Real Estate: I did it! I closed on a house yesterday! |
- I did it! I closed on a house yesterday!
- Airbnb hosts say they’re getting nothing or comically small payments from $250 million relief fund, call it a ‘publicity stunt’
- Buyer Activity in the Pandemic: 19% still looking, 44% on hold for a month or two, 29% stopped looking "indefinitely" or due to job loss/concern about job loss
- Beware of Redfin Reviews!
- Your Opinion
- Seattle market is ridiculously hot right now
- Why are sellers pretending nothing happened in the last 2 months?
- anybody here buy Mobile Homes & Mobile Home parks?
- Employment Change Before Close of Escrow
- If you’ve offered over the selling price — how did you determine how much to go over?
- New Construction Loan Options for best rate amidst corona virus
- Buying a short sale during a pandemic - is it stupid to hope this is still going to work out? (US, NJ)
- Price cuts in your market?
- "As-Is" house purchase, found undisclosed issues, seller refuses to compensate
- Updating a manufactured home?
- House Sold, Closing Delayed - Need Advice!
- Advice on Jumbo Loan information
- Refinancing my mortgage and the rate on the application is higher than advertised - should I proceed?
- Baby on the way and looking to buy a house during these uncertain times.
- Will a black accent wall hurt us when we sell the house?
- Any advice helps
- A little overpriced, even for Indianapolis
- How to word mortgage shopping
- Best Mortgage Rates?
| I did it! I closed on a house yesterday! Posted: 23 Apr 2020 07:29 AM PDT Thank you all for all your information. I was supposed to close a week ago but things were pushed because of how slow it was to get certain information due to shut downs and reduced staffing. I was able to close on a house yesterday in New York (not the city). Closings normally happen at the Clerk's office but they are closed so we closed at the bank's law firm and they will overnight the package to the clerk's office since they are still recording real estate transactions. I spoke with the bank's lawyer and asked how closings were going because of potential job losses and he said he hasn't had any closings cancelled because of it so that's a positive for my area. He said he has been extremely busy and nothing has slowed down for him. My town requires an Inflow & Infiltration inspection before sales but they currently aren't doing them but luckily the town had created an extension to allow it to happen after the sale whenever the town is back up and running. The attorneys held back $1,000 in escrow since the inspection and fixture is the responsibility of the seller. We almost had an issue with the final walkthrough. New York is no longer allowing real estate agents to be in person with a client. They cannot be on a property together...at all or they risk being fined. That means that our real estate agent can't do the walkthrough with us. Luckily, everyone has on board with putting a manual key lock box on the door and them giving us the code to open the lock box so we would get in. The sellers were fine with us taking the keys from the lock box and they just left all the other keys in the house for us so we had the keys before closing happened. Our real estate agent also did a walkthrough by himself the day before closing to check everything and then we came day of closing for our own walkthrough. There were no issues at all (the seller had moved out before they put the house on the market so it's not surprising that everything was fine). So, if anyone is having issues in NY with walkthroughs, that's how we did it. Now, I just have to wait until things are stable enough in NY to begin to re-open so that Verizon can come install FIOS and I can get a couple of appliances delivered. Once they do that, then I can move in (luckily, I live in a house inherited by my father in law and he let's us live here rent free so I am not paying double rent/mortgage). Good luck to everyone else who is in the process of closing. ETA: In case anyone is curious, we have a conventional 30 year loan with 20% down. The bank never came back to us with any changes like credit score to debt to income ratio issues BUT my husband's credit is perfect and no matter what they may have changed, he would still qualify. We closed with a 3.125% rate. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Apr 2020 12:57 PM PDT Hundreds of Airbnb hosts have taken to online groups to complain that they have yet to receive any payments from a $250 million coronavirus relief fund announced by the company last month. Among the rare few who have received any money, the hosts complain that the small payments Airbnb has doled out are comical, a joke and insulting. These complaints are the latest gripe from Airbnb hosts who have criticized the San Francisco tech company's response to a massive wave of guest cancellations as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. A $106.02 check to cover $30,500 in lost revenue Among the few hosts who have received a payment from Airbnb is Thierry Rignol, who has about 80 Airbnb listings across Houston, Dallas, Denver, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. After Airbnb changed its cancellation policy, Rignol says he lost more than $30,500 through 50 reservation cancellations. "It was a bloodbath," Rignol said. Rignol calculates that he would've received a minimum of approximately $15,000 back under his normal cancellation policies. After Airbnb announced the $250 million fund and outlined that hosts would receive 25% of what they normally would in the event of a cancellation, Rignol calculated that he would get about $3,800 in relief. On April 16, Rignol finally received a payment from Airbnb. It was for $106.02. "It's a complete joke," Rignol said. "When am I going to see the rest of that? If it's three months from now, it's really not going to help anyone. If it's a promise to pay in the future, it's worthless." Rignol has been hosting short-term rentals through Airbnb for three years, but after the past month, he said his confidence in Airbnb has been completely destroyed. "Airbnb has shown that they can do essentially whatever they want," Rignol said. "If overnight they want to put you out of business, they have that ability." [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:58 AM PDT On April 19-20, NAR conducted a flash survey of members on the impact of the coronavirus on their market. The survey was delivered to a random sample of 89,813 members. National statistics are interesting, but local markets vary widely. Tourism and pandemic hard hit markets certainly must be much worse, diversified and low covid 19 case number markets are better. How does this compare to your experience? Should be interesting to see how buyer activity changes as stay at home orders are reduced. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Apr 2020 11:32 PM PDT I posted a buyer beware of Redfin while I was under contract on a home sale. My agent was really bad and I had a long list of things I was going to mention in the review. I went from a super fan of Redfin to never wanting to use them again. You have to not only represent yourself but ensure that Redfin doesn't screw you over with their agents lack of knowledge and propensity to roll over for the other agent. After the sale closed, I was never sent a survey. If there is a hint that the customer will provide negative feedback, Redfin will NOT send a survey out. So all of their reviews are filtered and garbage reviews! Be warned! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2020 09:43 AM PDT I'm in my 40's I make 200k a year & am single with no kids. There is a house that I saw that has everything I want. It's $575k 4 bedroom, 4 bath 4,000 sq ft and a in ground pool. Do you think I'm a complete idiot even thinking about buying something that big and expensive when I'm single with no kids? [link] [comments] |
| Seattle market is ridiculously hot right now Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:22 AM PDT Started house hunting 2 weeks ago, made 3 offers all got rejected. Few days ago, put an offer to a 2012 townhouse in Mountlake Terrance, waived all contingencies, with 30k non-refundable earnest money, 10% above asking price, still got beat by 2 other offers. What a crazy time to live! Edit: Mountlake Terrance is about 13 miles north of downtown Seattle [link] [comments] |
| Why are sellers pretending nothing happened in the last 2 months? Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:04 AM PDT I've noticed that real estate sellers and brokers are pretending that nothing has happened in the world in March and April. When I tell them that their price is "pre-corona" and that I need a corona discount I get blank stares. I'm not buying at these prices. When are we going to see corona discounts in real estate prices? [link] [comments] |
| anybody here buy Mobile Homes & Mobile Home parks? Posted: 23 Apr 2020 10:16 AM PDT Does anybody here invest or work with mobile home and mobile home parks? or is looking into it? I'm actually closing on a park. I don't know many people in the space and I'd love to meet more people... this would be my first park, my partner's second. We've looked at 100+ deals with lots of off and on-site due diligence to get to this one...so pretty happy to share what i've learned. Compared with SFH and multi-family, this market can be sorta wild and soo niche... and for those that have invested before, I'm also curious...
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| Employment Change Before Close of Escrow Posted: 23 Apr 2020 09:13 AM PDT Hi all, Hope everyone is weathering the 'Rona storm safely. My SO and I are nearing close of escrow on a property, and having some last minute complications. I work as a freelancer in an industry where I'm hired for projects that are usually 3-5 weeks in length, but NOT as an independent contractor. So while I am working for a company, I am paid through payroll and receive W2s. My SO has a normal full-time position. My industry has basically shut down because of the crisis, so I've been out of work for about 4 weeks. I let my lender know that I was out of work and prospects looking thin until all this blows over. Loan Officer said don't worry about it, we know things are wonky right now. As we got within two weeks of closing, the loan officer is now saying the underwriters won't approve the loan unless I am currently employed. (I'm annoyed with him because I was very clear with how my industry works, and even coronavirus aside, timing could have easily worked out such that I happened to be between projects at close of escrow, but alas). For the record, I have no concern about being able to make the monthly payments. Here's where things get interesting. My mother works in the same industry as I do, and actually has her own company. She's agreed to hire me, at my regular rate of pay and at the same position I've held for the last 3 years. I am getting an Offer of Employment letter from her, and will receive paychecks through payroll. In my mind, this is totally legitimate since I will be doing the same duties I normally do, for a company that is in the same industry I normally work in. My only concern is that the underwriter will see that my MOTHER owns the company, and is confirming my employment, and they'll assume something is fishy! Should I have cause for concern do you think? [link] [comments] |
| If you’ve offered over the selling price — how did you determine how much to go over? Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:56 AM PDT I don't live in a housing market (urban Montana) where it is common to overbid. However, a house was listed in a really rare/desirable location and on an amazing lot. The house itself is nothing special (fairly small and pretty outdated) and is overall priced on the low end for its value. The sellers have established an "offer review date" one week after listing it and have refused to accept any offers prior to then. Given all this, I think we need to offer over asking price to be competitive because we'd *really* love to live in that exact spot. We can very comfortably afford up to $30,000 over asking, but obviously we'd rather not pay more than we have to since we'd like to have as much as possible in our budget for remodelling. For anyone who has offered over the asking price, how did you figure out how much over to go? Our real estate agent seems reluctant to advise us on this -- I think she is worried she might tell us the "wrong" number and we'd either lose out on the house or feel like we overpaid. [link] [comments] |
| New Construction Loan Options for best rate amidst corona virus Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:41 AM PDT Hi guys, My wife and I are currently considering buying a new construction home. This would be our first time building a home and we're trying to figure out what type of loan we should do. This would be for a lot in a neighborhood the builder is building a bunch of houses in. The way I understand it, the construction to perm loan allows us to lock in an interest rate today (3.25 based on what I've gathered from talking to local lenders). The builder's agent said that pretty much everyone in the neighborhood has allowed the builder to do the construction loan, and then the buyer just gets the conventional loan when it comes time to close. So, my question is, what are y'all's thoughts on interests rates today vs where they'll be in 6 months? Obviously a lot changes in that time and I just want to know what people's opinions are in whether locking in a rate today (contruction to perm) would be more beneficial or locking it in in 6 months (builder does construction loan). Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:12 AM PDT We've been under contract for a short sale home since late February. Even though it's a short sale, things were moving along pretty quickly, the pandemic has really thrown a wrench into things. The sellers' attorney is still trying to negotiate all of the judgements against the property to clear the title, and now they are telling us they can't get in touch with the state/federal treasuries to finish up the last of them. We really love this house. We could see ourselves staying here forever. But we were told we were going to close on it over a month ago before things were suddenly pushed back. We have literally no idea when we might close now, could be in a week, could be months. Our entire apartment is in boxes and our landlady is not happy about the total lack of info on when we're moving out. Having so much uncertainly about our living situation in the middle of this crisis is just kind of wearing us down. Should we just unpack and stay put for now? Is it stupid to hope this will work out? This is our first time buying a home and we're just feeling really lost. The lawyer our realtor recommended is really no help at all when it comes to advice. We'd love to hear what some more experienced buyers/sellers think. Thank you :) [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2020 07:34 AM PDT Before COVID each of my markets typically had ~10 for sale units listed per day depending on the time of year. They were being absorbed regularly. As COVID hit under contract units continued to close, but few listings were coming on market and going under contract. This created a sort of stabilization in pricing as demand was equalling supply for the most part. This week I'm seeing the very beginning of expired/withdrawn listings relisting at lower prices. Due to the lack of volume and time, it's difficult to tell if this is a trend. But it's be interesting to hear what your currently seeing in your market? I'm in Hoboken/Jersey City, NJ which is fairly high cost. I'd also like to point out I'm in the epicenter for COVID. [link] [comments] |
| "As-Is" house purchase, found undisclosed issues, seller refuses to compensate Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:03 AM PDT Should I close this deal? Buyer accepted my offer of $213,000 with $6,000 closing cost assistance on a 3 bed 2 bath rancher back in January. They were originally asking $219,000. My appraiser valued it at $215,000. House is an estate and was listed "as-is". 2 older sisters inherited and is being handled by a lawyer. The real estate agent is acting as a dual agent. I have a $1,000 escrow deposit with financing contingency. The house is 5 minutes from job. We are supposed to close on April 30. The house was built in 1962 and inspections uncovered several issues such as water intrustion in the basement, ungrounded outlets and spalling concrete. I corrected the water intrustion by fixing a downspout. All estimates for remaining issues total approximately $10,000. There were several other issues such as a leaking faucet and peeling paint that I fixed myself due to the seller not wanting to do anything. So I fixed to keep the process moving forward as real estate was very competitive in my area for quite some time! My financing is willing to go along with the sale even with the issues as long as I am. They will "deny" me for the water intrustion if I want them to, so that I can keep my earnest money. I submitted a request for $5,000 in price reduction do to the repairs. Sellers refused twice. I wanted to ask them for $10,000 but thought I would try and compromise, lol! Now the agent wants to close the deal and offered me $2,000 out of her comission. That's still $3,000 short of the 5k I asked for. I have approx. $1250 invested in various inspections, loan fees and replacing the faucet. Should I close this deal or tell the sellers to take a hike? They have been very uncooperative from the beginning. They said that they already "gave" me $6,000 towards closing. On top of everything else I worry that the value of the house is going to drop due to the coronavirus economy! I still have an job and it is very stable, but if house prices drop 10%, that adds up to approx. $20k on a $200,000 house. I might want to move in 5 years and don't want to be stuck! Help me Reddit!!!! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2020 10:33 AM PDT Can updating a manufactured home make much of a difference in the appraisal and sale? It's a 90's manufactured home in an excellent location and on an oversized lot. The house is in good shape but outdated with things like pink countertops, tired oak cabinets, unpainted trim and some ugly wall colors. Someone went to the trouble to tile the whole house which was a plus to us, but I dont know if things like that make much of a difference in a manufactured home's value? I think theres definite potential to make it look better on a budget, but I don't want to put myself out for something that's not going to make a difference. I would love to hear from anyone who has experience with manufactured homes. [link] [comments] |
| House Sold, Closing Delayed - Need Advice! Posted: 23 Apr 2020 10:30 AM PDT Looking to see if anyone can provide some advice, I suppose this is a fairly unique situation but some may be able to provide some insights. My wife and I had competeing offers on our home and sold for asking, passed inspection and appraisal with no issues. We finished moving everything out on Apr 12, presigned the closing paperwork, and on the eve of closing were told that closing wasn't going to happen on the planned date of the 15th. Over the course of the rest of that week our realtor told us that the other agent wans't being very communicative and she was working on it. Turns out the buyers were using NACA and hadn't heard back from them since Apr 7. The 19th rolls around and now our agent is saying the buyers are still all in and she is cool with their agent who is apparently communicating now, the buyer sends and email to the NACA corporate office which was forwarded to us to show traction. Apr 20th rolls around and now the NACA local office is responding and actually has a call with our agent. We are told that it is Bank of America that is the problem, no issues with buyer finances or anything (both still employed), just that Bank of America is behind with COVID. We are asked to sign a closing date extension to this Friday Apr 24 and told that closing should be Friday or early next week. Today (Apr 23) we asked our realtor when we should expect to know something by and she tells us "That is the question of the week. Still waiting on an update. Other agent and buyers are on phone blowing up NACA local office contact again today." I've done reading on Reddit about NACA and have heard they are notoriously slow in normal times, it is promising that they are at least speaking daily. I can also get why Bank of America would be behind with COVID. I guess I am really baffled as to why Bank of America couldn't at least provide the NACA people some sort of timeline as to how far they are behind. Should we be worried that there is more to the story that we aren't being told considering they are using NACA, or is it really just likely BOA being behind? How long do we let this play out before just calling it quits and relisting the house? If we sign another extension do we require that we get the earnest money if cancelled (our agent has told us that with COVID the buyers are going to get it unless we have it written into the extension, but she is hesitant of scaring them off)? I can't imagine we will get the same amount for the house, all utilities are shut off, all of our things are in storage and we are currently at my mother-in-law's house with our two children. We had planned to start looking once the house sold, so this is obviously delaying things for us (thankfully we didn't already have a house we purchased). If it matters for a response, we are in Scott County, Minnesota. Any insight anyone can provide would be much appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| Advice on Jumbo Loan information Posted: 23 Apr 2020 10:09 AM PDT I am locked in at 3.625 for a jumbo loan - 30 years Is it worth to go down to 3.375 for $3286 in points? I would think yes this is my primary multifamily home. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:38 AM PDT Like many people I wanted to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates and refinance the mortgage on my primary residence. I went on Bankrate.com and connected with Homefinity who was (and still is) showing a 3.25% rate with $0 upfront costs and 0 points. After filling out online forms through Homfinity's website and exchanging a few emails with the loan officer assigned to me I received the loan disclosure documents and formal application for my signature. I noticed however that the rate on these documents is 3.450%, not the 3.25% I thought I was applying for. Upon asking the loan officer about this he replied "the rate is not locked our rates go up and down multiple times per day and whatever the rate is at the time the disclosures are printed is what you see on the forms." Is the loan officer correct on this? I feel like I should push back and refuse to sign unless the paperwork shows the proper rate I originally wanted to apply for. Am I overthinking this or is the lender trying to pull one over on me? [link] [comments] |
| Baby on the way and looking to buy a house during these uncertain times. Posted: 23 Apr 2020 02:28 AM PDT So I have been thinking about purchasing a home since November. My wife and I (recently married as of December 2019) have started saving for the down payment. We currently now have about 10k to 15k to put down (still trying to decide if we want to 5k in the bank for cushion). We recently found out that she is pregnant (yes this a quarantine baby lol) and now I feel more pressure to purchase a home, but am unsure on what to do. Do I wait and see where the market goes or do I given to my eagerness to start making offers and process that goes with it? Back in November wanted to see where I stood in the home approval process, so I reached out to Wellsfargo and Chase for pre approval (did not include my wife on application since we weren't married yet). Wellsfargo offered me 4% and really high closing cost quote. Chase offered 3.8% with about 5k in closing cost. Both offers have expired now but I didn't plan to take any action. Any thoughts or advice on what I should do? Addtional Information: 1. I have also recently switched jobs to and Oilfield Severice Company and we all know where the oil industry stands. The company recently laid off a few hundred employees. 2. My credit score used during the pre approval was 750 my wife is about 700 and she took an auto loan in 2019. 3. Houston, Tx Market Area (Looking at Pearland and Alvin) 4. Still so clueless on this home buying process. 5. I haven't seen much change in the market (also not sure what to look for) 6. House Specs: 200k to 230k Listing Price. Looking for 1500 sqft on quarter acre and up. Year built: Would prefer greater than 1990. Not sure if this is TMI, but just looking for some advice. Thank you in advance! 🙂 [link] [comments] |
| Will a black accent wall hurt us when we sell the house? Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:10 AM PDT The wall we want to paint is in the livingroom, it's not a small wall, it's the one our couch is against. I really want to paint it, but if we sell the house in a couple years I'd hate to go through the trouble of repainting it. Are people more open to that sort of bold color choice or is that going to hurt resale values? Home is boho-farmhouse style for reference. *Edited to add that it's a vaulted wall, such a pain to paint. If it's going to have to be repainted before putting it on the market because it will hurt our chances to sell, then I'll probably hold off painting. Thanks for everyone answering with a matter of fact mindset as opposed to being judgemental, I appreciate your help. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2020 06:56 AM PDT Me and my husband just found out that the zero down program we qualified for is no longer available at out mortgage company apparently the lender pulled the funding... we are building a house and are supposed to close June 7th. This is our first house. We are now being told that we will get put on a 3% down program which means we are now looking at possibly owing $7500 at closing. If we had an extra $7500 we wouldn't have signed up for the zero down program... we are so scared and stuck right now. We don't qualify for a USDA loan because of where we live. If anyone has any advice at all that would be helpful. [link] [comments] |
| A little overpriced, even for Indianapolis Posted: 23 Apr 2020 06:53 AM PDT https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1612-N-New-Jersey-St-Indianapolis-IN-46202/1080342_zpid/ $1,175,000 (as of Thursday AM) First, it's not even 2,000 sq. ft. These side-entry Folk Victorians are from 1,500 to 1,800. Five bedrooms? and SEVEN baths? They must have converted all the closets. True, I did live in a converted closet in my student days, but nobody paid a million for the house. What is of general interest here, besides my snarky comments, is that the Z-estimate is above one million. How, on any objective valuation, is this little house worth that much, even in Herron-Morton? I mean, Indy is not Manhattan. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2020 06:49 AM PDT I want to start shopping for a mortgage but unsure how to ask. Do I just call up a few mortgage lenders/credit unions and say I'd like a quote on a mortgage? We are in the beginning stages so we need a pre-approval letter but I want to see who will offer us the best deal. Will calling these places ding our credit? How many should I contact? Ty! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2020 06:41 AM PDT Is there a thread where people post the best mortgage rates — looking to refi my VA (have seen 2.75%) but hoping to find the best along with lowest costs. [link] [comments] |
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