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Tortilla Maker posted:Went to an open house yesterday and my wife fell in love with the place. As we're walking back to our car I mention to her that the neighbor across the street looks an awful lot like my co-worker (it was hard to say for sure as her back was toward us since she was getting into her house). Only when she has to fire you. Moana you should get and extension now for at least a couple days on your inspection period, but really your inspector is a douche for not following up and you should fire them.
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Aug 18, 2015 19:37
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Yeah, real estate agent is getting us a couple days' extension for the inspection stuff. Went down there today for the mold inspection, pretty much what we expected. One joist under the bathroom needs replacing due to a plumbing leak, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. One bedroom is just awful, it has termites in the windowsill outside and mold in the ceiling and basically needs to be stripped down to studs and rebuilt. Also redoing all of the flooring and the whole roof. And the septic needs the lid replaced. And someone died in there and their dogs died in there too after chewing through a door and peeing over all the floor so it smells awful. But it's $200k cheaper than any other house in the neighborhood, so YOLO, project time!!!
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Aug 18, 2015 22:45
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God I wish I could find a crap house that someone died in instead of quick flips with lovely tile that looks like wood flooring.
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Aug 19, 2015 00:44
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So my wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first home. We found a townhouse that we love, in a great location and the price was right. The seller accepted our offer, we signed the contract, and began moving forward with the process. Then came the inspection... and I learned some things that have made me reconsider purchasing this home. From the start it was pretty obvious that the home was a flip - the seller purchased it 3 months ago for $151,000 and listed it last week for $235,000. He did a fantastic job with the cosmetic upgrades throughout the house (renovated kitchen, new wood floors, new carpet, etc), but he didn't touch anything related to heating and cooling the home. I found out today that the A/C, furnace, windows and roof are all original. The house was built in 1994, so they're all 21 years old. The water heater is 12 years old. Just from some quick research online, I found that all of these are either well past their expected lifetime or are within their recommended replacement window. The home inspector's only comment was that they all function currently. I know we can get a good home warranty to cover any repairs, but pending an equipment failure that leads to a replacement - I'm worried about getting completely eaten alive by utilities (furnace is gas, A/C is electric). There's no way a 21 year old furnace and A/C are operating efficiently and combine that with vaulted ceilings, the furnace being in the attic, and 21 year old windows (the inspector also pointed out numerous fogged windows, which indicated a compromised seal) I'm expecting it'll be extremely expensive to heat and cool this home. The house also has a converted garage, so it ends up being 2,150 sqft and I don't think the 70000 BTU furnace was designed to heat that much space efficiently - I imagine it'll be working extra hard. The roof is also really concerning to me. The inspector said he didn't notice any leaks or damage, but that it is within the timeframe to be replaced. It's an asphalt roof and the inspector said they're typically replaced every 20 years. Also factor in that I'm in the military, so in 3 years my wife and I will be looking to resell this home. By that time all of these critical parts of the home will be 24 years old, if they haven't failed and caused us to eat the cost of a replacement. Will future potential buyers even take the risk? Will we end up having to replace everything anyway for the sake of selling the home? Based on averages for replacements, total cost to replace everything (not including windows) would be about $26,000. That's a significant amount of money for me and while I could make it work, it's not something I planned on and budgeted for. I think I'm just a little frustrated that the seller only upgraded cosmetics and didn't touch anything critical to heating/cooling the home even though it's all due for replacement. I know a home warranty will cover the equipment, but I'm afraid of getting bled dry by monthly utility bills. It's just hard not to feel like we're being fooled by a fresh coat of paint on a house that needs a significant investment still. Am I being overly cautious and unrealistic? We offered the seller his asking price originally. What would be reasonable to renegotiate in this situation? Thank you so much!
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Aug 19, 2015 02:32
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central posted:
Are you willing to take the risk? Just so you're aware, you're likely going to lose money on your house if you're only living there for a few years because of closing costs, repairs, taxes, realtors fee when you sell, etc. Say 3% for closing, 7% for realtor, a few more percent for huge interest on your loan, you get the idea. Buying vs renting only makes sense after ~7 years. Depending on your down payment, etc, you're probably going to be paying more on interest than towards your principle for the first ten years or so anyways. Not that the guy below is particularly pitiable, but yes, everything will break and cost a lot of money to fix. Probably. Or the water heater will outlast your children... who knows? Likely not so much if a flipper touched it. Also gas furnace and electric AC is pretty normal, probably pretty good even.   
Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Aug 19, 2015 |
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Aug 19, 2015 02:52
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FCKGW posted:God I wish I could find a crap house that someone died in instead of quick flips with lovely tile that looks like wood flooring.
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Aug 19, 2015 03:38
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central posted:So my wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first home. We found a townhouse that we love, in a great location and the price was right. The seller accepted our offer, we signed the contract, and began moving forward with the process. Then came the inspection... and I learned some things that have made me reconsider purchasing this home. Ok, just off the cuff: You are asking the right questions. You are unlikely to find a "good home warranty" that will pay off for the replacement of the stuff you're considering. The combination of premiums, deductibles, exceptions, and caps on payouts are likely to hose you. I'm not a home warranty expert, I just got one from the sellers with my house, and it was hilarious regarding the prior points. The inspector can't really say anything beside "this poo poo functions," but you're right, those big ticket items are going to need to be replaced, maybe now, maybe in 2.5 years, maybe you'll have a tough time finding a buyer to bite on 24 year old critical poo poo. My initial take is that with a time horizon of 3 years, you shouldn't be buying at all. This is covered elsewhere in the thread. However, I am pretty ignorant of how it works for members of the military, I never thought about it but if you took my advice, maybe you'd never get a house. My recommendation at this point is to just mainline this entire thread, staying up all night if you have to, to hear this and other advice repeatedly. Without more information, the situation screams "run away." I'm not trying to be a dick or poo poo on the wonderful process of buying a home, I just don't see you not losing your shirt on this deal (again, superficially). I guess the time-sensitive questions are have you signed a P&S, or only have the offer money to lose, and do you have a broad inspection contingency (you may need to get creative with inspection grievances to get your money back)?
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Aug 19, 2015 04:03
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central posted:So my wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first home. We found a townhouse that we love, in a great location and the price was right. The seller accepted our offer, we signed the contract, and began moving forward with the process. Then came the inspection... and I learned some things that have made me reconsider purchasing this home. You sound like the perfect person to not buy a house given your time frame and the necessary repairs/maintenance to be done on this cheapo flip
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Aug 19, 2015 04:30
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FCKGW posted:God I wish I could find a crap house that someone died in instead of quick flips with lovely tile that looks like wood flooring. Closest we've been able to find was a short-sale condo that was mostly boring and had no parking, a friend of ours in the area brought up "oh yeah someone died there, probably about your age, late 20s-mid 30s." Well taken care of, low HOA, but still just a boring condo. Most promising thing we've found recently is a 2-flat with a month-to-month tenant that may or may not be legal (our attorney is skeptical), as-is, definitely has a sewage issue. It is cheap, though, and the location is perfect, and we'd be using it as an SFH anyhow...
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Aug 19, 2015 05:07
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central posted:So my wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first home. We found a townhouse that we love, in a great location and the price was right. The seller accepted our offer, we signed the contract, and began moving forward with the process. Then came the inspection... and I learned some things that have made me reconsider purchasing this home. You can have an HVAC company come inspect the furnace and AC specifically. If they find faults with them you'll have a better shot at having the seller repair or replace them. Our water heater is also 24 years old and it is chugging along just fine but I had the same concerns when we found out the average lifespan of them. They're about $500 at Home Depot and dead simple to install. Your windows, though, that is a big potential expense. If you like the house, definitly ask for replacement or credit. Everyone who looks at that house will see the fogged windows with broken seals, so you aren't out of line there. The roof is a crap shoot. You can have it inspected by a roofing inspector and it may be fine, especially with your short timeline. But when you sell it might come back to haunt you with buyers wanting YOU to replace it.
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Aug 19, 2015 17:20
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central posted:So my wife and I are in the process of purchasing our first home. We found a townhouse that we love, in a great location and the price was right. The seller accepted our offer, we signed the contract, and began moving forward with the process. Then came the inspection... and I learned some things that have made me reconsider purchasing this home. 3 years is a very short turnaround time to sell a home, and you'd likely to lose money even if there weren't any other issues with the home. The exception to this rule is buying a cheap fixer-upper and repairing/upgrading it yourself, but that's risky. I would suggest walking away. Have your realtor send a message to the buyer noting that the roof, AC, and water heater are all due to be replaced and that you want to walk away. Assuming you're still within your inspection contingency period, you'll get all of your money back. If not, then you need to review your contract to figure out what other contingencies you might be able to use.
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Aug 19, 2015 18:58
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Don't buy. Will your next PCS pay for the realtor fee to sell? If not, then don't buy for sure. If it will, it's probably still not worth it unless you can get like 10k credit for a new hvac.
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Aug 19, 2015 19:23
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Just signed the closing stuff. It came up that the As-Built does not reflect the addition of an arctic entry. They tried to make it sound like this won't be a monkey wrench thrown in the works, but we'll see. She asked if it's on a concrete foundation. Well no, the old front steps are still visible under the new deck which extends from the entry, but the entry has a roof that is contiguous with the main house... I can't see that as being a non-permanent addition. Maybe we can get a new survey done in like 24 hours? This was the realtors missing something they should have seen, isn't it. The shed isn't the same one that is on the survey either. The realtor also gave us a fancy knife, huh. I can't deny that does endear him to me a bit, guess I'm easy.
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Aug 19, 2015 21:15
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central posted:I know we can get a good home warranty to cover any repairs, but pending an equipment failure that leads to a replacement - I'm worried about getting completely eaten alive by utilities (furnace is gas, A/C is electric). There's no way a 21 year old furnace and A/C are operating efficiently and combine that with vaulted ceilings, the furnace being in the attic, and 21 year old windows (the inspector also pointed out numerous fogged windows, which indicated a compromised seal) I'm expecting it'll be extremely expensive to heat and cool this home. The house also has a converted garage, so it ends up being 2,150 sqft and I don't think the 70000 BTU furnace was designed to heat that much space efficiently - I imagine it'll be working extra hard. I don't want to encourage you to buy here (since you shouldn't), but I want to clear up a common misconception here. HVAC equipment (and the age of it) is far from the most important factor in utility costs. The importance of quality of the building envelope (insulation, tightness, solar gain) dwarfs the quality of HVAC equipment in comparison. To address some specific details... furnace efficiency degrades very little with age, and they did make reasonably efficient furnaces in the '90s. If appropriate refrigerant levels are maintained, the same is true of A/C. And a 70k BTU furnace should be enough for pretty much any insulated 2k sqft home in the US (and almost all HVAC equipment is the most efficient when it's "working extra hard"). The failed window seals are mostly a cosmetic issue, not an efficiency issue. You are right that putting the furnace/air handler in the attic is terrible, though.
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Aug 19, 2015 23:58
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I've seen furnaces in the attic quite a lot in old Chicago homes where forced-air HVAC was retrofit, replacing boiler/radiators or wall furnaces. Weirdest one we saw was in a "finished" attic. They put carpet and drywall down, put in electrical outlets spaced to code, added no windows, and no HVAC. But the furnace was up there. (It was amazingly hot.) On that topic, how efficient are wall furnaces? We've seen a couple places with reasonably recently installed ones (probably less than 20 years old), but I've never lived anywhere that had them.
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Aug 20, 2015 00:04
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minivanmegafun posted:On that topic, how efficient are wall furnaces? We've seen a couple places with reasonably recently installed ones (probably less than 20 years old), but I've never lived anywhere that had them. From the AFUE rating, it seems like they can be very efficient (90). For comparison, top of the line Lennox unit is 98.7.
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Aug 20, 2015 01:00
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Assuming they're vented, they'll generally be unimpressive from a combustion efficiency perspective (~80%), but they'll at least partially make up for that with much lower electricity usage (or even none at all). They'll probably come out ahead compared to a high efficiency furnace with ducts in a crawlspace or attic. Unvented wall furnaces have 100% efficiency, which is pretty impressive, but it comes at a pretty big downside on the air quality & safety side of things.
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Aug 20, 2015 01:04
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Looks as though the house across the street from my co-worker is already off the market. No need to worry about that issue any more. A mortgage company proposed the following fees in a pre-approval. I know that markets vary from area to area, but curious to hear any feedback on the following amounts (does anything jump out as out of the ordinary or look to be a 'junk' fee; or is there something missing that will likely be part of closing?). We're looking to buy in DC...and clearly need to do more research.
Tortilla Maker fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Aug 20, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 11:43
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Tortilla Maker posted:Looks as though the house across the street from my co-worker is already off the market. No need to worry about that issue any more.
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Aug 20, 2015 12:35
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Mortgage costs are irrelevant without interest rate to judge the yield spread fee the lender is getting from the deal. Those fees look somewhat normal I assume you are paying both sides of the title insurance?
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Aug 20, 2015 14:48
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central posted:stuff There's no way you should buy this place. Besides the fact you may have to replace some of that stuff or give monetary concessions to find a buyer, the closing costs on selling generally run about 10-12% total sale price. There's almost no way you wouldn't be eating a big loss in only 3 years just from that.
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Aug 20, 2015 14:58
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Closing on my first house in a few hours. I suspect my hot water heater, AC units and electrical systems will break within five minutes of signing the paperwork, to be followed by the inevitable termite infestation
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Aug 20, 2015 15:42
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FCKGW posted:God I wish I could find a crap house that someone died in instead of quick flips with lovely tile that looks like wood flooring. I have one. It has it's own degree of specialness, but at least you don't feel bad about ripping out that crap stuff the other person put in there as you remodel into what you want a house to be. Epitope posted:Just signed the closing stuff. It came up that the As-Built does not reflect the addition of an arctic entry. A what?
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Aug 20, 2015 16:05
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No Butt Stuff posted:I don't think my mortgage company did my title insurance. I'm pretty sure it was the title company. And I'm pretty sure it was included in the 800 dollar fee. Assuming they provided an actual GFE, they have to disclose estimated title company fees because they are bound to them within a 10% tolerance if you end up using a title company they recommend, meaning the mortgage company has to pay for the additional cost if the actual fee at closing is >10% higher. They also will quote the cost for both the owner and lenders policies even though in a lot of markets it is standard practice that the cost of owners comes out of the sellers proceeds to cover themselves as well, so the final insurance premium you pay it off pocket may be a lot lower. As to the other costs they look fairly reasonable, though since they're not charging origination the real cost is going to be in a higher interest rate since the mortgage company is going to be making most of their money on the backend when they sell the loan.
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Aug 20, 2015 16:05
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Yeah, just that number seemed high. Like, really high. But I guess the house is almost twice what I bought mine for too, so maybe that has something to do with it. I'm still not 100% clear on the purpose of title insurance, but I know I probably would never forego it.
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Aug 20, 2015 16:22
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Our title insurance (both sides) was over $2000Antifreeze Head posted:A what? As-Built survey. Maybe it's an Alaska thing? http://www.alaskarim.com/alaskarim/page.html?page_id=145 The title office lady said that the shed on the survey was violating the setback, but that shed is no longer there. So presumably the only issue would be the survey needing updated. They're still saying it's no problem so onward to recording. Gimme them keys, and lurking maintenance horrors.
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Aug 20, 2015 18:19
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Tortilla Maker posted:Looks as though the house across the street from my co-worker is already off the market. No need to worry about that issue any more. This looks reasonable as an initial estimate, and some of these fees will be reduced depending on your contract with the seller; our GFE included a survey, transfer taxes, recording fees, and title insurance, but the seller had to pay 60-100% of each of those so we wound up paying a lot less than the on-paper number.
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Aug 20, 2015 19:01
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Thanks to everyone who responded. The house we were planning to put an offer on went under contract this morning. This is going to be a fun ride.
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Aug 20, 2015 19:50
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Omne posted:Closing on my first house in a few hours. I suspect my hot water heater, AC units and electrical systems will break within five minutes of signing the paperwork, to be followed by the inevitable termite infestation It's ok, termite swarming season is over for now so you might have at least 8 months before you may discover any 
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Aug 20, 2015 19:53
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Man I hope central stopped playing GW2 long enough to not buy that house.
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Aug 20, 2015 20:44
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Finally got my HUD statement, only 20 hours before closing. Now to head off to the bank to get a giant cashier's check. Goodbye, money...it was nice knowing you. Edit: We did the walk-through this evening...LOTS of poo poo still there. The owner (who hasn't actually lived there in some time,) is still getting rid of things, but I have my doubts all of it will be gone tomorrow by 1. There were several things we said we're ok with getting left behind, but a lot is just garbage/crap. Like a large pile of scrap wood that's been outside for a couple years. Probably intended for use in the woodstove in the basement, but they put in a couple electric "fireplaces" so they no longer needed to use it, so the wood pile just rotted away. I'm going back at noon tomorrow to give one last look-see...I guess if there's still a bunch of crap, I'll have to just ask for some cash to help get rid of it? 1-800-Got-Junk ain't free, you know! DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 20:48
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couldcareless posted:It's ok, termite swarming season is over for now so you might have at least 8 months before you may discover any Haha very true. Closing went smoothly and lasted about 25 minutes. We are now the proud owners of a house (and the mortgage that comes with it!). I have to say, this thread and the multitude of horror stories about the loan process and closing made me well prepared for the actual events. Ours went incredibly smooth from the very start because we got all of our documentation ready before we began, we didn't do anything retarded, and our mortgage company actually did what they needed to when they needed to. poo poo, we had our HUD-1 six DAYS before closing. Our closing attorney said it was the easiest process he's ever dealt with.
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Aug 20, 2015 21:44
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Found a really nice looking home for way too cheap. It's on the less-diserable side of our neighborhood, but it's still suspiciously cheap. On the walk through everything looked completely solid. Hell, in a 130 year old home the wood floors were original, not wrecked, and actually level! Notes on MLS for our agent said "watch out for the first door on the right after entry" which turned out to be a really steep staircase into the basement, and "subject to court approval" which could be anything! We're trying to get clarification on the court approval thing and then probably put a bid in; which may be stuck bouncing around the Cook County court system for months. Wheeeeee!
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Aug 21, 2015 04:56
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DrBouvenstein posted:Like a large pile of scrap wood that's been outside for a couple years. The perfect termite bait, when you haul it away they will start eating the house. Get the terminix termite service where they come out for $200 a year and if you get termites they treat for free for a couple years. Also on a side note I hire meth addicts with trucks all the time from craigslist. I assume they just dump the stuff in the river or something for $50 a truck load.
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Aug 21, 2015 14:13
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uwaeve posted:Man I hope central stopped playing GW2 long enough to not buy that house. Haha! Not much gw2 lately - waiting for that expansion  Thank you to everyone for the advice - we ended up asking the seller to replace the roof, replace the windows, get the AC and furnace inspected and cover any repairs or replacements. He said no, broke the contract and we got our deposit back. Only money we're out is the cost of the inspection which is fine. And because of your advice and further reading on my end, buying and reselling in 3 years is no longer something we're considering. My wife and I are trying to decide if we want to just stay in our apartment for now or continue to pursue purchasing a home in the area that we'd keep and rent out once we move.
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Aug 21, 2015 14:21
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Why don't you just rent a house? Being a landlord can be very risky and time consuming especially if you don't live close by.
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Aug 21, 2015 14:30
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central posted:Haha! Not much gw2 lately - waiting for that expansion Holy poo poo, thread success! I was worried you were going to pass your deadline without checking back or whatever. Now the fun part comes: watching for that pile to stay on the market and ratchet down in price, or seeing it get bought and confirming that there are dumber people than you out in the world. Either way, you win.
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Aug 21, 2015 15:33
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uwaeve posted:Holy poo poo, thread success! I was worried you were going to pass your deadline without checking back or whatever. Yeah, I feel pretty good about walking away. I thought it over a lot and it just seemed like a loss all around. Really appreciate all the advice.
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Aug 21, 2015 16:27
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Epitope posted:Our title insurance (both sides) was over $2000 I was on board with the As Built part, it was the arctic entry I was wondering about... but if you are in Alaska then I guess things are working as intended.
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Aug 21, 2015 16:47
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Antifreeze Head posted:I was on board with the As Built part, it was the arctic entry I was wondering about... but if you are in Alaska then I guess things are working as intended. Oh, haha. Ya it's cold up here, although the last year or two you lower 48ers stole our winter. Supposedly getting keys in a couple hours. Never heard anything else about the as-built, nor the choice of inspection form I mentioned during the mortgage app. It's wild how much fudging goes on in these 6 figure deals. Although I suppose it shouldn't be surprising given things like ENRON, and the subprime mortgage thing.
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Aug 21, 2015 18:37
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