Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[trappedslider]

“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”
― Voltaire

 

[RealAlHazred]

“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”
― Voltaire

Speak Fitly or be Silent Wisely.
― Faintly Macabre, again. She gets around! Or doesn't, really, as she's in prison...

 

[dragoner]

 

[dragoner]

Speak Fitly or be Silent Wisely.
― Faintly Macabre, again. She gets around! Or doesn't, really, as she's in prison...

Silence is golden, and too often broken by the shouting by the ruler of fools. It's the demons stripping us of our memories, freeing us from the Earth.

 

[overgeeked]

"More matter, with less art." Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2.

That said, there is a place for detailed and nuanced discussion.

Too bad it's clearly not on the internet.

 

[dragoner]

Make a good post, express your feelings, something important ... get crickets, or an insult.

 

[CleverNickName]

When we sold our house in Maryland, we accepted an offer from a couple who paid to have an inspection. The inspector found some sand in the utility room and signs of water damage, so they asked what we knew. We explained the pipe into the house was leaking at one point and we had it replaced, but had no idea where the sand came from. We had only owned the house 3 years and had bought it from the estate of the previous owner so there were a lot of unanswered questions. We couldn't really tell them much about the history of the house beyond what was public record and what happened during our time living there. The buyers demanded a site survey on that side of the house and wanted to dig up the yard to check the drainage, all while continuing to spend money on things you've outlined above. They eventually ended up walking away when we refused to meet their demand and put the house back on the market. They probably spent a few thousand dollars and walked away with nothing, while we ended up finding easier to deal with buyers 2 weeks after it went back on the market.

Yeah, a lot of buyers want the seller to turn that old house into a new one for them, and then get really surprised when the seller says "no."

Our inspector identified a lot of things that needed attention, but only a couple of things that needed repair: one was a portion of the foundation (a few feet of sill plate needed replacement, and four pillars needed to be adjusted), and the other was the wiring (one circuit of knob-and-tube wiring was still active and needed to be replaced). Everything else was in pretty good shape. The seller had already informed us that the roof was getting a full replacement before we even made the offer, so there was no need to even bring it up.

That was a good move becasue if you had dug it up, and now you know about a bunch of bad stuff, you would be on the hook for it regardless of buyer.

That's also why a lot of sellers want you to use their own inspectors. If someone hires an outside inspector, that new inspector might find new stuff that the other one missed...and those findings will get added to the property report. Usually they discount the cost of their own inspector to give buyers an incentive to not hire a new one.

And fair enough: a lot of the time, buyers are only interested in turning that new property into a rental or AirBNB, or they just want to flip it for a fast resale...they only want to "check the box" so to speak on the mortgage application, they don't actually intend to inhabit the home for more than a year or two.

But we intend to live in the house for a few decades, at least, so we spent the extra cash for a detailed inspection--complete with radon test, sewer scope, foundation inspection, infrared photography, the works. (It was the infrared photography that located the forgotten knob-and-tube circuit in the wall.)

Buying a house is a TRIP, y'all.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I'm willing to admit there are some thoughts that take more words to express than others, and I'm willing to admit that there are some people who think longer--or at least wordier--thoughts than others, and there's really nothing wrong with either of those things: I'm just not going to read through a really long post, whether I agree with it or not.

At the end of the day you will probably have spent that time wiser than the person whose post you did not read

 

[payn]

Yeah, a lot of buyers want the seller to turn that old house into a new one for them, and then get really surprised when the seller says "no."

Our inspector identified a lot of things that needed attention, but only a couple of things that needed repair: one was a portion of the foundation (a few feet of sill plate needed replacement, and four pillars needed to be adjusted), and the other was the wiring (one circuit of knob-and-tube wiring was still active and needed to be replaced). Everything else was in pretty good shape. The seller had already informed us that the roof was getting a full replacement before we even made the offer, so there was no need to even bring it up.


That's also why a lot of sellers want you to use their own inspectors. If someone hires an outside inspector, that new inspector might find new stuff that the other one missed...and those findings will get added to the property report. Usually they discount the cost of their own inspector to give buyers an incentive to not hire a new one.

And fair enough: a lot of the time, buyers are only interested in turning that new property into a rental or AirBNB, or they just want to flip it for a fast resale...they only want to "check the box" so to speak on the mortgage application, they don't actually intend to inhabit the home for more than a year or two.

But we intend to live in the house for a few decades, at least, so we spring the extra cash for a detailed inspection--complete with radon test, sewer scope, foundation inspection, infrared photography, the works. (It was the infrared photography that located the forgotten knob-and-tube circuit in the wall.)

Buying a house is a TRIP, y'all.

Sounds like you have done your due diligence and it should pay off for you!

 

[Willie the Duck]

Re: really long posts: when I make a 20+ line post, it is because I am responding to 4-5 people who said things I have something to add. Hopefully that's different from a wall of text on (much less a refutation of) one person's post or point. Still, I understand if people just gloss over my posts for being too long.

Yeah, a lot of buyers want the seller to turn that old house into a new one for them, and then get really surprised when the seller says "no."

There's a hint of logic to it. If you-the-seller make the changes for them and then raise the asking price to match, they can buy the changes for 5-20% down and higher monthly mortgage payment. If they buy the house as-is (hoping to upgrade later); they either have to 1) come up with the total cost of the upgrade, or 2) buy down the home loan until they can take out a second mortgage (usually the same amount or more, unless the value of the home rises enough for the Loan-to-Value to drop significantly).

I'm not saying you should do it, just that there was a logic to it (and reason why it used to happen in more buyer-friendly housing markets).

And fair enough: a lot of the time, buyers are only interested in turning that new property into a rental or AirBNB, or they just want to flip it for a fast resale...they only want to "check the box" so to speak on the mortgage application, they don't actually intend to inhabit the home for more than a year or two.

We looked at a few flips when looking the last time (2019). Man, maybe there are some finds out there, but in general I used the Homesteaded check box as a first filter to even look.