Okay, so a few weeks ago, I had a long Pit thread about my FIL and our house-hunting. We’d found the perfect house, and he was giving us a hard time. Well, we solved that problem. Had an offer in on the house. Did the inspection and found a leaky basement. Had a waterproofer look at it. He gave an estimate of $4600, so we asked them to take $2300 off the selling price. They said no. Dumb fucks. We withdrew the contract because they’re being assholes, and we wondered what else they didn’t disclose (they said they ‘didn’t know’ - bullshit. We’ve had more rain and snow in the last two years than in the last five years). Hope they enjoy paying two mortgages.
Anyway, that’s water under the bridge. I’m bummed about losing the house, but I think it was a blessing in disguise.
So we’ve been out househunting yet again. And I am SO sick of it! What is with these horrible houses in our price range? (And we’ve found a few nice ones in our range, too, so it’s not just because we’re poor.).
If you’ve just switched out the fuse box for circuit breakers, that does NOT mean you have a ‘fully udpated electrical system’. If you have a list of repairs a mile long on an inspection sheet, that does NOT mean you’re entitled to a shitload of money for the house - especially not when we’ve seen better houses with less repairs for a lower price! If you hire a realtor to be there for your open house, you might want to make sure that they’re not total FUCKING BITCHES. I realize my FIL isn’t the nicest guy in the world, but he was actually quite pleasant yesterday. The realtors at one house? Total FUCKING BITCHES. At least be nice to people who come to look at your houses.
And oh, yeah - when it snows four inches the night before, SHOVEL THE GODDAMN WALKS. I really hate looking for a house with wet shoes and socks. Both my FIL and I nearly broke an ankle trying to get out of the driveway of the house with the total fucking bitch realtors.
Ugh. We’re looking at two more tomorrow night - one from yesterday and one new one, and I hope to God we like one of them. I am so sick of looking at realty websites. I just want to get the hell out of our apartment and into our house already.
I didn’t read your earlier thread about your FIL, so could you give me a quick summation of why you’re bringing him along? Sounds like a whole lot more stress in a situation that’s already stressful enough.
I feel your pain. I’ve just begun looking at property and can’t afford a decent thing anywhere close enough to the city. My mom is a realtor and has more horror stories about property she’s shown. People who would show a house that is filthy and unkempt. Cottages that are falling over or fire damaged in the boonies trying to sell for $250K+
I’m scared for myself when I actually start looking for real.
Strangely enough, after the last incident, we haven’t had any problems with him. He’s been pretty decent through the rest of it and we seem to have hit a happy medium. My problem is with people listing houses for way above what they should be, claiming work has been done on them that hasn’t been done, etc. And we seem to be wasting a lot of times looking at the crappy ones.
Years ago when I was house-hunting, I had some awful experiences. Tops on the list was a house where the basement was covered in mud and the realtor started screaming at us for getting mud on our shoes, and a different house that was covered in dirty clothes and had a ceiling fan upstairs that was at neck height.
Oh, man - after paying what I did for rent in Brooklyn, I don’t envy you. At least here, home prices aren’t out of this world.
That’s what drives me nuts - the out-and-out amazement that these people think their house will sell with the major imperfections that are so easily fixed! When we were selling our house when I was a kid, we absolutely HAD to keep the house clean so that the buyers would be okay in it. I remember mad cleaning sessions to get the house spotless - and the house was clean to begin with!
I think I’m just so sick of looking for a house, especially when we had the perfect house right in our grasp. I really hope one of the two tomorrow night is the one because I’m ready to throw in the towel and stay in our apartment for another year.
Ugh. Sounds like an episode of “Buy Me!”, which is a show on HGTV up here in Canadia. These people consistently insist on pricing their crack houses way above market value, and then yell at their broker when no one will buy it for that price.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone on that show who wasn’t a complete jackpipe. Of course, that may be the point fo the show…
Not yet - our plan, since this is our first house, is to buy a smaller house now, build up equity and then take the equity and build our dream house in five-six years. We’ll be able to do it then, but even building a house is WAY out of our price range right now (at least, around here it is).
And the thing is, we LIKE some of the houses we’ve seen, but they aren’t worth the price they’re listed at (which is pretty obvious, when they’ve been on the market for 5-6 months). We’d buy them for $10K less, but no way would the seller give it to us for that price because they’re convinced the housing boom means that they should GET that price for their house. Well, yeah, if your house were two years old with four bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, and 3000 sq feet. Not what it REALLY is.
I don’t know if this will work for you, but Ivylad and I have been investigating foreclosed properties as investments.
Try www.pasreo.com, click on Property Search. The banks don’t want to be in the real estate business, so you may be able to pick up something for cheaper.
And if the property has been on the market for 5-6 months, don’t be afraid to offer slightly less. You may get a desperate homeowner who needs to unload it quickly.
Or a jackass who thinks he lives in a palace, or like Elza B said, the housing boom somehow means they’ve won the lottery. Their brokers are probably begging them to drop the price.
Try calling their brokers directly and telling them you’re interested, but unless they’re willing to drop the price to $X amount, thanks but no thanks.
I, too, am looking for a house to buy, although half-heartedly. My apartment lease isn’t up til August and if I find something before, AMF. WTF is up with people who can’t be bothered to clean? I’ve looked at about half a dozen empty houses which are filthy. Like the people put their stuff in boxes, moved out and never looked back. Stoves with dirt and grease on top and missing knobs. One house didn’t have central air, but did have not one but two window units in the living room. Why two? Because, according to the realtor, one never worked so they installed a second. Take the first out, you dopes. And another house that had two bedrooms which is fine with me, but I need bedrooms that are bigger than 8 by 10. Oh, and did I mention this house has one closet? In the entire house, one fucking closet. And they want top dollar too. Get a grip, sellers and brokers.
Or even less than slightly less. I get the impression that houses on the market a long time get stale and not shown very often. We bought ours that way, and got a good deal. The guy decided to do renovations while it was on the market. :rolleyes:
I wonder about some people who are selling. We looked at one that had this wonderful master suite bathroom - but which got shown with laundry strewn all over, a hole in the wall, and a room so filled with junk that you couldn’t even enter it. About half the houses we looked at (fairly expensive ones in a good neighborhood) had obvious flaws. I bet they wondered why the house didn’t sell.
We spent the time to get ours fixed up nice, and sold it on the day of the open house at full price minus a few hundred bucks. It came in handy when the purchasers were being idiots, since our realtor made a credible threat of yanking it.
Elza, have you asked your realtor to give feedback to the realtor for the crappy houses?
Maybe in Orlando, but then again EVERYTHING there is new. My experience was different, though. When I lived there, I had a “used” house only because there were no new houses in my price range where I was looking; it was either an existing, 1600-1800 square foot house for $140,000 to $150,000, or a new 3,000 square foot house for $300,000. They weren’t building new $140,000 houses in Orlando’s western suburbs, except in whiskey tango Winter Garden.
Here in Cleveland, the only new houses I can afford are infill projects in neighborhoods that are traditionally hostile to those lacking melanin in their skin. In my neighborhood, existing houses sold for about $80 to 100 a square foot; new houses are selling for more than twice that. Last year, I paid about $150K for a 2,200 square foot house that was remodeled top to bottom. Not too far away, new 2,000 square foot houses on much smaller lots are selling for $350,000. In Cleveland Heights, you can buy a great 1920s-era house for $130,000, or a new townhouse across the street with the same amount of floor space for $400,000. WTF?
I like this show, too. I love it when the sellers get to watch the video of people criticizing their house, and the seller’s unrealistic comments. I recall this one woman who was offended because someone commented on the wall-to-wall toys - yeah, you’ve got a kid, now pick up the toys if you want to sell your house.
We’re on the five-year plan, too, Elza. You probably don’t need to hear this right now, but we sorta fell into our current house. It had been on the market for a long time, I finally went to see it to see why it wasn’t moving, and it was just what we were looking for. We were actually looking for an unrenovated house, for lower price and because we didn’t want to take a chance on someone else’s half-assed renos (see Mike Holmes on Holmes on Holmes ).
Keep the faith, Elza. You’ll find your house, and it will be great. Just don’t rush into anything due to buyer burn-out.
Been doing my share of looking for houses. Never bought one myself, but I’ve been in about 7 different rentals since I finished college (10 years) and helped my sister in law look, when she was still my “future” SIL.
houses where half the plugs have been taken out of the wall, so you just have the live wires there
houses where the kitchen appliances had several different species of mold and fungi
houses where half the bathroom ceiling was peeling off in long stripes. No, they were not going to paint
houses which would never pass a safety inspection
golden trim in the bathroom; fuchsia kitchens; green linoleum about 5 years older than myself (I’m a '68 vintage)
And now I have to move again (my rental is up and the bitches who own the place want to sell it) and I don’t even know to what town (unemployed and I don’t really have roots where I currently live, but it will be difficult to get a rental with no job and God if I move in with my mother I’ll end up dead).
1.-grab pillow.
2.-put pillow on top of table.
3.-bang head against pillow.
When you really and sincerely think you should try it without the pillow, you know it’s gotten BAD.
You want to make your eyes bleed? Come check out the Penninsula south of San Francisco. The prices asked for crap is literally breathtaking. Things I saw while househunting:
-$750,000 for a house so poorly ventilated that I could smell the mildew from the front door. The carpet was wrecked, the walls covered with stapled up sheets, and the backyard torn up.
-$800,000 for a 2 bedroom, 1200 square food house with 10X10 backyard and so many termite problems that our agent help up the disclosure pack and said, “Don’t even bother reading this”
-$500,000 for a house where 1/2 the house was grossly sub-code, situated basically in someone else’s backyard.
-$750,000 for a house with severe termite damage and a kitchen with no cabinets and 50 year old appliances spread out over three tiny rooms.
And they all sold! People are so desperate that they’ll bid on anything with a roof.
The corollary being the idiots who walk into the house and go “Ew, I don’t like this couch.” Hmm, maybe you can convince the owners to take it with them for a small fee. Dumbass.
Mike’s the guy I’m calling when we do our basement. Plus, my wife likes her Mikey, so she can stay home and ogle him all day.
).