Home buying thread

Screamfeeder said:

So was holding off posting here until I had something actually concrete and it looks like after today and the final round of specialist inspections that I am a full go. Inspection period is done next week and will be closed out of escrow on August 10. Seller is giving back a decent credit (more than I was going to ask for) for some repairs (nothing major other than a single post in the foundation not being bracketed correctly) so that's nice.

Fun stuff and I learned a lot. Can't wait to be out of my current place but a whole hour drive to the beach now. Oh well.

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Congrats!

Your realtor probably already helped you with this, but be sure to get a home warranty for at least a year. It's usually paid for by the seller. That way if anything mechanical goes wrong with the house, it's usually covered.

Anyone have any experience with online mortgage brokers? Costco? Quicken Loans?

Have an approval from a local person but I want to make sure I'm getting the best rates.

Man. You guys all live in severely depressed housing markets. So much control over the seller.

People buy houses in my area waving inspection (and these are 700-1m+ houses)

people generally in the 700-1m range can just deal with a surprise 20-30kish bill to fix a roof, AC system, sewer or drain issue etc. people buying 250k homes are not - additionally "typically" those buying the 700-1m etc. homes can deal with finding out its a shit box money pit and flipping it and using the loss for tax purposes bla bla - while a 250k person does not generally have those tools in their toolbox of financial fortitude.

Xadion said:

people generally in the 700-1m range can just deal with a surprise 20-30kish bill to fix a roof, AC system, sewer or drain issue etc. people buying 250k homes are not - additionally "typically" those buying the 700-1m etc. homes can deal with finding out its a shit box money pit and flipping it and using the loss for tax purposes bla bla - while a 250k person does not generally have those tools in their toolbox of financial fortitude.

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There are no houses in that range anywhere within 128 in the metro Boston area

You have to go out to where Noodle lives and even then... goodluck finding a house that price.

I agree scream, I am saying "in general" in a highly competitive market for buyers you see the "oh my! Buy it meow!" More at the upper range as their contingency money can handle more- in general.

But then they wouldn't get a referral kickback on the inspection

Screamfeeder said:

I don't think this is true at all.

I am in that range and I got every damn inspection/fix I could before we closed. During my hunt I met a ton of other people in my range that did the exact same thing. I think you have to get into the "fuck you money" territory of house flippers that will fully waive an inspection, especially in a place like Los Angeles.


if you buy a home at any price without even a general inspection, you got more money than brains. Shit's a couple hundred bucks, takes one day and lets you know if the place is worth the price. Any seller that tries to persuade you to waive inspection is a MAJOR red flag that the place is a dump.

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I have no disagreement with the last part. But in my area for certain towns you must wave inspection or your offer will not be accepted. These are not people with fuck you money. It's just the buy-in for the town.

What is usually done is people get the house inspected during open house (sneaky) or inspect after the offer is accepted and P&S is signed. This is more to know what you are getting into. People can still back out at this point but it will cost them some money. (5% of purchase price is normal. Money provided at P&S)

That said. Unless the house was damaged post offer you ain't getting shit fixed in towns around me (See Arlington, MA for example. Where I lived before). My prior house sold in 3 days and the person
A.) Waved Inspection (All offers did this)
B.) Waved Mortgage contingency
C.) Offered 25-35K (I forget the exact amount) more than the other two offers.
Note: Our only open house was during a snow storm so we likely would have gotten more offers had that not occurred.

Was an easy choice. All we had to fix was a downspout that got busted during some snow removal a few days prior to closing. Realtor covered it.

It's worth noting I did inspect my current house prior to P&S. We knocked off around 200K off the purchase price as I needed to renovate the garage, replace various systems (age, still working) and it had been on the market for a month (Houses age out after 2-3 weeks in our market).

I've learned to not look up three things on the internet
a.) Health issues
b.) Home issues
c.) Child issues (ex: Is my kid autistic)

So there's a chance I'll be moving to Florida in a year to year and a half. The company will be in Palatka, about 20 miles from I-95, between Jacksonville and Orlando. Any Florida bros got some advice in this area for when I start researching locations in the area? I can handle a commute up to 30 minutes if the area right.

Well, you're moving to Florida, so expect crazy.

Fogel said:

So there's a chance I'll be moving to Florida in a year to year and a half. The company will be in Palatka, about 20 miles from I-95, between Jacksonville and Orlando. Any Florida bros got some advice in this area for when I start researching locations in the area? I can handle a commute up to 30 minutes if the area right.

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I'm not a Florida bro, but I did visit their quite often during the early 2000s.....so this info may be a little out of date, but I doubt things could change that quickly.

I remember Jacksonville to be a shithole. More prone to crime for sure. You could go from a nice area to a bad area in a heartbeat, it reminds me of Atlanta or Baltimore in that regard.

Orlando was very vanilla, but probably what most people picture when they think of Florida. Definitely felt safer there than in Jacksonville.

So I would advise that you look to live somewhere closer to Orlando rather than Jacksonville.