Real Estate: Houseless in Seattle |
- Houseless in Seattle
- Changed my mind on a townhome, not sure if I made a good decision.
- New Zealand slowing investors destroying SFH market, USA take note!
- Buy or rent: advice needed
- Our buyers realtor submitted their inspection report to the lender and now the lender backed out
- What’s better for resale? 4bd/1.5ba or 3bd 2.5 bath that adds master suite
- I'm selling my home and im not sure if the agent selling my home is being 100% honest and acting in good faith.
- What are we doing wrong? Buying in Boston area
- Just wanted to get some opinions and what will be/are the effects of this...
- Help: Who to put house name under / does it matter in this case?
- Mortgage company failing to pay property taxes from escrow
- The struggle is real
- I think I've given up on buying a house in LA. How dumb would it be to rent forever, and buy a vacation house?
- I'm looking at a condo as a first time buyer.
- Low appraisal less than two weeks before closing. Will we be able to close on time if seller comes down?
- 7 days out from closing as a first timer. What should I gift my realtor?
- New home buyer. Needed advice
- First time homebuyer
- Need advice- multi generational living in NJ
- New home sales down 18% in February
- Might need to fire my agent! ASAP!
- Moving to Colorado, first time homebuyer, but I want to use all my savings to put 50% down.
- Trying to buy and VA Appraisal Came in $300k+ under (FL)
- Best predictions sought
- Interest-only loans Pro vs Cons
| Posted: 22 Mar 2021 10:28 PM PDT After 3+ months and 6+ strong offers we are bowing out of the home buying game. Our lease is up and we have to renew for a year or move...so going to renew. (Our landlords will not budge from a one year lease.) Our offers on homes were strong, usually up to 25% or more over asking, with large down payment and no contingencies except for financing. Most times beat out by all cash offers. How can us normal Joe's compete with that? We are probably going to use the next year to look for jobs in other locations...don't see the housing market getting any better here in Seattle. Good luck to those of you still trying! Edit: By "normal Joe" I really just mean people with financing and not just cash. I should have worded it differently. Edit: I was trying to play off of "Sleepless In Seattle" with the post title. I wasn't trying to make a joke about homelessness in Seattle. Sorry if it comes across that way. [link] [comments] |
| Changed my mind on a townhome, not sure if I made a good decision. Posted: 23 Mar 2021 07:53 AM PDT Townhome was listed at $440k. There wasn't much else for sale in that price range and it was the best home for the price. My husband and I offered $430k and the sellers countered at the same price, but asking the buyers to cover closing costs. It seemed like it would work, but then I started to really research other townhomes on the same street and with the same layout and square footage. Just in February, another one of those sold for $10k less than we offered and it was fully and beautifully updated with a better view than the one we offered on. I started to wonder if we were getting a bad deal and the price was too high. I decided to back out and my husband is upset. I feel like there will be other houses in the next couple of months that we can choose from. I told my husband I like the house, but I think it's priced too high and we offered too high. I'm hoping something better will come up or the seller may come down in price for us. I'm not sure. Any opinions on my decision? [link] [comments] |
| New Zealand slowing investors destroying SFH market, USA take note! Posted: 23 Mar 2021 07:08 AM PDT |
| Posted: 23 Mar 2021 10:25 AM PDT My wife and I are currently renters of a smallish apartment in New Jersey. We are expecting our first child in Oct. We are considering moving to New Haven CT prior to the birth of our child for various reasons (more space, close to wife's grad school, cheaper housing, etc.). However, there are some unknowns: 1) Once my wife gets her PhD in 1 to 2 years, we don't know where she'll get a job 2) I don't yet know what my NYC job's work from home policy will be, once we go back to "normal". New Haven is 2 hours by train. Commuting every day will suck. However, commuting 2 weeks a month may be doable. So, do we rent in New Haven or buy? If we buy, and we have to move in 1 year, can't we just rent out the house. instead of selling? Any advice is appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| Our buyers realtor submitted their inspection report to the lender and now the lender backed out Posted: 23 Mar 2021 08:49 AM PDT Our realtor is livid. Our buyers had a voluntary inspection done on our house and submitted their repair requests to us Sunday. The major issue is the bathroom fan vent empty's into the attic instead of outside, which has caused "possible mold" in the area directly above the bathroom. We had a contractor lined up to fix everything but we got word this morning that our buyers financing fell through because their realtor submitted the inspection report to the bank! So now we have to put our house back on the market and disclose this information, even after we fix it, to any new potential buyers. Will this scare them off, even if it's fixed? I am so upset because we are doing a sell home contingency so we can't even buy our new home that we have under contract until this one sells. Help me find the positives in this please. I'm feeling pretty defeated this morning. [link] [comments] |
| What’s better for resale? 4bd/1.5ba or 3bd 2.5 bath that adds master suite Posted: 23 Mar 2021 10:14 AM PDT I'm considering a house with a floor plan that has 4 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms. One full bath upstairs and a powder room off the kitchen. The way the upstairs is laid out, i could renovate the small fourth bedroom into another full bath and walk in closet for a full master suite. Thinking about resale down the line, what would hold better value? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Mar 2021 10:35 AM PDT I'm selling my home and after complaning to the agency about my agent and his lack of communication and basically being invisible and feeling like i didnt have an agent the past few months. I complained Saturday morning.to the agency and come sunday morning, a day later, he is calling me with an "as is, cash offer" for 180,000$. I had my house listed at 215,000$. Thats a big difference, but i still walk with about 80,000$ after paying off the mortgage and everything. But my agent is being really pushy about it, like i got the offer sheet sunday morning and he was pushing for me to sign it right away. Being that i was coming down 35,000$ i had a few requests, as i wanted 45-60 days to move out and i wanted him to get the buyer to pay for closing or atleast split it. On both those issues my agent shut me down even bringing those things up, as those things dont happen he told me. Im positive i know of people asking for those things when selling a house and negotiating closing, am i wrong?. Should i beware of my agent being so pushy, almost like he is now working for the buyer over my interests. Like he wants me to sign every digitally as well and i told him id rather do it in person and sit down with him and im now getting push back from him on that, saying the buyer is going to walk if i dont aign asap. But in the offer paperwork, closing was being set for april20th, so what's the rush that i need to sign asap and cant take atleast a day to read it over and ask queations. Can i get some advice, and am i right for thinking/feeling something doesn't feel right? Thank you for any responses and advice. [link] [comments] |
| What are we doing wrong? Buying in Boston area Posted: 22 Mar 2021 08:27 PM PDT Title says it all. We're relocating from the Midwest to Boston for work in June/July and thankfully have a relocation package through my husband's new job that covers a lot of expenses. We have been searching for houses in Middlesex and Essex counties since late January, have done 11 showings in person and 22 virtual (33 total), 4 offers made, all rejected. On today's offer we went 10% over asking, waived financing contingency, covered up to $15k under appraisal, inspection for info only, no home sale contingency and could close in 3 weeks. Lost out. Have another offer we can put in tomorrow but not much hope of that one being accepted. Location is essential. We have two kids and having a school district that is good with special needs is important as one of our kids is autistic. My husband will be working in Cambridge so does not want to be more than 5 miles or a 10-15 minute drive from a commuter rail station and he's very firm on that. We're not tied to any particular community, just one that ticks all the location boxes. New Hampshire has been ruled out due to commuting distance and less support for autistic kids. My husband is firm on keeping the appraisal contingency and at least having an info only inspection. We're fairly flexible on just about everything else, heck we'd take a 1,500 sf house as long as it had room to expand and at least 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We've refined our search to target houses well below our actual limit but actual cash on hand limits how high we can go without getting into needing a jumbo mortgage and we can't get any more cash until we sell our house. We're not quite in desperation mode yet (that will come in May) but I just don't know what to do to make us stronger buyers. My main concern in getting a house locked down ASAP is that we need to get the kids enrolled and on the radar of their new school district so I can get the one kid's IEP transferred over. After a year doing remote schooling and the move, it's not going to be an easy transition for them. This is not our first house (it'll actually be our 3rd house) but it is the one we want to spend the next 20-30 years in and with kids in school, the stakes are high. Add in having to do all this virtually while 600 miles away and the kids home all day while I try to be a teacher (it is not going well) and my husband working remotely in the basement has turned this into a nightmare and I'm beginning to lose hope. Edit to answer some questions!
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| Just wanted to get some opinions and what will be/are the effects of this... Posted: 23 Mar 2021 10:42 AM PDT The national eviction ban is set to expire in days. CDC will likely extend it https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/national-eviction-ban-expires-in-9-days-but-cdc-may-move-to-extend-it.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard [link] [comments] |
| Help: Who to put house name under / does it matter in this case? Posted: 23 Mar 2021 07:19 AM PDT Any help would be appreciated. I am Canadian and own a home in Canada under my name. I recently got an offer accepted on a home in MA which I am buying with a spouse. She is a US Citizen and I have my Green Card. This would be her first house. Are there advantages / disadvantages to putting both our names in the house or just having hers (or mine) on the US property? [link] [comments] |
| Mortgage company failing to pay property taxes from escrow Posted: 23 Mar 2021 07:16 AM PDT We have an escrow account for our mortgage. Our property taxes are paid from it. When we bought our house last summer, title company paid for half of the property taxes for 2020. I keep getting bills from the county where I live saying the rest of the amount is delinquent. I keep sending these bills to the mortgage company(after speaking with them on the phone) and never hear back. Now I have a notice that the county is going to sell my house if we don't pay. The mortgage company gives me a number for someone who has allegedly tried to reach me but I can't get ahold of them but I have left multiple voicemails. What else can I do? Can I pay outside of my escrow and get reimbursed? Or is that more trouble than it's worth? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Mar 2021 01:35 AM PDT I live in California trying to buy a home with my mom and it's been a struggle. We got our loan approval back in December and man has it been tough. My cousin is our agent and we are his first clients and it's definitely showing. In the past four months we've lost 8 homes to higher offers and one of them we almost got but lost because the other buyer had half the cost of the house as a down payment. At the same time I feel like there's stuff he hasn't been telling us that can definitely benefit us, like other loans and programs that can help with down payments for us being first time home buyers. Back in late January there was personal stuff going on with my cousin that went on until last week without help getting us a home at all. Lowkey just saying fuck it and either find another more experienced agent or try and talk my mom into moving out of state. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Mar 2021 04:47 PM PDT Barring some kind of extraordinary lottery winning, I don't think I'll ever be able to buy a house in west LA. I've been looking for years and the situation has gone from extremely bad to totally hopeless. I think I could literally buy an entire house with the downpayment I have saved (somewhere between $200 and $300k depending on how investments are performing). What are the downsides I'm not considering of renting forever, and buying a house 2-3 hours away that I can get away to every now and then? Maybe I could even AirBnB it occasionally to offset the costs? Is this just quarantine madness speaking or am I onto something here? [link] [comments] |
| I'm looking at a condo as a first time buyer. Posted: 23 Mar 2021 06:07 AM PDT I'm looking at this condo in one of the places I grew up. It's a good place, and looks fantastic. Has anybody had success with a 10-80-10 loan? It's around 170k, and I can't slap down a 30k down payment any time soon. I also make too much to ask for an FHA loan at this point. How does the 10-80-10 loan work? Do they just roll that other 10% into the monthly payments? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Mar 2021 08:17 AM PDT Pretty much just the title. I know it will probably vary by lender, but typically will they be able to quickly bring down the mortgage amount? Our rate is only locked until the exact day of closing, and I really don't want to lose out on it. It's looking like the Seller will at least come down part way, although we aren't certain of anything yet. [link] [comments] |
| 7 days out from closing as a first timer. What should I gift my realtor? Posted: 23 Mar 2021 06:01 AM PDT Barring anything crazy happening, I should be closing in 7 days on my very first house. The ONLY reason I was able to get this house was due to my AMAZING realtor. I want to thank her for everything she did- what are some gift ideas or at least price ranges that I should be looking at? House is in Denver, listed at $350k, appraised at $360k, I came in at $365k. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Mar 2021 10:43 AM PDT Freshly graduating grad school, got job 55K (significant income increase after 3yrs) that will start in June. Im considering buying home or apartment. The biggest factor to me is a good public school system/school. Location Allen/Auglaize counties of Ohio.. My questions; 1. How is the market now? (Car market is kinda high for example) 2. Should I get a realtor early? 3. Any website would u recommend? Like zillow, homesnap 4. Any good /concise resources to learn about home maintenance? Any advjce is appreciated. Im a clueless at this point [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Mar 2021 10:40 AM PDT Hi! I'm hoping to be a first time homebuyer! I am in the early stages of preparing to get pre-approval since I'm self-employed and, although I make a good income, lenders were requiring 2 years of tax returns before even talking to me (which I now have). I'm looking for resources to get educated on the mortgage/lending process - I'm wanting to setup meetings with a few different lenders and want to prepare which questions to ask in order to make a decision about who to move forward with. My credit is good but not excellent as I've never needed a loan in the past so aside from a well-maintained credit card I don't have an installment history - so I'm wanting to avoid too many hard credit checks. Does anyone have good websites or resources on how to navigate the lending process? An overview of how it works so that I'm fairly well-educated, etc.? What things to keep an eye out for/be aware of? Thanks so much! I am located in the US. Thanks again! [link] [comments] |
| Need advice- multi generational living in NJ Posted: 23 Mar 2021 10:16 AM PDT I feel stuck and in a close to desperate situation. Living in NJ. My parents, myself and wife, brother and his wife is joining us soon. South Asian family. We sold SFH in October 2019 and moved into a rental townhouse with the plan to house hunt in 2020. Our lease ended and owner has sold where we rent, need to move out Jul 31st 2021. We want to live together, one couple in a legal in law suite and 2 couples in rest of the house. I feel stuck because my brother lost his job March 2020 and we cant use his income anymore. My dad is near retirement and still works but its low income. We can't even go into separate housing either because of brother/father situation. Rentals to fit all of us are either crappy or too small. I'm approved for $500K but every house that fits our need is out of budget. Plus the same situation of multiple offers/over asking price as everywhere. Looking for advice on what to do when it comes to the worst case scenario. [link] [comments] |
| New home sales down 18% in February Posted: 23 Mar 2021 09:18 AM PDT Just saw this article and I thought it was relevant: https://apnews.com/article/business-weather-047c0903d524b836b112f4237813ef6e Could snow really have been the reason for the drop off? [link] [comments] |
| Might need to fire my agent! ASAP! Posted: 22 Mar 2021 05:37 PM PDT Let's start off with the fact that I'm not the confrontational type, whatsoever. I do realize that what has gone on is unacceptable... I scouted out my realtor and made the connection in June 2020. We planned to revisit once I had reached my savings goal in January 2020. All started off well: We toured homes and he would follow up with new listings...up until the beginning of March. There was one day I saw a nice home just list and immediately called him to schedule a tour. He informed me that he was not available and would delegate his partner agent (also his GF, might I add) to show the home. This was fine. After awhile, I was hearing from him less and less. I toured another property with her and submitted an offer that apparently came in second place (UGH!). She informed me that we'd continue the hunt and that she'd be working with me directly from now on. I just find it unprofessional and I don't appreciate being handed off. Should I forget them altogether and find a new agent? It's a hot market and a hard one too for first time homebuyers. I want people that are going to work diligently and professionally. [link] [comments] |
| Moving to Colorado, first time homebuyer, but I want to use all my savings to put 50% down. Posted: 23 Mar 2021 09:04 AM PDT I've worked in the same (warehousing) industry for 10 years. I am always employed, (no gaps) but where I'm currently working, I was misled to believe it's full-time, when actually they do mandatory hour cutting in spring based on business needs. I know this will look bad for a lender, but the homes I'm looking at are in the $110,000 range, in the less popular, more tornado-ey areas of Colorado. I want to get approved for an amount that will look good for the seller's agent, even though I intend to shop only in my target range. Because I'd be putting 50% down (plus covering closing costs with an extra $10K I've set aside) is the fact that I'm working about 3-4 hours a day lately at $19/hr going to destroy my approval chances, or will the down payment comfortably cover me? Also, I've seen a lot of stuff browsing this reddit about realtors wanting buyers in a contract with them. I'll be searching for homes in several areas of Colorado that are very far from each other, how can I best do this without making life harder for myself or my realtor(s)? Thanks for the read. [link] [comments] |
| Trying to buy and VA Appraisal Came in $300k+ under (FL) Posted: 23 Mar 2021 08:54 AM PDT Here are the details: House was listed for $1.32 Million We make an offer for 1.06, seller responds with 1.09 and we accept. We do a full inspection and there are multiple problems with the house because the seller has not lived in it for the 3+ years they have owned it. Relatively new AC system but it's not working properly, Kitchen appliances are not working, various outlets not providing power. Additionally, the roof is on its last legs (I pretty much figured that based off the age of the home and the appearance). It was clear that all of these issues were because no one has been living there, so we ask for $40k in closing costs and they come back with $20k which was what I was expecting anyways. Plenty to fix everything except the roof, which we had already planned on being a near-term expense anyways. Everything was moving along smoothly until the VA appraisal came in today at $790k! In my opinion, the fundamental problem with the appraisal is that the appraiser is only considering comparables in that exact village/town within a greater metropolitan area. They sent a tidewater notification and we sent comparables from the next town over, but they stated in the appraisal that they would not consider it because it was a different town, though only about .5-1 miles away. The appraiser also considers the quality of the home we are buying to be on par with the comparables which is absurd: Marble floors throughout the entire house vs laminate flooring, impact windows and sliding glass doors vs shutters, canal access, extremely private location vs on a busier street, normal flood zone for the area vs houses in a zone that FEMA says will flood without a base flood, only counting the home's huge pool and awesome back patio worth $20k, etc etc the list goes on. Finally, the appraiser's value is $10k less than what the seller paid for the house 4 years ago! He also didn't notice any of the very obvious issue that probably would have made it fail the VA minimum requirements which just adds to our iritation. I am working with my agent to try and do some sort of rebuttal, but I doubt an appraiser is going to budge enough to a point that makes it workable. Anyways, just wanted to vent. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 Mar 2021 08:49 AM PDT I'm in a situation that I've never been in before, and I'm wondering what the community thinks is likely to happen. I'm under contract for a house being sold by a church. The church must sell this house in order to forestall bankruptcy. Everything was going smoothly until my title company discovered that there was no legal description for the lot. It turns out in the past that the church had built another building across the lot line behind the house, and had never filed for the lot line adjustment. Their title company had missed this.Now the church is attempting to remedy this by hiring a surveyor and going through the city. I would be fine with that, except that my 2.75% loan lock can only be extended for 75 days. The estimate the church has given is that it will take 90 days to finish this work - at the same time, their agent is making noise about wanting a new preapproval letter from me and offering me "first right of refusal. " My agent responded that we are still under contract and needed no first right of refusal, and his position is that they sell me the house and hold me harmless in the sense that they adjust the price or pay down points or pay for the loan lock extension, whatever it takes for me to buy the house at the price and /or payment that I had contracted for. His stance is that it is not my fault that the sale has been delayed and the rising interest rates are going to harm me. it would be easy to say OK just buy another house, but of course I am in the bay area, in a wildly expensive small city, and nothing is coming on market anywhere near I can afford. This house really was kind of a unicorn. I believe that if I have to get an attorney involved, nothing good will happen. It is possible that the church will finish the work fast enough that there will be no harm no foul, but I'm just being eaten up with stress. I have bought and sold approximately 15 houses in this area in the last 20 years— we moved a lot. .I have never faced anything like this, my fingers are crossed but my stomach hurts. Any thoughts? [link] [comments] |
| Interest-only loans Pro vs Cons Posted: 23 Mar 2021 08:45 AM PDT Who qualifies for these types of loans and are they worth it? [link] [comments] |
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