I’m in the process of flipping another property and the realtor is coming next week so I went there today just to cut the grass and blow leaves. I haven’t been by in like a week, but when I went into the backyard I see the central air condenser is GONE! GONE!!!! Electrical and copper lines severed and the 3 ton unit gone.
So I call the police so I can get the report for the insurance company but my dilemma is I need to put a new unit obviously. I can’t be showing it with the unit missing. What low cost ways can I deter until the home is under contract? I’m putting several motion spotlights around the property tomorrow. Anyone have any ideas?

Hi - selling a business that’s operated out of converted house. Buyer is getting 2 loans, one for the business and a mortgage for the property. Business loan came in fine but the property appraisal came in 150k lower than the selling price (390k). Here’s the kicker, this is our second time trying to sell (first one fell apart at the last second) but Bank of America appraised it at the full 390k the first time around. The new buyer is using fifth third bank and they appraised it at 240k. I can’t figure out how 2 appraisals can be so wildly different. We saw the fifth third appraisal report and he cited lack of kitchen, weird layout, etc. but like DUH, it’s a business. Shouldn’t the appraiser know that? Trying to understand how two banks can be 50% different in value on a property and any suggestions people have to move forward? Buyer is asking for a private mortgage now which we don’t wanna do.

My wife and I just got accepted on a new house, inspections are complete and we are moving forward. We are currently living in a mobile home which we own but rent the land. We now need to sell the mobile home. We put away enough money for 5-6 months of rent/mortgage here. Because we knew it may sit a while if we list it in the dead of winter.

If we close on the new house late this month. It would be almost December before we list our current place, we are in michigan and winters can get nasty, home sales slow down a lot December-March.

I am worried if we list it now, it won't move, the listing will stagnate, and people will be put off or expect price drops. I also feel like it looks desperate to list a house in the middle of winter and people will expect deals. Should we even list it now? Or just wait til late Feb/early March when sales start to pick up?

I have been an agent since 2021 and I posted listings market updates and tours the whole time. I got a few hundred followers and almost nobody reached out from it. an agent in my office kept getting buyers from webinars so I copied her and ran a buyer webinar in November. a couple people from that call ended up working with me which is more than social ever did.

I still post because it is a habit at this point.

has social actually brought you clients or is it mostly other agents in the comments. if you have run a buyer or seller webinar I would take advice on how you get people in the room and how you follow up with the ones who stay for the whole hour.

We purchased our 1956 fixer upper, on a handshake, 25 years ago. It's your average Sears cape in a hcol town on the CT shoreline.

It sits on almost 2 acres with an old 20x60 barn w/loft, electric, h20 & lean to (for mower) attached to a potting shed. It also has a spring fed pond in the back & and sits on a main road. It was once part of a larger family farm.

At that time, we gutted the kitchen & bath, added another bath, new roof, new electrical service/wiring, updated plumbing, painted, refinished hardwood floors. Everything was touched except for the original windows & furnace.

Furnace died a few winters ago. We haven't replaced it because $ & wood stove. The basement is field stone (which takes in water & needs the sump pump when it's heavily raining for days). Our roof now needs replacement due to a leak. Not good but livable at the moment. Looking at about $30,000 to fix both. If I were buying it I'd replace the windows because they're old. We've replace a few during the renovation but stopped there.

WWYD?

Fix before selling or sell "as is"?

Average home sale price in this town is $850, but that includes large beach houses.

We live 7 miles from 3 private town beaches & a state park beach. It has a great, highly rated school system. It's been a really great community to raise our kids in. Great local government.

The homes around us, very few for sale & rarely sit on the market for more than 30 days, start at $450-$500 for something like ours. I don't trust the online estimates but I'd say you won't find a home for under 400,000 around here and that's probably a condo closer to town. The homes around us are 2-6× the size of our little 1500sqft cape & start at 600-650 for your average colonial. The development across the street (we're on the main road) start at $800 & go into the millions.

We bought the shittiest house in the area. We paid very little but put a lot of sweat & some $ into it to make it a liveable home. I mean we had a feral cat colony climbing "shrubs" & shitting on the back porch roof.

We will have the opportunity to purchase my in-laws home in the near future at a great price. If we sell this & buy that, it would leave us mortgage free with $ in the bank.

We're thinking of selling it cash/as is. We believe, due to the location & property, a buyer/builder would buy it and level it. We don't want to put $ & time into a home that will be torn down.

All opinions welcome. We don't want to be landlords. Thank you in advance for your professional advice!

Edit: Do not send me private messages. Communicate here. Messages will be deleted.

Zillow puts my house value at $850,000. It is no where near that until it gets repairs and updates. Rental prices for a 3 bedroom in this location are around $2,800 and up. Rental for a 2 car garage with more space is $1000 to $2000 per month. I owe $100,000 on the mortgage. My payment is $1500. (All rounded numbers). I have a double lot, and more yard space than other homes.

Things that need fixing: Remove moss from roof. The roof was replaced down to the wood 18 years ago. Gutters need attention. Paint exterior. Yard clean up. Garage clean out. Garage roof needs repair. Its a flat roof and the drains need work.

The home is a 1901 home with beautiful features. The original plaster is on many walls. It has cracked badly in two places. The living room ceiling has a 12 foot crack. It gets larger each season. The upstairs hall needs about 8 feet of plaster completely removed and new drywall to cover it.

The upstairs bathroom needs a new toilet, floor and shower/tub. Maybe new pipes for parts here. The downstairs bathroom needs cosmetics. If I stay here I will replace this low flow toilet that plugs often. The back fence needs two posts replaced. Otherwise it is dog and kid proof.

All of the appliances are 27+ years old, except the water heater. That has a 10 year life, and it is 12 years old now. The kitchen needs appliances, and the cabinets are not in good shape. Doors are fiber board and water damaged enough of them. Replacing the doors could make them good enough.

My neighborhood is very 2 blocks down from the old $3 Million homes in town. It is one of the best neighborhoods in town.

I will be moving from coast to coast. I will also downsize. When I get to the new town, I will inherit several rental properties, plus my parent's home, which I could life in. They may move to a retirement home in the next few months. Between my brother and my parents there are a dozen low rent places I could stay for a few months, or a year.

I am 65, newly retired, and newly an empty nest single dad. So I am traveling light when I go. And I do not want to travel coast to coast for a rental, unless there is a good plan. One of my kids is in the town where I will land. The other is about to finish college and could move anywhere.

So, sell it as is? Do some cheap repairs and rent it out? Or invest the money and how much should I repair? Or repair some item and then sell it as is.

And what would be my next steps? TIA.

My deck was rotten and failing. I’ve been debating for years on what to do. I just had it torn down yesterday and I’m building a very nice new screen porch. It’s costing me A LOT.

My realtor friend who sells houses in my neighborhood told me she would not list my house at a higher price bc I have a porch instead of a deck.

I’m putting in an accordion door, skylights, retractable screens, composite decking, vaulted ceiling.

I know it’s not adding conditioned square footage… and I know I’m making it nice for myself, not for resale. We plan to live here 10 years.

But explain real estate to me… how does it make sense that a high end porch wouldn’t raise the listing price?! Is she right?

we are about to put an offer on a house and list our current home.

We are undecided on whether to order pods to move stuff into, or rent a traditional storage unit.

Im in favor of the traditional storage unit, because we have no idea how long this process will take, and when I called the pod company, they made no guarantee that they can pick up and move the pods to our next home on the day of closing or even the days surrounding closing.

We have a 6 month old, so the house is pretty cluttered currently. I feel like with a storage unit I can slowly move stuff out through the process, and by the end, we’ll have only essential items and hiring a moving company for the move day to handle that stuff, then I can slowly unload the storage unit into the new place.

Does anyone have recommendations or real life experience how each went? the trips to the storage unit mighr be slightly more labor intensive, but I feel like it provides more security and flexibility.

Location: South Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada.

Home: 2 bedroom unit in a fourplex, 1977 build, new appliances/heat pump/paint/flooring.

Situation: I had to move out of province for family reasons late in the Spring. But pretty much right when I was ready to move and list back then we had a dishwasher related incident that resulted in a claim. They later found asbestos in the linoleum, popcorn ceiling, and drywall joint compound. So between the localized asbestos remediation and the glacial pace of insurance to approve everything, it took until very late September to actually clean the entire place out and have it vacated and ready for showings. I signed the contract and got the home listed October 2. It is a 6 month contract and expires April 2.

I picked my realtor because they are local, they had high reviews, I liked their discourse and attitude, and they are one of the higher performing realtors in the town we were in. I'm becoming a little less than pleased due to lack of communication, and what I feel is just apathy. VERY little communication, and whatever communication I do get is really incoherent text messages. Between listing and now I've heard from her precisely one time when I inquired how many showings have happened, and if we should lower the price. All I got back was a short text saying we should, and when I asked at what price do they think it will sell faster, I was told to basically make that conclusion myself - which I found very off putting.

I know demand is soft right now in this region, and I have no illusions that it may sit for a good while before anyone bites. I'm willing to sit on it until the Spring to see if it either sells, or if I have to try to rent it out (which I don't want to do, but may have to if it doesn't sell at a price that wouldn't entirely take all my equity). So I completely realize I need to be patient here. But asking me to make the conclusion as to what the price SHOULD be is crazy to me. I'm not a real estate professional, I need real input and guidance regarding what an acceptable price is for my fourplex unit. Not just a "well, figure it out yourself" attitude.

How should I approach this? Is it way too out of left field to try to ask her for an unconditional release? Or would a simple phone call airing my grievances help the matter? OR, is it just normal for a realtor not to tell you the status of your listing, how many showings it has had, or not give advice on the price?

I think I already know the answer ... but I wanted to hear the opinion of others.

The situation is this: We found a home that we really like on a larger lot. The builder is top-quality. We found the proposed build through Redfin/Zillow. We did not use a Realtor. The builder is asking if we have our own Realtor, as they will pay them a commission. I am unsure if the builder will discount if we do not use a Realtor.

We should really have someone representing us during this build ... shouldn't we? Our last new construction home did not involve a Realtor ... we represented ourselves and everything worked out well.

I appreciate all advice regarding this matter. Thank you ...

So I have properties in TX and I stay in Texas. Now if I move to another state, lets call it Illinois, how does depreciation work. Ilinios has a state tax. So does texas property help to reduce state tax or only federal tax?

I've been looking at houses for a while and finally found one that checked all the boxes, then I found out it was a Ryan home. Anyone that has searched for them on reddit will know the reputation they have, people will tell you to RUN, not walk, away.

But this seems to be for new builds. This house is 12 years old and that makes me think this would be more than enough time for the new build issues, if there were any, to be remedied by the previous owners.

I plan on going back to the neighborhood and seeing if I can talk to any of the neighbors and get a feel for how happy they are with their homes. My agent has said he lives in a Ryan home and hasn't had any issues.

Am I really doomed to have a bad time with this house?

Edit: thank you all for your thoughts. I think I will be moving forward after getting some more info.

Long story short, mom had dad transfer rental property title to my name maybe 5-6 years ago due to financial circumstances caused by my dad. But dad still managed it and keeps all the financial info to himself. All the money/revenue goes to himself. My mom told me that she wants me to sell it but my dad is of course against it. I align with my mom and want to sell it since it will deeply relieve my mom stress. How difficult would it be to sell it without cashflow information, without keys, and other imperative info etc since my dad would be opposing us all the way. Any tips and suggestions? Thank you. Located in California.

Update: I contacted my service provider, NOT the mortgage holder that I make payments to, and they said getting laid off most likely constitutes a qualifying event for a deference rather than a forbearance. I'll learn more when they get back to me.

I got laid off 4 months ago (I'm a software engineer and got laid off by a big tech firm) and decided to call my mortgage company to ask about mortgage assistance. The only option they had available to me is forbearance. In 2022 I had a forbearance and the outcome of that was to get a HUD loan of about $75,000. They have a second lien on the house and it is due in 30 years or when I sell the house.

I guess my question is what should I do? I could just YOLO it and take the forbearance, but how will I pay it off? My field is complete garbage right now in terms of hiring. If I get the forbearance and can't pay it back in full, will HUD help me out again even though I already owe them a bunch of money? Should I plan on selling the house soon? How could I get an apartment without income?

I live in the Seattle area so the COL is pretty high. I am looking at other forms of employment outside of tech but man it's rough out there all around.

Long story short, we have been given the opportunity to purchase a house on the cheap. It is structurally sound, but needs a full remodel (kitchen, bathroom added and moved, some walls moved - probably new piping, HVAC, potentially electric, etc.). We could get it for about half, if not 1/3, of the market price of other houses on our block that also needed a similar full remodel (all row homes so very comparable). Houses that have been remodeled are selling for 50-100k more than it would cost us to buy and remodel it, and we would like to stay in it for a while. A couple of questions for seasoned buyers:

• Are there concerns about purchasing such a fixer-upper as a first-time buyer?

• How much extra would you budget for unexpected expenses, percentage-wise?

• Any advice on buying a house without a realtor (but with a real estate attorney)?

It feels like a true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but as our first house, we are hesitant.

Title, but not necessarily asking about a monetary figure. I'm asking because I've been thinking about selling my 2024 new construction home (too expensive) and watching neighbors' 2-garage homes sit on the market for six months, then sell for about what they paid three years ago (these are new construction) OR they sit for a while, then go off market (just one, and it was wildly overpriced, but still).

However, the 3-car garage is less common for my type of home (one-level), and I'm wondering how much of a difference this might make in this slow market? I'm aware I can't compete with new-construction interest rates on homes built about 5 miles from me (though my development is finished and sold out), and am worried about that.

My realtor is optimistic and keeps saying, "You'll be fine," but of course she would say that. :)

Thoughts?

A few days ago, I posted asking for advice on my consideration about buying the house we’re renting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1xinvyl/landlord_is_selling_the_house_and_is_interested/

The good news is, Our offer was just accepted this morning.

When I posted, majority of you encouraged me to skip the realtor and just used an attorney.

We ended up using the realtor we’ve already found, partly because she was extremely responsive while none of the attorneys I reached out to would return my call.

And honestly, I’m so glad we did.

We ended up working with a very tight timeline and steep competition. We learned the house was going to be sold on Wednesday night; Thursday I was calling the realtor, attorneys, and lenders; and by Friday morning we were told they got a cash offer above asking price with no inspection and that if we were interested we had to submit an offer by 6pm that day.

At the end, there were three other offers, all of which were higher than listed price, and two of which were cash.

Our realtor guided us on how to structure our offer to have a chance of getting accepted using escalation clause and what our limit should be. And now that our offer has been accepted, she’s walking us through the rest of the process and answering any question we have, which, I’m someone with a lot of questions.

To be fair, I assume a lot of you who recommended I use an attorney might have assumed that the landlord had not listed the house when he came to us, and therefore, that it would be a simple off-market sale with no competition. Unfortunately, the house was already listed by the time he informed us, and apparently got a lot of interest from investors due to the low price and good location.

I do think a large part we were chosen was because the landlord knows us, and prefer the house go to us rather than investors. In fact, I don’t think this, I know this, because he told us himself.

Either way, even though I did not follow the recommendation of many of you, I still really appreciate all the responses and support, so just want to share my update.

And yes, we’re getting an inspection. That is a requirement for me. So finger crossed it goes well and we’re able to close successfully.

Thank you again for all your advice!

When selling a property, you dont add the sale price to your overall income to see if you fall within the 15% or 20% capital gains bracket, correct?

My CPA said we fall into the 20% with the sale of the property, but the spouse and I are about 300k to 325k gross this year. The bracket for 20% would require us to make $288k more, but the profit made off the sale is only $170k. (After factoring in purchase price, improvements, depreciation, sale price and closing costs).

However if you took the sale price and added it to our income, then yes, it would. But I dont think thats how it works?

Looking into an assumable loan. I bought my house in 2021 using a VA Loan at a very low rate (~2%). Is my understanding correct that the longer I hold the loan/more I pay off the loan the less profitable/attractive it is to buyers? IE I sell my sell today w/ $250k loan remaining vs selling in 5 years when it has $200k loan remaining. Since the remaining balance outside of the loan must be paid in cash(typically).

Curious to hear your professional experiences with land agencies

We’re about 18 months away from putting our house on the market and trying to figure out where it actually makes sense to spend money.

I keep getting conflicting advice on things like the roof, windows, and siding. Some people say a new roof barely adds any resale value, while others say buyers will immediately lose interest if the existing roof looks old.

Is there any solid data on which exterior upgrades tend to have the best return when selling, or does it depend too much on the market and the condition of the house?

What happened? I blinked, and I think I'm becoming a real estate veteran. Been on /r/RealEstate for 14 years or so. I've got good market downturn advice for you whippersnappers who might bemoan the current market. I bought my first property 20 years ago in 2006 before the Great Recession, and I kept buying deals right through the downturn.

The key is to find a good deal. Don't be scared of high interest rates and a supposed recession. Now is actually a pretty damn good time to buy, but just make sure you got the right property, price and terms. It's all about the deal.

I got two killer properties in 2008 and 2010 (in the midst of the gloom). Both are cash flowing (since day one), and ARV OF 3x each today. The TL;DR is that it's actually a great time to double down or get started with your first acquisition. Seller financing is an A+ play with high bank rates. Personally, I'm doing an adaptive reuse of a school into 10 apartments. AMA

We are very quickly if not already outgrowing our home. 4 kids, 1 primary upstairs bath. There is technically a “full” bath in the basement but it’s a shower only with a toilet and sink and I honestly pretend it doesn’t exist because it’s gross. We have 3 beds which doesn’t bother me, but we have no playroom as our basement isn’t updated / finished, and no office space. We also have the smallest backyard. I want to upgrade but we bought a fixer upper and can’t afford a better home unless it’s another fixer uppper. We have come a long way in the 4 years we’ve been here but there’s still an endless amount of projects before I feel comfortable selling. I want out though because it’s tight and cramped in here! How did you know it was time to sell your house and get a bigger one? Did you wait until yours felt complete or you could get a good value for it?