Real Estate: My terrible tenant has requested a letter of recommendation from me |
- My terrible tenant has requested a letter of recommendation from me
- Why aren't appraisals done by the seller before the house is listed on the market?
- Zillow Offers, unbelievable offer. Already inspected property
- My new house is a burden
- “I’d sell; but I have nowhere to go.”
- Advice to tell a realtor I’ve worked with that I don’t want to work with them anymore?
- Synthetic stucco
- How lucky (or stupid?) am I?
- RE Market Before COVID
- Sell for an upgrade or refinance?
- I fought my appraisal and won!
- Blowing up a deal, over 2.5k
- Is this a good plan?
- Mortgage Delinquencies are at an all time high. What happens when these houses hit the market?
- New Buyer
- Sellers holding out for a "better" offer
- Pricing strategy? Staying below certain price point?
- Financing rentals without W2 income in retirement?
- What to know/look for when buying lots?
- Builder adding $2500.
- Structural issues are a no-go for us.
- I wish I wasn't commission only too
- Laughing all the way to the bank
| My terrible tenant has requested a letter of recommendation from me Posted: 18 May 2021 02:40 AM PDT I am selling my house and have given my self managed tenants of three years their notice. They have requested a reference letter to assist in getting into the commercial (?) rental market. In the past three years: -they were atrociciously behind on their rent for many months (due to medical reasons, they have been up to date for about a year now) -they got an inside cat that I was never asked about (a neighbour told me) (this is important as Western Australia has Pet Bond requirements) -i've had the police call me to confirm that the rental agreement is in his name (so that they would have to kick her out if there was any further Domestic Violence complaints made) -they have recently bought a puppy that I have not been asked about (a neighbour showed me the Facebook posts) -neighbours have complained to me about them -they blew up the ride on lawnmower I left to maintain the property as they did not check the oil level and it was empty. Were then expecting me to replace it; have also offered to replace it and me pay the back. (I did not replace it) The positive side is: -I am fairly sure that my house has been kept in reasonable condition (I live interstate and he was a friend so trusted him to look after it and didn't worry about inspections) -the property has been maintained okay, the firebreaks were sorted on time. Any tips on how I could write the reference letter requested as I need to sell the house, (so I need them out)o however every template I've looked at sings a tenant's praises and I just don't have that much to sing about. I am not comfortable straight out lying, but any advice or help is appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| Why aren't appraisals done by the seller before the house is listed on the market? Posted: 18 May 2021 08:44 AM PDT To disclaimer this, I'm a new buyer who is a couple days away from closing on a home, but this is the one step of the entire process that I can't wrap my head around. So as the process currently goes (at least for my situation), the offer is accepted, the inspection happens, and then the appraisal happens (more steps after this obviously). The result of the appraisal can result in negotiations, "appraisal guarantee" payments, and potentially the seller pulling their home from the market because it didn't value at what they were hoping for. But why isn't this done from the start? I can't think of a single situation that wouldn't benefit from this being done from the start:
The only argument I've heard against this was "every appraiser is going to value the house differently", but that makes so difference on WHEN the appraise the home and logically, this argument is about appraisals as a whole and not when it's done in the process. Again I'm new to this so I don't understand if there is actually a reason for this, I just can't wrap my head around it. [link] [comments] |
| Zillow Offers, unbelievable offer. Already inspected property Posted: 17 May 2021 12:46 PM PDT So I've read some posts here about how Zillow makes an unbelievably good offer, then asks for a ton of repairs and then still charges a 6% commission. I want to list my ongoing experience and see if anyone has anything I should be in the lookout for. For background I purchased my Arizona home 2 years ago for 300k, I've probably put about 10k of repairs in. With the market as hot as it is I was hoping for around 425k. We met with a realtor who said the market analysis was pointing to 440k but she'd like to list at 450k to be aggressive, she would charge a 5% fee. Zillow made a virtual offer of 482k so we let them set up an inspection fully expecting them to walk back their offer and list crazy repairs. The inspection came back, they didn't change their offer and they are only asking $1300 for repairs. On top of that because I told them I'm looking to build a new home they have some promotion for only a 1% selling fee. I haven't been able to get a builder under contract yet and they said not to worry but if I do go under contract with one of their building partners they can extend closing by up to 8 months. And if I don't go under contract with a new builder the offer still stands as is. I am 100% confident Zillow will lose money on this home if they go through with the purchase(unless prices go up 10% in the next few months whichever can't rule out I guess). They're going to send me the contract today, is there any "gotchas" that I should be on the lookout for? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 17 May 2021 08:38 PM PDT For all those out there who are desperate, we closed in April with a one-month rent back. We discovered last week during our post-rent back walk through that there was some pipe leaking on the kitchen ceiling (it's a 35 year old house; such inconveniences weren't expected quite yet). We move in tomorrow, and had the first warm day in a while here. We ran the AC and the coil promptly froze. All this to say, I didn't anticipate 'the joys of homeownership' would come at me so fast, and it certainly isn't any more fun than renting the apartments I've rented for the last decade. So, in this market, I think you win if you get the house and you win if you lose it. Good luck. [link] [comments] |
| “I’d sell; but I have nowhere to go.” Posted: 17 May 2021 11:33 AM PDT What do you all think about this? So many people I know want to sell but can't. It makes me crazy that the inventory IS THERE just waiting, wanting to become available, but can't right now. [link] [comments] |
| Advice to tell a realtor I’ve worked with that I don’t want to work with them anymore? Posted: 18 May 2021 05:12 AM PDT Asking for a bit of advice. About 10 months ago I started using a realtor that my parents used years ago. Everything was great in the beginning, they showed us many houses, we made some offers but the housing climate caused us to rejections. As more time progresses, our realtor started to seem like she couldn't be any help anymore. Couple strikes that bothered me: missed a phone call appointment by two hours on a Sunday. Recently told me they didn't have time to draw up an offer because they didn't seem to think I was serious. Also once told me conflicting stories. First bid on more expensive homes to get away from cash buyer, then I need more money for a lower LTV on those same homes I'll most likely lose to cash buyers. I'm a FTHB in a semi expensive housing market. It seems like this realtor just wants to sell the more expensive homes and doesn't want to work with us. I spoke to another realtor and they seem great, upbeat, willing to negotiate, even a few success stories for winning bids for people who were not the highest bidder. I just feel bad about telling the previous realtor, after almost 10 months, that I'm going to start working with someone else. Any advice? Am I in the wrong given the examples of my experience? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 May 2021 06:20 AM PDT My wife and I found a house that we really love, but the exterior is synthetic stucco (EIFS). The house is in the Southeastern US where it gets very humid for a good portion of the year. While the synthetic stucco looks to be in great condition, we have been told that this can be deceiving or that problems can quickly arise. We are also nervous that we could have a tough time reselling the house when that times comes. Had anyone encountered a similar situation? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 17 May 2021 03:45 PM PDT I wasn't really interested in purchasing to be honest. My rental agreement has another year to run on it and I now have to figure out what the hell I'm going to do about that. Having said that, I saw the real estate agent putting up the sign for a 3 bd 1.75 bath town home about a 15 minute walk from downtown Seattle. I was walking my dog and asked if I could have a look around he said "sure". He called his colleague who walked me through the property. It's a lovely home. Pre-inspected. Perfect for me. And RIGHT NEXT DOOR. It's within my budget (just). The agent didn't have much enthusiasm about me once I said to him I had no interest in going over the list price and also had no intention of waiving any contingencies. I want the inspection, appraisal and all the stuff that comes with it. He said he'd call me on Sunday after the open house because the offer date was today at 1pm. He called me yesterday and said there'd been 9 viewings. They expected 2 offers and he asked if I'd be willing to waive the inspection. I said no. I submitted the exact list price, with all contingencies, and the agent just called me to say the seller had accepted. I feel like I'm on the moon. I have a lot of stuff to figure out, but after reading some of the horror stories in here - how lucky or stupid am I? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 May 2021 07:22 AM PDT I'm a millennial that was waiting until I "experienced life and traveled the world," to think about settling down and buying my first home. I got FOMO and almost made the plunge with buying. I had 2 rejected offers of $20-31k over list. COVID directly/indirectly created:
Those that believe that the RE market won't look like it did pre-COVID(even if all of those aforementioned things finally ended or were diminished) can you please help me understand why? [link] [comments] |
| Sell for an upgrade or refinance? Posted: 18 May 2021 08:27 AM PDT I've seen a good deal of conversation of late on the idea of selling to get an upgrade vs refinancing to "save" money, and I thought I would make a post about how some of the math weighs out along with somethings to consider. The question about upgrading to a nicer/bigger/better home. E.g going from a $300k@3.75% home to a $400k@2.75% home. In option 1 you're total loan amount over 30yrs would be about $500k. In option 2 your total loan amount would be about $580k. If you want to talk about HCOL areas the math works out the same way just on a bigger scale. $1.4M@3.75% total loan over 30yrs comes to $2.334M and $1.6M@2.75% over 30yrs comes to$2.351M. The math is the same no matter how big the numbers get. HCOL will see much larger impacts with refinancing assuming you're not taking equity out, but you also have to spend a lot more to get a worthwhile upgrade to justify moving and trying to buy in this market. A $300k house to a $400k house is likely a better upgrade in LCOL areas than a $1.4M to $1.6M in a HCOL area. These 2 examples are also not quite fair and gives a generous advantage to the HCOL example as the upgrade cost is about 14% where as the LCOL area is an upgrade cost of about 33% based of the original mortgage. The reason that this matters and why the COL isn't as big of a deal is that inflation of the housings market is generally tracked in percentages. If you're going to "upgrade for cheaper" you're likely going to have to spend 10% or less of your original loan amount more (1.4M -> 1.54M or 300k -> 330k) to realize a financial boon based off my above examples. Also, when you're looking to upgrade you need to take into account that you will lose money due to seller's costs and closing costs. This will likely decrease the amount of equity that you can carry over from your previous mortgage unless you have a lot of cash on hand to cover those expenses. Will will obviously impact HCOL areas much more than LCOL areas. Personally, I don't think I would be likely to go through the process of buying in this market and moving based on a minor upgrade, but I have to contend with moving a family, maybe I would feel differently if I was single. Refinancing is often more complicated than many people make it seem and just because many people are doing doesn't mean it's right for everyone. When looking into refinancing your payment may go down, but your total cost might go up because if you're refinancing from a 30yr into another 30yr which is going to decrease your monthly payment, but may not save you money in the long run due to less of your payment going onto your principal. You also have to account for closing costs, you need to determine how long you intend to own the property and at what point will you recoup your closing costs. These are just some of the things I think of when I'm going through these processes having bought and sold this year due to a job move. [link] [comments] |
| I fought my appraisal and won! Posted: 17 May 2021 01:59 PM PDT tldr; Got an extra $32k added to my refi by asking for a second opinion on the appraisal after rebutting the first appraisal didn't raise the value enough. I'm in the middle of a cash out refinance on a rental property. When I first bought this property (pre-pandemic), I had it in my head that the ARV was somewhere around $125k. It has 1,300sqft and was listed as a 3 bed, 1bath, however the "3rd" bedroom was really just a glorified closet. I turned that glorified closet into a second bathroom and added a bedroom upstairs to make the house a true 3bd/2ba. Of course I did other light rehab work to the house as well, but I was banking on the new bed and bathroom as the large value add. After completing the rehab, I reassessed with my valuation with some recently sold comps from Zillow and figured that $115k was probably more realistic. Come refi time, the house appraises for...$80k. After pulling myself back together from the disappointment, I sent out an email asking that the appraisal be reconsidered. I offered the comps that I had put together and an appraisal that was done on a different house of mine in the same neighborhood for consideration. A day or two later, I get an email that the new appraised price of the house is $94k. When my loan officer called to set the closing dates, I told him that I was happy about the extra $14k, but that I felt it was too low and asked if it was possible to get another appraisal as a second opinion. He told me that they probably couldn't do that, but that he was meeting with his boss the next day and would ask. I left the conversation telling him that I'd happily pay the extra fee for a second appraisal, but that we could go ahead with the closing if it wasn't possible. They allowed the 2nd appraisal with the stipulation that I accept the value, even if it it came back lower than the first. I agreed. Today I received the new valuation, $112k. Moral of the story, it never hurts to ask :). [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 17 May 2021 11:09 PM PDT Starting with the positive, my wife and I just closed on our home sale today! We are off with our toddler in tow to stay with my in-laws until we close on our new home in just under a month. After a long search we finally had an offer accepted by going in 30K over ask in Northern NJ. :::womp, womp::: During inspection a few weeks back we come to find there is moisture in the basement crawlspace because the backyard does not have proper drainage. We asked for a $5,000 credit or repairs. Seller refused claiming inspection was for informational purposes only. (Nowhere in the contract does it state this). He also sends us a blurry picture claiming it is dry now and he sees no evidence of moisture. Seller allowed us to come back with a contractor to get an estimate which comes back for $6,000. It had been raining that week so the cinderblocks are clearly damp (again). Trying to be reasonable we send him the estimate but stay at $5,000 for the credit. Seller now claims that this crawlspace is serving its function of keeping the moisture away from the basement proper. So he does not see it as a structural issue with the home. I honestly was not expecting the $5,000 but I do feel seller is being unreasonable at this point. I would have settled for $2,500. While I know in the grand scheme the $2,500 is negligible, I really want to stick to my guns here but my wife is nervous we may lose the deal. (please no one hit me with a happy wife, happy life) Not really sure what will happen now if I go back for a 3rd time with my $5,000 credit ask. I suppose there is a possibility he walks away. My wife and I are both working from home until OCT so that is really our drop dead time for finding something. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 May 2021 08:42 AM PDT Listed my 3br 2.5 bath 3200 sq ft house at $575K with my RE agent. He came up with the number based on the admittedly poor comps in the area. In almost 3 weeks we had 2 showings and an open house that was a total bust. This says we are over priced. We are planning to drop to $545K since in the area the sweet spot where houses get into bidding wars is $500 to $550. Our house is larger than most of the houses in this range but is on a smaller lot, so that kind of makes sense. Area is a rural town 15 miles from a larger city in Montana. This town is now really a bedroom community for the bigger town, only 15min away on the interstate. Also my agent didn't put in the original listing that on our 23 year old house we have in the last 2 years replaced: roof, windows, water heater, furnace, porch, kitchen appliances, gutters, and a few other larger items. I made them put it in the text. That should calm people down some when thinking about a house of this vintage. I'm worried because it is the same listing but with a 30K price cut. Is that going to make people start wondering what is wrong? There isn't anything serious wrong with the house, expecting any inspection to show the routine stuff that will be there on a 23 year old house. It is due for siding and the wood floors are due for replacement is about it. Edit: we have a new house being built that will be done August-September-ish, so while we are not in a giant hurry we do need to get this house sold. [link] [comments] |
| Mortgage Delinquencies are at an all time high. What happens when these houses hit the market? Posted: 17 May 2021 01:17 PM PDT A few edits for those who don't want to read all the comments. The article only refers to FHA loans, not all loans. FHA loans are traditionally high risk and only a small percentage. I still don't know what percentage of all other mortgages is Delinquent. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 May 2021 04:24 AM PDT I recently saw a condo and I really like it. I'm unrepresented. The sellers broker wants to work with me, one of my friends say this is a major red flag. The sellers broker has sold units in the building before so he's familiar with the facility. Has anyone here ever had a bad experience working with the sellers broker? Or am I missing something completely. This is all new to me. So thank you for any answers [link] [comments] |
| Sellers holding out for a "better" offer Posted: 17 May 2021 08:03 PM PDT This is mostly venting. Sorry in advance. We've been putting offers on houses for over 2 months now having lost 6 already. We saw a house this weekend that had an open house. It was the first full weekend it was listed. It was priced a little high and was kind of an ugly duckling on the market but the location was excellent. We viewed the place and completely loved the space so we decided to go for it. While we were there, another buyer was putting in an offer which we thought was really weird. Like who sits in the backyard literally signing an offer paper during an open house while other buyers are viewing?? Anyway that night, our agent confirmed they had one other offer (the one we literally saw getting signed at the home) so we put in a competitive offer ourselves. We waived all contingencies except appraisal (financing, inspection, and sale contingencies). It was already listed about $50k over what the comps were showing so we offered list price with an escalation up to $10k over. Plus $10k earnest up to 5% after attorney review to show how serious we were. Today we get a message from the seller that they received our offer but they are going to wait another week and do another open house next week with best and final offers reviewed the week after that. This is INFURIATING! Obviously, the other offer didn't activate our escalation and they're trying to get that to happen or get something even higher. On the one hand, I get it. They see everyone else cashing in but if you're getting what you're asking for plus all of the contingencies waived, why are you torturing us?? I want to put an expiration on our offer like 48 hours take it or leave it but it's a seller's market and we have zero leverage. arggggggg!! /rant [link] [comments] |
| Pricing strategy? Staying below certain price point? Posted: 18 May 2021 09:30 AM PDT Preparing to list my home. I have a Redfin agent coming out this weekend, but even with their service I will be managing my listing because I lack confidence in most agents. I have a five year old single family home in a very large, master planned community. It's a smaller 3bed/2.5 bath with an unfinished basement. It will show very well, it doesn't look dated and I have quite a few upgrades. Market is very hot here. Only a few active single family homes listed at the moment. Usually homes are shown over the weekend and go pending the Monday/Tuesday that follow. Homes are going over list price, but list prices seem so random. Currently my state isn't showing MLS sales prices, so I cannot determine this on my own. The agent will pull comps for me. The exact same model as my home went pending about a week ago and listed at 515K (from speaking to the owner I think it will close at or near list price) This particular home has an inferior location, shows much more wear and lacks many of the upgrades my home has. My home will present more like a model as I have nice furniture and decor. I have an excellent location and a garden that will be in bloom and it will seriously look like it is straight out of a fairly tale. There are a couple of similar sized homes, but older homes (10-15 years old, different builder) crappy floor plan (small rooms vs my open concept), listed 425-485. Then same builder as mine, similar age and style but larger by about 500 -1,000 sq ft at 590K. Does it make any sense to list just below 500k to capture the attention of those buyers, or does it not matter anymore. Should I just list at what I want 525+? Is it worth pricing low in hopes up getting bid up? There is a newer home nicer than my one comp (mentioned above pending at 515). This other home is newer, has nicer finishes and is a a couple hundred sq ft larger. They listed at 485 and I'm struggling to understand why they priced themselves that way. What's your take on listing price strategy? [link] [comments] |
| Financing rentals without W2 income in retirement? Posted: 18 May 2021 09:24 AM PDT I've read post of some on here long ago that said they found a small bank that will lend to them without W2 income. This is something that is important to me in the future as I plan to retire soon but will have property in Seattle that I either 1) sell and relocate to my new home state or 2) keep here and pay someone to manage them (NOT a PM, they are waaay too expensive for what they do and it's NOT worth it IMO). While I have a high W2 income now that makes this possible for me with traditional lenders currently but not in the future. I need to fatten some of these properties I'm currently purchasing before I can relocate them and I'm not ready to relocate to my retirement state just yet. The long standing rentals I've had fall in the same boat as I recently cash out refinanced them. So anyone know of any banks that would work with me in retirement without W2 income, just going off rental income, etc.? [link] [comments] |
| What to know/look for when buying lots? Posted: 18 May 2021 09:21 AM PDT Basically the title. I'm finding that as I look for homes in my area, none of them are really suitable to my needs and so I'm looking to invest in a lot (possibly more) over time and build when necessary. I know building is not the best option right now with material costs and such, so that's a problem for another day. I'm just wondering if there are any "unknown unknowns" or things I should be checking before blindly buying a lot in a location I like. Any advice? Edit: The state is Mississippi, although I'm looking for more general info rather than location-specific. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 May 2021 09:10 AM PDT My builder has reached out and said that due to lumber costs, they have to add $2500 to the cost. This is in the Midwest. House is a ranch 1644 sf. $230k. Should I see if they can upgrade anything in return or should I accept it as the nature of these times? [link] [comments] |
| Structural issues are a no-go for us. Posted: 18 May 2021 09:09 AM PDT We went to look at a house today in our ideal neighborhood. Beautiful house. Ticks the boxes. However, the house sits on a hill, and on the west side (the low side), the paver walkway is deteriorating badly; the retaining wall dividing the property from the neighbor's is bowing really badly, the steps going up into the screened porch are being propped with a board, and the tiled floored in the screened porch has a huge crack that runs the length. Also, 25 year old roof and HVAC. In any normal market, we'd offer with the expectation to negotiate repairs and updates. In this market, we know we have no power to negotiate, so we are passing with feedback to the listing agent. I'm sure someone will offer to buy it and waive the inspection. Not us. Good luck, sellers and future buyers. [link] [comments] |
| I wish I wasn't commission only too Posted: 17 May 2021 11:48 AM PDT This sub is very anti realtor and I get it. Our fees add up quickly with the price of the home. It gets more and more unreasonable the higher the property price. I get it. You don't think what I do I necessarily worth 20k when houses are getting multiple offers in an hour of going live on MLS. And honestly I'm not here to justify my existence. I'm not here to break down costs of bring an agent, the broker splits marketing costs the fact that most agents only see 5 sales a year etc etc. I want a salary and benefits. I want a check every month. I have 2 deals that closing has been pushed back over a month each and may not be able to pay rent on time this month because of the delay in closing. The only brokerage I know of that pays salaries is a local boutique place that only pays 20k a year against commission and redfin reached out on LinkedIn but refused to give me salary range up front and I don't play that game. But hey if anyone out here knows how any DFW area brokerages paying their agents salary as employees I'm down. [link] [comments] |
| Laughing all the way to the bank Posted: 17 May 2021 01:04 PM PDT I dont have anywhere else that I can vent (I guess most might call it gloating) about this experience, but it appears to be working out, in the end. Suburbs of Atlanta in Gwinnett/Walton counties. I really want to tell the whole story, but that will need to wait. Bottom line, a builder signed a contract to build our house based on price set in August of 2020. They didnt start building until March of 2021 and that allowed us to sell our house in May of 2021. Thank you to slow builders! [link] [comments] |
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