Real Estate: Praise for my agent |
- Praise for my agent
- Pros/Cons of Buying a Condo in the Same Building as a Hotel
- House in Cleveland (Battery Park/Detroit Shoreway neighborhood), no offers???
- How much do mortgage loan officers at large banks make ?
- Los Angeles, CA - ADU vs regular dwelling addition
- First time homeowners, Home Remodel, and Having a mental breakdown
- Can you un-convert a condo if you own both units?
- Help with Land Appraisal and Sale after Death in Family
- USDA vs FHA for first time homebuyers?
- Accepted offer in New York. Our agent is rushing us to inspection.
- Broken rafter in prospective first home purchase, looking for any insight available (MN)
- Two weeks on market, showing but no offer?
- A vent about builder lenders (DHI)
- Buyer's Agent - Contract Breach Help
- What's the right order of things to do to tackle a land purchase, home design and home build?
- Breaking a Property Management Lease when there aren't any Tenants?
- Refinance closing costs $11,000? 2.99% for about $408k
- Self-employed looking at FHA over conventional due to new guidelines - thoughts?
- With this financial situation, what would you do?
- When can I expect final walk through or CTC issuance?
- Refinancing - Lender is overstating house value / understating LTV
- Locking a rate before signed contract to avoid election uncertainty?
- FSBO, if I pay for plain listing (just MLS listing) can I specify specific buyer agent split?
| Posted: 29 Oct 2020 09:55 AM PDT I've purchased two houses in my life; The first in 2009, the second about 4 months ago. In both cases I found the house myself, and brought my agent along (the same agent both times). I'll tell you the story of how I met him, and why I used him again (and why I'd use him a third time if it was ever necessary). Back in 2009, my wife and I knew we liked a particular area in Northern NJ and decided to do some open houses. We went into Trulia and picked some houses on a map... The housing crisis had just happened so we were very conservative with our budget. We ended up one town over from where we originally targeted, as nothing was in our range. We went into a house, a fixer-upper. The agent there showed us around, asked if we had kids (nope), wanted kids (yep), and told us "Well that's great! You could buy this house, fix it up, and when the kids are old enough you can cash out the equity and move somewhere with good schools!" That statement woke us up to the fact that we really hadn't done any research on the area, and we needed to do more work. It definitely turned me off to that house, but I brought that same agent in to represent me when I did find the house I wanted, literally 3 hours later and one town over, with great schools. Number of houses he had to find and show us: zero! He had to do his work, handholding us through the first-time buying process, but the house was a good one, we were well qualified and everything went fine. I appreciated his candor throughout the process, pointing out things we should check, for instance abandoned oil tanks (we had a scan done). He never tried to sell the house, just walked next to us as we went through the process. Fast forward 10 years, our family had outgrown that first house and we were looking to move up. I contacted the same agent and we started the process a bit more traditionally, giving him a list of the things we wanted, areas we wanted, etc. He'd send us lists occasionally, but really I did most of my own searching using the RedFin app... It was great because if I favorited a house, my wife could see it and vice versa, and if we BOTH favorited one, we knew we were on to something. And that app gets data faster than Zillow or Trulia, and we'd very commonly send our agent addresses we were interested in before he'd even seen them on MLS. We started the search in 2019, well before the pandemic, and we weren't in any real rush... Most of our viewings were open houses, once in a while sending a request for a showing to our agent. Normal stuff. The reason I want to praise our agent came in April of this year: We'd been looking for a while at this point, there wasn't anything that was meeting our requirements that was also in our price range. So I decided to expand the search area to places I hadn't looked before. I found a house about 30 minutes away from us. It had more than an acre of land (we had a 50'x120' lot), a stream running through the back of the property, a balcony off the master bedroom overlooking the stream... It was lovely! We called our agent, toured the property, etc. We had our pre-approval letter updated to match that property address and asking price, and we were off to the races. Our agent had worked out the comps and he was adamant that the asking price was WAY out of line. The house was in generally good repair, but nothing on it was new. The last time it sold was in 2005 for $1,111,000 (welcome to Northern NJ), and they were asking $879,000. Obviously they took a major hit from buying near the peak. But our agent said that they should have been closer to 800 based on comps and some other factors. So we offered $775... The house had only been on the market a week or so at that point. They flat-out rejected the offer, did not counter. OK. We upped to $825, they rejected with no counter. Well OK, we lost out on that one. My wife was actually fuming at our agent, blaming him for losing that house for us. I was on the fence, as I'd looked at his research and had been doing the majority of the searches up to this point as well, but obviously was very disappointed. A few weeks later I found another house in this new search area. It checked every box for us, had some really unique features, and was just really lovely. The asking price was the same as that previous one, $879,000. Our agent recommended we go in at $865, and I had to convince my wife that we should listen to him. Sellers countered at $872, and we took it. So he clawed back a little respect in my wife's eyes, as she'd wanted to just offer at asking, so he saved us $7k right off the bat. And of course, we love this house so much, we can't imagine living in that other house! But the icing on the cake came this week. We never met or talked to the sellers on that previous house, but the fact that they never countered or anything really left a sour taste in our mouths. They finally closed their sale, 6 months after our $825k offer... For $770k. It was a lot of work sifting through RedFin for months (did you know they have a limit on how many homes you can hide? It's thousands, and I hit that limit!), and I wish my agent had been the one to find this house, but really he paid for himself at the offer table. TL;DR: Our realtor's research saved us from overspending six figures on a house, and we found our forever house just weeks later. Sellers on overpriced house took another 6 months to close and sold for $55k less than our offer. To realtors: Don't sugarcoat, you should point out the faults in a house, let the buyer go in with eyes wide open. They'll thank you for it! [link] [comments] |
| Pros/Cons of Buying a Condo in the Same Building as a Hotel Posted: 29 Oct 2020 12:29 AM PDT I'm considering purchasing a condo in a highrise where the bottom half is hotel rooms and the top half is condos. What are some advantages and disadvantages of sharing a building with a 4 star boutique hotel (Hyatt)? The private residences have their own private lobby, elevator, and garage area separate from the hotel. PROS *Nicer amenities than standard condos - olympic sized saline pool, sauna, hot tub, and 2400 sq ft gym w/ yoga studio *Lower HOA fees since the hotel has to chip in? I couldn't think of any other reason why the fees are lower than comparable buildings. *Hotel Amenities - room service, housekeeping, valet, spa, bar, restaurant CONS *I'm wondering what happens if the hotel goes out of business. They're actually closed now temporarily because of COVID-19 *Most amenities shared with hotel guests. [link] [comments] |
| House in Cleveland (Battery Park/Detroit Shoreway neighborhood), no offers??? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 08:33 AM PDT Hey Reddit world, My house is listed in the Battery Park/Detroit Shoreway neighborhood of Cleveland. I've had several showings but no offers. Realtor advised to list at $379k, I said no and we listed at $359k. I've dropped now to $329k (she's insisted price is perfect). I had an appraisal in June and it appraised at $360k. Yet I'm not getting any offers. I've had 16 showings so far and on market 43 days. 2 were agent previews and 1 was a 2nd showing. Another showing today (17th). 8 of these have been since most recent $15k price drop. Trying to understand no offers? My realtor can't make heads or tails. It's a great house with tons of sq footage and the end of the street is the path to Edgewater. It's abated through this year and 2021 taxes will be $3742 so it's not unreasonable. House around the corner had better kitchen cabinets and laundry upstairs and went pending for $415k in less than 3 weeks. I have rearranged things and unpacked a bit to give it a more staged feel. That was last week. Any advice? Https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1342-W-76th-St-Cleveland-OH-44102/33327655_zpid/?view=public [link] [comments] |
| How much do mortgage loan officers at large banks make ? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 01:50 AM PDT Hello, Curious how much mortgage loan officers at big banks like Wells Fargo, Chase, Quicken, etc ... make in base salary / commissions. Searching online I find that 1% is the "standard commission" but this seems too much IMO. I'm seeing average comp of loan officers on websites around 50-100k, so I'm wondering what parts of my calculations are wrong. Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Los Angeles, CA - ADU vs regular dwelling addition Posted: 29 Oct 2020 09:27 AM PDT ADUs are the new thing investors/developers are doing to add value to their homes. my question is, with all the incentives given to build ADUs, is there any reason one would still want to go the regular single-family-dwelling addition route, these days? aside from more 'guaranteed' appraised value a regular single-family-dwelling addition will get, does the regular dwelling have anymore benefits? trying to better understand. [link] [comments] |
| First time homeowners, Home Remodel, and Having a mental breakdown Posted: 29 Oct 2020 09:24 AM PDT Hi All, This is my first time posting on Reddit. I have been reading buyers remorse posts in the middle of the night when I'm anxious for about a month so I think it's time I post myself. My husband and I bought our first home. We just closed 4 days ago. We live in the Seattle area, so homes are absurdly expensive here. Inventory has also been low over the summer due to Covid-19. We looked for homes for about 3 months before, and we're outbid on a couple other homes first. We said we wanted an updated home, and we were filtering for that. Until, we saw the home we ended up buying. It was very outdated but had a large and well landscaped yard and pretty wildlife (which is can be hard to come by around here). It has a beautiful new deck. The home was in good shape with a new roof and new windows. Location was okay. The price was not as high as others due to it not being remodeled and there wasn't as much buyer competition (3 other offers). I felt it had "good bones." Our agent didn't understand why we liked this house. I didn't ask people's opinions which I now regret. My thought was since it was under budget we could "just remodel it." BIG MISTAKE. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. We had some contractors come and look at it immediately after we took ownership and they absolutely tore it apart, picking out all the things they would change and how much it would cost. It's a lot more complicated than I understood. We're being quoted double what we budgeted for the remodel. It shattered my hope and excitement about this house. After the second contractor left yesterday I had a complete mental breakdown about the house. My anxiety is through the roof. I feel if can't remodel it, it's not at all the house I would like to own. The kitchen is so small, with very little functional space. If we remodel it for the cost they are saying, we could have bought a larger, already remodeled home. I ended up with something really off base if what i was looking for and I feel like there is no way out. What I imagined and dreamed for us is so different from reality, and it is breaking my heart. I love our current apartment and the thought of leaving it for this new home is making me even more upset. Some positives: the house is in budget and we can afford it comfortably. That is a big deal around here considering the home prices. The neighbors seem very warm and welcoming. I love the yard and landscaping. It seems like a quiet, safe, and peaceful neighborhood. There isn't any deferred maintenance. Is am trying to tell myself that a home is about the people and the love, not the house. I haven't slept through the night since we put an offer on the home 5 weeks ago. Please help me come around to this. Any experiences you can share would really help me right now. [link] [comments] |
| Can you un-convert a condo if you own both units? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 08:56 AM PDT The area I'm looking in (near western suburbs of Chicago) has many two-flats that have been converted to condos. Say I buy one of the units and the other goes on sale and I have the means to buy that one, too. Can I convert the whole building from being a condo building and start renting out the second unit? [link] [comments] |
| Help with Land Appraisal and Sale after Death in Family Posted: 29 Oct 2020 08:19 AM PDT My in-laws own a plot of land outside Huntsville, AL. They bought it many years ago in hopes of retiring there after a long military and contracting career. They briefly settled elsewhere and unfortunately my FIL passed away. My wife and I visited the property to make sure no one was squatting on the land, but having no ties to AL and no one in the family planning on using that land in the foreseeable future, we were thinking of selling it. Since we have no ties to the area, we have no idea what the land is worth. It looks like there's a small community there, but on the surface it looks like a far cry from a highly prized or sought after location. It's probably not the place and we're not in the right stage of life to try to use it as any sort of investment property. What's the best way of going about appraising and selling the land? Should we just call up some local realtors and have them post it for sale? Any and all advice/help is appreciated. Thank you in advance. [link] [comments] |
| USDA vs FHA for first time homebuyers? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 08:05 AM PDT Hello! My husband and I (29F/31M) are in the early stages of purchasing our first home. We only plan on living in the home for about 10 years before we relocate. While we have some money for the down payment, it's nowhere near the ideal 20% for a conventional loan, so we're thinking about moving forward with an FHA or a USDA Rural Dev (our area is well within map boundaries) loan. I understand that FHA/USDA loans are generally less attractive to sellers due to turnaround times/fussy inspection standards/etc, but other than that I was hoping someone could share their own experience(s) with the loan programs. We're in southeast Pennsylvania and are looking for some acreage + house or the possibility of building a home on the land if need be. [link] [comments] |
| Accepted offer in New York. Our agent is rushing us to inspection. Posted: 29 Oct 2020 05:16 AM PDT Our offer was accepted on Tuesday. House is 100 years old. The inspector we really want to use (extremely thorough) isn't available until Monday morning. Our agent keeps saying she's super worried someone might come tour the house and give the sellers a higher offer as we wait for the inspection. Just how likely is that to happen? Would you recommend waiting or trying to find another, potentially lesser, inspector to get there sooner? [link] [comments] |
| Broken rafter in prospective first home purchase, looking for any insight available (MN) Posted: 29 Oct 2020 05:11 AM PDT I believe this rafter is in the northwest corner of the attic, but I'm not entirely sure, or it that's relevant. Hello. My fiancee and I are looking at buying our first home. It has a couple issues to fix, but the only one that demands immediate attention is this rafter our inspector found. We have no insight from the seller on how long it has been in this state, or if they even knew about it. Either way, we're done with negotiations and are fine getting it fixed ourselves. We've been trying to look up anything about how big or expensive of a repair it will be, but it's either too specific or we lack the terminology to find clear answers. Our inspector also pointed out an insufficient amount of intake vents for the attic, as well as the fact that the roofing itself is over 8 years old. So what I want to figure out is the best plan of action possible, and I've come up with a handful of different questions, of which I'm not sure how many are relevant: Will this roof feasibly survive the winter without incurring more damage? Is there an easy fix for this specific rafter, and if so what would the ballpark cost look like? Is there a short term fix possible that could forseeably last until we can afford to replace the entire roof? How important are intake vents for the roof, could the lack of them up to now have caused this issue? Should we prioritize getting more installed before/instead of replacing the roof? As you can probably tell, I have zero idea what I'm dealing with. Absolutely any insight or info is much appreciated. If there is any relevant info I left out please let me know. Thank you. [link] [comments] |
| Two weeks on market, showing but no offer? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:20 AM PDT We put on house on the market two weeks ago. After one week of no offers we decided to lower the price from $114,900 to $110,000. We lowered it because we are pretty desperate to move. The feedback we've been receiving is the area isn't great and the rooms are small. What can I do to make my lived in house (with two kids) look better? 1st child bedroom 9x10. 2nd child's bedroom 9x8. House is located on a corner of main road but faces a street. I'm at a loss, I knew this would be a hard sell but nearly everything is new and updated in the house. We have a showing nearly everyday but they say the rooms are too small which you can clearly see on listing photos. [link] [comments] |
| A vent about builder lenders (DHI) Posted: 29 Oct 2020 03:58 AM PDT I'm in the midst of closing on a new construction home (2 weeks out from receiving keys, hopefully). I started this whole process about a month ago. Originally I received my pre-approval from an awesome local lender. I kept increasing my pre-approval amount (the market is a wild place, as y'all know), and he would usually get the new approval back to me within an hour or two. I went and toured four homes on Sept 26th, and fell in love with the second home I saw, a Lexington DR Horton home. It's an incredible home. Later that day I accepted an offer on my current home, and placed an offer on the new construction house, which was accepted. They stipulated that I had to apply with DHI (their lender), even if I didn't use them. A couple of days after that, I also got my approval from DHI. At that point, I became a nice potential payday for the LO, so he pursued me heavily. I got a great rate for mediocre credit (3 initially), and they would cover literally all closing costs. So I went back to my local lender, he gave me a quote for 2.875 and $400 of closing costs, and told me he really wants to, but ultimately probably won't be able to, beat whatever DHI offers. So back to DHI I went. They matched the rate and continued to cover all closing, so I went with them. At that point, my LO became much harder to get ahold of. This is only my second home, and I'm not super well versed in the process of all of this (doing better thanks to this subreddit). My realtor is wonderful, and absolutely on it, but I feel like I am having to babysit DHI every step of the way. I had my approval with conditions a week and a half ago, fulfilled the conditions easily, then heard nothing. The buyer for my current house used a local lender and already has her CTC and signed CD. It's just making the process so frustrating and I think I'd almost rather pay closing costs than deal with lackluster communication and an inability to be proactive on my account. I emailed my loan processor yesterday (she's been a lot more helpful, thankfully), and there were a couple of things I did need to do, but weren't communicated to me. And she did a couple of things that needed to be done on her end, like following up on my insurance for the new house. But if I had not asked her? Would they just be sitting around, not getting things done? I know two weeks is a while to go before closing, and from what I've read, it's not a huge surprise I don't have my CTC. But better communication would be so incredible, especially for a fairly anxious second time home buyer. Despite all the incentives, I'd really caution against using a builder's lender. Although I'm sure some of this is very local to my area, I'd imagine there'd be similar complaints and issues in other areas as well. My plan is to hopefully refi with a better rate and better lender in a year or so since my credit will be higher by then, but I'll see if that pans out. Thanks for reading. [link] [comments] |
| Buyer's Agent - Contract Breach Help Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:20 AM PDT I'll keep it simple... I am a buyer, have been with an agent since March. We put in 2 offers back in April, not accepted, but did include a Buyers Agent Agreement ending the end of the year. This agreement was shuffled in with the rest of the paperwork for the first house offer I submitted. My bad for not paying closer attention. Over the past 3 months, I have been contacted only once per month by the agent. Just general check ins in 2, and a house (well out of my budget) in the other text. Just very little communication. I ran into a neighbor whom was just going to be putting their home on the market, they offered to sell to us and is able to help out with pricing. They would save 1.5% by using their agent to complete the sale, that savings would be passed along to me. Very generous. I reached out to my agent, and they refuse to let us out of the contract albeit not doing any work for me over the past 3+ months. I also talked to the broker for the agent and they seemed disinterested in helping at all. If I go through with the sale, I know I am in breach of contract...but isn't the agent as well by not making a good faith effort in continually finding a home for me? Bottom line is...i don't want to be sued, and if so, I want to be relatively safe. Any suggestions? [link] [comments] |
| What's the right order of things to do to tackle a land purchase, home design and home build? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:14 AM PDT Short version -- what do you do first? I'm considering a land purchase, prefabricated home development of 1-2 homes on that land (possible for subdivision and I'm considering a payback for part of home 1 with the profits from home 2 with some economies of scale), and will need a land+construction loan for the project. I've identified some land plots I'm interested in -- discussed with one seller's agent, and had one conversation with the prefab design company that would provide the raw materials from their factory, but not serve as builder. I guess I'm not sure where you really start formally, in a process like this. Is it -- first get a general contractor, then an agent, then get your loan approved given you'll likely need the GC's plan, but -- it seems I'd need the home design finished, so maybe work with the prefab/designer first? For all the options -- I guess it's not super clear to me from searching what really should be first, given that sometimes you need X to do Y. [link] [comments] |
| Breaking a Property Management Lease when there aren't any Tenants? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 08:24 AM PDT Hey, posting this on behalf of my parents. They are in a contract with a property management company that is supposed to terminate end of June 2021. The property manager has been trying to rent out their home since June 2020 with no takers...that is until a few days ago. Unfortunately my father found out this week that he was going to lose his job due to Covid-19 cutbacks. My parents are now in a position where they are thinking of breaking the contract early so they can move back into their home next month. The property management company hasn't been paid anything yet because all of their fees are based on there being a tenant. However there haven't been any tenants at all. Any ideas on how breaking a lease will impact them financially/Does anyone have any experience breaking a property management lease when no tenants were ever found? The contract I saw is very vague and says something along the lines of "in cases of early termination the Owner should pay the Manager any fees accrued until termination date" and that is pretty much it. Grateful for any advice/insight! [link] [comments] |
| Refinance closing costs $11,000? 2.99% for about $408k Posted: 29 Oct 2020 10:58 AM PDT Closing costs for refinance is $11,000? The loan is for about $408,000 + closing costs noted below. The breakdown is: $1690 - origination charge $2000 - other loan fees (doc prep, settlement, notary, lenders title insurance, etc) $555 - appraisal fee/credit report $3818 - prepaids: homeowners insurance premium, property taxes $2700 - initial escrow payment at closing: homeowners insurance, property taxes. $400 - HOA certification handling fee $150 - HOA insurance cert I'm just in over my head. I admit I'm not familiar with the refi process and that there are certain things that need to be accounted for or worked in to get through the process. But I already have homeowners insurance so why am I paying for homeowners insurance in the closing costs? It's my understanding that $10,000 will be rolled into the total loan amount and $1,000 will be paid in cash to close. [link] [comments] |
| Self-employed looking at FHA over conventional due to new guidelines - thoughts? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 10:39 AM PDT
Thoughts appreciated!!! [link] [comments] |
| With this financial situation, what would you do? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 06:38 AM PDT 24 years old 60k liquid 3300/month income - 280 car payment Looking to buy a $180k one bed/bath condo as a ~5 year solution and rent it out once ready and buy a house. Should rent for 1400/month Or buy a starter home now for ~$230k and slowly remodel and hope to sell for higher value down the road or rent it out if possible. Thanks in advance, cheers [link] [comments] |
| When can I expect final walk through or CTC issuance? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 04:10 AM PDT We were given a closing date, time and location early this week(November 12th). This is a 3 week push from our original date of closing. Of course, we haven't done anything financially in the time frame from pre-approved and onward, so nothing has changed on our end. Of course, everything has gone silent which I expected, but I'm anxious to know when they'll issue a CTC or final approval. I was hoping to find out by the end of next week. Is that a reasonable expectation? Our lender has been very helpful thus far, despite all the frustrations on seller side. This will be our first home, so the experience has been quite a learning one. We're anxious to begin some packing(we're not on a timeline to be out), but reluctant to begin u til we feel no more issues could possibly arise. I feel asking here coulf give us general timeline idea of final approval, CTC, or final walk works leading up to close for peace of mind. Is end of next week probably a good estimate for the wheels to start turning again? [link] [comments] |
| Refinancing - Lender is overstating house value / understating LTV Posted: 29 Oct 2020 05:31 AM PDT Bought my house in April 2018 at what looks like a local maximum for interest rates, as it's a rather high 4.625% (that was with 790+ credit score and 20% down) and am now getting around to refinance. I have an offer worksheet from a lender and even though I stated true values in email and inputs in the application, they are overstating the house value on the quote and therefore artificially lowering the LTV down to 60%. Ex #s - payoff/refinance amount is $300k and the estimated house value is $410k (conservative as Zillow says $440k), but they are putting estimated value of $500k on the app. They are also waiving need for an appraisal. So what gives? New rate lowers my payment $700 per month with $2800 closing costs so it's a no brainer. My home owner's insurance only needs to cover at least the remaining mortgage value and not an arbitrary "current estimated value," right? What does the lender gain by overstating value and what do I risk in allowing them to do so? [link] [comments] |
| Locking a rate before signed contract to avoid election uncertainty? Posted: 29 Oct 2020 08:55 AM PDT just got a 2.75% rate with 0 points. very tempted to lock due to next week's election. thoughts? [link] [comments] |
| FSBO, if I pay for plain listing (just MLS listing) can I specify specific buyer agent split? Posted: 28 Oct 2020 06:56 PM PDT Can I specify let's say 1% or 2% reimbursement instead of 3%. [link] [comments] |
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