DebtsNMesses's Q&A

'Habitable' is pretty easy for a home to meet. No bare wires, a leaky roof, etc. But it doesn't need to have carpet, it could be cement. It must have running water, working heat source, and kitchen/ba... but inside water leaks are fine. Holes in walls, no closet doors, all that is habitable. Not even sure the sink has to hold water! lolYour agent should have put in an end date. Your agent should also give you as many 'outs' in the contract in case you change your mind. Your agent should get this 'counter offer' in writing, since no real estate contract is legal in the verbal form and all written contracts override verbal ones. Good luck. You may back out of your first few offers until you figure out what's 'normal'. lol :-)

No problem with that as long as the price is reasonable. The IRS might not like it if you're buying it for substantially less --as gifts over $12,500 are taxable. --But has far as I know, she can set the interest rate from 0% to 10% by law.0% interest, great one. Do get it in writing because all real estate contracts must be in writing.

Pay off the highest interest rate first.

My family absolutely considers lot size. Land has value, whereas the house can burn to the ground.  Especially in Calif... if you look at an appraisal the land will have more value than the house. (although in the last 5 or so years I'm not sure that it didn't go wierd) ... but in the last 40 years in socal, it has been true.Plus, choice B has HOA's, which FOREVER are going up. So you're not truely locked into a fixed price.

Your agent should be able to get the info if it was listed on the MLS.

There is no divorce court when buying with a boyfriend, so you, and your baby can be put out on the street at a moment's notice. I personally wouldn't do it w/o a marriage license. Plus, why avoid the commitment? Raising children is hard work and without clear commitment to each other AND THE KIDS, and sometimes ONLY FOR the kids, it's too easy to walk. It's hard work to stay married! Trust me on that one. Some days, even months, even years, we are only there for the kids. On the other hand, other times we are only there for each other, cuz the kids are teens! lol

The seller will try to get the buyer to pay the difference in CASH. The buyer will say (or should say) NO. Price SHOULD eventually be negociated down to the appraisal price. As long as the contract was written up with the correct loan contingency, the buyer can back out of the agreement without spending a dime, since the house didn't appraise high enough for the loan. Buyer holds the power in this position.

roflmao! The banks aren't stupid enough to crash the market prices, so they aren't listing them on the mls, BUT they are for sale on realtytrac.com and banks are selling them. Congrats to Chula Vista Little League! I watched them return on tv last night (KUSI carried it live). They sure did awesome!

"Hard Money" means cash. Congrats!

roflmao! I balked at my first offer accepted, too. So did my brother. It's a normal feeling.You know it's a fair price, by the way you've been shopping for so long. You know the area, the homes, the stats... you bid, you won it. Trust yourself.I guess what you should ask yourself is why are you buying. We bought for stability for our kids, and so that we would stop experiencing rent increases. We do not expect it to have 'equity', we DO expect it to drop further in price. We do not expect interest rates to remain this low forever, so we bought for the fixed payment, with low interest, not for any 'near' future actions on our part.We had to remind ourselves several times why we were buying. Sticker shock is annoying and really causes self-doubt. lol