In terms of home ownership, many people end up home poor because they use some sort of calculator to figure out just the price of what they can afford and don't take into consideration the additional ancillary costs of flood insurance if necessary, and upkeep.

Lol Doc. Take it to the politics thread or OOT.

this is oot

how about less both of you and more gutter cleaning?

The point is almost everybody buying a house in the US is already buying based on what they want, so your whole want vs need thing is silly.

If you want to say don't buy more than you can afford (however you define that) - great I guess. But even a financially conservative person can afford more once they 'come into money'.

To answer your question, I refer you to the housing market of 2003 - 2007.

Question: anyone else believe home values peaked last year and are headed down for a while?

Yes but if this distinction is wide enough to the point that it keeps you consistently and hopelessly underbidding, you may have to wait a while or consider alternatives. Being outbid a couple times doesn't automatically mean that's what's happening, like I said before it happens. But it could be.

It could be getting more competitive as you wait, I know you mentioned first looking around 4 months ago & your metro area is among the hottest markets there is right now. So recent CMAs for last month's sales may not be timely enough to base your pricing decisions on today.

Very possible that your agent's suggestion of 3% above is perfectly reasonable especially if you're talking move-in ready places in competition (and even that may not do it). You yourself have reason to believe that your 1.25% above offer probably isn't competitive & your agent is saying it's a waste of time. Make sure you're being realistic.

Depends on where you live. In Portland, I give it 6 months to a year before all the hipster's parents realize they can't flip houses anymore. Where I bought my house is not going to fluctuate like east Portland (West of 52nd).

Would anyone have any tips or suggestion for restoration of house (without resulting in replacing parts)? In particular the kitchen counter and bathtub (removal of stains).

As a way to contribute back to this thread, I bought my property without a real estate agent. I used propertyshark.com for all my financial modeling (they gather all the public available information about the property in one report making it efficient way to do a quick analysis on whether it is worth your time to schedule an appointment to see the property) and I followed up by making a low offer at every appointment I went to (even if I didn't plan to buy the property, I wanted to get a feel for the market).

One good poker analogy from rounders that was very helpful through the process is “If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.”

As someone pointed out, this is OOT. I am curious as to why I should take it to politics as this isn't a political issue in my opinion.

I am not someone who can help you, but the ones who can would probably want to know what the counter and tub are made of as that will probably impact restoration. Also, if you bought this house to flip, the counter might be of a dated material that impedes you getting top dollar.

Thanks for the suggestion, I am a first time buyer seeking a buy and hold strategy. The only people flipping houses in my area are the professionals (real estate developers) who are all cash buyers at short sales (previous owner defaults on mortgage) looking for deep discounts. They normally have a professional handyman company who installs cheap renovations that looks fancy, but goes bad within a year. They mark up the value of the property significantly. I met them along the way, but never felt comfortable doing business with them as I always felt like the sucker at the table.

I bought the property for the quality of the construction and the location. I would prefer to use the property as it is, I just want to take better care of the property (lack the experience). In terms, of my question on restoration I am not looking for people to do the research for me but mostly point me in the right directions on were there is available information I can read.

I would caution people on waiting on the sideline for the decline in the market, being they should also be paying attention to the interest rate the banks are offering. Part of the reason there is a real estate boom in my area is driven by historically low borrowing rates. The Federal reserve has hinted at interest rate rising towards the end of this year, so you might find yourself paying more if you need to finance the deal.

In addition, this might be a great time to finance renovation cost if you can get a low interest rate.

Well, if you believe houses are overpriced by>20% you shouldn't even be in the market. rageotones is bitching about the suggestion to make an offer at 3% over list when he thinks 1.5% is more appropriate. He then can't understand why no one accepts his offers.

Area dependent. Where I live they will continue to go up. Prices are still 25% below where they were and there's no inventory.

I think I ran into a couple of these pros with the house we put an offer in on, but then walked. The story we got was that the couple were fixing it up for a relative, something happened where the relative wasn't going to be moving in, and the couple were needing their money back out of it.

It turns out the couple were serial flippers. They would form an llc, buy a house, renovate it, sell the house, and dissolve the llc. Lather, rinse, repeat. And the maiden name of the seller's agent was the same as the male half of the couple which seemed to indicate a family connection between the two which should have been disclosed.

The house is now off the market so they either found a sucker, er buyer, or they are going to do the right thing and fix some stuff. From what I understand, they have to disclose that an inspection has been done and have to share it with anyone who asks.

If you do any renovations, make sure they fit with the style of the house or else it could cost you a sale or money. The first house we put in an offer on was another flip. It was a mid-century modern and I love mid-century modern. However, the bathrooms and the kitchen island counter weren't renovated in that style. The work was nicely done, but I just saw them as things I would have had to change. Because of that and having to take down a brick wall to please the wife, I offered 20k below ask.

The seller rejected it as is his right and we couldn't come to a mutually agreeable deal. If he had done renovations fitting the style of the house, I would have offered more, we might have come to a deal, and he would have the house off his hands rather than it still sitting on the market.

Good luck with your house.

I never encountered something as shady, most were upfront and honest people. I learned a lot from them while viewing the property. My biggest issue was they have a set expectation on how much they plan to make from the property and refuse to negotiate purchase price being as they know better than me how much they can get on the open market.

Where I live, they require buyer to provide inspection to the buyer's lawyer and bank. There is a disclosure form in which no seller ever completes due to liabilities incurred, so they give you $500 for not completing it.

I will take it into consideration, but I think your advise is more for suburb compared to urban area were I live (given how competitive it is). I lucked into my house due to several factors 1. seller urgency caused them to time the market wrong (winter season is the slowest time), 2. Hired the wrong real estate agent (picked someone he trusted rather than someone who is competent), 3. Got lucky the cash deal that was in place before me did not happen due to the buyer not wanting to provide the source of the funds (seller was willing to wait 3 months and the cash buyer probably gave them a lower offer than me).

I decide to hire a inspector to review the property with me and outline the improvements I should do. I am looking to turn part of the property (two family home) into a rental. I am seeking financial flexibility in not having all my money tied to the property (very risky to simply bet on appreciation of the property).

i don't understand your post

A lot of people probably don't understand what you don't understand.

The dangers of buying a flipped house.

http://features.aol.com/video/danger...l|carousel|dl1

The flipped house that our inspector had so many issues with has been taken off the market so they can fix some stuff.

Wonder if they will truly fix the issues or apply more lipstick.

The house we are getting needs a new roof and the current owner's insurance company won't pay for it and as the owner is a older widow, we are splitting the costs with us getting to choose the company that does the work.

Two companies have put in bids and I was wondering how many references I should ask them for. I am thinking at least one recent, at least one for work done two to three years ago, and at least one for work done five to six years ago?

Agree?

Going to ask if work was done by time promised, was work done correctly and of high quality, were there any problems after the work was done, and if so, were the problems resolved satisfactorily.

You realize for anyone they are willing to give you as a reference those answers will be yes?

this. you need to find people you know/trust that have had their roof redone and get references for the company that did the work, not the other way around.

I actually don't know too many, if any, people who had their roof done.

The following is what one roofing company said about the other company's proposed work in terms of the venting. My question to you is if it sounds like a reasonable concern?

"In an effort to save your client money we plan to leave the existing metal drip
edge that cannot be seen which is under the gutter covers. Which will eliminate
the need to remove and reset the gutter covers. In doing so this should not
effect the performance or life of the new roofing system.
Also we propose to eliminate the two roof turbines as they are too close to the
roof vents and draw air from the adjacent vent and not the soffit vents causing
them to function inadequately. In turn we will add additional roof vents for a
total of 8 roof vents. We will also be moving two other vents down 6" as they
are installed too high. Ridge vent as proposed by the other roofing company will
not provide adequate ventilation as your roof does not have sufficient top ridge
to install it."

The one company does not want to remove the gutter guards because they won't go back on exactly and the make is no longer made.