I don't think I've ever heard of a caterpillar being a pest.

I'm not an expert, but an example is the tent caterpillar.

Caterpillars are cute and turn into beautiful butterflies. I call those things worms.

We had heavy rains the other day. Our bedroom ceiling showed discoloration. I assume this is from water damage. It is a small spot that's about a meter long and half meter wide. What is the best way to handle this?

With a repair.

First, you need to find the cause of the water damage and fix it. Otherwise, you'll have to do the next two steps over and over. Also, the cause can lead to mold.

Second, use Kilz.

Third, repaint.

It's absolutely water damage and that doesn't sound like a small spot, especially if it showed up from one rain. Depending on your home there's a good chance it's worse that you think. You've got the backside of the drywall, probably insulation soaking up a bunch too, and lots of water could be going somewhere you can't see. You need to find and address the source of the leak.

Assuming drywall the interior part is easy once the cause is fixed. At worst you replace some drywall/tape/spackle the area, but if no real damage you can prime/paint over it. [Actually worst case if you just got the place there's a chance the previous owners just hid a preexisting issue with paint themselves, and there's mold waiting for you.]

Was recently in one place with a small discoloration in the bathroom ceiling about the size of a softball, and it turned out to be a leaking water heater in the attic that mostly went down into the wall behind the shower and was buckling the shower enclosure. After taking that out there was all kinds of black mold (and they'd used regular drywall there making it even worse). Had to move the tub, strip down to the studs, put up proper backer, put tub back in, redgard and new tile...and of course still had to replace the water heater anyway.

Water's a bitch. Treat it as urgently as you would fire.

I just met with a realtor for the first time. They come highly recommended by a friend. Everything seems normal except they charge a $395 "broker fee" to the buyer (me). Is this normal? I thought they just got 3‰ from the seller

Not something that I have ever heard of - junk fees are usually a specialty of the title companies and mortgage lenders, not realtors. But maybe they have decided that 3% isn't "enough".

Sounds like an absolute scam. Realtors should be negotiating their split of the commission with the seller's broker, and it should come out of the seller's proceeds. The buyer should not have to pay anything.

My friend that referred me to this guy says his closing documents show a $395 "compliance fee". Is that legit and it's just a nomenclature issue?

If he is the only realtor in your entire town, I guess you really have no choice.

Call it a convenience fee.

Compliance fee label seems apt, if you, the sucker, comply with their demand that you pay it.

State? Size of town?

Suburban Detroit. I have plenty of other options. I'll ask them to waive the fee.

That has a few different names and it seems to be getting more and more common, it's like doc or admin fees with cars. They charge extra ostensibly to store documents and whatever but it used to be the cost of doing business. The bottom line is that it's a extra they've tacked on that everyone doesn't. Maybe because more sellers are savvy to the fact that 3% per agent isn't automatic.

They could be firm about the fee or required to charge everybody the same. That's the case with cars in some places with one certain add-on fee; if you charge one person $299 it's the same for everyone else. That may or may not be the case with that fee in your state I don't know.

Ask them why they charge one when others don't and press what you can. But if there's a very solid recommendation for them, eh...for a first-time buyer I think a good agent is a bigger priority than $400. Ofc if you can get another good rec for someone without the fee all the better...that's a PS4 or an iPad.

Also in practice you may be able to get the seller to pay it as part of the deal too, or the agents themselves can pay it out of their commission if it's worth their while. It's good that you're looking and asking about it now though. A lot of people just pencil whip their way through those things.

No, not normal. Find another realtor.

NO reason to pay a realtor more than the 3% monopoly they have created so brilliantly.

Stupid question probably: getting cable internet in new house. Every room has a coax outlet. Can I get internet through 2 of them? i.e. "main" connection (tv) has a modem and wifi router, other room has a desktop pc, can I put a modem on that and get ethernet internet when the installer comes? I'd assume they can't connect to each other i.e. can't stream from desktop to computer?

Not without paying for two connections.

You will need to buy Moca adapters if you want to do ethernet over coax.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008EQ...&keywords=moca

Why would you need to pay for two connections?

They refused to waive the fee so I dumped them. Seems really stupid, especially considering that they know I'm a young professional who is likely to buy/sell more houses in the future.

Good call. I've never heard of anyone paying more than 3% (both ways) to buy or sell a home, but I guess some people do.

2 modems = pay for two connections. He can't just put a modem in two rooms and get wired connection in both with one connection.

He either needs to run an ethernet cable, or try Moca to carry the signal over coax, use a powerline adapter to send the signal over powerline, or use wireless.