(Home buying) Should we replace our realtor or are we in the wrong?

[amaiunmei]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I'm shocked and bewildered, that you were bidding on a home with a significant structural issue, plus flooding that requires special drainage mitigation. That would not be a "keeper" in my book.

I also think saying $20k is going to fix a flooding/structural issue is a painfully low estimate.

I worked for a water utility; nothing destroys structures as thoroughly as a water leak. A $20k water leak fix represents a leak that you have known has been there for a few days. It sounds like the water/structural issue was more long-standing, so I'd put that fix at closer to $50k and that's an optimistic estimate.

Don't even get me started on bidding on homes beyond your budget. My husband and I bought last year and we bought a townhome for less than $400k. Frankly, even with an IT salary, that is what we could afford comfortably. I can't even imagine looking at something in the $600's in this area. That's just reckless.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by amaiunmei

I also think saying $20k is going to fix a flooding/structural issue is a painfully low estimate.

I worked for a water utility; nothing destroys structures as thoroughly as a water leak. A $20k water leak fix represents a leak that you have known has been there for a few days. It sounds like the water/structural issue was more long-standing, so I'd put that fix at closer to $50k and that's an optimistic estimate.

Don't even get me started on bidding on homes beyond your budget. My husband and I bought last year and we bought a townhome for less than $400k. Frankly, even with an IT salary, that is what we could afford comfortably. I can't even imagine looking at something in the $600's in this area. That's just reckless.

Interesting you should mention that. I was thinking "townhome" for the OP from the start. IDK, OP; it might be time to get real regarding your budget, before you get yourself into trouble buying a place you can't handle. Or look farther out, but on a transit line to your workplace. A compromise needs to be struck regarding your criteria, because your budget isn't cutting it.

I don't know if Seattle has any developments like this, but other cities have small developments, that are categorized as "townhomes", that are, in fact, fully detached homes with yards. That type of outside-the-box thinking may be called for, in your case.

In view of my last comment, I'm thinking you might get a different agent, explaining to the current one, that you're rethinking your situation, and may not be looking for a conventional SFH type of property. You might imply, that you're withdrawing from the search, until you and your partner come up with a mutually-agreeable direction in which to take your search.

[flyingsaucermom]

Originally Posted by amaiunmei

I also think saying $20k is going to fix a flooding/structural issue is a painfully low estimate.

I worked for a water utility; nothing destroys structures as thoroughly as a water leak. A $20k water leak fix represents a leak that you have known has been there for a few days. It sounds like the water/structural issue was more long-standing, so I'd put that fix at closer to $50k and that's an optimistic estimate.

Don't even get me started on bidding on homes beyond your budget. My husband and I bought last year and we bought a townhome for less than $400k. Frankly, even with an IT salary, that is what we could afford comfortably. I can't even imagine looking at something in the $600's in this area. That's just reckless.

Did they mention the down payment amount? That can be a factor if something is affordable.

Still.. we had close to 30% down payment, a tech income as well as a small business and rental income and we still stayed just under $600k when we bought our townhome last year. We did walk into a glorious $800k townhome with an attached mother-in-law/rental that was having an open house across the street from a coffee shop. Resulted in an hour long trance of desire, us trying to convince ourselves that it was feasibly affordable with the house poor madness only stopping when I mentioned my mother moving in with us.

I will tell you that the mortgage payments ended up higher than even I expected though this was my third home purchase: There are just so many ways homes can end up costing you more than you can afford.

Kudos for you for staying under $400k. I'm sure you have lots of breathing room in your budget.

[Ira500]

In certain parts of the greater Seattle area, houses are continuing to sell quickly and for more than listing price. Sometimes you have to make a choice of spending much more than you had in mind, or finding something a little smaller, or a townhouse instead of a detached single family house, or in a neighborhood/town a bit less competitive. Or choose to put it off for a while and rent for a year to get to know the area better. You have options. But it does sound like your agent was rude. It's a good thing for an agent to be honest( kinda rare, too). In your case, I think the agent just wanted you to make a decision now. There are certain agents/brokerages that need to make a lot of quick deals. I had a client who I showed fifty houses to. He eventually bought a house, but had specific requirements of room sizes due to his slot car hobby, so it took a while. I didn't mind. Houses are a huge investment. You should get what you want.

[uday029]

Thank you all for your inputs.
I don't think we went beyond our means in any way. We wanted to stop bidding at 700K which is what we initially offered. We were pressured into increasing the bid and that too in a bad way. I agree that it was our mistake to cave to the pressure.
Regarding the cost estimates for repairs, the only two guidelines we have are the inputs we received from house inspector and our realtor. If in reality these repairs cost more than 50K then our realtor either lied to us or is bad at his job.

I see that everyone here recommends looking for town-homes. We initially started looking for town-homes because we thought that we would find something in our budget. I am not sure if any of you have looked at the market in past few months but most of the decent town-homes are priced almost as much as single family homes or have ridiculously high HOAs. So much so that it would make absolutely no sense to buy a town-home. After looking at town homes thoroughly for a month we decided to go for single-family homes. We felt that a 700-725K home is better than 650K+600HOA.

Either way, we fired our realtor because of following:
1. He promised seller something without our consent.
2. He changed his mind about the state of damage. Immediately after inspection he told us that the home needs immediate repairs. But during the bidding process he told us that we can wait for a year to do those repairs and wouldn't cause any damages.
3. He pressured us into putting higher bids our of our comfort range.
4. He was pain rude to us. Does not matter if he was right but he should have told us in a better and nicer way without making us feel smaller.

Thanks.

[homesinseattle]

Originally Posted by uday029

Thank you all for your inputs.
I don't think we went beyond our means in any way. We wanted to stop bidding at 700K which is what we initially offered. We were pressured into increasing the bid and that too in a bad way. I agree that it was our mistake to cave to the pressure.
Regarding the cost estimates for repairs, the only two guidelines we have are the inputs we received from house inspector and our realtor. If in reality these repairs cost more than 50K then our realtor either lied to us or is bad at his job.

I see that everyone here recommends looking for town-homes. We initially started looking for town-homes because we thought that we would find something in our budget. I am not sure if any of you have looked at the market in past few months but most of the decent town-homes are priced almost as much as single family homes or have ridiculously high HOAs. So much so that it would make absolutely no sense to buy a town-home. After looking at town homes thoroughly for a month we decided to go for single-family homes. We felt that a 700-725K home is better than 650K+600HOA.

Either way, we fired our realtor because of following:
1. He promised seller something without our consent.
2. He changed his mind about the state of damage. Immediately after inspection he told us that the home needs immediate repairs. But during the bidding process he told us that we can wait for a year to do those repairs and wouldn't cause any damages.
3. He pressured us into putting higher bids our of our comfort range.
4. He was pain rude to us. Does not matter if he was right but he should have told us in a better and nicer way without making us feel smaller.

Thanks.

Don't be discouraged, keep your head up and stay positive. Breathe, refine your strategy, refocus. A good place will come your way.