Buying A House: C or D?

OK here's today's entry in "I don't understand this messed up process at all."

We look at a place. Our agent says "there's already an offer on this place, they're deciding about it tomorrow."

Could it be that the other offer is actually also handled by our agent?

I can see two possibilities, both of which sound terrible:

a) our agent isn't allowed to handle offers from two different clients on the same house; in that case, it seems like we're going to be shut out from houses we might want just because another of his clients is already interested?

b) our agent IS allowed to handle offers from two different clients on the same house; in that case, isn't it in his interest for us to bid against each other and send the price up? How can he possibly be effectively representing both of us trying to buy the same house?

Could it be that the other offer is actually also handled by our agent?

This is possible, but unlikely. Any ethical agent would refer you to another agent in their firm and not be the puppetmaster of a bid-off between clients. The information he/she was likely given about a pending offer was from the seller's agent.

So you're saying if we're interested in a house and so is one of our agent's other clients, he would do a handoff of one of us to someone else in the firm? So I might get to bid on the house, but not necessarily through the agent I already know and trust?

Getting the house valued today. May be the beginning of that whole moving process again.

Hey Tomboto, do u mind saying where are you moving? (Sorry if I missed it)

Nick didn't you just move?! (I remember it was around the time we did)
I dread the thought of moving again

November 2012, so just coming up 4 years. We thought this house would be 7-10 years, and it still might - we're debating whether to move, or whether to extend by freeing up value through remortgaging. Em would like a bigger, more accessible garden for Nora, and neither of us feel like we ever quite fell in love with this house. It's nice and it ticks all the right boxes, but it was a pragmatic choice, and after Bob died here it almost feels a bit tainted. Fantasising about 1930s semis with level gardens and maybe even a garage.

So you're saying if we're interested in a house and so is one of our agent's other clients, he would do a handoff of one of us to someone else in the firm? So I might get to bid on the house, but not necessarily through the agent I already know and trust?

I really, really, really don't know anything for sure. I've never even considered it before, because the part of Atlanta I bought in had houses sitting on the market for weeks or months before being bought and afaik I was the first and only person to make an offer on mine.

What I gather from the agent side of things, though, is that there are all kinds of ethical procedures they have to follow to make sure you're represented fairly to avoid having their pants sued off by you in the future.

Planning to move to Shaw. So basically a half dozen blocks east and south from where we are.

Cool. Good luck.

re: agent with two buyers for the same house -- different agencies have different policies (and may differ from state to state as well). You should check the representation contract you signed to see if it's addressed there; if not just ask your agent what his office policy is when the situation arises. Some will rep both buyers, some will pass buyer #2 to the broker or another agent in the office. Whatever the policy I'd be uncomfortable with an agent who didn't at least disclose the situation.

I honestly want to know what the catch is with these Cleveland houses.

I'm used to decent houses costing $150-$200K, but they're decent - they don't look like these awesome houses with the hardwood floors, double stairs, little crooked nooks and big ol' front porches.

― pplains, Thursday, June 9, 2016 9:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cleveland had a steady decline from the middle of the 20th century until very very recently, it suffered tremendously from disinvestment, white flight, crime, environmental problems, there are still large parts of the city that are decaying. the last census STILL showed population decline, though it has slowed down a lot. the city was also hit really hard by the foreclosure crisis.

that particular house in cleveland heights also has enormous taxes, like $9k a year or something, and that zip code also borders some of the roughest parts of cleveland, even though the surrounding blocks are gorgeous

Also Cleveland Heights schools don't have a great reputation.

Living in a suburb outside of NYC in a much smaller house than the one in Cleveland Heights, I would be thrilled to be only paying $9k/year in taxes!

You should be grateful to be paying high taxes imo, they're good

House valued at what I thought and not what Em thought (which is about 10% difference - I'm the optimist). Em's going to want to move.

you planning on staying in the same city?
sorry to be nosy. We did a ton of renovation and haven't really even finished, so feel like our 7-10 years is yet to start! value has risen loads and we could live cheaper elsewhere, which is tempting.

Almost certainly, although our perfect house is in Torquay at way under budget (would be at very top in Exeter). We'll consider towns and villages on the outskirts.

It's gonna be a stressful few months. Found a house we really like. Em basically going feral.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42517287.html

argh

It looks lush. Maybe we just take £10k out of the mortgage and do the kitchen amazingly.

But it'll never have a big garden.

nice! Your kitchen is perfectly fine btw!
We have finally taken down the 'squatter-chic' curtains we had draped over a bar in the living room for the past 18 months and put up a lovely blind. We still need tons of furniture. And another blind.

i was just in exeter recently, v pleasant little burg

That's a nice house! My dad's side of the family seems to be re-convening around Devon/Dorset and sometimes I'm tempted to head that way myself...

They've just decided to build a 9-storey building right opposite our flats in an otherwise fairly low-rise part of town. It probably won't be that bad but sort of wondering if I should be trying to move ASAP before it knocks the value of my flat down (if it hasn't already).

Someone's viewing it right now, which is insane, as it only went online at about 11:30.

We let the son of one of my wife's cousins live in her old family home rent-free for the last 10 years — in return he was supposed to keep it in good shape. He completely failed to do that. We're about to put it up for sale, for about 30-40% less than we could have gotten if he'd kept up his end of the deal. Fucking asshole.

We have (almost) bought a house! People are suggesting we bail until prices drop post-Brexit but tbh we need somewhere to live and the process was stressful enough already.

again just slightly out of our price range but holy shit what a gorgeous arts & crafts house, i fee like i would never get bored living in this place

https://www.redfin.com/OH/Lakewood/1081-Cliffdale-Ave-44107/home/66122958

could use better photos though

also, realtors, stop padding the list of included appliances with things like "smoke detector"

but wow, this room......

hey dawg i heard you liked wood

I totally wood

Has anyone got any experience in lowering an offer? We are fairly advanced down the buying process. It's a decent flat in a seriously good location (overlooking green space in what's generally considered one of the most desirable parts of SE London) so it looks like a a good investment, and in any case it's somewhere we'd be very happy to live for a good few years. Given the clusterfuck the country is in right now we would expect it to lose 10%+ of its value almost immediately and are wondering whether it's worth negotiating the price down at the cost of jeopardising everything. How does one even go about doing this?

I wouldn't expect the vendor to have much trouble selling the flat, even at a reduced rate, although who can tell right now? We were due to exchange this week fwiw, going to kick that can a couple of weeks down the road whatever happens.

(I think both our jobs are reasonably secure but who even knows)

My gut feeling is that it's a bit cheeky to lower an offer you've already made unless you've found like, a rotting corpse in the shed or something. Maybe this is foolish but I wouldn't really worry about price falls in London? Even after 2007/8 prices didn't fall. And if you're looking to actually live there for awhile instead of flipping it in a year or two then I doubt you'll need to worry about losing money.

Prices did fall in London after 2008 but they rebounded in a couple of years I think. We did negotiate down by about £15k the first time round and I think that due to a confluence of factors (location, improved transport) it'll broadly retain its value. And in any case we're buying it as a home and not an investment.

I suppose part of me is wondering what will happen if things continue to tank in the economy and one or both of us does lose our jobs, but that's going to be an issue even if we rent. But is there anything to be lost by trying to lower the offer?

Well, they could think "eff these clowns" and go with someone else who will pay more. Obv.

The flat could be lost, but it depends how you handle it. If you're this close to exchanging the seller could go one of three ways; 1; haha, no way, we're practically done, nice try: 2; fuck you, someone else will buy it at asking or current agreed price, the market is strong: 3; what's 10% at this point when I've made loads on this portfolio already, let's keep the buyer and push the sale through.

Nothing in the survey you can hang a reduction on?

We're in a similar position but nowhere near as far down the line; we've accepted an offer on ours and had an offer accepted on where we want, but it's more expensive than we fully wanted it to be. Seller hasn't had it marked as sold STC yet and hasn't found somewhere to move to. Somewhere similar has come on the market and we're viewing it Thursday. We may use that as leverage to negotiate down. But moving is the right thing for us to do now so we'll go ahead as long as we keep our buyer.

But definitely go ahead if you're buying it to live in; people panic halting house purchases is what will cause issues with the market.

Scik - well no. The other thing the seller could do is take the flat off the market and let it out while she waits for things to improve. She inherited the flat from her parents and has been living in it for nearly 40 years, is moving in with a partner in the country who is also selling his house, so the risk of doing that is relatively low. It's a big lump sum but I don't think the vendor NEEDS the money this minute now, and we're not in any kind of chain.

In which case I'd not risk it.

My colleague has also had her buyers suggest 20k lower price due to Brexit. She's a bit pissed off as basically being forced to sell and the survey was really good so is probably going to push back as much as possible. I think 10% is quite a big discount to ask for tbh

lol getting major funeral home vibes from the first floor of this house http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13443-Detroit-Ave-Lakewood-OH-44107/2098080948_zpid/

lol is that where they shot My Girl?

it was a funeral home

https://www.google.com/maps/place/13443+Detroit+Ave,+Lakewood,+OH+44107/@41.485058,-81.7846067,3a,75y,184.5h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m4!1sPaRqOB6aE_1JG78G00WtgA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x357d109eac18aa84!6m1!1e1

How is that anything but a funeral parlor?

Though I admit, I didn't realize funeral parlors had residences upstairs.

I have a very shaky grasp of personal finance but if the Bank of England cuts the base rate next week and there's scope for inflation in the future, would it make sense to remortgage now?

I still have 14 months left on a decent two year fixed rate atm.

dunno but the tracker we took out 4 years ago has been a blinder.

Whether it makes sense to refinance usually depends on (1) how long you plan to stay (2) how much money you'll save compared to the refi fees. In order to know whether it make sense for you, you'd have to know what the difference is between your current rate and the rate you'd get, the fees you'd pay up front, and what your new monthly payment would be. I started to think about doing it again recently because it looked like I could get a rate that would pay for itself in a little over a year. In my situation I wouldn't want it to be much longer than that because we're still uncertain about how long we're staying, but I don't see moving in less than two years, so breakeven in a year saves us a good chunk of money even if we do move in two.