Listing House Advice

[whiskeytails]

Our current house is in a LCOL area, we purchased it in 2008 and used the first-time homebuyer’s credit. We are SO ready to move out of our neighborhood and closer to my work and into what we hope to be a forever home (haven’t started look yet—trying to get the house listed).



The realtor did some comps and sadly, we are underwater on the house. By the end of it, we will probably owe $10k for all of the fees and outstanding mortgage. Fine, we can afford that.



We had an inspection last night, as recommended by our realtor. The roof is in bad shape, but no leaking into the attic. It should be replaced soon.



We were supposed to sign listing documents this Friday and get pictures done. The realtor says we should get an estimate on the roof before we officially list. I REALLY wanted to get the listing stuff done with, as my schedule at work is going to be far less flexible the closer we get to the end of the year.
Plus, the holidays are getting so close (same with snow on the ground). I doubt we will be able to fix the roof until Spring and I want to be gone by then.


WWYD?

[lmdbww]

We listed our house this time of year a few years ago and it was really tough.... We had consistent showings through mid-december and even tho we had monthly open houses, showings dropped off until end of winter. Thankfully we had an accepted offer in March. In the end I wish we would have waited to list until around February, but, that's ok.

As far as your roof I would not repair it and work that cost into the price instead (we had to do this with our driveway at our previous house, just dropped the price a few thou). Not sure if that's workable for you, but there's no way i'd pay to replace a new roof in a house I wouldn't be living in. lol

[whiskeytails]

That's what I am leaning towards, but I don't understand why the Realtor would want to wait until an estimate comes in? Couldn't we list it and then negotiate when someone is interested?

I'm especially suspicious because the person she wants an estimate done from is the husband of the owner of the Realtor team.

[r]

I think you should wait until there is an offer as well. You never know you might get away without having to replace it at all depending on your buyer and their desperation for your home.

I listed my former house this time last year. It had a lot of showings ( some second and third) but no offers until February when an out of town couple jumped on it like it was such a steal ( it wasn't lol). We lived in a LCOL area and bought our 100 year old house in 2006 at top of bubble.We luckily sold it for exactly what we paid for it -which only covered the closing cost .. no profit for us. I looked at our market recently and they could have bought a comparable home for half the amount they bought ours. We were so lucky. I hope your sale goes good for you and you get that buyer that has to have your house.

[lmdbww]

You can absolutely list and then negotiate later.

I had a really terrible experience w/people that our first realtor recommended, I will never take a realtor rec again.

[whiskeytails]

Well, I found out that they include the housing inspection on the listing -- so that is why they want more information done.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Are you under contract with this realtor? If not, I'd find another realtor. Something seems fishy about this one. WTH would they want the seller to get an inspection? And insist that you get an estimate for the roof? AND put the inspection results on the listing? That whole thing isn't at all consistent with what I've experienced with realtors. At ALL.

[lmdbww]

Nov 5, 2014 14:16:16 GMT -5 whiskeytails said:

Well, I found out that they include the housing inspection on the listing -- so that is why they want more information done.

Is the owner's husband an inspector or contractor?

Do you also submit a Homeowners Disclosure statement w/your listing?

[lmdbww]

Nov 5, 2014 14:38:16 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Are you under contract with this realtor? If not, I'd find another realtor. Something seems fishy about this one. WTH would they want the seller to get an inspection? And insist that you get an estimate for the roof? AND put the inspection results on the listing? That whole thing isn't at all consistent with what I've experienced with realtors. At ALL.

That's sort of my feeling also.... But I wondered if it was a "state laws vary" thingie...

[whiskeytails]

We have not signed ANYTHING yet with the Realtor. The inspector thing was to get the house "pre-certified/warranty" which is common for this area. They include the inspector report with the listing to encourage buyers to choose this house -- over another that doesn't have a warranty.

The roofer is providing a free estimate and yes, they are the husband of the owner of this realty team. haha.

I'm going to see how this estimate thing goes on Friday and how it all pans out.. Ugh, this whole thing makes me want to vomit.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Yeah ... we included a warranty with our OH house. It did not require an inspection. I maintain that something is fishy here.

[whiskeytails]

It might be something with the "pre-certification".. but good to know about the home warranty.

I wish I had a friend who was a realtor so I didn't feel so bamboozled.

[lmdbww]

Nov 5, 2014 16:58:57 GMT -5 whiskeytails said:

I wish I had a friend who was a realtor so I didn't feel so bamboozled.

Gah, I know how you feel. Both of our realtors now were friends of DH's family, and we had huge issues with both of them. The first one lied and did shady stuff, and the second one was honest but didn't work hard enough for us (we pretty much did all of the legwork in finding properties and things like that). Towards the end though when it came time to get stuff together for closing she really rose to the occasion (prob because it was payday lol).

[msmerymac]

Yeah, home warranties don't require inspection. We got one offered to us when we bought out house, and our inspection turned up like 29 things, lol. (94 year old house.)

The less you know has to be done, the more you do NOT have to disclose. As a buyer, our realtor recommended we not even get a lead paint test because when we go to sell the house, it's something we would have to disclose to the next buyer, and on and on. There's a difference between knowing the roof is worn and knowing you have knob and tube wiring, though.

As for the roof, if it's obviously warn, you can either lower the price to compensate, offer cash back at closing towards the purchase, or just let a buyer come to you with an offer for what they think is fair.

[Deleted]

Get a new realtor. Don't fix your roof until you get an offer and they demand you fix it or ask for money off the sales price. I will say though, that since we're going into the holiday season, your listing may be sitting for a while and it may be better to list after the holidays. The longer it sits on the market, the more likely a buyer will want to negotiate a lower price. GL.

[cjeanette]

Get a new realtor.

The roof issue is hard though. I know here the house would sit if it had a major issue like that in the starter home range. There are too many options in that market.

[sjh722]

A lot of inspectors push the "pre-inspection" as a selling point. It's not totally unheard of.

However, if you put out a bid with how much a roof replacement is going to cost, buyers are going to either a. want that amount + a little extra off the price of the house or b. ask you to replace the roof.

When it comes to big issues like that, you are better off 99% of the time not trying to out-guess buyers, inspectors, or appraisers, and seeing what the buyers ask for and working from there. You know it may be a possibility, be prepared for it, but don't give away a free roof if you don't have to. (I mean, obviously, don't lie about the age or condition of the roof on the disclosure, but there's nothing that says you have to provide a bid.)

I may shop around before you list.

[whiskeytails]

Thanks again for all of your advice. I ended up reaching out on Facebook and found a couple of rep's from people who've actually sold their house in my area. We went with a new realtor who has lower fees and a veterans program--we will get some closing fees back! Yay!

So we officially listed on Friday and the sign was put in the front yard today. Two weeks later than I hoped it would all happen..oh well.