Cold Feet on house buying

[whtyger97]

We had the home inspection on sunday and it went well, the only big thing is the garage isn't structurally sound but we sorta knew that going in. We made a small list of repairs (5 items) we'd like to see done, excluding the garage (not much you can do for it but tear it down), and the current homeowners agreed to all but one, and they said they'd fix that one if we bought the supplies (but at that point i'd just as soon do it ourselves).

However, when i talk to my family about it, they think we're crazy for not making an issue out of them not fixing the last item, or that we haven't really brought up the garage and asked them to fix it. My DH and I are both happy with the house, but I'm anxious about moving in and budgeting so we can afford it. (We currently live in an apartment with all our utilities paid, so i'm just worried about how bad the bills will be.)

I guess right now I'm waiting to hear how the apprasial went. I'll feel alot better about it if they say the house is worth more then we're paying for it. (which my dh and I think might happen, we and our real estate agent, think we're getting a great price on the house, thats why we aren't pressing the garage issue).

I just wish our families were more supportive and realistic with their advice (one family member suggested offering like 25k less then the asking price, because 'you never know they might accept it'). I just wish they could be happy for us and supportive instead of making me feel like we're doing it all wrong, and that we're over paying or not getting as much as we could.

 

[mother moto]

Hello, I am a loan officer for mortgages. I work for the buyer. I can tell you that you should counter with the cost of demolition and removal of the garage. This will give the seller the option to accept yout original offer or take the burdon off of you for the garage. Please keep in mind that the garage is a safety hazard. If some one were to get hurt around the debris you would be held liable. At least in Oklahoma that is the case. So realy concider countering with that. Good luck.

 

[Lisa F]

I understand the cold feet. DH and I just closed on our house 6 weeks ago and have been moved in for just over 3 weeks at this point, but the experience was soooo stressful and I'm glad that it's over.

What is the repair that they want you to buy the supplies for? I definitely think that you should do it yourself because someone who is leaving the house has no reason to do a good job on whatever repair it is whereas you do. In general I think many first time homebuyers (and their families, who just want the best for them) have kind of weird expectations about things they find on a home inspection. We had a home inspector who did target a bunch of things to be fixed but as we had won the house in a bidding war and the seller had a backup offer without an inspection contingency, we really had no choice but to take it or leave it. Even so, the few hundred $$ we've had to spend on repairs is really nothing compared to what we paid for the house and worth it for us to do it ourselves and do it RIGHT.

About the garage thing, it sounds like that was factored into the asking price of the house in the first place. If it was and you are comfortable with your offer, then you have nothing to worry about. Hopefully you had a realtor working with you who did a current market analysis that helped you arrive at your price.

I wouldn't hold my breath for the appraisal to come back at higher than you are paying. The biggest piece of information an appraiser uses in valuing a house is how much someone (in this case you) are willing to pay for the house. Appraisals very very rarely (if ever) come back at much over the sales price, but it doesn't mean that you didn't get a good price on your house... it's just the nature of the game. Appraisals are really only useful to the bank to make sure that they are not lending you so much money that if they were to need to forclose they would not recoup their loan.

The RE market is a VERY VERY different place than it was even 20 years ago. My husband's grandmother made us nearly bonkers with "advice" about things we should "demand" but in our hot market it just doesn't work that way! We just thanked her for her advice and did things our own way.

Oh and about the bills, we haven't gotten our first utility bill yet BUT I hearya on that worry...we also had utilities included in our old apartment and got into some... shall we say, not very environmentally friendly habits, since we were not paying the bills. Here at least we have more control over our environment anyway and it makes it easier to control our utility use.

Anyway things will be fine, just take a deep breath and repeat to yourself that it will all be worth it.

 

[whtyger97]

We understand that the garage is a safety hazard and plan to tear it down in the next few years. Part of the reason we aren't asking them to tear it down is after we made our offer, and put in a clause that the garage had to pass the city inspection (seperate from our inspection) they resided the garage. I don't know if they have done the city inspection yet, if they city has a problem with it then we will ask them to tear it down.
Our inspector said it could possibly stand for 15 year or more, but that it has structural problems. He says he seen alot worse still standing.

 

[Cthia]

My brother just sold his house. The buyer had a list of things they wanted done before the sale went through, he did a few things (hard when you live 1,000 miles away from the house) they wanted. They ended up coming to an agreement to knock off a few grand off the asking price to compensate for the things they wanted to have done.


If you feel you are getting a great deal on the house knowing that you will have to put money towards things and you won’t have surprises in the long run, try offering a lower price. The worst thing they could do is say no to your offer.

Good luck.