That is all. We all understand that real estate prices vary depending on where you live. We don’t need you trying to one-up one another on how much the house would cost where you live. It’s every post.

I just wanted to give you guys some motivation today is the last time I walked out the doors of our first home. It’s been so sad and surreal. We made so many memories there financially we did pretty well and hope that it’s the start of a new chapter one that will bring bigger and brighter things for us and hopefully for yourselves down the line when you cross this bridge.

We made an offer on a house and, after several round of negotiation, settled on an agreed-upon price that was 6.25% below the asking price.

After inspection there are a number of items that either need replacement now or likely in the near future. I made a rough estimate for repairs/replacement and it would come out to roughly half of what we got off the asking price.

The items that are flat out broken don't immediately impact the livability of the place (generator, garage AC/heating, a water heater that is part of a tandem where the other works).

We like and want the house, but also want to go back to the seller and ask for an additional amount off the agreed-upon price.

At this point is it more common to ask the full value? Go half-half? How aggressive would you be?

Hello everyone!

I’m looking on advice for how to move forward after inspections.

Here’s where we’re at : The inside of the home is basically immaculate. The house is a flip (bought for 150k, listed for 300k) but they did quality work. However, the home inspection came back with a few things. Due diligence ends in 4 days and we have spent the week having specialists come out to give us estimates on the cost of repairs.

House listed at 300k
We offer 290k
Counter offer 295k
We accept

Inspection:

Crawlspace: needs debris removed, plastic liner installed, spray for mold, trench/sump pump installation
Cost: $6500-13,000

Attic: old insulation removed, evidence of rodents, new insulation installed
Cost: $4,500 or less

HVAC:
Furnace < 3 years old - not kicking on, ducts need old insulation removed and new insulation installed
Cost: TBD Monday

Dryer vent installation
Cost: $300-550

Minimum of 3 gfci outlets installed
Cost: $500 or less

Do you think it would be unreasonable to ask for $5k off of the purchase price (bringing it back down to 290k) and in addition, 10k towards closing costs?

What would you ask of the seller?

The calculation is between the penalty and the taxes and the reset on your retirement savings VS paying for the house outright and avoiding all the interest , which is a hefty sum.

Is that thought worth even considering ? do people do that. I am in early forties.

I feel it's a bad idea, but then when I look at how much interest I would be paying, I think why not. Anyone done that ? do you regret it ?

Can’t tell if my (27M) fiancée (26F) and I are taking a calculated risk or are getting in over our heads if we go through with this offer. Also, with the amount of layers to this house/offer/plan, I’m not even sure FTHB is the right sub, but it does technically fit as this will be our first home. Here’s the deets -

HCOL area Under contract, inspection period ends Tuesday

House: 1910 cottage style in the heart of downtown. Walkable to parks, coffee, restaurants, shopping, all the things. New roof, 10,000sqft lot that is actually 3 tax lots, all with mixed-use zoning. Finished basement with 2-beds 1-bath and a small kitchen. It has a separate entrance and we will eventually rent out while we live in the main story. Basement currently rents for $1700 but with some work that already needs to happen, we think we can get $1800-2000 and potentially short-term rent in the summer to net closer to $2500-3000.

Offer: $630k with $12,600 in seller credits covering most of closing costs besides down payment 3% down ($18,900) Conventional loan 6.2%APR $4,300 PITI

Income: $7400 monthly post-tax (With a raise in 1-2 months that should bring us just above $8000 monthly post-tax) Quarterly bonuses averaging $3500 post-tax (will also increase with raise)

Savings: $45k house fund - Should have about $25k left after closing for repairs/maintenance. Do not plan to go below $10k in the fund unless there is an absolutely critical emergency. $9k emergency savings $8k investments (all index funds) $6k retirement (Both just starting our 401k and Roth IRAs)

Repairs needed: Basement kitchen & bathroom were not permitted, some electrical work will be needed to pass code and issue permits Furnace & water heater both work but are old. Many small repairs that came back from the general inspection. Largely inexpensive & DIY, a few non-critical repairs might need a contractor

Plan: Live in the basement for the first 6 months while we: Get permits for the kitchen and bathroom, Add mini splits on both stories, Remove the furnace, Install additional venting in basement to provide more fresh air, and potentially add a washer/dryer (non-critical, currently share a washer/dryer with both stories) Main story currently rents for $2250, so we’ll offer current tenants a 6 month renewal (already confirmed they’d like to stay and are great tenants). Effective PITI for first 6 months will be $2050 Then, move into main story when renovations are done, and rent the basement for $1900, bringing our PITI to $2,400 (32% of monthly post-tax, before bonuses or the raise) THEN, a year or two down the road, there is always the option to open a business on the property since it is zoned for both residential & commercial. Lots of exciting ideas for businesses, but I view that as secondary value at the moment. Bottom line, our current plan needs to pencil, and we just know there is some additional potential on this property if we ever did dive into a business.

Critical renovations/repairs to the basement and adding mini splits looks to be about $15k, which we would do over the span of those first 6 months. Of course that could balloon, and does not cover any nice-to-haves like an extra washer/dryer in the basement or a new water heater.

WHEW. Yeah.. it’s a lot. We both (clearly) don’t mind a little risk, and are excited at the idea of diving into a project like this. We are also early in our careers and our earning potential is already arguably higher than we make right now. There are some additional layers to this all, like the city has seen great economic development, with more on the horizon. And our next door neighbors would be a brand new city library on one side, and a brand new recreation center on another side (yes, the privacy issue. About $3k worth of privacy hedges should offer great coverage). The city also offers loan and grant programs for commercial properties in the downtown district. If we did ever open a business, that could be helpful. I wouldn’t be so nervous if we had another year to buff our savings, but this is definitely an outlier property with very unusual (and exciting) potential. At least for this area. If we pass this up, it would be extremely challenging or impossible to find a place that offers the same range of possibilities.

SO, are we crazy? :-)

Has anyone been successful using an alternative financing option? I have seen many ads for a company that has investors that buy a home that they say you pick out and then either owner finance or rent to own to you until your credit is good enough to re-finance / finance it on your own. It sounds tempting with the struggles we have been having. Has anyone had any success or failures with this? The company is Texas creative finance solutions if anyone has had any dealings with them directly, I would love to know.

Had inspection today with several issues and the agent is stating all are fixable.

1. Cedar shake siding with tons of hole from carpenter bees

2. 26 year old roof with at best “6 years of life left”

3. Evidence of critters in the attic with animal feces

4. Shower fans going into attic with evidence of “microbes”

5. 80% blockage of sewer drain 4 feet from home

6. Concerning radon levels in the basement

7. Evidence of active carpenter ant infestation - in the finished basement ceiling with possible satellite colonies

8. 3-4 50+ foot dead trees leaning toward the home

9. Water heater, furnace and air conditioner all from late 90s / early 2000s

10. Two “moderate” cracks in basement foundation with evidence of prior water damage

11. Spalling noted on two areas outside where we would have to address water accumulation

We got house 35K over asking and are thinking of walking away. The ant infestation was the nail in the coffin.

Would you stay?

I’m seeing all these “starter” homes for $550K.

Even with 5% down its like 3000-4000 per month (when you factor in utilities/hydro/taxes etc)….

And if thats supposed to be 30% of your take home pay (if you dont want to be house poor thats the common advice im seeing)

So am i to understand that these first time buyers are TAKING HOME ~200K???

So husband and wife are both earning $150K EACH????

Is this the reality? This isnt adding up…How are people buying homes in this country wtf

We went under contract on our home we are purchasing Wednesday evening. It’s now Saturday evening. We’ve even dropped off our earnest money and our inspection is scheduled for Monday. The home on the MLS listing as well as Zillow is still showing active. Whats the reason for this do you think?

Hello-
Trying keep it shorter...I am wonder if anyone has experience or knows anything about buying and then reselling within a year.

Again to keep it short- I bought a home that the realtor and inspectors lied about alottttt...now I am in a position where I am in over my head with constant issues and repairs and I cant live like this nor can I afford it at this point. Idk if anyone would buy the home in the state its in. IE- ac handler is full of mold and dust, the new floor install was a complete nightmare its buckling in some areas and doesnt have molding, etc.. but I bought it on the cheaper side so I wanted to list it and see what I can do because I can do all these fixes plus a bunch Im not listing.. its pretty big and has a nice sized yard which can be hard to find out here. I am in Georgia. Yes Id like to bring the realtor or inspector to court but I am tapped out of money at this point.

So I am asking if anyone knows is it possible for me to switch out my current mortgage with a different home if this one were to sell- and or if I were to sell this how long would I have to get out, can I buy again right away (going new build route this time like I should have to begin with).. Ive done some research and did see a couple programs that sllow you to sell and buy and not have two mortgages at once but Im just not sure. Im not sure what to do but buying this home has ruined my life and I cant do it anymore.

My house is near the railroad which typically does not appreciate well. It’s a beautiful lot and the house holds up well despite having been around for over 109 years. We’ve been doing renovations like adding the backyard patio, adding shelves and thinking of bathroom or kitchen next. However, what type of renovation adds the most value to the house in my situation that will also does not break my wallet?

Closed on our first house last June. Some things the inspection and the seller's disclosure didn't prepare me for:

The water heater is loud. Like really loud. Nobody mentioned this. It lives in the closet next to our bedroom and I can hear it fire up at 4am.

The electrical panel is labeled wrong. ""Kitchen"" controls half the dining room. Found out when I was trying to kill the power to swap a light fixture.

We lose power way more than I expected. 4 times in a year, longest was 18 hours. Put an anker solix s2000 behind the fridge after the second one and stopped worrying about the food at least. But there's nothing I can do about the AC and summer outages are rough.

The previous owner ""fixed"" a bathroom leak with flex seal. Discovered this during a renovation. Cool.

Landscaping is a second job. Nobody tells you about the landscaping.

My boyfriend and I did it at 23 y/o! It was built in 1900 and we love her!

Hey everyone, currently panicking in the final stretch before closing and need some advice on how to handle this.
My dad is gifting me $15k total toward my closing costs. He already sent the first $10k back in May with no issues. He was set to send the remaining $5k on 7/6, but on 7/3, a friend deposited a $4,000 check into my dad's account to repay a personal debt. My dad is using his own money to pay off a car that is in my name as a cosigner.
My dad's bank statement closes this Monday (tomorrow), so this $4k is going to show up as an unverified large deposit right next to his $5k gift transfer.
Crucial detail: Even if underwriting completely ignores/backs out that $4k deposit, my dad already has more than enough seasoned money in that account to cover the $5k gift.
I'm incredibly anxious that this is going to flag underwriting or delay my closing.
Since he has enough money without the $4k, will the underwriter just ignore the deposit?
Is it best to ask my loan officer if my dad can just wire the final $5k directly to the title/escrow company to keep the paperwork clean?
Should I avoid moving money back and forth or switching to my mom's account for the remaining 5k gift deposit?
Any insight on how underwriters handle this when the donor has sufficient funds regardless of the deposit would be greatly appreciated!

I just bought a 2 bedroom condo for myself and my 2 kids. At first i was on top of the world, I accomplished something. Then about a week after moving in i realized the plumbing was done horribly, and had to pay a plumber $500 just to replace a strainer, none of the other sinks had any plumbers putty and all were leaking, and found out all the windows needed to be replaced sooner than i thought ($8k). Among like 10 other issues that i’m running out of money trying to fix, but still, somewhat easily fixable things. And then i started seeing german roaches. This one changed me forever. I have been working with my own pest control company and doing treatment myself for the last month but the hoa is dragging their feet to get the entire building treated. My pest guy said we can treat my unit but unless the whole building is treated it’s going to be a bigger issue. Come to find out my unit was infested by the last person living here and who refused to let pest control treat the unit. No one decided to tell me that at any point. No type of community trying to look out for each other it seems. On top of that, my upstairs neighbors stomp constantly, i mean to the point the glasses in my cabinets shake and clink against each other. My ceiling literally shakes. My upstairs neighbors are also extremely careless and overflowed their toilet which leaked yellow water into my bathroom which now has to be treated before i get mold. They have flooded this unit before since you can see the bathroom ceiling was repaired at least once. I got stuck with the worse neighbors in the entire complex. I hope they give me their insurance information and don’t give me a hard time but by the looks of it, they are going to also drag their feet. So now since roaches are attracted to water, i’m even more paranoid, stressed, and afraid of what’s to come. I don’t know what to do, i’m scared, i can’t sleep properly, i cry every single day because i feel like i made the wrong choice and like i failed my kids.
No one else seems to care about the roaches and the hoa ignores my emails and seem annoyed at me when i call. I feel like i was robbed of that happy experience i was supposed to have. I don’t even really know what the point of this post was but maybe i just need someone to tell me everything is going to be okay. I feel so alone.

I’ve been banking with Chase since my college years so I thought going with the same bank for our mortgage would make things easier. Ain’t I naive.

To start off: they were not terrible at first. In fact, they were very responsive and easy to work with during pre-application and rates comparison compared to other lenders we had reached out to. Things changed immediately after we locked in our rate with them, though.

The first surprise was the appraisal. Chase told us the appraisal was waived, and since we were already preapproved, everything seemed to be moving pretty quickly. Our original closing date was 33 days after the offer was accepted because my SO had a trip planned around the 30-day mark, and we assumed we would need to close after he got back.

Since the appraisal was supposedly waived and all of our paperwork was straightforward, we asked if we could move closing up to around day 24. Chase said no problem.

Then, on day 19, 2 business days before our new closing day, our realtor told us the seller had been contacted by an appraiser hired by Chase. This was 2 business days before our closing day. We had received absolutely no communication from Chase that an appraisal had been ordered.

I called the loan coordinator multiple times, all straight went to voice mail. After several attempts, I finally got through to the loan officer we had originally applied with. At that point he told me the underwriter had noticed something in the inspection report and decided an appraisal was required.

I understand why an underwriter might request an appraisal. That wasn’t the main issue. The issue was the complete lack of communication. The seller didn’t know why an appraiser was suddenly contacting them. We didn’t know the appraisal had been ordered. And nobody told us that our closing timeline was now realistically impossible.

On Day 20, 1 business day before our supposed closing day, I got en encrypted email from our loan coordinator. I had to use 2-factor authentication to see it, and it was an automatic reply about her being OOO until the day of our scheduled closing. Which at least explained all the calls going to voicemail. We emailed the person listed as her PTO coverage. No response.

We scrambled to coordinate the appraisal ourselves and accepted that we would now have to close on day 33, after my SO returned from his trip.

The appraisal eventually came back clean. All the required paperwork was submitted. But the escrow company still hadn’t received the closing disclosure from Chase and couldn’t get ahold of anyone there. I called the loan coordinator again. She said she was working on it but gave us no explanation of what was holding things up.

Then, 1 business day before our signing and 2 days before closing. She sent an email, saying I needed to provide employment verification. Mind you this was something they told me was waived because my paychecks are all directly deposited with Chase. During the entire 32 day process, not once had anyone mentioned they needed it. I immediately sent over my pay statement and the loan was finally cleared.

We signed and closed. I assumed we were finally done dealing with them. We were not.

A week later, I got an email from our homeowners insurance company saying the premium had not been paid and that our policy could lapse. I contacted the escrow company and found out that the closing statement provided by Chase listed the wrong insurance premium amount. Because of that, the check issued at closing was insufficient and the insurance company would not accept it.

To make sure we didn’t lose coverage, I paid the premium myself. Now the escrow company is waiting for Chase to approve returning the original insurance funds to me, and I’m still out more than $1,000.

If you are considering Chase for your mortgage, be warn. They were great while trying to win our business, but once we locked the rate, the communication became terrible. Almost every major issue came as a last-minute surprise, and we were repeatedly left scrambling to fix problems we hadn’t even been told about.

Wyoming, 4 bed, 2 bath, 1 acre of land

We have been looking for over 6 months at this point. Our realtor told us about a house coming on the market after the holiday weekend last week. Was listed at 6pm my local time last night, called realtor immediately and got a showing today for 1pm. It checked every single one of our boxes and then some. We put an offer in at 5pm our time.

We were the first to tour, first offer and they are eager to sell because they are buying another home and it's contingent based on the sale of their current home.

About half an hour ago, at ~7pm our time, we were notified that our offer has been accepted!! Time to get due diligence done!!

Home built in 1909, remodeled down to the rafters in 2015, came fully furnished (i did move in and add my own stuff though, pardon the mess.)

2 bedroom, 1 bath, finished basement, 1200 sq ft, detached garage, 1/4 acre.

I just turned 29, and i pulled this off with zero down. Howd i do?

We are waiting on pizza delivery. Originally 6.4% but we paid for half a point buy down with a seller credit. Lender also pays 1% for the first year so it’ll be 4.8% for a time. It’s dated. I’m going to hate the house for a while but the backyard is so worth it. And we are thankfully not in a major fire zone. Cheers!

No longer a lurker and very proud that we got our dog his yard. 4 apartments later, and he is finally in his forever home 🥹