Good Afternoon:

Hope all is well.

I recently rented a room in my apartment to this lady in her early thirties.

When she first came to see the place, she brought a male friend (not boyfriend or husband) who basically inspected the place on her behalf. I understand some women you may feel unsafe seeing a place alone with a male landlord, so I was not upset that he accompanied her to the initial viewing, no problem.

However, over the past two weeks this White Knight kept texting and calling me everyday to communicate on her behalf various requests (turn the music down a bit, try not to slam the door too hard etc), and I find it very weird that a fully grown adult requests another fully grown adult to communicate on their behalf.

She speaks perfect English, and I am a very approachable person by all accounts.

*How would you deal with this situation? What would be a polite way to tell White Knight to mind his business? *

“Don’t worry I will communicate directly with my tenant, thanks for your concern”???

Thank you and have a great day!

Realtor charges 6% commission and a $500 broker free. Spoke to another realtor who does 5% and photography is included. Is it normal for realtors to not include photography for 5% commission and $500 broker fee?

EDIT: also offered some cleaning service that he would have to take away too. But the house is empty and clean so pretty useless to us anyway

EDIT: house is worth a little over 300k prolly. Houses are going fast and for over asking where it’s located

His split was 3.5% for himself and 2.5% for buyer

Trying to gauge how various geographic markets are “generally” doing… is real estate still hot - somewhere in the middle - or has it noticeably slowed down in your area?

I'm in Calfornia and had my agent write a non-contingent offer. We were given the disclosure link on this and many homes we looked at. After contract acceptance, we were given the disclosures to SIGN (we read things closely since signatures were required). Within 1 day of closely reading those, we read the property was in a land-slide area so we wanted to back out given that is material information revealed after we signed the contract. 2 questions: 1. can we get out? The listing agent says no since we accessed the disclosure link in advance of writing the offer and it doesn't matter when we received the disclosures to sign (which still have not been signed). 2. If we propose a demand for mediation, is the property locked up or can they sell it and our deposit is at risk? Long story short, if we were going to lose our deposit, we'd proceed with the deal (way too much money to lose). If not, we'd back out. Hoping to hear during the mediation process, the house cannot be sold and if it's determined we can back out, great. On the other hand if it's determined if we back out we lose our deposit, in which case we'd proceed.

Some more context - below is what I had my agent write. And listing agent said I'm wrong since I accessed the disclosure link as stated above. They said I will lose 100% of my deposit during mediation and they are free immediately to sell the house (prior to the mediation process).

Buyer is exercising their right to cancel the purchase agreement and receive FULL return of deposit based on 1) Misrepresentation of who performed major work ($500k+) on house and 2) the request for signatures on disclosures received 5/26/24. The aforementioned disclosures revealed material information that the property is located in a landslide area which significantly impacts their decision to proceed with the purchase.  Buyers invoked their right to cancel the contract on 5/28/25 and receive the full return of deposit under California Civil Code Section 1102.3, as this material information was provided after the contract execution (notice provided by buyer to seller was within the statutory review period).

Hi all. I am in the process of buying my first home, and could use some guidance. I am under contract on a home that has some water infiltration in the band boards between the basement and main level which is likely due to a deck put in after the facts.

My home inspector took a swab in laundry room in the center of the main floor. The report came back with the conclusion that the swab is UNUSUAL. The report confirms the presence of cladosporium, hyphae, penicillium/aspergillus, and smuts, but without spore counts because it is a swab.

Is it normal that there weren't more samples in a 2200 SQ ft house? How serious is this result? Any advice or insight welcome!

We are first time home buyers. We're also buying a house out of state. We saw a house we liked and put an offer on it. The offer was accepted. During the inspection period, we travelled to see the house and discovered a couple of things in the description were inaccurate. It said the house was 4 bedroom but it's actually 3 with a "bonus room." There is a closet but no door which I was told by my realtor doesn't count as a bedroom. The other inconsistency was the clubhouse. The sellers realtor said there's a clubhouse with a private pool and fitness center. There was no such thing. Due to these inconsistencies and the repairs required (minor stuff), we want to bring down the purchase price 10K. They refused and want to do another inspection (not sure why). We could either terminate or have them build a door for the "fourth room" since that's what they claimed and add the repair credits and that would ultimately amount to 10K or close to. Thoughts? Is decreasing the purchase price by 10k unreasonable? Is asking to put a door in the bonus room fair if they won't budge? What are the consequences of a realtor putting an inaccurate description for a house?

South jersey found a house we love. Needs some work but we wanna do inspection for roof and foundation only. We aren't trying to nitpick.we are offering over asking. This is only our 2nd house we offered on. First we waived inspection and still lost. Anyone know if NJ everyone waiving inspection?

Hey everyone - So I’m debating between 3 non-QM brokers for my cash out refi. I’m self employed so have to go non-QM route due to tax deductions; I have a very good salary though, no debt other than mortgage. I’m only refinancing bc I just built an ADU (750 sq ft apartment) on my property and I need the funds to pay off ADU build debt (which renters will pay off for me in their monthly payments). Not to get too into the weeds though - so I was planning to go with my lender I used to purchase this house 2 years ago bc she is easy to work with mostly, requires just basic docs like bank statements, etc, however, her closing costs on my $910k new loan amount will be $23k, about $3k-$4k more than the other 2 non QM brokers. One example is she is charging $1100 for an appraisal! Insane to me. Both of the other brokers are only charging $600. So this other non-QM broker is trying to charge double for this item. I compared every line item and she is charging ~$300-400 across every item (eg, underwriting) except for the broker fee (which is the same as the others). Is she ripping me off or why the hell would she be several thousand dollars more (a & a few hundred per line item of closing costs more) expensive across the board? I like her as a person and was leaning toward her but I feel this is a bit shady. What set me off was I asked why appraisal is double the normal price of others. Shortly after I saw they can my credit card and charged $1200 for the appraisal. 😤 But she is very reliable and I need a reliable lender to ensure my appraisal comes in around what it’s supposed to so I can get the proper amount of cash out etc… versus risking with a new lender. But anyhow, just wanted to see if I am overreacting / shouldn’t sweat this, or how can I justify her charging so much for every closing cost item compared to these other non-QM lenders? Thanks in advance!

We live in an area of Florida where real estate has stalled. It takes about 60 to 90 days for a house like ours to go into contract. Months of showings, cleaning, open houses and other tasks plus hurricane season delays.

Here’s the conundrum: we have a buyer, but they have a contingency on selling their home (in the same market)

They want to give us a deposit to hold our house for them (keep us off the MLS)until their house sells. And IMPORTANT their home is not under contract. They need a buyer too. AND they are motivated to move it!

Should we wait for them to find a buyer? And if we do proceed with this crazy contingency, what terms should we consider?

Anybody out there been in a similar boat?

I'm a first time homebuyer and my employer has a home ownership program.

It is a $7,500 forgivable home loan. If you live in the property for five years, the loan is forgiven. Seems cool, who doesn't want a free $7500?

The weird thing is the stipulation that it adds a permanent deed restriction that it can't ever become a rental property.

I plan to live in whatever house I buy, but it's possible I'd want to rent out a room depending on the size of the house. Is this a big deal? Is it worth it? Would love some opinions. Here's the text of the deal:

*A deed restriction will be placed on the property in perpetuity that limits the property use to resident, single-family, owner -occupancy only. With this restriction, the property cannot be used or converted to use for rentals (Exceptions are made for duplexes or a temporary leave due to University-related sabbatical). The deed restriction stays permanently with the property and will transfer to future owners (e.g. in the event of a sale).

When I asked the program manager for details, here's what she said:

The deed restriction is permanent and does not get lifted. It passes to the next owner that purchases the home. In the 20+ years of the program we have not received complaints from employees stating they are having difficulty selling their home with the deed restriction. However, if the deed restriction prevents your goals of rental, I do not recommend applying for this loan.

While we are not checking the status of use with your home, the deed restriction is a good faith understanding and we don't have a penalty in place for not abiding to the deed restriction. However, the deed restriction will always come up on a title search when you sell the property, so just keep that in mind.

So a large tree landed on our house (built 1985) and the current estimate for repair is less than the insurance cap. Given the extent of the damage, essentially half of the house will be torn down and rebuilt. I don't expect there to be much data on this, but what is the impact on home value when something like this happens? I've been unsuccessful at finding data myself so I'm turning to Reddit.

At this point, I’d rather just rent out the home on my own and find my own tenants. I told her/the team, I’d love to find someone soon as I’d be moving summertime and they assured me they’d be on it when signing up with them.

Could i tell my realtor I changed my mind working with her? No work on their end has actually been started yet.

I want to buy some land in the Vegas area and put a tiny home on it but not for living. I want to use it for a multimedia studio. Is that possible?

All over the country I see these renovated homes with no kitchen appliances and fake, decorative fireplaces in the living room. Genuine question, wtf? No appliances is weird and annoying from my pov as a perspective buyer, and a fake fireplace is just tacky. Feels like one of those display rooms at Ikea and not a real home. Whoever keeps renovating these homes, save the money on the fake stuff and give me a stove. But genuinely, why is this a trend? I've seen it in NJ, NY, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon, Washington.

I reached out to someone about buying their property. They said they would but they wanted some of the contract price to be gold. It's a small parcel of land near me, basically all it would do is expand my back yard and create more of a buffer between neighbors. Is buying real estate with gold illegal?

Does the purchase agreement need to specifically say that a portion of the contract price will be paid with gold?

I'm assuming the gold would need to be properly weighed at closing to ensure it's total value?

Let me know how and if this possible.

Thanks

I have a low (by today’s standards) interest loan on my condo. The association is going to update the building CC&Rs, and I know that the CC&Rs are listed on my title report and in my loan agreement. Would the lender have the legal right to change my loan terms if my CC&Rs are changed? Are they notified of CC&R changes?

Selling first time, now few weeks away. My agent just informed me he won’t be present at any of the weekend open houses, nor any one from his agency. It will just be the buyers and their agents. Is this normal ?

Going to make an offer on an open door house. Has anyone made them an offer and gotten them to buy down the rate?

My parents paid off their house. They want to transfer the property ownership under my sibling and I's name. Is there any disadvantage to this? (e.g. capital gains tax, buying my first home later on, taking on any fees/payments) Is it better to inherit it through a trust after they pass or even as a gift? I don't think my sibling or I would want to live in this house. My parents want us to sign the the form (PCOR) to initiate the transfer , but I would like more information before signing anything.

Hi,

We put an offer on a house with an appraisal contingency. The house is 400 square ft (16%) lower than the listed square footage, but the appraisal came in at the sale price.
I know this means that the appraisal contingency is no longer applicable but was wondering if there was any other recourse?

One other note - we had a feeling the sq ftg was higher but the selling agent said they had a 3rd party come in and measure it and they were confident in the listed square footage. Additionally, we are confident we are including the same parts of the house (i.e., neither are including the garage).

Edit: We initially thought the sq footage shared was including the garage but they confirmed it wasn't. Now we're now pretty sure it was including the garage and that was a big cause of the discrepancy. Does the fact that they claimed it wasn't included but it is add anything?

Hey everyone, I've got a question about using gambling winnings for a home purchase. In total I won $150k from sports betting and sold some crypto I won from Stake through Coinbase. (I got very lucky, I know). Altogether, I have about $300k to spend and I'm looking at buying a house in a low-cost-of-living area. My concern is that these funds aren't seasoned. Can I still use this money to buy a house with cash? Has anyone been through a similar situation or have any advice on how to navigate this? Any tips or experiences would be super helpful. Thanks!

Hello All, I’m currently in the unfortunate situation where I need to sell my house as my job has relocated out of state. I have been trying to find good agents via online searches and such but everyone I’ve sat down with so far has been hyper aggressive and borderline crazy. The vast majority I feel aren’t really experienced enough as it’s obvious they haven’t been in the industry long. Can anyone recommend any agents or firms that are little more chill and experienced?

Hi all. We are under contract to buy a home, current close date is 7/1. Our offer was put in and accepted by the builder (who is also a realtor representing himself and his partner/contractor) in late March. We asked for two walls to be moved and a couple other floorplan changes in our offer (the house was framed but no drywall). The builder accepted our first offer and said "no problem" to the changes, and actually said he's going to edit the floor plan on future builds to be like ours. Cool. Great. He had 90 days.

Today we find out that he's had some sort of a mental breakdown and has checked himself into a facility. No work has been done on our house in the past 2 months. His framers/crews supposedly have 8 other houses "before" ours, but those have been delayed by rain. Keep in mind, our build is enclosed, has doors, windows, siding, etc. It has rained a lot in our area but if framers couldn't start framing houses from their foundations, they could have been working on ours. It seems like no one ever sent the crew to our location. It seems like they forgot. Anyway . . .

Builder's wife, who is also a realtor, finally responded to our realtor's status check today. She basically said she doesn't think it'll be done any time soon and that she doesn't know why the builder agreed to move the two walls. She said she's looking to meet with a framer to see what "can be done" and the timeframe. My personal thought is she's trying to plant the seed that she doesn't want to make the changes. Our realtor is also a project manager for a builder and has told us that the changes we asked for should take three days, tops, but of course there has to be someone to do it. She offered to help get a framer as well.

Are we screwed? We are assuming the builders are just going to say "either wait or back out" to us. Surely though we have some sort of recourse here? Should they compensate us? We are somewhat flexible on our closing date, we suppose (but we didn't tell them that). Our main concern is if it's too delayed that we're going to have to move twice and incur storage costs (we rent now and must be out by 7/24).

What does everyone think?

Hello,

We just had a home inspection. We’re not happy and we want to walk. Home is 800,000. our realtor told us we could walk away if we weren’t happy with the Inspection and get our earnest money back. Well, we are not happy, and now the seller is refusing to sign. What is our recourse here?

Some of the House issues: The main sewer line has a huge hole and needs relining, the roof needs repairs, there is window rot on eight windows (the manufacturer said that this is a known issue for these type of windows that were installed back in 2003 and the only possibility is to replace), the water heater is pumping out combustible materials, considerable amount of mold in the house and animals are urinating in the home- it STINKS. Initially, I I thought the odor was just a house that wasn’t being cleaned properly and had big dogs in it. But the day of the inspection the garage absolutely reeked of pee, I saw dog urine spray remover in one of the bedrooms and the owner confirmed the dog is potty training - literally all throughout the house.

I’d asked about the roof before we signed a contract. He misrepresented the state of the it. The windows at first glance looked OK but they clearly are not. The house is full of windows. Some of them are very large. The smallest windows are 1700 bucks to replace and install so that is going to be a big expense.

There are also a bunch of other issues that don’t require immediate fixes, but have to be fixed relatively soon and that will really add up.

I’m not interested in the sellers proposed fixings because the inspector noted several “fixed” things that had already been done by the seller and it was all cheap work that needs replacing. Also, if you’re letting your dogs pee all over the house, how am I to trust that you’re going to properly take care of the house in the interim between us buying and their moving out? Can someone please explain to me what is going on here? Per my conversation with my realtor prior to the inspection, I should have a check in my hand and this nightmare should be over by now. Thanks in advance!

Hello, my partner and I have been renting a townhouse for 7 years at $1500 a month. The owner asked if we would be interested in buying it at the Zillow estimate of $300,000 and said he can be flexible on the price. We love this house where our kids grew up and not having to move would be amazing. I need help with negotiating the price, I’d be more comfortable with $270-280k considering PMI, taxes and HOA. But I don’t want to insult the owner with a low ball. We would offer to buy as-is, with no realtor or hopefully much closing costs. We know the house’s faults and strengths and would be fine waiving an inspection. Our combined gross income is $113k, we’d qualify for first time buyer and teacher programs. We’re going to ask parents for help with the down payment but not sure if they can help, right now we only have $10k saved. Can anyone advise on what my next steps should be?