Need some advice… Currently renting for work in one town but planning to move to a city for better living. Unfortunately job is in small town and requires us to stay in small town and cannot commute during work days. Small town doesn’t offer much to do. Distance between small town and city is 1hr 20-30 mins. Planning on buying in a city and renting in small town and living in city during off work. Is this a good idea? Or should I continue to rent in a small town until job obligations here are complete?

Debating whether this is my best way to pivot careers. The research and writing involved in it seems interesting.

Buying a small 1200ft house. It was redone in 2012, so there are some nice touches to it like a metal roof. Few things were doing immediately is a new wooden fence, redoing both bathrooms, adding a small deck off the master bed room, as there’s an awkward little concretes staircase with no railing.

Something’s I want to do, add a home water recycling system, solar panels, and I’ve started hearing about heat pumps recently. Our furnace/AC unit are around 13 years old. Looks like they work well but might have that expense soon.

Anyone have a water recycling system? Are you happy with it and does it add value to the house? What other things can we do to add value?

I was in the market for a house when everyone was. I was always surprised that 2 days after house was put on the market, the sellers were no longer due to having accepted an offer.

My question is why were they so quick to accept an offer? It would make sense to me to leave on the market for 10-15 days to get everyone’s offer and ultimately have more offers to choose from.

In the face of the drastic measures such as deportations, tariffs etc, it's likely than not, the economy will have an impact. I own few rentals with good equity built in last few years. Is it worth to sell a real estate investment at this time? I am noticing rent increase in the areas where I have the rentals so on the fence with this option. But I don't truly understand how the current administration might impact real estate market in next 4 years so a bit worried at the moment. Any thoughts? TIA.

Hello, Recently construction began near my residential property on the highway, and it's to the point that past the treeline and the fence, you can just walk out into a very busy highway. I've heard that people can make $1000+/month from billboards, and with how popular of a highway this is, I'm wondering things. 1: Could I legally license my land for a billboard? 2: What legal prerequisites would I need (Approval from the state FE.) 3: Is there a billboard company In South Carolina who would be interested in my land?

I have 2 recent 30 day+(the most recent is nov) late payments due to my car being totaled. I am currently in the process of selling my current home and am under contract for another currently, I need a mortgage loan for 110k and am able to put down a 20% down payment of 22k, but my bank has denied me because of the late payments. Is there any lenders that would work with me?

Sellers refusing to close on original closing date that they chose. They purchased a house with septic tank (already closed) so they wanted to move the closing date to another week. They gave us a an option that we could close on original closing date but we have to sign a u&o agreement. We refused the u&o agreement coz they might stay longer than a week. We would agree on moving the closing date if they pay half of the extension fee. They might refuse this too.

The sellers have lied to us multiple times. First they chose the closing date so we set the rate lock period according to that closing date. They said that there was a problem with hiring a moving truck but now it's the septic tank. I don't think it will take just 1 week to resolve their issue. They seem to be hiding something from us.

How do I make sure they don't screw us up and we are legally protected? I'm just so worried about this transaction.

How do agents here feel about the buyers agreement? If I don’t like my agent I can just cancel the agreement any time I want. Even if I don’t cancel it and end up buying with a different agent what is the first agent going to do? By the time you take it to court and pay all the legal fees associated with that you’re possibly out more money than your commission IF you win.

Curious about others thoughts on this…

We’re in the process of offering on a house. The seller’s counter offer set their general repair limit incredibly low IMO, sub $1K. The home is older (20+ years) and there’s already some items that we noticed needed fixing as we walked through the home. Agreeing to such a low limit up front seems like we’re just asking for a fight when we get the inspection results and there’s inevitably more items that are recommended to be fixed.

With how expensive qualified tradesman are these days, it’s difficult to get minor fixes accomplished for less than $500. The few items we already noted that needed to be repaired would likely easily consume the amount they set as their limit.

The default limit on the purchasing contract is 1.5% of sales price which in this case would be around $9K.

Is this normal behavior or would you view it as indicative that the seller realizes there’s some repairs that will be noted on the inspection and they just aren’t willing to pay for them?

To be clear, this is not an as-is sale.

Husband got a new job. Puts us in the next tax bracket. We bought our current home 2 years ago at 315,000 at 3.99%. We planned to stay here for 10+ years, but he unexpectedly got a job that would take him from 80,000 to 120,000.

The problem is that the new job is 3 hours away, so we want to buy a home in the new city. We do not want to be landlords of the current home; we want to sell it and be done with it. The current home has about 75,000 in financed loans from solar panels, water filtration, and underground pipe work that needed to be done… which would have been fine, were we still staying here another 10+ years.

Our realtor says he wants to help us sell the home quickly, and is pushing for this offer from a real estate LLC that we haven’t heard of. https://wunderrealestate.com

They’re offering us $330,000, promising to take over the financing on our loans, etc. it sounds good on power, but the company has only existed for 2 years, and I can’t find any reviews from other people who have worked with them. What would be stopping them from declaring bankruptcy, leaving us with the mortgage, and leaving the ownership of the title completely in the air?

When Oklahoma father and business owner David Ortega signed a mortgage with Home Masters LLC 15 years ago, he thought he was buying his home from its rightful owner, and that his monthly payments would pay off the mortgage. He was wrong.

Turns out the owner of Home Masters LLC owed money on a pre-existing mortgage on the house, and no payments have been made on it since March 2024.

"I feel stupid for being bamboozled," Ortega said when interviewed by KFOR-TV Oklahoma City.

Why one homeowner could lose his home despite never missing a mortgage payment

Now the mortgage lender is threatening foreclosure unless the $44,000 balance is paid in full on the spot, something Ortega can’t do. He only learned the truth when he was served with the foreclosure notice.

"I'm just a father, a family man trying to make it," he said. "I never thought that I would be a fraud victim.”

Ortega purchased the home from Home Masters LLC in 2009 for $70,000. He put down 10% of the home's purchase price and has paid $665 a month ever since. All told, he's sunk about $126,000 into the property.

KFOR reached out to the man who’s been collecting Ortega's payments all these years who said he’s working with a bank to resolve the situation and that Ortega has “nothing to worry about.” But he wouldn't provide details, leaving Ortega in limbo.

How to avoid real-estate fraud

Real-estate transactions are a top target for consumer fraud, and the scams take various forms. Some involve fake listings of homes that aren’t really for sale, and would-be buyers pay a deposit to someone who’s not actually the rightful owner of the home.

Wire fraud can take place during the closing process, with a criminal emailing would-be buyers a link for the down payment. CertifID — a company that provides digital ID technology to prevent such fraud — reports that in 2023, almost 25% of US homebuyers received suspicious communications during closing and more than one in 20 became actual fraud victims.

Older Americans are particularly vulnerable. According to the FBI’s Elder Fraud Report, Americans 60 and older lost more than $65 million to real-estate fraud in 2023, making it one of the top 10 costliest frauds affecting that demographic.

There are steps you can take to protect yourself. First, work with a reputable real estate agent whether you're buying or selling a home. Never sign a contract or hand over a deposit on a home without verifying that the owner is who they say they are.

Ask for ID and proof that their name is on the deed. Ortega’s unfortunate situation might have been avoided if he had demanded proof that Home Masters LLC was the legal owner of the property.

Never send any payments without a signed real-estate contract. To avoid wire fraud, always check with your mortgage lender before wiring payments.

Hello,

I am about to rent a duplex in Gladstone, Missouri, which is located in Clay county. I cannot find any of the codes that would detail what classifies a room as a bedroom in this area. The landlord has listed a space as a bedroom, but it has no privacy door, no closet, low ceilings and a door to the outside. I don’t think this is a bedroom. Can anyone help me with finding the requirements in this county? Thank you so much.

Wanting to buy this house, but a little sketched about the condition of the foundation. The house was built in the mid 30s and has some cracks in the foundation. The picture linked was the worst I could see. Some of the basement is finished so I couldn’t tell in those areas. One corner has a little water damage. Most of the house doesn’t have gutters and the land slopes towards the house on all sides. Wondering if fixing the gutters and grading issues would be good enough if this isn’t really bad. Would likely only live there 5-10 years if I bought it

https://imgur.com/a/cj9qLHg

Did not notice any bowing in walls, doors all open fine, no cracks in finished walls on the main floor. Essentially nothing to make it seem like an issue besides this pic and the water in the one corner. No cracks visible on the outside.

Our house is 100 years old, solid brick. We are looking to sell maybe this summer to move closer to our jobs, but we have a basement wall that’s pretty bowed. We purchased this house almost 3 years ago and of course the sellers had drywall up in the basement so we didn’t know it had any issues. We had a structural engineer out who pointed out that you can see where the framing broke when they originally poured the foundation and that’s the cause of the bowing. There is a hairline crack across a portion of the wall that’s hasn’t changed in two years. He told us we can just watch the crack to see if it changes, if it does then put some steel reinforcement in (I forget exactly what product he said.)I was going to have another structural engineer out to give us another opinion on the situation in the coming months. We have no other red flags, we don’t have a single cracked brick outside, no door or window issues, no cracks in our plaster walls. However, I know when a buyer sees that wall, they aren’t going to want the house. What do we do in this situation?

In a VHCOL area, it is a modest 1400 sqrt SFH and nothing luxurious.

We currently rent a condo. Our dog is senior and we really want to buy a house so he does not have to cramp in the condo and can enjoy backyard.

HHI base is 340k and additional annual cash bonus is between 100k to 500k, depending on the year. After all the deduction, the net take home pay of the base is 17k.

We plan to put down 600k so the monthly payment is around 7k. We still have 400k cash left after purchasing the house.

Because of RTO, my wife has to rent an apartment in another VHCOL and live there from time to time. We pay $2k a month.

9k monthly commitment is a bit scary to me. But if my wife loses her job, the 2k would go away too. We don’t have kids.

I wonder if we should buy this house. We are fine living in the condo but watching the dog in the little space makes us feel guilty.

Thanks!

The short version: My father-in-law has two loans that use his home as collateral, and one is in foreclosure. I'm looking for some more info about the process so I can have a better idea what's going on when I call the bank with him on Monday. We're in Oregon.

The loan that's foreclosing shows up on his credit karma as about 3k, but I think the amount owed is actually around 28k. He did not open any of the mail sent to him by the bank over the last year, and he hasn't made a payment since Oct 2023.

When we first heard from another family member that there may be a problem with the house, I looked up the property on the county tax assessor's website. It shows the owner as the bank, as of the end of December. I wasn't able to find anything on a foreclosure sale date for the property. I'm taking my lunch break on Monday to go over and call the bank with him to get more information.

He has a mortgage on the property as well, which he also has not paid since Nov 2023. The only letter he could find from the mortgage company was a notice that his mortgage was being sold and his new servicer is Mr Cooper. I don't see anything on his credit report suggesting that the mortgage is in foreclosure, but I'm not sure if that's just because there was already a foreclosure in process? The transfer is effective next week, so it's going to be a few more days before we can get any info from them either, or see what options there are.

The house is worth about 300k, his mortgage was at 135k before he stopped paying it

. My question is - where in the foreclosure process is he? Is him selling still an option? Will the bank consider a reverse mortgage? Does the bank actually own the house (as in it's no longer in foreclosure), or is the change in ownership with the county just part of the foreclosure sale process?

The owner being listed as the bank on the county site has me concerned that we're past the point where he can get the house back from the bank. I know that any proceeds from the sale beyond the amount owed to the bank and the selling fees will go to him, but as foreclosure sales don't tend to get full market value, I'm not sure that will be enough to cover the mortgage as well, and he'll be out a place to live. The local rental situation is not great, and covering first-last-deposit is an issue. If he's able to sell, the proceeds should cover the debt and get him enough to move into an apartment. If he can't, there's no way he could pay rent and make payments on that mortgage.

I've been doing a lot of reading on foreclosure and bankruptcy the last couple days trying to figure out what options he has. There's only one lawyer in this area who lists bankruptcy as a service they handle, but they have terrible reviews. I can call around to see if any of the others would handle actually filing a bankruptcy if that's the way he ends up going, but none of them specialize in it.

I know that we'll find out a lot more on Monday, but it's going to be a very long weekend here worrying about it.

1st time home owner not sure if this is the best place to ask this

I've been in my home for a little over a year now. And I've realized that the pipes underground, which are encased in concrete, are actually iron pipes. In the original listing, it stated that all pipes were brand new. Everything that is above ground was PVC so I had no clue.

Currently, have some issues where water is backing up in different places of the house, and we can only use two out of three bathrooms. ( We've had several plumbers come by to snake the drains, nothing works)

I know I'm probably gonna have to get the pipes replaced, but that's going to involve them having to dig through the concrete and my home basically being unlivable for a while.

Is there any sort of insurance I need to make sure I have or has anyone gone through this? Any suggestions of how I should handle this?

Please, I don't want to hear that the inspector should have seen it. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and I'm stuck here.

How can a deal be worked where the buyer and seller split cost of solar panels loan at close? The amount is 40k. Also, how could this work if the buyer had to do 100%? The buyer does not want to assume the loan but instead payoff entire loan amount. Thanks in advance.

Hello all. I want to gather information for a deed transfer in Philadelphia. A bit of a back stock - back in 2022 the home went from a transfer of title from my parents to my name. My parents are seniors and didn’t know any better - more on that later.

I got a real estate lawyer involved and it took him forever to transfer. Regardless, it was transferred to my name. Being that they are seniors, we were not aware of the senior household tax freeze. They were homeowners of that home since 1996.

Long story short, they would prefer putting the deed back on their name and applying for a freeze. Would there be any pre-requisites for having been the owners of the home under the deed before requesting one?

Thanks in advance!

There is a house I want to buy that was just listed for rent. From my research it’s a regular person who bought in 2022 with a not great interest rate. They are now looking to rent it at, according to my calculations, a pretty break even amount. I do not want to rent it. Obviously being willing to pay whatever asking price is going to be the big thing. But what else could motivate someone in this position to want to sell to me vs rent it out?

If listing agent lets us in, and we sign a showing property form,not a buyers form (disclaimer: we have an agent selling our home, but not signed w her to buy) , will our listing agent be able to see the other agent let us in the property he is listing??

My agent isn’t the most experienced so I’ve been doing my own research on what’s important when it comes to making an offer.

Anyways, we have an opportunity to put an offer on a house that with the list price of 585k. I found this house through a pocket listing and it seems like the sellers agent doesn’t want to list it and therefore I feel like it could be ours if we make the right offer. (Is this a red flag?)

The only catch is … they have financed solar panels with around 45k remaining. I’m assuming this is a loan not a lease.

I don’t mind having the solar panels… I just DO NOT want to take on a loan. What is a good offer?

Take 45 off the list price and then pay off the loan right away? Or offer full list price (or above) and ask them to pay off the loan?

At what point is it a win win for the bank. If I have a credit score of 500 and don't make that much but put down 90% wouldn't that be a win win. What percentage do you think is that point?

Hi all. I have a 16-acre property in NC that I have less than 20% equity in (closer to I think 12%). I'm planning to sell and buy a home in NY. I'm looking into doing a bridge loan because I have livestock, which would make it extremely difficult to sell my current house and buy a new house simultaneously. I will most likely need some time to build fencing at the new property before moving my animals up there.

I'm having trouble finding places that offer bridge loans in general, but especially ones that will do it for an "excessive acreage" (10+ acres) property like mine as well as the low equity. DTI would be fine and I have very good credit, so at least we're set on that front.

Does anyone have leads or advice for me? I'm set on buying the new property ahead of selling my current one however possible (rather than doing rent back, etc.), but I'm feeling pretty stuck. Thank you so much!

We have been renting a townhome last 5+ years. We plan to renovate (demo and rebuild) our SFH(primary) home and construction might start in next 6 to 8 months. Our current rental lease is due for renewal next month. We have renters who are willing only to sign 1 yr lease. We hoped to move back to our rental property during renovation. Not knowing the exact timeline for construction vs high rent rates vs needing a garage/storage space during renovation - what will have minimal tax implication

1. Continue renting out townhome, when renovation begins, rent a different place.
2. Move back to townhome during renovation.
3. Sell the rental property and do 1013 exchange.

Would you be eligible for any tax benefits on primary home due to renovation, in the above 2 scenarios?

I just started studying for the real estate exam. Is the Mosley course ( not Mosley flint) a good option to prepare for the exam in Virginia? I’m taking the on-demand course and have no experience in this field. Can you give me some tips to help with studying, navigating this course, and passing the exam?

I'm wondering if anyone has recent updates on the land they purchased from Discount Lots. We bought a .6 acre lot in NW Alabama and have been making payments since July. I read through the contract and it says I have the rights to the land and when the purchase amount is paid in full, I will then receive the deed. We plan on building there and want to pay it off now. While talking with a friend who purchased their land doing owner financing, she asked me if the deed was filed with the county and a mortgage attached with my name. She is concerned thay I bought a tax certificate. She then read my contract and found the disclaimer about how they purchase the land and it has a line about tax sale, short sale and one other thing. She thinks that we were scammed at the end I will own nothing but the certificate. However I looked into the tax history and they are not delinquent. She said in order to buy tax certificates they have to be 1 year delinquent. I was skeptical at first but when I read through the contract and saw that I would have the property deed in the end, I thought it was legit. If anyone knows anything about this please help. Thanks

Our daughter and SIL are looking at a residential property on five acres in Louisiana. The property has a long driveway that splits one way to go to “their” house and splits the other way to the neighbor’s house. There is an easement from the 1970s, giving the neighbor’s use of the driveway which is on the other property. Has anyone had any experience with a shared driveway? Would you have any concerns about this? They are going to have an attorney review the easement, but it appears to say that the neighbor’s are responsible for the maintenance of the driveway. What would be the recourse if they don’t? Thanks in advance for your insights.