House Mortgage -- Countdown

[snafu]

Welcome to SA. Your questions are very important and cause other immediate questions. 1st. What type of pension does your school district offer? Most common are 'Defined Benefit,' or 'Defined Contribution.'
Government employees all need to be very concerned because so many government operated pension programs are notoriously underfunded. The rules for these plans require extremely conservative investment strategies. When they originated, it was never anticipated that retirees would collect benefits for 35 plus years.

Yesterday, Social Security Trustees expressed serious concern about unfunded liability of the Social Security Program. Unless there are significant changes, the program will run out of money by 2034

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/govt-to-report-on-solvency-of-social-security-medicare/

At 26, it would be brilliant to begin contributing to a retirement program by one of the low cost providers like Vanguard's basic Index. These programs rely on automatic, monthly contributions compounded over the l-o-n-g term, automatically re-investing dividends/profit. If you choose the tax deductible, traditional retirement program there are tax consequences and penalties for early withdraw. If you choose ROTH, there is no tax deduction for.. more flexibility.

When sufficient sums have accumulated, allocation can be adjusted as you desire.

[Gailete]

Congrats Gail! Proud of you guys and your progress. A $525 mortgage? That is impressive. Hang in there!

Thank you!

My husband, with some help at various times, built our house on 3 acres given him by his dad. Much of what went into our house was recycled, reused items. I got a Loews coupon in the mail one day for 10% off of our purchase for up to $10K. We got it right when Katrina hit and we knew the cost of construction materials would be going up, so we went there and bought LOTS of what we needed including a fridge which had a rebate of the delivery cost which encompassed ALL of what we bought, a whole truck load including all the kitchen cupboards, drywall, etc. Also ended up with several cash refunds as well. Many of the recyled items are from the old school that he and my boys went to that was torn down (I grew up elsewhere). Hence I have marble countertops from recycled marble. When I called to get fire insuramce on this house that cost ~$100K to build, the insurance folks wanted it insured for $500K. I finally mangaged to get them down to ~$350K as we wouldn't have been able to live in the place with insurance that expensive. Insurance companies don't care where you initially got your marble for kitchen counters, they have to be sure you can get them again! Etc. So we have a great house for not much, but it is all we can afford. I hope to get the paperwork ready for her tomorrow and get the show on the road. I just hope it all works out. Very excited at the propect of a lower mortgage, but you can maybe see why when someone is spending $2K/month on RENT, I about swallow my teeth!

[Randomsaver]

I'm trying to avoid drama but this buyer is the worst. A few days prior to closing buyer asks I pay $5K on closing cost. I'm just fuming right now. Things like these should be discussed in the offer NOT a few days before closing. I had already moved and tired myself out. I even have plans tonight to mow the lawn of the house after my work.

[Jluke]

I'm trying to avoid drama but this buyer is the worst. A few days prior to closing buyer asks I pay $5K on closing cost. I'm just fuming right now. Things like these should be discussed in the offer NOT a few days before closing. I had already moved and tired myself out. I even have plans tonight to mow the lawn of the house after my work.

up the price by 5k?

what does your realtor say?

[Gailete]

I'm trying to avoid drama but this buyer is the worst. A few days prior to closing buyer asks I pay $5K on closing cost. I'm just fuming right now. Things like these should be discussed in the offer NOT a few days before closing. I had already moved and tired myself out. I even have plans tonight to mow the lawn of the house after my work.

Does this mean that they are backing out?

When we sold a house once and the new buyer saw the settlement sheet that we were getting something like $40K from the sale they were upset because we had already said we couldn't afford to replace a sliding glass door in the family room! Like what business is it of theirs what kind of money we walked away with. Some of you may remember that I was married for a short time to a man that in no time flat had gotten us $40K+ in non-mortgage debt in barely a year. I had also had a worker's comp payout of $20K that I had put into the down payment. But after things were finalized after the sale, because of the huge debt, I walked away with barely $1K after all the bills were paid off and a divorce because I couldn’t live with a man that refused to stop spending – as long as there was credit available on a card he figured he could buy whatever he wanted! So, NO to the buyer that thought we would be swimming in money, we couldn't afford one more thing! At that point, I was making $1100/month minimum payments on cc bills!

This sort of thing should never be brought up right before a closing. That is a come on to prospective buyers, not a gift you give them when you are already selling for rock bottom, which if I remember correctly, is what you are doing. I've only ever heard of this in the initial selling info, that the buyer will chip in money for closing, or money for new carpeting, etc. I hope you stick to your guns as this wasn't part of the selling price!

[greenskeeper]

I'm trying to avoid drama but this buyer is the worst. A few days prior to closing buyer asks I pay $5K on closing cost. I'm just fuming right now. Things like these should be discussed in the offer NOT a few days before closing. I had already moved and tired myself out. I even have plans tonight to mow the lawn of the house after my work.

Say "no" and if they balk you get to keep the EMD.

[amarowsky]

62.6/75K on 6/11/2017

New budget is working well! Added an additional $1000 on top of our normal additional payment. Knocked out $1500 on top of my normal mortgage payment.

61.8/75K on 7/19/17.

Just the (now normal) $500 on top....

The Mrs. and I just got central A/C installed $3.2k and got back from 2 week vacay in europe that we had to pay an extra $2500. So because of our $4.7k extra expenses this month, we will abstain from additional surplus payment this (and probably next) month. Still trending in right direction!

[Randomsaver]

up the price by 5k?

what does your realtor say?

Does this mean that they are backing out?

To push through with the deal, I agreed to shouldering $2.5K and the rest be divided by the brokers (aka agents). With that, we're still set to close on the 21st and hoping no more major surprises.

[snafu]

What a dirty trick! I presume this was part of buyer's strategy, as your desire to sell quickly was somehow revealed. I wonder if the buyer's agent has been cited in the past for questionable ethics. Was your initial position 'no'? I'm sure both agents would have done serious maneuvering had they believed their entire commission would vanish.

After your incredible effort to pay down the mortgage, I'm so sorry you've swallowed a $ 2.5 K reduction in payout. I'm not very impressed with your agent, I'd never use that individual for a future purchase or recommend to others going forward.

[Gailete]

What a dirty trick! I presume this was part of buyer's strategy, as your desire to sell quickly was somehow revealed. I wonder if the buyer's agent has been cited in the past for questionable ethics. Was your initial position 'no'? I'm sure both agents would have done serious maneuvering had they believed their entire commission would vanish.

After your incredible effort to pay down the mortgage, I'm so sorry you've swallowed a $ 2.5 K reduction in payout. I'm not very impressed with your agent, I'd never use that individual for a future purchase or recommend to others going forward.

I agree with that. That should have been on the table the whole time, not brought up the last few days before the closing!

[dbow2000]

I know in AL, the seller usually pays commission for both realtors. Could you drop their realtors percentage by that amount? - sorry just saw your latest post

[Randomsaver]

What a dirty trick! I presume this was part of buyer's strategy, as your desire to sell quickly was somehow revealed. I wonder if the buyer's agent has been cited in the past for questionable ethics. Was your initial position 'no'? I'm sure both agents would have done serious maneuvering had they believed their entire commission would vanish.

After your incredible effort to pay down the mortgage, I'm so sorry you've swallowed a $ 2.5 K reduction in payout. I'm not very impressed with your agent, I'd never use that individual for a future purchase or recommend to others going forward.

I agree with that. That should have been on the table the whole time, not brought up the last few days before the closing!

Dirty trick no doubt. I wouldn't recommend my agent also. They waited for me to fully move out and dropped it on the last day.

The thing is, the earnest money is only beneficial to the seller when he/she has not moved out yet. This means that if the buyer asks for credit and threatens to walk away, the seller can say no and get the earnest money clean of any expenses.

However, with what happened to me, the move out and move in expenses along with all the hassles not just for me but for my kids as well and also to our lives - work, school, etc., offsets any benefit from the earnest money. It becomes a payment to the hassle and costs incurred.

There ought to be hopefully a policy against such maneuvering, where if any party (buyer or seller) decides to change the contract in the last 7days from closing date, that a penalty be applied, so as to discourage it.

[Gailete]

There ought to be hopefully a policy against such maneuvering, where if any party (buyer or seller) decides to change the contract in the last 7days from closing date

What is the point of having a 'contract' if it can be changed at the last minute? Especially if the buyer is wanting immediate occupancy. Most times from the closing the prior owner has 30 days to get out, so they wouldn't be able to try that scam. I think the realtor should have been held to the contract or pay the difference themselves in a case like this. That should stop them from encouraging dirty deals like this at the last minute.

When a company treated me bad one evening, I told everyone I knew. Within 6 months the place was closed. Not I'm sure from my dissatisfication but from all the accumulated dissatisfacations of their customers. I can't remember the stas on it, but if a company makes a customer happy, the customer will maybe tell a few people, but treat you like garbage they might tell hundreds. Hard to retract bad reviews after the fact.

[disneysteve]

What is the point of having a 'contract' if it can be changed at the last minute?

Bingo.

This is the same question that applies to TexasHusker's thread about people booking his rental homes and cancelling last minute.

People need to take responsibility for their actions. They need to read and understand what they are signing BEFORE they sign it. And once they sign it, they need to abide by what they've agreed to.

[greenskeeper]

The EMD money is there. If it wasn't enough to cover the hassle of a failed closing then you could have rejected the original offer and asked for more EMD.