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I had no idea buying a home was so intense
- Thread starter stone616
- Start date
Dealing with agents are my stress points right now. I talk to this agent occasionally as a buyer agent. I asked him this morning, "there is an open house i am going to attend today, can you find out if there is any HOA?" He replied with an No. and he also said, when youre there make sure to tell them you have an agent.
So i get there, i start talking to the agent there, we like the place, and then i remember to mention to him, oh yea i have an agent. Suddenly he was not happy, and said well, your agent is not here with you, im here, and i showed you around. If you plan on making an offer, you would need to come to me instead. I wasnt aware that i should be bringing an agent along to an open house with me.
So now im not sure what to do. I soon after find out that the agent at the house wasn't the listing agent, but another agent that works at the same company.
So now i am conflicted on what to do. Am i legally obligated now to this agent who showed me around, if i want to make an offer? I feel like if i went to my own agent now to make an offer, they would turn us away.
Not sure how to proceed.
So i get there, i start talking to the agent there, we like the place, and then i remember to mention to him, oh yea i have an agent. Suddenly he was not happy, and said well, your agent is not here with you, im here, and i showed you around. If you plan on making an offer, you would need to come to me instead. I wasnt aware that i should be bringing an agent along to an open house with me.
So now im not sure what to do. I soon after find out that the agent at the house wasn't the listing agent, but another agent that works at the same company.
So now i am conflicted on what to do. Am i legally obligated now to this agent who showed me around, if i want to make an offer? I feel like if i went to my own agent now to make an offer, they would turn us away.
Not sure how to proceed.
No. You're legally obligated when you sign a contract. In the meantime, laugh at the petulant people and hold them against each other for a lower percentage.
OP
OP
I went and got an estimate on what I wanted done to the home. Came up to $1400 to repair water damage deal with the attic mold and repair a GFCI in the bathroom. The seller got my estimate Thursday and agreed to it. Today the seller's agent contacted my agent and said take off the mold in the attic and the GFCI cause she's not paying for that. The stuff combined came up to $400. I told my agent that they agreed to the estimate I gave them and I expect them to honor it. They refused so the whole deal blew up.
How crazy is this person? I was gonna pay them $3000 over the listed price for the home and all they had to do was take $1400 and fix the damage. Furthermore they blew everything up over $400 to fix issues with their house they should have already fixed before listing it.
Now that they know about the water damage they're supposed to disclose it to any potential buyers since the home is going back on the market. I'm betting they don't.
How crazy is this person? I was gonna pay them $3000 over the listed price for the home and all they had to do was take $1400 and fix the damage. Furthermore they blew everything up over $400 to fix issues with their house they should have already fixed before listing it.
Now that they know about the water damage they're supposed to disclose it to any potential buyers since the home is going back on the market. I'm betting they don't.
The market is in a state they can relist it and probably get a higher offer than yours and that buyer won't haggle over pretty much nothing. Sorry bud.
TBH I'd probably do the same thing to you.
The only reason I was able to close on my house this April is that a different offer fell through on an FHA loan because the buyers wanted xyz done. There's literally nothing wrong with the house other than an old roof that still has at least 5 years left on it. Yeah it needs a paint job but it's a dry finished basement with a completely dry finished basement with a sump pump.
With this market a house is in good shape just buy it if the inspections come out good and repairs are minimal.
If you can't handle some minimal repairs don't buy a house. They gonna happen soon enough either way.
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So far I've put two bids on houses and lost both. Second house I went a few thousand over asking price with the promise of putting 35% down. I think the competing offer forewent the home inspection :\ They wouldn't tell me why we were turned down or let us try a higher number.
But I damn well wanted that home inspection.
But I damn well wanted that home inspection.
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Unless the buyer is handy enough to fix that themselves I'm guessing any typical buyer is gonna freeze when they come across that water damage on a home inspection.
I guess with me I'm not looking to rush in and buy someone's project that has all that old stuff in it they neglected to update or repair. The roof, furnace, AC, garage roof, all that stuff is at or near the end of it's expected life. Pair that with the water damage to the home and it isn't really worth it. There will be better homes. Who really wants to move into a home and have to put $20 grand into it inside maybe the first 5 years but not get a discount on the actual home beforehand?
What we have is a homeowner that lived in a house and got all the mileage they could out of the home and are now looking to dump it off on someone else so they can update it.
Also it wasn't over nothing. They took the estimate and said they'd do it then went back on their word. Hell they originally told me they weren't gonna fix anything on their house. I'm guessing their agent told them if they don't fix that water damage and the appraiser comes the financing would fall through.
In the twin cities of MN I had that happen twice out of 13 offers. Cash offer no inspection.
Usually inspection was fine. Other 11 offers I was usally 15-20k over lift and still someone went higher. In fact multiple times multiple people were higher than that as only once did I get a call back from our realtor we were close. Only reason we successfully bought a house was that something fell through and our realtor was tight with the seller.
I'm honestly tempted to sell our house and pocket 50k.
Pretty much. That's why we've been looking almost every weekend for the last 2 years and only put in 3 offers, all rejected.
When my wife and I went to close on our house, we never even met the seller, she just sent her mother to do everything after selling the house after four months because she thought she could flip it to make more money.....after four months.
She didn't and as we sat in the attorneys' office, our rep asked the seller's mother, "Do you have power of attorney?"
"What?"
"Power of attorney. Do you have it on you?"
"Oh....no....I think it's at my house....in Louisiana." (We're in Atlanta)
She found it in her car but we had a damn heart attack.
She didn't and as we sat in the attorneys' office, our rep asked the seller's mother, "Do you have power of attorney?"
"What?"
"Power of attorney. Do you have it on you?"
"Oh....no....I think it's at my house....in Louisiana." (We're in Atlanta)
She found it in her car but we had a damn heart attack.
Yeah man, my AC is 30 years old. It works. My furnace is 20 years old, it works. My water heater is 15 years old it works. It's deferred costs and I'll fix them when they stop working. Stop worrying so much. I have a brand new interior, fridge, stove kitchen, living room, etc. You're gonna have to fix things. I don't even need the central AC as even on a 95 degree humid day the only spot that gets hot is upstairs. Bought a $300 portable AC for that. Furnace and water heater have been regularly serviced, they're fine. Roof is good for at least 5 years. Yes I will have to pay for things but I will bargain the fuck out of them and it's fine.
Like if you want a perfect house with literally everything brand new then go spend 500k to a mil or buy some land and do a new build.
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It's one thing for you to do that at your own house. You've probably got sinking funds and anticipate those items going and replacing them. It's another thing when a buyer comes to you and they're buying your home and you don't have paperwork on any of that stuff, say you know nothing, and the home inspector has to date it by serial numbers and it's all old and well past it's life expectancy.
The last thing a new home buyer wants is to have major repairs in their first few years. Now if we're talking a deeply discounted house that's a different story cause you're going in anticipating that.
And yeah maybe you do have to put 20k in in 5 years. Fine. If you can find a better deal than that where 20k over asking isn't the norm, do it. That's your 20k, except more likely over 10 years instead of 5 like you "expect." Honestly a 20yr old furnace I trust more than a brand new one. Shits been working for 20 yrs with a good service history what's going to make it fail suddenly?
Basically bottom line is don't buy anything you can't afford even if the market crahes. Then worst case you're behind on some equity for a while but you can make your payments.
Basically bottom line is don't buy anything you can't afford even if the market crahes. Then worst case you're behind on some equity for a while but you can make your payments.
Well bud all I can say is you're going to have a very hard time buying a house in this market.
Pay a premium or expect some deferred costs.
It's obvious.
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I'm fine with that. I'll be paying my apartment money to break my lease early anyway as it stands so I'm in no rush.
Perhaps I'm cut from a different cloth because if I was selling a home I'd have paperwork on everything I did to it and beyond that I'd pay to get my own inspection so I could know what needs to be fixed or not and only do what I was willing. Somebody put in an offer they'd know that day what was going on because of the seller disclosure and if they don't like it they can move on and not waste anybody's time.
I go to this person and they don't know jack shit about anything in the home. The seller's disclosure is basically a blank slate of everything works and it's all fine which wasn't true. They're rushing the inspection, they want 30 days rent free after the sell and the inspection was pretty much worthless anyway because they refused to take care of anything it brought up.
If it makes me the bad guy to say it's your home get it to standard before you sell it to me then so be it. If it makes me unreasonable to have the expectation that what I'm buying is in decent condition then I'll be that.
Pay a premium? I was their best offer because I was willing to pay a premium but the least I ask for is not to be sold a home with water damage, dry rot, bat shit and mold all in the attic that they refuse to handle at over list price.
If things need to get fixed, why not just ask for a lower price on the house? Why trust them to get it fixed for you? They will go with the most acceptable shoddy job.
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I asked. They said I could get $1000 off at closing. How merciful of them. I pay them $3000 over asking and they let me get $1000 back at closing. We chose a company and gave them an estimate. They said yeah ok we'll do exactly what it says. Send the paperwork. We sent the paperwork and they sat on it for 3 days and came back with we won't do all of it anymore. I told my agent if they were giving me an out over $400 in charges which amounts to 0.002% of the sell price I intend to take it and she sent back a counter of we want you to honor what you said you'd do and they said nope.
Problem is if the wood in the basement at the bottom of everything was that dry rotted that you could push through it with your finger how was all the rest of it from the roof down? It was probably that bad down the entire side of the home. So yeah I wanted them to rip that drywall out while it was still their home and see.
If they made a better offer like max seller concessions (4.2%) and took the price back to list I would have bit. The market is hot so they didn't wanna play ball. They'll put the home back on the market and play dumb about all that damage. Can't be proven they know. The only clue the next buyer will have is the home went pending and back on the market so fast it couldn't have been a financing issue.
Mate. tbh, you are taking this business transaction a little too personally. You paid $3000 over asking because that is the market price, not because you were feeling generous. It doesn't matter whether they are the kind of people not to have paperwork for their modifications/repairs.
Now this,
means I would have walked away too, like you did. But in your next negotiation, don't get hung up over a ± $1000. It doesn't matter if the seller "won". Judge the house vs the market and money you want to spend and what time and engergy you will have to put in post purchase.
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That offer was made under the assumption that the listing was correct and the house was in great condition. The actual condition of the house was discovered later. Had I known its actually condition I wouldn't have offered on it at all with the listed price or if I did the offer wouldn't have been what it was.
I'm pretty much done for the summer though. I need to wait till school starts back up and the houses go back to sitting on the market for a bit before I get back into this.
In the early spring it wasn't like this. A house sat on the market for several weeks to months before offers were accepted. Once it got to late spring early summer you list a house and that same day or in less than 4 days it's pending.
This just isn't a good environment to make a potential life altering decision. Hell this situation I just exited probably would have played out entirely different if it wasn't the season it is now.
Where in the USVI? And what have you come across.
Back to the topic of this thread I could put my home up for sale and it would be gone within a week.
I wholely agree with this. For example 1 house me and my parents like, they more so more than me. I said i want to offer them XX amount and they said, no offer them more than that, they wont even consider your offer.
And i keep stressing to them. I will offer what i feel i want to pay for the house, not what i feel the seller wants for the house. i do not mind walking away if its not fair to me.
You think that's hard, try selling your house and buying a new house on the same day and having to store your belongings in a storage facility + the back of the moving truck for a couple days before settlement.
I did that last year.
Had to sleep on air mattresses two nights prior to the the back-to-back closings.
Money from the sale goes into escrow for a couple hours in between settlements and then is dispersed so you can buy your new home later that day.
THEN you move in asap that afternoon so you can avoid extra storage fees.
Worked out in the end, but man is it a pain juggling everything.
I did that last year.
Had to sleep on air mattresses two nights prior to the the back-to-back closings.
Money from the sale goes into escrow for a couple hours in between settlements and then is dispersed so you can buy your new home later that day.
THEN you move in asap that afternoon so you can avoid extra storage fees.
Worked out in the end, but man is it a pain juggling everything.
Coincidentally, my wife and I are buying our first house and my parents in law (her side) are selling their home and looking for a condo. They bought during the height of the housing boom and were hit very hard by the subsequent crash. My FIL has a chip on his shoulder to this day about the whole thing. He keeps making crazy ass decisions about real estate agents, asking prices, commission, and it's all because he still feels wronged from the last home buying experience. For cutting it off, he would burn his nose to ash and salt the wound to spite his face.
Home buying should be as clinical as possible. Make the decisions that work based on the market and your finances, not the ones that let you score a "win."
Home buying should be as clinical as possible. Make the decisions that work based on the market and your finances, not the ones that let you score a "win."
My SO and I just bought our first house, only had to go 2000$ over asking. We put down 10% our selves and now we just wait.
Been looking at houses for months, so glad it's done.
Selling my apartment was even more stressfull, the day before I put it put on the market there were like 2 other apartments and the day after there was 65 apartments on the market. Took forever to sell it.
Been looking at houses for months, so glad it's done.
Selling my apartment was even more stressfull, the day before I put it put on the market there were like 2 other apartments and the day after there was 65 apartments on the market. Took forever to sell it.
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It's funny I got a call today from my agent. I had her send over the signed release form that they requested of us and suddenly they had a change of heart. I'll just have them pay my closing cost and I'll deal with it because the way they're acting it would be a bad move to trust them to do anything.
Market is bullshit.
We paid 225 or 250k, house is close to 1m, probably more after they put up the new mall and other shit in the area.
But it's fucking useless selling, because 1m gets you nothing unless you move way outside of the burbs. 600k is like a townhouse, or smaller
We paid 225 or 250k, house is close to 1m, probably more after they put up the new mall and other shit in the area.
But it's fucking useless selling, because 1m gets you nothing unless you move way outside of the burbs. 600k is like a townhouse, or smaller
Put up our house for sale on Wednesday, got an offer slightly above asking with good terms today, asking for a response by morning. But we have an open house on Sunday and have several more showings requested/scheduled for today and tomorrow.
Even this is more intense than anything I went through as a buyer.
Even this is more intense than anything I went through as a buyer.
Selling is crazy. We didn't go with the highest offer, we went with the one with the least restrictions. It was an all cash offer and they waived the inspection. We had six other offers. We just wanted it done and didn't want to haggle over a couple of thousand dollars over a $475,000 deal
Buy in September - February. Less stuff to choose from, but the ratio you have to compete with is way low as well. We saved about 50k doing so.
I agree with this. Bought in Sept from sellers whose house didn't sell over the summer and they were getting desperate. Was able to get the house for 20k under appraisal even in a hot housing market like Los Angeles.
How does selling your house while looking for a new one work? Should both processes start at the same time? We are not sure how to make a contingent offer.
Are you using a realtor? They should know how to make a contingent offer. Basically you can take offers contingent on you getting accepted on a new place, and you can make offers contingent on you accepting an offer on your old place
We havenot gone through a realtor yet. Just browsing Zillow or Trulia to see if something catches our eye but planning to move before next spring.
So I've been looking for houses with my wife since January. A house popped up on the system Thursday that looked amazing. Immediately contacted my realtor and within the hour it already had an accepted offer and inspection scheduled and the seller wasn't budging on taking any further offers.
This shit is so demoralizing sometimes. Its like a sea of either:
1) Shitty dumps with shitty layouts/land in good neighborhoods
2) Small shitty dumps with shitty layouts/land in good neighborhoods
3) Awesome houses in bad neighborhoods
This shit is so demoralizing sometimes. Its like a sea of either:
1) Shitty dumps with shitty layouts/land in good neighborhoods
2) Small shitty dumps with shitty layouts/land in good neighborhoods
3) Awesome houses in bad neighborhoods
Hhmmm, you guys in the same town?So I've been looking for houses with my wife since January. A house popped up on the system Thursday that looked amazing. Immediately contacted my realtor and within the hour it already had an accepted offer and inspection scheduled and the seller wasn't budging on taking any further offers.
This shit is so demoralizing sometimes. Its like a sea of either:
1) Shitty dumps with shitty layouts/land in good neighborhoods
2) Small shitty dumps with shitty layouts/land in good neighborhoods
3) Awesome houses in bad neighborhoods
Seriously though, that sucks. Your Realtor should be finding those places before they even go on the market
Welcome to my world, except the houses start at $700k and you get the privilge of being in flood zones and high water tables. A fully updated 3br/3ba house will run at least 1.2 mil.So I've been looking for houses with my wife since January. A house popped up on the system Thursday that looked amazing. Immediately contacted my realtor and within the hour it already had an accepted offer and inspection scheduled and the seller wasn't budging on taking any further offers.
This shit is so demoralizing sometimes. Its like a sea of either:
1) Shitty dumps with shitty layouts/land in good neighborhoods
2) Small shitty dumps with shitty layouts/land in good neighborhoods
3) Awesome houses in bad neighborhoods
North of Boston. Sump pumps in all the nicer suburbs and almost all the houses are at least 70 years old that haven't been updated in at least 30 years.
But yeah, we're not putting offers in a flood zone or houses with a pump. Don't want to risk it especially after getting flooded once already.
Ah ok. My boss live in Stoneham Mass, guy got like a 3000sq feet home. Im jelly.
Stoneham isn't bad, but it does nothing for our commute and we're looking for better schools with more diversity. Woburn is a bit cheaper, but the same issues. If we didn't hate the South Shore so much, we'd be in Quincy or Braintree...lolz
i went through this two weeks ago.
- this is how it goes.
- List your house on sale.
- start seeing other houses and find a loan officer. go with whatever your real estate agent recommends.
- wait for offers.
- once you except an offer, it's time to pick a house that you liked, go to your loan officer and have them give you a pre-approval.
- if you're loan officer thinks its ok, you will get a pre-approval letter without a contigency.
- if for some reason, you dont get a pre-approval without a contigency then you need to have your real estate agent talk to the sellers and see if they are willing to entertain an offer with a contigency.
- in my area, most of the houses in the mid-high end range were on the market for a couple of weeks before selling so sellers were willing to entertain those offers.
- my sellers agreed to it but gave me 48 hours to sell my house. my real estate agent got us 72 hours but we were able to sell our house within the first 24 hours so we got lucky there.
that said, i would recommend that you sell your house first (go under contract) before looking. dont even think about any houses or you will get attached to it. sure you might lose out on a house or two, but there will be less stress and new houses will come up every day during the summer. winter was slow but that just means those mid-high end houses are not selling as fast which is good for you.
Well, our house is now under contract. Got marginally better terms from another offer, so we took it. Would have been nice to have more bidders, but I'm glad that nightmare is [almost] over.
Wasn't able to update our experience...
We listed our house two weeks ago, on a Thursday, we had one offer by Friday sight-unseen, but they wanted us to decide by Saturday before our open house. We said no, we were going to do the open house, got 4 offers after the open house. Wild market. I feel like we lucked out with the house we got our offer accepted on... We came in above asking by $5k, but I think there was some serendipity with when we put our offer in and how everything worked out.
You can't help but feel emotional with some of the people... One couple that bid was a young couple, they had bid unsuccessfully on a bunch of houses for months, and they were the ones who came in on Thursday. BUt the offer we accepted was $5k over asking, plus no closing costs, which ends up being a significant difference, and they were well qualified where that first couple was really up against the ceiling of what they could borrow and they were financing closing costs.
Both closings are scheduled for middle of August. Closing on our house sale, and then closing on our purchase immediately after... We have the movers scheduled that day as well. Pretty damn hectic, esp with a 1-year-old. But we're lucky, so far everything's worked out.
We listed our house two weeks ago, on a Thursday, we had one offer by Friday sight-unseen, but they wanted us to decide by Saturday before our open house. We said no, we were going to do the open house, got 4 offers after the open house. Wild market. I feel like we lucked out with the house we got our offer accepted on... We came in above asking by $5k, but I think there was some serendipity with when we put our offer in and how everything worked out.
You can't help but feel emotional with some of the people... One couple that bid was a young couple, they had bid unsuccessfully on a bunch of houses for months, and they were the ones who came in on Thursday. BUt the offer we accepted was $5k over asking, plus no closing costs, which ends up being a significant difference, and they were well qualified where that first couple was really up against the ceiling of what they could borrow and they were financing closing costs.
Both closings are scheduled for middle of August. Closing on our house sale, and then closing on our purchase immediately after... We have the movers scheduled that day as well. Pretty damn hectic, esp with a 1-year-old. But we're lucky, so far everything's worked out.