All Forum Posts by: Laura C.

@Olivia Radziszewski Good point about the buyer's agent really working for you in hopes of getting future referrals.  Didn't think of that - figured commission was #1 priority.

@Alecia Loveless I'm guessing you've done quite a number of transactions and developed a good relationship with your agent. I feel like a buyer at the bottom of the barrel since I'm looking for the cheapest SFH in my desired areas haha.

@Tyler Williams Would be nice to have folks helping you all around, but I would commit to a buyer's agent if I had one - feel it's the right thing to do.  

@Jonnie Furmanchik The problem is it's really hard to get an offer accepted in this market.  I get looking out for best interests, but at the same time, I want to be able to actually get a house.  Multiple people have told me they probably wouldn't have gotten their offer accepted had they not gone directly to the listing agent.  

I'm torn between getting my own buyer's agent or going through a listing agent to buy.  Google searches have been primarily saying it's best to get your own agent (to represent your best interests) and my internal network is telling me to forget the buyer's agent and just go directly to the listing agent.  I am in a super competitive market so it's difficult to get a bid accepted on any house.  I can certainly see the pros/cons of going each route, but there seems to be the major pro of using the listing agent as they would be incentivized to help you so they get both commission cuts.  The argument of using a buyer's agent to represent "my best interests" seems flawed as I'm assuming they would also be hoping for a higher bid price aka higher commission.  Curious to know what the BPs community thinks.

Secondly, I'm looking at multiple cities that may not be super close to each other.  If I did end up getting my own agent, would that even work?  They likely won't specialize in all the cities I'm looking at and it would be quite a trek for them to let me into the houses to view.  I'm in Northern CA if it makes any difference.  I'm not sure if in this situation, it makes sense to just use the listing agent each time or perhaps go through the Redfin route.  Haven't explored Redfin, but you can immediately set up appointments through the app to view homes.  I'm guessing an overseeing agent will be behind the scenes once you're ready to make an offer.  

@David Kelly Hey David, thanks for the suggestion and interesting idea.  I'll keep that in my back pocket.  Spent this AM calling a few lenders and have been shot down so far :(

@Julia Boiniceanu Unfortuantely, don't think I'll be able to find a co-signer.  

Newbie RE person here.  I'm looking to purchase a home near the Sacramento, CA area. I had quit my FT job last year, so no longer have any earned income. However, I should have enough funds to pay for the home in cash.  That said, I'd rather leverage the cash into the stock market or other investments since interest rates are so low.  I do currently own a home (joint tenancy with a few others) and it's one other person with me on the loan.  Ballpark 125K (prob less) left on the mortgage on a house worth $1.7M.  I initially assumed banks won't want to give me a loan for a second home since I already have one mortgage and no job, though thought I'd put some feelers out there to see if it might be possible.  I should have enough assets (mostly stock assets and home equity) as collateral.  

Folks, think I could possibly get a standard mortgage on a second home?  If not, would my only other option be a cash out refi/delayed financing?  I'm guessing the terms of a cash out refi would be less favorable than a traditional loan; any info on your own experience would be awesome.  Any pitfalls or things I should be aware of as well?  Thank you!

@Tom Gimer Thanks for the insight.

I plan to quit my FT job later this year - thinking about getting a HELOC beforehand while I still have proof of employment. Will be a rainy day/future investments type of fund - no purpose just yet. I'm in California with a primary home. It's just me and one other person on the mortgage. 3 other people and myself are on the title (joint tenancy). I've never applied for a HELOC before, but have 2 questions:

1. Will the HELOC affect our joint tenancy in any way? I don't want this impacting our current set-up; home needs to remain as a joint tenancy with 4 people. Someone told me I'd become a tenants in common with the HELOC while the other 3 would remain as joint tenants. This is not what I want.

2. Bonus question - do all 4 people on the title need to sign paperwork for my HELOC?

@David Song Nice that you've finally got a structure after all the process.  How much do you anticipate the whole project costing roughly?  I'm guessing yours will be lower than for most folks since you're a GC as well.  

@Lee Ozawa yup, i'm referring to the fairfield company.  

@Jeff Lee That’s some high utility costs. How much were you looking at for the entire project? I’m hesitant to build one now due to increasing costs - one builder I was hoping to use jacked up their prices by about 40% within a few years.