Spryte Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 We just bought, and while we didn't want to request that anything but a few safety issues be fixed (they were minor), our realtor insisted that we ask for everything that came up on the inspection. To our surprise, the sellers fixed everything. We paid asking price, but there were other offers on the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted October 31, 2015 Author Share Posted October 31, 2015 If some things need to be fixed, I think the thing to do is consider the cost of fixing the item with the offer you make. So, if the house is priced like a comparable that was less than 10 years old and the house really does need updating in the kitchen the buyer should estimate the cost of repair and craft his offer with that in consideration. For example, if the buyer is willing to pay 150,000 for a house with no problems, but he thinks the house he wants gas a 10,000 problem then the buyer should offer 140,000. The seller can say this is a low ball offer and ignore it or he can start negotiating. It's kind of stupid to make the seller into the buyer's construction contractor fixing every nitpicky thing to the buyer's standard. That's just a waste of time for both buyer and seller. I can understand certain things being required to be fixed after inspection, but if the seller lists "as is" then there's no negotiating fixing stuff and once the offer is accepted that's it. Well, sure, if it is huge problem with a system or the structure itself, costing thousands of dollars. If you find the perfect house and it has a couple of very minor things to fix, you risk losing it by asking the seller for a "laundry list" just for negotiating purposes, which many buyers do. That is ridiculous. My house looks like a brand new Property Brothers-level high-end renovation. It's amazing. I got multiple offers immediately. We planned on moving in, but found something else suddenly that is larger with a better layout, so we decided to sell. I would never risk my purchase by asking for minor things. It's like home insurance. You have it, but you never, EVER make claims unless they are catastrophic level, unless you want hits on your CLUE report and your rates to rise. All sales are as-is, contractually. The Seller is required to fix nothing, but of course, the Buyer has an out if he can't get the Seller to fix something he wants. Many buyers seem to use this as an excuse to ask for upgrades, I have discovered. Annoying! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted October 31, 2015 Author Share Posted October 31, 2015 We just bought, and while we didn't want to request that anything but a few safety issues be fixed (they were minor), our realtor insisted that we ask for everything that came up on the inspection. To our surprise, the sellers fixed everything. We paid asking price, but there were other offers on the house. I would never do this. I have an amount I will offer in lieu of repairs, and that's it. In this case, I'm fixing one item only because it suits me with another purchase soon, but I made it very clear I would not fix anything else. There were very few minor items. I had an agent do what your agent did on a previous sale - ask for everything. They paid top dollar and I fixed nothing. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted October 31, 2015 Author Share Posted October 31, 2015 I agree about the negotiating tactic. And sometimes people can't afford to do *anything* after they get the mortgage, so they try to wrap stuff into the offering price and get stuff done before they buy the house. I get that, to some degree. When we sold our last house, the person who made the offer came back with a laundry list of Things To Be Done. (She was, herself, a real estate agent.) Our agent told us to do a couple of the requests, so that it wasn't a big slap in the face, but that we didn't have to come close to doing all of them. We had already made the house a fine place. And she bought the house; total extra expenditure on our part was $500; her requests all totaled added up to well over $15,000. I think it is important in negotiations to leave something on the table, but that is a two-way street. Then they are buying above their means, if they can't afford to fix the smallest thing, and must send a list of half a dozen, a dozen, or more items to the Seller to fix. Agents give very, very bad advice, to a large degree. I've been in this gig a long time in various capacities and I have met very few knowledgeable agents who are true pros. YMMV 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 I would never do this. I have an amount I will offer in lieu of repairs, and that's it. In this case, I'm fixing one item only because it suits me with another purchase soon, but I made it very clear I would not fix anything else. There were very few minor items. I had an agent do what your agent did on a previous sale - ask for everything. They paid top dollar and I fixed nothing. I wouldn't either. :) We were shocked. FWIW, we just sold as well, and we had a set amount we were willing to fix. We fixed one thing ($100) and let them deal with anything else. They got a great deal on a beautiful home in an excellent location. That was enough. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 It's threads like this that make me believe that if we ever sell this house, we won't look for a new one at the same time. Too much pressure. I can live in an apartment for a few months and take my time house hunting. How do people do both without losing their mind. We did this last year, the buying/selling at the same time. We closed on both the same day, moved Uhaul from old house to new. Thank god we had a good realtor though, as I thought it was like a finely orchestrated performance in which everything had to go exactly as planned, which it fortunately did. Seriously, if one little thing had fallen through, we would have been toast. NEVER AGAIN. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted October 31, 2015 Author Share Posted October 31, 2015 Our last house had an attic that had a wood floor. It wasn't tall enough to be living space, but it was still useful. We rigged up a fan to blow the hot air out one of the two windows to create a cross draft. It was a standard fan that DH made a galvanized sheet metal frame for, to make it fit just right into the window. We plugged it into the ceiling fixture, and it worked great. It was hokey but totally safe. The buyers' final inspection required us to install this with new wiring above the ceiling and a separate switch by the window. I went upstairs and looked at it, and the closer I looked the madder I got. Finally I realized that since it was not really 'installed' per se, it was personal property. So we took it off, closed the window, and took the fan with us. It was perfect for that spot, and we had planned to leave it just to be nice. Sometimes being nice just doesn't work. Having said that, mostly I feel like a buyer might as well ask for what they want. They will not do better than that, but most sellers will stay in the game and make a counter offer. There is no reason not to try to get your best possible deal, although it can be counter productive in a quickly rising market--it can send people to a competitor who has a cleaner offer. This! The bolded. Sometimes "being nice" just works against you in real estate sales with bad agents who ask for the moon. Too bad more buyers don't realize this. A buyer can ask for what he wants, but it is dangerous with other buyers hovering in the wings, hoping the first buyer's deal falls apart, as you note. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted October 31, 2015 Author Share Posted October 31, 2015 We did this last year, the buying/selling at the same time. We closed on both the same day, moved Uhaul from old house to new. Thank god we had a good realtor though, as I thought it was like a finely orchestrated performance in which everything had to go exactly as planned, which it fortunately did. Seriously, if one little thing had fallen through, we would have been toast. NEVER AGAIN. Wow, that's cool, closing on the same day. I have only pulled that off one time, and that is when I stuck a FSBO sign in the yard and had a full price offer by that night. That guy really wanted the house and was willing to work it to our mutual convenience. This time we are doing it sequentially. I can move slowly, as soon as I get immediate things done (painting, uncovering hardwoods, cleaning fireplaces, possibly one new bath). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertBlossom Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 We sold a house 6 years ago. It was a seller's market and the contract was "as-is." The house was over 80 years old, so obviously quirky and there was always going to be something to fix or upgrade. Nevertheless, after the inspection the buyers wanted to lower the price and had a list of repairs they wanted us to do. (For example, they wanted rain gutters, which is an upgrade, not a repair.) From what I understand, it was all coming from the buyers, not their realtor. Their realtor was so frustrated and afraid the sale would fall through that most of the price decrease they wanted came out of his commission. I don't know if they even knew that. I felt bad for their realtor. But these people were a pain to work with! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted October 31, 2015 Author Share Posted October 31, 2015 We sold a house 6 years ago. It was a seller's market and the contract was "as-is." The house was over 80 years old, so obviously quirky and there was always going to be something to fix or upgrade. Nevertheless, after the inspection the buyers wanted to lower the price and had a list of repairs they wanted us to do. (For example, they wanted rain gutters, which is an upgrade, not a repair.) From what I understand, it was all coming from the buyers, not their realtor. Their realtor was so frustrated and afraid the sale would fall through that most of the price decrease they wanted came out of his commission. I don't know if they even knew that. I felt bad for their realtor. But these people were a pain to work with! Wow, that's awful. Those kind of buyers bother me. And especially the sticking it to the Realtor. I would not feel good about that if I were those buyers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkmint Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Then they are buying above their means, if they can't afford to fix the smallest thing, and must send a list of half a dozen, a dozen, or more items to the Seller to fix. Agents give very, very bad advice, to a large degree. I've been in this gig a long time in various capacities and I have met very few knowledgeable agents who are true pros. YMMV Oh, I agree. We've been pretty lucky. I'm pretty sure we would not have sold the last house without our realtor's expertise, nor would we have gotten *closed* on the house we have now. But like I said, we had a good agent. One thing that was interesting about the house we are in now: in between signing the offer and closing the deal, the house got a water leak. The owners repaired it. Right thing to do, right? Well, turns out that (at least in this State) if there are infrastructure changes made to the house in that time period, the purchaser can walk away from the deal. So, the owners would have been "safer" to just let the water leak continue, as we had signed a no-inspection deal. But they fixed it--and gave us back $3000 so we wouldn't walk away. Isn't that a strange occurrence? We would not have walked away over someone fixing a leaky pipe!!!! but we did take the $3000. Eventually. That closing officer at the Title company was the worst EVER and our agent had to dog her for 3 weeks to get the check to us...it was in the file the whole time. That was the only bad Title experience we have ever had. Anyway...that's the oddest thing I think that has ever happened to us in a real-estate transaction, at least since our third condo, which was a nightmare at both ends, and the moral of THAT story is "Never fall in love with a house. Walk away." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocolateReignRemix Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 I find it amusing that some of you think a buyer should notice each and every minor thing wrong in a home and it therefore should be assumed to be priced in to the selling price. When we bought our last home there were minor issues that there is no way we could see just going through the home, and yes, they did lower the value of the home in our mind. The seller could either fix them or discount the price, but we saw no reason to eat the cost ourselves. We also had no problem if the seller decided to move on to another offer. We will be selling our current home next spring, and we are already working on minor repairs that we know are likely to pop up in an inspection. Now I do agree that upgrades are a different matter, but it is just part of negotiations. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertBlossom Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 I find it amusing that some of you think a buyer should notice each and every minor thing wrong in a home and it therefore should be assumed to be priced in to the selling price. When we bought our last home there were minor issues that there is no way we could see just going through the home, and yes, they did lower the value of the home in our mind. The seller could either fix them or discount the price, but we saw no reason to eat the cost ourselves. We also had no problem if the seller decided to move on to another offer. We will be selling our current home next spring, and we are already working on minor repairs that we know are likely to pop up in an inspection. Now I do agree that upgrades are a different matter, but it is just part of negotiations. But the alternative is pricing your house like it's in perfect condition (when the seller is aware of what issues it may have) so that they can lower the price after the buyer's inspection. That doesn't seem very honest way to price the house. In our situation, the "repairs" that the buyers wanted were either small things or upgrades. I honestly don't even remember anything besides the rain gutters they wanted. If it were something big-- like it was discovered a major appliance needed repair, or there was not-yet-discovered water damage, etc, than I could lowering the price for those things. But sometimes buyers are just being picky. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SemiSweet Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 We are just buying for the first time, and had a separate chimney inspection and found out that it needed $2400 in repairs, we asked the seller to pay it, because it renders the fireplace completely non-functional. He didn't want to deal with it so he put most of it into additionally closing. It works for us and we can deal with it during the low season when the price may decrease a little bit. We were fortunate that there was basically nothing else that came back on inspection, probably less than $100 worth. As a first time buyer, and watcher of House Hunters, my biggest takeaway has been that there is no such thing as the perfect house in the perfect location, so good enough is good enough. And I totally agree on the closed concept, open concept is pretty in pictures, but seems so non-functional, I want separate spaces to some degree. Also, why is it a "concept" and not a floor plan? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 .. plus, there's only one bathroom and we raised three boys here. Many would say that's not possible! We're friends with a family who bought a farmhouse with one bathroom. (I refused to even look at any houses with less than 1.5 bathrooms when I was pregnant with only our second child.) They have five kids, including one teenage & one tween girl! I don't know how they do it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocolateReignRemix Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 But the alternative is pricing your house like it's in perfect condition (when the seller is aware of what issues it may have) so that they can lower the price after the buyer's inspection. That doesn't seem very honest way to price the house. In our situation, the "repairs" that the buyers wanted were either small things or upgrades. I honestly don't even remember anything besides the rain gutters they wanted. If it were something big-- like it was discovered a major appliance needed repair, or there was not-yet-discovered water damage, etc, than I could lowering the price for those things. But sometimes buyers are just being picky. That is what a lot of sellers do anyway without even realizing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnTheBrink Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 I'm going to spoil House Hunters. If you want to stay in the bubble, don't read further! *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~WHISTLING~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Ok. The buyers already have a house under contract when they do the show. The other houses they "look" at are totally staged showings. All the nitpicking is fake, phony, scripted. I don't know about the other home-buying shows, but I know for sure that this is how this one is done. My house has been on the market for a month. I've had ONE showing. The buyers wanted a bigger back yard. Can't do a thing about that one! I am selling as-is. The place is 85 years old. It has a brand new roof, new flooring in the bedrooms, updated flooring in the rest of the house, and a freshly painted porch and porch floor, along with updated electrical and plumbing. Anything that would need fixing is purely cosmetic and I am not changing it. It's so well insulated that you can't even hear the rain falling unless it's so windy that it hits the windows. It's a sturdy little place and is charming, but it's too small and I want something with no basement. Both realtors I'm working with say it's not showing because of the time of year and the fact we still have no state budget. Being a town with a huge state-worker population, no one's moving right now. So, here I sit. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 We're friends with a family who bought a farmhouse with one bathroom. (I refused to even look at any houses with less than 1.5 bathrooms when I was pregnant with only our second child.) They have five kids, including one teenage & one tween girl! I don't know how they do it! My parents' house had only one bathroom. They had five kids and sometimes additional people lived there, too. One bathroom. One toilet, one tub. Two sinks though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 My parents' house had only one bathroom. They had five kids and sometimes additional people lived there, too. One bathroom. One toilet, one tub. Two sinks though. We were so thankful to have the second "potty" room--even if we had only one shower, with a dad who reads on the john, one potty is merciless. When my dh and I moved 25+ years ago, we bought a house that was pretty small, but it was fine for the 2 of us. When we had our first (only) child, it was too small too small! :::runs around with hands in the air::: I later learned that the original owners had lived in the house for 45 years, raised a family of 5 children in the house. The downstairs (daylight basement, if you are generous) didn't even come upstairs *inside the house*. I think some of it has to do with more possessions, but I also think some of it has to do with the kinds of possessions we have--*they* had one TV; most people now have multiples (we still have only one). Computers and small appliances have done a LOT to change the kinds of space (and number of electrical outlets) we need in our homes now. Also, this house had a living room. Period. (Same as the house I grew up in...) Now we have living rooms, family rooms, bonus rooms, rec rooms, etc. But yeah...it has it's charm...in theory. Right now I'm still overcoming the bitterness of moving from 4000 sf back to 2500. LOL. (And yes, the word "bitterness" is said in jest.) One thing I have become a BIG FAN of is "use your house how you want to use your house." We have swapped the use of the living and family rooms in our house...everyone always comes in the kitchen anyway, so we might as well have the "guest space" in the adjoining family room and use the living room for ... TV and other stuff. I just spent the past 2 days restructuring the use of my little den/office/sewing room and it is so much better--because I 'm using it as *I* want to, not as the "brochure" said I should. :0) In my old house, I would have totally swapped things around if I had known we were going to homeschool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 We're friends with a family who bought a farmhouse with one bathroom. (I refused to even look at any houses with less than 1.5 bathrooms when I was pregnant with only our second child.) They have five kids, including one teenage & one tween girl! I don't know how they do it! My mom was one of 6 kids (4 girls) in a one bathroom farmhouse and they didn't even have a shower until she was in high school. There was only one bathroom in the house I grew up in. I think the ability to handle this is learned. ;) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 So I don't know OP's story but it sounds you do a lot of buying and selling houses Most people don't. For them it might be the biggest or first huge or the most important purchase of their lives and bring a lot of emotions into it. I can understand how people can get carried away. And for most sellers they are selling their "home", which is a very emotional thing. In my previous life I rehabbed houses, so by the time we were buying our "home", I've already gone through a few purchases and sales. VERY different perspective. I think the sellers were terrible people. I am sure they thought we were buyers from hell. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted November 1, 2015 Author Share Posted November 1, 2015 I'm going to spoil House Hunters. If you want to stay in the bubble, don't read further! *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~WHISTLING~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Ok. The buyers already have a house under contract when they do the show. The other houses they "look" at are totally staged showings. All the nitpicking is fake, phony, scripted. I don't know about the other home-buying shows, but I know for sure that this is how this one is done. My house has been on the market for a month. I've had ONE showing. The buyers wanted a bigger back yard. Can't do a thing about that one! I am selling as-is. The place is 85 years old. It has a brand new roof, new flooring in the bedrooms, updated flooring in the rest of the house, and a freshly painted porch and porch floor, along with updated electrical and plumbing. Anything that would need fixing is purely cosmetic and I am not changing it. It's so well insulated that you can't even hear the rain falling unless it's so windy that it hits the windows. It's a sturdy little place and is charming, but it's too small and I want something with no basement. Both realtors I'm working with say it's not showing because of the time of year and the fact we still have no state budget. Being a town with a huge state-worker population, no one's moving right now. So, here I sit. :glare: Yeah, I knew that about House Hunters, that they were already under contract. You also know that they never choose the occupied house, but only an empty one, since they just bought it. Anyway, I hope you get a sale soon! My agent says that if they show well, things are hopping until Thanksgiving, so you have a little time. One trick I have learned is to have my agent insert $1,000 BONUS to Buyer's Agent if closed by (choose a date). Or allow $5,000, depending on how fast you want out. You will be surprised how suddenly there is buyer interest in your property. ;) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted November 1, 2015 Author Share Posted November 1, 2015 So I don't know OP's story but it sounds you do a lot of buying and selling houses Most people don't. For them it might be the biggest or first huge or the most important purchase of their lives and bring a lot of emotions into it. I can understand how people can get carried away. And for most sellers they are selling their "home", which is a very emotional thing. In my previous life I rehabbed houses, so by the time we were buying our "home", I've already gone through a few purchases and sales. VERY different perspective. I think the sellers were terrible people. I am sure they thought we were buyers from hell. Wait, if you went through purchases AND sales and Sellers were terrible people, were you a terrible person when you were selling? ;) I've had a couple of sets of ridiculous buyers, but most people are reasonable and just want the house and to not be stuck with some huge unknown. They don't do the laundry list thing. I like to stay away from those agents, but you can't always control that. My current buyers seem like highly reasonable people who just fell in love with the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted November 1, 2015 Author Share Posted November 1, 2015 I find it amusing that some of you think a buyer should notice each and every minor thing wrong in a home and it therefore should be assumed to be priced in to the selling price. When we bought our last home there were minor issues that there is no way we could see just going through the home, and yes, they did lower the value of the home in our mind. The seller could either fix them or discount the price, but we saw no reason to eat the cost ourselves. We also had no problem if the seller decided to move on to another offer. We will be selling our current home next spring, and we are already working on minor repairs that we know are likely to pop up in an inspection. Now I do agree that upgrades are a different matter, but it is just part of negotiations. Well, lowering the value of the home subjectively does not mean the value is lower objectively, unless you are talking about unknown and not obvious repairs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted November 1, 2015 Author Share Posted November 1, 2015 Oh, I agree. We've been pretty lucky. I'm pretty sure we would not have sold the last house without our realtor's expertise, nor would we have gotten *closed* on the house we have now. But like I said, we had a good agent. One thing that was interesting about the house we are in now: in between signing the offer and closing the deal, the house got a water leak. The owners repaired it. Right thing to do, right? Well, turns out that (at least in this State) if there are infrastructure changes made to the house in that time period, the purchaser can walk away from the deal. So, the owners would have been "safer" to just let the water leak continue, as we had signed a no-inspection deal. But they fixed it--and gave us back $3000 so we wouldn't walk away. Isn't that a strange occurrence? We would not have walked away over someone fixing a leaky pipe!!!! but we did take the $3000. Eventually. That closing officer at the Title company was the worst EVER and our agent had to dog her for 3 weeks to get the check to us...it was in the file the whole time. That was the only bad Title experience we have ever had. Anyway...that's the oddest thing I think that has ever happened to us in a real-estate transaction, at least since our third condo, which was a nightmare at both ends, and the moral of THAT story is "Never fall in love with a house. Walk away." That is bizarre. If they fixed it, why would they also give you three grand? Sorry about your title experience The competent ones can get the funds in your account before you even leave the closing table. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 They gave us the three grand to keep us from walking. Thing is, some people get second thoughts mid-deal, and their FIXING the pipe constituted a "change in the property" so legally, we could have walked. It's bizarre. But they didn't want to have to get a new deal in the works, so they bribed us by paying us to accept the fixed pipe. LOL. :0) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted November 1, 2015 Author Share Posted November 1, 2015 They gave us the three grand to keep us from walking. Thing is, some people get second thoughts mid-deal, and their FIXING the pipe constituted a "change in the property" so legally, we could have walked. It's bizarre. But they didn't want to have to get a new deal in the works, so they bribed us by paying us to accept the fixed pipe. LOL. :0) Wow. Sweet deal for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Wow. Sweet deal for you. No kidding. The $3000 came in handy for fixing the pool pump. We bought "no inspection" and so we expected a couple of things. :0) My dh did all the work himself though, so instead of $7,000 it was $2,500. Yay, dh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBasil Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 We just bought a house. We had unique needs* and found the nearly perfect house. After the inspection we found a couple ceilings fan that didn't work, a rotted deck step, a minor electrical problem, a window screen that needs to be re screened, and unhooked ventilation fans in the attic. We asked for the electrical and ventilation issues to be fixed, but the other issues are easy enough fixes that we just shrugged them off. OTOH, prior to inspection, we asked for the washer/dryer and some portable sheds to stay. The seller agreed. We really wanted that particular house and she was comfortable not selling unless she found the right deal. The house is nicely finished and amazingly clean. The 12year old boiler looks like it was just installed, sparkling clean. We feel our Realtor(who is a gem) advised us really well. * My parents are moving in with us while my father is in the early but still somewhat difficult stages of early onset Alzheimer's. We wanted a house with space for 2 kitchens, 2 laundry areas, private bathrooms for each family, 2 private entrances, and 2 living areas. This house was well under our budget at a price that we figured meant we'd have to do some work to get it the way we wanted, but was almost exactly what we wanted. The only negative was no extra bedroom or third living area that I could use as a play and school room. I'm a little nervous about that, but my parents will be taken care of so....should be ok. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaelAldrich Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Well, all of you are very lucky! We now live in a uber-seller's market. Many properties will go at least 10% over asking price for "as-is" homes that are close to or over 100 years old. The one house that we did "win" ended up having around 150-200K in repairs to make it liveable. New roof, fixing all the leaks/water damage (literally a river of water cascading in the third floor to the second floor down the stairs, the exterior had not seen paint or repair in 20 years, birds living in the exterior walls(!), water coming in the cellar door, dryer had been venting inside the basement creating lots of mold, central air from the 50s, a kitchen from the early 60s, a bathroom with the floors buckled, and those were the bigger problems). I loved that house and the owners (flippers) dropped their price to almost what we wanted (from 605K to 568K) but now they put it on the MLS and are beholden to pay a realtor. I wonder if it will sell and for how much. There are few properties on the market here and most get sold within 5-10 days at most, faster in the hot season. If it doesn't get sold it is over-priced or in really, really bad shape. We're looking at a great property tomorrow and wondering how much over we need to make our offer (and if we have to drop the inspection contingency) to be competitive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBasil Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 My brother lives in a huge seller's market. He has only bought homes in that area and he was surprised by the fact that we could negotiate the price or repairs. They bought a house after multiple failed offers, had to offer a price over asking and make an offer with a no inspection contingency clause. He was also jealous that we had time to decide on making an offer since the standard where he is to see a house, write an offer immediately at the nearest business available(in his case they wrote the offer at a gas station around the corner), and wait to most likely be rejected. Do that 10+ times and eventually find something workable. At least in his price point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaelAldrich Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 My brother lives in a huge seller's market. He has only bought homes in that area and he was surprised by the fact that we could negotiate the price or repairs. They bought a house after multiple failed offers, had to offer a price over asking and make an offer with a no inspection contingency clause. He was also jealous that we had time to decide on making an offer since the standard where he is to see a house, write an offer immediately at the nearest business available(in his case they wrote the offer at a gas station around the corner), and wait to most likely be rejected. Do that 10+ times and eventually find something workable. At least in his price point. Maybe we live in the same place? ;) We've put in bids four times, won one (the Money Pit mentioned above) and then backed out once we got the bad news. There are two houses we looked at that I am not in love with mostly because they don't have a DR of any sort. We DO entertain (almost every week 6-10 people for dinner and lunch on our Sabbath) and doing that in the eat in kitchen is impossible (the six of us will barely fit) and we would like to have a LR without a table and chairs in it. Not that we would all fit anyways - the LR is 12"x12" - we usually have two or three tables going for those meals. Building an addition is going to run 30K or more and we might not get permission from the people who own the other part of the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Well, all of you are very lucky! We now live in a uber-seller's market. Many properties will go at least 10% over asking price for "as-is" homes that are close to or over 100 years old. The one house that we did "win" ended up having around 150-200K in repairs to make it liveable. New roof, fixing all the leaks/water damage (literally a river of water cascading in the third floor to the second floor down the stairs, the exterior had not seen paint or repair in 20 years, birds living in the exterior walls(!), water coming in the cellar door, dryer had been venting inside the basement creating lots of mold, central air from the 50s, a kitchen from the early 60s, a bathroom with the floors buckled, and those were the bigger problems). I loved that house and the owners (flippers) dropped their price to almost what we wanted (from 605K to 568K) but now they put it on the MLS and are beholden to pay a realtor. I wonder if it will sell and for how much. There are few properties on the market here and most get sold within 5-10 days at most, faster in the hot season. If it doesn't get sold it is over-priced or in really, really bad shape. We're looking at a great property tomorrow and wondering how much over we need to make our offer (and if we have to drop the inspection contingency) to be competitive. I hope it goes well for you tomorrow. The house we got 2.5 years ago, we dropped the inspection requirement because we had been looking for a house for 10 months and of the THREE we found that we liked, the other two ended up in bidding wars that escalated the asking price 20%. $700,000 became $840,000--without our bidding. It was so disheartening. We realized that the odds were low of something showing up that would cause us to walk away, so why pay for the inspection in the first place and make it a deal-barrier in the second? I was nervous, but it worked out OK in our circ. If you can offer the seller their choice of closing date, that is also elpful sometimes. We got this house because they wanted a quick close, but we got our PREVIOUS house (in part) because we gave the owner a "last summer " in his beloved home, by allowing a 4 month close. He was the sweetest man. Anyway, just be flexible and hang in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaelAldrich Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 It's an as-is house, so maybe I will drop it since I now know what to look for somewhat. I would still want an inspector to look at it though at some point. We can't fix much by ourselves. Talents lie elsewhere and all that.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 It's an as-is house, so maybe I will drop it since I now know what to look for somewhat. I would still want an inspector to look at it though at some point. We can't fix much by ourselves. Talents lie elsewhere and all that.... I'm not a fixer-upper either. I write checks. As long as the money holds out. I can paint but that's about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 The other reason to get an inspection is just to know what you are dealing with. You don't necessarily have to ask the seller to make repairs, but it's very important, for instance, to know if the furnace is on its last legs or if the roof is unlikely to last much longer--those are major expense items and you need to be able to budget for them. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 The other reason to get an inspection is just to know what you are dealing with. You don't necessarily have to ask the seller to make repairs, but it's very important, for instance, to know if the furnace is on its last legs or if the roof is unlikely to last much longer--those are major expense items and you need to be able to budget for them. I agree in principle. But we would not have this house had we requested one. Totally s seller's market. We have recently been hit with a repair that cost $10,000. The inspection would not have caught this--it's somethings that affected everyone in the neighborhood...we were the last. Anyway, I do agree in principle but it isn't universally The best route. And (alas) it's not a total guarantee against unexpected big expenses. Our Christmas will be s little lean this year...and that's OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 The house we just sold a few weeks ago, we sold as is. The buyers got an inspection, and knew we weren't fixing stuff because we'd gone down as far as we were willing, and we felt they would use the inspection report to negotiate further. We wanted them to know we were done negotiating, and made it as is. We'd gone down as far as we did because they were closing within two weeks, paying cash so no financing to fall through. So they got the inspection to know what they were dealing with, as mentioned above. Nothing of note showed up. :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Wait, if you went through purchases AND sales and Sellers were terrible people, were you a terrible person when you were selling? ;) I've had a couple of sets of ridiculous buyers, but most people are reasonable and just want the house and to not be stuck with some huge unknown. They don't do the laundry list thing. I like to stay away from those agents, but you can't always control that. My current buyers seem like highly reasonable people who just fell in love with the house. I am sure I was a terrible buyer to the sellers and a terrible seller to the buyers. :) I am not a terribly emotional person in general and when it came to buying/selling I really took emotions out of it. I think it makes it harder for the other side. I think that "falling in love" part makes things much more difficult. ETA: just me being nosy - are you a RE agent or do you buy/sell houses as a rehab business? I miss doing that, so may be can live vicariously though you :) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaelAldrich Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 I forgot to thank you Patty Joanna for your thoughts! We hope we will be successful this time too, but as you know, G-d has a plan, ;) I agree that an inspection before you finally commit to a house is a great idea in general. On the first bid in this city, we brought in the inspector during the open house, so we could drop the inspection clause. The house was up for 599K, we offered 660K and it went for 749K. We also had an inspection for our first house that missed a bunch of things and we had a large amount of repairs (for those things as well as things he couldn't have known). We used a great inspector here and even if we won the bid for this house without the inspection clause, I'd still bring him in after the fact. The house was renovated 20 years ago (their realtors are spinning it like it was done yesterday) so at least we figure there will be no knob-and-tube wiring and so forth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 I forgot to thank you Patty Joanna for your thoughts! We hope we will be successful this time too, but as you know, G-d has a plan, ;) I agree that an inspection before you finally commit to a house is a great idea in general. On the first bid in this city, we brought in the inspector during the open house, so we could drop the inspection clause. The house was up for 599K, we offered 660K and it went for 749K. We also had an inspection for our first house that missed a bunch of things and we had a large amount of repairs (for those things as well as things he couldn't have known). We used a great inspector here and even if we won the bid for this house without the inspection clause, I'd still bring him in after the fact. The house was renovated 20 years ago (their realtors are spinning it like it was done yesterday) so at least we figure there will be no knob-and-tube wiring and so forth. We had an inspector check our house before we listed it so we could catch deal-breakers. But the buyer's inspector was truly more thorough. I'll use him next time. That kind of bidding war is so discouraging to a buyer. BTDT. The thing that REALLY ticks me off is that bidding wars never happen when I am the *seller*. Drat. LOL. Well, God give you wisdom and patience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaelAldrich Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 We had an inspector check our house before we listed it so we could catch deal-breakers. But the buyer's inspector was truly more thorough. I'll use him next time. That kind of bidding war is so discouraging to a buyer. BTDT. The thing that REALLY ticks me off is that bidding wars never happen when I am the *seller*. Drat. LOL. Well, God give you wisdom and patience. Ain't that the truth. We sold our house (different market) in less than one day for asking price, but there was another offer that almost placed at the same time, but someone convinced them to not start a bidding war. Wah! LOL Thank you for your prayers. I hope G-d grants me those in great quantities. :D This house would be nice too though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 We just bought, and while we didn't want to request that anything but a few safety issues be fixed (they were minor), our realtor insisted that we ask for everything that came up on the inspection. To our surprise, the sellers fixed everything. We paid asking price, but there were other offers on the house. I'm glad it worked out for you, but I personally would never tolerate my realtor "insisting" I do anything. Seriously? They work for me, not the other way around. Again, I'm glad it worked for you, but when I've been in situations where minor issues needed to be fixed, putting out a long laundry list would have made us jerks, or surely lost us the house, neither being a result we wanted, and I didn't want that. NOT saying that you were being jerks, because every situation is certainly different. But ooh, that just irks me, the realtor insiting that their client do something. I've seen too many shady realtors, watching the other party's realtor lie rght to their face about something with our purchase, having our realtor compromise our advantage as a seller, and being encouraged by our realtor to do something unethical and illegal because she wanted the sale to go through (each being a separate transaction). Sure, realtors serve a purpose for me, but maybe not the same purpose they serve for others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Agents give very, very bad advice, to a large degree. I've been in this gig a long time in various capacities and I have met very few knowledgeable agents who are true pros. YMMV :iagree: :iagree: :iagree: We've been there surely not as long as you (9 real estate deals), but the good ones are very rare. It's not always obvious at first though, and in some cases (as mentioned above when the agent lied to the other party right in front of us), you may never know what your agent did, or you may not be familiar or knowledgable enough to recognize when they screw you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted November 1, 2015 Author Share Posted November 1, 2015 I am sure I was a terrible buyer to the sellers and a terrible seller to the buyers. :) I am not a terribly emotional person in general and when it came to buying/selling I really took emotions out of it. I think it makes it harder for the other side. I think that "falling in love" part makes things much more difficult. ETA: just me being nosy - are you a RE agent or do you buy/sell houses as a rehab business? I miss doing that, so may be can live vicariously though you :) Not an agent, intentionally. I have been a landlord for a long time, and also like renovation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UCF612 Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 We did this last year, the buying/selling at the same time. We closed on both the same day, moved Uhaul from old house to new. Thank god we had a good realtor though, as I thought it was like a finely orchestrated performance in which everything had to go exactly as planned, which it fortunately did. Seriously, if one little thing had fallen through, we would have been toast. NEVER AGAIN. Ditto this! We moved at the end of Sept from one close to the other. I'm so glad it went well. It was really stressful, actually the entire process was (long story that thankfully worked out in our favor). We weren't new to buying and selling but had always sold in one state and moved to another. This time we were moving within the same area. Anyhow, we did request a few things fixed, 2 broken windows and an unsafe garage door closing mechanism. We have a list of other things that need work and have already had a plumber fixing things. Kitchen and bathrooms are outdated but totally functional so we'll live with those until we can afford to make them ours. We actually moved from a VERY open floorplan to one with more room segregation. I had a very specific idea of how open/closed I wanted. This house is the perfect combo for us. My realtor asked if I liked to entertain and I cracked up. I've always laughed at the tv shows who all claim they constantly entertain. I avoid it at all costs! Although I do occasionally host for Thanksgiving or Christmas but only close family which is just not the same as true "entertaining" in my eyes. The buyer for our house made no improvement requests but it was a much newer house and we had already fixed the small issues before listing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Sometimes it depends on the price and the market, kwim? We bought a house 18 months ago. We feel we got a good deal, but the seller was upset because she'd originally tried to sell it for $54k more (and it wasn't worth it.) So by the time she got to a reasonable price, folks had stopped looking at it. Then we tested for radon and found it dangerously high - we wouldn't have considered it without mitigation and she could no longer sell without disclosing so that was done at her expense. I wish we had made a higher offer, but asked for a new furnace, or at least settled in there. In our VA loan we *should* have been able to finance in the new furnace but our banker either couldn't figure it out or was lazy.... Either way we are praying it makes it through one more winter and it gets replaced in the spring. Meh. I personally think it was a negotiating technique - making a full price or overprice offer isn't much negotiating so maybe they feel like they could still get some kind of win? No idea. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaelAldrich Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 UPDATE: We saw the house, came up with an offer (50K over asking price), told our realtor, then she came back this morning saying she had also been to the open house. She saw it was relatively sparsely attended (we agreed) and that there could be problems with the unpermitted work on the third floor (roughed in bathroom and three bedrooms) for the mortgage co. She suggested I call the mortgage guy and my husband before changing the amount on our bid. It took a while to get the mortgage guy, but when I did he suggested that we might want to consider lowering the price knowing we might have to pay fines and/or take the third floor apart. I couldn't get in touch with my husband until almost 2pm. After quickly discussing it, we decided to go for the asking price instead. Right after that call my realtor called me back and told me the deadline had passed to place offers and that there were three offers all over the asking price. I didn't know what the time of the deadline was (I did know the deadline was today) and it seemed neither did my realtor. I'm upset that we lost the chance at this house, but onwards and upwards, I guess. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 UPDATE: We saw the house, came up with an offer (50K over asking price), told our realtor, then she came back this morning saying she had also been to the open house. She saw it was relatively sparsely attended (we agreed) and that there could be problems with the unpermitted work on the third floor (roughed in bathroom and three bedrooms) for the mortgage co. She suggested I call the mortgage guy and my husband before changing the amount on our bid. It took a while to get the mortgage guy, but when I did he suggested that we might want to consider lowering the price knowing we might have to pay fines and/or take the third floor apart. I couldn't get in touch with my husband until almost 2pm. After quickly discussing it, we decided to go for the asking price instead. Right after that call my realtor called me back and told me the deadline had passed to place offers and that there were three offers all over the asking price. I didn't know what the time of the deadline was (I did know the deadline was today) and it seemed neither did my realtor. I'm upset that we lost the chance at this house, but onwards and upwards, I guess. Blah. So frustrating. And you may never know, but it COULD be a bullet dodged. Sometimes it doesn't feel like that though. It's the Keystone Kops stuff that really makes you nuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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