Our house was listed at 600. We’ve seen a few houses in the neighborhood, honestly should have offered on one a while ago, it is almost the exact same house but sold for 520. I told our agent the highest I would offer is 550. I like the house a bit more than the 520 house- slightly nicer kitchen, larger lot. The sellers came back with 573, we said no, then 563, 555, then settled at 550. Each time he told us this was an absolutely amazing deal, we need to hop on it before someone else does. To our knowledge & how it played out- there were no other offers.

Then the appraisal came- 530. Previously, he said if it doesn’t appraise for 550 then he will be shocked but it will be the sellers issue to match the appraisal, we don’t need to worry. So it comes, our agent said we needed to get a reconsideration of value, he sent us comps that were 50-100 more per sq ft, in the newer & nicer part of the neighborhood that he would like us to submit. I asked why we would advocate for a higher selling price when our contract is contingent on the appraisal & the sellers are more desperate to sell than we are to buy. He said that’s what the other agent asked for, this still doesn’t answer why he would send houses in the 650-750 range as comps- he later said some houses just have more upgrades in the other section but they are comparable. IMO The houses next door are the most comparable & are 500-550. We ended up saying 530 or we walk & that was accepted.

The whole experience has just felt dirty & like we’re cheap assholes who want to steal from a new family. The sellers asked us (6 days prior to closing) to lease the house for 26 days because their new house still has rental tenants occupying it. Our agent said it would be a good thing to do ‘because of all the back and forth we did to them.’ And that they have a new baby, family issues they’re going through. Meanwhile we gave our notice to our landlord & need to be out 4 days after closing & I just don’t trust any part of the process anymore & didn’t want to close & have some major issue happen within the house.

He told us the other agent was unhappy & unsure of the deal because we took ‘a hot minute’ to change lenders. We took 2 days to switch, everything was all submitted on time. I asked if this was uncommon (I know it’s not) and he said usually people stick with their initial lender & it’s smooth sailing because of it. He is friends with the lender we switched from.

When we got the appraisal, he said the sellers agent said they would not budge (no one told the sellers the appraisal at this point), & I asked if we would get our earnest money back if we walked. He would not give me a clear answer, I called the closing attorney who said my agent should answer all these questions & per our contract, we would get the earnest $ back. I told our agent that, he said the sellers will probably just walk, put the house back on the market, and potentially come back to us in a month if the house didn’t sell. I laughed & said we would never go back to this deal if they did that, he said we may because the sellers would give the earnest money back & it’s no issue with them doing that.

Many more examples but trying to keep it short.

I feel stupid af for picking this agent- we picked him because his main company gets good reviews, we met him at an open house & he seemed knowledgeable & that he would be an advocate.

Is this similar to anyone else’s experience with an agent? All of our friends say how much they loved their agent & that our experience is not normal.

Edit: thank you Reddit!! I realize there are very good agents out there, I was super pissed when I made this post. I will be a bit more diligent when picking an agent next time, I should have spoken up more at different times but didn’t know I could dissolve the realtor contract after signing the property contract. Hopefully other new home buyers will learn from my mistakes

After many months I finally had a contingency for a house I was really hopeful for, that was contingent on them getting accepted for a house out of state. A week later I finally hear they didn’t get it, are delisting their house, and considering not moving at all. I know things happen, and I’ve lost to all cash offers, better bids, all the typical home buyer things- but this one feels so much worse. I feel like I actually HAD the house, accepted terms, etc etc and now it’s just gone because they don’t know what to do. And they are basically going AWOL while they figure it out.

Who lists a house they don’t actually want to sell? They were moving 500miles away in a month and now they aren’t? I’m just venting and frustrated but this sucks.

Need help find a low interest rate for a mortgage.

I see some posts here about people getting rates as low as sub 5. First of all congrats on securing such a rate. But how are y’all doing this?

Personal situation:
800+ credit score
Can do the 20% down
Don’t qualify for VA.

Any advice or suggestions?

Genuinely curious. Prices here seem very high compared to Morocco, where I'm from. Did any of you consider buying abroad, or is it just not realistic for first-time buyers?

It’s been an emotionally exhausting day. Please don't yell at me 😭 we are in the northeast in an area where the median home price is about 475-575k, a great school district and the market here is still crazy. Houses reasonably priced have multiple offers and are pending within a day or two. Homes priced in the mid 400s often sell for 30-60k over asking. Anything under I’d say 450k is a big fixer upper. My spouse and I have a combined income of 185k which does not include his roughly 15k annual bonus or my overtime pay (usually about 400 or 500 extra per month) Our net take home after deductions is a little over 11k without the bonus and overtime. I did not want to factor in those extras. We have about 90k in savings but are planning to put about 50k down not including the closing costs. We just had our offer accepted on a 525k house but now that it is real I am really starting to get scared and have been mentally spiraling all day. Wondering if we could get out and keep our good faith deposit or if I am just being crazy.

We have been renting a 2 bedroom place for the last 5 years for 1700/month. We have two small children and this payment has allowed us to save and feel comfortable along with having extra to vacation and do activities. We are in a 1000 sq ft space and it's becoming very hard to manage all of us in here- plus 2 pets..just not enough room. Our new payment would be around 3900 which sounds terrifying. I am torn between this being “just the way the market is” or this being financially irresponsible. It's definitely going to be tight and way less comfortable than I’ve ever experienced financially. We could wait and try to find a “decent” fixer upper and have a mortgage payment closer to the low 3000s but I’m worried the cost of an older home would add up anyway. Our debts are a student loan payment of 265, two car payments totaling 635, no daycare but a 500 dollar per month preschool payment that will be over for good in 8 months, and one credit card payment of 100 dollars. I will be getting a 5k raise in April and my spouses projected raise is also about 5k by summer. Does this seem feasible or should I start looking for ways to get out of this? I think the house will pass inspection as it is only 10 years old but I read something in the signed offer saying the buyers or sellers attorney could reject the contract for any reason within 3 days so that would be in 2 days. It's hard to differentiate nerves from did we just make a huge mistake.

Long story short I bought my home a year ago, and my electricity bill went from $10 to $500. Bought the home because it was sold as “Owned Solar equipment” come to find out 9 month after moving it “my” equipment doesn’t work as it should. So I called the solar company and they tell me that it’s still their property they own them and they do not want to come fix it because of a contract that was terminated on my property 2 years before I moved in. The owner of the home had renters and the renters agreed to have solar panels and batteries installed without the owners consent. The owners sued the solar company and the tech who installed and they won. But the settlement agreement shows the contract was only terminated nothing about giving the owner the equipment. So my realtor told me and it’s in all the documents that the equipment is fully paid off and is now “ours”. But that’s not the case with the solar company. Who would I purser? My realtor or the sellers and their realtors because I was lied to when I bought the home.

M24 First-time buyer (MA, FHA) does this two-family house hack make sense at $355-365K?

I'm a first-time buyer looking at a 1910 two-family in central MA at $399,999. It's a side by side, with two 3BR/1BA units (6 bedrooms total, about 3k sqft), oil heat, and no seller disclosures. The town assessed it at $350k and taxes are about $4.7K yr

FHA, 3.5% down, 7.2% rate, live in one unit, rent the other whole at about $2,000 (median of local 3BR listings) and rent my other two rooms at around $800-875 each. Each unit has just 1 shared bathroom. I'm pre-approved, touring it Monday, and would offer $355K, with $365K as my target. It’s clean place

At $365K the numbers look like:
- PITI $3,160/mo
- $30K cash to close
- -$110 to +$50 a month in actual cash while living
- +$540/mo (before repairs reserve) if I move out after a year and rent both units

Math looks OK

Anything I'm missing? Open to any advice!!

180k EUR (202k USD) Graz, Austria, paid in cash, 47 m² (506 sqft) plus 14 m² (151 sqft) balcony and underground parking garage

2nd biggest city in my country, house is located a 30 min walk away from city center. Not a new build, it was built 10 years ago, but still looks fairly modern. My first own apartement, gonna be living there alone for now. Came to Austria as an immigrant from Eastern Europe, didn't inherit anything, worked my butt off and made good gains investing in stocks. Purchasing the apartement was quite an experience (though it was easier compared to most home buyers since I didnt need any loan/mortgage), had to pay around 10% of the price additionally on top in taxes and fees (realtor and so on) so the total price was around 200k EUR (225k USD). I got an underground parking garage with the apartement though, which is nice. I lived in a similar sized apartement with underground parking garage before purchasing this apartement and paid around 750 EUR (843 USD) rent (without utilities, just rent) each month.

23 F, 25 M! The downpayment was 10%

Finally bought a house, and there is a long way and road ahead..

Officially a first-time homeowner in Bavaria! €620k purchase price with a 3.65% mortgage interest rate.

Still feels surreal holding the keys and knowing this place is mine. A huge commitment, but I’m excited for this next chapter.

long time lurker, now home owner! no pizza yet as i’m moving but monster is on the counter, lol

Recently divorced and was told by my ex it could not be done lol

The process was quick and smooth for my situation. 4 bedroom with 2.5 baths. I did rate shop but getting information from lenders was like pulling teeth. Happy the process is over.

24m just bought my first home closed on the 14th. It’s a townhouse in FL for 155k. I know the rate is pretty gnarly I’m self employed so I at least did 20% down and got a 15 year mortgage on only 124k. So far I’ve spent 4k on furniture!

We now know that cracks after lifting should be expected and that's ok, I need to know how to fix it. Is it really OK to just seal off that void by the window with caulking or should I be doing something else? Also, for the concrete patio, can that just be filled with mortor? This is my first ho.w and I seek your advice.

The market around us has very few decent starter homes in the lower half of our budget. Today we saw a starter home that meets all our requirements (and some wants), and I’m wondering how to know if we should put an offer in. How did you know you wanted to buy the first house you put an offer in on?

The home is at the low end of our budget and while it’s not a perfect house, both of us can picture living there and starting a family there. We started casually looking at houses in August, and got pre-approved in September. We haven’t looked at many homes, less than 10 in person, and most of those haven’t felt like the right house for the right price.

This house feels reasonably priced, and we were lucky enough to see it on day 1 on the market. It’s very much priced to sell, so I’m wondering how we decide (quickly) if we want to put an offer in and how we decide what that offer should look like?

Any insight or advice is appreciated!

Prefacing to say that the house I am trying to buy is 103 years old -- I am under no illusions as to what condition it's in lol

I completed the home inspection on Friday and it uncovered a lot of issues, but nothing that is a dealbreaker for me because I'm handy and enjoy DIY stuff, but I'm worried that they will be sticking points for the FHA appraiser. My realtor said not to worry too much because they only spend like 30 mins in the house, but...I'm still worrying lol

Some things I'm almost positive they'll flag: peeling paint inside and out, some cracks, stains, bubbling, etc in the drywall from previous water damage. (The roof was replaced and there is no current moisture.) Outlet covers missing in some rooms, loose handrails on all 4 sets of exterior steps, and there is a piece of the sidewalk in front that is being pushed up by a tree root which is a trip hazard (pic included).

Then there's some things that I know are big issues, but my realtor says it's appraiser dependent, and everyone is different. The detached garage is a shitshow. Foundation has issues, roof needs repaired, the service door doesn't close properly, etc. Realtor said in her 25 years of doing this, she's only ever had an appraiser flag a garage twice because you're not living in there, so it doesn't matter as much. But again, appraiser dependent.

There's a small amount of knob & tube wiring connected to the upstairs bathroom, but it's kind of hidden, so I'm not even sure the appraiser will find it. It's the only K&T wiring that we found in the whole house during the inspection (not to say there isn't more, but we didn't find any).

Lastly, there is no heat going to the kitchen or upstairs bathroom. The furnace works well and all baseboard heaters work well, but those two areas are not heated. The inspector said they will likely flag that.

If they flag the garage, I will lose the house because the seller definitely isn't going to fix it. The rest of it is kind of up in the air because idk what the seller is willing to fix. My question is, how thorough and picky was your appraiser? What did they flag? Any advice on how to approach this with the seller if these things are flagged? I'm maxed out on seller credits, so I can't ask for that.