First-time home buyer here having signed a contract on a property for $188K in WA with a pass/fail inspection (period runs through Monday). Inspection this week uncovered that the hot water heater broke and the space it's in and the subfloor are damaged with some mold. A quote to repair the space + install new hot water heater is ~$3K. My agent first suggested the seller would cover 1K, and I would cover 2K. Now she's suggesting an even split, and the selling price increases to $189,500. It seems like she's really not acting in my best financial interest. For one, she is the listing agent's mother. Furthermore, at the mention that I was thinking about getting an inspector outside her recommendation, she asked if she had offended me, and then claimed in a raised tone that "I am very ethical", which was pretty embarrassing, extremely unprofessional, and a manipulative pressure tactic even at its most generous. I did end up going with her inspector because h...

I bought my house in 2015 for $126k with an FHA loan. It’s now estimated around $213k, and I owe about $96k. I’m considering selling next year and renting for a while. I know rent may cost more than my monthly mortgage, but that’s not really the issue. I’m house-poor, carrying too much debt, and my margins are too tight. I’m 40 and down to less than $100 in my bank account after an emergency vet visit last night. My mother keeps telling me that if I sell, I’ll never own another home, and that renting will be a disaster because I’ll be at the mercy of a landlord. Why do people keep telling me this would be a huge mistake if the goal is to get out of debt and reset financially? submitted by /u/Agitated_Pudding7259 [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1ty231v/broke_and_thinking_about_selling/

Seller bought the house 10 years ago. they claimed no asbestos. seller strategically placed items all over the house to cover up holes and weird things including a heavy as fuck armoire blocking the attic access. once in the attic it was half done with new insulation and half filled with the original vermiculite. im confident that they very much knew about the vermiculite either when they got their inspection done or when the insullation guy dipped oit halfway through the project. this is Illinois so the inspectors are all licensed so their guy would have known. anyone ever deal with this? sorry for no caps, iPhone keeps turning it off… submitted by /u/Mobely [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1txzc8o/can_i_sue_seller_to_get_inspection_fee/

The text highlights a massive blind spot in the real estate industry: **many traditional real estate agents and brokers simply do not understand how real estate auctions work**, even though they are legally obligated to have "subject matter expertise" for the services they provide. According to Myers Jackson a “Real Property Auctioneer” says that The core can be broken down into a much clearer, actionable explanation of how real estate auctions operate and why the standard real estate rules don't apply. ### The Golden Rule: "The Fall of the Hammer" In a traditional home sale, you submit an offer, negotiate back and forth, sign a contract, and then use a contingency period (usually 30 to 45 days) to do home inspections or secure a mortgage. If you find a problem, you can re-negotiate the price or walk away. **Auctions completely reverse this timeline.** * **Before the Auction:** This is when *all* your homework happens. You must view the property, read the ...

We're looking at a nice newer construction home, it's perfect for our needs but I'm a little worried about resale with the bathrooms. The main bedroom on the main level has an ensuite bathroom, and the three bedrooms upstairs only have one shared bathroom. It's pretty big, double vanities, water closet, but still just one. I think that's fine for our small family but this house isn't cheap and I'm worried it'll be a problem when we go to sell it in the future? The house is 3,100 sqft 4/2.5, there's a half bath on the main floor. There's also an unfinished basement that's plumbed for an additional bathroom, but there's no fixtures or anything. submitted by /u/dessertgrinch [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1twqlih/buying_a_house_with_2_bathrooms_for_4_bedrooms/

I'm in Virginia. After my inspection, I asked to have money taken off the price due to the number of problems in the house. Their reply was that the price was already low because they knew that from the start. They agreed to take only $2000 off the price. This $2000 price reduction happened at closing. Now, when I look at realtor.com, it says the house sold for the price before the $2000 reduction. Why is that? submitted by /u/mlmiller1 [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1twn6jo/question_about_money_off_price_at_closing/

Trying to get a real read on what's happening with home values in Lafayette CA, not the Zillow estimates which feel all over the place. We're relocating from Seattle and have been researching for about four months. Everything we find online either lags by six months or is clearly written to push us toward an agent. Specific things that are genuinely confusing us: the spread between asking and closing prices seems unusually wide. We see homes list at $1.4M and close at $1.55M or higher. Is that consistent right now or are we looking at outlier data? And does Lafayette track closely with the broader East Bay or does it do its own thing? Any grounded perspective from people who actually bought or sold there recently would help a lot. submitted by /u/GetRekt1o1 [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1twivlb/what_are_home_values_actually_like_in_lafayette/

Initially I planned as call analytics platform for tele callers in real estate. Then I noticed that instead of just doing call analytics and getting replaced by gaints or as feature updates in crm, how about we can go this as a revenue intelligence platform. like for now just going on vertical only for real estate. The calls are transcribed, speaker-separated, analyzed, and linked to the actual business outcome of that lead, such as site visit booked, site visit completed, booking made, lost lead, or follow-up pending. Over time, the platform accumulates hundreds or thousands of conversations and begins learning patterns unique to that company. Instead of simply saying a customer sounded positive or negative, the system discovers that leads mentioning bank loan approval convert three times more often, that top-performing agents consistently ask certain qualification questions early in the conversation, or that a large percentage of lost leads mention family approval but never receiv...

I've seen tons of posts lately that are basically questions about if they should rent their house out or sell it. A lot of the questions people are asking have nothing to do with the real economics of being a landlord, and instead are in the weeds about original loan terms, etc. I want to separate out a few things first for people. First, you do your mortgage through something like FHA, VA, etc., do a very low down payment, and they require that it be your primary residence from the time you close. They also require that the house appraise well and be free of defects that would keep you from safely inhabiting it on the day you close. It is OK to have your circumstances change though. It is OK to live in a house you bought FHA 5 years ago and later on rent it out because you got a new job out of state or your family grew, whatever. BUT what about the economics of it. As a basic "table stakes" thing, you aren't going to be renting something you have basically no equit...