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Open house today......give your thoughts, prayers, juju, whatever


DawnM
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Ok, so the potential buyers came back today, with their realtor, during the open house.  They stayed for 45 min. past the open house, a total of over 1.5 hours.  THey asked a lot of questions, told the realtor exactly how they would use each space, said the house was perfect for their needs, and just want clarification about a bunch of stuff first.  She said they seemed very interested.  They told their realtor this is the first house they have looked at that checks most of their boxes in their price range.

So......keep praying and thinking positive thoughts.  An offer may be coming in the next day or so.

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They sent us a list of 7 questions last night.  

Kind of interesting, DH has had his office in the basement for years.  For staging, we were told to bring it back up to the designated office space, so we did.  Well, this new guy wants to put his office in the basement and wants to be sure the basement would work! 😂

There were questions about moisture in the basement (we have never had any) and why there were not more A/C vents down there, only baseboard heaters (it is mostly underground and stays between 60-68 year round.) . 

They also wanted to know the age of our pool, size of HVAC system, and if they could have a goat on our property.  🤔

Oh, and the mom asked if we would leave some of our crappy furniture......um, yeah!  Take all of it!  Then I don't have to move it!

Hoping we get an offer today .

Edited by DawnM
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35 minutes ago, Pink and Green Mom said:

Dawn, those are all great questions - especially the furniture.  They must be ready to make an offer.  Good luck!!

 

I am told they plan to, but I am not holding my breath until they make the offer.

Then we will need to figure out how to see some houses this week PRONTO.  

Now DH and I are fighting over the cheap furniture.  I am thrilled to just get RID of it, he is like, "We can't afford to replace it!  Do we hate it?  I didn't know we hated that!"  🤣

I am assuring him we do hate it. 😂

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54 minutes ago, DawnM said:

 

I am told they plan to, but I am not holding my breath until they make the offer.

Then we will need to figure out how to see some houses this week PRONTO.  

Now DH and I are fighting over the cheap furniture.  I am thrilled to just get RID of it, he is like, "We can't afford to replace it!  Do we hate it?  I didn't know we hated that!"  🤣

I am assuring him we do hate it. 😂

 

This is a regular occurrence in my house.

Fingers crossed for an offer! 

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Hoping you get an offer. 

We are getting furniture with our new house purchase and leaving some for our buyers. It does make moving so much easier. Tell dh that you would most likely get new furniture anyways for the new house so it fits better. 

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29 minutes ago, lmrich said:

Hoping you get an offer. 

We are getting furniture with our new house purchase and leaving some for our buyers. It does make moving so much easier. Tell dh that you would most likely get new furniture anyways for the new house so it fits better. 

 

I will try but he just sees dollar signs and then grouses.  I mean, I get it, we are buying in an expensive area, have kids in college, etc.....but.....

 

And on another note:

If I want furniture from the new house (and the house we do like has some things we would like) do we just ask for it in the offer?  Like list each thing individually?

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29 minutes ago, DawnM said:

 

I will try but he just sees dollar signs and then grouses.  I mean, I get it, we are buying in an expensive area, have kids in college, etc.....but.....

 

And on another note:

If I want furniture from the new house (and the house we do like has some things we would like) do we just ask for it in the offer?  Like list each thing individually?

 

You can negotiate anything - even underwear in a drawer as my realtor put it.

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3 minutes ago, Liz CA said:

 

You can negotiate anything - even underwear in a drawer as my realtor put it.

 

GAH!  NO! 😜😱

But I will keep that in mind.

I happen to know that the house we are seriously considering making an offer on has been on the market a little over a year (long story as to that, we talked to their realtor who happens to live next door) and the kids are now all grown and gone and she is divorced and lives alone.  She is drastically downsizing, so my guess is that she may need to sell things anyway if we don't ask for them.

Apparently the house was on the market over a year ago for significantly more $$ as an asking price.  She got 2 offers within a few weeks.  One was actually pretty close to asking price and the other a little bit of a low offer.  She thought she could do better, so she turned them both down.  Her realtor told her it was a bad idea, but she was adamant (and I wonder if her ex was involved too).  It is now listed, over a year later, for significantly lower than either of those offers were over a year ago!  

The house is larger than ours by quite a bit, so we would definitely need more furniture.   We already planned to ask for the pool table in the rec room, but we may ask for more.  My husband thinks I am nuts, but then when I told him the potential buyers asked the realtor if they could ask for some of our furniture he was like, "Oh, didn't know you could do that!"

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Another question:  Does your area require earnest money to put down on an offer?

My husband thinks it is ridiculous and wants to make an offer without it.  We did not do it in CA, but in NC it seems to be the norm.  

Is it required?  Is it expected?  Is it the norm?

 

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7 minutes ago, DawnM said:

Another question:  Does your area require earnest money to put down on an offer?

My husband thinks it is ridiculous and wants to make an offer without it.  We did not do it in CA, but in NC it seems to be the norm.  

Is it required?  Is it expected?  Is it the norm?

 

We've bought houses in several states and have always had to put down earnest money.

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Just now, moonflower said:

Can you have a goat on your property?

 

I think so, but the realtor said she would handle that question.  She gave their realtor a copy of the CCRs?  I think that is Covenants and Restrictions?  for the area.

The people who live behind our property have a large pig, two shetland ponies, and a dog.  The people next to us used to have 5 horses.  

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1 minute ago, wilrunner said:

We've bought houses in several states and have always had to put down earnest money.

 

it is usually 1%, right?   And it isn't cashed until closing?  

 

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1 minute ago, wilrunner said:

I don't remember it being a percentage, but rather some ridiculously low amount for the total purchase, something between $1,000 and $5,000. I think our first one may have been only $500.

 

I don't remember doing it at all when we bought this house, but that was a while ago.

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Dh and I have always included earnest money with any real estate transaction if we really want to purchase the property ( 3 states but not NC).  We used to own several rental houses/condos and we didn’t always put more than a token amount with those offers.  The more money down the more we wanted the property to be honest.

 We once had to buy a house quickly because our hard to sell home sold contingent on a month close.  I had animals that needed  a house to live in so I needed to buy quickly........I didn’t have many choices in the price range we wanted.....we gave a pretty hefty amount down to insure a really quick close.  The owners were thrilled, they had a new build they already owned and were debating putting on the market because the house we bought was a tough sell.  A few years later in a different market we sold that house in days.

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1 hour ago, DawnM said:

Another question:  Does your area require earnest money to put down on an offer?

My husband thinks it is ridiculous and wants to make an offer without it.  We did not do it in CA, but in NC it seems to be the norm.  

Is it required?  Is it expected?  Is it the norm?

 

 

We just bought in CA and we put down a small amount  into escrow as earnest money as soon as the offer was accepted by the seller.

Edited by Liz CA
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28 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

I’ve always put down earnest money, here in CA.

It’s been 0.5 to 1%, and it is cashed immediately and put into escrow toward the down payment.  If the deal does not go through for any reason that is not part of the contract, it is forfeited.

 

Right, I know it is forfeited if you back out for an "I am just not interested anymore" reason, but I don't remember putting anything down in CA.  Maybe we did and I just don't remember.  We bought and sold 3 houses in CA, but sometimes stressful situations are a blur, so who knows.

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42 minutes ago, Seasider too said:

 

It varies by location but shows you are serious in your intent to purchase, not just making a frivolous offer. 

 

Yeah, I understand the concept, DH just hates it.  I think because there was a huge issue with a friend at work a few years back.  They put $15k down on a house with a builder and the builder changed a bunch of things, said they could no longer add a basement, said it would take 6 extra months, etc.....and then they had to back out due to time and original plans being changed and still haven't gotten their money back.

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3 hours ago, DawnM said:

Another question:  Does your area require earnest money to put down on an offer?

My husband thinks it is ridiculous and wants to make an offer without it.  We did not do it in CA, but in NC it seems to be the norm.  

Is it required?  Is it expected?  Is it the norm?

 

We have owned homes in VA, FL, and SC and earnest money has always been required.  Usually 1 percent of selling price (at a minimum, although our competitive NOVA market people generally did more to show interest).  In VA your realtor held your check until closing (so it was never cashed until then) but in both FL and SC the check was cashed immediately and held by the closing attorney.

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We are waiting for closing on my dad's house.  We had 2 offers and both put up a little over 1% in earnest money.  The builder that is buying our buyer's house and they put down a lot more than that on theirs.  My realtor called the President of the building company to check on things and he said he wasn't going to walk away from $20K.  1% would have been $8K.

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We did have problems once when we agreed in the contract to let the buyers have the swing set and some bar stools. Their type of loan would not allow things to be in the contract that were not attached to the house in some way. So curtains and curtain rods, fine, but bar stools were a problem. They had to ask us if we had embedded the swing set into the ground with concrete, so that it was "attached" to the property (nope, didn't do that). It delayed our closing a bit; I think the offer had to be rewritten without those things included, and then we just had a verbal agreement to leave them behind.

DH (he works in banking) says there should be a separate agreement outside of the real estate contract for the furniture. He says, "The bank does not want to make a loan on assets that the mortgage doesn't cover."

Of course, your realtor may say that including extra items in the contract is not a problem in your area. But it can be in some places.

I think for earnest money when we bought this house, we had to give our realtor a $1,000 check. She held it and then brought it to the closing, when we signed the final documents. So it was just applied to what we owed at closing.

DH says the earnest money is not worth quibbling over, if it is standard in your area. Generally, it's good to make the offer as attractive to the seller as possible, and it really doesn't cost you anything in the end, unless you end up backing out of the agreement.

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27 minutes ago, Storygirl said:

We did have problems once when we agreed in the contract to let the buyers have the swing set and some bar stools. Their type of loan would not allow things to be in the contract that were not attached to the house in some way. So curtains and curtain rods, fine, but bar stools were a problem. They had to ask us if we had embedded the swing set into the ground with concrete, so that it was "attached" to the property (nope, didn't do that). It delayed our closing a bit; I think the offer had to be rewritten without those things included, and then we just had a verbal agreement to leave them behind.

Interesting.  I will have to find out.

27 minutes ago, Storygirl said:

DH (he works in banking) says there should be a separate agreement outside of the real estate contract for the furniture. He says, "The bank does not want to make a loan on assets that the mortgage doesn't cover."

Of course, your realtor may say that including extra items in the contract is not a problem in your area. But it can be in some places.

I think for earnest money when we bought this house, we had to give our realtor a $1,000 check. She held it and then brought it to the closing, when we signed the final documents. So it was just applied to what we owed at closing.

DH says the earnest money is not worth quibbling over, if it is standard in your area. Generally, it's good to make the offer as attractive to the seller as possible, and it really doesn't cost you anything in the end, unless you end up backing out of the agreement.

I am not the one who needs convincing.  DH is a bear when it comes to parting with money......sigh.

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Update for anyone still following this seemingly never ending saga:

Their realtor told my realtor today that they are getting everything together and will need a couple of days and then plan to make an offer.  They are a multi-generational family, so they may be pooling funds or getting 96 year old grandma's bank bonds or something!

Stay tuned.

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Earnest money is just annoying here the seller doesn't even get to keep it so it truly serves no purpose.  We have always been told to put down like 1,000 and we have always done $250 all of our offers have been accepted or countered on something else and been accepted eventually.

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21 minutes ago, SpecialClassical said:

I love the house selling/buying posts! Any details you would like to share?  

 

Details like?  

They made the offer yesterday.  They wanted a 60 day closing and not enough down.  We countered with more down, 45 day closing.  We agreed to the new offer today.

There is more in terms of details. but I am exhausted.  I can post more tomorrow.

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54 minutes ago, DawnM said:

 

Details like?  

They made the offer yesterday.  They wanted a 60 day closing and not enough down.  We countered with more down, 45 day closing.  We agreed to the new offer today.

There is more in terms of details. but I am exhausted.  I can post more tomorrow.

Oh, just about anything.  Like, was it the family that liked the layout as-is, anything that was different than normal in the negotiations... I don’t know.  No pressure.  The whole process is tiring. 

We have had weird experiences, so it’s  interesting to read about others.  Like the buyers of our house kept cruising by slowly, but failed to show up for their showing appointment.  They made an offer, though.  Then the husband came the day we moved out, sat in our yard, and watched us load up and move. And made comments as we did.  Maybe I should start a new thread. 😊

 

 

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4 hours ago, SpecialClassical said:

Oh, just about anything.  Like, was it the family that liked the layout as-is, anything that was different than normal in the negotiations... I don’t know.  No pressure.  The whole process is tiring. 

We have had weird experiences, so it’s  interesting to read about others.  Like the buyers of our house kept cruising by slowly, but failed to show up for their showing appointment.  They made an offer, though.  Then the husband came the day we moved out, sat in our yard, and watched us load up and move. And made comments as we did.  Maybe I should start a new thread. 😊

 

 

 

Ok, I was so exhausted yesterday.  Not only with the house stuff, but other stuff that has been going on, and I was at a BBQ party yesterday with friends and too much sun.

They have asked for all of our gym equipment in the basement, our washer/dryer, an ugly hutch furniture piece in the dining room, and for us to fix our fence.  We were trying to NOT fix the fence, but they were really wanting us to.  It is weird because the gate/railing to the pool deck isn't finished but they said nothing about that.  

We said yes to all of the above.  DH and boys will be starting in on the fence fixing today.

They offered 98% of our asking price.  We asked for just a little back (to fix our fence!) 🤣  And they agreed to basically split the difference.  

Oh, and it is a cash offer, which is great.

So actually I figured it out, we aren't closing in 45 days, we are closing on July 1st, whatever day that is, 34 days????  It is also our 24th wedding anniversary!  😘

We had tentatively written an offer on another house with the realtor on Saturday, since she was heading to the beach Sun with her grandkids, but DH told me last night he is not feeling good about it and wants to take another week or so to think about it and see a couple more houses.  In some ways I agree and in another I just want it to be over.  But we are going to talk more today.  

Edited by DawnM
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4 hours ago, SpecialClassical said:

Oh, just about anything.  Like, was it the family that liked the layout as-is, anything that was different than normal in the negotiations... I don’t know.  No pressure.  The whole process is tiring. 

We have had weird experiences, so it’s  interesting to read about others.  Like the buyers of our house kept cruising by slowly, but failed to show up for their showing appointment.  They made an offer, though.  Then the husband came the day we moved out, sat in our yard, and watched us load up and move. And made comments as we did.  Maybe I should start a new thread. 😊

 

 

 

What in the WORLD????

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