All Forum Posts by: Jim Doyle

I’m currently under contract for an off-market home that is being sold “as is.” I’m purchasing the home through an estate via the sister of my neighbor, her and I are in contact and she is considered a friend. The home itself is in a great location in Seattle, but very dated and needs a lot of work. I got a good deal on the home, approximately $50 – $100k under market value, but I now have conditions for the conventional loan. The roof needs to last at least 3 years and it more than likely needs to be replaced and I need to update the panel box from fuses to circuit breaker. I’m trying to see if I have any options with the seller. We have already agreed on a price, and now I’d like to see if I can either get her to pay for some of the fixes, lower the price, or see if If there is a way to integrate the repair costs into the mortgage. Thoughts? I close on June 14th.

Looking to purchase my first home and was initially going to go the traditional fixed rate mortgage without buying down points with the assumption rates will go down in the next year or 2 and I will just refinance. I was getting interest rates that were slightly over 7% for a fixed, and I recently learned about the 5/6 ARM through my local credit bureau who I had financed my car through many years back. They came in a 6.375%, no loan origination fee, etc. and said I can refinance at anytime with no prepayment penalties, seems almost too good to be true. Is there anything I'm missing? If I will refinance before the 5 year fixed period expires, without any penalties, I'm having a hard time understanding why I'd want to go forward with a fixed rate currently. Any thoughts on the below? This quote is as of May 2024.

There is a big delta between the interest rate and the APR, is that because their is no origination fee and it's getting rolled into the APR. Is that 7.918% APR considered high in current market conditions?

Looking to purchase my first home and was initially going to go the traditional fixed rate mortgage without buying down points with the assumption rates will go down in the next year or 2 and I will just refinance. I was getting interest rates that were slightly over 7% for a fixed, and I recently learned about the 5/6 ARM through my local credit bureau who I had financed my car through many years back. They came in a 6.375%, no loan origination fee, etc. and said I can refinance at anytime with no prepayment penalties, seems almost too good to be true. Is there anything I'm missing? If I will refinance before the 5 year fixed period expires, without any penalties, I'm having a hard time understanding why I'd want to go forward with a fixed rate currently. Any thoughts on the below? This quote is as of May 2024.

Thanks @Jay King - The trustee in this case is a trust company that is managing the estate, you're saying I can offer them additional money to sell the house to me and it might work versus an individual person who was named as a trustee? Was your situation similar where the trustee was a trust company?

Thanks @Rick H.- Agreed, I'm just an interested buyer, the only potential opportunity I have is I'm an interested buyer who is ahead of the rest of the interested buyers with the hope that the trust would be open to an off-market sale to me. Big TBD though on if it will work out.. 

That makes sense, It doesn't seem like I have much of an opportunity anymore, but hopeful that there is a chance that the beneficiary can sway the trustee. Still need to learn what type of trust is set up. 

This is helpful, I've defintely been respectful, I've been helping her out with a lot of the tasks that are part of cleaning out the house and supporting her with additional information via Google as she is in her 70's. Hoping she'll be able to influence the trustees as she does not want the home to go on the market and deal with the hassle of a listing agent and all that's invovled in selling a home. 

Curious as Im in a situation now where I'm looking to purchase a home off market, the sister is the beneficiary and also the executor of the will. The home is in a trust and the trustees will now have the right to determine where and whom the house is sold too. Does the main beneficiary have an ability to influence the trustees on whom to sell the house too? In case me? @Jeremy Pace @Peter Mckernan

That makes sense Frank and thanks for that context. I do believe that is the scenario I'm in, the trustees own the assets and the executor (the sister) is also the main beneficiary of the trust, so my thought was that she'd be able to have influence over the trustees over whom they sell the house too. I think I need to write my purchase contract to the trustees to see if they'd consider my offer as this is what the sister as the beneficiary and executor would like. Not sure if it works like that, but it doesn't seem I have many options at this point. 

I'm looking to purchase an off-market home in my neighborhood and ran into a hurdle that I might not be able to overcome...For context my elderly neighbor who I've been friends with for the last couple of years recently passed away. His sister is the executor of his will and is staying at his home to fulfill all of the end of life obligations that he has. We discussed me purchasing the home and had verbally agreed to sell the house to me. I know that a verbal agreement doesn’t mean much so I was looking to get her into a purchase contract.

The sister visited her brother's lawyer to discuss the responsibilities of being executor of the will and what needs to be done in order to sell the house. She found out from her brother’s lawyer that he has put the house into a trust and that the decision of what happens to the house is up to the trustees. If that is the case, does the executor of the will, in this case his sister have any influence on whom the trustees sell the house too? Is there anything I can do to ideally get them to not list the house and sell to me, I’m assuming there might not be many options, especially since the sister and I had agreed on a price that was below market value given I was planning to invest money to remodel the home and was planning to honor his wishes of not having the home knocked down to make a townhome or new home. I think it's a long shot, but looking for any possible ideas...