<p>Anticipating that at some point maybe my sons will come home to visit me, and maybe they’ll have grandbabies.</p>
<p>I can dream, can’t I?</p>
<p>:)…</p>
<p>Did you used to take your kids to your parents’ house and sleep over?</p>
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<p>I’ve taken the attitude that I wasn’t going to get too excited or too anxious during this whole process. We totally blew a negotiation a few weeks ago and they walked with an good offer on the table (cash deal) that I would have accepted. We tried to get too cute. I thought I had been clear enough with the agent when I said, “OK, counter with this, but we’re only $10k apart, so get a deal done, don’t let them walk…”</p>
<p>Well…now it looks good… :)</p>
<p>So where are you going to move to after all of this?</p>
<p>Idad - congratulations. Got my fingers crossed for this to end happily for you. </p>
<p>It’s a shame the first deal didn’t close. However, the fact that you’ve received more than one good offer proves you have a house in good condition and you did a great job of setting the price.</p>
<p>Wordworld,</p>
<p>7 days is up…actually more than 7 days from Mar. 31… closed? :)</p>
<p>Can someone help on the question of title insurance in Southern California? Is the homeowner’s title policy typically paid by the seller, and the lender’s policy by the buyer? (I know it is all negotiable, I’m trying to understand what is typical.)</p>
<p>There are a lot of firms selling title insurance, quite a few of them come in at a price of about $435/440 for the homeowner’s policy given the sales price of the house – but some of which cost $600 or more. Any reason not to go with one of the inexpensive ones? </p>
<p>Why is the lender’s policy separately priced, and more expensive than the homeowner’s?</p>
<p>We’re moving ahead on negotiations with the church to buy MIL’s house. The transaction does not involve a RE agent (at least, not on our part – one of the vestry is a RE agent who offered to represent both sides, but that felt uncomfortable.) There’s been an appraisal.</p>
<p>Each county has different closing cost customs, you need to ask your Realtor about it, there is no set rules. For few hundred dollar difference, I would go higher priced, better known title insurance such as American, Chicago and Old Republic. Here is whats on the net, FWIW.</p>
<p>[Seller</a> Closing Costs - Southern California Real Estate - Fran and Rowena](<a href=“http://www.franandrowena.com/files/373274/Seller_Closing_Costs.htm]Seller”>http://www.franandrowena.com/files/373274/Seller_Closing_Costs.htm)</p>
<p>Here is the SF Bay Area customs
<a href=“http://www.squarefeetblog.com/commercial-real-estate-blog/2008/08/14/closing-customs-and-costs-in-san-francisco-bay-area-counties/[/url]”>http://www.squarefeetblog.com/commercial-real-estate-blog/2008/08/14/closing-customs-and-costs-in-san-francisco-bay-area-counties/</a></p>
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<p>We chose to keep our large house even though none of our 5 Ds still lives here fulltime. Like veryhappy, we wanted to have lots of room for family gatherings and it has proven useful many times already. It’s not just our Ds and their significant others, husbands and child(ren), it’s extended family that arrive for family celebrations, etc. I suppose if all of your family lives very close by, some may not find it necessary but it’s been nice for us, and will only continue to be an important part of our lives. We also made a similar choice for our vacation home because we want to be able to have a large crowd there. I guess some families would rather not have that option! ;)</p>
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<p>Yes!</p>
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Wow, that’s cheap.</p>
<p>In my state, it costs around $3.50 per thousand - a policy on a $300,000 house would cost over $1000.</p>
<p>It is sold through the closing attorney (attorneys are required to close here), and what steams me every time I do a closing is that the attorney scrapes 70% of the cost as a commission.</p>
<p>here is the closing customs for the state of CA.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ramanareddy.com/resource/escrowcost.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ramanareddy.com/resource/escrowcost.pdf</a></p>
<p>Ok…allwaysamom…</p>
<p>Yeah my family and almost all our friends live nearby.</p>
<p>Thanks – that ramanareddy site was very helpful. Strange to see how different the “customs” are in adjacent counties. Also strange to see how high transfer taxes are in some cities. (Including, sigh, Los Angeles.)</p>
<p>I think I might figure out what are legitimate (reasonable) costs for escrow and owner’s title policy, and then put that in as a fixed amount that we will contribute in the contract, and let the buyer (the church) choose the escrow entity and title insurer since they’re in the area and we are not.</p>
<p>dstark, I did take my kids and stay with my parents; they moved to SoCal and I remained in the NorthEast, so staying over was the only way to see them.</p>
<p>Not with my inlaws, since they only lived an hour away. </p>
<p>Both my sons still have many many friends around here and, even though they are grown up with lives of their own, they come home frequently – mainly for their friends, but I hope they come back at least partly to see us. :)</p>
<p>VeryHappy…people here are so friendly. :)</p>
<p>The townhouse near my place that I thought was 100,000 overpriced…just had its price reduced again.</p>
<p>So although I think homes are selling better near me… I don’t see price increases.</p>
<p>I wrote up a blow by blow account and then decided, in the interest of not jinxing anything, not to post it. It would be just my luck to have the buyers on CC! So, maybe down the road. </p>
<p>For now, I’ll just say that we ended up with two bidders yesterday – one couple had been going back and forth with offers and counters since Monday and a second couple that had just seen the house yesterday and sent an offer three hours later (they knew there was another offer). We ended up with two offers on the table last night. We accepted the offer from the second couple at 96% of our asking price – cash deal, no mortgage contingency. It would have been brain-dead to counter.</p>
<p>Yep…don’t take any chances until the deal is done…</p>
<p>Where are you moving?</p>
<p>You don’t have to be too explicit.;)</p>
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<p>I’ll clarify with her but it’s my understanding that she will put her sign out but not put the house on MLS and only allow a few buyers in who may want the option of doing their own painting, whatever - “as-is” sale. In 1-2 weeks that option is off the table and the house goes on the market full(er?) price…</p>