Real Estate agents/offers/financing ect

[etpm]

"Family discount" can be a big variation. I've 3 son's and a daughter.
One son wanted to move into a house I was renting, this was about 2010. I didn't really want to sell but offered to sell it to him at about a 20% discount, no realtor fee. He thought he should have gotten a much bigger discount. At the time that house was my main asset and I was looking forward to it appreciating and I wanted to be able to be fair to the other three children.
He's lived there ever since "renting" and maintaining the property, with me paying for major repairs. Sometimes he pays the taxes, sometimes I do.
Meanwhile the property has gone from an assesment of ~$250K to about $650K in the 14 years (good area).
I would think it extremely unfair to have given one of my children a significant "family discount" while I couldn't at about the same time offered it to all.

My parents treated all their children the same financially. They never said this explicitly but we all found out when they were both dead. I don't feel that I deserved anything and I'm pretty sure my brothers all feel the same. They did not take into account how well any of us were doing financially, we all got the same. My parents were truly wise. I still love them and miss them greatly.
Eric

 

[Torvy]

I hear you, I have 2 boys and 2 girls. They will have very different personal financial situations. The tricky part is always treating them fairly, that does not always mean the same. I would give all of them the opportunity. I doubt any of them want to be out here or deal with remote land ownership. Heck, not one of them owns a home (though either of the 2 oldest could afford it). The oldest is an engineer and his SO is a lawyer. They don't plan on having kids. They don't need our financial help. Advice and labor, sure. The 3rd one is a waiter/student and is still figuring out life. We have to balance helping him, but also making sure he learns to fly on his own.

 

[paulsharvey]

Talked to Farm Buerau, and they said what I'm looking for is a "Future Home Site" loan. 20% down, payment term of 10 years; and must be a 'Rural' property, and I 'believe' it must be 5 acres plus for them to deal with. My main bank told me, anything 5 acres or more, any just land, and anything where land is greater than 50% of total value, they wouldn't mess with.

Got to do some thinking, negotiating with wife, and than assess options.

Land loan payments are frankly pretty expensive, but I get the risk; land without a home, gonna be one of the first things people stop making payments on if money gets tight.

 

[Torvy]

Land is something only some banks even deal with. It is a lot harder to value, especially rural land. Fewer lenders = higher rates. Simple supply and demand.

When I was doing Small Business lending, we did AG loans, but only in LA and TX, even though we had branches in many other states. It was too hard to find qualified underwriters for that specialty lending. State laws often make it riskier, too. I'm surprised anyone does auto loans in LA. It is difficult, nigh on impossible to repo there.

Builders Risk insurance is another specialty service that not all insurers offer. We've been with Allstate for 35+ years, but had to use State Farm for that coverage.

 

[ericm979]

We found something similar recently when we got pre-qualified for a loan for rural property. A lot of lenders have restrictions on the property size or zoning, like not wanting to make a loan for ag zoned property.

Was that Farm Bureau advice for a loan from them, or from lenders who specialize in farm loans?

 

[newbury]

Talked to Farm Buerau, and they said what I'm looking for is a "Future Home Site" loan. 20% down, payment term of 10 years; and must be a 'Rural' property, and I 'believe' it must be 5 acres plus for them to deal with. My main bank told me, anything 5 acres or more, any just land, and anything where land is greater than 50% of total value, they wouldn't mess with.

I got the same run around from my Credit Union (Navy Federal) when we went to buy our "retirement to be" home in Mississipppi. The house came with 3 acres, they had no problem funding that. But it was on a 3 acre section carved out from a 70+ acre parcel that was also being sold. Navy wouldn't touch the other land. They wouldn't loan on more than 5 acres, didn't have the expertise. The local landbank was more than happy and had really good terms. And they thought a $1,000/acre was cheap (which for the area it was).

 

[paulsharvey]

We found something similar recently when we got pre-qualified for a loan for rural property. A lot of lenders have restrictions on the property size or zoning, like not wanting to make a loan for ag zoned property.

Was that Farm Bureau advice for a loan from them, or from lenders who specialize in farm loans?

I told them about what I was trying to do, and that is the 'product' they offer to accommodate it.

They do a lot of ag stuff, but its not exclusively all they do.

I had originally talked to them a few years ago when we found an odd property, 17 acres, 3 mobile homes (1970s vintage, worth pretty much nothing), and everyone seemed confused on what the property was... was it land, home, rental,... we ended up passing, because it was priced somewhere between home and raw land; homes not livable (or mortageable), and it was priced too high for the land.

 

[ultrarunner]

We found something similar recently when we got pre-qualified for a loan for rural property. A lot of lenders have restrictions on the property size or zoning, like not wanting to make a loan for ag zoned property.

Was that Farm Bureau advice for a loan from them, or from lenders who specialize in farm loans?

Yep… all was going well on my Washington purchase so I thought…

The week we are to close the SELLER calls saying sorry it did not work out???

What the heck… no lender, title company, agent or broker call… seller had my contact because I asked to buy a piece of equipment.

3 days before close with all done underwriting says we did not realize home on 5.19 acres and we only loan 5 acre and smaller???

Broker says no time left and buyer is going to pull listing and try again in Spring.

I said I’m closing and heck with all of you… and she said just how will you do this???

Funds will be wired by the close of business tomorrow… I’m paying CASH and did.

Had more friends than I knew including a former boss and a brother that had just sold an investment property.

Within 30 days had them all paid in full by getting a loan on my paid for California home.

Anybody that would have asked my thoughts at the time would have got a reply not fit to print!

It was really me the buyer and seller that made it happen… everyone else was a leach.

 

[ultrarunner]

Realtor upset the seller of my last purchase making it possible for me to buy direct…

Broker said home is dated, needs paint, would need extensive decluttering etc for home the seller and her late husband built.

She was so upset telling me a neighbor I said what if you could sell as is and have 90 days after the sale rent free to organize and move…

She said where would I find such a buyer? I said me if you are ok deducting the sales commission from the price and so it was…

 

[Torvy]

I know our underwriters would have made an exception for that.

 

[ultrarunner]

I know our underwriters would have made an exception for that.

Always wonder if that was the reason or excuse?

Lot size was clear on every doc and listing.

What I will never understand is why Wells Fargo nor anyone else making money on the deal contacted me?

 

[Torvy]

Wells has a very poor reputation in the business. If people had a Wells loan and tried to refinance with someone else Wells would drag their feet or do any of a number of tricks to delay or prevent the customer from switching lenders.

 

[ultrarunner]

My only other experience was as a relatively new Wells Fargo customer I went to a Wells branch to deposit a security deposit check drawn on that Wells Branch.

I was told since my account was at another Wells Branch I would have to pay a $2 transaction fee as each branch is independent???

I did like their stage coach themed credit card but not enough to pay transaction fees.

When I closed out the account my branch manager said she can waive and/or credit the $2 fee…

Said it’s more work then I want to do as I need a Business Bank for property management banking.

 

[TractorReliefTool.com]

It took me two months to set up a LLC new biz account with Wells Fargo, which should have been done in two days. I'm a lifelong customer with them, that's the reason why I went with them to link my other accounts. Now days they suck!! Disgusting. They don't want business. Use and support your community local bank.
Also use a mortgage broker over a bank for a loan.

 

[paulsharvey]

We actually where ready to put in an offer, but we didn't pass the credit check. I was worried about my credit, but wife's was worse. It's not unpaided bills, it's percentages of utilized unsecured debt... Kinda annoying... but maybe for the best. That same property, owner is willing to owner fiance, 20% down, 8%, for 5 years basically; but what they want to do, rather than an intrest rate, is 20% of the cash sale price down, and then flat payments on a higher sum. Which screws you for paying extra, or later getting a conventional loan to pay it off.

There was 1 30 day delinquent payment last year, which was stupid... call for pay off amount on a car, send check, and the intrest between call and check cashing was like $4.11; which we kinda missed, so that showed as a missed car payment, over $4...

Also, the land loan company, 1st was surprisingly awesome, open by 8:30am, and I could stop by and discuss in person, drop off application at 2p, and have call at 4:55pm, all same day. Even if they wouldn't give us the loan, I was still impressed

 

[sea2summit]

I’ve bought and sold five houses now due to work moves. IMHO real estate agents are a scam for the most part. Not that their services don’t have value, but they don’t have that much value. Say a buyer drives around with an agent for four days then goes back another time to do a final look then makes an offer. You’re talking about what, 80 hrs of work for the agent? And you buy a 400k home so that agent is getting 10k at 2.5%, ohh and the listing agent who did even less is also getting 10k. That’s ~$125/hr for the buyers agent. Very frustrating, I’ve probably given 100’s of thousands to agents for less than that because I do my own research.

In other news.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/05/homes/nar-verdict-real-estate-commission-fee/index.html

 

[2manyrocks]

IDK, rates may stay where they are or go up more while they try to get inflation under control. But I feel like the current real estate market prices are like Wile E Coyote suspended in mid air for that split second before he crashes to the ground.

 

[ultrarunner]

More than half of my transactions have been without agents or brokers.

In a lot of ways Real Estate is one of the last frontiers where one can put their negotiating skills to use... not counting casual garage on craigslist sales.

 

[paulsharvey]

IDK, rates may stay where they are or go up more while they try to get inflation under control. But I feel like the current real estate market prices are like Wile E Coyote suspended in mid air for that split second before he crashes to the ground.

The piece we are looking at is pretty close to asking prices 10 years ago; 7 acres, mixed scrub woods in the sand hills; on a small pond; for $69k. It's a compromise property; it's oddly shaped (2 large connected triangles), pond is pretty small, and the piece touching the pond has 25 ft of fall in 200 ft; and I would like more than 7 acres; county maintained dirt road; will need driveway, we'll, septic, fencing, selective clearing, ect; all before building. The original idea was; buy now; get financial stuff in order over next 18 months, and then construction loan (wrapping land back into single mortgage).

We haven't messed with a buyers agent yet, heck, we toared the property twice, before talking to sellers agent at all (it doesn't have no trespassing signs, and it's an out of area seller)