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The tl;dr is that most discrimination laws do not apply to individuals or small businesses, especially for non-public accommodations. If anyone would be liable here, it would be the agent('s employer).
AreWeDrunkYet fucked around with this message at 02:19 on May 9, 2022 |
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May 9, 2022 02:15
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The State of California realty association has banned people from writing love letters about houses, because they said that it gives too many opportunities for the seller to discriminate against buyers for illegal reasons. I can't see that they're wrong. The federal Fair Housing Act absolutely applies to private home sales.
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May 9, 2022 02:24
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BonoMan posted:The seller getting to decide what offer to take? Why should that be illegal?
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May 9, 2022 03:22
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Slugworth posted:I'm super confused because I thought it *was* illegal, and yet it appears everyone in this thread has done it. We sold to my girlfriend's nephew, and were warned we weren't allowed to know which offer was his. There could be a local rule prohibiting it but that would not be barred by the FHA, and it's not really covered by the current topic (familial status). That advice could help you not get sued by a competing buyer but it is perfectly legal to sell a house to a friend or friend's family member. No one is going to jail for selling a house to their brother or whatever You can not discriminate on the basis of familial status, but it's fine if that detail is coincidental, as seems to be the case here. "I'm glad the best offer happened to be a family with kids" is different from "we only considered offers from families with kids", the former being a little dicey to say aloud because it could get you sued by someone with a chapped rear end QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 03:29 on May 9, 2022 |
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May 9, 2022 03:23
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Apologies in advance for  Wife and I are currently under escrow on a home in the San Diego area. I had been casually watching the housing market here pre-COVID and was really, really fixated on having 20% cash to put down on a $850-$900K home in early 2020, when I was certain the next housing downcycle would begin. By the time the COVID boom had started it felt like we were already behind the curve. Because our current rental situation is extremely stable and we pay far below market value for a SFH for our popular neighborhood, we weren't in a rush to buy - my wife in particular is attached to our rental and was slow to warm up to the idea of moving. On top of that, we're both design professionals and were extremely pick about the area we wanted to buy in and what we wanted in our home. Despite 15 months of looking, we had only gotten close to putting in an offer on one home earlier this year before getting blown out of the water by a cash offer that waived all contingencies. I wasn't sure that we would find a home but we stumbled into a well-kept home built during WWII that is just on the edge of our target area. Our bid was at the upper limit of our budget in the new rate environment but is still manageable even if my company slows down and my bonus is diminished from years past. We offered on the 4th, accepted a counter on the 5th and locked to a 4.25% jumbo on the 6th. Putting 20% down still leaves us with a respectable emergency fund but I won't be able to do as much to to the house upon moving in as I would like but so it goes. I'm on the design site of construction/development and had been really looking to find a hidden gem that we could improve ourselves over time, to our taste, and the house we find ticks all of those boxes. I know the thread has a wide range of opinions on realtors but ours was recommended by a good friend and has been an asset to our search. He wasn't pushy despite the long search, knows the area very well and has referred us to several very good inspectors. While he had a preferred lender - also a referral from my friend - he didn't balk at us going with a local CU when it came time to select a lender. We inspected on Thursday and there are a few issues, but none that should make make us walk away - need to replace some asphalt shingles on the roof, and fix a simple plumbing leak at a copper fitting easily accessible in the crawl space. There's another leak in the kitchen that will require some investigation, some limited dry rot on the eaves and an outlet in the garage that needs to be replaced. We're in the process of getting quotes for the repairs and are going to ask for some closing cost concessions from the seller. Other than that, major systems - HVAC, electrical, water - all appear to be in good condition. The is about 25% larger than our current (small) home, the original hardwood is in fantastic shape, there's more storage and the layout is really great. It has two bathrooms, which was something I had given up on getting in our price range, a giant two car garage and is in a quieter neighborhood with more available street parking. The pending economic contraction makes me nervous. I'm in a long-term senior position at my company and risk of lay-off is low, but buying into what may be the peak of the bubble is a nerve-wracking process. I tend to think that San Diego is going to continue to be hot for the medium term as tech continues to move here from the Bay Area. I think single-digit YOY appreciation could still happen here, but even if it didn't - I'm trying to live in this house, not view it solely as an investment vehicle. As if this whole process wasn't stressful enough, escrow has been an extra weird time for me and my wife. You want to be excited about the new house, but it's not a done deal. Getting out of the existing rental is going to be a huge logistical effort, but you can't really get going on it until things are locked in. It feels very much like limbo. I've been reading this thread continually for over a year and it's been a great resource, so thanks for that. I've already started reading the homeowner DIY megathread and hope I'll be able to contribute some content. This entire experience has been hugely stressful and it feels good to write this down. TLDR Do never buy
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May 9, 2022 03:46
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The fair housing act applies to individual home sales if an agent is involved. Family status is a protected clad. That said, unless you do something dumb and say “I’m only going to sell to someone with/without kids,” or “ I won’t sell to an unwed mother,” within earshot of the losing bidder or their agent, in practice it is not going to apply to you. And it is the agent’s responsibility to advise you of the legal requirements. Don’t discriminate against people, but if you consider that they have kids and give them a break just don’t mention it. What OP did wasn’t lovely unless they were discouraging people from bidding or refusing to sell to someone because of a protected status. And gently caress investors, who were probably the other offer anyway. They aren’t a protected class. You can absolutely say you will only sell to someone who will occupy the home.
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May 9, 2022 04:14
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For the record, I wasn't suggesting anyone did anything *unethical*, I was just surprised to hear so many folks had experiences along those lines. I've never received any personal info about any potential buyers when I've sold homes, and I've never given any when buying.
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May 9, 2022 04:42
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Slugworth posted:For the record, I wasn't suggesting anyone did anything *unethical*, I was just surprised to hear so many folks had experiences along those lines. I've never received any personal info about any potential buyers when I've sold homes, and I've never given any when buying. That's the thing, the offer probably shouldn't contain such details. And you probably shouldn't be researching your potential buyers beyond verifying that it's a real person and not an investment firm. So this treads into the debate over love letters (they're fine so long as they're limited to "Hi I love your house and plan to live there, I'm a real person!") and whether it's okay to be in the house while it's being shown to people (it's fine, but there are other good reasons to leave - you wouldn't want your hideous goon face scaring off buyers)
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May 9, 2022 06:06
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Anza Borrego posted:TLDR Your worries are reasonable and I would say to not let a looming economic contraction scare you off of buying in a desirable area. Don't worry about the on-paper price of your home, all that matters is whether you can afford to continue living there. Moving always sucks, and moving out of a rental and into a house when you can't truly be certain that you'll be able to move in by a certain date sucks even more. Good luck
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May 9, 2022 06:13
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Turns out we got a bit lucky with our bidding situation that won us the house this weekend. There were two houses in the same desirable location. Very similar and same listing price. Both had open houses on Saturday. But for house 1, we got in on Friday and made an offer Friday night. Got word Saturday morning we likely weren't going to get it so we went out and saw House 2 during its open house. That's the one we ended up winning. Our realtor says that other bidders for House 1 made their bids after the open house - so by the time they got word they didn't get it, they couldn't turn around and see House 2 quick enough so we were competing against a more limited field which worked in our favor. Crazy market.
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May 9, 2022 15:48
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QuarkJets posted:You can not discriminate on the basis of familial status, but it's fine if that detail is coincidental, as seems to be the case here. "I'm glad the best offer happened to be a family with kids" is different from "we only considered offers from families with kids", the former being a little dicey to say aloud because it could get you sued by someone with a chapped rear end This scenario just happened with my neighbours who are selling, like basically an identical case.
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May 9, 2022 16:10
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We read the "love letters" when selling our house. We didnt really care who we sold it to so long as they werent flippers or wanted to rent out the place.
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May 9, 2022 16:41
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We got the disclosures for the hell-commute house out in the country. The weirdest part is that there's a loving HOA incorporation document attached, with plenty of lovely HOA-style rules (no livestock except horses, and you have to get permission for those). The place was divided up from a big ranch back in the day and I guess they decided it should be an HOA. However, I searched https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/business and while I can find plenty of other homeowner's associations registered there, including defunct ones, I can't find any indication that the association named in the documents actually ever existed. The house inspection definitely turned up a lot of poo poo. Leaks from one of the shower, mice under the house, dry rot in a couple places, carpenter ants in the siding, "something" had been in the attic, no central heating (just a wood stove and wall heaters in a couple rooms), even more foundation cracks than we'd noticed... and it's honestly not even a well-laid-out house to begin with, so it hardly seems worth putting in the time & money to fix vs. just using it as a place to live until a new house gets built. Guess this is why it hasn't sold yet; I don't think they'd be willing to take what I'd be willing to pay, so at this point I've basically decided not to bother any more.
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May 9, 2022 18:27
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BaseballPCHiker posted:We read the "love letters" when selling our house. We didnt really care who we sold it to so long as they werent flippers or wanted to rent out the place. Same here. We also wrote a "love letter" to get our first house. You guys are saying this is all illegal?
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May 12, 2022 02:20
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Gin_Rummy posted:Same here. We also wrote a "love letter" to get our first house. You guys are saying this is all illegal? No, it is only illegal if you discriminate against a buyer based on “race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, familial status, or national origin.”
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May 12, 2022 02:41
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Gin_Rummy posted:Same here. We also wrote a "love letter" to get our first house. You guys are saying this is all illegal? No, what you did is legal. What is illegal is discriminating against various protected classes when considering offers. Merely reading a letter is not proof of discrimination, and sending one is obviously legal too. Whether or not it's good to send one is a separate matter and comes down to what's actually in it; flippers are not a protected class so emphasizing that you're an actual person who wants to live there is cool and good, whereas "we plan to raise our lily white aryan children here" would be hosed up. Sometimes posters itt will speculate that sellers shouldn't even read love letters out of fear of getting put in jail for accidental housing discrimination, a thing that has never happened.
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May 12, 2022 04:03
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What I said, quite specifically, is that the California governing board of Realtors has told its members not to send or consider love letters, on the grounds that this can easily lead to prohibited discrimination. Like, for instance, picking the couple with White-sounding names.
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May 12, 2022 04:08
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Arsenic Lupin posted:What I said, quite specifically, is that the California governing board of Realtors has told its members not to send or consider love letters, on the grounds that this can easily lead to prohibited discrimination. Like, for instance, picking the couple with White-sounding names. fwiw I wasn't talking about your post, but rather posts that I recall reading months ago
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May 12, 2022 05:43
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skipdogg posted:A new neighbor in my new construction community closed on their house yesterday. Long story short they drained their garden tub in the upstairs master bathroom and found out the plumbing was blocked up with construction debris. I just paid down earnest money on a new construction home that is set to be finished around September. What are some good resources for navigating through the process? I am currently reading through the contract, and I was amused to see that we don't pay it into an escrow account. I will definitely be hiring an inspector to check out the build.
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May 12, 2022 23:36
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 😤
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May 13, 2022 00:10
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Congrats! What did you learn?
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May 13, 2022 00:16
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NOTHING Naw, it filled in how to make an offer and what happens during closing. Also impressed upon me how many goddamn fees and payments are involved. Also how easily I can get hosed raw if I’m not careful. And yes I understand how a mortgage works. That said, I still got a lot of questions: Do I have to open my own escrow account or will the servicer open one for me? Will the funds deposited into that account be lumped into my monthly mortgage payments or are they a separate bill? Should I bother getting hurricane and flood insurance if I’m in New England? When I make an offer, do I subtract the expected costs of repairs, maintenance, and upgrades? (new siding, new doors and windows, upgrading HVAC and electrical, fixing driveway, etc.) Because I could just as easily say gently caress it and put an offer on a place where that stuff is already recently handled. Will the (edit: or at least a good) realtor help me make a reasonable offer? Or will I be expected to do all the math as stated above, even for things outside of what I know I’ll need to address? (fair value, overpriced, location poo poo, etc.) Is it worth it to buy a house at a lower price point and spend the savings on replacements, renovations, and upgrades? Because apparently contractors are really hard to find right now and very expensive when you do. Should I just cut that poo poo and get a place that’s been recently fixed up? Cause I don’t wanna spend too long without addressing utilities and repairs. I’m in a market where people are insane and regularly go 20-30% over asking. Do Never Buy and all that, but is that a red flag for the market? Should I instead just hold off and hope it cools down? One of the houses I saw recently had paneling all over the  finished basement walls. Wouldn’t that mean I’d have to take it all off to check the health of the foundation?—-  Also I’m going to need to pull some funds from my HYSA for the purposes of earnest money cause if it’s supposed to be 1-3% of the listing price that’ll get chunky in Boston. I’ll make sure to get my HYSA documents I guess.
Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 01:02 on May 13, 2022 |
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May 13, 2022 00:39
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Pollyanna posted:Do I have to open my own escrow account or will the servicer open one for me? Will the funds deposited into that account be lumped into my monthly mortgage payments or are they a separate bill? Every mortgage I've had, the servicer opens the escrow account automatically and it's just part of my regular monthly payment. You'll likely see your payment statement broken down into principal, interest, and escrow, but the total "amount due" will be the sum of everything. Pollyanna posted:When I make an offer, do I subtract the expected costs of repairs, maintenance, and upgrades? (new siding, new doors and windows, upgrading HVAC and electrical, fixing driveway, etc.) Because I could just as easily say gently caress it and put an offer on a place where that stuff is already recently handled. Subtract them from what? If you think a place you want to buy needs those things (and I mean needs to be up to standard, not "this is not my taste but it is 100% functional") then yes your offer should reflect the diminished value because of repairs needed. But in this market that is not going to be subtracting the retail cost of those repairs from what the house would be worth if it was fully up to standard. It might not even be subtracting the DIY cost of those repairs from that value. It's definitely not going to be "subtract them from the asking price of the house" because if the seller's realtor is at all sane, they'll have factored that into the listing price... and if they didn't they aren't going to be interested in your offer anyway. Pollyanna posted:Will the (edit: or at least a good) realtor help me make a reasonable offer? Or will I be expected to do all the math as stated above, even for things outside of what I know I’ll need to address? (fair value, overpriced, location poo poo, etc.) A good realtor should be helping you make reasonable offers, solely in the context of "this is / is not a reasonable offer for this house". They aren't going to do the math of figuring out your monthly payment or whether or not that house is actually affordable for you. Pollyanna posted:Is it worth it to buy a house at a lower price point and spend the savings on replacements, renovations, and upgrades? Because apparently contractors are really hard to find right now and very expensive when you do. Should I just cut that poo poo and get a place that’s been recently fixed up? Cause I don’t wanna spend too long without addressing utilities and repairs. That's a million dollar question right there and there's no one answer to it. It really depends on what is needed and what your tolerance is for buying a house you might not be able to move into right away. After all, things like flooring and paint are never easier than when the house is empty, but then they're also things you probably don't have to do to move in. The fact that you mention "utilities" is a red flag here because I can't even imagine considering buying a place that might need major work on the basic water/sewer/electric/gas just to make it livable, unless I was so financially stable that I could afford to swing the new mortgage payment plus whatever I'm paying for housing now until the new place is ready. The massive issue with any sort of fix-up flip is you don't know how well the work was done and it's impossible to judge that accurately with the limited scope of a non-destructive pre-purchase inspection. Maybe they did the work well, maybe they didn't, maybe they thought they did and a shady contractor hosed them and they don't even know it yet because they haven't lived in the house at all.
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May 13, 2022 01:14
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Pollyanna posted:NOTHING as a fellow recent MA buyer here are my opinions: Do I have to open my own escrow account or will the servicer open one for me? Will the funds deposited into that account be lumped into my monthly mortgage payments or are they a separate bill? they will handle all of it and it will be a single payment, typically your home insurance, owner title insurance (get this for sure!!!), town taxes will all be bundled into the payment, you will receive statements breaking all of this down Should I bother getting hurricane and flood insurance if I’m in New England? no to hurricane, yes to flood insurance if you are in a flood risk area - you can check this online and MA has a purpose built page for it - https://www.mass.gov/info-details/flood-assistance-and-insurance-information, also definitely get an oil tank rider on your home insurance if you have oil heat! When I make an offer, do I subtract the expected costs of repairs, maintenance, and upgrades? (new siding, new doors and windows, upgrading HVAC and electrical, fixing driveway, etc.) Because I could just as easily say gently caress it and put an offer on a place where that stuff is already recently handled. generally you do not include that level of detail, there is a standardized form for making offers in MA and you will generally have the high level offer, when it expires, and what contingencies apply, you can also put other things in the offer like what appliances convey, etc. a realtor can help a lot with this and usually is the one doing it, here is an explainer from my real estate lawyer (don't use him, he is informative but his follow up sucks!) https://timshermanlaw.com/buying-a-house/the-massachusetts-offer-to-purchase/ Will the (edit: or at least a good) realtor help me make a reasonable offer? Or will I be expected to do all the math as stated above, even for things outside of what I know I’ll need to address? (fair value, overpriced, location poo poo, etc.) a good realtor will give you comps of houses similar to yours that sold recently, and also give you a general impression on if what you are offering is good or not. they cannot tell you a specific price but they can nudge you up or down, i suggest using $/sqft and using that to set your budget/limit for offers, if you see similar houses going for say $315/sqft, your offer should be somewhere around there as well with realtor insight (they will text each other and nudge for where you are in the pack) Is it worth it to buy a house at a lower price point and spend the savings on replacements, renovations, and upgrades? Because apparently contractors are really hard to find right now and very expensive when you do. Should I just cut that poo poo and get a place that’s been recently fixed up? Cause I don’t wanna spend too long without addressing utilities and repairs. this is a personal decision but we leaned more towards "move in ready" because even basic repairs beyond DIY have been 2-5x what they were in 2019 plus we have long wait times for parts, if you are good at DIY or want to take that on YMMV I’m in a market where people are insane and regularly go 20-30% over asking. Do Never Buy and all that, but is that a red flag for the market? Should I instead just hold off and hope it cools down? we had this same discussion and the fact of the matter is boston is a major port city with a great economy and amazing universities/schools, it will never be "cheap", i suspect that the bubble bursting will look more like less inventory rather then depressed prices. boston salaries are already coming up with inflation so it's likely this is the new normal, just my opinion though. we bought our house for an insane amount of money and it has appreciated 100K in the six months we've lived here and we are already getting people asking to buy it from us. and if i remember right you are in a more desirable area then we are (we are south shore) One of the houses I saw recently had paneling all over the finished basement walls. Wouldn’t that mean I’d have to take it all off to check the health of the foundation?yeah, but a good home inspector can still tell the general health of the foundation by looking in unpaneled places like the utility room, checking the parts of the foundation that are visible outside on the building if any, looking at the grading of the building, etc... there's only so much you can do hope that helps, good luck fellow goon
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May 13, 2022 01:16
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oh some other advice for this stage in general is to use someone local and fast for your mortgage, sometimes being able to get out a quick pre-approval letter is a matter of life and death also shop around for a good real estate lawyer, MA requires a lawyer to handle the transaction even if it's FSBO (don't use my guy above! i had to seriously micromanage him and he made tons of mistakes!!!) you can get recommendations for both from your realtor, generally they want the same thing you do (fast close) so they will know who can do that for you if you don't have a realtor yet i would look for one with good online reputation who has specifically bought and sold houses in your intended area and interview at least three of them. we had an amazing one for the south shore and it really made the difference. realtors are super cliquey and if you get one that is successful they can make a lot of things happen and help you avoid a lot of problems a bad realtor would miss.
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May 13, 2022 01:22
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One year after I set my money on fire and bought a house, my mom is now in the market after getting fed up with rent increases at her apartment complex, as well as wanting to move closer to me. She's started the process of contacting a realtor, and her first pre-approval from one mortgage company came in...much lower than she expected and not enough to buy in this area (southeast PA). The mortgage company wasn't able, for whatever reason that maybe someone could explain, to use her annuity in the calculations for what amount to use for the offer. There's a pretty hefty amount in there, she lives off of the returns from it. So my (initial, cause this'll probably be A Process with her expectations) questions are: 1) Does anyone have experience with a mortgage servicer taking annuities into account? 2) Should she make a big withdrawal into her savings account to show more money to get a higher mortgage amount, despite this going to cause a big tax payment next year? 3) Any other suggestions? I think she expects me to know more than I do since I bought last year, but that was my first time and as the thread said, I was deeply stupid through the whole process.
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May 13, 2022 01:36
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Actually, I did want to talk about this. I am working with a couple REAs. One of them seriously knows her poo poo, she’s got experience flipping houses and schooled me on a lot about hosed up Massachusetts housing things when I went to see a place that needed way too much work to be worth it. I do very much appreciate her help in house hunting, pointing out structural issues and the like that I wouldn’t have caught. I don’t know much about how she is for the rest of the process, but she’s certainly caught me up to speed. Unfortunately I’ve only seen one house with her, which I should really rectify. The other is…????? I kinda don’t know what she brings to the table. At this point, I think I’m noticing more things about houses and digging into more questions and issues than she does, at least during our open house visits. Her company set me up with an automated listings email service though, so because of sheer visibility, I’ve worked with her more. Making this more complicated is that I still don’t really know how to tell if a realtor is quote-unquote good. Obviously knowing your poo poo when it comes to house maintenance is a good example, but I’m not sure what else I need to consider. I think I know the answer, but just to make it official: help goons, what do. I hope my pre-approval letter doesn’t expire before finding a place.
Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 01:45 on May 13, 2022 |
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May 13, 2022 01:38
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Pollyanna posted:Actually, I did want to talk about this. I am working with a couple REAs. One of them seriously knows her poo poo, she’s got experience flipping houses and schooled me on a lot about hosed up Massachusetts housing things when I went to see a place that needed way too much work to be worth it. I do very much appreciate her help in house hunting, pointing out structural issues and the like that I wouldn’t have caught. I don’t know much about how she is for the rest of the process, but she’s certainly caught me up to speed. Unfortunately I’ve only seen one house with her, which I should really rectify. honestly there are so many REAs out there you should dump one the second you feel like you aren't getting A++ service, seriously. we wasted several months with a bad one who was very nice but he really brought nothing to the table, i still wonder where we would have ended up if we hadn't lost that time with that guy.... for the pre-approval letter you should have a contact person at your lender who can spit one out ASAP, we had to adjust ours as we went thru the offer process, and a good lender will get it out to you within an hour or so, extending underwriting isn't such a big deal generally you just send along a new set of statements but whatever you do, do not open any new lines of credit or do anything to mess with your credit until the house is fully closed
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May 13, 2022 01:45
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Pollyanna posted:I think I know the answer, but just to make it official: help goons, what do. Go through your first time home buyer class that was already suggested and stop anxiety posting?
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May 13, 2022 01:52
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gently caress yeah, nice job. My first pre-approval letter expired and I had to get a new one  Regarding pre-approval & offers for a hot market like Boston. Seller realtors can often be poo poo and will do things like - take your higher/best offer from bankrate.com lender, lowkey go back to the highest offer with a regional lender (that almost certainly has some form of relationship/kickback) & see if they'll match. A way to avoid this (assuming all your regional lenders are higher, which is likely in this rates market) is have two lender's you're working with - the lower rate one you can actually afford to use, and a regional lender. Get pre-approved with both. Submit your offer with the regional lender's pre-approval. If accepted, inform your lower rate lender asap and get the actual mortgage with them. At least on the west coast a seller can't reject a signed offer for this reason. Ask your bankrate.com lender to make sure that's also the case in Boston. We're gonna get our houses this summer Polly. I believe in us.
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May 13, 2022 01:54
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^^ Yeah!!!! I’m working with botha regional mortgage broker (not the same thing as a lender) and what turned out to be a national lender, rather than a local/regional (Guild). So despite having pre-approvals I’m still keeping an eye out for local lending options.Motronic posted:Go through your first time home buyer class that was already suggested and stop anxiety posting? don’t have a heart attack dad (  )
Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 01:59 on May 13, 2022 |
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May 13, 2022 01:55
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On the flood and hurricane insurance, I'm of the school of thought that both are a good idea, especially if they're not terribly expensive due to the location of the home. 500 and 1000 year weather events are happening regularly as a byproduct of climate change and the impacts that were forecasted in 2050 and beyond are starting to happen now because some of the models that were used had bad assumptions in them. Not to go all  or anything, and your personal risk appetite might be different than mine, but I think it's worth considering some of those extra policies.
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May 13, 2022 03:13
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I'm looking for a sanity check about a first time home purchase. Basically wondering if this sounds like a good purchase or if we should walk away. Us, the buyers: We are first time buyers in Canada and might be overly cautious or have cold-feet. We have a combined yearly income of 202K, and about 30k of low-interest debt. The house: Priced above the comparables by 10-20%. Listed at 525k, but we offered 529k and said we won't back out due to the condition of the roof, which looked like it had 2-4 years left. It's very well maintained with high-end professional renovations, hence the increased price. In a family-focused decent neighbourhood. 1500sqft. House problems: No permit for the developed basement, but the inspector didn't see any apparent concerns. Roof actually needs to be totally re-shingled immediately for about 10k. AC unit will die in a year or two. Two trees are within 2 feet from the side. Toilets are loose, some fixtures are loose, a skylight might be leaking. We have a 5-year fixed rate of 2.99 if we close soon. I'm feeling like we could maybe find another house for 100k less and be happy, but we lose this interest rate one month from now so it's a little risky. We could likely find a bigger house, but not one so nice inside. This house would be quite good to live in, I think, despite feeling a little bit small and rather expensive. I'm also worried that prices are coming down and the whole market might be correcting - so buying now could potentially be awful timing. Thanks for any input. Tenacious J fucked around with this message at 08:23 on May 13, 2022 |
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May 13, 2022 07:00
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IOwnCalculus posted:Every mortgage I've had, the servicer opens the escrow account automatically and it's just part of my regular monthly payment. You'll likely see your payment statement broken down into principal, interest, and escrow, but the total "amount due" will be the sum of everything. Good, makes it simple. quote:Subtract them from what? If you think a place you want to buy needs those things (and I mean needs to be up to standard, not "this is not my taste but it is 100% functional") then yes your offer should reflect the diminished value because of repairs needed. But in this market that is not going to be subtracting the retail cost of those repairs from what the house would be worth if it was fully up to standard. It might not even be subtracting the DIY cost of those repairs from that value. It's definitely not going to be "subtract them from the asking price of the house" because if the seller's realtor is at all sane, they'll have factored that into the listing price... and if they didn't they aren't going to be interested in your offer anyway. My thought process if it’ll cost me some significant amount of money to make changes to a house vs. a house that’s already got what I want, then the relative final cost of each house is more comparable if I account for work to be done. …buuut I can tell this is another insane misconception of mine. It also probably falls under what’s to my taste vs. what’s needed for livability, so let’s call it that. I won’t gently caress around with the offer price. quote:A good realtor should be helping you make reasonable offers, solely in the context of "this is / is not a reasonable offer for this house". They aren't going to do the math of figuring out your monthly payment or whether or not that house is actually affordable for you. Got it. I’ll start vetting my REAs based on this. quote:That's a million dollar question right there and there's no one answer to it. It really depends on what is needed and what your tolerance is for buying a house you might not be able to move into right away. After all, things like flooring and paint are never easier than when the house is empty, but then they're also things you probably don't have to do to move in. The fact that you mention "utilities" is a red flag here because I can't even imagine considering buying a place that might need major work on the basic water/sewer/electric/gas just to make it livable, unless I was so financially stable that I could afford to swing the new mortgage payment plus whatever I'm paying for housing now until the new place is ready. When I say utilities, I mean things like upgrading from oil heating to tankless electric water and heat pump heating, installing solar panels, replacing cast iron sewage pipes with PVC, or putting in mini-splits. Other things like “the sewage is hosed”, “there’s still knob-and-tube”, “the oil tank is old and degraded”, “this toilet doesn’t flush and the problem is the pipes”, or “the central heating doesn’t have HEPA filters” isn’t utilities so much as outright repair and maintenance. The latter is poo poo that’s got to go, the former is in a holding pattern but should eventually be addressed. quote:The massive issue with any sort of fix-up flip is you don't know how well the work was done and it's impossible to judge that accurately with the limited scope of a non-destructive pre-purchase inspection. Maybe they did the work well, maybe they didn't, maybe they thought they did and a shady contractor hosed them and they don't even know it yet because they haven't lived in the house at all. Ugh, this is a good point. I see why people might want to start from scratch instead of (dis-)trust POs and fix mistakes. Still, that would have been a much better idea pre-COVID than it is now. This is all gonna be a money pit no matter what, so what’s the difference, really. In which case, my responsibility becomes prioritizing the work, scheduling the ideal timing for them, and vetting the contractors I hire. That involves learning, research, and continuing to piss off goons. Hope you like my posts!!!!!!! Mad Wack posted:as a fellow recent MA buyer here are my opinions: Got it. Flood insurance, potentially. Speaking of, what’s your opinion on oil heat/tanks? I know relatively little about it aside from separate oil providers, shopping around, and it being older tech. I only have experience chucking money at Eversource and National Grid. Do you think it’s a high-priority removal+upgrade? quote:Will the (edit: or at least a good) realtor help me make a reasonable offer? Or will I be expected to do all the math as stated above, even for things outside of what I know I’ll need to address? (fair value, overpriced, location poo poo, etc.) I’ve mostly been ignoring $/sqft and focusing on the total price - I wasn’t sure how to use it. I’ll pay more attention, thanks! quote:Is it worth it to buy a house at a lower price point and spend the savings on replacements, renovations, and upgrades? Because apparently contractors are really hard to find right now and very expensive when you do. Should I just cut that poo poo and get a place that’s been recently fixed up? Cause I don’t wanna spend too long without addressing utilities and repairs. I suppose it depends on what “move-in ready” means for each of us. “Enough to be livable” vs. “blinged the gently caress out with modern amenities”. I kinda meant the latter, since I would like my house to eventually have tankless water heating, heat pump heating and cooling, and maybe even solar panels. I’m gonna make an executive decision and just expect those nice-to-haves to come later in my ownership days. Oil, central heating, and wall/window ACs are not going to kill me. quote:I’m in a market where people are insane and regularly go 20-30% over asking. Do Never Buy and all that, but is that a red flag for the market? Should I instead just hold off and hope it cools down? I guess I’m just sad that what I can get has changed so quickly recently, right as I started looking. I am going to keep my expectations reasonable and rely on what others can report to me about this place.  quote:One of the houses I saw recently had paneling all over the Got it. Guess at some point it’s in nature and entropy’s hands, anyway. quote:hope that helps, good luck fellow goon Very very much, thank you!
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May 13, 2022 16:00
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Pollyanna posted:My thought process if it’ll cost me some significant amount of money to make changes to a house vs. a house that’s already got what I want, then the relative final cost of each house is more comparable if I account for work to be done. You should absolutely be factoring in the cost of whatever repairs / upgrades you want on a house in terms of "what will this particular house cost to get it to where I want it" - it's just that at the point of making an offer in this market, "I want a house with tankless/solar/etc" is not any leverage at all. Since I suspect the east coast does not have the desert southwest's obscene rate of construction of new McMansions, you'll have to deal with the fact that most homes on the market haven't had major upgrades to HVAC and plumbing right before they get sold.
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May 13, 2022 16:50
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Honestly, that’s why I have a sizable chunk of money socked away in my HYSA. I expect to need/want to make upgrades and repairs upon buying a house.
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May 13, 2022 17:07
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Offer away. Realtor agrees with me on doing the 24 hour expir's in this weird rear end market, so once again we'll know soon.
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May 13, 2022 18:13
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1st_Panzer_Div. posted:Offer away. Realtor agrees with me on doing the 24 hour expir's in this weird rear end market, so once again we'll know soon. Good luck! Both houses we offered on had "no expirations allowed." But I totally get it. It's the one power the buyer has in this market. Time is so of the essence that you can't afford to miss out on other houses.
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May 13, 2022 18:15
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Whose sitting on offers longer than a weekend at this point?
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May 13, 2022 20:21
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Whose sitting on offers longer than a weekend at this point? Nobody I've seen really, but being able to put in more than 1 offer in a weekend is crucial at this point in some markets. It's literally the only way we got the house we got. Offer in on Friday for house 1. When we realized we weren't getting it, we retracted and put an offer in on house 2 on Saturday and it was accepted on Sunday. It's nuts but every day helps. edit: Also holy poo poo our house just appraised for $10K *over* what we paid. Did not expect that. BonoMan fucked around with this message at 20:48 on May 13, 2022 |
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May 13, 2022 20:26
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