I was lucky enough to buy my current home 10 years ago, and we only owe about 100k left on it. We are projected to sell for about 450. It was never meant to be a forever place but you know…here we are. A house went up for sale in my ideal location (close to family). It’s a gut job- termites, smoke damage, mold. I spoke to the seller who was really nice and said he’d like to give a family a fighting chance to get this but already has builders making offers. Once the builders swoop in we’re fucked. They’ve bought up everything in town and flip them for millions, effectively making it so that no one from here can live here anymore. I feel like this might be my chance to get the location we’ve been wanting for so long. I have meetings with our financial advisor, real estate agent and a friend who owns a building company to get as much info as possible on how daunting this will be to really start from scratch and build on our own rather than trying to get an already flipped home. But I’m ...

My brother & I have lived here for about 2 years, our mom rents the other side of the duplex. It's 2 acres & in disrepair; the roof leaks, the doors all get stuck, I've had to replace every faucet since moving in, the floor boards are uneven & not installed correctly. The carpet is permanently stained with urine from the previous tenants (dogs & kids lol). We got rent really cheap because the previous tenants absolutely trashed the place & we cleaned it up ourselves. She & her husband leave us alone most of the time. They let us do whatever, as long as we pay rent. I communicate & ask for permission for anything big (fencing the yard, expanding my chicken run, planting trees). The agreement states that they're supposed to handle outside maintenance, like the lawn, however they haven't. My mom mows the place herself. I repair anything that breaks unless I absolutely can't figure it out. My brother has 9 dogs, as he's a dog trainer. D...

I'm under contract to buy a house, past all contingency periods at this point. I realized very late in the process that the house is only legally a 3 bedroom house when it was listed as 4br on both the MLS listing and zillow. I also just figured out through the inspection, subsequent electrical work (paid for by the seller), and calling the power utility, that the house is 100 amp service, not 200 amp which was explicitly listed in the MLS listing. When I found out the bedroom discrepancy, the seller didn't want to negotiate down on that. When I found out the amperage, I got a quote from the same electrician they used to upgrade the panel and service entrance to the house, and I got a quote from the power utility which requires that the homeowner pay for the labor to upgrade the overhead wire to the house. My realtor provided both quotes to the seller, asking them to contribute the cost toward our closing costs. The sellers agree to pay for the private electrician (about half ...

I’m trying to better understand how home equity actually works, especially with a 30-year mortgage at today’s interest rates. For example, let’s say: $1M home ~$250K down payment ~$750K mortgage 30-year fixed at ~6.125% ~$4,550/month principal + interest From what I understand, the first few years of payments are heavily weighted toward interest. So in the first month, roughly $3,800 goes toward interest while only ~$700 goes toward principal. After 2 years, I believe you could have paid around $109K in mortgage payments but only reduced the loan balance by roughly $18–19K. Obviously, the original down payment is already equity, and appreciation can increase equity substantially. But the interest portion of the mortgage payment doesn’t create equity at all. So when people say “you’re building equity instead of throwing money away on rent,” how should that actually be thought about? Am I misunderstanding something? submitted by /u/sundrenchedwindow [link] ...

Hi! I purchased an almost 80 year old home here in Austin TX in the Highland neighborhood north of North Loop (that is north of Hyde Park). The home originally was a 4-2, 1800 sq ft house and about 14.7K square feet lot. The house was purchased in October 2022 for $565K. I did some internal remodeling and added 2 private bathrooms and converted part of the living room space into a 96 square feet room. I completed the first bathrooms with all permits approved. For the second remodeling campaign where I included both the 5th bedroom and bathroom in the same permit, I didn’t receive all the approvals because I added joint compound on the drywall screws before the inspectors could come and see the drywall pattern and make sure the right amount was used and the right distance. According to the city, if I wanted to get the permits approved, I needed to get an outside or independent engineer to approve that section. I have done other remodeling such as adding lights on the sides of the hou...

Hey all! Big financial decisions on the way, and I'm trying not to derail a solid financial situation by bad decisions/timing. Half exciting, half scary. Question: With a planned income drop and kids soon, is it safe to buy an $800-850k house now, or is buying at all right now a mistake? Me + Wife: late 20's, HCOL metro (not VHCOL) w/ no debt Income Total HHI: $200-250k I make $150k/yr in sales - just got promoted so may make closer to $200k next year. I'd love the career flexibility in 3-5 yrs to do something lower-paid but less stressful, maybe closer to $80-100k/yr Wife: $50k, career growing Spending ~7k/mo all-in for a very comfortable life. Rent is $3.1k of that. Savings ($1.05mm, largely from inheritance) 150k total in our 401ks 50k in Roth IRA 25k in managed brokerage 35k in HYSA $765k wife's inheritance All investments (401k, Roth, brokerage, etc) are in index funds (VTWAX or VTSAX/VTIAX) Note: potentially receiving another $500k in the ...

So we own a 2B1b house in the best parts of my Indianapolis neighborhood. Homes priced right go within days. I looked at a house today. Was priced 360k and 9 days on market has dropped to 350k .Built 1960. Its a larger house than mine. Placed in the school districts we want. Was recently sold in 2022 for 290k. No updates from this owner. Also master bedroom smells atrocious of dog or cat piss. Smell has permeated around whole house. But stronger in bedrooms. AC about 18yrs WH about 10yrs Roof about 15yrs Kitchen needs remodel Flooring looks new. Done by a DIYer that has failed. Gaps everywhere and some raised uneven connections. Unsure of subfloor condition. My plan is to place an offer on a house with the contingency that I sell my house first. Both my lender and realtor are pressuring towards bridging the loan instead of contingency offer. Also, instead of just asking for a discount on the house to do these repairs. My realtor is pressuring instead, ask for an allowance to r...

My family has a house we are trying to sell. It's been on the market for a little over a year. A few walk-ins but no bites, we keep reducing the price of the house like 25k every 3 months. It's not exactly the sellers market at the moment i'm told, and it's sort of an unusual house on a hill. So I was thinking in this line of work is it even worthwhile to buy ads to get traffic to the houses' zillow or redfin? If it's worth it for those that have used it, what is generally considered the best service? submitted by /u/retroideq [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1wfeqox/is_paying_for_adsviews_worth_it_for_trying_to/

I have a 120 year old house in New England. It has an obstacle in that it’s elevated, stairs leading up to house and no driveway. Listed at $699k and reduced to $675k after a week because I’m under contract on a new property. After a week at that price, I got an offer for $650k and they eventually came up to $670k, which I accepted. They had an inspection and the next day pulled out with no discussions of negotiating. My realtor pried and they said there were tons of issues in inspection report, including knob and tube in basement and a foundation issue. I had a structural expert come look and said a sill was deteriorated, and gave me a $17k estimate. I had an electrician come and he found mostly dead knob and tube, with one live wire going to a light bulb and switched it out. The buyer contacts my realtor directly and says she wants the house but her parents who are helping do not. We give them structural assessment and offer $20k credit, and show that electrical issue has been rem...