Buying and selling is not for wimps

17 years ago

No we did not sell our house yet but there are 2 families who came thru who were very interested.

No we were not able to fire our realtor. He flat out refused to let us out of our contract. In fact its been over a month since we gave him the new pics and no they are still not up yet...oh but he said they were great and would have his girl put them on the listing.

No we will not recomend him to anyone and yes I am filing 3 formal complaints with the Philadelphia board of realtors.

Yes we have lowered our asking price again and we are also offering to pay ALL closing cost and we are installing a brand new roof on Friday. The new lowered price is almost our rock bottom price so there isn't a lot of wiggle room left.

Yes we are going to list with the new guy Ed...in fact we are pre-signing the paperwork also on Friday since our old contract will end in mid week and we want the new listing up at 12:01am the very next day!

and finally....

YES we made an offer on the target house!!

The original price was $225.000

They dropped to $215.000

Then they dropped to $205.000

WE wrote the offer for $180.000

They took nearly a week to counter with $200.000

We countered thier counter with $185.000

They just re countered with $187.000 and get this-no fridge.

But they are willing to remove the house from the market until we sell so we are going to accept the offer...go to the scratch and dent place and buy a small fridge to get us by till we get our med benifit check in December.

HOPEFULLY either one of Johns families make us an offer of once Ed steps in gets us an offer.

All the homes around us are starting to sell so we are confident we are making the right moves.

I am still not about to start referring to the home as "ours" so I don't jinx myself!! LOL!!

Hopefully things will finally start going our way!!

Cheers!

Susie

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Comments (11)

marlingardener
17 years ago
Susie,
We do hope you get the home you want! Having gone through the "realtor from the nether regions" thing, we can sympathize. Just make it as uncomfortable for the realtor as possible, back up all your complaints with specific times, dates, names, etc. with the realty board, and also lodge a complaint with the state Attorney General. It won't do a bit of good with the AG, but when the paperwork arrives at the realty office, they get really excited!
If there is an Angie's List in your area, post on that, also, and send a copy to the realty office.
We got one realtor fired, another conceded his commission to us just to get us out of his hair, and we got the home we wanted and sold ours at a good price.
Hang in there, it does come to an end and you will be so happy in your new home!
susie_que
Original Author
17 years ago
I hope it comes to an end soon...We've been at this since mid october, had over 30 showings and no bids. Gosh its so frustrating!!

I am not bothered at all by the no fridge part. Its a nice fridge and I like it but I won't let it be a deal breaker.
The house is vacant, has been since November and since November the fridge has sat in an empty house....and now the owner wants it LOL!!
No worries...they can have it. They are accepting everything else so the fridge is just a minor thing.

There is this one thing our new realtor said...something about fridge with an icemaker, which is hooked up to a water line being a "fixture" as so must stay with the house.
Our realtor on the other side (shanen) was surprized we even knew about that little tidbit and said not too many people push that issue but indeed it is true. A stand alone fridge is an accessory but if it has a ice maker it is a fixture...who knew??

Keeping my fingers crossed for a buyer soon!!

Cheers!
Susie
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triciae
17 years ago
Susie,

The ice maker water line is considered "appurtenant" to the property.

I've seen people lose their BBQs because they lived in a windy area & had bolted them to their decks; hence, the BBQ became appurtenant. Pool tables almost always are considered permanent although noted separately in contracts.

We have one of those large 4-person double gliders with a table between the 2 benches & an awning over the top. It's huge. There's not a doubt in my mind that if we moved a buyer of our house would say, "Appurtenant!" at the glider saying it's too large to be considered "patio furniture"...they'd use the argument it's more like a shed & stays with the property. We knew that when we bought it. (sigh) We have a patio wall fountain that our kids gave us as a present. To get around the appurtenant thing we mounted a board on the side of the house & then attaching the fountain over the board making only the board appurtenant. OTOH, I foreclosed a construction loan & the borrowers/owners had a hand carved wood freize made for a niche in the wall by the front door. It was mounted directly into the framing. The borrowers/owners wanted that freize & sued the bank (and moi!) for it. Darned if the judge didn't allow them to take the freize even though it had been paid for via the construction loan & removing it left me with a hole in the side of the house. If there's anything you want to take from your existing house...be sure to exclude it in your listing agreement. My experience is that Courts usually err on the side of appurtenant, the above judge excluded! Darn him!

Congratulations on your offer being accepted! Thirty showings & no offers says there's something wrong...here's hoping your new REALTOR gets the job done!

/tricia
lindac
17 years ago
Crossing everything I can that your house sells soon!
I am also of the opinion that a house sells fasterw ith nothing in it...provided everything is clean.
Linda c
dedtired
17 years ago
Congratulations, Susie! I'm sure a buyer for your house will come along soon.
sally2_gw
17 years ago
I'm pulling for everything to go well for you both in the buying and the selling process. It never occurred to me that the fridge would stay with a house. For some reason, I've always thought of fridges as portable and moving with the seller, but stoves staying with the house. Hmmm. I guess it makes sense for the fridge to stay, especially if it matches the existing appliances and home.

Sally
lakeguy35
17 years ago
I hope it all goes well for y'all. I know you have had some challenges with your realtor and all but it seems between that and the lender they take all the "fun" out of buying/selling a house. The fridge almost never comes with house down here. A minor detail like you said. Hope it all comes together and works out.

David
doucanoe
17 years ago
Wishing you loads of luck in getting your place sold, Susie! And a hearty congratulations on getting the house you really want!

Sounds like things are finally falling into place.

Linda
caliloo
17 years ago
Fingers crossed for you Susie! I hope everything comes together. Seems the market has turned around ehre and things are starting to pop. May they pop quickly for you!

Alexa
cloudy_christine
17 years ago
Good luck, Susie. Sounds as if things are good with the house you want. Hard to figure out that realtor. If he wasn't going to make any effort, why not let the contract go? Strange.
susie_que
Original Author
17 years ago
Howdie all...not much new to report only that the owner on the Target home is selling the fridge to someone else so I was never gonna get it anyway.
Like I said I am cool with it.

I priced similar fridges yesterday and yowsers!!
Some are over $2500!!!

That was at Best Buy so I'll start looking at sale ads this weekend to see if I can save a buck or two!!

In the meantime I just sent out a bulk e mail to EVERY agent who showed the house over the past 6 months just letting them know the house is coming off the market in a weeks time (no I did not say it would be re-listed) and I let them know of the new lower asking price as well as the closing cost concession. I also slipped in a little tidbit about a new 10 yr roof with skylights with a written contract by 4-10-2009.

I closed with some finacial info...If someone buys my house by weeks end, with the new lowered price and closing cost concession, an FHA buyer would need less that $3000 at settlement to own this house. The mortgage would be about $600 (more or less) per month with is substantially less than renting a 1 bedroom apt in this area!!

HOPEFULLY we'll get some good news soon!!!

Cheers!
Susie

Buying and selling is not for wimps

Comments (11)

marlingardener

susie_que
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Buying and selling is not for wimps

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