Mortgage rates and the housing market

[Skatastrophy]

SF and Chicago are similar to the anecdotes above. SF has the challenge where the homes in my friend's price range sell immediately for all cash offers, Chicago keeps plugging away at 5%-10% price increases a year with continued low inventory on the north side. It's interesting to see the housing market softness in some regions.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

My daughter and her husband gave up in Syracuse, NY and leased a townhouse for two years for the same reason as Chick, Jr. Every time they bid on a home, there were multiple, "above ask" bidders. And, the sellers were not allowing inspections by buyers.

Dgies, They probably are not allowing inspections because other bidders have "waived inspections", so what's the point.  When my brother and I sold my mom's house in the Valley (here in Connecticut) last year, of the 8 offers we received every single one of them included "waived inspections".

[dgies9156]

Interesting to hear that about the housing markets in Syracuse and Milwaukee.

And in many areas of Florida, people are bailing. Prices ran up way too quickly, and insurance is outrageous and sometimes impossible to get. In some Fla markets, sellers are panicking as houses (and especially condos) sit on the market for months.

I'm not sure people are bailing as much as new developments started in 2022 and 2023 are fully online and supply exceeds demand. That's a periodic and very cyclical Florida problem. As a consequence, prices here are much more volatile than in the Midwest and Northeast.

Give our state a chance and every square inch of the state will either have asphalt or a yard on it. Florida has been like that since Ponce de Leon landed up near Melbourne.

Condos down here are a different story. After the Sunrise condo collapse, our state legislature mandated engineering inspections for all condos of a certain size and age. The engineers identified enormous deferred maintenance throughout the state that the law requires be cleaned up. Until all that work gets done, the condo market will be depressed.

Put another way -- HOA boards sacrificed safety on the altar of low annual assessments. Now, boards are paying the piper.

On the waived inspection clause, the only way I'd EVER do that is to take an engineer or inspector through the home showing as I saw it. We did that twice and passed on one house and bought the other.

[warriorchick]

Dgies, They probably are not allowing inspections because other bidders have "waived inspections", so what's the point.  When my brother and I sold my mom's house in the Valley (here in Connecticut) last year, of the 8 offers we received every single one of them included "waived inspections".

In Chick Jr's case, they did not waive inspection, but they set a reasonably high amount of necessary repairs that may be discovered during the inspection that they were willing to absorb.

It helped that they had an absolutely amazing Realtor.  This guy and his wife has been involved in 3 transactions with our family and I cannot speak more highly of them, especially after our very disappointing experience with our Illinois Realtor.  If anyone needs an agent in the greater Milwaukee area, PM me.  I would be more than happy to refer them.

[MU82]

One thing that's become popular in Seattle is the sellers getting an inspection.

They identify areas that need work they can do before putting it on the market, which then will let them demand top dollar. And then they make ithe inspection available to potential buyers to show them, "See, our place is awesome; we've taken care of everything."

[dgies9156]

One thing that's become popular in Seattle is the sellers getting an inspection.

They identify areas that need work they can do before putting it on the market, which then will let them demand top dollar. And then they make ithe inspection available to potential buyers to show them, "See, our place is awesome; we've taken care of everything."

I'd have trouble as a buyer accepting a seller's inspection report. The scope of the review, the quality of the inspection and the willingness to find things that affect the value of the house all would be in question. Plus, I'm sure we would have to indemnify the seller and sign a non-reliance release for the inspector.

As a seller, the inspection can be a good idea to know the condition of your home before it goes on the market. That way, if buyers come back and nickel and dime the price, a rebuttal report can address their concerns.

The reason I suspect inspections have become so touchy is buyers using them to reduce an agreed-on sale price. We had a buyer on our home in Illinois who wanted $30,000 worth of concessions due to their perception of the condition of our home.  I basically told the seller that if he wanted a brand new house, he should spend the extra $150,000 and go to nearby Vernon Hills.

To make the issue go away, I told them through our attorney our best and final offer was $5,000 and if they didn't like it, go find a new house. When the commission-rabid Illinois real estate agents heard what we did, we had final agreement in less than five minutes.

Like Sister Chick, I was disappointed in the comparative service we received from our Illinois real estate agent versus those we used in Florida. The latter was far more service-oriented and stood with us through two transactions.

[MU82]

I'd have trouble as a buyer accepting a seller's inspection report. The scope of the review, the quality of the inspection and the willingness to find things that affect the value of the house all would be in question. Plus, I'm sure we would have to indemnify the seller and sign a non-reliance release for the inspector.

As a seller, the inspection can be a good idea to know the condition of your home before it goes on the market. That way, if buyers come back and nickel and dime the price, a rebuttal report can address their concerns.

The reason I suspect inspections have become so touchy is buyers using them to reduce an agreed-on sale price. We had a buyer on our home in Illinois who wanted $30,000 worth of concessions due to their perception of the condition of our home.  I basically told the seller that if he wanted a brand new house, he should spend the extra $150,000 and go to nearby Vernon Hills.

To make the issue go away, I told them through our attorney our best and final offer was $5,000 and if they didn't like it, go find a new house. When the commission-rabid Illinois real estate agents heard what we did, we had final agreement in less than five minutes.

Like Sister Chick, I was disappointed in the comparative service we received from our Illinois real estate agent versus those we used in Florida. The latter was far more service-oriented and stood with us through two transactions.

We've only gotten even semi-serious about two houses so far here, and both owners had inspections done by very reputable companies. My daughter is in the mortgage industry, and she said she knew the inspection companies well and definitely trusted them. But failing such reassurance, I'd share your concern.

Still, that inspection done by any inspector would be far better than simply waiving an inspection, as many buyers must do in some hot markets.

When we sold our Charlotte house, the buyers not only paid for an overall home inspection but also had two systems inspected by specialists in those industries (HVAC and electric). We thought that was going overboard, but it was their money and we knew our systems were fine.

Given how persnickety the buyers seemed to be, we thought for sure they would present a list of items that needed work and would ask us for several thousand bucks. To our surprise - and delight - the buyers didn't ask for a single, solitary cent. Our realtor said it was the first time in her career that buyers on a house she sold didn't ask for something. So we lucked out there!

[warriorchick]

The bad part about the seller getting an inspection is that they have to disclose everything their inspector finds. If there is something wrong with my house that I don't already know about, let the buyer's inspector find it.

And buyers need to be reasonable regarding the results of the inspection. The buyer of our Illinois house found a few mouse poops in our crawl space and wanted a concession because of our "rodent problem".

[cheebs09]

And buyers need to be reasonable regarding the results of the inspection. The buyer of our Illinois house found a few mouse poops in our crawl space and wanted a concession because of our "rodent problem".

We tried to do the same thing when we saw Badger paraphernalia in the house we bought.