The appraisal is FINALLY in...9,000 above our agreed upon price! Woo-Hoo! I was so relieved. My realtor said this should put a smile on the buyer's face and a zipper on his lip. We shall see. And, yes, we had set dates for inspection, appraisal, etc., and he ALWAYS goes past the dates by waiting until the day before the due date to schedule it and then it buys him another week or so and then he had his inspections split in two sessions. The news about the appraisal came in very late today so I hope this makes him (and my realtor) realize we are not going to do anything other than what is actually considered a contractual requirement to get this deal accomplished and if we need to start over we will. I hope he straightens up and doesn't do like I think many of us agree is possible and continue to be demanding even past the closing/final walk through. I guess I would just walk away from it and start over. I think I'm going to take the weekend off and just enjoy the appraisal news and not worry about anything else. Thanks again for all you guys and your advice/stories. They help more than you know!! I share each one with my husband. It's been just great!

I can bet that out of that $40,000, the government gets a large chunk of it now. Yep, between permits and engineering reviews and inspection fees, regulatory departments have become governmental profit centers. It started as "don't worry about the cost of this new proposed department, we won't raise your taxes, we'll fund it with user fees." So Joe Taxpayer feels ok, because hey, the department is going to regulate something which will keep me safe. And it won't cost me anything. So Joe Plumber pays the user fees. So he has to raise his rates, so Joe Taxpayer now pays more for plumbing. But hey, at least his taxes didn't go up. :-/

A home you really love, but you could fall out of love by not making any money? So are you buying a home simply to make money? Did you make money by renting the apartment? I am merely twisting what you said in the original post to give you a bit more clarity or an observation from the outside if you will. Everyone makes mistakes when buying real estate for the first time. At the end of the day it's still a box on a piece of land. You pay taxes on it, you insure it, you make repairs to it. One expense people often don't look at is the cost of moving. Closing costs. The costs it takes to get your foot in the front door. The people who lived here before you (3 years) probably losing money. 3 Years is not enough time to recoup closing costs among other expenses, sometimes it's unavoidable - job changes, death, divorce and so on. You stand a better chance of turning a profit, if you change your philosophy of how you treat your home and how long you live there. But nothing is without risk. Just because you do this or do that doesn't mean you will make money. Loan costs: Will you be on a 30 year fixed mortgage? If you only live at this property 8 years, depending on how much you are putting down. You won't have much equity built into the home in 8 years. You should be putting down 20% to avoid MIP insurance. That can shave some good coin off your monthly mortgage payments. Given this is your first home, this may not be possible. Remember these are mistakes you learn as you go. Time corrects things. The longer you can stay in this home (without moving and incurring sales expenses in the form of closing costs) the better the likelihood you will profit from this home, but profit should not be your only motive. (It's your home.) If you start updating and fixing things with this home, you stand a better chance of recouping those costs thru usage. Nearly everything has a 15 to 20 year life cycle if you buy quality. You won't recoup these expenses living here a mere 8 years, unless the area becomes a sought after place to live and prices in the area jump. Don't count on that though. As said earlier forget the home warranty, put the money you would spend on a home warranty in a low cost index fund or dividend paying stock. If you are getting a 30 year fixed mortgage: pay an extra $20 or more per month and have them credit principal of the loan. This will increase your equity in the home faster. If you are getting an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage): be wary of the reset. Interest rates will likely keep going up. This can be a more expensive type loan over the long term.

Just some input from someone who currently has quite a few tenants and has been dealing with unusual situations this past year. First, the Texas moratorium on detainers ends on March 31st, that only includes detainers for non-payment and so other types of evictions are allowed. However, on March 31st the flood gates are probably going to open up so be cautious depending on scheduling something after that. A forcible detainer action is expensive and the former tenants do not surrender their property. Typically some legal representative, in our area it is a Sheriff, shows up at the property and removes the tenant and waits until all their property is removed from the rental. You pay the sheriff an hourly rate here of $50 per hour and there is a time limit (here it is four hours). During that four hours you must completely clear the home of all furnishings and clothing and place them on the curb. You may not take anything that has been abandoned without a separate court hearing and order. Generally, speaking a detainer action will cost me more than two months rent as I have to pay the sheriff, the movers, and the attorney. It is almost always easier and cheaper to pay the tenants to vacate. There is currently a law that went into effect in September 2020 that allows tenants who are ill to refuse any inspection if anyone in the home is ill. It specifically notes that tenants need not have Covid and can't be compelled to provide proof of Covid for reasonable delays to inspection. The attorney who does all my detainers sent a mass mailing out to all his clients in September notifying us. I have no idea how this has since been tested in court, but I do know I wouldn't listen to the legal expertise of your realtor or theirs right now. Right now being a landlord is a crazy mess, there are state laws and conflicting Federal laws. If these tenants and all of their things are not removed from the property I wouldn't even consider closing right now. I have thirty years in the rental game and you couldn't pay me to even consider buying a house with a tenant in it right now. Good luck.