First, you shouldn’t have given notice; this will put you under too much pressure. Yes, you may close on the house and have to pay an extra month on the apartment when you aren’t there, but that is worth it.
Find a realtor who had a job in the trades before becoming one. These people can give you good advice on the physical structure of the house. There are too many cute blondes who are realtors these days who are useless in these matters. Get one of these if you are trying to sell a house, but not to buy.
Be online and google map properties so you don’t end up being next to obviously crappy neighbors or across the street from whatever. Send the realtor the houses you want to see. If you see one you like, go out there on Saturday night and park in the neighborhood and see what goes on. Go around and talk to the neighbors. The ones in back are best. The neighbors next door and across the street will know the straight dope too, but are less likely to be honest than the people behind as they will know the current owners and don’t want to be responsible for queering the deal.
First, it was probably not a good idea to give notice on your apartment. Having to find a house and being able to move in in two months puts you under a lot of pressure. By waiting until you go into contract, you would probably have to pay an extra months rent, but it is worth it. You only do it once, and you will be able to bide your time and not have to take a house you don’t really want because you are under pressure.
And yes, get a buyers agent, but don’t be under any illusions that you have a relationship like with a lawyer. An agent makes money by closing as many properties at any price. Getting the best deal for you is secondary. The same is true for the sellers agent. Realtor will howl and protest that this is false, but such is life.
Find an agent who in a previous life had something to do with knowledge of the physical structure of houses. They can intelligently advice you on matters related to roofs, foundation, etc. There are plenty of cute blonds who have become Realtors in recent years. Most don’t know foundations; get one of these if you want to sell a house. They are good at charming buyers.
Get online at places like Realtor.com. Google map places you are interested in; it can save you from a lot of wild goose chases and finding out about the junkyard across the street or next door. Send your Realtor your choices and go have a look. If you are interested in a place, go out there and knock on the neighbors doors. Go there when people will be home and talk to the people living next door, a couple of doors down and across the street and especially the people living behind. They will be more likely to be honest as they are less likely to have a relationship with the sellers and therefore less worried about giving information which could queer the deal. Just engage people in conversation and get a feel for what the neighborhood is like. You will also get a sense of who these people are. Are there a couple of Harleys parked next door? That might be important.
If it passes this smell test, go out there on Friday and Saturday night and just sit in your car and observe the goings on. You might save yourself from buying a place two doors down from people who have loud music, etc.
Now it is all the standard advice on negotiations, inspections, etc.
Not legally, they can’t. Unless they have the proper credentials in the appropriate field, an agent cannot legally give advice in that field. If you need advice on foundations, hire a foundation expert; a roof, a roof expert.
Please note that what I say is true for my state and other states may have different legalities, although I doubt it in this case.
This is rarely allowed by the Seller, and as a Seller’s agent, I would counsel against it.
A purchase offer can be written with the provision that the property pass the specified inspections or the Buyer can walk. Alternatively, the Buyer can request a remedy (get it fixed) or renegotiate the terms (lower the price). All of these provisions are part of a legitimate offer, and are called contingencies.
Either party can pay for the inspections, although it makes a better offer if the Buyer offers to do so.
i would suggest a few books. house buying for dummies, the holmes inspection, and make it right.
the first book gives you a good overview of realestate, the different type of houses, financing, etc.
the other 2 are by mike holmes and give you a fantastic view on how houses are put together and what is behind the walls. what you are looking at when you walk through a house.
the engineering in a house is what is most important, structure, hvac, elec., plumbing. any problems in these areas are going to cost megabucks.
i lived in a house that had problems with all 4 of the engineering disciplines. never, ever, again!
I’m not talking about a formal inspection report. I’m talking about touring the house with the agent and being able to ask general questions regarding the condition of the house and expecting knowledgeable answers. Example: Q. “What do you think of the sag in that roof?” A. “I see this all the time, and most of the time it costs about $1,000 to fix.” or, alternatively “When I see something like that, I get really concerned; it is usually a expensive repair”
Or you can go out with a cute blond who doesn’t know which end of a hammer to hold and find out everything once you get into contract and get the inspector out there.
Such questions should not be answered by the agent unless the agent has the appropriate formal credentials (is also a licensed inspector, for example).
Why not? Because if you, the buyer, rely upon such advice and are burned – “The agent said that wasn’t anything to worry about, but the roof caved in after closing!” then he is likely to get sued, and he is likely to lose.
Smart agents will reply something like this:
Q: “What do you think of the sag in that roof?”
A: “I see it, but I am not a roof expert and I advise you to have it looked at by someone who is. We can write that contingency into a purchase offer.”
This doesn’t mean that the agent should ignore defects or potential defects; on the contrary, he is bound by law to disclose them. But he is not required to give an expert opinion unless he is an expert.
A major part of my dialogue during a showing goes something like this:
Q: “Where are the lot boundaries?”
A: “The Seller says the property goes over to that tree.”
Q: “Does this house meet the legal setbacks?”
A: “Here is the phone number of the local Planning & Zoning Department, and a Seller-supplied survey. Please call them and they will tell you, or we can write into an offer a contingency that the Department must supply a letter to that effect at the Seller’s expense.”
Q: “Are there any defects in the foundation?”
A: “According to the Seller’s Condition Report, it has none. Please have your home inspector verify this to your satisfaction.”
I just showed a house with an obviously sagging roof over the garage. I pointed it out to the Buyer, who had a contractor friend look at it, and he pronounced it nothing to worry about. If it should turn out to be a serious fault after all, at least the Buyer won’t be asking me to pay for it.
THIS. When I was buying my house last year, I asked the mortgage person I was working with at the bank about how far off closing was, specifically for the purpose of giving my landlord notice. I’m really glad I didn’t give notice until all the papers were signed, because there was a delay in the closing, and I wasn’t able to move in until a couple weeks after the original projected closing date. Having to pay one extra month of rent was worth the luxury of being able to move at my leisure (it was a local move, 15 minutes away) otherwise I would have had all of 2 days to move everything.
OP here, thanks for all the great advice in this thread.
I had to give 60 days notice as a term of our lease, or they would charge me $1,100/month on a month-to-month basis until 60-day notice is given (current rent is $600). Yeah, there’s reasons I can’t wait to move.
Just as an update, I found a co-worker willing to rent me a small two-bedroom home for only $550/month with a 12-month lease. There’s a small fenced in back yard and some parks nearby, so I am optimistic it will work fine for the next year. I signed the lease yesterday, so I have a year to really dig into the housing market and get a down payment saved up.
Keep the advice coming though, this is great! I’ll be referencing this thread for the next year, as will I’m sure many lurkers.
I have never bought a house (yet) but took a class about homebuying. The two main things I remember them telling us (besides the stuff already mentioned in the thread):
Close as close to the end of the month as possible
NEVER tell your realtor how much the bank is willing to lend you.
Learning everything you can about your real estate market is a very good idea. I don’t think we ever told our agent what the bank was willing to give us - we told her what we were willing to spend, and she found us houses in that range (or very close to it, since you can usually negotiate down from the asking price). We went into our search being very knowledgeable about our market, and we found exactly what we were looking for for a very good price - buying and selling is a huge pain in the ass, but the stress we had wasn’t from not knowing what was available in our price range.
Seconding the bolded and adding that if you’re military don’t let your realtor use your BAH as a jumping off point for your mortgage payments. Don’t let someone not on your accounts tell you what you can afford. (If they can they’ll find out your BAH w/o you telling them, it’s public information.)
We Realtors work closely with banks and buyers. It is to your advantage for all parties (but not necessarily the sellers) to know of your financial situation, and it will be kept confidential. Neither banks nor agents want to get anyone into a deal that they can’t afford or don’t want to pay for, so being up front about this is better for everyone.
An agent shouldn’t be the one to determine that (agents are not financial advisers), but an agent can tell you what the bank is looking for and what guidelines exist. This can help avoid nasty surprises later.
