How long until everyone misses the mom and pop landlords? Real Estate |
- How long until everyone misses the mom and pop landlords?
- Extreme Buyers Remorse
- What is a popular home feature that you don't like, need or wouldn't use?
- Buying Three Homes in Three Months - Summary
- Just Closed with Zillow Offers
- Offer was accepted, I’m so unsure.
- Interest Rates are Unique to Your Individual Situation
- Home for sale was a marijuana grow home. Was gutted and fully remediated by home insurance. Good buy opportunity?
- My agent is telling me that HELOC is a good idea.
- Why no search by walkscore?
- What happens if a bidding war doesn’t appraise for value of winning bid?
- What was your experience offering a free rent back?
- How long does it take to update credit rating bureaus?
- Hello, any suggestions for where to go on this? Looking at a rural house fairly close to where my wife and I will be working. Found an interesting home that would meet our needs well but the asking price seems way over the value of the house from the information I can currently see.
- If you are elderly and want a mortgage, will it be difficult to get a loan, since it’s unlikely that you will live long enough to pay it off?
- Have people actually waived inspection contingency and turned out ok nowadays?
- Our unsuccessful FTHB story (Nor Cal)
- Selling river front property on the Rio Grande in Texas
- New Construction Virtual Pre-Dry Wall Inspection
- Inconsistency in seller's transfer disclosure? (As-is offer)
- Does refinancing make sense with plans to sell?
- Advice on two scenarios for a first time buyer: Buying in the western US/buying somewhere “cheap”
- If you can afford a 20 year fixed vs 30 year - is it always better?
- My family home is trying to sell the family home to me as a second home for cheaper than its value. Is there anything I should be concerned about? More details inside
- Anxiety - Waiting
| How long until everyone misses the mom and pop landlords? Posted: 02 Aug 2021 07:25 AM PDT There is so much hate for landlords in general, and with these moratoriums ending I can see a lot of mom and pops choosing to regain their freedom and sell their properties. They have been shafted the past 18 months or so. For some reason people thing all these landlords are rich and can afford to pay for their tenants housing during the pandemic. How long will it be before people realize that mom and pop landlords were a blessing compared to the corporate landlords that are next to impossible to get a hold of, do the bare minimum and raise rent to market rate every lease renewal regardless of how good or bad the tenant was? I am curious how strong Reddits hate for landlords is and what they think of the possible shift to more corporate owned rentals. EDIT: I am generalizing a lot in this post. This is based on my personal experience. I'd like to hear if you agree or disagree and what your experience has been renting from mom and pop vs corporate. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2021 08:31 PM PDT 4 months ago I purchased a condo close to one of the more popular parks in Denver and could not have been more thrilled. The inspection was clean minus a few very very minor issues, the kitchen & bathroom had recently been remodeled, I had spectacular penthouse balcony views, and best of all - I got the condo for list price in an absolutely insane market. I chose a condo over a house because it was going to be more "low maintenance". 4 months in and I could not have been more wrong. This place is an absolute shitshow, for lack of a better word. On my final walkthrough before closing, I noticed a pool of water on my bedroom floor. Obviously concerned, we contacted the selling agent who said this was simply from mopping. This was a blatant lie. Upon moving in, the puddle once again appeared after a rainstorm, and I was able to pinpoint the water was coming from the balcony and running underneath the drywall. I hired a contractor to fix the drywall and had the balcony caulked and thought the moisture problem was solved. Nope. I got a moisture meter and took measurements of drywall in bedroom as well as laminate floors in living room and there were spots with 70% moisture. I also tested for mold and sure enough there was a small amount of allergenic mold in the living room. I am now in a position where I am purely sick and tired of this place and don't know what my next move is. I am 25 and I have never felt such regret in my life. I have already dumped money into this place for repairs (I have DIYed what I could) and now it looks like I need to have the floors ripped up and drywall repaired once again. On top of this, there is an extremely loud popping noise in my bedroom walls that will jolt me awake at night and I now need to take anxiety meds to get any kind of sleep. Also, let me just say that the home inspection process is a Joke. I understand it's a visual inspection but how did the bubbling laminate floors and chipped drywall spots by the balcony not come up. I will say the sellers agent did a VERY good job of staging the property to cover up major issues and fool me (and the inspectors) in thinking this place was perfect There is also no chance the seller and her agent didn't know EXACTLY where that puddle of water came from. I feel deceived and disheartened at such a lack of honesty. Anyway, that's where I'm at. I want to go back to renting and leave this mess behind and be able to sleep again. Anyone else ever have buyers remorse with your home? Did it get better or did you just cut your losses? [link] [comments]  |
| What is a popular home feature that you don't like, need or wouldn't use? Posted: 02 Aug 2021 04:37 PM PDT I've been thinking about building a new house and as an agent, I constantly see people absolutely rave about certain things that they want/need/love. One option I'm looking at is putting a sink in the laundry room. Personally, I have ZERO need for that and would rather not spend the money because it would go unused, but I know a vast majority of buyers would absolutely love to have one and I'm debating the money. I've seen builders charge anywhere from $600-$2,000 for this sink. So it got me thinking, what popular features do you find utterly worthless to yourself for anything beyond resale value? [link] [comments]  |
| Buying Three Homes in Three Months - Summary Posted: 02 Aug 2021 04:48 PM PDT Since May, I've bought 3 houses [in Las Vegas]. Only one of them is my own -- the first one. The other two were for elderly family members where I had to manage the entire process from securing a loan to closing. They simply showed up to sign the closing documents. Given the varied experience, I thought it might be helpful to some of you if I summarized how it went down. First House Criteria: Forever home; budget of $650,000; 3 bedroom minimum with a separate study/den; extremely kitchen focused house; good-sized backyard for gardening; no pool. This was going to be our house and we plan to live here until we're old, dead, or both. I started looking online a few months prior to this but saw no homes that fit my "set in stone" criteria without increasing my budget by over $100,000. Then, one home came on the market BELOW our budget and I felt like this was it, but didn't have a chance to go see it on the day it was listed. At this time period, there was police presence at open houses because people were going insane, getting into bidding wars and fighting over who gets to go in during open houses. But come Saturday morning, it was still not pending -- so I texted a realtor I had used before and asked him if he could show the house to me "ASAP." He said yes, and two hours later we were at the house. It was, indeed, PERFECT. It's exactly what I wanted, the size I wanted and the 3 bedrooms + den I wanted. He was telling me how offers at 15-20% over were being rejected and waiving all sorts of contingencies, but I told him we wouldn't be doing that. Make a full-price offer and keep all contingencies -- "BUT THIS HOUSE IS MINE," I told him. The sellers countered with a change in due diligence deadlines. We accepted. Appraisal came in at $5,000 over the listing price. It's only 20 months old so inspection didn't uncover much of anything except a fireplace igniter didn't work - and the sellers fixed. We closed 30 days later. We literally saw one house, made one offer and moved in 35 days later. It is still inexplicable how this amazing house had only 9 showings in the first few days it was on the market and even stranger how none of the nine made an offer -- except that it was meant to be mine. Second House: Criteria: Budget of $350,000. Retired elderly couple; needs a safe neighborhood where they can walk daily without worry; access to community gym for exercise would be a plus. House had to be larger than 1,100sf; minimum of two bedrooms but preferably three. Backyard not emphasized. No pool. Less than a week after I got my offer accepted, my parents decided they want to move across town with me. Same realtor, and we looked at 12 houses over the course of 3 separate days. This was a simple search in that (1) it had to be close to my house; (2) they aren't as picky about a house as I am; and (3) they could put down as much as they needed to buy a house. But this price range made it much more competitive with both FTHBs and retirees competing against one another. With a few exceptions, I limited the search to a really nice 55+ retirement community close by. The first offer was for a house (that I thought was too large for them) listed at $350K and we offered $335K. They got a cash offer for the same amount so we lost. The second offer was for a 2-bedroom (which I thought was too small) -- listed at $300K and we offered full price. Someone offered $15K more so we lost that one. The third offer was for what I thought was a perfect house for them. We knew while viewing that they had a full price offer already so we offered $4,000 more to make a round $333,000. They countered back with removing the appraisal contingency -- I countered back with covering an appraisal gap of UP to $5,000 to not exceed the $333,000. They accepted. This house did uncover a handful of items in the home inspection, given it was built in 2004. Both the AC and water heater were original to the house so we went in expecting that they will need replacement the next time they give out. But the inspection showed that the AC wasn't producing air quite as cold as it needed to be and the water heater was not hot enough. The concrete at the foundation needed work around the post-tension cables and there were some minor plumbing issues I wanted fixed. I submitted those items and the seller pushed back on the water heater claiming it was fine, and got the AC maintained to be within acceptable range. Everything else, they got fixed. The appraisal came in at the offered price. We closed on time 30 days later. Third House In June, my aunt visits & decides she wants to move here too. At this point I'm counting how many relatives I have left (and how many old people I'll be responsible for!) and wondering if ever I will actually NOT be buying a house. Criteria: Budget $300,000; single woman, lives alone. Must have a backyard but it also must be small and hopefully with a covered area. Minimum of 2 bedrooms. Does not want any older house that may need replacement work for high-ticket items. I opted to change my realtor this time. I had a couple of issues where I was a little bothered by my agent where I felt he didn't have my back and was more interested in making nice, which isn't my thing. We saw ten homes initially -- six on one day when my aunt was here, and four without her after she went back to AZ. We put in multiple offers and all, for one reason or another, wasn't panning out. First offer was on a 2 BR condo she loved with what I thought were ridiculous HOA dues of $265 per month for something akin to a kiddie pool. I've had bigger pools in my own backyard. The former buyer had fallen through because of the appraisal not coming close to what they had listed for. It was listed by this one "agency" where it seemed realtors had pooled their money to flip homes. It was listed at $305K, had just been dropped to $295K, and we offered $285K with a $10K appraisal gap coverage. They came back wanting --- get a load of this -- $300,000 with no appraisal gap. Given my aunt loved this particular unit, she wanted it even at $300,000, so she wanted to accept the counter. (She has the cash to cover the gap. I figured the appraisal would come in at about $265K.) But the next day, my lender calls and says that with the current preapproved loan, he can't make the $265 per month HOA work and she'd need to put a lot more down. She could, but I absolutely did not want her to -- and I was able to talk her out of it and we backed out of the purchase agreement. Second offer was for a gorgeous house but also listed by the same flippers. We offered full price with a $10K appraisal gap and they went with a cash offer. Third offer was for a 2 bedroom townhome that would require some updating but the neighborhood is 5 minutes from me, and the size was ideal for a single woman living alone. This home was adjacent to a pending home that I had originally shown my parents too. But dammit if the home is also not listed by this same group of agents -- ugh. I knew this home would not appraise for the listed price of $265,000 so we offered full price but I didn't include an appraisal gap coverage because my aunt wasn't really gaga over it. (I was confident I could update it sufficiently to make her love it by the time she moved in.) They wanted us to waive the appraisal contingency altogether, so I refused and cancelled our offer. I was officially done with these flippers. By this point, I am also really not liking my "new" agent. He rubbed me the wrong way from day one in that the first few homes were in my parents' 55+ neighborhood, which was now an area I knew better than virtually any realtor for homes that were under $400K in the area. We saw one home that was $360K, similar to my parents' house, and I had commented that it was overpriced by about $30K. He immediately states that it isn't and it's market price for the area. (Even right now, it's sitting at $360K UNSOLD so I rest my damn case.) Or on day one, he says he'll "include an inspection for information purpose only" -- when I never made such a request. Perhaps he thought I didn't know how to purchase a home or felt I was a first-timer, but wow -- imagine if I was and didn't absolutely correct him on the spot! Also, offer after offer, there was some issue with his wording or how he conveys their counter offer to me which results in a misunderstanding, strangely always to my disadvantage. I took a break for about a week and mulled over what to do while keeping an eye on homes online. During this time, I had my lender send my aunt's application through to underwriting without an accepted offer to get to full "credit approved" status. I decided to reach back out to my "old" realtor when the aforementioned 3BR townhome that was pending came back on the market because I thought it might be nice for my aunt. (He was originally the realtor that had shown it to us.) We went to see it again and I sent my aunt the video of it. She loved it, but it was listed at $289,900 now (it was $270K when I went to first see it) and again, the comps would not support that price. The former buyer fell through because their previous appraisal came in at $265,000. I offered $275K with a $10K appraisal gap -- and they wanted $285,000. I just wasn't feeling it. While waiting out the deadline, I went to go see one more house that day that was a nightmare in real life, smelling like a corpse had been kept in the fridge and cooked in the oven, but in photos had been "virtually staged" when nobody had even bothered to clean the place. YUCK. How do people decide to show homes like this!? (AND IT WENT PENDING THE FIRST FEW DAYS ANYWAY!) Just then, another house in the same townhome subdivision 5 minutes from my house came back on the market. This, too, was an appraisal issue where the same 3BR townhome model had come in at $258,000 (even lower!), but the asking price was $300,000. But I liked this house MORE. The other 3BR may be more updated but this one had a good feeling to the house and the backyard, small as it was, was everything she wanted. We offered $275,000 with a $15,000 appraisal gap knowing that it could come in at $260-$265K again. They countered with $295,000 with no appraisal contingency. I countered back with $285K, no appraisal contingency -- and they accepted on 7/26. Essentially, I offered exactly what the other 3BR townhome wanted on this house. (Disclaimer: This is what I did, yes -- but I do not recommend waiving the appraisal contingency unless you have a lot of cash, to be clear. My aunt was getting a loan for $200,000 regardless and the remainder would be the down payment anyway, so it didn't matter to us what the gap was so long as we stayed under her overall desired budget.) I sent in my home inspector on day 2 and received the report. I got contractors to come out and give me estimates on the repairs and sent them the quotes. They've offered about 60% of the costs to closing to repair the things I want fixed -- I'll likely accept. The appraiser went out within the first week and it appraised at $280K (thanks to one home that closed at $282K in the few days prior to the appraisal being done.) Now all that is left is the final underwriting approval with being cleared to close and flying her in to sign the closing documents. It should be about a 15-17 day closing. _____ All this is just to say what I've believed all along: When there is a house that is meant to be yours -- IT WILL BE. Sometimes, it is as simple as my house was -- where all the cards line up to ensure it is yours from the start. One day, one house, one offer. Done. Other times, it's like my aunt's house where you have to jump through multiple hoops and deal with rejection, crazy people, ridiculous prices and experience different realtors to bide your time until the house that is actually yours comes back on the market unexpectedly at just the right time to become yours. Had it fallen through one day later, we'd have likely been under contract at the other townhome. Had the first 3 BR townhome accepted my original offer or if I had removed the appraisal contingency for the same $285K I offered here -- we would have missed out on this specific townhome that is perfect for her. So hang in there, guys. You can do stupid, crazy, irrational things to force a house to be yours -- but that never ends well, in my opinion. I've bought six of my own homes now in 24 years or so, and it's always proven true that during every home search, if you are qualified to buy and have the desire to do so -- the home that is meant to be yours does show up. Rushing it or getting desperate leads to awful places. [link] [comments]  |
| Just Closed with Zillow Offers Posted: 02 Aug 2021 09:23 PM PDT Hi all, I just closed with Zillow offers. Must say it was a SMOOTH process. Couple steps and routes I took
If y'all have any questions, ask away. [link] [comments]  |
| Offer was accepted, I’m so unsure. Posted: 02 Aug 2021 09:55 PM PDT FTHB here. My offer on a house was accepted 2 days ago, the inspection just got done today. I am basically just so freaking unsure if I'm making the right decision or not. The inspection showed a lot of minor stuff and the roof is old. I bid 10% over ask which is a lot of money. The house doesn't have blinds or curtains or a washer/dryer/refrigerator. But I do want a nice house really bad. I don't even have a question I'm just venting and know some of you understand. :( [link] [comments]  |
| Interest Rates are Unique to Your Individual Situation Posted: 02 Aug 2021 03:05 PM PDT Lending institutions use a host of information about you to establish what "rate" they are going to offer you based on your risk profile. Before we go around saying my rate was X%, everyone should understand what a lender uses to qualify their rates because you literally are comparing apples and oranges, even amongst similar types of products. Below are a common list of factors that can change your rate.
These are just the main sampling of factors that all lenders will look at. There may be more, and would love for a loan officer, underwriter, or mortgage broker to jump in and give their feedback as well. Interest rates are all a reflection of the market and your risk profile. If something about you changes that makes the lender think you are more risky, then you will get assessed a higher interest rate. With that being said, lenders also do pad their rates so the can make a quick buck or two off of you. Maybe they add 1/8 of a point and after you close, you find out your loan gets sold to a different company. Well that 1/8 of a point probably netted your lender a pretty penny. Always shop at least 3 vendors (at least 2 local) so you know you are getting the most competitive rates based on your specific situation. I've always found that lenders will quote you their most competitive rates they can when you tell them upfront that you are simultaneously shopping around different lenders. Now, if you're not the cookie cutter applicant the lender wants (ie: at least 2 years of stable work in the same industry, 760+ credit score, low DTI ratios, etc.) then expect your rates to be slighter higher than the best rates they can offer. What if your spouse just started their own business and you have 1 year of loss due to the initial investment? Then you'll have to use a W2 only loan using only the W2 income from the person holding down a regular job and guess what, you are deemed slightly more risky and will probably have a higher rate. What if you have zero debt, but the new mortgage will bring your DTI to 45% of your gross? You pass the back end DTI barrier, but your front end DTI is higher than they would like, so guess what, you get slapped with a slightly higher rate too. I'm sure most of you can think of a host of other unique situations but lenders don't like unique. So they slap on 0.25 here or 0.50 there and before you know it, your interest rate is formed. Before we start comparing our 3% rates against 2.75% or 2.5%, just know that other people have a different set of circumstances. Just because they are able to close on 2.75% today, doesn't mean you will too and that's ok. The only rate that matters is the one that you qualify for. Know what your rate is and what your monthly payment is, and if that works for you and your situation then it doesn't matter what others have. As countless people have said, interest rates are at historic lows, so whatever rate you end up getting, it's probably going to be a very low rate. Again, do your own comparison shopping and don't get too bogged down when you read that someone else qualified for a much lower rate than you did. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2021 07:50 PM PDT Hey everyone, there's a nice home that we would like to pursue and the sellers agent disclosed that the home was found to be a grow home for marijuana. The sellers home insurance ended up paying to completely gut the home, remediate, and installed full new interior everything They are selling it at regular home market value and there's interest in the home from other buyers Do you see any pros and cons on pursuing a home like this? Would this kind of information be made available to an appraiser and to our lender that would cause a low appraisal value or issues during appraisal? And would a lender refuse to lend money for a home with this kind of history (we are pre-approved with final conditions depending on appraisal)? The sellers agent gave us info on everything done and it's very extensive and well documented, it's practically a brand new home in the interior Thanks for your thoughts! [link] [comments]  |
| My agent is telling me that HELOC is a good idea. Posted: 03 Aug 2021 04:28 AM PDT I'm trying to buy a new construction house. I was pre approved for a Jumbo loan but after the underwriting process, my LO told me that I couldn't secure it because of my wife's work history. LO offered me an option of confirming loan plus a HELOC. I told my agent and LO that I do not want to have 2 mortgages for one house. My agent tried to explain to me that the HELOC is an opportunity for me to have a brand new house. The HELOC is a fixed rate for 10 years and my agent is suggesting to do a refinance before that ends. I really dont like this path and rather go back to house hunting or just wait for a house that fits my financial situation. I told my agent that refinancing later on might end up a higher rate. Plus I won't be able to use the heloc as a tax deduction. Agent seems to really want to close this deal and trying to find other solutions. Is there anything else I should be concern of using heloc? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2021 11:08 AM PDT With the popularity of walkscore as a metric, as well as proximity to transit, it drives (no pun intended) me nuts that Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, don't let you search by it! I would think that a simple checkbox showing you're within 1/2 a mile of a transit stop would be a wildly popular amenity. Is anyone aware of a way to do it? [link] [comments]  |
| What happens if a bidding war doesn’t appraise for value of winning bid? Posted: 02 Aug 2021 10:54 PM PDT This was something I was thinking about and was hoping some of you more experienced agents/sellers might be able to answer. For example, let's say I list my home for $300k and it goes into a bidding war with the winner offering $360k. If the appraiser comes in and says the house is worth $320k max does that mean the buyer will need to pay the rest out of pocket? Will some contingencies need to be waived? Does another appraiser need to come to validate? Can someone explain more or less what that process generally looks like? [link] [comments]  |
| What was your experience offering a free rent back? Posted: 02 Aug 2021 01:04 PM PDT We are closing tomorrow on our first home. The sellers are building. Knowing this, when we made our offer, we offered them to stay in the home 2.5 months past closing... for free, because we figured there are usually delays when it comes to building. Plus, our market is really hot and it's really hard to win a bidding war around here. After the two and a half months, should they still stay, they are contracted to pay us $200 a day. We found out that that was the reason our offer was chosen. We were not the highest bidder, but the most flexible. Have any of you offered your seller something similar? How did it work out? Any complications I should be aware of? We are meeting the sellers tomorrow at closing. Any questions we should be asking them? [link] [comments]  |
| How long does it take to update credit rating bureaus? Posted: 02 Aug 2021 09:43 PM PDT My wife and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in May and had lined up to buy a new diamond ring as an upgrade. Since we went under contract on a home right around the same time, we put the ring purchase on hold. It's a custom designed ring that went into fabrication, and the jeweler was awesome enough to put it on hold until we closed on a home purchase Long story short, we ended up falling out of contract on that house and decided to pause our home search due to buyer fatigue (4th offer). Went ahead with the ring purchase, putting the entire $21k purchase on a credit card and paying it off in full right after. Turns out, my credit score dropped from an 810 to a 720 on the basis of credit utilization Fast forward to this week, we are now in contract on another house that is literally the perfect house (way better than #4). My lender is asking to fill out a new loan app and I'm so nervous about the score drop. Is this something I can explain and show that I paid off the credit card in full? The billing cycle for this CC is on 8/4 and I'm wondering how long it will be before my credit score goes back up. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Aug 2021 01:27 AM PDT This is from an email I sent my wife, " I'm looking over the property tax and value, 2010 - Land - $26,664 2021- Land - $28,997 (increased by a little over $2,000 in 10 years) Additions - $50,862 (devalued by $1,000 over 10 years) Total assessments value - $79,859 Asking price - $150,000 Price/sq ft in 2010 was $42 This is the problem I have with the current market. The value of the land/additions are half the current asking price. Get the feeling this is a person selling to try and make a huge profit meaning they are likely opportunity sellers more than they need to sell to move or other. I'm not sure any bank is going to loan us the money to buy a house/land at double it's true value. With the way the market is this is tough to say but I feel like even $150k is way over what we should be buying something like this for. Really the real estate agent should be able to help and make suggestions but ours seems incompetent or is more worried about higher profit clients. I don't know where to go on this but I feel like the asking price is absurdly over what the land/additions are worth." What would you suggest in such a situation? Is this just the way things are now or should we attempt to an offer more in line with the home/lands true value? We live in NC. Kind of in an odd spot right now as my wife is 3 hours away working (staying with family during week) and I'm at our rental. It would be a long/costly drive for me to go out and look myself so kind of doing this all remotely. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2021 09:06 PM PDT Would a co-signer be a good option? My dad wants to buy a home, we haven't started the process yet. He's retired. He lost his house 10 years ago and he wants to start over, maybe a condo. I would be willing to co sign with him if that is what it takes. I would just be the primary owner one day when he passes away right? [link] [comments]  |
| Have people actually waived inspection contingency and turned out ok nowadays? Posted: 02 Aug 2021 09:06 PM PDT Especially in markets like sf/bay area where doing no contingencies is pretty much needed to be competitive. curious to see ppls thoughts on this and how things turned out after waiving all contingencies. [link] [comments]  |
| Our unsuccessful FTHB story (Nor Cal) Posted: 02 Aug 2021 12:24 PM PDT I just wanted to share an experience I had, and to get thoughts of this community. We are in the market for a first home and have been through a few rounds of offer making process- but its the last one that was rather interesting. The property is in north california, east bay specifically (alameda county). We became interested in a new condo/townhome development that came in our radar in 2018 first. We weren't ready then but went to check it out anyway. It was just awesome- our dream home really. The construction was set to complete in 2021. For next 3 years we kept renting in california. Come 2021- we are now ready and we revisit that option again- and this time its gone slightly above our affordability range. From 2018 prices, it has basically jumped 40% alone- even though construction has not fully completed. We look in the same development some other condos and townhomes built by the same developer and those are about 40% cheaper than these newer ones- and admittedly slightly old. Regardless these older ones also meet our needs- price is attractive, houses are spacious (townhomes) and community looks great. We were almost about to make an offer on them and our real estate agent was very eager to move quickly through the process. She suggested we offer 150k-250k above asking and waive all contingencies. (in hindsight- we found her quite immature). We were **almost*\* willing to make an offer and sign off on the deal- when I suggested we take just one more night to think over- essentially sleep on it. She really wanted to rush this, because offers were due quickly and 2 offers had already been made. Boy that extra night, I think saved us. We diligently went through all the disclosures, property inspection that seller had got done etc etc. everything checked out except the NHD form aka the natural hazard disclosure form. The form disclosed that the entire area is in a VHFS Zone which stands for Very High fire Hazard Severity Zone. A new 2019 or 2020 law now requires sellers to disclose this vital piece of information to all buyers irrespective of any contingencies. We knew fire is a hazard in california but atleast in north california- VHFSZ is roughly only 10% of the total area- so its really not a lot of area. This entire development was basically marked red on the fire map (while most other were a moderate yellow). Upon further investigation- we found youtube videos of fire events in 2017 and 2018- affecting literally the exact same area- (i could see our dream home in the process of construction while a fire was ranging lmao). They had drone videos and shit of essentially the entire development covered in complete smoke. Residents had to evacuate in 2017 and 2018 for upto a week. Further investigation showed the home is essentially un-insurable, except through calFIRE- which also does not cover a lot. And then we dug into the HOA records- and found more goodies. First- the HOA experienced a change in management in June 2021 because HOA's own insurance policy that covers the external areas of the community was non-renewed because of VHSFZ. We dug into the HOA meeting minutes and found that "the impact of market values was yet to be determined". The HOA themselves experienced many special assessments - (charging residents upto 1500$ at a time) to cover newer insurance policies. They say they have experienced a 300% increase in their insurance premiums threatening their financial reserves. Secondly- This part I am less clear about- and would like advise- it seems California came up with new building codes to make more fire- resistant homes but these got active in 2019 onwards. The home we were considering was built in 2010. So essentially not fire resistant? Is there even such a thing as a fire resistant home in a VHFSZ area? From the defintion of the fire code- it seems highly likely that an area in VHFSZ zone will experience more fire events than other areas- though of course nothing stops other areas from experiencing fire. (Please note this is different from Socal where VHFS Zones are more. In nor cal, atleast my reading of the map was that VHFSZ does not cover much area, if you look at alameda,contra costa, and san francisco). Needless to say we walked out of this quick. My learning in all this was- 1) Some real estate agents are truly dumb. Our real estate agent did not once mention this to us. The california law requiring this disclosure basically saved us. In fact she was trying to push us into bidding 150k-250k more than asking price for this home. She has sold many homes in this area and I was shocked to know these homes are going 200-300k above asking price with contingencies waived. There is NO WAY these homes are getting assessed at nearly the value they are going for. 2) Even after waiving contingencies- it seems there is a lot buyers CAN know about the property- many sellers are giving disclosures and inspections up front. Are buyers just unaware of this and choosing to ignore this- and still pay 200-300 k above asking? I am struggling to understand the buyer rationale here. No amount of hotness in the market (quite literally in this case) to me justifies this stupidity..but maybe i am the one crazy? 3) I further found out that a california law pausing insurance non-renewal moratorium- driven partly by extreme wildfire events in 2018/2019/2020 is set to expire this November. This means these home owners are in a for a major surprise in november- or am I reading this wrong? Your thoughts are welcome! [link] [comments]  |
| Selling river front property on the Rio Grande in Texas Posted: 02 Aug 2021 07:55 PM PDT Hello, I'm new to this this sub and I hope I'm asking the right place. If not, I would appreciate any advice on where I can ask this question. A bit of info first, my sisters and I are trying to sell my late mother's house. It is located in a small border town in Texas. The Rio Grande is the backyard. The house sits on 2 river front lots. Lately, the influx of immigrants has cause the city to erect a fence, and there is a constant presence of National Guard, Border Patrol, and other enforcement right at the corner of our property. I'm worried that selling the house will be near impossible because of this. A realtor recently priced it at $196,000. So my question is this: how would I go about trying to sell my mom's house to the government? Is that even possible for us to initiate or do they have to approach us? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| New Construction Virtual Pre-Dry Wall Inspection Posted: 02 Aug 2021 11:29 PM PDT Hi, we are in the process purchasing a new construction home. We will be invited to tour the home predry wall. However the builder doesn't allow anyone not on the contract to tour the home, thus we can't come with an external inspector. When I go on the tour, I am considering creating a virtual tour of the place, something like this https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=qTkUcq2epd9 If I gave that to an inspector, is there anything useful he could detect? I.e, is it worth the effort of making a virtual tour as I would have to rent the cameras etc.. Has anyone done something like this and found it useful? [link] [comments]  |
| Inconsistency in seller's transfer disclosure? (As-is offer) Posted: 02 Aug 2021 11:07 PM PDT So we got our offer accepted last week, which included an 'as is' clause. Also relevant to note here is that the house has 2 furnaces. A few days later we received the seller's disclosure statement (form), in which he marked it up acknowledging that one of the items the house is "Central Heating", but at the bottom of that section he checked a response box basically asserting that "to the best of (his) knowledge, none of the above items that come with the house are inoperative". We're just starting to get our inspections reports in, and two different inspectors (gas and general) identified that the burner for one of the furnaces was not coming on (even though the pilot light is). They also identified that the wiring for one of the thermostats (I assume the one that controls the offline furnace) is clearly not even connected. Despite our 'as is' clause, our realtor is saying we may have a case for still asking for the offline furnace to be repaired (if it can be), or replaced (or credited against our purchase price, to some extent), mainly because of the seller's inconsistent disclosure -- i.e., even if he can claim the burner for the furnace was working just fine "to his knowledge", how can he even explain the clearly disconnected thermostat wiring? Now don't get me wrong, we still love the house and based on all the other completed inspections so far are fine with continuing towards closing, but we are purchasing it a pretty steep price (we had to offer as such, to win in this market), so something that would potentially cost a few more thousand to replace later on, would be a nice cost to avoid or get partially defrayed. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Does refinancing make sense with plans to sell? Posted: 02 Aug 2021 02:21 PM PDT Hello all, I purchased my house August of 2020, so just about a year ago for 295K @ 3.0%. I have plans to sell the house this time next year (August 2022). My mortgage company reached out today and asked if i wanted to refinance at between 2.0 to 2.5%, does it makes sense to refinance for the next year if i plan on selling in that year timeframe as well? House is worth 345k (according to redfin, so take that for what its worth) as of now. Not sure if that's relevant. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Advice on two scenarios for a first time buyer: Buying in the western US/buying somewhere “cheap” Posted: 02 Aug 2021 10:59 AM PDT Hey all! My wife (nurse) and I (IT guy) currently live in Phoenix, but want to move. A lot of that has to do with being tired of living in an oven with insane sprawl. Right now we have enough saved for a down payment for a $300k home, but can always save more. We have dogs and want to have a permanent residence to settle down with a kid. A kid and pups will always make renting more difficult, so buying seems like it should be done. We're also not set on city living, so large towns are definitely options! Anyway. We want to stay in the west because the outdoor amenities are important to us, however as everyone knows the market here is insane. We're not sure how to approach relocation and home buying. For example: Boise looks neat, but median home prices are above $400k and Idaho wages are not good. On the flip side California pays nurses incredibly well and has better wages in general, but houses will be WAY more expensive. Does anyone have any advice on how to navigate this market and how to choose somewhere to buy? Are there any places out west where a wage/cost of living to home price ratio is reasonable? Or am I looking at things the wrong way? Alternatively, if the market in the west is just too insane, what are some low cost of living or low home price areas worth looking into where you're not giving up too much? Like Mississippi homes are cheap, but you're giving up so much in wages, education, outdoor amenities, etc and does giving all that up make being able to buy a cheap home worth it? Thanks for any feedback! I am here to learn from y'all! [link] [comments]  |
| If you can afford a 20 year fixed vs 30 year - is it always better? Posted: 02 Aug 2021 07:04 PM PDT I'm purchasing my first home, and the monthly payments for 30 year vs 20 year are both manageable. I'd definitely have more disposable income on the 30 year, as I wouldn't be paying most of my salary into the mortgage. Is it better to play it safe and go with the 30 year and just overpay? Or would I be leaving a lot of money on the table? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2021 01:43 PM PDT Hi all, My family home is trying to "sell" the family home to me. The current mortgage is ~$75000 and purchased under my estranged sister. Based on zillow/redfin estimates, the curent value is about $250k - 300k. There is an existing growing lien on the house of about $13000. After speaking with the realtor, the process would look like a purchase of a second home via a conventional loan amount of about $95000. This is in order to payoff the lien and the existing mortgage. My name would go on the title. This means that I'd be gaining all the "equity" in the home (which doesnt matter really since I have no intentions of ever selling). I'm looking at this as taking on loan in order to help out my family's security. The reason for requiring this type of movement is to lessen the risk of my estranged sister, owner of the house, from doing something stupid that would lose us the house, like someone marrying her and selling for the equity (things are not good with her and is easily manipulated). She is being cooperative at the moment but things can change. My father was undocumented and passed away a year and a half ago. He worked under the table so with the help of my sister we finally got a home. My mother was a stay at home mom and has more recently joined the workforce. However, her income is probably not consisent enough nor does she have the necessary credit built up. I should probably add that my other older sister and I (only ones of age who are old enough to help) do contribute to my mom's living expenses as required. It's not ideal, but she is my mother and we wouldn't hesitate to help out. I have full confidence in my family to make the mortgage payments, since they have been doing this the whole time I can trust them to continue to do this. I'd be pretty hands off as I live out of state. I'm assuming that in a worse case scenario, I should be safe due to the equity on the house. Please let me know if my understanding is correct. I have a few questions regarding a second home loan and how it will affect my future:
I'm still going to iron out all the details and make sure I look at the paperwork, but want to ensure this is all sound before I decide to move forward. Thanks in advance for any responses. I'll be glad to respond to any questions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2021 11:52 AM PDT After a yr of being in this market, we are farther along with buying a house than we have been since the last home we purchased. The anxiety is so real!! We got past inspection. We have received a conditional approval from underwriting and we are a wk into waiting for the appraisal. I can't stop thinking about it. There are comps that justify a higher price (higher than contract price) and comps that would justify a low appraisal). It's anyone's guess what it will appraise for at this point. I have spent so much time searching for homes, researching markets, and crunching numbers that I am finding it so very difficult to simply wait. 😅 How did you pass the time and deal with the anxiety when you finally found a home? (Assuming this will actually be it for us! 🙏🏻) [link] [comments]  |
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