I know the SF market is hot, so you don't have to enlighten me on the obvious. But what are tactics to make sellers seriously put my offer to the top of their list?

My spouse and I are moving there for a job. The employment contract includes things like realtor fees and closing costs with us able to select from a list of realtors. We are still a couple of weeks out from pulling the trigger on selecting the realtor.

We're selling our current house and if the house isn't sold by the time we are ready to put in a bid, we have enough from our opening deposit from our brokerage account (no withdrawal fee) to pay in cash, or at least put down a large down payment (50%).

We have very good credit (at the cusp of excellent) and are working on finding the right lender, then getting a pre-approval letter from them.

I've been keeping my eyes on houses that fit our criteria and seeing what they sell for. On average houses we like go pending in about 18 days and sell between 30%-50% over list price, depending on location and house condition.

We're fairly comfortable to make strong bids, but what are current market techniques to be sure we get the house we want? Are people waiving contingencies, appraisals, or inspection?

We'll ask all these things to our realtor when we select them, I just wanted to get some insight from this group in the meantime. Thanks.

Is this common for a seller to sell a home where the buyer is assuming their existing mortgage and paying them the equity in cash? How hard is it to switch the seller for the buyer on an existing mortgage?

I have a client asking me about this and I am at a loss.

A relative is wanting to transfer their house to me. They owe no money on besides a USDA Rural Housing Service single-family housing loan. The repayment is around $15,000. It acquires no interest. If she transfers, it has to be repaid. She cannot pay off the loan. I’m really uneducated on what exactly this loan is. But if I were to pay off this 15,000 should we have any problems with transferring the house over to me? Thank you for your help.

What are realtor fees looking like in Texas currently? Are we still paying both buyer/selling agents as the home seller? What are typical rates? What's fair vs disrespectful?

For context, the house that we are under contract about 3000 ft.² and the only recent comes for same number of rooms and bathrooms in the area are much bigger at around 5000 ft.²

There are not many recently sold homes in the area.

Will they have to look back more than 6 months to find comparable homes or will they use the houses that are much bigger as comparable homes?

We are looking at a house that was built in the mid-90s, but the current owners have updated the inside with fresh paint/carpets/LVP flooring. The house itself is only about 1500 sq ft (2 stories) with 600 finished sq ft in the basement. The property sits on 1.9 acres. About 0.5 of the acres is flat functional grassy space and then the rest is wooded area. The house is listed at $465k and our lender thinks we need to offer $505k to be competitive. Our agent told me she’d get back to me on value. Just this month, a home right down the street sold for $410k, was listed at $389k so did go for over asking. The house is only on 0.5 acres but has 1800 finished square feet on the main level, plus a smaller finished basement.

I am curious how to go about coming up with a competitive offer. Is land worth more than home square footage, in a general sense?

It's within the budget. It's a 1/1 condo in a medium sized city in Florida and a huge, desirable tourist destination. HOA fees are reasonable by south Florida standards. Recent comps in the building all come in right around that price point.

Didn't think I'd ever drop so much on a condo. My questions are as follows:

• Think this would be a good investment if I decide to sell 10 years from now?
• Are there any major pitfalls from buying property smack in the middle of a huge nightlife/tourist area?
• Am I crazy for paying so much, for so little space? Price per sq-ft comes out to ~$600

edit: I am single and have no desire to settle down.

I'm moving to a new town. I'm ... 90% sure I want to live there.

I was planning to rent for a year or two before buying, but the rental market is a little nuts. Very much a landlord's market. Weirdly, the condo market is a buyer's market. (Or not so weirdly considering the HOA fees average like $800/month.)

I found a condo offered at $240k. I can afford that easily, even with with added 800. However, I worry about buying and then regretting the move. My possibly-stupid question is, can I suggest a deal where, like, I pay 20% down now, move in, don't pay a cent for 24 months, and then after that point either pay the owners teh balance or just say thanks and we both move on?

They'd have made $2k/month in 'rent'. So no real harm done to them, except they'd be stuck with the hassle of putting it on the market again (and owning it for those two years). And my risk is lower cause if I'm like, 'nope, hate it here,' I'm just out rent-equivalent, too. But if I do like it, I can pony up the 80% and I'll have effectively lived there for free for two years.

Does that make sense? Thoughts, advice?

In 2017 I inherited outright a family vacation property in the 'lakes region' of southern Maine. I am the 3rd generation owner. The property consists of 4 lots, two on the water and two 'back lots' on the other side of a 1 lane dirt and gravel road.

The two waterfront lots each have a seasonal use only cabin. The back lots are mostly wooded. Total acreage is a bit over 1 acre, with 275ft of water front. One of the cabins has been mostly a rental for many years. The rental cabin has been used for the entire season for the last 6 years by a single tenant--and it works really well. I've given them a break on the rent in return for maintenance labor.

Anyway, the tenant has offered to buy that cabin, the lot that it's on, and the connected back lot.

Here are some details, and some questions:

1. The deeds are all in good shape after probate was completed in late 2017.
2. Each cabin has it's own septic system, and they are both working fine--and have been regularly serviced for a long time. We were careful, years ago, to make sure the septic tanks are on the platted lots.
3. The cabins DO share a common drilled deep well, installed in 2016. Suggestions on how to deal with the water. Obviously something in writing in either the sale contract or on the deed(s). Including shared financial responsibility if/when there is a problem? Or put in something along the lines of, in addition to the above, 'buyer is required to install their own well within 5 years'?
4. Before a sale decision is made, I do want to include our adult children (30's and 40's) in the conversation, as part of a bigger discussion about the future disposition of the estate. Good or bad idea?
5. The town reassessed all properties a couple of years ago. Recent sales are running on the order of assessed valuation plus 10-15%, which gives me an idea of where to go.
6. At the price I'm thinking, I'll have a capital gain of $300,000-$330,000. Suggestions on managing both capital gains taxes (ouch) and avoiding Medicare B IRMAA. My wife and I are both 68, so in 5 years RMD will kick on on the IRA's.

Thoughts? Ideas? Pitfalls? I know conversations with both a good Real estate Lawyer in Maine, and a CPA are both in the future.

I’m 29 and work in a pretty high-level sales job. I’ve been saving and investing since I was young, and recently bought my third property.

It is a waterfront, Gulf-access pool home in SWFL. I grew up around the previous owners and was able to get a really good deal on it. I put a lot of money and work into renovating it, and decided to turn it into an Airbnb.

A few months in, and the numbers haven’t been amazing.

I knew going into it that STRs aren’t just going to print money, and we’re also in one of the slowest periods for Florida. But I’m realizing how much of the carrying costs, utilities, cleaning, maintenance, supplies, repairs, platform fees, etc. (which is my fault for not running better numbers)

I’ve also found myself way more involved than I expected. I’m constantly trying to save money somewhere, fix something myself, coordinate things, improve the property, etc. My other investment property is a long-term rental duplex, and compared to this thing, the duplex feels like the greatest investment on earth.

What makes me think is, I have multiple realtor friends telling me that if I sold this property right now, I could realistically walk away with around $60k after commissions and closing costs. (They would be listing at a flat fee so they’re not just telling me this to make themselves money)

Part of me thinks, $60k in roughly 3 months isn’t exactly a bad outcome. Take the win, free up the capital, and move it into something else.

But then I remember something one of the people that inspired me to invest in real estate told me years ago that has always stuck with me. They said their biggest regrets were selling properties instead of turning them into rentals which makes me double guess.

Let’s say the Airbnb eventually becomes a high performer. Maybe I clear $20k/year after everything. Is that worth the additional wear and tear, management, headaches, and capital tied up in the property? Or would I be better off taking the $60k now and reinvesting it somewhere with better returns and less involvement?

The other issue is that I do love the property. I got a great deal and it’s the type of house I’ve always dreamt about owning. So there is a slight emotional attachment. But I’m trying really hard to separate “I love this house” from “is this is a good investment.”

So I guess I’m looking for opinions from people who have actually owned STRs or faced a similar decision.

Would you:
Stick it out for another year and see what the property does through a full cycle?

Sell now, take the \~$60k profit, and redeploy the money?

Consider converting it to a long-term rental?

Or am I looking at this completely wrong?

And no, I’m not a nepo baby, my parents aren’t rich, and nobody bought these properties for me lol. I’ve just been aggressive about saving and investing since I was young.

Interested to hear from people who have been in the game longer than me and can tell me whether I’m being impatient or whether taking a quick win is sometimes the smarter move.

I have about $100K of my own money tied up into the investment.

I've been selling my townhome for 6 months now with our agent, and overall she's been good to work with. We listed at $515k per her advice, and have had to steadily drop the price over the last 6 months. 0 offers, maybe 4-5 showings per month. She's followed up with people that tour it and has talked to other agents, and will pass on recent feedback to us. So overall she's not doing a bad job at all. Location is Dallas, TX - Lower Greenville neighborhood, it's the middle unit of a townhome of 5 units, but since we don't have a yard it's considered a Condo.

But it feels like this is a side-job for her - every price drop has been because we asked her if we should drop the price and she says sure (or wait a couple of weeks, fair). Changing the order of the pictures and the description because we asked. Just everything that happens is initiated by us. Really overall I think we're just frustrated that our place hasn't sold or even gotten an offer in 6 months, and I don't think it's our agent's fault but changing agents doesn't cost us as much as a huge renovation would, or dropping the price another $25k.

If we do move on, how do we go about that - should we offer to "make her whole" and pay her cost of the photographer? She paid for pictures twice (before and after move out), we paid for getting it deep-cleaned. I don't think she's paid anything else except any MLS/Zillow fees. She's with an agency so I could message the agency as well.

Thoughts? Looking for outside opinions here

So we are looking at buying a house that has a septic system and we were able to get the last septic report which was done on 1.9.26 and the house has been empty since then. They actually had the house listed at 800k back then and its now down to 559k.

Anyways, in the back yard they have an old storage shed that's been there for years, apparently its on a cement slab, which I didn't not see as it has a wood floor. Should we be concerned. The report did not mention any other major issues except trees that are on the perimeter of the field. I have no problem removing the shed, although it would be nice to keep, its been there for a very long time from the looks of it.

UPDATE:

Thanks for all the replies, we decided not to go ahead with the deal, not for the septic system but with the issue with the whole Short Sale and VA process.

The sellers, originally had the price at 619k when we saw it. We were prepared to offer around 588k, and before we had a change to submit the offer, the seller had dropped the price down to 559k. So, we were prepared to offer 566k, just to show them we were willing to buy the property. We submitted the offer and the next morning my wife recieved an email from our agent, with an email she recieved from the seller.

The seller stated that although they liked our offer and they would consider it, they would like to sale it for 630k to keep it from being a short sale.

Then later today, we recieved notice that they did indeed except our offer. But, the issue, is that it was up to the bank to except our offer and if anybody else came along and offered more then we would be wasting our time.

We had already had another house that we were looking at and the kids prefered as it was, and we will submit an offer on it today.

I really liked the house, it had a 60's-70s vibe with a modern look, one wall was all glass and had a gas backup generator which was neat.

Our HVAC failed at inspection (not a shocker - 26 years old). We need a replacement ASAP. A highly recommended journeyman installer (hes done several neighbor's systems and was recommended by coworkers as well) is available to do the job for thousands under the next bid. He can provide an invoice with his license number. He did advise that, with journeyman status, he cannot pull the permits. My realtor said we wouldn't be able to get the permits in 13 days anyway. The buyer addendum states the system must be new and in working order.

What would your level of concern be here? I'm not even sure the expensive regional company would be able to get permitted either.

I'm so beyond tired of looking at homes online, then seeing them in person, and they look NOTHING like what the online photos are.

These are wasting everyone's time. Agents, if you can't learn to to, or don't want to fork over for professional photos, find another line of work.

Trying to sell an inherited property, and the highly recommended agent insists on using these cartooninshly fake generated images.

Hello!

My husband and I are preparing to put our house on the market. Our biggest hiccup is that we have 8 cats that live indoor/outdoor. We do live on a 10 acre lot and the cats have a tree house that they spend a lot of time in during the day. Truthfully they are not in the house much except t night.

Our agent has walked through our house and said that there is no smell but to have the carpet in the bedrooms professionally cleaned. Otherwise everything else is perfect as is.

My questions is what to do with the cats when people come to view the house. I do still keep five (5) litter boxes in the laundry room for them at night. Has anyone else encountered anything like this before? I recognize people are on a spectrum for their feelings with cats. They either love them or have visceral feelings for them. I do not want my cats to hinder the selling process but do understand some people will make their decision not to buy bc we have cats.

Thank you.

Hey all, sorry for the novel of a title.

There’s a long back story here, but it boils down to this:

1. Sale price $255k
   
2. Mortgage balance $273k
   
3. We have a loss draft balance of $134k (house fire insurance funds, will be paid back to us).

Regarding #3, I already gave the mortgage company my letter of intent to apply that to the balance of the mortgage. Additionally, the payoff quote already states they will pull from this in the event the sale price isn’t sufficient to cover the mortgage.

However, they can’t put that on the payoff quote itself. Meaning, unless my title company says differently, I’ll need to go to closing with around $30k (I don’t have the draft closing document yet, that’s my guess).

My question: first, is it possible to negotiate with my title company on letting me closing without bringing that money (since it’ll be coming back regardless)? My guess it’s most likely not.

Second, what are my options if I don’t have the funds to bring cash to closing? I cant imagine it makes sense for this to hold up the sale of a home when there’s obviously the money to repay the difference thats already with the mortgage company, but each time I called to explain the situation, they were of no help.

I’ve thought of a bridge loan from a bank, but it’s annoy me to pay interest on that amount. Also I’m not sure how quick that can happen, because we’re supposed to close this week.

Anyway, sorry if I left out detail. Happy to provide anything else if needed.

Before I started, I thought I could do open houses to find people to work with but that’s not the case. A lot of people coming through are either looky-loo neighbors, people already working with agents, or people that are significantly older than me. Why would they want to work with me when they have someone more experienced on deck? I’ve held a bunch of open houses and still haven’t picked up a client.

Have any of you done well with open houses? What’s your strategy?

I'm relocating to the Ohio area within the next few months. I'm not sure what city I want to end up in. So on the weekends we are visiting different areas and looking at houses. I was not aware that by viewing the houses we are agreeing to stay with one realtor. I understand the purpose of this law but how are you supposed to look at homes in different areas? So far the original agent has been good about canceling the agreement, but will they all be?

*Had to repost because Reddit did not like the link example.

I am aware the tread nowadays is to 'enhance' the pictures with AI, either to spruce it up or use it as a space filler.

Looking at some of the listings, one thing I always keep in mind is just how TOO CLEAN things look. A lot of places have blinding white walls, too perfect driveways, etc. Without going in person, its aggravating to look at these things and constantly doubt whats real and what's not.

What do you look out for?

I have till October to find something or go into an apartment. Honestly I think I'll end up going into a short term lease anyway just because of this bullcrap.

Take this listing for example. Almost none of the pictures look right.

*Had to repost because Reddit did not like the link example.

Almost 2 years ago, my husband and I bought a 2,500 sq ft, 4-bedroom house on the west side of downtown. Before that, we were living in a 1,200 sq ft, 2-bedroom house that I had bought before I met him on the east side of downtown.

I'm no stranger to urban living, and I knew the West Side would have many of the issues that come with living in an urban mixed income neighborhood. I just didn't realize how drastically different it would feel from where we lived before.

Since moving here, we've had at least 3 incidents of hearing gunshots while inside our house during daylight hours. Last year, my car, which was parked in front of our house, was hit by a bullet. I think part of me assumed most crime happens in the middle of the night, but it's really unsettling to hear gunshots from inside your home, when you might have been about to head out to dinner.

The frustrating part is that I really do love our current house. The layout is perfect, I couldn't have designed a better house for us. We have so much more space, we each have our own home offices, and the main bedroom has 2 separate walk in closets. I've put a lot of time and care into making it a home. I would genuinely be sad to leave it. But I just don't love the feeling of not being comfortable in the neighborhood. I feel much more uncomfortable having friends from the suburbs visit than I ever did in our old house. And asking friends or pet sitters to take care of our house when we travel.

We still own our previous house because we tried to sell it without getting an offer, so we have been renting it out. Our tenants' lease is up at the end of the year, and I'm wondering about telling them we won't renew and moving back. I'm not sure my husband would be thrilled with that though and I plan on seeing what he thinks of the idea.

The old house is half the size, and I know he felt a bit cramped in there. But at the time he moved into a space that I had been living in without him and this time around we can really completely rethink how we organize the space to make it better work for us. To be clear it's still downtown and there are still the tradeoffs of urban living. But we lived there for years and never once heard gunshots or had anything like what we've experienced here. I do think with some creative rearranging, we could actually make the smaller house work much better for us than it did before.

But I wonder if I'm overreacting and should accept that this is simply part of living in an urban gentrifying neighborhood, especially since there is a lot of development happening that could potentially improve things over time.

What would you do? Would you give the neighborhood a few more years and hope things improve, or would you prioritize living somewhere you already know you feel comfortable, even if it means going back to a much smaller house?

The house has had nonstop issues and and I literally spend 40 hours a week on it now. I assume at some point the issues will start fading but that has not happened yet. The house has grading issues where there is pooling and flooding in certain areas. This was a big concern during negotiations and the solution was a 1 year landscaper warranty, plus a backstop warranty to address it if the landscaper did not. The agent told me their plans to start filling with dirt in the spring, and how it would be ongoing until the issue is resolved and should expect at least 5 or 6 visits from them with fill dirt.

Any way ... this never happened. Requests in the spring went no where. He works for the Real Estate developer who signed the warranty so that is why I am still dealing with him. But he pretends now all our conversations never took place about the work being done in the Spring. And I get it, he is a salesman and just said the words needed to make sure the deal closed. And I might take legal action against the builder but it is time consuming and expensive.

So for now I am left with posting a 1 star zillow and google review for him, which I know will set him off, but this is exactly why I am doing it. It is the only lever I have to pull now after a year of dealing with all these clowns to fix the mountain of never ending defects in this house.

I bought a new construction house in -------- Acres with Mike ---- as the Listing Agent in late 2025. The property had known grading and flooding defects that Mike told me would be addressed in early 2026. He provided me with multiple warranties signed by the landscaper and his boss assuring the repairs would occur. He described how they would start properly grading the ground in the Spring, and I should expect it would be an ongoing process until it was resolved.

Well, none of that happened. Repeated requests in the spring went no where. Mike's latest advice was to run the sprinklers less, and all our previous conversations on the matter have seemingly never occurred. I understand now he is a salesman, and was just saying whatever he had to say to close the deal, and that is on me for being naive. But I would not recommend buying a house he is involved in.

Anyone know how strong the Arlington Texas housing market is? I'm looking at purchasing a $650k home there but I'm not sure how well homes in that area hold value so I'm hesitant to buy one that expensive there.

I've noticed a trend where people are remodeling bathrooms, removing the home's only bathtub, and replacing it with a shower. Well, we bought one of those several years ago, before we had small children. I do think it was on the market longer than it should've been given the quality of the house and area, and maybe that's why.

We are currently being forced into a bathroom remodel. We've discovered significant water damage (we're growing mushrooms 😭) and we'll need to tear up the entire floor and shower in the upstairs bathroom. We're considering putting in a tub/shower combo instead of restoring the shower the previous owners put in. We'd like to have a tub for our small children, but it would look a little awkward with the bathroom configuration, and there will probably be a price difference. We weren't planning a remodel, so it's not like we have funds earmarked for a dream bathroom, we just really need to fix the damage and get it functional again.

How much would you say a tub is worth, vs a home that has no tub? It's a 3 bed, 2 bath (both with showers currently) in a desirable school district. Depending on the price difference, we may choose the bath just because we want it, but my spouse thinks of it as an investment. I'm wondering how much that may or may not be true? If paying more for a bath now may either increase the price we get for the home whenever we sell, or make it easier to sell, a higher price may be easier to swallow.

Hey! I feel like this is going to tank our sale but our lawyer and agent don’t seem to think so.
House in NY state, we have been very accommodating to our seller taking time for extra inspections, not rushing them when it took a week and a half for them to sign contracts and send escrow money. Almost two weeks after we signed the contracts their lender and lawyer reached out to our lawyer and said they changed their mortgage type from a conventional to a FHA loan. We wouldn’t have accepted their offer if it was an FHA.
Our lawyer said it wasn’t illegal and our agent was pissed. We are not doing any work to the house before we sell it. Everyone has assured us it will be on the buyer but when I bought this house I was told to go with a conventional mortgage because it needed work and the seller wasn’t going to do anything required to pass the FHA requirements. There’s a few small things we know of like a railing on a mostly enclosed basement staircase and the porch needs to be painted but more things could pop up.
This pushed out the closing date a minimum of two weeks and the icing on the cake is we’re moving out of state and had just put in our final notices for our jobs. We’re about to secure jobs and housing in our new home and I feel like we’re about to make a really bad financial decision by sticking with our buyers. Part of me wants to back out and re-list the house, our agent and lawyer have said if we want to close asap it’s best to see this through. The new appraiser is coming out on Tuesday.
Has anyone else had this happen to them? How did it turn out?
Sorry for formatting I’m on mobile!

I inherited a property in an in-demand county in Colorado but there are a few issues. The property has a dilapidated 1960's single wide mobile home. There are several roof leaks that were never fixed and caused pretty extensive damage to the ceiling, ceiling tiles, carpet etc., the bathroom is a total wreck. It's in un-livable condition (for most). It also has an addition (small bedroom) built on the side. The garage is stick built but is also dilapidated. I'm guessing it's highly likely that it also has asbestos.

I don't have the time, money, or energy to clear the trailer or junk off the property. I'm considering going with a cash offer from one of those types of companies that buy in as-is condition. Does anyone have any advice? I really want this out of my life honestly. I also don't want to feel like I got totally scammed afterwards. I do realistically see that it's going to be a lot of work to get the lot cleared and a new home placed there or built.

I'm having the land and utilities professionally appraised per probate / IRS requirements, but I'm not expecting to get fair market value in the end. Any advice would be appreciated.