<p>hayden,
half a mile shouldn’t have any effect. I read from CA gov site that if it’s 300 yds away the magnetic field from e500kV line (very high) should be at the background level. Of course they could be not 100% truthful.
We walked out of a deal once we ound there was a high power line buried 10 feet from the house.</p>
<p>Ok…my friend said two or three days to clear. The bank may hold the check for 10 days.</p>
<p>For a check as big as the sale of a home, you bet your life that they will hold it for 10 days even it is a bank check drawn on the same branch. The bank will play your money to the legal limit, that is why…</p>
<p>I was able to cash… CASH… an overseas bank check in the same bank, no more of that any more…</p>
<p>We heard that we lost out on the house we’d bid on yesterday. We’d offered 6% over asking and the higher bid was 7.5% over asking. We’re feeling fine about this outcome - the house had issues, and DH’s extensive market analysis (spreadsheets, plots, depreciation schedules, differential equations…ok, just kidding about that last one!) had clearly shown that we’d be overpaying for the house if we went over 6%.</p>
<p>Another house came on the market today that we’ll take a look at.</p>
<p>vball, if you go after it, you will succeed. good luck:)</p>
<p>
Bummer.
An extra 1.5% does seem like that much in the long run, if you plan to be there for a while… although I don’t think you talked about price anywhere, maybe 1.5% is serious money. You could run into appraisal issues too.</p>
<p>Good luck on the next one!</p>
<p>It’s true that a marginal 1.5% increase in house price isn’t all that much in the whole scheme of things, but buying a house is partially an analytical process and partially emotional, and we really would have felt we’d overpaid if we’d gone higher. The first 5% of our bid was analytical and the last 1% was emotional - we liked the location and the yard. We had to draw the line somewhere :)</p>
<p>I respect your thought process here, vballmom. You avoided letting the seller turn this into an auction, when beating the other bidder starts to outweigh the idea of buying the item at a number you’re comfortable with.</p>
<p>vballmom…good luck on the next one you want…</p>
<p>vballmom: when my son bought his condo recently, part of his analysis in determining the amount to offer included a regression analysis of price per floor per square foot. I’m convinced that one reason he got such a good price was that the math confused the developers.</p>
<p>vballmom: there is always a chance that the seller’s agent might reach out to you in the event the accepted offer falls through for whatever reason; stuff happens. I think you did the right thing by not engaging in a bidding war. Good luck on the next house!</p>
<p>Thanks hayden and dstark :)</p>
<p>too funny, dmd77! My DH’s spreadsheets and plots are somewhat mystifying to our Realtor, but every time we’ve compared DH’s analysis with our Realtor’s gut feel (based on his 30+ years of experience in real estate) the numbers come out amazingly close.</p>
<p>BunsenBurner we had offered to be the backup contract, but I’m not sure exactly where that stands at this point. We’ll be meeting with our Realtor tomorrow to get all the details. We do know that the buyers’ contingencies, whatever they were, were mitigated by their putting up $600K in cash for a down payment…</p>
<p>vball,</p>
<p>down payment is not a threat, the buyer may have a cold feet, may bog down on negotiations after the contract is signed, they may still not be able to finance, contigencies may not met. All they did is saying they will have 600k in down payment AT CLOSING. You still have a chance…however small it is. :)</p>
<p>Now if they say all cash…!:D</p>
<p>^ the only contingency was a 10-day financing one. The contract could still fall apart, of course, but with the large down payment there shouldn’t be any issues financing the rest. We decided not to be an official backup offer but our Realtor will keep in touch with the listing agent in case anything happens.</p>
<p>We saw the “new” house on the market. It needs a lot of work, much more than the house we bid on and that one needed a lot. We’re considering the possibilities but even for us it’s a bit daunting.</p>
<p>then everybody else will see the same thing vballmom…and hopefully they won’t bid…</p>
<p>^wasn’t the intent is to fix it up yourself, vball? I think the location is more important than the house. if the first(old) contract is in a better location, you should keep the oil burning. If the second(new) is in a better location, you should try to buy it with the update costs in mind.</p>
<p>I did not see too many on the market in down town MV, did you move your targets to RWC, PA or MP?</p>
<p>Yes, the intent was to fix up, but this house looks more like a teardown, or at least a gut of the interior. It’s also not a better location, at least for our very specific criteria. The first was Mercy Street, the 2nd is Dana Street, both in Old MV. We just got the disclosures, will read them in a bit.</p>
<p>I saw your point! The Dana one did not look that bad in photos, but photos always can fool some one. Keep the options open and you will succeed. There will be others around, I think it would be better to put your sales away before entering a buy contract. That is only my opinion.</p>
<p>Yes, the photos make the house look great. Staging and a wide-angle lens can work magic.</p>
<p>We’re going to pass - too many issues, none of the kitchen/bath/attic conversion work was permitted, serious plumbing problems, needs a new roof, fence is falling over, etc, and the street is narrow and gets a lot of traffic. Basically the value is in the land, and someone who wants a (relatively) big lot to build on will probably be happy there.</p>
<p>We’ll most likely end up closing escrow on our sale before signing another contract to buy, which is fine. Moving into our rental next weekend!</p>
<p>Slight update:
The real estate procedures for the state my dad’s house is located in differs from where I live, so am watching things slowly (hopefully) proceed from afar. Waiting on feedback from the inspection. Have a few minor things that were already in the process of being addressed (the joys of managing real estate long distance). Great time for the realtor to be out of town on vacation, but actually the person covering in the office is pretty easy to deal with. So think happy thoughts, everyone.</p>