r/RealEstateAdvice

I'm very new to all this and don't fully know terms and such, but I'll do my bes to explain. Context: I still owe about $440,000 on a home I purchased for $450,000. For reasons beyond the scope of this post, I want to sell. To my understanding, when it comes to paying additional fees and agents, I'll be under roughly $20,000. If I don't have this much in savings, what options do I have to pay this off? Would it be a loan I pay to the bank?

We close on our first house tomorrow. The seller asked us during our final walk through today at 5PM(he was moving stuff out) if he could keep taking things out of the garage for a week or so. There was a bit of discussion but we decided to let our agents decide( he wanted to have “a week or so” to sort through the garage and move things)

Our agent agrees that closing day should be the last day to grab things and we are getting everything ready to go through with that.

At around 1PM today seller asked if we could move back closing(we declined because we need to move out of our apartment)

I want him to get his stuff but don’t want anyone in my yard for an unknown length of time or to be liable for anything that comes with.

He has been clearing out the house since 2024. Our offer was accepted 46 days ago and closing date was determined.

We have in our conditions that we will keep whatever is left(there was tools in the basement that we were ok with keeping but if the seller wanted them we didn’t want to keep them on the seller)

I feel awful because we want him to grab his stuff and go, as well as the “keep what is left behind” part in the contract makes me feel like it seems like I want his stuff.
I am also justifying it that he has had time to clear it out and should hustle.

Is declining his request a bad thing to do? Is there anything I should be worried about?

I am pulling my hair out in frustration over the market right now. We're looking in south Florida, and we are pretty firm on no pool, no HOA. The no HOA limits the the search quite a bit, but every flippin' house has a pool. I don't want to have a pool, I don't want to maintain a pool, I don't want to worry about my kids/nephews/neighbors falling in the pool and drowning when i'm not looking. On top of that, I really don't want to maintain a 30+year old pool. I do not want to pay for the dumb financial decisions of previous homeowners.

In one neighborhood we really like, on google earth I counted 20 houses with no pool in a neighborhood of about 300 houses. Even if we opened the search to HOAs, it's pretty limited. I guess moral of the story, being a pool guy is good job security.

At this point I'm weighing the options - what if we bought a nice house with a typical pool, and just had it filled in. I know a filled in pool is on the property disclosure down here, but it's my understanding as long as it's done right there is nothing preventing someone from putting one in in the future. I know I'll "take a hit" on home value vs a house with a pool, but over 10 years I'm sure I'll make up for it by not needing maintenance, even including cost of filling it in. I guess the crux of the question is having a filled in pool on the property the black mark I fear it is? Should we just hold out and wait for a no pool house to show up, or - fill in a pool at an otherwise nice house?

I own a townhome in NC I’m renting out for $1475/month. Since I purchased the property 4 years ago HOA fees and property tax have increased DRAMATICALLY. At first my mortgage and HOA together were around $1300/mo. Now I’m paying $1680/mo. Initially I was breaking even on the rental but now am losing ~$200/mo. I can easily take this hit every month with my income but would rather not. I have a great interest rate of, I think, 3.8%. Unfortunately with the current housing market the property has depreciated since I purchased it ~4 years ago. I owe $213,000 on it and realistically if I sold it now, especially given it’s about to be fall, I could probably get around $240,000 for it. With selling costs I might have around $20k in equity. I made a down payment of $22k when I bought it. So basically I would break even. I don’t enjoy being a landlord as I have a toddler and stressful job. I have had more than one terrible renter and had to evict, but have an excellent renter in there now. I have to make a decision soon to sell or continue renting long term. In order to avoid capital gains tax I would need to sell by mid-2027 as I moved out and started renting it in 2024. I’m thinking cut my losses and sell it now. I could rent it out for another year, but I risk bad renters, vacancies, maintenance costs, rising HOA and property taxes, or even further depreciation in value. Thoughts?

Hello all,

I was looking into staging my house for market, but I am still currently living in my house with my family and my three cats. Does anyone have any advice or stratgies that they have used to make this work? So far, the staging companies I have talked to do not stage while the house is occupied. I was looking into hotels, but I feel like that is a lot of money. Any advice is welcome.

I live in a condo where they are now, selling the aparment that used to be " The Model " and they had kept as corporated for rentals. aparment is pristine, completly remodel. And the asking price is 60k more than the original price but to be fair its been 13 years. My condo was way less than that but needs some work. Will it be a smart idea to sell my aparment and buy the new one?. I would add about 10k dollars extra to my current mortgage debt if i sell and pay with profit. I fear though not selling my aparment on time. Or selling and missing out the purchase to another. A partment is in hot market location. Can some one please explain contingency please. Im afraid of ending homeless if I maje a mistake. My apt can sell for 150 the newer one is priced at 169

We built our home during the first few months of the pandemic and currently have a 2.75% interest rate and significant equity.

Our current neighborhood has become less and less diverse since we built. We are considering building in a new development in a more established part of the city that would allow our child to attend a school that is significantly more culturally and socio-economically diverse than our neighborhood school—something very important to us. We could opt them into the school, but we would need to apply for a waiver every year and it could be denied based on growth in enrollment.

A bonus of moving is that we would be building a house that fits our life better than our current home. When we built, we thought we would need the space we currently have, but we have found that 3500 sq ft is too much for us, and we would be downsizing to about 2700.

We know we can afford the increased payment, but one of the fears we have is that we will regret losing some of the financial flexibility we currently have.

For those who willingly left a low rate for a house that fits you better—whether it be size, location, etc—do you wish you had stayed and maintained more financial flexibility? Or was the move worth it?

I feel like the move would ultimately be worth it, but my spouse is more hesitant.

Edited to add: our child isn’t white. We want them to attend a school where they will have racial mirrors both in terms of peers and teachers/staff. Growth patterns in our city and the construction of new schools over the last six years changed the demographic make-up over our neighborhood schools. Other than diversity, schools in the city are all excellent academically.

OK I am a little confused. I intend to sell my house and buy another one. So considering that you don't know when the house will sell, how and when do you make an offer on another house?

Looking to sell my house in 10 months. I have a few things I’m looking at fixing and refreshing around the house. I don’t know what things are pointless in doing and what things are worth it to help with the sell. Would it be okay to start reaching out to selling agents this far out? Or should i wait?

We bought and closed on a house sight unseen in Colorado (military).

As a part of the contract there was a lot of repairs that were supposed to be completed that were not.

Is there a leg to stand on going to court to get the home repairs completed?

I am a single mother and have recently started a new job making more money. My sister (also a single mom) and I have been living together splitting expenses on and off for the past few years. I’m sick of renting and want to give my son a more stable home. I also want a place of my own and no longer want to have a roommate. I qualify for the VA loan, and am in between a few options.

Purchasing a duplex so my sister and I can split the mortgage, live separately but continue to help each other. I would essentially act as her landlord as with her credit I would not be able to put her on the loan.

Purchasing a multi family home where I live in one unit, my sister lives in another, and renting out the remaining one or two units to strangers for “passive income”

Purchasing a single family home for my son and I, and living apart from my sister all together.

My parents own a house we really like about 20 min away and are offering us a very great deal to buy it (real estate contract, and sale price that is 125k under what it is worth— easily). There are no strings attached, they made it clear that we can sell it as soon as we'd like and take the equity. I lived there years ago, and it’s peaceful and is double the living living space we currently have (1,400 → 3,000 square feet!)

The catch: it’s more suburban than our current home, which is in a location we LOVE. lots more nature here, and walking distance to lots cool things. (think charming trendy rural village type vibes). Our current home isn't our dream home by any means (it's a humble manufactured home, but we are comfortable and have been happy here.)

Other considerations: we currently have a very unsettling neighbor situation. He has screamed obscenely at my husband and flipped us off for no reason (with our kids around). He mostly keeps to himself, but ya know.... kinda scary and unpredictable.

We have three kids under 5, so we’re trying to decide whether the move would genuinely improve our family’s life—or whether we’d be giving up a home that’s already pretty special just because the deal is hard to pass up.

regarding schools, the districts are about the same.

What would you do??!

TL;DR: My parents are offering us a great deal on a house we like, but we already own a home in a location love on ½ acre/rural village life/walkable. With three kids under 5, do we take the opportunity to move into the more suburban house, or stay in our current home and avoid moving just because it’s a great deal?

I'm under contract on an older, relatively inexpensive house, and what initially seemed like a straightforward purchase has become increasingly complicated. I'm wondering whether other buyers would continue pursuing it or decide there are simply too many complications.

I knew when I made the offer that the house had a shared driveway with the property next door. I don't particularly like shared driveways, but the purchase price was attractive and I decided it was a compromise I could accept.

During the purchase process, however, we discovered that there apparently isn't a satisfactory recorded easement establishing the driveway rights.

This isn't a minor driveway either. It's the established driveway serving the properties, and it runs very close alongside the house I'm buying.

The purchase agreement was amended to address the driveway easement as well as another property-line/easement issue. The basic idea is that these property issues are supposed to be resolved and presented to me for approval before my inspection period proceeds.

The seller's attorney has now prepared proposed easement documents.

Here's where things have become difficult:

The neighboring property changed ownership relatively recently. The previous owner apparently had a good relationship with the seller, but the new owner is an LLC.

The seller doesn't have an established relationship with the new ownership group and, as of the latest update, hasn't yet been able to reach the appropriate authorized person at the LLC.

They're currently searching entity/property records and trying to locate the correct person who has authority to consider and sign the proposed driveway easement.

So at this point, the seller has an easement proposal, but they still need to locate the appropriate representative of the neighboring LLC, make contact, present the easement, get the LLC to agree to it, get it properly executed, and get the title/closing side satisfied with the result.

Obviously, the LLC could simply cooperate once contacted. Nobody has actually refused anything yet.

But there's also no guarantee that they'll agree, how quickly they'll respond, whether they'll want changes, or how long the process will take.

Meanwhile, the transaction has a closing deadline approaching and I have unusually favorable financing that is time-sensitive and will not be replaceable if the transaction gets delayed too far.

I also haven't completed my home inspection and sewer scope yet, because I don't want to spend money on inspections if the easement situation is not resolved.

Because of the way the addendum was structured, the property/easement issues were supposed to be dealt with before the inspection period. I'm considering doing the inspections early anyway to preserve enough time to close, provided the seller expressly agrees that doing so doesn't waive or alter my protections under the addendum.

But that creates another problem: the inspections will cost real money (about $1,000 with sewer scoper). If I spend that money now and the neighboring LLC later refuses the easement, I could end up spending considerably more money on a transaction that never closes.

So I'm caught between:

Wait for more certainty about the easement and risk running out of time, or spend more money on due diligence now and risk losing it if the easement can't be obtained.

Then there's the question of whether I even want this arrangement long-term.

The neighboring property is a small multi-unit rental owned by the LLC. The shared driveway passes immediately alongside the house I'm buying, including bedroom windows. So even with a perfectly drafted and recorded easement, I'd potentially have changing tenants, their vehicles and visitors using a driveway right beside the house.

I may be able to construct a completely separate private driveway on the other side of my property in the future. Preliminary conversations with city engineer and planning suggest it may be feasible, although I haven't obtained bids or treated that as guaranteed.

That would eliminate my own dependence on the shared driveway, but it wouldn't necessarily prevent the neighboring rental occupants from continuing to use the existing driveway alongside the house.

The frustrating part is that none of these issues individually necessarily kills the deal.

The easement might get signed.

The title issue might be completely resolved.

The house might inspect well.

The financing might make the deadline.

A private driveway might be practical later.

But when I put everything together, I'm wondering whether I'm trying too hard to make a complicated property work because the price and financing are attractive.

I'm not asking Reddit to interpret my contract or give me legal advice. I'm more interested in how experienced buyers/homeowners would evaluate the overall risk and decision-making here.

If you were in this situation:

Would you continue pursuing the purchase while the seller tries to locate the LLC owner and obtain the easement?

Would you spend money on inspections before the neighboring owner has even been contacted, simply to preserve the closing timeline?

At what point would you decide there are too many uncertainties and stop putting additional money into the transaction?

And assuming the easement eventually gets properly executed and the title issue is completely resolved, would the overall shared-driveway/rental-neighbor situation still make you reconsider buying the property?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have been through messy title/easement issues during a purchase and had to decide whether to keep pushing forward or walk away.

I just got a counteroffer on a house I made an offer on and they're asking a higher price than I offered, but they're offering to cover some of my closing costs. My realtor didn't have a super clear answer on whether I should push back harder on price or accept the deal with them covering costs. The math seems like the price difference is bigger than what I'd save on closing costs, but I'm wondering if there's something I'm not thinking about like tax implications or financing considerations that make closing cost coverage worth more than it looks on the surface?

I bought my apartment about five years ago in what was considered an "up-and-coming" neighborhood. At the time it was rough but affordable. Now there's new development happening new bars, restaurants, young professionals moving in, and prices are going up. My place has probably appreciated 20-30%.

The question is whether to sell now while things are heating up, or wait longer if the neighborhood continues improving. If I sell now I make a solid gain, but if this area becomes really desirable in the next five years I could make way more.

On the other hand, the neighborhood could plateau or change in ways I don't like. I could also just live here and enjoy the improvements instead of chasing profit.

For people who've lived through neighborhood changes, did you sell at the beginning of the boom or hold out, and do you regret it?

So we're selling our house. Our agent brought us an offer. We just found out that same agent is also representing the buyers. I thought this was a conflict of interest. Is this something that happens a lot? Do they just get double commission? It feels a little weird to me.

We’re getting ready to list our house in about a month and have run into a bit of a dilemma. We inherited this house from my elderly aunt and while we love the location and bones of the place it definitely has a... particular smell. My aunt was a cat lady in the truest sense of the word. At one point she had seven cats living here.

We've had the carpets professionally cleaned and replaced some of the subfloor where the damage was obvious. We also painted and aired the house out for weeks. The smell is definitely better. But on a humid day or if the house has been closed up for a bit you can still catch a faint whiff of cat. It's not overwhelming but it's there.

Should we disclose this upfront on the seller disclosure? Or just see if buyers notice? Our agent thinks we should just let it be and let them discover it if they do. She says over-disclosing can scare people off. But I feel a bit guilty if someone moves in and is then hit with the smell they didn't anticipate. Any advice?

We put an offer on a house a few months back and it fell through because of a VA appraisal issue. The seller wouldn't budge on price at the time. Turned out they were motivated to sell anyway and now they've relisted it at $15k less. My realtor says to just make another offer, but I'm wondering if I should worry about the same appraisal problem happening again. The house hasn't changed, so would the appraisal come in different this time around, or am I setting myself up for disappointment?

Hello - I am looking for some advice/opinions on what the worth of real estate in Colorado will look like in the next 5-10 years. As this water crisis worsens, is it likely or expected that property values will tank? Realistically, you can’t live without water and things only seem to keep getting worse. We are considering moving there but I don’t feel confident that it’s a good investment.