Thread: Buying a house...

We are showing our house today, have an open house this weekend, and have a showing on Mon. I thought we had the cleaning pretty much taken care of until all the snow melted and I can see what my yard looks like for the first time in a month.

Originally Posted by crouton976

Well, here's the update: The seller decided to go with another (though not necessarily higher) offer. Either way, I'm not too disappointed, though the house was exactly what we wanted. It's kinda like wanting that NOS razor on eBay that just calls to you, but there's no way you're going to pay the Buy It Now price of $300... so instead, you bid $250 and hope it's good enough. If you win it, you win it, but if you don't, there's always the next one.

Don't let the thread die because of this... We're still on the hunt, so I'll update when something comes up. In the meantime, keep your own stories coming!

That's a good attitude to have. Back in 2008 we put an offer on a 3 bedroom home with a nice sized backyard. It would've been perfect for us. It was a short sale
so we expected it to take a while. I've bought several houses in the past, a couple rental properties and our condo so I kind of had an idea on how to "bid". I came up
with a higher price than they were asked and gave some real obscure number. The house was going for 199K, so I put an offer of something like 211,347. Again,
if it wasn't a short sale it would've been on the market for 260K easy. Anyway, come to find out I knew the realtor listing the house. Let's just say she didn't have a
rep for good business ethics. I see her a few days later and she tells me I should know by the end of that day, which was a Sunday. I thought that odd that a bank
would give a decision on a Sunday. I called my realtor and gave him the news. He thought it odd too. He called me later that day and told me we didn't get it. Another
realtor in her office had a client who got it. I watched the transactions in the newspaper and found that the new owner got it for 211,350. My wife was BS and I was
a bit disappointed, but I told her if we wait long enough we'd find out why we didn't get it. Sure enough the market tanked and there was no way in hell we'd be able to
sell our condo, which is something we were planning on doing. So, we'd probably end up with a foreclosure of the condo on our hands, which is something I didn't want to do. We've
worked hard to build our credit.

A month or so later the realtor sees me and asks how the house hunting is going. I told her we were holding off as we wouldn't be able to sell our condo. She asks me if
we were approved for financing to buy another house and owning the condo? I told her yes. She tells me to buy a new house we want and walk away from the condo and
let them foreclose on it. Real good business ethics, huh?

John

Holy crap! What a low life Realtor!

Originally Posted by crouton976

Holy crap! What a low life Realtor!

No kidding! Man...

Nothing adds value to a home better then a good mural.



Only in Philadelphia...

Originally Posted by Tarkus

Nothing adds value to a home better then a good mural.



Only in Philadelphia...

Hey, it'd be real easy to give the pizza guy directions... that's worth it, right?

Another warning sign when looking at a house that I re-noticed the other day is when someone has splashed paint over vintage, original doorknobs. The lack of skill or concern is probably a good quality indicator of other improvements done by the previous owners.

Pics coming soon.

And another. I am pretty sure these are original to our house that was built in 1940.

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

Another warning sign when looking at a house that I re-noticed the other day is when someone has splashed paint over vintage, original doorknobs. The lack of skill or concern is probably a good quality indicator of other improvements done by the previous owners.

Pics coming soon.

Man - I hate that. I live in a house that is 117 year old as of today. I have slowly been working to get all the original hardware back in order but...

When a house is this old, its seen a few real-estate bust and boom cycles. And of course that means it's seen some abuse to purists such as yourself.

All I can say about my house is I am stoked that it still has the original doors. The things are as thick as a tree! I freaking love em compared to the foam things we get today .

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

And another. I am pretty sure these are original to our house that was built in 1940.

I see what you are saying but that's an easy fix - time consuming... but easy all the same. At least you have the original hardware!!