Karen-we might be next!

[Xarata]

Here it is- "my" (rented) first house. With an upstairs and a basement, a fenced in yard with dogs Honey plays with! Yes she has friends! She NEVER had friends before- she always hated other dogs. Her new best friend is a Great Dane!, off-street parking (mine all mine! ahahaha), and...poison ivy! lol

I live in Hershey, PA- yes it smells like chocolate and peanut butter (Reese's factory too!). See the streetlight with the kisses on top in the background?

newhouse.JPG (43.95 KiB) Viewed 3897 times

[pinkpomelo]

That looks like a sweet home!

[krenee]

Oh, I just saw this.
What a cute picture with the little Hershey's kisses streetlights. I suppose Hershey PA is one of those towns where literally everyone and their brother works for Hershey?
How is your house search going Laurie?
We've done it a few times, so I can sympathize. We actually had one transaction where we bought and sold privately (we were the seller on one and the buyer on the other) and had no Realtor either way! That was a lot of work, but - it paid off because of no commission to pay. We've had a couple really good realtors, and a couple of bad ones. One thing I would never agree to again - ever - is dual agency. This would be where you are buying a house where your realtor is also the seller's realtor. Realtors like this because they keep all the commission for themselves, but I think from experience that it is bad business. When you have someone who has to keep the interest of the other party in mind also, they are not working for you. Just make sure your realtor knows what they are doing, and don't agree to dual agency. It also helps a lot if the person doing your mortgage at the bank knows what they're doing. The thorn in my side on that private sale was our buyer's mortgage agent, who didn't know what she was doing. I had our mortgage agent on speed dial, because she knew what was up so I'd have to call her and then call the other banker back and tell her what my agent said she needed to do.
Good Luck! I hope you find something you like. It usually takes a few offers before you find something that is accepted that will work out for you. On the house we have now we looked and looked and looked and had about given up. This house was out of our price range, but we looked and liked it so we threw in an offer. As luck would have it, the son of the people who had lived here previously was selling it and he was moving out of town and wanted to get it sold, so he sold it for what we could pay, even though it was quite a bit less than what he was asking. Never be afraid to make an offer as you never know! We may have to move again anyway - my husband works out of town and if he continues with his current job we will probably have to move. I really don't want to sell the house right now because the market is so bad. If we move to Chicago we will be looking at condos and townhomes and not a house. I am tired of lawn care and snow removal esp when hubby is not around to help much! LOL

[ladycattat]

Hi Karmen(and everybody else) and thanks for the encourangement. Just went and saw 6 more houses yesterday, and not one of them was one we would even come close to considering .Either the neighborhorhood wasn't good, or the house themselves were just a mess. We don't mind a fixer...in fact we WANT a fixer, but we don't want to have to redo the entire place! Especially when there are things like mold issues.....no way.
Saw one great house yesterday.....until we found out there was LITERALLY.NO.KITCHEN., and LIITERALLY.NO.SHOWER.OR.TUB. Guess that's why the price was so go good! Just not good enough we could afford to put in a kitchen and 2 bathtubs!
We have a great realtor, he's young, he's hungry, and he's a real hand-holder. He came very well recommmended from a friend of mine who works in real estate, but not as a realtor.
My Muz(mom) was also a realtor back in the day, so she also has tons of advice for us also. And I am finding that a few shows on HGTV have given us some valuble tips.
We have to be careful, though, since the loan we have qualified for is a FHA.....they are really picky about what kind of homes qualify. They don't like some types of add-ons, and all the permits have to be 100% in order, and if they are not, that can mess up the deal in a heartbeat.
I keep telling myself that the more houses that I see that don't work take me one step closer to my dream house. I just on't want to *settle* just cuz we are getting desperete, KWIM?
Laurie

[karen]

A house in a warm sunny location, with no kitchen?!?! That's my dream house- I'll shower in the yard.

[ladycattat]

Yah, Karen, but what are you going to say to the 2 little kids demanding to be fed???
Laurie

You can only do mcDonalds so many times before it gets old!

ROFLMAO

[krenee]

hahaha, that is funny Karen.
I have heard the housing market in California is tough - with a lot of buyers and easy to get outbid quickly. That happened to us a few times. A couple times we've had offers with a contingency on selling our old house and lost out that way, because we were unwilling to take a bridge loan. We also lost out on one once because some people bid more than the asking price (we'd bid the asking price.) We weren't given an opportunity to bid again - the sellers just accepted the other offer. That's one of the big reasons why I will never accept dual agency again because the wife of one of our realtor's brokers was the agent on that sale and I clearly remember her saying to us that "you need to put your best offer forward because we're just trying to get these people the most money for their house." Totally disregarding the fact that they were working for us too, as it was the same agency!! I remember talking to (okay, maybe it was yelling at?! ) the other 2 brokers about that particular situation because I was NOT happy. The husband and wife are no longer working there any more -they kind of went out on their own not too long after that because apparently they were famous for doing crap like that. I think our situation just made the other 2 brokers much more aware of it.

I also remember a friend of a friend buying a house a couple years ago in CA. It was a "bargain" at a half-million - ! - because it had no kitchen. The builder ran out of money so they just quit. They bought it and put a kitchen in it, of course. But I just remember the big deal that my friend made out of this "bargain" half million dollar house. LOL!

[egerandi]

Ummm, yeah... It's tough in CA right now. They say it's buyers market, but by buyer they mean rich and lucky. I think. I looked into it a bit few months back, but what was available at that time, was way out of our price range. We want to stay in downtown Los Angeles, but can't really deal with lofts any more. I have a 'normal' life while my BF works from home, and mostly during the night. We need almost a regular layout... but remain in downtown, which is predominantly loft-y. And yeah, houses are not for me. I don't remember ever wanting to live in a house, I'm a city girl Which comes with a hefty price called HOA fees.

Because of this, we can only really consider foreclosures or short sales. I wanted to avoid the latter, but it may have to just come to that long and messy process. We don't really need to move right now, but the longer we wait, the less money is in the bank (BF has no regular income), and we also have to decide in a month if we're signing our lease again or going on month to month with a higher rent (and who knows how often they raise that). Oh, and there is no FHA loans for downtown, they don't help with 'mixed use' buildings. I'm pre-approved for something that would buy me a huge house with huge yard at other parts of the country, but here it only seems to be getting me a smallish one-bedroom condo. We can't or want to move: I have a great job, and BF's business ties him to LA too. Honestly, we don't mind continuing to rent, but owning would be nice. And really, prices dropped again from just a few months ago.

Learning a lot as I go, and I'm working on multiple agents at this point. I've done most of the legwork so far, and I know what I can and cannot afford, and what I'm OK with, how far from the metro, etc, but it's getting frustrating. Thanks for the suggestion on avoiding dual agencies, I almost called the listing agent on a place, but now I'm glad I didn't. I'm also tired of my agent trying to show me places that are clearly not what I already described him we want or can afford. It's strange that he would waste everybody's time... or just strange to me?

Oh well, marching on.

[Cammie]

Hi ladies! I don't mean to butt in, but I used to be a real estate agent and I want to re-iterate that the Dual Agency thing is bad, bad, bad. I refused to act as a Dual Agent when I worked as a Realtor. I see it as unethical and there's no way the agent can possibly truly work for both parties (I tend to think that that point the agent is working for him or herself and his/her pocketbook! ). The best thing to do is to interview several agents and pick one to be a Buyer's Agent for you. They are then legally (and contractually) bound to get you the best house for the best price. If you find they aren't working in your best interest you can fire them and get another agent, but it really is best to sign a Buyer's Agency contract with an agent to ensure they're looking out for you.

I'm not familiar with the market in California, but in Michigan (where I'm from), it's rare to have multiple bids on a house. We had one agent who constantly claimed there were multiple offers. The worst part is, you can't demand proof or any other information about the other offers and it sucks.

Foreclosures are great right now, although sometimes financing them can be difficult. If the bank selling the house is offering financing, a lot of times you'll have the easiest time going through them because they want to get rid of the house! Be wary of short sales. A lot of homes are advertised as short sale, but many times the seller doesn't actually have permission to sell the house via short sale and it can make for a difficult (or impossible if the bank balks) transaction.

And if you really, really want a house, there are great deals in Michigan right now. I haven't been an agent for over 3 years, so I'm not trying to sell anybody anything, but my husband and I bought a great 3 BD 1.5 bth home for $58,000 a year and a half ago and there are even better deals here now.

Good luck to those of you currently looking! We looked for six months before we finally found our little gem and it seemed like an eternity!

[egerandi]

Oh boy, my downpayment would be more than that, how ridiculous is California? But, I'm tied here, and I don't really mind it I know I could get more for my money in the outskirts, but that would mean time spent on commuting (not to mention stress) and would have to buy a car, which I'd rather not, as long as I can help it. So, compromising on what is more worth for me is what this is coming down to.

I haven't heard back from the foreclosure seller yet, but they promised to get back to us later today. As for the agent agreement, I wasn't offered to sign anything, I hope that's not a bad sign? I know my agent is definitely not the seller's agent, but he did mention that others may be interested in the place too. We'll see. I'm really at the point where I'm happy going either way: being broke at the beginning in hopes of making the place a nice home one day (I have tons of ideas on what to do with it), and perhaps break even or even gain a bit long term if I decide to leave downtown in 5-10 years, or continuing to rent the place I'm in (and actually like a lot), and save up all the money I would be spending on mortgage interest, HOA (ridiculously high), and property taxes. And yes, I know I get tax benefits, but they don't really count for that much... I would be sad to miss out on the fed's offer of the first-time buyer's $8k tax rebate, but c'est la vie.