House appraised for what we bid on it ($140k) so yay I guess. Now just need to have a window fixed, and there"s $ in the contract to do so.
Home buying thread
- Thread starter Tuco
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for anyone who cares, the real estate market in Hong Kong is rising fast, especially in the luxury sector. there was a record breaking transaction at 9,120 USD per square foot for a 5,000 sqft apartment for 44 million USD (normal homes cost between 900 usd to 2500 usd per square foot). the market has risen 30% in the last couple months alone, but it previously dropped 20% during the downturn.
Senate likely to extend homebuyers" tax credit - CNN.com
Good news for us, we"re going to be starting to look for a house in a few months.
Good news for us, we"re going to be starting to look for a house in a few months.
Dis said:
Don"t worry this is really a first time home VENDORS tax credit. The prices of houses are supported by the tax credit, as housing price rise to make up the difference.
It slowly deflates prices, supporting the building industry and house prices in the 1st time buyers price range.
They will also extend it indefinitely and probably add to it as time goes on.
So if you sell your house now, you are still getting that tax credit by receiving an inflated price for your house. This is really the aim of the law.
Hatorade
A nice asshole.
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I agree this has caused some inflation due to the urgency of have to close very soon to get that tax credit. Even my real estate agent said it is pretty crazy right now after a many slow months. I imagine with this inflation they are not going to extend the credit until the since of urgency has gone away. I did read they are going to extend it to service men that have been over seas and unable to take advantage but that will be a very small number of people taking advantage of that.
Expect around May 2010 before another credit comes around, even if they extend the current one to Dec.
Expect around May 2010 before another credit comes around, even if they extend the current one to Dec.
If he"s worth his price at all he WILL find things, that is his job, nothing is perfect. I"d would get concerned if he DIDN"T find anything actually (in the realtors or builders back pocket for example).Dis said:
Dis
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He did actually.opiate82 said:
He found one structural issue, it is a big deal if not corrected, but he said it was easily correctable.
He found some issues like loose nails on the roof, needing a splashguard on one roof to prevent our from getting hammered in the same spot over and over from water run off.
Some nails on the hardy plank that need to be finished off, they werent hammered in all the way.
Oven heats at 370 when set to 350. I cook a lot, so I was glad he checked this.
Garage door needs to be adjust for pressure sensativity.
Couple of other things. All of which we are asking be corrected before we close. He gave us a binder with all the write ups, and some checklists of our own, places to store reciepts and document upgrades and/or fixes. It will be a nice thing to have if we sell our house down the road.
I encourage anyone buying a new house or building a house to get a 3rd party inspector. It is worth it.
Cutlery
Kill All the White People
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Really?Dis said:
Some nails in the roof that weren"t pounded in all the way, a minor structural issue that isn"t a big deal if not corrected, and an oven at the wrong temp (that"s at no fault of the house) is worth the $300?
My inspector found a GFCI that wasn"t working and a flapper in a toilet that wasn"t dropping back down. Everything else that he saw, I saw, and the only reason I didn"t see those 2 is because I didn"t dig into it far enough, mostly because those are non issues in the grand scheme of a house.
I mean, it"s worth it for peace of mind that you didn"t overlook anything glaring like a fucking crack in the foundation, but I sure don"t know about it being worth it in the grand scheme of the shit they find. If you know what you"re looking for, and know what things are issues, you should be able to come up with the major stuff. The minor stuff wouldn"t be dealbreakers anyway.
Even peace of mind may be overrated. Who"s to say a problem doesn"t arise a year down the road? You can inspect a house today and have it break tomorrow, the inspection doesn"t guarantee future results.
I dunno, I got an inspection done, but after seeing what went on, I"m convinced that all anyone really needs is the checklist that they have, and go over the house thoroughly and you"re fine. If you"ve got any idea at all what you"re looking for, and the house wasn"t built in 1920 so it"s relatively up to code, I think you"re probably okay without one. If you don"t have the time for that, or don"t know what water damage looks like, yeah, go ahead and get someone out there who does.
Dis
Confirmed Male
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There is nothing minor about a structural issue.TheCutlery said:
It was an easy fix, all structure issues are major, no matter how easy they are to fix. It is a matter of knowing they are there, which the inspector found.
Just so you can understand: Hurricanes, Houston. We have them.
Now a hurricane rolls through, my roof encaves onto my house in that area because it wasnt supported properly, and/or part of my cieling caves in as well. Not really what you would call a "minor" thing.
All they are having to do to fix, is put a supporting beam on the otherside of the horizontal in order to brace it properly, and reset the supporting beam on the other side of the horizontal to brace properly. All in all a very easy, easy fix (which they have already done, and will be showing me to confirm on Monday btw).
Easy fix != Minor issue
Edit: You are shooting yourself in the foot if you dont have a 3rd party inspection done regardless of how new the house is. It goes beyond peace of mind, it also goes into thinking foward when you sell that same house and it gets inspected. You will have documentation from your inspector to show prospective buyers. Not to mention many other reasons, but I am tired of typing =P
Cutlery
Kill All the White People
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Yeah, so you have shit that"s required for your neck of the woods that I don"t for mine. If you"re familiar with that, then like I said, you"re just as qualified as the inspector. If you"re not, then you better get it inspected. If you know what"s going to be an issue and what"s not, then we are both in agreement. I"m not familiar with a hurricane zone, I wouldn"t know what to look for. I"m familiar with cold winters, hot summers, and high wind. After following the inspector around through my house, I"m convinced that all I need is a checklist to make sure I didn"t forget anything, and I"m good. If I bought in your area, I wouldn"t be, so I"d consider it a reasonable investment to get it inspected.
See, that too is a non issue. If you"re working off the logic that you should have every house inspected that you purchase, then why would the new owner give 2 shits about what your inspection log says? I sure didn"t care what the prior owners for my house had to say about it until I looked at it myself.
Dis
Confirmed Male
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Sorry, I meant for a brand new home.Hatorade said:
Different requirements for different types of houses and loans.
Brand new house, you typically arent required to hire a house inspector. We did just to make sure.
For a resell house, you would be a fool not to, not to mention, most banks/loans require this anyways.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Well the offer I submitted was turned down . Kinda makes me wonder considering 75k was the full offering price.
Cutlery
Kill All the White People
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Welcome to the fun minigame of life called the housing market. Enjoy your stay.Phoenix said:
No one ever gets the first home they bid on. Probably a good thing, you"ll find something else you like way better.
By the by, did get my 8k check...actually $8130.80. LOLinterest. Took about 7 weeks or so.
We actually stopped looking at houses we bid on until we got the bank counter. If you don"t sign the bank counter, nothing happens, and you dont lose your earnest money... you get denied so often it was a waste of ours and our realtor"s time. If we liked the area and model we sent in an appropriate offer based on the comps. The first one we got the counter on we absolutely loved so didn"t really abuse it.
Taking over 2 weeks for the seller to fix a window which then has to be re-inspected by the appraisal guy, hoping that doesn"t put us in a crappy spot for closing earlier. We"re out of town 11/20-11/23, banker originally said mid-november we"ll close no problem.... close date in the contract is 11/23.
Taking over 2 weeks for the seller to fix a window which then has to be re-inspected by the appraisal guy, hoping that doesn"t put us in a crappy spot for closing earlier. We"re out of town 11/20-11/23, banker originally said mid-november we"ll close no problem.... close date in the contract is 11/23.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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True, but with just over a month left in the military I really want to move into my own place when I leave active duty, I dont want to go back to my mother"s. The tax credit is nice but my true motivation for buying a house is staying independent.TheCutlery said: