<p>Montegut – we actually didn’t take what we’d consider to be a huge loss on the house, but I hear what you’re saying; any size loss is tough to take. And we do have a dog, but this condo fits our needs perfectly – we have a really decent size yard by Cambridge standards. We didn’t look at any place in a high rise building; we wanted to just open the door and let the dog out. We also have a 1 car attached garage and a fair amount of privacy from the street. As I said, this place was too good to pass up.</p>
<p>Interesting notes to catch up on. We’re toasting our closing today! Yes, we took far less than we had hoped for, but happily were able to sell to some folks who circled like the vultures described above, but who are really excited about the nest they are about to land in! I was worried with all the recent economic news; it wouldn’t be shocking to have a buyer just walk away from their earnest money on account of the depressed economy. So I feel really lucky that they stuck with it, and we are all moved out and the sale closed. Big relief, and I am glad I wasn’t overtaken by my high expectations!</p>
<p>how long should a buyer wait for the seller to respond to an offer with a pre-approval form? We are on an FHA loan, does that matter? The seller posted it only a few days? Is that why he won’t accept our offer? Our offer is the same as sales price. We agreed to buy the property in an “as is” condition. We already gave our earnest money.</p>
<p>Happyfeet11… Didn’t you give the seller a deadline to respond?</p>
<p>fauxnom, congrats.</p>
<p>They give us a deadline to give our best offer. That’s it. I reviewed the previous contract and the new “multiple offer” contract and I don’t see where it is stated on what date the seller must respond.</p>
<p>Well…are you using a broker?</p>
<p>Is this a bank owned property?</p>
<p>Yes to both questions.</p>
<p>I’ll ask my broker tomorrow. I signed the form last Friday. Only 3 days ago.</p>
<p>Ok…good…</p>
<p>We gave the seller 3 days to respond…</p>
<p>The buyer of my place gave me 24 hours.</p>
<p>A bank property is very different though. It can take time.</p>
<p>We’re interviewing agents and planning to put our house on the market at the end of Sept. The market here is generally good - houses that are priced aggressively often see multiple offers.</p>
<p>A small setback: the stager we’d hoped to use informed us that she’ll no longer install her furniture in homes with dogs or cats (we have one of each) because they cause too much damage. We’re getting other staging estimates. We really only need furniture for the living room. I priced out renting furniture and it’s no bargain.</p>
<p>Two of the agents we’ve interviewed are pushing hard for us to go on the MLS before Labor Day. They’re thinking that interest rates will go up and the stock market will continue to go down, thus putting a damper on housing sales. There aren’t very many homes at our price point on the market right now, so less competition. We’re considering this, but it would be pretty hectic for us to move up our listing date.</p>
<p>I printed up a flyer and took copies around my neighborhood, in case any neighbors had friends looking to move here. We had 4 families who were interested; one dropped out because their company’s stock took too big of a hit, two sort of faded away, and the 4th is still quite interested but has to sell their house first.</p>
<p>vballmom…I like your post…</p>
<p>“They’re thinking that interest rates will go up and the stock market will continue to go down, thus putting a damper on housing sales.”</p>
<p>They do not know this…</p>
<p>“I printed up a flyer and took copies around my neighborhood, in case any neighbors had friends looking to move here. We had 4 families who were interested; one dropped out because their company’s stock took too big of a hit, two sort of faded away, and the 4th is still quite interested but has to sell their house first.”</p>
<p>I like that you did the above…</p>
<p>Are you moving out of the area?</p>
<p>We are getting ready to put our house on the market. Unanticipated move due to career opportunity. We are going through the decision tree of ‘should we rent it out vs should we sell it’. It is a really nice ‘high end’ house in our town. We are afraid the tenants would not take good care of it. I think we want to sell it. So the next questions are “should we spend more $$ to fix some cosmetic issues or should we just price it aggressively so people overlook the cosmetic issues”. </p>
<p>I think we will decide to spend the $$ to fix the cosmetic issues <em>and</em> price it aggressively.</p>
<p>“I think we will decide to spend the $$ to fix the cosmetic issues <em>and</em> price it aggressively”</p>
<p>Sounds good to me…</p>
<p>“I think we will decide to spend the $$ to fix the cosmetic issues <em>and</em> price it aggressively”</p>
<p>In this market, you will be better off doing that. Even the bank owned property is doing the same. We have just bought our house recently. Being a “vulture” ourselves, we took a year to succeed to purchase a bank owned property that looks and is “cream puff”. Even it is a good house, the bank went ahead and paint the inside to improve the look and feel. In addition, we found out afterwards, prior to forclosure, the bank gave the previouse owner $3,000 just to upkeep the home and remove every personal property in the house to show. We were the lucky one to have won this house among 16 other bidders.</p>
<p>They did not replace the dirty carpet, nevertheless.</p>
<p>very nice artloverplus…</p>
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<p>No, we’re going to stay local, just downsizing and moving closer to a nearby Peninsula city’s vibrant downtown area, walking distance to good restaurants, theatre, farmers’ market, Caltrain, etc. Unfortunately, we’re not the only family who wants to live in this city, and houses rarely come on the market; when they do there are typically multiple bidders. We’re resigned to moving into a rental and waiting/watching for the right house.</p>
<p>Spending dollars to fix cosmetic issues is highly recommended where I live. The fewer objections a buyer can point to when he/she walks through the house, the better. Buyers (in my area, anyway) don’t want to be bothered with fixing anything; they want move-in ready houses.</p>
<p>We don’t live that far apart and that is how buyers up here want things…move-in-ready…except me. My new place needs a lot of work.</p>
<p>“No, we’re going to stay local, just downsizing and moving closer to a nearby Peninsula city’s vibrant downtown area, walking distance to good restaurants, theatre, farmers’ market, Caltrain, etc.”</p>
<p>That’s what I want. Except for driving to work, most days I no longer drive. I love walking everywhere. I love downsizing. I think you will be happy with the move.</p>
<p>We are loving the walkable neighborhood we moved into - even though downsizing possessions has caused me no end of trauma! </p>
<p>vballmom - if you have the patience for the hunt, you might pick up furniture for staging from Craigslist, then keep it or sell it when you’re done. I bought several mid-century modern pieces to stage the living room of the house we sold, and had no trouble selling them after we knew the sale would go through. Got D a new pre-owned bed that she’d been wanting; it made the room look great and she’s now a very happy owner of a classy bed. </p>
<p>I didn’t need a full-blown staging service, and this approach worked really well. Our agent said there were many compliments and questions about whether the house was professionally staged. (And yes, we fixed all the cosmetic issues we could identify, including new light fixtures, paint, floor refinishing, etc.)</p>
<p>FauxNom, congratulations. Feels good, right?</p>
<p>Can he/she get the earnest money back if the buyer decides to cancel the offer before the seller accepts the decision? Or if there is a deadline for the seller to respond…and the buyer decides to cancel before that deadline…can the buyer do that without losing the deposit money?</p>
<p>I imagine the rules vary by state, but if the seller doesnt accept the offfer, or counters with an offfer the buyer doesnt accept, then there is no deal and the buyer gets his money back.</p>
<p>Update on my dads house. Found out overall there has been a fair amout of traffic looking at it, and also that the people who low-balled went back for a third look over the weekend, though their agent hasn’t called my agent (sounds Hollywood-ish “have your people call my people”…) Anyway, we are willing to try to work a deal with them if they are serious buyers, but are not prepared to give the house away, especially since there is a fair amount of traffic, much higher than other houses around there, apparently. So our agent may put a call in to their agent to check their interest level. Stay tuned. And happy thoughts, please :)</p>