Monthly Archives: March 2022

How to avoid being ripped off by landlords in a rental situation for a house? Especially with security deposits?

So, I am in a current situation where my security deposity is partially being taken away from me. I may or may not challenge it, it they push it further I will though. But that is another story. However, this if the first landlord to ever do this and this is not my first rental. Most landlords I have dealt with are corporate landlords in apartments and they have been mostly reasonable upon move out and again, never had this happen before.

So, my question is for future situations, what steps can I do to basically make me "bullet proof' from having my deposit taken from me? While also not coming off as an "asshole" to the reasonable landlords, since that can make an otherwise nice landlord begin to be less forgiving as well funny enough.

The things I know is basically take pictures/video of place right before you move in and fill out the move in sheet with as much detail as possible. After that, store those photos somewhere you will not loss them along with the document you filled out. Upon moveout, make sure you have reviewed the video and documents before moving out and make sure to fully have the move out sheet completed and copied upon move out, so they can't add things to it afterwords.

Well, that protects you up to a point. However, some things landlords I have found try to do is ding you on frankly subjective things. Things like landscaping if you are in a house for example. What one person may deem acceptable another may not. Also, lets say a tree dies on the property, who is responsible for that and can that be taken from deposit? Before someone says, "read the contract", contract could say the tenant is responsible for "maintaining yard and landscaping". How do you know what a landlord can legally hold you to for something like that versus what they are responsible for?

Or, lets say you had a stain on the carpet upon move out. Obviously the tenant is responsible for the stain. But lets say the landlord deems they get brand new carpet for this, even though a carpet cleaner could easily get the stain out. How do you protect yourself from that, other than I guess get the stain out? Mistakes happen, so if you missed that, how do you protect yourself from that or other BS?

Basically, how do you protect yourself from these grey areas a crappy landlord will try to abuse to get more of your security deposit for their benefit?

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Please explain what involved with purchasing land and having a custom home built on it

My wife seems to think its easy peasy. I've heard it really isn't, and want to know the real deal. For instance, I have heard financing a land purchase (that has no structure on it) is not as simple as getting a traditional home loan from the bank down the street. Plus, I am curious to know how the cash flow works. Most people sell their current home and use that money to purchase a new home. If I buy some land while still living in my current home, won't I have double payments (my current rent + the monthly payment on the land)? And then there is the cost to have my custom home built. Where is that money coming from? Just seems like all this will cost me BIG time: my current home expenses, plus expenses to build my custom home, plus the loan payment on the land. Finally, how long will all this take from the moment I find a piece a land I want to purchase?

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Seller backed out of selling the lot. Builder wants to charge me for Windows and misc.

Hey all, hope to get some advice here. I'm signed into a contract with a builder, we were already going into underwriting with the loan, the appraisal was almost ordered, when the owner of the lot backed out of selling it to us. So now we have no lot. I asked the builder what were the implications if we backed out now and looked elsewhere for pre-built homes. He stated we'd be on the hook for the windows, and some other random stuff. Does he have any legal standing, especially considering there is no lot anymore?

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I’ve never seen anything like this before

Maybe you can improve on this one, I doubt it:

Property (1850sqft 1936 house, 3.3 acres) is listed for $1.4M which is normal around here, someone offers $1.55M but with a closing date 2yrs from now and a $500K deposit/earnest money. I don't know the specifics beyond that but it's like the seller selling a 2yr call leap on their house.

My guess is either some kind of scam or a foreigner trying to get money out of the country before the government disallows foreign ownership in the future.

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Removing PMI

Due to the increase in home values over the last year, I reached out to my mortgage lender to inquire about removing PMI through an updated home appraisal. The lender's response is that we could only request an appraisal if we have made substantial improvements to the home, that would have increased the value of the home. They have asked that we submit documentation of the improvements in order to secure the approval for an appraisal.

In the research I've done, and looking through my mortgage documents I haven't run across this being a requirement for a home appraisal to remove PMI. Has anyone else run into this, and any advice on how I should proceed?

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warranty vs credit?

We are under contract and there are some issues found with home. We asked for credit to fix the issues, and seller said that they have builder's warranty so instead of issuing us credit, they will transfer this warranty to us. Which option should we take? My biggest concern is since it's builder's warranty, they may try to avoid admitting issues/fixing things.

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