lol.

Older houses are certainly an adventure and not for the faint of heart.

My hat is off to the rehabbers in this thread who take pride in their work.

Besides the house we made an offer on, we toured three others including one that was a rehab. Despite a sign in the window proclaiming it another great job by XYZ flippers, it was a pretty poor job.

The stainless steel sink did not sit flush on the new counter top and the counter top did not extend to the front edge of the sink. The duct work in the basement bowed up everywhere pieces joined. Not just a little but a lot. The door to the garage and from the garage to the backyard were so poorly installed that the deadbolts were hard to unlock and lock. There was also no concrete driveway or a sufficient amount of gravel if they were leaving it as a gravel drive.

As a potential buyer, the house didn't look ready to be on the market.

The agent for the seller in the failed deal hadn't gotten the paperwork back to us yet so my agent contacted her again. The seller's agent claimed to have emailed it days ago. Shortly after talking to that agent, my agent got the signed cancellation. The electronic signatures show that it was signed today.

The listing for this new house doesn't appear to have changed status. I say appear because it seems to be no longer active and has been removed. I don't have a link to the listing on this computer, but I cannot find it by searching the real estate website I normally use.

I will check again once I am on the computer I have a listing on.

The house was removed from active listings as I thought.

The inspection was today and it went really well. A nice surprise was the selling agent, and she is a neighbor, was there along with the seller. The seller said she knew it normally wasn't done, but she wanted to be there to answer questions. Her being there did worry me slightly.

I was worried because I knew the inspector would be honest and I wondered how the seller would react if there was something majorly wrong or a lot of little things wrong. There wasn't anything major or a lot of little, but I think the seller would have taken it in stride.

Her being there gave us a chance to go through the house and tell her what furniture we'd like to buy.

Meeting the seller and her agent proved once again it is a small world after all. One of the seller's daughters is a former coworker of ours while the agent's daughter-in-law is a former supervisor of mine.

Just want to say that I feel for each and every one of you who owns a home in the northeast right now. I do not miss it one bit. Godspeed.

Going on a tangent for a second, but if my weather is an example of global warming, HOORAY FOR GLOBAL WARMING.

Man, I'm basically having to negotiate with my agent. She's telling me it's a waste of time to make an offer at list price, and we should be going in at asking plus 3%. So, then I counter with what I'm willing to offer.

as an agent.. If your agent won't do what you want them to, find another agent. It's an agent's job to advise you but ultimately you should be calling the shots.

If there are 5 other offers though you may in fact be wasting everyone's time but that's market dependant. Still shouldnt matter though if you guys dont have an established relationship.

Sounds like you guys are a bad match either way.

Yeah, regardless of her motives, I just don't get a good vibes. It's pretty annoying because my wife seems to like her.

Went in at 1.25% above asking. Doubt we'll win.

Why don't you listen to your agent? Maybe you'll win.

Because she's solely focused on winning the auction and not focused on paying the appropriate value based on fundamentals.

Lol at paying whatever the agent says. I'm sure I'd win if I offered 10% above list price. Winner's curse and all that.

if you are shopping in a desired neighborhood, you are going to have to play the game.

Isn't the appropriate value by definition the winning bid? It might not be what you want to pay, that's cool. But then don't go complaining that you're constantly being out bid.

It obviously depends if you want to get that house, or if you want to get a house that is a good value. When I was looking at places there was one house I liked and the realtor thought it was worth 7-10% below what they were asking, and that I should wait a week or so and them make a bid in that range. She also showed me what all the comparable houses in that neighbourhood had sold for in the last 2 years.

The house sold at asking a couple of days later. If I'd really wanted the first house, I would have been annoyed that I didn't offer asking price right away

About six months later, I noticed a similar house went on the market on the same street. It sold for almost exactly what the realtor thought the first one was worth. If I had paid full price on the first house, I would have been annoyed that I'd paid about 7% more than it was worth.

I bought this house I'm in now for 5% less than asking, but still 5% above what my realtor thought it was worth. I'm really happy with this house, love the location and plan to stay here indefinitely, so even if I could have found a place that was a better value somewhere else if I'd waited, I have absolutely no regrets.

There is a difference between market value and fundamental value.

Housing auctions are pretty terrible because the market value immediately goes down when you win. The market value is actually the 2nd highest bid at that moment.

If you want to blindly pay what your agent says and make that gap bigger than it needs to be then feel free.

Oh, so you're looking for an investment, not a place to live. Carry on.

Oh. I was thinking overpaying was bad either way. Thanks for clearing that up. Gonna call my agent.

Buying a house in Portland (won't mention the area, but not hipster area).

3 bed, 2.5 bath, over 1800 square feet with decent lot size. Quiet neighborhood, good schools. Close to freeway (but can't hear it), close to parks, good beer, and good food.

Won't give the actual price since the inventory is so low here, you'd know exactly which house it was if you searched.

Initial offer was $24,000 less than asking with 2% toward closing.

Settled on $8,000 less than asking with 1.5% toward closing.

There are going to be some issues with the inspection such as rot or insect damage at an area of trim. Carpets are in bad shape. Some ugly updates, etc.

Looking forward to posting progress pictures. This will be a home where I raise my kids, so I hope to own it for a while unless I come into a lot of money.

Would coming into money change your housing needs? Not your housing wants, but your needs.

Of course not. This is a fantastic house in a good location. What we want is closer to a million dollars situated in the Eastmoreland neighborhood.

Close to my future father in laws wood shop too. Plan on making out dining room table and wine racks there.

I don't know how old you are, but is this your future father in law ?

http://gregklassen.com/

But is what you want really what you need?

If the wife and I came into some money, I don't see us moving from the new house although we would accelerate remodeling.

Almost no one in the US lives in what they 'need'.

Which is why a lot of people are in too much debt. They buy most everything based on want rather than need.