Real estate market woes!!! Sorry it is a bit of a rant!

[AB6876]

Devils advocate here......or if you prefer.....a "the glass is half full" not a "glass is half empty" person.

So, if I am reading your note correctly, and doing the math correctly, you are losing $41,000 on the house.....which works out to about $5,800 a year...or$484 a month....... or $66,000...which works out to $9,500 a year or $800 a month if you including the $25,000 in improvements.
Could you have rented a place to live there for ONLY $800 a month? I realize people look at a house as a investment, but sometimes a house is just a place to live.
And it is funny to me that people will complain about losing money on the biggest investment they will make in their lifetime, a house, yet the second biggest investment they make, a car, routinely is something they lose thousands of dollars on.

That is a good point! Never thought of it that way! Thanks for the insight . You are right I could not have rented for that price.



I guess I will just suck it up to get out from under it. Thanks everyone for all your responses.

 

[AB6876]

I know your pain, only I have been on the other side of the coin. The people we bought our home from were the biggest PITAs, well it was more that the wife was, but you know what I mean. They were there each time we saw the house, when we had the inspection done, and when we did the final walkthrough they were still packing! It seemed like they didn't want to move at all. I was so scared at closing they were going to change their minds. We had already sold our house and were living in a temporary place.

She started renegotiating leaving the washer and dryer, etc. There was a whole carpet/ flooring allowance debacle. I could go on and on. Nightmare! Thankfully we did make it through closing. Then we we moved in we noticed they even took the flag pole holder attached to the house. Who does that? Also they were supposed to give us remotes to the gate for our community. Instead they sold them to another family.

Anyway. Ugh. Fingers crossed it all works out.

That is terrible. I just don't understand people sometimes.

 

[LibOzZoHam]

Our house (which we just sold yesterday!) was on the market for 6 months. It was built in 1932 and is in a transitional neighborhood with an abandoned house right next door.

We had three offers--the first one was $5,000 below asking price, we accepted. They had the inspection done and came back with $25,000 worth of repairs--including ripping out and replacing the front stoop, the side porch and other whackadoo things. Our realtor broke requested we break that contract.

The second offer, which we did not accept was almost $20,000 less than asking and contingent upon the buyer's father approving the house.

The final offer was at asking price, 3.5% closing costs and we only ended up doing about $4,000 in repairs.

I get that it's a buyer's market, but that does not mean they get to demand that our 80 year old house be in the same condition as a newly built home.

 

[AB6876]

Our house (which we just sold yesterday!) was on the market for 6 months. It was built in 1932 and is in a transitional neighborhood with an abandoned house right next door.

We had three offers--the first one was $5,000 below asking price, we accepted. They had the inspection done and came back with $25,000 worth of repairs--including ripping out and replacing the front stoop, the side porch and other whackadoo things. Our realtor broke requested we break that contract.

The second offer, which we did not accept was almost $20,000 less than asking and contingent upon the buyer's father approving the house.

The final offer was at asking price, 3.5% closing costs and we only ended up doing about $4,000 in repairs.

I get that it's a buyer's market, but that does not mean they get to demand that our 80 year old house be in the same condition as a newly built home.

I completely agree with you. When you look at a home you get what you get. If you don't like it then move on, there are plenty of homes for sale. Glad you sold your home!

 

[PlutoPony]

What does your realtor think of this? In my experience, when an inspection is done, the buyers take that report and go back to the seller ONE TIME with what they want done/corrected or how much $ they want the seller to contribute to repairs. Then you negotiate from there and the thing is put to bed, no coming back the next day with another thing they want fixed, etc. Would your realtor be willing to go to them and ask for a comprehensive list you can negotiate from?

 

[minniecarousel]

Oh yeah, BTDT!

We had our 15 year old house on the market last year. We got an offer, agreed to a price - THEN - they decide that the hardwood floors were "stained" and wanted us to go half into replacing all of the downstairs flooring. The maple veneer flooring was sun-faded, not stained (as they kept referring to it as). We never tried to hide it, you could see the fading on first look. We refused to pony up $10,000. My realtor and their realtor finally threw $5,000 each to get the deal done (I kept saying "no" to it - it just seemed unreasonable. When my husband said - let them do it, I gave in. It ticked me off, but it wasn't any money out of my pocket.)

We got taken buying the house we're in now. The seller didn't pay to clean out under the house where racoons and rats had taken up residence. We could have called the whole deal off at that point, but then where would we have put all our furniture and lived? Sooo, we sucked it up and paid almost $5,000 to have soiled insulation removed, all the access points shored up and under the house cleaned out and sanitized, with a new vapor barrier placed.

Live and learn. We love our house now. We've had the entire inside redone and some exterior completed. New fencing going in next month.

Hang in there OP. You gotta be strong for home buying and selling!

 

[sam_gordon]

What does your realtor think of this? In my experience, when an inspection is done, the buyers take that report and go back to the seller ONE TIME with what they want done/corrected or how much $ they want the seller to contribute to repairs. Then you negotiate from there and the thing is put to bed, no coming back the next day with another thing they want fixed, etc. Would your realtor be willing to go to them and ask for a comprehensive list you can negotiate from?

What does your realtor say? I thought the offer was "contract". Assuming the house passed the inspection (depending on how the contract was written), they can't come back and say "we want this, this, and this." Doesn't the inspection have to say that?

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

What does your realtor say? I thought the offer was "contract". Assuming the house passed the inspection (depending on how the contract was written), they can't come back and say "we want this, this, and this." Doesn't the inspection have to say that?

I know we had to provide the home inspection and the septic inspection to the seller's. My lawyer included it with our requests. Of course after he sent our requests the seller sent back a response telling us the home was being sold "as is". Our lawyer smacked her back down and told her the contract never stated that.

The buyer is allowed to request the world, the seller has the right to say no. If the buyer walks away, that's the chance people take. It's a business negotiation and not a personal attack on the seller by the buyer. Of course, after the negotiation is done it can get to be a personal attack. Some deals do get downright nasty!!

Everybody wants to get the last word and feel they didn't get taken advantage of.

 

[Sanchez]

What does your realtor say? I thought the offer was "contract". Assuming the house passed the inspection (depending on how the contract was written), they can't come back and say "we want this, this, and this." Doesn't the inspection have to say that?

The key phrase here is "depending on how the contract was written." So many of the contracts I see now have a provision where the inspection must be to the complete and total satisfaction of the buyer. This creates a contingency where the buyer can back out due to any concern, legitimate or not, with the inspection. The buyer has every right in this situation to demand more and it the current market will push as hard as possible.

The way to solve this is for the seller to make sure that there is no such contingency and that the property is sold "as is." Unfortunately most real estate agents either a) do not understand the consequences of these provisions or b) just want a contract under any circumstances and fail to adequately explain these provisions to the seller.

Just one reason why sellers should never permit dual agency and shoukd have a competent agent looking out for the client's interest rather than an easy commission (and there are very few competent agents.) When in doubt, have a lawyer review the contract.

 

[Disney Doll]

Unfortunately for you OP, those buyers are probably pretty well aware of the position you are in and are taking advantage of it.

If you need to get out from under the house, then do so.

Karma will get them.

 

[HM]

It really doesn't pay to be desperate to get rid of a house.

We watched our next door neighbors jump over hoops to do everything their buyer wanted. We had a very poor opinion of our new neighbors after that. And all the things they had them do to the house didn't need to be done...like in your case.

We had a couple that wanted to buy our house that were asking more than we wanted to deal with. While we had to pay two mortgages for a bit, we actually didn't take their offer, especially after they said there was a house up the street for sale that they were looking at too. We got our realtor to show us the other house and we realized it wasn't even close to what our house was like. They came back to us in about two weeks with an offer much closer to what we were OK with. They really wanted the house more than they had let on (which is what we figured).

I kind of think your buyers want the house a lot and would be willing to get it without the new roof money, etc. You just have to call their bluff.

 

[AB6876]

Thanks for all the responses and advice. Yes the sales contract did state pending a home inspection. Yes we could have said no to any of these however I really just want to get rid of this house. It stinks to pay a mortgage for a home that you are not living in. I really don't mind the initial ask per say. I understand they are making an investment and want to insure it is sound. If any of the requests included safety issues, hidden plumbing problems, mold, rodent issues or anything of that nature I would completely understand the request. My aggravation is more with the fact that they seem to keep asking for little things nickel and dime'ing us to death. They want a new roof for 5,000 but once we say yes and sign the papers we get a new request for another $250. Then they want us to pay for a home warranty for $500. Then they want all their closing costs paid. I am on board with paying a fair price and they should not over pay. I understand this is a business, however what happened to being decent. Each time I have bought a home there is a limit to what I have asked for. I don't know.. Hopefully this will soon be over.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Thanks for all the responses and advice. Yes the sales contract did state pending a home inspection. Yes we could have said no to any of these however I really just want to get rid of this house. It stinks to pay a mortgage for a home that you are not living in. I really don't mind the initial ask per say. I understand they are making an investment and want to insure it is sound. If any of the requests included safety issues, hidden plumbing problems, mold, rodent issues or anything of that nature I would completely understand the request. My aggravation is more with the fact that they seem to keep asking for little things nickel and dime'ing us to death. They want a new roof for 5,000 but once we say yes and sign the papers we get a new request for another $250. Then they want us to pay for a home warranty for $500. Then they want all their closing costs paid. I am on board with paying a fair price and they should not over pay. I understand this is a business, however what happened to being decent. Each time I have bought a home there is a limit to what I have asked for. I don't know.. Hopefully this will soon be over.

That's really just insane. Did you get a copy of the home inspection report to ensure that the repairs were even noted?

We just closed in May and we never even thought to ask for closing costs. that's just insane!!