No place like home

Fingers crossed in Oz, mac!

I think it might be yours!

Friends of mine have American Homeshield and are quite happy with it.
http://www.ahswarranty.com/

Good luck in your new home, mac!

mac, I don't know nuttin' about home owning. Need a repair? Call the super. But I'm keeping track of what's happening. Looking forward to your moving in to your new home. Excited for you.

I missed several updates somehow. Just chiming in with Mame that uneven floors aren't necessarily a concern, houses settle. We have all kinds of wackiness upstairs (one section is extremely uneven) and we had a (structural engineer? I forget, but someone who would know) come in and look at things and he said yeah, it definitely settled at some point in the past but it's been done for quite a while and we don't need to worry about further movement.

Our home inspector included costs of major repairs (the roof is the main one I remember), it was ballparked and turned out to be a bit low but he did provide it. (And we have an unusual roof that turned out to more expensive than most to replace.) The homeowners brought down their price by the amount the contractor estimated we'd need to fix the roof.

It seems like it's quite the buyers market right now, so this sort of thing should be doable (having the sellers reduce the price according to the cost of what you need to fix -- or has that window already closed?) And then you have some sort of a grace period of about a month when you can get all those repairs done before moving in -- the grace period that flippers like to make use of.

These sellers are very stubborn. They have barely budged from list price. I know I could walk away, but it doesn't seem worth it just to prove that point. And I'm not at all certain that they'd come chasing after me.

Their argument against coming down on the price to help me replace the A/C is that it's currently working and the electric bills aren't too bad. Also, they are required to pay for a year of a home warranty (my choice on the company and actual coverage) - I think they pay $400 towards it. So they're saying that the warranty will cover the A/C or other problems that might occur. But I'm reading the fine print and most of these policies have lots of exclusions - pre-existing conditions, lack of adequate maintenance, etc. All have a service fee per visit ($50-60 usually) and some also have deductibles.

Thanks for the input. I'll keep y'all posted.

who cares what their argument/motivation is? Get the "right" price or move on.

Good news today. The appraisal came back at $8000 more than the agreed-upon sales price. I'm amazed. I was fairly pessimistic about how that would go.

It was interesting to go back and re-read this thread. All the doom and gloom about the inspection has passed, and I'm excited again. It looks as though I'll definitely be closing in less than 5 weeks!

Five weeks! Have you started packing? Hahah! Where to start?

I need a list.

All right then!

Right. No I don't. I'm not moving.

Sorry Mac, carry on.

Whee!

And wonderful news about the appraisal. You're getting a deal!

mac, If I was the kind of person to say, "Yaaa hooooo," I would say it. But I'm not. Way to go, kid. I'm happy and excited for you.

congrats, mac...

Thanks guys! Minimal packing and sorting have been accomplished up till now, but it's time to kick it into high gear. I'll have a perfect rainy Saturday to stay in and get going this weekend.

A Spring closing/move is a joy (we moved in on June 16, 1995).





Congratulations, homeowner!

Congratulations!

Thanks everybody. I'm doing lots of online shopping - mostly rugs at the moment. I'm still forming an opinion about rugs.

Now that this house seems as though it's going to be mine, I will post some pics so you can see how nice it is.

Congrats.

This has been quite interesting to follow. It seems like the home-buying/vetting process is more different in the U.S. than I'd expected.