Escrow has been opened on House 3 and the inspection is supposed to be happening today. I will be getting a fax of the signed contract and the earnest money receipt sometime today. I'm glad to see the inspection is happening just one day after escrow was opened. The buyer is not selling a house to buy this one, so perhaps she is hurrying to get into the place before the first of the month so she doesn't have to pay August rent. (Not to mention collecting the $50/day credit I am giving her for closing early).
In other news, I am embarking on new REI venture that is exciting and somewhat scary... I won't say much now because nothing is finalized, but I will say it involves commercial real estate in another state.
House 3: Two Offers Received
While I was in Las Vegas last weekend, my Realtor got two offers for the property. One was for full price with a 3% seller contribution. The buyer pays for the home inspection and I am to pay for a home warranty at a cost not to exceed $350. The buyer put up $1,000 earnest money and is getting a 100% loan. The good news is, even though the contract says the buyer wants to close around mid-August, the agent said they would be willing to close sooner if possible. So we counter offered with using my title agency (for discounted title insurance for me), the earnest money is to be non-refundable after the inspection period, and a clause that said the seller will credit $50 per day to the buyer for each day before the specified close of escrow date that we close but the sales price goes up by $50 for each day after the specified close of escrow date that we close. No response yet to the counter offer.
The second offer with almost identical to the first except the sales price was $5,000 below the list price. We didn't even bother responding to that one.
On a side note, my agent told me the only properties she is seeing offers on right now are those in the $215,000 and under price range.
The second offer with almost identical to the first except the sales price was $5,000 below the list price. We didn't even bother responding to that one.
On a side note, my agent told me the only properties she is seeing offers on right now are those in the $215,000 and under price range.
For The 30 And Under Crowd
I came across the Penny Foolish blog, written by Kira, a young recent college grad just starting out on her financial education. What caught my eye was the Festival of Under 30 Finances she is putting together. (More info here.) She is soliciting articles about financial issues relevant to people under 30 years old. I think this is a great idea and I hope it is a success! If you have something relevant to contribute, please submit it to her.
House 3: Security Update
I stopped by the property this morning on the way to work. We had a monsoon last night with not a lot of rain, but lots of wind, at least where I live, and wanted to make sure the property was ok. I also needed to make my weekly visit to check on it and make sure it hasn't been broken into again. The fact that I had a dream a couple nights ago that someone had broken in and graffiti-ed the inside also had me a bit nervous.
I was pleased to see everything looked good. Over the weekend, I used the free $25 Lowes gift card I got when I bought the stove to purchase another padlock for the back gate and five paper temporary window blinds. I now have window coverings on all the front-facing windows and all the windows on the side of the house. I need about 4 more blinds to cover the windows in the back of the house, but I'm not as concerned about those as I was about the ones in the front.
Looking back, I think the backyard is where people were getting into the house. Of course, the window they got in through was facing the backyard, but I finally realized that, because there is an alley behind the house, vandals were probably getting in through the gate in the backyard. The gate is rather large and has two openings. The whole thing slides open wide enough so you can drive a car in. This is how the stolen car got in. The other gate is a standard width gate set into the sliding portion. The last time I was there, I only locked the sliding gate because I only had one padlock. The pedestrian gate I did not lock, but there was a latch that I shut and the only way someone could unlatch it would be to break through the fence. Since the fence has wooden slats, this is a possibility. So this time I also put a lock on the pedestrian gate so it could not be opened either. The backyard is also fairly large, so I don't think you could look over the fence into the uncovered windows and see the place was empty with a fair degree of certainty. Either way, I am still going to put some more blinds up, but all in all, I feel better about the security of the place. Also, the blinds give the house much better curb appeal.
Unfortunately, the streets in the neighborhood are still all torn up for construction, so buyer traffic may suffer. The house next door, which is being remodeled, has wood over the front windows one of the pieces of wood has had a big face spray painted on it. That probably won't help my place sell either.
I was pleased to see everything looked good. Over the weekend, I used the free $25 Lowes gift card I got when I bought the stove to purchase another padlock for the back gate and five paper temporary window blinds. I now have window coverings on all the front-facing windows and all the windows on the side of the house. I need about 4 more blinds to cover the windows in the back of the house, but I'm not as concerned about those as I was about the ones in the front.
Looking back, I think the backyard is where people were getting into the house. Of course, the window they got in through was facing the backyard, but I finally realized that, because there is an alley behind the house, vandals were probably getting in through the gate in the backyard. The gate is rather large and has two openings. The whole thing slides open wide enough so you can drive a car in. This is how the stolen car got in. The other gate is a standard width gate set into the sliding portion. The last time I was there, I only locked the sliding gate because I only had one padlock. The pedestrian gate I did not lock, but there was a latch that I shut and the only way someone could unlatch it would be to break through the fence. Since the fence has wooden slats, this is a possibility. So this time I also put a lock on the pedestrian gate so it could not be opened either. The backyard is also fairly large, so I don't think you could look over the fence into the uncovered windows and see the place was empty with a fair degree of certainty. Either way, I am still going to put some more blinds up, but all in all, I feel better about the security of the place. Also, the blinds give the house much better curb appeal.
Unfortunately, the streets in the neighborhood are still all torn up for construction, so buyer traffic may suffer. The house next door, which is being remodeled, has wood over the front windows one of the pieces of wood has had a big face spray painted on it. That probably won't help my place sell either.
