First time home buyer... what a pain

jrlandsman

jrlandsman

Member
Okay so Im here to rant. Im looking to buy my first home and have been pre approved and ready to find a place. I have made an offer on a house but it was refused because the seller wanted full asking price. What a joke the seller was lucky to even get an offer right now and will never get full asking price not with home prices still falling. Anyway I put this on here because one of the biggest things about my first house is that I want a finished basement so that I can put an inwall tank between the laundry room and the rest of the basement. Ill let everyone know how the hunting goes oh yeah and after I made that offer the house was taken off the market the next day, I think his agent told him that he would not get his asking price for a long time so they might have decided to rent. Im in the baltimore area if anyone was wondering.
 
jmick

jmick

Active Member
You are in a great situation right now, not sure what the market is like in Baltimore but here in the chicago burbs there are a sooo many homes on the market. We actually just sold our home and moved into a beautiful home this past month. We had our home on the market for 2 days before we got our first offer and we sold it almost at asking price, think we knocked off $1000. The buyers realtor gave us a lot of info on the couple who made the offer and we knew how much they loved our home so that helped us stand fairly firm.
Also, the home we got into we were able to get them to knock a lot of money off their asking price and they actually accepted our first offer with no counter offer...we were shocked!
The only real casualty has been my reef tank, I had some significant losses. Thankfully, the local reef club here in Chicago has a frag swap this weekend, should be restocked soon!
 
jrlandsman

jrlandsman

Member
yeah if I was in the sellers shoes I might wait to sell too, but it was weird because the seller was allready moved out and housing prices are supposed to decline at least until july and some analysts say throughout the end of 2009, now the seller must be paying property taxes, electric, interest on his

[hr]
etc. With all of these expenses I can not see them making up these in there selling price if they wait for house prices to rise again that could be a very long time. On the other hand if they are renting they might not be losing any money because the rent should cover these expenses o well im just gonna keep looking.
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by jrlandsman
http:///forum/post/2804415
yeah if I was in the sellers shoes I might wait to sell too, but it was weird because the seller was allready moved out and housing prices are supposed to decline at least until july and some analysts say throughout the end of 2009, now the seller must be paying property taxes, electric, interest on his

[hr]
etc. With all of these expenses I can not see them making up these in there selling price if they wait for house prices to rise again that could be a very long time. On the other hand if they are renting they might not be losing any money because the rent should cover these expenses o well im just gonna keep looking.
A year (if you have the money to keep the house) isn't that long, in the seller's shoes. However did you see that new home sales in CA are up like 50% because a lot of people are out buying...
 
reefraff

reefraff

Active Member
We are toying with the idea of buying a bigger house. If we do I will put this place on the market for what we paid for it a little over two years ago. If we get it fine, if not we'll just rent the place. We own it free and clear so it isn't a big deal, we'll just sit on it until the market comes back. You may have walked into someone in a similar situation.
 
mimzy

mimzy

Active Member
we just bought our 1st house in August, WE FEEL YOUR PAIN.
I've got some words for you;
HOLD. OUT. FOR. WHAT. YOU. WANT.
and also......
HAVE. VISION.
this is an incredible buyer's market; don't take any cr@p from sellers, but you must also be creative. you're not necessarily going to get every single thing that you want in a house; never ever look at an ******** and think it has to remain the way that it is. You can knock down walls, you can rip out wallpaper, you can repaint, you can replace floors, you can refinish basements, you can rearrange plumbing.... nothing that IS must BE.
make a list of priorities; 1-3 things that you absolutely MUST have in a home, things that you cannot make/do/buy/change yourself, (ie; location, plot of land, view, etc), and buy based on that. pretty much everything else can be manipulated later.

GOOD LUCK and do keep us posted!!! It's a horrible pain in the butt but once you've left the settlement table and moved into your fabulous new abode, you'll be on cloud nine!!
 
jrlandsman

jrlandsman

Member
will do, my most important things are location, age of home, and type of house, I want a colonial or cape cod, no split levels or split foyers. Other than that I can change things around like you said. Ill let everyone know.
 
crimzy

crimzy

Active Member
I love shopping for houses... it's a lot of fun, IMO. It's also nice to know that you're in the cat-bird seat. My personal suggestions are these:
(1) Only look at homes that are vacant - when you have a seller who has already moved out, you know that they are likely now paying two mortgages and, thus --- desperate seller.
(2) Make sure that you have the house inspected by someone very good and don't be afraid to require that the seller fix all of the minor issues that come out in the inspections.
Good luck.
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by crimzy
http:///forum/post/2804625
I love shopping for houses... it's a lot of fun, IMO. It's also nice to know that you're in the cat-bird seat. My personal suggestions are these:
(1) Only look at homes that are vacant - when you have a seller who has already moved out, you know that they are likely now paying two mortgages and, thus --- desperate seller.
hehe
 
mimzy

mimzy

Active Member
Originally Posted by crimzy
http:///forum/post/2804625
I love shopping for houses... it's a lot of fun, IMO. It's also nice to know that you're in the cat-bird seat. My personal suggestions are these:
(1) Only look at homes that are vacant - when you have a seller who has already moved out, you know that they are likely now paying two mortgages and, thus --- desperate seller.
(2) Make sure that you have the house inspected by someone very good and don't be afraid to require that the seller fix all of the minor issues that come out in the inspections.
Good luck.

+1 on #2.... but make sure the seller is NOT there on the day of inspection and that the seller NEVER gets to meet your inspector when you are not present and make sure you've checked your inspector our thoroughly through the BBB and the Board of Home Inspectors in your area - i know some people who were royally skrewed by shoddy inspectors, and one woman who got hosed by an inspector who'd been BRIBED by a seller who was home for the inspection!!
 
jrlandsman

jrlandsman

Member
good tips the inspector was paid off thats some crap, I will not let that happen once I find a place. First things first find place where I can put a nice tank in the wall
 
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