Real Estate: Going to a showing tonight that has defects. How bad are these? |
- Going to a showing tonight that has defects. How bad are these?
- Holy cow I underestimated how much of a pain in the ass it is to move out of my home. I have soooo much shit!
- What is your current debt-to-income ratio?
- Texas Hill country beauty located in Bandera TX
- Thoughts on town vs rurual house
- How much do you make vs. how much is your mortgage/rent?
- Are nom compete contracts common with buyers agents? I’m starting my home buying process and the agent wants me to sign a non compete contract for one year. Is this normal or a red flag?
- Local market is driving me nuts
- A quick question about deeds [FL]
- Options when pre-qualified for new home but debt-to-income ratio too high before current home is sold.
- Finding 1/2 acre + single family home rentals - use realtor or some other website?
- Time frame from active to pending
- Real Estate Attorney Fail
- Refinancing question - I don't feel like I'm getting a good deal
- Opinions on homes with oil tank
- Optional endorsements on Title policy
- Can you relist at a higher price? (MI)
- Mortgage for something affordable
- Is this misrepresentation, and what can I do? (CA)
- Square Footage Discrepancy
- Question about selling property with crawl space water - 5 year nightmare
- Loud upstairs neighbors in apartment building not changing their behavior at all despite 2 written notices and an interaction with landlord. Further advice?
- Unexpectedly closed last night
- Hi everyone! Can I still get a home rebate if I’ve owned a home before?
| Going to a showing tonight that has defects. How bad are these? Posted: 23 Jul 2020 05:32 AM PDT The condition report says (barely legible) that the "sewer lines need to be routed annually".. I'm guessing they mean cleaned? Has anyone owned a home like this? How much of a pain is it, and how much does something like this cost? Before I fall in love with the house.... Ugh. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Jul 2020 01:02 PM PDT I think I've called the junk pickup guy 4 times this week now haha [link] [comments] |
| What is your current debt-to-income ratio? Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:25 AM PDT What is your current debt-to-income ratio? how much of your paycheck (solo or combined with your partner do you use) I'm starting to look for a place in NYC and even though I have a good salary and a good 30% downpayment, Im a little scared to ask for a loan. All my friends have a mortgage but my parents never needed one (those days are gone...) so they make me feel bad to buy a house with a loan What happens if I can't pay for it anymore? Can I sell it? do I lose all my money? is there a calculator out there to simulate bad scenarios? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Texas Hill country beauty located in Bandera TX Posted: 23 Jul 2020 07:01 AM PDT So, we haven't actually decided. We bought this home in 2015 and have invested a lot. Real Estate is scarce and some realtors have no listings available. Just 45 miles from San Antonio highway 16 is expanding and growing. Coldwell Realty believes I can ask $365,000. Possibly have to give up some for new flooring. Yes it needs new floors but if I sell I'm not installing. I might pick the wrong colors. We love our 1900 SQ foot brick home on a corner lot. Swimming pool, deck, 2 shops, parking for RV. Complete fenced in yard. Where would we move. Everything is so damn expensive and getting moreso . Bandera, TX the cowboy capital of the world. Horses always around town. Deer and Axis in the yard. Hill Country State Recreation Area available for hiking and biking. I would like to move closer to my aging father. If I thought one of them Californians made a full $365,000.00 offer we could be out in as little has 30 days. Of course we'd have to move into our RV. I don't know. What would you do? [link] [comments] |
| Thoughts on town vs rurual house Posted: 23 Jul 2020 07:23 AM PDT I've traditionally been an apartment-dweller in NYC (and other big cities), but now I am looking for a good long-term second home / work-from-home property. I've been looking around quite a bit lately, and it's almost like the more I look, the more overwhelmed I get. Traditionally, I've just made my decisions based on a short commute to work, but it's a lot harder to know what to prioritize for a second home / WFH setup where nearby employment is not a consideration. Some random examples: https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/717-Danby-Mountain-Rd_Dorset_VT_05251_M49942-64171 https://www.trulia.com/p/vt/rutland/10-wendy-ln-rutland-vt-05701--2004465779 I guess I am having most trouble deciding between a rural property vs a small city / town, e.g. Fort Edward, NY / Rutland, VT, Bennington, VT, etc. The way I see it: Town:
Rural:
Has anyone experienced both, and care to compare? Is it worth trying to find the "best of both worlds", e.g. the edge of a town with a large block but still town water / sewer, or a very small town? [link] [comments] |
| How much do you make vs. how much is your mortgage/rent? Posted: 23 Jul 2020 09:56 AM PDT I have a unique living situation so my cost of living is very low right now. I want to buy my first home in early 2022 but I don't want to get myself into a situation where I'm spending more on a mortgage than I can afford. I make $112K/year before overtime or night premiums. It's a stable job I've had for 5 years. Sometimes I do side projects that pay extra but I want to base this off my base salary. Also - I will be 100% debt free by March 2021. I think my upper limit for a house is $700K with 5% down, is that too high? I live in Los Angeles and even way out in the suburbs you'd be hard pressed to find anything decent under $600K. I will also most likely get a roommate or eventually have my bf move in. My question to you all is: A. What is your income before tax? B. How much is your monthly rent or mortgage? C. Do you feel comfortable with the amount you make vs. your housing expenses? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Jul 2020 07:39 AM PDT |
| Local market is driving me nuts Posted: 23 Jul 2020 09:47 AM PDT We have put our house for sale and began looking for our new home. We never truly liked our current home and was bought because of need that want, long story but don't regret the decision. Now we have decided it's time to find our long term until retirement home. We started looking and found we loved already under contract and put in a backup offer. It was literally the ideal house. So we kept looking and everything we liked was under contract and nothing had come to market we cared for. While browsing yesterday we noticed one that was previously under contract was back on the market. We immediately called our realtor and got a showing. We were told the contract was up tomorrow which is now today. Our realtor asked is she needed to write a backup or a contract and was told a contract. Today we get a call from and are told they decided to give the original buyer another 11 days. Talk about gutted. I know better than to fall in love with a house but when the price, house and location are all what you want it still stings. [link] [comments] |
| A quick question about deeds [FL] Posted: 23 Jul 2020 06:47 AM PDT Hello there! My father owns some land with an old house on it (no one lives in it), and he is the sole person on the deed. He would like to have my mother on the deed as well so that if anything happens to him, all of the property will go to her and vice versa. They are still married to each other and live in the same house together in a different county (but same state) as the land in question. He has estranged grown children from another marraige that he doesn't want to leave any portion of the aforementioned land to. Here's my question: What are your thoughts on creating and filling out a deed on his own as opposed to having a title office or attorney do it? If you think doing it on his own is ok, any recommendations on a good template? He is aware that it will have to be notarized. Thanks so much everyone :) -gd [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:53 AM PDT Hi all. Here's my situation. My wife and I found a home we love, got pre-qualified, and got an offer accepted. However, I was stupidly unaware that when applying for the loan itself for the new place, they would consider both mortgage payments towards my debt-to-income ratio. I am of course working with mortgage companies to get info on this too but wanted to ask here as well. What are my options in this case? I'm assuming I will need to sell the current house first but what happens if we close on our current house and then the seller on the new house backs out, leaving us without a home? Can we protect ourselves against that situation? How long between the closings would be necessary to ensure we have access to the money from the sale of our house in time for the buying of the new house? [link] [comments] |
| Finding 1/2 acre + single family home rentals - use realtor or some other website? Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:48 AM PDT Hey all, What do people think is the best way to find a single family home, with 1/2 acre + lots? It seems like these kinds of rentals are somewhat difficult to find in general, as people tend to buy these kinds of properties to live in, rather than rent out. I've been using a realtor to try to find them with no luck, and it seems kind of stupid honestly to even need a realtor for this. Is there a website that would work better where landlords post them directly? I haven't had much luck on Craigslist [link] [comments] |
| Time frame from active to pending Posted: 23 Jul 2020 06:19 AM PDT I found this plot of land that has been on Zillow for 400 days, with a price change of down 10k beginning of June, cash only. I inquired about it almost 1 month ago now and was told they have just received a pending offer. As of today, it's still listed as active. I have inquired about the status twice already and was told the status is still pending. I don't get it. There are properties I have looked at whose status changed within shorter time frames. I don't have a reason not to trust the realtor but why so long? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Jul 2020 07:12 PM PDT I'm posting this to see if anyone has thoughts on how to file a complaint, or if the situation even merits one. The short story is that we lost a house to a buyer that had a contingent offer in place before we came in. We put an offer in on a home in Western NY that already had a contingent offer in place - our offer was clearly the better offer (10% over asking for a house that had been sitting on the market for over a year, and we agreed to purchase the adjacent lot for cash that the sellers also own, they are moving across the country). The whole thing is a shit show - we were not informed that that the contingent buyers had satisfied their sale contingency between our offer and when we performed the inspection, so we dropped some cash on that. The end result is that both us and the sellers are losing out on a more favorable transaction. The sellers are reimbursing us for our inspection and the lost transaction was very friendly (we were not negotiating anything on the inspection, agreed to push the close to a convenient date, and just got along well with the sellers swimmingly). Too bad so sad, deals fall through and we all have to be grown ups about it (looking back, we were never going to get this house the way contracts are structured around here). Wife and daughters are crushed about the dream house which really made moving from NYC to Western NY magical. But again, shit happens and I've spent a enough time on the contracts to say definitively that this deal is dead. My issue is this - residential real estate attorneys are commoditicized in this region - brokers write the contracts and attorney's need to approve them within 3 days, if the attorney does not respond within 3 days then the contract assumes that the attorney has approved the contract and everything moves forward. Still with me? Great! So the attorney gets $700 to do essentially nothing - except in this case, I feel like our attorney should have mentioned the contingent offer, what it means, and advised us to hold off on inspection until it had been resolved. To further the point, our attorney was advising us to send in our down payment (5% of cost) up until a day ago, when I actually read the boiler plate contract and expressed serious concerns about liquidating assets and wiring money until the we knew the contingent offer had been resolved. Were absolutely crushed that we didn't get the house, but we're not angry if that makes sense. I am upset that my attorney was telling me that everything would be ok for about a week, didn't bother to do any diligence on the other offer, and that I'm apparently the only one who actually reads these fucking contracts. The absolute knife in the back was when today I sent the attorney an email saying that our contract would be void if I didn't get the down payment in, and should I proceed; I got a two line response that the deal fell through and that sometimes happens. My question: can I file a complaint anywhere (bar association or somewhere else) or is this just a case of buyer beware? I'm coming from NYC where things are a lot more litigious and the attorney I've worked with has been amazing; but in this case we got shit legal advice and should have been advised that this hose was never in the cards. Edit: Also, I'm drunk right now because motherfucker [link] [comments] |
| Refinancing question - I don't feel like I'm getting a good deal Posted: 23 Jul 2020 07:09 AM PDT Lenders are extremely busy right now due to low rates. Having a hard time getting my own bank, which my mortgage is also through, to call me back. I'm seeing posts on refinancing where people are paying almost no points and still getting the best rates. I'm getting quoted where I have to buy up into the lowest rates and pay about $3k-5k in those points. I'm familiar with the math on refinancing and I'm still getting between a 10 to 13 month payback on my fees when I factor in the time value of money, cash flows, etc. My wife and I have 760+ credit scores, excellent DTI, extremely low liability on the loans is supposedly putting us into the "best rate" category, but I'm not buying it quite yet. We owe $175k on our current mortgage, 30 yr FRM @ 4.125%, house is worth $250k+ (conservatively). We've owned this home 5+ years. So our LTV is good. Current offer from a large lender is: 15 yr FRM, 2.50%, $185,000 new loan (all fees built in) All said and done I'm paying $4,350 in non escrows (all work/fees) on this loan. This doesn't include the escrows and such since that's effectively a wash, and built into the loan amount. The $4,350 in fees is also worked in so that I'm not writing any checks, but I'm breaking it out above to show what I'm effectively paying the lender to refinance the loan. I feel like I'm not getting as good a deal as others. One reason I can think of is this isn't exactly a big loan. I even tried to bump us up to the $200k loan bracket with a cash-out but it was comparable to this loan - all they did was move some numbers around. Is this a good deal? This was worked up yesterday 7/21. Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Opinions on homes with oil tank Posted: 23 Jul 2020 09:57 AM PDT Hi all! I'm a first time home buyer in NJ. I found a house I love, but I have a situation with the oil tank which I'd like some opinions or experiences about. So I'm still under attorney review, so no money or anything has really been spent yet. There is documentation that this house has an oil tank with an unknown location. However, the seller has stated he will not be removing it. Now I know if I want to sell this house in the future, I'm going to have to remove the oil tank myself. My issue with that is I have no clue where it is or if there's any leakage. My lawyer is trying to reach some sort of agreement with the seller but I dont think anything will come of it. I'm really torn because I love the house but I dont want to end up spending a fortune removing an oil tank either. Is it worth taking the risk or is it better to walk away if the seller won't budge? [link] [comments] |
| Optional endorsements on Title policy Posted: 23 Jul 2020 02:15 AM PDT Is survey coverage and surface damage coverage necessary or a good idea? Grandparents are closing on a house and there is an option to remove these two per the lender. It looks like it's about $450 additional at closing to keep it. [link] [comments] |
| Can you relist at a higher price? (MI) Posted: 23 Jul 2020 09:35 AM PDT I recently listed a house for $135,000. It didn't have a driveway so I thought it was priced fairly. I ended up with a highest and best situation and selected an offer at $160,000. The buyer got cold feet and backed out before the inspection. Based on the offers I was receiving, I feel that I priced it low. Should I relist at a higher price? [link] [comments] |
| Mortgage for something affordable Posted: 23 Jul 2020 09:16 AM PDT So I've seen a hundred mortgage lending ranking sites all breaking lenders down into very specific sub-categories like "best for low down payment" or " best for veterans" or "best for someone buying their 5th property they can't afford." I'm wondering if anyone has any insights on what lenders offer the best rates for someone who is well-qualified buying something they can easily afford. I essentially want to buy something I could afford to pay cash for, but also want to take advantage of the very low rates we're seeing and but the money that could pay off the property in a separate fund. Maybe I'm just being greedy as I can get a very low rate in a number of places but I'm curious if anyone has come across a lender specifically suited to what I'm looking for. Thanks all! [link] [comments] |
| Is this misrepresentation, and what can I do? (CA) Posted: 22 Jul 2020 09:25 PM PDT We are in escrow on a home in Woodland Hills, Ca. We spent all of 15min inside the home before making an offer, but we love the area and the lot. Our offer of asking was accepted, and it's actually a decent price (already appraised at value). We accepted that we take it "as-is" and the sellers will not do any repairs. The MLS said in the description that there was a pool heater with solar panels for power, and also listed a dishwasher. At the home inspection we realized none of those were actually present. When we called the sellers agent to ask about this, she then changed the MLS listing. We asked the sellers for credit due to the misleading listing, and the sellers rejected it outright. Do I have any recourse? I don't think I want to walk away, but I suppose we could if this leaves a sour enough taste... [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:38 AM PDT House was listed at 2200 sqft. Appraisal came back at 1500 sqft. Appraiser is not counting the addition of an added wing to the back of the house that is full enclosed with windows and climate control. That changes the $/sqft substantially. Other houses in the area are going for closer to the lower $/sqft price than the higher one, but the appraiser did find a handful that are going for the higher $/sqft price although 2 are in a different city (about 15 miles away) This is in the southwest if that adds any context. Has this happened to anyone else? What would you do if this happened during your purchase [link] [comments] |
| Question about selling property with crawl space water - 5 year nightmare Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:35 AM PDT Hi all [warning long - but a good lesson for future home buyers to look carefully at the properties drainage situation] So I've got a bit of an odd one for you. This has been a fun 5 year adventure starting with an install of a water line for our fridge. When we first bought the house and had this install done the installer noted there was standing water in the crawl space though he noted it wasn't too much and I shouldn't be too concerned. Me, being curious, ventured down into the depths and found quite a bit of standing water localized in different areas some a few inches deep and some a bit more above the barriers. We are in the Pacific Northwest and had a heavy rain year in 2016. Anyhow, I obliged this rabbit hole and started by replacing the downspouts with a new system that eventually egressed out of a curb at the street. We had old concrete spouts that were not working. This seemed to solve some water I saw seep up from some cracks in the garage during very heavy rains. However, during heavy rains I was still seeing water entering in areas of the crawl space but it was not obvious where. It didn't appear to come from the walls of the foundation or even necessarily the footer So, I go a step further as we also noticed in this flipped house some cracks were reforming in areas the flipper had painted over above window corners. Nothing huge just hairline stuff. We hire a civil engineer. He comes out and says the wood conditions in the crawl space are actually fine and he saw no rot in the post beams or sill plates. It was dry the day he went down too. He only had photos from me to go on. This is the common theme on this one is any time I got someone out it was dry down there since. Anyways he discovers issues with the roof framing. He recommends a structural engineer and says my crawl space is fine. Slope from The front of the house to the back is 1/2" which he said is typical for homes of my age and not alarming at all. Foundation is in great shape. I get a structural engineer and he provides framing repair designs for the roof and suggests a curtain drain around the house to catch runoff. We complete both including new gutters as a bonus. We then hired a landscaper to fix our dug up front and back yard and get it graded properly. Fast forward and $33,000 later I'm in a position to sell my house in a strong market. I had the structural engineer come out to give a final assessment of repairs he'd been working with me for 4 years at this point so he had history of the house. In his assessment he states that all repairs are considered adequate and the crawl space had minimal water on his visit. He did not see any substantial growth in cracks on the interior finish and believed the repairs we completed have improved the conditions of the crawl space. However, in verbal discussions both the engineer and I as well as the civil engineer are aware that during heavy rains standing water will get down there and drain slowly. We are on dense clay, and so it's not very permeable. In his engineer letter he specifically states he observed "minimal" water and that no further repairs are required at this time and the home is considered structurally sound. Likely whatever water we see now is ground water and not runoff due to the poor soil draining. I'm not keen on spending another $10,000 to put a sump pump in since the engineer said it's not necessary and felt it would be overkill. Though, we believe there may be a few localized areas of puddling down there that can get a few inches deep during the heaviest rains, but seems to stay under the barrier mostly. Ok, so this is where I need your help and I'm having trouble grappling with this. How in the actual hell do I fill out my disclosure form? Do I check that there was standing water in the environmental defect section and then write "see engineer letter". My agent has recommended we add the engineer final letter to be visibility for potential home buyers up front and doesn't believe it will affect my home value. I want to be sure as I go through the sale of my home that I can get the most for it and also, legally be safe from retaliation if either A. The buyer sees water down there in the future and suddenly makes it a huge deal despite the engineering saying it was ok. B. If the engineers assessment becomes inaccurate down the road for some reason and there are issues with the house I'm don't end up in court. The way I see it at this point I'm taking and trusting a professional engineers word for it so I'm not sure how to legally shield myself if it's the engineer letter that will protect me or what and how to disclose in a way that creates the least amount of conflict during inspection and closing. I believe my situation is very unique and in fact many people I've talked to have said I went far above and beyond what most homeowners would do to care for my house. The house was built in the early 60s. The exterior brick and foundation as well as foundation in crawl space is in great shape. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Jul 2020 07:53 PM PDT So I live in an apartment building in Alberta, Canada, and have an incredibly obnoxious neighbor upstairs (grown man I believe) blasting music/tv, having guests over, talking as if trying to project his voice in a stage performance, and even sometimes shouting out of the blue when they get angry or something. This has caused booming, mumbles and bass through my ceiling for hours in the day, sometimes going real late at night. It has resulted in me being unable to sleep, do my job from home during the pandemic, and people I've voice chatted with on my computer were even able to hear them in the background of my mic. The leases here do prohibit unreasonable noise and that every tenant has a right to peace and comfort, so I already know my rights there. What I've done so far was: -I first left a note on their door. Not a single decable was turned down for days after. I've went up once to knocked on their door a few days later, they didn't answer despite clearly being home. Still no better volume. -I emailed my building's company on their questions and concerns email and called the landlord about it. She asked me a couple questions and then said she'll go up to talk to them. Still nothing changed. They even sounded like they've gotten worse. -Finally, the landlord suggested written noise complaints for every incident and leave them with her so she can keep a record and start leaving notices on their door. Which leaves me having just sent my second one last night, (each written complaint mentioning multiple dates and hours in detail). Still NOTHING has gotten better as of the next day. I want to avoid getting the police involved as much as possible. I feel they may only escalate the issue and I don't want to have to freak someone out with that, especially considering how little it takes for the police to cause more problems. But damn I have come so close to just doing that as the noise is causing me great stress, I don't want to move out, nor can I afford it, and have even been staying at a friends/family's as often as I can just to get away from it. Everything mentioned was also mentioned in my written complaints, and in the meantime, I've been using earplugs and tapping a broom against the ceiling a few times a day now. I know having a volume war with them isn't a good idea, so I have been trying to keep my own TV reasonable. (Don't watch it much anyways compared to being on the computer with music in my ears as the only way to cope with the problem). What else can I do? I feel like I'm running out of options. Should I just be a bit more patient because a third warning might be the final warning? Is what I'm doing enough? Again my landlord says they are confronting them for me but I feel these neighbors aren't taking anything seriously and want to show just how little they care. Thanks [link] [comments] |
| Unexpectedly closed last night Posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:00 AM PDT Was in contract with this newly constructed condo in March but had to pull out one week before closing due to covid. While viewing SFH's and disappointed with what looked like flip houses with paint cosmetic getting a dozen offer overnight and selling for high prices. Builder and in-house lender from condo called me at the right time beginning of this month. Went to condo orientation for second time yesterday due to second contract. Thought I was scheduled for signing final loan documents yesterday, but then realized that that was the last thing I needed to sign. I initially thought that there's an additional big signing day for close of escrow. Turns out close of escrow is just the county and title company's job. When scheduling for this 'signing day' I mentioned in email to multiple parties my available schedule with regards 'loan contract signing' and 'close of escrow signing'. It was somewhat embarrassing when told during signing that there's no 'close of escrow signing' and that this is the end of the stressful purchase. That's the story of how I just purchased a home without an agent and any knowledge of real estate. [link] [comments] |
| Hi everyone! Can I still get a home rebate if I’ve owned a home before? Posted: 23 Jul 2020 07:56 AM PDT |
| You are subscribed to email updates from HomeOwners & Investors. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment