Buying your first home

[Octavious]

Shit, every house in every town flooded in the basements so that doesn't mean much. Ya sewer/water is nice even if it costs more monthly. They will never be connecting my house as they ran out of money when then got to my part of the road.

[MindToyGames]

So tomorrow is the inspection. I am looking forward to it. On another front, things are not going well with the mortgage broker. The application was for all intents and purposes just garbage. It was full of material errors such as having my wife's name wrong, missing assets (which reduced my net worth on the application by 66%) and other idiotic mistakes. I told them about it and then I corrected the errors by hand and faxed it in. They went forward and the same erroneous information made it to my lawyer. One of the errors might have been a big problem had it made it to the other side so I'm glad I caught it. They regenerated the application and it had 95% of the same errors including my wife's name again and the missing assets!. I bitched a fit so they promised up and down that they'll fix them. They said I'll get it back to me in 2 days. In the meantime, we'll still go forward with the appraisal, etc. Painful.

Maybe mortgage broker people need a required clerical refresher course before becoming one.

I swear when I bought my house a year ago, the broker person messed up my paperwork left and right, misspelled the address, missspelled my name several times, asked for docs we already provided the day before, etc. It's almost like some sort of endurance test to apply for a mortgage and buy a house it seems sometimes.

[Freezer-TPF-]

Our broker was awesome and it was the easiest part of the whole process. Too easy, really.

[MindToyGames]

Our broker was awesome and it was the easiest part of the whole process. Too easy, really.

Lucky you, ours made the process more of a nightmare than it should have been. Luckily, our real estate agent was very nice and helpful (even understanding when the broker faxed her the wrong documents -- several times!), otherwise we may have just abandoned the whole thing altogether.

[KKBlue]

I'm wondering why this process is so stressful? I had two melt downs today (basically in private). I HATE not feeling in control and capable of handling shit. So, not going to rant about the issues today but I have absolutely no idea how people deal with this stuff when they have a full time job... AND kids! Which is why I probably helped my brother till the wee hours of the AM when he was in moving mode a few years back.

Of course I am learning from this process about OH so many things, including my personality. Gotta love life... there are so many lessons mixed in there! The person who saved me a few hours ago was my husband. My fella swaddled me and shushed me to comfort with his words. Not sure if he knew it at the time, either way I do feel better... at least numb. All he did was tell me he would send an Email to the patio guy. Big relief cause I wasn't making any headway with the guy over the years.

The lesson this month, specifically this week, in regards to selling or buying a house is ask for help. Of course this revolution can be applied to just about any situation yet it comes in very helpful with the house buying/selling process.

[malchior]

Just got back from the inspection. As I expected, the roof will have to be replaced. Much sooner than later. There were other small issues such as a carpenter ant problem and some minor electrical wiring no-nos. The electrical issues weren't too major and I'll likely just accept them as is and have them corrected later. I plan on having some circuits run for overhead fans so we'll deal with it then. As to the carpenter ants, it was explained to me that they see them in 90% of the homes they see in my area so no big deal. They haven't done much damage (damaged the columns on the porch) and just need to be treated.

However something interesting did come up in the inspection. My realtor noticed they left some past due bills out in the open and it turns out they haven't paid their water bill in a year and it is going to a tax sale in a couple weeks. My lawyer explained that it doesn't affect me but they should take care of it because it'll become more expensive for them if it goes to tax sale. I was hoping to have any repairs done by the seller prior to my closing but that doesn't look possible so we'll have to take a credit and deal with it afterwards. Otherwise, barring some pool craziness I think we are in pretty good shape.

I do find it ironic that they were obsessed with my finances though and now the tables are completely turned. Amusing at least.

[KKBlue]

Just got back from the inspection...

Barkeep! I would like to buy that man a beer.

[Octavious]

Just got back from the inspection. As I expected, the roof will have to be replaced. Much sooner than later. There were other small issues such as a carpenter ant problem and some minor electrical wiring no-nos. The electrical issues weren't too major and I'll likely just accept them as is and have them corrected later. I plan on having some circuits run for overhead fans so we'll deal with it then. As to the carpenter ants, it was explained to me that they see them in 90% of the homes they see in my area so no big deal. They haven't done much damage (damaged the columns on the porch) and just need to be treated.

However something interesting did come up in the inspection. My realtor noticed they left some past due bills out in the open and it turns out they haven't paid their water bill in a year and it is going to a tax sale in a couple weeks. My lawyer explained that it doesn't affect me but they should take care of it because it'll become more expensive for them if it goes to tax sale. I was hoping to have any repairs done by the seller prior to my closing but that doesn't look possible so we'll have to take a credit and deal with it afterwards. Otherwise, barring some pool craziness I think we are in pretty good shape.

I do find it ironic that they were obsessed with my finances though and now the tables are completely turned. Amusing at least.

It has a pool? You suck.

[Kelric]

Don't mind me. I'm just sitting here waiting for the listing agent to get back to my agent to tell me where in the process of approving it as a short sale the lender is.

[malchior]

I swear when I bought my house a year ago, the broker person messed up my paperwork left and right, misspelled the address, missspelled my name several times, asked for docs we already provided the day before, etc. It's almost like some sort of endurance test to apply for a mortgage and buy a house it seems sometimes.

Just got back another iteration of the mortgage application. It took them 26 hours to delete one line from one page of the application. I was like, why not re-issue that one effing page then?

My friend used to work at a broker. I commented that I felt like I can't believe *these people* are the survivors of the mortgage meltdown. His retort was that the survivors went onto realty, these are the dregs. He is probably right.

It has a pool? You suck.

We'll see. Apparently they are broke so who knows if they've been maintaining that. It looks alright but I've only seen it with the cover on. The fence line was a total disaster and needs to be replaced as well but that'll show up in the pool report.

[malchior]

Don't mind me. I'm just sitting here waiting for the listing agent to get back to my agent to tell me where in the process of approving it as a short sale the lender is.

For what I'm told if you have the time to wait, you will get a great deal. For most people though, the inexact timing just isn't workable.

[Freezer-TPF-]

Don't mind me. I'm just sitting here waiting for the listing agent to get back to my agent to tell me where in the process of approving it as a short sale the lender is.

For what I'm told if you have the time to wait, you will get a great deal. For most people though, the inexact timing just isn't workable.

Don't be surprised if the bank comes back with a much higher price, even above list price. Many short sales end up feeling like a bait and switch (or maybe--wait, bait and switch!) if the bank did not have a role in setting or pre-approving the supposed asking price.

I wouldn't just be sitting around waiting to hear on a short sale. Any good, well-priced properties that are out there are going fast due to the silly-good mortgage rates, which have crept even (a teensy bit) lower in the last few months.

[Kelric]

Don't mind me. I'm just sitting here waiting for the listing agent to get back to my agent to tell me where in the process of approving it as a short sale the lender is.

For what I'm told if you have the time to wait, you will get a great deal. For most people though, the inexact timing just isn't workable.

Don't be surprised if the bank comes back with a much higher price, even above list price. Many short sales end up feeling like a bait and switch (or maybe--wait, bait and switch!) if the bank did not have a role in setting or pre-approving the supposed asking price.

I wouldn't just be sitting around waiting to hear on a short sale. Any good, well-priced properties that are out there are going fast due to the silly-good mortgage rates, which have crept even (a teensy bit) lower in the last few months.

We're still looking, but the market hasn't given us anything worthwhile in a few weeks. This is what I figure will happen, in order of likelihood:

1. Someone offers more than us and gets the place.
2. The bank comes back with a higher number we can't afford.
3. I wind up not getting loan approval for some weird reason.
4. I get the place eventually.

[malchior]

Update: I'm still working through my house purchase. There has been a lot of minor drama. Mostly around the fact that my sellers are the sort who do not breathe through their noses. Last night they pushed back on scheduling a pool inspection because they thought we were going to walk away. I guess I'm in the business of providing courtesy inspections for pools that I don't plan to own.

Also, probably not a surprise to anyone but mortgage people are almost functionally useless. They still are requesting documents that I've provided time and time again. I've started forwarding the same email to them. They then come back a day later and ask about a different document that is in that email. I have done this three days in a row now.

Edit: Update 2. So here I am 2 days before the mortgage commitment is due according to the contract and the mortgage company is claiming I won't make the date. They are slammed "due to the low rates". I have been riding these people for two weeks and there was not a hint that the timing would be a problem until now. So now my lawyer has to clean up the mess.

[malchior]

Latest update from hell: We got the mortgage commitment last minute and everything was looking reasonably good. Today the sellers notified us that they can't find a place to rent because of their dog. This CAN NOT BE NORMAL. They actually had the audacity to claim that they weren't sure that the deal would go through because of delays in the inspections. Delays they 100% caused. I actually spent an hour sending my realtor listings from Craigslist. At the price level I am shopping in I can't believe the level of douchebaggery and total lack of class I am running into. WTF?

[Octavious]

Wow I bet you can totally sue them for the inspection costs if they pull out. Man you have shitty luck.

[malchior]

Wow I bet you can totally sue them for the inspection costs if they pull out. Man you have shitty luck.

I am out thousands at this point and sure I can sue them; they are totally broke so probably no point. My lawyer basically told me my options which all involve throwing a family out on the street. I can exercise the option but really, I shouldn't have to do this. Anyway, I might end up going down that road a little bit just to pressure them to get off the pot.

I'm pretty fed up with these people so who knows what happens. They dragged their feet on the pool inspection for weeks, eventually they gave us the go ahead to inspect and we got there and the pool wasn't ready for inspection. On top of that the owner hid from us. My inspector got there a little early and talked to the guy. I showed up five minutes later and a kid lets us in and tells us that he had left. I guess he teleported away.

[Octavious]

Well if you have it in your power to toss them out I would. Screw em... Sucks that they have kids though. That's so freaking weird.

[malchior]

Well if you have it in your power to toss them out I would. Screw em... Sucks that they have kids though. That's so freaking weird.

I think the kids are the lynchpin. They don't want to change school systems but there isn't much choice in town with a dog. I hate to be a total bastard but we cut a deal in good faith and they have been utterly ridiculous so where do I draw the line? I think I give them two weeks to find something and then I bring the hammer down. I don't even know if I should give them that long.

[Austin]

Well if you have it in your power to toss them out I would. Screw em... Sucks that they have kids though. That's so freaking weird.

I think the kids are the lynchpin. They don't want to change school systems but there isn't much choice in town with a dog. I hate to be a total bastard but we cut a deal in good faith and they have been utterly ridiculous so where do I draw the line? I think I give them two weeks to find something and then I bring the hammer down. I don't even know if I should give them that long.

So they won't be out on the street, but out on a less desirable school district?

[Isgrimnur]

Their issues should lie in your S.E.P. field. Their issues are not your concern. This is a business transaction. Let them pack their emotional baggage with the china, and follow through with what your rights are.

[malchior]

So they won't be out on the street, but out on a less desirable school district?

Yep, this is why I am leaning towards saying find a place to live by the contractual closing date. I'm through being nice.

[Smoove_B]

We had a similar issue when we purchased our townhouse. The owners didn't time everything correctly and apparently sold us the house about a week before they had some place to go. Well, three hours after the closing we opened the doors to our new house and the previous home owners were still inside preparing to roll out sleeping bags and go to sleep. They assumed we were just coming to take possession the next day (regardless of the fact that the closing was a few hours ago) and figured they'd spend the night in our house. Those folks could be skeletonized remains in the woods now for all I know, but when you sell me your house, it's time for you to get the hell out.

You could also offer to rent them the house for 2x the mortgage prorated per day or week - whatever they'd like.

[Zaxxon]

You could also offer to rent them the house for 2x the mortgage prorated per day or week

This is how I'd proceed (and actually how most offer contracts are structured--did you not have similar language in yours?).

[LordMortis]

You could also offer to rent them the house for 2x the mortgage prorated per day or week - whatever they'd like.

That's the way I see it. As far as I know, agreeing to a closing day and getting your ass out is how it's supposed to work. Staying beyond your welcome should essentially be a well paid tenant's income for the purchaser, covering mortgage and beyond. Although if your lawyer hasn't advised you of this option, the way I see it is probably wrong for you.

[malchior]

You could also offer to rent them the house for 2x the mortgage prorated per day or week - whatever they'd like.

That was one of the options but considering their broke-ness...I'm not all that thrilled about the option. My biggest beef is that every time they bring up yet another issue there is some lame ass excuse coming along with it. We're well north of the price level where my dog ate the lease hold up. As my lawyer just said to me...this house almost costs real money.

[RunningMn9]

wanted a contingency that they could back out if they didn't find a place to live. So yea. I came up a few more percent just to show we were serious but that contingency is plain bonkers.

I am way late to the party, but I'm shocked that the seller would ask for that, as it is implicit it every single contract to buy in NJ. You cannot compel a party to sell their house, even after they agree to the contract. The seller can back out at any time, for any reason.

[Octavious]

So they won't be out on the street, but out on a less desirable school district?

Yep, this is why I am leaning towards saying find a place to live by the contractual closing date. I'm through being nice.

Nice isn't an option. It's not like you're going to ever see or deal with them again. That's why people suck so much in these transactions. Okay they suck most other times as well.

Did you try pouring coffee on their shoes? I heard that's a good way to teach them a lesson.

[Octavious]

wanted a contingency that they could back out if they didn't find a place to live. So yea. I came up a few more percent just to show we were serious but that contingency is plain bonkers.

I am way late to the party, but I'm shocked that the seller would ask for that, as it is implicit it every single contract to buy in NJ. You cannot compel a party to sell their house, even after they agree to the contract. The seller can back out at any time, for any reason.

For shizzle? Man our state sucks. Leave a dookie in the pool!

[malchior]

I am way late to the party, but I'm shocked that the seller would ask for that, as it is implicit it every single contract to buy in NJ. You cannot compel a party to sell their house, even after they agree to the contract. The seller can back out at any time, for any reason.

Actually according to my lawyer NJ is one of the few where you can ABSOLUTELY compel a sale via specific performance. We actually talked about it today so I'm pretty sure on this one. He said its very hard to weasel out. Especially since I've so stringently held to the terms of the contract.

Edit: To expand, we would actually stage a closing on the specified date with the appropriate notices. If they don't appear, then we send a letter out that compels them to appear. If they don't then we can sue them seeking specific performance. Do I want to go there. Hell no.

[Zaxxon]

I am way late to the party, but I'm shocked that the seller would ask for that, as it is implicit it every single contract to buy in NJ. You cannot compel a party to sell their house, even after they agree to the contract. The seller can back out at any time, for any reason.

If true, that's crazeballs.

[Smoove_B]

I thought in NJ there was a certain point when the seller could back out of the sale for any reason but once some line was crossed (the buyer makes no demands after the home inspection?), the sale was on. Like...everything is contingent on the home inspection and once that happens, if both parties have no deal-breaking demands it's on.

[Octavious]

I thought in NJ there was a certain point when the seller could back out of the sale for any reason but once some line was crossed (the buyer makes no demands after the home inspection?), the sale was on. Like...everything is contingent on the home inspection and once that happens, if both parties have no deal-breaking demands it's on.

That's how I remembered it, but it's been 7 years. We backed out of the first house we were going to buy because the seller was loony tunes. We backed out after the inspection because there were sooooo many things wrong that he refused to fix.

[Zaxxon]

I thought in NJ there was a certain point when the seller could back out of the sale for any reason but once some line was crossed (the buyer makes no demands after the home inspection?), the sale was on. Like...everything is contingent on the home inspection and once that happens, if both parties have no deal-breaking demands it's on.

Here in CO the seller is in once they sign, with very few exceptions. As buyers we had plenty of outs (inspection, financing contingency, etc), but the sellers did not. Frankly I'm amazed that this may not be the case in NJ (though NJ shouldn't surprise me)--there's way too much going on when folks are buying/selling homes for the seller to be able to simply not feel it anymore just before closing. That's insanity.

[malchior]

I thought in NJ there was a certain point when the seller could back out of the sale for any reason but once some line was crossed (the buyer makes no demands after the home inspection?), the sale was on. Like...everything is contingent on the home inspection and once that happens, if both parties have no deal-breaking demands it's on.

Depends on the contract. If your contract is written right once the sellers sign the contract they are obligated. The contingencies are almost all on the buyer side so the sellers are pretty much locked in.

[Isgrimnur]

In NJ, is there a section on the disclosure form for dead mobsters? Is that included in the hazardous waste section or is it a different grouping?

[malchior]

In NJ, is there a section on the disclosure form for dead mobsters? Is that included in the hazardous waste section or is it a different grouping?

That disclosure is only required by the Meadowlands or the Pine Barrens.

[Octavious]

In NJ, is there a section on the disclosure form for dead mobsters? Is that included in the hazardous waste section or is it a different grouping?

He's in mid Jersey. All the mobsters are up north. Let's not get silly.

[malchior]

He's in mid Jersey. All the mobsters are up north. Let's not get silly.

Ahem, it is properly central Jersey, thank you.

[Octavious]

I think my brain is fried today. I've accomplished almost nothing today.