House hunters, come on in! [Archive] - Page 2

pixielou

04-27-2006, 11:38 AM

I understand that the housing market is totally different where I live, but I do think you're being a bit limiting with your set of criteria.

i know some people may feel that way. and i've even fired a couple real estate agents who have told me that. but the bottom line is that it is our money and we are the people who are going to have to live there. and there are just a few things that dh and i have decided that we cannot live with.

we are also concerned about resale value. who knows what the housing market will be like in 3-5 years from now, when we most likely will be looking to sell. all these things that we are turning our noses at now - they will make it a lot harder to sell a house should the market totally turn directions.

we definitely made a huge mistake with this townhouse. we thought we wouldn't mind having no yard and minimal storage for a few years. but we were wrong. we are not happy here. and we are hoping to learn from our mistakes so that we can be happy with our housing for the next few years.

~pixie

dionysia

04-27-2006, 12:49 PM

Pixie,
As someone whose family is originally from the Boston area (dad from Woburn, mom from Brighton), who has lived here since 1998, and who has owned 2 homes in the area (my husband owned one before as well), your expectations are unrealistic.

The Boston area is an old area. You are not going to find colonials on large lots within 128 unless you are talking Lexington and then you're looking at $1MM at least. Most of the houses in the area were built between 1900-1960. Many don't have garages. Most houses in the New England suburbs (at least RI, CT, and MA) are raised ranches, capes, or ranches. And most of them are in good condition. Maybe there are a lot on the market now that need cosmetic fixes, but not all the houses on the market are "handyman's specials." I for one am proud that the area has somewhat resisted the trend to bulldoze older (30-50 year old) homes to put up McMansions. And even if they did do that, it's not going to change the fact that housing lots in suburban areas close to the city are very small.

Maybe you should start listening to the real estate agents instead of firing them when they tell you something you don't want to hear?

Di

mermccau

04-27-2006, 12:58 PM

Pixie,

Have you considered moving to another part of the country? I am not being snarky. All that you describe that you do not like is what the homes in this part of the country are about. The old charm, the crooked floors, the small spaces. That does not sound like your taste at all. Why do you want to stay in the Boston area?

Have you thought of moving further up the North Shore to say Danvers, Reading, Topsfield, etc?

njdiva

04-27-2006, 01:17 PM

Just a brief update on my end...

Well, our condo was under attorney review but once the potential buyer found out that we were not agreeing to a closing date (instead we wanted a contigency on when we close on the home we are still trying to purchase). But we believe that the buyer lived in an apartment and was unable to extend her lease. So we lost the buyer... & we our place is back on the market. Since this former buyer was the first person to see our place we never went through the open house/walk-though's... So last night, we took some pics & DH made copies of our keys b/c I guess we are starting from scratch.

DH & I finally met with a mortgage specialist this week and boy was that a learning experience. After looking at our debt ration & the actual breakdown for what we would be paying on a monthly basis, we realize that our anticipated price range is entirely too high for what we can realistically manage. We had a long talk afterwards... We have few options - wait until next year (but we don't know how much would change), look for homes more south (which means a longer commute) or look for a fix-upper or foreclosure home :eek: :eek: ...

As you can see it's a bit discouraging for the both of us right now... even though everyone keeps telling us that it is doable :rolleyes: ! We both want a larger place and we both know that the little debt we do have will most likely not change too much in one year. And DH feels that the prices of homes will also not stop increasing...

We have a few appointments in a southern county for some newer townhomes that are in our 'NEW' price range.

lawyerlee

04-27-2006, 01:24 PM

Aw, that stinks, njdiva. :( But good for you that you looked at your finances and adjusted your expectations. We had to do that, too, and I'm sure you and I are not alone. I'm sure we'll both enjoy our new homes more if we aren't stressed our 24/7 under the weight of mortgages that are too big. Good luck with your continued house hunting. :)

Nanner

04-27-2006, 08:59 PM

Aw, that stinks, njdiva. :( But good for you that you looked at your finances and adjusted your expectations. We had to do that, too, and I'm sure you and I are not alone.

You two are definitely not alone! We came to this realization a few days ago, and it has really opened my eyes and helped me to be more realistic. We really wanted to keep living in the city. But in order to get a decent sized house in a family oriented neighborhood with good scools, we'd be looking at a total fixer-upper (which I just do not have the energy for with a young child). So it's the suburbs for us! And on top of that, after looking closely at the tax rates, our budget dropped by 50K!

njdiva, I'm sorry to hear you lost your buyer. I hope you get another bite soon!

Katyanne

04-28-2006, 07:11 AM

Njdiva, I'm also sorry you lost your buyer, that really stinks. I'll keep my fingers crossed for another buyer soon.

As of yesterday April 27, 2006 I'm a home owner!!! YAY!!!! The closing went really really well and we even got a bit of money back $56.00 woo hoo!! :D The previous owners (YAY!) were really nice and told us alot of great things about the neighborhood. Even about a MI/MI State rivalry that happens with the street directly behind us once football season starts :D

So this weekend we have plans to do the majority of our packing so hopefully we'll have everything pretty well packed by the end.

Wed, Thursday and Friday I've got off work and I'll be making a couple different trips up there to set up the kitchen and wait for our new couch to be delivered thursday. I keep telling David that he should schedule cable internet to get set up that day so I can just be there all day. Because he won't be able to set up his home office without the internet. I figure while I'm waiting I'll set up the Kitchen and bring up some breakable stuff myself. David and I have already agreed, the kitchen is my domain and the basement is his. ;)

We found out that we have to buy a washer and dryer so I have a feeling that's another thing we'll be doing this weekend. Money in Money out LOL!!

Katie

lawyergirl25

04-28-2006, 07:14 AM

Congrats Katie!! Good luck with the move.

I hear what you're saying njdiva. We did the same thing. Our mortgage is still pretty heavy, but it's completely manageable. I can't imagine the weight we'd be under if we had gotten the house DH *really* wanted. ;) (Of course, as of Monday, DH is unemployed, so that's really coloring my thinking on the mortgage issue!)

lawyergirl25

04-28-2006, 07:17 AM

And yes, I'm still posting in this thread even though it's been 4 weeks since closing. We're still not completely out of our apartment yet - Merry Maids will be there today to clean and we turn over our keys on Sunday - so I don't feel like I've "graduated" yet. ;)

njdiva

04-28-2006, 09:19 AM

Thanks ladies for all of you support & kind words... that why I love these boards b/c they help me realize that I am not alone. It's funny b/c as soon as our realtor announced to her office that our place is on the market again - our phone has been ringing off the hook from realtors who want to show our little 2-bedroom condo :rolleyes: ... Last night, the realtor came by to pick up our spare set of keys for a lock box and I forwarded pics for the website... I will keep you all posted!

As far as our new mortgage price range... we also had to factor in the extremely high property taxes here in NJ. There are some counties where the property tax is as high as $12,000 :eek: :eek: - & I think that is so insane. So, moving more south is our only option...

Katyanne

04-28-2006, 09:21 AM

Congratulations! I'm so glad that so many realtors are interested in showing your place.. That's great!

Yikes!! I thought our taxes were high $3,000 per year WOW!!

Katie

jrdhbunny

04-28-2006, 12:49 PM

Add me to the list!

We own our co-op here in NYC, but it's very small and with an extremely mobile one-year old on our hands, we need more space. We'd like to avoid selling our place, especially since we'll be staying here as long as I'm working in the city.

Unfortunately, there is no possible way on earth that we can afford a home in CT or Westchester or NJ, so we're looking in NE Pennsylvania, where DH is from. We eventually want to move there anyway, so we might as well start the process while I have a good salary to work with.

We're working with two realtors (although they're sending us the same homes). Our main challenge is that we can't get into town to see the houses very often because renting a car every weekend is not feasible. We'd like to get a group that we like and look at a bunch at once, but as we expected, the houses are not lasting very long. :(

But luckily, we're not in a huge hurry and we have a little time to look.

endymion411

04-30-2006, 06:11 AM

up finishing some studying before we head out for another day of open houses. we also have a meeting this evening with a buyer's agent we really like, so hopefully things will go well with her and we can get ourselves a place!

EmilyZA

04-30-2006, 06:36 AM

We're closing Tuesday! :D Everything has gone incredibly smooth so far. At the inspection, there were some plumbing issues that needed to be taken care of and the seller agreed to fix it, along with a few other things (gutters cleaned, chimney cleaned, etc.) We went and checked up on it the other day and everything is working great. We're also doing a walk through the morning of closing. I'll let you guys know how it works out!

LeslieandPaul

04-30-2006, 12:38 PM

We're having our realtor over tomorrow to do a market evaluation so we can figure out how much to list for, but I'm starting to have doubts about moving at all right now.
We have some big debts to pay off, and I want to sell our cars and cut down to one cheaper car, and put that extra cash into the debt, and by the end of the year we'd have debts paid off, and extra money saved. The extra money would help us put down a bigger downpayment and have smaller mortgage payments (which will be important when we have kids because I won't work). Ugh, so frustrated.

lawyerlee

04-30-2006, 08:46 PM

Good luck with your closing, Emily. I hope it goes smoothly for you. :)

I wanted to let you guys know that we made an offer on a townhouse tonight! It's a 3 BR, 2 BR with a family room in the basement. I'm not in love with the kitchen, but I'd love to have the chance to renovate it down the road. It's got a cute little patio out front and a nice backyard. It's not fenced in, but we could certainly do that.

I'll keep you guys posted when we hear something! :D

pixielou

05-01-2006, 11:38 AM

emily just wondering - from your post it sounds like you did your inspection after the p&s? if so, i'm wondering why you did it after the p&s instead of before.

~pixie

lawyerlee

05-01-2006, 11:51 AM

emily just wondering - from your post it sounds like you did your inspection after the p&s? if so, i'm wondering why you did it after the p&s instead of before.

~pixie
I'm not Emily, but why would you spend $300 to $500 to have someone inspect a property if you aren't sure you can come to an agreement with the seller and why would the seller let you have it inspected. :confused: I was under the impression that the inspection is almost always done after the contract is signed, but before the closing.

nettreefrog

05-01-2006, 12:12 PM

We actually did our inspection before we initiated discussions about a contract. The point for us was to figure out whether we were sure that we wanted to proceed. The inspector was able to point out various issues that we got inserted into the contract. Yes it cost us money for the inspection, but in the long run, it was less expensive to know about the now so that we are not responsible for getting them fixed.

FWIW, we are having the bank appraisal tomorrow, but have not sent the signed contract to the seller. This actually puts us at an advantage in that if the appraisal comes out lower that the price we have agreed to --we can change the contract.

So while there is usually a set way of doing things ---some situations are a bit different.

pixielou

05-01-2006, 12:13 PM

my experience (previously buying and selling a house, attempting to buy a recent property) was that you did the inspection after the offer, but before the p&s. how can you come to a firm agreement about price and terms if you do not know the condition of the property? i would think it's harder to renegotiate a price after an inspection if you already have a signed p&s.

in our recent case, we made an offer on a property, and after a bit of negotiating, our offer was accepted and signed. we then had 10 days to get the inspection before we were to sign the p&s. our inspection turned up some MAJOR problems with the property - roof, foundation, electrical - an estimated $50-60k worth of problems. our seller would not renegotiate the price. we had to fight to get our $1,000 deposit back. i hate to think the trouble we would have gone thru if a p&s had been signed and we had already put 10% into escrow. that $600 was some very well spent money.

~pixie

EmilyZA

05-01-2006, 12:24 PM

We did the inspection BEFORE the P&S. That's standard here in Mass.

msnicolea

05-01-2006, 12:29 PM

EmilyZA

05-02-2006, 04:53 PM

We closed today, everything went great! :) We are now homeowners!

lawyerlee

05-02-2006, 05:15 PM

Congratulations, Emily! :)

We came to an agreement pending inspection, so we're doing the inspection a week from Friday. If all goes well, we'll be closing June 14th. I'm a little bit in shock, but also excited. :)

lawyergirl25

05-02-2006, 06:59 PM

Congrats Emily and Di!

LeslieandPaul

05-02-2006, 07:57 PM

Congrats to the new homeowners!!! DH and I will be in the same boat soon, if all goes well! We met with our realtor last night and signed papers for listing-it will go on the market in approximately 3 weeks (DH is going out of town for 2 weeks, and we have a little work to do still). We will start looking for a new place once we have our place sold, which will hopefully happen quickly!

Nanner

05-03-2006, 06:17 AM

Congratulations, Emily! When is moving day?

lawyerlee, good luck on inspection. I hope it all goes smoothly.

Leslie, are you going to get an inspection done before you put your house on the market? I heard some people do this, but I'm not sure if we're going to.

As for us, we've had a busy week. On Monday, the contractor came over and made note of everything we need done on the house. He should be getting a quote to me today. We'll start the repairs the day after we come back from vacation, which will be May 14th. There are a couple of big ones (like fixing a couple of sagging ceilings!), so it'll probably take a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, the landscaper and the stager will be coming in to take a look at the place. Yes, we have a lot of work to do! There have been a lot of things that have gone undone since my energies had been going to the wedding and then having a baby. Hopefully it won't be too expensive. But it will really help sell our place, in this market.

Also yesterday, I went house hunting with the realtor. It was a long day, but productive. I found two I really like, and one more that is nice and will do. We'll def. keep looking, though.

Tanya

05-03-2006, 11:04 AM

Congrats to everyone with offers accepted--seems to be the season for buying!

I'm not a house-hunter right now, but I am a house-seller, so can I post? We sold our house in TX in 2 weeks. Here's what's crazy--the buyers are forgoing inspections and walk-throughs and are paying in cash, so no mortage company and appraisers to deal with! We did get it appraised before we put it on the market, and they came in at 97% of the appraisal, so we are very excited! They agreed to our closing date, which is exactly 2 years from when we bought it, so we are avoiding all capital gains taxes. We are temporarily moving to an apt. in the city, since we might be moving to a different area soon, anyway. Now we're hoping they want to buy some of our furniture since we don't really want to have to store a lot:).

nicole

05-03-2006, 12:56 PM

Hello! We finally got another Realtor (our 3rd! :eek: ) and we're looking at some places tonight. With our budget we have 2 options - a small house in a not so desirable area, or a condo in a better area. We've looked at some houses already, and tonight we're looking at some condos (some brand new!) so hopefully we'll figure out whether a condo is even an option for us. Of course I'd rather have a house, but the prices have jumped so much even in the last couple of months!

EmilyZA

05-03-2006, 02:31 PM

Moving day will probably be sometime mid-June! :) I can't wait!!

LeslieandPaul

05-03-2006, 06:49 PM

Leslie, are you going to get an inspection done before you put your house on the market? I heard some people do this, but I'm not sure if we're going to.

Definitely not. We don't want to spend any more money than we have to! If the buyers want an inspection, it's up to them. And even if we were to get one, the buyers may still want one, so it would be a waste of money.

I've been busy cleaning and packing. I have boxes everywhere, as well as random things stacked up (I think there's more stuff packed up than there is in boxes!). My sister is moving in the next couple weeks so I can start moving things into her old bedroom and working on getting the place perfect for showing.

Smiley124

05-04-2006, 04:13 AM

I'm officially de-lurking to join this thread. My husband and I have been house hunting since the beginning of April and it has been an eye opening experience! I posted another thread about this already, but we're having trouble because the market here is CRAZY! Nice/decent houses are only staying on the market for 3 days to a week and we hardly have time to make a decision before someone else swoops in with an accepted bid. It's frustrating but we have 3 months left on our lease so I'm hoping we'll find that perfect house.

And how's this for a funny story? Last night our realtor took us to see a house that we ended up LOVING and wanted to make an offer on right away before somebody else got it. It was the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood at the perfect price. But, guess what? Our realtor accidently showed us the WRONG HOUSE!!!! It was on the same street as the house we were supposed to see. Nobody realized because we didn't have any photos of it. It had a for sale sign from the right realtor co. and our realtor didn't pay close attention to the address. Funny part is - we found out that the house already sold -- more than a month ago!!!! I have no idea why the sign was still in the yard. We only got in because there was a teenage boy home who didn't know any better :eek: (the new ppl haven't moved in yet).

Our realtor did not realize her mistake until we were leaving. We decided to go ahead to the house we were SUPPOSED to see, but we were still so in love with house #1 (and thinking it was on the market) that we couldn't appreciate house #2. So, it was a waste of a night. Sheesh!

njdiva

05-04-2006, 05:34 AM

nicole

05-04-2006, 06:09 AM

Funny part is - we found out that the house already sold

OMG, that's so weird. Last night I looked at a condo that was already sold.

From my journal: Then I asked about the association fees, and the real eatate agent didn't know if the figure he had was per month or per year, so he called the selling agent - whom he'd talked to earlier this afternoon to set up the appointment - and she told him a contract had already been accepted on the place. :mad: WTF?!

njdiva - I haven't heard of this, but I would get everything in writing if it were me.

nettreefrog

05-04-2006, 06:32 AM

(From my LJ)

We sent an email to Zvi (the seller) with a list of things that need to occur to complete the sale. I created a table listing the following for every goal: tasks, individual(s) responsible, time to complete, and completed by date. We told him that the deadline for all of the paperwork is Wednesday, May 10th- as we need to be able to review and get it to the bank on Monday, May 15th. We then told him that if we do not have all of the paperwork by May 10th, we will need to walk away from the purchase of the condo. My DH and I both believe that Zvi will not be able to get his crap together and this deal will fall through. I have locked in rates –and cannot wait for another 2 months while he “potchkees” around. My DH is going in with a contractor for an estimate on Saturday—but if Zvi does not produce the documents for us by Wednesday, he is not getting squat from us. So, despite all of the hell that we have been through the past few months dealing with this, I doubt that we will actually buy a place now. On a positive note, I feel that I have learned a great deal. I will keep you all updated as to what actually happens in this great big debacle.

lawyerlee

05-04-2006, 10:34 AM

Quick question & any advice would be great...

We made an offer on a FSBO home on Sunday. We presented a good faith $2K check along with an offer which is $5K less than their asking price. Our agent has told us that since we want to put the money down from the sale of our current condo - the seller would like to see that our home is under contract, first. At that point, they are willing to accept the full amount they asked for and they will present a check for $5K at closing to us.

I am only weary because this is all verbal. And I am afraid that we attempt to get the buyer who originally wanted our home with a definite 6/30 closing date back to re-instate the contract and the seller changes their mind.... & we are stuck again like before.

Does anyone have any experience with this or have you heard of this??

It might not be a bad idea to consult an attorney, but if I was you, I certainly wouldn't move forward unless you all put this in writing.

That is just so crazy, Smiley124! I'm sorry to hear you guys had your night wasted and got your hopes up about a places you totally couldn't have. I hope you have better luck next time you go out to look. :)

I'm sorry to hear things aren't going well for you, nettreefrog. I'm definitely no expert, but it sounds like you're handling it very well.

constance

05-04-2006, 04:54 PM

Joining!

DH-professor(newly minted)
Me-professor
Presently renting

We’ve been looking online since Feb. but only had a chance to actually house hunt last week when we flew into town for a five day stay. Our realtor was recommended by a friend and was absolutely great. DH&I drove neighborhoods each day and then our realtor took us to the four or five that piqued our interest. One day we drove 17 neighborhoods and only four houses were in areas reasonable enough to pursue. It was exhausting, but in looking at so many houses in quick succession it was easy to make comparisons.

Sometimes it was downright funny. We were driving away from a house that had passed muster both inside and out when a fire truck came screaming around the corner. Apparently, a fire station was just a street over. At another just as we reached the doorstep a train went by. At yet another house a kind seller and his family let us in but apparently they were unaccustomed to using their air conditioner. It was 93 degrees outside and stifling inside. I felt like I was in the 7th circle of the underworld. Needless to say, we made quick work of that one.

nettreefrog

05-07-2006, 01:43 PM

HOW YOU CAN HELP: You never know who has connections, ideas, or leads. I figured that if I put my story out there –someone might have some thoughts. You can post here, send me an IM, a PM, or an email! Thanks in advance. (Cross posted here and in another thread.)

THE STORY: After 6 weeks of working on getting a condo here in Brooklyn, we sent the seller an email asking if he thought he was going to get the condo financials and other stuff together for the closing on June 1st. He responded by telling us that he wasn't coming back from Israel until the end of May and that he thought we should rent the apartment until everything got in order. We told him that we were not interested in renting from him and that if he could not get everything together, we were no longer interested. It was the wee hours of the morning in Israel, and he wrote back to say: "I'm still working on it, give it a chance and concentrate in a vary important job you've got this week Good luck" (He was talking about the fact that I am 39 weeks pregnant and expecting a baby any day now…)

This was after we told him that his inability to get everything has stopped this process cold. We then said that "since you cannot start again until the end of May- we are no longer interested."

So, where does this leave us --aside from extremely frustrated? Well, we have the mortgage ready --and we can possibly find another place and get everything together by June 1st.

We can re-up our lease for another year. However, I found a few interesting leads on craigslist and nytimes.com –and my husband went to visit a few real estate brokers in Brooklyn. He saw a place he really liked, but like most it is outside our price range.

THE DETAILS:

Requirements:
• 2 or 3 bedrooms
• Square footage of at least 850
• 2nd Floor walk-up or has elevator if higher
• Common charges of less than $400/month
• Taxes of less than $200/month (if there is an abatement, when does it end?)
• Should be a condo unless the co-op does not require approval
• Ability to add closing costs in
• Price less than $500K (total)
• Brooklyn locations: Boreum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Fort Greene, Park Slope, Red Hook, Windsor Terrace --and general vicinity

Additional Things that would be nice:
• An additional bedroom
• An additional bathroom
• Parking space

Where we have looked thus far:
• Craigslist.org
• Nytimes.com
• Variety of real estate brokers websites (http://www.smalltownbrooklyn.com/marketplace/realestate.html,
Corcoran.com, adshaye.com, etc.)

justHB

05-07-2006, 02:02 PM

No advice or help for you nettreefrog but I just wanted to tell you GOOD LUCK! I think you guys are right to move forward on something else.

nettreefrog

05-07-2006, 03:46 PM

No advice or help for you nettreefrog but I just wanted to tell you GOOD LUCK! I think you guys are right to move forward on something else.

Thanks... The hunt is on! I just posted our needs to a Brooklyn parents classifieds blog, Craiglist, and in the NY area of CC. Hopefully, someone out there has more ideas for us!

kcjules

05-07-2006, 07:51 PM

With our budget we have 2 options - a small house in a not so desirable area, or a condo in a better area. We've looked at some houses already, and tonight we're looking at some condos (some brand new!) so hopefully we'll figure out whether a condo is even an option for us. Of course I'd rather have a house, but the prices have jumped so much even in the last couple of months!

We were in your exact situation 5 months ago. We could afford okay houses, that were 40-60 years old, in not so great areas, or we could get a brand new condo in the country. We opted for the condo and we close in 5 weeks!
We also wanted a house, but for us, this was the best option. Plus it's brand new and in our budget :D

Condos can be great first homes - I hope you find something great soon!

endymion411

05-08-2006, 07:20 AM

we had another long weekend of looking at places (at least with our buyer's agent this time). i think we may put an offer on something this week---yikes!!

sue-bert

05-09-2006, 01:12 AM

We're looking for apartments [where I live (Israel), people buy apartments as if they were condos]. We found some bizarre things:

A 4-bedroom apartment with a nice roomy balcony, but with only 1 full bathroom and another room that contains a toilet only (no sink!). So we're looking into the cost of adding a full bath and a sink for that poor lone toilet. And the street is a bit noisy.

A large roomy 4-bedroom apartment with a nice large eat-in-kitchen and brand new expensive Italian polished marble tiling throughout the house. Sounds fancy, right? And they are asking a lot for it because of the fancy floors. The problem: the floor tiles are black/dark brown (not our taste). Also, the street is a bit noisy.

A large 4-BR apartment near a quiet park. Kitchen is a bit small, but workable. Problem: The owner keep changing his mind (in the upward direction) about the price. I refuse to deal with people like this.

A 4-BR ground-floor apartment with a really nice living room that opens out onto a small private garden. It's really pretty in aquiant cozy sort of way and not too pricey. Problem? The bedrooms are a bit on the small side, and there is no separate laundry room (we'd have to put the washer/dryer in the family bathroom). Plus we'd would have to redo one of the bathrooms (it's currently sh!t-brown, which I guess doesn't show dirt so easily :rolleyes: ).

Ugh. What to do?

LeslieandPaul

05-09-2006, 10:46 AM

I'm starting to get anxious-I just want our place to be on the market so we can look for a new place! And that makes me anxious because I don't know what will be available when it's time to look. 2 weeks-I can survive! Right now I'm keeping busy with moving boxes to my parents and getting this place ready for show.

endymion411

05-10-2006, 12:44 PM

we've narrowed our choices down to two. though there is one that we both like a little more, we would be happy to live in either of them. they are both at the same asking price, though totally different properties. we have a sweet spot on what we'd like to spend, so i think we're going to put an offer tomorrow on the first place, and if they're not willing to negotiate to get us at our sweet spot, we'll try going for the other place.

lawyerlee

05-11-2006, 10:45 AM

Have you had any good leads yet, nettreefrog? I'm so sorry to hear you found yourself back at square one after all that effort and back and forth with the seller. :(

Where are you at with your list of options, sue-bert? I think apartments 1 and 4 on your list sound the most promising. I definitely wouldn't want to deal with a seller who can't settle on an asking price, either. And I also wouldn't want to pay a premium price for a place with floors that I'd want to replace ASAP. ;) :)

Waiting is hard, LeslieandPaul. Hopefully this time will help you get everything in order for showing your house so you can position yourself well to sell.

Are you making that offer today, endymion411? Good luck with it!

Not much to report from where DH and I are at. We have our inspection tomorrow morning. I'm anxious to get that over with. I really, really hope everything seems okay because I just want everything to be smooth from here on out. Whew! :)

Asha

05-11-2006, 11:09 AM

nettreefrog - have you ever thought of getting a multifamily home? you would qualify for a much larger mortgage bc you would have tenants who you would be collecting rent from thus making the price you would pay/month comparable to what you would be paying if were to get an apt on your own. that's what we plan on doing when we sell this house. its the only way we could afford living close to the city. we also have a friend who probably makes about $100k and they qualified for a $900k mortgage (0 down) on a 3 family home in queens. they collect about $3k a month in rent from their tenants and have one of the places for themselves. they have 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. the other two apts have 3 beds, and 2 baths. also, this way you don't have to deal with co-op boards and the like.

LeslieandPaul

05-11-2006, 06:13 PM

Our realtor is coming tomorrow to take some pictures of the apartment. I've been cleaning like crazy and doing paint touch ups. I set the dining room table and put a big bouquet of flowers on it. Tonight my dad and FBIL are bringing a twin bed over from my parents house and taking the queen size out of the spare room so the room seems bigger.
When I talked to the realtor the other day he told me that he already has a couple people interested in our place! DH doesn't want to list it yet, so we might have those people come through for a sneak preview and then when we list, they can submit offers.

endymion411

05-11-2006, 06:40 PM

Are you making that offer today, endymion411? Good luck with it!

thanks! just came back from our agent's office and we made an offer. hopefully, we'll hear back from them by tomorrow with a counter-offer. or better yet, just accepting our offer, but what are the chances of that? :p i know they are on the road, moving to chicago, so hopefully their agent has easy access to them by cell phone.

lawyerlee

05-12-2006, 08:07 PM

Oooh, that's nerve wracking, endymion411. I hope you don't have to wait long to hear back. :)

It sounds like you guys are doing all the right things to get your place ready, LeslieandPaul. Good luck with everything when you are ready to list!

We had our inspections today, and everything went very well. Most of the things the inspector pointed out were minor enough that Cliff and I feel totally comfortable just taking care of them ourselves after we close. However, we did run into one bigger issue - the sump pump in the basement is draining into the sewer system. :rolleyes: That's against code and not the proper set up. However, our agent spoke with the seller's agent about it already, and they are going to pay to get it properly routed for us. We still have to put it in writing, but they are very motivated to make sure the sale happens, so I feel confident their decision is firm. I was relieved to hear they will take care of it. We're still awaiting the results of our radon test, so I hope that comes out okay.

pixielou

05-13-2006, 09:06 AM

endymion did you give the sellers a deadline to respond to your offer? in the past, we have given the sellers 48 hours.

lawyerlee hoping your radon results pass with flying colors and the sump pump issue gets resolved.

**************************
i spent yesterday morning looking at houses. and i think i may have found something i like. it's a bit on the small side, and only has 1 bath (though it is framed for a second bath - so hopefully a quick and easy install). but it has 4 bedrooms, has lots of expansion possibilities. but best of all - it is on an acre of land!!!!! and cosmetically looks to be in pristine condition.

my big concern - the house has had 3 offers - all of which have fallen thru. the first one was last summer - it was under agreement for 90 days - so i'm guessing the buyer couldn't get financing, or couldn't get their existing house sold. but the 2 recent offers were recinded after 7 days and 10 days - so my agent is trying to find out what happened. there isn't anything in the disclosure - so it shouldn't be inspection issues. definitely raises a red flag.

~pixie

endymion411

05-13-2006, 10:13 AM

endymion did you give the sellers a deadline to respond to your offer? in the past, we have given the sellers 48 hours

yup! gave them until 6pm yesterday. heard from them around 3pm yesterday, and then dh spoke to our agent last night (around 8) to give a counter counter offer. so now we're waiting to hear what their response is to that. this one doesn't have a deadline, but hopefully they'll respond quickly!

keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of your testing goes smoothly lawyerlee!

pixielou--should be interesting to see why the offers fell through! hopefully it wasn't anything that you'll need to be concerned about, but good to know if it is!

lawyerlee

05-13-2006, 11:59 AM

my big concern - the house has had 3 offers - all of which have fallen thru. the first one was last summer - it was under agreement for 90 days - so i'm guessing the buyer couldn't get financing, or couldn't get their existing house sold. but the 2 recent offers were recinded after 7 days and 10 days - so my agent is trying to find out what happened. there isn't anything in the disclosure - so it shouldn't be inspection issues. definitely raises a red flag.
The house sounds great, but that is definitely odd that they've had three offers rescinded. I hope you're able to get some answers that help you decide how to approach the situation. It's hard to think all that is a coincidence, though I suppose it is possible that the sellers have just had bad luck. In a lot of ways, and this is just my opinion, I think disclosures are worth about as much as the paper they're written on. Sellers come up with some creative ways of technically disclosing a known problem, but not giving you the full picture of the situation. For example, with our issue, the sellers disclosed that they had a previous problem with flooding in the basement, but represented that the problem was completely taken care of. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I'd hardly call installing a sump pump that drains into the sewer system taking care of the problem! Also, some states either don't require disclosures or have laws that exempt the seller from being required to disclosure certain things. Furthermore, there is no penalty in some states for lying on a real estate disclosure. Hard to understand, but true.

I'm not sure what state you live in, but this recent article discusses some of these issues in the State of Washington:

State law exempts disclosure of some real estate problems (http://www.tdn.com/articles/2006/05/07/area_news/news02.txt)

And this Q&A is interesting, I think:

Should home seller's disclosure statement be trusted? (http://db.inman.com/inman/content/subscribers/inman/column.cfm?StoryId=060202BS&columnistid=Stone)

By Barry Stone

February 14, 2006

Dear Barry,

When we purchased our home, the seller filled out a Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS), supposedly reporting everything that was wrong with the property. Aside from disclosing a ceiling stain in one of the closets, this form told us nothing. So we purchased the property with that understanding. After moving in, we found an endless array of plumbing and electrical problems, with repair costs exceeding $15,000. So please tell me, of what legal value is the TDS form? - Richard

Dear Richard,

Most states have laws that require sellers to disclose undesirable property conditions. This includes any known defect, whether it is physical damage, roof or plumbing leakage, inoperability of a component or appliance, or any condition that could adversely affect a prospective buyer's interest in the property. Compliance with this requirement compels every seller to fill out a standard disclosure form, declaring all unfavorable conditions. Unfortunately, reliance upon this form as a conveyance of complete and accurate information is based upon two erroneous assumptions: 1) That property owners are fully aware of conditions that warrant disclosure; 2) That all property owners are willing to disclose known defects.

Little comment is needed regarding group 2. These are the societal bottom feeders, the practitioners of compromised ethics, most of whom regardless of apparent age are overdue for parental or litigious spankings.

Group 1 consists of those sellers who are unaware or unsure of what conditions to disclose. In short, they include nearly everyone who has ever sold a house. The primary reason for this universality is that all homes have at least one defect that is completely unknown to the owner. It might be a wiring violation in the breaker panel, a cracked framing strut in the attic, a separated chimney fitting, a drain leak under the house, missing screws at flue pipe fittings, or a fire safety violation. The list is endless and is the primary reason why home inspections, not TDS forms, are the essential avenue of disclosure for home buyers.

The primary benefit of TDS disclosures is that they may note conditions not usually discovered by home inspectors. For example, an honest seller might disclose that the added bedroom was built without a permit, that the main sewer line becomes clogged with roots from time to time, or that winter flooding occurs in the basement every few years. Aside from this, most TDS forms are items of little substance, offering an occasional gem, but by no means a reliable source of disclosure information.

I may be telling you things you've already considered and/or know, but I'm a big law geek, so the whole home buying process has piqued my interest in these issues. ;) :)

nettreefrog

05-13-2006, 12:48 PM

lawyerlee - At least on a positive note, I feel like we learned a lot from this situation --and in the end, I saw huge nightmares in our future if the deal had gone through. So --I think it is probably for the best. Of course, it means that we won't be buying right now :(

Asha - Thanks for writing... Unfortunately, while we considered a multifamily I don't want to deal with tenants and a multi-family in our area of Brooklyn (for example, check out: http://www.cobbleheights.com/) would be at least $1.5 mm if not more. Further, this would subject us to a variety of other expenses including the mansion tax among other things. Because my one daughter is in middle school in the area, we found a day care for the new baby, and both my DH and I work not too far away, we have expanded our search radius a bit, but want to stay in the general vicinity. And because I don't have the [generally] requisite 20%+ down for a co-op, we are sticking to condos... Hopefully, something will turn up that is within our budget. :confused:

pixielou

05-13-2006, 07:58 PM

lawyerlee i kinda agree with you on the disclosure thing. however, according to my agent, if an inspection is done on the house and some "material defect" is discovered, the seller is required to make that known as part of the disclosure. i guess we could all have different definitions of "material defect". . .

anyway - it looks like this house isn't going to happen. apparently it is a non-conforming lot. which means we would need a variance from the town to add on. and we could only add on to the left of the garage. . .but the house is to the right of the garage. . .so not very practical if you want to expand your kitchen - i have visions of running thru the garage every night to get dinner on the dining room table!

i still don't know why the other offers all fell thru. and i don't really care at this point.

~pixie

CapeCod04

05-14-2006, 09:20 AM

We're in a holding pattern right now - waiting for the contracts to come back from the seller. The inspection revealed that the furnace needed to be replaced. We are negotiating that - which is the hold up for the contracts. We have asked that they pay half the cost of replacement, which would be $2,900. They only wanted to pay $2,000. My feeling is that if we back out - they will have to disclose the problem to future buyers and will likely have to pay the complete cost of replacement or accept a lower purchase price. So - while waiting for the contracts to come back - I'm afraid to pack. On the positive side, the contract the seller had with the listing agent has expired, so we know it's not being shown to anyone so the likelihood of someone stealing it out from under us is slim.

As for the value of disclosures - in NY, the seller can buy out of the disclosure. Our lawyer advised accepting the buyout. He said it's too easy to say "I don't know" on the disclosure and hide problems, so you might as well get the credit.

endymion411

05-14-2006, 02:48 PM

condo update--they countered back still above what we want to spend. they said that was their final offer and if we didn't take it they are going to just rent it out. so, we are letting it go. i'm a little disappointed, but it's the right thing to do. now we need to decide whether we go for another property or whether we rent instead of buying.

Asha

05-14-2006, 03:37 PM

/hijack/ - nettreefrog, what in the world is a mansion tax? what makes a house a mansion? i suppose it is yet another thing that makes ny pretty unfriendly to landlords.

nettreefrog

05-14-2006, 04:03 PM

/hijack/ - nettreefrog, what in the world is a mansion tax? what makes a house a mansion? i suppose it is yet another thing that makes ny pretty unfriendly to landlords.

It is 1% of the entire sales price... Here is a breakdown of closing costs:http://www.corcoran.com/guides/index.aspx?page=ClosingCosts

You'll also notice that the mortgage tax increases from 1.75% of the loan amount to 1.85% above $500K. Oh and then the transfer tax goes from 1% to 1.425% above $500K as well.

The thought of being someone's landlord just doesn't sit well with me as it is though... There are too many renter-friendly provisions that make it easy for the landlord to get screwed. That's lovely as a renter --but if you depend on the money on a monthly basis, yikes!

justHB

05-14-2006, 07:30 PM

DH has a co-worker who had an inspection done on his house prior to putting it on the market. It revealed about $2k in previous termite damage (no live critters that they could tell, but they'd certainly been there at one point during the life of the house). He figured $2k was a pretty small report and they'd just go ahead and pay to have the problem fixed before selling. The agent advised him to NEVER do this as you don't know what you'll find when you open up the wall. Her reasoning was that Inspections can only tell so much and it's best that's all you ever know.

lawyerlee

05-15-2006, 04:24 PM

I just spoke with our agent Tanya about the radon test. I'm kinda pissed at the sellers and their agent (his mom). When Tanya and the inspector, Jeff, went over to check the radon test today, it was reading right at 4.0 pCi/L (the number of picocuries of radon per liter of air). The EPA recommends remediation if your results are 4.0+. So we're right there. Tanya and Jeff decided to leave the test out for another day to see if it goes any higher in that time. Makes sense to me. Well, she called the seller's agent to fill her in on the situation. She told her the current average reading and was just open with her about the situation. The seller's agent gets off the phone with Tanya, goes over to the house, and turns on the ceiling fan!!! Doing anything like that changes the test results, and she knows it. She deals with this stuff all the time. Tanya was so apologetic to me, but I'm not upset with her. You should be able to trust that the seller won't try to commit fraud, shouldn't you?! I'm pissed off at them, and I have half a mind to ask them to remediate even if the results stay at 4.0 because they've been shady. Anyone have thoughts? Obviously Cliff and I need to talk about this as soon as we have a chance.

What Do Your Radon Test Results Mean? (http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/consguid.html#testmean)

The Risk of Living With Radon (http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/citguide.html#results)

What Should I Do If the Radon Level is High? (http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/hmbyguid.html#6.)

msnicolea

05-16-2006, 10:23 AM

We closed last night--it's finally official. Very happy and very broke!

lawyerlee

05-16-2006, 01:18 PM

We closed last night--it's finally official. Very happy and very broke!
Congratulations!!! You must be *so* relieved to be past the waiting. :D

lawyergirl25

05-16-2006, 01:49 PM

Congrats, msnicolea, and good luck with your move!

Kimberland30

05-16-2006, 07:34 PM

Congrats msnicolea!

I should hear back from our lender about my mortgage application. I'd been pre-approved, but now the paperwork is with the underwriter and I was told it could take 24-48 hours to hear something. I turned it all in yesterday, so hopefully by Thursday I'll know for sure. If I get the loan, we can close at the end of the month. I'm sure those in the same position can appreciate how much of a PITA this has been. And what makes it even worse is that we are buying the house we currently live in (owned by my parents) and I thought this whole process would be simple. HAHAHAHA was I wrong. I might have been better (some days) to buy from a complete stranger. :)

Asha

05-17-2006, 05:56 AM

There are too many renter-friendly provisions that make it easy for the landlord to get screwed. That's lovely as a renter --but if you depend on the money on a monthly basis, yikes!

i agree. it takes sooooo long to evict a tenant in ny. i was amazed when my dh was renting in marlyand that a apt complex evicted someone after just 6 weeks of not paying rent.

endymion411

05-17-2006, 05:58 AM

We closed last night--it's finally official. Very happy and very broke!

congrats!!!

Smiley124

05-17-2006, 07:37 AM

We're putting in an offer today - lower than asking and crossing our fingers!

msnicolea

05-17-2006, 07:41 AM

Thanks, everyone! Here's hoping the rest of you will soon join me!

Smiley124

05-17-2006, 08:14 PM

Great news! Our sellers couteroffered on a couple things, but not price! Sounds like we could have ourselves a house! :D

lawyerlee

05-17-2006, 09:48 PM

Congrats, Smiley! :)

lawyerlee

05-19-2006, 02:22 PM

Everything seems to be sorted out with our situation. The sellers are fixing the sump pump drainage and mitigating for radon on Tuesday. I'm *so* relieved. Looks like we'll be closing on June 14th at 9 am, as planned. :)

I also wanted to share a link to the Lowe's website where they are offering a 10% off coupon for people who are moving. Looks like you can use it for just about anything. Every little bit helps!

LowesMoving.com Coupon (https://www.lowesmoving.com/register/step2.asp)

njdiva

05-19-2006, 08:15 PM

lawyerlee

05-23-2006, 02:35 PM

Question:
For those who have managed to purchase a home & sell your previous home at the same time... did you use money from the sale of your home as a down payment for a new home? If so, how does that work... do you have to wait until you pay off your existing mortgage to present a check to the closing of your new home??

Sorry if this is elementary - but hopefully someone can shine some light on this... Thanks! :confused:
I've not been through this yet, as we're just now purchasing our first home, but hopefully I can point you in the right direction of help with the process.

One option would be to close on the sale of your current home on the same day that you close on the purchase of your new home, but you need to close on the sale first, then close on your purchase to make this work.

In this link, the Mortgage Professor discusses getting a bridge loan (also known as a swing loan) and using a HELOC to purchase a new home when you currently own a home:
Buying a New House Before Selling the Old One (http://www.mtgprofessor.com/A%20-%20Purchasing%20a%20House/how_can_i_buy_before_i_sell.htm)

This is a link to a really helpful article on the topic:
Which should come first: buying or selling home? (http://homes.mainetoday.com/buy/050204juggling.shtml)
If you own a home now but want to move, it`s critical to figure out financial options first.

Finally, another article, this one from CNN/Money:
When you have to sell in order to buy (http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/27/real_estate/buying_and_selling_on_contingency/index.htm)
Homeowners looking to buy a new house have a different set of problems to consider than first-time buyers.

It would be a good idea to discuss your options with your lender. :)

LeslieandPaul

05-23-2006, 03:37 PM

We're listing today!!! (it would have been yesterday, but it was a holiday up here). Hopefully we'll be going to look at a bunch of places on Thursday.

lawyerlee

05-23-2006, 03:43 PM

We're listing today!!! (it would have been yesterday, but it was a holiday up here). Hopefully we'll be going to look at a bunch of places on Thursday.
How exciting! I wish you lots and lots of luck in selling your current home and finding a new place! :)

LeslieandPaul

05-23-2006, 05:17 PM

How exciting! I wish you lots and lots of luck in selling your current home and finding a new place! :)

Thanks, we need it with the way the market is right now!

Smiley124

05-24-2006, 11:17 PM

:mad: Add us to the list of examples of why it's not over until the closing papers are signed. We offered, went back and forth, offer finally accepted and were set to close mid/end of June. Our inspection was set for this Friday and guess what? Today the seller decides they're not selling the house after all. WTF? At this point we have no idea what our recourse is but we pretty much can kiss the house goodbye. We look at three more tonight. Sigh..... I know the realtor is going to go after these people but I don't think it's going to help us get the house. We could take them to small claims court I suppose but I don't know if it's worth it. Back to the drawing board. This whole process is going to make me insane!

lawyerlee

05-25-2006, 12:26 AM

I'm so sorry to hear that, smiley124. :( It might be worthwhile to consult a real estate attorney to make sure you know what your options are under the contract.

LeslieandPaul

05-25-2006, 11:11 PM

We looked at our first batch of places tonight. We saw 4 of the 10 I sent the realtor (the others were already sold).
-first was really stinky (the kinda smell that just doesn't come out)
-second was the most likely possibilty-big rooms, nice colours and flooring, but no garage
-third was okay-only 2 bedrooms, but had a room in the basement, behind the garage. The yard backs onto a fairly busy street
-last was slanted (if you looked at it from the front you could see that the windows were at angles)

Hopefully some more places come on the market in the next few days

pixielou

05-26-2006, 11:24 AM

smiley that's a bummer about loosing the house. you'll probably be able to get some $$$ from the sellers, but you won't be able to force them to sell you their house. good luck finding something else.

leslieandpaul good luck with the search. our first couple times out looking - it was kinda depressing. it seemed like nothing was a possibility. but i've learned from those outings - i can "read" the listing better, i have a better idea of what will be a deal breaker, i've learned what is and isn't important to us. eventually the "right house" will come on the market.

speaking of the "right house" - i'm hoping i've found it. i'm taking mr. pixie by to see it on sunday morning. i'm just hoping he can see beyond the pink carpeting to realize that this could be the perfect house for us.

~pixie

MrsT

05-26-2006, 11:47 AM

smileysomeone we know has done this twice (same house, different buyers) and had to pay $$ to get out of the contracts. You probably won't get the house, but you may get some $ (to help you get a different house). That sucks though - I'm sure you had already "moved in" in your mind :(

njdiva

05-26-2006, 02:25 PM

I've not been through this yet, as we're just now purchasing our first home, but hopefully I can point you in the right direction of help with the process.

One option would be to close on the sale of your current home on the same day that you close on the purchase of your new home, but you need to close on the sale first, then close on your purchase to make this work.

In this link, the Mortgage Professor discusses getting a bridge loan (also known as a swing loan) and using a HELOC to purchase a new home when you currently own a home:
Buying a New House Before Selling the Old One (http://www.mtgprofessor.com/A%20-%20Purchasing%20a%20House/how_can_i_buy_before_i_sell.htm)

This is a link to a really helpful article on the topic:
Which should come first: buying or selling home? (http://homes.mainetoday.com/buy/050204juggling.shtml)
If you own a home now but want to move, it`s critical to figure out financial options first.

Finally, another article, this one from CNN/Money:
When you have to sell in order to buy (http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/27/real_estate/buying_and_selling_on_contingency/index.htm)
Homeowners looking to buy a new house have a different set of problems to consider than first-time buyers.

It would be a good idea to discuss your options with your lender. :)

THANKS!!! :D

lawyerlee

05-26-2006, 02:57 PM

speaking of the "right house" - i'm hoping i've found it. i'm taking mr. pixie by to see it on sunday morning. i'm just hoping he can see beyond the pink carpeting to realize that this could be the perfect house for us.
That's great. I hope it works out for you. :)

Sabrina

05-31-2006, 08:50 AM

I just got off the phone with the lawyer's office and we are scheduled for closing at 11AM on Monday, June 5!! I am so excited!!:D

pixielou

05-31-2006, 08:51 PM

sabrina wow - that is only a few days away. how exciting!

******************
i'm very frustrated with re agents right now. i took mr. pixie to see a house on sunday that i really liked. we were there for a long time - and mr. pixie could actually see all the potential as well. as we left, we gave our re agent a bunch of questions to look into - mainly to straighten out some discrepancies that we saw on some paperwork - like who owns a certain tree on the lot line, some conflicting documentation on lead paint, some evidene of a possible outstanding building permit. stuff like that. all stuff the listing agent *should* know. so my re agent e-mailed the listing agent on sunday afternoon. ok - monday was a holiday, so i won't expect a response monday. well, it is now wednesday night - and still no response. except a one liner "i have no idea who owns the tree." well, i guess now i know why this house has been on the market so long - the agent can't get any answers to any potential buyers. granted none of this stuff is that material - but it really makes me wonder - if the agent can't handle the simple questions, what will happen if we ask a tough question?

~pixie

lawyerlee

05-31-2006, 09:01 PM

well, it is now wednesday night - and still no response. except a one liner "i have no idea who owns the tree."
Was that the response from your agent or the seller's agent? And what kind of answer is that? If you don't know, shouldn't you say you'll find out? WTF?! :confused: I can understand why you're frustrated. The answers to your questions may or may not be deal breakers, but they are probably going to influence your offer, if you decide to make one. I just don't get that kind of attitude. If I was in your shoes, I'd relay these concerns to my agent. I hope you can get some answers this week.

Good luck with your closing, Sabrina. I hope it goes smoothly. :)

pixielou

05-31-2006, 09:09 PM

that was the sellers agent response to my agent. my agent called me to apologize profusely that she has no answers for me. if we didn't really like this house, we'd just walk away at this point. . .

lawyerlee

05-31-2006, 09:20 PM

that was the sellers agent response to my agent. my agent called me to apologize profusely that she has no answers for me. if we didn't really like this house, we'd just walk away at this point. . .
Okay, good! I thought that must be the case, but then I thought how much worse it would be for you if they were both uncooperative! Hopefully someday you'll be able to look back on this and laugh when you're hanging out in your new house. ;) :)

LeslieandPaul

05-31-2006, 10:51 PM

Our realtor just called. The people that looked at our place the other day made an offer, and while DH was on the phone with him, the people who looked tonight called with an offer. So our realtor had to go to tell the other people there was another offer, so they'll both have time to revise their offers. Looks like we might have to find a place to live very soon!

LeslieandPaul

06-02-2006, 12:10 AM

We made a counter offer and they didn't accept, so we counteroffered on the other one at $1000 more and different dates (one week later), and the countered at their original offer, which we accepted! Our realtor is making up our contract of offer to purchase for a townhouse we like!

lawyerlee

06-02-2006, 07:39 PM

Congratulations, Leslie! I hope you and your DH have continued good luck as you search for your next house. :)

nicole

06-02-2006, 08:29 PM

Wow, lots of exciting stuff going on in here! FH and I looked at a house yesterday and we liked it a lot, so we're going to go look at it again on Sunday and check out some of the things we should've been paying closer attention to the first time.

justHB

06-04-2006, 10:39 PM

We had another open house today and two of the same couples that showed up to the preview open house came back and expressed a lot of interest in our place. We're hoping they'll put in a pre-emptive offer this week so that we can get ourselves a buyer and then get serious about being buyers ourselves.

Sabrina

06-07-2006, 08:15 AM

We closed as scheduled on Monday! We are homeowners!! I can't believe it:D We have so much moving and painting to do, it is crazy! Good luck to all who are still house hunting!

njdiva

06-07-2006, 08:54 AM

lawyerlee

06-07-2006, 07:23 PM

Ugh - this entire process is so frutstrating... I do apologize for the never-ending questions every time that I post :rolleyes: :confused: ..

But I have another question:
Are you guys using the same agent for your selling your place and looking for a place?

I ask b/c we have one listing agent for our condo and she also began showing us place in relatively close proximity to where we currently live. When we realized that we would probably get a better deal more south ... we decided to begin looking down there w/ another agent. But at the time we were open to looking in all areas. Now that we have put an offer on a FSBO property in a location approx. 1 hour south of where we live ... we are working more closely with that agent down there only b/c she is much more familiar with the area. Well since our attorney was a rec from our listing agent ... she found out that we were working with someone else and called DH today accusing us that we were 'taking $$ out of her pocket'... and claimed that even though she was not familiar with the area she would have done research online for us. But we were not comfortable with that.

DH & I have not been satisfied with her on the selling side, in the first place. I feel that this is a competitive market and you have to sell yourself as an agent. I also feel that we did not have a contract w/ her to find a place only a listing agent...

sorry for the rambling post...
I'm not in that situation, as we're buying our first home. But I think you probably need to clarify the nature of your relationship with the agent. Did you sign something agreeing to work with her as your buyer's agent? If not, you're entitled to work with a different buyer's agent. She may just be upset because she assumed she would be your buyer's agent. However, if you did sign an agreement to have her be your buyer's agent, you need to consider whether you will work with her or ask to be released from the agreement.

Since I am an attorney, I need to say that I'm just giving you general information about the possibilities. This is not information that you may rely on.

wine_o_girlie

06-09-2006, 08:01 AM

DH & I have not been satisfied with her on the selling side, in the first place. I feel that this is a competitive market and you have to sell yourself as an agent. I also feel that we did not have a contract w/ her to find a place only a listing agent...

sorry for the rambling post...

Your agent is not acting very professionally at all and I would most definitely move on. Especially since you do not a) have a contract with her and b) you are not satisfied with her current work. I think you have definitely done the right thing by finding another agent who is familiar with your target market. Good luck! :)

justHB

06-11-2006, 06:41 PM

Got the word today at around 3pm the buyers accepted our counter offer if we'd throw in our dining room table & chairs too.

DONE!

(We had actually been wondering what we'd do with them since there's no way they'll fit in a bungalow.)

We're meeting our agent tonight around 8pm to sign and fax back the final contract and effective tomorrow, this place is pending. We'll close escrow on July 18.

Rose

06-11-2006, 07:10 PM

Congrats HB! That was fast.

pixielou

06-12-2006, 11:44 AM

congrats justhb. have you found a new place yet?

***********
on sunday we are going to see a house for the third time. it's been a long drawn out process, mainly because the sellers agent takes *forever* to get back to us with the simplest questions. stupid things like the age of the roof, the age of the furnace. basic info like that. half the time she has to contact the owner to get that info. we've pretty much decided we like the house - and are mainly going back to figure out how much we are going to offer. the place needs a lot of work - fortuneately it is mostly cosmetic. . .the pink carpet and the lime green toilet. . . we need to figure out what needs to be replaced before we move in, what can wait a little while, and what will need to be done long term. we're hoping to make an offer next week, but if any more questions come up, i'm sure that will postpone our offer by a couple years. . .

~pixie

justHB

06-12-2006, 07:54 PM

Congrats HB! That was fast.10 days from when it appeared on the MLS until we accepted their final offer. I always say the market around here is crazy, but I don't think people know quite HOW crazy.

We're putting in an offer on a place tonight.

lawyerlee

06-13-2006, 02:17 PM

Wow. Things do move fast there, HB. Good luck with your offer. :)

I hope things are going better, njdiva and pixielou.

We close on our house tomorrow morning at 9 am. I'm excited (and a little nervous). But mostly very, very excited. :)

LeslieandPaul

06-13-2006, 02:28 PM

Our deal fell through because the people couldn't get financing, so our realtor went to the other people who had made an offer. We got $3000 below asking price, and move out July 30. So now we really need to find a place to live!

justHB

06-14-2006, 10:49 PM

We didn't get the place. =(

The sellers' agent asked that we keep our offer as a back-up and remove some contingencies, so we're going to go ahead and do that.

I'm thinking of hiring my friend to act like the neighborhood derilect during their inspection. KIDDING. But wouldn't that be fun?!

pixielou

06-18-2006, 12:08 PM

we went to look at our "potential" house for a 3rd time today. so now we get to sit back and try to figure out how much to offer. i'm having a bit of trouble with that. . .the houe is a contemporary built in the early 70's - and here in the northeast, there aren't a lot of contemporaries to do comps with. it's all ranches, capes, splits and colonials.

but the real issue - cosmetically it looks really 70's. so - do you really deduct money for the lime green toilet and sink that work perfectly - because it is totally disgusting to look at. can they really expect somebody to move into the house without replacing it? same with the pinky/peachy carpet. do i ask for them to fix the closet doors that don't open? even though they are all sliding mirrored doors which will all have to be replaced before i move in. it's all cosmetic work - but we're talking about replacing all the fixtures in 3 bathrooms, plus replacing about 2,500 sf of carpet before we move in - and that does add up. nevermind replacing all the 70's light fixtures and ceiing fans. . .and i'm not even taking into consideration all the long term project (such as redoing the kitchen and front entry; getting rid of the stucco walls and ceilings in the living room and family room).

anyone have any insight on this?

anyway, dh and i really like the house - and definitley see the potential in it. we both agree with what needs to be done - and how we want to change it. we both believe that we could turn this house into something fabulous worthy of architectural digest! but it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of money - but we are both willing to tackle it.

~pixie

LeslieandPaul

06-19-2006, 07:32 PM

The subjects were removed on our condo today. We are officially sold! We've got an offer in on a townhouse-lets' hope our the realtor calls ours back soon!

justHB

06-19-2006, 08:40 PM

LeslieandPaul

06-24-2006, 09:23 AM

We're STILL waiting to hear on the offer we put in. Our realtor submitted it on Monday, got jerked around by the other realtor, we made a higher offer and our realtor has heard NOTHING!!! This is so frustrating. We finally found the place we want and we don't even know if we're going to get it b.c the listing agent is being a jerk. DH talked to our agent last night and his manager suggested lodging a complaint with the other guy's manager. Maybe something will come of all this today or tomorrow

justHB

06-24-2006, 08:42 PM

Our buyers have finally signed all of their disclosure docs and waived all contingencies (only two days after the deadline in the contract, but who's counting?) so we're officially sold. The problem? We haven't found anywhere to move. Oops. We're in back up for a house we really love but the agent is jerking us around. She's having problems with the buyer and she wants to get into contract with us, but first wants us to waive all contingencies. Um, no thanks. Not for a house that was built at the turn of the last century. So, it looks like we're coming down to the wire. I predict corporate housing for us.

CapeCod04

06-27-2006, 10:37 AM

We are in limbo. Everything is cleared for closing - but we don't have a closing date yet. Our attorney is trying to get their attorney set on this. The other attorney has held things up every step of the way. It's so aggravating.

LeslieandPaul

06-27-2006, 11:11 PM

We signed the final purchase agreement,and our mortgage broker is getting our financing in place. The subjects will come off next Wednesday I think (5 business days). We're buying a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom townhouse with garage. I am so excited! (but trying not to be too excited in case things dont' work out)

justHB

06-27-2006, 11:45 PM

We saw a house on Sunday, put in an offer today, and found out tonight the place is ours!

http://www.mlsh.com/pix/CAEBRD/main/0/40178141_0.jpg

We are officially in contract tomorrow.

nicole

07-02-2006, 05:19 PM

Congrats, justHB! I hope some of your luck wears off on me! My FH and I just made an offer on a house today! We've been looking for over a year!

LeslieandPaul

07-03-2006, 12:00 PM

Congratulations justHB!
We do our inspection today and the subjects are removed within the next 2 days. We move in July 29.

CapeCod04

07-03-2006, 12:06 PM

Our attorney finally got hold of the sellers' attorney on Friday. The sellers aren't ready to close. Apparently they can't get into their new place just yet, so they don't want to close until the end of the month, possibly the beginning of next month. I'm much calmer about it now than I was Friday. Now I'm making a list of the items for which they will have to compensate us at closing - like an extra month's rent, storage, rate lock extension, etc.

LeslieandPaul

07-05-2006, 02:33 PM

Our subjects were removed yesterday! We close in 3 weeks!!!!!!!!! I'm SO excited!

nicole

07-05-2006, 02:37 PM

I'm currently in counter-offer hell. :) I'm glad to "see" things working out in here - it's makes me more optimistic!

LeslieandPaul

07-05-2006, 06:48 PM

I'm currently in counter-offer hell. :) I'm glad to "see" things working out in here - it's makes me more optimistic!

Sorry to hear that. It really is an unfun time and I can sympathize. Just be patient and try not to make yourself crazy over it.

nicole

07-08-2006, 09:04 AM

The offer was accepted, we're going to be homeowners! We close 7/25!! :eek:

JustHB - I love the pictures of your loft in the other threads, I can't wait to see what you do with your house!

LeslieandPaul

07-08-2006, 12:44 PM

The offer was accepted, we're going to be homeowners! We close 7/25!! :eek:

Congratulations!

nicole

07-08-2006, 12:47 PM

Thank you!

pixielou

07-09-2006, 12:18 PM

we just put an offer in. on a house we've been looking at since may. so time to sit around a wait for a response. the seller requested 48 hours for all offers - but dh is out of town on tuesday, so we gave them until noon time wednesday to respond. the house has been on the market for a year now, and needs a ton of work - so we low-balled our offer. we're hoping the sellers are just desperate for an offer and accept. we'll know by wednesday. . .

~pixie

pixielou

07-10-2006, 12:43 PM

well, we received a counter offer. i'm surprised at how fast it was! they accepted all of our conditions, but only budged $20k on price. and they want to move the closing date up a week - which happens to be a date that i have a minor surgical procedure scheduled. dh and i will discuss it tonight, and place a counter-counter offer tomorrow. fortuneately we reserved a couple things from our original offer expecting this situation.

i'm just so happy that they didn't outright reject our offer. so i actually think this has a strong possibility of becoming the real thing.

~pixie

Georgiana

07-10-2006, 04:55 PM

Okay, My turn

Name: Georgiana Sales Specialist,OEM
DH: ..What DH? LOL
A part of my 5 year plan is to purchase a home So I'm researching...
Area: Northern Indiana: South Bend/Mishawaka, Elkhart..

What I'm going to be in the market for: At least a 3 bdrm, Seperate Formal Living Room and Dining Room, Eat in Kitchen/Family Room, at least 2 1/2 baths, Full Finished basement, At the most 1/2-1 acre of land...

For the longest, I've come across a commercial from a company called AMERICAN HOME PARTNERS and I decided to look into it. I think this is the route I am going to get my home.
It's alot to explain but it seems like an awesome way to get a brand new home for an affordable price.

Here's the link if no one posted about this...

http://www.americanhomepartners.com

CapeCod04

07-10-2006, 05:05 PM

We closed! There was a little haggling at the end over the possession agreement, but in the end we own the house. We take possession at the end of the month. I'm still a bit ticked at the seller over the delay, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now it's time to buy furniture and finish picking paint colors.

rileyandfredsmom

07-11-2006, 06:44 AM

Name: Shannon, Operations Manager
DH: Robert
Area: Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex

We are currently getting all of our credit scores cleaned up and hope to get our pre-qual letter mid-September and start house hunting in October. Right now we are visiting neighborhoods to see what areas we are interested in and looking at houses online to discuss what we like/don't like, what we can/can't live with.

I can't wait to really start looking at houses, this is going to be a fun couple of months!

Renrel

07-11-2006, 11:38 AM

Me - Renrel, age 42, Lawyer acting as a sort of adm. judge for MA
DH - 448- Just got a job as Technical Manager, starts this Friday
son - 2.75, in full time preschool near where I work

We currently rent a really nice apartment just outside Boston

We are looking for a house, with at least two floors,at least three bedrooms plus a space for office/guest room, a very good school district, a decent yard in a town where the commute with a preschooler and maybe some day infant in tow will not kill me and where DH's commut will not take so much out of him that he does not have the energy to interact with us and continue networking for a better job. We would love a nice porch, 2.5 baths and a large kitchen. I really want a kitchen that is open enough that DS can play where I can see him. We are willing to concider a short term purchase, 3-6 years which means we only have to be sure of a good elementary school, but I would really like to stay put.

So far what is available is pretty depressing. $500-600,000 get you a small fixer upper in the neighborhoods we like. We have only started looking and have not yet pre-approved a mortage. DH expects that we will be approved for something around $600,000 based on both of our current incomes and the fact that we have no current debt, but we don't really want to max out on the mortage because DH wants to have the freedom to accept a job that pays less but would lead to better things and I want the freedom to take sometime off and go part time when and if a second child comes along, which is also part of our current 2 year plan.

And I know I should not compare but all of our sisters and brothers all have reasonably or extremely nice homes in very good neighborhoods which makes it harder for me to accept what we can afford. We also could have afforded more house several years ago when we first were looking, both due to more money for a down payment and interest rates and house costs. We were looking at some very nice spacious homes back then. I know I need to suck it up and take pleasure in what we have and not do the second guessing, comparing thing but it is not always easy. At least prices seem to have stopped going up and are decreasing at bit. We expect that at the end of the summer there will be some "deals" as those who could not accept the reality that they could not sell their homes for what there neighbors did last year pay the price for waiting till the end of the big selling season.

We have just started looking, two weekends of house hunting. So far DS has been really great with this boring activity. Our realtor for now is a friend but he is only doing this work part time at the moment so he may not be able to give us the service we need, someone who can scope things out in advance and save us some of the leg work on definate no gos.

We saw one home this weekend that I am thinking about. It was not a great house, old and small but with some character and in a very good neighborhood near where we live now and on a large lot which would allow alot of expansion into a very nice sized home while still maintaining a real yard. But we really don't know anything about what construction costs would be. The owners are asking about $600,000 and have turned down offers in the 570's. The realtor showing the home said she though they would accept something in the 580's. Some builders have looked at the place, probably as a knock down since it is small but in a good location. The owner's have been relocated and have to sell so they are motivated.

I hate the idea of spending every summer weekend dragging my son around to look at houses, let alone the pain of decluttering our present home to prepare for a move, but I know in the long run it must be done.

Brady

07-11-2006, 02:15 PM

Renrel- I completely understand and sympathize so much of your post! I'm also in the Boston area and so beyond depressed at what we have been looking at in our, what is really a good amount of money, price range. Ugh.

I'd like to also join along on this thread. I'm Lisa and currently a SAHM, my son is 16 months. We are looking for 3 bedrooms, a decent kitchen (we are not fixer-uppers), and either a basement or some sort of "extra" room that we could use as a playroom/office. It's amazing how hard it is to find this under $450K.

Our story is that we own a condo (well until Friday), we bought it right before we got married, had our son.. and the walls have been closing in on us since then. We put it on the market in June, and were shocked and thrilled when we got an offer less than 2 weeks later. We accepted and have been in a home search frenzy for the past 2 months. We have probably seen 30 houses at this point, we've loved one- and were beat out by waiting an extra day to ponder an offer, they've since sold. And another we had our offer accepted on, only to then turn up termites and foundational issues in the home inspection and backed out.

So, we close on the sale of our condo on Friday and have had to pack up half our stuff into my parents house for "interim" living. Thankfully the house is vacant until the Fall.. so it gives us some time and we are grateful for it, but it's hard as a SAHM to start all over in a new town where you were so used to your day to day life with a toddler, in another and knowing you'll have to do it all over yet again! Bleh.

My son is going to probably be drawn to some sort of career in the home field.. realtor, home inspector, etc. :rolleyes: We are really hoping to find something soon!

Whew. Sorry for such a long post! ;)

pixielou

07-13-2006, 12:10 PM

renrel i have a buyers agent who i absolutely love - she works the metro-west belt - along the mass pike/route 9 from watertown out to route 495. she has shown us homes in watertown, waltham, newton, wellesley, wayland and natick - as well as up in lexington, arlington, melrose, stoneham and reading. you can send me a pm if you want a referral.

i can sympathize with your situation. you are looking for exactly what we are looking for. it kinda s u x to have to spend 1/2 million dollars for a "handy man special" on a postage stamp lot. though i will say that i have noticed prices dropping a bit since we started looking in february. it seems like a lot of things in the $400-600 range (i'm not looking at anything higher) are now being reasonably priced.

right now we are in counter-offer h e l l with the sellers for what could eventually be our dream house - after we spend $50k just to move in, and probably another $50-100k over the next 3-5 years! if this goes thru, i will be glad that we have actually taken our time with this process. lots of the houses we have looked at - we would probably have been quite happy there for the next 3-5 years (we are miserable in our townhouse now). but by dragging our feet a bit, and being a bit open minded (hmm - my dd has a care bear the same color as all that wtw carpet - ick) - i think we've definitely found something that will become our dream home. (now if that seller would just *accept* our latest offer. . .)

~pixie

Renrel

07-13-2006, 02:45 PM

Thanks for the sympathy girls, I was a bit worried I would be mildly flamed for whining when I am able to afford to spend $500,000 on a home and chose to live where I live. I may PM you Pixie. For the moment we are going to stick with our friend. He is a close friend and want to given a chance before deciding he can't meet our needs. And you are right, prices are coming down. I am just not sure what is reasonable anymore. The fact that no one laughs out loud at $500,000 for a home that 50 years old, less than 2000 square feet, has 1.5 baths, and virtually no yard is scary.

DH has been punching numbers and tells me that, if his numbers are right, and if all else were to stay the same (meaning no change in transportation costs because we move a hour away from work, no additional maintance costs , job remain the same, daycare the same, ect) we could buy a $515,000 home with 10% down and the morgage cost after tax benefits and all, would equal what we current spend for rent. Not that costs will remain the same but it gives us a sense of what we can afford.

I have to talk to him about doing the preapproval thing. I think he has been holding off because he does not start work till tomorrow after a long period of unemployment.

IrishEyes

07-14-2006, 10:44 AM

I'd like to join!

Me: Kellie, 33, scientist at the FDA
DH: 34, software guy/IT manager at a credit union
DS: 13 months old

We put our Baltimore rowhouse on the market last Thursday evening. It's a two bedroom, one bath, 950 sq. ft. place in a quiet neighborhood in the city. We want to move out to a bigger house with a little yard in the suburbs. We've spent a couple of months slowly working on the house--shipping extra furniture and clutter to a storage facility, doing some painting, having a new front door put on, etc. Time on the market just extended to 70-100 days, so we're going to see if there are any viewings before we make a whole-hearted start at looking at what we want. There's so much sitting on the market right now (and we need the equity from our place for a down payment) that we're confident that when this place is getting interest we could find something quickly.

It's just annoying, because we bought this place in bad shape, and jumped on it before it was even officially listed, and now we've improved it greatly, but it'll probably sit on the market for a while.

pixielou

07-15-2006, 07:34 AM

the sellers accepted our offer yesterday! inspection will be next week - though i am a tad worried that horrible things will turn up and the seller won't want to renegotiate since we low-balled. if it's meant to be, it will happen!

~pixie

Brady

07-15-2006, 12:28 PM

Congrats Pixie. Good luck with the home inspection.

As for us, we saw three more duds last night. I swear, I can't take anymore... one last night needed pretty much all the wood in the house replaced as their dog literally ATE through ti. Two window sills were completely destroyed, and one door frame was also torn up. It just amazes me that people put places like this on the market. I guess some people would walk through and maybe not pull back curtains, etc. but, really- it's getting so frustrating!!

L.

pixielou

07-15-2006, 06:31 PM

brady i just sent you a pm.

i'm kinda laughing at your post. we went to look at a house for a second time a while ago - that is when i attempted to open the kitchen cabinets. . .most of the doors were broken and duct tape was holding the doors closed! from then on, i always opened all the cabinet doors!

~pixie

nicole

07-15-2006, 08:46 PM

pixielou - congratulations! I hope your inspection goes/went well!

Brady - I feel for you, believe me! My FH and I looked for well over a year before we found anything. We don't have a lot of money so we definitely saw some stinkers! Good luck with your hunt!

Renrel

07-16-2006, 08:54 PM

Pixilou - Congrat. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

We did a little house hunting today, checking out a town a little further out. Definately get more your money. Each place actually had a decent yard and while we would want to expand them all they were still pleasant as they were. The schools are good but we are not certain about the commute.

But right now our searching is really more about understanding what each town looks like and what you get for your money, not really making an offer. We are not ready for that quite yet.

DH has been working so hard putting a spreadsheet together plugging information from different sources on commutes and school rates and stuff so we can sort every town in the state by different data to see where the rate. Should be quite handy.

FallingforPhil

07-18-2006, 05:48 PM

Jumping in...

Me: FallingforPhil
DH: I'll give you 2 guesses...:rolleyes:

We put our 960 sq. ft, 2 BR, garage-less ranch up on the market one week ago today. We've had lots of calls and our open house had good traffic last weekend, but no offers so far. I'm starting to get antsy, because all of the comps we got from our realtor sold within 10 days....

We're looking for a 3 BR home with 2 living spaces (or one + basement) and a 2 car garage. The number 1 reason we're moving is to be closer to my job--I teach HS band, and have tons of evening committments. In our current house, the drive home sometimes takes an hour (13 miles!) so on nights that I have school stuff, I am basically stuck there! Unfortunately, I work in a ridiculously priced district, so options in our (small) budget are limited.

Looking forward to reading along!

IrishEyes

07-19-2006, 07:27 AM

FallingforPhil: I'm glad to hear you've had calls and good traffic. I'm disappointed that we've had no viewings or calls at all in the two weeks our place has been on the market. Seems like the Baltimore market has stopped dead in its tracks.

I'm going to Chicago on business next week. After that, we'll contact an agent and start looking. We're looking for 3+ bedroom, 2+ bathroom house in the 'burbs. We'd love a driveway (tired of city street parking) and perhaps a garage. DH wants a pool, I don't.

FallingforPhil

07-21-2006, 06:49 PM

Ugh. I think we officially quit looking for a new house until ours is sold. We have now made 2 offers, contingent on the sale of our house, and neither seller would deal with us. The first one didn't even respond, and the offer we made yesterday was countered at 2K more (no big deal, right?) and no contingency. Um, hello? We're offering with a contingency so we don't end up like the seller--with 2 mortgage payments! Our realtor tried to explain to the seller's realtor that we are the lowest price house (by like 30K) in our suburb, and that we aren't going to have any problem selling, but they guy's not from the area and wouldn't budge.

Our realtor seems to think the people that looked at our place yesterday are going to write an offer, since they were asking for all kind of additional info, so keep your fingers crossed! Hopefully we can write a non-contingent offer by Monday!

pixielou

07-21-2006, 07:37 PM

fallingforphil good luck - i hope an offer comes in for you soon.

*****************
we have our inspections on sunday. house, radon, lead and pests. apparently 3 different inspectors are coming. my dh is a bit ticked at me for spending so much on inspections - but i keep trying to tell him that is money well spent - if anything major is discovered then it will come out of the sellers pocket and not ours.

~pixie

Brady

07-22-2006, 08:43 AM

[/B]Good Luck with the inspection, Pixie!

FallingforPhil- That really sucks that your offers were rejected based on that contingency. I guess that says a lot about the market, I hope an offer comes through for you quickly on your house.

IrishEyes- I hear you on the pool aspect. I don't want the maintenance of it, and with a little one- I think the stress of having a pool there, and the whole safety issue, would outweight the pros for me. I hope you get some showings soon on your house.

---

We closed on the sale of our condo last Friday. When we bought it 3.5 years ago, seriously- everything that could possibly go wrong with a closing, DID. It was a nightmare. It had everything to do with the seller though. This closing, it went so smoothly- I had no idea it could be that easy! The buyers were really nice too, so it was sort of easy to pass it over to them, we have so many memories in that place...

Anyways. We took the past week off from house hunting. We are both just completely burnt out and frustrated and we were trying to settle in a bit to our temporary housing situation. I am going to go meet my realtor in an hour though to check out a couple in towns we have not yet looked in. My DH is golfing, so my son will be filling in for him. :rolleyes: I've truly reached the point of "so, what sort of crap will we see this time?", I'm hoping that way I just might be surprised. Ha.

Have a great weekend.
L.

nicole

07-22-2006, 09:09 AM

Hello! we've run into a few problems with the inspection. There's a leak the seller agreed to fix but now the plumber can't find it. We're also having a heck of a time scheduling a final walkthrough and our real estate agent is getting increasingly difficult to get ahold of. Ugh! I'm trying to keep my eyes toward the light at the end of the tunnel - which for me is getting to have my very own washer and dryer!

Good luck to everyone who's still hunting! Is there such thing as house dust? :p

pixielou

07-23-2006, 04:15 PM

our inspection today was kinda a disaster. the good news is that there is no lead paint and no termites or carpenter ants. as for the house. . . i wish we were so lucky. apparently we need a new roof, new shakes, new front steps, a new furnace, the garage is not fireproofed (building code violation), the sump pump and french drain in the basement is not working, and the electrical coming in from the street is also a code violation. and those are just the major things - i can't even begin to list all the little problems - things we barely care about like missing outlet covers!

i need to draft an addendum to our offer, requesting additional time to get estimates on all these problems. i need to get 7 contractors in. but our original offer only gives us until 5 pm on tuesday to back out of the contract - and there is no way i can get all these contractors in get price estimates before then. nevermind decide if these are problems we are wiling to content with.

nicole i will accept any house dust you want to send my way!
~pixie

Brady

07-23-2006, 05:48 PM

Oh man, Pixie! So sorry to hear all that! Did you end up using the inspector I mentioned? Are you guys alright with if it's all fixed, you'll still go forward with it? I hope you can work on getting that deadline extended and getting this all straightened out!

I've seen a few more places. One I really liked, but it's small overall and I hate the thought of knowing we would have to add-on, rather than it being a "maybe someday" type option, you know? I went to a few open houses today and they were just junk. One the backyard was about the size of a postage stamp (and the owner was home and in her bed, WTH?? The realtor never mentioned it so that was a surprise and quite awkward to walk into!!), and the other one I saw- your front door basically opened up to the commuter rail. Lovely! So, yeah. Not a successful weekend. I'm really beginning to wonder if we will ever find something. Buyers market, my ass! ;)

ETA- Nicole I hope everything works out! I hear you on the washer and dryer, we lived in a condo complex and the laundry was in the basement. As much as I am not too happy to be living at my parents, I am thrilled to have a washer and dryer in the house. The little things, right?? ;) Good Luck.

Renrel

07-23-2006, 07:09 PM

Falling4Phil - Welcome to the hunt! Keeping my finger crossed that you can sell so you can buy.

Brady - Congrats on closing on you condo!

Pixielou - Sorry the inspections did not go well, but better that then purchasing and finding out after the fact. Hope you can get the extention.

We were out looking again today, looking at yet another town. Our realtor came with us this time. This is a very expensive town because the schools are outstanding and it has a train station with a 20 minutes commute. There were 1 or 2 houses I could see myself in but they were near or over our budget.

I wish I were more excited about all this. The truth is the responsiblity of decorating, keeping,repair and likely renovating or adding to my own house is more scary then intriging to me at the moment. The apartment I have lived in for over 5 years is still barely decorated. It is just not my thing. And the thought that keeping a house will take away from the time I can spend being with my son also makes me unhappy. I want the securityand comfort of a real home with a yard and space and all but not the responsity. I know they go hand in hand but I am not totally certain one is worth the other.

I also have to learn to look at the houses and not the furnishing. I know one home was partly intreging me because I loved their taste in toys, (yeah not even the furniture, they just had a neat playroom with really good toys) which has nothing to do with the home. It was just easy to see myself living in that home, with their things.