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PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
I have a question not specifically about buying a house, but the home inspection. Is there anything specifically to look out for when choosing a home inspector? Looking at friends of mine who have bought and their inspectors, I've come to the conclusion that really good ones may or may not have professional websites and may have been inspecting homes for just a couple of years or most of their entire life (basically it's a complete crapshoot trying to figure out which ones will be "good"). My realtor has referred one who is available next-day upon finding a place, and they have the required state certification. They're not a member of ASHI, but they are of NACHI, which I hadn't heard of before this. I also contacted them for a sample home inspection report, but they said they don't share those until an inspection has been paid for so their contract verbiage and report structure won't be copied by competitors. That seems off to me.

Is there anything specific I should ask them over a phone interview to further check them out?
Does anyone know if the NACHI is reputable?
Is the withholding of sample reports common practice and a sign of anything? I've noticed that about an equal number of other inspectors in the area do and don't share reports.

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PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
Is there a home mortgage/finance type thread, or is this the one? We're homeowners looking at refinancing but have no idea how it works, what to do, what to watch out for, good practices, etc. and most Google results are ads for companies or brokers trying to sell mortgages.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
Looking to move to San Diego in the next month and have a couple questions on the home buying process with respect to mortgage shopping. My understanding is that we would first look for pre-approval from a lender, bank, or company to start house hunting; this is different from a loan estimate (and may or may not retire a credit pull)? Once we find a place, we can then submit the address to get a more detailed and formal loan estimate from different places, and this is where we would be doing our shopping and comparing rates, correct? Or do we shop around for pre-approval as well?

If that's right, where do most people do their shopping? Just any banks in the local area or the big online mortgage companies? For our last house we went with the lender our realtor works with, and also called rocket mortgage; rocket want even close to the local lender (and continued to call us now stop for months after), and in hindsight our rate from the lender wasn't bad but not nearly as good as whatever the going rate was at the time. We admittedly didn't do a lot of shopping and just rolled with the realtor recommendation when rocket turned out so bad, so we'd like to do it right this time.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
I'm shopping around for mortgages to see what options are out there, but a lot of companies are wanting to do credit pulls before giving many details on what they could offer. Is this to be expected? How much fidelity can I expect on that initial estimate? One company did give me some comparison scenarios with different interest rates and money owed at closing, another said we could probably expect at least below a certain interest rate and gave me a pre-approval letter but no other numbers, and we are going to walk in and talk to a bank once we get into town. Do I get a detailed breakdown after providing an address and making an offer? Or are companies limited on how much they can say without knowing the exact property/because things might change over the next 15 to 30 days and they don't want to promise any numbers? Or are we rate shopping a little too early in the process (we don't start house hunting until the 10th of Sept).

Edit: doing some online research it looks like we want to either be on contract or have an offer put in before we start deep diving into the rate shopping?

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Aug 31, 2020

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Andy Dufresne posted:

In a normal market you would (1) Find the house, (2) Contact a lender, do the credit check and get pre-approved, (3) submit your offer with the letter. In today's market you probably want a pre-approval letter in hand before you go shopping so I would find a reputable bank and get their letter on September 9th. Don't feel obligated to go with that lender though. Once a seller has accepted your offer that's when you get loan estimates from every lender and have them compete on price.

The critical timing is making sure that your offer doesn't promise a closing date that doesn't allow you to shop around. You'll need a day or two to compare lenders and lock in a rate, and if you've only given yourself 3 weeks to close you may only be able to close with the one lender you've already engaged.
thanks, That makes sense! You probably saved me another 4 or 5 premature credit checks as we try to figure this out.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
We just put in an offer on a house built in 1972. House is in great shape and was recently remodeled (though I'm still trying to get the exact scope and time of the remodel), but I understand the age does mean the possibility of asbestos and lead based paint exists. Should I also be hiring someone to test for all that, and how concerned should we be with drilling into walls for mounting? I'm also assuming I should check for lead plumbing piping as well?

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Cormack posted:

If you're curious about asbestos you can do mail in tests for something like $100 a pop. Given an age of 1972, in addition to the things tater mentioned I would be very concerned about any acoustic/popcorn ceiling, as well as drywall (for the joint compound or any fire rated stuff that might be in there.) What kind of exterior is on the house?

vv Thanks! Last I checked labs were open to the public but I hadn't realized it's become a fully consumerized thing. Neat!

Popcorn ceiling was removed, and it looks like flooring has been replaced and walls painted over. Based on that, assuming no lead plumbing my biggest concern would be drilling holes in the drywall to hang stuff. I've asked for what all had been renovated to get an idea. I think hvac system was installed after construction so hopefully no difference issues either.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
Is it unusual to do loan estimates and rate shopping after putting in an offer on a house? Or do most people just roll with their pre-approval lender? Our last realtor kept pushing for 14 to 21 day closings on our offers, by that doesn't leave a lot of leeway to actually shop and close on time. It might be necessary in a hot market to keep your offer competitive?

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
Is there a general building company 'tier list' or way to find reviews? Wife is interested in looking at new construction here, but I don't see much in the way of reviews; either great generic articles that read like they're from the company, or only 5 or 6 reviews of the builder on Yelp which isn't necessarily enough to go on. I figure it may be region dependent, but was hoping at least to find out if there were any major ones that should be avoided nationally for sure. For what it's worth, the ones he she's looking at is Quadrant homes.

Edit: I don't entirely trust most national builders who build as many houses as quickly as they say they do here; all I able to hire my own inspector during construction at major milestones, or can builders restrict that in some way?

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Oct 30, 2020

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

skipdogg posted:

Do always hire a 3rd party inspector when building new construction. Literally no one gives a poo poo about you in the entire process except on how they're going to make money off of you. I was so far up my construction managers rear end on my last house it wasn't funny.

There's no good way to find reviews on builders. Things are very regional, a builder could have 2 different quality of houses due to the subcontractors or even the construction manager working on them. 2 neighboorhoods from the same national builder could be much different. Any house is only as good as the sub contractors that built it. My first home was a entry level Centex and it was great. I've seen 500K homes in my current area slapped together by the cheapest sub contractors with uneven floors and wavy walls.

The best advice I can offer is find a neighborhood they built in the last 5 years or so and ask the people that live there about their homes. It'll give you an idea how they handle warranty work, general quality of the home, etc.

Thanks for this! I'll start looking for some third party inspectors in case we go this route. I might be able to join into the 'nextdoor' community and get some info that way, too.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
Anyone have any experience with receivership sales that can tell me why they're a bad idea? A home we were looking at turned out to be a receivership home, and I'm told there could be an opportunity for a good deal, but I don't trust that it's not going to be a giant headache or going to throw us under a bus in some way. House is in good shape and realtor says we're probably looking at a lot of red tape and potentially very long closing time, but if which wouldn't hurt us at all.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Motronic posted:

I'm just gonna mention the very first thing: they are sold as in where is and you can't even get title insurance. So you may end up "buying" something in foreclosure and then find out later that a bunch of people have valid claims on the title that hadn't been filed yet.

H110Hawk posted:

It's definitely jurisdiction dependent as there are issues Mr tronic alluded to above. You should be getting a decent discount for that risk, and unlike bog standard detached single family homes with no hoa you definitely need to engage a lawyer to explain that risk to you. Real estate lawyer is who you need.


Good enough for me, much appreciated!

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

H110Hawk posted:

I don't mean to totally turn you off from it, if it's already empty and otherwise in good repair (scope the sewer) you might find out that it's easy to wash those claims against your title through whatever bankruptcy proceedings and newspaper postings your county has.

You might find that you may never know and that roof looks awfully new and oh god.

To be honest I don't love the place enough to take on any extra risk and would prefer to just have a 'simple' streamlined closing and move; it sounds like it was my dream home or an incredible steal it might be worth the effort but you pointed out some things I didn't even think of that made me a little more confident about moving on post this one.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Residency Evil posted:

We did a meeting with a Redfin agent as we prepare to move to Denver. It seems like things are different in that it sounds like agents are salaried, which is definitely nice in some ways, but from what he said, we'd potentially be looking at working with 3 different "groups" of agents if we buy through them:
1. Him, who would work with us to negotiate price/contracts/etc
2. Agents that might show us houses, which could vary depending on time/date/location.
3. A separate agent after our offer was accepted to work on closing

We're flying in to Denver this week and we're planning on going to see a house we're interested in that has been sitting on the market for a long time (wondering what the red flags are), but I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts on whether it might make more sense for us to work with a traditional agent since we're remote buyers. In some ways, with everything going on, less face to face might be better, but I think I'm going to have a tough time buying anything without at least seeing it face to face. We're definitely fine holding off on buying for a bit if needed/renting, but my wife knows Denver pretty well from living there before and we have a good idea of where we're looking.

Separately, any suggestions on how to handle selling a house/buying a house across the country? We're planning on moving at some point in June, and thinking about timing my job, my wife's job, new jobs, selling house, buying house, getting movers, shipping cars, etc seems like it's going to get annoying.

It looks like homes are on the market in our area a median of 38 days. If we're targeting June to move, when should we be putting it on the market/trying to sell it?

Having just sold a house in Denver (technically Aurora) and trying to buy in San Diego/Seattle within the last 4 months I will say that the Denver is not nearly as competitive as it seems to be advertised online. Admittedly, we were not downtown, but houses stay on the market for a good amount of time and don't really go for much over asking that other parts of the country do.

Depending on how well your wife knows Denver and it's surrounding communities, you may be fine without a traditional agent's knowledge of the areas to help guide you (we weren't and ended up in Aurora because of our realtor and it was a great decision in hindsight), but I think you really need to be looking at interviewing agents to find the ones that can best facilitate remote house hunting. I'm not saying a redfin agent can't necessarily be capable of this, but in my experience they're usually not as experienced or trained and I wouldn't count on then to be as flexible and accommodating as you need. When interviewing agents to sell our house there were a ton of agents who had specifically adjusted and tailored their services to the COVID/'new' technology/remote viewing world and you definitely want one of them to make remote hunting not be completely miserable. If you find the right one there's no reason you need three different agents instead of just one.

I wasn't excited about remote hunting (but can't travel for reasons) but we found an agent that does it and it's actually super simple and easier than in person since I don't have to drive anywhere; it's basically through Zoom/Facebook messenger/etc and then we can either fly out to look at a place when we are ready to offer or for the inspection after an accepted offer. This only works if you absolutely trust your agent and they are incredible responsive and flexible to your constant texts and requests to look at houses, take measurements and pictures, etc, which is why I would not go with generic assigned redfin agent. A good traditional agent should be able to answer your questions on timing as well.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Feb 14, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Pilfered Pallbearers posted:

This is a question I have too. My agent seems intent on offering only what she thinks the max appraisal value is (we would never pay the difference between appraised value and offer anyway). We did lose a place over it, and we're likely to put another offer in this weekend in that same situation.

Depends on the market entirely. Where we sold in CO offers at asking or comps was very common and when we bought there our agent recommended offers on line with that. In Seattle and San Diego every house has gone 30k to 110k over asking, and our agent asked us to be prepared to also do so for at least 15k over depending on the house (we did not for the first five houses and quickly adjusted after...). You will get a feel very quickly on if over asking offers are going to be expected, though your agent should have informed you of this already.

Edit: more accurately I should say offers over appraisal value, not over asking. Many listings here are listed at or slightly below expected appraisal to get 100 offers and end up selling way over appraisal anyways.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Feb 20, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Pilfered Pallbearers posted:

So what, are these people just paying cash for the difference between appraisal and asking?

In my market (NYC) most places do not seem to be going above appraisal, but also if everything in a market is going above appraisal why wouldn’t banks be appraising higher to meet current market demand?

Basically yes (in one way or another), or the appraisal just doesn't matter. A number of winning offers have been all cash, and a number of other ones have waived their appraisal contingency entirely. We are using the VA and have been asked in counteroffers (or put in our original offer on a competitive house) to agree to pay the difference (or a certain amount) between appraisal and offer price. I can't speak to how it works with a conventional loan, but I have to assume it's just the buyer's putting up the cash difference.

Edit: based on appraisal reports we have had as part of the lending process, they are adjusting since they're primarily based on comparable properties sold within the last 2(?) Years, but demand is increasing price faster than the adjustment; average sale price in some of the zip codes has jumped more than 10 percent last year, so comps from sales one year ago are far below what people are willing to pay right now. Appraisal should be closer IF there are enough comparable houses in close proximity that have sold very recently, otherwise homes from even 6 months ago are far below what people are offering right now. Again, the are two of the hottest markets in the US right now so it may not apply to where you are looking and you're not crazy for not wanting to go in over estimated appraised value, but I wanted to highlight that above appraisal offers could be the 'norm' depending on your local market and it's not completely unheard of.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Feb 20, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
Understanding most people here are not lawyers and not making any major decisions based only on forum legal advice: what is the general consensus onoffers on multiple houses? Market here is hot and most places review the same day of the week, meaning 10 rejected offers is 10 weeks of househunting so far. I've been told by other people that it's almost a necessity here, but I'm not sure about the risk of potentially getting two 'accepted' offers, even with contingencies on place. Agent is not recommending it but it looks like it isn't necessarily illegal, though unethical. Unfortunately we're working in a market where 899k homes are selling for 1.05M in cash and sellers are asking (and getting) offers with 90 day rent backs to go buy another house first and we're trying to optimize our time, but also not put ourselves in a bad situation or waste seller time.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Inner Light posted:

How do you already know what the winning / top bids were? All the listing agents I've dealt with have been tight lipped until closing, in case the deal falls through. I'm in the running for a condo that fell through right now.

It depends on the listing agent; some wouldn't tell us anything, and a couple did end up telling our agent the accepted offer. Most others didn't get that specific but would tell us top offers received before reviewing if they just a good working relationship with us. I initially figured they could be playing is to try and get more money but after seeing the sales price on redfin later most we're pretty honest about it.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Residency Evil posted:

I've never sold a house before. We're not moving until June, so selling now would involve renting for at least, say, 3 months, plus missing out on the main spring selling season here. Add on renting, storage, etc.

Is it wrong to hold out for a "good" offer rather than an "appropriate" one if it's going to be a hassle?

If the market is that hot and buyers that desperate(they are here) you can probably get a rent back or late closing in a counteroffer easily; probably 50 percent of the homes we offered on asked for that to either secure other living arrangements or to straight up buy another house first and all either got it or were offered more money to get an accepted offer without it. You mileage may vary, and it may affect the max dollars you might get, but a lot of people just want to be done house hunting and want a date they can schedule around, even if it's a month or two away.

Edit: also holding out for a good/better offer is definitely not 'wrong,' especially if it's a matter of you not being ready to move in a sellers market, but that's going to be up to you and if you want more money or personal convenience. I can tell you we did accept an offer to move early and between covid and finding other housing it's been non stop stress but we didn't make a ton of money on our sale either.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Feb 26, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
So it's looks like mortgage rates are in the rise, but still below where they were last year(by a fair amount), how big an impact is this on mortgage payments, and might this slow down the housing rush? When looking three months ago we had a 2.25 rate available to us, but now have a 2.8 percent rate which seems like a huge jump and we're told it will probably continue to slowly rise. I guess the real question is whether that rate, while higher than earlier, is still favorable in the grand scheme of things, or or it's worth waiting to try and get a better rate but keep fighting rising housing costs. I've been told that's still a really low rate compared to past years (in the context of 10 years for example) and (while no one ever knows for sure) rates are projected to lkely to go up rather than down; these are from lenders competing for my business though, so I'm cautious about everything they say. A fraction of a percent rate doesn't make or break our budget, but we just want a good deal where possible.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
Got an accepted offer on a house and in the course of the lending process (getting a home insurance quote) found out it sits in a high fire severity risk zone (in California) so our usual home insurance company (as well as many other ones online) will not insure it. Our options as I understand it are to find a private home insurance policy, or apply and try for a CA FAIR policy and then an additional wraparound policy for the non-fire comprehensive coverage. Anyone smart on how I would even start looking for private insurers? online google results in a ton of companies that go through the entire "get a quote, enter your personal info and address" process before kicking back to "not eligible for coverage."

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Residency Evil posted:

drat, 30 year? Par, no points? That’s a good deal.

I think that is a really good deal with no points. Not knowing what the future trend is going to be, mortgage rates the last two weeks have exploded (relative to the last couple months); we had a 2.25 with no points in Jan, but could only lock in 2.875 on Friday with no points.


Edit: quoted wrong post, but get that in an ILE with a lock that you can sign. We had one lender send us their ILE with a 2.25 rate but with no lock (I'm assuming to get us to pick them).

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Mar 2, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Verman posted:

Yep Seattle-ish. We can't afford in the city anymore unless we go south so we are trying for Edmonds as we really like the area. But unless something changes in the market or we get a windfall of money by chance, we might be priced out there as well. I feel like we missed our home buying window by a year.

My wife and I were really focused on paying down my student loans the last two years and thought once those got paid off we could afford a home. I wish we had just talked to a lender before then to get into something before the market got away from us.

We just gave up after 5 months of househunting in Seattle; moved here after giving up on San Diego assuming it would be cheaper here because I'm dumb and didn't do my research to find out it's 10 percent more expensive. Slowly moved further and further north to Lynnwood/Edmonds/Bothell and still couldn't get accepted with 80k over asking and we finally had to quit because the prices are rising so fast in a short amount of time. It's sad because it feels like bad luck because homes were doable at almost 100k cheaper just one year ago. We started to look south but be warned that Tacoma is now the hottest market in the nation. If you are interested still, we found that homes in Everett were way more(comparably) affordable and within 30 min of Seattle, but passed because of schools for our kid.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Mar 3, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Inner Light posted:

What is the point of putting in an offer for over asking as a first bid in some markets? If you put in a bid for say, 1% below list, can't they counter or come back for final/best if they receive multiple offers?

Or are you banking on them possibly taking the biggest offer without wasting time on final/best? Which has happened to me!

A number of places we offered on had so many offers they didn't want to counter each and every so they ultimately asked (either on initial submittal or to everyone after a couple of days) to just submit your best offer so everyone could be done with it.

El Mero Mero posted:

This element of the current housing market is what confuses me the most. I can only imagine how much additional money sellers are leaving on the table by allowing their realtors to prevent multiple offer rounds.

Realtors love it, of course, because they get their volume. But I don't understand how sellers are looking at the market and going "yeah, i guess that 20% over asking is all I could get, better not ask these other 20 bids if they can do better"

I agree with this, and our realtor thought the seller's agent was doing them a disservice by not keeping the bidding going, but from what I saw in a couple cases:

1) Some sellers really did not want a lot of people walking through their house, especially with COVID; these houses were non-stop 15 minute showings for days at a time.

2) Some were already house-hunting and wanted to close quick to be able to beat housing price increases where they were looking while mortgages were still rock bottom.

3) Some buyers are also trying their best to get a place and if they don't feel seller is receptive to their offer they would assume they aren't competitive enough and cancel their offer to put it on another place they saw the next day instead. If someone's wiling to put $200K over appraisal in cash, I guess I would live with no regrets taking that offer (we sold for $10K under asking before the market blew up :doh:)

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Mar 4, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Bucnasti posted:

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.

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

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Hadlock posted:

What decade was your condo building built in? Roof and elevators are big ticket items, also maybe seismic retrofit for Seattle

Look at HOA reserves, should be > 50% of X, look at HOA meeting minutes, look at % of rental units in the building, and if there's a max % limit on rentals, that could limit your ability to turn it into a rental when/if you get married and have kids etc

If your building has parking, see if the HOA owns the garage, if they don't you'll have trouble installing an electric car charger down the road

Check zoning to see if the lot across the street is zoned for tall buildings and might block your sunlight. They're building a 200+ foot condo building to the west of my building (across the street, 80 get away) which is going to block the sunset views for those people, even on the top floors and their property values went down by 25%/sq ft, which is making it hard to refinance because they're the obvious comps

Check and make sure your unit isn't plumbed with PEX, if it is, invest heavily in insurance when you flood your downstairs neighbor's house

From what I know, PEX should be fine (and is preferable to some people) unless it's like 50+ years old. There are better and worse types of it, but as long as it isn't exposed to uv it wouldn't be a major worry. Do check for polybutylene plastic plumbing and then immediate replace all of it, though.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Mar 11, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Throatwarbler posted:

You guys who have just gone under contract/etc recently, how do you stop yourself from obsessively checking new listings and thinking about how those new listings are better/cheaper than what you just bought?

I still check in case something happens before closing, but everything has only gotten more expensive so no worries there. The hard part is actually looking at the houses we missed a month ago closing with sales prices $60k less than the 'norm' today.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

amethystbliss posted:

Can someone reassure me that my timeline is okay?

We asked our realtor for references for lenders. Contacted all 3. Ruled out first guy because he was a sexist rear end in a top hat. Got preapproval letter from second lender and he seemed decent enough. At that point, didn't bother going forward with anyone else since we had letter in hand. We saw a house last weekend and put in an offer. It was accepted on Sunday 3/7 and we're now under contract. This week we arranged inspections and asked lender for a loan estimate form. He's being cagey about it. Talked to the third lender, and they seem annoyed/surprised that we're shopping around. They pulled a credit check but didn't otherwise really seem to care about getting our business. Realtor is also acting surprised that we haven't picked lender, saying time is of the essence. Closing date is 4/29. Do I need to have a lender selected yesterday, or is now the appropriate time to be shopping around? Inspections are on Monday.



Most big lending companies target 21 days, and strong local lenders can do 14 if needed. Any lender taking 6 weeks (barring any unusual circumstances) is probably not one I would not work with. You have plenty of time to close, but verify you're not going to run into any risks with contingencies: some offers have a certain number of days for you to initiate the loan application process with a lender to keep the loan contingency in place, and if you have a quick appraisal contingency timeline you may need to find a lender sooner to get the appraisal ordered to be complete in time. Barring any issues with contingency timelines (which your agent should have warned you about by now), meeting the closing date of April 20 should not be a problem if you're comparing lenders over the next couple of days (or more). I personally would expedite it just because mortgage rates are still increasing and you can see some pretty large jumps in even just a week.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Mar 13, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Inner Light posted:

This floor poo poo actually has me very uneasy. Is it typical to hide cosmetic damage to this degree, covering it with a rug and not disclosing it? Even if you're not legally obligated it seems sneaky and rude.

I'm asking my agent if I should bring in a flooring contractor to verify it can be fixed by resurfacing, instead of having to completely replace all the wood.

My concern is partly because if I go to sell in the future, other buyers are just going to say the same thing, possibly making this condo harder to sell. That is not OK with me :-/

At the same time I don't want the sellers to just say "well screw this guy" and cancel the deal as soon as I ask to bring in a flooring person. Let me know if I'm being anxious and/or dumb!



Sellers can't really cancel on you so do what you want to feel comfortable. Depending on the market you may be able to get credit for it, or the sellers may tell you no and the deal just moves forward as normal. We got a bunch of contractor quotes for work needed on a house we're closing on and asked to reduce the sales price for amount; sellers said no but offered partial credit and and we have peace of mind that we at least know exactly what we're getting into.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Mar 13, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Dross posted:

Lost out on another one due solely to appraisal contingency. I don’t think I can compete in this market.

Try offering to pay $X over appraisa in your initial offer l if it comes in low; we wanted to stay with VA for the rates so we couldn't waive appraisal, but put that in our offer to get accepted a couple times. It doesn't take a lot (though this is relative to how much money you have to put down), and opened up a lot of doors for us.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

ntan1 posted:

This is what's happening.

As much as I hated escalator clauses in Seattle, after going without and losing one after another offer in San Diego by $1k I realized how convenient they were. We were finally told to just start offering above at random odd increments like $6.1k or $7.3k instead of just $5k to get that extra bit over other offers which seemed like a pretty dumb thing to have to do.

Edit:

amethystbliss posted:

We plan to refinish all hardwood floors since we hate the orangey tone of the red oak hardwood and paint everything a bright white (thinking Chantilly Lace) prior to move in. It will cost a small fortune but it makes sense to get it done before we move in. We can always add in color with textiles, furniture and artwork.

We figured out a way to reorganize our finances to avoid jumbo loan and stick conventional. Just locked today at 2.865% with no points and a $2,000 credit to cover lender fees and appraisal. Sent it to the guy we'd been working with up until now and a few other lenders, and they basically told us there's no way they can match it.

Inspection was completed today and it sounds like it wasn't terrible. Inspector said the house is overall "in very good shape" but that there are some items to be addressed. We'll find out more once we sit down with the report later this week. Now onto well and septic. The owner is also trying to sell us her rusted old pickup truck which is awkward.

Out of curiosity who is giving you this rate? We got 2.875 with a VA loan and lender covering points to get down there and I couldn't get anyone else to beat that. Do rates change based on state of size of loan maybe?

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Mar 16, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

amethystbliss posted:

Is it normal to pay the appraisal fee through lender before you've even seen the home inspection reports? This Sebonic lender is being REALLY loving PUSHY. Our closing date is 4/29. We locked in the rate on Monday.

Husband's email: "Thanks for all your help. Inspections are happening this week and early next week - I'd like to wait to pay the appraisal fee until after we receive the reports. We expect to have the reports shortly thereafter. Any issues with this? Cheers."

Lender's response: "Yes serious issues. You are talking about delaying the loan and up to a full week? You would be forcing me to work with a severe handicap to make the closing date on time. I have been down this road many times. The realtors will begin calling and threatening that they will pull the plug, what is wrong with my company why are we not closing on time, what is wrong with me, etc etc . I would really like to avoid that stress if at all possible. Honestly I refuse to work under that pressure. The loan will just sit without the appraisal being paid. I am sorry I can not continue to work on this loan if you are going to wait for a week to pay the appraisal. I understand your position but you have to understand mine. This is your first purchase and this is not mine . I know what is going to happen. So please LMK what you would like to do. "
Not uncommon and we have had a couple loans do that as part of their standardized process. Those lenders also either covered the appraisal on their own or just had it paid in closing costs. That being said, waiting a week for appraisal should not be nearly as big a risk as that lender is indicating in email and tone. If it does with your closing date that far out I would have real cncerns about their ability to close on time.

Edit: Should also clarify we were on an expedited closing timeline to make our offer competitive so that may not be the norm. Either way, I don't trust the response from the lender to your question.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Mar 17, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

vs Dinosaurs posted:

Talking to two real estate agents on Friday. My focus will be, “How much legwork are you really willing to do given that I live in a different state?”

If anyone has suggestions on things to ask for given this specific scenario then I am all ears. The biggest things I can think of are video calling me in for walk throughs and for being physically present during inspections.

Not a specific question but you will want a feel for how flexible they can be to accommodate you. It's a lot of work but you really do want someone who is reachable any time or day and can move at a pace for same or next day showings. Video is a must for house tours, but also inspection outbriefs, and you'll want them to be able to go back to a house with a tape measure to grab measurements as you start to have questions, or take specific pictures when a house is in a bad cell zone and you can't see the video feed. You want to be able to reach them at any time and get a response back quick, even if just 'got your text, I'll call you back after xxx.' There's not really unique tech one may have over the other, so let them know how needy you're going to be and see if they push back or act a little wary; I am not comfortable househunting remotely and I let our agent know I didn't believe in it because of everything I like to do and how nitpicky I am and she was quick to say how that want going to be a problem and she was going to make this easy for us, and it's probably been easier than hunting in person because I don't have to actually drive anywhere.

Edit: one more thing we do: you miss out on not being there in person is being able to get a feel for the area. Our agent sucks her phone on her car dashboard and gives little neighborhood or major arterie tours for the houses. Probably more important if you have a family of are looking for nightlife, food and shopping, etc.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Mar 18, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

amethystbliss posted:

...We obviously can't fly out for every home tour but now that poo poo is getting real and we're under contract and inspections have been completed, I'm flying out to see it in person to make a final decision. Maybe it's a bit backwards, but we have 3 kids and 2 dogs and there's not really a good way to do this in a pandemic.

This is super important so definitely do this! We only skipped this because I didn't want to fly into a COVID hot spot on chemo but not seeing the house at all is not a leap of faith I would recommend.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
A ton of houses we looked at had people who had no plans for moving out yet and were looking for rent backs to give time to find a new place they could buy with their home sale. Most rent backs were offered free as a way to sweeten your offer, but we were hesitant to do that because we weren't sure on the specifics on when a "rent back" becomes a "lease" and didn't want to risk a seller who decided not to move for whatever reason and could claim some COVID moritorium protections. Apparently this isn't a realistic scenario but short of hiring a real estate lawyer no one could tell us for sure.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Mar 20, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
Can you actually shop around for title services and fees, and if so, when as part of the process? We are past that stage and just got our closing disclosure and are a bit too late to do anything about this (I think) so this is more for the benefit of everyone else and my own knowledge, but I'm reviewing the title fees and there are a ton that I almost feel personally insulted by (though they may be normal). What drew my attention to them, though, is that they were listed under the box that says "services you shopped for," and we definitely did not shop around for them. I'm assuming they are a company that normally does business with my realtor or lender, but I'm trying to figure out what we could have done or if we'd be screwed with no matter which title company we go with.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009
Saw this story on my feed come up today about sellers not leaving a house after the topic came up in this thread. It doesn't drive into details so I still don't know why the sellers would be protected as they are not tenants, but also not sure why you wouldn't see the sellers still living in the house on the final walkthrough and refuse refuse to close until they are gone.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Mar 20, 2021

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

Motronic posted:

And the title insurance "you" have to buy isn't for YOU, it's for your lender unless you do this.

As H110 said, cue people saying how it's not necessary, situation will never come up, they won't pay out if it does.........
Our southern California closing has the sellers paying the owners title insurance and us paying the lenders title insurance, but in not sure if that is the normal setup though. Sellers had a couple liens on her and her husband so that's may be why they were told to do it.

PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

H110Hawk posted:

Read that title report closely. Ask appropriate questions. Mechnics liens will survive your closing. You cannot close with a clouded title. (Well, you can as long as the ltv doesn't exceed your part of the equity... See where I'm going here?) That type of lien is what say a general contractor puts on your title to guarantee payment for work. If there is concern you should engage a real estate attorney to double check the work.

I looked and there was one renovation contractor lien that the seller took care of already. I also see notices for the mortgage and a home equity loan which will be paid off with the sale. The odd ones out were some federal taxes owed by the seller that I assume will be paid off in the sale, and a court judgement for payment by the seller's ex husband, who is no longer an owner as of years ago, but it popped up on the title pull as an associate of the seller? I asked the title company to tell me how that is resolved and if there's any risk there.

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PageMaster
Nov 4, 2009

BigPaddy posted:

I really need to get into the appraisal business. Turn up, look at a house, look at the loan docs and appraise it at the value the loan is for and collect my $500. Do 3-4 of those a day and head home.

I am sure it is not a cliquey, spend $100k in licenses and start up costs to get into as an attempt to keep the number of licensed appraisers down and keep prices up right?

As we just found out, if a VA appraiser finds items needing to be corrected like some peeling paint inside or weathered wood on the deck, and makes loan reliant upon correction, we were charged 1500 for the reinspection cost. I know VA is a little more regulated with standardized fees, so I don't know if it's the appraiser or the lender doing anything shady, but I don't understand how the reinspection is twice the cost of the original appraisal.

PageMaster fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Mar 24, 2021

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