Buying a house is so frustrating!

[Brian Elfert]

My wanting an outbuilding for my motorhome is no different than folks here wanting an extra garage to make into a wood shop. It is just that it is a lot easier to find an house with an extra garage than a house with a large outbuilding.

I really have no problem with buying a house with the proper zoning and building an outbuilding in maybe five years, but an existing outbuilding would be cheaper and possible to finance.

[Doug W Swanson]

Here you go:

http:// minneapolis. craigslist.org/dak/zip/4462280188.html

Just pay a contractor to remove the pole barn for you!

[Brian Elfert]

The bad part is I don't have the money right now to pay a contractor to remove a building. Transport some 50 miles would not be cheap with 40 foot trusses. Without a house bought yet I don't even know if I could erect a pole building. The main city I am looking in requires 5+ acres for a pole building. Only one house I am interested in has a 5+ acre lot, but the house requires major renovation though it is liveable. Paying a little more would get me a house that doesn't require major renovations, but it wouldn't have 5+ acres either.

[Jim Matthews]

Not an ideal solution, but it should work...

http://www.teksupply.com/contractor/...buildings.html

Good luck in your search.

[Brian Elfert]

The problem I'm still running into is all the houses that are inexpensive and good are selling in just a few days. Two houses I was very interested in sold in less than a week. I'm sitting on the sidelines on looking for a house until next week as I have to finish moving out of my house by Sunday evening. I'm considering canceling my Memorial week trip so I can be in town in case any good houses come up for sale. I probably spend too much time researching a house which means I might miss out. I probably wouldn't buy any house without at least getting the building file from the city. The building file has any permits, surveys, and septic information the city has on a property.

I've got an automated search going that emails me when any new listings show up in the county I am shopping in. I have also asked my agent to look for pre MLS listings that might work for me. My agent works for a company that has 60% of the market locally so they have access to a lot of listings before they even go public.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Here it's a lot easier, once an offer has been accepted by the seller no more offers can be made (it's a criminal offence) mostly due to estate agents trying to artificially bump prices a few years back.

cheers

Dave

[Rod Sheridan]

Holy cow!

Average house price where I live for a standard sort of house is just shy of a million.

Now, That's Canadian so it's really only $1.97 US.......LOL.

Wish I could get a house with land and an outbuilding for a few hundred thousand...............Rod.

[Mike Lassiter]

Looks to me once you have accepted a offer you HAVE legally agreed to sell at the accepted price. So anyone later accepting another higher offer should face breech of contract as the property sale is pending not still for sale.

[Brian Elfert]

My understanding is if you accept an offer with contingencies you can still take another offer if you wish. Once the contingencies are satisfied you really can't take another offer. In some cases a buyer won't include any contingencies, but buyers will usually want at least an inspection contingency. Buyers will typically want the inspection done fairly quickly so the contingency can be lifted.

In some cases with a hot house the seller won't accept any offer until they get a chance to consider all offers. Some houses locally have sold in under 48 hours with multiple offers for over asking price.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I probably spend too much time researching a house which means I might miss out. I probably wouldn't buy any house without at least getting the building file from the city. The building file has any permits, surveys, and septic information the city has on a property.

I've got an automated search going that emails me when any new listings show up in the county I am shopping in. I have also asked my agent to look for pre MLS listings that might work for me. My agent works for a company that has 60% of the market locally so they have access to a lot of listings before they even go public.

Nothing wrong with researching the property first. We seriously looked at 3 homes that thankfully we did some digging into before we submitted an offer. We seriously dodged the bullet on one home bought by a contractor to flip. The cliff notes: 2 stop work orders on home & shop; no permits, no inspections, not-to-code; meth inside house & shop; land behind house red-flagged for chemical contamination; 2-party well supplying 3 homes with no water tests over 10 years instead of mandatory every 6 months; meth-head neighbor controlling water supply; weekly police incidents; plus several other issues. When our agent told them we were not going to offer on the house, the contractor wanted to know why since it was "a superb house." When our agent listed all the facts & issues we uncovered thru the County & State, his response was "That's personal opinion."

One thing we have not tried yet ... this was suggested by an old friend of ours who lives in another state and works in a law firm. She said every week she receives calls from people who are looking for homes that may be part of an estate or involved in estate planning. Many of these homes change hands and never go on the market.

When it comes to offers, if the home is a Short Sale, offers can be accepted up until it closes. We had been "locked in" to a Short Sale for over a year. We weren't thrilled with the house but loved the land, shop & stable. After being locked in for a year, an offer came in for $1500 over our price. We had to outbid them to be locked in again. Two months after that we were told things were finally moving along and should close soon. Then a week later, yet another offer came in much higher and we walked away. The house then went into foreclosure.

We have also heard from agents that as many as a dozen or more offers have been submitted on some homes within the first 2 days. A 10-acre listing came on the market within walking distance from us. We were the first to look at it with our agent and while the 1954 home was in excellent condition and reasonably priced, it didn't feel right for our needs. We continued to walk around and admire how spotless the elderly couple had kept the house. A couple & agent came in, started to walk around and then whispered to the agent and they raced out. Our agent laughed and said he bets they are going to submit an offer. The listing agent is in the office next to his so he would know when he returns. Yup. He was right. The couple had already submitted their offer and another offer came from someone in another city who didn't even look at it yet!

[Brian Elfert]

I wouldn't buy a house after just a few minutes looking at it, and I certainly wouldn't buy a house sight unseen. Someone buying sight unseen might be an investor who might not care as much about the condition of the house.

There was an article in the paper about a couple who sold their house in just two days and who are moving into an apartment with a three month lease because they haven't been able to find the perfect next house yet. I'm staying with my parents until I can find a house. I didn't want to be rushed to find another house before mine closed. I also haven't had time recently to look since I am still packing and moving.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

We too would not buy a house after only looking at it for a few minutes, but in the case of that house, the couple who bought it did get a great deal. We did thoroughly look at that house & shop because we were trying to convince ourselves to like it. This was a house that had been moved 40 years ago to it's current location. It appeared to have the original interior paint, carpets, etc. It was SPOTLESS. EVERYWHERE. You could barely even see a wear pattern in the carpet or kitchen flooring where someone could track in dirt. The walls, ceilings, curtains, sinks, appliances, furnace ducts were spotless. No dust, cobwebs, stains, nothing. Even the crawl space didn't have any cobwebs! The only flaw I found was in the kitchen where there was a corner cabinet that opened on the hinge. After 50+ years, there was a slight wear in the wood where the screw for the handle had rubbed a slight dent into the wood. I doubt we will ever see a house that old, in that spectacular condition. It just wasn't the right home & property for us.

[Brian Elfert]

I think I'm going to just have to wait and hope the right house comes up for me. I just don't want to jump on something just to have a place to live and then have a far better house pop up a week or two later. No house is likely to be a perfect "10" for me in my price range. My agent has been watching for pre-MLS listings, but nothing in my price range so far. I have an automated search that finds all new listings in the county that are over 1/2 acre.

There is one house I've been interested in, but I stopped by and looked at it again and it doesn't seem so great now. The lot is five acres, but most of it is wet. The best area to build a motorhome garage is probably too close to the septic system. There was a roof permit taken out in 2003 so presumably the roof was replaced then. I was looking closer at the roof today and it appears it may need replacement again already. The roof would be the final straw against buying this house.

[Matt Meiser]

Inventory here is really low. The gist seems to be that there are quite a few buyers, but a lot of people can't yet afford to sell their house. In the last 2 weeks we've looked at around 9 houses in person. 6 of those accepted offers since. There are 2 more we wanted to look at that already had accepted offers.

[Brian Elfert]

I'm still not having any luck finding a house. Anything halfway decent and cheap sells before I can even get a showing arranged. The prices seem to be rising fairly quickly. Even six months to nine months ago you could find a lot of cheap houses, but not today. I was out of town last week, but I was monitoring the houses new to the market. Nothing showed up that I wanted to look at. I don't believe there is a single house on the market right that I even want to go look at. I've read the peak for listings in April and early May. Buyers with children want to move during the summer and get settled in before school starts.

There is a house I would probably have made an offer on, but it sold in the last week to ten days just before or while I was gone. Maybe it was for the best as it needed a complete remodeling and may not have passed a home inspection.