Any contractors good with house purchase disclosures?

[Seduction]

Need some good kind soul contractors to point me to the right direction, and a second opinion would be super useful in this case. First time purchase a house and I could definitely get some advice here(just like how I bought my first motorcycle)

Thank you so much. Much appreciated.

 

[BURNROPE]

Hire a reputable home inspector. The good ones are built like flat trackers, you want one to go through the crawl space and attic thoroughly.

 

[greenmonster]

Not sure what you mean about “house purchase disclosures “, your realtor will take of getting inspections if that’s what you mean. You’ll be getting a termite report, a roof report and a home inspection. All of the reports are used to assess the condition of the house of course the lender will require an appraisal but they will handle that.

 

[aminalmutha]

The realtor will likely dictate an inspector. You can get your own on your own dime, but the mortgage company will likely not give a shit what that person thinks.

Beware as there are inspectors out there who DGAF and will miss or overlook MAJOR problems.

 

[afm199]

The realtor will likely dictate an inspector. You can get your own on your own dime, but the mortgage company will likely not give a shit what that person thinks.

Beware as there are inspectors out there who DGAF and will miss or overlook MAJOR problems.

This. There are any number of inspectors out there. Some of them really suck.

 

[Climber]

The realtor will likely dictate an inspector. You can get your own on your own dime, but the mortgage company will likely not give a shit what that person thinks.

Beware as there are inspectors out there who DGAF and will miss or overlook MAJOR problems.

Our realtor had ones she recommended (her favorite turned out to be really good and a decent rate) but left it up to us on who we would use. We had a very good (and decent) realtor, I don't imagine that all are as decent, I've run across a bunch that made my skin crawl and I can imagine the 'arrangements' that some of them have.

Have an in-law that bought a home about a year ago and their inspector missed plenty of things, they had problems with their home within a couple weeks of moving in that an inspector should have caught. Their realtor was shady, in my opinion, they had given him my wife's number and he was really pushy and I wanted nothing to do with him.

 

[aminalmutha]

Particularly in California, home values will be mostly dictated by location. Then square footage and lot size then condition will be a very distant third.

A shithole will be moderately less valuable than a remodeled home, relatively speaking. One thing condition will really make a big difference on is what type of loan you can get for it.

Srsly, I've watched a couple inspectors do an inspection in 15 minutes. Basically walked around the house inside and out and that was it. Easy few hunnert.

My first house, inspector missed the fact that the water main was fucked. Bunch of other shit not to code, too. Live and learn.

 

[250mL]

The realtor will likely dictate an inspector. You can get your own on your own dime, but the mortgage company will likely not give a shit what that person thinks.

Beware as there are inspectors out there who DGAF and will miss or overlook MAJOR problems.

A big industry problem with these inspectors is that if they do a thorough job of looking over and reporting things, they can be viewed at as “deal killers.” Realtors won’t use them because they report every issue and squash deals everywhere they go. Repeat business goes to inspectors that report just enough to appear to be performing their job, but not enough to cause alarm for home buyers. It’s a shady practice.

 

[aminalmutha]

A big industry problem with these inspectors is that if they do a thorough job of looking over and reporting things, they can be viewed at as “deal killers.” Realtors won’t use them because they report every issue and squash deals everywhere they go. Repeat business goes to inspectors that report just enough to appear to be performing their job, but not enough to cause alarm for home buyers. It’s a shady practice.

Yup. Again, first house, dude had to find something. Dinged the house for a rotten window sill. That was it. Had to find something like you said.

 

[greenmonster]

Very important to get a home warranty. American Home Shield is a good one but there are others. They cost about $500/year but can save you thousands if something goes wrong after you buy. For newer homes 10-20 years old this isn’t so much of an issue but beyond that get a home warranty. The piece of mind alone is worth it.

 

[KWeezyXB12]

not trying to hi jack thread but how does buying a house in for-closure work? we might be moving and purchasing our first home as well soon and im seeing some nice homes in the area that are in for-closure i just have no idea really how it works.

 

[Climber]

Very important to get a home warranty. American Home Shield is a good one but there are others. They cost about $500/year but can save you thousands if something goes wrong after you buy. For newer homes 10-20 years old this isn’t so much of an issue but beyond that get a home warranty. The piece of mind alone is worth it.

I'm not going to agree on this.

Yes, it has the potential of saving you a lot, but once you start reading the small print, they give themselves plenty of outs for paying on many things that you might expect to be covered.

Also, the realtor's who are the biggest sellers of these (they stick the seller with it in the contract) 'claim' that you can bundle several fixes in the same claim where you pay $75 flat rate for, but that is rarely ever true unless it's the same system (plumbing, pool, electricity, etc.) and contractor.

I've heard plenty of complaints about coverage being shit and coverage being very hard to collect on.

My :2cents

 

[gnahc79]

I'm not going to agree on this.

Yes, it has the potential of saving you a lot, but once you start reading the small print, they give themselves plenty of outs for paying on many things that you might expect to be covered.

Also, the realtor's who are the biggest sellers of these (they stick the seller with it in the contract) 'claim' that you can bundle several fixes in the same claim where you pay $75 flat rate for, but that is rarely ever true unless it's the same system (plumbing, pool, electricity, etc.) and contractor.

I've heard plenty of complaints about coverage being shit and coverage being very hard to collect on.

My :2cents

+1 home warranties are garbage for the most part. Save up several thousand for emergency house stuff instead.

 

[aminalmutha]

I'm not going to agree on this.

Yes, it has the potential of saving you a lot, but once you start reading the small print, they give themselves plenty of outs for paying on many things that you might expect to be covered.

Also, the realtor's who are the biggest sellers of these (they stick the seller with it in the contract) 'claim' that you can bundle several fixes in the same claim where you pay $75 flat rate for, but that is rarely ever true unless it's the same system (plumbing, pool, electricity, etc.) and contractor.

I've heard plenty of complaints about coverage being shit and coverage being very hard to collect on.

My :2cents

Yup. First house came with a 1 year "complimentary" home warranty. After I started uncovering all sorts of bullshit, I figured out that they are pretty much worthless. They're like the aftermarket extended warranties for your car. Guaranteed profit for the company, virtually impossible to get a payout.

 

[kingmoochr]

Funny, I have a story about both inspectors and home warranties. Our inspector overlooked the fact that the clean out pipe for our kitchen was literally gone. Our kitchen plumbing had an open hole to the crawl space. Wasn't a problem until we got a clog in the pipe and noticed a strange sound emanating from under the sink when we ran the water for a while. Called the home warranty people out for the clog, they said "sorry, you're missing some pipe, not covered". Refused to even run the snake so we could get by until it was fixed. Oh yeah, their contracted plumber was from MODESTO. We're in Pacifica.

 

[bpw]

not trying to hi jack thread but how does buying a house in for-closure work? we might be moving and purchasing our first home as well soon and im seeing some nice homes in the area that are in for-closure i just have no idea really how it works.

We bought a foreclosure, but the bank already owned it so process was pretty easy. Simpler than dealing with an individual buyer in some ways since the bank doesn't have feelings and just wants an easy, quick deal.

We looked at buying another place that was currently in foreclosure as a short sale and that process is a messy, drawn out hassle with potentially several parties involved (the one we looked at had mortgages with more than one bank). Would have been doable, but slow and unpredictable. We got partway through the deal and bailed to buy our (already bank owned) house one block over.

Don't expect a foreclosure to be a screaming deal (or even much below market) unless you can pay cash, everyone else is just as interested in finding a "deal"

 

[gnahc79]

Funny, I have a story about both inspectors and home warranties. Our inspector overlooked the fact that the clean out pipe for our kitchen was literally gone. Our kitchen plumbing had an open hole to the crawl space. Wasn't a problem until we got a clog in the pipe and noticed a strange sound emanating from under the sink when we ran the water for a while. Called the home warranty people out for the clog, they said "sorry, you're missing some pipe, not covered". Refused to even run the snake so we could get by until it was fixed. Oh yeah, their contracted plumber was from MODESTO. We're in Pacifica.

similar story for me as well. Inspector missed the multiple holes in the fiberglass tub in the master bathroom. We find out from our neighbor (tub is over their garage) when we use the tub on day 1 of moving into our home. Home warranty plumber looks at our tub for 10 sec and leaves. Home warranty company says not covered.

 

[greenmonster]

Well, I just had my heater go out (it’s probably 25years old) I called American Home Shield, they had a contractor out the next day who had to replace the burner assembly. Cost us $100 for the service call, not sure what the cost would have been if we didn’t have the warranty which costs $500 per year. If they can’t fix it they will replace it like they did with my neighbor’s air conditioning unit. I’ve actually used them twice this year and was glad I had the policy. It works for me and for my neighbor who told us their story which caused us to purchase a warranty. I agree that service warranties are generally a waste of money but since I have a 51 year old house with aging systems, and have had a good experience with my home warranty provider I’m happy.

 

[kingmoochr]

I have a 70 year old house, but new appliances. Everyone's situation is different. If I had old stuff I expected to break down soon might be worth it.

 

[Maddevill]

We bought our house in an Estate Sale. It was a mess, previous owner had cancer and dogs and just couldn't be bothered with maintaining it. The family wanted cash. Turned down a standard offer. I put in an offer. Our realtor called and said there was another cash offer. I asked how much. He said he didn't know. I told him to go $500 over and take off all contingencies. A big risk. We got the house and all the inspections came back good except for the roof which we knew about. I got lucky.

Mad