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Saturday, April 25, 2009
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15 comments:
Hi all,
There is the off-chance that my wife and I might have found a house. We were thinking about using a realestate lawyer instead of a buyer's agent. So, here are a couple of questions:
(1) Can anyone recommend a good lawyer?
(2) What are some things to look out for (home inspection is obvious)? What are some contingencies that should be put into the contract?
NovaWatcher,
Congrats on potentially finding a new place! Don't know any lawyers, but you can get the standard Virginia sales contract online, which should help in considering contingencies and such. Here's a link:
www.virginiamls.com/Forms/salescontract.pdf
I think the biggies are home inspection, appraisal and financing (if you don't have that already approved).
Hope that helps and good luck!
Oh, and radon and lead paint (if applicable). If there's a basement, I'd definitely have a radon inspection contingency. A friend had a contract on a place once, only to discover absurdly high radon levels. It was high enough to not be easily remediated. Thankfully, he had a contingency and got out of that contract fast!
for NoVawatcher: real estate lawyer: Michael McHugh (703-841-9318)
Contingencies: in addition to home inspection and radon inspection, other contingencies: final financing approval (can't get it until offer is accepted and lender has copy of accepted offer), termite inspection (most lenders require it and it has to be within 30 days of closing), satisfactory appraisal (if FHA loan you will need 2 appraisals). Of course you want a house location survey of the property and an out if there are serious encroachments or other problems. Most good real estate lawyers can advise you on contingencies needed in an offer.
NoVAwatcher,
If you need a good inspector, we were very pleased with the guy we used a few months back before closing on our townhouse. He was very thorough and quite helpful.
ProView Inspections Inc
Gary Cox 571-233-2837
NoVAWatcher,
I used Mr. George Bennett of the law office of John Carter in Fairfax (Chain Bridge, across from the district court). Thanks Crt for the recommendation. They have a flat $250 fee for the contract drafting and review. They do settlements also, so leaving the earnest money in escrow with them was convenient. We will close next month, so I can't say if they will continue to be as good thru closing, but so far they seem fine to me.
It seems to me that if you have previous experience in buying/selling, you may be able do it without a lawyer. As a first time buyer, I found that having the lawyer gave me more peace of mind.
We put the standard contingencies--inspection and financing (which also took care of the appraisal contingency for me).
If you have a lot of experience, you could probably just pull out old offers and such from other homes you purchased and write your offer up just like them?
hey everybody did you see? there's been a lance spotting on the previous post!
(Or at least someone with the same handle)
(best of luck novawatcher)
Thanks for the tips, guys.
I've bought several houses before, so I kinda sorta know what I'm doing. Nonetheless, it's a big decision, and personally, I'd like a buyer's agent checking my back. However, since I've done 90% of the leg work, the 3% commission is an obscene amount, not to mention that by going it alone, the 3% can be a bargaining chip.
So, wish me luck. We'll be making our decision in the next few days. And if it all goes through, I'll tell you the story behind the purchase, as it [potentially] has some interesting twists and turns as related to the bubble.
NoVawatcher,
Have you considered Redfin.com? They're only 1.5% commission. We used Marshall Park of red fin for a purchase in the Reston area and we were really impressed with the work he did.
Yes, good luck, N, and looking forward to the full story!
Does anyone think we've reached a bottom in Fairfax County in the $200K to $400K homes/THs? This is anecdotal only, but we closed on a TH in February in western Fairfax County. Last month two THs on our road went on the market (healthy sales). They were both asking over $50K more than we paid for our short sale. We paid a little under 09 assessed value whereas they were asking ~10% over 09 assessed value. One TH is under contract (not sure for what, but I know several offers were turned down for being too low). The other has a "good" offer (not sure what, but I know the owners were pleased with it) that they are getting ready to accept. Nothing has closed yet and appraisals have to be done, but it would seem things are not only picking up sales wise, but also price wise. Both THs had a lot of showings - people were in and out looking all the time. Perhaps this is isolated - or just wishful thinking on my part - but it would seem things are looking up in this area and in this price range. Comments?
The big issue is Housing always improves in the spring. Certainly we are seeing seasonal improvement, but one robin does not a spring make, one bottom does not a trend make.
The big worry is there is a tremendous number of Option Arm Resets coming down the pike. Once those all revert from IO or neg-Am to 25 year amortizing
you will see a flood of collapsed mortgages.
Wether those end up as foreclosures, bankruptcies or
writedowns, I can no longer tell, but, my bet is they will end up as foreclosures.
Obama/Geithner and Bernanke are worried about wall street not main street, so they will hang a lot of little people to keep bonuses up in NYC.
dgg,
that's what I'm seeing in Burke too. Prices for contracts in January closing in March were lower than contracts on THs in the same complexes that went under in March and closed in April.
Whether this is spring, or a real fundamental bottom is impossible to tell right now. I don't think we're far from the bottom in the $200-$400k range based on both rents and incomes, but (a) bubbles usually overshoot, (b) spring does normally see sold/list coming closer to to 100%, (c) That $8k buyer bribe is having some serious impact in this price range.
So, from irvine housing blog's data on past huge bubbles in CA real estate, there's often the largest of the rallies when fundamentals are reached and all those who have waited buy, before a final collapse to overshoot underneath fundamentals and the long L-shaped recovery.
On the upside, it usually only takes 2-3 years to recover back to fundamentals.
Didn't there used to be a VA_Investor post in this thread?
I remember seeing one but now it is gone and I don't see anything saying it was deleted.
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