Real Estate: Missed Connection - And Still I Keep Looking - FTHB4SFH/TH |
- Missed Connection - And Still I Keep Looking - FTHB4SFH/TH
- Do I need a realtor?
- Downpayment Question
- Sellers, if someone writes you a personal letter, do you even care?
- Is our agent not keeping up with the times?
- When people say "Do it yourself and it's cheap, or pay a contractor it's expensive" in relation to homebuilding, where the are people learning all of this homebuilding skill?
- Homeless with good credit and a job trying to buy a house
- House next door
- How to decouple mortgage payment?
- Should we even bother sinking anymore $$ for patio addition?
- Neighbor died in home... Should I tell new buyers?
- Allocated Parking Problems
- New home buyer questions
- House Value - CoreLogic vs Quantarium vs Collateral Analytics
- Sigh...first of probably many losses
- Building permit approval contingency?
- Confused on what a strong offer entails...
- NEW real estate agent
- Sell House Without Realtor?
- (MO) Signed a contract on my first home yesterday! And then the conflict arises today...
- Why would a seller ask for a 3 month rent back? Why not just wait to sell in 3 months... since prices are only going up? (Portland OR)
- Rent to own?
- Do deed restrictions from original tract carry onto subdivided lots?
- How exactly do people avoid/reduce taxes legally when they own rental real estate?
| Missed Connection - And Still I Keep Looking - FTHB4SFH/TH Posted: 17 Apr 2021 09:21 PM PDT I saw you on RedFin in the Herndon/Sterling area, $300k to $550k range. There I was, sat cozy on my couch snuggled in a blanket with my cat at my feet. Two Cheez-Its pinched in my fingers in one hand, the RedFin app opened on my phone in the other. You were new to the scene; on the market for one hour. I noticed you before you noticed me, but that's okay, that's usually the case, as I've become a bit of a pro at observing from afar. There you were, with your lush grass, blooming flowers, and magnificent maples. Stone front and an unusual green vinyl siding. Cute. Curb appeal. I have a feeling many will bite. I did. I swipe through your photos. I'm impressed. I start fantasizing; I'd put a couch there, this room would be perfect for an office and my LEGO collection, my cat would love to perch over here! Wait, how much does this fantasy cost? A bit of my optimism? More? Oh! You're in my price range! Oh. Wait. This doesn't bode well for me. A slight attachment has already formed; I should know better by now. Especially in this price range... I make a move any way. I let my agent know, they arrange a viewing - same day. Sweet. I finally see you in person. The photos did you no justice. Your curb appeal knows no bounds. We go inside. This feels right. Too right... Clean. Vaulted ceilings. Spacious. Well lit. No odors. Soft-close kitchen drawers and cabinets. Plush carpets. Even flooring. Recent roof and HVAC. Well-maintained backyard. Attached two car garage. Who am I kidding, I haven't a chance in hell with you, I know this. I'm a singleton first time home buyer with a meager savings. But I have a stable job, will that be enough for you? I promise to keep up with your yard. Your curb appeal will remain. I'll even buy a used lawn mower and learn how to use it (don't judge). It'll have to be used after a big expenditure like you. But you seem worth it. I decide to take a chance. For you. For me. For my cat. I spent time updating my financials for my amazing lender. My marvelous agent crafted a contract for you. I sign, my agent sends off the offer package with kind words and quick prayer. And then we waited. Then we didn't. That was quick. Too quick... I get an email from my agent. It's a forwarded email from your agent. I open it, already anticipating the words I've seen many times before. Except this time it wasn't about the money, so they said, it was about the overall contract. I let loose a sharp sigh, my cat flicks an ear in my direction. And still I keep looking. —- —- —- This was supposed to be a funny-ish parody of those old school Missed Connection Best of Craigslist ads. Turns out I'm not that funny. I hope you enjoyed regardless! —- —- —- Thank you for all the updoots, comments, and awards! This was my first ever post, so I was wicked nervous. 😅 Here is the listing: https://www.redfin.com/VA/Sterling/261-E-Juniper-Ave-20164/home/11955792 It's a bit different than I'd been looking for (style/neighborhood), but I liked it! I'm not from the DMV originally, so when I first started house hunting in mid-2019 I had a hard time computing and reconciling the pricing of houses in this area and the condition they were in. In the span of 1.5 years my housing budget went from $250k max to $550k max, as I've been able to gradually save more/talk myself into dipping into funds I never wanted to touch. But as you all know, house hunting - particularly now - is a moving goal post. All the affordable places don't have attached garages, I'm not a fan of condos, and I would prefer an end unit townhouse without a bajillion exterior stairs, if at all possible. Back to the drawing board! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2021 07:37 AM PDT I have an opportunity to buy my current home from my landlord. I don't really have a good grasp of the home-buying process. Do I need a realtor for this? Would it be reasonable to try to hire a realtor for a lower-than-customary fee to draw up an offer and walk me through process, since the time required on his part would be far less than to actually find me a house? Or would it make sense to hire a real estate attorney or some other professional for that service? I'm in New Jersey. My understanding is that you don't typically need a lawyer to a buy a house here, but I'm not really sure. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2021 08:29 AM PDT What are the downsides to putting as much as you can towards down payment (eg over 20%)? I've seen this mentioned a few times as if it's a bad idea but I'm not clear on why. Wouldn't you want a smaller mortgage and monthly payment? [link] [comments] |
| Sellers, if someone writes you a personal letter, do you even care? Posted: 17 Apr 2021 08:27 PM PDT I personally know a girl who just got a house and didn't even have the highest offer because she included a personal letter to the seller with a picture of her dog included. Turns out the seller LOVES dogs and picked her because of that. Didn't even care that they were potentially getting less money. How often does this happen? I keep being told by everyone "you have to write a personal letter with your offer in this market." [link] [comments] |
| Is our agent not keeping up with the times? Posted: 18 Apr 2021 09:05 AM PDT Edit: two questions here, edit to bring them to the top. 1. Legal issues when having a clause to cover $X amount of appraisal gap? 2. Is an agent cautioning against an appraisal gap coverage because it's "not legal" not keeping up with the times? We are buying a home again after selling our first home last year at the start of the pandemic to move cross country and rent. Buying in Massachusetts a SFH (3bd/1+ba) between $350-500, 20% down conventional loan. We worry that our agent may not be as savvy with the market and what it takes to win , and I would like to hear from others if we should find a new agent or if they had legal issues with covering $X amount in the appraisal gap. The real estate agent I reached out to mid March seemed kind and earnest, and toured 3 homes for us that weekend. Since then, she has toured every weekend for us, and we've planned or put in 1 offer a week. But we keep losing out, and I wonder if our agent just isn't aware of what it takes these days for an offer to win. One time, she toured a home with the sellers agent on Wednesday but said we should wait till after the weekend open house to submit our offer. The sellers accepted an offer Thursday. Another time, our offer at ask was accepted but the inspection turned up a lot of issues we didn't want to deal with. We had a contingency and could (and did) walk away, but she said that the house was totally worth it because it had "good bones". It had a huge pest problem, unspecified structural damage to the foundation that we couldn't assay till after possession, failed hot water tank expanders, and the tenant wanted to stay till end of lease in July but the eviction moratorium would make it difficult. So we walked. Other offers made were just not as attractive: 25-50 over ask, keeping inspection and financing contingencies. Compared to cash offers or 50 over ask waiving the contingencies. For our most recent offer on a home listed at 459, she got "legal advice" from lawyer/broker in her office. She advised we should offer to cover the entire appraisal difference (but we could still walk away because financing wouldn't work out), the inspection was for our information only and we didn't expect the sellers to fix anything, and that we needed to offer 500 and put as much EMD as we could. We saw comps go for between 410-525, so we went for 500 fully expecting it to appraise between 460-500. She said 20% EMD but we honestly couldn't liquidate enough assets to do that in the week, so we are putting down 4%. We also suggested that we cover the appraisal gap up to $5000 because that would indicate we were serious about the house (and we can do that), and not going to walk away if it appraised below offer. She said the specific value in our appraisal gap opens us up to legal issues, but when pressed for more details and how that's legally different from covering the entire difference, she said she needed to talk to her lawyer contact. This was yesterday. Has anyone had any legal issues when the purchase offer had a specific value for the appraisal gap? TYIA. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 17 Apr 2021 02:54 PM PDT I've been researching building an either modular house or custom build for a while now, and the #1 response that always gets upvoted like mad is "If you do the foundation yourself it shouldn't be bad..." or "For me, I did all of the siding and the kitchen on my own. I'd recommend that!" I'm really confused here though. Where exactly is everyone learning to operate heavy machinery and pour a foundation like it's common knowledge? Where are you all learning to accurately put up cabinets and granite countertops like it's just something you watched on Youtube? Hell, where are you developing the skills to do it? I know from experience on various DIY projects that some of these things just come from repeatedly doing it and developing a technique. I tiled a bathroom a few years ago and after finishing the second half, I ripped up the first half and redid it just because I had become so much better over the course of the day. A costly lesson in trial and error and definitely not something I could scale up to a build as complex as a house. Hell I'd genuinely love to learn all of this stuff. Is it something a basic construction job would teach? [link] [comments] |
| Homeless with good credit and a job trying to buy a house Posted: 18 Apr 2021 09:37 AM PDT I've been homeless for years. Working on my credit for 2 years. Now my credit is between 729-749. I have a job that pays me about $4k gross a month. I was wondering how does this affect my mortgage chances. I keep looking at lenders and they all ask for current address and rental history. I have none. And the address I use for mailing (nice people let me wash clothes,shower and get mail once a week) I can't use them as a rental. I personally live in a tent in a forest. Should I just tell my lender I'm homeless or is that bad? I'm worried they will refuse me for that. Or see it as irresponsible. No family to help. Been homeless since 15 now 25 [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2021 08:53 AM PDT Hey everyone, sorry if this is the wrong place to post but I have a question. My elderly neighbor had a reverse mortgage on her home and has passed away about 5-6 months ago. So the home has just sat and is not being cared for in the slightest. My question is does the bank now own the home? And if so, what am I looking at as far as time before they actually sell it? Is there a way for me to see if it's up for auction or something? Thanks [link] [comments] |
| How to decouple mortgage payment? Posted: 18 Apr 2021 07:50 AM PDT Hi folks - was hoping for some advice. A non-married couple bought a home together and are both on the loan and they split the mortgage payment. The couple split up and one person wants to either sell the home right away or be taken off the loan so she no longer has to contribute to monthly mortgage payment. Other person is dragging heels/not helpful in discussing this. Any advice on how to handle this? [link] [comments] |
| Should we even bother sinking anymore $$ for patio addition? Posted: 18 Apr 2021 10:30 AM PDT My wife and I brought a nice home 1800 sq. ft, 3 beds, 2.5 baths, small patio/yard. Our patio is pretty small (cut in half by bushes) and I'm thinking about extending the width and length of it and it'll cost about 5200$ ($12/ sq. ft). The only thing is we may potentially sell our home in 5 years so I'm not sure if it's worth the cost to do so. Thoughts? [link] [comments] |
| Neighbor died in home... Should I tell new buyers? Posted: 18 Apr 2021 10:27 AM PDT My next-door neighbor died in her home a few months ago. She was old (around 90, I think), so I'm assuming illness or natural causes. The house is on the market now and a couple of prospective buyers have come by asking me what I think about the neighborhood, what I know about the house, etc. I have not mentioned anything about the previous owner having died in the home. In my home state the agent is not required to disclose this information. What do you think... Would you want a neighbor to divulge this information if you asked about the house? Personally I would rather not know, and I also don't want to damage the real estate agent's reputation or hurt their chances of selling the home. Ultimately, I don't feel like it's any of my business to share this info, but what if I become friends with my new neighbors them and now I have this deep dark secret?? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2021 10:17 AM PDT Dear Real Estate and Homeowners! I have made an offer on a top floor flat and it has allocated parking. Problem is, it has been rented out for the last five years and they didn't have a car. So the other residents have used it as bin storage and one resident is parking liberally over it. The space is very tight, and I need those bins move elsewhere. How do I resolve this as I agree the sale. Do I demand to speak to the management company? What would be my situation if I owned the flat and my allocated space was used as bin storage. TL;DR - I've made an offer on a property, but its allocated parking is used as bin storage. How do I resolve this as part of the deal. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2021 10:10 AM PDT I'm looking to buy a house for the first time but a few things worry me. In order to get my mortgage loan I need to get a house appraised which will cost $550. It also seems people recommend hiring an inspector which will set me back another $500. Does this mean every time I start the buying process on a house I'm interested in, I'll be set back at least $1050 before I even sign the contract? I'm not sure how often deals fall through or how fast things move usually. Besides that, everyone recommends getting a buyer's agent through connections or open houses. I don't know anyone that know a buyer's agent where I'm moving and it's 7 hours away so I can't exactly travel there easily. Is finding a realtor on realtor.com or redfin a good alternative? [link] [comments] |
| House Value - CoreLogic vs Quantarium vs Collateral Analytics Posted: 18 Apr 2021 09:44 AM PDT We're looking to get a HELOC and in doing so, we've been looking at various website to try and determine how much our house might appraise for. Problem is, between the various sites, there is about a $100k swing. I've found on one site, they compare 3 different models - CoreLogic, Quantarium and Collateral Analytics - again, there is a 100k difference between the high and low and the 3rd falling smack dab in the middle. Does anyone know which tends to be more accurate? [link] [comments] |
| Sigh...first of probably many losses Posted: 17 Apr 2021 07:15 PM PDT Just got the news I got outbid on my first offer by someone who offered $40,000 above asking price and waived all contingencies and used 40% down as cash. There is literally a tiny shack that was built in the 1930s (not even 800 SFT) that is listed for 200k in my area lol. Something that was worth 60k before is now 200k this is madness! This is getting really depressing. COVID put a huge wrench in my fiancé and I wedding plans so we decided to pause that and focus our money and efforts on getting a home, then do a small wedding after. Well...now the home part is just as difficult haha. Onto the next offer! [link] [comments] |
| Building permit approval contingency? Posted: 18 Apr 2021 04:41 AM PDT I've found a lot I'm interested in for my latest development project and I believe is undervalued. I would like to make an offer with a contingency based on permit approval because there is too much of a high chance it may not be approved in this location. The only issue with this is that the city planning department has had a shake up and is currently reviewing permit applications that are more than 4.5 months old while application numbers are very high. In this situation I don't know if I should even bother making an offer if it is contingent on the seller waiting 5+ months to complete the sale. [link] [comments] |
| Confused on what a strong offer entails... Posted: 17 Apr 2021 11:39 PM PDT Wife and I are looking for a 4br/2ba in Franklin county, PA. Inventory is low, and the nicer houses are gone quickly. We put an offer on a nice place. Literally went active that morning and the seller chose the offer that evening. We lost to an offer of 25k over listing and waived appraisal. Our max is about 325k. Our last offer was 5k ernest money, 10k above appraisal with escalation clause up to 300k for a house priced at 279k. Could experts or sellers chime in and tell me the strongest parts of the offer. What do you want to see? I should mention we are not cash buyers..we have about 40-45k in hand. Using FHA or USDA financing. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2021 06:42 AM PDT Hello! Looking into becoming a real estate agent but worried I won't be able to sell a house quick enough to make money. How long did it take you to sell your first house? Are there ever times you go months without selling? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2021 06:20 AM PDT Hello everyone. I live in North Florida and I would like to sell one of my rental properties. However, I do not want a realtor involved at all. I had a bad experience last time I used one and I wish to avoid realtors all together. Right now it is a sellers market here and a lot of homes are being sold quickly. My questions: What happens if the person that wants to buy my house has their own realtor. I certainly do not want to pay them anything. What are my options here? I think that's it for now. Im sure ill have more questions once this gets rolling but I think these will get me pointed in the right direction. Thanks for any advice! [link] [comments] |
| (MO) Signed a contract on my first home yesterday! And then the conflict arises today... Posted: 17 Apr 2021 04:45 PM PDT Just signed off on a new home yesterday that's in the progress of being built. Fantastic! And then I receive a letter in the mail about a medical bill that I thought was taken care of MONTHS ago after disputing it with a local hospital (Approx. $1500), that's hit collections apparently (first communication). Key points: * I have been pre-approved for an FHA loan with a co-signer, as well as a conventional (if I get this new job, still waiting). * I checked off all of the boxes for a fantastic rate My biggest concern is that I will lose this property. Am I able to negotiate with collections to drop it down to something more affordable? Will the underwriter for an FHA loan look at my medical collection bill? It's my only debt. I've read somewhere that they don't necessarily look at that directly, but my lender has mentioned that it could affect my credit score drastically if not resolved. I've got 15 days to resolve this before I send off my documents to the underwriter. Any advice as this is all very new to me... [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 17 Apr 2021 12:21 PM PDT Looked at a house last week and it had potential and I was thinking about it until the listing agent (at an open house) said the sellers want a 3 month rent back so that they don't have to move before their kids finish the school year. But if prices are only going up why not just wait 3 months to then list and sell? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2021 05:59 AM PDT Are there any companies out there who help with ppl who want to sell their homes but are willing to rent to the purchaser as they do things like work on their credit and save for closing and inspection fees? In this situation I would be the purchaser. [link] [comments] |
| Do deed restrictions from original tract carry onto subdivided lots? Posted: 17 Apr 2021 08:08 PM PDT Looking at a large (to me anyway) tract of land with some deed restrictions put in place by original/former owner, which is still the owner of farm next to it. They specify what style of architecture must be used, that only one house can be built on the land, etc, but does allow for some limited subdivision. If I purchased, and then subdivided, would the deed restrictions automatically become part of the subdivided lots? Some of them are very specific to the overall tract and would no longer make sense of the size/shape of tract changed. Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| How exactly do people avoid/reduce taxes legally when they own rental real estate? Posted: 18 Apr 2021 01:16 AM PDT I always hear about the tax advantages of owning rental real estate. But I looked into it. And it looks like the way you do it is with the numerous expense deductions available and allowed, like car usage, advertising, interest payed, insurance paid, repairs, commissions paid etc.... Just like any business, net income = revenue - expenses. The only thing that comes to mind is the wiggle room available since you are self reporting. So someone who wants to actually effectively pay less taxes will have to under report rents collected and over inflate expenses ( example put that u paid $2000 for gas when it was actually $600). And this is something that's tough to track by yourself and the IRS, so they usually never get into the weeds unless something looks seriously off. That is technically illegal but hard to prove, so is that what people mean when they boast about the tax benefits of rental real estate or are there special benefits I am missing? [link] [comments] |
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