All Forum Posts by: Daniel Rubenstein

No. Please explain. The seller on this house did not disclose anything about the smoking or smoke smell. Is that a legal obligation of the seller? I am new to all this. I have never seen a disclosure form, but I am sure you have seen a lot and can tell me what theu have to disclose or not.

Thanks

Thanks for the tips all!

The thing is we havent found any house nearby that we like. We have a small 1 mile radius and only a couple months to find something. There arent even any rentals nearby!

Also, are you sure we have to disclose in a resale? If we clean the smell up even %95 do we have to disclose? They can discover in their own by inspecting the house.

And in terms of being %15 above list, what about putting in an offer at average comp of 330k, and maybe get some money from them somehow for the cleaning costs and repainting? Any ideas on how to structure a deal without affecting down payment (putting down %20 to get better rate) and financing? Maybe like 6 months of seller paying mortgage? Like a lease option/purchase? Any other ideas?

Hi all,

My wife and I are planning on moving to Las vegas. We found a nice home in the area that we want to live in. Problem is, the previous owners were major smokers and the house reeks like smoke. The tried washing the carpets but still smells heavily. Besides the smell they are listing the house at about 20-25K above highest comp in the area. It was repainted last year, and kitchen redone, but definitely not worth the 365k they are asking for it. The average comp in the area is about 330k

We ask a smoke and fire damage expert if they can clean the house of the smell, paint with kilz, and guarantee the smell will be gone, and they said no guarantee.

The sellers said they will not pay to clean the house of the smell unless we sign a deal. The problem is, without a guarantee, if we pay to clean the smell and the house still smells, we are out a lot of money.

So the question (or questions) is:

1) Has anyone had really bad smoke smell from over 15 years of smoking, and successfully totally removed the smell? if so how?

2) Any creative ideas for structuring the deal so we can try cleaning the house and somehow for sure get our money back from the sellers for the cleaning even if it doesn't work?

3) Should we really bother? Its one of only a few houses available in the area we want to live, and we need to move in the next couple months.

Anyways, whatever help or guidance anyone can provide us will very much appreciated. We really do not know what to do!

Thanks!!

Thanks everyone for your replies and help. I actually just reread the listing and the owners have negative equity of 300k..I missed the negative.

Looks like this property is out of range. But in general, what is the best to determine when looking at pre-foreclosure what you can reasonably expect to pay for it when negotiating price? what combination of factors, mathematics, etc. do you need to figure it out?

Thanks again!

Hi,

I am looking for a house within a very small radius in Las Vegas, and a house came up in a pre-foreclosure/foreclosure search of the area that is way out of our budget. The house is estimated value is at about 1,100,000. I don't know much about buying pre-foreclosure, but I just wanted to know how cheap I can try and get this house for. If we would be willing to spend up to about 550.000-6K, is there any chance we can try and get that pricing for this house? Even though its half the estimated value of the house?

Total loan on the house is 1,300,000, and equity is about 350,000.

Any help, tips, advice would be really appreciated!

Thanks!!

Hey Jesse, thanks for the post.

I don't fully understand what you mean by loan to value. Do you mean that if put down 20% of the value of the house, and took a mortgage on the rest, that the amount of money the bank loaned to me is 80% of the value of the house. So if I were to refinance to an FHA the bank would only loan me another 5% of the original value of the house? so on a 100,000$ house I would only be able to borrow another $5,000?

Also, what do you mean the mortgage insurance can be dropped off of an FHA loans? Meaning I only pay PMI for 132 months, and then they "trust me" for the rest?

Also, (sorry for so many question, but you seem extremely knowledgeable), what do you mean that HELOCS are difficult to get over the 80%. Do you mean I can only borrow against my exact equity of 20%? or that the bank won't loan me more after I just took out an 80% loan?

Sorry if I sound so ignorant. But I literally just learned the concept of real estate means more than buying a house to live in like 3 weeks ago (slight exageration)

And, since you burst all my bubbles here, do you have any ideas on how to recover some of my down payment? or should I just take the route of "starting from scratch" with "typical" creative financing options?

Thanks again Jesse!!

Hey Danny,

Thanks for the reply. I think I understand what you are saying. Because of the PMI, I will be paying an extra fee which isn't going anywhere beneficial for me.

So in term of that, my question is, is it worth the extra fee (I have no idea how much it would be), to allow me to now have more money available to leverage? Also, what does you mean "..this can never be removed from FHA notes"?

And you recommend taking a home equity loan or a HELOC. The question is, the will the interest that I have to pay on that loan be more or less than what I would pay for more mortgage? Meaning, if I did FHA, and now have more of a loan to pay back (an extra %16.5 of my purchase price), will I be paying more monthly to pay that off, or more monthly to pay off a home equity loan? Are the interest rates the same for each?

Thanks!

Hi,

This might be a real rookie question, but here it goes.

If I just bought my first house a few months ago before I knew the slightest thing about RE (not that I know much now either), and put down the usual %20 which was most of my savings as I had no plan of investing since I knew nothing of RE. But now, with hopes of buying my first REI property, and now knowing of the concept of FHA, I realize I should have done an FHA loan and put down something closer to %5 and used the rest for an investment property. So the question is, is there anyway to refinance or change the loan somehow (again i probably sound so ignorant here) to an FHA and somehow get back some of my money down?

Or any thoughts on how to somehow recover some of my down payment money to use as an investment instead?

THANKS!

@WIll Bernard (don't know what my @NAME doesn't turn blue and underline like everyone else)..anyways, Hey WIll, thanks for coming by to introduce yourself. I would love to meet you one day. I am in Valley Village and on the border of Studio City, and a mile or two from Burbank. So I would love to come to one or both of the RE meetings. Obviously I've never been to one so I don't even know what exactly it is, how it works, etc. If there is one coming up that you will be at, and don't mind showing me the way around one of these meetings, that would be great!

@Mehran K. (I DID IT!--its blue!!) Mehran, thanks for popping in as well. Yes, I do love reading. But only educational books. I am usually reading 3 or 4 books on either Business, Psychology, and now Real Estate. I have checked out the recommended book list. Right now I am in the middle of The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate. I am a bit overwhelmed with amount of new information in there. He goes through a lot really really fast. I would love a book on each individual subject/aspect of RE that goes more in depth and has more example to help it stick in my head more. Like a book on Financing your deals, and a book on how to Value your property, and a book on the Tax side and benefits of RE. If you have any suggestions, I am all ears! I look forward to meeting you too one of these days.