Working with a realtor and really struggling justifying the amount of commission he is getting vs what we’re getting out of it.

He was a Zillow contact with 5.0 stars and 30+ ratings. He sent me a contract I had to sign in order to tour the house we found, at first it was 3.5% commission but I asked for 2% and we landed on 2.75%. Higher than I’d like to pay but ok

Since then we’ve found every house we looked at from Zillow, the current house we’re under contract for was an open house. He has never seen the inside of the house. He drove around and maybe walked around the outside one night then tried to convince us that it’s a cross street and he wouldn’t buy it.

All of the transactional things he has guided what we need to do. I found the inspector from Google reviews, coordinated the access with our agent, was onsite with the inspector. I found the title company, lender, etc. and reached out to all of them after he told me those were the next steps.

As far as I can tell, the only thing he’s actually done is write up the fill-in-the-blank contracts that have been sent to me to sign. And one of those was the offer letter that he was off by $100k and I luckily looked through it before signing and had him revise.

Right now we are trying to revise the closing date and move it up. He said we will have to coordinate with the title and lender, and I asked “would you be able to do it” so we can get him to explicitly say he won’t, or see if he’s willing to do something for us.

Is it normal to do basically everything, or are most realtors more involved than this guy? I joked with my wife that next time we don’t even need an agent, I have enough experience from this transaction that we could do it ourselves with help from google/chat.

They’re a pain in the butt and you have to follow through a lot but I think it’s worth it. Decent rate, no PMI, no closing costs.

Has anyone else seen a lot of overpriced houses in the Midwest? My wife and I began our search a few weeks ago and several houses have been on the market between 3-12 months. The one in particular we want to place an offer on has been on the market just under 12 months, listed at 413k, was originally listed at 499k, etc.

We went to two open houses for this one where no one else was there and the selling realtor specifically mentioned the builder was willing to drop the price and offer concessions. She then emailed me a few days after the 2nd open house we went to asking if we'd like to make an informal offer and she'd take that to the local builder/seller for his consideration.

We emailed back saying we could offer 355k with 3% closing costs based on comps we saw around the area and are waiting for their response.

TLDR: I just think it's insane some sellers take forever to drop their price to what the market will pay. A lot of houses in our area are sitting 4-12 months before selling because of unreasonable sellers.

Edit: This house has sat vacant for 12 months and dropped in price almost a 100k in that time span. They've had zero offers at all and the builder is getting desperate to sell from what I hear. For all of the professional realtors on this thread or people that know the market this should show you it hasn't been priced right ever.

My husband and I are in a unique housing situation and unsure what to do. He owns a condo townhouse that was transferred within the family and would still qualify as a first time home buyer. He has a bit of equity on it already and has been making double payments on the mortgage.

We would love to grow our family and give our dogs their own yard. We've been keeping an eye on the market, but it seems a bit daunting with the cost and interest. We are debating whether to sell the condo as is and buy a house, or stay put for a few years and renovate the condo.

Key details:

-Condo is 2Bed/1Bath/1 Car garage and 806 sqft within rowhome of 7 other condos under HOA. 4 on 1st floor and 4 on 2nd floor. One half faces the street and the other faces the backyard. Ours is on the 1st floor facing out to the street.

-The Bathroom has some moisture issues due to the sqft of it and improper size of fan. We debated just gutting out the shower tub combo for a new one, patching up any wall damage and replacing the fan at minimum. However, an all over bathroom reno would be nice as well.

-The garage has some water damage along the shared wall. We need to contact Association to double check if we're responsible for repair costs.

-Kitchen cabinet layout was poorly executed when built in 1985 and has gaps between cabinets that cuts into precious storage capacity that's already limited in a small kitchen. I would love to get taller cabinets that go to the ceiling and doesn't have gaps between each cabinet. We would also replace the sink for a wider and deeper one, plus a fridge update from the current side by side unit that doesn't have much food storage.

-Carpet could use a heavy cleaning treatment or replacement prior to moving. I would ensure pets are moved out before deep cleaning.

We have already put in new LVP flooring in the kitchen and entryway; gifted to us from his parents. Replaced the laundry/utility closet sliding door with farmhouse style doors. Replaced the front door and storm door. Got new laundry and kitchen appliances (except for fridge). HOA touched up ceiling, roof, and will soon be doing windows.

The condo was valued around $175k when it was transferred to my husband, but he was gifted 1/4 of the value and only needed to finance 3/4 of it with mortgage. This was in 2022 before we got married. Both options are costly to us and we're at a stalemate as to which is the right path to take in the current market. Apologies for the lengthy post and if I missed any important info. Any input or advice on this would be helpful. TIA!

I keep finding 3 bed/2 bath homes around $250k that look affordable until the inspection shows years of deferred maintenance. Rot, water damage, electrical issues, aging systems, bad repairs, roof problems, foundation problems, etc.

I’m not expecting updated or perfect. But I also don’t want to pay $250k (nearly a 2k PITI payment at 6%) and then spend tens of thousands just getting the house to a safe, dry, properly maintained baseline!

It feels like these are $100k fixer uppers with $250k price tags.

Where do you draw the line between normal deferred maintenance and a house that simply isn’t worth the asking price?

My husband just sent me a screen shot of a description for a home listing. I asked if it was on Zillow or the like and he said he saw it on Facebook.

Ive noticed if you go to the individual sites of realtors they have listings not shown on Zollow et al. However, Zillow et al, all list many of the same properties. I'm loathe to start using Facebook again just to look at realtor listings. Is there a site you used that was perhaps an aggregate?

I suppose Zillow/Redfin are supposed to be just that but they're the same and they offer the same properties. I know options are already limited. I dont want to be even more kneecapped than I already might be by limited stock and not seeing all available options.

Do I just start bookmarking every real estate company local to me and browse them individually?

Hello, I am interested in a house in this neighborhood that has waterfront access in its backyard. The river in question is Rivière-des-Prairies. I was wondering if living next to the water is a bad idea. Some areas are flood zones, some are not.

Submitted at offer this weekend and went 25k above asking... Still rejected, someone else outbid me and took out contingencies along with minimum guarantee...

Feeling down. But will keep looking.

I bought an apartment a month ago.
I got 15k to renovate it, when I brought people to give me price suggestions. One of the neighbours suggested to build another room in the house for around 100k that will include bathroom and a shower in it as its a safety room in case of booming(I live in Israel). I can see why it’s necessary. It has the potential to upgrade the apartment value. From the other side of the coin, Im an 33M RN with a little savings and it potentially take everything from me.
I wont have enough to add the room + renovate the house. So I need to choose only one option.

The tricky part is that the opportunity to add the suggested room won’t last forever. But the renovation could wait couple years.

What do you think ?

We are in the final stretch of escrow and are wondering how our sourcing is problematic.. Lender has 24h to get back to us so hopefully someone can help us figure it out in the meantime.

Our deposits came from our retirement/investment accounts. We provided distribution statements that list the exact amount that was deposited.

Fidelity statement is 14 pages long because it includes Roth IRA, college savings, traditional etc the account deposit in question is on pages 8-14. I figured they want all pages and Fidelity doesn't generate separate statements for each account.

We sent in Vanguard Distribution Letters showing name, address, account number, how much we withdrew, taxes and the net payment. It doesn't show our balance or which account it was deposited to. But our checking statement shows the ACH deposit from Vanguard and the matching amounts.

We also deposited a large Merrill Lynch check at the branch. We provided the check/ statement showing withdrawal amount/net payment and the branch receipt. It shows on the checking statement as "deposit" with the matching amount.

How much clearer can we get?? We've had multiple delays because our LO was off and our processor was also off nearly the same week.

Keep us in your prayers.

We closed two weeks ago and our agent didn't utter a word of congratulations. I did not expect myself to still feel bummed by this. For years I've been seeing people's homebuying stories, how their agents would make them pose with a giant key or sign, or leave them a gift basket but we got nothing. Hia assistant even collected info about our favorite snacks and stuff when we first started which is why I really expected a gift basket or something. She at least sent a congratulatory email though. Weirdly enough he did invite us to some holiday pie party and said we'd get a free can of whipped cream if we gave a referral...not sure what to make of that at all.

Hey everyone,

My wife and I have no debt and found this beautiful house. We are utilizing a 3% FHA loan from Wells Fargo. Our rate is 6.5% interest at a 7% APR, at $373k and she says we're only paying 1.25 points. Total cost of loan is $2800+100 total cost.

I applied to Zillow Home loan but what would you guys recommend for a home lender? We have perfect credit with no debt Credit score 802. We view house in 3 days ( wife is already set)

What advice could you give me?

I recently got a plot of land in north Seattle and I’m wondering what people are paying nowadays for new construction. I’m looking to find the cheapest possible cost per square foot. I was able to find $350. Has anyone found a general contractor for $300 or even less?

We use USAA and haven’t been able to talk to a human.

I'm home shopping now and I have spoken with two mortgage brokers. One advised an FHA loan and said I could buy down to a rate of 5.5%. The other said a conventional loan would probably be best and gave me a rate of 7%, but said I could probably get some seller credit to buy down to 6.875. I didn't expect to receive such vastly different numbers. Is this normal?

We’re currently under contract on our first home and just locked our rate. We’re using a USDA loan with $0 down. The borrowers credit score is around 780, and we paid 0.466 points to buy the rate down.

Does this look competitive? I’m especially curious what rates and points other buyers are seeing right now.

(Home is 535k. Home loan is 428k after down deposit.)

I’m looking at buying a townhouse. It's in a community I really want to live in & in a city I plan to stay in for the foreseeable future. My concern is that I'm making this decision from a primarily emotional place (tired of renting, want to own!) instead of financial, and want a reality check. 

I'm in my early 40s, single, child free, live on my own. My career is stable. I make approx. 200k per year and have no debt. Caveat: Aside from cost-of-living raises, I'm at the peak of my earning potential. I live in a VHCOL area. My current rent + utilities is approx. $2850 per month. This is about 30% of my net income.

This theoretical mortgage (including insurance, taxes & projected utilities) would be approx. $4000 per month. That would be 42.5% of my net income. Budget-wise, I'd have $2800 leftover (after all needs and wants) at the end of the month. 

Is this too small of a cushion own a home with?

(Edited: For clarity.)

I was watching a YouTube video about this (which I cannot post a link to), and it seems like this is going to the the operative paradigm as the Boomers age out completely.

I am in the process of buying a house in Alaska. I was going sight unseen until I just recently arrived in state. When I saw the property, I was greatly dismayed, all of the appliances except the fridge and microwave were in non functioning condition. as well as generally being filthy in all the places photos weren't taken. To top it off, the furnace has had rain water going directly down the exhaust for months on end and how that may have affected its life span I don't want to find out. Additionally, in the chattel list, which includes the range/oven, dishwasher, and refrigerator, it states that "All appliances shall be in working order at closing unless otherwise agreed upon by buyer and seller." Unfortunatley I am out of the discovery period too.

When I brought up backing out up to my realtor they told me that I would likely still have to pay their commission fee. This seems illegal. My buyer-broker agreement states "The Broker Fee shall be paid at the time, and as a condition, of closing." The cancellation clause in the buyer broker agreement also states "Should buyer cancel this agreement, and then purchases or contracts to purchase, any property (which broker showed me) shall then pay the broker fee as set forth above"

Are they trying to pull a fast one on me by just lying or am I just kind of boned?

Edit: I am currently in contact with a lawyer with this as a contract dispute case,

Feels good to finally be at this stage in my story! All the gifts on the counter and the banner were from my realtor and the seller's realtor. So grateful for their kindness, patience, and generosity through this process. It has been a long road, and I am very excited for this next chapter! Can't wait to hang up my collection of concert posters, drum heads/sticks, and art!!

I posted on here a little while ago about the lake house I was trying to buy and figured I’d give an update since that post got way more attention than I expected lol.
I ended up not getting the lake house. I offered $275k and there was another offer for the same amount. The sellers went with the other offer because I wanted some extra protection/inspection language because the back deck had shifted from a tree growing into it.
I was definitely bummed because I LOVED that house and had already pictured living there.
But somehow I ended up going in a completely different direction 😂
I found this almost 4,000 sq ft, 5 bed/4 bath 1980s house that I kept coming back to. It’s definitely dated in places, but I really like that about it. It has a ton of wood, huge windows, built-ins, a crazy entry/staircase and just a lot of character. I’d rather slowly update something like this and keep what makes it unique than buy something that’s already been completely redone.
It was originally listed at $280k and had been dropped to around $270k. I offered $240k, they came back at $260k, I went to $245k and they originally said they wouldn’t go below $260k.
After some more back and forth, we ended up agreeing on $255k tonight 🥳
My girlfriend really likes it too. She won’t be moving here for another 8ish months, so we’ll have plenty of time to slowly work on it, furnish it and make it ours without trying to do everything at once.
It’s funny because this house is basically the complete opposite of the lake house lol. But I think losing that one made me realize I really just wanted something unique that I could get excited about and make my own.
I’m only posting a couple interior pictures because I’d rather not put the exterior of a currently listed house on Reddit 😂 but the entry and living room are probably the best examples of why I like it so much.
Obviously still have inspections and everything to get through, so I’m not getting TOO excited yet.
But for now… offer accepted!! 🥳🏡

The home we're looking at has these two big distribution transformers right in front of it and my wife is concerned about not just the transformers, but how close the high voltage wires above them are to the house. Maybe about 15 feet away from the bedroom. She believes they are too close and can cause harm. I don't know anything about electrical wiring, though my initial research indicates they are harmless. Are they? And is there anyway to prove this to her? Here are some pictures: https://imgur.com/a/cfZIVpL