Buying A Home
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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.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Did you request to see copies of utilitiy bills?
While we're trying to work out the downpayment issue we asked our realtor to request some information about the roof and the title V and I also asked to see 12 months worth of utilty bills. I know it's recommended in Home Buying for Dummies, but I am just wondering if anyone actually did it. I am doing it more for budgeting purposes because our current rental is certifed energy efficient so our heating bills have always been very reasonable.
TIA!
Re: Did you request to see copies of utilitiy bills?
We asked recently when we made an offer (they provided one month) for a summer/winter avg but we filled out a form completely when we sold our house last December detailing a full years' utility info. We did not provide copies of bills, I just took it off my on-line banking info.
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I called the power company and they gave the average for the last year.
Yeah, if I'm a seller and you put in an offer that, in addition to the usual low starting price and long list of wants, also includes a request for copies of 12 months of utility bills, I might decide you're so high maintenance I don't want anything to do with you. If I do work with you, I'm going to be really irked and probably counter back hard to make digging out those damn bills worth my while.
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In my area, there's a utility form that realtors ask sellers to fill out along with the disclosure statement. Not everyone does it, but more do than don't. It's a definite time saver.
It's a grid, utilities are listed down the left of the paper and the months of the year across the top. Fill in the boxes with an exact or approximate cost per month as applicable. Cable, dish, internet, and landline phone aren't included for obvious reasons.
http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi#general
I actually took the data off my bills and made a 12 month, 1 page spreadsheet with columns for gas, electricty, water, sewer and trash. Then, I provided the 12 month average cost for each at the bottom in bold. This single page went into our sales packet for potential buyers.
I agree that it's a bit much to ask for statements from sellers. But, we wanted to provide our buyers with as much info as possible to help our home sell. It's a pretty easy thing to do once you get past the initial set-up. And, it probably only took 15 minutes.
In the long run, it saved us time and effort since buyers weren't coming to us for the info...they already had it.
I tried this to verify info we got from our seller and they wouldn't release the information to me.
The realtor provided us with a year's worth when we told her we wanted to make an offer on the house. I believe the seller had them on file with his agent.
When we sold the buyer asked for an estimate, which we gave. He did not ask for documentation, but we would have given it. My utility company had the option of printing out pdf's of the bills right on the website.
Am I the only one who thinks the "I don't keep bills!" responses are crazy? I can go online and see three or so years worth of utility bills right now. More work, but also possible: checking all of your monthly bank statements (also conveniently available online) to see what you paid each month.
We aren't living in 1970. Even if you get a paper bill, I'd be REALLY surprised if the majority of sellers on this board don't pay the majority of their bills online or at least have access to an online billing system.
40/112
I think they mean that they're not on hand, in a file drawer all easy to get to like it was back in 1970. Besides...
Electric, gas, water, sewer, trash x 12 = 60 pages
And that's assuming the statement is only 1 page. My electric and water bills are always 3 pages long.
It is inconvenient if someone wants to see paper copies of every bill for the last year. That's also why (around here) realtors prefer if you fill out the utility grid that I mentioned earlier. That's a lot of damn paper. Especially when you consider how many houses are sold every year.
http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi#general
I am in Georgia and Georgia Power gave it to me but they told me they could only give an average for the last year. It didn't really help because no one has really lived in the house for the last year so it was an average of $30 a month. ha
Our quote was also useless as the home was empty for 9 months.
No, you're right, 60 pages of paper would be kind of crazy. But that grid would be really easy, even if someone wanted to replicate it themselves in excel.
40/112
I was thinking the same thing. It's super easy to go online and either compile a PDF of past statements that you can email, or even easier, copy the data from the "billing history" page and paste it into an email. I would certainly put forth this five minutes' worth of effort if it made the difference between selling and not selling.
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We have done this too, but in some states the utility companies are legally prohibited from giving out this info.
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