Home selling drama

[DieselSmoke]

We close on our new house today. I wanted a 3 car garage, wife wanted a pool, guess who got their way?

[DON SVO]

We close on our new house today. I wanted a 3 car garage, wife wanted a pool, guess who got their way?

The one that adds next-to-no value and costs a pissload to maintain year-round?

[Baron Von Crowder]

The one that adds next-to-no value and costs a pissload to maintain year-round?

well now that's not completely accurate. A pool can theoretically add 10k in asking price to your home, and also deter many potential buyers.

[DieselSmoke]

The one that adds next-to-no value and costs a pissload to maintain year-round?

Pretty much...

But the up side is the house comes with a fully furnished media room with nice high-end equipment. But I would still rather have the bigger garage and/or shop.

[Baron Von Crowder]

Pretty much...

But the up side is the house comes with a fully furnished media room with nice high-end equipment. But I would still rather have the bigger garage and/or shop.

If you are like me, you'll grow to hate that pool and wont have watched a movie in the media room in 4 years, and be looking at other houses so you can have a shop that will actually get used.

[Grimpala]

Not to gloat or crap on your thread, but we received our clear to close review on Friday. Should sign ppwk on Thursday this week.

We bought from a couple who listed FSBO, never actually saw a listing, just driving around neighborhoods we saw their sign and called them up. So we've had no realtor involved and our lender is in NC. Has been somewhat hassle free.

We were able to get what we both wanted, the wife wanted a nice laundry room and a bigger master with a garden tub, I wanted a 3 car with a nice lot(preferably corner) and single story.

We ended up on the North side of Rockwall on the second biggest corner lot in the neighborhood, a 2300sqft 4/2/3, no shared fence, alley entry, across the street is a 4 acre lake with unobstructed views from the house. A fairly lax HOA with great amenities.

We almost didn't get the house though, my wife got laid off the day we applied for financing. She had another job within a week, but that put a small hitch in out giddy-up. Luckily it all worked out.

I say all that to say this, stick it out. In this market your house will sell quickly without a doubt. We listed ours back in August and had a contract within 5 days and closed within the month. The market was ridiculous then and it is still pretty wild right now.

Congrats on the new digs, I would love to have that view.

Maybe if all us new homebuyers go in together we could wholesale a con-ex of cowskin rugs and make a little profit.

[barronj]

One of my biggest complaints about real estate (besides commissions in the internet era) is the low option fees. I argue that they should be much higher which should weed out potential flakes.

Well, when the buyer shells out $4-500 for an inspection, $250 for a plumber, they're not just putting $100 in your pocket if they back out, they're taking another $400-750 out of their own. There are so many latent aspects of a house that you can't glean from the hour (max) that most people spend in a house before putting in an offer on it. Roof, AC, electrical, open permits, etc.

I feel you though, because when you have a multiple offer situation, and it takes you 7 days (or more) for the buyer to flake, it's hard to go back on the market and maintain that sizzle, unless you had buyer #2 commit with a back-up offer, replete w/ EM & option checks; All of the sudden there's a cloud of speculation, wondering why the first one didn't make. Harder to get multiple offers round two.

It doesn't need to be 10 days either..

If everyone's in town, and there aren't any holidays involved, the 10 days IS excessive, should have been 7.

I like the view of the new place!

[Sgt Beavis]

As of tonight we have a verbal agreement with new buyers. They are submitting an offer tomorrow morning. It's a little lower than the other one but they are putting down more earnest money and a MUCH bigger down payment. **fingers crossed**


EDIT: The offer just came in. Everything looks good but I'm going to ask if they can move up their closing date to fit my schedule.

[Sgt Beavis]

Update: More Drama


So the new buyers are wanting to build a 3car garage with an apartment on our back lot (274' x 80'). It's like these people are after my own heart.

However there is a problem. That entire back lot is considered an easement. It was created as an easement back in 1982 by Texas Power and Light. This easement is for the power transmission lines that are located 18.5' on the other side of our property fence.

The thing is, The City of Denton's code for power transmission lines says an easement must be 37.5' from the center of the pole. That means the easement should only cross 19' into my property. The lot is 80' wide so theoretically the buyer should be able to get it replatted to build on the left over 61'. In fact, one of our neighbors did exactly that in 1995 so they could build a swimming pool and gazebo.

The thing is, the easement on my property wouldn't even be used to access the power lines. It is VASTLY easier to just drive onto Audacity Brewery's parking lot and drive right up to the poles. There are a crap ton of trees on my property that they would have to cut through to even drive onto the lot. Then there are more trees between my lot and the poles themselves.

Seems like a no brainer but now I have to convince the buyer of this. To be fair to the buyer, he is moving forward with the home inspection and appraisal. These are things that come out of his pocket. He is asking for a week extension to our option period (which ends on the 24th) to give time for us to work this out. I'm going to counter propose that we will grant the extension but not until the 23rd or 24th at the earliest and only if we fee confident that this is going to be worked out.

I'm wondering if any of you realtors, contractors, surveyors, or other pros with land development experience could weigh in on this with your advice. I can supply a copy of my survey if it helps...

[kingjason]

Update: More Drama


So the new buyers are wanting to build a 3car garage with an apartment on our back lot (274' x 80'). It's like these people are after my own heart.

However there is a problem. That entire back lot is considered an easement. It was created as an easement back in 1982 by Texas Power and Light. This easement is for the power transmission lines that are located 18.5' on the other side of our property fence.

The thing is, The City of Denton's code for power transmission lines says an easement must be 37.5' from the center of the pole. That means the easement should only cross 19' into my property. The lot is 80' wide so theoretically the buyer should be able to get it replatted to build on the left over 61'. In fact, one of our neighbors did exactly that in 1995 so they could build a swimming pool and gazebo.

The thing is, the easement on my property wouldn't even be used to access the power lines. It is VASTLY easier to just drive onto Audacity Brewery's parking lot and drive right up to the poles. There are a crap ton of trees on my property that they would have to cut through to even drive onto the lot. Then there are more trees between my lot and the poles themselves.

Seems like a no brainer but now I have to convince the buyer of this. To be fair to the buyer, he is moving forward with the home inspection and appraisal. These are things that come out of his pocket. He is asking for a week extension to our option period (which ends on the 24th) to give time for us to work this out. I'm going to counter propose that we will grant the extension but not until the 23rd or 24th at the earliest and only if we fee confident that this is going to be worked out.

I'm wondering if any of you realtors, contractors, surveyors, or other pros with land development experience could weigh in on this with your advice. I can supply a copy of my survey if it helps...

My buddy was going to give me over an acre so I could build next to him in Red Oak. However as it turns out Oncor has a gas line running through the acre with a 50 foot easement on both sides. What is bull shit is they supposedly have to have a 50ft easement but they ran the line within 12ft of his bedroom window.

All this was prior to him buying the house and he had no clue. We called Oncor 10 times and no one would ever get back to us. While I have no first hand knowledge, when I was digging around checking on all that, I spoke to the owner of Hunmiller homes as he was building in Lancaster at the time.He told me it was no problem as he had fought Oncor twice, once building almost right up to the gas line.

Somewhere around that time a big ole line of some sort took out a neighbor hood in California. I decided to go another route!

[kingjason]

The one that adds next-to-no value and costs a pissload to maintain year-round?

I have no idea why people say this. I have had two houses with pools, currently in one now. Maybe costs me 700 a year to operate. I have a ultra high efficiency programmable pump.

For the months it is used I buy one box of tabs from Costco for 79.00 and I have a 75 pound bucket of chlorine that will probably last two years. I think it was 100.00.

Then people bitch about maintenance. I have a robot that keeps it clean, and I back wash it maybe three times in the summer. It took me about a hour combined to get the leaves out of it a few weeks ago because I don't cover it in the winter. Drop tabs in the chlorinator every week and a half or so and chunk a scoop of granular s in every now and again.

I use it all summer. If I am not at the lake I am in the pool. Really nice to have around when it is 100 degrees out. My only complaint is this one was here when I bought the house. I would like a bigger one for doing laps and I would like beach access and maybe a lagoon look.

[DON SVO]

I have no idea why people say this. I have had two houses with pools, currently in one now. Maybe costs me 700 a year to operate. I have a ultra high efficiency programmable pump.

For the months it is used I buy one box of tabs from Costco for 79.00 and I have a 75 pound bucket of chlorine that will probably last two years. I think it was 100.00.

Then people bitch about maintenance. I have a robot that keeps it clean, and I back wash it maybe three times in the summer. It took me about a hour combined to get the leaves out of it a few weeks ago because I don't cover it in the winter. Drop tabs in the chlorinator every week and a half or so and chunk a scoop of granular s in every now and again.

I use it all summer. If I am not at the lake I am in the pool. Really nice to have around when it is 100 degrees out. My only complaint is this one was here when I bought the house. I would like a bigger one for doing laps and I would like beach access and maybe a lagoon look.

I have friends with pools, just like I have friends with boats. I LOVE my pool maintenance program.

[Sgt Beavis]

More information...

I did more research and figured out how to search Denton County property records on line. Our Survey mentions five easement deeds. Two are with Texas Power & Light Company and one is for the City of Denton.

The 1st one for the city of Denton is for a sewer line that crosses a 3rd tract that I also own. The buyer doesn't want to build his garage there so I think I'm good to go. The 2nd for the City of Denton is for a high pressure water main. However that easement was created when my tract was part of a much larger piece of property. The water main crosses a few lots east my property..

The rest of the easements are for the power line that crosses on the opposite side of my fence. One of my neighbors had this same easement but in 1994 he went to Texas Power and Utilities and purchased the easement rights back from them for $10. He then had the land resurveyed in 1995 and promptly built his pool and gazebo.

So it appears to me that the buyer just needs to buy back the easement from Texas Power which I suspect is either TXU, Oncor, or Denton Municipal Electric now. Then he can get everything resurveyed and boom, he's good to go...

So I'm going to present this to him and offer some cash to pay for the process. **fingers crossed**

[Sgt Beavis]

I have friends with pools, just like I have friends with boats. I LOVE my pool maintenance program.

Our new neighborhood has a really nice community pool that is under construction now. It's expected to be done in May. That's the only way I want a pool. However, I'm always open to getting a hot tub.

[Sgt Beavis]

Annnnnnd, just like that, we're no longer under contract.

The buyer apparently had a construction loan for his new garage built into the mortgage. Of course no lender would ever go for that if the land they wanted to build the garage on was an easement.

They tried to string us along with an extended option but they wouldn't give us a document saying what they needed in order to make this go through. Frankly that's because they don't know. I know that we would have to buy back the easement rights from the City of Denton and Texas Power and Electric (or whatever it is called now) and there is no way that can get done in a month, let alone a couple of weeks.

So back to square one...