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Omne posted:Ugh. We put our house on the market and got a full price offer within a few days. Standard stuff, 3 days to secure financing, 14 days to do inspection, 30 day close. After two weeks, the guy asked for a four day extension to get the inspection done, with keeping the same closing date. We say fine. The now 18-day window to do the inspection ended on Friday. Thursday night we get told that he can't secure financing and he intends to pull out of the deal. We say gently caress that poo poo, he had three days to secure it per the contract, what's going on. We demand a letter from his bank saying he was denied. The letter comes in, and it's clear he just wrote it in MS Word and sent it over, so our realtor is trying to get to the bottom of it. This basically cost us a wasted three weeks and will now cause us to have to make another mortgage payment. Holy poo poo you are me. Exact same thing happened. Then the backing out buyers realtor wrote a contract cancellation with the $1500 deposit being returned to the guy who is backing out. I couldn't believe it, and my realtor wanted me to sign it. It was just unbelievable to me, some kind of ethics violation surely right? I had to go to mediation to get my deposit, and the other realtor had the balls to say his client wasn't happy with the outcome.
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Oct 15, 2017 00:29
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For real you guys are you sure that your contract didn't actually have a *financing contingency* in it? A generic purchase agreement is probably going to the buyer a lot of time to actually get mortgage confirmation from their lender, because that actually does take a long time and sometimes it doesn't work out, which is the whole point of having a financing contingency.
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Oct 15, 2017 00:36
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In my case the guy said he 'couldn't put it all together' and I later found he had never even called for financing. Had to find that out at mediation when I asked him to call her on speakerphone.
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Oct 15, 2017 00:52
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lol okay yeah they probably shouldn't have gotten their earnest money back
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Oct 15, 2017 00:56
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Mandalay posted:The $1,500 in points sure feel like "a fee to some bank." Unless you mean you put down more in your down payment? I took it as the rate being offered at the new LTV was higher, but you could buy down the rate. You can buy down the rate on any loan.
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Oct 15, 2017 00:57
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Remember a few pages back when folks were aghast at the idea that a seller would demand a prequal letter before even letting the buyer in the door to look at a house? Well, this is why - unqualified buyers making offers with no ability or possibly even understanding of how to get financed, and then backing out before the financing contingency is done so they get their earnest money back.
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Oct 15, 2017 01:14
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Leperflesh posted:Remember a few pages back when folks were aghast at the idea that a seller would demand a prequal letter before even letting the buyer in the door to look at a house? Letting someone look at your house is pretty different from signing a purchase agreement. A prequal letter or proof of funds should be delivered in the early days of the contract and shouldn't be a condition for just seeing the property, since cash buyers exist.
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Oct 15, 2017 01:44
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Yeah but from a seller's perspective, taking an offer from someone and then having it eventually turn out, a month or more later, that the prospective buy never had a prayer of financing the purchase and no loving clue what they're doing, it's a colossal waste of time and a huge hassle. "No you can't even look at the house without a prequal letter" might be extreme but generally I wouldn't fault a seller for wanting some kind of evidence a prospective buyer knows what the hell he's doing before even considering taking a bid from him.
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Oct 15, 2017 02:50
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Eric the Mauve posted:Yeah but from a seller's perspective, taking an offer from someone and then having it eventually turn out, a month or more later, that the prospective buy never had a prayer of financing the purchase and no loving clue what they're doing, it's a colossal waste of time and a huge hassle. "No you can't even look at the house without a prequal letter" might be extreme but generally I wouldn't fault a seller for wanting some kind of evidence a prospective buyer knows what the hell he's doing before even considering taking a bid from him. This makes me feel like you guys don't understand the difference between someone looking at a house and someone being 3 weeks into a purchase agreement. How would you conduct an open house? Do you hire a bouncer who only lets people in if they provide a prequal letter?
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Oct 15, 2017 04:08
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The right answer is that the seller shouldn't really GAF who is looking at the house because their realtor is handling everything.
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Oct 15, 2017 04:28
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QuarkJets posted:This makes me feel like you guys don't understand the difference between someone looking at a house and someone being 3 weeks into a purchase agreement. You wouldn't do one. You'd have a key lockbox and I guess only allow access to people who provide one. It sounds like a lot of work on top of the "lot of work" involved with selling a house without vetting every potential buyer.
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Oct 15, 2017 06:14
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Right? Like normally you'd ask that the prequal letter be delivered within a few days after the purchase agreement was signed. That seems pretty reasonable to me
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Oct 15, 2017 06:56
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Spermy Smurf posted:In my case the guy said he 'couldn't put it all together' and I later found he had never even called for financing. Had to find that out at mediation when I asked him to call her on speakerphone. We felt the same way with us. Yes, he had a financing contingency. But why did he ask for an extension for the inspection, not financing? Why fail to provide proof when asked? If he couldn't get financing, he's entitled to the earnest money. If he didn't get financing, then he was in breach of the contract and the earnest money belongs to the buyer. QuarkJets posted:Right? Which we did, and which he has failed to provide. He never had it, so he violated the contract.
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Oct 15, 2017 13:46
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I didn’t provide proof of funds to my sellers when I bought my place, which maybe was weird. There was no financing contingency though, so maybe that’s it? Maybe it’s a US/Canada thing.
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Oct 15, 2017 14:34
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Shouldn't you see some support of ability to purchase before you sign a purchase agreement? I mean I have taken the chance on sketchy buyers if the house was hard to move but if you are getting an offer in the first week just demand more proof before accepting. Also open houses are for the realtor to find clients not sell your house.
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Oct 15, 2017 14:46
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I guess they were comfortable taking my word for it! Canada, you know.
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Oct 15, 2017 14:50
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We provided a letter of pre-qualification with our initial offer back when we were searching at the suggestion of our realtor. Of course we got a version from the lender that didn't have any value on it.
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Oct 15, 2017 15:34
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I'm looking to do never buy a bigger house and just got back from looking at something that by the listing should have been perfect. It also looked to be priced $100-150k too low for the amount of land it was on. Now I know why. 4 acres, it was the original farm house for the area (1850) and a nice single family home development was built around it. The house was beautiful. The detached extra deep 3-bay garage was built like 7 years ago. It's not configured exactly how I'd want it for a shop, but it was totally workable. 2 bedroom apartment with a full kitchen above it was a super nice bonus. About 200 square feet of the property was flat. The rest was either a hill, a swale, a creek or a swamp. The worst part being the retention basin for the development being the back acre of the property, and some not-specified arrangement with one of the neighbors to keep their bees on the property (which could be really cool, and I'd be totally down with if it was someone I already knew and had a proper liability release). So so many red flags with property issues, not even counting the mosquito breeding ground. It's a drat shame, because the house was perfect other than a hastily added basement egress that ends up in a "bowl" in the landscaping with no visible drains. Being at the top of our price range I'm not even considering it because I'd need to put way too much money into the property to make it nice, even if I'm not on the hook for maintaining the storm sewer drainage for the neighborhood.
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Oct 15, 2017 21:59
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Omne posted:We felt the same way with us. Yes, he had a financing contingency. But why did he ask for an extension for the inspection, not financing? Why fail to provide proof when asked? If he couldn't get financing, he's entitled to the earnest money. If he didn't get financing, then he was in breach of the contract and the earnest money belongs to the buyer. Why didn't you end the contract when he missed that much earlier deadline? Any time wasted after that is on you
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Oct 15, 2017 22:10
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QuarkJets posted:Why didn't you end the contract when he missed that much earlier deadline? Any time wasted after that is on you Because he said he had financing. We later demanded proof when he said he couldn't find it by the inspection deadline, at which point the contract was terminated. His realtor said he had financing, but tried to get a better rate and was rejected.
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Oct 15, 2017 23:17
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Motronic posted:About 200 square feet of the property was flat. The rest was either a hill, a swale, a creek or a swamp. The worst part being the retention basin for the development being the back acre of the property, and some not-specified arrangement with one of the neighbors to keep their bees on the property (which could be really cool, and I'd be totally down with if it was someone I already knew and had a proper liability release). So so many red flags with property issues, not even counting the mosquito breeding ground. Developments are often the loving worst with stormwater management like this. Around me (PA), they can count stormwater basins and swales towards their open space requirements, which makes little sense because they're often just grass pits. They then cram as many McMansions onto the rest if the land as is mathematically possible. That said, owning a basin isn't the worst thing in the world. Often you can just let it go and it will work A-ok, it even better than if it's mowed grass. But yeah, the rest of it sounds like too much for a deal breaker. It's a shame, although maybe worth keeping an eye on or sending in a low ball offer.
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Oct 15, 2017 23:46
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Omne posted:Because he said he had financing. We later demanded proof when he said he couldn't find it by the inspection deadline, at which point the contract was terminated. His realtor said he had financing, but tried to get a better rate and was rejected. You should have asked for proof at the time of the deadline. Do this next time. The fact that you didn't is why you don't deserve the earnest money
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Oct 16, 2017 00:22
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LogisticEarth posted:Around me (PA) So you know exactly what I'm dealing with here. LogisticEarth posted:That said, owning a basin isn't the worst thing in the world. Often you can just let it go and it will work A-ok, it even better than if it's mowed grass. Yeah, it is. You have a 48" concrete pipe with a screen over it terminating on your property. This can get clogged up and you have a bunch of unhappy people wanting to come on your property and/or wanting you to fix it. Someone can gently caress up their grading and overwhelm the basin and now it's your problem. All for an acre of land you literally can't do a drat thing with other than mow the lawn or not. It's clearly a liability in every possible way, as there is no possible up side. The property it's on doesn't even drain into it. It provides 100% negative vale. Motronic fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Oct 16, 2017 |
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Oct 16, 2017 01:50
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Yeah, as a fellow Pennsylvanian and based on what you've said, I'm confident in saying run away from that property and never look back
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Oct 16, 2017 02:08
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Motronic posted:Yeah, it is. You have a 48" concrete pipe with a screen over it terminating on your property. This can get clogged up and you have a bunch of unhappy people wanting to come on your property and/or wanting you to fix it. Someone can gently caress up their grading and overwhelm the basin and now it's your problem. All for an acre of land you literally can't do a drat thing with other than mow the lawn or not. It's clearly a liability in every possible way, as there is no possible up side. The property it's on doesn't even drain into it. It provides 100% negative vale. Some of what you said is right, although if someone messes up their grading and radically changes the way water flows into the system, they're not off the hook. As to whether not is worth it for the property, it's hard to say without actually seeing it. Out of curiosity, where in PA? If you're not going to pursue the property could you post a Zillow link or something? Part of my job deals with stormwater management, and now you've piqued my interest. A 48" pipe is a huge loving pipe. I'm guessing this is an older development.
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Oct 16, 2017 02:25
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LogisticEarth posted:although if someone messes up their grading and radically changes the way water flows into the system, they're not off the hook. Legally correct. Not the situation I want myself fighting, which will take both years and cubic dollars shoveled into the legal system. LogisticEarth posted:Out of curiosity, where in PA? If you're not going to pursue the property could you post a Zillow link or something? Part of my job deals with stormwater management, and now you've piqued my interest. A 48" pipe is a huge loving pipe. I'm guessing this is an older development. It is an older development. I'm in eastern PA north of philly. The listing pictures definitely don't show a drat thing about the property other than the few feet around the house that is okay: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sa...933_rect/15_zm/ GIS the hell out of it.
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Oct 16, 2017 02:38
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Motronic posted:It is an older development. I'm in eastern PA north of philly. Well how about that, I'm a Bucks native myself (4 months into my first home in lower bucks), have an Aunt in Doylestown. Drive would have been a bit too much for me or I would have considered the area more, nice area.
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Oct 16, 2017 02:53
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Motronic posted:It is an older development. I'm in eastern PA north of philly. The listing pictures definitely don't show a drat thing about the property other than the few feet around the house that is okay: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sa...933_rect/15_zm/ I might take a gander at this when I'm at my office, but yeah, that's probably not worth the $800k near Doylestown. I actually know that area quite well as I lived outside Philly for about a decade, and was in and out of Doylestown fairly frequently. I'm up in Lehigh Valley now. Bucks and Montgomery County were too rich for my blood, but you can do better for that amount. Honestly, I really doubt any one property owner could really gently caress that stormwater system up that much, as it's likely all draining to that basin regardless, and in all likelihood it's way oversized. But you're not doing to much with that land. If I'm looking at it right it seems like the whole back half of the property is one big stormwater basin with concrete channels? Could be totally naturalized and become a neat wildlife area that required little maintenance, but again, this is kinda my day job so I might get more excited about it than others. EDIT: The more I read SA the more I'm convinced that at least 25% of the posters are in eastern PA. 
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Oct 16, 2017 03:03
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LogisticEarth posted:EDIT: The more I read SA the more I'm convinced that at least 25% of the posters are in eastern PA. There are dozens of us. DOZENS! The Rev posted:Well how about that, I'm a Bucks native myself (4 months into my first home in lower bucks), have an Aunt in Doylestown. Drive would have been a bit too much for me or I would have considered the area more, nice area. It's a very nice area, and my search area is very, very small due to not only school district but specific elementary/middle schools right now. I could certainly find an 1800s farm house for cheaper very close by, but that might not be quite close enough and might be in a municipality that I find undesirable (many of them around here are overflowing with full time nutters/part time politicians on the board/council). This is our "we'll buy the right one if we find it" type house, but I'm looking at much cheaper development houses for the next 5-10 years to satisfy the immediate need for more space. There is a lot directly across the street from me (6 acres) that MIGHT end up available and I'm considering that as well. But I really want my drat farm house, even though they are a pain in the rear end.
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Oct 16, 2017 03:15
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Sup SE PA. That has the upside of land with the downside of still being in a tight development. Not as bad as the north bits of Montgomery Co, but still closer to other houses than I'd expect. My parents have 4 acres in Vermont and you can't see the neighbors the majority of the time. House shopping out my way is more of a standard kind of boring. I'd like to get in before the prices go up when people realize that 3 lanes on 476 makes it suck a whole lot less.
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Oct 16, 2017 03:27
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Anyone have any words of wisdom to share about the cost/logistics of adding on to a house? Namely, how much might I expect it to cost to take a 1100 sq ft ranch -> 1600 ft ranch, for example, and how long would construction typically take? Is it possible to still live in the house while construction is happening? Let's say "live" is a loose term, but assuming there's some parts of the house not being torn up, could I still stay in it? If I can't get the house I want, maybe I can turn a cheap house into a house I want. Doubt I'd go that route, but it's certainly something to think about.
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Oct 16, 2017 20:13
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It begins...
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Oct 16, 2017 20:26
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totalnewbie posted:Anyone have any words of wisdom to share about the cost/logistics of adding on to a house? Namely, how much might I expect it to cost to take a 1100 sq ft ranch -> 1600 ft ranch, for example, and how long would construction typically take? Is it possible to still live in the house while construction is happening? Let's say "live" is a loose term, but assuming there's some parts of the house not being torn up, could I still stay in it? My Dad added two bedrooms onto our small house when I was a kid. I don't think it is that bad especially if you can tie the exterior together without too much drama.
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Oct 16, 2017 20:48
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totalnewbie posted:Anyone have any words of wisdom to share about the cost/logistics of adding on to a house? Namely, how much might I expect it to cost to take a 1100 sq ft ranch -> 1600 ft ranch, for example, and how long would construction typically take? Is it possible to still live in the house while construction is happening? Let's say "live" is a loose term, but assuming there's some parts of the house not being torn up, could I still stay in it? Cost varies massively by location, so much so that goon advice from anyone not in your area is going to be wrong. Also depends on the weather, the condition and age of the existing structure (which affects how many undiscovered problems you'll discover as you rip open walls etc.), the kinds of materials you'll be using (luxurious? builder's grade? In between?), things like roofing (does it snow?), the lot (sloped? will you be pouring concrete footings, or a pad, or ?) etc. etc. etc. You could double your cost just by deciding you wanted some particularly fancy windows, a cathedral ceiling, a particularly expensive flooring, etc. How long construction takes is also somewhat of a function of weather, how busy your contractor is, how many times you have to stop for inspections before proceeding, how simple your construction is, etc. Whether you can live in the house while you're doing an addition depends on things like whether/how long the power, water, etc. may need to be turned off, whether workers need to go through the home to get to the area being worked on, and how long the whole process takes.
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Oct 16, 2017 20:55
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totalnewbie posted:Anyone have any words of wisdom to share about the cost/logistics of adding on to a house? Namely, how much might I expect it to cost to take a 1100 sq ft ranch -> 1600 ft ranch, for example, and how long would construction typically take? Is it possible to still live in the house while construction is happening? Let's say "live" is a loose term, but assuming there's some parts of the house not being torn up, could I still stay in it? There are massive variations in cost and time based on both the area and the house. Some rances you can just pop a second floor on. Some have layouts that would allow for more rooms. Some have layouts that would require losing 1/3 of a couple of rooms to make a hallway to get to new ones and/or move all of their windows. The best place to start is with an architect who does remodels. It will cost you several hundred bucks, but it's amazing what ideas good ones can come with after looking at your house. From there you can start figuring out costs and timelines.
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Oct 16, 2017 21:04
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You also should probably make sure whatever you are planning on doing is going to be to code and allowable per zoning. If you are working with a contractor/architect, you should probably be able to get most of the particulars figured out, but in some locations it matters quite a bit. Less of a deal if you never planning on leaving your home ever, but if you plan on doing any financing in the future, or selling it one day, unpermitted additions can cause problems.
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Oct 16, 2017 21:21
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All good points. Thanks for the feedback. I guess it's something that's hard to really account for going INTO buying a house. I guess I'll keep looking at places that are more-or-less what I'm looking for and go on from there. Thanks, all.
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Oct 16, 2017 21:30
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I was told that in the Los Angeles area, construction per square foot will be about $150-$300. From my experience, dealing with contractors/construction always ends up costing more than you think...
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Oct 17, 2017 03:04
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If it's a development of houses all built around the same time, you can poke around and see if anyone else has added an addition on a house that has the same layout. Then you can get an idea of what is possible and what looks like garbage.
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Oct 17, 2017 03:16
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Had an offer accepted on a house so now the fun begins. Get a list of inspectors from my agent and go through looking them up on Yelp etc... the one at the top of the list i.e. the most recommended one had multiple 1 star reviews where they didn't check the roof correctly and told the new owner to do one. The whole industry seems fairly incestrous.
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Oct 17, 2017 13:21
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