Home buying thread

I just assumed it was standard. Our escrow company called us with an appointment the week before closing and our agent confirmed everything was good to go. All conditions were met at that point as per the purchase and sale agreement except for the final walk through. They advised us to complete that afterwards.

Did you not have an attorney? Once we got one everything went through him, not the agent, not the bank, not the title company, no one but our attorney.

After reading your story it might have been the best $300 I ever spent.

It's not unheard of, but usually not for that period of time. There is always a delay from signing to final "closing"/recording, but I think ours was like 18 hours. We did our final walk through prior to signing though. If I was your agent, given the sellers track record of what you have told us, I would not have allowed you to sign until that place was cleaned and you were happy.

I have bought 2 houses, 1 with an attorney and 1 with an agent. I enjoyed the process with the agent much more.

We had an attorney because the bank made us use one. He was nice and made the whole thing pretty smooth.

Noodleface_sl said:

We had an attorney because the bank made us use one. He was nice and made the whole thing pretty smooth.

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I got the feeling that the attorney was doing the least amount possible and didnt really care about the transaction. I guess you could have good on either side. An agent should be more invested though, as that is their bread and butter.

The reason we went with an agent is because I've had a professional relationship with her for the past two years. She's done a really excellent job and taken great care of us. Guess we all failed a bit at this part though.

lindz_sl said:

The reason we went with an agent is because I've had a professional relationship with her for the past two years. She's done a really excellent job and taken great care of us. Guess we all failed a bit at this part though.

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I'm surprised your agent didn't raise more of a fuss since it seems there was a few red flags (signing early, not clean a day before movein, etc). If it's just cleaning stuff I probably wouldn't worry about it although you are probably on the hook for the carpets. Now if it was more serious stuff, like you requested a repair and it didn't get done, there is no way your agent would've allowed you to close in that situation.

Quick question.

Purchase price $410,000
Mortgage with 20% down, $328,000

I've got $25,000 leftover. House doesn't need anything done to it. I'm making $7000 monthly after tax / deductions etc and not counting any overtime or bonuses.. so making my payments (and then some if I choose) won't be an issue.

Do you think it's worth it to put say, another $10,000 - $15,000 down? I ran the math and :

Extra $10,000 down @ 4.5% APR is $50.67 less monthly.
Extra $15,000 down @ 4.5% APR is $76.01 less monthly

Extra $10,000 down @ 4.25% APR is $49.20 less monthly
Extra $15,000 down @ 4.25% APR is $73.80 less monthly

I quote different APR's because my original quote is 4.5, and I can change it once from now until closing (6 weeks~) ignoring future interest charges / payments etc do you think i'd be better served keeping all of my money in reserve, or putting some extra down upfront?

I'd want $15k sitting in the bank waiting for the roof to fail, pipes to break, heater needing to be replaced, etc.

Are you doing a 15 or 30 year mortgage?

About to sue my last real estate agent for breach of fiduciary duty and can't stand my current one. They're all fucking crooks.

Gadrel_sl said:

About to sue my last real estate agent for breach of fiduciary duty and can't stand my current one. They're all fucking crooks.

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Ouch. What did he/she do?

Gadrel_sl said:

About to sue my last real estate agent for breach of fiduciary duty and can't stand my current one. They're all fucking crooks.

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They aren't crooks, they are bored housewives with no work ethic looking for something "fun" to do while their husband is at work to get them out of the house.

Good real estate agents are hard to find, but when you do it's a night and day difference in professionalism and adeptness to their trade.

Chaotic_sl said:

Quick question.

Purchase price $410,000
Mortgage with 20% down, $328,000

I've got $25,000 leftover. House doesn't need anything done to it. I'm making $7000 monthly after tax / deductions etc and not counting any overtime or bonuses.. so making my payments (and then some if I choose) won't be an issue.

Do you think it's worth it to put say, another $10,000 - $15,000 down? I ran the math and :

Extra $10,000 down @ 4.5% APR is $50.67 less monthly.
Extra $15,000 down @ 4.5% APR is $76.01 less monthly

Extra $10,000 down @ 4.25% APR is $49.20 less monthly
Extra $15,000 down @ 4.25% APR is $73.80 less monthly

I quote different APR's because my original quote is 4.5, and I can change it once from now until closing (6 weeks~) ignoring future interest charges / payments etc do you think i'd be better served keeping all of my money in reserve, or putting some extra down upfront?

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When you balance current mortgage rates against stock market performance, you are better of taking that extra cash and investing it. Your situation is no different than someone who is trying to decide whether to take their say $500 cash surplus per month and either use it to pay down their mortgage or invest it. Ultimately if your $500 is going to earn more interest in the market than you'll save by paying down your mortgage, then your opportunity cost lies in favor of investing. Then, once you factor in that mortgage interest is tax deductible, it further favors the investment scenario.

I have enough in investments that if I wanted to I could liquidate it all and pay off my entire mortgage, and though it "sounds" like the intuitive, comforting, and right thing to do, it isn't. My mortgage is 4.85% per year, I get a 15K per year tax deduction out of it, and the stock market has yielded me on average 12% per year for the last three years. If I had been putting my extra cash into mortgage abatement each month, the amount of interest I'd have saved over the last three years would be a fraction of what it has earned while invested.

lindz_sl said:

It went well. Incredibly busy, but the house is looking great. Thank god for my mother-in-law who was an angel the past week. She took care of the kids for like 5 days straight so we could get stuff done.

We've had a few annoyances with things that aren't working, but all in all, we're super happy. I feel so much more grown up now!

And omg I am in love with my Roomba. Our new place is entirely wood/tile downstairs and is a pain in the ass to keep looking clean. I am amazed at how quickly dirt and pet hair show up. Makes me even more disgusted with the carpets upstairs, But yeah, the Roomba is amazing.

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If you end up needing/buying another robot vac, take a look at the Neato Robotics model. I compared the two and found the Neato to be better.

I am so glad our agent was good. Helped that he was a friend too. Now hearing about suing an agent makes me think if I had to sue him how shitty that would have been.

jooka_sl said:

nm, went with experian

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You can get a free copy of your credit report once a year fromhttps://www.annualcreditreport.com/

I don't know why you would need to pull your own credit score before applying for a loan from a bank or credit union. They pull your credit score themselves.