All Forum Posts by: Yeng Hawj

Hi BP Community,

Ok so, the mortgage broker that helped me a couple years ago with lending on my current home contacted me to see if I was interested in refinancing.  I told him I was interested and to send me the numbers.  He asked about my current income and credit situation which I answered.  He sends me the estimate with potential savings and cost of the refinancing not long after the conversation.  A couple months go by after that and with being busy I forget to follow through with submitting docs.  He calls again last week to ask if I was still interested, I said YES.  With new rates now, I wanted to see if the numbers has changed.  So he sends me the new estimate along with a document to authorize a credit inquiry that had been done when he had first talked with me.  That took me by surprise because I never authorized him to pull my credit.  I call to ask him about it and he said he admitted he did pull it but it may have just been a misunderstanding.  He calls me back and says that he'll be willing to waive the $200 notary fee for his mistake, which he stated was standard in all refis.  I told him thanks and I'll consider it.  This just doesn't sit well with me and I am considering not going through with him on this refi.  I want to get your opinion on this matter and whether the broker did anything unethical and/or illegal.  TIA.

I currently have my house in escrow with a buyer that has been a headache to deal with.  Escrow has not closed when it should have, and buyer has not returned all of the required docs, and has not released any contingencies.  My agent sent over to the buyer's agent a C.A.R. Notice to Buyer to Perform to release all contingencies, return all of the docs, including 2 addendums.  One of the addendum is an AS-IS disclosure.  The buyer's agent is saying that because the NBP has the addendums attached to them, the NBP is invalid and voided.  Is that true?  TIA

I'm the seller and want to find a way out of selling my home to the buyer.  Can a purchase agreement between a buyer and seller be deemed non-binding if the contract was signed after the date and time stated?  The request to extend escrow was never signed by the buyer either.

Hi BP Friends,

I'd like to get some help with my situation.  I'm selling my home and currently have buyer in escrow.  Inspections were done and he requested to have some repairs done which I was fine with it.  The repairs consisted of some dry rot on the chimney sidings and to have the electrical panel looked at by a license electrician to determine whether it's safe since the inspection report found "charred wires".  My agent had her general contractor come out and make the repairs including taking a look at the panel and changed out a couple breakers for proper sizing.  After the repairs, we had the pest company come out and cleared the repairs.  Also I went by and had the contractor walk me through his repairs, including looking at the panel.  Days after the inspection, the buyer and his agent came by the house (based on notification from the keybox), and did their own walk through and responded back saying that the smoke detectors were not working and the electrical panel needs major work.  He sent pictures of the electrical panel and smoke detectors and I was shocked!  One smoke detectors were taken off the ceiling and hanging by the wire, he said the wire was not connected.  The other smoke detector was said to not have a battery and taken off and left on the table.  The pictures of the electrical panel had a picture of the cover on, then another picture taken off and showing the breakers taken off with burnt marks, and left in the panel.  This was not how the electrical panel looked just 2 days prior to that when the contractor had finished work.  Why would an agent and buyer be conducting their own "inspection" of the home, especially going through the electrical box like that.  The smoke detectors were already inspected by the inspector and now they inspecting it again?

I truly believe the buyer and agent are deliberately causing damage to my house to force repairs before escrow closes.  Their offer came in at $6k over the asking price, and I counter-offered with $5k more which they accepted.  It's an all cash offer with a 10 day close, but it's gone beyond.  They're either wanting the value out of the overbid or something.   What can I do about this?  Can I back out of the contract?  What are my options?

Hey @Christopher thanks for the input.  Indeed it's going to be work, I'm not expecting an easy ride.  

I ran the numbers on leasing and the cash flow was not going to be worth the hassle, where as the "potential" cash flow of Airbnbing may. 

Hi BP Friends,

I recently purchased a bigger home given my family and I are totally outgrowing our 3/2.5 1454 sf home. We've been frugal in our spending and spendy in our savings/investments that we were able to do a 20% on the new home and not be contingent on selling the old home. The initial plan was to rent out the old spot, but the cashflow and COC return wasn't going to be as good as if we were to sell and reinvest the equity into either MF or SFR out of state. Just the other day the idea dawned on me about turning it into a short-term rental instead, which was definitely ready now without much effort.  I was thinking of doing a separate listing for the entire house, along with individual listings for each of the 3 rooms.   

This solves a few issues:

1. I didn't plan on keeping much of the old furniture and other household "stuff", which means the place will be fully furnished without spending much.

2. I had planned on listing the house in January, which is a slow time for real estate sales. I'll give this Airbnb idea a test run for 6 months and see how it goes. If by then I have a change in mind, it'll be prime season to have the house listed. This will also buy me time on fixing other issues to be in a good condition to sell.

3. My new house is 0.4 miles away. This makes it VERY convenient to tend to the house, guests, and issues. I can still access the house easily compared to if I had long-term tenants.

Who has done a similar thing before and how did it turn out?   What are some mistakes you've learned not to do, and pitfalls to expect?

I'm super stoked about this.  I move into the new place in December, and plan on getting the old place ready and on the market by Christmas.  I already have plans for Phase 2 if things work out great.  There's a 10x12 Tuffshed in the backyard with it's own access and a garage that can be rented out.  It won't take much to fully insulate it and put in drywall and such.   

Anyway, I will try and do an update in a few months on how this project is going.  

How I came up with it was by taking the loan payoff amount and divided it by the (monthly payment times 12 months) I would not be making towards it.

Here's how I see it, if I used the money on the down payment of the new house, the PI would be about $400 less.  But if I paid the loan off, the loan payments are $700, which i can apply it back to the PI, bringing my payment down.

I'm in the process of buying a bigger house and selling my current one. I have enough equity in the current house where I can do a 40% down on the bigger house. But instead I'm debating on doing only a 20% down, which will be a significant increase to my current mortgage on the smaller house, and use a good chunck of the 20%, to either pay off student loans ($65k, saving about $700/mo in payments that can be used to offset mortgage), or using it to put down on rentals (multifamily). Looking at the student loan payoff option, the ROI on that is about 14% but with no appreciation, where rentals may return 8-10% but has appreciation. Given the market right now, would it still be a good idea to bank on appreciation and cashflow, or is paying off the loan a better option?

Great thank you Ben I'll give him a call