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Damage to house while under contract

Any advice is appreciated: We put an offer in, the offer was accepted, and inspections began. During the week after they accepted our offer, the sellers hired someone to move out their furniture and in that process the wood floors were severely scratched up. In the negotiations, our realtor pointed out the floors had been damaged and we would like a mere 2k to compensate for the damaged hardwood floor, as they were in better condition and not scratched when we put our offer in. The agent/seller said they are going to give us “nothing” when we initially asked for a total of 17k from the inspection report (there is a TON of dry rot, and many parts of the house that have not been updated since they moved in early 1980’s), so the 17 k was actually a low ball estimate, but we really wanted this house. The agent rejected the 17 k with no counter, and then we came back and decided ok, we still want this house, we will take the hit for the dry rot ourselves, but at the very least, can we get ...
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Getting a thank-you gift for realtor after closing on sale of house?

We bought a house in 2022 (in a seller's market) and then sold it today (somewhat of a buyer's market here in Texas). We used the same realtor both times and she was amazing, even though we were on the more difficult side of the market both times. Obviously she got a decent payday from us both times, so I don't feel like we owe her anything more, but we were thinking of writing her a thank-you card and dropping it off at her office. Would it be appropriate to include a gift card or something as well, or would a thank-you card alone go a long way? submitted by /u/Cold-Priority-2729 [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1tu8xmv/getting_a_thankyou_gift_for_realtor_after_closing/

Local MLS Staffing levels changes

If the local MLS in your area experienced a 20% reduction in staffing levels, would you want to know about it? Would it change how you interacted with their remaining staff? submitted by /u/MimosaVendetta [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1ttw6e3/local_mls_staffing_levels_changes/

Was our offer that bad? Seller ghosting us.

It’s been four days since we put an offer on a house we love, in the mid-Atlantic. The home has been on the market 42 days, and comps show the home is $5-$10K overpriced. We did hear from their agent on Friday afternoon that the seller wanted to review the offer with her daughter, and she was waiting on the outcome of another showing. But we’ve heard nothing since. OFFER: Full price ($405K), cash. DEPOSIT: $15K INSPECTION: No repairs or credit unless over $5K (we don’t expect there to be any) CONTINGENCIES: We settle our current house on 6/12, so settlement contingency. BUT…my mom has to sell and settle her house still (it’s listed), so there’s a sale contingency as well. We’re offering an agreement of sale deadline of 6/30 on my mom’s home or the contract is void. We also included a kick-out clause, which allows the seller to continue marketing and showing the home and receiving other offers. We’ve provided proof that our home is under contract and estimate of net proceeds follow...

Buying without a buyer or seller agent

So my wife and I are first time homebuyers and we’ve gone through an agent we really like before, but at the time I decided to stop looking because it wasn’t financially viable for us to buy over renting. Fast forward 2 years to present day and my thoughts were still the same. We have our rental lease until March 2027, but my mother in law’s neighbors house is getting ready to go to market next month. She knows the seller very well and they’ve let us view the house a couple times already. He’s wanting more than I’m willing to pay but is looking to get it sold ASAP. My last preapproval was only for 220k as I’m the only income in our household and he wants 250. So my MIL has been bugging me to get a new preapproval, despite my income barely changing lol. So really just to appease her, I got a meeting with the bank to discuss a preapproval and I actually got approved to 250 and the guy said we have a little wiggle room. Didn’t ask how much because I don’t care to pay more anyway lol. ...

Inspector speculated and buyer terminated

I’m selling my house and it’s rough, as-is. I already expected issues to come up on inspection. This inspector, however, speculated about two major issues. One being that he thinks part of the home was once a mobile home based on the size and slope of the roof in one bedroom. There is no evidence to support that filed anywhere with the county, nor in any of my purchase documents/survey/title/appraisal, etc. I find it really upsetting and concerning that an inspector would list that based on a hunch. What should I do? The house is old and stuccoed and there isn’t anywhere inside the home that indicates that it was mobile. submitted by /u/take_meowt [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1tt1ddp/inspector_speculated_and_buyer_terminated/

How’s neighbor wall noise in a townhome?

Anyone lives ln a townhome? From what year? And how is the noise performance with your neighbors that you share a wall with? What things can you hear? What about sex noise for example? Foot steps? Screams? Idk submitted by /u/the-furry [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1tszenm/hows_neighbor_wall_noise_in_a_townhome/

Near-retirement non-US real-estate investment question

Here, real estate rents are tax free, up to 6k in local currency. Tenants pay the equivalent of annual property tax (it's really municipal resource usage tax). Tenants pay their own electricity, water, and bring their own appliances - much like in parts of Europe, and Quebec. One also needs to put down 50% to buy a secdonary property - but surprisingly this keeps rents down, and rates of return don't match anything close to what I've seen in North America. The long and the short - I constantly debate buying (residential) property, to rent it out. Property growth is probably 2-3% annually (which in the future is capital gains). The tenant would absolutely cover the mortgage, or 90% of the mortgage (fair enough). Thinking through this, is this a reasonable hedge with a bit of growth, that is also disconnected from the market? Or, am I, in reality making my life a bigger headache, when I can just lock in low 3-4% growth in a local currency ETF (and yes, pay 25% capital gains)...

Is it a good idea to buy a townhome from the 80's in DFW?

Im planning to buy a townhome around the 200k-300k, 2 or 3 bds, around DFW but most of them are from the 80's, 2 bedrooms, and no garages. And I recently learned that most of the structural, piping, and electrical issues start and need to be completely replaced around the 50 year mark. Even if the home is beautiful remodeled (I know it is mostly aesthetic) am I buying a liability? Anyone has had any experience about buying home from that age range? submitted by /u/the-furry [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1ts5wiy/is_it_a_good_idea_to_buy_a_townhome_from_the_80s/

Highest and best with crazy bids over asking

We are buying a home in New England where the housing market is extremely tight. Our realtor is seeing offers 50k+ over asking in our price range ($650-800). First off, that’s absolutely insane to me. Second is that we CAN do that but want to avoid blowing past the highest offer. We lost to higher offers three times in the past month despite waiving appraisals, mortgage and inspection contingencies (where appropriate). We’re told we were close but not enough but no one tells us how close. Now we’re going for another this weekend ($699k) and plan to put a strong offer in today. Went to the open house last Thursday and going back today to gauge interest. They already have one offer so we know we have to go big to go home. Our plan is to offer $730k escalating up to $765 in 3 or 4k increments. We can waive mortgage contingency and cover a hefty appraisal gap (one lender already said they can only guarantee up to 718k). We can also waive inspections (we’ve owned five homes in the past and...