the government would be insolvent. these multi trillion dollar deficits only work w/ low interest rates, no?
I’m ok if they stabilize at any x%. I have to believe that housing costs will eventually stabilize in a similar manner to net out affordable housing for some segment of the population. I get that in the short term people can just hang on to houses at existing 3% rates but over long enough periods the average held mortgage rate must approach the current rate, and without that distortion I don’t see how prices remain so high. Like what are they now, 5-10 years salary for most buyers? I bought my first house for around 2 years at 5% (2008). Current prices at current interest rates are just insane.
So yes, on the one hand I was hoping to buy another house next year. But if I could look into my crystal ball and it tells me mortgage rates will jump to 10%+ next year and stay in that range long term I’m not going to rush to buy now, and I won’t even be mad about selling my last house when I did. I’d expect owning a home in that environment is no longer a great investment and content myself with renting.
I closed on a new home about 4 weeks ago, and moved in 2 weeks ago.
On Monday, the wife and I got home from 4 nights away and we smelled gas. Called the gas company, they had someone out within 15 mins. The stove is vintage, I figured a pilot was out, gas guy says Nope.
The previous owners put a gas line in the fireplace, which is visible and I can see sticking out of the hearth. The cap that they put on the line is super old and corroded, and became broken while we were out of the house.
Gas company guy identifies the problem, but he can’t find the shut-off valve for the gas line. It’s not in the crawlspace next to the chimney in the basement, and it’s not anywhere in sight in the living room near the hearth. He tells us that if he can’t find the shut-off in the next 15 mins, he’s going to turn off our gas.
So I call our realtor and ask him to call the seller’s realtor, so she can contact the seller’s and ask them where tf this valve is. She responds directly to our realtor, “oh, they put the shut-off valve under the bricks when they renovated the hearth several years ago. You can’t access the valve without digging up the bricks.”
So…WTF. I checked all of the disclosures that were provided during escrow period, and this information was not shared. Am I high on glue or should this have been shared with us via disclosure? ESPECIALLY because the selling agent knew about it herself?
Do I have any recourse here? Of course I can always call the selling agent and personally ask her WTF, but I’m wondering if I have a shot at getting any $ concession from the sellers to fix this problem even though we’re 1 month post-close.
Btw gas guy found a replacement knob in his truck while I was on the phone and capped/glued it on. Problem temporarily solved.
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(Un)fortunately you don’t have any damages.
LOL realtors as always
It sounds like they did that work without a permit inspection. I would have been worried to stay in the house after the gas leak. Isn’t that something the home inspector should catch?
We also think the inspector should have caught it, but I don’t know what that could mean for us (probably nothing).
I’m following up w our agent tomorrow to see if he has any suggestions now that he’s (hopefully) gone back through the disclosures and paperwork himself. I’m doubtful.
Lol realtors, as Riverhomie has said.
That sucks Sriracha but i doubt you’ll get anything out of it. Our main sewer drain backed up within the first few days of moving into our house. The people who cleared the line said it was clogged with grout or something similar, they figured the people who renovated it were just dumping the stuff down the drain. We tried to get the seller to cover some of the damages and they basically told us to fuck off.
Houses can really suck especially when the people who owned jt previous cut corners or do really dumb shit.
In CA anyway the seller and the realtor have a duty to disclose anything that would have a material affect on the desirability or value and is not readily apparent.
This may or may not qualify. I don’t know if a shutoff valve is required for a gas fireplace. If it is, that would be a point in favor of it being something they would have had a duty to disclose.
I would not, but if you smelled gas you should definitely air things out. If your nose is working you’ll detect leaks that are well below dangerous, but there are natural gas detectors.
eta: Ok, I looked up the code. It seems that a shutoff valve is not required, but if there is one, it is required to be in the same room as the fireplace, within 6 feet, cannot be concealed - and with pretty much everything code-wise, things have to be installed in accordance with the manufacturers instructions…so if it came with the shutoff valve, the instructions probably said to keep it accessible.
Still, dunno, but I think you have a reasonable case to ask the realtor or the seller to pay if you have another shutoff valve installed.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t go back through it and just tells you that you have no recourse. He already made his money, he’s disincentivized to do anything for you at this point and risk damaging his relationship with the other realtor who stands to help him make money in the future.
Realtors generally care about their reputation and relationship with past clients a lot. The realtors may well work together in the future, but sriracha is much more likely to refer someone.
Sure but, “I re-read everything and I couldn’t find anything that could apply here, unfortunately I think this is just a bad break, but perhaps you should follow up with the inspector,” is probably not going to do the realtor any harm whether he’s lying or not.
It might, but it might not and a couple few hundred dollars to install a shutoff valve is cheap. It’s a great opportunity for the sriracha’s realtor to just say “don’t worry, I’ll take care of it” and have someone who will refer them new people every chance he gets forever. A referral like that is worth at least thousands of dollars.
And nobody wants a bad Yelp.
eta: And they might be obligated to fix it. Complain enough and you’re likely to get what you want. But, I’m not suggesting this course of action. I’m just suggesting that it’s possible.
Realtors are morons this kind of thing needs a lawyer
Thanks Micro, I’m going to cite you tomorrow when I talk with my realtor. Appreciate you for looking that up.
The feigning of empathy by my realtor take is realistic, for sure, but perhaps the sweet summer child in me believes that he’ll make the effort for us.
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Your realtor probably is trying to help you. Don’t expect realtors to know a lot of legal or technical stuff, but just to be commission sales people. They are good at leaving real customers liking them and good at telling tire kickers to fuck off. (well, good ones are good at that…most realtors are not good at it and aren’t good at making money at all)
Lawyers are morons, but the real problem with this post is: how much do you think a new shutoff valve is going to cost? How much do you think a lawyer is going to cost? Shit, unless there’s something very difficult here, it’d be better to fix it himself than to just go to the trouble of finding and hiring a lawyer.
eta: I was a real estate broker for several years, mostly because I flipped some properties, but I did work briefly in a RE office - and with realtors all the time when I was an appraiser.
eta: 9 out of 10 realtors are very nice and conscientious people. Unfortunately the 10th makes most of the money.
American business in a nutshell!
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Also, I could see this kind of thing costing like $700 if anything significant has to be done to the bricks or infinity dollars if you just call a general contractor or something silly like that. But also also apparently everyone has raised their rates through the roof in the last few years, so shrug. And I’m just imagining all this…as no pics or anything.
Right, and weren’t we getting a bunch of stories in recent years about the increase in all-cash buys from rich people and corporations? I can’t imagine interest rates matter that much if they’re about to buy things up in cash. It’s just going to further price out anyone that isn’t already rich, but they were more or less priced out anyways so demand may not change that much.
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My first house was a variable rate which got over 8 at one point. This was the 1990’s in the UK.
Yes, although someone posted a graph recently in one of these threads that made it sound like real estate investors may be close to dumping their investments because of risk free rates converging with their returns. I don’t know if that’s accurate but I do believe the draw to home ownership for normal people (certainly for myself) is the fact that you can get hugely leveraged and it’s not only an investment but a place where you can live. The idea that anyone would want to buy illiquid assets as a pure investment without any leverage seems insane in any rate environment but I don’t know how the favorable tax status and lack of returns anywhere else plays into it. Maybe @spidercrab has some smarter insight.