Author Topic: Selling and then buying a house right now! Play by play with lots of updates!  (Read 16493 times)

Dicey

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Wow, closing costs are a drop in the bucket compared to interest rates. If your bank was so impressed with your relationship, they'd be offering you a batter rate. Time to make a new friend. It doesn't have to be aimloan, but you owe it to your future self to do more due diligence.

Given where you are posting this saga, I'd say (sorry) that this post is face-punch worthy.

boarder42

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Yeah get out of your comfort zone and save yourself thousands of dollars.  even on a 100k loan the difference in 4.375 vs 3.75 is around 400 a year.  you're just throwing this money away in the name of what exactly? 

Its one thing to decide paying down a low interest mortgage is for you its completely different to just look easy money in the face and say nah this relationships is worth 72k over 30 years.  (72k calculated using 400 per year invested at 10% return over the next 30 years)

a bank is a bank.  you default on your mortgage they dont care if you banked with them for 20 60 100 years.  why not do your due diligence and shop.  presented with a different quote your bank may even lower their rate.


Nick_Miller

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Day 21

@Diane C, @boarder42, Aimloans has tons of 1-star reviews from folks who encountered huge delays in closings, endless requests for documents (same docs requested over and over), and general incompetence. Yes, I know everyone gets some bad reviews, but I have no confidence that they are the right fit. And I'm wary of going with some internet-only company I've never heard of with tons of bad reviews.

That being said, I did some more digging around this weekend.

Lendingtree was of little help. Based on the data plugged in, only one provider was offering a lower rate. Then I started getting phone calls from Quicken Loans who were offering rates like 4.675% and so that conversation didn't last long.

Major banks in our area are all around the 4.375% rate from our bank. Quite a few were higher.

I did end up contacting a local mortgage services company (our same city) who might offer a rate around 4.125%. I ran some quick numbers and concluded we'd save about $20 per month/$240 the first year. They are supposed to call me back (pretty damn sure they will, considering the industry).

We'll see how it goes.




boarder42

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Wasn't advocating using aim. I was just advocating shopping. 240 a year isn't anything to frown at.

Dicey

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Yeah i just hit up my broker friend and the best rate for top credit right now in the MO area is 3.75% ... you should definitely be shopping that rate.

Wow, closing costs are a drop in the bucket compared to interest rates. If your bank was so impressed with your relationship, they'd be offering you a batter rate. Time to make a new friend. It doesn't have to be aimloan, but you owe it to your future self to do more due diligence.

Given where you are posting this saga, I'd say (sorry) that this post is face-punch worthy.

@Diane C, @boarder42, Aimloans has tons of 1-star reviews from folks who encountered huge delays in closings, endless requests for documents (same docs requested over and over), and general incompetence. Yes, I know everyone gets some bad reviews, but I have no confidence that they are the right fit. And I'm wary of going with some internet-only company I've never heard of with tons of bad reviews.

Dear Nick_Miller,
I am going to try really hard to be nice, but your reply pisses me off. Did you actually read my reply and boarder42's?

I am always willing to help people out, but neither of us advocated for Aimloans or any "internet-only company", so chewing us out is way out of line, IMO. I am not speaking for b42, but I wouldn't be surprised it they felt something similar.

For what it's worth, you are free to pay as much as you want for your mortgage.
Kind regards,
Diane C

Another Reader

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I'll bet your agent is telling you you might lose the house if you don't use the lender they want.  I understand that up to a point.  Maybe you could get a list from her of acceptable lenders and shop them.  The big banks have pushed interest rates higher.  A good broker can shop this loan and get you a lower rate with a lender that closes on time.

Nick_Miller

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Day 22!

First of all, @Diane C, yes I read your reply. Including the little bolded part "It doesn't have to be aimloan." Perhaps I should have been clear in my response that, partially because of your comments and @boarder42's comments, I chose to search rates again this weekend. I think if I would have included that, you would have understood I appreciated your feedback. So there you go! I appreciated your feedback!  No need to be pissed off.   :)  But if you want to be pissed off, I can't stop you.

@Another Reader, no that's not the case at all. WE picked out our lender. It's the local bank we've used since we've been married.  All this being said, we want/need to close in about...29 days or so, because we want our sale closing to be on the same day as our purchase closing. We negotiated 3 additional days of possession of our old house post-closing to give us time to move our crap. The new house is uninhabited, so we get immediate physical possession of the new house at closing. If the one mortgage place calls me back today, I'll see if they can hussle hussle but time is short.

(*also keep in mind that even though we'll have a 30-year mortgage, I have no plans to actually string payments out for 30 years, so savings on interest won't be quite as extreme as have been pointed out, although I agree that even $200/year for a few years is nothing to ignore. I just like having the flexibility of a smaller mortgage payment that should let us focus on making sure we max out retirement contributions every year)

And as a general comment, we ARE saving money in other ways as well. My wife and I are boxing up (ourselves) like 90% of our stuff. We've gotten boxes for FREE from friends and family.  I'm renting a U-Haul (about $75 for the day) and we're driving all our boxed stuff to the new house to reduce our moving company costs. We are using the moving company only for things we can't physically move and load. We should be able to move all boxes in one, or at most, two trips back and forth (about 15 miles or so each way).

We will also be avoiding all storage costs because of lining up the closings on the same day. No need to use any sort of pod or anything.

The inspection for the new house is set for this afternoon. Both my wife and I will attend the inspection. The inspector encouraged us both to be there, ask questions, etc. He seems like he has a teacher's mentality, which I like.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2017, 07:14:48 AM by Nick_Miller »

boarder42

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apple boxes and egg boxes are free at the grocery store just go ask.

do i read your third paragraph correctly in that you are paying down your mortage while not maxing tax advantaged accounts so you can max them later?  - this is backaswards but you've already written down the math/logic side of this earlier.

Nick_Miller

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apple boxes and egg boxes are free at the grocery store just go ask.

do i read your third paragraph correctly in that you are paying down your mortage while not maxing tax advantaged accounts so you can max them later?  - this is backaswards but you've already written down the math/logic side of this earlier.

Where do you think we got many of the free boxes? :)

And we are 100% committed to maxing out our tax-advantaged accounts for the next ten years or so (hopefully will be FI then). We are actually keeping $10K of our equity to go ahead and max out our IRAs in March (yes, we're adding $1K of our personal funds to hit the $11K total). Then most of our focus the rest of the year will be making sure we hit $18.5K on my wife's 401k. The flip side will be paying down debts aggressively, but only to the extent we can first max our tax-advantaged investments.

Put another way, when we get on schedule to max out the 401k, I will then shift most of my focus to debt reduction.

And the lender I contacted this weekend just called me. I said "time is short!" and he said, "I'll give you a hard quote within an hour!" They are a smallish local mortgage company with good online reviews and I know exactly where their office is located. I also checked them out on secretary of state website and searches for CEO. Looks good. We'll see if they offer a 4% rate.




boarder42

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whats your concern with mortgage companies.  its in their best interest to meet your closing dates etc. and not flake out.  i sense a fear of a mortgage company just dropping you and leaving you out in the cold.  And i dont quite get where that is coming form.

Nick_Miller

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I'm skeptical of everyone and tend to stick with a company/service provider when I am relatively happy with them.

Right now going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth between bank and new potential mortgage lender. Bank wants to know all the details. I keep sending them texts. Bank promised to send issue "to Regional" for review.  Whatever that means.

boarder42

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I'm skeptical of everyone and tend to stick with a company/service provider when I am relatively happy with them.

Right now going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth between bank and new potential mortgage lender. Bank wants to know all the details. I keep sending them texts. Bank promised to send issue "to Regional" for review.  Whatever that means.

a good smart bank would recognize how long you've been a customer and do everything they can to match the other rate.  You're the customer the bank isnt yours they should be bending over backwards to get your business not the other way around.  Thats how i view it.

Mother Fussbudget

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+1 to shopping around for interest rates, and using a company that other satisfied Mustachian's are using.

I compared, and went with Pentagon Federal Credit Union (Penfed.org).  I've never seen a brick and mortar branch - they're all on-line as far as I'm concerned.  3.875% rate.  Saved thousands.  Thanks for posting, and all the best.

Nick_Miller

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Quick update before dinner:

Inspection went pretty well. Plenty of repairs, mostly minor, needed, but mostly it's electrical issues. We'll get the official report tonight.

And after some haggling, my bank agreed to reduce closing costs $1,200 and lower our rate to 4.125%. (They ended up undercutting the other lender by a little bit!) So basically some phone calls, emails and texts today saved us .25 of a percent, which on $140,000 will be $350 per year (roughly), plus $1,200 additionally saved up front. 

Now we need to work on getting the sales price down a little to accommodate the needed repairs.

Another Reader

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Good job on the loan!

Careful on the electrical issues.  Those can get expensive fast and you don't want to deal with a potential fire.

boarder42

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What are the electrical issues they are usually overblown by inspectors

Nick_Miller

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Day 23:

We'll talk with S tonight about requesting either some fixes, reduction to sales price, or both. The lady who lived in the home hasn't been in the home for about 2 years, and so there's some deferred maintenance on things like painting/sealing, etc. I mention this because while I would usually ask the homeowner to make some repairs, the seller isn't even in the state and so I guess it would fall to her family (or whoever's helping her with the sale) to follow through on making repairs, and I don't have much confidence in that.

I'm leaning towards more of a "reduce the sales price by xyz and we'll handle the repairs with vendors we want to use" approach. But we'll see. Maybe S will suggest a different approach.

@boarder42, I don't remember every electrical issue off the top of my head, and some are smallish, but they include: 1) many two-way switches installed when a three-way switches should have been used, 2) reversed polarities on many outlets, 3) non-GFI outlets including outside, in the kitchen, and even in the bathroom, 4) wires hooked up to breakers that are too large (example, 12 gauge wire in 30 amp breaker - there are MANY of these in the house), etc.

I asked the inspector to prioritize, from a safety perspective, what he thought the repairs should be, and he said: 1) electrical, 2) damage to gable where birds and other critters can get in, 3) improperly constructed stairs to back covered deck. He says a few steps are too high in and around the house, but it would be very expensive to fix some of them. Also some of the window frames are getting a little rotted. We'd need to replace the trim/siding at some point, but not this year!

We can do things like run tubing from downspouts to the back yard (lot slopes backward), paint, and the smaller stuff.

We're getting termite inspection today. We cleared radon test yesterday.




neo von retorch

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@boarder42, I don't remember every electrical issue off the top of my head, and some are smallish, but they include: 1) many two-way switches installed when a three-way switches should have been used, 2) reversed polarities on many outlets, 3) non-GFI outlets including outside, in the kitchen, and even in the bathroom, 4) wires hooked up to breakers that are too large (example, 12 gauge wire in 30 amp breaker - there are MANY of these in the house), etc.

Are you buying my house? (Ah, clearly not - our radon level was 20 pre-remediation!) But we had a lot of outlet issues that had the inspector and us thinking "gee did you install each of these yourself, without knowing what you're doing! Still have to get around to fixing them. Also still haven't figured out some of the "extra" light-switches...

boarder42

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4 would be my biggest concern. 




boarder42

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4 would be my biggest concern. 


Also after just going thru this process.  DO NOT ask for both fixes and money.  pick one or the other.  Esp. with your tight close window.  I would just ask for money.  But the reason being.  if you as for both fixes and money. the underwriter will see the request so the repairs wont just have to be made per your approval and unqualified appraiser will visit the site to inspect that it had been done.  It was a cluster F on both the house we sold and the house we bought. 

Go the money route its easier.

robartsd

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Looks like you found a great house in a hot market in two weeks. Congratulations!

For moving truck - it is cheaper to rent a larger size and make one trip than it is to make two trips. Local rentals charge daily rental and mileage. Many charge more per mile on weekends than weekdays (demand is higher on weekends, but the mileage charge is in the fine print). Also consider where you'll be picking up and dropping off the truck and the mileage that adds.

For electrical, your list of issues is in the reverse order of safety concern. Do the 30-amp breakers feed 30-amp outlets, or are they just 15/20 amp outlets? If a 30-amp outlet is required, new wiring will have to be pulled (often involving repairing finishes that were opened up to provide access $$$), otherwise, it's just a matter of putting in the right sized breaker. My bigger concern is that the person who did this knows just enough to be dangerous and you don't know what else they may have done. To be sure there are no safety issues, you'd need to trace all the circuits and verify that all the connections are done properly (time consuming $$$). The lack of GFI could just be that it was not required at the time of install: it's not particularly difficult to swap out existing for GFI outlets. Figuring out the correct wiring for the 3-way switches can be tricky because there are several ways a 3-way circuit could be wired. Reversed polarity is an easy fix and usually not very dangerous.

I agree that asking for money instead of repairs makes the most sense.

Nick_Miller

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Day 24:

No termite results yet, so we aren't quite ready to negotiate on price. Should happen tonight. Found (what seems to be an awesome) local moving company with low rates who touts their "clean cut, athletic, and professional" employee movers. (ie no day labor, no contract workers, no dudes with missing teeth or beer bellies). Tons of great google reviews. $160/hr for a truck and four guys. Cheaper than other quotes we've gotten. And they promise to only "start the clock" once they are inside your home, and that they "kill the clock" the minute they are done (no rounding up to quarter hour or whatever).


@rbartsd, thanks for all of the advice! I think we're pretty much on the same page.

@boarder42, 4 is mine too, and yes I'm pretty certain we'll just ask for moolah reduction.

@neo, does your home have an awesome stone lion statue????


neo von retorch

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@neo, does your home have an awesome stone lion statue????

No, and this was almost a deal-breaker! It does have a giiiigantic deck overlooking a small wooded valley/meadow/stream though... \(^O^)/

boarder42

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@neo, does your home have an awesome stone lion statue????

No, and this was almost a deal-breaker! It does have a giiiigantic deck overlooking a small wooded valley/meadow/stream though... \(^O^)/

we should start a share your view from you big deck thread.

boarder42

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Nick you should make it a habit to check this site

http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/US10Y

i assume you are allowed 1 relock.  if you add 1.7% to the 10year rate its a pretty good ballpark of what your mortgage rate will be.

Everyone here who has a mortgage should make it a habit to watch the 10yr T Note rate.  Just so you know if its a good time to refinance or not.  with the fed expected to raise rates its unlikely it will go down but with trump doing what he's doing who knows what the future really holds. 

Megma

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Quick update before dinner:

Inspection went pretty well. Plenty of repairs, mostly minor, needed, but mostly it's electrical issues. We'll get the official report tonight.

And after some haggling, my bank agreed to reduce closing costs $1,200 and lower our rate to 4.125%. (They ended up undercutting the other lender by a little bit!) So basically some phone calls, emails and texts today saved us .25 of a percent, which on $140,000 will be $350 per year (roughly), plus $1,200 additionally saved up front. 

Now we need to work on getting the sales price down a little to accommodate the needed repairs.

Oh I am behind! I was going to say that if you get a better offer but want to use your local bank you can always ask them to match or beat it. A lot of times they will :-) glad it worked out for you!

Also that house is fabulous! Way higher than 6.5 I would say! Find one in my area exactly the same for 200k and I'll buy it in heartbeat, sadly it would probably be 350-400k here. Sigh. Some day I will have a garage.

Nick_Miller

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Days 25 and 26!

Well we negotiated the sales price down from $200,000 to $197,500. Negotiating is done. We just need to wait for appraisal results (should be fine) and getting a closing date. We have u-haul vendor and movers picked out. Younger daughter already got written confirmation that she'll be accepted into her new (better) elementary school in the fall.

@neo, do you feel like a king/queen when you look over onto your small wooded valley and cackle, "Mine! All Mine!" in a slightly melodramatic sort of way? Just curious.

@boarder42, thanks for the link! You are just a fountain of information.

@megma, yes our bank came though! but only after we sorta forced them too. Those bastards should have given us the "better deal" from the start. I think we will be happy in the new house. The reason I said 6.5 was because it is 40 years old AND there houses 50% bigger just in the same neighborhood (and it's an upper middle class neighborhood at most). The people across the stream have a three story house that MUST be 3,000 square feet. And they have three different grills on their deck. Seriously. Three.

boarder42

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awesome news. congrats.

I just went thru this process almost one year ago.  i also have Refinanced houses 5 times in my short 7 years of home ownership.  Refinancing more than arguing with insurance should be looked at much more frequently with the volatile rates today.  My buddy is locked at 3.5% with no PMI on a 5% down house b/c of how rates were in july/august.  today with perfect credit and 20% down you arent even touching that.  Its a very dynamic environment and rates change daily at 830AM for most banks.  so its something worth taking a look at frequently if rates are trending down.

You can REFI after 6 months.  and you can lock that rate 60-70 days out so once you close i'd look at rates again in 3 months or so and watch that 10 year note. the fed is waffling now on their rate hike plan. yet again just like last year.

neo von retorch

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@neo, do you feel like a king/queen when you look over onto your small wooded valley and cackle, "Mine! All Mine!" in a slightly melodramatic sort of way? Just curious.

Ha! I appreciate this. Maybe it's the MMM influence, but I don't usually think about "possession" at all... more like... "Ah. This is nice to look at. Peaceful. When am I going to pick up all those sticks and cut that firewood..." :-P

robartsd

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@megma, yes our bank came though! but only after we sorta forced them too. Those bastards should have given us the "better deal" from the start. I think we will be happy in the new house. The reason I said 6.5 was because it is 40 years old AND there houses 50% bigger just in the same neighborhood (and it's an upper middle class neighborhood at most). The people across the stream have a three story house that MUST be 3,000 square feet. And they have three different grills on their deck. Seriously. Three.
I guess it depends on how you define what a 10 is. You seem to be defining 10 by comparing to what others have; many here would define 10 as perfectly fitting your lifestyle. I think I'd rate the house you're purchasing well above 6.5 (assuming it's in a decent location for a bike commute with transit backup and that beautiful backyard slopes down toward the south for ample sunlight in the garden).

Nick_Miller

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@megma, yes our bank came though! but only after we sorta forced them too. Those bastards should have given us the "better deal" from the start. I think we will be happy in the new house. The reason I said 6.5 was because it is 40 years old AND there houses 50% bigger just in the same neighborhood (and it's an upper middle class neighborhood at most). The people across the stream have a three story house that MUST be 3,000 square feet. And they have three different grills on their deck. Seriously. Three.
I guess it depends on how you define what a 10 is. You seem to be defining 10 by comparing to what others have; many here would define 10 as perfectly fitting your lifestyle. I think I'd rate the house you're purchasing well above 6.5 (assuming it's in a decent location for a bike commute with transit backup and that beautiful backyard slopes down toward the south for ample sunlight in the garden).

Yes I was trying to use an objective scale to show that we weren't going nuts or anti-Mustachian with our purchase.

But my wife and I did develop a "right for us" score as we looked at houses, and this one scored a 9 on that scale. I would probably never give anything a 10. I don't feel comfortable with labeling something as "perfect!" (other than myself! hah! I jest!)

robartsd

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Yes I was trying to use an objective scale to show that we weren't going nuts or anti-Mustachian with our purchase.
Measuring your choices based on the choices of others is anti-Mustachian. Mustachian is measuring your choices by what optimizes your lifetime (not momentary) happiness. Just because your there are choices available to you that are more anti-Mustachian does not make your choice Mustachian by default. This is not meant as a face punch; but we're ready with those if you decide you need two grills and that's not "anti-Mustachian" because the neighbors have three. Hopefully the neighbors will invite you to some of the many cookouts that they must host that require all three grills.

Dicey

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Yes I was trying to use an objective scale to show that we weren't going nuts or anti-Mustachian with our purchase.
Measuring your choices based on the choices of others is anti-Mustachian. Mustachian is measuring your choices by what optimizes your lifetime (not momentary) happiness. Just because your there are choices available to you that are more anti-Mustachian does not make your choice Mustachian by default. This is not meant as a face punch; but we're ready with those if you decide you need two grills and that's not "anti-Mustachian" because the neighbors have three. Hopefully the neighbors will invite you to some of the many cookouts that they must host that require all three grills.
Well said, robartsd!

adamcollin

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Did you sell the home?

Nick_Miller

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Days 27, 28, and 29 (today).

Getting survey scheduled. Electrical upgrades to our house will be done next week. Closings should be in around 3 weeks.

Hopefully this will be a quiet(ish) week and I can get some work done.


kkenn

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Really cool read and learned a lot.  Thanks for posting and thanks to the other posters for their contributions as well!!

talltexan

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The objective scale thing is really nice. When we were house-hunting four years ago, I made a list of items: <$310,000 asking price; Full-on master bath suite that was right next to the smaller bedrooms; two-car garage, ..., etc., and I was very disciplined about not spending any time on a house that didn't score above some minimum on the scale.

It kept me from wasting my time on a lot of houses that were either too expensive, or lacked a feature that my wife had communicated to me as being critical.

Nick_Miller

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Day 36....I think -scratches head-

Anyways, we're full speed ahead on closing now. The new house appraised at $7,500 under the sales price (one issue is that market has been heating up in the last few months but comps from 9-12 months ago are not entirely "caught up" to the market. But problem solved, because the seller agreed to reduce the sales price to $190,000 to match the appraisal price! We just signed the addendum this morning. I'm very excited and I think this is a VERY good price.

The closing for our old home is set for Friday, February 24th. Hopefully we can cram in the closing date for our new home that same afternoon, and then we'll have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (we have to hand the keys to our old house over to the buyer on Monday at 5PM), to move all our crap and make the old house broom ready.

*I drove by the new house last week and the awesome stone lion is still there. I assume he's staying! Rarrrrrr
« Last Edit: February 13, 2017, 08:57:04 AM by Nick_Miller »

robartsd

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Anyways, we're full speed ahead on closing now. The new house appraised at $7,500 under the sales price (one issue is that market has been heating up in the last few months but comps from 9-12 months ago are not entirely "caught up" to the market. But problem solved, because the seller agreed to reduce the sales price to $190,000 to match the appraisal price! We just signed the addendum this morning. I'm very excited and I think this is a VERY good price.
That's amazing that the seller reduced the price to match the appraisal.

boarder42

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Anyways, we're full speed ahead on closing now. The new house appraised at $7,500 under the sales price (one issue is that market has been heating up in the last few months but comps from 9-12 months ago are not entirely "caught up" to the market. But problem solved, because the seller agreed to reduce the sales price to $190,000 to match the appraisal price! We just signed the addendum this morning. I'm very excited and I think this is a VERY good price.
That's amazing that the seller reduced the price to match the appraisal.

this is a pretty common thing.  it will lead to a voided contract in most cases.  As most people arent willing to bring more cash to the table b/c the appraisal is what the house is worth.  and most dont have any extra down vs what they had before.

talltexan

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I cannot understand what realtor would advise the seller to drop their price by $7,500 for this, particularly with the market heating up as you describe, it should be easy to find a new buyer at a higher price than that. Mind. Blown.

boarder42

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I cannot understand what realtor would advise the seller to drop their price by $7,500 for this, particularly with the market heating up as you describe, it should be easy to find a new buyer at a higher price than that. Mind. Blown.

its currently an opinion that the market is heating up the appraisers try their best to find comps that will match the sales price if they cannot then the price they come up with is what is seling in the neighborhood.

talltexan

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I suppose that if you put down $4,000 due diligence money, then it's just the seller choosing to pay you $7K to get the deal done rather than handing back $4k to not get the deal done.

Nick_Miller

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Day 39

I was surprised as well. I thought she might drop it a few thousand as a compromise, but not all the way.

She is an older lady already living in FL. Maybe she just didn't want the hassle of starting the process all over again. Or maybe her agent told her there was a chance of the exact same result with a new buyer and new appraisal, with the only difference being that she cashes out 2 months later than she does now. I'm pleased though. Going into this process, I was not sure we could get a house that met most of our wish list while still staying under $200K. The house is big enough to give everyone some space (a room dedicated to a home office, a basement space for my tween daughter, etc) while not being too big for when the girls leave the nest in 10-15 years.

Survey report came back last night. A tiny corner (like a foot) of the back driveway is apparently on the neighbor's land. I'm not sure what can be done about that. Basically the plot line runs along the edge of our driveway, meaning that the 3-foot strip of grass and then the fence are all technically theirs, although I can't imagine they are going to go around the fence to mow/trim what a normal person would assume is our grass.

I would guess they just stop on their side of the fence and would expect us to do the same. I'll just roll with whatever they've been doing in the past.

And judging form the survey report, our neighbors all have "old" names like Elma and Roger and Dora and Fred. Ugh.

And the bank is driving. me. nuts. We sent them the same things over and over. My wife is the most organized person I have ever met and she going to go over there and strangle someone if they keep  asking for the same documents. That being said, we're hoping for a closing date in 2 weeks. We were originally hoping for next weekend (weather is going to be GREAT! mid 60s and sunny!) but that is NOT going to happen now.


« Last Edit: February 16, 2017, 07:40:24 AM by Nick_Miller »

robartsd

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I'm sure both the urgency to sell and where any other offers came in might both be factors. I could even see the selling agent contacting the agents of any buyers with offers between the appraisal and your offer to gauge interest if the house was put back on the market. Of course the selling agent wants to close the deal and move on to other deals - that's how they make money, I doubt the few hundred dollars difference in commission would be worth the effort required to find a different buyer.

I don't know the laws in your state, but adverse possession law could come into play on the strip of land between the property line and the fence. To protect their future interest in the land, your neighbors ought to seek a signed agreement with you about the land (here in California a revocable agreement granting you full use of the land would protect them from adverse possession claims).

neo von retorch

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And judging form the survey report, our neighbors all have "old" names like Elma and Roger and Dora and Fred. Ugh.

Well, in our neighborhood, it was obviously a mix of people in their 30s/40s and then the rest in their 70s. We were buying from a retired couple. One of the 30s (barely!) couple just bought their house 5 months before us. Another young couple (my beloved next door neighbors!) bought about 5 years ago. Since then, two new families have moved in (all 30s/40s) and another house is being bought by a friend of my next door neighbor! The couple across the street from me is in their 80s - they keep to themselves, but the man is very kind and friendly. Basically what I'm saying is that if your neighbors really are old, you might be spearheading a "refresh cycle." Overall, our neighborhood is very social and helpful. (I need to get more involved in the whole firewood circuit...)

Dicey

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#1 - And judging form the survey report, our neighbors all have "old" names like Elma and Roger and Dora and Fred. Ugh.

#2 - And the bank is driving. me. nuts. We sent them the same things over and over. My wife is the most organized person I have ever met and she going to go over there and strangle someone if they keep  asking for the same documents. That being said, we're hoping for a closing date in 2 weeks. We were originally hoping for next weekend (weather is going to be GREAT! mid 60s and sunny!) but that is NOT going to happen now.
Re #1 - Wow, forum rules say not to criticize the person, so I won't. But I can surely criticize the comment, as it is worthy of heaps of scorn. Having older neighbors can be a blessing in ways you have never dreamt of. For one, they tend to be home during the day, and they are observant of the neighborhood goings-on. Some of them bake cookies. Some are friendly to small children. Some will agree to take your mail in when you're away or water your plants or feed your pet. Some may know lots of interesting things about the history of your new house. Some have amazing stories to tell. They might even smile and wave when you drive by. In turn, if you open up your mind, you will learn how doing something as simple as changing a light bulb makes a huge difference to someone who shouldn't be climbing a ladder. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by not being so dismissive of your neighbors before you've even met them.

Re:#2. Welcome to the club. They all seem to be that way now. Just keep the records in a handy file and keep sending them what they ask for. It doesn't matter how many times you've sent or completed something. You're getting the request because the person who needs it at that moment does not see it in your file. I always theorize that they don't see it because it's face down on the floor under the wheels of their crummy office chair. Smile through gritted teeth and send it again. Railing against them or their system will get you nowhere. Sucks, but if you can let it not bother you, you'll prevail in the end and it will recede from memory in time.

hoping2retire35

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picture quoting not working, will correct...
« Last Edit: February 17, 2017, 10:16:54 AM by hoping2retire35 »

Nick_Miller

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Day 44:

Well we're getting an easement agreement hammered out because the line is more like 2 feet over into our driveway and so since we paid for the survey, we might as well protect our rights. The seller and the neighbor have both apparently agreed to sign it. The closing attorney is drawing it up. We are paying nothing for it.

Still no closing date yet. The bank keeps saying, "We'll know tomorrow. We'll know tomorrow."

Nick_Miller

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Day 46:

Woot! We're closing on our old (current) house on the 28th and closing on the new house on the 1st. We have to have our stuff out of the old/current house by the 3rd, which is doable.

We're in the process of officially changing our address with everyone now. We're renting a U-Haul Tuesday night and loading up all our "smalls" which are boxed up. My dad is coming over to help us. Then Wednesday, after the closing, we'll drive the U-Haul over to the new house and unload. The "real" movers are coming over on Thursday to handle the big stuff.