[sdgrrl]

Hi LJR,

We have been in Mission Hills for over ten years in the same place. We paid $1k in rent for about 7 years and then over 3 years they raised it $200.

We love the location, the home, the views, but at this point in my life I wouldn’t want to come up with $4k a month for a mortgage.

I’m pretty cheap and tight with my money.

I only financed my first new car about 3 years ago. Basic Jeep Patriot. No power windows and the fanciest thing is the CD player- which no one uses anymore lol.

It was very uncomfortable for a while. The payment is ridiculously low, but it still took time.

I would tend to agree with you that no one buying a home feels comfortable, especially if it their first. We are in escrow for our first home. After the first few payments we should find our groove.

[sdgrrl]

Hi jfel,

The VA valuation came through today and the house is $1k more than our offer of $385k.

It looks positive. The inspection went really well. We will still receive a $5k credit for ‘landscaping’.

I honestly doubted the sellers and the bid they made, but it seems now they were being fair in their pricing.

One little caveat is my fiance’s dad gave us a chunk of change to help with appliances- the home has none. This was not a good move. We should have cashed the check after we got the home. Now his father has to show proof it was a gift and also his financial information to prove the gift did not impact his finances negatively. I had no idea.

Spoke to out realtor tonight and she felt confident everything would go well since we can get all the needed documentation. She also said things would start to move fast very quickly now.

I will definitely keep you all posted.

[sdgrrl]

My fiance and I are in escrow right now. Before we went through the pre-approval process we had decided we would only use his income. Based on his income they approved $350k for a condo and $400k for a home. I was shocked. There is no way he could take on all of the responsibility if something happened to me.

We are a bit hire on the end of middle class spectrum with our incomes combined. We could not comfortably afford a home over $500k, or I should say I wouldn’t be comfortable. I understand flippers, but I don’t understand how people are dropping a minimum of $550k on a solid home. How many wealthy people are there, or are they just completely house poor?

Basing data on this link: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/11/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/

80% of residents are low income, or middle class. 20% are considered high income. I don’t understand it. Where does the money come from?

[sdgrrl]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=bearishgurl][quote=sdgrrl]Wow. I don’t know who said it, but someone thought the realtor was an investor. His brother is the seller.[/quote]sdgrrl, this is typical with flipper teams. Many of them are family affairs, with an “in-house” (related) agent or broker among them. However, the listing agent in your MLS pfl is shown as Kristi Stevens, a female. Have you ever actually met her?

I don’t like the new request. It seems they want to ensure that they have a few thousand in case you walk, for whatever reason. They want you to hang in there as long as it takes your lender to order your VA appraisal, the appraisal to be completed and the report to come back. Think about that. That could take well beyond your 17-day (or 12-day, as the case may be) contingency period.

It appears that you were trying to buy it with a very low downpayment (fraction of the closing costs) or as a VA no no. What does your agent advise you to do?[/quote]Earlier, the OP posted that the (listing) realtor was the brother of the seller. This is the way I understood it.

If this is the case, do you (OP) know why are they used a “straw agent” to list the property on the MLS? She is licensed …. NOT an unlicensed “assistant.”[/quote]

I BG,

That is correct- the seller is the brother of the listing agent. Our agent is Kristi and we have been working with her for a year now.

As of right now we are officially in escrow. We will see which repairs need to be done, but also what the VA appraises it for. If the VA comes back and says the home is worth $355k that is what the loan will be for.

Our listing is agent is paying for the home inspection ($450) and our broker is paying for the appraisal.

I think our listing agent knows we are on the point of bolting. Our broker messed up on the first home we were in escrow with and told us for the next appraisal he would pay for it.

The seller is giving us a one year warranty.

I do hope we get it if the home is up to par.

Wish us luck!

[sdgrrl]

I 100% agree Flu.

[sdgrrl]

This whole thing just sounds weird.

First they bid up the price from $299k to nothing under $375k. They will not pay closing cost.

We come back with a higher bid and asking them to pay 100% of the closing cost and they agree.

Then yesterday they tell our agent that if the home appraisal is under asking price they will only pay $5k in closing cost.

Someone on this thread made a statement that the agent sounds like he is an investor in it. Our realtor tells us the buyer and agent are brothers.

Now today, they want to meet us face to face. My guys is infuriated with all hoops we have jumped though. The only request we asked was for closing cost. He thinks its just weird.

Kurt told our agent if in any way they are persistent

or egg it on that we are thru. Completely over it.

Already looking at other properties.

[sdgrrl]

Wow. I don’t know who said it, but someone thought the realtor was an investor. His brother is the seller.

[sdgrrl]

Most recent communication:

I am going back and forth with Max the listing agent. He is asking questions for the seller. They would like to set up with you ahead of time that if the appraisal does not come in at value that they will have to limit your closing costs credit to $5,000. Would you be able to come out of pocket $3200.00 for this home? You will have put a deposit down of $3,500. So, basically if the appraisal comes in low you would only get back $300.00 from your deposit.

Seller’s are eliminating negotiations for the worst case scenario.

My advice is to go for it – you are getting a home for $3200.00. It is your decision – just let me know.

[sdgrrl]

[quote=flu][quote=bearishgurl]sdgrrl, I agree with Rich about examining how long you want to actually own the property but for a different reason. If you guys are actually purchasing VA, the you could have a 100% loan. You say the sellers are refusing to pay any of your closing costs and your VA Funding Fee at 2% will be a hefty $7700 (if you pay $385K for the house). With your other closing costs and possible loan costs added to the funding fee, your closing costs could come to $12K or more which would mean that you will already “upside down” by ~$12K at the close of escrow (COE).

That’s not a good (financial) place to be in that area if you’re not planning on holding the property for at least 10 years, IMO. As you can see from the lower prices up there, Lakeside does not hold its value or appreciate at the same rates as closer-in (incorporated) communities in SD County do.

A few observations:

The 2011 “street view” pic reveals the following. There are no sidewalks or storm drains on this street (in an unincorporated area). The home is lower than the street. The crawlspace of this home could have been flooded multiple times in heavy rains over the years as there doesn’t appear to be any french drains installed in the front or side of the lot to drain off the backyard, which is lower still. The home and lot were likely in gross disrepair when the current seller/flipper purchased it. The June 2011 street view pic reveals a 20+ foot industrial-type trailer (as ucodegen mentioned) parked on the property in front of the house. A previous owner (before the flipper/seller) could have purchased it for almost nothing from DRMO or a local GSA auction.

http://www.governmentauctiondatabase.com/locations/CA/2489

I feel they may have acquired it to use to dispose of wild, overgrown landscaping and termite eaten and dry-rotted/moldy construction debris (due to previous flooding) as renting a “roll-on” can be prohibitively expensive. (The flipper/seller could have purchased the property with the trailer still there.) When the previous owner was gutting it and found the extent of the damage, they decided they didn’t (for whatever reason) want to put the money into it because in 2011/12, the market had literally gone to sh!t out there. They hung onto the property until they could unload it on a professional flipper in late 2015 and recover their money out of it (and likely more). The owner who sold to the flipper was likely a longtime owner or even an “heir” who very well may have borrowed money on it during the loose-lending era of the aughts. (Note: I have not viewed the public record chain-of-title on this property.)

The lot is essentially sloping down from the street to the house, with a third, lower tier as the backyard. The parcel may slope a little further downhill from the backyard but we can’t see it from the pics provided. The driveway in one place, in front of a window has an offset crack (we can’t tell exactly by how much). This nonetheless indicates soil movement because the concrete is so old that it is likely a tree was never growing there. The driveway was not repaired/replaced by the flipper/seller. There is another 1-2 feet of dirt between the driveway and a short retaining wall. The house is 1-2 feet lower than the retaining wall and was completely re-stuccoed, so we can’t tell if that crack (from moving soil over the years) has affected the short retaining wall (which could have been easily repaired) or penetrated the actual stemwall of the house.

In addition, its former roof (in 2011) was decrepit and probably leaked in one or more places. However the walls inside (possibly originally plaster) were likely replaced with drywall by the flipper.

If your offer is accepted and you open escrow, I would get a highly-qualified home inspector (or better yet, a civil engineer) out there pronto and go through the crawlspace with a high beam flashlight and a fine-toothed comb and whatever other meters/tools they use to look for dryrot in the subfloor and evidence of seepage (from cracks) and mold along the stemwalls.

A more expedient (and cheaper) way to get the info you need on whether to proceed with this transaction would be to insist on seeing any reports on that property paid for by previous buyer-principals who walked. You need to make this request immediately after your offer is accepted. And reject the reports promptly, if necessary, within your contingency period in order to get your earnest money back.

Good Luck and be mindful of your dates! I’m not sure properties in this particular area are for first-timers … especially those who are putting little money down and have low to moderate incomes and minor children to support (not saying that’s you, btw, sdgrrl).[/quote]

How the hell did you become an real estate expert (LETDLITA) in Lakeside and with this particular house simply by looking at a bunch pictures in an MLS listing???? Do you realize how ridiculous this is?????

Its like the last time you did this with the barrister(?) House in mira Mesa, in which your comments on that house, again , only based on the pictures you saw in an mls listing and from Google maps, was totally off too.[/quote]

I have to give BG credit. I also noticed those cracks and thought the same thing. The front will take some work

[sdgrrl]

[quote=Rich Toscano]Hi sdgrrl – Sorry to be so late to the party here. I don’t have much to add to the many excellent comments in the thread. Here are a couple thoughts that jump out (which have been expressed by others, but fwiw I agree):

– The bait-n-switch low listing price is cheesy but while it might annoy me, it wouldn’t really change whether I want to buy the property or not. What matters is the price you can get it at, and whether it’s worth it to you.

– The “as is” thing could be a deal breaker, or a complete non-issue… that entirely depends on the state of the house. So I echo everyone’s advice to have someone inspect the hell out of the place, and only then will you be able to evaluate this aspect (and the accompanying super weird “afraid of their own shadow” comment). I’ll be curious to hear what they turn up. BTW if you don’t know a good inspector, I really liked the guy who did my house, and have recommended him to others with good results: http://www.masterspecs.info

Overall there’s some unusual aspects to it but nothing that would kill the deal for me personally — pending, of course, the findings of the home inspection.

With that said, bear in mind that I don’t have anything resembling expertise in individual real estate transactions. So, just my two cents, for what it’s worth.

The thing I have more of a handle on is the overall market and specifically valuations. There, not much has changed since last year’s update. The net of it is, homes are quite expensive (though not bubble expensive), but rates are so low that if you are financing the bulk of your purchase, it can still make sense to buy, because you are locking in a pretty reasonable monthly nut. However, that only really helps you if you intend to hang on to the home for a long time. If you have to sell reasonably soon, then the change in price will matter more than monthly payment, and with valuations at these levels, that doesn’t really seem like a good risk vs. reward.

So tell me a bit more about your “intentions” towards the home. Do you envision staying there long-term? If home prices were to decline 20% (not a prediction, but an entirely plausible possibility based on current valuations), would you be ok, or would that screw up your plans somehow? Even if you do want to stay there, is there a chance you’d be forced to move by job changes etc? All that might help determine whether it makes sense to buy in general — this place, or otherwise.

Keep us posted on the place… if you get that far, I’m interested to hear how the inspection goes (mostly bc of the somewhat ominous “afraid of their own shadow” comment), and whether you are able to find out why it fell out of escrow.

Rich[/quote]

Hi Rich,

Happy to here from you. Thank you for keeping the site going.

My guy went out and looked at the property again today to be sure he wanted to move forward. The seller has agreed to pay the closing cost and also give a $5k credit for landscaping. This is a big turnaround from their first counter offer.

Our goal is long term. Over time make it our little dream home. The yard is a blank canvas and it will take a few years to get it how I want it doing this by myself. We are patient.

Both of us won’t be moving out of thee area for a long time. We don’t have children, but I would like my niece to have it one day. Whether she sells or lives there it will be a nice cushion.

If the home price drops 20% we wouldn’t be happy, but this is long term so I think over years the value will go up and hopefully you do too. Really hope you do too.

We have an inspector we worked with last time when we almost bought a home in Alpine. The repair list was insane. We are VA so we also have to get a VA inspector.

I will definitely keep you all posted. I think everyone really wants to see the inspector’s report. Will share as soon as we get.

Glad you caught that part about “afraid of their own shadow.”

[sdgrrl]

[quote=Rich Toscano][quote=bearishgurl]For whatever reason, flu, your animosity and bitterness (currently towards me) has been shining on high beam around here in recent weeks. I thinks its well past time that you block me so you aren’t bothered by my posts … especially during the business day when you are supposedly “working.” You’ve turned into the “Champion Thread Polluter” extraordinaire.[/quote]

Don’t worry bg, you’re still the reigning champ!

Well, I was going to just leave it at that, but it feels too snarky to just make a comment like that without explaining the grievance behind it.

Speaking not as the site owner here, but just an observer — a guy who reads the comments. I’m hard pressed to find any significant thread where you have not written epic length posts, a good proportion of which fall into one (or more!) of the following categories:

– barely relevant
– even less relevant than that
– not even understandable, really
– wild speculation presented as fact

And I’ll admit to some personal bias here, but it doesn’t help that so many of your novel-length comments these days are impassioned defenses of that goose-stepping canned ham who you inexplicably think would be a good president.

So, when you actually accuse someone else of being a Champion(!) Thread Polluter… boy, I just can’t sit back and watch that without saying something.

To end on a positive note, I do appreciate that you usually keep things polite and positive, and you are a good citizen in following the “no political threadjacks” rule. But with that said, if you think “Thread Pollution” is a problem… you should take a look at your own posts and consider how you might be contributing to it.[/quote]

Don’t worry BG you’re still the reigning champ!

Dying over here.

[sdgrrl]

[quote=ucodegen][quote=svelte]One more thing: this house is definitely a flip.

It was bought in Nov 2015 for $250K, they are now asking $125k more than that.

I assume it looked like what is shown in street view when they bought it:

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8339581,-116.9404936,3a,75y,91.09h,81.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1stXqNhwwWC_RPVeOVAAU4uA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

Ha! That if funny you noticed the horses. Next door are chickens, I did my best looking to see if there was a rooster.

I’m from Texas. Stereotypical in some ways and unique in others. Every summer I was sent to my godparents ranch. The smell of horses don’t bother me. The day was super hot and all was well. I think I need to go back over and look for a rooster again though…
A flip doesn’t bother me per se, but its worth noting the upgrades were probably made with the intention of resale, not necessarily to the quality of someone who planned on living there long term.[/quote]
I second this.. found exactly the same thing. It does make me a bit suspicious. Strange that there is a new-ish conex outside of the house. Street view is from Jun 2011.

With the price listed $299k and only entertaining offers over $375k.. I am suspicious that the realtor may not be an independent party and may have been party to the flip itself. Caveat Emptor – do the due diligence and trust no realtor. There are some good ones and then there are ‘others’ who are willing to screw over their client in a heartbeat.

NOTE: In the pictures on street view, there are horses on the neighbors property.. be aware of the effect of wind and smell.[/quote]

[sdgrrl]

Hi thejard,

The home being under $400k is what draws me in. I do like the area and the house is ‘nice’. We will see what rears its head when we see our inspection report. I looked on realtor.com and entered in our specs and there were 107 properties. For a city our size that is a pittance.

My guy finally budged on buying a condo/townhome, but we have to have privacy and not have windows facing our back area. We are wanting this as a favor to our neighbors. My fiance smokes cigars and they are hardcore. Like smoking 10 cigarettes at once.

[sdgrrl]

Hi BG,

You are right and wrong about GenX/Millennials. I will be 40 this year and GenX spans 35-50. Long range.

Millennials range from 18-34. The generations span time.

I’m not being sarcastic, that it is too bad your kids have a sense of entitlement. I remember that emotion, and many out grow it and I hope they do too. I realized what my father had told me time after time “Life isn’t fair.”

[sdgrrl]

[quote=svelte]One more thing: this house is definitely a flip.

I assume it looked like what is shown in street view when they bought it:

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8339581,-116.9404936,3a,75y,91.09h,81.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1stXqNhwwWC_RPVeOVAAU4uA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

Holy Moly,

Another thing the seller has said a few times is they want a strong buyer who loves the home “and isn’t afraid of their own shadow.”

I take this as “you will not like what repairs need to occur. We hope you love the home enough that you don’t mind us completely taking advantage of the situation.”

[Author]

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