Real Estate: Just closed today, want to share our experience |
- Just closed today, want to share our experience
- Is this the correct sub for international real estate?
- Buying A Condo In China
- Mortgage delinquency rate hits 21-year high (US)
- Question about water bill debit on my (sellers) closing statement with an HOA
- Flat fee websites and FSBO
- Capital gains question
- Is college worth it? Majors?
- Previous owner is now asking for reimbursement of 70% of propane that was in the tank?
- Cancelling selling contract as the seller
- Resale
- UK - Land Registry
- HOA legality/liability question regarding repairs
- I think we fucked up about renewing our lease. Is there any room for negotiation after we sign a renewal?
- (CA) Rent back to seller - Has this worked out fine for anyone?
- [Landlord -AL] Do I have to make repairs when the tenant is in breach of their lease?
- How badly did my condo association screw this up? Issue with warrantability of the condo due to % ownership
- Termite Damage in Crawlspace - How Bad Does This Look?
- Discouraged first time home buyer
- We got an offer from buyers with a semi-shady background
- Do none of the upgrades to my house matter? All anyone says are "The Comps"
- Buying via FHA on a house with a "recent" FHA appraisal
- Will home values increase over a span of 10 years? Can someone explain this to me?
- Real estate Youtubers. Are they right?
| Just closed today, want to share our experience Posted: 15 Oct 2020 03:01 AM PDT Just closed on a house today. First time home buyer here. This sub has helped us a ton so I want to share our story as well. Hopefully it will help someone else in their home buying process. Location SoCal. Before we even started to search, we had all our banks provide us with bank statements and we prepared the tax forms and the ultility bills. We then got a pre-approval from Wells Fargo that we can use to send around. We started looking for houses in late June. Used a redfin agent for a bit first but we found him hard to work with because it seemed he's working with multiple buyers. Switched to our current agent who was referred to us by a friend. A few words about agents here. Our agent did a great job scheduling tours and communicating with the listing agents. However, we were the ones "driving the bus" in his words. In a hindsight, we hoped he could have given us more advices such as on how much a house should have costed based on comps, etc. We missed a house we want by 10k due to our offer being low. As you guys probably know by now, this market is nowhere near what we were expecting in a fucking pandemic. First 10 or so houses we looked at all had multiple offers in the first few days when they were listed. We looked at flippers, upper fixers, short sales, auctions and everything in between. Thing just seemed way too competitive. So we decided to look at another city instead. Our hard criteria were 1) 2 bathrooms, 2) 10/10 greatschool rating for high school, 3) not facing a major street and 4) under 750k. With this criteria, we found a dozen houses in the other city that were sitting on the market for over 14 days using redfin. We basically skipped all houses that were freshly listed and only focused on houses that were on the market for a while. Most of these were overpriced, so we had our agent talk to the sellers to see if they were willing to come down. However, we did tour all of them just in case something happened down the road. We were glad we did this because we had all the information we need to put in an offer at a second's notice. As soon as one of those houses had their price reduced to an acceptable level, we had our agent call them immediately and put in an offer right away. Doing this we were able to get at least some counter offers, which made it feel much better than bidding over multiple offers. During our house tours, we paid particular attentions to: 1) if there is crack in the foundation, 2) if there is water stain in the ceiling, 3) if there is mold under the sink, wash basin or near bathtub and toilets, 4) if there is tree near the main waste pipe, 5) if water pressure is low for shower, and 6) if there is unpermitted additions. We also asked the listing agent about 1) how old is the roof, 2) how old is the water heater, 3) how old is the AC and furnace, 4) if there is solar panel, if it's leased or owned, and how old, and 5) how old is the kitchen appliances, include trash processor, microwave, oven, dishwasher and gas range. Last but not least, I tried to call my insurance company to see how much they would insurance the house for (and if they don't insurance it due to wildfire / flood zone, etc). We were eventually able to get our offer accepted because we put in an offer the second the listing price was changed. Talking about within an hour here. When we initially toured this house, we were lucky to be able to talk to the seller because they still lived there. We chatted a bit and got to know each other a bit better. So even before we put in our offer, I prepared a letter to them and appealed to their non-financial needs. We sent in our offer along with the letter and I think this helped us get our offer accepted. We are really glad to be able to talk to them for both buying reasons and because they are actually very nice folks. Next step was to get a loan. We were skeptical about online lenders at first due to horrible stories I read here on reddit. But we still decided to go with loan depot. We were able to get in touch with a loan officer and I added him on social media so we could be in constant contact. We started with a broker, Wells Fargo Bank, loan monkey and loan depot. We had our loan officer not only match, but beat the lowest rate from everybody else and was able to get a conventional 1.99% 15 years fixed with only 0.43 points. We started this whole process the day after the offer was accepted because we knew online lenders take their sweet time. Then we wired our EMD and did the general inspection plus termite check. Again a word of warning here, make triple sure the wiring instructions are correct. Call the escrow company, look up their number on google / yelp instead of in the email they send you. Go to their office to get a physical paper copy of the instructions if you can. The house unfortunately has a 26 yr old roof plus some mold under the kitchen sink. I had 3 roofers and a few contractors to come over and did a roof replacement estimate. We then tried to negotiate repairs with the seller but sadly ended up not able to get anything extra. The seller said they already had the repair cost priced in, so they didn't badge. We decided to continue the deal. And then the waiting game began. Every other day I would contact my loan officer to obtain an update on the loan. I also had my insurance company give me a formal quote on the house and notified them about the purchase so they can work with my lender. When we applied for the loan, we found out that one of our bank account only had quarterly statements so we went to the bank to got it fixed. We wish we have done that earlier. Another thing I think we should have done earlier was to pool all our down payment money into a single account. Notice that this can only be done after the loan has be conditionally approved. I also made sure this was OK to do with my loan officer just so they know we still had all our money. The bank takes about 7 business days to remove the hold on the money if deposit by check (trying to save money on wiring). And I didn't know that, so it delayed our closing by a few days. I have posted our loan itemization here on reddit and got very valuable feedbacks on them. We were able to discover a few discrepancy in it that we had to fix, such as 1) contract says seller pays transfer tax, but it got listed, 2) contract says seller pays owner title insurance, but it got listed, 3) we should pay property tax at pre-assessment amount at closing, but itemization says we pay post-assessment amount, 4) contract says buyer and seller split escrow fee but itemization says we pay all of it. This added up to almost 10k of discrepancies. Really need to look close at this and make sure every item makes sense. Lastly, our offer included a 10-day rent-back clause so we won't get our keys for another few days. If that's the case for you, you should really try to communicate with the seller and see if they truly need the time to move, or if they plan on squatting. In our case, we had lots communication on this topic that we genuinely believe they just need a few days to move out-of-state. And that's it, this is our house buying story. If anything else that comes up, I will update this post. Hope you guys have a great buying experience as well. [link] [comments] |
| Is this the correct sub for international real estate? Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:17 AM PDT Apologies if it isn't, but if not, is there one? Thanks [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:42 AM PDT Its about 30 minutes outside of a major city called Zhengzhou. The complex is new and has a pretty nice environment. Cost is about 120k USD. The only downside that my gfs uncle warned us about：He worries that the house may not appreciate because there is no subway station connecting the neighborhood to the major city. Ive also watched some YouTube videos of people warning about an epic housing collapse in China that is lurking. Any opinions on any of the above？ [link] [comments] |
| Mortgage delinquency rate hits 21-year high (US) Posted: 15 Oct 2020 06:49 AM PDT |
| Question about water bill debit on my (sellers) closing statement with an HOA Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:41 AM PDT So I have 2 debits on my statement one for the last bill of June-Aug, and a second line Item prorating for the future bill that should be received in November. Am I wrong in assuming that these should not be debits? June-Aug should have already been paid from the HOA that I pay into every month. Same for September. I feel like the only thing I should owe is the prorated bill for the days spent in my place in October which has yet to be paid as it gets sent at the first of every month. My attorney doesn't seem to know, which is a giant red flag, but yet here I am [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:40 AM PDT Are these flat fee websites legit? No catch just pay the fee and you get listed on MLS? We are selling FSBO and offering a buyers commission of 2% been surprising how many agents don't care and just want to list it. Figured I'd these flat fee websites don't have a catch and aren't a turn off to buyers / real estate agents we should do it? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:35 AM PDT My mom and dad bought a house in the 60's for about $11k. My dad passed away last year. If my mom sells the house for around $550k next year (this is in California) would she have to pay capital gains on $290k (550-250-10)? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:32 AM PDT I have a very large scholarship to a decent sized public university that is in a pretty good market, but I just don't know if it's worth the cost and time compared to going straight into real estate and getting those extra years of work and experience. What should I do? What majors would be best? Should I do both simultaneously? [link] [comments] |
| Previous owner is now asking for reimbursement of 70% of propane that was in the tank? Posted: 15 Oct 2020 09:19 AM PDT Our closing was on August 7th, she had it filled June 11th - the previous owner is NOW asking for reimbursement for 70% of the tank is this allowed? We are in Philadelphia, PA [link] [comments] |
| Cancelling selling contract as the seller Posted: 14 Oct 2020 07:29 PM PDT I'm selling my property in Fl. The closing date was supposed to be Sep 23rd, but the buyer has delayed closing like 3 times til this Friday 10/16. I'm doubt that it'll be closed this week because I, my realtor and the escrow company haven't heard anything from the lender/buyer. I'm thinking to cancel the contract. I wanna receive the deposit money for the wasted time I lost, but my realtor said i might not get the money because I'm the one to cancel. I'm upset at my shitty realtor for the service he provided so I'm posting here for help. Please give me advice/suggestions about what I should do and how to get the deposit money. Thank you. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:52 AM PDT
Thanks [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:38 AM PDT I was wondering if someone had been in a similar situation and may be able to advise? I Bought a property with my mother back in 2018, I paid and to continue to pay the full mortgage payments and at the time of the mortgage we signed a declaration of trust stating that if/when the property is sold I am entitled to 100% of the sale. We were tenants in common. I have two siblings who both have nothing to do with the property. Unfortunately my mother passed away late last year and I am trying to have clauses removed from the land registry but they are now asked for evidence for the transfer of her share of the property so this can be done. My mothers health rapidly declined and her will does not mention this property, and rightly or wrongly we assumed that we were protected by the declaration of trust that was signed and the property would default to myself. This now appears to not be the case and for obvious reasons I cannot obtain a new will on her behalf or have her explain things to the land registry. Before I get entangled in presumably expensive legal expenses I wondered if someone would be able to provide some advice or guidance. Thank you. [link] [comments] |
| HOA legality/liability question regarding repairs Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:30 AM PDT Posted this in /legaladvice but didn't receive much feedback, maybe some can shed a little more insight on my dilemma here, would be greatly appreciated. Location - LA County, CA Background - last season the laundry room in the lower level of our Condo flooded due to shoddy craftsmanship when the units were being built prior to our ownership (but thats another story). HOA finally decides to address the problem by hiring a contractor to fix the leak issue by using a foam injection method, where foam is shot into the walls and expands to seal up any holes where water may seep through from the outer foundation. In the process of doing so they had to remove a lot of drywall and a small portion of stairs. HOA decided not to repair the stairs or dry wall until rainy season this year to check for any further potential leaks. Since we decided to sell our unit and need to have the drywall repaired, HOA gave us the following options:
It doesn't seem fair that we continue to pay the HOA fees and would then need to pay out of pocket if we decide to go with option 2. Is what the HOA proposing legal? Shouldn't they be liable for everything? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:30 AM PDT We're in Brooklyn. We've been living in our building for over a year and are model tenants and usually pay rent early/on time. Our downstairs neighbors moved out in July and the apartment has been vacant since then, and the apartment has amenities ours doesn't have (dishwasher/more closets/new appliances) and they lowered the price about a week ago to $200 less a month than what we currently pay. The apartments are the exact same size and layout, ours is just on the top floor and lacks those extra amenities. We just renewed our lease for Sept 1st and didn't negotiate the rent because we're new to renting and just signed the renewal without thinking about it until my partners dad asked what we lowered the price down to. Since we already signed it I feel like we're SOL in terms of trying to get our rent lowered, I've even considered asking if we can move into the apartment downstairs because a dishwasher/more closet space and one less flight of stairs sounds ideal. We'd also be open to extending our lease another year if it helps with the renegotiating. Our landlord likes us and has said he prefers long term tenants. I feel stupid and am so upset with myself for not being more aggressive about it, especially since Covid has obviously messed up income for a lot of people (myself included) but we can't leave NYC because my partner works for the city & moving and paying a brokers fee sounded like a nightmare right now. [link] [comments] |
| (CA) Rent back to seller - Has this worked out fine for anyone? Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:20 AM PDT Our offer was accepted, but seller said from the get go that they needed to rent back until their new construction is finished in mid-December. We agreed to free rent back for 30 days, and paid rent back after that, up to 60 days total in our offer. Have not drafted the rent back agreement (SIP) yet. Working on that soon. I'm reading a lot of horror stories about rent back. Curious if anyone's done it and had it work out fine? Thank you in advance! [link] [comments] |
| [Landlord -AL] Do I have to make repairs when the tenant is in breach of their lease? Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:17 AM PDT My tenant called this morning stating that the water heater and HVAC unit stopped working. She wants me to fix it so she can keep living there My still employed tenant was notified of their breach due to nonpayment of rent 15 days ago. In their lease agreement has been terminated. We are waiting for the evection moratorium to lift to evict. I'm of the opinion the property is uninhabitable. Our lease explicitly states that the lease agreement is terminated when the landlord becomes aware that the property is uninhabitable. Goes on to state that should the property be repaired a new lease agreement, at the option of the landlord, is required before the tenant can resume occupancy. From where I stand the tenant has no right to demand any repairs at all [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2020 08:00 AM PDT My wife and I bought a condo in 2006 (yep) and we moved out in 2012, converting it to a rental property that just barely broke even. Overall negative cash flow after repairs and periodic vacancies. We're ready to be rid of it even though we'll never break even on what we paid. In the years following the crash everyone in the building (16 units) was underwater. Many owners chose to dispose of their units through short sales or foreclosure. The condo association finances were a mess for awhile but eventually recovered. The problem is that the association either didn't know or didn't care that allowing multiple units in the building to be purchased by one person is a BIG problem. One investor bought 4 foreclosures in addition to the 2 units he already owned for a total of 6. Now we have one guy who owns 6 out of 16 units and people buying in can't obtain traditional financing. The condos are "non-warrantable" as I understand it. Can someone with experience buying and selling condos tell me how fucked we are? My agent seems to think we're going to be limited to cash offers but a cash offer from an investor would certainly put us into short sale territory. [link] [comments] |
| Termite Damage in Crawlspace - How Bad Does This Look? Posted: 15 Oct 2020 07:49 AM PDT Under contract on a home in NC. Got the inspection report back and the only main concern was evidence of previous termite damage in the crawlspace, specifically affecting certain floor joists and girders. The infestation was deemed inactive. The house is 50 years old, so I'm not expecting perfection, but this is something that makes me nervous. The seller did not disclose termites, so I am also thinking of being "stuck" with having to disclose termite damage if/when I should go to sell. How serious does this look? [link] [comments] |
| Discouraged first time home buyer Posted: 15 Oct 2020 07:43 AM PDT My wife and I are renters at the moment, she desperately wants out of our current building. She is even willing to just move to another rental, something I'm trying to avoid as I don't think financially makes much sense. Like many others are experiencing, we have been faced with low inventory, crazy amount of offers well over asking price. I would like to see if others think this makes sense as much as it does to me. Since she wants out current apartment ASAP, I was thinking of just going the route of a condo with low HOA fees for the time being. I feel like instead of the moving cost into another apartment that money would be better spent just investing into a condo at the moment. Hunkering down in a condo for year or two and wait to see how the housing market plays out. Is this a logical? The biggest problem would be convincing my wife as she is completely against condos or town houses. [link] [comments] |
| We got an offer from buyers with a semi-shady background Posted: 15 Oct 2020 07:26 AM PDT Curious what others have done (or would do) in this situation. We're selling our house. Got a decent offer today, but when we Google'd the buyers it became clear that their "business" is clearly MLM (pyramid scheme), with numerous complaints on glassdoor and at least one on a "is it a scam" website. So, big red flag there... I guess my question is, what would you do in this situation? We really need to sell this house but at the same time I don't want to get locked into a contract with someone who very clearly has no problem using questionable/shady business tactics. If we were to accept the offer, apart from a lender's pre-authorization and not agreeing to any crazy addendums, what other protections should we insist on to make sure we don't get scammed in some way? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Do none of the upgrades to my house matter? All anyone says are "The Comps" Posted: 14 Oct 2020 12:28 PM PDT I understand I'm not going to get the 70k I put into the back yard. But the realtors I spoke to said it will help it sell faster but won't up the price. How is that possible? We poured a 16" by 25" patio, had a cover built, put in a 40" by 20" inground pool, poured another 3000 sq feet of concrete around that, put in grass, put in 25 Italian Cyprus trees, grass and trees are on the sprinkler system. But none of that matters because a house up the street sold for $330,000 so that's about what you will get. I could have saved 70K and sold my house for the same amount? EDIT: forgot was also replaced 1400sq of carpet downstairs with tile. EDIT 2: I never expected to get a dollar for dollar return on my upgrades. I just thought they would matter at all. Apparently, they don't and can even be negative. If I'm to listen to the realtors on here I should list it for the same as the comps and take the very first offer that comes my way. [link] [comments] |
| Buying via FHA on a house with a "recent" FHA appraisal Posted: 15 Oct 2020 06:53 AM PDT I found out that the owners tried to refinance 5.5 months ago. The appraisal amount was accidentally disclosed to me and is 30k under our accepted offer. My lender said we have to wait until this coming week when the appraisal will expire at 120 days. It just sucks having to wait an extra 2 weeks just to order another appraisal..moves out closing date out most likely. Curious - could I have used the appraisal they already had to negotiate? Just curious. Technically the appraisal is the property of the lender - FHA. Seems a little weird to have to wait for it to expire to order one ourselves... Also trying to understand how it will suddenly appraise at our offer price... [link] [comments] |
| Will home values increase over a span of 10 years? Can someone explain this to me? Posted: 14 Oct 2020 07:26 PM PDT So I'm buying an hour away South from Seattle which is a very booming area. People are moving into the area like a fire hose. That being said, if we stay in our home for 10 years before selling, can we expect the value of the home to increase? Why do people suggest staying at least 5 years? [link] [comments] |
| Real estate Youtubers. Are they right? Posted: 15 Oct 2020 06:31 AM PDT What are the track record of all the big real estate Youtube channels like Ken McElroy, MeetKevin, etc..? Are we thinking these are accurate predictions of the housing market? Or are they doing this all for clicks? [link] [comments] |
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