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pokie posted:My parents want to gift me and my partner the max amount (15k/year/person once a year in 2 years) to help with a house purchase. My mother mentioned something about how making gifts over 10k triggers suspicion from the feds, so she suggested 2 separate checks. I think if you are doing something legitimate, that shouldn't be a problem, and trying to get under some threshold is worse. Do folks here have opinions on this? If they fill out the memo line accurately "Gift for home downpayment" on the check then the CTR will happen in some random bank call center completely transparently and it won't be suspicious because that's a thing people do all the time. If they give you all $60k up front in one check they will have to fill out 1 extra line in their taxes that says "$60k" and that's the end of it. Unless they have $23.5MM in assets in which case they should just ask their accountant how to do it. Edit: The other option is for them to just wire the money straight into your escrow account, but that means they will need to show the underwriter statements going back a few months, and write a gift affidavit. If they give you $60k right now none of that has to happen if you don't buy for 2 years. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Jul 1, 2021 |
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Jul 1, 2021 22:16
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E: ^^^ Yeah, I have no idea when I will buy exactly. The plan is within a year, but it could change depending on how our move to Oregon goes and whether we like it there. I think both I and my parents meant the max amount before required amount to be reported, but otherwise, yeah, I was pretty sure she is misinformed. Thanks for confirming my understanding that splitting it is worse. Also yes, the plan is to get to 60k via 15k checks as CellBlock described. On a funny note, my mother works at a bank, although she is a statistician there. pokie fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Jul 1, 2021 |
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Jul 1, 2021 22:48
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She shouldn't feel bad. Nobody properly understands the tax code. That's by design.
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Jul 2, 2021 00:24
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We are looking at a little 1000 sqft house on a 10000 sqft lot. It is about the size of our apartment, but 3 bedrooms instead of 2 and much older (late 60s) so its structural supports are probably made of old tires or something. The reason we're looking at it is that we could make a cash offer without even denting our emergency funds. So we might actually get the house and then could take out a loan for renovation, maybe wait a year or two hoping that the shortages become less severe and then dump money into renovating it, or maybe even starting over entirely if we think it sucks that badly. It's move in ready, it's just old and probably full of horrors in the walls Terrible idea, or merely a bad idea?
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Jul 2, 2021 04:42
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We now crossed the 100k mark in renovation costs now, partly due to the price and labor markups right now (which may or may not be normalizing), and partly due to having to fix everything we find during the renovation; we originally planned on around 60k. I don't know your money situation, but I would plan on a ridiculous amount of excess costs if you living in this house depends on these renovations happening. Honestly I'd I had to do it again I would put the money into offering on a more expensive house thatdidn't need work because you end up spending the same but save all the time and headache.
PageMaster fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Jul 2, 2021 |
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Jul 2, 2021 04:58
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PageMaster posted:We now crossed the 100k mark in renovation costs now, partly due to the price and labor markups right now (which may or may not be normalizing), and partly due to having to fix everything we find during the renovation; we originally planned on around 60k. I don't know your money situation, but I would plan on a ridiculous amount of excess costs if you living in this house depends on these renovations happening. Honestly I'd I had to do it again I would put the money into offering on a more expensive house they didn't need work because your end up spending the same but save all the time and headache. This was our thinking so we spent more and oops we may have to do big renovations anyway.  Maybe we're just unlucky or less savvy, or maybe all houses are their own special curse
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Jul 2, 2021 05:06
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Probably just the latter; every wall you open just hides more disappointment.
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Jul 2, 2021 05:15
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My first house was a hundred year old lemon from a flipper that we sold back to them in a settlement. To avoid a similar hell we bought a 2016 house from a reputable builder this time around. Excited to see what hosed up horrors lay in store.
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Jul 2, 2021 06:07
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Residency Evil posted:We're meeting with 2 buyers agents this weekend to discuss what we're looking for based on some friend recommendations to see who we gel with more. Anything in particular we should ask them? Our agent grew up in the area and was blunt about vetoing houses left and right because they were in not great areas and we were planning to have a kid. For a year, she found us cheap short term rentals and showed us houses and didn't pressure us at all. When we saw one house, she said "this is the one" even though it was a total fixer upper and we were kind of iffy about it. She pushed us to put in an offer, it felt weird how much she wanted us to get this house. Up to the day we closed, we were waffling. Turns out it's the best street in the world, I can let my 4 year old go play in the road or walk to a friend's house, there are a dozen other kids outside playing and biking around at all times. The neighbors have block parties and build skate ramps together and help out with yardwork and pet sit and share everything. It's straight out of a movie how awesome the street is. We never in a million years would have picked it out, but she instantly knew. Worth every penny. There are a shitton of bad realtors out there. We got lucky, honestly. But you get someone who knows the area deeply, who can get to know you and figure out what you need, man, it makes a difference.
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Jul 2, 2021 07:40
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skipdogg posted:I can confirm this as well. My wife is a bank manager, and they don't even blink twice at checks coming in for 10, 50, 80 thousand dollars. Happens all time time. Deposit a check for 9200 on Tuesday, and another for 5,000 on Wednesday from the same person and a SAR gets filed really fast. They take that stuff super serious. gwrtheyrn posted:You don't have to tell the irs unless it goes over said 15k/person/year limit for gift tax purposes. H110Hawk posted:If they fill out the memo line accurately "Gift for home downpayment" on the check then the CTR will happen in some random bank call center completely transparently and it won't be suspicious because that's a thing people do all the time. If they give you all $60k up front in one check they will have to fill out 1 extra line in their taxes that says "$60k" and that's the end of it. Unless they have $23.5MM in assets in which case they should just ask their accountant how to do it. So, bankers don’t give a gently caress about checks unless we think they are fraudulent. They’ll place a hold on the funds but unless there is reason to be suspicious there will be no reports made. A CTR only happens for cash transactions. Likewise laws about structuring transactions are all around cash, wires, and monetary instruments like money orders, cashiers checks, and visa gift cards that also involve cash.
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Jul 2, 2021 08:26
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QuarkJets posted:We are looking at a little 1000 sqft house on a 10000 sqft lot. It is about the size of our apartment, but 3 bedrooms instead of 2 and much older (late 60s) so its structural supports are probably made of old tires or something. All you need to do is get the sewer line scoped (houses built in the 60s with clay drains are due for them to collapse any time now), be sure the foundation is sound, don't pull up the floors or scrape the popcorn off the ceiling (asbestos), don't sand any painted surface (lead), make sure the roof's newer and isn't just 3 layers of shingles, test the water (more lead), understand that your HVAC and insulation won't be up to the current climate, make sure the bathroom walls aren't rotting from years of leaks, make sure the house is actually built from dimensional lumber (4" thick walls), evaluate the electrical system (it's not rated for modern life and you probably don't have properly grounded outlets), be prepared to run new cables for your internet service, and you're good. It's not likely that all of that has gone wrong, but over the 60-70 years the structure's been around, it's likely that some of it has, and you won't know which until it's all yours. I wouldn't go into it without an existing relationship with a contractor.
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Jul 2, 2021 12:41
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The Puppy Bowl posted:My first house was a hundred year old lemon from a flipper that we sold back to them in a settlement. To avoid a similar hell we bought a 2016 house from a reputable builder this time around. Excited to see what hosed up horrors lay in store. Spoiler, nightmares cost money those walls are empty.
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Jul 2, 2021 13:32
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So, a post from the third side of this whole thing. You’ve got plenty of buyers and sellers…so what about tenants living in a building that’s being sold for the second time in four years who is seeing all of the deep stupidity from a different perspective? First off, you have a realtor/property manager who thinks 24 hour notice for showings as dictated in the lease means gently caress all, you get two hours and you’ll like it, and Fates help you if you say no because your life will be made hell. Then you get unannounced city inspectors who look down their nose at you because you dare to actually live in a place. Then you get the prospective buyers who demand on what works out essentially to 45 minutes notice that you have to rearrange and tear apart your entire living room because they want to look at two doors that are unused and haven’t been for years when they come for final walkthrough. Never mind that every realtor/client had a look of “oh god, other people already live here, when can we evict them?” when showings happened. Every. Single. One. I know there are New Owner Move-In Evictions that can break a lease and all but no one seems to have an idea of what sort of timeframe, if any, they have to give in PA before they can go and do it. So trying to save up anything to even wade into the shallow end of this process is not happening, as much as I want to have this insecurity just go the gently caress away. (Almost to the point where I’m leaning towards looking at mobile/premanufactured homes since I don’t need much, but that’s a different beast than traditional mortgages from everything I’ve researched!) Meanwhile the property manager/realtor refused to answer our questions about who gets rent and when/how it should be paid until literally 7 pm on the first of the month (the day the closing was originally supposed to occur, but was delayed and known earlier in the week). It’s been two months of headaches and grief to get through this mess a second time. So yeah, speaking from someone watching both sides of this debacle happen in real time, the thread title is very fitting (and even I fit into that category because of just thinking of buying a place even if it is a pipe dream at this juncture).
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Jul 2, 2021 16:19
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ShadowedFlames posted:I know there are New Owner Move-In Evictions that can break a lease and all but no one seems to have an idea of what sort of timeframe, if any, they have to give in PA before they can go and do it. I believe it's the standard 90-day eviction period. I'm in PA and I had friends a few years ago that signed a lease, moved into their apartment, and then the landlord literally sold it like 2 months later and they had to be out in 3 months. They were furious and tried to fight it but it didn't work.
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Jul 2, 2021 16:30
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ShadowedFlames posted:So, a post from the third side of this whole thing. You’ve got plenty of buyers and sellers…so what about tenants living in a building that’s being sold for the second time in four years who is seeing all of the deep stupidity from a different perspective? Don’t take that poo poo. Absolutely not. 24 hours notice or I’m not letting you in, gently caress you. Get one of those hotel safety door locks and use it when you’re home and they aren’t getting in. I’m absolutely deadly serious here. Do not let them give you less than 24 hours notice. Do not rearrange your whole poo poo so they can say one thing, politely (or not, doesn’t matter) tell them to gently caress off. You’re legally allowed to be there.
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Jul 2, 2021 17:24
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Yeah, any listing that said it was currently being rented out was something I just skipped right the gently caress over when I was house searching because gently caress me, I'm looking for my own home, not trying to kick someone else out of theirs. Sales of rental properties should be separate listings anyway. If someone wants to get in the landlord game, fine, let them. But the way things are it's like a "cruelty is the point" kind of thing to sell a property out from under someone paying rent to live there.
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Jul 2, 2021 18:06
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Don’t take that poo poo. Absolutely not. I actually looked into those locks. The ones I found work on inside-opening doors only; the interior door to our unit opens outward so I’m not sure that would work so well. The thing with sticking fast to “we must have notice” has led in the past to: PM waiting for over a week to clear snow out of the driveway when we needed to get out to go to work (because what are snow days in capitalist America?), delaying repairs on the hot water heater for 24 hours with the excuse of “we couldn’t find anyone to come on short notice” (in the third largest city in Pennsylvania, I wish to note), substandard delayed repairs to the structure after sending photo and video proof of what was happening, and so forth. Landlord/owner is an absentee one, bought the place to have somewhere to stay when his job demanded him to come from upstate NY and now that COVID eliminated that, time to ditch the house. Wish he’d actually listen to us about how inept this drat PM/Realtor is with terms of doing her job.
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Jul 2, 2021 18:08
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Jesus Christ, the market is still insane in Riverside. Someone please tell me how this house is worth almost $600k. It's two beds one bath for Christ's sake!
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Jul 2, 2021 19:01
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Anonymous Zebra posted:Jesus Christ, the market is still insane in Riverside. Someone please tell me how this house is worth almost $600k. It's two beds one bath for Christ's sake! California. Also, something something "architecture" something "look at those floors", etc. EDIT: Also if those cabinets in the kitchen are the antique metal cabinets you sometimes see in really old homes, those are worth some money to certain people. Some Pinko Commie fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Jul 2, 2021 |
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Jul 2, 2021 19:17
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biracial bear for uncut posted:California. I'm just curious because many of the houses in the Wood Streets look like that place, but are not selling at that amount per sq.ft. If they have some secret sauce renovation for pumping the price I'd love to know it so I can do it too.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:22
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The listing claims the home was originally built in 1927, so odds are good that if any of that stuff is the original construction that you've got a lot of antique stuff in there influencing the insanity on the price.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:32
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QuarkJets posted:We are looking at a little 1000 sqft house on a 10000 sqft lot. It is about the size of our apartment, but 3 bedrooms instead of 2 and much older (late 60s) so its structural supports are probably made of old tires or something. What's the context of your question? The size of the home or the condition requiring renovations? Small homes on big lots are great. Building material prices are already coming down quickly so I doubt it'll be long before renovation pricing is relatively normal, or at least less than insane. If you're comfortable with the home and know exactly what you'd like to renovate, and what it takes to get there (many buyers don't), it sounds fine. Magicaljesus fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Jul 3, 2021 |
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Jul 2, 2021 19:42
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Anonymous Zebra posted:Jesus Christ, the market is still insane in Riverside. Someone please tell me how this house is worth almost $600k. It's two beds one bath for Christ's sake! That house has also been on the market for 2 weeks and still isn't pending when houses usually go in days; I would expect a price drop now that they've hit the 14 day mark. California is crazy, but everyone here is now listing for well over what people are willing to pay; half of my redfin updates for Socal are price drops after no one bites on the overpriced listing. PageMaster fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Jul 2, 2021 |
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Jul 2, 2021 19:43
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PageMaster posted:That house has also been on the market for 2 weeks and still isn't pending when houses usually go in days; I would expect a price drop now that they've hit the 14 day mark. Perhaps. I've saved it to see where the final price ends up. $595k is ridiculous, but if it sells for more than $550k then it's still ridiculous. I'm obsessing over this because the Zestimate is also off the wall ($624k). I know we don't trust the Zestimates, but I'm comparing it to the Zestimates of other homes (including my own) and that's a really bizarre number for such a small home. I'm trying figure out what's so special about it that its sale price (and the Zestimate) are so much higher than the neighboring homes. biracial bear for uncut posted:The listing claims the home was originally built in 1927, so odds are good that if any of that stuff is the original construction that you've got a lot of antique stuff in there influencing the insanity on the price. Many of the homes in the Wood Streets are 1920's, and many contain original (usually loving worn down) portions of the home. I'm actually tempted to go to their open house, because I doubt it looks that sexy if it still has lots of original components. If they actually managed to restore large parts of the home, then I need to find their contractor.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:53
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Magicaljesus posted:What's the context of your question? The size of the home or the condition requiring renovations? Small homes on big lots are great. Building material prices are already coming down quickly so I doubt it'll be long before pricing is relatively normal, or at least less than insane. If you're comfortable with the home and know exactly what you'd like to renovate, and what it takes to get there (many buyers don't), it sounds fine. We're going to see it tomorrow, along with some other homes. It looks good in the list photos, just dated. So we'll see I guess!
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Jul 3, 2021 03:18
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QuarkJets posted:We're going to see it tomorrow, along with some other homes. It looks good in the list photos, just dated. So we'll see I guess! If you want real information post the listing/photos and then supplement with your own. In this market the listing photos that aren't included will normally tell the story. Missing second bathroom that is listed, no pics of mechanicals or basement......
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Jul 3, 2021 03:31
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I was recently searching for apartments to lease, and this advice was incredibly valuable.
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Jul 3, 2021 03:42
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I wasn't impressed with our agent when we bought our house, but figured it'd be fine if we used her to sell the place since the incentive to drive up the price would actually work for us on this side of the transaction. But she's making noise about selling it to some buyers who she also represents, and her supposed comps indicate we should ask for only 9.5% over what we paid for the place last summer. My gut says this poo poo should be a nonstarter, but is there a way to make this arrangement work?
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Jul 3, 2021 19:40
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The agent technically is supposed to work in your best interests to get you the most money possible, but also the buyer's best interest to get them the best (lowest) deal possible, and in reality is also trying to get everyone to accept any deal as easily as possible so she can get paid. I wouldn't be able to trust any advice from them off it were me.
PageMaster fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Jul 3, 2021 |
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Jul 3, 2021 20:06
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Being able to collect both halves of the commission fee seems like it would remove some incentive to work for your highest selling price, but as long as she’s not withholding offers from other buyers, I’d think it would be ok. You could ask your agent to waive part of the commission. If she’s getting the full boat by playing both sides, it might be a win-win.
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Jul 3, 2021 20:23
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BonerGhost posted:I wasn't impressed with our agent when we bought our house, but figured it'd be fine if we used her to sell the place since the incentive to drive up the price would actually work for us on this side of the transaction. Boot that agent out of your life.
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Jul 3, 2021 20:29
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Thanks for the advice, wanted to make sure I was not just being nitpicky. How to ensure the next agent isn't doing dual representation? Just tell them we will not accept any offers from anyone they're repping as buyer's agent?
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Jul 3, 2021 21:01
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Boot that agent out of your life. Absolutely this. An agent representing both sides of the deal CANNOT do right by both of you. It’s impossible.
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Jul 3, 2021 21:08
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For reference, my agent was really good and in the one case where we were considering putting an offer on a listing of his, he said he would pass us to his colleague, because he refused to be in a dual agent situation. Never have a dual agent imo.
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Jul 3, 2021 21:26
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Results of agent meetings: Agent 1: Flashy, works for some small boutique agency, gave us a tote bag/treat for our dog/hat Agent 2: Former management consultant, husband is a GC, sounds like they do some home renovations/flips. We talked about cap rates for rental properties and she said it's a terrible market for RE investors. I liked her. Gave us a tote bag. Agent 3: Woman who lives in the neighborhood we're looking at and said she can put some feelers out "in her neighborhood." Seems like she's super familiar with the neighborhood and has strong opinions down to the street level/block level/side of the street. No presents. Would it be a bad idea to use Agent 3, knowing that we may be looking at homes of people she might potentially know in some tangential way?
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Jul 3, 2021 22:31
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alnilam posted:For reference, my agent was really good and in the one case where we were considering putting an offer on a listing of his, he said he would pass us to his colleague, because he refused to be in a dual agent situation. Yup, exactly how my agent acted. She recommended a few listings of hers, none of which we liked, but made it clear up front that she would not do dual agency. And yeah BonerGhost, fire the gently caress outta that agent. With great gusto!
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Jul 3, 2021 22:59
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ShadowedFlames posted:I actually looked into those locks. The ones I found work on inside-opening doors only; the interior door to our unit opens outward so I’m not sure that would work so well. You should probably consider joining your local tenants union and discussing all this fuckery with them to see what recourse et c you have.
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Jul 4, 2021 02:20
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My eternal cheap advice for tenant related stuff is to send a certified mail letter about it quoting the relevant part of the lease. Scares the poo poo out of landlords etc much of the time, it makes it seem like you know how to sue people and stuff even if you don't.
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Jul 4, 2021 03:22
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We didn’t lower the price, our agent and my wife wanted us to hang on and we got two offers tonight expiring tomorrow at list. I was anticipating more but the market seems to have topped out a bit maybe due to the heat and holiday or w/e. We’re working one offer to see if they’ll go higher to get the house because ideally we’d like another $10-15k but we’re taking one of them tomorrow since they expire at 9am. I think it’s a terrible idea to wait, our agent contacted everyone who came through again and no one else seems to want to bite and throw in with the other offers. Glumwheels fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Jul 4, 2021 |
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Jul 4, 2021 04:41
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But sure if they're aren't enough houses for real estate agents anymore, but the agent that sold us our house lives in the area and hand dropped off a note saying she had a family looking at our neighborhood and would love to work with us. We just closed 3 months ago, leave us alone!
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Jul 4, 2021 05:50
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