All Forum Posts by: Tom Fidrych

@jesscarr. Technically, the agent's primary fiduciary duty is to the seller and of coarse herself. You can't be honest with your agent(that is to say, you can't confide that you have no problem paying the septic fee, and also ask "maybe we can get to seller to pay"). You have to come across to her as seller doesn't pay, no deal. OF coarse, the agent would really like that double commission and if she thinks your drawing the line, she may be able to convince the seller to pay. The net conclusion should be that you need to do your own homework and represent yourself.

@russellbrazil is likely correct. It seems the Fed is going to keep interest rates low for a while and expect prices to continue to increase in this environment. Inflation in the building materials sector is especially pronounced right now-maybe worse than in the 70's. Maybe someone can chime in on this assetion.

As this drives the cost of new construction up, existing home prices are likely to go up. A likely inflection point is the FED acknowledges high inflation and starts raising rates. Get a few headlines about home prices decreasing and it could really cool the market psychology.

My strategy is to sell a few places (I'm getting old)that don't cash flow as well. I'll hold the others as an inflation hedge. 

Yeah, I'd check with zoning to see if more than 1 unit is possible and also what the setbacks would be. In my county, if the unit isn't connected to the house, then separate water and electric needs to be run. 

@russebrazil. Yeah, your right, not a slam dunk decision but I feel the lack of contingencies of offer 2 and larger amount of money down tilts in favor of #2 If the appraisal come in a little light, they may be able to cover it whereas I  think buyer 1 is stretched to the max. 

@Bradhammond. I did take offer 2. My feeling was that the buyer of offer 1 is stretched thin and if anything comes up in the inspection, the FHA loan may require it to be taken care of. Also, the home did sell above asking and if the appraisal come in low, I don't think that buyer could make up the difference. Off coarse that buyer could also ask for any work to be done pending inspections but I think she's getting outbid numerous times and just wants a deal to go through.

@joes. I hear you regarding pending versus sold. I looked into that deal. A neighbor is purchasing that pending home and the only contingency is well flow test as the lender requires it. Otherwise, the purchaser seems appropriately approved.

It should be noted that neither of the buyers offers were represented by my agents agency. There's a certain conflict of interest to keep both sides in house if possible.

Not sure why my agent is so hot on offer 1. I think she knows that buyer's agent and is doing her a fav.

I'd want to take a look inside before purchase. Perhaps there's a major grow operation happening inside and the floors and walls are saturated with water and need of replacement or worse might be a meth lab. I've seen both of these situations.

My old trustworthy real estate agent retired and I have a new one handling a sale. The house is a bit unusual so we only got 2 offering in the week it was listed(sign of the times). I feel like one offer was the slam dunk but the agent wanted me to take the other offer. What do you think?

Offer 1: FHA loan with 3% down, offer price 315K with 5K back at closing, full inspections.

Offer 2: 20% down conventional loan, offer price 310K, no inspections, accepted in as is condition. 20% down coming from sale of existing home. Existing home has been pending for 2 weeks after just 5 days on market. Buyer of second home preapproved FHA loan by reputable lender.

Thanks in advance.

In some areas, the county may dictate that the seller is responsible to do the inspection and have the system pass inspection. In other areas, there may be a customary payee. What does your agent say is customary in your area? If it goes either way in your area and you have multiple bids than ask the buyer to pay.

Did he say what kind of structural issues were noticed?

If it is common for copper pipes to deteriorate in your area due to hard water, then you could assume this is a cause given the age of the pipes. If I planned to own it long term, I'd repipe it.

I wonder why they are using copper and not PEX? Perhaps ask them as PEX is a proven material, much quicker to install, and less expensive.

The are 3 thicknesses of copper water pipe(K,L,and M.). Are they all quoting the same thickness?

If the leak was the result of hard water corrosion, then you surely would be wise to repipe the home. I assume all the quotes were to replace copper with PEX piping. The cost to do this job is largely a function of the difficulty of accessing the water pipes so you can't use a general cost structure. Get numerous quotes and try to do an apples to apples comparison. For instance, all quotes are to repipe with 3/4" PEX trunk lines, 1/2" PEX pipe to fixtures, new shut off values at fixtures.

It's surprising how varied the price plumbers will quote for the same job. It's possible the company with the highest bid is backed up for months and not hungry for new work.