07-16-2010, 09:36 AM
.RJ Wrote:Since this thread is at the top - I'm thinking about buying a house sometime soon. Say... maybe the end of the year? I dont even know where to start. Do I call a realtor? Do I find the house for sale and then talk to the realtor that the sellers have hired? Who pays for the realtors? Are they scumbags? How do I make sure the house isnt busted? I'll probably be looking in the reston/herndon area, but still considering a move to Charlottesville.
When you're ready to start actually looking inside houses, call a realtor. Don't use the sellers realtor, get a recommendation from someone (I have someone if you want) or use that lookup/list thing that Evan knows about. You will pay your realtor, most likely a couple percent, and the sellers will pay theirs... unless there's an agreement to do otherwise as part of the sale.
There will be a home inspection after you make an offer on a house. Again, get a referral for someone who will actually look at shit instead of just walk through and sign off.
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth