So our home purchase fell through today.
We were buying a FSBO for $300,000, a 1960s 2 bedroom 1 bath with a 1 bedroom apartment attached. Two owners ever, looks well kept, nice yard, ugly/fixable kitchen. Being able to rent out the apartment was extremely attractive to us, as it’s the only way we can really afford a livable house in this market. The last house we bought was $95,000 in 2017, in a different city, and that was A Different Time.
For example, there is this multifamily gem down the street from us, not as high quality perhaps, and also it’s missing an exterior wall. Because it burned off. And they’re just selling it like that. For $250,000.
So $300,000 for a sweet house in a lovely quiet neighborhood, with rental income, sounded like a wonderful deal. The seller chose to do a FSBO, but we really value our realtor and wanted to make sure we had someone knowledgeable covering our backsides. And I’m so glad we hired her.
The seller disliked dealing with realtors and tended to ignore her calls then call me instead. It was...difficult. But we really wanted this house. We wanted to raise our kids in this house, and stay forever.
This post could also be titled “how our plumber saved us $50,000.” Sewer main inspection revealed that not only the line from house to street was ready to be replaced, to be expected in a house from the 1960s, but also all of the sewer piping under the house needed to be replaced. And the house is on a slab. That’s a $40,000 job, + $10,000 for the connection to the sewer main. The plumber said, “I never do this, but I’m going to play grandfather and tell you to run.”
We can take a hint.
Here’s the thing, though. If I haven’t been represented by my realtor, at that point, I’d have emailed the seller the plumber’s report when announcing the deal was off.
It turns out, at least in our state, if you email the seller a report they have not requested in writing, you are waiving your inspection contingency. I don’t know why. This seems insane. So our realtor was very careful to get his request in writing before we shared anything. I’m so relieved she did.
Sure, I could’ve chosen not to hire her, in order to save $4500. But that could’ve gotten me stuck with a $350,000 poopsplosion.
Tl;dr: Our realtor knew how to get us out of a bad deal without accidentally waiving our inspection contingency.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/n2a42x/how_our_realtor_saved_us_350000_fsbo/
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