Real estate General topic

[paulsharvey]

Looks like the required "4 point inspection" and "wind whatever" inspections didn't find any red flags. Which is good news. I did find it intresting/funny that they estimated roof had 9 years of remaining service life. So, are just at the point that people say all asphalt shingles are limited to a 15 year life? I've routinely seen them go 25+ years without issue, and upto 30-35 with selective repairs (ie maintenance, fix some vent boots, replace any wind damaged/missing single shingles). Waiting on foundation cert and appraisal, and wife had to submit some additional financial details on a specific transaction.

 

[paulsharvey]

Ok, so I was confused on what exactly a 4 point inspection was, but based on the reports; 1) electrical 2) plumbing 3) HVAC 4) roof; with plumbing that includes appliance hookups, washer/dishwasher; and HVAC included a line about "no self installed wood burning stoves/fireplaces"

 

[paulsharvey]

Got an update from the real estate lady. The seller found all the foundation elevation stuff that was needed, so that is $427 saved. They confirmed the animals will be relocated by end of next week. I do have to have active insurance by 8/05, so I have to get moving on that. I asked about that extended occupancy agreement, cause I hadn't gotten anything to rwview/sign; and the seller decided they Can get out by closing, which is a relief.

I wasn't so much worried about waiting 7 days to move, but I wany to be able to start moving some of the larger stuff over, explore in detail my property, and start coming up with a detailed plan.

 

[paulsharvey]

Doesn't matter to me; but; we our buyers agent (BTW, so far, I'm happy with the choice to use them), you have the buyers agent, their broker, and they have a 'closing agent" which I think, is a helper running down some of the misc stuff, and making sure things stay on track. The Question is; how does the 3.5% buyer agent commission brake down when you're splitting it like that? I'm assuming broker gets atleast 1%, and the closing agent probably gets 0.5%, with the selling agent getting 2%? Does that sound accurate?

 

[WinterDeere]

The Question is; how does the 3.5% buyer agent commission brake down when you're splitting it like that? I'm assuming broker gets atleast 1%, and the closing agent probably gets 0.5%, with the selling agent getting 2%? Does that sound accurate?

I'm sure there are no hard and fast rules. Years ago, commission was typically 6%, split 50/50 between seller's and buyer's agents at 3%/ea. When operating under dual agency, you could hardline them down to 3%, or be generous and offer 3.5 or 4%, but there are no rules.

In our case, we went dual agent on the last house we purchased, and offered her 3.5 or 4%... can't remember. But then the seller threw up so many problems that she ended up paying some of the incurred costs, and ended up walking with 3%.

 

[paulsharvey]

Been working on insurance, which is alway a lot of "fun". Was reviewing the cheapest quote, which was double what our current home insurance is. Not happy, but I knew it would be higher. Did some close review, and saw $100,000 in extra structures coverage. It's two small prefab sheds, like a 12x16 and a 12x10; not $100k worth of outbuildings. Talked to them, and decided to leave $10k of insurance on 'other structures' which dropped premium by almost $1000/year.

 

[JJT]

Been working on insurance, which is alway a lot of "fun". Was reviewing the cheapest quote, which was double what our current home insurance is. Not happy, but I knew it would be higher. Did some close review, and saw $100,000 in extra structures coverage. It's two small prefab sheds, like a 12x16 and a 12x10; not $100k worth of outbuildings. Talked to them, and decided to leave $10k of insurance on 'other structures' which dropped premium by almost $1000/year.

Raise your deductible if you really want to decrease the cost of your insurance.

For me insurance is for catastrophic issues. I've seen people make repeated insurance claims for a few hundred dollars of damage and then complain when they get dropped.

 

[WinterDeere]

Raise your deductible if you really want to decrease the cost of your insurance.

Twice in the last 15 years, when re-shopping for homeowner's insurance, I've asked to get quotes with deductibles above $10k and $25k, knowing I'd never even bother making a claim for anything less than that. But unfortunately, I found that raising the deductible from the usual $750 or $1500, all the way up to $25k, really did not make much of a difference at all in the premium. In both cases, I ended up leaving it at the lower number the agent said they typically use.

I think your rates are set more by home location and personal demographics, than anything else. Long-term life decisions, like your education, credit rating, and neighborhood all seem to play a bigger role in your quoted rates, than anything you can control on the fly, at time of quote. Call it unfair, but insurance is a statistics-based business, the collected data proves out their reasoning.

 

[ning]

I think our deductible is 2%.
When you think of a catastrophic loss, 2% isn't a lot, but it does mean that if a tree lands on your roof, you're not calling insurance about it.

 

[plowhog]

When you think of a catastrophic loss, 2% isn't a lot, but it does mean that if a tree lands on your roof, you're not calling insurance about it.

I've always carried $1k deductible on policies. Like someone else wrote I found very little savings going above $1k.

Had a tree go through the roof of our ski cabin this past winter. Contemplated whether to fix it myself, out-of-pocket, or turn it into insurance. Insurance is so difficult to get in CA that I really didn't want to rock the boat by making a claim.

I did choose to turn it into insurance. Partly because construction materials are so expensive and in a rural location even more so. Good thing I did. The contractor quote to repair, and the claim, is nearly $60k now. Part of the roof must be removed and a crane will be needed to set new support beams that were knocked askew. Both the contractor and insurance adjuster have said it will not be unusual for more work to be discovered once they open up the walls.