Buying A House Sometimes Feels Like This

9 Comments

1. 

   FanofBabylonVillage on December 11, 2009 at 9:18 pm

   Oh no:) Hopefully just a slight twist in the road!!

2. 

   Anon E. Moose on December 14, 2009 at 11:05 am

   I think its just too hard to get home l’oaners and their sales flacks to care about the chicken scratch that is the median Suffolk house sold ($335,000 as of Oct 09, per NYSAR) these days, compared to the salad days of ’06 ($410,000, id.).

   I know I walked right past a $100,000 bill lying on the street today and didn’t bother to pick it up because it was on ‘tails’.

   You can’t expect these sellers to go out of their way for a transaction when you’re only offering them four years worth of median Suffolk household income.

3. 

   Gary on December 14, 2009 at 11:59 am

   Delays seem to be coming from the seller’s attorney, who seems to delight in arguing with my attorney over the minutest details of the transaction.

   I was just thinking over the weekend that each day’s delay costs the seller over fifty dollars, between taxes, opportunity costs on the money from the sale, maintenance and incidentals. It’s been almost a month since my initial offer, so the seller attorney has cost his client over $1500 so far.

   Well done by him.

4. 

   Fanof BabylonVillage on December 14, 2009 at 3:48 pm

   Having bought and sold 20+ properties and aslo being a business owner has taught me that lawyers have to be controlled 🙂 Unfortunately, you may have a seller who leans on his attorney far too much and a lawyer who is padding his bill. If you are not yet in contract after 30 days of wrangling over minutia, you might want to be looking for another home unless time is of no importance to you. It’s the only leverage you have unfortunately – but I’m pulling for you!

5. 

   Gary on December 14, 2009 at 4:39 pm

   Looks like the log jam broke today and — barring any unforeseen events — we should be in full contract in a day or so.

6. 

   Fanof BabylonVillage on December 14, 2009 at 6:08 pm

   Good news! Hopefully, the balance of the transaction will be non-eventful!

7. 

   Trevor on December 26, 2009 at 4:59 pm

   The problem with the Seller’s attorney is problem we see all too often: he doesn’t do enough real estate work to know this is not an adversarial transaction. Buying/Selling a home is a happy time and attorneys need to understand that and help their clients arrive at the logical destination: a closing table.

   Unfortunately when you run into an attorney who’s too busy conducting his practice in differing areas of the law, i.e., matrimonial, criminal, personal injury, etc., and doesn’t spend enough time closing real estate transactions, the attorney’s behavior too often skews towards the complicated, adversarial sway. Such attorneys hold up transactions for the most ridiculous reasons, all of which results from their lack of experience in “real time” markets.

   Lesson to be learned here: if you’re buying or selling a home, hire an attorney who specializes in real estate. That said, often the recommendation from your Realtor or mortgage professional is the right recommendation and you should take heed.

8. 

   Anon E. Moose on December 28, 2009 at 3:14 pm

   You’re six weeks past accepted offer and still d*cking around with the seller’s attorney? Cut bait. Too many fish in the sea. Make sure the seller knows why. Or give them 36 hours to present an acceptable contact to be signed with your deal points. Nothing focuses the mind like a deadline. If you like it, sign it — if you don’t, move along. Ask the seller how they’re going to like being back on the market after the tax credit expires with mortgage rates going north.

9. 

   Blog Ojevich on December 31, 2009 at 3:22 pm

   Happy New Year…hope there’s as sold sign soon.