Baloncesto

I guess someone my gf knows has a bengal cat, which had kittens so its some sort of bengal mix. That girl also like works at a local shelter so she was able to get us the cat through the shelter so it's registered and has whatever shots and is fixed and all that crap but for much cheaper than it would have cost us otherwise

All this Kim and Kanye stuff means is that Ray J was an early explorer of the North West passage.

Eyeball licking is a thing

Needle

Cuban Linx on throwback Thursday right now

Gonna be a first time home buyer fairly soon. Any expert strategy wrt initial offers to seller? How far below asking price should we shoot for?

pm x.n.e.r.d

Good call will do

Don't forget about us when the housewarming comes around

It's negotiating

Offer what you want. 85% could be a nice starting point.

I mean it depends on the market, how long the house has been up, how desperate they are, other bidders, etc. Best to ask a real estate agent these sorts of things that knows the market and house

According to TV you will have only three potential options for a house:

Option 1 will be a fixer-upper close to work in a decent neighborhood that's a good bit below your max budget. You will be intrigued by the potential, but your wife will not like the fact that it is not move-in ready and, due to working from home, will not give a **** about how it reduces your commute. This neighborhood will also have good schools, but being as your kids aren't house hunting with you this will not get mentioned very much. This house would likely be a pretty good investment with said renovations complete as it is an older house in an up-and-coming neighborhood, but after a million small comments about everything that is wrong with the place, you will agree with your wife to keep looking.

Option 2 should be an incredible new house in a great location. Your real estate agent will play to all of your wife's weakest points by showing her how large and modern the kitchen is, the great master suite, and the intriguing space in the loft upstairs that she reportedly could see herself rekindling her art hobby in. You will know within 2 seconds of seeing the house that it is probably $80-100k over your budget, but that will not stop the agent from showing you the house nor your wife from saying "Well, we could just cut back on nights out" as if that will cover a massive increase in your monthly mortgage payment.

Option 3 will be the epitome of "meh", which neither of you will be totally satisfied with. It will be marginally bigger than your current home, in an equivalent neighborhood. Your work commute will be about the same. Some of the rooms are actually quite nice, an improvement on your place for sure, but some renovations would be ideal if you are really looking to grow as a family. Your wife will bemoan the "lack of character" that she saw in the brand new McMansion you saw yesterday. It will come in right below your max budget, but you can probably close for $5-10k below asking price, leaving some crucial extra money for those renovations that could really tie this place together.

HAVE YOU MADE A DECISION?

nutshot, need more details about where you are / what kind of property / rough numbers / condition of the property / HoA (?) / etc.

EDIT: n0ze

Noze had his wheaties this morning

Also your wife getting a job to afford something like option 2 is not going to happen.

Great post Noze. Hoaya, not really looking to get that specific in the FACK. Just didn't know if there was a generally agreed upon first step amongst reasonable people

Also, of the three homes, the one without furniture will always be the one you pick

Alright, well speaking vaguely you need to know how long the property has been available.

You can research local schools / crime rates / etc. if you want some potential ammo to reduce the asking price.

If the price was recently reduced you should not be deterred from starting significantly lower still - that reduction signals a desire or need to sell.

If the property is in receivership, or in a bankruptcy or foreclosure proceeding you can probably expect a deeper discount than otherwise.

You should be absolutely sure to include all sorts of closing cost concessions in your offer; it is not uncommon to manage to agree on effectively your goal closing price because the concessions on closing costs match the amount of money above your goal purchase price that you're actualy agreeing to as a purchase price. Demand new paint be included if the paint is old; demand a thorough interior cleaning / painting; demand gardening touch-up if it needs it (pull dead weeds, remove dead plants, etc.).

Make sure the property inspection report is reliable and positive before you make the purchase offer. If it's not, try to secure a deep discount to offset the inevitable cost of repair.

Also consider not buying a place with a bad inspection report, of course . . .

If the price has hovered for a long time without reduction, go in low and see what the counter is. The counter will be the "real" price - it's just an unrealistic seller.

If the market in that community is improving, or turnover is fast, you'd be wise to go in perhaps at a 10-15% discount from the list price and see what comes back. You should expect, in this scenario, to have to push hard on cosing cost concessions to get "value" because the property will be in relatively high demand (reducing your negotiating leverage on purchase price).

Maybe that's what Hernandez was doing, just committing murders in the area to lower prices for his homeboys.

What if the whole deal is he's actually:

Realtors confirmed most worthless/overpaid people ever.

Think you mean buyer-side real estate agents, though I suspect their value lies in the locating of suitable property, rather than their SICK NEGOTIATION SKILLZ (wherein the higher the price paid the bigger their reward, generally).

Muy bueno