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Dik Hz posted:Can you think of any reason why a broker would put a listing on the MLS and not a publicly available free database, if they represent in the interests of the seller? Mostly the MLS exists so that the brokerages can share compensation information. Also, the MLS is still miles and miles ahead of nearly every consumer search website in terms of search power. Not just current homes for sale but sales going back more than a decade. The consumer search sites are also skewed toward whatever agents and brokerages pay those websites to be featured and have their listings featured. And considering they only allow so many agents and brokerages per zip code, what you're getting from search results from a Zillow or Trulia is not always the most relevant to your search. Obviously the MLS is biased towards its members, but once the information is entered, there is no manipulating results on the server end. To specifically answer your exact question though, I can think of no reason why a brokerage would do that, no. Unless they're cheap and don't want to pay the listing service. Some smaller brokerages might be more inclined to do it.
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Oct 21, 2014 05:30
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Mahoning posted:Just an FYI, the home websites don't pull from the MLS. That's not allowed since those websites aren't members of the MLS. The brokers sign up with a service that distributes that brokerage's listings to all the websites like Zillow, Trulia, etc. Redfin pulls from MLS, unlike Zillow, etc. https://www.redfin.com/definition/Multiple-Listing-Service
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Oct 21, 2014 05:35
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rekamso posted:Redfin pulls from MLS, unlike Zillow, etc. https://www.redfin.com/definition/Multiple-Listing-Service Yeah I should have clarified that each MLS can be wildly different. Which is dumb.
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Oct 21, 2014 05:41
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MLS is beyond retarded. If we had anything even halfway resembling consumer protection or rights in this country it would be busted up and all consolidated in a free site with a real time API anyone can build off of.
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Oct 21, 2014 05:47
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daggerdragon posted:I ripped up the carpet and put down hardwood Just don't do bamboo. I had a landlord who installed bamboo floors and that poo poo was scratched so easily.
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Oct 21, 2014 06:40
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okay laminate, I can't afford hardwood, but if I could, I totally would put down hardwood
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Pryor on Fire posted:How current is zillow? Realtors are trying to tell me everything is like a month out of date on there but the info always matches their lovely websites so I'm skeptical. It's probably YMMV. In my area updates that we receive from our realtor (for new listings or updated list prices) show up on Zillow in half a week to a week. Zillow is great for browsing things that are already there
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Oct 21, 2014 06:45
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The seller agreed to my offer and I got a fully signed contract yesterday morning. Since this is an older home it carries a risk of having lead paint but was largely renovated in 1996 and the disclosure statements indicated that there were no known lead issues at this time. I have a 10 day window to do lead testing in if I want to and since having to do lead mitigation would suck I want the test. When I called up the realtor to schedule a time to let the lead paint inspector in he went nuts. At first he tried to do the "I'm an expert and you're a novice" thing by telling me that the lead test was a total waste of money and never in his 25 years in the business had anyone had one done, i.e. only a money-burning troglodyte would even consider such a foolish act. When I persisted he slipped into legit anger mode and stated "all homes of this age have lead paint, this home almost certainly has lead paint, why would you throw away hundreds of dollars on a test that you know is going to come back positive?" That seemed like a good time to end the phone call. I took a few minutes to get my head together and did two things: (A) I called up the lead inspection company and bumped up my "general spot check" plan to the "test every painted surface in the house plus soil samples" plan for an extra $200, and (B) wrote out an email explaining, in as neutral and factual of language as I could manage, that while the disclosures indicated no known lead problems the realtor had just verbally stated that there was almost certainly a lead problem and I fully intended to go through with the test as per my rights in the contract. I also said that while we all hope the tests come back negative, if there are lead issues I'll want to re-negotiate after getting estimates for appropriate mitigation. I cc:'d the seller directly (so the realtor couldn't twist or filter my words) and invited their input on the subject. Lead test is currently scheduled for 10am this Thursday, I plan to be there alongside the realtor to witness the inspection. It should be a fun time.
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Oct 22, 2014 05:18
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PDP-1 posted:Lead test is currently scheduled for 10am this Thursday, I plan to be there alongside the realtor to witness the inspection. It should be a fun time. Best of luck, and nice move cc'ing the sellers directly. How did you get their contact information?
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Oct 22, 2014 05:23
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That realtor sounds like an idiot but... if you are that serious about avoiding lead you should maybe not buy an old house.
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Oct 22, 2014 05:42
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baquerd posted:Best of luck, and nice move cc'ing the sellers directly. How did you get their contact information? During the contract negotiation the realtor would pass along messages to the effect of "see seller's comments below, what do you think" which included the full email header info. I dug her email address out of that. slap me silly posted:That realtor sounds like an idiot but... if you are that serious about avoiding lead you should maybe not buy an old house. It's a risk, but if you have the place thoroughly tested and price any mitigation costs into the sale I'm OK with that. I'm not OK with being given signed statements indicating no lead is present, then having the realtor who gave me those documents verbally state that lead is certainly present but I shouldn't bother to test for it. He's trying to shift the cost of the lead mitigation (if any) from the seller onto me and that's not gonna happen. PDP-1 fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Oct 22, 2014 |
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Oct 22, 2014 05:45
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slap me silly posted:That realtor sounds like an idiot but... if you are that serious about avoiding lead you should maybe not buy an old house. Or just taste the paint until you stop caring.
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Oct 22, 2014 05:52
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slap me silly posted:That realtor sounds like an idiot but... if you are that serious about avoiding lead you should maybe not buy an old house. Yeah I agree on both of these points. There's very little danger from lead based paint in a home anymore. When it used to be on every surfaced in the house it was certainly a danger, but unless you've got young children walking around licking surfaces that haven't been painted in 40+ years, it's pretty hard for it to have any effect. I'd be more worried about radon, and even that is normally hugely overblown. Now, if you replace lead based paint in his little tirade with mold, I'd be more inclined to agree with him. (That it's in every home and you shouldn't worry about it)
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Oct 22, 2014 06:20
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baquerd posted:Or just taste the paint until you stop caring. It may have the opposite effect; lead poisoning can lead to violent mood swings
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Oct 22, 2014 07:18
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Some things you should know: 1. I am deaf. 2. I have a house not 100 feet from a freight train railroad. 3. As per #1, I can sleep through #2 no problem. 4. I work the evening shift, so I normally wake up around 11. The roofers started at 8:00 am hammering and prying and running a generator/compressor on the roof, tearing off the existing shingle roof in preparation for metal. I woke up at precisely 8:12 am and am unable to get back to sleep. Do never try to sleep through roofing. 
daggerdragon fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Oct 22, 2014 |
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Oct 22, 2014 14:22
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daggerdragon posted:Some things you should know: I was dating a girl for a while, and her bedroom was in the attic of the house she owned. It was more of a 3rd floor. She didn't tell me she was having her roof redone, and apparently forgot herself, because all of a sudden there were 3 dudes leering at us through a window while we were going at it before getting up to go to work. One of them tried to high five me when I left a while later. The point of that, aside from letting everyone know I had sex once, is that roofers are ridiculous and it's best to be out of the house when they're around.
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Oct 22, 2014 14:34
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PDP-1 posted:The seller agreed to my offer and I got a fully signed contract yesterday morning. Since this is an older home it carries a risk of having lead paint but was largely renovated in 1996 and the disclosure statements indicated that there were no known lead issues at this time. I have a 10 day window to do lead testing in if I want to and since having to do lead mitigation would suck I want the test. What's going to happen is that they are going to find some lead, you are going to ask for a bunch of money for mitigation, the seller is going to say no, and then both sides are going to have wasted time and money.
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Oct 22, 2014 14:42
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Hashtag Banterzone posted:What's going to happen is that they are going to find some lead, you are going to ask for a bunch of money for mitigation, the seller is going to say no, and then both sides are going to have wasted time and money.
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Oct 22, 2014 14:47
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adorai posted:further, what is the problem? If you aren't eating paint chips, scraping the old paint off, or doing a full demo, lead paint isn't going to hurt you. Yeah, lead paint is really a thing that's not much of a worry. It's almost like asbestos in how if it's there it's better to just leave it there where it's not going to hurt anything. Slap a coat over it if you care a lot. You probably run a higher risk if you try to remove it without going all balls-out with asbestos-style removal techniques. If you really care all that much, just get a house built after it was illegal.
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Oct 22, 2014 14:51
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shortspecialbus posted:Yeah, lead paint is really a thing that's not much of a worry. It's almost like asbestos in how if it's there it's better to just leave it there where it's not going to hurt anything. Slap a coat over it if you care a lot. You probably run a higher risk if you try to remove it without going all balls-out with asbestos-style removal techniques. If you really care all that much, just get a house built after it was illegal. Note for said paranoid people: get a house built ~5 years afterwards. Even after it was made illegal, it was still legal to use existing stocks for a few years.
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Oct 22, 2014 15:00
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1977 was the year it became illegal, FYI.
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Oct 22, 2014 15:25
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Hashtag Banterzone posted:What's going to happen is that they are going to find some lead, you are going to ask for a bunch of money for mitigation, the seller is going to say no, and then both sides are going to have wasted time and money. If you do have the test done and it comes back positive (which it will for pretty much any old house) does this mean the seller can no longer tick the "not aware of lead" box?
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Oct 22, 2014 20:51
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Stultus Maximus posted:If you do have the test done and it comes back positive (which it will for pretty much any old house) does this mean the seller can no longer tick the "not aware of lead" box? Yes. The seller and now the buyer, if they do end up owning this house, will have to disclose to any potential buyers forever that the house has lead. All the houses on my street were built by the same builder in '75 so I was able to check out lead reports (which are public) and saw none on this street have lead. Figured it wasn't worth it at that point and even if it did come back positive, we'd have to report it if we wanted to sell the house which seemed unfavorable to us. It's not like there was a lot of exposed old paint either. ExtrudeAlongCurve fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Oct 22, 2014 |
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Oct 22, 2014 21:00
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Stultus Maximus posted:(which it will for pretty much any old house) Note that in this case "old" means pre-1940s. Titanium dioxide paint became much more common for residential interiors at that point.
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Oct 22, 2014 21:34
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adorai posted:further, what is the problem? If you aren't eating paint chips, scraping the old paint off, or doing a full demo, lead paint isn't going to hurt you. I'm buying the place with the intent to do some renovations, when that time comes I'll have to get a building permit and they're going to ask about the lead situation due to the age of the home. If lead is going to cause a huge price increase for that work I'd like to know about it now.
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Oct 23, 2014 03:45
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PDP-1 posted:I'm buying the place with the intent to do some renovations, when that time comes I'll have to get a building permit and they're going to ask about the lead situation due to the age of the home. If lead is going to cause a huge price increase for that work I'd like to know about it now. Have you asked any potential contractors if either of those things is true?
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Oct 23, 2014 13:14
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PDP-1 posted:I'm buying the place with the intent to do some renovations, when that time comes I'll have to get a building permit and they're going to ask about the lead situation due to the age of the home. If lead is going to cause a huge price increase for that work I'd like to know about it now. Have you spoke to your city/county building inspector to see if that is an item they do ask about? Once you have the lead based paint inspection completed, you should make sure to keep those reports. From my experience, you might need to furnish those if you go to sell the home in the future.
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Oct 23, 2014 16:10
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I'm getting homeowner's insurance quotes in preparation for buying a house. One of the issues that came up in the inspection is that the wiring is very much not up to code; there are ungrounded outlets in the basement and many of the wires are old-as-hell cloth jacketed wires from 1920 or whatever. My plan to mitigate this was to get a closing cost credit from the sellers and use that money to get the house rewired immediately after closing and before I moved in. In general, I didn't want the sellers to do any improvements to the house themselves, I prefer that they just give me the money and I do the improvements, as the sellers have proven that they like to do slipshod, halfass work. I do most of my banking with USAA and they're one of the three banks I'm getting a mortgage quote from, so I went to them for a homeowner's insurance quote as well. They refused to insure based on the electrical issues (this is in Illinois, BTW), and so they referred me to a partner company that does high-risk insurance, who ALSO refused due to the electrical issues. They recommended that I contact a local, independent insurance company and seek "builder's risk" insurance just to satisfy the homeowner's insurance requirement for closing. This would cover me through closing plus one week, whereupon I would have the house rewired and be able to get a normal insurance policy. Thoughts? Other approaches to this issue?
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Oct 23, 2014 16:12
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Guacala posted:Have you spoke to your city/county building inspector to see if that is an item they do ask about? In Wisconsin there has to be a lead disclosure form even if there is no lead. For renting too. I'd imagine a lot of states require something similar.
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Oct 23, 2014 16:32
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kathmandu posted:I'm getting homeowner's insurance quotes in preparation for buying a house. One of the issues that came up in the inspection is that the wiring is very much not up to code; there are ungrounded outlets in the basement and many of the wires are old-as-hell cloth jacketed wires from 1920 or whatever. My plan to mitigate this was to get a closing cost credit from the sellers and use that money to get the house rewired immediately after closing and before I moved in. In general, I didn't want the sellers to do any improvements to the house themselves, I prefer that they just give me the money and I do the improvements, as the sellers have proven that they like to do slipshod, halfass work. Do you plan on moving in immediately? What would the insurance company say if you told them you would have power cut off at closing and not turned back on until rewiring is complete with full documentation?
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Oct 23, 2014 17:10
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dietcokefiend posted:Do you plan on moving in immediately? What would the insurance company say if you told them you would have power cut off at closing and not turned back on until rewiring is complete with full documentation? I don't have any immediate need to move in upon closing, in fact, I did plan to have the place fixed up for a week or so before moving in. That's an interesting thought, I'll see what they say. Thanks!
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Oct 23, 2014 17:27
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shortspecialbus posted:In Wisconsin there has to be a lead disclosure form even if there is no lead. For renting too. I'd imagine a lot of states require something similar. Doesn't a lead based paint disclosure form need to be filled out on all homes built prior to 1978? I think I remember seeing if you had documents that showcased LBP in the home, you also had to furnish them. I may be wrong.
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Oct 23, 2014 17:37
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kathmandu posted:I don't have any immediate need to move in upon closing, in fact, I did plan to have the place fixed up for a week or so before moving in. That's an interesting thought, I'll see what they say. Thanks! Our 1920 house has knob and tube and we got insurance through Geico. They didn't care about it at all. Amica wouldn't insure us since we don't plan on changing it, but they did say that if we switched it out in 30-60 days they could cover it (and I think they're a much better provider than Geico if you're going to change things anyway.)
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Oct 23, 2014 18:06
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Guacala posted:Doesn't a lead based paint disclosure form need to be filled out on all homes built prior to 1978? I think I remember seeing if you had documents that showcased LBP in the home, you also had to furnish them. I may be wrong. I misread that as the sellers had to furnish the home if it had lead based paint. That struck me as a strange concession, "honey, little Molly isn't acting quite right after eating all those paint chips, but this dining set is just exquisite."
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Oct 23, 2014 18:26
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powderific posted:Our 1920 house has knob and tube and we got insurance through Geico. They didn't care about it at all. Amica wouldn't insure us since we don't plan on changing it, but they did say that if we switched it out in 30-60 days they could cover it (and I think they're a much better provider than Geico if you're going to change things anyway.) You are braver than I am. I wouldn't even consider living in a house with knob and tube.
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Oct 23, 2014 18:27
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As far as lead based paint goes, its a federal law, not state law. Some states might have more strict laws when it comes to LBP, but the disclosure requirement, as well as the requirement that a LBP information booklet be given to prospective buyers is definitely federal.daslog posted:You are braver than I am. I wouldn't even consider living in a house with knob and tube. Most electricians I've talked to said its not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. It should be replaced, sure, but not something that's unlivable unless you change it. Same with Federal Pacific electric boxes.
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Oct 23, 2014 19:28
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Mahoning posted:As far as lead based paint goes, its a federal law, not state law. Some states might have more strict laws when it comes to LBP, but the disclosure requirement, as well as the requirement that a LBP information booklet be given to prospective buyers is definitely federal. These electricians should have their licenses revoked. 50+ year old wiring is indeed a cause for concern, because while the "breaker box" (knob box?) may be fine, I bet you dollars to donuts the wiring in the walls is all sorts of screwed up.
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Oct 23, 2014 19:35
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Some of you are treating lead paint, asbestos and now apparently knob and tube like they'll kill you dead if you look at them wrong. You already have both asbestos and lead in your body and you and many people you know have been inside buildings with knob and tube and have lived to tell the tale. You won't get mesothelioma from removing the asbestos wrap around your pipes and you won't suffer from seizures if you sand down your windowsill. Make a dedicated point not to eat the dust created, clean up afterward and there is no danger at all. Knob and tube can be disabled by anyone with the skills necessary to turn off a light switch and operate a screwdriver. Running replacements is finicky if you want to go through the walls, but if you have managed to hold down a job that pays well enough for you to save up and buy a house, I promise you that you have all the mental power necessary to replace the wiring. poo poo, even if you're really stupid and equally ham-fisted, you could just run surface conduit everywhere.
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Oct 23, 2014 19:44
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You're probably okay even if you snort the asbestos dust. Asbestos has always been an occupational hazard; people who suffer from asbestos related disease do so after coming into contact with it on a regular basis for years. Knob and tube wire isn't inherently dangerous. The major dangers of it come from unsafe modifications to it (which most modifications are, since very few people know how to work with knob & tube correctly any more). The dangers get blown way out of proportion by sensationalism and attempts to get people to take the dangers that are there more seriously.
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Oct 23, 2014 19:56
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I'm just jaded from owning a house built in 1963. Which is also known as the time before building codes were enforced.
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Oct 23, 2014 21:02
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Knob and tube is still really common in my area. Is there some way I can setup an auto-post thing to let you all know if the house burns down and takes me with it?
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Oct 23, 2014 22:47
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