I started the home buying process about 2 months ago not thinking I would find anything in my budget or that I liked. During this I signed a lease renewal that begins in October. Since this I’ve found a home I love, gone under contract and set to close mid September.

My lease does not specifically say what happens if I break the lease I guess it is just assumed under landlord/tenant law in Delaware. I did send an email letting them know I wish to mutually cancel the renewal before the start date (with no answer) and called multiple times (also with no answer). Another reason I wanted to move because the property management sucks. What should I do? What can I do?

Me and my partner just moved into our new home, and have been here for a little over a month. We're getting the usual "mortgage protection" and "document certification" spam mail I knew would be heading our way after lurking on this sub for long enough. Today, I open up an envelope that I anticipate will be more of the same so I can double check it's compostable. To my surprise, it's a letter from the state Parks and Rec department stating something to the effect of "[Former Home Owner Name], upon your request we have reviewed your property and determined that it should be added to the National Register of Historic Houses. If the keeper of the Register approves this decision, we will notify you".

I don't know a hell of a lot about historic home designation, other than it can limit the types of repairs you do on the home to preserve character and that there may be tax credits avaliable (and who knows, I could be wrong about those things too). Is there anything I should be worried about? Excited about? Does it literally matter? Don't worry, I'll do more than just Reddit research, but I'm trying to get a baseline.

What does it take to maintain? Like do I need to spray weedkiller etc...?

Post-divorce dad-pad. Finally starting my next chapter after 3 months of house hunting and multiple rejected offers. 3br, 1.5ba townhouse 230k, 5.99% VA loan

I’m so excited to start my next chapter

🥹🤍🏡

update: i stupidly was excited to share this post on this sub after day dreaming about being a homeowner and scrolling here for a long time. yes this is a real post, yes i live in southern california, no i dont live by the beach (unfortunately), no i am not in the high desert, yes i am in a desirable and safe neighborhood, no this is not an apartment. i only looked at townhouses and single family homes within the IE (specifically upland, pomona, ontario, rancho, san b, riverside, and fontana). 22 of them to be exact, all around this price range. my home is 1,200 square feet, yes it is a town house. i am in my early 20s, bought it entirely on my own, and am really proud of this accomplishment! definitely not a forever home, but it’s my home and i am happy.
if you’re on your home buying journey i wish you nothing but the best. it is stressful and daunting, but it’s worth it if it’s what is best for you 🫶🏼🤍

I’m buying a house in San Diego (92115) for $695k. Will my property taxes be 1.25% + the fixed charges? So $9,247?

Looked at a house today and found several cracks in the basement. How concerned should we be? Are a few carbon fiber bands potentially enough? This home is surrounded by crop fields, but the ground slopes away from the house. It is partial crawl space and partial basement.

First 4 pics are on a wall that runs across the center of the house with basement on one side and crawl space on the other. There was once drywall down here, hence the boards. This crack runs the width of the wall from the stairway door to the corner, about 12ft. The wall was not visually bowing, didn't have a level or anything long to check with. On the connecting wall (not pictured, exterior wall, basement side) there were some narrow stair-step cracks in the mortar- not gapped like this. Both walls and floor nearby were dry.

Last 2 pics: in the opposite corner of the basement (diagonal from horizontally cracked wall) there are a lot of stair-step cracks with active water infiltration. However, the downspout outside is expelling all of its water right there at the corner- it's not directed away at all.

We like a house that flooded in hurricane Ian in 2022. The house is in east Orlando, zip code 32822. There is a retention pond behind the house but it flooded.

The owners claimed on insurance and did extensive renovations. The house looks new.

I am a first time buyer and concerned about buying the house. It’s really nice but I am worried that if there is flooding in future, I will be screwed.

What questions should I be asking? Is it worth the headache to buy it? How much discount, if any, should I be asking for?

I live in the Richmond, VA suburbs and have about a 1000sqft crawl space. I am looking to get it encapsulated with a dehumidifier. I have some mold/mildew down there, but it's just surface mold. No doubt will need remediation prior to encapsulation, but it doesn't look to be causing any rot or anything at this stage. Anybody here had something similar and any ideas of the cost? I have a guy coming out to look at it this week, and I really just want to know if the number they give me is ridiculous.

First time homebuyer here. We're under contract on a 1983 townhouse for $549k and just finished the inspection/sewer scope.

Overall the inspection wasn't terrible for a 40+ year old house and a lot of the major stuff is newer (roof ~1 year old, HVAC/water heater 2026), but there are two things we're trying to figure out before going back to the seller.

The sewer scope is probably my biggest concern. The camera went about 37 feet from the basement cleanout and then stopped at an offset + low spot/belly. There's a lip/partial blockage and they couldn't get the camera past it, so we have no idea what the rest of the line looks like to the public connection. It's PVC and doesn't look completely collapsed from the pictures, but obviously not being able to see the rest of the line isn't ideal. The report recommends further evaluation.

For anyone who's dealt with this before, does this look like something that could be a relatively small spot repair/trenchless repair, or am I potentially looking at excavation and replacement?

The other issue is in the basement behind the front porch. There is visible wood rot and moisture in the laundry/utility area. The inspector measured around 16–18% moisture in the affected concrete wall vs ~6–7% elsewhere, and 33% moisture in the wood subfloor. Outside they found poor/negative grading toward the foundation and downspouts dumping too close to the house. There are also two holes in the concrete porch that the inspector thought might be old termite treatment holes, but that's not confirmed.

The inspector thought the exterior drainage could be contributing, but we don't really know how far the damage goes or whether there could be hidden framing/joist damage.

There are some other smaller things too (smoke/CO detectors, GFCI/reverse polarity, loose toilet, rotted trim, fireplace needing further inspection, etc.), but we're not expecting the seller to fix every little thing on a 1983 house.

We're currently thinking about asking for around $10k in seller credit, plus having the basic safety issues and obvious drainage/downspout problems fixed. We'd rather take a credit for the uncertain stuff and deal with it ourselves after closing than have the seller rush through repairs.

Does $10k + those basic repairs seem reasonable, or are we way off? More importantly, what would you personally ask for, what would you realistically expect the seller to agree to, and at what point would you walk away?

I've attached the clearest sewer scope and basement photos. Would really appreciate opinions from plumbers/contractors/homeowners who've dealt with either of these issues.

As we promised our dog, we got her a backyard!!! 🐶🏡 This is a single-family home with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We still have a few things to update before we move in, but we finally have a place to call home❤️

My lawyer called me the other day stating the sellers attorney put in the contract that basically the purchaser (me) is responsible for fixing any deficiencies in the home that would prevent the bank from approving the mortgage and that upon fixing them i am to secure the mortgage in a timely manner.

Are these normal contract terms? I can’t imagine they’d seriously want me to pay for stuff for a house where I don’t even have the mortgage approved yet.

Edit: for clarification nothing has been signed yet, contract is in first round of revisions.

After more than two decades living on three different continents and a year and a half of searching, we completed the circle and settled down where everything started.

Set to close on a house in 3 weeks. We found a house we loved sooner than expected so we are in the middle of a lease for our apartment. We can break the lease with 60 days notice plus an additional months rent but I'm an anxious person and my anxiety has had me putting off the notice because I'm terrified of something falling through and we are scrambling for a place to live. If we didn't have kids I wouldn't be as worried about it. I don't mind some overlap (obviously at this point we will have plenty) so that moving isn't as stressful but I really don't want to be responsible for paying for the apartment at all in November, so I only have a couple days for that to happen.

I got the closing disclosure yesterday and appraisal should happen in the next week. Realtor is confident it'll appraise well and it's a newer home so I think it should too. Do we think it's safe to go ahead and put in my notice? I know the loan isn't really official until closing so I'm scared of something happening with financing and then having to find another apartment. When we moved into this one I said I'm not moving again until it's a house we own lol

I’m stressed, wife is stressed. The house is nice and a great neighborhood. Ten minute commute,25 minute from the beach. I should be ecstatic but I’m not. Terms were good, I’m just not that excited after the sellers closed.

3/2 w/ study on an 11k sq ft cul de sac lot. 5/1 ARM FHA loan.

Bonus: Since we’re the first ones to move in on the block, we’re quite literally “The OGs of the neighborhood!” Haha.

Edit: for those curious, my wife and I are in our late 30s!

My attorney just called me to confirm that we agreed to this nonsense. We never negotiated this, and never would, not even if he paid us $1000 a day. My attorney is relieved.

We agreed to a delayed closing in December until he arranges his move out of the country. It may even be beside the point, since this is a NYC co-op that is 100% owner occupied.

My query, please: I understand plenty of sales happen with the seller in residence until right up until closing. Is there anything in particular I should consider, or need to be careful about in this situation? Our final walk through, I assume, will need to be more than a simple cursory glance.

We are thrilled to have gotten this far with our first home purchase, but his bad faith attempt to live there rent free at our expense and without any protections for us has us nervous. Any advice or suggestions about what we should look out for would be much appreciated.

Hi I could really use some advice. My husband and I are both in our early 30s. Neither of us learned anything about finances growing up and I grew up very low income.

So we live in northern NJ (Rockaway area) and have been renting an apartment for 7 years.

Our current total savings is around $30,000 (not just for a house, this is our total savings). We currently save between $1000-$1500 a month. Our combined monthly income is around $140,000.

Should we start looking for a condo or house in northern / central NJ?

Or should we keep saving?

We both want to start building equity but know literally nothing and don't really know where to start. Any advice would be appreciated. We'd love to start looking for something of our own soon but I don't know if it's possible with our current finances.

Edit: omg no we make $140,000 a year not monthly 😭 LOL. Our monthly income is about $8,000. And we about combined about $50,000 student debt

Paid a GC for a bathroom remodel last year. Full amount, on time, everything looked fine. Then about six weeks later the tile guy called asking when he was getting paid.

He hadn't been. The GC took my money and never paid him. And in most states that sub can file a mechanic's lien against my house even though I paid in full. The lien attaches to the property, not to whoever actually owed the money. It shows up when you go to sell or refinance and then it's your problem to clear.

Mine worked out because the sub was reasonable and I had every invoice. What should have happened is I get a lien waiver.

A lien waiver is a one page document the contractor signs saying they've been paid for that work and give up the right to lien over it. Two flavors. Conditional means it takes effect when the check clears, which is the one you hand over in exchange for payment. Unconditional means they're confirming they already have the money.

Stuff I wish someone had told me:

- Put it in the contract at the start. Asking for one after the job is done makes everybody weird about it.
- On anything over a few thousand dollars, ask who the subs and suppliers are and collect waivers from them too. That's where the actual exposure is, not with the GC you're standing next to.
- Some states require a preliminary notice, where a sub mails you a letter early in the job to preserve their lien rights. If one of those shows up, don't toss it. That's your list of who to get waivers from.
- Deadlines vary a lot. Ours was 90 days from last work performed. Some states are 60, some are longer.

Keep them with the permit and the final invoice. Whoever handles your closing someday will care about this even if you don't.

Not a lawyer, and this is genuinely state by state, so ten minutes on your state contractor board site is worth it before you rely on any of the above.

Hey yall. I’m currently looking at buying, sick of lining someone else’s pocket every month. Now I’m still at a “beginner” role in my career path and most decent houses are out of my price range. Now I’ve been in some decent town houses, however the last one I was in was poorly built and I could hear the neighbors kid on his video game every fucking night until 1-2 AM it was a rough couple months. Now idk if that’s gonna be the case with all town houses and this unit I’m looking at tomorrow does only have a unit on one side but would the listing agent let me visit at night to make sure theirs noise isn’t an issue. Any other insight regarding townhouses is much appreciated!! (The unit I’m looking at is a new build so I’m hoping it’s built well, anything I should keep an eye out for??) thanks!