Hi we listed our home recently in a Houston suburb for ~$300K

The house went on the market last week. We had an open house on Sunday that had about 12-15 couples / realtors show up for.

We have had really good interest from 2 in particular. One guy from outside of Houston who is asking a bunch of questions about deed restrictions, building codes, ceiling heights, etc. I believe he has a SO plus a special needs brother that he will have living with him, and he wants to expand the garage to servants quarters (2-story) - which is all fine by our HOA an Architectural Committee... no offer from him (yet).

The other person to show interest just sent her offer. It's for the asking price, but she wants $X,000 towards closing and a home warranty. She was also interested in perhaps having us leave some (or all) our staged furniture in the home for her to keep (that was not part of her offer, but a comment she made to our realtor)
1. How much is a typical home warranty?
2. If shes asking for $X,000 towards closing, that means she is essentially asking for us to drop our price by $X,000 but roll that amount into her loan amount right? i.e. she gets a slightly higher loan at $300K, but she pays essentially no closing costs... is that how that works?
3. She also can't close for 60 days.

I trust my realtor, but I also like to get several opinions on things. I was thinking we'd ask her maybe what furniture pieces in particular she was interested in (I am not attached to anything in the house, really), and perhaps offer back the closing costs she's asking for, plus some of the furniture she's interested in, but raise the asking price up by $X,000 to match the closing costs she's asked for...

Anyhow, I'd appreciate some input or couteroffer strategies to consider, and verification of my thinking on item 2 listed above.

If you are a realtor and want to see my MLS listing, PM me.

I think it's more along the lines of divorce proceedings; it's conventional

That makes sense. 60 days is not unreasonable. If it is divorce a significant risk is the deal gets postponed. It happens a lot. I did a refi where we started a loan and the settlement went out 3 months longer then my client thought. Last minute the other spouse got greedy.

I am a realtor and agree with Steve.

Okay; 2nd offer received and it's very unconventional and I will need help understanding:

They offered full asking price, will waive inspection, realty fee (3%), and appraisal but want us to do owner financing with a $100K down payment from them.

They would pay in full contingent on the sell of their house.

My realtor mentioned we probably couldn't waive the 3% since we've already signed a deal with the broker for them to collect 6%.

She also mentioned we'd have to gat a lawyer involved for drawing up a contract and require proof of funding.

She also mentioned they are willing do do it the conventional way (mortgage company) but would then require inspection, appraisal, and full closing.

Thanks! It's what I thought... they may have issues

I can qualify a client with 100k down with as low as 550 credit and maybe less. Rate would be ugly though.

SteveBott said:

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I can qualify a client with 100k down with as low as 550 credit and maybe less. Rate would be ugly though.

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How much more ugly would it be after this afternoon?

We countered the first (it's a VA loan after all) and their realtor said they were going to look at more houses.

Yea pretty tough day in the bond market. My best rate for best clients is 4.875. You could go FHA and get around 5.5 but closing costs suck in this loan.

Non-traditional 550 score loan I'm guessing around 8.0 on a 30 year. These are hard to price since these lenders only custom quote much of the time. So I need a full application.

All FHA no points but the last loan will need one point

3rd Offer

VA Loan; $302K with Seller paying $6K to closing

Counter 305 with 6 seller contribution

Clean offers hard to come by in your area?

VA requires nothing down so they basically want to be paid to move in the house.

They're also going to make you pay for a pest inspection (although I guess that would be covered in the $6K) and heaven forbid they find any conducive conditions.

VA's are usually fine but they can add some extra headaches.

What's the likelihood it appraised under? We are already about $4-5 per sqft under the other homes in our area (on purpose to move a little faster). I think we would be good on comps and appraisal, just not sure if VA is more strict on values ...

Honestly with where rates will be going. The sooner he sells the house the better.

I think the VA is a reasonably offer. But I'd counter at 3K towards closing and settling no more than 5K

Is waiting 48 hours to respond unreasonable? We received the latest offer at about 4:00 yesterday, but we have 2 more showings in the morning.

If those come to anything great, if not we plan to accept the offer made yesterday. I don't want to stretch it too far though for fear of it being withdrawn, or pissing off the buyer and them becoming nit-picky on the inspection, etc.

(Note their VA is pre-approved with a very reputable lender)

Okay we accepted an offer ; but the potential buyer wants to see the house again (for the 4th time) before putting it in writing...

... is that common?

Offer signed; we're in option period

bcasey03 said:

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Do you really have a realtor?

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This. Do you have one? They should be answering all these questions for you. I'm a realtor (part time) and would've never let you need TexAgs for these questions and advice.

Congrats on the contract.

Keep us updated.