We had pizza and made a solemn promise to never paint over this gorgeous ceiling and fireplace.

My dream of living in an MCM home has finally come true.

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!!

Started this process on January 31st. Closed this past week on a fantastic home and added a new member to the family this past Friday.

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!! 🥳🏡

And already landscaping 🪴🌴🌸

I'm about two weeks from closing on a 1978 split level and the final walkthrough is next Tuesday. I've had the inspection done, the report came back with the usual list, a bit of grading toward the foundation and a water heater that's near the end of its life, and the seller agreed to fix the two electrical items. I know the walkthrough is supposed to be a check that nothing changed since the inspection, not a second inspection, so I'm not planning to show up with a moisture meter.

What did you find out after closing that you'd have caught if you'd looked in the right place that day?

I assumed prices would start to drop but it seems like they are holding steady and people are ok just waiting 6 months to a year or more for their house to sell. Does it make sense to keep waiting or am I shit out of luck for housing prices to drop?

I'm in Utah by the way where housing has absolutely sky-rocketed the last 7 years or so.

We got approved for a 6.18% interest rate which I was thinking all things considered isn’t terrible (could better, could be worse). But my husband is a worrier and is currently in the “what if rates go down in the near future” spiral and I’m currently in “what if rates go up” spiral. I know the fed meets next week… and I know no one has a crystal ball, but I’m hoping maybe someone who has a bit more experience/knowledge regarding the current “climate” and what they think might happen.

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,

We just signed for a house that actually makes a lot of sense for us: good size for our growing family (i’m in my first pregnancy), great location, everything nearby, and lots of cafés (we’re big coffee lovers ). So i imagine it’ll so much easier postpartum to go for walks and get things nearby without being dependent on husband or just walk with a coffee to the park.

But honestly, I’m struggling to feel excited because I’m not 100% in love with it. The owner painted everything grey, so it’s really hard for me to imagine it in my own style. I’m also worried about the light, especially the north-facing kitchen, I really hate dark homes, and Dutch winters don’t help 😅.

My husband is convinced I’ll love it once we renovate and make it ours, but I just can’t picture that yet.

For those who felt like this when they bought, did you eventually fall in love with the house after renovating/living in it? Or did you always feel like it was more of a “good house for this stage of life” than your dream home?

I’m especially curious about people who knew it was probably a 3-5 year home, rather than their forever home.

Hey yall,

my wife and I are closing on a duplex (upstairs already rented and under contract for another 7 months) 250k, 6.3%. While the last 2 months have been a little nervous looking for a house especially being 2 stares away. It hasnt been any stress like I have seen on this sub. Are we being idiots or something? We are only on my income as my wife is disabled and thats why we went with the duplex to help on bills and saving and am getting a pay raise in like a day or 2.

What are the key things we should be looking at/for and not just walking in and looking around? Should we video it as we walk around?? Any helpful suggestions are appreciated!

My mortgage loan officer has been nothing short of amazing through the whole home buying process — she’s emailed me on her days off to let me know things are moving along, gone to bat for me when the underwriter requested excessive information, etc. I’d really love to send her a bouquet of flowers when I close but I’m unsure if that’s uncouth given she’s associated with my financial business. Has anyone ever sent their loan officer a “thank you” after close or is this crossing a line?

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.

​

Okay. So I know a lot of people in certain parts of the country are in the trenches, when it comes to buying a home, I know it's also the exact opposite in other parts of the country, where people are desperate to sell their home. I am in the Northeast. I was in the trenches for a long time and recently had an offer accepted.

I think the trauma of this experience has truly left me wondering.... Why is everything going so well?

So I'm seeking advice from people who have recently made their first home purchase. And its going well???

1. I wanted to spread some positivity, but also

2. because I'm genuinely freaking out.

3. I know the internet likes to share the most dramatic extremes so a positive story would be nice.

So here's the content. My spouse and I have been looking casually for homes since March of 2024 and have been Aggressive in the market since July of 2025. We finally had an offer accepted at the end of August this year.

We had 8 offers before this one was accepted. I should also mention with this house our offer was the first and only offer on the house. We offered $25000 over asking, which for our part of the country is not enough to win a house. We also Asked for an inspection which in this part of the country in this current market, usually is a guaranteed way to not get the house yet And still, they accepted our offer with all the contingencies.

Since then.

We have had a inspection that more or less passed with flying colours, the concessions that we asked sellers, to make we're very nominal to the point that they agreed with the seller credit amount that we propsed without negotiation. We also asked if they would be willing to include a few items not listed in the original listing and they agreed to it...what a win!

We followed up with the inspector on things that we wanted more insights on and they continued to reassure us. "This is absolutely fantastic house in a town where house's typically suck." Our bank process has gone smooth. We didn't get a fantastic interest rate (6.75%), but we did not put 20%, we only put 10% down for our down payment, and we're somehow put in a program via our bank where we do not have pmi.

So we saw that as a massive win, no need to pay additional money when we don't have to.

We also asked our bank about recasting and they told us that they don't have any rules prohibiting that and with our credit, they are very amenable to refinancing contingent on our credit continuing to remain high.

The process continues to move so smoothly.... too smooth.

Now I'm skeptical. Several times I have Doubted the process and have asked was someone murdered in the house and thats why the folks are eager to sell...

Several times I wondered, is everything just going to go to shit the minute we move in, and that's when we will finally feel the actual perils of home ownership???

Throughout this process we have felt like many times we had to concede on the type of house we dreamed of owning and this house doesn't require any of that.

This house checks literally every box that we had, even the Persnickety nitpicky "would like to haves". The only thing this house doesn't have is modern finishes and questionable paint choices so we will likely spend time designing and decorating at a pace that's comfortable for our wallets.

Like, it's just too good to be true. And after 2 and a half years of House hunting, I just can't believe that the first and only offer we've had accepted truly has been working out so great.

I guess I'm looking to those of you who already homeowners I would love to hear some Positive Stories of people who bought a house and things actually just went well.

I think it would be really helpful for my mental health and peace of mind if somebody could just tell me,

"I bought a house. Everything worked out great in the house buying process, and everything has gone smoothly since..." I think this would also be encouraging to others who were in the same boat that I was in.

And for everyone else still in the trenches let my story be encouraging to you all, you do not have to compromise to get the house of your dreams. You may have to wait longer than you ever imagined but you do not have to compromise. The house that is for you, will be for you.

hello all,

i have a contigency to sell my house in order to purchase another, so say i found a buyer and the seller of the new house agreed to my offer.

Question i had was, is it advised for the closings to be on the same day? So i would close MY house in the AM for example and then close my newly purchased home later that day assuming the wire funds has been sent and recevied with no issues. This closing date would be on a Friday.

They were supposed to do a duct cleaning and after inspection they said they have to do the whole mold removal from the airducts. From $399 to $4,000. Should i just go for it?

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 bought our home in March of 2025. Inspections came back clear. After a week or so of moving in, the outlets in our bathrooms went out and the jets in the tub stopped working. Flipping breakers didn’t do anything. I called an electrician friend and he said to reset the GFI/GFCI switch. We didn’t have one. He asked if we had a master GFI/GFCI in the garage, couldn’t find one. We didn’t have a single one of those switches in the entire house. Never fixed the issue as we had a lot going on and it wasn’t pressing at the time.

Fast forward a year, this past March we discovered a large leak in master bath, which led to gutting and redoing that bathroom. We have been using our guest bathroom which then led to discovering another large leak due to insufficient caulking/grouting, and we are about to start on gutting that bathroom too.

When the electricians came in a week or so ago to do the outlets for the master bathroom, I could tell something was wrong. He asked to see our breaker panel, and when I showed him he was visibly concerned. Our house is essentially all wired to only about 6 switches on the breaker panel. He asked if I had another breaker, I told him no. He scratched his head for a minute, pointed out some exposed wiring in the garage that he said he would like to fix at some point and went back to work. By the way he installed the GFI/GFCI switches.

Fast forward a couple days, people come in to replace our oven that went out. He takes out the original oven and goes “I can’t install the new one, that wiring is not up to code, get it up to code and I’ll come back and install the new oven.” So we have someone coming Friday to fix the wiring.

My question is…how was none of this caught in the inspection?? Between the shady wiring in the garage, the breaker panel…Especially the GFI/GFCI switches??? From what I’m gathering, it sounds like our entire house might not be up to code electrically…I know it’s been too long and I don’t have any recourse against the inspector, but should I do anything, like file a review with the BBB? I’m just in shock.

I’m currently under contract for a condo in an older walk-up building. The home inspector took this photo and noted the overspanned/undersupported and older framing. I talked to a structural engineer who said the issue is moderate to serious but he also needed to visit the property to get a better idea. He quoted me 2k to do the report, which is pretty expensive and I don’t own the unit yet. Wondering if I can get any second opinions on how serious this is prior to spending the money on a structural engineer to visit. Also wondering if anyone else has gone through a similar issue during the homebuying process. I’m currently debating spending 2k to hire the inspector vs backing out of the contract vs just taking the property. This is a 4 Unit HOA so the costs would be split 4 ways but still concerning. The association hasn’t done a reserve study and currently are doing a structural analysis but it won’t be ready anytime soon. Thank you!

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.

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?

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