<p>I have no clue what they might find, but it is an old home and no doubt has some issues. I hope they will enjoy fixing them when they own the home :)</p>
<p>There are some negotiables like the chandeliers (we excluded the light fixtures from the sale). Maybe I can trade them for the small stuff on their list, if necessary.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>no body has 20/20 vision but I beg to disagree. Housing market has come back in selected areas in the USA already, not in most areas. If History is of any guide, US housing market is always in cycles. The cycle maybe longer this time, but it will return. It will not be down forever, I’d say 5 years is a good estimate for this cycle. In certain areas, historically it is flat, so that is going to be like that.</p>
<p>I went to a REO(bank owned) sale in Menlo Park, CA(I am sure some one knows where it is), there must be 50 bidders for a 1,100 Sqft house with 5,000 sqft land.</p>
<p>I’d trade the chandeliers in a nanosecond.</p>
<p>Montegut has the right viewpoint for this market. Its a buyers market and the sellers have only one tool to work with…price. It was the same when it was a sellers market. The only tool available to distinguish your offering is price. And of course, your willingness to accept it, or to offer it.</p>
<p>Look at it this way. Of a random sample of 1000 people who sold a house a year ago, how many of them would undo the sale today and restart the sales process? I’ll bet the answer is nobody.</p>
<p>jym626 I think having the house sold will be a relief, but I like the previous poster’s statement that the price reflects the overall condition of the house. If it’s minor stuff, trade the chandeliers. </p>
<p>Good luck, I hope it all goes smoothly.</p>
<p>Be prepared for the eventuality that they may not want the chandeliers. Too old, too fussy, too whatever for their taste.</p>
<p>Regardless, let’s get this deal done!</p>
<p>they may not like having no lighting and having to rush out to buy fixtures</p>
<p>jym: Good luck with the sale! I hope they don’t ask for anything else and it all goes through smoothly. Do your buyers already know about the tank?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t know if it is any use to you to have one buyer’s perspective on this issue. I am not trying to be depressing but do think for some this will be a real problem.
I lived a long time in the NE, always in old houses, so encountered this issue several times. I never had a buried tank but did have tanks in the cellar, which were always insured, but was never able to find insurance that would cover environmental clean-up. Maybe this varies by locale? During the last 15 years or so no one I know thought they could sell a house without getting rid of the underground tank. Again, maybe this varies by region? </p>
<p>As potential home buyers in the summer/fall of 2009 H and I looked at a house that was just about perfect for us, but it had not only a buried tank but also a well. The house had been on the market about a year when we saw it. We asked to see the record of their last well testing and were told it had never been necessary to do one. We said we couldn’t consider buying the house unless they removed the tank and the well tested potable. The realtor said they had tank insurance and were sure the water was okay. So we never made an offer, but just moved on. We had a call back from that realtor some months later when we were in negotiations on our current home. That house is still on the market. And the price has dropped about 20%. Nothing I looked at has sold though one house is listed as contingent for the second time. And we bought a house that was never even listed. Several houses, not officially on the market, were offered when folks heard we were looking.</p>
<p>The listing indicates that it is oil heated and they have been in the house 3 times. Their agent knows about the transferrable tank insurance. </p>
<p>This company took over the insurance from another company a few years ago and they did a soil test then before issuing the continued policy.</p>
<p>^^sounds as good a situation as you could hope for with a buried tank. Again - Good Luck!</p>
<p>It is such a depressing market for most of us. We sold for between 30 to 40% below original list price at the very worst time - 08/09.</p>
<p>Though huge congrats and props to dstark!</p>
<p>Thanks! Hoping my folks are smiling down on this from above, and that we can get closure. My dad would have been 90 in a few days :(</p>
<p>Alh, thanks…</p>
<p>Very interesting about the light fixtures. In WA, anything “attached” to the house cannot be excluded from the sale: light fixtures, TP holders, window treatments, etc. (although washer, dryer and fridge are not considered attached). I argued with our realtor that curtain RODS were “attached” but not the curtains (he insisted that the drapes had to stay). I already had plans for the living room drapes for our new house and just took them down before we had any showings. The buyer inherited some really nice Little Mermaid curtains in one of the bedrooms :)</p>
<p>Unless the chandeliers are of extreme sentimental value (or made of precious metals :)), use them as a bartering tool.</p>
<p>We left the dryer and brand new washer too! Didnt want to deal with trying to sell them</p>
<p>jym626, I’ve been through several house inspections that caused me to attempt renegotiating an offer. In all cases, it was because the inspection revealed significant problems that I hadn’t factored into my offer or misrepresentations in the listing that affected costs significantly. In all cases, I had expected to spend significant $$ renovating , fixing, or replacing stuff, but what was revealed in the inspection were budget busters.</p>
<p>In one house, for example, ALL of the kitchen appliances malfunctioned or did not work at all and would have to be replaced immediately, all 4 ostensibly “working” fireplaces had unlined chimneys and were not safe to use, leakage in a 2nd floor bathroom had been allowed to continue until the floor joists were severely rotted and would have to be replaced after ripping out the whole bathroom floor (And this simply because they were too dumb or lazy to caulk! Unbelievable!), and the friable asbestos in the basement turned out to be even more extensive than we thought (it had the most of any house I’ve ever seen, actually) and the owner had lied on the listing, stating that it was encapsulated, which it was not. (There might have been other stuff. This owner was a piece of work.) In any case, it added up to something like $50K in additional renovation costs beyond what I had budgeted for, and some of it involved outright lies in the listing (the chimneys, the asbestos). The owner refused to negotiate on price at all, the house was already near the top of what we could afford and the price was NOT a lowball, so we walked.</p>
<p>In another house, we needed to add on to make it work for us, and there was only one place to do so. The owners knew about this. The inspection revealed that the owners had lied about the location of the well–yes, lied, not just been mistaken 
--which would make an addition impossible without redrilling in another location, which was precluded by the location of the septic field.</p>
<p>The owners of our current house also misrepresented several things on the listing, but it was obvious upfront, so we had accounted for that in our offer. They also removed serval fixtures before we bought the place that were NOT excluded on the listing, but we just said the hell with it.</p>
<p>Consolation,
I haven’t lived in that house since I was in college. I honestly don’t know about many of the things you mentioned above. We mentioned what we knew, but as for the rest, I simply dont know. I dont know what friable or encapsulated asbestos is. I do know about the chimney as we had it relined a few years ago, and we had a toilet seal fixed last year. All the documentation is up North with the attorney. </p>
<p>I dont know how old the roof is, but if it doesn’t have any leaks (and I dont believe it does, as the attic was dry as a bone) I dont plan to buy these people a new roof.</p>
<p>Real estate still very local. Got this relatively cheery report from Moody’s on our rentals’ location.</p>
<p>“House price declines are minimal compared with those of the state and nation, and since there is no overhang of foreclosure properties in Lynchburg, there is little risk of serious depreciation that could deter builders.”</p>
<p>
So don’t! They may well ASK for a new roof, or an allowance for it, but it doesn’t mean you have to say yes. The same is true for other things they may ask for. From their perspective, it can’t hurt to ask, right? What works in your favor is you know they like the house. </p>
<p>I was confident our buyers would end up with the house after their 2nd visit lasted at least 90 minutes. I knew this first-hand because S & I had thrown the dog in the car, done a few errands, and come back after our usual 40 minute showing “window.” When we saw cars still in the drive, we parked further down the street and waited --almost 90 minutes. (So even if they arrived late they were still there a good long time.) After that visit, these people “walked away” 3 more times – only they really didn’t since they kept coming back. They spent money on a private appraisal, which, surprise, surprise, came in $25K below our agreed on price. They, of course, wanted us to lower the selling price to that amount. We flat out disagreed, much to our realtor’s dismay. Sure enough, they went ahead with the bank appraisal, which came in at least at the agreed on price. Based on all their antics, H was prepared for a laundry list of items from the inspection. They had only a few things, even though the report (we saw a copy) clearly showed several more things we (as buyers) would have wanted fixed. H fixed everything himself, except the furnace – which did end up being more $$$ than anticipated since we had to replace it. After that, though, our attorney (we signed ahead of time) knew that anything they might ask for at the closing was an absolute “No.”</p>
<p>IMO, you shouldn’t underestimate the value of the emotiuonal investment potential buyers have for your house – guaged by either the length or number of their visit(s). Good luck jym!</p>
<p>Like I said, it’s my personal opinion that it’s going to be a long time before the housing market recovers to pre-crash levels. YMMV depending upon where you live…</p>
<p>Today’s news:
[Existing-home</a> sales slip amid tight credit - Business - Real estate - msnbc.com](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44188398/ns/business-real_estate/]Existing-home”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44188398/ns/business-real_estate/)</p>
<p>A friend who’s just-married son who is looking to buy a house said lenders are now requiring 20% down, no exceptions. I haven’t had time to check with my mortgage broker friend to see if this is true across the board but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is. It’s hard to swallow a low offer but honestly, the house could end up sitting on the market for a long time to come. It happened in Japan - where the housing market crashed and still hasn’t recovered 20 years later. In fact, housing prices fell for 15 consequent years!</p>
<p>Can’t wait to hear what comes up in the inspection report, Jym626. Keeping fingers crossed that it is minimal.</p>
<p>The administration is totally blowing-off the entire housing market.</p>
<p>The 20% down rule only applies to qualified residential mortgages (QRM) under Dodd-Frank, which will be a very small percent of total mortgages. QRMs are fully-documented, “safe” mortgages that lenders can securitize without retaining a 5% credit risk. I don’t think the regulations have been finalized; NAR is lobbying hard to have the whole QRM idea tossed, while mortgage insurers are pushing for a 5% down payment.</p>
<p>Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are still 5%, FHA is 3% and VA is 0% down.</p>