bec - they wanted $10K in light fixtures allowance? WOW! Sounds like you had a bad realtor. The 2nd offer could have easily been countered rather than flat out rejected. Response: Yes, it was countered and we couldn't reach an agreement. She wanted 50K under the asking or 40K + 10K in a lighting allowance. I think we countered with 25K (meeting her half-way) under asking and she wouldn't budge. Hope the price drop works for you. Before you drop the price, counter back to this offer without the selling contingency to see what happens. If they don't accept, then reduce your price. You may want to reduce your price in the counter, remove the selling contingency and make it firm and final. Don't flat out reject this one - try to make it work. Response: Yes--we countered with 20K off the asking price, no-contingencies, 2 month close, which should give them time to sell their property. Agent has been instructed to lower the price on Friday if the counter is not accepted. Where I am, the earnest money check accompanies the offer to purchase and is deposited into an escrow account upon acceptance of the contract by all parties, if that is not the case where you are (i.e. NY etc.), you do have a problem. Response: Same where we live. We attribute the oversight to the buyer/seller agent. Somehow, he didn't put down escrow money even though it was in the contract and the agent wasn't able to contact him during the 2 week contingency period. At the end of the 2 weeks when the contingency period ended and he still hadn't put down escrow money and wasn't returning calls from the buyer/seller agent, we knew the offer wasn't going to go through. We blame our agent for allowing this situation to occur. Earnest money should be refundable, if through no fault of the buyer the buyer canÂt purchase the house, or, it becomes non-refundable after an acceptable appraisal, inspection, removal of financing contingency etc. Response: Yes, I agree. We have bought and sold several properties and homes so I am familiar with how escrow money works. We've always put down escrow money at the signing of the contract and had a refundable period. It becomes non-refundable after a certain time period when all the inspections, etc. are done. We weren't about to get burned twice by the same buyer, though, which is why we requested that the escrow money be non-refundable. He previously took the house off the market for 2 weeks only to disappear and not go through with the purchase. I think we were entirely reasonable in our request for non-refundable ernest money.

I was in the real estate business for a while a couple decades back. I've seen basically two kinds of FSBOs. The first kind is the person who is knowledgeable about the real estate transaction. Maybe they've done it before a couple times. Their house is in good condition, they have it priced correctly. There are no marketing issues, etc. They feel like the house will sell itself, especially when they consider that they have priced the house to split the transaction savings with any potential buyer. The second FSBO is the bitter old crank. This person resents the fact that they have to pay to sell their house. The house might be a little iffy in fact, but they think it's in perfect condition. They are looking for something for nothing. They have an unrealistic expectation of the value of their home. They think selling a house is a piece of cake (yet they don't seem to know the first thing about how to actually get the transaction done). Your FSBO might tend towards the latter, as opposed to the former. Buyer beware.

Make sure your $/sf estimates are current. 1/1/20 we have new CA codes & energy requirements including solar and high performance walls/attic/windows - $10-30K. Have a recommended builder walk the property with you and discuss costs and budgets. Maybe they have a recommended architect. Ask the seller to disclose what they know about utilities (water, sewer, ele, gas) and if they are already stubbed into the property. Likely yes if it previously had a home. 50/50 if it is a new property split in two and unlikely if its excess property split from an existing remaining home. Visit the building department and get a good understanding of any conditions that have to be met in order to build. If the seller was involved in the split, they will have a copy of the conditions. Find out the permitting costs including all the required impact fees. With a sloped lot, there will be a civil engineering requirement. Architecture, utilities, slope costs, landscaping, and costs to meet split conditions are not usually included in $___ per foot guesstimates, so plan your budget accordingly so there are fewer surprises after design. Good luck!

I agree with the observation that all home inspector reports I've seen lately have pages and pages of boilerplate. I think this is for three reasons: 1) many things are pretty common from house to house; 2) it makes it easier to produce a superficially impressive document by pulling up standardized sections that are available in their report software; and 3) a lot of the language relates to enumerating all the things they didn't do or can't know (like take off the electrical panel cover to inspect the wiring, or inspect plumbing in the walls, or provide assurances that there are no insect infestations anywhere, etc.). I get this...they don't have X-ray vision, they don't want to take things apart, and they can't see hidden defects. The problem is that people think that a home inspector will ferret out most/all of a home's problems, when in fact many inspections are more limited than people realize. This is further underlined by the many disclaimers in most reports, and by a statement in most contracts that the maximum liability of the inspector is the cost of the inspection. I've had both good inspectors and those who knew less than I did...so I always approach these reports with a level of skepticism