I really dislike the whole 'write the seller a letter/include family pictures' trend that seems to be ongoing. Just ripe for abuse of fair housing rules.
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I had no idea buying a home was so intense
- Thread starter stone616
- Start date
Congrats!
Sucks for that young couple, though. But if they were cutting it that close to pay for a house, they should probably be looking for something less expensive. Borrowing at max for a house is so risky.
That's a thing? Ew.
We've been in this process, and here's how it's worked for us:
My wife and I weren't actively looking... But we'd been kinda casually scoping out the market. A house gets listed that we really like and we jumped on it, went to check it out, then got in contact with an agent that day. We went back a few days later and put in an offer on that house that our agent wrote up for us.
We came in $5k above asking, with closing dates that worked for the sellers, but the purchase was contingent on the sale of our current house (We need the equity for a down payment, we couldn't buy it otherwise). In this market, the owner decided it was fine and that the contingency wouldn't be a problem. There was 1 other offer on the house when we put in our's, but they chose ours which is fortunate for us. We made a $1k deposit with our offer, as well as a $5k deposit when we signed the Purchase & Sale a week later. We also had the inspection in between that time too.
Then everything kicks off with our current house... We listed our house the following week and the process started for us. We made it clear to any prospective buyers that Mid-August was our ideal closing date and 4/5 of the offers we got agreed to the same closing date (August 16). One of them didn't, but w/e, we didn't go with them anyway but we could have tried to negotiate it.
Likewise, we got a $1k deposit with our accepted offer on our house; and then the P&S for our house is today, inspection was about a week ago or so. We have the appraisal scheduled for next Tuesday.
I was very, very stressed about selling and buying at the same time, especially because we have a 1-year-old and a dog which makes moving into some place temporarily really hard for us. But, honestly, it's worked out fine. Our agent has been amazing, she ws both our buying and selling agent, and she's a bull dog.
Agreed. Our agent suggested we do it for the house we're buying, so we did... I think in our case it helps us, we have a beautiful cute baby. We didn't accept it for offers on our house, I didn't want to make an emotional decision.
I think in some cases I get it and I wouldn't be against it ... Like, if I'm in a city that's being gobbled up by foreign investors, I'd rather sell my house to a young family than someone who is going to turn my house into a Zillow rental property from China. But, it's also rife for abuse too.
Yeah, exactly.
There's a lot of other properties where we live that are $10k, $20k cheaper than our's, and maybe they require a little more work than our's or there's some compromises, but still.
In my area it seems to be (and a lot of other places too).
Found a lot of places online who also 'recommended' it when I was first doing my research.
In my area it seems to be (and a lot of other places too).
Found a lot of places online who also 'recommended' it when I was first doing my research.
This is nuts- they're not applying to a university. All I care about is that offer is solid and the closing will happen as planned.
Would you then own the house ? If it's in toronto I'd fix up your parents home and own that , a 4 bedroom home is probably worth a million right now . I'm an hour away and it's 600K-700K for a four bedroom
I feel like this was recommended to us by the agent (who was repping both us and the seller) because the sellers were literally about to yank their house off the market and stay just before we made an offer. I wasn't having it but I can safely say after meeting them at the closing (and my wife's expert FaceBook stalking skills) if we were black they never would have sold us this place.
The wife wrote us this long-ass letter and left it in the house when we took ownership about how they raised all their children there and how bittersweet it was to move on, instructions on a bunch of stuff around the place, blablabla.
Yeah, exactly.
I'll admit as someone who just sold my house to a couple kinda like my wife and I but 10 years younger... If I had two offers, one of them from some Chinese LLC, or a Development Corp and one of them from a young family, I'd go with the family... Even if the foreign LLC had a slightly better offer, or met our needs better. I also like my neighbors and would know they'd be pissed if I sold the house to a company that was going to turn it into an Airbnb rental.
I'm emotional like that though. And as our city gets more and more developed, I like to see actual owners living someplace.
I'll admit as someone who just sold my house to a couple kinda like my wife and I but 10 years younger... If I had two offers, one of them from some Chinese LLC, or a Development Corp and one of them from a young family, I'd go with the family... Even if the foreign LLC had a slightly better offer, or met our needs better. I also like my neighbors and would know they'd be pissed if I sold the house to a company that was going to turn it into an Airbnb rental.
I'm emotional like that though. And as our city gets more and more developed, I like to see actual owners living someplace.
Well yes, I agree to an extent. I always prefer to sell someone that actually "needs" the property over a foreign LLC (never had offers from foreign LLCs). With that said, if the foreign LLC had a 98% of closing and the "family" only a 50%, I would go with the LLC. I prioritize my family's interests over another.
Exactly. For me as a seller, it is reassuring to see the buyer is a human being with a actual reason for wanting the house. People do bail on offers or get really picky during inspection. Someone who works 3 miles away and has a newborn is less likely to bail.
I do think it opens up the door for discrimination and that could be very problematic.
My neighbor just sold his house and I was very glad to hear that he said the buyer was actually looking to move into the house.
I was dreading that my neighbor's house would turn into an improvised apartment or Airbnb thing.
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When we sold our house we had 6 offers, the lowest offer (like 10 grand below asking) had a letter stating how they knew they were low but loved the house, grew up on the street blah blah. We ended up going with an all cash offer, no contingencies 20 grand over asking. Wasn't a hard decision at all (although the couple that bought it were a very nice young couple). But even it was an LLC buying it a $30,000 swing would be hard to swallow
It's unlikely to ever do that. But if they are equal on paper or close it can be a difference maker.
All depends on the economy where you live . I make 80k , my cousin in Ohio does the exact same thing I do but makes 40k less , I currently live in a townhouse but if I spent what I spent in Ohio I'd be living in a Mc mansion
Yeah, it's actually a 4+1. Potentially a 4+2? With a yard that is big by Toronto standards.
I think it's around an up-and-coming but still affordable area, but the houses around there are selling for 700-800k right now too. I'm moving ahead with getting ownership of it since there are little alternatives within Toronto haha. I don't drive, so I NEED a decent public transit network.
For us, double-income couple making 45k each and saving for over a decade lol. It'd be tough to do without double income or if single, a good tech or business/finance degree job.
I figure each 100k in borrowing is about $500/month mortgage. And hopefully that amount is not more than 50% of your take-home pay to be affordable for you (although I think the RECCOMMENDED is it only being 30%). That's kind of what you have to consider besides the massive downpayment amount.
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I just bought a second house and now need to figure out how to rent the old house. I should have probably planned this a little better. LOL
We are signing the papers tonight to finalize the sale of our house tonight. It has taken 3 months, and twice people agreed to buy our house only to back out at the last minute. I am so excited to put this nightmare behind me today.
Congrats on the sale , I'm going to be where you are next year and I'm dreading a dragged out process , hopefully everything gets wrapped up before the recession
Yeah, I don't think its fair, but we did one and the homeowner I think took our bid because of it. They were really compelled by the fact that we wanted to place our roots here and start a family. I think he liked that my wife was a teacher (he was a college professor)
For many, especially those that have some memories in their homes, parting/leaving a home can be a difficult decision. So they want to sell the home to a couple that want to make similiar memories, instead of a investment firm that plans to rent it out. Now sure, if the investment firm's offer is x5 more than the family, that is a no brainer. But if things are fairly equal? The Family wins (And they would win in my book, if we ever need to leave).
Appraisals for the house we're buying and the house we're selling all came in. So far so good. August 16 closing date on both which will be a fucking crazy day signing over everything and moving the same day, but ... w/e. We're getting there.
Do people usually do appraisals for houses they are buying?
Try buying a home in SF/Oakland. Within hours any decent property will have multiple bidders and the offers will already be ridiculously above the already ridiculous asking price.
I've just accepted the fact that I will be a renter for life.
I've just accepted the fact that I will be a renter for life.
Frankly, for us it's because we bought a $200,000 house in 2012 that went up over 60% when we sold it this year and ... my wife is in a medical profession that makes an average of $180,000 in this state.
You're not doing anything wrong. I couldn't swing it without my wife and some luck either.
I wonder how things are when you buy from a newly constructed condo vs buying from a current owner.
The lenders will do it. They won't lend over the appraisal value.
At least where I live the the bank requires it to write the loan. So the bank (well, our mortgage broker) gets an independent appraisal to make sure that the loan to value ratio is close. In this case, the house appraised for $5k over what our accepted offer price is, which is within the range. We're putting 20% down so it's not that big of a deal, we could have some wiggle room. For the house we're selling it's more important for the value & loan to be close because the buyers only putting down 3.5%... I figure it's an FHA loan for them, which probably has stricter requirements.
This was something that became more common after the housing crash of ~2008/2009 because a lot of banks got sunk when they wrote loans for properties that weren't remotely near what they were worth... so when people defaulted on their loans, there was negative equity, and it's what contributed to the mortgage crash (among other things)
Well, it also depends on the average salary and property prices of where you're living. 600k might get me a nice starter studio apartment in a cheaper neighborhood that also needs a ton of work done to it.
It is not really free. It is part of the loan closing costs and is passed on to you.
Well, on my old work commute there was a billboard advertising, "New starter homes in the low millions." lol
As someone who bought through the wind up in 2005 and sold just before the crash in 2007/2008, this is all pretty eerily similar.
I think so, or at least it's rolled into some brokerage fee, closing cost, stamp tax, or some other fee that gets slipped in somewhere. I didn't have to pay an appraiser out of pocket or anything. Also, it's not connected to your city's tax appraisal either, so your taxes don't go up with this either.
It's something that's done after the purchase & Sale agreement (in our case at least) to ensure that the loan we're applying for is less than the appraised value of the property. Back in the 2000s for a while banks would lend to anybody with barely a proof of income and they were so eager for new business they let anything slip through. And that's partly what collapsed the global economy from 2007-2011.
Interesting...
so say i want to buy a house. I make a offer say 500k and its gets accepted, but the bank say its worth 480k and wont lend me the proper amount. Can i then back out of the sale and get my deposit back, or do i have to had made that contingent in my offer?
That is usually a standard mortgage contingency - that the offer is contingent on loan approval. Sellers will usually then renegotiate a little.
In hot markets, people usually waive that contingency (or put in a clause offering up to a certain amount over appraisal). So you'll have to find that extra money from your pocket or lose the deposit.
I laughed. I cried. And then cried some more every morning on my way to work.
Congrats. We're supposed to be signing papers today as well, but we're doing so remotely and our California notaries aren't willing to notarize the documents our Virginia title company drew up as they're not compliant with CA notary law. Just the latest complication in the clusterfuck selling our house has been.
Despite the house selling for 40K more than what we bought it for, after renovations and fees we're way in the red (arguably breaking even considering what we would have paid in rent, but then considering the opportunity cost of the down payment and what it could have done in the stock market...).
And yet, even without yet escaping from the nightmare of selling, I still find myself browsing listings on Zillow and thinking about buying again.
That's awful. Dystopian future there. I recently moved from a high cost of living area (not as bad as SF) to one of the lowest cost of living areas in the country. The quality of home we were able to purchase was crazy compared to what I was living in. I have friends that struggle in NYC and SF that are dual income earners well over $100k. Fuck that.
I laughed. I cried. And then cried some more every morning on my way to work.
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No one who had a pipe burst at 10pm on a Sunday night would ever agree with that. Sure, Insurance pays for the mess, but it does nothing for the hassle.
How exactly do you sell a home?
Like, I have a home worth around 160K that I still owe about 100K on.
I want to buy a home in the 250-300K range, but I feel like there is not way I can juggle them both at the same time, and I know I can't choose my sell date of the first home.
How do people do this normally? Pay 2 mortgages until the 1st one sells? What about using the money from the first to pay towards the 2nd?
Like, I have a home worth around 160K that I still owe about 100K on.
I want to buy a home in the 250-300K range, but I feel like there is not way I can juggle them both at the same time, and I know I can't choose my sell date of the first home.
How do people do this normally? Pay 2 mortgages until the 1st one sells? What about using the money from the first to pay towards the 2nd?
Sell the first, put the money toward the second.
In practice, you can make your offer to buy contingent on your current house selling and schedule both closings for the same day.
Or you can move into a rental while between owned homes.
But don't most rentals require a year long lease?
Also, i have 3 pets, so that's a headache as well.
I'm interested in your first point though. I guess that is something I should talk about with a realtor.
Yeah, the housing market is huge at the moment. Stuff goes in a couple days at most unless there are major issues or it is way overpriced, sometimes even that doesn't stop it.
I wouldn't recommend putting in an offer without seeing, you can still catch them if you go to see them, but you need to be able to make a decision soon after the viewing and hope that your real estate agent is quick enough to write up an offer and send it as well.
I wouldn't recommend putting in an offer without seeing, you can still catch them if you go to see them, but you need to be able to make a decision soon after the viewing and hope that your real estate agent is quick enough to write up an offer and send it as well.
I think these letters are stupid and can lead to discrimination. But for some people there is an emotional connection to a house and who gets it after them, and these letters address that.