Phoenix Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
random house poll
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours?
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted?
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price?
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer?
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning?
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS?
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower?
Re: random house poll
I bought ours 5 years ago before the bubble burst but I'll answer your questions anyways.
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? I want to say it was about 10, split over a couple days.
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? She was our neighbor / family friend
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? I think it was asking price, again this was 5 years ago and there were a lot of bidding wars going on.
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? There was one other, and yes we did get a counter offer...I don't think it was about price though but some other terms.
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? haha, it was a bit of a fixer but mostly cosmetic, i.e. carpet, light fixtures and paint. We painted everything.
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? None of the above
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? At asking so there wasn't any negotiation over price, just some maintenance items.
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? We looked at probably 30-35 houses, all in Surprise.
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? My dad is a realtor so he was the ?buyer agent? since they purchased the home it worked out well for him since this is an investment property for them.
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? I believe the asking price on the house was $134k and they paid $132k
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? One other offer, it was lower then ours. No counter offers, my parents had the best offer so they accepted ours right away.
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? The house has great bones, the only thing we wanted to change was the paint colors and we have been doing that slowly but surely
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? It was a short sale? it took six months from the time we put the offer in to the time we closed and moved in.
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? The appraisal came in above asking price, so my parents were good with that since they would be going in with equity, they did not try to re-negotiate.
We also bought 5 years ago, when houses were selling in hours (seriously- my realtor would call with a new post then pick me up to look at it an hour later and by the time we got there they would already have multiple offers!!!)
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? At least 20
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? My Aunt is a broker, so we used her realtor (never use the listing agent!!!)
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? I think $2k above asking, at the time, yes we were happy
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? There was an offer from an investor, but the owners made a personal choice to choose us, despite the fact the investor offered more. We talked with them when we looked at the house and they liked the fact that we were a young couple buying our first home, just like they were. We got really lucky!
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? It was turn-key so we didn't HAVE to do anything, but it's definately not my dream house. It's a good starter.
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? None of the above
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? I believe it came in higher- since the house was only 2 yrs old and the first in the neighborhood to sell, there were no close comps.
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? I can't remember the exact number, but I want to say it was in the range of 10-15?
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? Our realtor has been a friend of my parents/family for years...she is awesome and if you need a realtor I'd HIGHLY suggest her!!!
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? like 1,000 below asking price lol We were happy with the price because it meant we got the house, and we weren't willing to go over
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? yes
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? The entire house was yellow inside when we bought it, it made me want to vomit. We had to do all the landscaping ourselves. There were some other small things too.
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? forclosure
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? it was higher than our asking price, I think
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? well over 100+, our search lasted 1+ year
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? we had a few realtors hahaha. we ended up using the listing agent on the house.
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? above, listed for $27k we offered $35k plus paid our own closing cost
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? there were 2 offers before ours - lower all denied so we went higher
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? its a total fixer upper
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? bank owned
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? no appraisal needed
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? it was the 2nd house we looked at.
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? met him at the mall at one of those "Model Home Center" kiosks.
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? Below asking and yes.
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? No.
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? Nope. It was a brand new house.
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? Technically it was FSBO, but the owner was a Realtor. He had purchased a handful of homes in our community to resell.
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? No idea actually.
We bought in March, 2007, if that makes a difference (and we sold my husband's house that he had owned previously about 7 months later).
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? It was actually the second house we saw. We weren't even going to be officially house hunting for another few months because we were trying to save a little more, but our friend wanted us to look at a house in his neighborhood (the first house we saw - and we didn't like it), but I had found a different house online that was in the same area. So, we decided to look at that one too. That was our house, and we loved it and wanted it. So, we bought it. Which is really crazy especially for my husband since he is the opposite of an impulse buyer! hehe
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? He was the agent that Ray had used back in 2001 when he bought his first house (the house we were living in at the time). He really liked him, and the guy took him to see SO many houses at the time, and was great about it. So, he was the one we used. We joked that Ray made it up to him for all the work from buying the first house with the second house since our realtor said it was the easiest money he ever made (he didn't find either house for us - Ray's friend found the first house, and I found the second online. He basically just let us in. lol).
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? We a little below asking price. I think we got him down like $8,000. But it had been on the market awhile, and he had recently dropped the price prior to us making an offer. At the time, I was pretty happy. However, I didn't know that housing prices were going to keep dropping. I thought we were buying at the perfect time. Turns out, our house is now probably worth about $50,000 less than what we paid for. So, now I'm not as happy...
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? There were no other offers on the house. We did get a counter offer, which is what we accepted.
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? Definitely things to fix up. It was not bad, but it had been a forclusure that an investor bought. He basically de-80's it, but very cheaply. I HATED the kitchen. Boring cabinets, and the counter-top was a nightmare. It was tile, but it was supposed to look like stone, and it had all these little grooves all over the place, which food would get stuck in. It was a MAJOR PITA to clean. It required a toothbrush to get all the crap out of all the little grooves and divets. Plus, whoever installed it did a terrible job. Near the sink it was crazy uneven, and it was cracking, and the tiles were coming loose, and it just looked like crap. We have since redone it, and it is a million times nicer now!!
We also redid the master bathroom and the downstairs bathroom (well, really just new vanities, lighting, and fixtures) - but it looks ten times better!
New lighting and ceiling fans throughout the house.
We also wanted to paint (it was boring white), which we have done. All rooms are now painted (except the guest room and guest bathroom).
Ray also changed all of the light switches and outlets to look more modern (they were this off-white color, and thus looked dirty, with the old fashioned switches).
We still need to redo the baseboard (it's ugly and cheap, and now has drops of paint on it from painting since we weren't too careful about it since we thought we would be replacing them sooner).
I also still want to replace the ugly brass doorknobs and also replace the bedroom and closet doors since they are all really cheap (I want the doors with panels. Ours are just flat and cheap looking).
And someday, I would love to get rid of the boring, light colored tile and either replace it with cherry laminate floors or at least nicer (darker) and more interesting tile. The carpet is not as nice as I'd like either, and I'd like to eventually replace it, but we make do for now.
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? Not when we bought it, but the investor we bought it from bought it as a foreclosure. And it is seriously annoying because we get calls all the time (still!) for the previous owners! (Even though the phone number is our old phone number from our previous house, which he has had since 2001). And we get their mail. They obviously owe a lot of people a lot of money and are apparently difficult to track down now. We even got a W2 for one of the previous owners this past January (which we had never got before, which leads me to believe they are still using this address for stuff... grrrr....)
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? I can't remember actually. It must have been similar or I would likely remember. We got him down a little, but I don't believe it had anything to do with an appraisal.
A few pictures:
The kitchen before we moved in:
Kitchen after we moved in (but before the remodel):
Kitchen after remodel (the lighting isn't the best since it's at night. It does not normally look so yellow):
I own 2 houses, one in Scottsdale that I bought about 6 or 7 years ago and one in Vegas that I bought about 10 months ago. I will answer for both since Vegas is a very similar market to Phoenix. I will put a P for Phoenix and a LV for Las Vegas.
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours?
P: Probably about 30 LV: 5 or so
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted?
P: He was a friend of mine from college LV: I work in a RE office now, so I picked a friend/co-worker I truested
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price?
P: I was able to negotiate the price down about $20,000 LV: I paid the asking price plus I added in about $5000 extra because I wanted the bank to cover closing costs
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer?
No other offers on either of them. The market was slow when I bought in Phoenix and I worked with the sellers agent in Vegas so he just took my offer.
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning?
P: I added tile downstairs, it was all carpet. It was not my dream house, but as a single person in my early 20s I was not looking for a dream house. It was however a very nice townhouse.
LV: It needed quite a bit of work, but that was ok because it was a great deal! The biggest thing we did was the backyard, it did not even have a patio so we had to do that.
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS?
P: It was a regular old sale (but keep in mind this was a while ago). LV: It was a Foreclosure
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower
P: I do not remember, but I think it came in higher. No need to renegotiate since it came in higher, I was getting a good deal. LV: It came in at the exact offer price
Well, I live in an apartment but two years ago XH and I went house hunting. We failed, but we hunted.
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? Our first offer we put in after looking at 15 or so. Second 7 houses later. Third about 2 houses after that. The fourth was a while later... maybe 20 houses? The fifth was right after that one (we found two we liked in one day). After that I just don't remember. We put in offers on 7 houses.
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? She was my roommate.
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? We tried everything. Under, asking, over, over $15,000... San Diego housing market SUCKS!
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? The first house didn't have an offer, they just didn't like ours ($50,000 below asking but that's what it was worth). After that we were always in bidding wars or picked as the back-up.
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? This is San Diego we're talking about. In a $250,000 price range. EVERYTHING needed work. And lots of it.
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? We could only afford foreclosures.
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? Never got to this point.
The moral of the story is- never try to buy a house in San Diego.Guess I should answer my own poll & explain. We're in the process of buying our first house, as long as everything continues to go well. So I wanted to hear what you ladies have been through & stuff. So, thanks!
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? I've looked at hundreds online, but this was like the 4th one that we looked at out of about 11 houses we toured here.
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? I found her by questioning about a house she was the listing agent for. She's not the listing agent for our house now though.
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? Depending on the appraisal yet, we'll be paying about $7300 below asking. Yes & no...we could've gotten it for less if there wouldn't have been a last min. offer placed on the house after we put ours in.
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? We were told there weren't any offers on the house when we put ours in, but sometime before the sellers gave us a counter, at least one other offer came in. Yes, they countered as a "multiple counter offer" & dropped the price from asking.
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? Yes, there are some things we want to fix, but basically just a lil paint & to upgrade the kitchen. The rest is gorgeous!
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? Ours is an investment property of the sellers & they're using a realtor.
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? We're waiting on the appraisal to be done yet.
Our first house was a quick process. Our second house took much longer.
- How many houses did you check out before you decided on yours? 100+. We were looking for almost a year and put offers in on about 20 houses over that period of time (and every offer was WAY above asking - we had bad luck! LOL)
- Did you get your realtor from word of mouth, looking through & checking out RE companies or just because he/she was the listing agent on the house you wanted? Family Friend
- Did you pay asking, above asking, or below asking price? And were you happy w/that price? We were way above asking on all offers. The house we finally bought wasn't a good deal at all, but we love it so it was worth it.
- Were there any other offers on the house when you put yours in? Did you get a counter offer? Yes, there were usually anywhere between 5-20 offers on houses were were hoping to get. We countered on many of them.
- Were there things you wanted to fix up or was it your dream house from the beginning? It wasn't a 'fix-up' but there were some things we wanted to change. We bought the house last October and are currently in the process of remodeling our office and one of the upstairs bathrooms. Our second floor is a mess right now!
- Was your house a FSBO, foreclosure, or SS? It was actually a FSBO. Out of all the offers we put on houses, this was the only one that wasn't a foreclosure or SS. It was nice to deal with the regular owner and not the bank.
- Did your appraisal come in at asking price, lower, or higher? Were you able to re-negotiate if higher or lower? It was very close to what we had offered. We did not re-negotiate
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