Home selling/buying anxiety

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted by Skippy722
I'm sure my house I'm currently selling is fine, but man I am freaking out! Buyer is doing a home inspection today (Friday) while I'm at work. Next house will be our "forever" house for sure, I can't do this again.

I know the feeling. I have sold 4 houses and will be selling the house I am currently living in at some point soon. The house is sold as is, and priced for what it needs, if their client thinks they are going to deduct what it needs a second time I will show them the door. In other words, if the house needs a roof, siding, and electrical upgrade, factor than in to the asking price. When the engineer wants to earn his keep and tells the buyer to deduct X amount of $$ for the roof, siding, and electrical work I will show them the door. Crass, crude, I don't care. Is there wiggle room? A little, but they won't be double dipping. I've spelled it out to the broker in the past when working with them, and suggest they tell the client before showing them the house. If they don't like it too bad, they can pass on the listing. None have. I booted two buyers from the last house I sold, the third took it. The technique worked in the past, I have no doubt it will work again. I've been in sales my entire working life, I know the game. Rant off.

 

[Spector]

getting the signed contract is just the first step as you know, appraisal has to come in at the sales price, inspection has to be done and agreed upon for any items, buyer has to assure loan acceptance. A lot of steps, the signed contact is the big one, never turn down an offer, always always counter.

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it most buyers (especially first timers) know nothing about homes, the difference between brands of heating equipment from builders crap to better furnaces or heat pumps etc, and they don;t really look at infrastructure like the roof, windows, trim, siding, etc.

 

[Skippy722]

Well, we have some things to fix. They sent us the inspection as well as what they want done. Looking to be more expensive than I thought, but not as bad as it could have been. Area is known for flooded crawl spaces, we've had a ton of rain lately, and ours was good! But they didn't back out!

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted by Skippy722
Well, we have some things to fix. They sent us the inspection as well as what they want done. Looking to be more expensive than I thought, but not as bad as it could have been. Area is known for flooded crawl spaces, we've had a ton of rain lately, and ours was good! But they didn't back out!



It's all negotiable. Depends on what all is on the list. If its reasonable ok, but if its a bunch of silly stuff, no.

 

[Leo99]

Originally Posted by spasm3
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Well, we have some things to fix. They sent us the inspection as well as what they want done. Looking to be more expensive than I thought, but not as bad as it could have been. Area is known for flooded crawl spaces, we've had a ton of rain lately, and ours was good! But they didn't back out!



It's all negotiable. Depends on what all is on the list. If its reasonable ok, but if its a bunch of silly stuff, no.



I wouldn't fix anything expensive or complicated. Offer them some cash back at closing to cover the repairs. You never know what could happen when you start tearing things apart. And the buyers might only care about the cash back in their pocket

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by Skippy722
I'm sure my house I'm currently selling is fine, but man I am freaking out! Buyer is doing a home inspection today (Friday) while I'm at work. Next house will be our "forever" house for sure, I can't do this again.

It is a mountain of paperwork, for sure, but just get a good finance manager and title company, and let them guide you through the brunt of it. Also, yes, Im sure they will find things to niggle you over, that's life. Prolly stuff you don't even know about.

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by Leo99
Originally Posted by spasm3
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Well, we have some things to fix. They sent us the inspection as well as what they want done. Looking to be more expensive than I thought, but not as bad as it could have been. Area is known for flooded crawl spaces, we've had a ton of rain lately, and ours was good! But they didn't back out!



It's all negotiable. Depends on what all is on the list. If its reasonable ok, but if its a bunch of silly stuff, no.



I wouldn't fix anything expensive or complicated. Offer them some cash back at closing to cover the repairs. You never know what could happen when you start tearing things apart. And the buyers might only care about the cash back in their pocket

When I bought, I included a list of things to fix, along with my offer, so that when the owner countered, they could take that into account. Some people just want to drive down the grounds, turn the key and walk into a 100% squared away estate. Find out what the buyer wants. They may pay more if you handle it before sale. They may prefer the lower financed or cash cost.

 

[supton]

Good luck. Ours was just listed today. The real anxiety comes later when making a bid on another place--the paperwork is voluminous for the mortgage but not that bad really. But getting the place that you want... now that is stressful!

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by supton
Good luck. Ours was just listed today. The real anxiety comes later when making a bid on another place--the paperwork is voluminous for the mortgage but not that bad really. But getting the place that you want... now that is stressful!


I spend 2 years hunting for the place I wanted.

The paperwork?

They wanted:

-To pull my credit.
-2? months of pay stubs.
-3? months of bank statements.
-To source funds on several checks I had cashed for things I'd sold.
-For me to sign a bunch of stuff.

It was pretty painless. I just scanned all that mess into the computer, uploaded it to their site, and then showed up on closing day and signed stuff for 20 minutes.


*?Not sure if it was 2, or 3.

 

[fisher83]

It is a sellers market for sure. We listed our current home and had 9 showings in 2 days- many of which overlapped each other. It sold for full asking price on day 2. We had a pre-inspection done and the buyer opted not to do their own inspection or have a radon test. They came with conventional financing also.

 

[ymc226]

Originally Posted by fisher83
It is a sellers market for sure. We listed our current home and had 9 showings in 2 days- many of which overlapped each other. It sold for full asking price on day 2. We had a pre-inspection done and the buyer opted not to do their own inspection or have a radon test. They came with conventional financing also.


I am hearing that it will become a seller's market given the SALT deduction limitations. I just sold my home in 2 weeks since listing which was surprising and to an all cash buyer (from China). Homes can sit for many months or several years at the price point I was listing my home at. Moving across country and will not be buying until next year when prices should be softer. It is also becoming increasingly tougher for the Chinese to take assets out of China so higher end homes will have fewer buyers in the future.

 

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted by supton
Good luck. Ours was just listed today. The real anxiety comes later when making a bid on another place--the paperwork is voluminous for the mortgage but not that bad really. But getting the place that you want... now that is stressful!

Are you buying a house..... or building a house that you posted about recently with blueprints ?

 

[Skippy722]

Well here's an update! It's done, I'm no longer a homeowner! Long story but our "apartment" is bigger than our house was and it's on 10 acres. Our rent is the same cost as my mortgage plus utilities.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Originally Posted by supton
Good luck. Ours was just listed today. The real anxiety comes later when making a bid on another place--the paperwork is voluminous for the mortgage but not that bad really. But getting the place that you want... now that is stressful!

Are you buying a house..... or building a house that you posted about recently with blueprints ?


Back to buying. We got most of the quotes in and it went past our budget too fast--and it doesn't seem like a great idea to build a house that we don't like. Plus, while initially our builder thought it could be built in the backyard while leaving the existing structure alone, after a while they decided it was best to remove our house first. Things were not adding up.

So, we're on plan c or d, not sure now. We'll see if this time works!

Originally Posted by Skippy722
Well here's an update! It's done, I'm no longer a homeowner! Long story but our "apartment" is bigger than our house was and it's on 10 acres. Our rent is the same cost as my mortgage plus utilities.

Nice!

 

[Ws6]

Congrats! Land is nice.

 

[Skippy722]

Originally Posted by Ws6
Congrats! Land is nice.


Thank you! There is so much wildlife out there... I've never seen a wild turtle up close before, and we've got 2 living in the pond by our door!

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by Ws6
Congrats! Land is nice.


Thank you! There is so much wildlife out there... I've never seen a wild turtle up close before, and we've got 2 living in the pond by our door!

Oh wow. I grew up in the country, so that's mind-boggling to me. At my house, I have seen: Coyote, bald eagle, hawk, owl, red-tail fox, fish (small mouth bass/brown bass), nutria, sugar glider, rabbit, shot a deer in the front yard last season, raccoon, opossum, snake, squirrel, and I'm sure others.

 

[FADEC]

Originally Posted by JerryBob
Remember, the home inspector is usually selected by the realtor, and a realtor won't hire someone who is too picky and shoots down sales. In my experience, they'll come back with some stuff, but not major.

The home I sold a few years ago the inspector was selected my the buyers realtor. What a mess. It was a very nice house though. The inspector actually wrote up the AC for blowing too cold!! Never heard of that one. Went out and purged some of the Freon. Now much warmer AC.

 

[supton]

The inspector is selected by the home buyer. The realtor should know several that they can recommend.

Personally, I'd read up on how to do an inspection--like everything else, no one else has as much invested in this as you do. The bank will still want you to pay for one, but ideally, right during the first walk through, you should be looking for all the problem areas, and any red flags that need follow up on any subsequent walk throughs. Then you can consult with the inspector if/when that happens. And then decide if an issue exists or not, and what the impact is.

 

[Skippy722]

Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by Ws6
Congrats! Land is nice.


Thank you! There is so much wildlife out there... I've never seen a wild turtle up close before, and we've got 2 living in the pond by our door!

Oh wow. I grew up in the country, so that's mind-boggling to me. At my house, I have seen: Coyote, bald eagle, hawk, owl, red-tail fox, fish (small mouth bass/brown bass), nutria, sugar glider, rabbit, shot a deer in the front yard last season, raccoon, opossum, snake, squirrel, and I'm sure others.


I grew up next rock a corn field next to a relatively busy road... most exotic I've seen was a red fox once. But this is Norman, my wife names all the animals lol