bostonbubble.com

[melonrightcoast]

I decided to tour a house that has been on the market for the past two spring/summer selling seasons (at least). It is contemporary (good), on a cul-de-sac (good), about 2400 sq ft (good), nice looking neighborhood (good), loads of light from south facing windows and very quiet (good), and abuts conservation land (good and bad). This house would suit our needs and many of our wants very well.

The current owners have lived in the house for seven years, and they replaced the windows and boiler. Other than that, they have not updated it at all. Kitchen and bathrooms are very dated and the kitchen has a very poor design.

My husband refuses to go see the house because I am "not excited enough" about it. Which is true, because we would have to get it for ~15% less than it's current listing price (which is about 8% overpriced based on comps), and below what the sellers paid for it in 2002, in order to redo the kitchen and bathrooms.

Part of me thinks we should just low-ball the house and see what happens. Part of me doesn't want to bother. And I guess this is why my husband won't go see it .

The most alarming thing is that the seller's agent is so full half-truths and statements that don't add-up that I am suspicious about why the sellers want to sell. When I asked her how long it was on the market, she said just under 3 months, even though she was the listing agent for it last year when it was on the market, too. I asked her why the sellers want to move, and she said they loved, loved, loved the house but need a bit more space and wanted to be closer to Boston, but then said that the sellers are looking in town again. I asked if they had done any plans for expanding the house, and she said no. So they love, love, love it, but haven't updated it and haven't looked to expand the house. Hmmm.

I'm just venting ... thanks for listening.
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melonrightcoast ... are you?

[Yow]

Make an offer, it's not that much effort.

[melonrightcoast]

[SamChady]

If you are a buyer, every time you look at anything its an education that will help you make the final choice. You need to see what you don't like to recognize what you like. And, you might just get lucky and want that house.

Don't listen to the agent or let them steer you away from the house by their bad actions. They either don't know the truth, don't care, or are under orders to tell some agreed on story - so don't bother asking them. Just get all the facts on your own, and make a low offer and keep looking.

[JCK]

My guess is that the agent is just making stuff up to answer your questions, rather than engaging in some sort of elaborate cover-up.

[Rental Lease]

I say low-ball the house at 25-30% beneath asking price, and see what happens. Most likely they'll come back with something, which you can then either reject or continue negotiating.
Who knows? Maybe you'll get a great real estate deal. Just make sure you have a home inspection done, as deterioration over time can take many forms, not all of them visible to you or your real estate agent.
Best of luck,
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Brian
Editor's Note: Signature links removed. Please avoid overly commercial linking.

[melonrightcoast]

My husband still refused to go see the house that I toured a few weeks ago. He wasn't crazy about the location, the fact that there were wetlands (and gobs of bugs) on the property, and that we'd need to completely redo the kitchen and bathrooms. Neither was I, so that is that.

A bunch of homes at the "entry level" hit the market in my town last week and I toured all of them. The open houses were swamped (over 30 parties signed the listing sheets, typically) and most of them were first time home buyers, often with parents along. These would be houses that would work well for us for maybe 5-7 years, but then we'd need more space when the girls are teenagers (i.e. another bedroom and a family room for them to pupate) and we'd need to do an addition or finish the basement. One of these houses might have worked for us size and lay out wise... except for the un-grounded wiring, cracked and poorly patched walls and musty smell throughout the entire house. Amazingly, this is the only house that has gone under agreement (so far).

After hearing about the musty smelling house, which I was very frustrated about, my husband suggested I take a look at another house that had been on the market since spring. I hadn't because the price was high, but I thought I might as well since it was still on the market since spring and maybe they'd be willing to take a lower price. We toured the house this past Saturday. And we were pretty speechless because, with the exception of a sump pump, it has EVERYTHING on our extensive checklist: this is a house we can live in for 20 years without needing to do any additions or major (ie kitchen, bathroom) renovations.

We put an offer in on Monday and reached an agreement with the sellers yesterday! Now for all the inspections... I know this is far from a done deal and that we may not end up with this house if some important issue, or even too many minor issues, turn up. Additionally, this deal would not have been able to happen if we had a buyers agent, as it is FSBO and the 2.5% agent fee would have likely been too wide a gap for us and the seller.

Thanks, in part, to this blog, I feel like I'm going into this with my eyes wide open. We'll see if the deal goes through.
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melonrightcoast ... are you?

[admin]

Congratulations. I hope it works out for you.

- admin

[john p]

Don't do what we did and let up on all components of the transaction.

For example, we got an ok deal on the financing, we did well with closing costs, but other people were getting a 6.375% rate and we got a 6.5%. I focused too much on the house price and let up on the mortgage rate.

You'll need to be getting Good Faith Estimates, try to avoid paying an application cost. You have to do some research about getting your own Title Insurance or not (the mortgage company will get it, you have to decide if you want it as well). What else.... I think you do a verbal application and the mortgage company pulls your credit report. I think you get like a month or so where other companies can pull your credit and it doesn't affect your rating, not sure.... Also, I think you can get a lock in the rate for like 60 days. It used to be less but because it takes longer to process they're holding 60 days. Rates are a bit more stable today than when I was buying, so that makes it less turbulent. Think about the closing date and try to stay on top of getting everything submitted. You're going to need pay stubs, W2's, etc. so try to have those handy. Also coordinating the move prior to the closing is important because it might be overload of certain things fall through the cracks at the last moment. I think you need an attorney to close. My buyers agent was the expediter and held everything together, so without one it might be difficult. I wonder if you could negotiate a deal with a buyers agent and throw them say $800 for coordination services. If not, pick as many brains as you can and always ask "What's the next step and who needs to do what to get there?"

Lastly, when you move try to avoid going down memory lane when you pack stuff and keep your eye on the ball.

Oh, one last tidbit. I bought two trash barrels, you know the ones with lids and wheels... It was great to pack because you could wheel it where you wanted. Also, keep a shower curtain and mountain money (toilet paper) handy....

[balor123]

Mortgage brokers can indeed easily suck a lot of money from you without you noticing. One of my coworkers knows one who claims she made $1 million last year with all the refinancing going on. I hear it's also pretty easy to get certified. Probably fairly profitable by the hour to get real estate and mortgage broker licenses and avoid paying others, not to mention making more informed decisions yourself and gaining the ability to suck money from others. Slurp.

[JCK]

www.mtgprofessor.com has some great advice on understanding mortgages, closing costs, the whole process.

Once you understand the process (what all the numbers mean), then it's much harder to get ripped off.

Personally, I think the online places that will guarantee your closing costs are the best way to go, once you understand the process.

Otherwise, I'd probably choose someone who works on flat-rate basis (i.e., you agree to pay them $X to represent you (as opposed to themselves) find you mortgage and then they pick out the best product for you), as opposed to someone who works on commission basis, does not represent you, and may be receiving additional kickbacks from the mortgage originator to steer you into certain products.

[balor123]

Problem with the housing market, like many other markets, is that most people don't really understand the market until they have some experience with it. Since most people will buy at most a few houses in their lifetime, there's a lot of reliance on the market to provide services efficiently. Since the real estate industry is one of the biggest lobbyists, the market isn't very efficient and so they are able to command a substantial amount of GDP relative to the value they deliver to our society.

[admin]

Hey melonrightcoast, now that you have an offer in, are you willing to divulge what your target town has been?

- admin

[Bubblegum]

How do you know melon has an offer on it, admin? Boy this blog is deserted. I came from a NJ blog that was teaming every day with posts. Oh well...

[admin]