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.
Hi, new to board
Hi Ladies,
My name is Ela and DH and I are ready to buy a home. We have seen some 10 houses in our county, and put an offer about two weeks ago.
It is owned by an investment company not a bank. We love it. We went back and forth a little on the offer, and finally DH and I agreed on a price the owners went down to. We signed a new binder and are waiting for them to countersign. I am not really sure what follows, and would love your advice.
Should we hire an attorney? Do foreclosures get inspections? Is it true we have to pay taxes for a year upfront? I put my two weeks in and starting a new job on Sept 6 - should I worry about the pre-approval and loan when changing jobs? My new salary is much higher, but our realtor is worrying about the change. Do foreclosures take a long time to close?
I am a little stressed about this process - I come from Poland, moved here 9 years ago. In my country most of the people live in the apartments or houses they bilt themselves. No one buys a home with a potential to rent - people just live in the homes they build/buy their whole life, so this whole process is some really scary magic to me 
Thank you for your advice and help 
Re: Hi, new to board
I hope you have an inspection clause in your offer. This allows you to back out of the contract with no penalty if substantial problems are found. If you don't have an inspection, you could find out too late that the home has serious issues that will be very costly. Inspections aren't just to have repairs made by the seller; they are also so you know what you are buying.
We've never hired an attorney, but I believe our realtor always had one -- it was part of the whole package, not something arranged separately. Ask your realtor.
I believe some areas bill taxes in advance, others in arrears.
I bought from an investment company, too. They had flipped the house, and we ran into a couple of problems because of that. We used an FHA loan, and if you try to buy with that sort of loan you need to wait 90 days after the title changes hands to sign the contract. Apparently nobody knew that when we were buying, so at 2 weeks before closing we realized that we had to write a new contract and do everything again.
Also, the seller LEFT THE COUNTRY before finishing signing all of the documents. So we had to wait while he went to a US consulate office and signed the papers, and then sent them over. Ugh. But the company we bought from sucked, so hopefully you won't have to deal with that stuff.
I would recommend hiring an attorney. It wasn't really that much money (I think we spent $800) and it was definitely worth it for us. He really helped us with all the crap that went on with the seller.
Do an inspection. The won't fix anything, but you can still walk away if there's something seriously wrong that you don't want to be responsible for.
Taxes are part of closing costs, as are the remainder of the month's mortgage (the seller will pay the days until closing, and then you pay the rest of the days in the month).
I changed jobs while we were under contract, and I didn't have a problem, but people have jumped down my throat about that here, and I'm sure you'll hear horror stories. I just know that it wasn't a problem in my case.
It is scary, but it's also fun and exciting! I hope everything goes smoothly for you!
71 workouts completed in 2012
Thank you so much for your advice, ladies.
We definitely want to do an inspection, and have that clause in the binder (still no contract yet). I asked about the inspection because someone told me that some foreclosures do not get them. I would definitely not want to buy an uninspected house.
We don't know what company owns it, the situation is very weird - few years ago, the father transfered/sold the house to his son for $10 (yes, ten dollars), and there is no other history on the sales. Apparently this company has been trying to foreclose for two years (not sure how much of this is true). I really hope they will not delay anything.
I will keep you updated. I am sure I will have many more questions
My Blog