All Forum Posts by: Alberto C.

Dear all,

I am at my 7th day of the 15 day inspection period. I signed a "buy as is" contract, in this way the seller went down 20k. They are a couple moving out of town so they are motivated to sell. The inspection found many many minor problems (like bad outlets, dangerous branches to trim, little minor cracks here and there following concrete blocks but all normal stuff, no diagonal stuff)  and 1 major problem, i.e. a couple of rotten/wet wooden beam and wooden floor plank in the crawl space, probably a few thousands dollars (2000-3000) to fix/them, no big deal. The inspector, a very well know and highly esteemed person here in town, said: "this is a very solid house for its age (sixties), I see no reason for not buying it". A couple of days after the radon test came out, with a level of 14 pCi/l. It is very high, remediation is suggested above 4 pCi/l. I read radon is the first cause of cancer for non smokers. I am a bit freaking out, and at the beginning I was really thinking to walk away. Now I am more rational, should I probably consider to ask the seller to cover the costs of radon remediation (usually by doing some work on the crawl space) and at this point also to ask fixing the rotten wood on the crawl space? I remind you that I signed an "as is" contract.
Thank you

Unfortunately it went badly. The seller agent said 3 offers were made on day 2 in the market. Believing it is true I increased the offer. I went for offering for 378k and asking for 7k help from seller for closing costs. And I offered 3k for the furniture. The seller chose a better offer. You have no idea how sad I am, I spent so much effor and time on this. It was a beautiful house, i shuld have probably offered 380 or 385 with no help for closing. Zillow estimate went up from 317 to 341k in this 4 days...weird...looks like everyone is buying above appraised  value. Anyways, do you think my mistake was asking for help with closing costs? 2 hours before they chose the other offer, the seller agent called my agent asking if the help for closing was negotiable if it does not appraise. I replied yes, it is negotiable. They went for the other offer. Any suggestion in order to not repeat the same mistake?

Hi everybody. I am planning to buy my first house, I saw it on saturday and I need a suggestion. It is a seller market, it is hard to find a nice place. I have been looking for a decent house in a decent location for 3 months, I saw like 10 houses (price range 200k-380k), and most were in terrible conditions or in good condition but next to superloud 4-lane streets. The house i saw yesterday is in a great neighborhood, looks great, 1979 house, 4 bdr 2bath and 1/2. 0.3 acres lot. The zillow estimate (I know it counts little) is 317k. The weird thing is that my agent wrote me on Friday saying that a house is coming up in the neighborhood I am looking for, and she set me an appointment on Saturday to see the house, and the seller agent was there too. House has brand new luxury bathrooms(2010), new roof (2014), new kitchen(2011), new plumbing. They said 2 doctors live there, kids left and they are downsizing. The sellers wanted to price at 370k, the agents at 360. They said that cause of the many upgrades its hard to price it and they were going to meet with 2 other agents on Monday to decide the price. They said that if I was going to offer between 360 and 370k the house would have not been put on market. I said i could not offer more than 320k with 20% down, cause that's what i was prequalified for, and on monday it was on the market for 365k. Now i got an updated prequalification letter from the lander for 370k with 20% down. What should I do? my lender and my agent both said it might not appraise for 365k but a bit lower. Agent did comparisons and median for area is 325k, and average is 350k. This including all upgrades. What i should do? I want this house pretty badly but I do not want to overpay it. And I want the furniture, it looks so nice, and i have no furniture and i do not want to waste time to shop around. The agent asked the sellers if they are willing to sell all the furniture and they said yes. I have a few questions:

1) I was thinking to offer 365$, with an addendum that says offer is valid only if all furniture is included for free, and also with a appraisal contingency clause. My plan is hoping that they accept and that the appraisal comes down to 330k-340k and then i kindly ask the seller to cut the price. I can also walk away with no loss if he doesnt accept to bring it down, correct? I would have no problem to add the extra cash if they dont want to negotiate, and if I feel like I really want the house.

2) i see in this website people hoping that the houses they are trying to buy appraise at the offered price. Why? I mean, i see the point of not wanting to put extra cash down, but dont you get a chance to negotiate? At least for a house that you wanna have so bad as primary residence, and since its seller market with few houses, isnt it worth to offer more and hope the appraiser brings down and seller accepts to cut the price too? what am I missing?

3) if i do it this way, how much do I risk that the appraiser is friend with the seller and the agent and he will appraise it for 365k even if not worth that value?

4) how much does the appraised value matter for the future? Is it the one used for property taxes? Or not really?if yes, isnt it better if it appraises lower and we pay less taxes?

Thank you very much

A.

Dear all,

Planning to buy house in Gainesville, Florida.  I am not an American citizen but I am applying for the green card, which I should get in one year or little more. Homestead exemption can only be given to green card holders or citizens. Therefore for the first and maybe second year I will not have it. From the third one I will claim it. However, i am planning to buy a 3-4 bedroom house, live in the master room and rent out the other 2-3 rooms. That would be my primary residence. I will also go back to my home country for 2-3 month max in the period May-August, cause Florida is too hot for me. I think going on vacation to Italy is fine for keeping Homestead(right?), but I am mainly concerned about permanently renting out 2-3 rooms in my house. Could I lose my Homestead exemption?

Thanks

Alberto

Dear all,

I recently got a long-term job in Gainesville, Florida. I am an European Citizen on a H1b visa, applying now for Green Card, which I will get most likely in 2-3 years. I am not looking for starting a RE career, I do not have a time for that, but at the same time I am bored of spending money in rent. I am planning to buy either a duplex or a house with a mother in law. I am in my thirties, single, and I thought that would be the best way not to waste money in rent, and still get some money from renting out the other unit. Not really trying to have a positive cash flow, but mainly being able to deduct a part of property taxes, insurance, HOA, etc and pay part of my loan. And from what I have understood from this post, the deductible part is given by the percentage of the house which is rented, and I will compute that by computing the ratio of rented square feet over total square feet. Do you think I am doing the right thing with such a purchase? Should I be careful of zoning regulation when purchasing a duplex or mother in law? Here for example I read: https://growth-management.alachuacounty.us/Zoning/... :

"If a property owner loses homestead exception status, the kitchen and other facilities for the separate residence must be removed."

Which would be terrible. And looks like a non-US citizen on H1b visa like me cannot have homestead exception, in fact wikipedia says: "A person in the US under an E, H, L or R-class visa is not eligible for homestead, pursuant to Rule 12D-7.007(3), Florida Administrative Code". Myabe there is no issue about a duplex, but duplexes are not common here, while I already saw a couple of nice houses with mother-in-law. Any advice on this purchase would be appreciated.

Thank you 
A.