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Having recently goofed up on the liquid portion of a recipe and aerosolizing cayenne pepper across the entire kitchen and living room, I see the appeal of a good quality hood and non-open floor plan
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Mar 4, 2021 22:34
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AmbientParadox posted:I’d be curious if all the units have hardwood floors like that with little/no carpeting. Because your upstairs neighbor may partake in tap dancing . It's just something you live with in a city I suppose. All the condos I've looked at have hardwood floors. In Chicago there's a good amount of 100 year old condo stock I try and avoid in my search because in my mind those will be noisier.
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Mar 4, 2021 22:39
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Motronic posted:surprise that a gas grill would be allowed on that balcony. It's probably not allowed  . That's just so common in Chicago, lol.
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Mar 4, 2021 22:40
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Johnny Truant posted:It's probably not allowed I mean, how many people could possibly look at https://www.redfin.com
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Mar 4, 2021 22:42
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Inner Light posted:By this do you mean you wouldn't have looked at the condo, or you couldn't care less about the fan? The condo. In fact, no hood venting outside = dealbreaker to me. In theory, an amazing house + a hood that could be converted to venting outside was an option but there's basically 0 chance that would be in my budget, between the work to change the hood and the house being otherwise amazing (which would mean other high offers). Also, downdraft vents are a thing but I don't know how common they are. They exist, though.
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Mar 4, 2021 22:49
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With Zillow and Redfin, are buyers agents still a necessity? And if so, what's the above for finding a good one (the OP seems fairly outdated on this point)?
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Mar 4, 2021 23:14
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Thanatosian posted:With Zillow and Redfin, are buyers agents still a necessity? And if so, what's the above for finding a good one (the OP seems fairly outdated on this point)? As a first time buyer, I would have had to do so much more worked, and been so hosed without my agent. She visits places before me to rule them out. She tells me when stuff is already off market. She makes recommendations on price, comps, etc. She did 100% of the negotiating and I didn’t have to speak to anyone other than say “this number go here” She tells me when I don’t need to worry about something or when I should. She’s pushy at viewing when looking for rodent droppings or asking aggressive questions so I don’t have to be. I found most of the places we looked at. But she’s 100% worth it. We found her by googling exclusive buyers agent (city).
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Mar 4, 2021 23:31
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Thanatosian posted:With Zillow and Redfin, are buyers agents still a necessity? And if so, what's the above for finding a good one (the OP seems fairly outdated on this point)? It depends on the market and what you need. If you really can do the things a buyer's agent does in the shopping phase in your market then all you need is a real estate attorney.
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Mar 4, 2021 23:32
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Motronic posted:It depends on the market and what you need.
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Mar 4, 2021 23:42
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Thanatosian posted:With Zillow and Redfin, are buyers agents still a necessity? And if so, what's the above for finding a good one (the OP seems fairly outdated on this point)? Buyer's agent is mostly a vegistal job IMO although most sellers won't accept an offer from an individual. I can see why you ask this if you're doing 99% of your own original research Agent is handy for handling the go between, and absorbing heat from the sellers agent to get the deal done more quickly etc And yeah the sellers just keeps the buyers agents fee if you don't have one so you might as well retain one Buyer's agent fee probably should be reduced to 1.25% these days but we're some time out from that happening And yeah there are still some people who shop for a house based on the concept of a "full service buyers agent", and want that
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Mar 4, 2021 23:47
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gvibes posted:But it doesn't actually help you, since then the seller agent just keeps the full 5 or 6%, right? Not if you real estate attorney is the least bit competent. gvibes posted:I think you would need to negotiate a dual-rep agency with the selling agent, combined with a discount. No offense, but if you think dual agency is good advice you should read more and post less in this thread.
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Mar 4, 2021 23:51
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Motronic posted:Not if you real estate attorney is the least bit competent.
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Mar 5, 2021 00:43
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This is essentially a (not-so-) different take on the "is now a good time to buy" question, but I still wanted to pose it to the thread (the OP is over a decade old at this point) - Is there any legitimate case for housing prices falling any time soon? I can't think of anything that would outright kill this market and cause prices to tank, but I still see plenty of people talking about how they're waiting for the prices to fall before buying, and I wonder if these people actually have any evidence or are aware of any realistic scenario of that happening or if it's just wishful thinking on their part. Even if the fed increases rates and congress enacts some rules on investment properties, I feel like it's pretty unrealistic to think these prices are going to down in any significant way from their current levels. I can't think of any reason why a 2008-level correction would happen, or even a smaller correction that would cause someone to conclude that they should wait to buy right now because the market is inflated and will correct.
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Mar 5, 2021 01:17
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gvibes posted:I know the dual rep is a bad idea, but maybe I don't quite understand what you are proposing. A listing will state that it has a 2.5-3% buyer's agent fee, right? In this case, the buyer has no agent, so nobody on the buyer's side receives that fee. What does your attorney do? Is an offer just made with a statement that there is no buyer's agent and reflecting an equivalent reduction in price? Or does the attorney in effect serve as the agent and receives the agent fee instead (for transfer to the buyer)? This probably varies by state and custom, but the contracts I've seen specify a total agent fee (4-6% depending on place, value, etc) to the seller's agent, who then handles/offers a split to the buyer's agent. Most agents will split it 50-50 but that's ultimately between them (and the buyer, potentially).
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Mar 5, 2021 01:18
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As a buyer, I've never spent even 1 second talking to my agent about how much they'll be paid. They work it out with the seller's agent and it comes out of the seller's proceeds.
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Mar 5, 2021 01:27
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LiterallyAnything posted:Even if the fed increases rates and congress enacts some rules on investment properties, I feel like it's pretty unrealistic to think these prices are going to down in any significant way from their current levels. I can't think of any reason why a 2008-level correction would happen, or even a smaller correction that would cause someone to conclude that they should wait to buy right now because the market is inflated and will correct. It's really unlikely that there will be a crash like 2008, but there are some very real props holding up property value right now: 1. Inventory is artificially low. Construction is slower, people are postponing moves if they don't need to, and there's just a whole lot of uncertainty right now so the normal churn of housing inventory isn't happening. This creates bidding wars over the lower number of available houses, driving prices upwards. 2. Evictions and foreclosures haven't been happening for a year now. Morality aside, the protections against them will end soon, and it's likely that many of those homes will go on the market soon afterwards. If you're in a market that's hot due to particular industries that allow for remote work, there might also be downward pressure on prices as people transition out of the HCOL areas that they were once required to live in. This is probably going to result in less of a price drop and just more of a price gain slowdown, but it's probably significant. The converse of this is that "small towns" are going to become hotter markets as those HCOL people take their tech salaries with them to the countryside. What the actual effects of these new changes will be is entirely unknown, but it could result in prices returning to normal in a few months. It could also result in this being the new normal. It's just a very weird time for housing and everything else right now so I can understand why people who can afford to not enter the market are staying out.
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Mar 5, 2021 01:30
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It shouldn't be legal to make a home without proper cooking ventilation.  I'm weirded out by the "TV above the Fireplace" thing. Isn't it weird having it above normal eye level?
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Mar 5, 2021 02:58
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:I'm weirded out by the "TV above the Fireplace" thing. Isn't it weird having it above normal eye level? No, it is not. Unless your entire existence is spending 10s of hours a day watching TV rather than having a TV in a room to watch it once in a while and maybe have it on in the background for some game or something. Not everything needs to be a perfectly ergonomic and soundscaped home theater setup.
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Mar 5, 2021 03:05
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:It shouldn't be legal to make a home without proper cooking ventilation. Yeah it's a constant debate in the TV threads, I think it's ridiculous to have it so high. There are pull down mounts like https://www.mantelmount.com/ but who knows how they really work vs. just not having the TV there. In some cases I've x'd out condos because there is no appropriate spot to put a TV other than above a (usually gas one that I don't want) fireplace.
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Mar 5, 2021 03:06
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Yond Cassius posted:This probably varies by state and custom, but the contracts I've seen specify a total agent fee (4-6% depending on place, value, etc) to the seller's agent, who then handles/offers a split to the buyer's agent. Most agents will split it 50-50 but that's ultimately between them (and the buyer, potentially).
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Mar 5, 2021 03:10
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gvibes posted:A listing will state that it has a 2.5-3% buyer's agent fee, right? The listing agreement between the seller and the listing broker will be for 5-6% typically, this is split between the buyers agent and sellers agent, often 50/50 but it can be whatever is in the agreement. If you are unrepresented or the listing agent is a dual agent there might be a .25% or .5% discount for the seller, not 3%. Most sellers don't want to deal with an unrepresented buyer, that is a big part of the reason they are paying a commission to a buyer's agent. Most buyers with an agent follow certain norms for the area, most who won't follow those norms self select out and are unrepresented. You can still sell a home without agents involved at all, or buy one without an agent representing you, but then you have to deal with these problems. You can try to negotiate with the seller to get the listing broker to modify their agreement and reduce the commission. This is only realistic in strong buyers markets. Even if the commission is reduced why would the seller give you a discount instead of keeping the money for themselves? Becoming a licensed real estate agent, working under a broker to represent yourself would get the whole 2.5-3%, minus the cut to the broker and the time spent and the fees. This would make sense if you plan on buying and selling multiple homes, or representing family and friends but probably isn't worth it otherwise. You can work with a rebating agent, or a company like redfin, and get back around 1%, maybe more in some areas. But most people opt to go with a full service realtor with a lot of local experience after talking to a few.
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Mar 5, 2021 03:11
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LiterallyAnything posted:This is essentially a (not-so-) different take on the "is now a good time to buy" question, but I still wanted to pose it to the thread (the OP is over a decade old at this point) - I'd also like to suggest that the housing market is broken into tiers that operate independently of each other. The group of buyers for $200k houses have very different economic circumstances and outlooks than the group of buyers for $500k houses in the same local market.
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Mar 5, 2021 04:01
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:I'm weirded out by the "TV above the Fireplace" thing. Isn't it weird having it above normal eye level? Yes. Motronic posted:No, it is not. Unless your entire existence is spending 10s of hours a day watching TV rather than having a TV in a room to watch it once in a while and maybe have it on in the background for some game or something. My TV is in my theater room. Otherwise known as 'the unfinished basement with the open sump pit because the previous owner lost the cover' room. Or the 'make sure you bring a blanket with you because I keep putting off installing insulation and walls' room. You know, the 'at least all the asbestos got remediated well ok maybe not all of it' room.
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Mar 5, 2021 04:02
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The market is Southern California is loving insane. I just got off the phone with my realtor after reviewing some listings she sent me. Some of them won't even schedule a viewing without you first making an offer. The place i looked at last week had a line of people outside waiting to do viewings and at least 30 realtor cards on the counter when I got inside. I've had to considerably lower my expectations, not because I can't afford the bigger places but because I can't afford to go so far over appraised value on the bigger places.
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Mar 5, 2021 04:13
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Bucnasti posted:Some of them won't even schedule a viewing without you first making an offer Run far away
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Mar 5, 2021 05:30
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Bucnasti posted:The market is Southern California is loving insane. We only got two accepted offers in Socal. one was right next to Pendleton back gate which we backed out of after appraisal came back 30k under the 960k asking (house went pending 3 days later and neighbor just listed for 995k yesterday), and an off market list in east fire country that sellers are still paying off liens on. The rest had cash buyers way over so while I'm not excited about the one we are working through, I think it's this or renting (or seriously leave the state). The one thing I did originally want was turn key, but in hindsight we wasted 60 days with that unachievable goal and had to start looking at fixers. Looking at the prices in the places people DON'T want to live hey to a million is killing us. Edit: no advice unfortunately, just venting. We did skip houses wanting an offer first since there's no time to waste here, every day lost to looking at new properties put us more behind. PageMaster fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Mar 5, 2021 |
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Mar 5, 2021 05:49
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I’ve only been seriously looking for a month or so but it’s already getting frustrating. My job is WFH now, but for tax reasons I need to stay in California. So I’m looking at places way out on the edges of civilization, I can’t imagine trying to get a place in the city proper right now.
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Mar 5, 2021 07:34
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disaster pastor posted:Inspection today. We're assuming it'll go well, but just in case, what's everyone's walk-away point (both in terms of cost and in terms of "even if this gets fixed it won't be good enough") when unexpected things pop up on inspection? It did go well; just a couple minor (sub-$500) issues. We're trying to get the owners to fix those, because why not, but we won't end up heartbroken or walletbroken if we have to pay for them. disaster pastor fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Mar 22, 2021 |
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Mar 5, 2021 13:45
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LiterallyAnything posted:This is essentially a (not-so-) different take on the "is now a good time to buy" question, but I still wanted to pose it to the thread (the OP is over a decade old at this point) - Not really, The stuff I've read talks about how there's a real estate cycle and now that's so many people have mortgages it's extremely unlikely they'll move or their taking a huge loss. In my opinion, the next price dip won't happen for the next 3-5 years when folks have enough equity in their home so if they do sell it they at least break even. I think that'll happen when folks find out Texas, Florida, etc. or constantly WFH from the suburbs or rural areas isn't as great as they thought it would be.
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Mar 5, 2021 15:29
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Got our inspection done on Tuesday and, for a 140 year old house, it has shockingly few issues. After a couple of rounds of negotiation with the seller for the couple of things that were found, we learned that the reason it's in such good shape is that it was actually declared condemned by the city about 15 years ago and a local non-profit bought it and, with the help of funds from the city, completely rehabbed it. It's not perfect, but it's in really good shape which is a boon to us. The only notable thing is that, after removing a chimney, they installed a center beam in the basement consisting of two 2x12 boards with three inch columns that are secured in the concrete. This is all well and good, except that it was supposed to be three 2x12 boards instead of two, and one of the five columns is still a temporary one that isn't actually holding anything up at the moment. Despite this, everything is level and looks good. The seller flatly rejected our request to have a structural engineer do an inspection and quote a repair, likely because the city (or their contractor most likely) did that install and our seller doesn't want to know about the defect. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we decided to take care of that ourselves after closing because the risk of that particular issue is small and localized based on everything else in the inspection and we're fortunate to be in a financial position where having that fixed isn't a big issue. We hope this wasn't the worst decision in the history of houses. Everything else is minor electrical and plumbing items, cleaning the furnace and ducting, and fixing deck anchors that have rusted, all of which we've asked for a small credit for plus a home warranty. I'm seriously hoping they agree to this so we can move forward to closing.  So much fun in a white hot sellers market.
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Mar 5, 2021 15:54
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This is a bit armchair theory but if an NGO / public funds fixed it that's probably a good sign that things were done to code and no corners intentionally cut, compared to an owner rehab.
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Mar 5, 2021 17:04
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A house in my neighborhood (all new construction) originally sold for $475k in July 2019, and is now asking $650k. In the neighborhood across the street, a new-construction home bought for $930k in May 2019 is on the market for $1.3M now. This is friggin' insane. Going to be interesting to watch and see if they sell/what they sell for.
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Mar 5, 2021 17:14
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Bucnasti posted:I've had to considerably lower my expectations, not because I can't afford the bigger places but because I can't afford to go so far over appraised value on the bigger places. This is where I’m at. Lost to a cash offer again on the bid I made Wednesday. And even that bid felt like I was paying too much for the size of the house.
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Mar 5, 2021 18:03
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There's a zillow listing for a house I like, FSBO. It's about 10% too high. Is there a guide or something for how to even talk to this seller, or how to handle this? I assume I need a real estate attorney at some point?
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Mar 5, 2021 21:42
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LiterallyAnything posted:Is there any legitimate case for housing prices falling any time soon? It is very possible that people are underestimating the impact of the foreclosure moratoriums and court slow downs. Both officially and unofficially, people who would otherwise have been forced to sell or get booted over the past year have retained their properties. This may disproportionately skew towards cheap/poor properties, but nice homes are foreclosed upon too. It also forces investors/flippers to chase fewer and fewer options. The system isn't really designed to clear that much backlog at once, so I'm not sure that it will make an immediate impact. That said, I could see a combo of increased distressed selling/foreclosures and significantly higher interest rates really making a dent on the market.
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Mar 6, 2021 04:01
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Around here investors cold call people who aren’t even selling. I can’t imagine we are unique in that regard.
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Mar 6, 2021 04:15
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MayakovskyMarmite posted:It is very possible that people are underestimating the impact of the foreclosure moratoriums and court slow downs. Both officially and unofficially, people who would otherwise have been forced to sell or get booted over the past year have retained their properties. This may disproportionately skew towards cheap/poor properties, but nice homes are foreclosed upon too. It also forces investors/flippers to chase fewer and fewer options. This is the thing that I don't understand. I would think that if I was facing a foreclosure when the crisis ends, I would be trying to sell right now to get my equity out. What am I missing? Also, put an offer on an adorable little house today. It's just barely big enough for my needs but it's impeccably maintained. My realtor is working magic to make my offer look more appealing than the other 15 the've received. One was apparently a non-cash offer of 100k over asking, which is crazy because it will never appraise for that much. Since it's so small and has little value as a flip, I'm hoping the people with cash to spend will want something else.
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Mar 6, 2021 04:43
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Bucnasti posted:I would think that if I was facing a foreclosure when the crisis ends, I would be trying to sell right now to get my equity out. What am I missing? Because they are totally broke and don't want to leave their homes? Even if you have equity, you probably have other crippling debt or are in bad straights. No one wants to be kicked out of their house, but it happens constantly.
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Mar 6, 2021 05:08
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Bucnasti posted:This is the thing that I don't understand. You are missing that people literally live in a house
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Mar 6, 2021 06:54
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 Is that a cat door, lol
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Mar 6, 2021 07:27
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