1st time home buyer

So I'm thinking about putting a purchase offer in on a home. There are a few things I have been wondering about.
The realtor said the house is block built with vinyl siding out doors and framing inside would this type of building tend to be well insulated and fuel efficient?
How much does it cost to have a fuel oil furnace cleaned?
any idea how much it would cost to install a tub?

Any advice for a first time buyer?

Get a home inspection.
Call some local contractors and get some rough estimates
for the furnace and tub.

+27 on the home inspection. Don't buy a house without it. Even if you find some things wrong, you could probably get the house cheaper with the inspection report.

Get the home inspection, and follow that guy around like a lost puppy dog. Make sure he is climbing into the attic and also sticking his head into all the crawl spaces. Also--Get a septic system inspection (if there is one), water test (if on well water), radon test (air and water).

I plan on having an inspection, I dont think the bank would give me a loan with out one.

Most of the time you'll need the home to be inspected so you can get a Certificate of Occupancy. Just remember that a good inspector will make the house seem like it's about to fall apart.

arch1tect said:

Most of the time you'll need the home to be inspected so you can get a Certificate of Occupancy. Just remember that a good inspector will make the house seem like it's about to fall apart.

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Must be a bit different out on the East coast our aren't so doom and gloom out here.

arch1tect said:

Most of the time you'll need the home to be inspected so you can get a Certificate of Occupancy. Just remember that a good inspector will make the house seem like it's about to fall apart.

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never heard of a CO being issued due to a change of ownership. Only time it comes into the process here if work/additions/decks were done without permits.

I would think the mortgage company would require an inspection as you said. The insulation may or may not be that good depending the homes age years ago no insulation was required by code here . My home had very little and is now all up to the 1995 standards . Best to get bids from contractors in the area if something needs to be replaced have the present owners pony up or give a credit at closing.

Joker said:

Must be a bit different out on the East coast our aren't so doom and gloom out here.

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Mine was horrendous but then again he was an amazing inspector. The inspection sheet afterward had a list of things to fix and in what order(by years) we should get them done. Some of the urgent ones were done by the previous owner before the sale and the rest will be up to us over the next few years.

The inspection was needed by the bank so they knew the shape of the house for the mortgage. If the house failed the inspection then the mortgage wouldn't have happened.

TxBrew has another forum for homeowners (or future homeowners)

http://www.houserepairtalk.com/


If those guys can't answer your q's, no one can.

As the others have said, don't buy any home without an inspection. Also as a first time buyer I'd suggest hiring an attorney to guide you through. Doesn't cost that much and will put your mind at ease. They'll review your various documents along the way and sit at the closing with you to make sure you don't do anything stupid when some last minute monkey wrench pops up, as it always does. it's $300 to $400 well spent.

Also, remember that even YOUR realtor is working for the seller. They're not looking out for you, regardless of what you might think. Don't say anything to your realtor that you wouldn't say directly to the seller, such as, "we'll offer X, but really we'll pay Y if we have to." Your realtor will certainly convey this to the other parties. They are earning their money from the seller, not you. Just another reason to have an attorney who is looking out solely for your interests.

StunnedMonkey said:

Also, remember that even YOUR realtor is working for the seller. They're not looking out for you, regardless of what you might think. Don't say anything to your realtor that you wouldn't say directly to the seller, such as, "we'll offer X, but really we'll pay Y if we have to." Your realtor will certainly convey this to the other parties. They are earning their money from the seller, not you. Just another reason to have an attorney who is looking out solely for your interests.

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I disagree with this. My realtor was smart enough to realize that if I didn't buy the house, she didn't make any money at all. While it is true that they make their money from the seller, they don't make any at all if there is no buyer. So she was smart enough to do things my way.

A good realtor DOES work for you. As long as you buy a house that's on the market, they get their cut of the sale.

Any underhanded sales person sucks...be it cars, houses, or a retail clerk.

I would act now so you can get that $8000 potential tax credit. Money doesn't often grow on trees you know.

malkore said:

A good realtor DOES work for you.

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You're wrong. See here:

http://www.realtor.com/Basics/AllAbout/Realtors/Represent.asp

In a nutshell, unless you have a contract with your realtor stipulating that they are specifically a buyer's agent (and most likely you don't and they're not) then YOUR realtor is legally a sub-agent to the listing broker, and they have a fiduciary obligation to disclose whatever you've said to them to the seller's agent. You tell your realtor that you're low-balling your offer and would actually pay $10,00 more? They WILL tell the listing agent. You're buying one house. These realtors deal with each other over and over. You really think they're going to screw over a colleague (and themselves) to save you some money? Not bloody likely.

They may be nice and seem to have your best interests at heart (they're salespeople, that's what they do) but their business and financial allegiance is to the seller. I repeat, say nothing to your realtor that you wouldn't say directly to the seller.

Our realtor asked us to sign a Buyer's Agent Agreement before we started any of the work of making an offer, etc. I think in general they prefer you sign this before they start showing you the houses. It protects them as well as the buyer.

Beerrific said:

Our realtor asked us to sign a Buyer's Agent Agreement before we started any of the work of making an offer, etc. I think in general they prefer you sign this before they start showing you the houses. It protects them as well as the buyer.

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It's a good idea to do so, so long as you (the buyer) don't mind being tied to one agent for the allotted length of the agreement. But it's not automatic and many people who walk into a realtor's office looking for a realtor to show them houses aren't aware that the realtor is not (legally) acting on their behalf. And that's OK too, so long as the buyer realizes that. Many do not.

Bernie Brewer said:

TxBrew has another forum for homeowners (or future homeowners)

http://www.houserepairtalk.com/


If those guys can't answer your q's, no one can.

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Thanks!!!!

Beerrific said:

Our realtor asked us to sign a Buyer's Agent Agreement before we started any of the work of making an offer, etc. I think in general they prefer you sign this before they start showing you the houses. It protects them as well as the buyer.

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We also signed a Buyer Agent agreement; I thought this was the standard if you were serious about buying a house.

StunnedMonkey said:

It's a good idea to do so, so long as you (the buyer) don't mind being tied to one agent for the allotted length of the agreement. But it's not automatic and many people who walk into a realtor's office looking for a realtor to show them houses aren't aware that the realtor is not (legally) acting on their behalf. And that's OK too, so long as the buyer realizes that. Many do not.

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Our buyer's agreement was written so that we could cancel the agreement at any time we chose, but the realtor had to commit 6 months of being an exclusive buyer realtor for us. So not really an commitment from our end.

broadbill said:

Our buyer's agreement was written so that we could cancel the agreement at any time we chose, but the realtor had to commit 6 months of being an exclusive buyer realtor for us. So not really an commitment from our end.

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No earnest money?

On both the houses we've bought, there was a buyer's agreement/contract with our realator, and earnest money of 1% of what we planned to spend on the house. That also weeds out the 'window shoppers'...maybe it varies from state to state though.

The earnest money gets applied to your closing costs. And right now its VERY normal to have the seller pay the buyer's closing costs if you're in the right market and price bracket (even if you end up wrapping that into the sale price).

It may be different in the US... but I would also think about shopping around on Mortgages... 0.2% on your financing is going to make a bigger difference than a couple of thousand on your price range. Also, play with a few mortgage calculators to see what the difference on your price will actually mean in the long run.

Don't look at houses out of your range. You may end up falling in love with something that you can't afford.

Check your credit. Look for little things that can make a difference to your credit score that are in your control. For example, I made sure that all of my statement balances were at $0, since this is what is reported to the credit bureau, as opposed to the fact that you always pay your statement in full.

Don't make any sudden changes to your credit... now is not the time to buy a car, apply for a personal loan, up your credit card limits. I have known people to get in trouble here.

I had a mortgage broker... was a free service and they found a mortgage that suited us... might be another thing to consider.

Make sure that you can afford your mortgage if rates rise. Probably a no-brainer, but then again look at the recent crisis.

Last... everything is going to cost more than you budget for... my heat is higher than I planned, there is house insurance to consider... if you find rot in the front of the house and have to tear off all the siding and replace several beams etc, (like we did 3 weeks after moving in) there is no landlord to call, this is all on you. This was also not in the home inspection, as they can only look at what is visible, or on the surface. My home inspector was great, but he missed this.

Good luck!