I came across Needs 'Tlc' when seeing a house. Some sites(might be a
joke) says its a major structural damage. Is that true?

"vensub" writes:

I came across Needs 'Tlc' when seeing a house. Some sites(might be a
joke) says its a major structural damage. Is that true?

Tender loving care. That's realtor-ese for being in ****ty condition.

Now, if you're the sort that turns sweat into equity, it may be for
you--a real fixer upper. If, however, you're looking to move in and
enjoy, you'll want to pass on that listing.

Best Regard,s
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

TLC can mean anything but generally, as the previous poster mentioned,
means that the house is in beat-up condition. May be a formal rental.
If you look into one, get the buyer's disclosure up front and if the
buyer says "don't know", walk away, they're trying to hide something
horrible. Also, when you get down to being serious about a house, it
pays to have a home inspection ($350 or so) BEFORE you make an offer.
If the home sucks , drop your price enough to make it worth it.

If there's evidence of standing water (like in a crawl space),
carpenter ants, or termites, walk away.

And use an attorney !

(Basically don't make all the mistakes I've made...)

In article .com,
wrote:

TLC can mean anything but generally, as the previous poster mentioned,
means that the house is in beat-up condition. May be a formal rental.
If you look into one, get the buyer's disclosure up front and if the
buyer says "don't know", walk away, they're trying to hide something
horrible. Also, when you get down to being serious about a house, it
pays to have a home inspection ($350 or so) BEFORE you make an offer.
If the home sucks , drop your price enough to make it worth it.


You can just make your offer contingent on the results of the
inspection.


If there's evidence of standing water (like in a crawl space),
carpenter ants, or termites, walk away.


It's not a big deal if there's evidence of termites, at least here in
CA.



Dimitri

Yes, you can make your offer contingent on the inspection, but IMO
(fwiw) having that inspection up front saves time and eliminates
potential legal headaches. I made a bid on a house that looked to be
in good, not great condition. Nice neighborhood, people had lived
there for some time, house was clean, etc. I made the offer contingent
on inspection, and the inspection found a leak in the roof, electrical
code violations, and more importantly, the flues from both the gas
furnace and water heater were run very close to wooden floor joists,
totally against code. SO several weeks and a visit to an attorney
later, I got my escrow back, but what a pain in the ass that was.

Also at least in this state, buyers are made to sign a standard offer
contract that says words to the effect that only a 'serious' problem
found in inspection can warrant reneging on the deal. Buyers are
intimidated into overlooking things that are clearly problematic. The
real estate industry (Realtors - TM) cares about one thing - getting
people to buy houses. They don't give a rat's ass about safety or the
condition of the house, even when acting as a buyer's agent. They just
want the sale. This may seem antagonistic or negative but it's
happened to myself and friends often enough to be a pattern.

Someone buying a home for the first time will generally be just as
screwed by a Realtor (TM) as someone going to buy a used car for the
first time. Both groups are slime, it's just that the Realtors (TM)
have a national organization that tried to pump up their image.

There's about a million real estate agents in the US. If everything
were on the Internet we'd need about one-tenth that many.

Darn it, I got so long-winded I forgot my main point !

That contract used in purchases here says that only problems found on
inspection that jeopardize the health, value, or longevity of the house
are rto be considered serious enough to cancel a deal. The inspection
mentioned above found about 40 things wrong. My attorney said to hit
them with most of them. A slight leak can become a big leak. A wiring
connection made outside a breaker box could start a fire (though I
realize if every non-code electrical hookup caused a fire then the
world be ablaze.) Etc. Anyhoo, caveat emptor.

writes:

Yes, you can make your offer contingent on the inspection, but IMO
(fwiw) having that inspection up front saves time and eliminates
potential legal headaches.

But....it costs money, and you don't even know if your offer will be
accepted though. And you may find a buyer unwilling to allow access
for a full home inspection if they don't even have an offer contract
and earnest to assure that you're serious, and something of value to
hang onto t omake sure some pair of charlatans don't destroy their
funace in their "inspection" prior to presenting any legal instrument
or earnest money. You sure as heck wouldn't be setting foot in my
house with an inspector unless you were bound to an offer contract
that spelled out inspection parameters including licensure of the
inspector, and came with some earnest money.

I made a bid on a house that looked to be in good, not great
condition. Nice neighborhood, people had lived there for some time,
house was clean, etc. I made the offer contingent on inspection,
and the inspection found a leak in the roof, electrical code
violations, and more importantly, the flues from both the gas
furnace and water heater were run very close to wooden floor joists,
totally against code. SO several weeks and a visit to an attorney
later, I got my escrow back, but what a pain in the ass that was.

One person's "pain in the ass" is another person's "that's the way it
works" I suppose.

Also at least in this state, buyers are made to sign a standard offer
contract that says words to the effect that only a 'serious' problem
found in inspection can warrant reneging on the deal. Buyers are
intimidated into overlooking things that are clearly problematic.

Northern Illinois's wording is different. They restrict arguable
defects to items that are not performing the job they are designed to
do, and matters of health and safety.

I walked from a deal after inspection just a few months ago--leaking
windows discovered on inspection due to lack of caulking maintenance,
several had sill rot (but nice white paint over the rotted and bondo'd
sills) and needed a lot of repair. The buyer wasn't willing to give
enough credit at closing to compensate us for doing what we'd need to
do to each and every window, so we terminated the contract. We got
our escrow money back with no issue, and it took all of 15min of my
attorney's time. The escrow check came a couple weeks later.

The real estate industry (Realtors - TM) cares about one thing -
getting people to buy houses.

That's true. And it's important for people to keep in mind even when
dealing with their "buyer's agent." He may be "your" agent, but he's
not working really for you. He may be representing you in the
transaction, but by definition, he gets paid when and if you close.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

"Todd H." wrote in message ...
writes:

Yes, you can make your offer contingent on the inspection, but IMO
(fwiw) having that inspection up front saves time and eliminates
potential legal headaches.

But....it costs money, and you don't even know if your offer will be
accepted though. And you may find a buyer unwilling to allow access
for a full home inspection if they don't even have an offer contract
and earnest to assure that you're serious, and something of value to
hang onto t omake sure some pair of charlatans don't destroy their
funace in their "inspection" prior to presenting any legal instrument
or earnest money. You sure as heck wouldn't be setting foot in my
house with an inspector unless you were bound to an offer contract
that spelled out inspection parameters including licensure of the
inspector, and came with some earnest money.

Your choice, of course, but remember that you need the buyer more than they
need you, in most cases. I got an inspection done prior to making an offer
on this place, mainly as a negotiating technique, and it worked well.
Inspection didn't really tell me anything I already didn't know (I grew up
in construction), but having the realtor drop that fat report on table took
the steam out of their asking price. I took their asking, which would have a
tolerable-but-not-great price if no repairs were needed, subtracted out a
generous SWAG of repair costs, and started from there. Previous owners had
already moved to their new house, and the wife was fed up with the process,
so their counteroffer was only a token amount above my bid. I knew interest
rates were about to rise, so I decided it was a price I could live with.
Pretty painless as these things go.

aem sends...

"ameijers" writes:

"Todd H." wrote in message ...
writes:

Yes, you can make your offer contingent on the inspection, but IMO
(fwiw) having that inspection up front saves time and eliminates
potential legal headaches.

But....it costs money, and you don't even know if your offer will be
accepted though. And you may find a buyer unwilling to allow access
for a full home inspection if they don't even have an offer contract
and earnest to assure that you're serious, and something of value to
hang onto t omake sure some pair of charlatans don't destroy their
funace in their "inspection" prior to presenting any legal instrument
or earnest money. You sure as heck wouldn't be setting foot in my
house with an inspector unless you were bound to an offer contract
that spelled out inspection parameters including licensure of the
inspector, and came with some earnest money.

Your choice, of course, but remember that you need the buyer more
than they need you, in most cases.

Those would have to be pretty desperate sellers. Kudos to you on
pulling it off, but I'd have to think most people under the advisement
of an attorney or a realtor would tell you to go fly.

I know that a "discerning" potential buyer (or their inspector) sure
as heck isn't taking 3-5 hours of my time, taking the panel off my
breaker box, getting into my attic, getting on my roof, or touching
the access cover to my furnace without a written offer contract in
place and earnest money put forward to let me know that they're not
just screwin around.

Previous owners had already moved to their new house, and the wife
was fed up with the process, so their counteroffer was only a token
amount above my bid. I knew interest rates were about to rise, so I
decided it was a price I could live with. Pretty painless as these
things go.

These folks boxed themselves into a bad situation and were desperate
indeed. I imagine you worked a great deal!

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Yup, that is something I hadn't considered - where I am, it's a buyer's
market, as much of the midwest US is. In a seller's market, doing an
inspection before the offer wouldn't be well-accepted.

On Sat, 04 Feb 2006 19:05:58 GMT, "ameijers"
wrote:


"Todd H." wrote in message ...
writes:

Yes, you can make your offer contingent on the inspection, but IMO
(fwiw) having that inspection up front saves time and eliminates
potential legal headaches.

But....it costs money, and you don't even know if your offer will be
accepted though. And you may find a buyer unwilling to allow access
for a full home inspection if they don't even have an offer contract
and earnest to assure that you're serious, and something of value to
hang onto t omake sure some pair of charlatans don't destroy their
funace in their "inspection" prior to presenting any legal instrument
or earnest money. You sure as heck wouldn't be setting foot in my
house with an inspector unless you were bound to an offer contract
that spelled out inspection parameters including licensure of the
inspector, and came with some earnest money.

Your choice, of course, but remember that you need the buyer more than they
need you, in most cases. I got an inspection done prior to making an offer
on this place, mainly as a negotiating technique, and it worked well.
Inspection didn't really tell me anything I already didn't know (I grew up
in construction), but having the realtor drop that fat report on table took
the steam out of their asking price. I took their asking, which would have a
tolerable-but-not-great price if no repairs were needed, subtracted out a
generous SWAG of repair costs, and started from there. Previous owners had
already moved to their new house, and the wife was fed up with the process,
so their counteroffer was only a token amount above my bid. I knew interest
rates were about to rise, so I decided it was a price I could live with.
Pretty painless as these things go.

aem sends...


I don't know what state Todd H. is from but in Texas, contracts are
written to the effect that the inspection is part of the contract.
Inotherwords it agrees with Todd for the reasons he stated. I
personally agree with him too !!

mad hatter® writes:

I don't know what state Todd H. is from but in Texas, contracts are
written to the effect that the inspection is part of the contract.
Inotherwords it agrees with Todd for the reasons he stated. I
personally agree with him too !!

I'm in Northern Illinois. An inspection clause is part of our
standard northern illionis board contract, though there are a few
flavors of it running around here.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

In article .com,
wrote:

Yes, you can make your offer contingent on the inspection, but IMO
(fwiw) having that inspection up front saves time and eliminates
potential legal headaches.


Hmm. I think making the offer contigent on inspection saves time and
money, since you won't bother inspecting a house you didn't even have
an accepted offer on. Further, while you are piddling around with your
inspection (which the seller may or may not agree to) a buyer may come
in and snatch the property from you.


Dimitri

In article ,
ameijers wrote:

Your choice, of course, but remember that you need the buyer more than they
need you, in most cases.


Actually, in most cases the buyer needs the seller more. Why? Because
a house is a unique item. If you don't buy a particular house then
there won't be another exactly like it. Buyers, on the other hand,
are all the same. Another one will be along eventually.


Dimitri