Home for sale by owner...

[IndyBeerman]

Recommendation for 1st time home buyer: GET AN INSPECTION by a qualified inspector. The inspector can tell you more about the house than a realtor. A realtor can tell you how wonderful everything is, while an inspector can tell you what is wrong. An inspection can come in handy when negotiating final price as well.

+1 on that!

It's just good business sense to get a home inspection, besides I think most home lenders REQUIRE a home inspection in order for the loan process to procede to the table to make sure they don't get stuck with a faulty home if the buyers decides to bail because of a serious issue a inspection would have caught.

You're also right about negotiating the final price, say the roof only has 5 years of life left, you could either have them knock off money, or replace the roof. Lots of things, and that's where a realtor can help you out, besides the tons of paperwork that needs to be done.

You might be able approach a realtor and ask how much they would charge to write up the sales contract and appropriate paper work necessary for a sale, they might jump on this as a chance for cash infusion in a time when sales are down for them and are looking for ways to generate $$$'s.

 

[BE Mike]

There are good real estate agents and bad ones, like in all things. I would use one, but I'd ask around to find a good one. Don't use the agent the home owner recommends. They work for the seller, and might not have your best interests at heart. I would check my credit first and see what I could afford and if I could get a loan. Check to see if there are any homeowner covenants in the area where you are thinking of purchasing. Read them and understand the covenants before buying. Home owner's associations can be hard to deal with, especially if you didn't understand the restrictions going in, and you won't likely have any legal recourse because you didn't know that you couldn't park your car on the street for longer than 8 hours for example. A home inspection is a necessity, but be aware that in most cases, he or she is only liable for the amount you paid for the inspection if something big is overlooked during the inspection. No matter what anyone says, get a survey of the property. You might be surprised just where your property lines are located. Have an attorney's office do the title search and closing. That way if there is a lien on the property that was not disclosed during the closing, you will have recourse. I've learned these lessons over the course of buying homes in three different states.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

Well, everyone, I THANK YOU for your advice and words of wisdom.

The house that wifee and I looked at is a good one, just shy of being "ideal", actually.

But the fact that we're still in our lease until mid-summer and have our down-payment monies wrapped up in a CD kind of preclude us from moving forward on this home...or any other... for a few more months.

We can't afford to both buy a house AND pay off the remainder of our mortgage...not at $850 a month!

Thanks,

-J-