The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Ryan T]

Selling our home we just paid the 6% commission to the realtor, who split it with the buyers realtor. Buyer paid all the closing costs for the loan.

Purchasing our new house was just the opposite. Paid about 3% of the purchase price in closing costs, seller paid the commission to the realtors out of their profit.

[WRXtranceformed]

Got lucky on the townhouse sale, buyers had no agent. I used a buddy of mine who also happens to be one of the top realtors in Charlotte so he gave us a drastically reduced fee. I went ahead and used him for the buying process as well so he could help me stay on top of our builder. He also helped me negotiate a better price even with them paying his agent's fee. I can't remember what our total closing costs were but they really weren't bad. In fact, with as much of a dumpster fire as Wells Fargo is right now, their mortgage group was on point...I was really surprised. They actually "caught an error" (or perhaps saw the heat coming down the pipeline from regulators due to their other businesses) and about 6 months later I got a check back for about $450 for an overcharge for something in the process.

[.RJ]

Stupidly, the listing agent refused to talk to me and asked I have my agent call him. Dumbass. I will never use a realtor again, if I can help it.

At least using an agent shields me from all the dreamers/not serious buyers and people that cant qualify for a loan.  I dont know how many of them are there that would waste my time around here though.

[Apoc]

Yeah, but would you want your agent to refuse to talk to anyone who didn't have an agent? I had a pre-qualification letter and wanted to ask him a bunch of questions, but he was uncooperative. That's artificially limiting your market because your agent either doesn't want to deal with non-realtors or is protecting his industry. Or both.

[.RJ]

That's artificially limiting your market because your agent either doesn't want to deal with non-realtors or is protecting his industry. Or both.

In theory a buyers agent would have qualified that the people have money and want to spend it otherwise they wouldnt take them to show the house.  As a seller they're going to use the broker to leverage lower commission fees and sales price so at the end of the day the net money to me will be the same.

Now if you wanted to see a house and intended to use the broker and provided your loan pre-approval and account statements that showed you were qualified AND they turned you away then they're idiots.

[WRXtranceformed]

That's artificially limiting your market because your agent either doesn't want to deal with non-realtors or is protecting his industry. Or both.

In theory a buyers agent would have qualified that the people have money and want to spend it otherwise they wouldnt take them to show the house.  As a seller they're going to use the broker to leverage lower commission fees and sales price so at the end of the day the net money to me will be the same.

Now if you wanted to see a house and intended to use the broker and provided your loan pre-approval and account statements that showed you were qualified AND they turned you away then they're idiots.

Agreed on that last sentence and I would go so far as to say that the vast majority of brokers are hot garbage.  In my time building and selling houses I probably worked with literally thousands of agents in the DC area and Charlotte and I can think of maybe ten that I would consider to have mastered their craft and be worth the fees

[Apoc]

That's artificially limiting your market because your agent either doesn't want to deal with non-realtors or is protecting his industry. Or both.

In theory a buyers agent would have qualified that the people have money and want to spend it otherwise they wouldnt take them to show the house.  As a seller they're going to use the broker to leverage lower commission fees and sales price so at the end of the day the net money to me will be the same.

Now if you wanted to see a house and intended to use the broker and provided your loan pre-approval and account statements that showed you were qualified AND they turned you away then they're idiots.

We met the agent at the open house. I called him the next day to ask some questions about the house - he told me to have my agent call him if we had questions.

They didn't use the broker to leverage anything. The seller paid their 6% and we got 100% of the difference between the buyer's agent 3% fee ($17,250) and the flat $5,000 fee.

I pay my agent/broker to sell my house. That means you deal with the bullshit calls and don't qualify that buyers need an agent as an artificial indication of worthiness. There are plenty of worthless agents out there, so requiring that I have one call doesn't really mean anything.

[.RJ]

Unfortunately.  

Even changing the realtor/agent model, does it change home buying/selling?  Its a big decision, its really expensive, there's 20 hands in my pocket at closing and its a pain in the ass and you only do it every 5-10 years at most.  And I dont even have any kids to worry about schools/friends.

[Apoc]

Even changing the realtor/agent model, does it change home buying/selling?  Its a big decision, its really expensive, there's 20 hands in my pocket at closing and its a pain in the ass and you only do it every 5-10 years at most.  And I dont even have any kids to worry about schools/friends.

I thought our buying process was pretty easy, compared to the prior two purchases, but I think the internet was the real credit there because we did all the legwork ourselves (which I prefer). I don't know that changing the model does anything for sellers other than saving money. Houses here are nearly always empty when they sell, so we'll probably do the same. It involves a bridge loan for both houses, then refinancing to just the new house once they both sell. THAT is a game changer because we can use the equity of the old house without having to sell it first. Then we don't have to live in a house that's on the market, which IMO is the worst part of selling houses. 

I think it's a MASSIVE deal when you're 25, but not as much when you're 40. If/when we move next year, we'll have averaged a little over four years in each of the three we've owned. It's a lot of money, but it's mostly paper money, and barring a crash it's not a one way door. The part I'm really dreading is a actual move.

[WRXtranceformed]

Very possible I might be moving for work in the next few years. I'm also mostly dreading the move itself. Hopefully if it does happen I can negotiate some kind of "forced buyout" in my relocation package in case I have to worry about selling my house here

[Senor_Taylor]

Jesus how did y'all buy so young. Also way bigger response than expected. Will read later.

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[Apoc]

Very possible I might be moving for work in the next few years.  I'm also mostly dreading the move itself.  Hopefully if it does happen I can negotiate some kind of "forced buyout" in my relocation package in case I have to worry about selling my house here

Having done it... and knowing you're a lot like me... I recommend negotiating someone to pack your house. It's bougie as hell, but everything is done in a single day by someone other than you. IMO, it's a better way to spend the money than trying to get them to buy out your house - unless you're worried that your house will sit empty for a year. Ours took two months to sell, which was annoying, but not nearly as annoying as having to pack all your shit.

---

Jesus how did y'all buy so young. 

Two incomes, I graduated with no student loans, and loaned some of the down payment from my (divorced) parents to avoid PMI. My dad charged interest; my mom did not.

[.RJ]

When we move next month I'm paying for the house to be packed and moved. Mostly because my wife is downtown 4 days a week and working long hours and cant really participate so its not worth stressing myself out getting it all done, and buying all the boxes and packing materials and spending a whole week of evenings packing. Half of our shit is already packed and in a storage pod for staging and that was bad enough.

I bought in fairly late in life at 32 but I pissed away my whole 20's not saving much and playing with cars and motorcycles in one big gasoline fueled la vida bachelor. No ragrets.

[Sijray21]

Jesus how did y'all buy so young

what is 'young'?

so. many. factors. (Salary, job stability, desire to own, market, interest rates, deposit saved, no debt, etc.)

I didn't think i was that young when i bought (age 28), but others may have also bought in a market that had lower-priced homes. I didn't have dual income for my first/only purchase, but I included my then future wife's salary in our budget even if she wasn't on the mortgage. I also factored in how much i saved up for a 5% down payment, having to get PMI because of the afore-mentioned 5% down payment, and the fact that in all my years after college i only had a maximum of $750/mo in rent after college(only for one year, too) thus allowing me to put away more for a deposit on a home without losing out on much of the fun of my 20s.

Some people i knew that bought 'young' (under 25, to me) had help from their family, lived at home, and/or didn't go out much to save for the down payment. This was my case, too, since i lived in my mom's rental house with friends after college (she just charged us what the mortgage was) and i lived with my mom for a few months when i quit my full-time job at the time.

i know my cousin bought his first home at 23, but that was in a Wisconsin market where the house cost him about $75k (with a 15 year mortgage). no way i could've afforded a home i wanted in NoVA at 23 with how much i was making even if i wanted to buy.

[Apoc]

P.S. - We bought in Leesburg, even thought we both worked in Fairfax.

I'm done sacrificing commute for home ownership, but I'm old.

[WRXtranceformed]

Jesus how did y'all buy so young. Also way bigger response than expected. Will read later.

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Lived with ma dukes for 2 years after college (also helpful for her because she was single), burned up a lot of cash on Subarus but saved a lot of cash as well.  Ultimately though the move out of the DC area is what helped me do it.  Crack pipe prices up there man, I wouldn't have been able to afford NoVA home purchase prices at the time unless I magically started making 3x or got married to a wife that worked and lived that DINK life.  Houses down south were less than half the price. 

I also took 401k loans and paid myself back in both instances to help meet down payment requirements.  It's a great option especially if you already own a home because you pay off the loan to yourself as soon as your old home sells, but either way the interest payments you make are to yourself (ie. back into your 401k account).  There are also no penalties if you borrow from it this way, for the purpose of buying a home (there may be other acceptable penalty-free use cases, ie. medical emergencies, etc. I'm not sure)

[JustinG]

Jesus how did y'all buy so young. Also way bigger response than expected. Will read later.

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We stopped buying beat to shit Miatas & E30s in college.

We bought at 23 cause Casey was out in 3yrs, making good money and lived at home for 2yrs while waiting on my slack ass to graduate. We had no desire to rent, as rent > mortgage in our area.

[Apoc]

Jesus how did y'all buy so young. Also way bigger response than expected. Will read later.

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We stopped buying beat to shit Miatas & E30s in college.

I think the correct phrasing is, "We listened to people with more wisdom when we were informed our ideas were not good ones."

[Kaan]

Jesus how did y'all buy so young. Also way bigger response than expected. Will read later.

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We stopped buying beat to shit Miatas & E30s in college.

I think the correct phrasing is, "We listened to people with more wisdom when we were informed our ideas were not good ones."

that's management talk right there!

[JPolen01]

I can't read all this at work, but I bought when I was 23. Dual incomes and working throughout high school/college gave us a solid downpayment. Got a great deal on our house at the time and interest rates were still fairly low. I think we are fixed at 3.25%.