Yeah, the roof is really old. It leaked 4-5 months ago and we had it repaired. We had a signed contract twice, once for $3500 under asking and one for $2000 under, and both times the buyer got out because of the roof.

Sorry I should have added that to my earlier post.

There are two things that every seasoned homebuyer will be looking at very closely:

1)How old the roof is
2)How old the HVAC is

You are probably best off replacing the roof yourself.

My roof and hvac are both old (20 years plus), but I'm guessing at 70% of potential buyers are first time home buyers and very few are "seasoned homebuyers".

I stated that pretty poorly. Expecting no one to want massive concessions on a house with both a 20+ yr roof and 20+ yr HVAC is unreasonable. You're basically waiting for a sucker.

Mickey, I was a first time home buyer. The first thing my realtor said when we saw the utility room was that I'd need to spend $5k on a new furnace within the next 2-3 years. Same with the inspector. Everyone looking at your house is going to knew they'll need to spend $10k-ish pretty soon to replace the roof and furnace.

But they have seasoned realtors or parents or friends that have purchased before to give them advice. There's also that internet thing they can use to do research on home buying.

I would add windows to that list, at least in areas with four seasons

i was trying to close a ac vent and the knob thing broke off

is it very hard to take it off and replace?

also full story is the vent knob thing was painted over so it was sticking a bit so i hit it was a hammer to move it, didn't look like it was closing anyway but then it broke off towards the end

i did it to another that was painted over and it worked fine

is there actually even much benefit to closing vents in rooms i never go in to to save on ac and heating?

Closing vents is bad

Keep room doors and vents open, and if you're going to raise the ac when you're not there, don't raise it by more than a few degrees.

ok, i don't have to fix it then

thanks!

speaking of i should change my air filters about now

hmmm, not raising it by more than a few degrees sounds like one of those things people say but has no point

i think i have mine set at 78 during the day and 84 at night,

master bedroom, which is upstairs, has a separate unit i turn on and off atnight

just checked my house and a few vents were closed presumably from when i bought it

Probably. The theory is that having it cycle through the day is more cost-efficient than having it run long enough to lower the temp 15 degrees. I've never tried it myself; I just keep it at the same temp all the time.

Mythbusters needs to get on this.

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/.../it-ok-close-air-conditioner-vents-unused-rooms?

No one is disputing that closed ducts puts stress on a system, but rather whether to cycle the ac or not when you aren't home.

All I did was post a link. Why you mad?

Everyone open there vent and cool down

Now I need to vent.

The airflow coming out of the master bathroom vent isn't as strong as that coming out of those in the master bedroom. Is there a logical reason? If not, is the exact cause something I could diagnose and fix?

Thanks Doc.

Are the registers the same size? If they are not the same type of duct flex/rigid or they are different size duct may explain the difference in air flow.

Update: I bid 330k yesterday afternoon and around 9:30 they countered for 340k & said this is the sellers best and final offer.

I thought it over and decided to not accept the counter. My decision was made in part due to the fact I still have one other house that has been in my top 3 for a couple weeks that I think is a nicer house (but more expensive) and there are another 5-6 other houses that I want to go see.

The house that I bid on had an open house today from 2-4:00 and at 6:00 my realtor calls and said his realtor called him to ask how much I was thinking and that they are willing to go below $340k. This may mean that the open houses went poorly or they are in even more of a hurry to sell the house than I thought (since they just had 2 open houses on back-to-back weekend & they bought another house a month+ ago).

Now I'm left debating if I want to meet them in the middle at $335 or schedule showing at some of the 6 others houses I'm interested in and if the house is still on the market at the end of the week come back with another offer.

Really depends on the market. Open houses are not as effective as people generally believe they are in generating offers, otherwise most homes would sell in a few weeks. It may be me, though I don't consider it good form to keep a seller waiting for over a week on a counter. With that said, you can say you're thinking about it and take a little more time.