<p>Also to anyone who believes this is the time to buy a foreclosure propr and make money…it is like looking for the needle in the haystack.</p>
<p>Here are some things that I have seen in the last yr:</p>
<ol>
<li>concrete in the toilets and/or sinks</li>
<li>spray paint grafitti in neon colors on the walls.</li>
<li>appliances damaged on purpose, handles broken off and spray painted…kitchen cabinets just beaten.</li>
<li>crown/chair molding ripped out.</li>
<li>Carpet destroyed by bags of sand scattered across the floor</li>
</ol>
<p>My favorite is the person who took a water hose and flooded the house from the second story.</p>
<p>My second favorite is the family who dumped a truck load of dirt into the pool.</p>
<p>I say that because they could not afford to pay the mtg, but could get a truck load of dirt to drop in an in -ground pool…trust me it was a truck load.</p>
<p>I can appreciate the difficulty of determining what people want, at a price they can afford, but the loony realtor kept trying to talk us into houses that just would not work.</p>
<p>We needed a large enough room for a grand piano, and at one house that did not have a large liv rm at all, she said “Well, it will look larger without the furniture in it.” Huh? :D</p>
<p>And we needed at least 3 bedrooms, but the one that had only 2 bedrooms had a large balcony/hallway upstairs that was being used as an office (had a desk in it.) “Someone could sleep here!”</p>
<p>She had been recommended by friends and perhaps she worked out for them, …but not for us. I have to add to the above story, that when we found a house without her we had not heard from her for a long time and indeed had had our fill of her loser houses.</p>
<p>Bulletandpima, When you are the listing broker, how do you market a home? I have a relative who is trying to sell a condo. It is newly painted, and carpeted and is in move in condition. It is priced correctly. There have been no offers and it has been on the market for months. The area is beautiful, and family friendly (park in the develpment, pool with clubhouse, tennis courts, good schools). Frankly 2 other units are on the market and they have not sold either. One has the same listing broker, and the other is listed by another broker working for another realty company. There have been many open houses. There is little foot traffic to these events when one eliminates the neighbors who check out the situation. For example, at a recent open house there was a person who wanted a basement. This is the perfect example of wondering why an agent is wasting time showing this complex because none of the units have basements (unless they came alone from an ad). I’d really like to read how you market as a listing broker.</p>
<p>bandp, I like the way you operate :). Very similar to myself. Like you, I always recommend a number of professionals in every category, including inspectors. My criteria for recommending inspectors? That my clients have been happy with them AFTER they have lived in the house. Anyone can make a mistake, but if a particular inspector has “overlooked” items for more than one of my clients, they are off of my list. The inspector most of my clients choose, who is on my recommended list, is one that many brokers are “afraid of”, because he finds a lot of stuff. </p>
<p>If you are dealing with real estate agents who appear self serving and are not responsive, there is no need to stick with them. They are NOT typical, imo. There are many quality agents out there. Don’t take “pot luck.” Don’t choose because the agent is a friend of a friend’s cousin’s brother-in-law, or because their kid is on your kid’s Little League team. Choose because of their reputation and because, after you have met with them, you can feel the kind of job they will do. </p>
<p>I always tell buyers that anyone can select the wrong home(s) to show on Day One. If I am still showing them the wrong types of property after that, they should fire me.</p>
<p>I signed the paperwork to sell my Oakland home on Wednesday. The buyer signed his paperwork about an hour after I did. Thursday I drove to Woodland for inspections on the house I’d made an offer on (through the new agent). Everything looks good. My lender had the appraisal done. Thursday as I’m driving back to Oakland my new agent calls to tell me my offer has been accepted by the seller. This morning(Friday) I arrange for a mover, get insurance quotes on the new house and decide to take the afternoon off to go shopping with a friend. Just as I’m about to leave the house, my Oakland agent calls: My buyer’s agent just called. The buyer has discovered that the contract did not include a home warranty paid for by me. They want me to agree to pay for the home warranty. My agent points out this is the fault of the buyer’s agent since he wrote the contract. The buyer still thinks its up to me to pay for the home warranty and if I don’t, “he won’t fund the loan”. I tell my agent I just want the loan funded, this house sold…please, please…I’ll pay for the warranty (at this point it seems ridiculous to argue over less than $400). My agent doesn’t want me to, he’s going to push for the other agent to pay since its the other agent’s mistake. Oh please, please, I want this done!</p>
<p>Sometimes the agents split this last minute crap. It really is the other agent’s fault…and the buyer, for not seeing it earlier My H would refuse to pay the $$ on the principal of it…but I’m with you, I’d pay the $400 and be done with it!!!</p>
<p>I understand the desire to pay the money and be done with it. But yet, I smell something funny. Let’s hook the buyer, then hit her up after the fact with some more money, when she’s too desperate to do anything.</p>
<p>The very first house we bought had a beautiful antique chandelier in the hallway. After we’d accepted the contract, we got a rush call from our realtor saying the seller forgot to exclude the chandelier and it was a family heirloom. Well gosh, I couldn’t be the bad guy - they promised to replace it with another light, so of course I said okay. </p>
<p>I regret it to this day. I should have insisted on getting final approval for the substitute light - they put a really cheap, old thing (probably the original) in. Of course we were broke after buying the house, and I lived with that ugly light until we sold the house. At the time I just wanted it to be done with. And I fault my agent for not helping me think more clearly on it. And their agent, for not making the sellers understand that house fixtures go with the house. If you want to keep it, remove it before you show.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I’m clear if you have already signed the contract. If you have, and they haven’t - then isn’t that like “bait and switch” or something? But I agree - I think the other agent should cough it up.</p>
<p>Oh, I am torn on this one…
I’m with astrophysicsmom’s H on not paying on principle; but I’m with Oaklandmom on just wanting it done…
Maybe the other agent will pay if you offer to show the contract to the Board of Realtors. But your agent is your representative, so don’t let the agent’s wishes bring the whole deal to a stop.</p>
<pre><code>First it is difficult to say what I would do without knowing the true particulars. On a whole, I do not do buyer’s open houses…think about it, the people who are typically buying have realtors(88%) and if they going to view the home, they would make an appt. What I prefer to do is BROKER’S open houses. It is more important to get the broker’s in. We typically host these on a Tuesday, with a lunch served (free food attracts realtors) and I typically have a 50 gift card drawing. Flyers are sent to every realtors office in that area. Now when you get the realtors, they can see it and might actually have a client for the property. I also like doing this because I am not kicking out the client and their family for 4 hours.
If this is a specialty market, I also advertise in those areas. (equestrian mags, adult coomunity newspaper, militray base newspaper)
</code></pre>
<p>Since I don’t know your market, there is a rule of thumb that I follow, if we don’t have a bite by 10 showings, than we are not priced right. My guesstimate is the property is not priced right. Go to realtor.com and look up the zip, see what is active, and maybe you will get a better idea.</p>
<p>Finally, ask the realtor if she/he has called the other realtors after showing the prop, and find out the feedback. Realtors are brutally honest to a fault. I know when my props are shown because the lockbox is assigned to my number and when I touch it, a line comes up and tells me how many showings I have had. From there I look up on line and call the agent.</p>
<pre><code>First, your realtor can not go off and do whatever they feel. If you say just pay it, then they are bound to do this. This is a buyer’s market now and, it is typical for the seller to pay for it.
The only other thing I can suggest is that you ask the realtors to split it, since in the end, both are at fault, and both will lose the contract. Remember don’t jump over the nickles to pick up the pennies
</code></pre>
<p>I agree with bullett and others who said is should be the realtors who split the cost of the Homeowners warantee. You should not pay it. They want to close the deal as much as you do (they dont get their $$ til the house closes)- they will just be happy to let YOU take the $400 loss, not them. You should tell them to work it out between themselves- that you won’t pay for it. You pay them to handle the contract, and this is a contract issue. Working out the cost of the HOW is their issue, not yours- so they should take the hit, not you. Trust me, a couple of hunderd dollars is nothing to the realtors, who will be making thousands on the sale. Hold you ground and don’t show your hand on this one. Believe me-- they’ll do the deal between themselves.</p>
<p>binx, I’ve signed off and the buyer has signed off. I truly can’t believe that they could refuse to fund the loan - and I do agree its the agents problem. I do hope they’re not just finding a means to back out(and I think its what I fear). Funny thing is, its actually really silly they’re pulling this…if they had funded the loan Friday I’d be paying rent. Now I don’t pay rent until they fund the loan. At almost $100 a day, the weekend alone is half the cost of the home warranty. In the end, they may get less. How stupid can they be? (Sorry, I’m really in a bad mood and I must get focused and do FAFSA today for next years Finaid).<br>
Thanks everyone for your wisdom.</p>
<p>Oak mom, yes, every one is right, MOST/many realtors would pay it. When we bought our last house, I refused to sign at escrow because certain repairs had not been completed and I knew the contractor would never be found once he had his money. The realtor actually ended up having a local handy man go out and do most of the fixes that day, and on the realtor’s dime no doubt, so that we would close. He did what he needed to do to make the deal close and this was in a strong market, so your person ought to offer- I think you proposing the two agents split the warranty since they (the professionals) did not cover it in the deal would be a good way to go.</p>
<p>I do believe this part of the story is nearly done. My Oakland home is sold & I’m living here as a renter until 2/29. Tomorrow I make my move. The house is almost packed, the mover hired. I’m still waiting to close on the new house so I haven’t yet headed over to Sinner’s Alley to break out the bubbly. I signed all the paper work for the new house on Tuesday. My agent is afraid we may not be able to close by Friday. The house I’m buying is bank owned. They insisted on using a title company in southern California and the bank it self is in Phoenix. My agents told me the original documents must be sent to soCal, then to Phoenix, back to soCal and then up to northern California for the title to be transfered. With 4 over night deliveries, the documents will probably not make it back in time to close on Friday but my agent is doing everything he can to make it happen. So I don’t know where I’ll be spending the weekend with our 2 dogs & three cats. I guess that’s the next chapter of our story. (the home warranty - like ellemenope suggested, is being split 3 ways). </p>
<p>As for FAFSA - DS and I keep trying but we get error messages - and neither one of us has made the time to call and find out what we’re doing wrong in reporting DS’s scholarships. So I’ve borrowed a laptop and will most likely be helping him figure it out from a Starbucks somewhere along the way.</p>
<p>Good news on you housing saga; crossing my fingers for Friday closure.</p>
<p>Re FAFSA;
I was also getting error messages with reporting scholarships.
What I found out this week was that if the total of scholarships are applied toward tuition, you (your student) do(es) not need to report them as income.</p>
<p>oh, moninva, I wish that was my problem. We’re only reporting the amount that goes towards room and board & books, etc. FAFSA keeps telling us the amount is too high… </p>
<p>this may be the first time I’d rather worry about FAFSA - I keep wandering around the house just looking at the things that need to find their way into boxes. oh goodness.</p>
<p>yay, oaklandmom. Since the house you’re buying is bank-owned, you should be past the flaky owners/sellers/agents part… do you think the local Starbucks will mind if you spend the weekend there, along with your 2 dogs and 3 cats? If you want to fly to Charlotte for the weekend, we’ll be glad to put y’all up for the weekend!!!</p>
<p>or, you could board the pets for the weekend, and treat yourself to a weekend away somewhere…heavens knows you deserve it!!!</p>
<p>I have been following your story - I am glad it is all finally coming together. I remember years ago having house buying problems in England and it is miserable.</p>
<p>One thought on the FAFSA - does the amount you are reporting as scholarships on the FAFSA worksheet exceed your sons AGI from his tax return? That is the only thing I can think of that would cause FAFSA to say it is too high. (I did not know FAFSA actually cross checked any numbers though).</p>
