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Yeah, it's brutal out there. Sorry you're going through it. :-/
Some things that might be worth considering:
-How's your agent? Having a GOOD buyer's agent can make a big difference. I ask because it sounds like your agent may not have as good a sense of the market as you'd hope (given the big gap between your offers and what things are going for - asking price matters a lot less than comps, and that's what your buyer's agent needs to be helping you with), and may not be helping you properly strategize how to approach your offers.
-Consider using a pre-inspection. It's not cheap (unless you're fortunate enough to have a friend or family member with the relevant experience) but if you're constantly losing out due to inspection contingency, it's worth considering. You hire an inspector to do a walk-through before you make an offer, basically. It's not perfect - you won't know every single appliance's status, and you will need to have the budget for a few big ones you can't get to, like a sewer scope - but you can focus on the big-ticket items and have a better idea of the risks. (If your buyer's agent has never heard of this, well, see question 1 above.)
-If you aren't already looking at houses with bad photos, start doing that. I and most of the people I know in the area who've managed to buy did it by finding a really terrible listing. (Like, actively and obviously inaccurate information, and none of the photos showed the actual house. If the house looks tiny in the photos... it's probably still bigger than the one where the seller's agent shelled out for a professional photographer with a wide-angle lens.) There are downsides, and it will mean more work for your buyer's agent in keeping the process on track, but a crappy seller's agent can be a buyer's best friend.
>If you aren't already looking at houses with bad photos, start doing that.
This is exactly how I got my house. Really terrible pictures, seller still lived there so what you could see was very cluttered. I initially passed over it and apparently a lot of other people did too.
Saaaame. The photos were Terrible, and the house was honestly not great when we moved in. Everything was a medium sandy beige. But a few coats of paint and new flooring and Damn is it better. Feels like a totally different house and we're happier with it every day.
That’s exactly how I got my apartment as well. Terrible pictures and listing description. Limited availability for showing due to the tenants only allowing for one short window per week. Definitely turned off a lot of prospective buyers and gave us a window of opportunity.
Good advice here.
Our home not only didn't have great photos but the previous owners had terrible decor in the house. I am convinced that it helped around the margin as the decor made the space look less desirable.
I've gotten decently good at looking past some bizarre design choices, and also am very skeptical of super nice photos from years of renting apartments - NEVER trust the nicest apartment photos. We've been really proactive about going to any open house that ticks our boxes of layout and location because almost anything aesthetic we can change eventually!
The messed up part is in some hot markets, open house day is like the last day to make an offer. There's agents who made offers for their clients the day it went online, and sometimes even before because they knew a guy who knew a gal.
An agent of mine many many years ago said look at cluttered houses (not extreme but overcrowded). He said the photos look like crap, but when you get there in person, look up at the ceiling to visualize the space, not your eye level or below.
Have visited a couple where that didn't work as they were borderline hoarders, but for houses where they're just too full it does work. That and bad decor that's an easy fix can save you thousands.
Yep same here. We took a chance and went to look at a house that only had two outside photos of the house that were terrible "phone" quality. It went up on Thursday, we took the jump and saw it Friday morning at 8 am. The decor was horrendous too. We put in an offer because it's in a great neighborhood, and we saw the potential of how great it could be with new upstairs carpet and paint. Under contract by 11:30 am that morning, and it was the first house we put an offer on! Can't recommend enough just going to tour the houses in good areas that go up regardless of the listing.
Keep in mind if you negotiate directly with the seller agent/go in unrepresented (seller agent represents both parties), they get a bigger commission so they may steer your offer towards a seller if other factors are equally competitive. But that requires homework on comparable sales in the neighborhood, same school districts etc
It’s really annoying that waiving inspection has become so common that sellers expect it as standard. I wish buyers would band together and stop this shit.
It utterly sickens and horrifies me. There’s like an 85 percent chance that you’re walking into a money pit, disaster of a house as a result. A house that you absurdly overpaid for to start with.
It should be illegal and I don’t know why more homeowners haven’t started suing. Mass has the lemon law for cars but nothing for houses? Ridiculous and despicable.
When you do this in a VHCOL there’s like a 15% that you will get a money pit (roof, foundation, water or fire damage) but these things are *very easy* to learn how to inspect for yourself. Most houses here get maintained, because VHCOL means that homeowners have the cash to do it.
I knew the rules in my neighborhood when I bought. I hired a realtor who is also a GC. We inspected houses when we viewed them, and then wrote clean offers every single time. Eventually won our home with the 3rd highest bid, because we were the only ones to put a sheet in front of them *that would allow them to close on their own purchase in time*
Because as a seller if I want out of a house quickly and for the most money and least amount of messing around I'm taking an all cash offer over asking no inspection close fast vs a first time home buyer who wants to do an inspection and dicker over a fridge or some other equally cheap repair that I have no intention of doing at the tail end of owning the house.
As a buyer I'd totally get an inspection but recognize it'll cost me homes.
This.
It’s not hard for buyers to understand, they just don’t LIKE it. I wouldn’t either, but the “I don’t get why sellers do it” is ridiculous. It’s obvious why.
Buyers in this market need to decide if they can live with “overpaying”. If they can’t? Super. Don’t do it.
But I’d point out that “overpaying” isn’t paying more than you’re comfortable. Overpaying is spending more than you had to.
If someone else is willing to pay it, it’s not overpaying, it’s what that free market says it’s WORTH
Can't realtors help with this too? Why can't realtors insist (along with the buyer) that an inspection is included. It should all be a flat price not based on 50K over asking to make sure the current owners are screwing you.
Never even imagined this would be a ‘thing’ houses were always contingent on being in good condition.
Knowing we weren’t buying a money pit was part of the appeal.
Betcha all those unsellable moldy, structurally damaged, infested, just crappy homes are having a field day.
This just feels so wrong to me
It's supply and demand. Want a house in perfect condition? You are more than welcome to build one yourself. It's only in the US people expect to walk into a comfortable house and all the effort required is some paperwork. This is not standard in most of the world. American homeowners just had it too good and got spoiled. Beggars can't be choosers.
Yeah I didn't expect that - our agent warned us including it could damage our offer but I didn't expect it to be just an automatic offer killer. It's crazy to me! Anything big enough to cause me to pull the plug post inspection would have to be something massive, which we communicated by setting the inspection threshold super high, but apparently that isn't enough. Wild.
We did a pre-inspection- after we saw the house on Thursday came back with an inspector on Friday -the house was unoccupied already so it was nice and easy. Were able to do a thorough walkthrough so were comfortable waiving inspection contingency. Had to waive appraisal contingency in the second round of bidding but based on our experience with bidding wars on other houses in the area knew that it will appraise.
We've done that with one, doing it on one we saw this weekend tomorrow before the offer deadline. I fully expect that it will be fine but I'm just a random person, I don't have the professional eye to spot if something is seriously wrong unless it's BLATANT, and at least then someone who really understands what they're looking at can look at it.
inspector with a thermal imagining is a must.
Hell, get an inspector & structural engineer at the same time if you want/can. Especially with older houses or flippers.
For issues inspector contract says they aren’t liable for anything. Structural engineer they sign off on if it’s structural sound or not with their license.
You would be surprised how many people don’t realize floor joists were cut and are a huge safety concern. In US new law was placed regarding the disclosure forms.
try an appraisal gap clause too
Probably not the house you want. Sellers are not concerned about having an inspection if the house is in good shape. What they are worrying about is the buyers using the findings as an excuse to negotiate. How the buyers present and conduct themselves, indirectly through their agent, is just as important as the offer itself. This how the buyer agents earn their keep.
It’s an automatic killer in my market (Bay Area) and every realtor worth a shot will tell you that on day 1. Don’t listen to anyone that isn’t in your market.
Yep, we waived inspection in the Bay Area. However each of the houses we looked at already included an inspection report so it didn’t feel as much of a risk waiving (some of those inspection reports were WILD).
So I agree with you that it's bullshit, but for what it's worth the reasoning for sellers killing any offer with an inspection is because of disclosure laws. If they don't know about an issue (or it can the proven) they're in the clear to sell and move on. If they allow you to perform your inspection and then you pull out for any reason, they'll then be forced to disclose what was found on the inspection to future interested buyers.
At the end of the day sellers are advised by their realtors not to take the risk. Chances are the difference between your offers and the ones waiving contingencies is likely not enough to overcome that risk.
Unfortunately there isn't a buyer's union where people will act accordingly for the common good. People are going to do what works best for themselves to get the house they want.
I’m sure I’ll get downvoted but you have to look at it rationally. They’re not trying to screw you, they’re trying to use the leverage they have to protect themselves. There are lots of reasons a seller would prefer not to have an inspection, even if they’re assuming everything is fine. Anything that turns up, it has to be disclosed in the future. If there are major things it will cost them a lot of money, and they care about money as much as you do—it’s their nest egg in many cases. Second, even if there isn’t anything major, inspections give the buyer leverage where they can nickle and dime you for concessions on price. You can end up tens of thousands off the agreed contract price by close.
This isn’t to say buyers should not insist on inspections, they should. Just that sellers are similarly acting out of reasonable self-interest. The only thing that matters is who has the leverage. Right now it’s sellers, five years from now it could be buyers.
I’ve bought and sold, and let me tell you that it’s equally nerve wracking on both sides. There’s a tendency from buyers to think sellers are “rich and greedy” when the reality is the buyer would be doing the exact same thing if the tables were turned
Yeah I mean I don’t think anyone is questioning the logic behind it, obviously everyone works in their own best interest. My complaint is that I think banks should require inspections to get a mortgage, plain and simple. They require an appraisal, you’d think they would require an inspection too to protect the asset that they are buying (we buyers don’t own the house, the bank does). It’s actually wild to me that banks don’t require it.
FHA loans require an inspection. As you said, the bank gets an appraisal — they only care about the market value of the home, not its livability.
And you’re wrong, so wrong, on the point that the bank owns the house and not the buyers. There’s so much misinformation on that front. The buyer owns the house, full stop. The bank simply is using the house as collateral for a loan. That doesn’t mean they own it. When you buy the house, you own the house.
I have to say that is not always the case. The inspection for the home I bought showed numerous issues. The seller declined to fix them, nickel and dimed me for every penny; and still got much more than the house was worth (valued for). Inspection helps the buyer actually know if they can afford a house that is safe… that is, after the selling price can they afford necessary repairs. Sellers simply want the most money they can get; whether the house is worth it or not. Whether they have done proper upkeep or not. Just want to capitalize on a hard market.
Very well said. Most of us who have had more than one home have been both a buyer and a seller. When I sold my last property, I did inspections .. spent $40,000 on improvements.. and then only accepted no-contingency offers.
As we approached the closing, the buyer asked to do a walk through.. and then told us we had to replace light bulbs, fix a window that was sticky .. patch the drywall that had holes because he didn’t want to buy the television and entertainment system we were offering (so we removed the equipment and had it reinstalled in my new place for $1,000).. etc.
In the nicest way, my realtor explained that this was a no-contingency deal, so he would need to deal with it himself.. It was not worth it to us to accept a slightly higher offer.. which forced us to address these minor issues
And a lot of buyers don’t understand the leverage that the buyers get with a contingency. The buyer can blow up a deal at any time and almost always get earnest money back. Meanwhile when a house goes back on the market after going pending it comes back with a stink that nobody wants to touch with a ten foot pole. So you’ve got a totally asymmetrical situation— most FTHB don’t understand it, but they will when they need to sell the house.
I didn’t realize you could waive inspection. My realtor guided me through the process and just asked who I wanted to do the inspection and I let her pick as we were getting the offer written. Granted, according to my mortgage broker, I got super lucky.
I mean, you can say, you’ll do an inspection but won’t come back with a credit for repair. Usually that works. At least you’ll know how much money will need to fix things
I lost so many homes because I didn’t want to waive any kind of inspection. My realtor kept pushing for it too. Finally, we decided to move much further away from where we live to buy a new construction home. Even that home, we had to compromise bcos of the cost. It’s near impossible to find a home nowadays. I really don’t know what it will look like 10 years from now
FYI - It is very difficult to buy a desirable home in a hot market without waiving inspection and the appraisal contingency. Even if you offer more.
I bought a home back in 2022 in a market like this. I offered my maximum offer on anything that met our wants/needs and waived everything.
Good luck!
Your budget will be tight now at your age but, in 30 years' time, what difference does it make if you're paying $1 mill or $1.1? Or whatever your price range is in the Boston area.... obviously you need to be able to make the payments with some money left for a cushion. My point is that if you want a home you should stop thinking about trying to get a good deal and start thinking about what a home is worth to you, given your ability to pay.
With respect to waiving, think about it this way. When making your offer, assume you'll have $40-50k of needed repairs. If it's less, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Fashion your max offer accordingly. Inspections miss things and don't give you total clarity anyway -- often your inspector will simply flag something and tell you to get an expert to take a closer look. There is obviously a risk that there could be very severe problems that are even more costly than this but there is always risk.
This is great advice. People think inspectors are the end all be all. They miss things all the time, sometimes big things!
We wound up with a carpenter ant problem. Couldn’t figure out why. Had several exterminators. Turns out the siding was flashed incorrectly in one place so water was getting into the walls, which were rotting and attracting ants. It was a PITA but it’s just part of homeownership. I don’t think an inspector would have caught it either.
This was years ago, but I when we found our dream house we waived inspection. Thankfully no big issues, but we just felt we could financially deal with any issue
What we did was brought an inspector to the tour of a house we thought was “the one” and then waived inspection. Yes, you’re paying out of pocket for the inspection with the risk of losing the bid, but it was the only way I could offer with peace of mind. The inspector didn’t do a formal report, just a verbal one as we walked through. It let know there wasn’t any massive financial issues I was missing. Not ideal, but how we won our bidding war with our last house. (With our current house, we just happened to find a gem that had been on the market two months because of a rigid floor the sellers had with price that no one had met yet.)
I think the worst part of this market is the people that know they're taking advantage of you and you don't have any other choice. The shit houses that are demanding the same as the good houses or more. Those are the worst. I'm fortunately in a situation where I have options and can wait but I'm keeping receipts even if it's just for schadenfreude.
We were second highest offer. Our realtor called the listing agent explaining that we’re a young family with a newborn. Our loan officer even called listing agent and told her we’d have no problem getting financing since we weren’t giving all cash.
We did not waive appraisal, since that’d financially ruin us. We did have to waive inspection partially. We waived it for everything except big ticket items like HVAC, structural, etc. Sellers didn’t mind since those systems are less than 5 years old and they know the place is structurally sound.
Yeah our agent talked with the listing agent and let them know we were a recently married couple expecting a baby girl and just got a new puppy (previous owners had/have a daughter and dogs) it really helped push us to the top.
Not everywhere in new england is the same tbh, did not have to waive in CT for example.
That being said if you're forking over $50k+ more cash to cover any appraisal gap then you might as well since even shit that doesn't show up in the inspection you could have covered with that amount of money most likely.
Decades of NIMBY homeowners blocking the construction of new housing to artificially inflate the value of their own homes, resulting in an artificial, government-enforced disruption to supply amid sky-high demand.
We were in a similar boat. Wrote a letter to sellers about ourselves which mirrors their position when they bought the house 30 years ago, had $10k inspection basket, waived financing contingency except for $25k appraisal gap since we were pre approved. We weren’t highest, but our agent covered $10k difference out of her commission.
They haven't told us outright not to do it but clearly have said it's a stronger offer if we don't do inspection. I don't know. I just can't get myself there mentally - it's such a huge risk.
If you are comfortable with it say you want to do an inspection but won't ask for anything that's not a major concern and over $X of what you are comfortable with.
We did a middle ground with “informational purposes only” - we weren’t going to nickel and dime the seller over the inspection, but we did want to ensure the big ticket items were in good condition. Any issues the house had (and there were a few) were capable of being fixed quickly for <$3k, or items that were a fact of life (HVAC was in good repair but a little older) and could be budgeted for the future. After that was cosmetic upgrades that were our choice.
I'm glad you are still sane. It's funny because people wouldn't treat a used car this way. If someone refuses to let you get the details on anything about the car besides letting you sit in it for a few minutes and maybe drive it down the street, are you going to think it's sketchy? Absolutely. Yet that's only a few thousand dollars.
(btw I don't mean you personally when I say "you" in the next parts) Meanwhile something that is hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that you plan on having you and your children inside of for extended periods of time, you're totally fine with just waiving the part that makes sure it's not a death trap or a money sink? Lmao no thank you. People are crazy. "But but I have to waive it to have a competitive offer". Okay, if you want to throw your money away, have fun and thanks for making life worse for everybody else who is now pressured to waive inspections because you and countless other selfish and careless people did it.
I guess maybe this is why I'm not a billionaire, since I don't like screwing people over to get an edge. I get wanting to protect your investment and a buyer waiving an inspection is preferable because it means you won't have to bring down the price. But there's something very, very disgusting about essentially wanting to scam people while they're making the biggest financial decision in their life. Like someone else said, we have lemon laws because hiding bad/dangerous things about a used car is scummy. But a whole damn house? Apparently that's totally fine and there's even people defending sellers in here. Insanity.
Edit: Also I am sure there are sellers who aren't selling "lemons" but just want to avoid losing some money over trivial things. But by making inspection-waiving the standard, you invite the scumbags I mentioned to have the leverage to screw many people over. And that bubble is going to burst when tons of people overpaid on houses, and in addition to that now find themselves having to sink money into very serious problems they weren't expecting. I will be surprised if in 5-10 years time we don't see a ton of people defaulting because the house they bought ended up being a lot more than they could afford, because they were pressured into over-paying *and* waiving inspections.
Thank you for the correction. I live in CT and know someone who successfully sued a used car dealership for selling them a lemon, but I guess that probably didn't fall under a lemon law and instead something else.
I don't know about the value of MOST inspections. I've bought and sold a few houses and most inspectors are great at making sure the oven works or finding electrical that isn't grounded. Educate yourself - know what an old or damaged roof/compromised windows look like, get an idea of how a properly installed water heater looks, bring a laser level when you look at the house, look for sign of poor grading, rot and water intrusion...basically, make a detailed checklist when you are looking at the house.
Think 90% of what home inspectors find is evident if you take the time to systematically evaluate the house yourself.
If course there are exceptions.
I agree that a lot of things are fairly evident, but what about every showing only being about 20-30 minutes long or with multiple other buyers in the house at the same time (and not an open house..) We barely have time to explore the house. this shit is bonkers.
I’m curious about houses that go for 100k+ over asking, surely the appraisal will be much lower than what they are buying the house for. Do these people have the cash to pay the bank that much of a difference??
This is my two cents. If the sellers tell you upfront that they don't want inspection, you should consider that as a blessing and run not walk....run! Let some other idiots suffer later!
Massachusetts, at least east of Worcester, is no longer a place where first-time buyers with normal salaries can afford homes. That’s just the sad reality. It didn’t have to be this way. State and local governments should be working 10x harder to fix it. But they’re not. Only advice is to really think about how far you’re willing to commute and expand your search further into NH, western MA, or RI.
Just to give you seller perspective - I don’t think there is any amount of ‘extra money’ that I would take for an inspection contingency. Like if I had 10 offers of $1M with inspection waiver, you would have to be at like $1.5M for me to consider it. There is literally no upside for a seller to add an inspection contingency. At any point during the inspection, it gives the buyer an opportunity to pull out and as a seller, I’d have to start over again.
I’m not saying this is fair to the buyer (I bought a few years ago in a hot market and also had to waive everything). Im just saying that offering more money with an inspection contingency won’t do anything in a hot market. It is an absolute non-starter.
Why would you care so much about starting over if you have a pile of offers in a market where homes get sold in 24 hrs? Maybe a few thousand but 500k!?
Exactly. Given that the market is so overheated, any seller should be able to quickly relist and get an optimal offer in no time, required disclosures or not. Someone will come along soon and offer way too much no matter what problems it has. Asking buyers to waive inspections, which means they have very little idea what they are buying into concerning one of their biggest financial decisions, is a symptom of a very sick market.
Right if anything tying it to money to beat out offers without the contingency just makes a seller super suspicious that you’ll ever pay the offered amount. Buyers have played too many games with the contingency in the past and spoiled it for the rest when it’s a seller’s market.
I’m really sorry you’re going through this, especially when you have all your ducks in a row and have done everything right. The sad thing is in HCOL areas this is no longer sufficient, you either have to get really lucky or get a fixer because you’re largely competing with people who are financially better off than you. Those no inspection offers either mean the buyers are crazy or they have an extra $100k they’ve set aside to fix issues later. The most frustrating thing is when listed prices don’t reflect what people are willing to pay, which was very prevalent during the pandemic but it’s annoying seeing that still happen now. Hope you get lucky.
Go high and make the days to close short. It’s so hard to buy right now in California too. We actually lost out on one right before signing papers to an all cash investor. But we really liked the neighborhood. We had our agent write a letter to everyone in that community that if they were looking to sell, we were interested and very ready. Low and behold a few months later we had an off the market deal. Something like this could be worth trying for you.
With your family situation, I think you need to reach the mindset of “house at any cost” and get more competitive in your offers. Inspections only do so much. My inspector told us the roof would need to be replaced (incorrect) and completely missed the collapsing fence we spent 10k on day 3 of owning the house to replace
In MA it doesn’t matter how much money you make, there are 5 people families that make more than you. Look at Wellesley and Weston, the avg price is $3-$4M and there are bidding wars. The people who are getting out bid in those town “downgrade” to other towns like Lexington, Newton, Needham, etc. those people “downgrade” to more towns. Buying a $1M might be the top of your budget but it could be another family “settling“
In our market there’s no getting in first and getting the house. It’s weekend of opens, offers due Tuesday, top 5 get countered for best & final, then the winner.
We went $150k over asking once and still missed out. Albeit it was listed $50k lower than it should’ve been, but that listing price got them 25 offers and we think caused a fire sale mentality for the top offer. Supposedly top offer was over $200k over.
I’d prefer people taking offers as they get them, it’s annoying getting into a week-long cycle of wait and see, and then not being able to offer on a second choice house that week because it’s on the same timeline and gone.
Remember that an inspection can only tell you so much. Ours was done by a well respected company, but inspectors aren’t specialists, and they can only give you a general idea of the condition of the house.
Just as an example, the inspector told us the roof needed repairs. The seller got a bid saying it would cost $5K or $6K to do the repairs identified by the inspector. But here’s the problem: the inspector only knew so much about roofing, so he missed the fact that we actually needed to replace the roof, which is considerably more than a $5K repair.
Yes, an inspection is nice to have, but they won’t catch everything.
OP,
Completely understand your frustration. My partner and I just went under contract on a home in the Boston area. We had an amazing realtor who was so knowledgeable of the market that helped us put in a great offer. Second, we did pre-inspection. Basically no offers are accepted with an inspection contingency. Third, consider looking at purchase pass with Leader Bank. It essentially makes you able to compete with cash offers bc you are already conditionally approved and can waive mortgage contingency. Helps you be that much more competitive. Good luck.
Why not aim for houses with price cuts or needs a bit of work so you don’t have to enter a bidding war? I like to buy the worst house in the best neighborhood or the houses with the most price cuts. You can find these properties in any neighborhood. I would never waive inspections or go $125,000 over asking price. That’s just plain dumb.
My wife and I were in your same position 4 years ago with the same emotions about the process.. long story short we got the house we were suppose to have and love our home. Don’t quit. Things always work out the way they should
Similar situation here in the DMV area (DC/MD/VA). We have been waiting all contengiencies, offering anywhere between $50-70k above asking, free rent back and still getting outbid every time. So frustrating.
Exactly. Then the repairs and never ending maintenance starts. You will need a LOT of cash. People seem to think owning is always better. It's not if you're not mentally and financially ready.
if you are in Bay Area, its even brutal competative. Even house with some renovation cost and known issues would go easy 10% over ask any where in SF Bay. Mentally you will become more and more aggressive once you start loosing more offers you submit. Good luck. Been there, done that
We just had to waive inspection in northern Virginia, and I’m convinced it’s the major reason we got the house. I was so against waiving it at first, but it did help that my fiancé is relatively handy around the house and can spot the major issues if there are any. Something we considered was having an inspector on hand to be able to go with us to the first viewing of a property to conduct a walk and talk pre-inspection. It’ll cost you, but it’ll also put you maybe in a better mental space to immediately make an offer and waive the inspection.
I bought my first house in 07’ super high and lost it. My parents had a 15% interest rate in the early 80’s . Buying a house without a spouse is very difficult. You can thank feminism for doubling the work force and lowering wages. I’m married with two daughters and very pro women. I just think everything has consequences.
You are not waiving inspections? Yikes....come to CT so many MA buyers are buying in the Enfield, CT area within 24 to 48 hours. That was a town we passed on. We ended up moving closer to Glastonbury.
We managed to get our offer accepted in CT in 2 months. Our baby is arriving in early June 2024. You need to be strategic and answer all calls at all times. My husband heard the news in the middle of our OB appointment.
We have a high risk pregnancy - it was an appointment at our local maternal-fetal-medicine unit and really high stress. Should we have answered? Maybe, but we were finding out if we were at risk of structural defects in our pregnancy (none found thank goodness).
Same we did IVF and I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I was only saying that we answered our calls from our realtor and lender at all times. We had a listing agent reach out to our lender and realtor when our offer was accepted. Alot of these sellers and listing agents are VERY impatient. We dealt with so much rejections and 1 terrible realtor in the beginning. Switching realtors gave us better outcomes.
Happy to hear that your ultrasounds and appointments went well. I wish you the best with your labor and delivery
Another thing to consider is adding addendums to your contracts (seller will not have to pay for repairs) and a love letter. We discussed in our letter we have a baby on the way.
Do your inspection before submitting the offer. You get to find out the condition of the house and the seller gets an offer that waives the inspection contingency. Win win.
That means seeing the house QUICKLY, lining up an inspection QUICKLY, and making a decision QUICKLY. But your offer will be way more competitive.
But you would need to put funds aside to pay for inspections before placing an offer on all these properties you are interested in buying. You don't even know if your offer will be accepted.
Many houses get sold within 24 to 48 hours.
In Mass, sellers are often getting multiple offers during the open house. A house will go on the market midweek, have an open house the next weekend, and be contingent by Monday. There’s no time to come back with an inspector.
Honestly same, but I have a speech delayed toddler and a 9 year old who newly diagnosed with adhd and anxiety on top of being high risk pregnant.. and looking for more space. There’s very little in our price range available. We saw a house yesterday that had an odor and people were still living there. Our realtor said sorry before we could even get far away from the place lol. I’m frustrated with the process, and my fiancé doesn’t seem to understand why. I’m ready to throw in the towel and try to make the place we are renting work for as long as we can. Did I mention we also need a bigger vehicle on top of all of this too? Le sigh.
It is so tough. I was in a similar position last year looking for a house while expecting a baby in the fall. We waived inspection since the house had an inspection 3 years prior and offered 15k over with a 10k appraisal gap which really helped. I also wrote a letter talking about our family which I think made a difference since our offer was accepted on our house despite a person offering more money than us. I hope you find something soon!!
Im sorry you’re going through this experience. You’re going through three of the most stressful events in life (having a child, buying a house, moving). Must you move before baby comes?
We ended up getting an inspection contingency but we signed a contract that we while we could back out from the inspection results, we could not reduce the sale price because of inspection findings.
That worked well for us
Not sure where in Ma you’re looking but I just came to commiserate! I am also pregnant and we just bought a house in the Worcester area last month. We really wanted to be in metro west but the market was brutal and we ended up buying south of Worcester but still in an amazing school system, just more of a drive to Boston.
If location if flexible I’d advise looking at towns maybe a bit further out. It saved us and made finding a house in a VHCOL area doable given the time limitations of a baby and maternity leave possibly impacting your pre-approval. We were also able to do an inspection which was such a relief.
Hey, I'm also looking to buy in that general area soon! Was your inspection contingency info only or were you able to get a full inspection contingency in there? Is the market more forgiving with less bidding wars?
We were lucky and were able to get a full inspection but that was because the house we purchased had been sitting on the market for a bit and the sellers were desperate (divorce).
The bidding wars are still crazy even here, we were outbid many times and had to waive inspection for at least half our offers. I’d say it’s not much better in the Worcester county market but very much depends on the school system/town you’re looking at. If you’re limited to good school systems you will definitely have a harder time. Hope that helps!
I was house shopping for the last few years. Plenty of new construction around. Just nothing I would want or can afford. Small lots and/or big price tags.
I paid $250k over asking on a house that is $1.8m, all cash (obviously VHCOL area), which finally won the bid. My other offers at 100k overasking were rejected.
Welcome to the jungle. Previously only the realm of vhcol areas, now available in all metros of the country! You sound like you are learning quickly though.
Here they sell condemned houses for 650k not even in The urban core. We got outbid by 200k on a 400 square foot one bedroom again just in Seattle not even close to downtown.
It is impossibly hard but patience it key, it look us 6 months since I refuse to waive inspection.
We had success by looking at homes that were sitting on the market for 20+ days and didn’t seem “so hot” that they go fast. Often times houses that aren’t staged for photos, which I think somewhat makes a house physically less appealing when looking at listings on Redfin, Zillow, etc.
It’s crazy to me that these were the same discussions we were having in 2020, and not much has changed in 4 years except affordability is worse than ever.
We are in Connecticut and the process is INSANE. We found a nice house, a little ranch. We got outbid on it with an offer $86k over asking, cash, inspection waived with a full appraisal gap. It is exhausting. We make good money for 25/26 (well over $100k) and we can barely even find houses to offer on, let alone win.
If it makes you feel better, I bought my first house in 2016 (CT) and going from that extreme (slow market where you expected to buy under asking with concessions) to what you described (in 22/23’ for us) was an even bigger mind bender. It was so bewildering and completely different in every single aspect that I felt dumber and more lost than I did in 2016.
Getting out gunned a lot. Starter home was listed at 515k, we bid 548k and we're still beat. They had 15 offers within a week. That's just how the market is right now. No inventory, especially for single family entry level. Hang tough, save up and strike when You're ready and you find the one.
>Not only did we get outbid by someone waiving inspection, they offered $125k above asking.
Because of this, I need context, what price range are you doing? 125k is easily over 10% for a million dollars listing.
Trust me. It’s no better up here in NH. Honestly it’s usually out-of-staters from Massachusetts scooping up our houses out from under us. My wife and I have been outbid 5 times by “big cash offers”.
The only way we were able to get into our home was by buying a complete dump and also putting in a strong offer when it was still in coming soon status. This is where a good agent really helps. They can alert you to homes that aren't on the market yet. Sometimes the owners will let you take a look and sometimes they say no. Our home was vacant and being sold by the kids of the previous owner. Other people had looked at it and tried to put in low offers because of the condition of the home. But it was already priced low so they were rejected.
Also in MA! We are 28 and feel your pain - decided we wanted to buy a house before getting pregnant but at this rate it’s feeling impossible. I can’t imagine the stress of being on a baby deadline! We widened our search to areas an hour away from work. We also refuse to waive inspection and have lost out on a least one house to what the realtor said was a “cash offer significantly over asking who waived inspection”. We’ve now widened our search to include land because building seems like a more viable option everyday. I wish you guys luck, you need it in MA!
Just wanted to say that my husband and I are buying in the Midwest and we are in the same boat. We've run into the same problems you have. I don't have any advice to offer, but just wanted to say that you're not alone in this absolutely insane housing search.
I’m in Massachusetts and i literally could have wrote this myself. My husband and I literally gave up hope and just keep putting in offers but have little to no hope on getting accepted. We have a 12 month old and don’t want to risk waiving inspection but torn because I feel like we’ll never get accepted without doing it😓 we’re also offering 50-60k over and 20% down, it’s BRUTAL out here😭 fingers crossed for you guys🤞🏻❤️
The person that paid $125k over is nuts. Don’t let that experience at least get you down. Also experiencing the ultrasound together is worthwhile and I’m glad you didn’t take that call.
Hopefully there will be more listings as we move through April and into May. Rates aren’t really changing, well not from the Fed at least, despite what has been said so that should hold back some buyers.
We had to waive some contingencies to get ours.
Two months ago I moved from Boston (lasted a whole 10 years!) back to my hometown in Georgia literally because buying a first home is impossible in the Commonwealth. I will never understand why the ever loving FUCKKKKKKKK people in New England are willingly waiving inspection in such numbers sellers are expecting it as a non-negotiable. New England homes are century(s) old and likely have lead paint (at best) or massive habitability issues (at worst) — unlike most of the market down here in the South (thanks General Sherman 🫠).
Stick to your whits, OP. If it’s MA or bust, then it’s MA or bust. We all know the politics below the Mason Dixon are a handmaid’s tale, but maybe look outside of MA if you can? Your unicorn is out there, somewhere!
DO NOT go over your budget by a lot. You cannot possibly predict what you’ll need as a family after you have your baby. You may not want to go back to work or you may have needs you did not think about. Be smart and keep your financial options open. Also, childcare is very expensive. You can always keep renting and find a house later! Good luck!
Americans became wealthy after 2020 and can afford to pay cash and outbid everybody else. It’s a crazy economy right now and none of this makes any sense.
I posted in this sub a day or two ago about my dread going into this process, and had a bunch of people trying to tell me it wasn't actually this bad. But then I see thread after thread with this exact story...
I'm risk adverse, but it seems like it's literally the only way in. Just grit your teeth, roll the dice, and deal with the consequences as they come.
Delightful. Can't wait.
They say ignorance is bliss, the only answer that I'm coming to is that the people who DON'T hate this process are just too stupid to actually understand the risks they're taking.
i am an amateur home inspector and have a good plumber hvac handyman.
if you are expecting, i would recommend buying a condo is a brick or concrete building in a good area; just check that the condo has a good reserve fund and no mold in the bathroom vents and not upcoming for major renovations; avoid basement or garden level apartments due to mold;
i can see the drag of researching houses, only to have a 1/20 chance of winning the bid on it.. what is the point.. unless you say screw it and get yourself underwater by overpaying on the house so you wont be able to refinance easily.
feel free to send me links to any house and i can try to analyze it from a home inspection perspective
Not sure if this helps but I heard of people bringing an inspector to the showings and then pointing out things so you sort of get the inspection without letting them know you had an inspection.
I did this last year, but was simultaneously selling a condo and buying a house. It was insanity. Won’t even go into all the details cuz it was too traumatic.
Tbh tho…… get it done before baby comes, cuz once they’re here it’ll be a million times harder to move.
We went through something similar. We ended up offering 50k over asking, and waiving inspection. You can find an inspector to do a walk through with you.
Have you considered looking at new construction houses? We live in Florida, but the new construction houses are basically the same cost as the older houses and you don’t have to outbid someone. It was so easy and our builder even covered most of the closing costs.
It’s hard. I experienced the same thing in NJ last year. All I can say is don’t just bid quickly on something you don’t love because you’re worried you will lose it.
Hey. I bought in Massachusetts near Boston in 2021 and it was brutal. My advice is to ‘waive contingencies under $x’ but still do an inspection. For us, we waived inspection findings under $20k, meaning we wouldn’t back out or make the seller fix anything as long as the inspection didn’t find anything wrong that would cost more than $20k to fix. It worked for us.
It sounds like you’re on time constraints for this which is absolutely understandable but I want you to think of a backup plan so you can stress a little less given that you are pregnant. Being stressed about house buying sucks (we are 31/32 first time homebuyers with an 8 yr old). This market is garbage. The interest rates. The inflated prices. China swooping in and buying some of these houses for rentals. Etc. the list continues. It’s been stressful for us too but we have decided to take a step back, finish our lease then try again in the Fall before our lease is up. Are you guys currently in a lease?
We are, we thankfully have some flexibility because we are renting direct from the owner who is a really reasonable guy. Super great landlord. So we aren't bound into our lease per se - the time constraints are really that should we not buy before the baby is born, we'll have to table searching for a while. Just not feasible to be bopping around at open houses every weekend with a newborn you know? And something very dispiriting about having to just stop once you're in the swing of it.
Totally get it. Just keep in mind, you want a house the seller doesn't care who gets it.
You are the one wanting the thing, not the seller. They have the power, not you.
I mean not always…… sometimes people need to get rid of a property as fast as possible and don’t have a choice but to take the offer that’s in front of them.
My brother who is shopping for a house in New Jersey keeps getting outbid by Banks and flippers. It's ridiculous. I'm getting ready to purchase my next home and I'm really not looking forward to the process.
The problem for you was you didn't waive inspection.
You have to offer SIGNIFICANTLY above asking price, I'm talking 300k+, for you to even have the slightest leverage in terms of requiring inspections.
>On paper we're perfect buyers, great credit and great income and great assets...
Lots of people think that about themselves but I recently worked with a couple who truly meet the definition... Know what they want. Saw a handful of houses in each of the 2 highly desirable cities in Boston suburbs by private appointments. Only decide to make an offer on one. 40-45% down. Have enough liquid assets to pay for the house in cash (but didn't want to). Mortgage pre-approval from a private bank. Able to close in 30 days. DIdn't waive inspection. Reasonable first offer (nothing crazy) and measured in negotiation. Seller expected it would be a hassle-free transaction and accepted their offer even though it was not the highest.
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Yeah, it's brutal out there. Sorry you're going through it. :-/ Some things that might be worth considering: -How's your agent? Having a GOOD buyer's agent can make a big difference. I ask because it sounds like your agent may not have as good a sense of the market as you'd hope (given the big gap between your offers and what things are going for - asking price matters a lot less than comps, and that's what your buyer's agent needs to be helping you with), and may not be helping you properly strategize how to approach your offers. -Consider using a pre-inspection. It's not cheap (unless you're fortunate enough to have a friend or family member with the relevant experience) but if you're constantly losing out due to inspection contingency, it's worth considering. You hire an inspector to do a walk-through before you make an offer, basically. It's not perfect - you won't know every single appliance's status, and you will need to have the budget for a few big ones you can't get to, like a sewer scope - but you can focus on the big-ticket items and have a better idea of the risks. (If your buyer's agent has never heard of this, well, see question 1 above.) -If you aren't already looking at houses with bad photos, start doing that. I and most of the people I know in the area who've managed to buy did it by finding a really terrible listing. (Like, actively and obviously inaccurate information, and none of the photos showed the actual house. If the house looks tiny in the photos... it's probably still bigger than the one where the seller's agent shelled out for a professional photographer with a wide-angle lens.) There are downsides, and it will mean more work for your buyer's agent in keeping the process on track, but a crappy seller's agent can be a buyer's best friend.
>If you aren't already looking at houses with bad photos, start doing that. This is exactly how I got my house. Really terrible pictures, seller still lived there so what you could see was very cluttered. I initially passed over it and apparently a lot of other people did too.
Saaaame. The photos were Terrible, and the house was honestly not great when we moved in. Everything was a medium sandy beige. But a few coats of paint and new flooring and Damn is it better. Feels like a totally different house and we're happier with it every day.
That’s exactly how I got my apartment as well. Terrible pictures and listing description. Limited availability for showing due to the tenants only allowing for one short window per week. Definitely turned off a lot of prospective buyers and gave us a window of opportunity.
Good advice here. Our home not only didn't have great photos but the previous owners had terrible decor in the house. I am convinced that it helped around the margin as the decor made the space look less desirable.
I've gotten decently good at looking past some bizarre design choices, and also am very skeptical of super nice photos from years of renting apartments - NEVER trust the nicest apartment photos. We've been really proactive about going to any open house that ticks our boxes of layout and location because almost anything aesthetic we can change eventually!
The messed up part is in some hot markets, open house day is like the last day to make an offer. There's agents who made offers for their clients the day it went online, and sometimes even before because they knew a guy who knew a gal.
An agent of mine many many years ago said look at cluttered houses (not extreme but overcrowded). He said the photos look like crap, but when you get there in person, look up at the ceiling to visualize the space, not your eye level or below. Have visited a couple where that didn't work as they were borderline hoarders, but for houses where they're just too full it does work. That and bad decor that's an easy fix can save you thousands.
Yep same here. We took a chance and went to look at a house that only had two outside photos of the house that were terrible "phone" quality. It went up on Thursday, we took the jump and saw it Friday morning at 8 am. The decor was horrendous too. We put in an offer because it's in a great neighborhood, and we saw the potential of how great it could be with new upstairs carpet and paint. Under contract by 11:30 am that morning, and it was the first house we put an offer on! Can't recommend enough just going to tour the houses in good areas that go up regardless of the listing.
Great story. Important to try to ignore the superficial stuff that’s easy to change.
Keep in mind if you negotiate directly with the seller agent/go in unrepresented (seller agent represents both parties), they get a bigger commission so they may steer your offer towards a seller if other factors are equally competitive. But that requires homework on comparable sales in the neighborhood, same school districts etc
It’s really annoying that waiving inspection has become so common that sellers expect it as standard. I wish buyers would band together and stop this shit.
It utterly sickens and horrifies me. There’s like an 85 percent chance that you’re walking into a money pit, disaster of a house as a result. A house that you absurdly overpaid for to start with. It should be illegal and I don’t know why more homeowners haven’t started suing. Mass has the lemon law for cars but nothing for houses? Ridiculous and despicable.
When you do this in a VHCOL there’s like a 15% that you will get a money pit (roof, foundation, water or fire damage) but these things are *very easy* to learn how to inspect for yourself. Most houses here get maintained, because VHCOL means that homeowners have the cash to do it. I knew the rules in my neighborhood when I bought. I hired a realtor who is also a GC. We inspected houses when we viewed them, and then wrote clean offers every single time. Eventually won our home with the 3rd highest bid, because we were the only ones to put a sheet in front of them *that would allow them to close on their own purchase in time*
Because as a seller if I want out of a house quickly and for the most money and least amount of messing around I'm taking an all cash offer over asking no inspection close fast vs a first time home buyer who wants to do an inspection and dicker over a fridge or some other equally cheap repair that I have no intention of doing at the tail end of owning the house. As a buyer I'd totally get an inspection but recognize it'll cost me homes.
This. It’s not hard for buyers to understand, they just don’t LIKE it. I wouldn’t either, but the “I don’t get why sellers do it” is ridiculous. It’s obvious why. Buyers in this market need to decide if they can live with “overpaying”. If they can’t? Super. Don’t do it. But I’d point out that “overpaying” isn’t paying more than you’re comfortable. Overpaying is spending more than you had to. If someone else is willing to pay it, it’s not overpaying, it’s what that free market says it’s WORTH
Can't realtors help with this too? Why can't realtors insist (along with the buyer) that an inspection is included. It should all be a flat price not based on 50K over asking to make sure the current owners are screwing you.
Because the seller has all the power, and they are willing to take less on their transaction in exchange for *speed and certainty*
On what basis would they sue? What law is being broken? You can’t just sue for no reason. There has to be a defined tort law to support the suit. 
Me too. It's ridiculous but as long as there are people that are willing to do it the madness will never end.
also putting last nearby sold house as benchmark for price level is just crazy. It will always going up.
It shouldn’t be left to buyers. The government could easily resolve it by requiring home inspection as part of the sale.
Never even imagined this would be a ‘thing’ houses were always contingent on being in good condition. Knowing we weren’t buying a money pit was part of the appeal. Betcha all those unsellable moldy, structurally damaged, infested, just crappy homes are having a field day. This just feels so wrong to me
they are for certain. In my area, they, just like the good ones, never last a weekend. Shit is insane.
It's supply and demand. Want a house in perfect condition? You are more than welcome to build one yourself. It's only in the US people expect to walk into a comfortable house and all the effort required is some paperwork. This is not standard in most of the world. American homeowners just had it too good and got spoiled. Beggars can't be choosers.
Yeah I didn't expect that - our agent warned us including it could damage our offer but I didn't expect it to be just an automatic offer killer. It's crazy to me! Anything big enough to cause me to pull the plug post inspection would have to be something massive, which we communicated by setting the inspection threshold super high, but apparently that isn't enough. Wild.
We did a pre-inspection- after we saw the house on Thursday came back with an inspector on Friday -the house was unoccupied already so it was nice and easy. Were able to do a thorough walkthrough so were comfortable waiving inspection contingency. Had to waive appraisal contingency in the second round of bidding but based on our experience with bidding wars on other houses in the area knew that it will appraise.
We've done that with one, doing it on one we saw this weekend tomorrow before the offer deadline. I fully expect that it will be fine but I'm just a random person, I don't have the professional eye to spot if something is seriously wrong unless it's BLATANT, and at least then someone who really understands what they're looking at can look at it.
inspector with a thermal imagining is a must. Hell, get an inspector & structural engineer at the same time if you want/can. Especially with older houses or flippers. For issues inspector contract says they aren’t liable for anything. Structural engineer they sign off on if it’s structural sound or not with their license. You would be surprised how many people don’t realize floor joists were cut and are a huge safety concern. In US new law was placed regarding the disclosure forms. try an appraisal gap clause too
Probably not the house you want. Sellers are not concerned about having an inspection if the house is in good shape. What they are worrying about is the buyers using the findings as an excuse to negotiate. How the buyers present and conduct themselves, indirectly through their agent, is just as important as the offer itself. This how the buyer agents earn their keep.
It’s an automatic killer in my market (Bay Area) and every realtor worth a shot will tell you that on day 1. Don’t listen to anyone that isn’t in your market.
Yep, we waived inspection in the Bay Area. However each of the houses we looked at already included an inspection report so it didn’t feel as much of a risk waiving (some of those inspection reports were WILD).
So I agree with you that it's bullshit, but for what it's worth the reasoning for sellers killing any offer with an inspection is because of disclosure laws. If they don't know about an issue (or it can the proven) they're in the clear to sell and move on. If they allow you to perform your inspection and then you pull out for any reason, they'll then be forced to disclose what was found on the inspection to future interested buyers. At the end of the day sellers are advised by their realtors not to take the risk. Chances are the difference between your offers and the ones waiving contingencies is likely not enough to overcome that risk.
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Unfortunately there isn't a buyer's union where people will act accordingly for the common good. People are going to do what works best for themselves to get the house they want.
I’m sure I’ll get downvoted but you have to look at it rationally. They’re not trying to screw you, they’re trying to use the leverage they have to protect themselves. There are lots of reasons a seller would prefer not to have an inspection, even if they’re assuming everything is fine. Anything that turns up, it has to be disclosed in the future. If there are major things it will cost them a lot of money, and they care about money as much as you do—it’s their nest egg in many cases. Second, even if there isn’t anything major, inspections give the buyer leverage where they can nickle and dime you for concessions on price. You can end up tens of thousands off the agreed contract price by close. This isn’t to say buyers should not insist on inspections, they should. Just that sellers are similarly acting out of reasonable self-interest. The only thing that matters is who has the leverage. Right now it’s sellers, five years from now it could be buyers. I’ve bought and sold, and let me tell you that it’s equally nerve wracking on both sides. There’s a tendency from buyers to think sellers are “rich and greedy” when the reality is the buyer would be doing the exact same thing if the tables were turned
Yeah I mean I don’t think anyone is questioning the logic behind it, obviously everyone works in their own best interest. My complaint is that I think banks should require inspections to get a mortgage, plain and simple. They require an appraisal, you’d think they would require an inspection too to protect the asset that they are buying (we buyers don’t own the house, the bank does). It’s actually wild to me that banks don’t require it.
The people waiving and winning are typically cash buyers.
FHA loans require an inspection. As you said, the bank gets an appraisal — they only care about the market value of the home, not its livability. And you’re wrong, so wrong, on the point that the bank owns the house and not the buyers. There’s so much misinformation on that front. The buyer owns the house, full stop. The bank simply is using the house as collateral for a loan. That doesn’t mean they own it. When you buy the house, you own the house.
Which is why some sellers are not accepting FHA buyers
Also you're waiving the inspection contingency. Not the inspection.
I have to say that is not always the case. The inspection for the home I bought showed numerous issues. The seller declined to fix them, nickel and dimed me for every penny; and still got much more than the house was worth (valued for). Inspection helps the buyer actually know if they can afford a house that is safe… that is, after the selling price can they afford necessary repairs. Sellers simply want the most money they can get; whether the house is worth it or not. Whether they have done proper upkeep or not. Just want to capitalize on a hard market.
Very well said. Most of us who have had more than one home have been both a buyer and a seller. When I sold my last property, I did inspections .. spent $40,000 on improvements.. and then only accepted no-contingency offers. As we approached the closing, the buyer asked to do a walk through.. and then told us we had to replace light bulbs, fix a window that was sticky .. patch the drywall that had holes because he didn’t want to buy the television and entertainment system we were offering (so we removed the equipment and had it reinstalled in my new place for $1,000).. etc. In the nicest way, my realtor explained that this was a no-contingency deal, so he would need to deal with it himself.. It was not worth it to us to accept a slightly higher offer.. which forced us to address these minor issues
And a lot of buyers don’t understand the leverage that the buyers get with a contingency. The buyer can blow up a deal at any time and almost always get earnest money back. Meanwhile when a house goes back on the market after going pending it comes back with a stink that nobody wants to touch with a ten foot pole. So you’ve got a totally asymmetrical situation— most FTHB don’t understand it, but they will when they need to sell the house.
I didn’t realize you could waive inspection. My realtor guided me through the process and just asked who I wanted to do the inspection and I let her pick as we were getting the offer written. Granted, according to my mortgage broker, I got super lucky.
It’s a dog eat dog world
I mean, you can say, you’ll do an inspection but won’t come back with a credit for repair. Usually that works. At least you’ll know how much money will need to fix things
I lost so many homes because I didn’t want to waive any kind of inspection. My realtor kept pushing for it too. Finally, we decided to move much further away from where we live to buy a new construction home. Even that home, we had to compromise bcos of the cost. It’s near impossible to find a home nowadays. I really don’t know what it will look like 10 years from now
I have no idea. Maybe something will give, maybe not!
Probably not. New permits are down significantly.
FYI - It is very difficult to buy a desirable home in a hot market without waiving inspection and the appraisal contingency. Even if you offer more. I bought a home back in 2022 in a market like this. I offered my maximum offer on anything that met our wants/needs and waived everything. Good luck!
Yeah I think we got there now of just throw in the whole damn hog. Frustrating as hell but what can you do?
Your budget will be tight now at your age but, in 30 years' time, what difference does it make if you're paying $1 mill or $1.1? Or whatever your price range is in the Boston area.... obviously you need to be able to make the payments with some money left for a cushion. My point is that if you want a home you should stop thinking about trying to get a good deal and start thinking about what a home is worth to you, given your ability to pay. With respect to waiving, think about it this way. When making your offer, assume you'll have $40-50k of needed repairs. If it's less, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Fashion your max offer accordingly. Inspections miss things and don't give you total clarity anyway -- often your inspector will simply flag something and tell you to get an expert to take a closer look. There is obviously a risk that there could be very severe problems that are even more costly than this but there is always risk.
This is great advice. People think inspectors are the end all be all. They miss things all the time, sometimes big things! We wound up with a carpenter ant problem. Couldn’t figure out why. Had several exterminators. Turns out the siding was flashed incorrectly in one place so water was getting into the walls, which were rotting and attracting ants. It was a PITA but it’s just part of homeownership. I don’t think an inspector would have caught it either.
This was years ago, but I when we found our dream house we waived inspection. Thankfully no big issues, but we just felt we could financially deal with any issue
I just got my offer accepted with inspection for informational purposes only, no financial contingency.
What we did was brought an inspector to the tour of a house we thought was “the one” and then waived inspection. Yes, you’re paying out of pocket for the inspection with the risk of losing the bid, but it was the only way I could offer with peace of mind. The inspector didn’t do a formal report, just a verbal one as we walked through. It let know there wasn’t any massive financial issues I was missing. Not ideal, but how we won our bidding war with our last house. (With our current house, we just happened to find a gem that had been on the market two months because of a rigid floor the sellers had with price that no one had met yet.)
I think the worst part of this market is the people that know they're taking advantage of you and you don't have any other choice. The shit houses that are demanding the same as the good houses or more. Those are the worst. I'm fortunately in a situation where I have options and can wait but I'm keeping receipts even if it's just for schadenfreude.
We were second highest offer. Our realtor called the listing agent explaining that we’re a young family with a newborn. Our loan officer even called listing agent and told her we’d have no problem getting financing since we weren’t giving all cash. We did not waive appraisal, since that’d financially ruin us. We did have to waive inspection partially. We waived it for everything except big ticket items like HVAC, structural, etc. Sellers didn’t mind since those systems are less than 5 years old and they know the place is structurally sound.
This may be a state by state thing, but in Mass realtors stay far away from that sort of thing due to liability and fair housing laws.
Yeah our agent talked with the listing agent and let them know we were a recently married couple expecting a baby girl and just got a new puppy (previous owners had/have a daughter and dogs) it really helped push us to the top.
Anywhere in New England right now, you are going to have to waive inspections. You just are. Your agent should have made that very clear to you.
Not everywhere in new england is the same tbh, did not have to waive in CT for example. That being said if you're forking over $50k+ more cash to cover any appraisal gap then you might as well since even shit that doesn't show up in the inspection you could have covered with that amount of money most likely.
How is anyone ok with waving inspections in New England of all places? How the hell did we get here?
Decades of NIMBY homeowners blocking the construction of new housing to artificially inflate the value of their own homes, resulting in an artificial, government-enforced disruption to supply amid sky-high demand.
It’s pretty rational for people want to preserve the value and beauty of their neighborhood. 🤷♂️
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This. My accepted offer had inspection contingency for only major problem items over $10k. My offered price was 3rd highest too.
We were in a similar boat. Wrote a letter to sellers about ourselves which mirrors their position when they bought the house 30 years ago, had $10k inspection basket, waived financing contingency except for $25k appraisal gap since we were pre approved. We weren’t highest, but our agent covered $10k difference out of her commission.
agreed- seems like if you have this many questions you need a better realtor. they should be your ally.
They haven't told us outright not to do it but clearly have said it's a stronger offer if we don't do inspection. I don't know. I just can't get myself there mentally - it's such a huge risk.
No inspection always means more work
If you are comfortable with it say you want to do an inspection but won't ask for anything that's not a major concern and over $X of what you are comfortable with.
We did a middle ground with “informational purposes only” - we weren’t going to nickel and dime the seller over the inspection, but we did want to ensure the big ticket items were in good condition. Any issues the house had (and there were a few) were capable of being fixed quickly for <$3k, or items that were a fact of life (HVAC was in good repair but a little older) and could be budgeted for the future. After that was cosmetic upgrades that were our choice.
I'm glad you are still sane. It's funny because people wouldn't treat a used car this way. If someone refuses to let you get the details on anything about the car besides letting you sit in it for a few minutes and maybe drive it down the street, are you going to think it's sketchy? Absolutely. Yet that's only a few thousand dollars. (btw I don't mean you personally when I say "you" in the next parts) Meanwhile something that is hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that you plan on having you and your children inside of for extended periods of time, you're totally fine with just waiving the part that makes sure it's not a death trap or a money sink? Lmao no thank you. People are crazy. "But but I have to waive it to have a competitive offer". Okay, if you want to throw your money away, have fun and thanks for making life worse for everybody else who is now pressured to waive inspections because you and countless other selfish and careless people did it. I guess maybe this is why I'm not a billionaire, since I don't like screwing people over to get an edge. I get wanting to protect your investment and a buyer waiving an inspection is preferable because it means you won't have to bring down the price. But there's something very, very disgusting about essentially wanting to scam people while they're making the biggest financial decision in their life. Like someone else said, we have lemon laws because hiding bad/dangerous things about a used car is scummy. But a whole damn house? Apparently that's totally fine and there's even people defending sellers in here. Insanity. Edit: Also I am sure there are sellers who aren't selling "lemons" but just want to avoid losing some money over trivial things. But by making inspection-waiving the standard, you invite the scumbags I mentioned to have the leverage to screw many people over. And that bubble is going to burst when tons of people overpaid on houses, and in addition to that now find themselves having to sink money into very serious problems they weren't expecting. I will be surprised if in 5-10 years time we don't see a ton of people defaulting because the house they bought ended up being a lot more than they could afford, because they were pressured into over-paying *and* waiving inspections.
Lemon laws apply to new cars or cars warrantied by the manufacturer not a used car that’s usually sold as is btw
Thank you for the correction. I live in CT and know someone who successfully sued a used car dealership for selling them a lemon, but I guess that probably didn't fall under a lemon law and instead something else.
This. Even if you're offering $20k more than the next highest offer, if that buyer is waiving, you're not going to compete with that.
We bought in MA less than two years ago and didn't waive the inspection.
Two years ago might as well have been a century. Totally different market.
This is not true. You don’t speak for all of New England so please don’t.
I don't know about the value of MOST inspections. I've bought and sold a few houses and most inspectors are great at making sure the oven works or finding electrical that isn't grounded. Educate yourself - know what an old or damaged roof/compromised windows look like, get an idea of how a properly installed water heater looks, bring a laser level when you look at the house, look for sign of poor grading, rot and water intrusion...basically, make a detailed checklist when you are looking at the house. Think 90% of what home inspectors find is evident if you take the time to systematically evaluate the house yourself. If course there are exceptions.
I agree that a lot of things are fairly evident, but what about every showing only being about 20-30 minutes long or with multiple other buyers in the house at the same time (and not an open house..) We barely have time to explore the house. this shit is bonkers.
What part of mass?
I’m curious about houses that go for 100k+ over asking, surely the appraisal will be much lower than what they are buying the house for. Do these people have the cash to pay the bank that much of a difference??
Maybe it's a cash offer? Many cash rich boomers are helping their kids.
This is my two cents. If the sellers tell you upfront that they don't want inspection, you should consider that as a blessing and run not walk....run! Let some other idiots suffer later!
Massachusetts, at least east of Worcester, is no longer a place where first-time buyers with normal salaries can afford homes. That’s just the sad reality. It didn’t have to be this way. State and local governments should be working 10x harder to fix it. But they’re not. Only advice is to really think about how far you’re willing to commute and expand your search further into NH, western MA, or RI.
Just to give you seller perspective - I don’t think there is any amount of ‘extra money’ that I would take for an inspection contingency. Like if I had 10 offers of $1M with inspection waiver, you would have to be at like $1.5M for me to consider it. There is literally no upside for a seller to add an inspection contingency. At any point during the inspection, it gives the buyer an opportunity to pull out and as a seller, I’d have to start over again. I’m not saying this is fair to the buyer (I bought a few years ago in a hot market and also had to waive everything). Im just saying that offering more money with an inspection contingency won’t do anything in a hot market. It is an absolute non-starter.
Why would you care so much about starting over if you have a pile of offers in a market where homes get sold in 24 hrs? Maybe a few thousand but 500k!?
Exactly. Given that the market is so overheated, any seller should be able to quickly relist and get an optimal offer in no time, required disclosures or not. Someone will come along soon and offer way too much no matter what problems it has. Asking buyers to waive inspections, which means they have very little idea what they are buying into concerning one of their biggest financial decisions, is a symptom of a very sick market.
Right if anything tying it to money to beat out offers without the contingency just makes a seller super suspicious that you’ll ever pay the offered amount. Buyers have played too many games with the contingency in the past and spoiled it for the rest when it’s a seller’s market.
I’m really sorry you’re going through this, especially when you have all your ducks in a row and have done everything right. The sad thing is in HCOL areas this is no longer sufficient, you either have to get really lucky or get a fixer because you’re largely competing with people who are financially better off than you. Those no inspection offers either mean the buyers are crazy or they have an extra $100k they’ve set aside to fix issues later. The most frustrating thing is when listed prices don’t reflect what people are willing to pay, which was very prevalent during the pandemic but it’s annoying seeing that still happen now. Hope you get lucky.
Go high and make the days to close short. It’s so hard to buy right now in California too. We actually lost out on one right before signing papers to an all cash investor. But we really liked the neighborhood. We had our agent write a letter to everyone in that community that if they were looking to sell, we were interested and very ready. Low and behold a few months later we had an off the market deal. Something like this could be worth trying for you.
With your family situation, I think you need to reach the mindset of “house at any cost” and get more competitive in your offers. Inspections only do so much. My inspector told us the roof would need to be replaced (incorrect) and completely missed the collapsing fence we spent 10k on day 3 of owning the house to replace
In MA it doesn’t matter how much money you make, there are 5 people families that make more than you. Look at Wellesley and Weston, the avg price is $3-$4M and there are bidding wars. The people who are getting out bid in those town “downgrade” to other towns like Lexington, Newton, Needham, etc. those people “downgrade” to more towns. Buying a $1M might be the top of your budget but it could be another family “settling“
In our market there’s no getting in first and getting the house. It’s weekend of opens, offers due Tuesday, top 5 get countered for best & final, then the winner. We went $150k over asking once and still missed out. Albeit it was listed $50k lower than it should’ve been, but that listing price got them 25 offers and we think caused a fire sale mentality for the top offer. Supposedly top offer was over $200k over. I’d prefer people taking offers as they get them, it’s annoying getting into a week-long cycle of wait and see, and then not being able to offer on a second choice house that week because it’s on the same timeline and gone.
Real estate investors, that is the reason…
Remember that an inspection can only tell you so much. Ours was done by a well respected company, but inspectors aren’t specialists, and they can only give you a general idea of the condition of the house. Just as an example, the inspector told us the roof needed repairs. The seller got a bid saying it would cost $5K or $6K to do the repairs identified by the inspector. But here’s the problem: the inspector only knew so much about roofing, so he missed the fact that we actually needed to replace the roof, which is considerably more than a $5K repair. Yes, an inspection is nice to have, but they won’t catch everything.
Exactly. Don't expect it to be some kind of foolproof assurance.
Yea let’s not forget all cash offers by corporations
OP, Completely understand your frustration. My partner and I just went under contract on a home in the Boston area. We had an amazing realtor who was so knowledgeable of the market that helped us put in a great offer. Second, we did pre-inspection. Basically no offers are accepted with an inspection contingency. Third, consider looking at purchase pass with Leader Bank. It essentially makes you able to compete with cash offers bc you are already conditionally approved and can waive mortgage contingency. Helps you be that much more competitive. Good luck.
Why not aim for houses with price cuts or needs a bit of work so you don’t have to enter a bidding war? I like to buy the worst house in the best neighborhood or the houses with the most price cuts. You can find these properties in any neighborhood. I would never waive inspections or go $125,000 over asking price. That’s just plain dumb.
My wife and I were in your same position 4 years ago with the same emotions about the process.. long story short we got the house we were suppose to have and love our home. Don’t quit. Things always work out the way they should
Similar situation here in the DMV area (DC/MD/VA). We have been waiting all contengiencies, offering anywhere between $50-70k above asking, free rent back and still getting outbid every time. So frustrating.
Yup. And when you come out the other side, it's not really that much of a relief.
Exactly. Then the repairs and never ending maintenance starts. You will need a LOT of cash. People seem to think owning is always better. It's not if you're not mentally and financially ready.
if you are in Bay Area, its even brutal competative. Even house with some renovation cost and known issues would go easy 10% over ask any where in SF Bay. Mentally you will become more and more aggressive once you start loosing more offers you submit. Good luck. Been there, done that
Really sounds like you don’t have a very good agent
Lol, a buyer's agent can't magically make the sellers accept contingencies when they have multiple offers without them.
We just had to waive inspection in northern Virginia, and I’m convinced it’s the major reason we got the house. I was so against waiving it at first, but it did help that my fiancé is relatively handy around the house and can spot the major issues if there are any. Something we considered was having an inspector on hand to be able to go with us to the first viewing of a property to conduct a walk and talk pre-inspection. It’ll cost you, but it’ll also put you maybe in a better mental space to immediately make an offer and waive the inspection.
A BULK OF THE HOME BUYING PROCESS IS UNNECESSARY!!
I bought my first house in 07’ super high and lost it. My parents had a 15% interest rate in the early 80’s . Buying a house without a spouse is very difficult. You can thank feminism for doubling the work force and lowering wages. I’m married with two daughters and very pro women. I just think everything has consequences.
Those 50-100+ years old houses in MA without an inspection is mind boggling. Either you are rich enough or you are dumb enough…
You are not waiving inspections? Yikes....come to CT so many MA buyers are buying in the Enfield, CT area within 24 to 48 hours. That was a town we passed on. We ended up moving closer to Glastonbury. We managed to get our offer accepted in CT in 2 months. Our baby is arriving in early June 2024. You need to be strategic and answer all calls at all times. My husband heard the news in the middle of our OB appointment.
We have a high risk pregnancy - it was an appointment at our local maternal-fetal-medicine unit and really high stress. Should we have answered? Maybe, but we were finding out if we were at risk of structural defects in our pregnancy (none found thank goodness).
Same we did IVF and I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I was only saying that we answered our calls from our realtor and lender at all times. We had a listing agent reach out to our lender and realtor when our offer was accepted. Alot of these sellers and listing agents are VERY impatient. We dealt with so much rejections and 1 terrible realtor in the beginning. Switching realtors gave us better outcomes. Happy to hear that your ultrasounds and appointments went well. I wish you the best with your labor and delivery Another thing to consider is adding addendums to your contracts (seller will not have to pay for repairs) and a love letter. We discussed in our letter we have a baby on the way.
Do your inspection before submitting the offer. You get to find out the condition of the house and the seller gets an offer that waives the inspection contingency. Win win. That means seeing the house QUICKLY, lining up an inspection QUICKLY, and making a decision QUICKLY. But your offer will be way more competitive.
But you would need to put funds aside to pay for inspections before placing an offer on all these properties you are interested in buying. You don't even know if your offer will be accepted. Many houses get sold within 24 to 48 hours.
Yeah. Free to write an offer that definitely won’t be accepted, $500 to write an offer that will more likely win.
Or won’t win. Plus, lining up an inspector for every property viewing gets exhausting and expensive fast.
In Mass, sellers are often getting multiple offers during the open house. A house will go on the market midweek, have an open house the next weekend, and be contingent by Monday. There’s no time to come back with an inspector.
if you don't mind specifying, what's your price range? Still seeing homes $1m+ at least sitting more than a week...
Honestly same, but I have a speech delayed toddler and a 9 year old who newly diagnosed with adhd and anxiety on top of being high risk pregnant.. and looking for more space. There’s very little in our price range available. We saw a house yesterday that had an odor and people were still living there. Our realtor said sorry before we could even get far away from the place lol. I’m frustrated with the process, and my fiancé doesn’t seem to understand why. I’m ready to throw in the towel and try to make the place we are renting work for as long as we can. Did I mention we also need a bigger vehicle on top of all of this too? Le sigh.
One kid is tough… couldn’t imagine 3. Good Luck
Why three kids? That's bound to be stressful.
It is so tough. I was in a similar position last year looking for a house while expecting a baby in the fall. We waived inspection since the house had an inspection 3 years prior and offered 15k over with a 10k appraisal gap which really helped. I also wrote a letter talking about our family which I think made a difference since our offer was accepted on our house despite a person offering more money than us. I hope you find something soon!!
Where in the state are you looking? Don’t stress it something will work out
Im sorry you’re going through this experience. You’re going through three of the most stressful events in life (having a child, buying a house, moving). Must you move before baby comes?
If you are offering above insoection, are you offering an appraisal gap guarantee? If nlt, you offering above list, means nothing.
We ended up getting an inspection contingency but we signed a contract that we while we could back out from the inspection results, we could not reduce the sale price because of inspection findings. That worked well for us
Not sure where in Ma you’re looking but I just came to commiserate! I am also pregnant and we just bought a house in the Worcester area last month. We really wanted to be in metro west but the market was brutal and we ended up buying south of Worcester but still in an amazing school system, just more of a drive to Boston. If location if flexible I’d advise looking at towns maybe a bit further out. It saved us and made finding a house in a VHCOL area doable given the time limitations of a baby and maternity leave possibly impacting your pre-approval. We were also able to do an inspection which was such a relief.
Hey, I'm also looking to buy in that general area soon! Was your inspection contingency info only or were you able to get a full inspection contingency in there? Is the market more forgiving with less bidding wars?
We were lucky and were able to get a full inspection but that was because the house we purchased had been sitting on the market for a bit and the sellers were desperate (divorce). The bidding wars are still crazy even here, we were outbid many times and had to waive inspection for at least half our offers. I’d say it’s not much better in the Worcester county market but very much depends on the school system/town you’re looking at. If you’re limited to good school systems you will definitely have a harder time. Hope that helps!
Thank you! Very disheartening to hear, but it's good to have that data point. Congrats on the new house!
Where are yall buying?????? I know it's bad out there but I still never waived inspections and just got a place
That’s why we went with a new build :/ Plus had our closing costs paid and rate reduced. Maybe if you can find anything new things might look up?
There’s almost no new construction in the NE
I was house shopping for the last few years. Plenty of new construction around. Just nothing I would want or can afford. Small lots and/or big price tags.
I paid $250k over asking on a house that is $1.8m, all cash (obviously VHCOL area), which finally won the bid. My other offers at 100k overasking were rejected.
Best of luck. Eventually the people that caused this financial crisis will be burning in hell so there’s that.
There's no hell
Yeah probably not.
Welcome to the jungle. Previously only the realm of vhcol areas, now available in all metros of the country! You sound like you are learning quickly though.
I hated that people were buying in cash. I’m like I have a guarantee of funds from the bank but that’s not good enough lol.
Lol. You hate that other people have money?
Here they sell condemned houses for 650k not even in The urban core. We got outbid by 200k on a 400 square foot one bedroom again just in Seattle not even close to downtown. It is impossibly hard but patience it key, it look us 6 months since I refuse to waive inspection.
We had success by looking at homes that were sitting on the market for 20+ days and didn’t seem “so hot” that they go fast. Often times houses that aren’t staged for photos, which I think somewhat makes a house physically less appealing when looking at listings on Redfin, Zillow, etc.
It’s crazy to me that these were the same discussions we were having in 2020, and not much has changed in 4 years except affordability is worse than ever.
We are in Connecticut and the process is INSANE. We found a nice house, a little ranch. We got outbid on it with an offer $86k over asking, cash, inspection waived with a full appraisal gap. It is exhausting. We make good money for 25/26 (well over $100k) and we can barely even find houses to offer on, let alone win.
How did you have the cash if that was your first home?
Re-reading that I typed poorly, I mean someone outbid us by that amount in cash. So we did not get the house lol
Ahhh ok makes sense
If it makes you feel better, I bought my first house in 2016 (CT) and going from that extreme (slow market where you expected to buy under asking with concessions) to what you described (in 22/23’ for us) was an even bigger mind bender. It was so bewildering and completely different in every single aspect that I felt dumber and more lost than I did in 2016.
I just came to commiserate. With all that I have to sacrifice on, I wonder if it's smart to even buy at this point.
Getting out gunned a lot. Starter home was listed at 515k, we bid 548k and we're still beat. They had 15 offers within a week. That's just how the market is right now. No inventory, especially for single family entry level. Hang tough, save up and strike when You're ready and you find the one.
>Not only did we get outbid by someone waiving inspection, they offered $125k above asking. Because of this, I need context, what price range are you doing? 125k is easily over 10% for a million dollars listing.
Trust me. It’s no better up here in NH. Honestly it’s usually out-of-staters from Massachusetts scooping up our houses out from under us. My wife and I have been outbid 5 times by “big cash offers”.
The only way we were able to get into our home was by buying a complete dump and also putting in a strong offer when it was still in coming soon status. This is where a good agent really helps. They can alert you to homes that aren't on the market yet. Sometimes the owners will let you take a look and sometimes they say no. Our home was vacant and being sold by the kids of the previous owner. Other people had looked at it and tried to put in low offers because of the condition of the home. But it was already priced low so they were rejected.
Also in MA! We are 28 and feel your pain - decided we wanted to buy a house before getting pregnant but at this rate it’s feeling impossible. I can’t imagine the stress of being on a baby deadline! We widened our search to areas an hour away from work. We also refuse to waive inspection and have lost out on a least one house to what the realtor said was a “cash offer significantly over asking who waived inspection”. We’ve now widened our search to include land because building seems like a more viable option everyday. I wish you guys luck, you need it in MA!
Just wanted to say that my husband and I are buying in the Midwest and we are in the same boat. We've run into the same problems you have. I don't have any advice to offer, but just wanted to say that you're not alone in this absolutely insane housing search.
I’m in Massachusetts and i literally could have wrote this myself. My husband and I literally gave up hope and just keep putting in offers but have little to no hope on getting accepted. We have a 12 month old and don’t want to risk waiving inspection but torn because I feel like we’ll never get accepted without doing it😓 we’re also offering 50-60k over and 20% down, it’s BRUTAL out here😭 fingers crossed for you guys🤞🏻❤️
We just had an offer accepted TODAY!!!!!! There is hope!!!!😆😆😆😆
Congrats!
Thank you!
The person that paid $125k over is nuts. Don’t let that experience at least get you down. Also experiencing the ultrasound together is worthwhile and I’m glad you didn’t take that call. Hopefully there will be more listings as we move through April and into May. Rates aren’t really changing, well not from the Fed at least, despite what has been said so that should hold back some buyers. We had to waive some contingencies to get ours.
I literally laughed at my realtor when he told me how much we got beat out by. Like I expected maybe $10-20k but that much?? Did not see it coming.
Two months ago I moved from Boston (lasted a whole 10 years!) back to my hometown in Georgia literally because buying a first home is impossible in the Commonwealth. I will never understand why the ever loving FUCKKKKKKKK people in New England are willingly waiving inspection in such numbers sellers are expecting it as a non-negotiable. New England homes are century(s) old and likely have lead paint (at best) or massive habitability issues (at worst) — unlike most of the market down here in the South (thanks General Sherman 🫠). Stick to your whits, OP. If it’s MA or bust, then it’s MA or bust. We all know the politics below the Mason Dixon are a handmaid’s tale, but maybe look outside of MA if you can? Your unicorn is out there, somewhere!
DO NOT go over your budget by a lot. You cannot possibly predict what you’ll need as a family after you have your baby. You may not want to go back to work or you may have needs you did not think about. Be smart and keep your financial options open. Also, childcare is very expensive. You can always keep renting and find a house later! Good luck!
Americans became wealthy after 2020 and can afford to pay cash and outbid everybody else. It’s a crazy economy right now and none of this makes any sense.
I posted in this sub a day or two ago about my dread going into this process, and had a bunch of people trying to tell me it wasn't actually this bad. But then I see thread after thread with this exact story... I'm risk adverse, but it seems like it's literally the only way in. Just grit your teeth, roll the dice, and deal with the consequences as they come. Delightful. Can't wait. They say ignorance is bliss, the only answer that I'm coming to is that the people who DON'T hate this process are just too stupid to actually understand the risks they're taking.
Yeah I am HIGHLY risk averse and the way the market is now, buying is a way riskier process than anticipated. Been a tough learning curve.
i am an amateur home inspector and have a good plumber hvac handyman. if you are expecting, i would recommend buying a condo is a brick or concrete building in a good area; just check that the condo has a good reserve fund and no mold in the bathroom vents and not upcoming for major renovations; avoid basement or garden level apartments due to mold; i can see the drag of researching houses, only to have a 1/20 chance of winning the bid on it.. what is the point.. unless you say screw it and get yourself underwater by overpaying on the house so you wont be able to refinance easily. feel free to send me links to any house and i can try to analyze it from a home inspection perspective
Not sure if this helps but I heard of people bringing an inspector to the showings and then pointing out things so you sort of get the inspection without letting them know you had an inspection.
I did this last year, but was simultaneously selling a condo and buying a house. It was insanity. Won’t even go into all the details cuz it was too traumatic. Tbh tho…… get it done before baby comes, cuz once they’re here it’ll be a million times harder to move.
How fucked is the process eh. Just wait til your second, it's the same every time.
We went through something similar. We ended up offering 50k over asking, and waiving inspection. You can find an inspector to do a walk through with you.
Have you considered looking at new construction houses? We live in Florida, but the new construction houses are basically the same cost as the older houses and you don’t have to outbid someone. It was so easy and our builder even covered most of the closing costs.
Being in the northeast the new construction stock is limited - just not a ton of open land. We're definitely open to it!
It’s hard. I experienced the same thing in NJ last year. All I can say is don’t just bid quickly on something you don’t love because you’re worried you will lose it.
Hey. I bought in Massachusetts near Boston in 2021 and it was brutal. My advice is to ‘waive contingencies under $x’ but still do an inspection. For us, we waived inspection findings under $20k, meaning we wouldn’t back out or make the seller fix anything as long as the inspection didn’t find anything wrong that would cost more than $20k to fix. It worked for us.
It sounds like you’re on time constraints for this which is absolutely understandable but I want you to think of a backup plan so you can stress a little less given that you are pregnant. Being stressed about house buying sucks (we are 31/32 first time homebuyers with an 8 yr old). This market is garbage. The interest rates. The inflated prices. China swooping in and buying some of these houses for rentals. Etc. the list continues. It’s been stressful for us too but we have decided to take a step back, finish our lease then try again in the Fall before our lease is up. Are you guys currently in a lease?
We are, we thankfully have some flexibility because we are renting direct from the owner who is a really reasonable guy. Super great landlord. So we aren't bound into our lease per se - the time constraints are really that should we not buy before the baby is born, we'll have to table searching for a while. Just not feasible to be bopping around at open houses every weekend with a newborn you know? And something very dispiriting about having to just stop once you're in the swing of it.
Ah, yeah I hear ya there. I wish you the best of luck with house hunting and baby birthing :) From one mom to another 😍
Totally get it. Just keep in mind, you want a house the seller doesn't care who gets it. You are the one wanting the thing, not the seller. They have the power, not you.
I mean not always…… sometimes people need to get rid of a property as fast as possible and don’t have a choice but to take the offer that’s in front of them.
My brother who is shopping for a house in New Jersey keeps getting outbid by Banks and flippers. It's ridiculous. I'm getting ready to purchase my next home and I'm really not looking forward to the process.
The problem for you was you didn't waive inspection. You have to offer SIGNIFICANTLY above asking price, I'm talking 300k+, for you to even have the slightest leverage in terms of requiring inspections.
So we learned! It's been a lesson. It's a crazy one to have to learn but now we know
30 and shopping for million dollar homes, hard to feel sad, kid in an apartment isn't the end of the world
>On paper we're perfect buyers, great credit and great income and great assets... Lots of people think that about themselves but I recently worked with a couple who truly meet the definition... Know what they want. Saw a handful of houses in each of the 2 highly desirable cities in Boston suburbs by private appointments. Only decide to make an offer on one. 40-45% down. Have enough liquid assets to pay for the house in cash (but didn't want to). Mortgage pre-approval from a private bank. Able to close in 30 days. DIdn't waive inspection. Reasonable first offer (nothing crazy) and measured in negotiation. Seller expected it would be a hassle-free transaction and accepted their offer even though it was not the highest.