Thread: Buying a house...

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to get my AD's under control for a bit. We're currently in a multiple offer situation on a house that would be perfect for myself, SWMBO and the boy (who turned 6 today). We just put our best offer in, and we're waiting to hear back (all offers had to be submitted by roughly an hour from now).

This makes me think of the last house we bought, which was our first (we're renting currently, since we've moved back to Georgia from Alabama). It was a pretty easy transaction to buy it, but selling it was tense... it was a short sale and our mortgage holder was dragging their feet at every step.

So, while I pass the time for news on this new adventure, and for future entertainment for those who join the thread later, I'd like to hear your stories of adventures in real estate. Triumphs, trials, laughs or sobs, let's hear 'em all SRP!

I'll keep you posted on the outcome for my own latest adventure!

We put our house on the market last week. It was a real scramble to get all the cleaning and trips to storage completed during the hardest winter I can remember.

What I have gleaned from looking at homes and being a homeowner is to be very suspicious of "improvements" when done by the owner. This is doubly true if the owner is the type of person who thinks stenciled ivy is classy.

Good luck, make sure all the inspections are on the up and up and any improvments, additions, repairs were done with permits and up to code.
Been there many many times.

I have worked as a carpenter for many years, although not currently. There are many telltales about workmanship, my personal eye roller is laying flooring around a door jamb instead of undercutting the jamb and tucking the flooring under the jamb. The other ones that tip me off is the finish work, as in trim and paint. If what is on top isn't stellar what is under it is probably worse. What's wrong with stenciled ivy? LOL

Shaun, I'll see your laying flooring around a door jamb and up the ante with laying shower tile over shower tile.

Oh I have a great one!

Broke up with the "barracuda" - with whom I owned a house (though she never lived there). She got a lawyer involved and claimed she lived there so as to not have to pay capital gains on her half.

We sold the house and I immediately bought a new one thinking I would have funds soon.

The barracuda was a millionaire (literally), so knowing I had to come up the money for the new house, she instructed her lawyer to put a hold on the funds of our house in order to make me sweat. And sweat I did because well; if they didn't release at least some of the funds, I would still be obliged to pay on the house I wanted to buy even if I missed closing, and would lose the house.

Like I said - I was s.t.r.e.s.s.e.d but after telling my lawyer friend what was going on, her eyes lit up! "Perfect," she said. "Here is what you do."

Being she stated on her affidavit that she lived there (for tax reasons), that made us a common law couple. Now being she was rather affluent, at least she had allot more than I, that opened up an opportunity for me to go to the court house the next day and file for emergency spousal support!! Bahahahaha... the best thing about getting emergency spousal support was - it came out of her pocket, and not our joint gain from the house lol. It was good law and the judge agreed lol!!

Long story short - her and her lawyer released enough of the gains for me to pay off the down payment on my new house lol!!

Yippee!!

Then to make the story better - because they (she and her lawyer) changed up their story about her living there (and some other things), the judge was pissed!! No judge likes people changing their story to suit them... so she (the judge) gave me everything I asked for lol!!

Finally - the lawyer friend who was helping me at the time... well she's now my wife and we have two fantastic kids and a dog. Living the dream !!

Another tip, back in the day we used to buy beaters to flip,I always had a 1 in. ballbearing in my pocket, put it on the floor, if it roles, do a serious inspection of the foundation, the most expensive fix on any house.Esp if they have cripple walls.

Any man who divorces a wife who is a Millionare,Is Wack

pixelfixed, what are cripple walls?

OK, we were selling our house. Got an offer, signed the contracts - fell through on the finance clause.

Got another offer, signed contract. Fell through on finance clause.

Happened again 2 more times, different buyers each time.

Finally, got an offer from a female couple. They had to sell their house, but were in love with ours. So we gave them a 90 day clause. Of course, it fell through.

We gave up on selling at that point. About 4 months later, ran into the old real estate guy, says the ladies were still trying to sell their house, were wondering if we were still interested in selling ours? We said yes, for the same price as previously agreed. They were going to get bridging finance this time, so we signed a contract. Fell through when the ladies discovered how high bridging finance interests rates were.

We just gave up at that point.

2 years later. Selling again, different real estate agent. Similar rigmarole, but finally get a serious offer. Guess who? Yes! The Ladies! They bailed on a contract on a house up the road to get ours, then put us through the ringer trying to beat down the price. But we knew they wanted it so we held firm. Besides which they'd pissed me off by pulling out of two previous contracts on us 2 years earlier.

The moral to the story? No idea, I'm still counting the cash!

James.