<p>Love your house, jshain! No wonder you got so many offers! Can’t wait to hear the update, and I understand why you think your realtor’s assistant might have “inadvertently” neglected to get the MLS listed Sat, to give her clients the jump.</p>
<p>That is a beautiful house. I think it’s a really good deal. Did you underprice it? Maybe there will be a bidding war. I want to make my house look like that. We are trying to make it nicer, but it goes very slow, one room at a time. Funny, we didn’t fix up our last house until it was time to sell it, seems like a better idea to enjoy it while you live there too.</p>
<p>LOL, busdriver. A friend wanted to sell his house, got it painted, replaced the original 20 yr old carpets (yikes!), got some new appliances. And he liked the updates so much that he decided to stay put!</p>
<p>That’s really funny, bunsen! But I can see it. We have actually fixed up the last two houses we were in to sell it, and thought gosh, these houses look really nice now. When I think of the horror of moving, maybe it really is better to just fix up what you have. Moving again might just be the end of me…especially since last time, we moved EVERYTHING. Spare pieces of random lumber, garbage, non-working toilets. When I asked what we could ever use a non-working toilet for, the answer given was maybe it could be used for a planter. Ahhh! Yes, my husband is from the south. But he did ditch the toilet and does joke about that now. Packrats!</p>
<p>Busdriver, I just laughed so hard reading about the toilet! My hubby used to be a pack rat, too, and our last move was a nightmare (just like you, we moved boxes of random stuff; I vividly remember a box labeled “Electrical Crap” - no kidding!). I told H that next time I will move into a tiny condo, and he can get whatever he wants to fit his collection of garage junk.</p>
<p>I can understand the “electrical crap”. So many things that you don’t know what they go to, or if they work, but maybe they just might be that important missing piece of something! Still…house looks so much better when you start getting rid of junk. And it’s nice to actually be able to use your closets. My main problem is that my life is in piles. Piles of paper in every room, that doesn’t need to be gotten to immediately, but isn’t ready to be thrown away, because it just might come in handy some day. And they junk up every room. One of these days I will start working on the piles.</p>
<p>I think the non-working toilets would make better ice buckets…</p>
<p>In escrow! We took the full-price, 20% down, 30-day COE offer that included the 1% commission rebate, since our realtor represented both of buyer and seller. There won’t be a broker tour this Friday after all.</p>
<p>Jshain…congrats…</p>
<p>Wow, jshain!! That is fabulous! And your house is stunning. Good luck withthe new one too. It looks really cool! Guess that not being ont he MLS for a day didn’tmatter one iota, except maybe the first buyer might have come in with a higher offer, above list price. Who knows. Congrats!!!</p>
<p>Quick and easy, congrats!</p>
<p>Just got home from vacation to the cleaned and staged house. It looks like a model, with all the pluses and minuses that come with that. Goes on the market in a week, when the brochures are ready and the agent is back from her vacation. I look at all the money put into getting this house ready and just hope they are right, and it will sell fast.</p>
<p>Home Insurance cancellation question
We have had our house in the market for a month.We moved to our new house about 2 months ago. Today I find out that our insurance company will only insure our -now empty- house for another month. They say that an empty house carries a larger risk and therefore will cancel the insurance that we had for 16 years!!
My questions are: Is this common practice?
What companies are known for insuring empty houses ?(if we can not sell it soon)
Will the premiums be higher?
Any info or advice will be appreciated!</p>
<p>Tuitionsaver, unfortunately that is common practice. And to add insult to injury, when you do find a new insurer your premiums will be more expensive. Your real estate agent may be able to tell you names of insurers in your area that will cover empty homes.</p>
<p>Tuitionsaver, maybe you should look into the insurance company’s definition of “empty”. If you or your spouse stay in the house one night per week, is it still “empty”? How about one weekend per month? I’d check the definitions in your insurance policy to see if it’s addressed. Might save you a lot of money.</p>
<p>Can you see if they might cover it as a second home/vaction home? Put a beach chair and umbrella on the deck to make it convincing :)</p>
<p>Vacant homes carry a significantly higher risk, it can be difficult for agents to find carriers to place vacant coverage with-- many exclude vacant properties from their contracts, especially these days. You should be able to find affordable coverage, but I am not surprised your existing policy was canceled… a vacant policy is a completely different animal. </p>
<p>You might be able to find some sort of a loophole in terms of what is the minimum that would make it count as “occupied,” but I would still talk to an agent about finding a carrier that does vacant and see what it would be. If the house is in good condition and priced to sell, that makes a difference-- it’s a good risk, and a lot of vacant homes aren’t. For me, though, if a house isn’t being used as a primary dwelling it’s going to be classified as vacant and it’s hard to get around that. Vacants are high risk right now, people aren’t looking the other way about it.</p>
<p>Termite inspection was today and I have a question… Is $2,600 excessive to tent a 4,000 sq. ft. house in south Orange County CA?</p>
<p>51 days on the market, three showings, signed contract this morning… YIKES! Pre approved financing, pre inspection completed, hopefully few hurdles till a very quick settlement (45 days). GULP!</p>
<p>Nice sistersunnie… Congrats.</p>
<p>A friend of mine overpriced his house…now the house is languishing on the market.</p>
<p>Well in this area, the market is very slow, so through no fault a house could lanquish… granted its not complete, but I was surprised at the turnaround time. Course it felt like so much longer…keeping it show ready is tough!</p>