The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Jewels]

The worst part is definitely packing. And with kids its even worse. I don't want to wait til the last second, but we have to live a little too.

[.RJ]

Now we get to live with my mom for a couple weeks till our new house is available, closing date is April 9th and our house wont be available till late April.  I do have a hankering for meatloaf though 

Someone's gotta make a joke about your mom's meatloaf.

The only problem with the seller's market is the other end of it.... friends that bought a TH in reston last year had to put in 5 or 6 offers, all with escalation clauses/no closing costs added.  Crazy.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Now we get to live with my mom for a couple weeks till our new house is available, closing date is April 9th and our house wont be available till late April.  I do have a hankering for meatloaf though 

Someone's gotta make a joke about your mom's meatloaf.

The only problem with the seller's market is the other end of it.... friends that bought a TH in reston last year had to put in 5 or 6 offers, all with escalation clauses/no closing costs added.  Crazy.

The people that put in the offer on ours; it was their 5th submitted contract on a house.  There was no way we would be willing to do closing costs, we would have rather dropped the price (to help on appraisal side).

We are moving away from the area, I am going to have to make sure to never look at prices back here again. I am going to be pissed if ours shoots up another $100k in 3 years with all the development.

---

BTW I know evreyone has their favorite "agent", but I loved ours. First time I have been super satisfied with the agent. Knew what to do and made it as easy as possible and got an absolutely phenomenal photographer.

[JustinG]

It'll shoot up, but you won't care. Cause your quality of life will be dramatically higher moving down there.

[.RJ]

DJ, did you use Jake's dad or someone else?

[D_Eclipse9916]

DJ, did you use Jake's dad or someone else?

Someone else, after our last experience with a real estate agent we wanted someone we didnt know...at all, or any relationship with.  It helps them to be more brutally honest with you.  Honestly you could probably RedFin to save a ton of money, but in my case we thought it was 100% worth it.

[Jewels]

I actually had a completely opposite take on Realtors. I know like 4 or 5 because we all workout together. I chose mine because of how much I liked her personally. She has been great to work with. Definitely put in a whole lot of effort on my cheap little town house when she's also selling 500k houses here in the valley. But I get what you are saying on being brutally honest, and its definitely a way different market up there than here in the valley. However, affordable housing for young families is at a premium so we sold quick because of it.

[Jake]

I've had a couple friends go with Not Dad as their agent for that exact reason - "don't want it to get messy." I'm clearly biased in that if the agent is good, there won't be any mess and they'll be honest with you regardless. But, I and he totally understand that logic as well. Just interesting to see people feel that way vs. how Julie mentioned.

Given all the stories I've heard from Dad, finding a good agent seems to be a total crapshoot, and there are more bad than good. He's worked with plenty that leave you shaking your head just from him recounting stories of how they were to deal with, or at closing, or whatever. Definitely a frustrating process that I'm not looking forward to when the time comes to quit my string of renting.

[WRXtranceformed]

there are more bad than good.

100% accurate, from experience in my time working in the new home industry up there.  Of the hundreds of realtors I worked and networked with, maybe 5 of them are what I would consider good

[Jake]

It just seems like so many people are like "I'm not happy with my X & Y job. I know! I'll get my realtor license!" because they think it's easy work and like the flexible hours. In reality, the good ones are effective communicators, very detail-oriented, objective, and really damn good at putting your needs before their own business interests. The people who do it part-time or on a lark are generally lacking those qualities.

[.RJ]

500k houses here in the valley.  

lolwut?

[Apoc]

We used a broker the last time around. $5,000 flat fee and everything else is credit at closing. We had to find our own houses, but were doing that anyway. They got us in the houses, worked with the listing realtor, and did all the paperwork/filing. Not sure I'll do it any other way ever again.

[WRXtranceformed]

It just seems like so many people are like "I'm not happy with my X & Y job. I know! I'll get my realtor license!" because they think it's easy work and like the flexible hours. In reality, the good ones are effective communicators, very detail-oriented, objective, and really damn good at putting your needs before their own business interests. The people who do it part-time or on a lark are generally lacking those qualities.

All of those things, and they just aren't good negotiators and don't know the real estate market / area.  Those last two things I would argue are the most important skills that every realtor should have.

[Jewels]

500k houses here in the valley.  

lolwut?

I know you think we are all toothless retards here in the valley, but believe it or not, we have big expensive houses, that CEOs and the like live in around here too.  The houses are a good bit bigger for 500k here then 500k where you are, but they do exist.

[JustinG]

Yea, $500k houses in the valley are actually worth $500k, they aren't 1500sq ft townhouses.

[.RJ]

500k houses here in the valley.  

lolwut?

I know you think we are all toothless retards here in the valley, but believe it or not, we have big expensive houses, that CEOs and the like live in around here too.  The houses are a good bit bigger for 500k here then 500k where you are, but they do exist.

Good job putting words in my mouth, there.

Just surprised that its become a regular thing out in the valley, outside of the CEO retreats on top of a mountain.  Its bad enough that $500k is the minimum buy-in for most of NoVa.

[Sijray21]

500k houses here in the valley.  

lolwut?

I know you think we are all toothless retards here in the valley, but believe it or not, we have big expensive houses, that CEOs and the like live in around here too.  The houses are a good bit bigger for 500k here then 500k where you are, but they do exist.

Good job putting words in my mouth, there.

Just surprised that its become a regular thing out in the valley, outside of the CEO retreats on top of a mountain.  Its bad enough that $500k is the minimum buy-in for most of NoVa.

More recently anyway. Glad I bought in '12. Seemed to be when prices bottomed out...

You can into single family houses in my neighborhood (ffx County) for around $400k where that was $100k less just 6 years ago...

[Jewels]

500k houses here in the valley.  

lolwut?

I know you think we are all toothless retards here in the valley, but believe it or not, we have big expensive houses, that CEOs and the like live in around here too.  The houses are a good bit bigger for 500k here then 500k where you are, but they do exist.

Good job putting words in my mouth, there.

Just surprised that its become a regular thing out in the valley, outside of the CEO retreats on top of a mountain.  Its bad enough that $500k is the minimum buy-in for most of NoVa.

You know I love you RJ.  But yeah, 500k certainly buys you a good bit here, but sometimes it still amazes me.  But I'm getting a single family house, on a .28 acre fenced lot for under 140K.  Its certainly not new, and its certainly not huge, in fact my town house is bigger square footage wise.  But.... I don't share walls with other people, and having a yard for my kid and my dog goes a long way.  Plus I have room to add an addition in a couple years.

[Apoc]

When the economy is good, housing prices go up. Are we really that surprised?

[.RJ]

You know I love you RJ.  But yeah, 500k certainly buys you a good bit here, but sometimes it still amazes me.  But I'm getting a single family house, on a .28 acre fenced lot for under 140K.  Its certainly not new, and its certainly not huge, in fact my town house is bigger square footage wise.  But.... I don't share walls with other people, and having a yard for my kid and my dog goes a long way.  Plus I have room to add an addition in a couple years.

I just need to get my other half on board with retiring to the valley to live cheap so I can ride bikes in the mountains.  And maybe an apartment in Thomas/Davis.

I still want to move to charlottesville but that aint cheap no more.