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chupacabraTERROR posted:So I finally found a realtor who is helpful and responsive, and we're going to look at our first house tonight. When I went through with my agent, she was pointing out weird things that probably hid a repair or damage, and she had a pen light we used to look in a crawl space. Getting into the attic is often a disruptive thing, kicking dust and debris loose, so I probably wouldn't go that far. My assumption was that for anything like damage I was going to want an inspector to go through it anyway, so crawling in an attic or poking under the porch wasn't worthwhile. Also: your agent should have good answers to that question!
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Apr 27, 2016 21:00
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chupacabraTERROR posted:So I finally found a realtor who is helpful and responsive, and we're going to look at our first house tonight. I always bring a flashlight, tape measure, and maybe gloves. The seller shouldn't be at the house at all so don't worry about offending them. Stick your nose in every crack and crevice you feel appropriate, excluding their underwear drawer. Better to find red flags now rather than after going through the process of an offer and inspection fees. If you have YOUR realtor, they typically don't do any heavy handed sales stuff. That usually happens at open houses and poo poo when the seller's agent is trolling for people who aren't already working with an agent.
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Apr 27, 2016 21:01
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LogisticEarth posted:tape measure This is good advice. Also: what's the etiquette on taking photos?
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Apr 27, 2016 21:04
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chupacabraTERROR posted:I'm assuming the detail work usually comes on a subsequent visit, but offers in my area have been flying within days of a house being listed, so I'm curious if I'll offend the seller by showing up at a first viewing with a flashlight and being ready to get a little dirty. If you're in a hot market this is probably the only time you will see the house before needing to make an offer (if you want it). Email conversation I am literally right in the middle of having: Me: Hey we'd like to go see this house that just came on the market yesterday, can we get in this weekend? Agent: They have a bunch of offers already and set a deadline for tomorrow*. Me: How about tonight then? *Why schedule a Sunday open house if you're going to do this, jerks? Thufir fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Apr 27, 2016 |
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Apr 27, 2016 21:05
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Cool, thanks for the responses guys. This house in particular has some rather obvious roof and stucco damage apparent in the pictures, so I'm hoping I can get a better look and assess the damage a little. Glad I won't look like a tool waving my flashlight around.
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Apr 27, 2016 21:53
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chupacabraTERROR posted:Cool, thanks for the responses guys. This house in particular has some rather obvious roof and stucco damage apparent in the pictures, so I'm hoping I can get a better look and assess the damage a little. Glad I won't look like a tool waving my flashlight around. I'm reminded, also, that my agent asked if I was OK having the selling agent present when I saw places. I said I was OK, but would prefer not, and she arranged to not have them there so we could be more candid and I wouldn't feel rushed or self-conscious about poking at things. (I think she only had to ask two agents, but we mostly saw places during the day.) Recommended if yours is willing to push on it a bit.
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Apr 27, 2016 21:58
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Subjunctive posted:I'm reminded, also, that my agent asked if I was OK having the selling agent present when I saw places. I said I was OK, but would prefer not, and she arranged to not have them there so we could be more candid and I wouldn't feel rushed or self-conscious about poking at things. (I think she only had to ask two agents, but we mostly saw places during the day.) Recommended if yours is willing to push on it a bit. Huh. Weird. Why would anyone ever want a selling agent present? I can't think of any possible advantage, but I can think of plenty of reasons not to.
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Apr 27, 2016 22:00
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I don't recall that we ever had a seller's agent present at a showing with our realtor. My in-laws' agent when they were selling/buying was SUPER pushy compared to our agent, from a "this house is GREAT" perspective, even when he was showing them "3 bedroom" homes with a nonconforming third bedroom, which my inlaws thought was a bunch of crap. I think we lucked out into having a good agent for our first purchase. He will definitely be the person I call when we sell/buy again, so I suppose that means he did his job right!
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Apr 27, 2016 22:20
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canyoneer posted:Huh. Weird. Why would anyone ever want a selling agent present? I can't think of any possible advantage, but I can think of plenty of reasons not to. Perhaps they would have answers to questions like: when was the roof last replaced, when was the AC/heater last replaced, have there been any major water leaks, etc. I mean technically they would be required to disclose these things in documentation if they are aware of them (right?) but it would be good to know before you waste your time making an offer?
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Apr 27, 2016 22:42
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Subjunctive posted:I'm reminded, also, that my agent asked if I was OK having the selling agent present when I saw places. I said I was OK, but would prefer not. Personally, I think it would be great to have the selling agent there in a normal/slow market. You can gently caress with them and make them think you're barely interested in the house, they can hopefully answer some questions, and you don't have to worry about offending them because it's not *their* house. The sellers themselves though, no, that's a bad idea.
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Apr 27, 2016 22:48
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QuarkJets posted:From what it sounds like he actually did buy good quality hoses, he just also bought a timer. Seems like a reasonable approach, even good quality poo poo can fail Yep, braided stainless hoses and the timer. We're planning on putting in new engineered floors throughout the house so I sure don't want my washing machine leaking water everywhere.
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Apr 27, 2016 23:58
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There's usually a selling agent present during an open house. If you're interested in a house, your buyer's agent will have to talk to the seller's agent anyway, so them being there can be useful for things like "do you have offers on this yet," "do you plan to stop taking offers and if so when," that kind of thing. And yeah sometimes the selling agent can answer questions like "yes these appliances are included" and "no the roof has not been replaced in the last ten years" and "yes we have priced this well above market but the sellers are open to negotiation" or "yes we have priced this well below market but there are many bids so you need to come in with a good offer" and of course there's always "did you notice the crown molding? Look how beautiful this marble is. Pay no attention to the cracks in the foundation, that's just from settling, it's nothing. Why yes, I am wearing a powerful cologne, it helps to cover up the stink of my desperation sweat." But ultimately if your buyer's agent is worth a drat you don't need the selling agent there at all.
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Apr 28, 2016 00:06
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I never had a seller's agent present when looking at probably 2 dozen places or so. My realtor was good about getting the basic inside scoop when he made the initial appointment though for stuff like roof age, general maintenance things disclosed, etc...
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Apr 28, 2016 01:55
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Our agent is awesome, our bank set us up with her and they're paying us for using her (USAA). We lucked out because she normally deals with higher priced homes, she currently is selling a 2.5 million dollar house, we were buying and our max was 150k. Hah. For nearly a whole month she treated us like we were her only clients, going out after work, sometimes multiple times a week to see houses. Once she even previewed a house she thought we would like while we were at work. During showings she would stand back to see what our opinions of the house were, then she would tell us her opinions which were always critical. Only once we walked into a house that she couldn't find something "wrong" with, and that one had an accepted offer on it already. Very happy we ended up with her, it was good to have her strong personality on our side. She made sure the sellers paid for the roof replacement, and she and the seller's agent went halfsies on our sewer lateral cleaning because the seller's didn't want to drop $120 to do it. We close on Monday!
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Apr 28, 2016 04:09
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HEY NONG MAN posted:Lol my house doesn't even have one. They had to scope my sewer via the vent stack on the roof. Said clean out was an illegal cleanout put in on the sly when the house was built in the 50s. The clay clean out had no mortar holding it together, and when opened was completely blocked. After digging a bigger hole to uncover a whole section of the pipe on Saturday we cut the section finding everything after the Y section bone dry. Everything before? poo poo geyser when cut. The cleanout section came off when we tried to pull it out from the Y section. and the Y section when broken open had a root mass that conformed to the inside of the pipe! Only good thing was finding that the whole issue we had was this one spot and it was only 400 bucks of parts to replace and a Saturdays worth of work.
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Apr 28, 2016 06:00
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Well, I must be an idiot because I'm entering the housing market despite lurking this thread for years. In the Denver area, of all places. Fortunately we're not interested in the hip neighborhoods, but things are still moving very fast and over list even in the boring parts of town that we like. Looking forward to sharing tales of housing woe with internet strangers. We've gotten a pre-approval and have casually surfed open houses for a few weekends. We talked to a few buyer's agents and didn't click with any of them. Signed up on Redfin based on the generally good comments in this thread and some personal recommendations. We've only toured one home with our agent but we were really impressed with her so I'm feeling good about that decision so far. She seems to think there's such a shortage of supply in part because potential sellers are priced out of upgrading or don't want to deal with trying to buy at all in this market, so most of what comes up for sale is people moving out of the area or older people downsizing/expiring. Heh, we she found out our pre-approval was with Chase she said that might put us behind other offers because they have such a lovely reputation for not closing on time. Didn't plan on using them anyway, but good to know. We hadn't seen much around that we liked in our price range - until today. Found exactly what we're looking for at a reasonable price. Touring it tomorrow.. we'd have to make an offer pretty fast if we like it. Oh crap what if it were accepted 
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Apr 28, 2016 06:59
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Went to look at places with my father-in-law again today. He hated the first place we brought him to and blamed our realtor for not setting us straight about how much work needed to be done on it. I'm the one who requested to see it though. He emphasized that we needed a starter home with no landscaping and a good roof. As much as I want a character home, I have come to realize today that a character home with features I love will be at least another 15 years down the road for us. The second house we brought him to, he said was exactly what we needed in our first house. Move-in ready, no major work needs doing. It also lacked any character whatsoever and has a backyard a bit too small for my liking, but there's nothing I really hate about the place. There's just nothing I love about the place. Though the more I think about it, some new flooring, a lot of paint and a small sunroom might be enough to make me happy there. It's two blocks away from a 7/11, 8 blocks from the train downtown and only 4 blocks from our best friend's apartment. I went from being very lukewarm about it earlier to thinking we should put in an offer.
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Apr 28, 2016 10:56
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https://www.redfin.com/TN/Nashville/1004-Petway-Ave-37206/home/84682014 All the interior pictures here are lifted from pinterest or the like. What's the endgame here? So much dumbness in real estate stuff.
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Apr 28, 2016 16:07
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Real estate agents spend most of their time trying to make themselves a necessity, so they come up with gimmicky poo poo like this. They put in the work to have someone take pictures, what homebuyer really needs a close-up of a lightbulb? Some of that stuff is nice, but most of it is useless.
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Apr 28, 2016 16:14
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Just closed, waiting for deed to be recorded. That was fun. Anyhow, the sellers aren't giving up the code to the alarm system. What gives? First, they have been advised by the monitoring company to "not arm the system any more effective today because the account has been discontinued." That's fine, we don't want monitoring, but if I want to arm the system I'm going to arm the system. Second, they've also told us that the "installer's code" is proprietary and will not be given to us. So how the hell do we reset the alarm code? Is this typical? I don't know anything about home alarm systems...we've been given the contact info for the seller's account manager at the monitoring company and we were told to talk to him. Sounds the monitoring company is telling the seller a bunch of BS to make us call them so they can try to talk us in to getting service from them, or to charge us for someone to come out and change the codes for us. This is in North Carolina...all I can find in the contract is that "Possession, including all means of access to the Property (keys, codes, garage door openers, etc.), shall be delivered upon Closing [...]" I don't know if we can force the issue or if they legitimately can't give us the code.
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Apr 28, 2016 18:07
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Alarm companies are generally pieces of poo poo that do the absolute bare minimum (and often not that) to get you to keep paying their monthly fee. Maybe it was worth it back in the 80s or whenever burglary was actually statistically significant, I'd just rip all that poo poo out nowadays.
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Apr 28, 2016 18:21
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devicenull posted:Yep, braided stainless hoses and the timer. We're planning on putting in new engineered floors throughout the house so I sure don't want my washing machine leaking water everywhere. There is a product called a water cop. People will put them near washing machines, hot water heaters, etc. When the sensor detects water, it sends a signal to a solenoid valve to cut the whole house off. I don't have much experience with them, but it's something to look into.
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Apr 28, 2016 18:35
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Pryor on Fire posted:Alarm companies are generally pieces of poo poo that do the absolute bare minimum (and often not that) to get you to keep paying their monthly fee. Maybe it was worth it back in the 80s or whenever burglary was actually statistically significant, I'd just rip all that poo poo out nowadays. Yeah, we were planning on running it unmonitored (if at all). We don't plan on getting service, we just want the drat code so we can disarm it if it gets set off.
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Apr 28, 2016 18:55
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Pryor on Fire posted:Alarm companies are generally pieces of poo poo that do the absolute bare minimum (and often not that) to get you to keep paying their monthly fee. Maybe it was worth it back in the 80s or whenever burglary was actually statistically significant, I'd just rip all that poo poo out nowadays. What? Depends on where you live. Property crime in King County WA is higher than anywhere else in the country.
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Apr 28, 2016 19:08
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I don't know what the rates are in King County but it's pretty easy to do the arithmetic for yourself, generally around 10% of property crimes are burglaries, you can figure out for yourself how likely it is to have that happen over 10 or 30 years or whatever. It's generally a lot lower than people expect, especially people who pay attention to awful local media sources (spoiler alert: all the media in Seattle is loving terrible). What does that work out to for King County?
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Apr 28, 2016 19:29
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There were 3, yes... 3, different alarm panels in my house when I bought it, along with an old sensor on the sliding door and outside gate and 2 ceiling mounted motion detectors in the hallways. Previous owner also had a very large gun safe and a fire station alarm in the attic. I about poo poo my pants when I plugged in the power source hanging from the ceiling causing it to go off. I tore all that poo poo out when I was patching drywall, and now my security system is two prominent camera domes in the front and back of the house and a dog.
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Apr 28, 2016 19:41
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DaveSauce posted:Yeah, we were planning on running it unmonitored (if at all). We don't plan on getting service, we just want the drat code so we can disarm it if it gets set off. Guess you should've written it into the contract? What is their logic exactly?
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Apr 28, 2016 19:44
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Seller not giving you alarm codes is exactly why you have a realtor. Make your realtor actually earn his/her money and get those reset before the final walkthrough.
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Apr 28, 2016 19:49
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I don't think you've received actual possession if you have an alarm that's potentially going to go off that you can't stop.
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Apr 28, 2016 20:08
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No Butt Stuff posted:Guess you should've written it into the contract? What is their logic exactly? I guess...the text of the contract doesn't appear to call out alarm system codes specifically, and our agent is saying the same thing, so we seem to be stuck. I have absolutely no idea what their angle is. It can't be that difficult to write down a 4 digit code or whatever...the only thing I can think is that maybe they use the same code for their ATM pin? I dunno. They seem to be doing everything in their power to avoid giving us the code...very weird. And the weirdest part is they're not even refusing directly. Our agent asked for it last night, got no response. He asked again at closing today, and their agent said she would get it. Then the response we get is "don't arm the system call the monitoring company." canyoneer posted:Seller not giving you alarm codes is exactly why you have a realtor. We've tried. He claims they have no contractual obligation to give it to us, and I guess that's true looking at the contract. He's asked them several times and they just won't give it up. His suggestion is to try to figure out which buttons have the least dust on them and just start punching those in every combination... And also we just closed today, so we're SOL as far as leverage. I guess it's my bad for assuming it was a simple request. This seems like the easiest thing in the world...I'm just confused as to why they won't give us a straight answer.
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Apr 28, 2016 20:09
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The system should be registered to the old owners name and phone number. I would just start unplugging the system and removing it if you aren't going to use it. If the alarm triggers usually they call the "owner" which would be the old owner, and let them deal with it. If the cops show up tell them what happened, and send any bill to the old owner's name for being dicks that wouldn't turn off the system before you took possession. EDIT: I just reread where you plan to use the system unmonitored. In that case I guess your best option is to call the company and explain that you don't want to continue service from previous owners and have them reset it for you with new PIN. WarMECH fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Apr 28, 2016 |
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Apr 28, 2016 20:15
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There are cheap( er) third party monitors that will reset the system for you. It is very unlikely the installer changed the default installer code. Google should give you the answer. You can also just swap out the brain box as the sensors are mostly generic as are all the systems. I think there is a good forum out there about how not to get scammed by ADP etc.
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Apr 28, 2016 20:30
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I wound up researching this stuff, and with the newer alarm systems it's not too difficult to basically flash their firmware and hook up all of the old monitoring stuff. Iirc you still need a "monitoring" company but there are super cheap third party companies you can go with if you're maintaining the system
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Apr 28, 2016 20:40
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Pryor on Fire posted:I don't know what the rates are in King County but it's pretty easy to do the arithmetic for yourself, generally around 10% of property crimes are burglaries, you can figure out for yourself how likely it is to have that happen over 10 or 30 years or whatever. It's generally a lot lower than people expect, especially people who pay attention to awful local media sources (spoiler alert: all the media in Seattle is loving terrible). What does that work out to for King County? I've been here 3 years. My realtor had her second floor apt burgled during the 2.5 mos we've been working with her. My best friend has had his motorcycle stolen twice. I've run past >50 cars with broken windows in a 1.5 mi stretch. King County is kind of hosed up, even in nice neighborhoods, mostly due to a large homeless and/or heroine user population. Compound that with a police department that doesn't give a poo poo about after the fact property crime. I'm highly considering a security system just because our new condo has a bedroom window accessible from the ground in an area that is hidden from street view. I'd rather burn a couple hundred bucks a year than come home to a completely trashed house regardless of odds. resident fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Apr 28, 2016 |
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Apr 28, 2016 21:04
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I would absolutely argue that this bit DaveSauce posted:.all I can find in the contract is that "Possession, including all means of access to the Property (keys, codes, garage door openers, etc.), shall be delivered upon Closing [...]" contractually obligates them. Press the issue. If they still resist, this is the kind of thing a sternly worded letter on a Lawyer's letterhead can often resolve, though that may be more expensive than having someone come and reset the system for you.
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Apr 28, 2016 21:26
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resident posted:I've been here 3 years. My realtor had her second floor apt burgled during the 2.5 mos we've been working with her. My best friend has had his motorcycle stolen twice. I've run past >50 cars with broken windows in a 1.5 mi stretch. King County is kind of hosed up, even in nice neighborhoods, mostly due to a large homeless and/or heroine user population. Compound that with a police department that doesn't give a poo poo about after the fact property crime. Take your time and research your alarm options, and then replace the main unit yourself and reuse the existing alarm components which are presumably hard wired to doors. Don't try and mix cameras and alarm stuff, there is really no overlap. The main kinds of "alarm" devices are: 1. Hardwired simple "normally closed" alarms like door sensors 2. GE Crystall Wireless - These are cheap and wireless and simple to set up and add to a house, but there isn't a huge amount of sensor options 3. ZWave things - these are more home automation, and zwave is kind of a pain in the rear end, but you would have access to outlets that turn on/off, automatic door locks, thermostat control, etc. You can buy a lot of simple alarms that do 1 and 2, and then buy wireless sensors on ebay to add to windows and doors and stuff. You would have to look into more complete home automation systems if you wanted something that did zwave type stuff too Droo fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Apr 28, 2016 |
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Apr 28, 2016 21:39
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Hmm maybe it's just a cultural thing, anyone who made a daily career out of robbing houses around here experiences the joys of 00 buckshot before too long, so it just doesn't happen much. If it's actually that bad anecdotally then yeah I'd probably get a security system too. Listen to that guy above me.
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Apr 29, 2016 15:45
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If I were you, I'd absolutely go with a sternly worded letter with lawyer letterhead, because they are contractually obligated to give you the codes for access. If not, you're just going to be dicked around and then you'll wind up feeling kinda lovely about the whole thing later on--trust me, I know. Probably even just telling your realtor that you need the codes or will be getting a lawyer involved will do the trick. If you're looking into an unmonitored system, your should absolutely look into home automation stuff. I just connected up Samsung Smart things at my place, and I'm loving it. There's so much cool stuff you can do beyond security, and getting free notifications on my cell about stuff happening around the house is pretty cool. Things such as having nest protect smoke/cO sensor shutting down the furnace with the nest thermostat if it senses cO, or getting notified/auto water shutoff with a moisture sensor in my basement in case of flooding or burst laundry hose. Heck, the window/door sensors are pretty cool because they notify not only on open, but on sudden vibration or temperature change (eg someone busts a window). They also report temperature, so you can see what all the rooms in your house are at a glance, and adjust heating/cooling based on that. Motion sensors to turn on porch lights and notify of packages/solicitors is pretty nice too.
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Apr 29, 2016 16:43
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DaveSauce posted:This seems like the easiest thing in the world...I'm just confused as to why they won't give us a straight answer. It is almost certainly also the PIN for their bank account(s) or some other such thing that they don't want to be bothered to change.
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Apr 29, 2016 17:18
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About three months after we bought our place, the alarm (which I had thought was disabled) started going off. We just unwired it.
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Apr 29, 2016 17:29
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