♪alt13
Well-Known Member
Definitely not prima donna. More like young crazy kid.
Yes!!! Got Approved For A Home Loan
- Thread starter Stoked
- Start date
Definitely not prima donna. More like young crazy kid.
I was once both. For a short time.
Duck Rodgers
Well-Known Member
Pretty sure Babe was pre-Madonna.
RJF
Well-Known Member
I thought you were always old as dirt?
haha.. some days I can relate.
Miggs
Well-Known Member
The buyer pays no fee. No 3%. So I don't know what you're talking about?
The seller pays the full 6%. 3% goes to the selling agent's side, 3% goes to the buying agent's side. But in no way does that affect the homebuyer and what he or she is paying.
Damn... I have mad respect for educators.
I will get back to this when I feel like it.
Miggs
Well-Known Member
How 'bout get back to it? Kkkkkkk...
I'm probably a few ages before that, even. Way back, when easy girls weren't just cheap, and actually cared about you too.
The price is determined by the seller, or there's no sale. And determined by the buyer as well, or there's no purchase. The seller's agent always argues that he's worth the commission because he will get a better price for the seller, and the buyer's agent claims he will get a better price for the buyer. No agent scenario, like Frank said, means both buyer and seller expect to "save" the commission. If they both know what they're doing, the sale price should be 6% less. lol.
Nah, we were just laying it on thick.
You are correct about getting a great RE agent who will work her/his *** off for you (if you choose that route). They are out there.
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Stoked, use PKM to your advantage. Start reading up on REPC. Get the state standard and read it 10 times to get familiar with it. You'll probably end up reading several real ones twice that many times anyway so you might as well get familiar,, and comfortable. If you choose not to use an agent then email a filled out contract to Peek before offering it.
As far as building inspections go: If possible, don't purchase a home older than the late 90's, and try to avoid them even. The things about buying a used home are roof, furnace, ac, sprinklers, and plumbing. Use these as negotiating points. Sellers know it will eventually be an issue for them so it's easier to get concessions rather than simply pushing, say, 10k off the price. Low balling gets under people's skin. Saying the roof needs to be repaired or replaced sounds practical.
HVAC is always going to have problems, but don't be dumb enough to think that requires a complete replacement like so many people do. A repaired unit is most times as good as new. If it's a newer home it should have pretty good energy efficient units. I would request the sellers have a service company come out and perform annual maintenance. TBH that probably won't get you much as normally it's nothing more than an advertising piece. Servicing HV/AC is not that difficult. However, if there are large issues the technician should be able to point them out. It's a small cost that the sellers will probably be willing to pay.
The roof is another matter entirely. It will eventually need to be replaced. You can keep it in good repair for 10 years or so past the year rating, but eventually it will have to be replaced. Let the building inspector look at it but also check it thoroughly yourself. The first thing you should do after purchasing is make damn well sure every shingle on it is fastened down firmly. It takes time but is not hard work at all. If I weren't a lazy *** I would do this every fall.
As far as plumbing goes, hope for good luck. Fixtures are cheap but the work can become a complete pain in the ***. I would replace all bathtubs valves immediately. They're cheap. A leaky valve will cost you several grand in repair.
I haven't read through the thread so I don't know what else has been said, but here are a couple of bits of advice for you based on my three experiences with buying a house:
1) Don't borrow as much as they are willing to lend you. Make up your mind first about how much of a monthly payment you can afford, then borrow no more than the amount that corresponds to that monthly payment. (By the way, get a good financial calculator or financial calculator app so you can run these calculations yourself instead of relying on others to calculate your monthly payment for a given interest rate and loan length.) In our case when we moved to Utah we could have borrowed about $100,000 more than we actually felt comfortable borrowing. But we would have been screwed if we had done so.
2) Get a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. That way as your income increases throughout the years you'll have more and more breathing room.
3) As your income increases and you can afford a larger monthly payment, convert your 30 year mortgage into a 15 year mortgage. You'll get a lower interest rate and that combined with the shorter term will save you a ton on interest.
4) Look for a good deal on a house, especially your first house, even if it means you need to fix some things up yourself. This becomes especially important if/when you need to sell the house. If you got a good deal, you'll be able to sell at a profit. If you didn't, the value of the house may well have gone down, forcing you to sell at a loss. The ramifications of selling at a profit vs at a loss depending on the deal you got and the overall market swings are something that I myself didn't fully grasp when we purchased our first house. We got lucky--our first real estate agent really knew what she was doing, and told us "You HAVE to buy this house, this is a killer price" when we were still a little undecided because it wasn't in a great area and needed some work (bathrooms & kitchen were in rough shape). But she was right, it in fact WAS a killer deal, which really helped us out when we needed to sell 2.5 years later.
5) To use an agent or not, that is the question. We have used an agent, for all three of our house purchases. But we've had mixed experiences. Our first agent, the one I just mentioned, was amazing. Definitely earned her commission and then some. Our second agent, conversely, literally did nothing for us, we could have easily done as well on our own. Our third agent was in between... maybe helped a bit, but didn't really help out in the negotiations like our first agent did. In fact, we felt like we overpaid for our third house by quite a bit. For your first purchase you should probably use an agent, because there are so many things that can go wrong. But make sure you get a great agent!!! Ask around to find out which of your family/friends in the area feel like they had a great agent, and don't accept anything less.