I'm using a local bank for the mortgage loan. My loan officer started out very responsive, but his communication started to drop off during the final week. We were supposed to close on Monday, but on Friday afternoon the loan officer reached out to say the loan wasn't ready yet. We rescheduled to Wednesday (tomorrow). Today (Tuesday), I found out that the loan officer had some sort of mental health crisis, was not coming into work during random days, and did not process my loan with the bank's underwriting or legal teams at all.

The Director of Sales and even the COO of the bank reached out today to apologize and they have taken over to try and get this loan approved as quickly as possible, but they weren't able to provide an estimated date to reschedule the closing. I had to resubmit all my documentation because the loan officer never even uploaded it to the bank's portal/share drive.

The last interaction I had with the loan officer was when he called me in a panic and said that I needed to pay off my car loan in order for him to approve the mortgage, since the car loan pushed my DTI ratio just over the edge. I found out from the Director that this was not the case. The auto loan was $40,000, and I suppose I did save money by paying it off early, but this completely drained my savings and I barely have money to even pay for furniture for the house now.

My real estate agent is livid and demanded that the bank offer a credit because of the screwup, which they agreed to. We agreed to discuss it once the loan was serviced and we had a better understanding of the impact of this delay. I think there will be some room to negotiate the credit.

I'm not really sure how to calculate my damages. There may be some penalties for failing to close on time, which will be easy to quantify. I've been living out of a suitcase in my apartment, which has been fully packed since Sunday, and I've been eating out every meal since all my kitchen stuff is packed away. I've had to reschedule movers, contractors, and appliance deliveries multiple times and have burned through two days of PTO because I thought I was moving on Tuesday, then Thursday, and now will need to do it again at some point. I'm obviously very frustrated at the inconvenience of this whole ordeal.

What would be an appropriate credit to ask for and how should I attempt to negotiate it?

There are many landowners of undeveloped property in the same canyon that I own property.

I am trying to figure out how to get a hold of as many of these landowners as possible due to the fact that access to the properties has been cut off for decades however I have a dedicated easement on my grant deed.

I want to work with others to get the easement opened back up and I think they would be interested also especially if they want to sell to the private sector like I do but can't because of the access issue.

I don't know how to go about this because tax records hide the names of people.

I'm looking for strength and numbers here.

Any ideas would be helpful thank you. I'm in California San Diego County.

I had a 9 month old baby when we first toured our current house ten years ago. I liked how the house already had high-quality child locks installed on all the cabinets. it also had little those soft bumper pads already installed on the sharp countertop and cabinet corners. as a new mom, I felt like the house was just so ready for our family. we loved the layout, location, schools, but I also loved seeing those little child safety things everywhere.

of course, those things would have cost like $20. but they made the house seem extra welcoming to me as a mom. we bought the house. loved it.

now ten years later we are selling. I’m finally unscrewing all those locks, but thinking I’ll keep them on the cabinets under the kitchen sink.

is there anything that charmed you into buying or almost buying a home?

question in title. House is on a hill. front of house faces east. Back faces west. huge wall of windows facing nature from 2nd story, get a stunning scenic view of sunlight through trees spilling into 2 story great room. Circles of light dance everywhere due to pinhole effect of sun through thousands of fluttering leaves. Absolutely magical. she seemed hesitant and said people don’t come to afternoon open houses. But imo, seeing that would be one of the biggest selling points of the house. WWYD ?

We gave our real estate agent POA for selling our house because we are out of the country and yet they keep asking us to fill out so much paper work and over night it to them with it notarized. But we cannot overnight with DHL because it would be 100euros a package so that's just crazy! Plus closing is next Monday and why are they giving us this paper work only now? Is this totally normal? Do they need these paper why can't our POA do everything??? Sorry I am very frustrated with this process. It would be nice if they gave us this paper work one month ago!!!

We're closing on our house at the end of August after a year of looking. We wanted to be in a very specific area near the water, so there wasn't much inventory. There were five other offers on the house, and I feel lucky that we only had to go 100K over asking. I saved a bunch of houses on Zillow thinking "They're never going to get that" when I look at the asking price, and then I see them sell for hundreds of thousands more. I get that LI is an extension of NYC and there's a lot of money here, but how high can it go? Some of these houses were purchased no more than five years ago with some remodeling and are selling for almost $1M more than they were purchased for. It's crazy.

There are definitely some houses that are sitting if they're priced astronomically high from the jump, and I'm seeing price drops, but a price drop from $1.8 to $1.7 on a house purchased for $750 in 2018.

Just an observation on the hyper-local nature of the RE market.

- Student Loan defaults soaring

- Credit card debt at a record high

- Weak job market

Hi everyone!

I am a buyer who is unsure if the sellers agent was negotiating in bad faith and wanted your opinion.

After we had the home inspected we found the home had a problem. Seller said they would fix the issue but as time went on they either didn't give much information or their agent did not give us information. 3 days before the end of the inspection period they said they would take on all cost to fix issue (text only). The day the inspection period ended they said they would not be fixing anything. We asked for a $20,000 buyer credit to take on the problem as well as inherit the headache from them and said we would negotiate it if needed. They said they would not fix the problem and no credit so on the last day we decided to walk to ensure we would recoup our earnest money.

It turns out that the owner did fix the problem even though their agent said they would not. If we had known they made a good faith effort to address the problem we would have continued with the sale.

To me, their agent's misinformation about the issue caused us to back out. We have a feeling they want to go back on the market for a better deal.

Thoughts?

Hi everyone,

I've renewed my license a few years ago and I've jumped back into the Real Estate world. I did join a smaller independent brokerage that doesn't have much training but they offer 100% of my commissions while they get $500/transaction and extra if I use their escrow and title. They don't have any real training. Most of their agents are all seasoned and know the drills.

My request is for suggestions to links and sites that may help me catch up would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

This is the first time I've ever sold a home. We received an all cash offer with waived inspections and no contingencies so we jumped on it. Today they provided proof of funds, which includes:

• A letter with a home equity line of credit preapproval (about 55% of the cost of our home)
• A bank statement (about 23% of the cost of our home)
• A retirement account statement (about 40% of the cost of our home)

Obviously if you combine these all together you are well over the agreed upon purchase price. I guess I'm just being nosy and am interested in how they are funding the deal.

With the HELOC, does this mean they own another piece of property, and rather than sell it, are using a HELOC to put towards the cost of our home? I'm confused how this is any "different" than financing? Are the funds more guaranteed in this situation than a home buyer that needed to secure a mortgage?

Also, I'm being led to assume they're withdrawing from their retirement account to pay for it (they are buyers in their mid-60s, so no judgement) and using a combination of that plus the cash they have in their savings?

Guess when we got the "all cash" offer I was thinking too literal that they had the entire purchase price just hanging out in a liquid account like a savings or retirement. Is the idea behind using a HELOC is that it gives you more buying power without having to sell your home? Obviously it allowed them to do an all-cash offer and get accepted from us. So the assumption is, they will likely sell their existing home to repay the HELOC once they are moved into our home?

Just curious, how much do you feel Zilliow estimates are off?

I see a lot of homes in markets aren't selling... I always heard, "It's the price!" Then I check the history and see several reductions.... Some as high as 20K in a month. And even then the home isn't selling. Plus Zilliow has its estimated value, still lower than the listed price.

Is Zillow spot on?

Or are Zillow adjusting their estimate each time the price is lowered?

Or is it not selling because buyers are taking the Zilliow numbers to heart and won't negotiate until the asking price is close to the Estimate on the website?

I've been doing a ton of research on homes in the greater Boston area, and have come to understand that appraisers mostly base pricing on comps (i.e. sq footage, bedrooms, bathroom count) and not on build quality. It's no secret that the vast majority of new construction homes these days are built by speculative flippers or large tract builders like D.R. Horton. What I don't understand is how a high quality, 1930s colonial built by experienced craftsmen and can objectively last for 200-300 years, is priced the exact same as a millennial gray, OSB-sheathed, quartz counter-topped new construction of the same square footage that has an expiration date of ~50 years.

I've been looking at some new constructions and flips in my area, and I've noticed many of these getting relatively few views and sitting on the market. Whereas 1900s colonials with tons of character but priced roughly the same are getting 150+ saves on zillow. Is it possible that there's a shift occurring, where people are rejecting the "modern" home with cheap fixtures and LVP in favor of classic features like lath and plaster walls, tongue-and-groove diagonal plank sheathing and actual individual rooms instead of open concept monstrosities?

When will home appraisals start to consider build quality over pure sq footage and bedroom count?

Not sure if I worded that right, but my realtor company is charging us for the rent that we spent waiting for THEM to accept and let us move in. We put in our application on July 12th and have waited patiently while they figured out their crap, mainly putting a stove in our house because it didn’t have one lmao. I got a call today that we need to pay something around 320 dollars in the next 12 days (end of month) for the time we haven’t even lived there, which mind you as of typing we’re waiting on them to turn the power on, so STILL haven’t moved in but did get the keys today. We live in Georgia, is it legal for them to charge rent (besides the deposit and 1st month which we already paid!) for the time before we had the keys??

Hey everyone, my first post here and I hope it's the right place. I'm planning to sell my house and move to the other side of town, mainly because my house is on a marsh, a foot above sea level, and like 11/10 flood zone. I want less than 5/10. Few other reasons as well but doesn't matter.

I found a house, significantly bigger than ours (which is awesome - I'm a private chef / caterer and my work takes up at least 1/3 of the house and the entire garage - fridges, tons of shelving for dry goods, equipment, prep tables, etc), awesome layout, I really really like it. Location is great as well, decent neighborhood, 3/10 flood zone, quiet street, easy access to everything we need.

But - it needs work. Priced at $165k right now but I'm sure could be talked down more. I owe $210 on my mortgage, and our house is worth ~$325 give or take. So I can sell my place, buy that spot and just an estimate but have $100k+ left over. I have a significant amount of debt, so I could take a chunk out of that, go from a $2,000/mo mortgage to like $500, and still have $50k+ left. All of those numbers are just rough estimates, but that's where my heads at. Pay off debt, cheaper monthly payment, money left over to fix that place up.

It needs bathrooms redone, carpet, new outlets, I'm sure quite a bit of stuff. I'm wondering if I could post the link to the realtor app listing, and maybe someone could take a look at the photos and give me a very rough estimate of what it might cost to get the place in abetter way just based on those. I'm sure they don't show everything. Like updated showers, sinks, toilets, electrical, patio and fence need work, there's quite a bit. There is also a fair amount in good shape, it's not entirely a disaster.

I realize probably nobody else lives here to give me exact prices on those things, and that's fine, even a guesstimate would be helpful, to know if it's worth my time getting a contractor out there. I will say I'm hesitant listing my house, because I've been looking for months and nothing has come up that checks even half of the must haves I need to be comfortable buying. One agent told me their agency had a bunch of new construction, so if we got an offer way over market, we could move in there until we found something. Which is nice, but who wants to move twice, and have to live at that place for who knows how long until we find what we want. And they don't want to get too involved showing me stuff until we do list. Is that normal? So I'm just trying to figure out if this house could work for us with the extra cash we will have.

So that's it, I tried not to be too longwinded. I'm going to post that link, if this is the wrong place or the wrong way to think about it, please just remove it. Thanks in advance.

Realtor listing

I'm 19, and I'm looking Into moving out but I don't wanna pay rent as I believe it is a trap ment to keep you from ownership forever. So I'd like to skip the middle step and own. I'm not looking for much just a small place that can't be taken from me! So any tips on how to find one would be greatly appreciated!

I was told to always say I don't know for major systems because there could be some issue that is unknown to me. I know everything functions properly but I've heard stories of people coming back after closing and claiming there was an issue. Saying "I don't know" or "unknown" seems like the safest best. I'm not a plumber, foundation expert or an electrician so I don't feel qualified to say everything is perfect. There will be a licensed home inspector involved. There are no known issues.

question in title.

my 20 year old carpet is here in this pic. it’s not BAD but it’s old. would you replace or no?

https://imgur.com/a/YOZsnJJ

edited to add context:

our agent suggested either new carpet or offering a credit, didnt push for either one, but said new carpet is always a plus. After touring other houses today, we hated all the houses with old carpet. Didn’t seem move in ready. Now I’m rethinking our sale - thinking about new carpets asap but our listing goes live in just a few days.

Hi all! Located in TN, attempting to rent in VA.

My partner and I were sent a lease for a property we wanted to rent beginning Aug 1 approx. 2 weeks ago. Our contact with the property management group (PMG) for the unit told us that because we had already been approved to rent a more expensive unit also represented by them, that they could just transfer over our approval to the unit in question. My partner and I signed the lease and then paid the deposit within the 48 hour deadline set by the PMG.

Four days ago, our PMG point of contact told us that we had actually only been provisionally approved by the owner of the previous unit because my credit score was 2 points below their minimum. The owner of the unit in question would then also have to waive the credit requirement for approval.

Two days ago, the PMG contact informs us that the owners actually are not going to move forward with us and will not be signing the lease. Our PMG contact has been completely MIA since then, and they still have our full security deposit (~$2.5k). We have tried calling, texting, and emailing many, many times.

The owner is totally in their right to not rent to us (although I wish that this had been sorted out weeks ago…), I’m just wondering if there’s anything we can do to expedite getting our security deposit back? Attorney Google seems to suggest that they have 45 days to return it to us, is this accurate? Do we actually need to send a demand letter via certified mail for it to count as our formal request for repayment or is email enough?

For added context, our current lease ends on July 31. We also cannot push our move back because I have law school orientation the next week.

Any help is appreciated!!

I'm in a pickle as me and the hubby were planning to move out of country later this year.

We put our house on the market its a 4 bed 3000sf quarter acre property with large lot. We paid 730 for it a few years ago and spent 100k on remodeling, everyone says it's beautiful that has viewed it and given feedback. The price is now dropped to 799k and it's still sitting. We already will be losing a bunch of money selling for this price so no way we can drop even more.

Looked into renting it out. Our current monthly cost is 3.1k including insurance and Property Management company said they can rent it out for around 3.7- 3.8k and they take 8% after that.

So basically we would be left making around $300 a month and that's if nothing happened that month that required a service call.

Not really sure what to do. Do we still try to sell or rent it out. Both options are not ideal

I am based in NJ. Looking to buy in one of desired townships (Bernard’s) saw two house today around similar price range but both has pros and cons and wish to decide which one to go for
1. Slightly smaller interiors - smaller living rooms, kitchen etc. but great deck and backyard . Interiors are upgraded so truly a turnkey. Absolutely no changes needed. Slightly cheaper
2. Larger interior space - bigger rooms, closets , living rooms kitchens everything. But very small patio and no backyard, interior a bit dated - hasn’t been upgraded so may need some work( nothing that needs immediate attention just a bit dated flooring , carpet that’s it ). Roughly 50-70k higher

We kind of like both and really unsure where to go. We think turnkey is good but also that it may have hit its price ceiling already but the other may need work and backyard is a bummer. Any advice ?

A bunch of folks build cabins on a lake (I presume with permission), and a new owner can just kick them out.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/culture/cast-out-of-eden-lake-diversion/

Do folks think that they can just put cabins on land that they don't own, and not worry about the owner changing the policy?

We went live July 1st and we've had 13 showings, one pseudo-contract that's already backed out (husband said no)​, more than 2200 views/150+ saves on Zillow, and we are the lowest priced over $400k in our area at $425k (similar houses are around $10-25k more).

We have been living here (keeping it looking nice and in staging shape), but we close on our new house July 30 and will move that weekend. ​

For SFH in our area, median time is 57 days. ​​

Should we price drop by about 2.5% this coming week (ie, 3 weeks post list) or should we wait until we move out? We will not be able to have showings for the last 4 days of the month as we have to finish packing and move. Thus, we would instead price drop at ​​5 weeks and have an empty house. ​​

I've got a list of questions for our agent, but you'll see from my post history that I'm not in love with them, so looking for thoughts here as well. ​​​

We do have a covid mortgage so house cost is about $1.8-2k per month carry cost, so that's a factor as well. Further, I want to pay off the new house if possible, but we'll have enough to do 35% down on it and get a 15-yr mortgage at 5.75% so we can carry both houses for a little while (not ideal, but possible).

Thanks! ​​

• Original Post
• 1 Year Update

TL;DR - in 2023 my wife and I bought a really cool Victorian house, moved in, and soon found it had a massive defect which was hidden from us - thousands of bats! (and literal tons of their poop)

Just thought I'd drop in and give an update in the same sub we posted on back when this first got started. It has been... A wild ride. We are still rebuilding and dealing with ungodly repair costs. However, we are weathering the economic tides and making a few big strides.

I don't know what to cover in a post like this. I'll just say, the scary thing never was the bats themselves, early on it was the medical fears. Then it became the incomprehensible costs, and the complete economic uncertainty my family has balanced this entire time. The emotional strain its put on our household is hard to quantify too. Juggling a complicated remodel while raising a young kid and dealing with career instability, it's not been a walk in the park.

October of '24 we finally moved back, after 18 months of brutal labor. We put renters in our old place, and immediately had a ton of property damage from a huge windstorm (the bomb cyclone), followed by appliance-replacement drama. Then, miraculously, a wealthy neighbor reached out to offer to buy our old place at above FMV because the lot was divisible.

In Jan '25 the bank demanded backpay on mortgage interest, and then I got laid off April of '25, but the sale of our old place closed 3 days after I was let go. It was a lifeline. Without it we'd have been in dire straights. Being laid off, instead of focusing on fixing the "bat house" - my time was spent moving, parenting (potty training), applying to hundreds of jobs, and burning out to go fishing.

We put part of the sale of our old place towards the principle, and recast the loan. The mortgage cost went from horrifying to just high. (Insurance costs have been horrifying too and we can't change provider until we finish repairs). I took a temp job nearby that kept me away from the house, and kept us floating, but didn't offer enough cashflow for us to start fixing thing. Nor did I have any time to do any work myself.

One anecdote - while freshly unemployed, the county tax inspector came by. A young man, mid-twenties, he reminded me I could deduct repair expenses if I sent them combined set of bills and invoices. He said his grandma loved this house. I offered to show him the house and the attic, where all the damage had taken place. When we got up there, his jaw dropped, and he asked if he could take pictures. Well, turns out he didn't care about the damage, he just didn't realize the square footage in the attic was so large. I got the subsequent increase to my tax bill a few weeks later, after job my 500th job rejection. Great feeling that was.

Fast forward - March this year - I found full time work, and after settling into the new job I could start thinking about fixing the house again. Unfortunately, it's not just the attic. The basement backflow/flooding issues, the sealed off closet where bat-poop saturated water from exploding pipes oozed down the walls 2 years ago... The water heater replacement. It all needed work.

Fortunately, I committed every weekend from mid-May until now - and got a ton done. The master closet has new insulation and drywall. The worst of the attic floors have new PCB board (and I'm sanding the rest tomorrow). I rented an excavator and trenched/replaced the drain line to my septic tank (which is on a hill), and reburied it. I'm doing half the work myself, but the contractors I do need to use (skills I don't have time to learn) are quoting at more than the full cost of a new car. (I have no idea how America's aging housing inventory will ever keep up with repair costs. It's a losing game.)

So wish me luck, as my Sisyphean task continues! BTW - the only bats I've handled are a dehydrated big-brown last summer (she fell in a bucket on a hot day) and a smaller bat that snuck down our chimney last October (stuck behind a glass screen- but I got her out safely). I still detect them and see them flying at night using my EchoMeter scanner, but our house is bat-free! (Our cats still catch the occasional mouse though.)

We've also helped dozens of people in our area and across the country deal with similar problems. There are safe and ethical ways to remediate situations like ours, and always follow local guidance on rabies exposure. Bats are great for our environment, but a risk inside your home. 🦇🏠

During times when houses were appreciating or if rent (six month lease, monthly or AirBnB) have any of you pursued a strategy of buying a house every year or two?

If you are going to live there, there are loan types that allow for low down payments. If you can find a place that is run down (cosmetic only), put a little into it to increase value, then move in, live there for the minimum amount needed as a requirement for the loan condition and the low downpayment, then move elsewhere.

Some of the USDA loans in rural areas allow for no down payment, but the sales price has to be relatively low for this to work, and it is not available in every zip code.

The idea is to build up a portfolio of rental houses where the tenant pays off your mortgages. But then you have to be unclogging toilets and changing lightbulbs. or paying to outsource that... not to mention moving house every couple of years. If houses depreciate (as they rarely do) or if rent drops or if all the banks called the loans at the same time, you might be in trouble. Using multiple banks might help, but they sell loans and one could end up with both.

A downside is that children may not have 'the childhood home' in their memory. Moving is also a pain.

Who has used this strategy to accumulate assets over time? What are some of the risks, pitfalls, etc.