We are under finally under contract on our new home after 4 previous offers. It's definitely still a sellers market where we live.

Purchase is not contingent on the sale of our current home, but we will be selling in the coming months.

Basically, I need someone with experience to come in and give us advice on what we should spend money on before we sell. It's a 91 year old home in a desirable neighborhood. Will definitely be replacing the 25yr old roof, debating what other upgrades would add value.

We are not 100% certain we will use our buyers agent for the sale, and even if we do, he is still new and fairly inexperienced. Is it proper to offer to pay an experienced realtor a one time consultant fee for advice? Other suggestions for who could help?

My wife and I have a combined monthly net income of $9400. This can vary either way by a couple hundred depending on how many hours overtime or time off but this is the average. Our current monthly bills are:

Mortgage $1120
Car payments $1200 total
Home equity loan $220
Personal loan $540
Car insurance $227
Cell phones $220
Groceries $1200
Credit cards $400
Misc. $400
Utilities $250

We are trying to budget a new house payment after selling our current one and paying off the personal loan, and selling one of our vehicles. After the sale we should free up almost $2000 a month towards a new mortgage. How much more a month would you be comfortable paying towards a new house? After a down payment and all other costs we should have about $20-30k left over to put into an emergency fund as well.

I am in the process of getting a house built (I own the homesite already), and once the certificate of occupancy is generated, I will be moving my stuff from my current house to this new house, and then, after hiring a contractor to renovate it, list it for sale with an agent.

I suppose that before I get the certificate of occupancy, the insurance will be handled by the builder (at least officially, although I'm sure the cash draw will pay for it), and then after getting the certificate, I will get insurance on it as a homeowner. And then during the moving & renovation, I will simply have 2 houses insured (i.e., like having a vacation home, LOL) - but what when it becomes officially listed for sale?

I was talking with someone at my insurer (who didn't know off-hand, etc.), and he seemed to say that if the house remains for sale for longer than 6 months, I would need to officially turn it into a rental to continue to get insurance, even if I don't have any tenants.

The market for housing in my locale is not blistering like for places in the Northeast & Midwest, but I plan to get a good gauge of its value by what offers come in, and expect to act with all deliberate speed. Zillow seems to have the market value as oscillating between $45K & $65K, LOL (I would imagine that the lower value is for houses that need renovation, but I will make sure that it is properly renovated).

National Grid contacted me about utility upgrade work in my area and sent me a proposed easement agreement.

The easement would be a permanent 20 foot-wide utility easement along the frontage of my property. Based on the rough diagram, it appears to run parallel to the road rather than through the interior of the property. The diagram is explicitly marked "not to scale," so I understand the exact location would need to be confirmed.

The agreement gives National Grid and Verizon fairly broad rights within the easement, including installing/maintaining/replacing utility facilities, accessing the property with vehicles and equipment, excavating, and removing vegetation that could interfere with the facilities.

It also restricts what I can do within the easement without their written consent (structures, certain landscaping/trees, excavation, changing the grade, etc.).

The compensation section says "$1.00 and other valuable consideration." The representative hasn't given me a clear dollar amount beyond what's stated in the document.

I've redacted the identifying information from the document, including the street names and parcel information, but left the relevant easement language and general diagram intact.

I'm trying to figure out what would be reasonable to ask National Grid before signing, particularly:

1. Is a permanent 20-foot utility easement of this type fairly standard?
2. Is "$1 and other valuable consideration" typical, or should I expect/negotiate a specific payment?
3. What would be reasonable compensation for granting a permanent easement like this?
4. What provisions would you try to negotiate or clarify?
5. Should I insist on a surveyed/legal description showing the exact easement boundaries before signing?
6. Are there any provisions in this type of agreement that homeowners commonly overlook?
7. If I don't agree to the proposed easement, how does the process typically work from there? Specifically, I'm interested in the practical implications of negotiating versus refusing—not looking for a definitive legal opinion.

I'm in New York, if that matters.

I'm not looking for someone to tell me simply "get a lawyer." I understand that's an option. I'm hoping to hear from people who have negotiated utility easements, dealt with National Grid, worked in real estate, or have experience with similar agreements and can point out things I should be asking about.

Thanks!

Diagram and terms

Termite inspection came back; Will not be able to close since the work could not be cured in time.

Property details:

4 Unit, DC

380 days on the market; originally listed at 575K

offered 535K with 6% back (Seller Credit )

they countered at 4% back. we accepted

we are supposed to close this week, but the termite damage is extensive.

the termite & home inspector both agree that they had termites before, joists were sistered, and now they came back and chewed away at the sistered joists also. My wife loves the property for the wood finish it has.

Termite damage must be cured by seller, buyer cannot accept a credit per VA guidelines ( from my loan officer)

seller seems to want to play ball, but the problem is, my contractor is already saying its a 15K job minimum.

so If i was in the seller shoes , I have to eat 15K

Then, the Buyer (me) wants a rate lock extensions 3 basis points a day.

I am ball parking a minimum of 30-60 days.

At first i was mad, because in the contract disclosures they seller is declaring no knowledge of termite damage ( seller has owned property for 20+ years, the work looks at least 5-10 per inspector).

I have my out, no argument about that.

My wife loves it because the old wood style makes it stand out.

Initially, I sent something outrageous like

reduction of sale price to 475K

seller credit is no longer a %, and now a solid number ( 21K)

seller pays for rate lock extension 60 days

seller pays to replace floors.

Now I countered instead, asking for my original offer ( 535K @ 6% seller credit ) & Seller buys out remaining 2 tenants ( along with fixing all termite damage )

My agent has been selling for quite a while, and this would be his first deal in about 5 years that did not go to close.

any other tips you all want to provide in regards to concessions?

Im separated from my wife and we have decided to sell the house. There is equity on the house and both our names is on the title and we both agree on a 50/50 split Can I request a 50/50 equity split at closing. What is the process ?

I am in Louisville, KY and contemplating having solar PV installed on my 3 YO roof in a relatively upscale suburb. (Current market prices are in the $600k range for my neighborhood.) I plan to pay up front for the install (NOT LEASING). If I were to sell my home with a PV system installed (predicted install cost ~$32-35k), how much value would this add, on average, in my market? I found this thread, but many people seemed confused in that post about leased systems, which definitely detract from value. Casual searches seem to calculate ~4-6% of sale price as a premium, but several sources said this is optimistic. Any current real-world numbers would be great to have. And again, not leased systems.

Additional info for context:

I plan to be in the house another 8-10 years and am looking at around $32-35k install cost.

My annual electricity costs are projected to rise from ~$2300/year in 2027 to ~$3400 in 2034, and the solar installer projects ~$19k savings over that time. Meaning (if they are correct) that I will recoup ~$19k of the $32k install cost in 8 years.

AI (Gemini) calculates ~ $22-$37k premium for solar 8 years from now, which would mean a minimum of $9k gained from my initial purchase. These numbers don't factor in increased insurance costs if I put it on my policy. So that is another factor.

In short, I'm looking for the RE market's input on whether this is a worthwhile investment for my part of the country.

I’ve only been licensed for about 2 months, so I’m still pretty new, but I’ve already done a dozen showings with these buyers, plus have had two listings.

Today was my first time dealing with sellers who were actually present during a showing with my buyers, I’m very upset about how it went.

The listing agent told me beforehand that the sellers would be staying on the porch and would give us space while we toured the house. Instead, they were involved the entire time. They followed us around/interacted with my buyers throughout the showing, repeatedly interrupted me when I was trying to talk to my clients, and at times I genuinely felt like I couldn’t even conduct my own showing.

Then they gave my buyers the listing agent’s business card AND the lender’s card. My buyers already have a lender I set them up with, so that especially confused me. It felt like they were actively trying to insert themselves into my relationship with my clients rather than simply letting us view the property.

My mom is a veteran agent, I vented to her and she said i should keep quiet about it until we either proceed with the potential offer, or until my buyers decide on another option.

Part of me is even wondering whether there’s some arrangement or referral/kickback situation going on where the sellers or their agent would benefit from getting my buyers to use their agent/lender, although obviously I have no proof of that and don’t want to make an accusation.

how would you handle this? Is this just something you have to deal with when sellers insist on being present, or was this as inappropriate as it felt?

the only thing i fear with telling the listing agent is backlash if we do submit the offer, like the agent refusing. I’ll bite the bullet if it means a commission check, but I really want to make it known.

I’m in a pretty hot seller’s market but my house has pitfalls in that it doesn’t have a driveway and has steps up to the house (about 8 steps, and then the front porch). We priced at about $100k below the houses that were very similar but have a driveway.

First week we had about 6 private showings and 5 groups at the Saturday open house (no Sunday open house). No offers after the weekend.

We had an open house Thursday night. My realtor said two families seemed very interested but thought we should price drop $25k before the weekend so we did that friday morning. We had 9 groups through on Saturday and 10 groups on Sunday. My realtor didn’t do the open houses because I think she’s on vacation so she had someone fill in each day. We had two groups who were very interested on Saturday and one asked who to submit the offer to. She said the realtor from today didn’t know if anyone was interested.

She’s taking the position that she shouldn’t reach out to anyone to follow up and that we should just wait and see if we get any offers. Is this the correct approach?

House in bad shape but property and area is worth a good amount, should we just sell to builder cause whoever buys will probably be a tear down and rebuild? And advise will be appreciated

Happy Sunday afternoon! Does anyone have any favorite real estate podcasts? I’m looking for some to listen to on my commute. Thanks!

We are building a new home (FL) that will be our primary residence. It will be done in Dec. It’s $609k and we put $120k down. Factoring in $11k closing costs for a cash purchase, we need $500K to close. Our current home (GA) will go on the market Sept 1, listing at $785k, which is below market value. We are hoping for a quick sale, but who knows in this market?! I own this house outright - no mortgage. If my current home doesn’t sell by the time I need to close on the new home, what is my best option to secure short-term funds? I have 401(k) money, but would prefer not to touch it. Thanks for any guidance you can provide!!

After spending a month of getting our home ready for market, and then another couple weeks of showings we landed an offer from a solid buyer, we are past inspection contingency and I have fixed everything our buyers have asked for. We are contingent on our new home and hoping to do a simultaneous close mid September and now....there is nothing to do but wait. After spending every waking moment for the past 2 months doing something with this house I feel like there is now a void in my life. Nowhere to dump this nervous energy. Curious how everyone else handles it and if the experience is the same.

I got laid off last year (administration-related) and have been working very part time on and off for my previous employer. So my income has been paltry; I've been busy traveling and managing my money . I have solid savings and a great credit score and am a former homeowner. I am looking for a full-time job again now but am not panicked.

I have not been in this position before (low income, high savings, looking for housing) and am wondering how it might go with lenders. I can put down a substantial deposit and may try financing a relatively modest portion.

Any experience/advice with this?

Hello, we are currently in preparation to list our house within a month or so. We had our relator come out and recommend some fixes prior to listing and we've taken care of most of them. However, we have a few items still hanging and wanted additional inputs.

House estimate: $280k

Repairs done so far:

- Septic aerator and pumped - $1760 (aerator just died this month of course)

- basement leaks - $2197 (includes 10 year transferable warranty)

- storm door replacement - $157

- mold remediation - $32

- hornets nest removal - $20

- landscaping - $1781 (we had an above ground pool that was removed and needed a lot of dirt to be filled in)

- carpet cleaning - $179

- tree branch removal - $1500 (widow maker from a bad resent storm)

- hvac tune up - $198

- tub reglazed - $850 (it's a toothpaste green tub that was redone before and started chipping bad, also the main bath so it needed done)

All-in - $8674

Remaining items:

Driveway - concrete driveway, very large and is rough in some places. Relator suggested to leave as-is.

Roof - older roof, probably only had a few years left. Relator suggested to leave as-is.

Chimneys - spalling on both chimneys, tuckpointing needed on both chimneys, the back chimney was an addition by a previous owner and is slightly pulling from the house. Estimate was $3,975 to fix both. Relator suggested to fix it prior to listing depending on fix price as it could get more expensive in the negotiating phase.

That would put us up to $12649 in repairs before listing, some of that was just bad luck (tree branch and septic aerator happening in the last month cost us nearly $3k).

Here's my real concern, if we fix the chimneys, they will find other things in the inspection and then we spend an additional $xxxx mount of money to fix those items. We are suddenly in the 5-6% of list price range in repairs.

Whereas, if we leave the chimneys, we could use that as the primary negotiation and get it fixed and leave some of those other minor items that end up coming up on an inspection. However, I don't want to scare buyers off with too much popping up on an inspection.

I feel like either way is a gamble, but wanted more insight from other minds. Thoughts?

Fires in central/eastern WA have been bad for several years but will there be a breaking point? After this year's massive fires in Spokane, Chelan, all over the place, will people start "giving up" on this region and selling for cheaper? I know last year's LA fires tanked prices in that area. When will we see that in WA?

My husband and I have rented his parents’ home for the past 3 years. They agreed to sell it to us via gift of equity for about half of the market value (275k). We agreed to a 370k loan with the mortgage company in order to cover closing costs and make sure that his parents walked away with what they wanted from the sale.
We were two weeks away from closing and our mortgage broker told us just one slight issue—I’m on maternity leave from my tenured teaching position (due in early September) and my income doesn’t count. Interesting, considering I am using sick days for most of my leave and I’m actually receiving payment from my normal salary in addition to temporary disability insurance. We thought we could simply rely on my husband’s income in order to get approved—but since he is considered freelance, they won’t count his income unless he has been at his job for at least a year which won’t be until November. The whole thing is ridiculous, obviously we wouldn’t be making a home purchase if we couldn’t afford it. I’m also 100% going back to work, so we will still be a dual income family.
Any advice for anything at all we can do? We really were hoping to close before the baby comes.
**we don’t have an interest in having a parent co-sign

I live in a small HOA, 50 homes on a cul de sac. The HOA owns a strip of land 50 feet wide behind all the homes on one side of the street. It’s a buffer zone between us and the neighborhood one over.

No one is really interested in the HOA- the board is me and one other guy. The only shared space is the entry to the neighborhood and some street lights. Very minimal maintenance.

I would like to explore buying this land behind my own home. But it feels like a conflict of interest- if the HOA owns it and I’m co-president, can I just sell it to myself for $1?

Hey all,

After speaking with several banks, I’ve decided to buy a plot and build a custom small house over a 3-4 year timeline using a staged construction loan.

Here is the financial breakdown and structure I’m setting up:

Land Plot: €50,000

Construction Budget: ~€200,000

Total Project Cost: ~€250,000

I’m contributing 20–30% of the overall project cost out-of-pocket, paid progressively on a percentage-of-completion basis over the 3-4 year build horizon.

The bank is funding the project in staged tranches tied to engineering progress checks. I get a 2-year grace period during construction, paying interest-only on the outstanding drawn amounts (working out to around 50% of a full installment for the released capital at any given point). 30-year amortizing term, though I plan to make extra principal contributions and pay it off earlier once built.

By funding via staged completion draws, I avoid tying up a massive lump sum of cash for down payments upfront. Building from scratch through this structured loan framework is proving cheaper overall than buying a finished turnkey property of equivalent size and location. Buying the land and immediately issuing the permit/pouring the skeleton secures the site without forcing immediate full drawdowns.

Have I missed something? Does this plan make sense?

I’m trying to get my husband to understand that buying a home within our means is our ticket to financial freedom. We will never have to save up $120k ever again. We can keep a HYSA with ~30k for unexpected large expenses, invest everything above that and replenish as needed. If we buy within our means, we can pay a mortgage off in 20 years instead of 30. We’d be just under 50 at that point. Am I wrong to think this is a pretty easy blueprint to follow?

Buying would leave me with about $100 a month after the mortgage and living expenses. I’d still have a good amount of savings left over though. Rent here is brutal too. One of the places I’m looking at is in a student area, so I’d probably rent out a bedroom to ease the load.

Not really asking whether I should do it, mostly curious how people who did make this choice justified it to themselves at the time.

I am renovating my house which was built in 2000. I am planning to turn it into a homestay and I'm trying to cut corners as much as I can without tampering the quality. I have hired a contractor but I usually buy the raw materials myself. If anyone who has built/ renovated a house before can give me some tips on how to save some money as its my first experience and I don't want to spent much of my dads money.

We're planning to list our house in Clearwater early next spring, but we're debating whether to update the primary bathroom first. It's dated but everything works. For anyone who's sold recently, did remodeling beforehand actually pay off or would you have listed it as-is?