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Strict 9 posted:Does anyone know if banks are strict about using loaned money to pay for the downpayment? I know this used to be impossible, and thought it changed in the late 90's (and probably led to a lot of the problems with the housing crisis). They will look at your statements for any large deposits in the last 60 days. If you have any, you will have to explain them, and possibly have the donor sign a form that is basically an affadavit stating "This is a gift/payment and does not need to be paid back." I had to do this as part of my mortgage application, and it was pretty quick and painless - parents gave me a cash gift to use towards the down payment, I faxed the form to Mom, she signed and faxed it to the bank and all was well. It may be more difficult if the "gift" is coming from a home equity line, as they did require information about the account it came from. At least, Bank of America needed that info, YMMV.
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May 7, 2009 19:56
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FidgetyRat posted:I'm at that point in our building schedule when I need to seriously sit down and find homeowners insurance. Any advise on what to look for? I absolutely loathe insurance companies and can get lost in paperwork (that I understand little of) for hours. The information I have received from the agents while shopping for homeowners insurance is that the credit pull is not a "hard" pull and shouldn't affect my score. Even if it was a hard pull, I assume it would be like applying for a mortgage, where multiple pulls for the same purpose over a reasonable period of time do not have more of an effect on your score than a single inquiry. With that said, I'm interested in learning a bit more about the HO insurance process too (And am also in NJ), since I'm still in the process of deciding between a few different quotes I've received - leaning towards one that offers more coverage than most of the rest at a substantially cheaper price, but curious if there are any potential pitfalls or catches I should be aware of.
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May 19, 2009 19:46
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gvibes posted:Anybody have any experience with mortgages over the GSE limits? Say I want to buy a 700k home, and the limit is 417k. Assume 20% down Can you get a cheap 417k mortgage and a more expensive 143k HELOC on top of that? Or would I need a 560k jumbo? We're in the process for shopping for a house in jumbo territory, and according to the 5 or 6 banks/brokers we've spoken with, the jumbo market has pretty much entirely dried up in our area. They're all recommending we go with a 417k conventional + the remainder in either a HELOC (10 yr interest only draw period/20 yr repayment) or a home equity loan (10 year loan, 30 year amortization), even though the amount we're looking for is just barely into jumbo territory and we have a sizable down payment. The interest rate difference is pretty low between the two options (4% variable for the HELOC/5.5% fixed for the equity loan, and we haven't even really started shopping around), so we're leaning towards the fixed equity loan option since I think there's a decent chance rates recover more than 1.5% in the next couple of years as the economy recovers. The balloon payment on the equity loan isn't a major concern since we should have it paid off way before the 10 year term is up, and it's a relatively small amount compared to the conventional loan we'll be locking in at 3.25%.
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Dec 31, 2012 04:11
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lord1234 posted:Interesting. Having a parent who is a realtor, I can tell you the avg commission for agents is between 2 and 2.5%(per agent). Thus we need to find 2-2.5% to pay the agent. In addition to the fact that you have to pay the commission to both the buyer's and seller's agents as a few have mentioned, you also need to account for any repairs that may need to be done before occupancy (we had about $160 in repairs the township inspector required for the certificate of occupancy when we sold despite the fact that the condo was only a couple of years old), any attorneys fees, realty transfer taxes (varies by state), and possible withholding for state income taxes. For example, New Jersey requires a mandatory 2% withholding if the seller is a non-resident at the time of closing, and you won't see that money again until you file a tax return the next year. All in all, the 10% number being thrown around for seller's costs at closing is entirely reasonable and definitely something for which you need to plan.
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Jan 10, 2013 18:01
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kmcormick9 posted:My wife and I are in the market to buy in an area that hasnt been hit very hard by the housing crash. We have been preapproved for the amount we know we can afford and have been touring with a realtor. Looking for some advice here on several subjects. Here are some general thoughts on working with a builder, based on our recent decision to build new and our negotiation with the builder: Builders are much less likely to negotiate on the final purchase price of the house than private sellers. This is because the final purchase price becomes a part of public records and drives the comparable prices for every other house they sell in the neighborhood (this is how Zillow knows what every house in your neighborhood sold for and when it was last sold). If they lower the price for you, essentially they have to lower the price for everyone, since otherwise it will gently caress with the appraisals of the other houses in the neighborhood. However, you SHOULD press hard for upgrade concessions and closing cost credits. I would suggest handling this by identifying the base level of options you want from the house, and asking that the builder throw in those upgrades as a concession, along with a credit to apply towards additional upgrades. If cash for a down payment is tight, you can also ask for closing cost concessions, but most of the time the maximum available via closing cost concessions is reduced by either state law or by the mortgage lender (in order to prevent the builder from essentially giving you a kickback, thus screwing up your loan-to-value calculations). Also, many builders run their own financing companies, so you may be able to negotiate an interest rate buydown or promotional rate. We were able to negotiate roughly $20k in concessions (in the form of a design center allowance and a few options we asked them to throw in) from our builder on a $~500k contract price, but this is very much variable based on your negotiation skills, how well the particular community has been selling, what phase of construction the builder is in (they will likely be more willing to negotiate on the last few homes in the development), and various other factors. You also need to know the base level of upgrades that you are getting for the base price. In particular, our realtor identified Ryan homes as a builder that does some good work, but also tends not to include much in the way of a base level of upgrades. Make sure you tour the model with the builder's representative and get a breakdown of every feature that they added to the model which isn't included in the base purchase price (there will be quite a few of these items). Stuff like extra recessed lighting fixtures, granite countertops, upgraded molding, tile backsplashes, extra ceiling fan boxes, and the like can add up very quickly. Also make sure to tour one of the builder's inventory homes in the neighborhood so you can see what a base level of upgrades looks like - again, make sure you ask what has been added to the inventory home so you know what you will have to pay extra for. Builders frequently start new homes in popular floor plans to accommodate buyers who don't want to wait the 4-6 months for construction to complete. Every month the builder has to hang onto one of these homes is a net loss for them, so they are more inclined to do what it takes to get them sold. As such, you will always get a better deal on an "inventory" or "spec" home than a "build-to-order" home, where you choose the lot, the floor plan, and all of the options. It's like the difference between negotiating for a car the dealer has on his lot, vs. one special ordered to your exact specifications from the dealer - you may have to settle for a color you don't like as much, but you'll get a better deal in the end. You can also frequently get builders to make changes to inventory homes to make a sale - don't like the second floor carpet or the color they painted the master bedroom? Put in an offer contingent on them changing the things you don't like. Obviously they will be more inclined to make finishing level changes than large structural changes (e.g., they'll maybe finish an unfinished room or repaint a bedroom, but they probably won't knock out a wall to turn a 2 car garage into a 3 car). The best of both worlds is if you can identify a new start on a spec home after the builder has committed to building that floor plan on that lot, but before the construction gets very far. Then you can still make any option selections that might be much more difficult if you wait longer. For example, the builder is much more likely to throw in surround sound system pre-wiring in the family room if they don't have to take down the drywall to do so. It's worth taking a walk around the neighborhood and introducing yourself to anyone in the neighborhood out walking their dogs or the like, to get an idea of what post-build support has been like from the builder. Ask about things like how well they've supported the HOA, how available they are to fix warranty repairs while they're still on site, and the like. Also make sure to ask the builder about their long term schedule for the community. If you get relocated across the country and have to sell your house in 3 years, you don't want to be competing with the builder because if the price points are similar, no one is going to take your ratty old "used" house when they can have a brand new one built to their specifications with a full warranty from the builder at the same price.
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Feb 12, 2013 21:48
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Baruch Obamawitz posted:So my wife and I are just getting in to the market to buy our first house in the DC area. There are some reasons TSP/401k retirement account loans are generally a bad idea: 1) If you leave your employer (e.g., the Federal government), you must repay the loan in full within 90 days or the remaining balance is treated as a taxable distribution - you will owe ordinary income tax plus a 10% distribution penalty. Ergo, if you take out this loan and then decide to enter private practice, I hope you have the cash to pay it off immediately or you will get nailed with a huge tax bill. 2) The interest you are paying yourself does go into the fund, but keep in mind that you are paying off the loan with after-tax money, whereas the original balance was before-tax money. When you go to withdraw the money from your TSP in retirement, you will have to pay tax again on the withdrawal. 3) Obviously you'll also be missing out on whatever gains the market makes during the time you are repaying the loan. As an alternative, the IRS will allow you to make a temporary withdrawal from any of your retirement accounts, as long as you replace the money within 60 days. One option if you're a little short of 20% (e.g., you only have 15% down) is to withdraw the additional 5% from your retirement account to make up the 20% down, close on the first loan with 20% down to obtain the best possible rate, and then open a home equity loan within the 60 day period to tap the 5% in equity. You'll pay a higher interest rate on the equity loan, so you'll want to pay that down aggressively. You can then use the cash you receive from the home equity loan to pay back the retirement account within the 60 day window, with the end result of a first mortgage for 15%, a home equity loan for 5%, and no negative implications to your retirement account if you leave government service, and any gains on your retirement account will be intact other than whatever you miss out on for the 60 day period. NJ Deac fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Feb 19, 2013 |
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Feb 19, 2013 18:07
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slap me silly posted:Who will even touch a home equity loan that takes you above 80% LTV? We're in the process of shopping for a home equity loan since it's easier than getting a jumbo even with a 20% downpayment, and several of the local banks and credit unions around here are offering up to 85% or 90% LTV on equity loans. Generally it seems that the interest rates are a little higher (maybe an extra 1% for a high LTV equity loan), but if it means the difference in getting a discount on your first mortgage and you pay off the equity loan quickly, it generally works out in your favor if you're pretty close to 20% down but need a little help to get over the hump.
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Feb 19, 2013 19:33
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After signing a contract on new construction back in January, we have finally gotten a closing date from our builder - August 20th. During this time I have been watching mortgage interest rates steadily rise, and, wouldn't you know it, right as we're are getting ready to apply for a 60 day rate lock to finally end the uncertainty, Ben Bernanke sees his shadow during a press conference, the stock and bond markets go absolutely loving crazy, and mortgage rates skyrocket. What I don't get is why are bond prices tanking at the same time as stock prices? My understanding is that usually when the stock market tanks, most of the money flows into bonds, raising prices and lowering interest rates. Where is the money going? Well, at least we shouldn't have any trouble affording the payments even if rates go up to 5-6% or higher, but man do I hate not being able to lock in at the 3.25% rates I was getting quoted back in January when we signed the contract. Do never build.
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Jun 24, 2013 18:52
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canyoneer posted:The economist's favorite answer is: it depends. So in the instant case, the drop in the stock market is the result of the market responding to increased interest rates (investors selling to move their money to take advantage of newly desirable bonds)? If investors are selling their stocks so they can buy bonds though, shouldn't that still result in a decreased yield, due to increased demand for bonds? I get the relationship between bond prices and yields, it just seems backwards in this particular case because if investors are selling their stocks to buy bonds, bond prices should be rising and interest rates dropping as a result. Instead, we're getting a drop in the stock market and an big interest rate hike. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I don't understand the full picture. Either way, we're going to go for a 60 day lock this week with some kind of a one time float down provision - I certainly don't think I can predict the market, but that doesn't mean I can't bitch about interest rates going up right before my loan is ready.
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Jun 25, 2013 01:22
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After spending the better part of yesterday on the phone with three different banks and brokers, we finally got our mortgage locked in at 4.15% for a 30 year fixed with no origination fee. It's a far cry from the 3.25% quotes we were getting back in January, but I'm chalking it up as a win. Key lesson learned from this exercise: If you're comparison shopping between two people who really want your business, once you decide on one, make sure to call the other to give them the bad news. If they're really desperate, they'll pull out all the stops to get you. In particular, one broker and one bank were really trying to earn our business. They both offered 4.375%, but the bank had an origination fee and the broker didn't. I told the broker we were good to go, but when I called the bank to give them the bad news the mortgage officer asked me "What would it take to earn your business?" I said something to the effect of "Well, I've already started the ball rolling with the broker, but I suppose if you could do something crazy like get me 4% with no origination fee, I'd apologize to him and switch." Two hours later she countered with 4.15% and no origination, as long as I agreed to open a checking account with her bank and have my payments autodrafted. I felt bad calling the broker again to put the kibosh on things (When I told him the bank's offer, his advice was "Get the rate in writing and lock it right away"), but the extra $70 in my pocket every month for 30 years will help ease the guilt a little bit.
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Jun 28, 2013 16:48
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Our appraisal came back today for our closing in two weeks. $11k short of our purchase price! While it's not a huge percentage of the purchase price and we should be able to cover a discrepancy if the appraiser didn't gently caress up (it's likely that he did), it's going to be annoying dealing with this at the very least. Moral of the story? DO NEVER BUY.
NJ Deac fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 17:36
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Captain Windex posted:That's weird that they would refuse to lend at all if the purchase price was more than the appraisal, since allowed loan amount is based on the lesser of those 2 figures. We just require that the borrower sign a letter acknowledging that they are purchasing for above the appraised value. Yeah, the way our lender presented our options were 1) Find an obvious error with the appraisal (which we've done) 2) Pay the difference such that the loan is less than 80% of the appraised value 3) Get the builder to lower the price or 4) blow the whole thing up. It's not logical for a lender to torpedo the entire deal as long as their investment is covered. The only scenario where it would make sense to rescind the deal would be if the lender calculates that the buyer can't afford the extra down payment without reducing their reserves below the required levels. As far as our appraisal goes, the community in which we're building has four separate levels of homes: smaller homes that are all plank siding, brick versions of the smaller homes, larger homes with a brick front and plank siding, and larger homes that are all brick. In addition to the siding and size, the four different tiers each have increasing levels of interior upgrades and trim. We're building in the larger, all brick area, but the appraiser used "comps" from one of the lower tiers. Our agent and the bulider's agent provided an alternative list of comps and now we're hoping the appraiser will adjust their report to account for the fact that the alternative homes are more comparable to our house than the ones he initially used. If the appraisal doesn't get fixed, we may be stuck paying the extra cash. While in a normal resale situation we'd have an out with an appraisal contingency, since we contracted with a builder to build a semi-custom home, the contract didn't include some of the standard contingencies. We pushed hard for a mortgage contingency during negotiations, but they were unwilling to make any modifications to their form contract, even for some very minor matters. To a certain extent, this is understandable - if I'm a builder building a home with specific features and fixtures chosen by an buyer, I don't want to be left holding the back if they decide to back out of the deal. In retrospect, I should have specifically fought for an appraisal contingency separate from a mortgage contingency. The mortgage contingency was my main concern at the time, but it wasn't much of a concern because we will easily qualify for the mortgage, if we can get this appraisal issue worked out - I never considered that new construction (in a neighborhood where the builder is selling at least 1 house a week a this price point) would have a problem with the appraisal, so I didn't really fight for an appraisal contingency. We only added a few upgrades so it isn't like we overbuilt for our section of the neighborhood. Then again, perhaps we should have negotiated harder for a contingency during the contract signing. Either way, it just reduces our leverage a bit if we can't get the appraisal fixed - I need to talk to a local real estate attorney but I suspect it'd be difficult for them to keep our deposit if we decide to walk away and then fight for the deposit. Anyway, things are looking better with regards to getting the appraisal adjusted - hopefully this will work out without any further complications. Hopefully this will help anyone else considering new construction - even if the builder won't budge on the mortgage contingency, make sure to push for an appraisal contingency, because if it doesn't appraise for what they're trying to sell it for, that should be their problem, not yours.
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Aug 9, 2013 16:05
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rockcity posted:I'm curious to see how the house we're building appraises next month as well. Right now it's looking like we shouldn't have an issue because the starting prices for the homes in our neighborhood have gone up about 15% since we went under contract in March. The area we're building is really expanding quickly so I'm glad we got in when we did. Our builder said they haven't had a home not meet the sale price yet, so that's good. Incidentally, all of these factors are true for our neighborhood as well - prices are steadily rising, and the builder assured us they haven't had any appraisal issues. It seems like in our case we ended up with an rear end in a top hat appraiser that decided to use a comp that really screwed us over (a four year old resale that was a result of a relocating seller) instead of any one of like 5 other newly constructed homes that had sold more recently that would have given us the purchase price we needed.
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Aug 9, 2013 22:43
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adorai posted:If history repeats itself, when the fed slows or stops the printing presses, there will be a dip in rates. Are you referring to the end of QE3? Because it's far more likely the exact opposite will happen once the fed stops propping up the bond market. Just the suggestion that the fed might end its bond buying program was enough to cause mortgage interest rates to jump by about a percentage point over May/June. Things have eased up a little bit since then with the reassurances that QE3 won't be tapering off in the immediate future, but holding out on refinancing or locking your mortgage rate on the off chance we return to the rates we were seeing last winter is a taking a pretty huge risk - sure, there's an outside chance we could see rates in the low 3%s again, but it's far more likely they'll hold at this level or rise - definitely not worth the gamble. NJ Deac fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Sep 25, 2013 |
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Sep 25, 2013 15:33
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Since there's been some dumping on Redfin as a buyer's agent in the last couple of pages (and maybe more previously, I had like 10k unread posts so just skipped to the last couple of pages), anyone have any thoughts on using them as a seller's agent? Here's our situation: Mother-in-law and father-in-law passed away last year. Wife is an only child and we've got a good handle on all of the legal stuff with the estate. She's inheriting a mostly paid off house. We're still in the process of getting the house cleaned out, and meanwhile we've hired a close family member (who happens to be a licensed general contractor who unexpectedly had some bandwidth) to address some deferred maintenance stuff and handle some long overdue updates - everything is being done properly with appropriate permits/etc. The house is in a hot real estate market, within commuting range of a couple different major metro areas. Like pretty much everywhere else, homes are going under contract with multiple offers in just a few days. We've interviewed several different real estate agents to 1) get a diverse set of opinions on what is worth spending money on and what isn't as we clean the place out; and 2) get a sense for who we're most comfortable with to list the house. One of the realtors we like the best also happens to work for Redfin, who will charge us 1.5% instead of 2.5% as the seller's agent. From my perspective, it seems like we're basically just hiring someone to help us price the place and get it onto MLS/zillow/redfin/trulia/etc., then the hot market will take care of the rest. Am I missing something in Redfin's business model that would make using them as a seller a bad idea? I can see the arguments for how a discount broker would be a liability as a buyer, since a buyer's agent has to hustle so much in this crazy market, but being on the other side of the fence it feels like getting the thing listed as cheaply as possible should really be the priority. NJ Deac fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Feb 15, 2021 |
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Feb 15, 2021 22:58
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H110Hawk posted:If you're OK potentially not getting top dollar or the fastest closing for your home, sure go for it. If you just need grandma's house sold they will do that. Make sure you understand a price you're willing to sell it for based on reasonable comps. Well, obviously our goal is to maximize the amount of value we get in the sale. If I'm screwing myself by considering a cheaper sellers agent, I want to avoid that - I'm definitely open to listening to why I should go either way. I'm just trying to understand where a sellers agent arguably adds value that I might be making a mistake if I go with redfin. Whether I use a 2.5% agent or a 1.5% agent, aren't they all using showingtime and putting listings on the same websites? Like, we've interviewed 4 agents and they all gave us very similar estimates based on the same comps in the neighborhood, and made similar suggestions for stuff to fix/not fix - one just happens to charge 1.5% instead of 2.5%. How would I potentially not get "top dollar" if I go with the less expensive option?
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Feb 16, 2021 01:53
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Motronic posted:Then don't hire a budget service provider. You know this is a budget service provider. It's what you said in your initial post about this. The implicit statement you are making here is that the home will sell for more and/or faster by listing with a traditional agent over redfin. Is it not also possible that the home sells for the same amount it would have otherwise and we come out ahead due to much lower fees? In a supply constrained market where homes are selling quickly, I'm skeptical as to how spending more on "marketing" is a sure net benefit. Having met with a few different agents (3 agents charging market rate and 1 from redfin) and having been presented with near identical suggested listing prices and marketing plans, I'm just not seeing where I'm likely to derive additional value from paying an extra percentage point on the seller side. I guess whichever way we go, we can feel good since there's no way to prove we did worse than the alternative, since it's not like it is possible to do a controlled experiment.
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Feb 16, 2021 03:51
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Chad Sexington posted:I will say that plans are very different from execution. We heard very similar-sounding pitches from agents, but the one we went with to sell our condo helped us stage it to the point of bringing her own furniture, actively went and checked out open houses in our neighborhood to see where we were relative to the competition for the purposes of listing price and was proactive about hyping our place to other agents, many of whom were in the same firm as her. Staging is an excellent point, and the sort of measurable thing that seems like a clear reason to go with a more expensive realtor if it's part of the marketing package. It's also honestly not an area I had fully considered since none of the realtors I've interviewed so far seemed all that interested in doing it. But, maybe I'm just really terrible at picking realtors to interview (we picked 2 that had recently sold homes of similar value in the same neighborhood, one we worked when we sold our condo a decade ago, and Redfin)! What sort of staging is reasonable to expect from a full service realtor? Is that part of what we should expect from the difference in offering 1.5% (redfin) vs. 2.5% (seems to be market in our area) vs. 3% (don't see any homes on the market right now at 3, but maybe that's because they're all selling quickly?)? What does it take to get a home staged super nicely, anyway - do homeowners go out of pocket above the realtor commission? The place will be largely empty by the time we list it, so this seems like an area where there's potentially a measurable benefit from paying a little more money.
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Feb 16, 2021 15:40
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Motronic posted:No, that's what you've read into what I said. I stated "I'm looking to maximize value from the sale." You stated "Then don't use a budget provider." You are suggesting that, in order to maximize dollars out of the transaction, I am better off using a traditional agent than a cheaper alternative - i.e., that the extra percentage I pay in commission is reasonably likely to result in more dollars out of the home transaction than I'd save from using a cheaper agent. I'm trying to understand why. Motronic posted:Anything is possible. This seems dismissive of the possibility that the home sells quickly either way, and I come out several thousands of dollars ahead since I paid less to my agent. You seem fairly certain that isn't the case, and I'm trying to understand why. Motronic posted:Okay, what about everything else in that paragraph? You chose the one thing you don't think is applicable and skipped the rest of the point. And you're wrong about that: part of marketing is pricing. Here's your paragraph: Motronic posted:Marketing. Like, not just putting it on web sites. This may or may not matter. If you're selling a widget (condo, development house where there are many of the same) then who cares. If you are selling something else you might want to have someone who at least knows the market you are in on your side when advising you about negotiations. This is not a thing you get with redfin, and you have no continuity as your are handed off to multiple agents. You stated "Marketing" and then listed a bunch of reasons why marketing is important (houses are unique, you need someone who knows your unique market). I'm not trying to be selectively responsive here - I don't sell homes all that often, and I don't know what I don't know. That's why I'm asking for advice here. I'm trying to understand what else there is about "Marketing" that I might be missing out on by trying to save money on an agent. From my lay-perspective, it seems like most of the work is arranging to have professional photos taken, writing copy for the MLS listing and websites, and the legwork of getting things uploaded. Someone just mentioned staging. That's an excellent point that I hadn't considered! If having the place professionally staged is something I should expect from a regular agent that I'm not going to get from Redfin, then I'm interested in learning more! I don't know what else there might be, but I'm trying to find out! Motronic posted:You're very obviously set on using a budget alternative. You've already talked yourself into this and thought through how to accept any result that occurs. This is a misunderstanding of my position. My impression from your initial response was that you were strongly in favor NOT using a budget alternative. When you make conclusory statements like "Then don't use a budget provider - there is no free lunch," I want to try to understand why. Maybe this comes across as probing your assumptions in an adversarial way, which isn't my intention. You clearly feel that there's extra value offered by spending more on a real estate agent. Maybe I just picked lovely agents to interview and it's worth meeting with a couple more to fully appreciate where the extra dollars are worthwhile. Thanks for your thoughts.
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Feb 16, 2021 17:33
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dy. posted:Of course it is possible. If you were to ask a realtor, their proposition to you would be that a more experienced agent is going to know how to maximize the value and minimize the risk of your sale better than a less experienced one. This may include marketing, pricing, negotiation, and advising you on the pros and cons of different offers in a multiple-offer situation. We've sold a couple of homes before, but under very different market conditions. This is our first time ever considering a discount broker, hence all of the questions. I haven't been overly impressed with the level of service I've received from traditional sellers agents over the years (buyers agents have been a different story - clearly having a good buyers agent is a necessity), but like I said above, maybe I'm just terrible at picking realtors to interview for the listing.
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Feb 16, 2021 18:26
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AmbientParadox posted:Thanks. Although I meant this more for NJ Deac.The last few pages have been him denigrating traditional agents, but I wasn't sure his position on why the Redfin Agent was such a great alternative. Sorry, I didn't realize the question was directed at me. Yeah, the customer value proposition is that it's cheaper. It's a gamble that the few thousand in savings on fees is larger than unrealized value on sale due to using a premium agent. Seems the thread consensus is that that is a losing bet, and I've been trying to understand why.
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Feb 17, 2021 03:18
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Residency Evil posted:This is potentially an option, and we have the option of renting from a friend in the event that we don't find anything we like. FWIW, my wife has lived in Denver and we have a very good idea of where we want to live. We're not set on buying, but I want to know what that might look like in the event that we do. You may have a harder time getting an offer accepted if you need a contingency. In a hot market, many (all?) of the homes where you might want to live are going to be receiving multiple offers, as is well-documented in this thread. Many of those offers may waive contingencies, and some may be made entirely in cash. An offer with a contingency is likely going to move to the back of the line unless you are offering way more than everyone else, which may endanger your loan anyway if you hit appraisal problems. I know when we sold our house a few years ago we selected a slightly lower offer since that offer didn't need a sale contingency for their current home, and we didn't want to deal with the risk that the slightly higher offer wouldn't be able to sell in a timely manner. Similarly, when we bought our house a year later our offer was also not quite the highest but we were selected since we didn't need a sale contingency (since we rented for a year while selling our old home after we relocated).
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Feb 22, 2021 21:04
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Zarin posted:Second question for the thread: The relocation company has a preferred lender for me to use. The buying realtors have a preferred lender for me to use. I'm not REQUIRED to use any of them, so: how do I evaluate lenders and decide which one is gonna be the best deal for me? Check with your relocation company and see if there is any benefit from using their preferred lender. When I took a new job and the company covered relocation, they paid an extra point on our behalf to buy down the rate, but it was contingent on using their preferred lender (since there was obviously some kind of referral kickback between my employer, the relo company, and the lender that was partially passed on to me in the discount point). We shopped the rate around to make sure we weren't getting screwed, but the preferred lender also had the best rate (even before calculating the extra discount point), so we ended up using them regardless. The preferred lender may also be able to do direct billing for certain closing cost expenses to the relocation company rather than you having to go out of pocket and then submit an expense report, if your other closing costs are being covered by the company. Basically, just ask your relocation coordinator person whether there is any benefit to you in using their preferred lender and, if so, make sure you've priced those benefits in as you comparison shop for a mortgage. NJ Deac fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 21:03
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loquacius posted:yeah it's looking like we will probably end up in a different house but my wife liked the backup idea and I like the idea of forcing the sellers to sign such an unfavorable deal as payback for putting me through this 100% guarantee that the fact that you are technically "under contract" on the first house is going to be used by the sellers to leverage on offer they want to make wherever they are planning to move - "Sure, we need a home sale contingency, but it's ok - we're already under contract!" Ultimately not your problem of course, but it will be a fun potential series of chaos dominoes that start to fall once you bail out after you find a suitable house without a long term tenant who may or may not ever move out.
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Mar 19, 2021 14:34
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Zarin posted:Got a question for the thread. We have a similar situation with some giant overgrown shrubs that were way too large and close to the house - we ended up having them removed. Our realtor advised us to mulch over the area and plant a few cheap flowers for a splash of color, so that's what we've done. It really does look quite a bit better, and wasn't too expensive or time consuming - if you're not dealing with a huge amount of space it's probably worth doing.
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Mar 26, 2021 18:42
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theratking posted:People put value in things like sense of community and helping people they see as worth helping. Homes are very personal, unlike stocks or other financialized assets. I also wouldn't be terribly surprised if the letter acts as a proxy for your behavior when you're under contract, consciously or otherwise. This. We are in the process of selling the house my wife grew up in and she still has deep relationships with half the neighborhood and she cares about who moves in next. I desperately hope we don't get any of those letters because I know there is a chance it will cost us some money in the end if we are, say, choosing between a family with kids and some kind of REIT or whatever, since she's the administrator of the estate, not me. I hope our realtor doesn't engage with any of that fluffy stuff so we never have to think about it (and I'm fairly confident she won't), but not every seller is a goon robot motivated solely by money and transaction risk. NJ Deac fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 00:12
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So, we went under contract a couple of weeks ago on the place my wife inherited (100+ showings and 28 offers in 4 days - jesus christ), and picked the second highest offer for a couple of reasons, one of which was that they waived their inspection contingency ("informational" only). Insane if you ask me, since we didn't do a pre-inspection, but I'm not gonna tell someone else how to manage their risk profile. So, the "informational" inspection was yesterday and they have the nerve to ask us to fix some stuff/give credits. I mean, I guess it doesn't cost them anything to ask on the chance we decide we would like to give them some of our money for no reason? The only item of any particular note is that the electrical panel is a "Federal Pacific Stab-Lok", which I am now learning appears to have a reputation for being a fire hazard - apparently circuit breakers that don't trip under load are a bad thing! Reading up on this stuff, there are reports that the company defrauded UL to get the thing certified, but the government never mandated a recall and then the company went out of business from all the lawsuits. So, I guess if anyone is putting in offers that waive inspection make sure you take a look at the breaker box during your showing to make sure it's not one of those, because your sellers are likely to tell you to go pound sand if you complain about it after waiving your inspection contingency.
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May 5, 2021 16:29
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School of How posted:I asked my agent if I can make multiple simultaneous offers on multiple homes, and she told me no. Why is this? Sellers are allowed to entertain multiple simultaneous, so why can't buyers? As others have mentioned, the answer to this question is going to be heavily driven by the laws and norms of your particular jurisdiction. For example, NJ has an "attorney review" period after both parties sign the contract where either party can bail for any or no reason. I've heard from both buyers and sellers realtors (and a couple of real estate attorneys) that this allows buyers to submit more than one offer and its within both the laws and norms of the state (our realtor also mentioned she's had deals where she and her seller backed out during attorney review due to a late high offer - leaves the other side pissed but it's accepted as a risk of doing business in the market). Other states are going to have different laws and norms (and even in NJ, there are very different norms between north jersey and south jersey). Your realtor has has an interest in preserving their credibility in the market with other realtors, and shotgunning offers all over the place has the chance of hurting their credibility for when they're trying to close their next sale. Now, their future credibility isn't your concern, but the ideal situation is to find a realtor with good credibility who is also ok with blowing their future credibility for your benefit (good luck finding that, though). The bottom line is to speak with a real estate attorney who is familiar with the jurisdiction where you are going to be buying - they'll be able to advise you on the actual risks of submitting multiple offers since they're pretty much the only party in the transaction who actually works for you.
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May 17, 2021 17:37
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