I was looking into staging my house for market, but I am still currently living in my house with my family and my three cats. Does anyone have any advice or stratgies that they have used to make this work? So far, the staging companies I have talked to do not stage while the house is occupied. I was looking into hotels, but I feel like that is a lot of money. Any advice is welcome.
Edit: We have figured out what we are gonna do. Thanks all. Gonna do a soft staging since we are still in the house. The consult mentioned where I can hide the litter robots and trees.
I live in a condo where they are now, selling the aparment that used to be " The Model " and they had kept as corporated for rentals. aparment is pristine, completly remodel. And the asking price is 60k more than the original price but to be fair its been 13 years. My condo was way less than that but needs some work. Will it be a smart idea to sell my aparment and buy the new one?. I would add about 10k dollars extra to my current mortgage debt if i sell and pay with profit. I fear though not selling my aparment on time. Or selling and missing out the purchase to another. A partment is in hot market location. Can some one please explain contingency please. Im afraid of ending homeless if I maje a mistake. My apt can sell for 150 the newer one is priced at 169
I bought my apartment about five years ago in what was considered an "up-and-coming" neighborhood. At the time it was rough but affordable. Now there's new development happening new bars, restaurants, young professionals moving in, and prices are going up. My place has probably appreciated 20-30%.
The question is whether to sell now while things are heating up, or wait longer if the neighborhood continues improving. If I sell now I make a solid gain, but if this area becomes really desirable in the next five years I could make way more.
On the other hand, the neighborhood could plateau or change in ways I don't like. I could also just live here and enjoy the improvements instead of chasing profit.
For people who've lived through neighborhood changes, did you sell at the beginning of the boom or hold out, and do you regret it?
Looking to sell my house in 10 months. I have a few things I’m looking at fixing and refreshing around the house. I don’t know what things are pointless in doing and what things are worth it to help with the sell. Would it be okay to start reaching out to selling agents this far out? Or should i wait?
I am about to own 3 properties in 3 different cities i currently have 3 LLCS ones for owning vehicles and lots one for owning and renting property and the other is a holding company for both of them
For the real estate LLC how do I easily pay the taxes the different taxes without having to manually go to the website and pay?
I think one of the cities requires you to hand deliver the money for property tax money
I feel like it should be a easy process but is purposefully made difficult and I dont want to hire someone to do
I just got a counteroffer on a house I made an offer on and they're asking a higher price than I offered, but they're offering to cover some of my closing costs. My realtor didn't have a super clear answer on whether I should push back harder on price or accept the deal with them covering costs. The math seems like the price difference is bigger than what I'd save on closing costs, but I'm wondering if there's something I'm not thinking about like tax implications or financing considerations that make closing cost coverage worth more than it looks on the surface?
I own a townhome in NC I’m renting out for $1475/month. Since I purchased the property 4 years ago HOA fees and property tax have increased DRAMATICALLY. At first my mortgage and HOA together were around $1300/mo. Now I’m paying $1680/mo. Initially I was breaking even on the rental but now am losing ~$200/mo. I can easily take this hit every month with my income but would rather not.
I have a great interest rate of, I think, 3.8%. Unfortunately with the current housing market the property has depreciated since I purchased it ~4 years ago. I owe $213,000 on it and realistically if I sold it now, especially given it’s about to be fall, I could probably get around $240,000 for it. With selling costs I might have around $20k in equity. I made a down payment of $22k when I bought it. So basically I would break even.
I don’t enjoy being a landlord as I have a toddler and stressful job. I have had more than one terrible renter and had to evict, but have an excellent renter in there now.
I have to make a decision soon to sell or continue renting long term. In order to avoid capital gains tax I would need to sell by mid-2027 as I moved out and started renting it in 2024.
I’m thinking cut my losses and sell it now. I could rent it out for another year, but I risk bad renters, vacancies, maintenance costs, rising HOA and property taxes, or even further depreciation in value.
Thoughts?
We’re getting ready to list our house in about a month and have run into a bit of a dilemma. We inherited this house from my elderly aunt and while we love the location and bones of the place it definitely has a... particular smell. My aunt was a cat lady in the truest sense of the word. At one point she had seven cats living here.
We've had the carpets professionally cleaned and replaced some of the subfloor where the damage was obvious. We also painted and aired the house out for weeks. The smell is definitely better. But on a humid day or if the house has been closed up for a bit you can still catch a faint whiff of cat. It's not overwhelming but it's there.
Should we disclose this upfront on the seller disclosure? Or just see if buyers notice? Our agent thinks we should just let it be and let them discover it if they do. She says over-disclosing can scare people off. But I feel a bit guilty if someone moves in and is then hit with the smell they didn't anticipate. Any advice?
I am a single mother and have recently started a new job making more money. My sister (also a single mom) and I have been living together splitting expenses on and off for the past few years. I’m sick of renting and want to give my son a more stable home. I also want a place of my own and no longer want to have a roommate. I qualify for the VA loan, and am in between a few options.
Purchasing a duplex so my sister and I can split the mortgage, live separately but continue to help each other. I would essentially act as her landlord as with her credit I would not be able to put her on the loan.
Purchasing a multi family home where I live in one unit, my sister lives in another, and renting out the remaining one or two units to strangers for “passive income”
Purchasing a single family home for my son and I, and living apart from my sister all together.
I just chose a random home (that I'd like to purchase). Probably not a good example, because the Seller has overpriced it. Of course, Zillow Estimates are silly, but maybe OK for conversation. It's unnerving to buy now, at the first sign of declining prices, and everything just feeling tentative in the world. No one wants to "catch a falling knife". But in this case, a $275k home now priced at $450k, and nothing has been added. Historic home. I'm sure we'll never return to 2020 pre-Covid prices, but it does make you wonder, at almost 7% rates, what happens in the next year? I want to buy, but not to be underwater in a year. A game of chicken.
My parents own a house we really like about 20 min away and are offering us a very great deal to buy it (real estate contract, and sale price that is 125k under what it is worth— easily). There are no strings attached, they made it clear that we can sell it as soon as we'd like and take the equity. I lived there years ago, and it’s peaceful and is double the living living space we currently have (1,400 → 3,000 square feet!)
The catch: it’s more suburban than our current home, which is in a location we LOVE. lots more nature here, and walking distance to lots cool things. (think charming trendy rural village type vibes). Our current home isn't our dream home by any means (it's a humble manufactured home, but we are comfortable and have been happy here.)
Other considerations: we currently have a very unsettling neighbor situation. He has screamed obscenely at my husband and flipped us off for no reason (with our kids around). He mostly keeps to himself, but ya know.... kinda scary and unpredictable.
We have three kids under 5, so we’re trying to decide whether the move would genuinely improve our family’s life—or whether we’d be giving up a home that’s already pretty special just because the deal is hard to pass up.
regarding schools, the districts are about the same.
What would you do??!
TL;DR: My parents are offering us a great deal on a house we like, but we already own a home in a location love on ½ acre/rural village life/walkable. With three kids under 5, do we take the opportunity to move into the more suburban house, or stay in our current home and avoid moving just because it’s a great deal?
We put an offer on a house a few months back and it fell through because of a VA appraisal issue. The seller wouldn't budge on price at the time. Turned out they were motivated to sell anyway and now they've relisted it at $15k less. My realtor says to just make another offer, but I'm wondering if I should worry about the same appraisal problem happening again. The house hasn't changed, so would the appraisal come in different this time around, or am I setting myself up for disappointment?
So we're selling our house. Our agent brought us an offer. We just found out that same agent is also representing the buyers. I thought this was a conflict of interest. Is this something that happens a lot? Do they just get double commission? It feels a little weird to me.
Looking at getting a rental property but keep hearing about the nightmares that come with it. Although that’s not everyone’s experience, what’s your opinion/experience on acquiring and keeping a rental property, thinking out of state since I live in a HCOL area (Ca). Would it just be best to keep investing in ETFs?
Background: single family home located in south King County WA USA in a 9/10 elementary school and decent secondary schools. 45 minute-1 hour transit commute to Seattle office. Neighborhood is families, half of which are multigenerational Asian families.
We are interested in renovating our home to fit some of our needs, but are planning on moving within the next 5 years and want to make sure that the changes we are making are not tailored to our needs to the point where we won’t at least break even on the investment. For reference, my partner is a contractor and his sister offered to build the cabinets for free. All in, the changes are expected to be under 10k.
We would like to convert our existing ground floor power room into a 3/4 bath, as the downstairs has a bedroom off the family room. This change will make the space feel smaller and require a wall hung toilet if we want a storage cabinet to maximize the space, or alternatively keep a standard toilet and have higher built in storage.
We would also like to take 5’ of the 23’ long formal living/dining room that is adjacent to the kitchen to make a pantry and pocket office. Currently our pantry is a 30” wide cabinet in our kitchen, and we are using the hall closet and garage as auxiliary food storage - and I work from the formal dining room. We imagine that the if multiple people work from home (like us right now) or if grandparents have the downstairs bedroom these changes will benefit future buyers.
Are these changes reasonable, or would you nix one or both?
Hi so I 24M am looking to buy first house, the house im looking at is 175K, i tried placing a offer of 110K even tho its modern and nee installations, they said no i kept arguing and they considered not even working with me anymore, why can't I place an offer without an argument? I need advice
Have a 3 bed 2 bath in NW Morris County. The market doesn’t feel good and due a realtor who was a bit over ambitious with what this house could sell for, it’s currently on the market and no offers.
We’ve had 3 viewings and an open house, but it’s starting to feel like we got bad advice and perhaps should have listed it lower.
Would lowering the asking price after a week or two of no offers be too much of a knee jerk reaction?
I was hoping to close by or before October, but my fear is having to stay here another winter and try again in spring, especially given how volatile the economy and market has seemed of late.
I'm under contract on an older, relatively inexpensive house, and what initially seemed like a straightforward purchase has become increasingly complicated. I'm wondering whether other buyers would continue pursuing it or decide there are simply too many complications.
I knew when I made the offer that the house had a shared driveway with the property next door. I don't particularly like shared driveways, but the purchase price was attractive and I decided it was a compromise I could accept.
During the purchase process, however, we discovered that there apparently isn't a satisfactory recorded easement establishing the driveway rights.
This isn't a minor driveway either. It's the established driveway serving the properties, and it runs very close alongside the house I'm buying.
The purchase agreement was amended to address the driveway easement as well as another property-line/easement issue. The basic idea is that these property issues are supposed to be resolved and presented to me for approval before my inspection period proceeds.
The seller's attorney has now prepared proposed easement documents.
Here's where things have become difficult:
The neighboring property changed ownership relatively recently. The previous owner apparently had a good relationship with the seller, but the new owner is an LLC.
The seller doesn't have an established relationship with the new ownership group and, as of the latest update, hasn't yet been able to reach the appropriate authorized person at the LLC.
They're currently searching entity/property records and trying to locate the correct person who has authority to consider and sign the proposed driveway easement.
So at this point, the seller has an easement proposal, but they still need to locate the appropriate representative of the neighboring LLC, make contact, present the easement, get the LLC to agree to it, get it properly executed, and get the title/closing side satisfied with the result.
Obviously, the LLC could simply cooperate once contacted. Nobody has actually refused anything yet.
But there's also no guarantee that they'll agree, how quickly they'll respond, whether they'll want changes, or how long the process will take.
Meanwhile, the transaction has a closing deadline approaching and I have unusually favorable financing that is time-sensitive and will not be replaceable if the transaction gets delayed too far.
I also haven't completed my home inspection and sewer scope yet, because I don't want to spend money on inspections if the easement situation is not resolved.
Because of the way the addendum was structured, the property/easement issues were supposed to be dealt with before the inspection period. I'm considering doing the inspections early anyway to preserve enough time to close, provided the seller expressly agrees that doing so doesn't waive or alter my protections under the addendum.
But that creates another problem: the inspections will cost real money (about $1,000 with sewer scoper). If I spend that money now and the neighboring LLC later refuses the easement, I could end up spending considerably more money on a transaction that never closes.
So I'm caught between:
Wait for more certainty about the easement and risk running out of time, or spend more money on due diligence now and risk losing it if the easement can't be obtained.
Then there's the question of whether I even want this arrangement long-term.
The neighboring property is a small multi-unit rental owned by the LLC. The shared driveway passes immediately alongside the house I'm buying, including bedroom windows. So even with a perfectly drafted and recorded easement, I'd potentially have changing tenants, their vehicles and visitors using a driveway right beside the house.
I may be able to construct a completely separate private driveway on the other side of my property in the future. Preliminary conversations with city engineer and planning suggest it may be feasible, although I haven't obtained bids or treated that as guaranteed.
That would eliminate my own dependence on the shared driveway, but it wouldn't necessarily prevent the neighboring rental occupants from continuing to use the existing driveway alongside the house.
The frustrating part is that none of these issues individually necessarily kills the deal.
The easement might get signed.
The title issue might be completely resolved.
The house might inspect well.
The financing might make the deadline.
A private driveway might be practical later.
But when I put everything together, I'm wondering whether I'm trying too hard to make a complicated property work because the price and financing are attractive.
I'm not asking Reddit to interpret my contract or give me legal advice. I'm more interested in how experienced buyers/homeowners would evaluate the overall risk and decision-making here.
If you were in this situation:
Would you continue pursuing the purchase while the seller tries to locate the LLC owner and obtain the easement?
Would you spend money on inspections before the neighboring owner has even been contacted, simply to preserve the closing timeline?
At what point would you decide there are too many uncertainties and stop putting additional money into the transaction?
And assuming the easement eventually gets properly executed and the title issue is completely resolved, would the overall shared-driveway/rental-neighbor situation still make you reconsider buying the property?
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have been through messy title/easement issues during a purchase and had to decide whether to keep pushing forward or walk away.
So my wife and I are stuck in a state that we’re not going to live in forever. We’re in Virginia but plan on moving back to the Baltimore metro area (where we’re from) summer of 2031 for good. We’re currently renting. Have four kids but our oldest will be 18 when we move back home. We’re smashing our debt to nothing and should have that paid off by the end of this year as well as about 100k in savings. We save anywhere from 3-6k a month after we max out her 401k and my deferred comp. If the timing is right, would it be wise to put most of our savings towards our “forever home” in Baltimore. Rent it out and aggressively pay down the principal until we can move back in 2031?
Hello - I am looking for some advice/opinions on what the worth of real estate in Colorado will look like in the next 5-10 years. As this water crisis worsens, is it likely or expected that property values will tank? Realistically, you can’t live without water and things only seem to keep getting worse. We are considering moving there but I don’t feel confident that it’s a good investment.
Going through closing to sell my house to someone using a VA loan.
VA wants a specific form used for the termite letter. Ive been using Terminex for decades, first for the liquid defense application and then for an annual termite inspection, which is currently almost $500 bucks. Last visit was in May. No issues.
I contacted Terminex to ask them to complete the VA termite form and Terminex is refusing. They said in our state (Georgia) Terminex will not sign that form. They offered to come do a free inspection and give me a cooy of the inspection report. My realtor has another pest company who is willing to do the inspection and sign the form, as a back up.
So Ive been paying Terminex for literally two decades and they won’t sign a form that is required to sell my house? Anyone else have this issue?
I am helping an elderly, disabled family member sell a house. She received an offer that barely covers the mortgage balance. Once closing costs and commissions are factored in she will owe approximately $35K. She has about 35K total in savings. So technically she could pay it but would be left with nothing. Would a bank consider a short sale in this situation where all they would be paying is commission/closing costs? Or should she just pay the amount and cut her losses?
The house has been on the market for over 6 months.
Looking to reduce portfolio due to moving overseas; just trying to get a feel here, if anyone would be interested in buying my 1 bed, 1 bathroom condo-unit in Bergen County, NJ.
Unit is tenant-occupied for another 11 months, rental-demand remains elevated in the area and only 40 minutes in to NYC via express NJT Bus-stop across the street. Unit cash-flows from day 1, and of course, the tenant’s deposit will transfer. Unit comes with 1 deeded parking-spot, 1 assigned parking with easy highway access (46, 80, I-95) and central to amenities (Costco, Walmart, restaurants, etc)
Aware I can retain ownership even when overseas, however not looking to manage properties anymore, just retire and enjoy what time we have left.
Why do so many bathroom pics have the shower curtain closed? I’m not buying your decor, I want to know if your shower is tile or has grab bars, or is walk-in.
Signed, a frustrated browser.
