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wow you all have got me scared now yesterday I did not have the money to put with the offer but will on Friday and now I'm wondering if I should just walk away and put that money away and look at some more houses . I mean this house I'm looking at needs a lot of paint , I know , I know paint is not that costly but it does have a old dw and a small fridge and the oven is new but none of it matches . someone also tried to turn the attic into another bedroom and I'm not real crazy about that either . I'm wondering now if I should walk away or maybe try and negotiate with the owner through our agents about the appliances . Or maybe just look at other houses and see what happens in the coming months . I'm at a loss I don't know what to do ...of course I know in the long run it is my decision but this house hunting is stressing me out to the max.
Back to the OP's original question: what can "go wrong"?
Houses are living, breathing dynamic entities.
My first home was about forty years old, well built, and well maintained.
What went wrong? Sewer drain plugged up--just years of gunk eventually closed up the pipe. It was a devil of a job getting the cleanout open on the old iron pipe, and then it was just a matter of getting a snake and garden hose down in there to flush it out.
It rained...a lot....and the basement got a couple of inches of water in it. Made a mess, and taught me to keep the gutters cleaned out on a regular basis.
Ancient portable dishwasher failed. Meh.
Ancient window air conditioners failed. Meh.
Outside electrical outlet filled up with water, corroded, and shorted out. Meh.
Just the joys of home ownership, and none of these issues were/nor would have been, disclosed by a home inspection.
The BIG stuff gets caught on the way in. The little stuff is ongoing, happens at the worst of times, and will be a part of your life for as long as you own a home. Keep a little money in reserve for those "special moments".
wow you all have got me scared now yesterday I did not have the money to put with the offer but will on Friday and now I'm wondering if I should just walk away and put that money away and look at some more houses . I mean this house I'm looking at needs a lot of paint , I know , I know paint is not that costly...
Interior paint, or exterior paint?
Exterior paint MUST be maintained well in order to keep the siding in good condition, in order to prevent water infiltration into you walls. (As a homeowner, you'll soon come to see water as The Enemy, Destroyer of Houses.)
Interior paint is not anything that needs to be addressed quickly (or even at all). You can coat the walls a new color at your leisure.
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...but it does have a old dw and a small fridge and the oven is new but none of it matches ...
Who cares? Appliances don't need to match, they need to work.
Now the age and condition of the appliances is something to be concerned about, as appliances do eventually wear out. So you'd want to start saving up some money to replace the dishwasher and (since it's small) the fridge. But the dishwasher is hardly a critical appliance; you could wash dishes by hand for a while if it died before you could afford to replace it. So I wouldn't be too concerned about it.
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...someone also tried to turn the attic into another bedroom and I'm not real crazy about that either.
Is it something you could live with? More important, was the work permitted, and done by an experienced, licensed contractor?
Quote:
I'm wondering now if I should walk away or maybe try and negotiate with the owner through our agents about the appliances.
You can negotiate over anything. Whether the owner will bite depends on both how reasonable your demands are, and how desperate he is to sell the house.
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Or maybe just look at other houses and see what happens in the coming months . I'm at a loss I don't know what to do ...of course I know in the long run it is my decision but this house hunting is stressing me out to the max.
House hunting IS stressful, no doubt about it! Keep telling yourself there's always another house, and remember the fundamentals (location, layout of the home, and the condition of the roof, siding, windows and doors, plumbing, HVAC and electrical, and above all the foundation) are the things you want to concentrate on and should be the least open to compromising on.
You need to get a good inspector or 2. You should read up on what the inspector should look for and follow him/her around while doing the inspection to make sure they check everything and also to put your own eyes on the situation.
You might need a particular specialist inspector depending on the kind of home, location or other particular reasons. Go through a full home general inspection then if you feel like you need more specific input go to a an inspector that specializes in that area.
Make notes of everything they bring up and discuss with you. Ask questions.
Make a note of areas that you can improve cheaply. An example would be attic air flow and attic insulation and if the house is sealed. Some cans of spray foam, some blown in insulation for the attic and improving the attic air flow can have a big effect on your heating and cooling bills.
Biggest items to check. HVAC, Roof, Foundation, Flood damage, Termite damage, Mold and Sewage (septic condition, trees growing into line etc).
Check you title carefully for any restrictions or easements
Go knock on the neighbors doors and chat for a bit.
Go by the house at night, not just the daytime. If your concerned about traffic you should visit when school lets out.
Check the property lines and where tree trunks are and where the branches spread out to.
Look at property tax history for the home
Make sure you have accounted for all the extra fees, taxes, hoa, insurance and pmi.
Make a circle around the block then 2 blocks out looking for things that draw crowds for events. High school stadiums etc.
If its been recently renovated, find out by whom and check them out.
Make sure your realtor uses good comps, go look at them or look them up online.
Don't get emotionally attached until at least you are done
Totally agree with what you said. A lot of people overestimate the scope of a home inspector's duties. A home inspector is responsible for pointing out the flaws that are wrong with the home at the time he/she inspects the property and explaining these flaws to the potential buyer. That's all. The inspector is NOT responsible for
A. telling you how much they will cost to fix
B. suggesting design improvements on the home
C. telling you exactly when the damage occurred
D. predicting that a specific problem that will go wrong with the home at a future date.
E. most importantly, tell you whether you should or should not buy the home.
Additionally, inspectors are only licensed to inspect certain types of problems. There are wood destroying insect inspectors, mold inspectors, septic inspectors, and general inspectors, among others. Each requires a separate certification, depending on the state. So if you want more than one type, you have to hire more than one person unless the inspector holds more than one certification. But your general inspector should definitely physically go up into the attic, on the roof, and under the crawlspace (if possible) and inspect them. If he/she doesn't, the inspector is not doing a thorough enough job. I know because my wife is an inspector, and she inspects the entire home and surrounding structures, from the crawlspace to the roof. Good luck!
I am hoping to buy a home within the next couple of years. I know what I can afford, most of the steps involved, and certain things to look for. I plan to go through the VA home loan deal.
But one thing that keeps getting mentioned as I do my research is the "unexpected" expenses that come with owning a home. I understand things break and so on, but I was wondering if anyone could give me some real first hand tales of trials they had after purchasing a home. I would have thought if the home is inspected, then major things like cracked foundations and leaking roofs shohldn't be a problem within the first couple of years. But it seems like that's one thing that is a pitfall for first timers, not realizing the costs of owning outside of the mortgage/tax/insurance/closing, etc.
What are the real issues? Structure? Higher utilities?
My house is in FL but this is what I learned that I think should be included when you are ready to close:
Did my inspector check for termites and the roof or do I need to hire specialists to inspect those areas?
How old is my A/C unit? Some can last up to 10 years. If you are looking at a 9 year old A/C unit, depending on wear and tear condition, you may want to factor in costs to replace it sooner than expected (mine broke on the day after closing)
Am I keeping the old blinds? Some blinds are good at reflecting heat during the summer, saving you $$ on the electric bill.
Is this property in a FEMA flood or disaster zone? Additional insurance may be required.
Will my insurance cover me? Not all home insurance companies will accept you without costing an arm or a leg due to the location and condition of home.
DO I LIKE THE HOA or find a house without one? Specifically, if you have big or multiple pets, finding the right hoa community will take some time unless you want to rehome your pets (please, don't)
Will I be here in the next 5 years? Those 3 flight of stairs will start to look more and more frustrating, especially if you have children, grandparents who lives or visits often, or you have a bad knee.
Is this location too far from work? Commuting for 1 hour each way is no fun. Sure you got a great deal on a nice house, but the traffic, the hours on the road, waking up early and getting home late...
I am hoping to buy a home within the next couple of years. I know what I can afford, most of the steps involved, and certain things to look for. I plan to go through the VA home loan deal.
But one thing that keeps getting mentioned as I do my research is the "unexpected" expenses that come with owning a home. I understand things break and so on, but I was wondering if anyone could give me some real first hand tales of trials they had after purchasing a home. I would have thought if the home is inspected, then major things like cracked foundations and leaking roofs shohldn't be a problem within the first couple of years. But it seems like that's one thing that is a pitfall for first timers, not realizing the costs of owning outside of the mortgage/tax/insurance/closing, etc.
What are the real issues? Structure? Higher utilities?
There are a lot. One is that in financial terms, the VA status makes it a worse deal for your buyer, in that s/he is ordered to pay more of the fees; plus, it involves a Federal agency, which typically makes nearly any transaction more annoying. If I were your seller, that would mean that if you came with a financing letter from the VA, you'd get no price movement at all, and if I have multiple offers, all things being equal, yours is least attractive. Business is business.
Your home inspector will miss something, or fail to check something out thoroughly and paper it over with butt-covering language. Just expect that and hope it isn't something hugely horrible. I'm not a believer in home warranties because for every story I hear about them actually paying, I hear five or six about them finding excuses not to pay.
Picking a buyer's agent is an important step. I would choose someone who tells you what you need to hear rather than what you'd like to hear. I have in my life engaged three buyer's agents and two listing agents. All three buyer's agents were very different women with different styles, but all had something I valued. One listing agent was excellent, and one, well, if it were in my power to destroy her professionally, I would. If I had unlimited resources, I wouldn't stop until she was sleeping under a bridge deck. A lot of dealing with your buyer's agent is not to waste her time. My most recent one said she loved working with us because a) we didn't dither around endlessly about what we wanted, and b) we showed we were seriously prepared to pull the trigger.
If you want to be a good buyer, completely have your prequalification financing paperwork together, and be alacritous on timelines. Once you go into contract, power shifts from the seller to you. The seller is nervous that the deal will blow up for any reason: your financing flops, you want unreasonable repairs, you don't have your paperwork act together, blee blah blah. Most people in our society have sort of unconsciously absorbed this idea that the customer is a little tin god and that the vendor has to lick the customer's boots, and it kind of bleeds over into real estate, where it really has no validity at all.
Unfortunately, since the customer is influenced by that cultural factor, and that is especially true of the first-time buyer, who thinks he has to be a big badass or the wolves will eat him, here's your ice bucket of reality: first-time buyers are usually asshats without knowing it, and horrible to deal with. I was one, and I still feel guilt over the way I treated those wonderful, patient, experienced people. Then I sold to two, or tried, and they were such random clots that one deal blew up and another I was about ready to throw in the towel too. In both cases, I was truly willing to take care of issues and compromise, and in both cases, I was dealing with someone who expected a bunch of empathy but showed me none. Thus, an experienced seller may emotionally want to be nice to the buyer, and a first-timer is likely to show poor gratitude. I don't believe in karma, really, but after the way I behaved in my first purchase, I deserved that lack of empathy as payback.
So in my most recent home sale, I had two offers, because this time I hadn't listed with a lazy, dishonest heel. One was a first-time couple and one was a lady in middle age. The couple's offer was lower, and their agent tried to paper that over with how much they loved the house, how sweet they were and how hard they were trying in life, and that they had gone as high as their resources allowed. This was supposed to move me. It did: it moved me to conclude they were attempting to buy beyond their means, and the reason they couldn't get financing for a full price offer was their bank had common sense. So should I, so I wouldn't have accepted their offer even had it been the only one. The middle-aged lady was a more effective negotiator, and it mostly went well, except that she did a thing that ticked me off near the end. As a result, she did not receive the nine-page document I had compiled over the course of the month, explaining every quirk of the property and what had already been done/tried/successful/helpful. I deleted it from my hard drive. She still has no idea it ever existed.
Fact: your seller wants the deal if s/he accepted your offer. How you behave after acceptance, that'll determine how much the seller comes to respect you, and that seller has tremendous power to affect your outcome. Always do the most considerate thing, especially with regard to communication, and you'll give yourself the most opportunity for unlooked-for good things. On our most recent purchase, we quickly learned that the listing agent was a jerk, and that he was not passing information to his client in timely fashion. So we arranged for the client to get the information anyway. This was tremendously appreciated. In fact, the sellers a) took our offer over two other, higher offers; b) offered us any and all of the furniture, free; c) unprompted, spent about $1000 getting the hot tub up to standards (they had never used it). None of that was guaranteed--it was all because we gave our sellers reasons to respect us.
There are a lot. One is that in financial terms, the VA status makes it a worse deal for your buyer, in that s/he is ordered to pay more of the fees; plus, it involves a Federal agency, which typically makes nearly any transaction more annoying. If I were your seller, that would mean that if you came with a financing letter from the VA, you'd get no price movement at all, and if I have multiple offers, all things being equal, yours is least attractive. Business is business.
Your home inspector will miss something, or fail to check something out thoroughly and paper it over with butt-covering language. Just expect that and hope it isn't something hugely horrible. I'm not a believer in home warranties because for every story I hear about them actually paying, I hear five or six about them finding excuses not to pay.
Picking a buyer's agent is an important step. I would choose someone who tells you what you need to hear rather than what you'd like to hear. I have in my life engaged three buyer's agents and two listing agents. All three buyer's agents were very different women with different styles, but all had something I valued. One listing agent was excellent, and one, well, if it were in my power to destroy her professionally, I would. If I had unlimited resources, I wouldn't stop until she was sleeping under a bridge deck. A lot of dealing with your buyer's agent is not to waste her time. My most recent one said she loved working with us because a) we didn't dither around endlessly about what we wanted, and b) we showed we were seriously prepared to pull the trigger.
If you want to be a good buyer, completely have your prequalification financing paperwork together, and be alacritous on timelines. Once you go into contract, power shifts from the seller to you. The seller is nervous that the deal will blow up for any reason: your financing flops, you want unreasonable repairs, you don't have your paperwork act together, blee blah blah. Most people in our society have sort of unconsciously absorbed this idea that the customer is a little tin god and that the vendor has to lick the customer's boots, and it kind of bleeds over into real estate, where it really has no validity at all.
Unfortunately, since the customer is influenced by that cultural factor, and that is especially true of the first-time buyer, who thinks he has to be a big badass or the wolves will eat him, here's your ice bucket of reality: first-time buyers are usually asshats without knowing it, and horrible to deal with. I was one, and I still feel guilt over the way I treated those wonderful, patient, experienced people. Then I sold to two, or tried, and they were such random clots that one deal blew up and another I was about ready to throw in the towel too. In both cases, I was truly willing to take care of issues and compromise, and in both cases, I was dealing with someone who expected a bunch of empathy but showed me none. Thus, an experienced seller may emotionally want to be nice to the buyer, and a first-timer is likely to show poor gratitude. I don't believe in karma, really, but after the way I behaved in my first purchase, I deserved that lack of empathy as payback.
So in my most recent home sale, I had two offers, because this time I hadn't listed with a lazy, dishonest heel. One was a first-time couple and one was a lady in middle age. The couple's offer was lower, and their agent tried to paper that over with how much they loved the house, how sweet they were and how hard they were trying in life, and that they had gone as high as their resources allowed. This was supposed to move me. It did: it moved me to conclude they were attempting to buy beyond their means, and the reason they couldn't get financing for a full price offer was their bank had common sense. So should I, so I wouldn't have accepted their offer even had it been the only one. The middle-aged lady was a more effective negotiator, and it mostly went well, except that she did a thing that ticked me off near the end. As a result, she did not receive the nine-page document I had compiled over the course of the month, explaining every quirk of the property and what had already been done/tried/successful/helpful. I deleted it from my hard drive. She still has no idea it ever existed.
Fact: your seller wants the deal if s/he accepted your offer. How you behave after acceptance, that'll determine how much the seller comes to respect you, and that seller has tremendous power to affect your outcome. Always do the most considerate thing, especially with regard to communication, and you'll give yourself the most opportunity for unlooked-for good things. On our most recent purchase, we quickly learned that the listing agent was a jerk, and that he was not passing information to his client in timely fashion. So we arranged for the client to get the information anyway. This was tremendously appreciated. In fact, the sellers a) took our offer over two other, higher offers; b) offered us any and all of the furniture, free; c) unprompted, spent about $1000 getting the hot tub up to standards (they had never used it). None of that was guaranteed--it was all because we gave our sellers reasons to respect us.
Good luck.
may I ask what she did that ticked you off ? you sound like a decent person and wanted to do the right thing with people and yes some bankers and re agents try to push people into buying a house they cannot afford .
I agree with whoever mentioned look at utilities. The ex and I moved into a nice cookie cutter neighborhood in a suburb 35 miles north of Houston. We had to move in a hurry, since our home was up for sale, it was a seller's market, and it was almost the first of the month. I found a home for rent and signed a lease on it since we weren't sure we wanted to buy in the area yet. Although the rent was on the high side, we were OK with that because the neighborhood was really nice and it was convenient to his new job.
After moving in, I had a rude awakening that made me change my mind about buying a home in that subdivision. The utilities, which were privately rather than city owned, were outrageously expensive, far more than I had ever paid in my whole life. First, the home was all electric, which was something I wasn't expecting, so in the broiling Houston summers, our small 1500 square feet home had an electric bill as high as $300/month, even keeping the home at 76-78 degrees. Our trash was also high: $60/month quarterly. But the biggest surprise was the water bill. The two of us only used the minimum each month: 3000 gallons. The water company charged us $130/month for the minimum! The sewer accounted for $75 and the water accounted for the remainder.
And the homes themselves were not very pricey: $150-$200K for most of them. These utility rates were approximately 4X the amount I paid in the city of Houston proper, but I never thought to check the rates in the new town beforehand, since I assumed they would be similar. I was puzzled at the vast difference in utility rates, and still am. After we completed our one year lease, we moved to another, less expensive subdivision.
may I ask what she did that ticked you off ? you sound like a decent person and wanted to do the right thing with people and yes some bankers and re agents try to push people into buying a house they cannot afford .
Sure. Came time for the final walkthrough. I'd gone so far as to hunt up .pdfs of some missing documentation to go with all the manuals, and print them for her. Didn't expect a cookie for that, but I think it's symbolic of willingness to make extra effort. I offered to be present for the walkthrough and accompany her to answer any questions or point stuff out. Figured it would be her, her boyfriend, and her daughter, plus the agents. Well, she shows up with a posse of six, which I found a bit unnerving, then doesn't want a tour--they can explore very well without my help, but thanks anyway. So I wasted my time and my wife's time (and at that time, the two combined were precious) in an effort to offer her the most information possible. She didn't want to ask me much of anything afterward, either.
Earlier, there had been the part where I offered to leave a couple pieces of furniture for her, and she asked for some others too, and that had grated, but I hadn't let it affect me. So after the walkthrough, I took her perspective to heart, and figured why burden her with nine pages of useless information about good contractors, things to watch out for with the irrigation, neighbor peculiarities, and little details about the house. Far be it from me to be a bother, after all. So I performed to the contract, and a little beyond (and no, I didn't toss the printed documentation I'd done), but no more.
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Exactly
