Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

[SuzySunshine]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

I think in any real estate transaction you have to know what you're willing to pay (or accept) when the process starts. 4% to 18% is a big jump. I think I would walk to but I also know you've looked at a lot of houses.

It'll work out if or you'll move on. Hang in there.

[Vishenka69]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

Well it's not my fault they overextended themselves. There's absolutely no way that they'll sell the house at what they want in this market and I'm not overpaying in order to overextend myself. Our realtor said that there are 3 loans associated with the title, the last one seems to coincide with the divorce. Divorces are expensive and I very highly doubt they'll find anyone to subsidize theirs. I didn't expect them to accept our offer and had a cushion build in, but if hey it's a buyers market and I'm the buyer. It's not personal.

[MrsK]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

Well it's not my fault they overextended themselves. There's absolutely no way that they'll sell the house at what they want in this market and I'm not overpaying in order to overextend myself. Our realtor said that there are 3 loans associated with the title, the last one seems to coincide with the divorce. Divorces are expensive and I very highly doubt they'll find anyone to subsidize theirs. I didn't expect them to accept our offer and had a cushion build in, but if hey it's a buyers market and I'm the buyer. It's not personal.

I'm not saying that it's your fault that they overextended themselves or that you should pay for it. Given their circumstances and the present market, they may not be able to sell the house to you or anyone else at all. Lots of folks are in this position. If their lenders won't agree to a short sale and they don't have the money to make up the shortage, they may be stuck with the house and with their big fat mortgage payments.

[DCJenn]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

Julie-

There are lots of people stuck. If they can't or won't move- then you're right to walk. Our house in DC has a bottom line price. I told the realtor realistically what we owe and that we weren't willing to write a check for someone to buy our house. If that had been the case, I would have continued to rent it.

I have discovered after making offers in divorce cases that they can be VERY ugly to deal with- neither wants to concede and both are emotionally invested- either in the house itself or in getting back at the former spouse.

Jenn

[Vishenka69]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

Thanks guys. They have come down a bit but not enough for us to go ahead and buy it. We'll give them time to think about it and if they decide they want to come down to our final number (up from our initial offer), then great, if not, there are other houses out there.

[Vishenka69]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

Things have progressed somewhat and we had an inspection today. The owner was there, so the inspector took the opportunity to ask him some questions. Mainly he wanted to know if there was documentation on the supporting/retaining wall outside and a certificate that the old beams have been checked for bugs prior to use. The owner seemed really ditzy and was almost confused by the questions, needless to say he didn't have any paperwork. He gave me a number of his contractor to ask about the beams and the inspector said we need to get an engineer to inspect the wall (there's a crack). But the whole thing just didn't sit well with me. Is it typical/normal for the owner to be so clueless about the house he build. I could understand if he bought it but wouldn't he ask all those questions during the process. I don't know if there are any problems but who would he go to if there were. Without any paperwork, there's nobody to hold responsible but him.

Is this a bad sign or am I making a mountain out of a mold?

PS any suggestions on homeowner's insurers? I need to get some quotes.

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

re: insurance, just call around. I asked my realtor for a referral as well as the mortgage person in addition to calling the usual suspects. That way I had a lot to compare. I was inclined to stay with State Farm since that the company we had before. I figured the loyalty discount would make them the best price (which was the case when I had compared in previous state). Wow -- I saved a bundle but getting those quotes!

I'm not sure what to say about the owner's forgetfulness. How old is the house and when were those things put in? Maybe he was clueless or didn't know to ask. I wouldn't have thought about that with the bugs but I guess I would in an area with termite problems. Either he was playing dumb or he is dumb, hard to say. :huh: Following up on those two points will help. Is there any mention of that in the seller's disclosure forms?

[Vishenka69]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

The house is 8 years old and none of those things are in the disclose agreement but we have a clause that if we don't like anything on the inspection report we can walk away without even giving him a chance to fix anything. The current plan is to wait until the full inspection report is ready, ask them fix structural things and then go from there. I'm guessing that fixing stuff we want will be another few grand.

[ladymoreta]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

We went with Geico for our insurance. We already used them for our cars, and we've heard great things about their claims service. My in-laws had State Farm for decades, and when their house burned down (no fault of their own), State Farm was really crummy. They denied a ton of stuff, and MIL ended up having to get a third party to help her get all the money they were supposed to give them. It's incidental, but after that I can't really recommend them to anyone.

[MrsK]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

The house is 8 years old and none of those things are in the disclose agreement but we have a clause that if we don't like anything on the inspection report we can walk away without even giving him a chance to fix anything. The current plan is to wait until the full inspection report is ready, ask them fix structural things and then go from there. I'm guessing that fixing stuff we want will be another few grand.

You may want to gather up a list of defects -- large and smal -- and ask him for a discount on the purchase price. Many buyer prefer to fix things themselves so they know it is done right. Also, the lower purchase price will help you out on your mortgage, taxes, etc.

[DCJenn]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

We typically get the inspection report, figure out what our non-negotiable "you have to fix this or the deals off" stuff and negotiate the rest.

For us, for this house, they HAD to fix the roof flashing, replace rotten porch boards, bet the columns on the porch inspected and have the pool inspected. We negotiated them patching the cracks (since we were going to paint anyway) and some other small stuff.

Jenn

Ps- after we buy, we use the inspection report as a punch list for priority repairs- the DC house sellers wouldn't fix anything- the house was sold "as is" and we got stuck fixing everything.

[Vishenka69]

Re: Making an offer/closing - words of advice?

I feel that we have negotiated them down to their bare minimum on the price, so I'm not sure if they'd be willing to bring it down any lower. If they want to give me the cash to fix everything, I'm cool with that too, as long as I don't have to pay for major structural things. I'm more concerned with the clueless part. Although it's very likely that the wife took care of things and now the husband has no idea. He's the one who lives there now (she moved out with the kids).