realtors can be valuable as an advisor and writing up your offers, but ya they are grossly overpaid.
All state dependent on the laws. Where I’m at my realtor was required to give me a list of 5 to choose from and wasn’t allowed to sway my decision.
Was a good friend of mine so he winked and nodded towards the guy who would do a thorough job.
I think a good buyers agent is worth the 3% if I had to pay it.
Like yeah there’s a lot of easy shit agents do but having a good one you know/trust will make buying a house completely stress free.
“good” is doing a lot of heavy-lifting there. Most of them are trash and if they happen to miss something you have nearly no recourse.
edit: also what XLB said
Another good article
Yes, the only way I could move and maintain my standard of living would be to keep my house, rent it out and spend that rent on a rental in my new location. There’s all sorts of risks there being a remote landlord but I can’t give up a sub 3% mortgage.
I found an amazing home inspector for my last purchase - the one good thing FaceBook has ever done for me. I’m a sorta handy guy, but he pointed out a ton of stuff that I would have missed (both negative and positive things about the house). Nothing was deal breaking, but I felt like I knew the house much better after he went over it. Totally worth it. Take the time and find someone who isn’t garbage.
I honestly think after a few more years here, I’ll hire him to just come out and go over the house again and see if he notices any problems that I don’t see.
I don’t know if my home inspector was any good, but he was very nice. Our garage used to just be a car port (basically a garage without a door, so open on the front). It looks like people used to hang out there like one would on a patio, as it had a ceiling fan.
The previous owners were just flippers and added a garage door, but not an opener. There was nowhere in the ceiling to plug one in and they didn’t bother trying. The inspector took down the ceiling fan for us and put an electric outlet in its place so we could install a garage door opener. I don’t remember if he asked for payment, but if he did, it wasn’t much.
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That doesn’t sound like any home inspector I’ve ever heard of.
When did he even do this? The inspection happens before you purchase it, so it would seem weird that he’d be making modifications like that.
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He did it after we bought the house. IIRC (and I might not - it was almost 20 years ago), we sort of mentioned off-hand that it was funny that there was a ceiling fan and no garage door opener and he simply told us he could help with that and gave us his number if we wanted him to do the work after we bought the house. I assume we paid him, I just don’t remember.
Guess he did decent job installing the outlet, as it hasn’t given us any problems. The garage door openers, on the other hand…
That’s an interesting side-hustle for a homer inspector.
Step 1: Inspect house
Step 2: Find stuff wrong with house but not bad enough to make the buyer back out
Step 3: Offer to help fix above after purchase
Step 4: $$$
Really gotta thread the needle on step 2.
Stuff like random outlets is peanuts. A lot of inspectors have this model because many buyers have a renovation budget in mind, so the inspection is great paid marketing for their renovation prospects.
I guess that makes sense. I’ve just never encountered a home inspector/general contractor. These days any good contractor has more work than they can handle, so I can’t imagine anyone good trying to dig up leads through home inspections.
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When we were selling our last house, which was built in the 1850s, the inspector found a ton of very legitimate issues and our first buyer walked. A second buyer’s inspector found nothing major. Pretty standard, I think!
The inspector didn’t try to sell us on any repairs. The ceiling fan/garage door opener thing just came up in conversation and he mentioned off-hand that he could install an outlet for us. I feel like he might not have charged anything, just a favor to a young couple buying their first home, but I really don’t remember.
Not sure where this goes, so I’m trying here. tl;dr: Do I tip?
Relatives bought a house recently. HVAC needs repair now, but they had to travel for work, so I came to the house today to be here while two guys do the repair. It’s going to be at least a few hour job, with a lot of that outside (35 degrees). I texted/chatted with the owner a lot the last few days to coordinate this. He’s a great tipper (his livelihood depended on it for a long time) yet the subject of tipping never came up. But I just watched the guys carry a large compressor unit down 4 flights of outdoor stairs to the house and now I’m wondering if I’m supposed to tip them…
I have never heard of tipping a contractor.
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Yeah, either have I. I usually offer something to drink if it’s a fairly strenuous job or even have cold drinks ready to go if I know they’ll be here a while, but I’ve never considered tipping. When we had a room added on to our house (plus other things at the same time) and therefore had the same guys here for a few weeks, I always had waters, Gatorades, and sodas for them.
Thanks - you’ve lowered my panic level.
I’ve definitely told them they’re welcome to come and go as they need, to warm up or use the bathroom, etc., offered tea/coffee, and whatever snacks I have around.
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