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atomicthumbs posted:howdy all. I've previously posted about my dad's efforts to buy a house, and now he is very close to buying a house. You need to get a septic company in to check out that system. A pumping costs $300-$500, a new leach field can cost $3000 or more, and a new tank to modern CA standards can be $10k or more. It's worth it to pay someone to find out which one of those is happening. As with the building inspector, you need to identify the problems, get a rough estimate of the cost involved to fix the issue, and then go to the seller with those estimates. The best thing to do is to ask for a lower price, since that lets you be in charge of the fixes (even if they ultimately cost more). Banks sometimes will play ball with this and sometimes they won't -- it depends on if they want a dollar figure and are willing to wait or if they want the asset gone now. Even though your dad's paying cash, you may have leverage if there are severe problems, since banks won't finance a property with a bad septic system or a collapsed porch. Once those red flags have been identified, it's now cash only and they've shrunk their pool of buyers. If they want the asset gone now, threatening to walk might work. If they want the dollars and there are other cash offers, it'll be tough to get concessions for that sort of thing. Good luck!
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Sep 29, 2016 02:54
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Alereon posted:Some musings on manufactured homes and financing How is this much different from owning a Condo?
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Sep 29, 2016 03:21
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daslog posted:How is this much different from owning a Condo? I think the worst part of a manufactured home park is that they have you by the short ones and know it, because what are you gonna do, move your house?
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Sep 29, 2016 04:19
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daslog posted:How is this much different from owning a Condo? With a condo, the land/common areas are usually deeded to the condo association, which as an owner you are a part of. So you are an owner of the land, in common with a bunch of other people. With the trailer park, the park doesn't need to be owned in common by the residents, it can be owned by someone else operating as a landlord.
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Sep 29, 2016 14:45
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Tricky Ed posted:The best thing to do is to ask for a lower price, since that lets you be in charge of the fixes (even if they ultimately cost more). Banks sometimes will play ball with this and sometimes they won't -- it depends on if they want a dollar figure and are willing to wait or if they want the asset gone now. I bought a house with septic problems that were identified before the sale. I had a contractor estimate the repair costs and the seller put that amount of money in escrow which we drew out of to pay the contractors for the repair. The small amount leftover was returned to the seller upon my written release that the work has been completed in full. I don't know if a bank would do that, but it's some sort of middle ground that seems to work in some cases.
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Sep 29, 2016 19:02
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Pray for me, I have accepted a reasonable counter-offer after low-balling on a house that is too good for me with a VERY motivated seller. We had to do a last-minute lender change as our lender grew a 12 week backlog, nobody has time for that poo poo! But we found a new lender and oh god this is actually happening
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Oct 1, 2016 00:58
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My offers keep getting beat out by all cash or people offering WAY above listing and raising comp prices. And you have to waive inspection or your offer will go straight into the trash. Screw the Seattle region. This is dumb.
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Oct 1, 2016 19:27
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Just put my bay area house on Zillow as Make Me Move for 700k to dip my toes in the water. Let's see what happens.
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Oct 1, 2016 19:36
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You lunatics out on the West Coast are just getting pounded raw at those prices.
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Oct 1, 2016 22:03
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If you are buying in Seattle or Portland and you're not coming directly from the Bay Area armed with the cash from selling your wildly overvalued bungalow, it's not fun.
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Oct 1, 2016 22:08
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:You lunatics out on the West Coast are just getting pounded raw at those prices. HEY NONG MAN posted:If you are buying in Seattle or Portland and you're not coming directly from the Bay Area armed with the cash from selling your wildly overvalued bungalow, it's not fun. Agreed on both. I'm warming up more and more to Denver though.
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Oct 2, 2016 04:57
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HEY NONG MAN posted:If you are buying in Seattle or Portland and you're not coming directly from the Bay Area armed with the cash from selling your wildly overvalued bungalow, it's not fun. Rich Tech rear end in a top hat money will also work, though the two are not mutually exclusive.
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Oct 2, 2016 05:17
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People who don't work in the field usually don't understand just how much money is in tech (especially in the bay area), I know multiple couples under 30 with a combined household income over a million a year out there, and none of these people are particularly smart or privileged or hard working, just lucky. You can do the arithmetic but a 700K house is not a huge problem at that income.
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Oct 2, 2016 14:10
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Pryor on Fire posted:People who don't work in the field usually don't understand just how much money is in tech (especially in the bay area), I know multiple couples under 30 with a combined household income over a million a year out there, and none of these people are particularly smart or privileged or hard working, just lucky. You can do the arithmetic but a 700K house is not a huge problem at that income. And then for the rest of us that make less then 100k a year (which is me and most of the people I know) there's nowhere affordable to live.
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Oct 2, 2016 14:51
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Put an offer in on a house, got countered, counter-countered, got accepted, made escrow, inspected, approved for the mortgage, and the appraisal is ~4% under the agreed-upon price. Annoyingly, the appraiser lists two comparably sized (living space under-air,) properties in original condition (houses were built in the mid-eighties) at the same value, with $5000 upwards adjustments, while the property in question has a renovated kitchen, renovated master bath, a huge pool/pooldeck, and is on a corner lot that is literally more than twice as big as comp #1, and about 40% bigger than the lot of comp #2. It's also the largest lot in the neighborhood. 
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Oct 3, 2016 21:13
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I had a similar thing happen with my appraisal. Give a shot to asking the appraiser for a revision citing those statistics. I only got a $5k increase to the appraisal, so my lender was only willing to do 80% of the appraised value and then I made up the difference with more cash down
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Oct 4, 2016 03:20
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MrYenko posted:Put an offer in on a house, got countered, counter-countered, got accepted, made escrow, inspected, approved for the mortgage, and the appraisal is ~4% under the agreed-upon price. I had a similar issue and my realtor slammed through a second loan application with someone she knew and the second appraisal came in 5k over and still met the same closing date. I really do need to post that whole experience to vent.
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Oct 4, 2016 04:12
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Before you put in an offer, do an obnoxious amount of research on your property and neighborhood PLEASE. Like news searches and stuff on neighboring roads, landmarks, etc. Also never let anyone or any perceived pressure gloss over things when signing papers. Our agent failed us in researching this recent development we just closed in and we also took our water inspection tests for granted (who knew there was stuff NOT tested in those?). Long story short, sellers didn't disclose contaminating testing from nearby salvage yard, litigation was possible, but honestly less hassle for us to live with it. Bonus is the state has money to full up pay for the treatment system and testing forever or until certified groundwater is clean. Do... Never... Buy
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Oct 5, 2016 18:55
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Hahah you're happy you get free water testing because it's poisoned? That's like being happy that the warranty on your Kia is so long it goes out to 200K miles! I think you're missing the actual benefit you should have fought for here...
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Oct 5, 2016 23:10
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No I wouldn't say I'm happy with it at all, but we consulted with a lot of people and looked at a lot of data. Poor or unknown well water is more of a fact of life around here that a lot of first time buyers aren't aware of. Even $600k+ subdivisions have communal wells aren't safe to drink from, due to high levels of metals or other natural elements (as opposed to artificial chemicals.) Also the limits on this chemical are state controlled, so in reality we are under levels that a handful of other states would say is OK. Still relative to other homes it is a mitigated liability. (See how fast I've rationalized!) We would not have bought if we knew ahead of time (hence the tip, do your homework) but it takes a lot of commitment to pursue a multi year case for unguaranteed marginal (mostly monetary) gains.
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Oct 6, 2016 00:48
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I guess in hindsight I've had remarkably good luck with my small amount of time with wells, I should probably not talk like I know what the gently caress. Water is complicated!
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Oct 6, 2016 00:58
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Sanity check, please. We are house hunting for our next rental in the new city we're moving to, as hopefully our last rental before we buy a place. We found a property management company that partners with a new build homes company and gives you credits towards house upgrades for each month you live there if you decide to buy a house from these folks (up to $5000ish). We like the floorplans and neighborhoods this company builds in, so we started looking into it. Most of the fine print seemed reasonable, but these couple things stood out as red flags:
This means they will jack up the prices of other things to offset the discount and you're hosed because you can't use your own realtor to negotiate, correct?
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Oct 6, 2016 01:55
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That kind of stuff always seems sketchy as gently caress, and they wouldn't do it if they didn't have it set up to benefit them more than traditional arrangements.
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Oct 6, 2016 01:59
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$5000 worth of "upgrades" that you don't choose is worthless - don't let it drive any of your decisions. You especially don't want to use a real estate agent that has a vested interest with the builder you are shopping at. Agent interests are conflicted enough without that kind of inbred poo poo. In other words, yes your instincts are exactly right. Oh, and I see you're looking for a rental right now - this is exactly the kind of BS that will float away into vapor before you get a chance to take advantage of it, so you should just ignore it altogether and base your rental decisions on criteria like, what will work for you right now?
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Oct 6, 2016 02:36
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$5,000 is like closing costs. That's nothing. It's a smokescreen.
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Oct 6, 2016 03:31
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It definitely gives off a predatory vibe taking advantage of first time homebuyers. They do have a floorplan that's EXACTLY what we're looking for, but if we do go through them it will be independently of that program and we will be armed with a realtor of our own choosing.
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Oct 6, 2016 03:35
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I can't even think of a house upgrade that I'd actually want and that would cost $5000 or less. New pot rack maybe?
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Oct 6, 2016 05:42
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QuarkJets posted:I can't even think of a house upgrade that I'd actually want and that would cost $5000 or less. New pot rack maybe? Getting ceramic tile instead of lovely laminate in the kitchen is way less than $5k, all sorts of finish upgrades in general could be done within that allowance. Also could do dumb poo poo that builders like to do like tray ceilings everywhere.
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Oct 6, 2016 05:47
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MrYenko posted:Put an offer in on a house, got countered, counter-countered, got accepted, made escrow, inspected, approved for the mortgage, and the appraisal is ~4% under the agreed-upon price. When my brother in law was getting a house refinanced, the appraiser made a $20k arithmetic error by forgetting to add a line in the report to sum to the correct number. That was pretty easy to get fixed.
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Oct 6, 2016 05:57
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QuarkJets posted:I can't even think of a house upgrade that I'd actually want and that would cost $5000 or less. New pot rack maybe? A fresh bale of hay for the servants quarters.
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Oct 6, 2016 06:42
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I'm planning to completely replace my covered patio for less than $5k. For $5k I'd expect options like a really nice upgraded fireplace, or a premium shower vs. builder grade, or a whole house security and fire suppression system, or a nicer fence than the standard, or a nicer set of window treatments, or a much better landscaping option, all kinds of things like that. But yeah it's obviously a scam.
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Oct 6, 2016 19:10
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The best upgrade you can do for $5,000 is having your HVAC system properly installed and zoned for each level. This is practically impossible to change after the fact. No builder will offer this as an option though.
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Oct 6, 2016 20:46
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Elephanthead posted:The best upgrade you can do for $5,000 is having your HVAC system properly installed and zoned for each level. This is practically impossible to change after the fact. No builder will offer this as an option though. You can change to a dual zone when you replace the air handler in most houses, right? Providing your ducting complies? I realize this is something you'd not want to do for a few decades - till required or efficiency improvements make it smarter to upgrade.
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Oct 6, 2016 21:22
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SiGmA_X posted:You can change to a dual zone when you replace the air handler in most houses, right? Providing your ducting complies? I realize this is something you'd not want to do for a few decades - till required or efficiency improvements make it smarter to upgrade. They air handler has little to do with dual zone. You're putting automatic dampers on vents and multiple thermostats handled by a controller. That controller feeds the air handler the same input a single thermostat would - so it doesn't even know it's dual/triple/whatever zone. None of this matters if you have the typical "insufficient return air capacity" problems that most shoddily assembled ductwork has. And that's where the real money/difficulty comes in (hope you don't mind losing closet space and/or having box soffits everywhere!)
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Oct 6, 2016 23:41
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Motronic posted:Stuff This is why you need to do it before framing which is what I though we were talking about. Also with variable speed junk pretty much standard now controllers can order the speed to match the size of the space that needs conditioning, but as stated above a properly designed single zone will work great in most houses except open concept two stories where the cool just falls down to the basement instantly. Two separate air handlers is often cheaper but again has to be built right the first time retrofitting is always garbage. Me personally an individual room zoned radiant flooring system for heat is the bomb. I would then add a forced air cooling system zoned for basement, main floor and upstairs if applicable, with proper return system. Yes I would spend 10 times the builder grade system on comfort for my man baby rear end to always be 72.5 degrees everywhere all the time. Heated tile floors are pretty drat sweet.
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Oct 7, 2016 14:33
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Elephanthead posted:Me personally an individual room zoned radiant flooring system for heat is the bomb. Radiant heat is indeed the bomb. And cheaper to run not only due to efficiency (you're heating a larger thermal mass so opening/closing doors doesn't tend to lost your entire heat load - which is particularly great in a workshop with garage doors) but also because you just feel warmer having a warm floor. I find myself setting the thermostat much lower in my office (with radiant) than in the house (with baseboard hot water).
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Oct 7, 2016 15:23
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So that begs the question, what's the cost difference between a typical forced air system and radiant flooring for an entire 2500 square foot house?
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Oct 7, 2016 20:48
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If you're building a new house I'd think it would make more sense to just put in better insulation than a fancy heating system.
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Oct 8, 2016 02:18
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Is it crazy to think about buying a house if I'd only be able to put around 10% down? I mean I have more savings but I figure I have to keep a buffer of money, especially after buying a house, and I obviously don't want to dip into retirement stuff. All the loan calculators tell me I could "afford" a house that's way more than what I actually want to spend but who knows what that means. e: Also I know utilities will cost more if I buy a house, but is there a way to guesstimate how much more? That's realistic?
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Oct 9, 2016 13:19
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There a lot of programs out there with only 10%, some of which will not have PMI. If you are trying to budget out affordability, make sure to include calculations for PMI though, because it is a common thing if you don't get 20%. It isn't like having 20% down is an end all be all, but terms are almost always better, and of course you are far less leveraged if you have the means of putting down 20%. It doesn't mean home ownership is impossible or even all that uncommon with 10%.
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Oct 9, 2016 13:47
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