So Angry!

We put an offer for a small one-family house in Queens for 420k that's attached on both sides, but it's cute and needs a little work with cosmetic things.

The inspector found that the water heater needs to be replaced because it's broken, there's a pump that needs to be replaced to the furnace and that there's illegal drain to the sewer (the way it's set up is not right). This I am not happy with. We know there are a few things that might need to be fixed if we're there for a long period of time because this house is from the 40s.

Well the seller has the nerve to say if he fixes it, we will have to pay full price at 429k. It's not 9k worth of work! If we buy it for 420, we have to pay for it ourselves.

I am just so angry because there's other factors that we'll have to deal with, but I'm okay with that. But the fact that he refuses to do it unless we pay full price is ridiculous. I was able to look it up. He bought the house at almost 100k less a year and a half ago, and it was probably in better condition when he bought it. The realtor said he never got an inspection when he did it, so he probably realized all these problems and realized it's better for him to just sell the house.

It makes me even more mad because the realtor said he will not lower the price because that will cut his commission, and that he's good enough for losing commission on 420 instead of 429. First of all, it's not a given that a person gets their asking price, so that's not 'losing comission'. Second of all, I am not even using my own realtor. He's getting all of 6% of that commission. Did I mention he wanted me to fax him my credit report? He's not the bank!

Sorry just had to vent!

Awww, hang in there. I hope everything works out for you. Some people are just real a$$hole$ and greedy. Are you still going to buy this house?

---

Posted by violet

Well the seller has the nerve to say if he fixes it, we will have to pay full price at 429k. It's not 9k worth of work! If we buy it for 420, we have to pay for it ourselves.

But the fact that he refuses to do it unless we pay full price is ridiculous.

---

It definitely isn't ridiculous. If its not 9k worth of work... why don't you just fix it yourself? Problem solved.

Why should he fix something for you and only charge you his cost? Isn't his time worth anything?

You are asking him to do all the hard work in getting this fixed for you. Yes some sellers are willing to be nice and do these types of things at cost. But its certainly not manditory.


If you don't like his terms... on HIS house... better look elsewhere.

Well, I think something like a water heater is something that should be in working order. These are small things when you consider that we will have to rewire the house within five years, and the boiler is in just fair condition. This house is going to need a lot of maintenance because it's really old. Not to mention there is evidence of termites, but not present termites, but the inspector suggested the seller make sure it's taken care of.

The guy is a crook. The inspector needed to test the heater, and the realtor said the thermostat wasn't working. And I said, it's broken? And he said, no, it needs batteries. I said I would find some because it makes sense to get it checked today, and wouldn't you know when we got it to working, we discovered the leak.

The point is this isn't everything that needs to be fixed. These are things that need to be fixed as soon as we move in, and there will be other things for us to fix within a few years, and that's fine with us.

I understand sellers aren't obligated to do repairs, but 429k is overpriced. This jerk is trying to make 100k off the house when he never even tried to fix up the house at all and actually probably put it in worse condition. It's a small house, but I think it's good for us as a starter house.

credit report? that would make me walk right then and there...

our house has a water heater that could go at any time but it is part of 'natural wear and tear' and we were told should be factored into an offering price (our inspector told us it would be700-1000 to replace). anything classified as 'illegal' would make me leary but i'm sure we have some of that and don't even know it!

with any repairs i am of the camp that i would rather take care of it myself than allow someone else who doesn't have a vested interest, fix it. i wouldn't trust such a person to do a good job given the attitude and the fact that it wasn't taken care of in the first place.

we have tons of issues to contend with (decided to take the gamble with a similar situation to yours) so i feel your pain!

Then you just solved your own problem with what you said.... find another house.

Yeah I guess I'll have to decide for myself. I saw the inspection report, and well, overall, it sounds like the house might have lots of problems in the next 5 or 10 years, and it might not be worth it.

Our attorneys still need to talk, so who knows what can happen. Honestly I'm very desperate for a house but not that desperate.

---

Posted by violet

Yeah I guess I'll have to decide for myself.

---

With everything you just said after my post... you are actually still considering this house?


Cooked seller... corrupt RE... old house... falling apart... overpriced... sounds like a no-brainer to me.

It's not falling apart, it's that many things might have to be replaced or repaired over time. Luckily, my husband can fix some things himself and knows people who are electricians, etc. They don't know that though. Even if they are crooked, once I have the house, I never have to deal with them again.

I will just see if the attorney talks any sense into the lawyer because my attorney said she really needs to talk to the attorney. If they do not agree to knock off the price or do any of the repairs, we will just look elsewhere.

---

Posted by violet

It's not falling apart, it's that many things might have to be replaced or repaired over time. Luckily, my husband can fix some things himself and knows people who are electricians, etc. They don't know that though. Even if they are crooked, once I have the house, I never have to deal with them again.

I will just see if the attorney talks any sense into the lawyer because my attorney said she really needs to talk to the attorney. If they do not agree to knock off the price or do any of the repairs, we will just look elsewhere.

---

Thats fine... but remember the golden rule...

desperation = bad business decisions

That would tick me off!!!! When we made an offer on our house, we intentionally didn't haggle TOO much over the price, thinking we would save that for later if any major issues came up during the inspection. After the inspection, we discovered some minor issues (the house is about 60 years old), so then we talked to the seller and told him, look, we didn't haggle too much with you in the beginning, now it's your turn. He fixed a few of the things and he also gave us about $3k in a reduction in price for the house so we could take care of the other things on our own. I wish we would have just demanded more taken off the price because he ended up going el-cheapo on the repairs he promised to do...

IF you buy the house, and that's a big IF (god knows what else he's hiding), don't let him do the repairs. He'll probably do $1k worth of repairs and bring up the cost of the house $9k, making even more of a profit for himself, and suckering you into spending more money that you don't have!