Pinching Myself.

Its finally said and done. I am officially a home owner, for whatever it is worth. This goes to show you that if I can get a damn house, pretty much any one can. I shouldn’t even be writing on a blog considering that I have to pack boxes soon. Most of this stuff in my apartment I plan on throwing away anyhow.

 

Things that I have learned that you can take from me:

1. If you are serious about getting a home someday, focus on putting your money to the side via savings account. Do not touch the savings account for 2 years or however long it takes you to get a decent amount of money saved up. My guess is at least 10k to start off. If you have a partner that you live with, preferably a husband or wife that you plan on spend 30 years with, add them on and bring their resources with you. The more help that you have, the better chances you have of getting a higher loan.
2. Get pre-qualified — This is very important before you even step in an open house and put in an offer. If you aren’t pre-qualified, you will most likely waste your time looking at a home in a neighborhood that you cannot reasonably afford. Pre-qualification gives you a ball park estimate of the price range you need to home search for. Now you can decide if you will choose a condo in a decent area, or a home in a bad area. You can decide whether you will travel further for better options in a far town, or decide to purchase a fixer-upper. If you are balling like the Golden State Warriors and have money up the ass, the world is yours.
3. Find a compatible real estate agent that can accommodate your schedule — I have already written at length about this, but yeah. Just do it. A bad agent will cost you a few homes. Ask if the agent is a seller or a buyers agent, most will tell you that they are both, but that is no acceptable answer. Make them commit to one straight answer. If you have a genuine buyers agent, you are in the game.
4. Look for Homes and BE VERY AGGRESSIVE– Ladies and gentleman, in this housing market it is a seller’s market. Buyers have little, if any power without liquid capital. Do not go searching for homes in open houses twiddling your thumbs if you half way like a home “But have to think about it”, NO. It does not work like this :

Trust me it doesn’t go down like this! Each house that you will go in will have multiple offers — sometimes even blind offers — before you can “think about it”, so do not play around if you like a house. Put in an offer as soon as possible, you can always change your mind if you find something else better.

1. Put in an offer — Go through the process of negotiations, hopefully you get your offer accepted. You will get turned down multiple times by cash offers, or offers with less contingencies or caveats that hold up the deal.
2. Offer accepted — Get pre-approved from whatever bank gives you the best deal. My opinion would be to ask the real estate agent to give a reference for a solid loan officer.
3. Get approved
4. Start Escrow and complete contingencies that were mutually agreed upon
5. Sign papers like crazy, almost like perusing an entire bible full of x_________ symbols
6. Wait for the underwriter to complete process
7. Wait some more, just because.
8. Ok, meet with notary to sign some more documents.
9. Wire funds and wait.
10. Documents recorded, you are now living the dream

Ask me if it’s worth it, I guess we’ll find out around tax season next year. But the expenses are much higher than renting. I will probably search for power saving hacks on pinterest, because everything costs.

Well, guess what?

I finally got an offer accepted and will be moving soon. This whole dilemma will hopefully be behind me. This is the start of the beginning. My wife is excited and I am relieved to know that I will get this process over with.

I told the new agent (that was my former real estate agent’s ‘assistant’) that “You got more done in one day, than some people could do in months. You are a gifted agent.”

Yes, I know I was hella petty, but so what. I hope that he forwarded that text message to him. He is lucky that I won’t write a negative review about his janky ass.

Here’s my celebration song. lol.

 

Inside Eddie’s Daydream #27

Good Lord, you cannot make this kind of stuff up. It has been Monday morning since I last talked to my  real estate agent and read him his ass. The conversation didn’t get anywhere at all, because this guy emailed me this morning with an interesting spin on the situation. He personally emailed us confirming that he didn’t do shit for the past two months, and has decided to hand our file(s) over to his agent that’s shown us property in the past two months. He had the unmitigated gall to label the email “Passing of the torch”. This guy is a complete douchebag of an agent. I want to report his ass to the board of Realtors, but my wife wants me to leave the pettiness behind. He only sent his so-called assistant agent a file that we received a counter offer on (“the kings palace”) and left out the other 3 offers we put in. No updates or follow up’s. This guy was fucking me over the whole time. I have another agent that I am flirting with who does everything we ask her to. I just want to leave the situation with the past real estate agent in the past and start over with a new clean slate, but I feel bad because the assistant never dogged me out and we actually loved the guy. This shit has me so jaded I don’t know what to do. Such an awkward ass quagmire to be in. Smh. 

The Jig is up: House Hunting

 

I’ve tried to hide the fact that I am buying a home, but the f!@kery that we’ve been going through is too damn much. 

I don’t really know how I got here, but 10 offers later and no home, it’s been the pits. I am trying to be a rational man, but I just can’t at this point.

When my wife approached me about buying a home, I instantly stood behind her and got on board. We searched  for a bank that would pre-qualify and approve us and got that out of the way. Receiving the price range that we could afford, we went on the hunt for the best possible situation and home.

THE AGENT

I didn’t do my research when I picked my agent. I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Reading web articles, I decided to go with some guy who had a great amount of sales within the past year. When I talked to him, something felt off, but I decided to go along with it anyhow. We talked about each of our schedules and everything seemed fine. I looked at his ratings and this gentleman had nothing but 5 star ratings. In hindsight, I should’ve listened to my intuition instead of random fake reviews.  I have four more offers in with this guy. If these fail within the past week, I am moving the hell on.

TIP: When picking a real estate agent, use buyer/seller reviews accordingly. Make sure that you are dealing with an agent that is great at what you are looking for. If you are looking to sell a home, choose an agent that specializes in selling homes, especially in the area you live. If you are a buyer, choose an agent that not only specializes in your desired area, but also is in rhythm of your schedule. You can’t work graveyard shift and have an agent that only shows property at noon, when you may not be able to view properties until 4 p.m. on off days. Choose an agent that is flexible, don’t get caught up on sales unless you are a seller.

The HOMES

Home offer #1: This home was a probate sale. Probate sales can be done either through the court, or without the court. It means the owner has passed away, and the heirs or de facto owners want to sell the house by auction or standard sale. The listing agent that presents the property must legally state that the owner has passed away. When we saw this home, it was on a random weekday night that I happened to get off early. My wife and I met up at the location with one of our agent’s “team members” in his “group”.  Let’s call her Linda. Linda showed us the property and the condition of the house was murky at best. There was peeling paint, uneven floors, and an un-permitted back house that smelled like rotten marijuana. The carpet was awful, the rooms were decent, and the entrance of the garage was in an alley. I absolutely hated the house but loved the area, so we put in an offer. We put in three multiple counter offers and still lost, because we refused to pay more than what the house was worth. STRIKE ONE: I found out through a third party website that the house was pending before the real estate agent. The agent didn’t notify us of the property being sold to another party until two days later. Didn’t return our calls, until I called one of his “team members.” Pissed me the f**k off, but I didn’t want to make it a big deal.

Home offer #2: This home was also a probate sale that was being sold “as-is”. It fell out of escrow due to a multitude of factors: buyers got separated, buyers refused to split responsibility of repairs with seller, etc.  STRIKE TWO: We specifically told this guy to put in an offer that same night on this house. I sent an email to him and the group member that showed me the property, specifically telling him to put in the offer that SATURDAY. They had an open house that SUNDAY. On Monday morning, no more offers were accepted. My agent did not put in our offer that SUNDAY at minimum. He had to beg for them to accept our offer as a backup that MONDAY afternoon. I WAS PISSSSSST!!!! I was so pissed I let him know about it.

Home offer #3: This home was awkward as hell. Garage was almost bigger than the home itself. The house was crazy small, located on a main street, corner house, driveway not connected to driveway. Awkward to pull in, no dishwasher or space. No backyard or privacy, the home was overpriced and outside of the area we desired. This was a flipped home that felt unfinished. The agent actually negotiated a great deal with this house. They agreed to help on closing costs and were ready to make a deal with us. He did an excellent job, but this time we reneged and backed out of our offer. The house was not appealing at all. It probably is still for sale.

Home offer #4: This home was located in the perfect area, but was dated and ugly. It had floor heaters and possible water damage. The home was ideal, but had some issues. We actually cross qualified and damn near got our offer accepted at asking, but a cash buyer came in and offered 97 percent of asking without any contingencies (at the last second). We instantly got beat out and lost, cash is king, but the agent did a decent job.

Home offer #5: This home is in a sketchy area but the home and block was actually nice. It is what you would call a pocket block. A good block surrounded by a few bad streets with criminal activity. I liked this house enough to put in an offer, but didn’t want to commit to a house that we halfway liked. The house had multiple cash offers, and even blind offers, so we didn’t like our chances on this home beyond putting in an offer. Plus we were waiting on home offer #4. It was MEH!

Home offer #6: This home was one that was the closest of my intended area to move into. I still haven’t received word back on this home. We just know that the competition is deep and the likelihood is low, when there is too much competition. Allegedly we are going to find out tomorrow who gets the home, but the seller’s agent is a hard person to get in contact with. We our crossing our fingers, but expecting a no. This home is dated and has a retro 2000’s feel to it. I thought I was on the set of ‘Moesha’, but the backyard is huge and the driveway is private. I saw it alone and immediately put in an offer without hesitation, because I knew my wife would love it. We shall see.

Home offer #7: Beautiful home, pocket street like home offer #5, turn key and ready to go. We put in multiple offers and was one of the highest offers, but we refused to waive the appraisal contingency. I was like hell no, and they found a sucker who did waive his appraisal. We lost out on that one, and to keep it more gangster — they still are having open houses despite its pending status. We just shook our heads and moved on. We loved that they moved fast and didn’t stall, unlike Home offer #6.

Home offer #8: We saw this property and let the seller’s agent(s) know our interest immediately. This was a pocket block home that was renovated into a turn key, but had more potential that what was shown at open house. This offer is fresh and we are waiting on a response by the end of the week, or next Monday at the latest.

Home offer #9: This home is located in a non-desirable area, but the home is a got damn castle for a KING. I walked through the home and felt like nothing else outside mattered. Only thing that this house needed was a front gate, an electric powered swing gate and that’s it. This house was lit. We offered lower than the asking price, because we know people aren’t willing to move in that area. The home was sick, I could see my dogs roaming the property. Easy home to sell in the future also, something I couldn’t say about home offer #3. No response on this home yet.

Home offer #10: This home is a great location not far from home offer #1, but the wife checked it out alone and became hesitant because of a nosy neighbor. This home has multiple offers that are placed on the property and even our real estate agent doubts that we will be considered for this home.

 

I’m very frustrated at this point with the whole entire process, because I have pressure to find a home soon. My rental lease with my landlord is up, and they are hiking the price up exorbitantly high to coerce us into signing a 6 month to 1 year lease. They disfavor tenants who stay month to month, so I have a lot of pressure to make a deal happen. I am not too satisfied with my agent, because his communication is not great. All of the homes I’ve found on my own, he doesn’t send me any listings. My wife and I attend multiple open houses alone –then write him a long ass email report– and beg him to put in offers before the night ends. He has shown us 4 of the houses we’ve put offers on. He seems too busy at times and he rarely helps us on weekends. He avoids showing us properties on weekends and uses people on his team to show properties during the weekday. My wife gets to see the properties, but I don’t. When the weekend comes, those people that work on his team actually don’t work for him, they ASSIST him.  The one guy who does show us property has clients of his own that come before us. So when (more like if) we need to see properties on weekends, it feels like a hassle to ask our agent if we can see lock box properties that regular buyers don’t have access to. We got into a heated discussion today, and I kept it real. I told him that if I knew that he was this busy on weekends, then I would’ve chosen otherwise. I will give him until the duration of these four offers, and afterwards i’m done. These real estate agents are sharks who hunt for buyers who attend open houses without agents. They tell us bad things about our agent, and how they can do a better job. One guy promised us a house, only  if we left our agent out of the business transaction and did the deal straight up. I know its all bullshit and smoke, but the fact is I get irritated with not having an agent present. The seller’s agent treats you different without an agent, they turn into sleazy greasy salesmen without one. I told my agent that I don’t like defending a real estate agent who isn’t there.”It’s not my responsibility to defend you”. I hope a deal goes through, but I had to use my platform to vent. Thanks for taking time to read my drama.