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I HATE buying a house (1 Viewer)

CapnSharpe

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Dec 17, 1998
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I had an offer on a 5-year old house accepted with the usual contingency for a satisfactory inspection and a closing date of April 29. We gave the seller's agent a list of the items in need of repair last Saturday with a requirement that she had to get back to us within 3 days. Some of things that need fixing are code violations and builder defects - I wasn't asking for unreasonable cosmetic repairs. It's Friday, the seller hasn't responded, and we're still scheduled to close a week from today.

According to my agent the seller's agent's assistant (the seller has already moved out of town for a new job) is still getting estimates for the repairs.

I could understand if the seller came back with a counteroffer on the repairs or the price of the house...but no response?

I swear I'm going to walk away from this deal and get an apartment tomorrow. :angry:
 

Al.Anderson

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I haven't bought a house in 14 years - but I still remember hating the entire process.

The good news is you don't care if you get the house. That means you are free to negotiate to your heart's content. When they don't act on your repair list, go into the closing with a thought out list of price knock downs. If they don't meet your reduced prices you walk out. Since you have the inspection clause in there, and there are code violations, you're in the drivers seat. You may even want to pay a lawyer to do this for you.
 

Colton

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My experience was just the opposite. It went so smooth that we had ZERO problems from start to finish. Our agent was fast with handling the paper process. The owners were very communicative to our concerns. The mortage and loan was done promptly with no hassles. Very enjoyable experience for us. In fact, it was so easy that I would say buying a car was harder than getting a house.

- Colton
 

Greg Morse

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Jul 13, 1998
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I take the exact opposite approach. I'd never buy a house built after WW2, which thankfully are the exception in my neck of the woods. I've seen too many new construction homes and have too many friends in construction to trust anything newly built. Unless you can get to the job site every day and know what you're looking at, contractors will cut every corner they can in order to crash the timeline.
 

mark alan

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I will second (and third and fourth) that statement. I have a 1920's house built with 15" thick stone walls. Try to find that in new construction.
 

Kirk Gunn

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Theresa - call your agent and state the deal is off. When they ask incredulously "why ????", tell them it's the lack of response. Then give them 24 hrs to respond. Also ask your realtor to start showing you other houses since this deal appears to have fallen through. That should give them a "kick in the pants".

Realtor's staff get busy, and their assistants typically are not paid very well, so the urgency is just not there.... By seriously threatening to drop the deal and also threatening your realtor's commission $$$, you should get a satisfactory response. We used this tactic on our first house and the 2 realtors actually cut their commission by 1% each to get us the difference.

Good Luck, I read that buying a house is the third-most stressful life event, behind marriage and divorce.
 

Andrew W

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Surely you must be kidding. The quality of houses has plummeted and the complaints against builders has gone sky high on houses built since the 1990's. All the builders are now require binding arbitration (by their paid kangaroo courts) to settle any warranty issues and you must waive your right to sue for damages.
 

DevinJC

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Nov 4, 2004
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Then what you meant to say was "Gotta build yourself, can't trust anything else"? Which is quite different isn't it.
 

Jeff Ulmer

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An even better kick in the pants is telling your realtor you will be having someone else start showing you houses.
 

Bill Cowmeadow

Second Unit
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May 5, 1999
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Why did you agree to a closing date when you still had repair issues? Sounds like the realtor jumped the gun.

You can be sued if you bail on the deal after a closing date is set.
 

mark alan

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So, how much would a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house with a finished basement, 15" stone walls and a tile roof cost to build? Seriously, I am very curious.
 

andrew markworthy

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More than a grain of truth in this. Not all modern houses are badly built, and bear in mind that the newer the house, the better the insulation and safety standards are likely to be (yes, I know there are exceptions to this, but that's not the point). Plus, on UK new houses at least, there's a ten year free insurance. If anything major goes wrong with the house in that time, the builder's own insurance covers the cost.

We normally have bought new (largely because typically I've had to move jobs fairly quickly with little or no relocation expenses and Brit builders will sometimes buy your house off you at market value if the market is bouyant). Last time we decided to go for an older property. We sold our house, put the furniture into storage and moved into a local hotel expecting to be moved in to the house we'd put an offer on within a week. The seller kept putting off the sale in spite of numerous promises that he could move out 'next week'. Eventually after three months (and hotel, food and storage costs in excess of 400 pounds per week) we got fed up with him. I phoned a local builder and asked when their next house would be ready. By sheer chance, two hours earlier a buyer had dropped out of a sale at the last minute, after the drapes and carpets had been fitted. The house was ready to move into (indeed, we were offered a 1000 pound bonus if we moved in within a week), had double the floor area of the house we were going to buy, was in a more select neighbourhood, and was nearly 10,000 pounds cheaper. We looked round for about 30 seconds, bought it on the spot and were in within a week (I offered to split the 1000 pound bonus with our lawyer, I was so grateful; to his credit he refused).

Within a few months, the price of the house had increased by 50% above its asking price, whilst the one we were interested in has remained at roughly the same price. How do we know? Because after the sale the seller put the house on the market again and sold it almost immediately for a couple of thousand more. Six months later my wife met him in a local store - he hadn't move out of the house yet, but was going to anyday soon. Preumably the new buyer was even more patient than us.

Curiously enough, this experience has made me fond of buying a new house.
 

Al.Anderson

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She wouldn't be bailing, she would be demanding that previously agreed-to contactual elements are satisfied. That can be done by either the seller making the changes, or providing a cash offset.

If the deal was already locked in there wouldn't be any need for the closing.
 

Tim Markley

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Jun 12, 1999
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I'm in the process of both selling and buying a house. Both have gone very well but our purchase has been exceptionally easy. It really depends on what you're buying, who you're buying from and how good your realtor is. The house I'm buying, which also closes on 4/29, is in great condition and the few minor things that needed fixing were taken care of right away by the seller. My realtor has handled everything since I live in CA and my new house is in MO. Absolutely no problems.
 

CapnSharpe

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Dec 17, 1998
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My agent called the seller's agent and basically the seller's agent has repeatedly left the seller messages on her cell phone, but the seller hasn't bothered to call. I'm currently living in short term corporate housing and have to leave at a certain point, and that point is approaching. I basically told my agent that I was going to start apartment hunting tomorrow and that the drop dead date for this deal is Monday noon. After that, both agents and the seller lose.

This was going to me my third and hopefully last house. Buying the first two went relatively smoothly. Until now this sale was going smooth as silk. My agent says she's never experienced anything like this and sounds a whole lot angrier than I am. I swear I'll never buy a house again.
 

Garrett Lundy

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Well this is a question better left upto suppliers and contractors in your area. I have no idea where you are located, what the local supply of granite may be, what style and size house you plan to build, yadda yadda yadda.

Up here in the adirondacks we got more granite quarries than wal*marts, so the market price is much lower than in other regions, as a result we tend to have more new stone construct than most. Slate roofs are pretty rare however. But then I have to ask why would you even want 15" walls, are you expecting to repel cannon attacks?
 

andrew markworthy

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If it's any help, speaking on behalf of my people, we've pretty much given up on re-conquering America and we're not planning to send over the redcoats any time soon.
 

Kirk Gunn

Screenwriter
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Aug 16, 1999
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Darn - Looks like my cache of musketballs is heading to e-bay....:D :D


Good Luck Theresa ! Not sure if I could ever go back to living in an apartment personally.... we just went to a couple open houses at some HUGE townhouses to see if we should downsize while the market is still hot. Just no comparison to a single family house.

Can't you go month-to-month in the corporate housing while you find another place ?
 

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