So I offered $180,000 on the house they were asking $199,000 for and...

[waffleironhead]

Fair doesn't enter into it. You don't make offers on a house with fair being a consideration.

Sure you do. You figure what is fair for the property, then you offer less.

 

[Bock]

Pay your neighbors to list their $200k homes for $250k. Then list yours at $240k & accept $225k for something you paid $185k 18 mos ago.

 

[disappoint]

OP, put yourself in their shoes. How would YOU feel?

:|

He'd be like wtf is with these shoes?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Sure you do. You figure what is fair for the property, then you offer less.

I assumed he was referring what was fair to the seller.

 

[OutHouse]

This. Except the sellers market (depends where you are, job conditions, buyers, etc..)

Even though people who own said home are often too stupid to realize how much it costs them with every month that goes by:
1) Another payment is another interest payment to the bank with very little going to equity usually
2) More deterioration / depreciation costs
3) More time/money. Time is valueable, and if they want to keep showing it off, etc.. by all means.

In the end, if you take 2 years to sell then you should have just sold to the person who offered a slightly lower bid in the first 1-3 months.

stop giving real estate advice, you suck at it.

 

[OutHouse]

you can do a roof for 3k?!??!

yea i just put a new roof on the rental i sold for $2,700. but its only a 980sf home.

 

[Dulanic]

I just signed a contract to purchase a home a month ago. Closing is in some 40 days.

Listed at $339K. I came in at $320K. After some back and forth we agreed at $334.5K however it is agreed, via my lawyer and all of the necessary paperwork, that I will not pay more than the appraisal price. Appraisal should be coming in around $320K (my realtor who is a close friend lives in the neighborhood - so he knows the market there better than anyone). If it comes in at the agreed price, then so be it. I feel that is a fair price for the home (some 3,580 square feet; southwest suburbs of Chicago).
Sellers are more than welcome to pull the home off the market if they don't want to sell at the appraised price. They will have lost 2 months of market time and will be stuck with 2 mortgages at that point. Plenty of inventory for me to find another place.

As for closing costs...mine are estimated to be around $9,300.
$1,090 origination charge
$350 appraisal fee
$2,500 title services and lenders title insurance
$2,000 owner’s title insurance
$125 Gov’t recording fee
$1,834 initial deposit to escrow account
$219.81 interest charges to get us to the first of the month for the payments to begin
$1,200 homeowners insurance for a year

I do have some lender credits that will reduce the origination charge and I may not elect the owners title insurance since the home is only 10 years old and the lenders title insurance is going to protect me from any hidden liens, etc.

Around here there is no way you can get a seller to cover any closing costs.

Sounds just like me, wouldn't surprise me if you ended up being a neighbor LOL. I'm also just SW of chicago also. Seller was asking $350k, we offered $330, they countered by saying "too low come back higher" we came back at $335 and they countered $345 and we ended up settling at $340. For the area was still a great price, they paid $400 back in 07.

I do know we didn't have to pay the owners title insurance, the seller paid it. My lawyer said thats always the case in IL? Not sure.

 

[Eug]

Sounds just like me, wouldn't surprise me if you ended up being a neighbor LOL. I'm also just SW of chicago also. Seller was asking $350k, we offered $330, they countered by saying "too low come back higher" we came back at $335 and they countered $345 and we ended up settling at $340. For the area was still a great price, they paid $400 back in 07.

Ouch, sucks for them. Totally different here in Toronto. Prices have gone up over 50% (!) since then.

I do know we didn't have to pay the owners title insurance, the seller paid it. My lawyer said thats always the case in IL? Not sure.

Here it's the buyer that buys title insurance and it's optional. No reason not to get it though, since it's only a few hundred bux.

 

[dullard]

I really don't want to over pay cause with interest rates about to rise I have a feeling that home value and prices will come down.

Suppose mortgage rates go up 0.5% in the next year (which is probably a likely scenario). If that happens, then a $199,000 house that falls by 5.74% will have the same monthly payment as it would today. That assumes; however, that nothing else changes.

Consider though that housing prices have been going up nationally at about a 10%/year rate. Why? Not enough houses were built in the last few years. And now demand for housing is back (more people employeed, especially the younger generation and wages are finally starting to go up). So that is leading to housing price increases.

So, if your local area follows the similar trend, then prices will go up 10% due to strong demand but fall 5.7% due to higher interest rates. In the end the final price is still higher than today (probably in the $206k range). You come out the loser for waiting for the perfect price.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Sounds just like me, wouldn't surprise me if you ended up being a neighbor LOL. I'm also just SW of chicago also. Seller was asking $350k, we offered $330, they countered by saying "too low come back higher" we came back at $335 and they countered $345 and we ended up settling at $340. For the area was still a great price, they paid $400 back in 07.

I do know we didn't have to pay the owners title insurance, the seller paid it. My lawyer said thats always the case in IL? Not sure.

Sellers did pay the title insurance.
All told the closing costs were a lot, but all of that was factored in to the mortgage after the down payment.
Put 40% down and didn't have to bring any additional money to the table at closing. Payments are $40 lower than I had originally calculated.

All told, quite happy with the purchase (except had to replace sump pump last night and need to replace garbage disposal this weekend).

 

[Dulanic]

Ouch, sucks for them. Totally different here in Toronto. Prices have gone up over 50% (!) since then.


Here it's the buyer that buys title insurance and it's optional. No reason not to get it though, since it's only a few hundred bux.

Yeah I think it varies by state. My GFE also said optional but I guess here in IL the seller always pays it (So I'll be screwed down the road). And also it was far more than a few hundred bucks... it was closer to $2K for the owner title insurance.

And yeah, I mean I feel for them, but they did buy pre bubble burst and that hurt them. I realized after it was all said and done why they asked us to come back higher... they got a check for $2K after paying off their mortgage and I'm sure they just wanted to make sure to break even at least.

It does suck for them to put down a bunch and walk away 9 years later /w just about nothing. But that is life, hopefully it will be different for us. However, we just had a son and plan to stay for a while until retirement time-frame at which point we run like hell to avoid these insane property taxes LOL.

 

[halik]

If a home is priced right, there will always be a buyer. What is your prior offer based on? Unless you are paying cash for the home, the mortgage company or bank will appraise the value on the home. If you are overpaying and you are putting little down, they won't give you a mortgage or they will reduce the amount that they will lend you. So you'd have to come up with more cash for the down payment. The term is LTV (loan to value).

http://www.loansafe.org/assessed-value-vs-appraised-value

About this, clearly they're over the market if it hasn't sold yet. If you're really into that house, throw in couple grand over your current offer. It's not like you've got anything to lose by trying.

 

[halik]

yea i just put a new roof on the rental i sold for $2,700. but its only a 980sf home.

Wow, location? Seems cheap.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

stop giving real estate advice, you suck at it.

Nope. Everything I said is true. If any advice here is stupid it would be yours.

 

[slightlyhuman]

GL with all of that.

I bought a house a few weeks ago. Asking price was 184,900. I first offered 176k, them paying closing cost(they bought it for $172 in 2013). They came back and said 179k, me paying closing cost. I countered back with their asking price and them paying $5000 in closing cost. They took it. Appraisal came in at 199k.

Closed in 21 days, it was a very smooth process fortunately. I couldn't believe how easy it was after hearing and reading horror stories.

 

[Jimzz]

GL with all of that.

I bought a house a few weeks ago. Asking price was 184,900. I first offered 176k, them paying closing cost(they bought it for $172 in 2013). They came back and said 179k, me paying closing cost. I countered back with their asking price and them paying $5000 in closing cost. They took it. Appraisal came in at 199k.

Closed in 21 days, it was a very smooth process fortunately. I couldn't believe how easy it was after hearing and reading horror stories.

Most problems are money(loan), title insurance, or inspection.

We bought a house a couple months ago. We paid all in cash, I did the inspection, but the title company was slow. If not for them we could have closed sooner. But having cash makes it go faster.

 

[slightlyhuman]

This. 180k wouldn't even get a 1 bedroom condo around my area.

Jesus tap dancing Christ posts like these make me feel lucky. The only gripe I have about my yard is the placement of the storage building(needs to be in corner of fence to have more yard area) but other than that I just got this place for $184k(built in 06 1900sq ft with secondary house in backyard):