'm kind of miffed. Tell them to suck it. My seller was located in another state, and had everything signed and sent over. We signed the closing papers on a Friday (for a Monday closing), and only made it effective on Monday. I held onto the closing check until early Monday morning (regular close day), which upon delivery made it effective. So, yeah, your intuition that your realtor team sucks is probably accurate.
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Jul 22, 2013 15:56
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Konstantin posted:Your profile says you're in DC. If that's the case, then your problem is that the DC metro area is a major seller's market and a lot of buyers are willing to pay whatever is asked and overlook almost any issue in order to get a house in a desirable location. We've got a similar market in MA, and as a prospective seller, it's hard not to adopt a mindset of passing poo poo off on people who want to buy my house. Most of the things on my pre-listing to-do list are scratched off with the annotation "Someone else's problem," knowing that when these things come up in an inspection I don't really have to move much on price. The market's insane. CatsOnTheInternet fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Jul 22, 2013 |
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Jul 22, 2013 16:02
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When we sold our house recently in MA, the inspection came back with (0) complaints. I knew there were some things wrong, but they didn't even haggle 5$ off the price. And we sold within a percent of asking
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Jul 22, 2013 16:19
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I was just quoted $8000 for total closing costs, are any of these crazy? $500 appraisal fee $800 closing fee $1400 title insurance $300 title insurance endorsements $3600 transfer taxes $1000 (2 months taxes and insurance) in escrow
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Jul 24, 2013 17:25
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baquerd posted:I was just quoted $8000 for total closing costs, are any of these crazy? How much are you paying for your home? My closing costs were basically 3% of my condo's cost, which was around $260k.
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Jul 24, 2013 17:36
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ETB posted:How much are you paying for your home? My closing costs were basically 3% of my condo's cost, which was around $260k. This would be a $240k loan on $300k house, so 3% is right there.
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Jul 24, 2013 17:39
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I'm closing on my house in August. The sellers have asked to rent the house for a few extra days to finish packing and cleaning. I'm fine with that, but they have offered $25 per day. Staying in a hotel in this area would be $35-50 per day. Am I getting lowballed here or is that a pretty standard offer? House was purchased for about $200k, if that helps.
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Jul 25, 2013 01:01
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Feral posted:I'm closing on my house in August. The sellers have asked to rent the house for a few extra days to finish packing and cleaning. I'm fine with that, but they have offered $25 per day. Staying in a hotel in this area would be $35-50 per day. Am I getting lowballed here or is that a pretty standard offer? House was purchased for about $200k, if that helps. Extremely low. Earlier in this thread more than $100 a day was discussed as the norm though I don't have any firsthand knowledge.
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Jul 25, 2013 01:03
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We are renting back to our sellers (seriously what is up with this? Just move the weekend before closing.) for four days at $75/day, payable in full up front. Our house is about $250K.
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Jul 25, 2013 01:11
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Feral posted:I'm closing on my house in August. The sellers have asked to rent the house for a few extra days to finish packing and cleaning. I'm fine with that, but they have offered $25 per day. Staying in a hotel in this area would be $35-50 per day. Am I getting lowballed here or is that a pretty standard offer? House was purchased for about $200k, if that helps. We rented our house back for 2 weeks. The buyer's realtor just took their escrow payment and divided it by 30. I don't think them paying anything less than you would be paying to live normally there would be fair.
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Jul 25, 2013 03:05
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I'm in a situation and I need some input on what do. Backstory. Bought a house in June 2011 for 90,000 currently owe less than 84,000 with FHA loan (PMI 3.5 down) payment is 644 a month. A no cost living option was offered to me, and I am currently thinking about moving in the near future with work. Put my house up for sale last week (Monday 7-15) for 125,000 based on comps in the neighborhood. Was offered 115,000 Cash today, buyer sent proof of funds. So we stand to profit 23,000 dollars in two years of living here with no extra money put into the home during our occupancy. My realtor said that cash speaks and her as well as my parents all said your first offer is typically going to be your best one you get. Basically I am asking if I should sell the house and pocket 23,000 or wait and try to make a few more thousand. We are 23 years old with no debt other than this house, all furniture that we have would be sold so we would not have to pay for storage. Summary. Sell house for 115,000 CASH make 23,000 profit, wait for higher offer, maybe make less. No Debt, free living situation provided.
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Jul 25, 2013 04:58
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If you want to get out quick, I'd go for it.
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Jul 25, 2013 05:17
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jabro posted:Extremely low. Earlier in this thread more than $100 a day was discussed as the norm though I don't have any firsthand knowledge. Agreed, doing this is very risky. If they don't leave then you need to go through formal eviction proceedings to kick them out, and that takes at least a month and sometimes much longer depending on jurisdiction. You should be compensated for that risk.
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Jul 25, 2013 08:53
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Rabid Anti-Dentite! posted:I'm in a situation and I need some input on what do. Take the cash and run.
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Jul 25, 2013 12:57
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Thinking about trying to pay off a mortgage early. Basically, I own a house that's being rented at break even point, and my mom owes like 140k on a condo in the up and coming part of downtown (the value is going up consistently). The condo is in her name, and she pays off that mortgage. Although the system works fine right now, I'm thinking that I want to accelerate paying off the mortgage. I know the pitfalls of doing this involve losing the tax benefits and ends up tying a lot of my money into real estate that could otherwise be put into stocks, but my primary concern is that she won't be able to work forever (she's 48), and so I won't be able to count on her to always pay that mortgage. Of course, we could always just try to sell it when and if she stops working for a decent profit, but then we still have to find her a place to live anyway. We got this place for a steal, and the area is still exploding with long term investment by the city, and has a lot of commercial and residential development, so it's clearly a good investment. I guess I just need a sanity check here. Just for background, I'm debt free besides the rental house, i can afford to do this without decreasing my QoL or retirement savings, and my employment stability is rock solid for the foreseeable future. Any opinions?
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Jul 25, 2013 13:58
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First of all, this isn't an investment, you are giving your mother 140k. If you want to give your mother that money, then go right ahead if you can afford it, but don't expect to get anything back. Depending on the status of your mother's retirement savings, she might not want to pay off the condo, it might be a better idea for her to diversify in case real estate prices tank in 15-20 years when it's time to retire.
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Jul 25, 2013 14:08
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Rabid Anti-Dentite! posted:I'm in a situation and I need some input on what do. Shut up and take their money! /Fry
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Jul 25, 2013 14:28
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My closing date got moved out to tomorrow which is kind of cool for us. Our new house is already empty (it's a new build) and because I didn't have to do the traveling for work that was planned for for this week we can close now. This makes me very happy
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Jul 25, 2013 14:48
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Rabid Anti-Dentite! posted:I'm in a situation and I need some input on what do. You absolutely should not turn down a viable cash offer in hopes that a better deal comes along. Cash offers are always better than equivalent financed offers because there's no finance contingency and you can close quickly without a bank involved in the works loving things up right and left or at least slowing them down. If you think the offer is a bit low, come back with a counteroffer. But keep in mind it's absolutely worth a small discount on the house to get an all-cash offer.
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Jul 25, 2013 15:04
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Konstantin posted:Your profile says you're in DC. If that's the case, then your problem is that the DC metro area is a major seller's market and a lot of buyers are willing to pay whatever is asked and overlook almost any issue in order to get a house in a desirable location. Yep, looking in MoCo and just had that happen. Made an offer and the seller rejected the price and didn't have a permit for the full bath he put in. Not sure I want to take a risk on whatever that could be. It did make me go "gently caress it, I can put in a second full bath in a year at a different home and know it's done right."
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Jul 25, 2013 16:28
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Konstantin posted:First of all, this isn't an investment, you are giving your mother 140k. If you want to give your mother that money, then go right ahead if you can afford it, but don't expect to get anything back. Depending on the status of your mother's retirement savings, she might not want to pay off the condo, it might be a better idea for her to diversify in case real estate prices tank in 15-20 years when it's time to retire. Well, I look at it as an investment since when it's paid off, I plan on having her transfer ownership to my name. As far as her retirement savings, it's nonexistent. All she has is my financial support, employment income, and equity in the condo. At least with a paid off dwelling, her expenses in retirement become dramatically lower. I know full well that I'm going to eventually be her primary source of financial support in 20 years, so my mindset is setting things up now in a sustainable, sensible way that gives us flexibility in the future. Regardless, I appreciate the feedback and welcome any additional thoughts.
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Jul 25, 2013 16:59
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WeaselWeaz posted:we need to start saving to replace the 10-15 year old HVAC whenever it breaks.
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Jul 26, 2013 03:28
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adorai posted:I would expect a furnace to last 30 years and AC to last at least 20. If it is builder quality that won't happen. HVAC is where you can cut costs without buyers knowing you have forever screwed up the house's ducting system and equipment.
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Jul 26, 2013 15:20
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Elephanthead posted:If it is builder quality that won't happen. HVAC is where you can cut costs without buyers knowing you have forever screwed up the house's ducting system and equipment. I've seen builders install HVAC units in whole 100+ (new) house developments that weren't rated for the square footage of the house. Nothing like having huge electric bills and then having the unit burn out after 5 years. On top of no-name brand chinese vinyl siding that starts warping/discoloring in 5 years and roof shingles that start peeling in 7.
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Jul 28, 2013 04:33
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I'm having problems with the roof on my house that I purchased two and a half years ago. My wife and I offered $5000 less than the sellers were asking for the house, which they agreed to. When the home inspector went on the roof to check it out, he found that there were three layers of shingles which is not up to code so the roof had to be replaced. The sellers agreed to replace the roof, if we paid the full asking price. We agreed to this, as long as they used a licensed contractor and all necessary permits were obtained. The roof was replaced, and we moved in soon after. Aside from leakage due to ice dams (not really the roofers fault, house was built with poor ventilation), the roof seemed to be okay. About a year later, we began to notice leaking in our finished attic around where the chimney is located. I had a roofer out to the house a few days ago to assess the situation, and he found a few mistakes that the previous roofer had made, such as not putting any type of tar paper between the shingles and roof deck, and also the placement of the drip edge and the ice/water shield was wrong. In order to fix these issues and correct the ice dam issues I previously mentioned, he recommended that the entire roof must be replaced again. Theoretically, we did pay for the roof to be replaced the first time before the house was bought since we agreed to a higher purchase price. Does the roofer that did a lovely job bear any responsibility here? Is there anything legally I can do? tl/dr Seller agreed to replace roof for higher purchase price, roofer did lovely job, does the roofer owe me anything?
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Jul 28, 2013 05:08
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porkfriedrice posted:Does the roofer that did a lovely job bear any responsibility here? Is there anything legally I can do? If the roof is not up to code, then the roofer bears responsibility. The exact degree is going to depend on what your local/state laws require. Whether or not it is worthwhile to engage an attorney and go after the roofer is going to depend on too many factors for anyone to reasonably guess; but your first action should be to document exactly what's wrong with the roof, and your second should be to contact the original roofer and request that the the roof be brought up to code. It will probably be up to the roofer to decide exactly what has to be done to bring the roof up to code, and you will also have to decide if you really want a fuckup roofer touching your roof (again). But I'm fairly sure that you should do this before you entertain legal action, because if you don't, the roofer has the excellent defense of "they never even contacted me to tell me there's a problem". I strongly recommend all your communications be by certified letter, and that you retain copies of your correspondence.
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Jul 28, 2013 05:28
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Leperflesh posted:If the roof is not up to code, then the roofer bears responsibility. The exact degree is going to depend on what your local/state laws require. Thanks for the reply. Yeah, before doing any sort of legal action I was planning on contacting the original roofer to see what his reaction would be. I just wanted to see if it was even worth it to go down this route and get him involved. Like you said, I really don't want this guy near my roof since he did such a lovely job in the first place. But if there's a way to have this incident somehow put on file with the state, it would help other people avoid using this guy for their projects.
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Jul 28, 2013 05:37
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WeaselWeaz posted:Yep, looking in MoCo and just had that happen. Made an offer and the seller rejected the price and didn't have a permit for the full bath he put in. Not sure I want to take a risk on whatever that could be. It did make me go "gently caress it, I can put in a second full bath in a year at a different home and know it's done right." I bought in Montgomery Village back in 2004 and have watched the prices take their nose dive and now this huge recovery. Townhouses going for $170k 6 months ago are now on the market for $230k. Great for me, sucks for you. It sounds like you might need to adjust your price up or your expectations down. Alternatively, you can look at "less desirable" areas like Montgomery Village or parts of PG.
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Jul 28, 2013 16:53
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Looking for a house in the NOVA/DC area. Came back from an inspection and it turns out the guy I hired from my realtor used to do city code in DC and has an opinion of how inspecting is going down the tubes since lots of people now just look at the front-facing poo poo. He has a very storied past of what he used to do where he went through the bad parts of DC and shut down crack houses and drug distros. So much so, he brought along cops and wore a bulletproof vest. He found not only terminate damage (the beams can be replaced. There was no signs of life and there were signs terminate prevention was being done), but was putting a whole bunch of things together in his head. I was pretty amazed that he looked at how the toilet was flushing and linked it up to a crooked fitting. We were done, but even walking out he kept beelining back to the house as he kept finding small things like how the utilities ran into the house and the yard structure.
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Jul 28, 2013 17:15
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EVIR Gibson posted:He found not only terminate damage (the beams can be replaced. There was no signs of life and there were signs terminate prevention was being done), but was putting a whole bunch of things together in his head. Be very careful, he'll be back 
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Jul 28, 2013 17:49
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EVIR Gibson posted:Looking for a house in the NOVA/DC area. Came back from an inspection and it turns out the guy I hired from my realtor used to do city code in DC... Does this guy have a name or a website?
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Jul 28, 2013 17:58
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bartkusa posted:Does this guy have a name or a website? Jim Delgado Look up Delgado and Associates, LLC on google Heres one of a couple articles back in '99 about his work as city code inspector before he retired. http://innercity.org/columbiaheights/newspaper/articles_1999/building_inspector.html
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Jul 29, 2013 04:15
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Rekinom posted:Well, I look at it as an investment since when it's paid off, I plan on having her transfer ownership to my name. I'm not an accountant, but I strongly suspect that gifting your mother $140k and then having her gift you a house is an absolutely terrible idea tax wise.
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Jul 29, 2013 21:23
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Rekinom posted:Well, I look at it as an investment since when it's paid off, I plan on having her transfer ownership to my name. As far as her retirement savings, it's nonexistent. All she has is my financial support, employment income, and equity in the condo. At least with a paid off dwelling, her expenses in retirement become dramatically lower. I know full well that I'm going to eventually be her primary source of financial support in 20 years, so my mindset is setting things up now in a sustainable, sensible way that gives us flexibility in the future. Why don't you just have her transfer the property and loan into your name? Then you get the tax benefits (both for the house and claiming her as a dependent) and the place becomes a legitimate investment.
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Jul 29, 2013 21:38
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ripped0ff posted:Why don't you just have her transfer the property and loan into your name? Then you get the tax benefits (both for the house and claiming her as a dependent) and the place becomes a legitimate investment. He could potentially be added to the deed and take possession of the loan, without giving up her name on the deed. Too many horror stories of parents giving up the deed only to be evicted... not that our friend here would do that, right... ?
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Jul 29, 2013 23:07
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