Monthly Archives: August 2023

Roofing “Certification” Means Nothing

We closed on our first house a month ago. It's been a very dry and hot until 2 days ago. We got a major rainstorm and the skylights in our kitchen are leaking and not a little bit. We've pulled back the decorative trim work and there is rot in the cross beams but we haven't pulled anymore to see how far the rot goes. (That is for this weekend)

We had roofing inspections done, our inspector said a membrane was needed between the skylights and roof. When the sellers answered our request to fix it, our agent came back and said "Sellers already had Roofers out there working and taking care of it" So, we signed off that, I quote "Roof repairs have already been completed by X Roofing and certification will be provided to the buyers."
The certification said "Roof on house and garage has 1 layer of Desert Tan Architectural laminate shingles approx. 3 yrs. In age, in good condition. All necessary repairs on the house have been completed; therefore, the Roof on house is certifiable. I further certify that the roof appears to be in sound and Weather-tight condition, with an economic life expectancy of two (2) or more years. No leaking was disclosed at the Time of this request. This document represents the condition of shingles as of the date above and does not guarantee that future damage may not occur. This certification does not constitute a warranty of continued service. No warranty is expressed nor can a warranty be implied from this certification."

I called our real estate agent and the roofing company the sellers used. Roofers said "the certification only covers things we know about or can see. Skylight are expensive, it would probably be cheaper to tear them out and cover than to replace them but we don't have anyone who can come out and quote it until next week at the earliest " Agent basically said "Oops, I miscommunicated what they said. Call my guy at XX company, he'll come do a quote for you."

I am in a buyer beware state (Wyoming) and I know I don't have much recourse but is there anything I can do to get this fixed before winter hits? We cleared out the majority of our savings buying the house and I don't know what to do from here. We do have access to a small personal loan if we absolutely have to but taking on more debt is going to prevent adding much if anything back into savings.

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2-1 Buy Down buy lender pays the expenses and not the seller?

Just started the process of speaking to real estate agents and loan officers. My real estate agent offered a pathway towards being able to short term find more homes within my budget: 2-1 buy down. Conceptually it sounded cool. He said there’s a version of the 2-1 where it’s the seller who takes care of the expenses (?) associated with it, and then there’s another version where the lender pays for it instead. He says he could get me either with the loan officers in his network. I got on a call with the loan officer at the bank that pays for expenses themselves and he insisted there isn’t any catch, outside of maybe some extras fee of some kind on closing? I didn’t get the full details, not yet.

What is the catch here, regarding the lenders paying the expenses instead of the seller? Am I missing something?

Also, is a 2/1 buy down a solid idea? I guess I’m betting on interest rates going down before the two years is up so I can refinance at a lower rate. Otherwise I’m stuck at 7.5% or whatever but that isn’t the end of the world either, especially if interest rates are higher then.

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Agents – do you see a lot of loans on condo corporations? If so, does it significantly impact the value of the property?

Long story short, my condo got hit with a special assessment and I’m trying to decide whether to vote for the full special assessment (that’s not cheap) or 50% if the special assessment and the rest will be a loan the condo takes on that we will see added to our maint fees.

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Seeking Quick Turnkey Rental Unit Turnovers – Long Island, I Need Your Help!

Hey there, Long Island folks,
I've run into a bit of a snag, and I could really use your local wisdom. It's been a real struggle finding a service company that gets the urgency of rapid multifamily rental unit turnovers around here. These delays are not just testing my patience, but hitting my bottom line too. Any chance you could point me to reliable companies on the Island that know their stuff when it comes to painting, maintenance, and quick turnarounds? Your insights would be pure gold. Let's chat, connect, and navigate this property management maze together. NOt sure if this is the right reddit forum.
Thanks a million in advance!

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My offer was accepted days ago, but all the real estate sites still say Active

Could this indicate that something shady is going on? I also thought it was strange that the sellers bothered to relist the property with a 20K price increase (reflecting the multiple offers they received, including mine), only to accept my offer on the same day.

There’s some other weirdness going on as well, but it may be incidental. They keep pressuring me to use a lender who’s local to their area instead of the lender I trust from my area (I’m buying from an adjacent state). This seems odd to me; why should they care? Unless they are trying to control the process of who performs the appraisal, which I believe would be a bit unethical.

But back to the “Active Listing” issue, IF they are accepting ongoing home showings without disclosing that the house has already been sold . . . well, as someone who’s recently invested substantial energies into house-hunting time (and comforted disappointed kids who got their hopes up for a house they loved only for the sellers to go with another offer) that would not sit well with me. At all.

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Bit lost on best choice for interest rate

Hi all, need some help on interest rates as my husband and I are in a unique situation and we're not sure what to do.

Here are the details:

Purchase price is $420k, putting down 20%. We both have excellent credit, basically perfect. No debt. Approved for $750k. 30 year fixed.

Our broker offered us 7.5% with half a point, $2k in loan origination fees, which im not impressed with. I've asked for other options, no response yet.

We did a little shopping around and got an offer for 7% with half a point, 7.13% APR. No loan origination fees (they offered a credit). Seems like they want more in escrow so monthly payment is only $63 less.

The unique situation is that we're doing a mortgage recast as soon as we sell our condo (which we own outright). Our plan from there is to pay down the new mortgage as fast as possible, we've already cut down the excessive retirement savings we were doing to do that.

Which do we go with? Does this little bit of interest difference matter with the recast and paying it off as fast as we can?

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