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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

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Have you added “fenced yard” to your list of desired amenities?

The house this morning has a very nice fenced yard -- the yard and the fence are nice!

So, if all the trim is brown (wood), is it a total sin to paint it white?

Not at all. Very “au courant”.

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Very “au courant”.

Good to know! But just in case you missed it above, the house has an offer and we’re not going to counter it.

Ah well, at least now I don’t have to worry about that trim. -_-

This is house number three that we’ve thought about making an offer and been beaten to it.

It’s fine because we’ve been so wishy washy, but if a house comes up about which we’re not wishy washy, we’re going to have to move so fast.

There is a school of thought that allows for making an offer before you’re totally convinced. It buys time - just make sure you put contingencies in the offer resulting to inspections, etc, so you back out if you want.

Your realtor won’t like it but should know how to do it.

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There is a school of thought that allows for making an offer before you’re totally convinced.

We will keep this in mind.

If something comes up in a neighborhood we know we like, it will make it easier. And of course, the more houses we look at, and lose out on, the better we’ll get at knowing what we want. Hopefully!

We were dealing with a hot market like that when we bought this house.

We bid on one and got severely (severely!) outbid. We weren't that sad, because we didn't would never have paid that much for that house. However, it was a learning experience. When this house came up, it was in a nearby neighborhood and of comparable age, so we figured it would go fast, too. It was listed for quite a bit less, because it had not been renovated.

Our realtor let the seller's realtor know that she had someone who was serious about the house, so that the wouldn't sell it to the first person who offered. That bought us time to get an contractor over there who could say, "Yeah, it's structurally sound, you're going to do x and y, and it will cost in the vicinity of z." Based on that and the fact that we knew there were multiple other bidders, we made a bid that was fairly aggressive, but left us enough budget to allow for some unexpected "money pit" things.

I have never shopped in a hot market before. My experience has always been to offer less than the listing price and then negotiate to a final price. Quirt was more comfortable with this process than I was, but everything's working out well, so far.

The biggest bobble to date has been the first estimate we got on kitchen and bathroom countertops. It was hugely, extravagantly higher than I would have expected, and the salesperson refused to give us details on what we were buying--no specs, no list of individual items, just some drawings of the exterior of the cabinets, the brand name and door style, a note that we'd asked for all-wood cabinets, and a (huge) bottom line. Oh, and the bid was contradictory, in that it said it included both bathrooms, but one of them was left out of the drawings.

She was offended that we'd ask for more detail or that we'd consider getting a comparison bid.

Well, we're getting comparison bids and it would take a lot to get me to buy from her, so maybe those were bad decisions. At this point, it looks like the comparison bids may save us 30-40%.

Good lord.

I typed "countertops" when I meant "cabinets," so bear that in mind when you read the above.

I know that there's supposed to still be an invisible "edit" button, but I can't find it.

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it looks like the comparison bids may save us 30-40%.

Whoah! That's a lot!

I hate it when people get offended. I am always polite, so it's not like I'm accusing them of trying to cheat me. But this is a business transaction, and as the buyer, I have a right to make the best choice.

Ugh.

Re buying in a hot market, yes this is new for us as well.

We can't compete with cash buyers, we won't be able to do an escalation clause... hopefully we'll find something that works, but I think it's going to be a rough ride!

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I know that there's supposed to still be an invisible "edit" button, but I can't find it.

The invisible reply/edit/report buttons are on the same line as Posts/Location/Registered. Move your cursor to the right and you should see the text pop up.

Reply with Quote
Edit or Delete Message
Report Post

Your cursor will change too, from the pointer to whatever you have that shows there's an embedded link that can be clicked on. When the window pops up, double check that it is the Edit rather than the Reply window. If you hit the Report button, it's obvious that isn't the one you want.

Sorry about the oddball workaround for this problem....

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Originally posted by Mary Anna:

… we're getting comparison bids and it would take a lot to get me to buy from her, so maybe those were bad decisions. At this point, it looks like the comparison bids may save us 30-40%.

Good lord.

The pro move in situations like this to go out and physically look at another installation the contractor did. See if it’s something you’d like to see in your own house. Talk to the homeowners. Prompt? Clean? On budget? On time?

Do not just call, look. You have to look.

I’ve saved myself a lot of grief over the years doing this. I got a glowing phone reference for a laminate countertop guy - the homeowner was thrilled with the guy and his work. She was proud of her new kitchen - sure I could come see it.

Hoo boy - what a mess! The mitre in the corner not only had gaps in it but one side was 1/16” higher than the other. That’s a lot for a countertop.

There was a 1/4” cap between the backsplash and the wall in some places. Rather than float out the wall or scribe in the back of the counter this hack filled the gap with bathtub caulk and did a lousy job of that.

I didn’t say anything to the nice lady. She was very happy with all of it and I just thanked her for her time and left.

This is why selecting contractors is so stressful!!!

And this is the downside to losing out on house number three, which is that we wouldn't have had the need for the kind of work like that. Whereas the other houses we've seen so far, we would.

Ah well, on to the next...

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Originally posted by Steve Miller:
There is a school of thought that allows for making an offer before you’re totally convinced. It buys time - just make sure you put contingencies in the offer resulting to inspections, etc, so you back out if you want.

Your realtor won’t like it but should know how to do it.

yes, i recommended this upthread. a lot of realtors actually recommend doing it this way. in our local market, waiting until you are sure will absolutely condemn you to never finding a house. unless you are one of those strange people that is certain immediately.

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Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Did you blow insulation in the walls? I know it can be done but it’s not common. I want to blow insulation in to my garage walls (I heat it) but the prices I’m getting are outrageous. How did they do it? I’m looking in to buying the machine and doing it myself.

I remember that years ago you were saying your windows would ice over on the interior in the winter and you had to mop the condensation off of the window sills to keep them from rotting. I’ve seen houses here with marble window sills, presumably to ward off that rot. Did you have the problem after you replaced the windows?

We don’t have that issue but it never gets down to -40 here either.

i had insulation blown into the attic crawlspace before i even moved in--like a foot or two deep, nearly to the rafters. not in the walls--we have been told that attic insulation in an old house is more than sufficient and no need to do the walls. we had incredibly low heating bills.

i replaced the windows on that house after i moved out and turned it into a rental, so i never got to live with them.

we have vinyl windows in our current home and we only get condensation in the bedroom because i run a humidifier. no rotting with vinyl, so far as i can tell. (you certatinly have an amazing memory for these details!)

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Originally posted by piqué:

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Originally posted by Steve Miller:
There is a school of thought that allows for making an offer before you’re totally convinced. It buys time - just make sure you put contingencies in the offer resulting to inspections, etc, so you back out if you want.

Your realtor won’t like it but should know how to do it.

yes, i recommended this upthread. a lot of realtors actually recommend doing it this way. in our local market, waiting until you are sure will absolutely condemn you to never finding a house. unless you are one of those strange people that is certain immediately.

Back to this point: re this last house we lost out on, one of the things I didn’t like about it was the location. I think the thing I’m most disappointed in is the fact that there’s not a lot of houses of that quality in neighborhoods we went to be in.

Am I thinking about it in the right way to say that since location is the one thing we can’t change, it should be at the top of the priority list?

Or should we push out the area within which we want to live to have more options?

What are people’s thoughts on this?

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Am I thinking about it in the right way to say that since location is the one thing we can’t change, it should be at the top of the priority list?

Yes, location is important. Yes, it's not changeable. No, I don't think it's a universal rule that is at the top of the list. Any individual house purchase involves a bunch of tradeoffs. Buyers have to decide which of their requirements are nonnegotiable and which ones they can give up on. Ultimately, you're the one who has to live with the location. If you find the perfect house and its location doesn't meet your needs and you'll hate it forever, then it's a deal breaker for you. It might not be for someone else.

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I think the thing I’m most disappointed in is the fact that there’s not a lot of houses of that quality in neighborhoods we went to be in.

If this is what's happening, then it seems your requirements for a home exceed your budget in your market.

Price, location, size, floor plan, condition, design, timing of move, interest rates. Unless you win the lottery and price drops off the list, one or more of the other requirements will have to give.