CAG home owner topic. Buying or selling a home? Have a maintance issue? Help is here!

Call your mom and tell her that her best friend is fucking you over. See if she offers to straighten her friend out. If not, then find another realtor.
 
She already called her once, when her fiance who is working with her was a dick to my husband on the phone. It did not seem to do much good. My mom offered to call again prior to the last call she gave my husband but I said to wait. I think we'll see what happens during the day tomorrow and go from there.
 
[quote name='dohdough']Call your mom and tell her that her best friend is fucking you over. See if she offers to straighten her friend out. If not, then find another realtor.[/QUOTE]

Or a new mom ;)
 
My mom agrees with us 100% so I don't think my mom will be too upset if we ditch the realtor.

PS MSI Magus: I checked the extra bottle of the Liquid Plumbr Pipe Snake we have in the closet and it was $3.79. So it should be under $4.
 
one more reason to never work with family/family friends.

my uncle is a big realtor in my area, and got seriously pissed at me for not working with him. I just didn't want to buy a house from him, have things go wrong, and have my view of him be slightly jaded. It took him a bit, but eventually he saw it from my point of view.
 
DoK - you are not being unreasonable AT ALL. This stuff should either be fixed by the sellers prior to closing or you should lower the purchase price by the amount it is estimated that fixing this stuff will cost. The latter is the more typical outcome.

Of course, all of this depends on how desperate they are to sell and how much you want this particular house because the deal could fall through. Still, mold in the basement would be an absolute deal-breaker for me.

Also, real estate lawyers should be working a closing for a FIXED fee. They should not be charging hourly for their work (which is nominal anyway). Most established real estate lawyers have seen everything there is to see and going through the closing, no matter how complex it seems to you, is routine. The lawyers around me charge about $1000 for a closing and I think our lawyer did maybe an hour of actual work and we had major problems on the day of closing. Once the sellers decided to move they stopped filling the oil tank used to heat the house - we closed on January 15 which happened to be one of the coldest days of the year and the heat was not working and there was a big fear that the pipes were all frozen and cracked at this point. We had to pay for an "emergency" inspection by the oil/heat guys which came out of the sellers' pockets, including a refill of the tank (about $700). Luckily the pipes were OK but closing took about 7 hours when it was finally over.

Anyway, you should do whatever makes you comfortable. You found this house pretty quick so I think you could find another just as easily...
 
DoK,

We just started looking for a house. Granted that I don't know your area and I'm newer to this than you are, but the first thing that was hammered into us was that this is an unprecedented buyers' market, that everything is negotiable for you, and that the moment you exercise those advantages, you're on the disadvantaged side. Unless the backyard has unicorns farting gold, don't even consider putting up with that shit.
 
Update folks. When you thought it could not get any shittier.... I would have posted this as it happened but I was at work and it's a new job and I don't want them to see that I'm going to a site with the word "ass" in the URL during work hours if they ever check....

My husband got a call from our agent. The sellers' offer was to lop $1k off the price in addition to them having the furnace serviced when it should have been done over a year ago (which was already part of the deal). ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. When there is probably going to be like $20k of work needed within the next five years, $10k+ in the next 1-2 years. Owen didn't say much to the agent at this time since he was at work.

While talking to my mother today, I found out something interesting. During initial negotiations we were able to get the price down to $295k. We thought we were just going halfway on the deal since our original offer was $285k and the sellers' counter was $305k. There were no other terms to this discussed by us and the buyers agents. The agent told my mother that her partner, the other agent we're working with, got the price down to $295k because the seller's agent told him that they would agree to the price only if we would not lower the price further after inspection unless termite or foundation problems came up. Our agents agreed. Without telling us or without our consent. I would have only heard this through my mother. WHY did the agent tell my MOTHER this and not US, the BUYERS? We are the buyers, everything is in our name. No wonder the sellers and seller agent aren't budging and giving us a crap deal. Our very own agents completely fucked us over.

We are giving an ultimatum lopping off of the price, which we haven't decided on yet but expect to be an additional $4-5k off (so $290-1k). If we do not get this offer, we are backing out and firing our agents.

Unfortunately, I heard some bad news about our runner up house. The reason why they lowered the price by $50k was because they made it a short sale. They also have an offer already. This was per their listing agent. Oh well, we certainly don't want to deal with a short sale.
 
Owen just spoke with a real estate lawyer on the phone. He is willing to try to help us. We said $290k firm. Also, as Javery said, he works on a flat fee, which he estimated to be $600. Fair enough.
 
DoK if I was you id stop by the house without the realtors and apologize to those people then explain the mix up. You may have better luck dealing directly with the home owner and explaining how much your relator sucks then continuing to go through a third party at this point. I mean the home owners probably blame you for everything and thus may not be willing to negotiate or budge just on the principle of dealing with perceived douches.
 
Personally I'd be inclined to just fire my agent, forget about the house and move on. And ask your lawyer if you don't get your $1000 back if you have any recourse against your shitty RE agent that made promises you didn't agree to.
 
Well if they reject this offer, that's where we'll be. Even with a lawyer these people might not take our offer. They're just that stupid. And when it comes to this offer, it's all or nothing and we stated that to the lawyer. Even a $5k reduction will only cover the new gutters and a couple other small repairs. There will still be well over $10k worth of stuff to do.
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']Unless this is your absolute dream house, I don't know why you're forcing it. There are so many red flags going up it isn't funny.[/QUOTE]

Wasting your breath, I said this like 2 pages ago. There are just too many damn amazing homes on the market right now to deal with any, let alone such a huge pain in the ass.
 
I read up on your situation DoK and I would also say fire your agent and forget the house and start from square. I just recently bought a house but spent the better part of 2 months dealing with suspicious agent practices and given the run around. Hired a new agent and find my new house in two weeks as he was more helpful than the other fuck.
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']Unless this is your absolute dream house, I don't know why you're forcing it. There are so many red flags going up it isn't funny.[/QUOTE]

+1. I wish I was in the market for a house right now - there are tons of awesome ones available without all of these headaches.
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']Unless this is your absolute dream house, I don't know why you're forcing it. There are so many red flags going up it isn't funny.[/QUOTE]

I am inclined to agree at this point honestly. I was thinking about that to myself this morning, that even IF they accept this deal... I might bail out anyway. No updates right now, will post as soon as I get one.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']I am inclined to agree at this point honestly. I was thinking about that to myself this morning, that even IF they accept this deal... I might bail out anyway. No updates right now, will post as soon as I get one.[/QUOTE]

What area are you looking in anyways?
 
[quote name='Javery']MA - Boston area.[/QUOTE]

I know she's looking for a place on the fringes of metro Boston. I meant more specifically since I'm curious as a Boston native.
 
Malden. Preferably something as close as possible to one of the 2 T stations. This house is about a 5 minute walk from one of them so it's perfect in that regard. Pity we're dealing with idiots.

No update yet.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Malden. Preferably something as close as possible to one of the 2 T stations. This house is about a 5 minute walk from one of them so it's perfect in that regard. Pity we're dealing with idiots.

No update yet.[/QUOTE]

5 minutes is pretty good. I hope there's a garage or driveway because Malden has weird parking rules for snow removal, not sure if you thought about it or if anyone mentioned it. Are you closer to Malden Center or Oak Grove? I'm not sure if you've tried the local faire, but there's actually a good vietnamese restaurant in the middle of Pleasant St(I forget the name), Dipietro's has good steak tips and wings, and Cinderella's has good pizza and wing dings.
 
This house is close to Oak Grove. We are currently living in Burlington, but driving to Woburn and taking the commuter rail in takes too much time. It's ok for now but during busy season's 10 hour days it will be a nightmare, so we want to be settled into a place by February.

And yeah this place has a driveway. Definitely would not want a house without one because I know there can be krazy rules regarding street parking.

Still no goddamn updates. Though since we are basically in the hands of the lawyer now I wouldn't expect something too quickly. I would at least like to have this resolved one way or the other by this weekend so if need be, we can go looking at other houses then.
 
The commuter rail isn't much fun either, but at least you aren't driving. And my husband's job is fairly close to the commuter rail, so we carpool.

Second day of staying home from my new job (about 1 month) due to feeling like shit... And of course the company outing is tomorrow. I'm sure it'll look GREAT if I go to that after missing 2 days. Can't win for anything...
 
Update? We haz.

Got an email dated about an hour ago. Seller proposes a $4k lopping off of the price and "including the washer, dryer, and fridge." Uh, I thought those were already included considering the house is vacant and they weren't removed. Plus, we said $5k or deal is off. Congratulations, deal is off. Though I am gonna ask hubby to be sure. ;)
 
My husband sent an email that was probably too nice to the attorney and our agents, but he did tell them not to contact us again. :lol: I sent an email to our mortgage broker, and since we have been happy with his service thus far, told him we would like to continue working with him. So it begins again....
 
The agent is now insisting (to my mother via email) that they told us that the $295k offer had the condition that nothing found in the inspection would be fixed unless termites or foundation issues were found. That's complete bullshit. The only time we ever heard about it was from my mother. So glad we got rid of her.

Put in for some showings of other houses in the area this weekend.... Weee....
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']My husband sent an email that was probably too nice to the attorney and our agents, but he did tell them not to contact us again. :lol: I sent an email to our mortgage broker, and since we have been happy with his service thus far, told him we would like to continue working with him. So it begins again....[/QUOTE]

So are you out your $1k deposit or are you getting that back?
 
[quote name='Pookymeister']So are you out your $1k deposit or are you getting that back?[/QUOTE]

No word on that yet... My husband should check his damn checking account to see if it was even cashed...

Edit: Yeah it was cashed. They better give it back.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']The agent is now insisting (to my mother via email) that they told us that the $295k offer had the condition that nothing found in the inspection would be fixed unless termites or foundation issues were found. That's complete bullshit. The only time we ever heard about it was from my mother. So glad we got rid of her.

Put in for some showings of other houses in the area this weekend.... Weee....[/QUOTE]

Shouldn't that be in writing? Just check it. In fact everything should be in the writing. Better check the conditions for them keeping your $1000 deposit because it sounds like they'd probably try to keep it no matter what.
 
It's not in writing, never was in writing, they're full of shit. Everything else is basically in writing.

Edit: Just got another email from my mortgage broker, the rates have been lowered AGAIN, and he was able to lock in the new rate for 60 days. 4.25% holy shit. :whee::whee::whee:

Surprisingly he seems to have been the only person in this whole operation who has actually continuously helped us.
 
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Here comes my story about buying a house. It turned out a bit longer than intended but it was a hell of a process and it's not really exciting but it's my experience, read if you wish but do so at your own risk of eye strain.

Tuesday I officially became the owner of a rather large debt! My wife and I are expecting our second child (A boy this time!) in September and about 6 months back we decided to start looking for a house as the one we are currently renting did not have enough room. Our rent was also raised and we both thought we could buy a house with what we were wasting on rent. We began looking and after a few dumps we finally found a nice 3-4 bedroom two-story house that would be perfect for us. It's a bit older, built in the 1920's but in good shape structurally. The owner had it on the market for over a year with little to no interest (The town I live in is pretty small, only about 1,000 people and it's not the best market to sell homes in) and she hadn't been living in it at all during that time. She did very little upkeep so weeds were growing everywhere and she didn't even really clean it up for the open house. She didn't seem very motivated to sell or I would have thought she would have cleaned it up a bit and maybe repaired a few things but to each their own. It was also just FSBO which made it easier to make offers. We checked it out a couple times and decided we felt comfortable making an offer. She was initially "Firm" on her price but we made her an offer about 20% less than her asking price expecting a counter and to our surprise she accepted it right off. Should have offered lower but I really expected it to be countered as it was a bit of a lowball anyway.

All this happened about 3 months ago. I then spent the next 2 months working with a bank to get the loan which kept dragging out longer and longer. An appraisal was scheduled and after about 2 weeks was finally done. I then waited another week or so to finally hear the results and it appraised for a good bit more than the purchase price, very nice! I submitted the bank every thing they asked for from me for paperwork and waited to hear from them. Every couple of days or so they would call and need to verify information or need something they forgot to ask me for. This drug on for a couple more weeks and then finally they told me they were ready to close. The closing day came and went and nothing ever happened. They needed more paperwork. Repeat closing date and nothing happens, now they needed newer information because the rest was outdated. Repeat closing date and nothing happens, now they are waiting on underwriters to verify the loan. Every time we were ready to close the bank needed some new paperwork or had some excuse we couldn't close. Not to mention my lender went on a two week vacation and transferred me to another lender during the end of my business with this particular bank.

When I thought this mess was finally about to be over and we would close, my wife went into pre-term labor. This was no particular shock to us because my daughter was 2 months early and she was just about at that point with her current pregnancy. Anyway, she ended up spending 3 weeks in the hospital on bed-rest but they were able to stop the labor and she's currently home on bed-rest awaiting the arrival of the little guy (Cyrus) whenever he decides to come. He's due on September 10th but we expect him in the next week or so.

Anyway, back to the bank story, once the bank found this out they decided they needed to know when my wife would be returning to work and when the baby would be born, etc. I didn't think this should really matter as I had plenty of money in my accounts to provide the down payment, closing costs, reserve money they required, etc. yet they insisted we know when the baby would be born and when she would return to work. Obviously I couldn't tell them this and did my best to assure them she would return to work when everything was safe and just asked if we could close or not. They told me they needed to talk to the "underwriters" and would give me an answer the next day. The next day they require a letter saying my wife's intent to return to work 6 weeks after the birth and then they would make a decision. My wife was in the hospital about 2 hours from home and I asked if they could just give me the answer before I made the 4 hour round trip to get the signed letter. They wouldn't do it so I finally told them I was done with them. I was stuck paying for an appraisal, credit check, deed work, title work, etc but I was sick of messing with this bank that wasn't getting me anyway. They kept insisting we could close, etc. etc. but I left them and went to my local bank which I should have done all along.

The rate at my local bank was a bit higher, just about 1% and unfortunately not a fixed rate, balloons after 7 years so I wanted to go with the other bank but it just wasn't in the cards. Anyway, I went to my local bank where the lender was very friendly and explained the situation. He assured me no problems like that would happen here and helped fast track my loan. He was able to use the same appraisal even though it was from a different appraiser and ordered by another bank, he used the same title work and somehow was able to get it $100 cheaper (longer story on that, won't go into details), and only had to order another credit check and flood certification. Just under 3 weeks after going to my local bank I closed Tuesday after wasting over 2 months with the other bank. I wish I had just skipped them all together and we could have been all moved before anything happens with the new baby. Now we're trying to fix/remodel a few things before we move in and trying to hurry to get it all done before the baby is here and by the end of the month when we have to be out of our current place. It's a madhouse around here between going to work and working when I get home but everything is going great now. I'm not sure how much of a wrench the new baby will throw into the mix but I've got a budget now and I plan to have the house paid off in 7 years before the rate can change (fingers crossed that plan stays the same).

That's my story on buying a house. My neighbors are very excited the house/yard is finally getting cleaned up and we're excited our daughter will have some new friends to play with next door as the neighbors have children just about my daughter's age.
 
Congrats on the house mission42 - in a few years that will all seem like a little bump in the road. The important thing is that you were able to get the house and move in. Sounds like exciting times in your lives - enjoy it! We found out my wife was pregnant with our first child the same time we closed on our first house - it was awesome!
 
Sometimes banks just don't have their shit together when processing loans/mortgages. Tried to get a mortgage from a solid local bank where we have accounts, but they just kept sitting on it for way too long when we needed to move faster. We told them we were moving on. Our realtor recommended us to her mortgage broker who got us the mortgage from Wells Fargo much quicker and at just as good of a rate. The local bank guy was nice and understood that his bank blew it, and he still forwarded us some of the stuff he had gotten for the property without charging us.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']What bank was it that gave you the runaround like that?[/QUOTE]

+1 AND What bank gave you good service? I thin I am going to buy a bigger place in Chicago, so I am looking for a decent lender.
 
[quote name='kodave']Sometimes banks just don't have their shit together when processing loans/mortgages. Tried to get a mortgage from a solid local bank where we have accounts, but they just kept sitting on it for way too long when we needed to move faster. We told them we were moving on. Our realtor recommended us to her mortgage broker who got us the mortgage from Wells Fargo much quicker and at just as good of a rate. The local bank guy was nice and understood that his bank blew it, and he still forwarded us some of the stuff he had gotten for the property without charging us.[/QUOTE]

Wells Fargo... :puke:
I've heard so many bad things about their mortgages. I think last week there were 3 articles on Consumerist in 2 days about their bad lending practices. My sister-in-law used to work there and won't even talk about the experience. I just hope everything goes well with you guys. Our realtor also initially referred us to Wells Fargo and we refused. She then referred us to a guy from MetLife of all places, and he's the guy we've been working with who has been great thus far.
 
Well yes, big banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America and others screw shit up all the time. I'm sure they've all engaged in predatory lending practices and whatnot. The Daily Show just had a segment about how BoA tried to foreclose on a home they didn't even have a mortgage on. The homeowners sued, got a money judgement, BoA didn't pay, so they got the sheriff to foreclose on a local BoA branch.

But those banks have hundreds of thousands if not millions of mortgages as a whole to deal with. Yes I'm sure there are horror stories everywhere but I'm sure there are many more people that just get standard mortgages, pay monthly, and nothing bad happens. Fortunately we're in that category. The mortgage was nothing special, we didn't borrow anything for a down payment, no FHA loans or anything to complicate things, the fixed rate was good for the time, we pay timely every month, everything is fine between us and Wells Fargo.

My parents had 2 or 3 mortgages through Wells Fargo prior and all of those went fine.

There is a certain "evil" to the big giant institutions and when they fuck up they fuck up bad, but you can skate by just fine a lot of the time too.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']What bank was it that gave you the runaround like that?[/QUOTE]

No big name bank, it was just a local bank that charges a fee to get the loan then quickly sells it off.

The bank I ended up getting the loan through was even smaller, just a local small town bank that largely gives loans to farmers but keeps all loans local so I don't have to worry about it being sold off or anything which is nice. I really suggest checking out smaller banks, rates may be a little bit higher but the service for me was more than worth the difference.
 
I'm glad we dumped that other house. We only looked at one house today, but we plan on looking at a ton more tomorrow. However, even this one house was better than the one we had the deposit on. The list price is $5k cheaper than the other house's list price, but it has vinyl siding that doesn't need to be redone anytime soon, good gutters, newer windows, a 5 year old roof, and a better layout with about 50 sq ft more. There is a pool, but it's above ground and they're willing to remove it prior to move in. However, the pool looks so nice we might just keep it if we get the house. It's on a quiet side street and there's no lawn (which is a plus for us), but a nice patio and some vegetable patches (another plus). The only issues are that the deck needs a repaint (the wood looks ok for now but the paint is a gaudy bright blue that's peeling) and we have some questions about the structure- it looks like the second floor had some settlement, but we'd need an inspector to come in to let us know if it's a huge issue or not. So yeah, this house has none of the huge repairs that the other house needed, at a cheaper price, and the agent told us that they would be willing to fix things prior to move in. Oh, and the appliances are included. ;)

So yeah, we'll see what we get tomorrow, but this is already a promising start.
 
So we're not going to make an offer YET- we want to be more cautious. We are going to look at the house we liked in more depth this weekend. But we probably will eventually make an offer on the house. But the question is- what should we offer? I don't think it's worth lowballing too much as the list price is actually pretty reasonable IMO. The tax assessment for 2011 was $325k, and the list price is only $305k. There have been a lot of pricey upgrades done in the past several years (roof and vinyl siding are 5 years old, for one), which will save us a lot of money over buying a fixer-upper, and they are willing to make changes/improvements. However, it has been on the market for over 300 days, though they have lowered the price since (I think it started around $350k). So what would be a low but not lowball offer? I was thinking around $290k. What say CAG?
 
$275. If it has been on the market for 300 days I'd make a super low offer. If they are serious about selling they will make a counteroffer. If you would buy for $290 then opening at $275 might get you to settle there.
 
If no one else is offering on the house, I don't see a downside to offering a lowball. That's about 10% - that's what I got on my condo. Worked it up to 5% off.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']We'd buy at the list price honestly. And they seem to be serious about selling. I don't know if I want to open with such a lowball though.[/QUOTE]

As I said with mine we offered almost 20% less than the list price and it was accepted without so much as a thought. It was well under Appraised value and we figured a counter-offer would come back to us but seller accepted. Now I wish I had went lower, trust me, you don't want to be in that situation either. Everyday I'm kicking myself for not offering about 10k less to see where a counter would have been or maybe it would have been accepted too.

However, the house I bought also sat empty for over a year, there was still a mortgage on it, and the owner was living about 30 miles away paying taxes, insurance, utilities, (minimal) upkeep, etc. She was more than motivated to sell. I think any reasonable offer would have took it, your seller may not be quite as motivated to sell as mine was. Still, if the seller is serious about getting rid of the house, any reasonable offer will get a counter-offer. Your not talking chump change when your in the hundreds of thousands so any offer won't really be looked at as a low-ball. Obviously the buyer wants to get the house as cheap as possible and the seller knows that.
 
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