All Forum Posts by: Debra Grumbach

You could tie it up with a standard contract amended to include "outs" for you on interest rate changes and property appraising at a certain level and changes in your personal financial situation. I would not close on it until they are out. Too many things could go wrong. And I would want it at a pretty smoking deal to do that. Emphasize the advantages of getting the house under contract now - no showings, she can make all her plans based on knowing the sales price, etc.

or hire a property management company

why not pay him on an as needed basis? If he gets no calls, he doesn't get paid. if he gets called out, he charges you by the hour.

you also need reserves when you buy a home. usually 3 months. in addition to down payment you will/may have closing costs (some programs allow you to roll those into the loan) and you will have "prepaids" such as taxes, insurance, HOA fees, etc.

Sounds to me that you should opt for a little longer hold period. I would find a local realtor who is willing to give you the details on best time of year to buy in your area (less competition for you as a buyer) and ask them what the trends are (sold prices going up or down?) and then determine your lease period based on that. You may also find yourself with overlap with your lease and your purchase. We have been renting since moving to Texas and have had to overlap our leases every time.

I would definitely ditch Agent Slowski but as someone else mentioned, he may still feel he is due his commission or at least he could argue he is. I would talk to the agent from Company A, document everything, and explain what you want to do.

Then do This: Notify Slowski via email that due to his inability to act in a timely fashion you will be "hiring" another agent to make the offer. The other agent can pay him a referral fee (Agent from Company A should agree to this before you send this email - and probably will). Make sure you point out that Slowski is being fired due to his inability to produce an offer and perform his duties. This should protect you and the other agent from any commission dispute as commissions are not paid out with a "threshold test" alone. The Agent who makes the deal happen is due the commission. Then make your offer through Company A's agent.

I see no problem with charging her "rent" just as you would any room mate. She should pay it to you, not write a check to the mortgage company or any of the utilities, etc. I would suggest "rent" covers her share of all housing expenses. Not groceries. You two should split groceries or she can buy hers and you buy yours if you eat separately, like roommates do. (I understand some young people don't even cook these days) It really should not have anything to do with how much either of you make in relation to the other. Adjusting "rent" if her salary goes down could be perceived as "a different relationship" by a court. 

Good luck.

Welcome. I'm just down the street! 

Go Pro. Watch all the old webinars. Listen to the podcasts. 

I'm curious to know if the "cooling" I have experienced is seasonal. When we rented our current home (yes, we are renting)  we were able to negotiate a discount on our first year's rent and locked in for 2 years. We were going to buy and decided that at "this time" it made more sense for us to rent due to pricing on new/existing homes for where we wanted to actually live.

Originally posted by @Kraig Kujawa:

@Andrew Wong I do believe it is between Denver and Austin.   Austin's airport continues to improve, but their traffic situation is not improving, and will not improve, anytime in the foreseeable future.  

 Austin doesn't make sense to me. Dallas area has 2 large airports. DFW and Love (though it's still small compared to DFW). There are smaller airports all around too. As far as I understand it, Austin does not have much as far as tech goes so no built in talent pool to pull from. Dallas/Richardson/Plano has been described as the "tech corridor" for Texas which is why we moved to Plano (and now Frisco) when we decided to make the leap and move here even without jobs. (It's worked out very well, thanks!)  IMO I think (and I'm no expert) that Plano's Legacy/Corporate/Headquarters Dr area (so named because of all the corporations) would be a desirable spot except for the traffic issues right there (the city is "working on it) or Frisco along the DNT corridor would also be desirable. Talent pool nearby, access, etc. The other location would be maybe where 121 and 75 meet as this would provide lots of access.

@Shirley X.  _ I sent you a colleague request