[quote=sdgrrl]Just heard back from the seller:

Home has termite clearance (we need this for a VA loan – very good thing!)
– Seller wants a 12 day investigative period (normally 17 days). They do not want to do any repairs so what you find is what you get. Or, you cancel and move on.
– Seller does not want to pay closing cost – however is willing to give credit for needed work (like landscaping) ($5,000). We would do this on a request for repairs form at the time of the counter offer so it is in writing.
– Seller will pay for home warranty for 1 year upgraded.
– Since seller is doing home warranty – as a house warming I will do rebate to you now of $450.00.

The above will go out to you and at least one other offeror. They will be asking for best and final offer price.[/quote]

I don’t see what you said the price you are offering is.

Let’s step back and take a broader look.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/8683-Golden-Ridge-Road,-Lakeside,-CA_rb/?fromHomePage=true&shouldFireSellPageImplicitClaimGA=false

House has been for sale since May 1 ($399K).

Price reduced to $375K on May 31.

It has fallen out of escrow twice, once on 7/3 and once on 7/11.

Price reduced $75K on 7/18.

Now they say they have multiple offers at the original price ($375K).

Asking for a shorter investigation period raises red flags to me. Coupling that with falling out of escrow twice makes me really nervous.

Sounds like the $375K price is indeed in the neighborhood and the $75K price drop was just to get attention.

Personally, I think prices will be softening (maybe not dropping) in Sept since school will be back in session and people will want their nests stable by then. Me, I would walk away since I don’t like the “we’ve already got multiple offers” thing. But I’m not in your shoes…only you can decide if it is a fair offer.

A side story: we made an offer on a house in Hidden Valley one time. House had been on market several months. Signs placed all over the shelves saying “make us an offer!”. We offered about 5% less than asking. Their realtor came back saying they had a full price offer so we’d have to offer at least that. I said that sounds fishy, so we walked. The house stayed on the market, with several price cuts, for over a year after that!!! Over a year! This situation smells suspiciously like that one.

[quote=sdgrrl]Hi Flu,

As I told svelte, it is nice to hear from one of the oldies.

Yeah, the rigidity of the sellers is extreme. I put in an offer of $385k with the seller paying the closing cost. We made the offer and may not be the chosen one, but if we are we will still think hard before going all in.

I do like the home and the mortgage is something I am comfortable with. Our income may put us in a higher bracket of middle class; nothing more though.

The $5k credit, I thought, “Ooh, thank you for your generous counter offer.”. Feel the same as you. Mix that with no repairs will be done and you feel more hesitant and that you are really getting the short end of the stick.[/quote]

Well, if you really like the house, then that’s all that matters. I can’t comment on what I would or wouldn’t do because we’ve all choices based on preference. If you do get the house, I would just make sure that

(1) you make sure with that the appraisal will come through such that you’ll get the loan

(2) you make sure you find a good property inspector to wring that house out. As much as you like the house, you don’t want to get blindsided into a money pit, and it sounds like the original owner isn’t going to be forthcoming in bringing up everything that could be wrong with the place.

If worst comes to worst, walk out. There will always be another house. If you keep in mind you “don’t have to do this”. I it will keep your honest on what you should or shouldn’t be doing.

I’m assuming that the 12 days versus 17 days period is just for inspection, but you still will have a loan contingency thereafter, right? If not, or if you’re not sure, make sure on that. You don’t want to give up on your loan contingency, no matter what.

Because you don’t know how long that will take.. Also, if for whatever reason you find something wrong with the property after the inspection period, there’s been time you can talk to your lender and so that you end up not qualifying for that property, so you can walk out that way. And I know plenty of people that have done that up in the Bay Area too… lol….

If Svelte is correct that it has fallen out of escrow twice,
you need to try to find out why.
As a Realtor, representing the buyer, I would be a pit bull.
As a mortgage broker, I find it odd that the property fell out of escrow twice in a short period of time; It’s not likely that 2 different buyers had their loans rejected in such a short period of time.

Inspections by good inspectors are done quickly. The guy I use usually finishes his report within 12 hours of inspection.
It’s possible that 2 buyers cancelled because of their inspection, not their loan. It takes much longer to get through the loan app, file set-up and in front of an underwriter, especially right now as underwriters are swamped.

A buyer is not obligated to provide the inspection report to the seller, and buyer can back out for ANY reason.
Seller cannot back out or cancel transaction.

IF the inspection report was provided to seller through the listing agent, they can no longer ignore/pretend not to be aware of any defects/problems/items that need attention.
Disclosures & transfer statement must address these items clearly. Even if it was a rental property, seller can no longer say that “We didn’t live there, not aware of any problems”

If you proceed and ever found out that they knew things that were
not disclosed to you, you would have a strong lawsuit against seller, listing agent and/or listing agent’s broker.

They can play games with listing price, they can lie about having other offers. they CANNOT lie/mislead about known problems without possible severe consequences.

Your agent should be telling you ALL this and putting pressure on the listing agent to disclose why it fell out of escrow twice.
It’s sad if you have to ask you agent to do this.
That’s mediocre service at best, which is all most agents offer.

[quote=sdgrrl][quote=PCinSD]Don’t do anything until BG gives you legal and marital advice. Many of us have her on retainer.[/quote]

Again, I have read BG’s posts for some time. I read the other thread she is posting on and there were some standouts:

“Do people really want to attempt to raise young families in sub-1000 sf home with stairs and little to no yard?” Is that really what today’s homebuyers will “settle” for:

Um yeah. To a degree. Many young home buyers in pricey cities are realistic about what their buck will buy nowadays. The places some of us grew up in is not feasible in today’s market. Just the truth.

Also, many people in their 20s and 30s don’t want all the space and the work which comes with it.

“I honestly believe that many millenials (now working in their fields) can save a downpayment and buy a regular house. The $64M questions are, do they actually want to save for a downpayment and will they actually buy a house they can afford which will serve them (and their possible future families) for many years to come”:

Not sure which millennials you know, but $100k to drop on a down payment is not within their reach when they are still in their 20s. I am GenX and am in my 30s. If they have young children and are spending $800-$1500 on daycare it is even more unreasonable. My guy is a veteran and if we wanted to we wouldn’t have to put any money down.

Unless parents have stepped in, buying and selling is occurring for my friends parents and not them for the most part.

Overall I ignore her posts, but today these caught my eye even though it is business as usual.[/quote]sdgrrl, pay pablo no mind. As usual, he’s trolling as I never offered any advice or suggestions on this thread. This is the first time I’ve seen it. I have made many comments in the past about millenials having a sense of entitlement when it comes to choosing housing … well … simply because they DO. (That’s pretty undisputed in the media and in the RE publications I get by e-mail.) And my own kids are millenials and THEY do. IMO, they should save more of their large salaries (even if its not for a house) instead of spend, spend, spend and I lecture them on that as well.

However, you say you’re a Gen X (which I haven’t stated had a “sense of entitlement” unless it was the very youngest members of your generation). I was under the impression that millenials were born from 1978 to 1998 (the under 40 crowd), which if you’re in your 30’s, would make you a millenial. However, wikipedia has several different later dates for millenial births. I now don’t know which one to use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials

Good luck in your search. I agree with HLS in that you need to demand (immediately, should your offer be accepted) to see any previous inspection reports on the property from previous escrows which fell out. The property in your MLS pfl appears to have a fairly high crawlspace under the house portion (which is fairly common for that year in Lakeside). Those were the oldest, smallest houses in Lakeside and it was likely purchased at some point as a very heavy fixer for very little and “remodeled.” The house could very well need jacking up in one of its corners or have other uneven foundation problems which the seller is slow about disclosing. If it has any structural problems, it could cost you $30K or more to fix it after the close of escrow and I do not think that house in that area is worth spending that amount of cash on (assuming you have it after COE) … especially if you pay more than $300K for it.

It is very possible that a previous owner or the current seller put lipstick on the pig (cosmetically remodeled it) without knowing it had structural problems (or knowing the extent of them) but now they DO know and are withholding their TDS until they accept an offer (artificially inflated, by their agent with the, “We have multiple offers,” game).

Be strong and stand your ground on all matters related to physical inspection. Get a good inspector lined up NOW who can spring into action should your offer be accepted. I hope you didn’t agree to lower your contingency period from 17 to 12 days, but if you did (due to poor buyers’ agent representation), you must act fast. And, if you don’t take this house, in the future, do NOT give up your right to take the entire 17 days to remove contingencies! You are not an investor or cash buyer/flipper who has a body of knowledge about construction and land use/geological issues in particular areas and are in no position to give up your right to take the time you need to find out everything about the property before committing to the sale.