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My friend just tried buying a house by offering the asking price of $700k and was passed over for an offer of $785k with a 2-day inspection window.
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May 2, 2017 04:21
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HEY NONG MAN posted:My friend just tried buying a house by offering the asking price of $700k and was passed over for an offer of $785k with a 2-day inspection window. Bay area or Seattle?
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May 2, 2017 20:53
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Motronic posted:Bay area or Seattle? Seattle. Like right on the city boundary too.
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May 2, 2017 20:55
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QuarkJets posted:That sure does inspire confidence in the current pricing trend We're closing escrow on a house in Beaverton next week. It was a bit of a crazy sale process too and we're going to have to put some work in to the place. Sellers paid for a new sewer line, though. We've got a bunch of small repairs to do and we're going to do some major updating of the kitchen. I'm fairly certain we'll see a good profit in the place some years down the road.
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May 2, 2017 21:07
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People set their ideal high price point and search for listings within that band. You list your house lower than it will sell so more people will see it and then a lot of those people will wind up paying more than they thought was their max, after they see your house and decide they want it. It is generally better to underprice your house and elicit a bid war than to risk overpricing your house and not get any bids at all or have to decide whether or not the only offer you got is worth taking vs. just waiting longer.
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May 2, 2017 22:26
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I could really use a quick sanity check from someone outside of Texas. I'm buying a house in the Nashville area where it seems like crawlspace foundations are far more common than slab. Inspection turned up some bad grading causing water to drain into the foundation. Inspector didn't think it was a huge amount, and it's new construction so it hasn't been happening for long and the builder is glad to remedy it, but I don't know how big of a deal this is right now, or could be in the future. I know nothing about foundations other than the slab on grade that every house in Texas is.
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May 2, 2017 22:40
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That's exactly the type of foundation I have and they're quite common in california. It's important to make water drain away from the foundation because over decades the foundation walls can tilt or lift or sag and that makes cracks in the house. If it's not graded properly you can hire someone to do it or just do it yourself, it's not a super hard thing. It's made a lot harder though if you have trees planted against the house, and by the way, do not have trees planted against the house with this or any other type of foundation. For a newly constructed house where the builder is glad to remedy it for free I would not rate that as any concern at all.
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May 2, 2017 23:14
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Motronic posted:Bay area or Seattle? If it were the Bay Area it would have sold for $1m, not $785k, that's barely 10% over asking: a steal!
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May 3, 2017 00:54
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Forgive the E/N bent here. Maybe I can be a lesson to others. So I bought a reno'd house a little over a year ago and coming to realize how badly I hosed myself. My home inspector at the time somehow missed some really horrifying issues with my house I don't really have it in me to discuss right now which are now surfacing. The seller was reportedly a licensed contractor and did a fair amount of poo poo to my house a lot of which I'm told is not up to code based on repairmen that have stopped by to inspect the original issue that began surfacing the rest of my home owning nightmare. With the seller being a contractor and not disclosing work requiring permits which he did not undertake is there any recourse available to me? If not to fix my home, to at least impact that rear end in a top hat's business? To say I'm super depressed and stressed is putting it lightly, so please don't remind how much of a gently caress up I am for getting into this situation. I seriously get it and border on calling a helpline at points. First home and a new baby, I need to be here for my family and what I think helps is figuring out plan based in established facts. Help. Any advice on getting reasonable inspections on figuring out what all my be wrong with my house is welcome. I want to find someone third party that is professional and not a professional scammer to come in and just give me the real and the raw of what's wrong and what it takes get things to code, then utilize that information as the basis for a corrective plan while having set of established fixes when I do solicit contractors for work. I don't want to simply have a contract come out and make out the sky is falling so they can boost their bid. If it indeed the sky is falling, I will let them know, not the other way around. I need to get back in control of my situation instead of being overwhelmed.
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May 4, 2017 04:02
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Our house hunting process so far: Oh wow this house is great AND under our budget maybe we'll accelerate our house buying plans!~2 days later going back to talk more serious numbers~  We've got a lot of interested folks so we're raising our asking price by $15k! We have an MLS listing for that house from today with a lower price listed. We might be able to honor that but maybe not! We have people willing to pay the new price! It was a new build spec home and we could build one ourselves to our specs on a nicer lot and not decorated by a colorblind idiot for the same price. So that's what we're doing. Lot deposit tomorrow.
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May 4, 2017 04:26
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Ugh, my closing date might get delayed because the appraiser was late with the report. It's not sitting down and signing a huge pile of forms a few times that gets me. It's the constant trickle of little details and anxieties in my inbox every drat morning.
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May 4, 2017 04:44
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Twerk from Home posted:I could really use a quick sanity check from someone outside of Texas. I'm buying a house in the Nashville area where it seems like crawlspace foundations are far more common than slab. Inspection turned up some bad grading causing water to drain into the foundation. Inspector didn't think it was a huge amount, and it's new construction so it hasn't been happening for long and the builder is glad to remedy it, but I don't know how big of a deal this is right now, or could be in the future. If your inspector found an issue with the foundation you should hire an engineer or other specialist to find out what it will cost to repair and how extensive the damage is. A foundation, drainage or structural issue could cost more than the vale of the home to repair. It could have already caused significant damage to the reat of the home or it could be an easy fix. Your realtor and a lot of others will tell you it is fine, the warranty will cover it, etc. It doesnt matter. They arent the ones paying for it. You should hire a specialist. Extend the inspection period if needed. The inspector uncovered the issue so the sellers will have to report it to future buyers. The builders could do a poor job fixing it or claim it is not covered.
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May 4, 2017 04:49
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Rip Testes posted:Forgive the E/N bent here. Maybe I can be a lesson to others. You should get a consulatation with a real estate lawyer. Housing law varies depending on jurisdiction. The lawyer will be able to refer a contractor or inspector. Generally if the seller new of a serious defect and failed to disclose it you can sue them for the cost of repair. You will have to prove they knew of the problem, that you didnt cause it after buying the home, and you have to collect from the seller. There are a lot of other exceptions. Some things the seller doesnt have to disclose and are on you to check. Like if there was an airport nearby. Real estate law varies too much to take advice from anyone other than a local real estate lawyer.
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May 4, 2017 05:11
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I'm having a hard time deciding whether to bid slightly under on a house. I don't live in one of those markets where people pay over asking, houses are usually sold within a few percentage points of the listing. Let's say a house is listed at $400k, and I bid $390k. Suppose someone else bids $395k. Would I get an opportunity to bid full listing? I'm just new to this process and I don't know how it works.
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May 4, 2017 13:02
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paternity suitor posted:I'm having a hard time deciding whether to bid slightly under on a house. I don't live in one of those markets where people pay over asking, houses are usually sold within a few percentage points of the listing. Let's say a house is listed at $400k, and I bid $390k. Suppose someone else bids $395k. Would I get an opportunity to bid full listing? I'm just new to this process and I don't know how it works. It depends entirely on the people selling their house. Given two offers at 390k and 395k they can choose to immediately accept either one of them (and perhaps there is something they don't like about the 395k offer that makes them choose the 390k offer, it's not strictly down to $$ always). However they can also come back and tell you that they've gotten another offer that's higher and give you a chance to submit a new offer at a higher price (sometimes they even do this when they don't have another offer in an attempt to juice more money out of you!). At the end of the day, buying a house is making a deal with another person (or persons) and all the quirkiness that comes along with that.
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May 4, 2017 14:45
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Rip Testes posted:horrifying issues with my house I don't really have it in me to discuss right now Not without knowing what kind of problem you are seeing. The answer completely depends on that - surely you realize that you don't hire a roofer to inspect a foundation or a handyman to install central AC.
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May 4, 2017 14:53
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paternity suitor posted:I'm having a hard time deciding whether to bid slightly under on a house. I don't live in one of those markets where people pay over asking, houses are usually sold within a few percentage points of the listing. Let's say a house is listed at $400k, and I bid $390k. Suppose someone else bids $395k. Would I get an opportunity to bid full listing? I'm just new to this process and I don't know how it works. I put in an offer way under asking expecting to negotiate. There was another offer that came along, the selling agent told us what that offer was, and I upped my bid to match. The sellers, seeing a profitable bidding war, asked us for our "best and highest" final offer. I ended up losing by 3k which in the long run wouldn't have meant anything, but we were both already over estimated market value. Hot markets suck.
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May 4, 2017 15:47
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You can put an escalation clause in your offer. You bid $275 with escalation up to $300 at $1000 increments or whatever, and someone offers $285 then your offer becomes $286. If they are enacting the escalation clause in your offer then they have to show the other offer to you to prove that it exists, they can't just go "oh well we got an offer for $299 how convienient." They can still accept the other offers anyway or reject both and ask for different numbers, but the option is there. If you do it though, you are kind of letting the seller know that you have more money on the table.
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May 4, 2017 16:00
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I'm in the process of buying a house, am using VA for funding. They require an appraisal of course, and the house must appraise for equal or more than the sales price. So, we had the appraisal yesterday. The house came back as being substantially smaller than it was in the listing. County assessor has it at 2,152/1602 for the finished walk-out basement. the Realtor/MLS listing had it at 3,754 (presumably from the county assessor). The appraisal came back at 1,952 for upstairs and 894 for the finished basement, 2,846 total. Zillow, for some reason, has it at 2,304. I'm not sure what the actual appraised value number is, but I'm assuming if the square footage differs almost 1,000 sq ft that it will be a substantial difference from the contract price. Any thoughts on what to do with this? bewbies fucked around with this message at 17:37 on May 4, 2017 |
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May 4, 2017 17:34
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Is there maybe some discrepancy about what qualifies as livable space?
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May 4, 2017 18:00
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bewbies posted:I'm in the process of buying a house, am using VA for funding. They require an appraisal of course, and the house must appraise for equal or more than the sales price. I'm assuming the walk-out basement is due to a sloping lot, and the opposite side is mostly below ground? If so, that whole floor is counted as below grade and doesn't count for regular square footage. That doesn't mean it counts for nothing and your appraisal might still be ok, but it absolutely won't appraise for the same amount as a nearly 4000 (above grade) sq ft house.
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May 5, 2017 05:07
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Realtors are very optimistic about house sizes. If the actual size is important do your due diligence before making an offer or put a size contingency in the offer. There is a famous case where a guy bought a house using the listing agency as his buyer agency, relied on the size they said. He wanted the biggest house in the city, come to find out it was not the biggest, sued the agency and won. Now you get to sign an extra form acknowledging that your buyer's agent is a POS colluding with the selling agent. So if you are in a competitive bidding environment using the same office as the listing agent will get your offer promoted over other offers. (Because agents are scumbags and the office partially shares profits, why make 3.5% when you can get the whole 7% if offers are similar) Just an extra note, not just the same brand realtor, someone in the same office group. I am so glad I am not in the market for a house. Elephanthead fucked around with this message at 13:55 on May 5, 2017 |
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May 5, 2017 13:53
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Based on what I've googled it seems like the appraisal process is a total random crapshoot; each appraiser has a different definition of how to measure square footage and what "livable space" means (eg, the house has a big finished laundry room - livable space or no?) and all that. In related news this entire industry is appallingly horrible. What is really irritating me is that the appraiser used "comps" to assess the value. The "comps" that she used, she has no idea how that appraiser, or agent, or country, or whoever, assessed the livable area. In other words, her data is bad, and making decisions off of this seems blindingly stupid. So we're still waiting for the actual appraisal I guess. She sent a note to our agents to provide different "comps" that are all just as stupid random as the ones she picked. Now, let's say the appraisal comes in substantially lower than our contract price (which, incidentally, we're pretty excited about). As I understand it, the VA won't finance anything past the appraised price NO MATTER WHAT, and we don't have the cash to cover a substantial further difference. What...happens then? Negotiate with seller to lower price? Walk and lose a couple grand in usurious inspection fees and all the other poo poo?
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May 5, 2017 14:32
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bewbies posted:Now, let's say the appraisal comes in substantially lower than our contract price (which, incidentally, we're pretty excited about). As I understand it, the VA won't finance anything past the appraised price NO MATTER WHAT, and we don't have the cash to cover a substantial further difference. What...happens then? Negotiate with seller to lower price? Walk and lose a couple grand in usurious inspection fees and all the other poo poo? You got it. You have contingencies in your offer for all this, and then you counter offer at the appraised price, bring cash to the table, or walk. You should only be out ~$500 in appraisal fee.
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May 5, 2017 14:56
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bewbies posted:Based on what I've googled it seems like the appraisal process is a total random crapshoot; each appraiser has a different definition of how to measure square footage and what "livable space" means (eg, the house has a big finished laundry room - livable space or no?) and all that. In related news this entire industry is appallingly horrible. It should be under a thousand for the appraisal if you do walk. You can go with another lender who will do their own appraisal. Or appeal the appraisal, or go with another mortgage product that will do a higher loan to value. The VA will do 103.3% of the loan to value so they will go past the appraised amount. There are also local grants or first time home buyers incentives that may count towards your downpayment. How much are you putting down?
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May 5, 2017 16:28
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I've paid almost $500 for inspection, another $425 for special stucco inspection, plus $400-ish for appraisal. All that is sunk cost if we bail. Stupid "industry". Good news, the buyers were "aware" of the potential issue and my agent seems to think they'll come down on the price, which is great for us but seems really unfair to them as I think we're getting the house for below its market value anyway. We're putting down $50k or so, and I don't have any VA eligibility left past what was financed (I have a rental property on a VA loan also). If we switch to conventional we'll be paying some in PMI and also have a significantly higher rate (we're locked at 3.5% right now), so that'd suck too.
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May 5, 2017 17:14
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lampey posted:The VA will do 103.3% of the loan to value so they will go past the appraised amount. Not exactly, the VA allows you to finance the VA funding fee (roughly equivalent to mortgage insurance) into your loan amount, but your base loan amount before including this fee that is applied to the purchase of the home will still be 100%. The funding fee is also only 2.15% for your first VA loan, 3.3% is for subsequent VA loans.
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May 5, 2017 18:36
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Well, my appraisal came in at offer, thank god. I did not want to deal with negotiating with the seller if it didn't--there would be no real reason to concede to me when they could easily get a bunch more offers with the appraisal contingency waived. As someone else said, the comps were complete BS though. Similar houses in a nearby neighborhood, but they didn't mention that that neighborhood is right up against Mt Tabor and about 10x as nice as mine. I'll take it, though. I close on the 12th, holy poo poo.
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May 6, 2017 04:35
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paternity suitor posted:I'm having a hard time deciding whether to bid slightly under on a house. I don't live in one of those markets where people pay over asking, houses are usually sold within a few percentage points of the listing. Let's say a house is listed at $400k, and I bid $390k. Suppose someone else bids $395k. Would I get an opportunity to bid full listing? I'm just new to this process and I don't know how it works. Spoke with my realtor, and he explained that it's in the sellers best interest to go back to anyone that bid and get new offers if they're not the best bid. Seems obvious in retrospect. You're just buying from a person. There's no secret process. I'm bidding $390k with a sellers assist, so effective price would be $378k, and I can close as soon as possible. Pretty crazy how quickly this all went!
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May 6, 2017 15:47
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paternity suitor posted:Spoke with my realtor, and he explained that it's in the sellers best interest to go back to anyone that bid and get new offers if they're not the best bid. Seems obvious in retrospect. You're just buying from a person. There's no secret process. I'm bidding $390k with a sellers assist, so effective price would be $378k, and I can close as soon as possible. Pretty crazy how quickly this all went! Even if the offer gets accepted, you are not even close to done.
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May 6, 2017 15:58
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Yeah I know. It's just surprising that I was able to find a place so quickly and relatively easily
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May 6, 2017 18:16
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Wait till you go to home depot 10 minutes before they close to find the parts you need to fix your leaking water heater and then gauge how easy it all is.
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May 6, 2017 18:28
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Went to look at a short sale this morning in mass. On 5.5 acres in a nice neighborhood...title V on the buyer and house sold as is. Inside been stripped to the studs. 165k, they've got an offer at 180k cash....5.5 acres...........
7 RING SHRIMP fucked around with this message at 19:40 on May 6, 2017 |
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May 6, 2017 19:12
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If I could have got my house in Chicago for that price stripped to the studs already it would have saved me a lot of work.
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May 6, 2017 19:19
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It might happen but I will see I suppose
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May 6, 2017 19:37
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For everyone in the Bay Area, what household income and cash on hand are people going into real estate purchases at 1, 1.5, and 2 million? What would be your requirements? Everything I've seen anecdotally is people are stretching themselves extremely far. I personally know someone leveraged on credit cards and an ARM on a 1 million dollar property... These are the people you get to compete with.
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May 8, 2017 05:18
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SplitDestiny posted:For everyone in the Bay Area, what household income and cash on hand are people going into real estate purchases at 1, 1.5, and 2 million? What would be your requirements? My friends and co-workers who are purchasing in the bay area are going in as DINKs with $150K-200K each, total incomes $300K-400K excluding bonuses, etc. A few of them keep complaining that they're getting outbid by "cash in full, no delays, no terms" sorts of bids. I believe them because one of my co-workers just retired and sold three homes he inherited in Mountain View (guillotine anyone?) to cash bids all from the same investment firm. I don't know what sorts of down payments my friends/co-workers are aiming for, sorry. My requirements? A giant gently caress-off earthquake ruining the entirety of SV while somehow leaving my little corner of biotech/pharma unscathed. I can retire in some places for less than the price of a small condo here, so there's no way I'm buying in the current market. I could win the lottery and I still wouldn't.
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May 8, 2017 05:25
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SplitDestiny posted:For everyone in the Bay Area, what household income and cash on hand are people going into real estate purchases at 1, 1.5, and 2 million? What would be your requirements? My two data points that I have about this are:
Honestly, neither of these seems like an unreasonable stretch, especially with interest rates so low. People make enough in the bay area to buy million dollar houses.
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May 8, 2017 17:03
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Twerk from Home posted:My two data points that I have about this are: Good Lord, under 200k is considered mediocre. 😐 it's like they're using a completely different currency over there
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May 8, 2017 17:08
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Drunk Tomato posted:Good Lord, under 200k is considered mediocre. 😐 it's like they're using a completely different currency over there I don't think I know anyone making over 200k. They surely exist, including at my employer, but those are higher up manager types that I don't really know. (My own manager is in Canada.) It really depends on what industry people are working in, I guess.
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May 8, 2017 17:10
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