Hey all,

Made a classic mistake, apparently.

Seller accepted our offer after about a year of super active house hunting. Seller hasn't updated anything in 20 years. Roof has issues, and there is a failed skylight. My cousin is a roofer and will put a new roof on after close; that was the plan. Radeon failed badly. Plumbing is all polybutylene on city water. We asked for a seller concession of 3% in closing costs for the deferred maintenance. Seller countered at 2%. We accepted.

My wife had received a direct email from the mortgage company asking us to upload ALL SELLER ADDENDUMS, and we had uploaded everything that was signed as requested by the lender. They specifically had asked us for any seller concessions.

Went to underwriting. Loan went contingent. Everyone, including our agent, is now absolutely pissed at us for complicating things.

We had 3 major asks. A roof inspection, a plumbing inspection, and radon mitigation.

Seller knew a guy and paid for the plumbing inspection. They then sent a demand to our realtor for us to pay the bill. Feeling bad, and trying to show some good faith, I paid the seller $525 for the inspection and plumbing fixes. I figure we are both worried about the other backing out, and we will both increase our skin in the game as a show of good will.

Roof was today. We have no specific invoices yet. Im starting to feel a bit anxious now. Im not wanting to pay to fix this fellas roof for a house I dont own.

More importantly, seller is asking us to schedule and pay for, in full, the Radon system. This is going to put me, at minimum, around $2500 in fixing this guy's house.

Close is August 6. We offered a full month of tenancy. Our current lease ends Sept 14th. Were kind of at the wire here.

This is a $400k house, and im pretty tired of looking, this is literally the best house we seen for the money, and so id like to salvage this.

Seller said "im not really in a rush to sell, so you can either pay or you need to get another lender."

What say you, reddit? Torpedo the deal over $2k, put my own living situation into a crisis, or how can I approach this?

This whole thing is feeling sketchy, financially risky, and exploitative, but we're kind of really wanting to be done with this.

My gf comes from a family where a lot of her family lives together. Multiple families in one home (grandparents, cousins, mom, and nephews). I grew up very differently where it was only my immediate family that lived together. When I was a kid grandma had moved in until she had passed but that was it. My gf mom is inheriting the home her family currently lives in but is horrible with money. Multiple credit cards in debt and doesn't budget her money well. Now to the point of this post. When we purchase our home I want to have a contract that states we will not allow anyone to move in with us. Only our parents if they are ill to where they can no longer take care of themselves. Lastly, my gf is the bread winner in her family. If they need money they always go to her. I can see this being a problem in the future if the house was to get behind on bills and they're at risk of losing it. This has happened before btw. I want to avoid any future fights because I will not be ok with any of her family moving in because they fell on hard times. They also don't make a lot of money and are not motivated to do better financially

EDIT I have had at least 6 discussions with my gf about me not wanting to have any of our family living with us. The only exception would be if our parents are ill and would not be able to take care of themselves.

My wife and I just signed a contract yesterday for a condo that's right at the high end of our budget thanks to its big HOA, which admittedly covers all utilities except electric and also covers amenities like a pool, a gym, a 24 hr doorman etc.

We discovered today that there’s a pretty large residential construction project planned for a huge lot directly south of the building. It's been approved by the city but there's no official start date yet. Our unit faces south and is on the 5th floor (the condo building has 39 floors). The proposed project will consist of 2 buildings, one of which will be 25 floors and directly to the south of us and one of which will be 10 floors and slightly closer but more southeast of us. There are older, smaller buildings already in that spot that will need to be demolished first. Because we're on such a low floor, even though the larger building will be 175 feet away from us, the structure it's built on will be much closer, about 60-70 feet away and likely around the same height as our unit, possibly a bit taller.

The condo was listed for $450k, and our agent recommended we offer list price based on comps, which we did (and our offer was accepted).

Now I’m looking into it more (using AI - which I know often can't be reliable/trusted) and it seems like another factor we might need to consider (other than being OK with several years of very close construction, which we resigned ourselves to yesterday since we like the condo so much) is resale/property value.

Google AI is basically recommending either canceling the deal or demanding a price modification of at least 10-15% to account for several years of construction disturbances, loss of view (the condo currently looks out on a big tree-filled area with some very low buildings on it and a beach. there will still be some view, but significantly less), and loss of natural light. The sellers bought the condo in 2021 for $332k. A 15 or even 10% price reduction would also mean that our budget wouldn't be as tight because the total monthly payment on this place is currently the very maximum limit of what we're comfortable paying.

Another factor for us to consider is that one of the reasons my wife and I want to buy a condo (this one is 3 bed 2 bath) is that we are thinking about starting a family. We can see ourselves potentially living there for a long time.

We have been looking for a place since November 2025 and have had multiple offers rejected. We went under contract at one place already about 4 months ago but ended up having to back out due to issues that turned up on the inspection. We haven't done the inspection for this place yet, but we *really* like the space and the building itself.

If we were to get the price reduction, would it make sense for us to proceed, or are we being foolish for thinking about proceeding at all? We've accepted that the areas of the (quite high cost of living) city we want to live in have very little housing stock that's affordable for us, and until we found out about the construction it felt like we'd finally found something special and were getting a good deal despite it being more money than we were initially hoping to spend.

We are both feeling very conflicted right now. Any advice would be appreciated!

How concerned would you be about this report? These are the only 3 issues that were deemed urgent. Thanks!

Hey all. Our offer on the house was accepted. Its a great house but definitely on the higher end of our budget. Our goal was for my husband to afford mortgage payment completely without relying on my income. But this house will require me to contribute too.

We also were getting a promotional interest rate of 5.75% with the credit union. Unfortunately, by the time we liked this house and things moved forward, that promotional rate ended and now we are getting 6.5% again. That makes our mortgage payment quite high to a point that we will barely save anything initially. Edit: We had the option to wait for the promotional rate to be back in fall which the credit union anticipates but we thought about what if we dont find a house we like again and lose this promotional rate as well.

All that being said, our savings will be our bonuses as we both work full time jobs (engineering and marketing).

Anyone else who went all out and didnt regret it?

Is refinancing as easy as it sounds?

More context:
Total take home pay for both of us combined: $11,600
Total monthly mortgage: $3,200
Childcare: $3,680
Car payment: $374

House listing price: $445,000
Offer accepted at $440,000
2021 Build, 4 bedroom, 3 bath, detached home 2.3K sq.ft, finished basement, big private fenced yead, decent school district (we compromised on this because a short commute to work and nanny willing to come to the new house was important to us), daycare within walking distance if nanny decides to quit/unabble to find new nanny. Supplemental solar power and electric car charger too.

No other debt apart from ongoing credit card bills.

My husband and I have been looking at houses for a couple months now, already have the preapproval and know what general area we’re looking in - working with my dad who’s been a realtor for 25+ years in the same area. It’s very much a buyers market right now which is great. My problem is I am torn between a house that I absolutely LOVE and checks all of our boxes for the home itself, but it isn’t for the preferred middle and high school that I’d want for my kids (not the worst schools in the district, but I have very heavy feelings on them) OR a house that we do like and it technically checks the boxes of our nonnegotiables, but is zoned for both schools that I really want my kids to be in (my oldest starts middle school this year and we currently have an approved transfer, but I have 5 kids, you have to reapply for transfers every year, and they’re not exactly known for going through easily in this district so I was surprised it even went through this time).

My question is would you go for a lesser school to have the house you’re in love with or go with a house that still checks the boxes and you like, but in zoned for the best schools in the district?

The house is all mine, I've put all the money in, down, around, and he is supportive and "loves to be with a successful woman" lol.
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I make about 5xs as much as him, and our arrangement in the past has been that I pay for the rent and vacations, and he pays for utilities and our vehicle. We split the cost of our pets.

He's started mentioning that since it is my house, the utilities should be in my name. He even mentioned I should write a LEASE for him because he will need to proof of residence for various things.

I do love this guy and we are not breaking up any time soon, but that being said marriage is not in our future either. I'm already divorced and he doesn't "believe" in it (marriage), so I dont really know like, how to handle all this and dont have a lot of examples to look to.

Do I really become my partner's "landlord" and write him a lease for $0 rent?
Is there a reason that I should keep all the utilities in my name and just charge him??

I wasn't prepared for this weird dynamic change lol.

We put in an offer on a condo in San Diego Monday morning. The seller responded today. The other terms are:

1. List price increase of $5000

2. Buyer to pay for their own home warranty.

3. Seller to pay 2% towards Buyers agent commission.

I know an increase in the list price is typical. I wasn’t shocked by that, but 2 and 3 I’m a bit confused by. I always assumed that in most cases the seller would pay 100% of the buyers agent commission.

And the home warranty is something that would be optional? Not sure if that HOA requires that? I know lenders require homeowners insurance but a warranty too?

Obviously we will get more clarity this evening when we speak with our agent but was just curious if anyone has faced a similar scenario. Thanks.

Just looking to rant, maybe get some others experiences, and share ours.

Were under contract in central Florida. The home was built in 2018, 3 bed 3 bath, 2 car garage, nice little fenced backyard, 20 minutes from the city we both work in. Inspection found a few issues with the ac, a crack in the garage, and some small things like wonky garage door. We paid for a structural engineer to look at the garage as we arent messing with foundation issues. He said it was perfectly fine, not foundation related.

To fix the AC we had the owner sign an amendment to the contract that stated "license hvac repair person needs to come out and repair/replace the ac". The downstairs worked fine, the upstairs thermostat wasnt functioning. I got the receipt for the repair, and all i saw was 300$ in labor and a 5$ part, a fuse.

So we do the walk through today. I asked our realtor to turn the ac's to 72 at noon for us and wed meet her at 330pm. We walked in, downstairs was great, set to 72 and at 72. Upstairs? Set to 72 but actual temp was 78.5. This is a no go for my wife and me, not when its 100°+ outside. She works from home, and wouldnt be able to stand that, let alone us being able to sleep at night. Then what? we have to spend 5-10k the first few months of owning the home? All when we have a literal signed contract saying th ac will be repaired or replaced?

I mean i feel bad but we told the realtor that yes they partially repaired the upstairs ac. The thermostat now turns on, however the ac is NOT working.

We dont really know whats going to happen next but were fine finacially. Our current apartment lease goes through December. So they cant pressure us with all the normal pain points, adjusting the closing date or move in/out date, were 100% flexible there. So again, im not sure which way this is going to go but our preference is the current owner actually fixing the ac like they said they would. As soon as I saw that 5 dollar part I kind of knew what they were trying to do. They have the same inspection report we do with 3 red (urgent) issues, all ignored during their "repair".

Since agents require contracts I feel very nervous to be stuck with someone I feel will cost me money.

I’ve been looking at a property online and reached out to two agents to ask questions. One agent is sweet, quickly communicates. The other agent is tempered, slower to communicate, but appraiser background.

When I asked for comps on a home that seems overpriced by around 50k the agent with appraiser bg confirmed and suggested this isn’t worth over ‘x’. The other agent found comps to apparently justify their high asking price.

How do you know who to trust here?

I make roughly 81k a year for my base pay.
My bi- weekly’s in come is on the low end $2,300 and the high end is $3,000 biweekly. It changes with extra shifts or call back pay.
I’m looking at a starter home in my area. It’s $359k I have the VA loan. My mortgage would be around $2,485. But I can’t find anything else in my area close to work.
I’m just afraid housing is going to be out of reach for me.

Just got our appraisal back and it came back $300 more than our offer. At least we don’t have to renegotiate, but I am wondering if the appraiser did just enough to get it to go through.

How close were you to your appraisal number?

I’m currently in the conditional approval stage of my mortgage, and I already submitted all the documents the underwriter requested.

The appraisal has also been ordered. So far, they haven’t asked for any additional documents, but I honestly can’t stop overthinking and wondering what else they might request before giving the clear to close.

For those who have gone through this process:

Is conditional approval generally a good sign?

Can the underwriter still ask for more bank statements, employment documents, or explanations?

If all the conditions have already been submitted and the appraisal comes back okay, how close are we to final approval?

What are the common reasons a loan can still be denied at this stage?

I know every loan is different, but hearing other people’s experiences would really help ease my anxiety. I haven’t been able to sleep because I keep thinking about everything that could still go wrong.

Me and my wife are moving to LA from Australia soon.

We'll have a combined income of about roughly 200k. We have no savings, No debts either no children either but we plan on having 2 kids. Im 33 and she's 30.

Edit* Metro Atlanta *Not pictured: Paris Hilton (our 3 year old black cat)

We're so happy we can finally say we own our first home! This has been a crazy year with a new job, first baby, and our first home now.

The home is farther from the city that I prefer but it's peaceful and a decent 1930ft² for a townhome 3B/2.5B.

I was able to get a great rate by having a larger bank rate match my employee discount, and on top of that, we had so many credits from the buyer and the bank, that we were at risk of losing a few thousand, so we bought the rate down from 6.25 to the rate above a couple of days before closing.

The seller's agent was a NIGHTMARE to the point that he threatened to harass me at my work and sue me because the sellers lost their deposit. He had a huge ego trip throughout the entire negotiation, from start to finish (they signed an occupancy agreement, but we had to drill the locks out to move in, and they took some items in the sale docs).

The move in was hectic (there's a HUGE difference between a Moving Company, and Professional Movers).

And the first night in, the AC broke down, and we had to pay $1500 to fix it.

Beyond the trial by fire, we couldn't be happier or more at peace finally having a place we can truly call home.

Sorry for the long post ahead..
We just purchased our first home, we did everything leading up to closing as we should we got a general inspection, plumbing inspection, termite inspection and all came back clear and with very little things that needed to be taken care of. We went from renting, we were comfortable at our other place but wanted to find a house with a nice yard and a home that could be ours. We have young kids as well. We walked through the home about 4 times before closing, we did initial walk through then came in two other times to measure and then final walkthrough 3 days before closing. I noticed they had glade plug ins throughout the property and it was so strong I was like I am definitely taking those out before moving in, but thats all you could smell was glade. The seller apparently bought the house 2.5 years ago, ”re did the interior” and rented it and then decided to sell it now. House was on the market for over 60 days because they priced high, so it sat vacant.

So great we get everything done and taken care of, the house a little bit out of our budget but we made it work because initially we thought we have minimal work that needs to be done to it. So we close on the house 2 days ago on Monday. I left the closing, came straight in and wanted to clean the house because we had little time to be able to move before my husband went back to work and we have 10 days left in our rental before there is a new tenant.

I went immediately to the kitchen. I noticed a dead bug in the corner I was like okay that’s fine maybe came in from people coming in and out. I didn’t look at it too much I just wiped it up. I moved an foot down the counter and there is another one. Im like hmm, I continue on and I find 4 dead bugs flipped upside down on the counter all the same type of bug so I am suspicious at this point like it’s not a one off that flew in. so I take a picture of it and upload it to Google… this is where I about died inside. it said “German cockroach.” so I go balls to the wall and I start opening cabinets to look inside I see black flecks in the corners of the cabinets and what looks to be like grease and dirt over all of the hinges. I open up the cabinets next to the stove one crawled out and it smelled disgusting, it smelled musty and that had the most dirt on the hinges. so at this point I just start crying, I just bought the biggest purchase of my life so far and there might be a cockroach infestation… not to mention I have kids and I don’t want them living in this.

I took pictures of everything, I pulled the oven tray out and sure enough… 2 combat max roach bait trays under there with a few dead roaches around it. I pulled the fridge out there was dirt, combat max trays and some flipped over dead roaches. I open up the kitchen cabinets and up top there was more combat max bait trays. on top of the fridge more combat max bait trays with dead roaches next to it. I decided to look in the bathroom so I pulled the bathroom cabinet drawers out and sure enough brown flecks and a few dead roaches. I have 7 days left in my rental we already moved everything here I haven’t unpacked a single thing, and we aren’t using the kitchen yet since finding the bugs.

I am so upset and feeling huge remorse and almost as if I made a bad decision purchasing this home and choosing to move my kids here instead of just staying in the rental we had because now we are stuck and I am terrified at the thought of having to put all our pantry products in bags and not be able to set plates down in the kitchen for however long we live here. not to mention I unplugged the glade plug ins and every time you walk in it smells musty. I have yet to see anymore live ones but finding a lot of traces of them and I am scared about bringing food in here or unpacking anything here and it drawing them out.

None of this was mentioned by the seller, inspectors or nor were there any visible bugs when walking through. I would have never purchased. the home if I knew there was a possible cockroach infestation, and finding the trays it makes me feel like they knew about this. We called an exterminator and are having the place bombed Saturday but still feeling horrible that this might not be the end and I potentially just moved my children and my family into a place where we can’t really live. I feel like the kitchen is dirty and cant for see myself feeling comfortable enough to cook in there.

I attached pictures to show. If you have any experience with a situation like this can you please share your experience - please no mean comments I suffer with ocd and specifically contamination and I am really struggling mentally for what’s ahead.

House pic was taken when we closed in Feb of this year, hence the snow, but we’re still over the moon about it and wanted to share

So we’re supposed to close in 2 days. Up until this point, I’ve been constantly told by both the title company and the lender that we’re looking good on time and we’re all set to close on the 24th.
Wake up this morning to an email from the lender saying that there’s issues with the sellers disclosure that need resolving before we’re clear to close. They only requested the sellers disclosure 2 days ago, so 4 days before close. Is that normal to leave it so late?
How are we supposed to get this resolved in time? It’s clearly going to delay us now and it seems like it was so avoidable. We’ve had the seller’s disclosure for over a month and they never asked for it until 4 days before close. Idk I’m just so frustrated and needed to get it off my chest

EDIT:
meant to add that the lender has a thing where if we don’t close within a certain time period, they give us $5000. This is definitely going to go over that. Is this considered their fault though lol

Just closed on our new home!!! It’s our total dream home on a lot of land, and 3,000sq ft compared to the 900sq ft apartment we are moving from.

What are some things you would recommend that you think we should have? What are things you got for your new place that you can’t live without now?

Does anyone have those code/fingerprint locks for their door and do they like them?

Fave cleaning supplies/vacuums/etc

Really just any thing that will make home ownership a little easier. Only lived in apartments for the last 20 years so home maintenance and keep up is new to us.

Some houses you walk into and can tell the owners took a lot of pride in their home. When it comes to a house that was rented out and may never have been owner occupied, I'm curious...are you more concerned that signs of neglect would surface after move-in?

How long did your house search last? How many offers did you have to make before winning a home? We won an offer on our second bid but had to back out after the inspection revealed the foundation/roof was compromised. We are now past offer no. 7 and have been actively searching and making offers since January (7 months). How much longer does this last lol

UPDATE: Thanks everyone!! It sounds like it really is regionally dependent and there is a lot of competition in the North East. Thanks for everyone’s insight!

4 bed 3 bath 1,912 sq ft new-build single-family home in AZ. FHA.

Let’s say underwriting was hypertension 24/7.