Real Estate: Should I just accept home prices are never going back to 2018 levels and buy before they become totally un-affordable? |
- Should I just accept home prices are never going back to 2018 levels and buy before they become totally un-affordable?
- A point that everyone keeps ignoring in these “are home values too expensive nowadays” posts
- Sellers tampered with radon testing
- Getting overwhelmed - houses keep having bad inspections.
- 5% down on a house or 20% down?
- Do I have to worry about home prices increasing over 20 years?
- 90 year old Aunt refuses to pay the agreed commission after closing! What do I do?
- Apartment charging me to replace a carpet for damages that don't exist—what are my recourses?
- How much mortgage should you afford?
- Rental property in Texas
- New property offer while under contract with a seller?
- Interest Rates vs. House Prices Tradeoff
- How do property tax work?
- Converted garage
- Escalation Clause ?
- Building New Construction, 4th bedroom or Den?
- Really strange incident with residential lease
- What's the proper way of doing comps?
- [CA] condo hoa expects water intrusion projects, balcony renovations to multiple units, legal claims/litigation with neighboring buildings on water intrusion projects. How much to factor in the offer? Seller market.
- Do bathroom renovations increase home value by any quantifiable amount or is it negligible?
- Family mess- trying to file action of partition (NYC)
- Website Recommendations to Learn ‘How to Buy a Home’
- Trying to make a claim against my home warranty with my HVAC, would showing the original home inspection help or hurt my case?
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 08:41 PM PST I am a first time home buyer who is looking in the puget sound area. I chose the worst time to get a job up here and move to the south sound area. I had been working and saving up money to be able to move to the PNW and buy a house/ settle down. I had finally saved enough and got myself into a position where I could afford a 250,000 house comfortably. However COVID broke out and all of the high earners in Seattle are now able to work from home and live in my area which is vastly cheaper than the Seattle area. This has skyrocketed prices, the sensible nice starter homes have now shot up to 350,000-400,000. Should I keep saving up for a down payment or is the rate of inflation of these houses always going to outstrip my ability to save for a house? I am legit stressing out that I'll be stuck as a peasant renting forever and that I'll have to quit this amazing job just because I will never be able to afford a house. Since we live in America, I can expect I will never get a raise to match this insane rate of inflation. [link] [comments] |
| A point that everyone keeps ignoring in these “are home values too expensive nowadays” posts Posted: 17 Dec 2020 07:15 AM PST I just want to point out that in all these threads about home values increasing no one ever brings up that a higher raw value means you must pay more for the down payment. If you don't pay more for the down payment then your monthly payments are not the same as grandpappy's were with his 18% interest rates on his 15k house. Same with taxes. A 1% tax on 350k is 3.5k. Grandpappy's 1% on 15k is 150 bucks. There are other points to be made as well but I want to just stick to this one. Please when you're having these debates acknowledge that to get into these homes you now need a significantly greater amount of money. I.e a major barrier to entry. [link] [comments] |
| Sellers tampered with radon testing Posted: 17 Dec 2020 07:17 AM PST We recently closed on a home after about 6 months of looking/ writing offers. We had a home inspection done, with radon tests. The initial test was tampered with, by the homeowner leaving an upstairs window open, which they forgot to shut. So our inspector spoke with the homeowners to make sure they understood what must happen during the testing period. Then we ran another test. It came back lower than the first, but the inspector noted that the room was considerably colder than the rest of the house and asked the home owners if they had opened the window. They said they had not, but our inspector said he suspected they had tampered with the test again, and suggested we do another test after we move in. The tests he ran came back at 2.8 for the first and under 2 for the second. So we bought a radon monitor and the first two days, while we were moving stuff in and had doors open non-stop it was in the 2s and 3s. Now a week later, we're sitting at about 7 and climbing. 4 is the cutoff for EPA recommended mitigation, which we will be doing regardless. My question is, what, if anying, are the sellers liable for since they lied and tampered with the testing? [link] [comments] |
| Getting overwhelmed - houses keep having bad inspections. Posted: 17 Dec 2020 09:22 AM PST A few weeks back we walked on a house after inspection. The house had major foundation issues and the sellers wouldn't budge on anything, saying they had back up offers who would pay full price as-is. In that we lost about $2500 dollars between inspection, structural engineer assessment, sewer line scope, appraisal, and mortgage rate lock. Now we're under contract on a different house and the inspection found all the plumbing black water lines (idk what they're called - not the sewer main but the sewage lines in the crawl space) are end of life, the yard needs to be regraded away from the house, the basement should be encapsulated, and the roof has about 2 years left because although it is "newish" it is the lowest possible quality. He said he'd recommend to go back to the sellers with a $30k lower offer. Sellers are saying they lived in the house with no issues and don't plan to play ball. It eats me up to think about walking on another house (and losing another >$1k we've spent so far) but I also don't want to make a dumb purchase. And then what's next - I find a third house and it has something wrong with it and it just happens again?? In my area it's mostly construction from the 60s-70s, so is it even possible to find one that is going to be in great shape? It's hard enough to make the winning bid nowadays and to get this far along twice and finding problems has me super discouraged. [link] [comments] |
| 5% down on a house or 20% down? Posted: 17 Dec 2020 09:00 AM PST Seems obvious to put down 20% and avoid pmi but tying up an extra ~40k make me hesitant if there is an option to but down 5%. What if you put down 5% on a "fixer upper" and had it "re-appraised" at a higher value? Would your equity increase to a higher percentage? Never fully understood this concept. [link] [comments] |
| Do I have to worry about home prices increasing over 20 years? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 08:05 PM PST I'm a teenager getting into this whole finance thing to try and set myself right for the future. I read the average house cost in 2000 was like 119k and today it's 320k. And the annual household income has only risen by 20k so it's not like wages are keeping up with this. So in 20 years I'll probably be buying my first home do I have to worry about dropping like at least 600k to live decently and even crazier prices to have a nice home? [link] [comments] |
| 90 year old Aunt refuses to pay the agreed commission after closing! What do I do? Posted: 17 Dec 2020 10:27 AM PST Hi everyone, My husband is a realtor here in Toronto, Canada and he recently sold his aunt's house as per her request because she was getting too old and wanted to move into a nursing home. She is 90 years old and possibly has bipolar disorder. Her power of attorney is assigned to her sister. Husband was approached to sell her house four months ago. It was old and filled with old crap she hoarded so he paid for a cleaning crew and junk removal, him and aunt agreed that this would come out of his commission. She signed an OREA listing agreement in October, in which husband's commission was listed to be 2.5%, but the house was purchased through a private sale, so husband never had to run it through his brokerage or even list it. He found a buyer, and everything went smoothly. Come closing day, when the lawyer asks aunt about how much commission she was going to give him as her real estate agent, she says none. She refused to acknowledge the agreement and the lawyer claims she can't pay my husband because he didn't run the agreement through his brokerage. I don't know what to do! A very large chunk of our income is now gone, adding on the expenses used to prep her house for the sale (which were supposed to come out of the commission) we are in the red. How should we approach this? Do we have any grounds with her signed OREA listing agreement or no? Any advice would be much appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| Apartment charging me to replace a carpet for damages that don't exist—what are my recourses? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 01:23 PM PST Hi guys! Sorry if this is the wrong subreddit—I figured this fell under Real Estate, but if not, please feel free to point me in the right direction. Texas resident here. So I just moved out of a (somewhat seedy) apartment complex. They told us that we could just leave on our move-out day and they would do the walk-through the following Monday. I guess my first mistake was not insisting on being present for the walk-through—I knew they were probably going to find reasons to keep the deposit, because they kind of have a reputation for nickel-and-diming people, but I figured the deposit would be all I'd be surrendering. Anyway, so I foolishly fail to insist to be present for the walk-through, thinking they'd just keep the deposit anyway and we'd call it even, but two weeks later I get a statement saying I owe them the cost of replacing the carpet. I contact them to ask what gives, and they say that due to "odor" and traffic damage, they need to replace the carpet. Now, I'm not saying the carpet was pristine, but we never noticed any odor, and there was no damage beyond regular wear and tear. I asked them why, if there was an odor, they couldn't just shampoo or clean the carpet and be done with it? They respond by sending me a statement from "the cleaner company" saying that due to "odor and foot traffic" they recommended replacing the carpet. The signature from the cleaner was conveniently missing. I responded asking if they could provide me a copy of this document signed by the cleaner, and they ignored that and simply replied "The bill is due on 1/15. Please pay it by then," and have ignored all further emails from me since. So what is my recourse here? Do I have a right to demand that they provide a document signed by the cleaning company to prove there's an odor? Or is it pretty much, if they say it's damaged, it's damaged, and I have to deal with it? [link] [comments] |
| How much mortgage should you afford? Posted: 17 Dec 2020 06:12 AM PST Rookie question but interested in hearing opinions. What is your "rule"? Dave Ramsey recommends no more than 25% of take home pay but that is extremely unrealistic in the Chicagoland area. I was looking at a combined payment (mortgage, pmi, prop taxes, home insurance) that equals ~40% take home pay. Is this stretching my income to afford? (First time home buyer) [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 17 Dec 2020 09:50 AM PST I own a house in San Antonio, Texas. I live in Florida. The mortgage is still in both my name and my ex-wife's name. I was awarded the house in the divorce, but I never did anything to change the mortgage. I've had model tenants renting for the last 2.5 years. I knew they were looking to buy and we had talked vaguely about them buying my house, but nothing concrete. I allowed them to continue renting without a lease since august, because I knew they were looking to buy. Current tenants just informed me that they made an offer on another house that was accepted and they expect to close in 30-45 days. I would like to sell the house and be done with it. Zillow estimate is about $100k more than I owe. What do I do now? [link] [comments] |
| New property offer while under contract with a seller? Posted: 17 Dec 2020 06:49 AM PST Can I make an offer on a house this weekend and walk away from my current contract ? I'll loose the Due Diligence and the inspection fees, but what about the Earnest check? Inspection came back and the current house have too many deficiencies that i'm not sure if the seller is willing to cover all of them. [link] [comments] |
| Interest Rates vs. House Prices Tradeoff Posted: 17 Dec 2020 06:36 AM PST Curious to hear what y'all think of the tradeoff between buying a house now with the super low interest rates but inflated house prices compared with maybe 1-2 years down the road, when rates will probably be higher but house prices might shift in the opposite direction... or am I overthinking this correlation? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 17 Dec 2020 06:14 AM PST for property tax do you pay the tax rate that your houses are located in or where your residency is? I could imagine some loop holes if the second option were the case but I don't think it's likely, thought might as well ask XD. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 17 Dec 2020 12:21 AM PST This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion/rant and maybe it's just my area (greater LA/SGV), but why don't people use their garage to park/store their cars? My older brother has always been a car enthusiast so naturally I have become one. We have always tried to park our cars in the garage or car port or somewhere covered. Most of the homes I've seen have owners using their garage as storage and such... everything looks really dusty so not just throwing things in there to prep for sale. Or they have converted it into an office or workout space or ADU, which I totally understand the logic, but I just love my cars. I think I'm one of the weird people who would pay more for a two car garage and a circular driveway. It'd be really hard for me to go all in on a home if I would have to put a good amount of money into bringing the car garage back to it's intended purpose. Am I alone? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 04:37 PM PST We're trying to buy a house but we're told there are other offers, which we are questioning bc the house has been on the market a long time and needs a good deal of work. My dad suggested an escalation clause. Have you ever done this ? If there is no other offer then we'd get it for our lowest offer right ? They would have to prove and show the other offer in order to invoke the escalation clause ? Thanks ! [link] [comments] |
| Building New Construction, 4th bedroom or Den? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 04:34 PM PST My husband are first time home buyers and building a new construction in CA. The model we have chosen is just shy of 3,000 square feet and is a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath with a den and a bonus room. We do not have children, but planning on starting a family with hopes of having 2 kids. The den can have barn doors installed for privacy OR we have the option of converting the den into a 4th bedroom with a closet for an extra $2200. Should we opt for the 4th bedroom? Would visiting family and friends prefer a den like space or a bedroom with a closet? The builder's agent noticed that more people are opting for the den over the bedroom since the pandemic and attributes the change to how people are now spending their time (i.e working from home). In contrast, Ive been watching the existing home market pretty closely and noticed that 4 bedroom homes sell faster than 3 bedroom homes. How would opting or not opting for a 4th bedroom in our new construction affect resale value in the future ? [link] [comments] |
| Really strange incident with residential lease Posted: 16 Dec 2020 05:53 PM PST I put an above asking offer on a rental property I really liked a few days ago. I decided to not use an agent, as it typically helps incentivize the listing agent to chose me and I'm capable of handling the process myself. Yesterday, I text the listing agent and inform him that I'm withdrawing my offer if I don't get a signed lease by the next day. He responds within 10 minutes and tells me the owner is "taking the house off the market". Very strange wording, but whatever, doesn't matter since I lost the house, right? An hour later he texts me again and says good news, you got the house! This seemed very bizzare, so I push for an answer and he tells me that he got into an argument with the owner and convinced him to pick me. So, apparently it wasn't being "taken off the market", he was going with another applicant. Alright, this makes sense I suppose since the realtor has an incentive to pick me. I go to review the lease and notice that it says LL may terminate with 30 day notice at any given time. Keep in mind this was an 18 month lease, so that's even more concerning. I've had 4 rentals in the last 3 years and NEVER had somebody have this in my lease agreement, let alone try to sneak it into special provisions in small text without first informing me of such a major clause. I bring it up to the agent and he tells me "sorry, these are required in all our leases and it cannot be removed". I tell him to have a nice day because I'm not signing that. He comes back and tells me he can do 45 days if it makes me more comfortable, but "all leases around here have this clause". I immediately call my friend who's also a realtor in this area, he tells me that's 100% false and he's never seen somebody try to throw that into a residential lease. After the call, I once again clarify to have a nice day, I'm done with this conversation. He comes back an hour later and tells me that "It's up to the landlord, I'll ask and let you know". 5 minutes later he says "good news! LL agreed to drop the clause and change it to say "if you don't pay rent". What? The lease already clearly has plenty of instructions about termination and non-payment, why would you need an additional clause regarding termination. If the concern was about me not paying, why not say that to begin with, or why even rent me the property? Am I missing something? So, let's go back a second and remember the phrasing used before: LL was going to "take it off the market". Now it seems like the phrasing was accurate, they weren't sure about moving and this was a way for them to come back whenever they pleased. At this point I'm very uncomfortable. I insist on speaking to the landlord directly and talking through the situation to understand why they were pushing so hard on the 30 day termination clause. Maybe they were just genuinely concerned about eviction moratoriums? Who knows, but if I speak to the LL I'd be able to better gauge if I can trust them or not. Contracts are nice and all, but being on bad terms with your LL can make the experience very poor. When I last texted the agent, I said "this is making me uncomfortable, first you tell me it cannot be removed, and now you're telling me its up to the landlord". Agent tells me it's completely unacceptable to speak to the landlord and I'm supposed to deal with him. I understand it's probably not the norm to speak to the LL, but he's making it seem like it's something way out of the ordinary and crazy. Keep in mind the wording of my last text, I hinted at the fact I was uneasy about the agents words/actions, so he could very well be nervous about letting me speak to the LL directly and disclosing this information. I just told the agent that I'm not moving forward with the lease. Which sucks because I really liked the house. I happen to have the LL's email from the lease. Is it worth emailing him and telling him "sorry it didn't work out, I wish we could have spoken directly but your agent indicated you didn't want to speak" Additionally, is what the agent did illegal in any way? While it's shady to slip in such a massively impactful clause without informing me, it's an entirely other level to tell me that it "cannot be removed" and "all leases around here have them" if those are in fact false statements. The agent did end up sending me a the special provisions pages for 5 of his old leases which all had the clause. So he could try to argue he meant for all leases he's used... It also doesn't prove anything as it could have potentially been edited on after the fact. IDK, overall pretty upset at the moment. Not sure if I almost got screwed and should report this realtor, or if it was just a big misunderstanding and I should simply move on. [link] [comments] |
| What's the proper way of doing comps? Posted: 17 Dec 2020 02:37 AM PST Ive been looking at properties for a while now practicing using spreedsheets buy I dont really know how to properly do comps for house price and how much to rent out. I look at zillow rent estimate since I dont know how to look at comps. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 05:41 PM PST Even if in a seller market, the condo has a huge potential price tag in 2021 in special assessments. HOA and owner unable to give estimate right now but it's something that will definitely be on the horizon. several units from the same complex (of 30 units) have coincidentally popped up at the same time on the market. Coincidence perhaps or they may be anticipating the writing on the wall on the price tag. edit: sorry I was vague. I'm buyer considering an offer but these unknowns are very intimidating. [link] [comments] |
| Do bathroom renovations increase home value by any quantifiable amount or is it negligible? Posted: 16 Dec 2020 01:12 PM PST Trying to decide if I want to spend the ~$20k to bring my 1970s principle bathroom to the future. I have a 1500 sqft brick ranch in "midtown" -- and I'm well aware that it is only worth what it is due to location. I want to sell in the next 12-24 months and actively saving up to afford the next place. My first instinct is that a newer bathroom will be great because I'll enjoy it in the meantime, and it will put my house in a different bucket when I go to sell-- it's no longer a 70s ranch with original bathrooms, it's a completely renovated home (every other room has been renovated to include kitchen) House is a 3/2 that appraised at $340k in July when refinanced. If sold today at that price I would make roughly $40k after realtor fees. What do you think? [link] [comments] |
| Family mess- trying to file action of partition (NYC) Posted: 17 Dec 2020 12:23 AM PST Hello r/RealEstate, I'd like some advice on a situation Im in. I have a 1 family house in NYC with my middle brother, parents and I on the house deed. My brother has recently gone crazy and has falsely accused my mother and I of threatening to kill him and attacking him. Both my mother and I got arrested and we have full order of protections against us.. I have my father and my youngest brother still living in the house and my middle brother has been torturing us all. My parents had put the down payment on the house and the payments to the mortgage have been made by either my parents, myself and my youngest brother. Honestly speaking, my middle brother is a fuck up and has wasted a lot of our family's resources and money without every paying us back. Even though Ive contributed to the house and our expenses, this house is my parents and its their first one they've ever bought. They worked hard for many years to get this and its sad to see my crazy crack-smoking, lazy and unappreciative brother mess everything up they've worked so hard for. All payments to any bills/expenses and the mortgage have all gone through either my bank account or my parents. My middle brother has never given anything like Ive said and has no proof at all of making payments since he never did. I want to file an action of partition but Im just unsure of some things. Some of the questions I have are:
If you guys need any more info please feel free to ask. My family and I are under a lot of stress and my brother doesn't make things easy at all.. he doesn't care if he burns also as long as he can burn the whole family down with him. It'd have been less stressful if it was just me but its my mother also that was kicked out the house and she's depressed that one of her children is doing this to her. Thanks for the replies in advance and all answers are welcome and appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| Website Recommendations to Learn ‘How to Buy a Home’ Posted: 16 Dec 2020 11:52 PM PST Hi all! As a first time home buyer, what are the best websites/youtube channels with a crash course on "how to buy a home"? I would love to be more versed in home buying to better myself and help people in this subreddit. Any information is much appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2020 07:54 PM PST The title is the gist of it. I bought a house in 2019, and on the original home inspection had this to say about my HVAC: "Condenser cooling fins badly corroded and failing (A); If the condensing coil fins are extensively blocked or bent and damaged airflow across the coil is impeded, causing condenser damage and normal operating costs to rise. Recommend evaluation of the condenser for continued service and repair or replacement by a licensed HVAC contractor as needed. " I've made 3 separate claims to my home warranty, with my ultimate goal of getting the HVAC system replaced. For reference, I have Choice Home Warranty, with the Ultimate plan. Each repair has been patchwork at best, always with "this thing is 16 years old, we can patch it, but it needs to be replaced." Now I am on my 3rd claim, and CHW has denied my request for work to be done on the system because they don't believe it "became inoperative due to normal wear and tear," despite it being almost legal. Would it help my case if I proved the my HVAC was already in need of repair/replacement when I bought the house? That the condenser fins were already badly damaged when my home warranty policy started? My home inspection report will confirm this, but I am not sure if it would hurt my chances at an appeal. [link] [comments] |
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