Post by Basket1lady on Mar 29, 2016 17:58:34 GMT
Update--(long--it's a update, a vent, and whining all in one.)
Well, the walk through/appraisal was this morning. She had me walk through the house with her to ask about working ceiling fans, if we owned the appliances, etc. I kept quiet, deferring to the home owners for most of the questions. But she caught me with the MBA shower. It's obvious that it leaks, as some of the lower tiles are moldy. In spite of me trying every product on the market. She asked if any of the tiles had fallen off. I said no, but she must have heard something in my voice because she asked "what was I not telling her about the shower." I just said that obviously the grout must be cracked, as I can't get rid of the mold. But ugh. I was trying hard not to say anything.
She saw the sandbags in the yard and asked about them. I just responded that the homeowners could tell her more about that. Same thing with the age of the roof, the age of the furnace, the age of the water heater...
I did get quite a chastisement from her about the "low" rent we are paying based on our pay grade (military is paid by rank and years in service.) I just said that I thought it was a fair price, but really? We pay what the homeowners advertised. Our rent isn't based on DH's pay with a private homeowner. And good for us for paying less than is suggested for our rank. This house is a nice house, even with it's age and flooding issues. So now I'm wondering if this whole thing is a scheme to get us to pay more rent. But if that's the case, why wouldn't the homeowner just ask for more rent?
Then she's telling me that in 2 weeks, I need to be here for 3 hours for photos. With the house clean and tidy. That week, I'll be working from 6 am-11 pm for 6 straight days. The house is going to be a wreck with costumes and props everywhere. (I work with a theatre and our musical goes up that week.) And I have to take the dog away during showings (which I would want to anyway.) And that I have to remove all medications and valuable art every time there is a showing. I have meds that need to be refrigerated--I can't leave them in a hot car. This whole thing is just going to be a PITA and it's our busiest time at work and will be until the end of the month.
And of course, none of this is addressed in the lease. It just says that I have to allow reasonable access to the house and that I have to vacate within 30 days of sale. I've had people look at our houses before when we move, but this just seems like too much to ask of a tenant with no compensation. I just can't take time off of work every few days to clean and take the dog out of the house for an hour.
On the bright side, we have a meeting with our old homeowner tonight from the house where we lived from 2005-09 when we were in this area before. That house is available and we are considering buying it. And there are tons of houses in the area for rent right now on militarybyowner that are closer to the high school and $200 a month cheaper.
______________________________________________________________
We are military and we rent in the northern Virginia area. We have been here 4 1/2 years and have one more year before DD graduates HS. We (at least DD and I) will stay in the area until she graduates.
The homeowner wants to sell. As is their right and it's in the lease. An appraiser is scheduled to come in on Monday to appraise the house. My question is how forthcoming should I be with the realtor when they come next week? Should I tell them about the numerous times the basement has flooded? About the cracked tiles and inoperable tub drain in the soaking tub in the master? About the poly-B pipes that cause occasional leaks in the baths? Or should I just show them the house and keep mum? What if they specifically ask about issues?
We have had problems with the basement starting 10 days after we moved in and had a foot of water in the basement. They had to tear it out down to the studs and redo the entire basement. Since then, we have had 3 other minor floods with the window wells filling with water and leaking into the basement. Just 3 weeks ago we had another incident and it's obvious that the drywall needs to be ripped out again and redone. The window wells are sandbagged, as is the doorway where the initial huge flood began.
The family that we rent from is prior military. They bought at the height of the market in 2006 and want to sell. I know what they paid and what Zillow now says it's worth and what the comps are in the area. There is no way we want to buy this house, even at it's current value, and we have seriously considered it. But the roof is 25 years old, as is the furnace. The roof has leaked (now patched) and the furnace has been repaired once since we have lived here and the AC unit replaced. And the flooding would take about $30-50,000 to fix with structural landscaping (we had an engineer out to look at it when we first considered buying the house.) So they would need to come down on the price for those issues, as well as the straight loss of value from 2006 until now. I'd say close to $175,000.
I would not lie to play up the negatives--I think they speak for themselves. But I'm not sure just how much to disclose to the realtor. WWTPD?
ETA:
To answer some questions, no, it's not an inspector coming. It's an appraiser who has a real estate license. I'm using realtor and appraiser interchangeably--is that not correct? In her email confirming the appt, she is listed as a realtor, but verbally called it an appraisal over the phone.
The owners live out of state and are not available for a walk through. They want to do it during the day to judge curb appeal, so the time is 10 am Monday. I'm the only one available. And she was really put out that I needed that much time. But my schedule is tight this week. I volunteer at a local theatre and our biggest show of the year goes up in 3 weeks. I'm up to my eyeballs in meetings and details to get done with the students. And I have an Air Force event on Friday that requires my attendance. I guess I'll spend the weekend cleaning. Ugh.
Well, the walk through/appraisal was this morning. She had me walk through the house with her to ask about working ceiling fans, if we owned the appliances, etc. I kept quiet, deferring to the home owners for most of the questions. But she caught me with the MBA shower. It's obvious that it leaks, as some of the lower tiles are moldy. In spite of me trying every product on the market. She asked if any of the tiles had fallen off. I said no, but she must have heard something in my voice because she asked "what was I not telling her about the shower." I just said that obviously the grout must be cracked, as I can't get rid of the mold. But ugh. I was trying hard not to say anything.
She saw the sandbags in the yard and asked about them. I just responded that the homeowners could tell her more about that. Same thing with the age of the roof, the age of the furnace, the age of the water heater...
I did get quite a chastisement from her about the "low" rent we are paying based on our pay grade (military is paid by rank and years in service.) I just said that I thought it was a fair price, but really? We pay what the homeowners advertised. Our rent isn't based on DH's pay with a private homeowner. And good for us for paying less than is suggested for our rank. This house is a nice house, even with it's age and flooding issues. So now I'm wondering if this whole thing is a scheme to get us to pay more rent. But if that's the case, why wouldn't the homeowner just ask for more rent?
Then she's telling me that in 2 weeks, I need to be here for 3 hours for photos. With the house clean and tidy. That week, I'll be working from 6 am-11 pm for 6 straight days. The house is going to be a wreck with costumes and props everywhere. (I work with a theatre and our musical goes up that week.) And I have to take the dog away during showings (which I would want to anyway.) And that I have to remove all medications and valuable art every time there is a showing. I have meds that need to be refrigerated--I can't leave them in a hot car. This whole thing is just going to be a PITA and it's our busiest time at work and will be until the end of the month.
And of course, none of this is addressed in the lease. It just says that I have to allow reasonable access to the house and that I have to vacate within 30 days of sale. I've had people look at our houses before when we move, but this just seems like too much to ask of a tenant with no compensation. I just can't take time off of work every few days to clean and take the dog out of the house for an hour.
On the bright side, we have a meeting with our old homeowner tonight from the house where we lived from 2005-09 when we were in this area before. That house is available and we are considering buying it. And there are tons of houses in the area for rent right now on militarybyowner that are closer to the high school and $200 a month cheaper.
______________________________________________________________
We are military and we rent in the northern Virginia area. We have been here 4 1/2 years and have one more year before DD graduates HS. We (at least DD and I) will stay in the area until she graduates.
The homeowner wants to sell. As is their right and it's in the lease. An appraiser is scheduled to come in on Monday to appraise the house. My question is how forthcoming should I be with the realtor when they come next week? Should I tell them about the numerous times the basement has flooded? About the cracked tiles and inoperable tub drain in the soaking tub in the master? About the poly-B pipes that cause occasional leaks in the baths? Or should I just show them the house and keep mum? What if they specifically ask about issues?
We have had problems with the basement starting 10 days after we moved in and had a foot of water in the basement. They had to tear it out down to the studs and redo the entire basement. Since then, we have had 3 other minor floods with the window wells filling with water and leaking into the basement. Just 3 weeks ago we had another incident and it's obvious that the drywall needs to be ripped out again and redone. The window wells are sandbagged, as is the doorway where the initial huge flood began.
The family that we rent from is prior military. They bought at the height of the market in 2006 and want to sell. I know what they paid and what Zillow now says it's worth and what the comps are in the area. There is no way we want to buy this house, even at it's current value, and we have seriously considered it. But the roof is 25 years old, as is the furnace. The roof has leaked (now patched) and the furnace has been repaired once since we have lived here and the AC unit replaced. And the flooding would take about $30-50,000 to fix with structural landscaping (we had an engineer out to look at it when we first considered buying the house.) So they would need to come down on the price for those issues, as well as the straight loss of value from 2006 until now. I'd say close to $175,000.
I would not lie to play up the negatives--I think they speak for themselves. But I'm not sure just how much to disclose to the realtor. WWTPD?
ETA:
To answer some questions, no, it's not an inspector coming. It's an appraiser who has a real estate license. I'm using realtor and appraiser interchangeably--is that not correct? In her email confirming the appt, she is listed as a realtor, but verbally called it an appraisal over the phone.
The owners live out of state and are not available for a walk through. They want to do it during the day to judge curb appeal, so the time is 10 am Monday. I'm the only one available. And she was really put out that I needed that much time. But my schedule is tight this week. I volunteer at a local theatre and our biggest show of the year goes up in 3 weeks. I'm up to my eyeballs in meetings and details to get done with the students. And I have an Air Force event on Friday that requires my attendance. I guess I'll spend the weekend cleaning. Ugh.
