Real Estate Question: Earnest Money

[onesweetworld]

20K
Toronto, ON Canada, HCOL and highly competitive housing market.

Earnest money is the same as a deposit, right? To show you are serious about the deal?

[fuckyourcouch]

I've seen some amazing stuff with rooftop decks and such west of 25, Sloan lake area if that interests you.

Can I ask why you're buying again if you're moving overseas?

[panicfoot]

Our first house four years ago was $1k, which was about .5%. Our new house is in a higher demand area and was $2500, which was a little less than 1%.

[fuckyourcouch]

Jan 5, 2016 11:57:20 GMT -5 isabel said:

Jan 5, 2016 11:24:10 GMT -5 amberlyrose said:

Can I join your pity party? 
I'm totally prepared to walk away from this, but I'm still sad. 

Please do. Let's drown our sorrows in wine.

Out of curiosity, where were you looking? We were looking in Parker. Fucking Parker for over $400k. smh.

Some friends of ours just sold their really shitty house that doesn't even have ac or working heat in parker for 310k. Like, really shitty house. It's insane.

[isabel]

Jan 5, 2016 15:58:02 GMT -5 fuckyourcouch said:

Jan 5, 2016 11:57:20 GMT -5 isabel said:

Please do. Let's drown our sorrows in wine.

Out of curiosity, where were you looking? We were looking in Parker. Fucking Parker for over $400k. smh.

Some friends of ours just sold their really shitty house that doesn't even have ac or working heat in parker for 310k. Like, really shitty house. It's insane.

Thanks for twisting the knife. Jk. But yes, it's insanity. I want to cry thinking about going through this house hunt again.

[fuckyourcouch]

Jan 5, 2016 16:02:43 GMT -5 isabel said:

Jan 5, 2016 15:58:02 GMT -5 fuckyourcouch said:

Some friends of ours just sold their really shitty house that doesn't even have ac or working heat in parker for 310k. Like, really shitty house. It's insane.

Thanks for twisting the knife. Jk. But yes, it's insanity. I want to cry thinking about going through this house hunt again.

I'm right there with you. Just counting down the days until we can move but dreading it at the same time. I fucking hate moving.

[ssmjlm]

OP-you may not be able to bring in a realtor if you're already in negotiations, FYI.

We are in the middle of a custom build, earnest money was $15k that will be used as part of his last draw from our construction loan.

[my3boyz]

In my area resale is normally about 1%. Builders will typically want 5-10k. They'll sometimes take it in stages though. But it also doesn't take a year to build a house. Non-custom houses under 1M typically are done 4-6 mos after the contract is written.

[shell403b]

2%.

[Deleted]

We recently bought a new construction but it was an inventory home, not a new build. They asked us for 25k but we negotiated down to 15k for the earnest money upon execution of the sales contract. I don't think you can bring in a realtor now since you already have a contract with pricing and didn't have one before. The builder will balk at paying the realtor's commission at this point. If you do end up walking away, I would definitely get a realtor. They can help you negotiate incentives like an upgrade allowance. We got closing costs, owner's title policy and an allowance for window treatments (worth about 16k total). hot area in MCOL (N. Dallas suburbs)