| Author | Message | ||
     Lost_in_ohio |
Been living in the same house for 17 years and have out grown it. I bought the house for 40k and it is now been appraised at 90k. It will be paid for in the next year. My question....should I try to sell mine first or go find a new house and go contingent? Any other advice?????? My reason for posting here is that I have met with a couple of real estate agents and DO NOT TRUST them. Worse than used car sales men. (Message edited by lost_in_ohio on January 31, 2007) | ||
| Teeps |
My question....should I try to sell mine first or go find a new house and go contingent? Depends on the market conditions. If houses are selling within hours of being put up for sale. Then buying with a contingency clause might be the only way to get what you want. Remember, every aspect of a property sale is negotiable. It's the real estate agents job to protect YOUR interests. I'd just about kill to A) have a paid for house, or B) find a house here in CA for 90k! A final thought; make a pros and cons list on selling/purchasing. You might be better off enlarging your existing house. | ||
| Buelluk |
Go looking for a new house and if the market is there rent out the old one. | ||
| Barker |
I say you need a good real estate agent that you can trust. Find a hi-octance real estate agent with a heart of a teacher. in your area. If you need help finding one PM and I can give you some tools. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
One thing I would look at, if you have kids would be the schools. But if you are DINK like my wife and I. I would move out of Franklin Co.to a county with much lower taxes. The house I have now is twice the size of my first, but the taxes are about the same. Pickaway or Madison would be a good start IMHO. Plus you get a nice ride to and from work  | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
You might want to talk to a Mortgage Broker at this point, too see what type of mortgage you presently qualify for. Since you have quite a bit of equity in your current house, you could qualify for a mortgage on a new one before you sell your old one. That way you can shop knowing that you will be able to afford a new house, what kind of mortgage you will qualify for, and how to use the equity in your current house. You will be thus able to sell your old house under less pressure to close,after you buy the new one, and shop for a new one knowing you can buy it when you find it. Once you sell your old house, you can pay down some of your new mortgage if you chose too, to lower the monthly payments. An old real estate saying" it is better to have the least expensive house in a good neighbor hood, than the most expensive house in a less attractive one." | ||
| Lost_in_ohio |
We have already pre qualified and that gal was a snake oil salesman. Talk about predatory lending. 400k house whose kidding who here. Heck no. Not looking for another 30 year loan. Wolf....looked at a couple down your way. Nothing really clicked yet. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
I like being able to let the lead fly if some vermin comes into my yard  | ||
| Mikej |
First off, while good to be cautious, it’s best to give people a fair chance before you judge them. For example Daves was a used car salesman. For another example I am a licensed real estate agent. It’s not what one is, it is more what one does, preferably with you as opposed to to you. Think of a real estate agent or Realtor as a facilitator of the process who is there to hopefully represent your best interests, put your interests and needs ahead of their own, and to ensure all the proper forms are used, all the proper clauses and such are filled in correctly, all the contingent dates are kept in sync, and all the available exit doors are kept available in the transaction until they are no longer needed. With that all said …. First, get pre-approved financially. These days it is almost mandatory that any offer to purchase includes a pre-approval letter for the prospective buyer. This is important to you as a home owner selling your house as you consider the viability of any potential buyers of your own property when any offers begin to come in. Second, decide what you need in a house, where you would like to live, where you don’t want to live, what is acceptable, what is not. It helps in the search. As to shop now and buy contingent or put your house on the market first, you can include a contingency in your own sale that any accepted offer is contingent upon your finding a suitable new house to move into. So, I’d suggest first talking to a mortgage broker or two or three and getting some numbers so you’ll know what price range you’re good for. Second get a CMA or two or three (Comparative Market Analysis) on your current house which should cost you nothing and will give you some rough idea of current market value. With the CMA, pay close attention to days on the market and date sold to get a better picture of the reality of the current market. Third, pick an agent and get some listings emailed to your from your local MLS system and do some driving around on your own to get a feel for what is out there currently and to begin to focus in on what you want for your next house. As far as picking an agent, in reality it doesn’t matter a whole lot if the agent is part time or full time as long as they meet your needs. Yeah, I’m a part timer agent, but I do a better job than many full timers, and I don’t rely on this as my primary income so I can “really” put a client’s or customer’s needs ahead of my own as long as they are working with me exclusively and are not just jerking me around. Not a sales pitch, just a fact. Also, at least here in Wisconsin, get a Buyer’s Agency contract with an agent (which should cost you nothing as long as the house you eventually buy offers a co-broke for your agent), this way the agent can tell you more about the market and any properties that you’re interested in. Without a BA contract here in Wisconsin then an agent has to act as a sub-agent of the listing brokerage and has to put the seller’s interests ahead of the buyer’s. Define your needs, learn the market, get pre-approved, then start shopping and put your house on the market. Around here there is a huge inventory on the market so finding a new place should be easier than selling a current one. Hope this helps in some way. MikeJ (daytime mechanical CAD designer, offtime Realtor and other stuff) | ||
| Mikej |
Just saw your post as I was typing all that in. "pre-qualified" is different than "pre-approved". Pre-qualified is just rough numbers which anyone with a calculator or a pencil and paper can do. Pre-approved says you have had someone run a credit check and is willing to actually finance you for said amount. Also, when it comes time to write an offer, you can get updated letters to make you look better or possibly not as tastey to sellers. Let's say you are pre-approved to $300,000 but are looking at a $200,000 listing price property and decide to write an offer for $185,000 based on a quick CMA run by your buyer's agent on the property. If your offer comes in with a $300,000 approval letter the sellers may just counter back at the asking price, but if your offer comes in with a $185,000 approval letter then they may think they might loose you if they counter back too high, or not. Ethically if you're pre-approved for $300,000 then you're also pre-approved for $185,000. Sort of like going to look at a used bike and only having $1,000 cash in your pocket and leave the other $2,500 in the glovebox of the car you came in. The seller's could still counter back at $200,000, or they might counter back at $190,000 knowing that letters are easy to get. The best deal is one where both the seller and the buyer are happy with the final numbers and with nobody getting beat up too much. | ||
| Daves |
"For example Daves was a used car salesman." well that caused a really wicked flash back. Thanks a lot Mike  | ||
| Moxnix |
Avoid "interest only" or "adjustable rate" mortgages. Unless you only want to live in the house just a few years. Make one extra payment per year on a 30-year conventional mortgage, which allows you to pay off the house in approximately 17 1/2 years. Buy the least expensive available house in the best neighborhood you can afford. Remember, the listing agent for your house will put it into a multiple listing service and some other agent will likely sell it. Don't list with a really old agent, they like to get listing referrals but expect the younger agents to sell their listings (do all the work). Paint if necessary and clean. Clean shows buyers you cared about the home. Agents want you to take the first offer, so they can get a commission as soon as possible. Your acceptance of a 95% offer is worse for you financially than their acceptance of 95% of a commission. Most real estate professionals get, on average, 3% higher sales prices than regular folk when they sell their own stuff(!). If you list with a discount brokerage, no other company's agents will be salivating to help you for a split of a tiny commission. There is market value and market price. They are not the same. Market price is the offer you accept. If you get a offer you feel is to low, counter higher or consider asking the buyers to pay most of your closing costs. Or ask the real estate agents to take less commission. Nibble until you get what you want. Nobody dislikes real estate people more than other real estate people. (Broker formerly licensed in three states). |
