Bad timing
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@George-K said in Bad timing:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:
The house is worth what people are willing to pay for it
Actually, the house is worth what you are willing to pay for it as a downpayment and how much the bank is willing to lend. If the second number is low, you're SOL.
I would assume that a contract for sale would include a clause for such eventualities.
Normal home sale contracts do; new build home sale contracts do not. There basically are no contingencies. But it's reasonable to assume a large builder will operate honorably, with their reputations being on the line.
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@George-K said in Bad timing:
@Horace said in Bad timing:
it's reasonable to assume a large builder will operate honorably
How old are you, again?
I mean when they're operating under the daylight of observation by other parties, such as buyers and their agents. These builders have a lot of competition from one another, and they care more about their reputation than they do about a few thousand dollars in a given transaction. This is my hope at least.
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@George-K said in Bad timing:
How old are you, again?
Apparently, he's young enough to get a thirty year mortgage.
I was also just given such a thing, and I'm 59. Based on their amortization schedule, they're expecting me to pay it off in 2052, which makes sense in one way (as it's a thirty year), but less so in another.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:
@George-K said in Bad timing:
How old are you, again?
Apparently, he's young enough to get a thirty year mortgage.
I was also just given such a thing, and I'm 59. Based on their amortization schedule, they're expecting me to pay it off in 2052.
Good thing I got the mortgage rather than paying cash. I wouldn't have gotten an appraisal, and would not have had today's fun and excitement imagining the salesperson who made my wife and me feel bad over our negotiation, frantically gathering evidence, on her day off, to attempt to prove to a fine Puerto Rican appraiser that Karen the Salesweasel is better at his job than he is.
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Appraisers can be nudged.
I nudged one about 20% downwards, years ago...
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:
It seems to me that the appraisal system is pretty farcical
Yup
The thing is, it has different purposes for different people
It has to be used by the lender, the buyer, the seller, the agents, the appraiser and the tax man. They all care about different things.
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The salesperson asked if we had plans to move in on Friday, which is the day after close. I thought that was a strange question. If we can’t close, it’s our problem what we will do, not hers. And she is not asking out of concern. My guess is that she wants to fashion a narrative for her boss as a justification for lowering the price, rather than risk missing the close as she engages with the appraiser. So I let her know we have huge plans for the day after the close, which will be complicated to cancel.
There is a real concern about being homeless next Monday, when our Airbnb time expires, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.
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@Horace said in Bad timing:
There is a real concern about being homeless next Monday, when our Airbnb time expires, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.
We've got the opposite problem - I currently own two houses, we're supposed to close the sale on 10/6. The buyer seems overly concerned with a missing down-spout on one of the gutters and us repairing the lazy Susan. What he should be looking at is the $30K we just spent on the new septic system. I don't think he's ever owned a house before, and is approaching it like you do a landlord, worrying about all the little things. It's really quite aggravating. We've been knocking ourselves out fixing up the new place which was a real mess, and he's nit-picking our place, which is actually in pretty good shape.
The bank hasn't done the appraisal yet, so there's that, too....
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:
@Horace said in Bad timing:
There is a real concern about being homeless next Monday, when our Airbnb time expires, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.
The bank hasn't done the appraisal yet, so there's that, too....
What could go wrong?
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@Doctor-Phibes yeah that’s annoying. But, hopefully minor and temporary. Hope the new place is rewarding to fix and make your own
@Horace When is the updated appraisal expected?
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@89th said in Bad timing:
@Doctor-Phibes yeah that’s annoying. But, hopefully minor and temporary. Hope the new place is rewarding to fix and make your own
@Horace When is the updated appraisal expected?
Tomorrow. Or never, in which case we have a Mexican standoff where I threaten them that they will have to keep my 25k earnest money if they don’t reduce their price.
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@89th said in Bad timing:
Hope the new place is rewarding to fix and make your own
I'm actually really enjoying it, although it's been a lot of work. The previous owners appear to have been absolute slobs, but the fundamentals are good.
On Sunday I removed this absolutely horrifically colored, and very dirty, bright pink carpet from one of the bedrooms, uncovering a pretty much pristine hardwood floor underneath. It appears to have been untouched since about 1980. So there are some nice surprises, along with the less nice ones. I have found and disposed of more discarded dental-floss applicators than I care to think about. After a while you stop pulling a face over the discovery.
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According to the closing sheet, our agent is getting 3% commission. That will be a topic of conversation if it is ever suggested that I pony up the 1%. I am sure he will jump at the chance to finally make himself useful, beyond doing MLS searches we could have done ourselves.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Bad timing:
@89th said in Bad timing:
Hope the new place is rewarding to fix and make your own
I'm actually really enjoying it, although it's been a lot of work. The previous owners appear to have been absolute slobs, but the fundamentals are good.
On Sunday I removed this absolutely horrifically colored, and very dirty, bright pink carpet from one of the bedrooms, uncovering a pretty much pristine hardwood floor underneath. It appears to have been untouched since about 1980. So there are some nice surprises, along with the less nice ones. I have found and disposed of more discarded dental-floss applicators than I care to think about. After a while you stop pulling a face over the discovery.
That is a nice surprise (the floor, not the floss). Our previous owners also had a few areas they didn't maintain, so it's been nice to fix and refresh areas that we can make our own. They also really had a style that resulted in many very heavy (literally) and dark window dressings. It was fun (and dusty, and spider-y) to remove those to expose the really nice, bright, and wood-trimmed windows in a few rooms.