When you bought your House....

[devotedchristian]

Did you use an Agent?

Did you pay any Closing Costs?

Did you give the Sellers what they were asking for?

DH and I are in the process of buying a house, we are using the Seller's Agent (I know he is not working for us...he is working for the Buyer)

We did not negotiate the Purchase Price because we felt like their inital listing was low: $207,000...when houses in the same Subdivision are selling for at least $225,000 and we thought it was a good deal.

The House is 2 years old and the rest of the houses are under construction.

The Sellers are paying ALL Closing Costs, a $500 Carpet Allowance, plus a 1 year Home Warranty.

We asked why they were selling so Low and they said, the are tired of the commute to their Jobs (1 hour each way) and they Priced to Sell.

Now, DH is talking to his friend who says we have made a grave mistake...he says they are pulling all the equity out and leaving us NONE, "so what that they are paying All the Closing Costs"

He said, "see what the other houses are selling for by pullign comps"... which we did not... we just rode around and grabbed information from those "Free Information" stands that you see in the yard of a House for Sale.

Have We? Thougts/Ideas/Suggestions

 

[kilee]

We bought ours direct from the seller w/ no agents. Just our attorney. We paid all the closing costs, but the house was well below market value. The eldery couple had been using it as income property and just wanted to "unload" it. They were getting to old to care for it anymore. Ironically the gentleman had passed away right after we bought it.
We didn't negotiate because they were firm in the their pricing, and like I said it was about $30,000 less than it's worth and the 4 other houses on the street that were for sale at the time. We just happened upon it right when they advertised it and lucked out.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Yea, you need the comps. to know the real deal.
It sounds as if you already are committed so there is not much you can do at this point. Once the offer is accepted, it is over basically.

What does he mean pulling out all the equity? Does he mean the house is listed at "top dollar" and will go down in price?
I don't see that happening quite yet. Usually when the subdivision is done it will go up in value.
Then it will go down after 7 years, if it is going to go down.

 

[tar heel]

Well, their equity really has nothing to do with your equity. What in the world was DH's friend talking about? Maybe he means that you're buying at top dollar and the house may not appreciate much for a while.

There's a good chance you paid more than you had to since new construction is generally priced at a premium. In our neighborhood, houses in Phase I were $130,000-$180,000. By the time Phase V was under way, houses were $210,000-$300,000 and some of the same models were still being built. The houses in Phase I do NOT sell for the same price now 10 years later as the ones in Phase V, though.

The sellers paying closing costs is worth a lot, but they probably felt like they had no choice since the builder in the neighborhood is likely doing that.

We've bought and sold twice. We had our own agent each time. When we sold, we gave the buyers some of what they asked for and reduced the price a little. We did not get quite asking price and we did not pay asking price when we bought the house. We paid closing costs when we bought an already-constructed house and didn't when we got a new one.

 

[salmoneous]

Personally, I wouldn't buy from a sellers agent, but I don't think it's always a bad thing. If you are happy with your deal (and it sounds like you are very happy) just enjoy!

Not to get picky about your choice of friend, but this guy sounds like an idiot. What on earth does he mean by, "pulling all the equity out and leaving us NONE." Um, yeah. That's what happens with every house sale out there.

Oh, and if you start feeling paranoid, just ask the sellers agents to show you some comps.

 

[NJDad18]

If the other houses are still under construction, why don't you look to see if you can buy a new one. Very often at the end of construction of a development there are many good deals to be had. The builder will include a lot of incentives so they can finish and move on. There may even be a spec house that somebody backed out of. By talking to the builder you can see what they are selling the houses for.

We have only bought new construction home, but we have sold a home and our buyer asked if we would give them money towards closing costs and we told them no. We did however buy them the one year warranty.

I would just make sure that you hire a reputable inspector to make sure that the house is sound, it should be since it's only 2 years old.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

I never make an offer on my client's behalf without doing a market analysis. I don't want to offer any more than market value for obvious reasons.

With that said, I've only represented one buyer who paid cash. All of my other clients have taken out mortgages. One of the first things a lender is going to do, is order the appraisal. If the house appraises below whatever the contract amount is for, the loan can't proceed and the deal busts, unless the seller wants to come down in price.

If you're getting a mortgage, you wouldn't be able to get a loan for more than what the house would appraise for. But - there are bad appraisers out there just like there are bad anything elses. When I do a market analysis, I know I'm looking at the same comps that the appraiser is going to be looking at, and if it comes out skewered, I'm going to be asking the lender some serious questions.

This is why you needed your own agent. When I work as an intermediary, I can't give advice to either the seller or the buyer. I can offer guidance to a certain extent, but that's it. It's very hard to disassociate yourself from the client that you've been working with the longest (usually the seller) and it takes a good agent to look out for the best interests of both parties.

(I personally dislike working both sides. Sure, I make more money, but I don't think it's fair to either party involved. I make sure to give the buyer numerous opporunities to bring in their own agent, or I offer my seller, or the buyer, the opportunity of having another agent in my office negotiate the contract.)

 

[Aimeedyan]

What did the appraisal say about the value? Has it been inspected?

I would not trust a seller's agent, personally.

We bought new construction (it was cheaper than buying an existing home) and we paid closing costs, of course. We DEF used a realtor - it was free to us and she worked to protect us. We were first time homebuyers and she helped a ton!

 

[barkley]

first home we purchased (existing) we used a buyer's agent and paid all closing costs-offered 10K less than asking but we knew they had already put an offer in on another home and had lost the buyers of theirs a couple weeks earlier. second (new construction) we bought from the builder-not a negotiable price and had our choice of them paying closing or getting a comparable amount in upgrades (we went with the upgrades which when we costed them out would have cost more after market and would increase the value for resale).

when we sold recently our contract with agent was written such that if a buyer contacted him w/o an agent he had to refer them to another agent in his office for representation. he preferred this arrangement as did we.

as far as comparing home prices-i def. think a person needs to do some research and see what the comp. sales are (the flyers show the asking price-not what they are selling for), and depending on the area of new construction some older phases do sell for more than the newer. in ours for example there was around a 4 year span of construction time-and the older homes sold for more than the newer (builder's price vs. resale) by virtue of upgrades not offered by the builder, more mature landscaping and some people just wanting an established construction zone free neighborhood.

btw-depending on when the owners bought-they could have been like us when we sold, we priced lower to attract buyers because we could afford to (we bought when the houses were $400,000 less than our competitors had paid).

 

[phillybeth]

Did you use an Agent?

Did you pay any Closing Costs?

Did you give the Sellers what they were asking for?

Yes, we used an agent, and also had a union attorney (free) represent us at closing and go over all the paperwork.
We paid closing costs, but we went FHA, so closing costs were minimal- about 4-5%.
We bid asking price since the house was priced at about $5-7K under market price at that time.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

when we sold recently our contract with agent was written such that if a buyer contacted him w/o an agent he had to refer them to another agent in his office for representation. he preferred this arrangement as did we.

In my opinion, you did the right thing.

Just to be on the safe side, I always tell my sellers when I take a listing, to not tell me how low they're willing to go - just in case I do bring in the buyer.

With buyers, I tell them up front (with a required disclosure from the State) that I am working for the seller and not to disclose any info that they wouldn't want the seller to know.

It somewhat covers my rear-end and I hope it puts both sides at ease a bit if they decide that they want me as their intermediary.

Of course each case is different and YMMV - and - I'm referencing Texas.