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Buying a house is generally considered one of the top three most stressful events in a person’s life (behind death of a family member and loss of job), so it can easily put a strain on even the most solid partnerships. It is very common for one partner to feel that they have to move forward on a house that they don’t love in order to make their partner happy, which often results in a cancelled escrow and frustration all around. Here are some tips to avoid this scenario:

See houses together. Even if one partner has a lot more free time than the other, it is extremely important that you see houses at the same time rather than one person “weeding out” unwanted houses on behalf of the other. Seeing homes that ultimately don’t work is not a waste of time! It is actually an important part of the process because it enables you to better recognize the houses that could actually work for you. I recommend seeing the full range of properties in your price range to get a better understanding of the value in the neighborhood and to learn more about what you are both willing to compromise on. 

Agree on location. If the perfect house in your ideal location is out of your budget, you need to make the decision together to either compromise on the house, or to consider other neighborhoods. Take the time to drive together through any areas you are considering and get a feel for where you will be shopping, where your kids would be going to school, ect. If you have any concerns about safety, do research online ahead of time and drive through at different times of day.  This should all be done before you consider making an offer on a house. Come to an agreement about how long you’d like to stay in your home and whether you would be comfortable living in a second-choice area with the knowledge that you are working towards trading up in the future to a forever house in your favored location. 

Research Renovations ahead of time. I’ve been in many situations where one partner decides they want to buy a “fixer” and tries to convince the other partner that they can live in the home while doing a major renovation. If you are seriously considering this scenario, you should have a detailed discussion about what type of remodeling your budget and sanity allows for. Don’t make assumptions about the price or timeframe for completing work– make sure you fully research your options ahead of time. And keep in mind that unless you are using a construction loan, which requires very specific documentation and timelines for completing work, you cannot simply tack on an additional $40,000 to your home loan to pay for remodeling. You’ll need to have a plan for accessing funds to pay for the work after you close on your home. 

By communicating openly, exploring homes together, and agreeing on priorities ahead of time, couples can turn the stress of house hunting into a shared journey toward finding the right home.

Kari Carson

DRE #01903828

(818) 424-5537

kari@karicarson.com

Neighborhoods Served: La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, Glendale, Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Greater LA area

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“My agent is recommending I have inspections done before I put my house on the market. Am I required to do this?”

The short answer to this question is no – you are not required to have any inspections completed prior to listing your home for sale. As a seller, you’ll have to disclose any information you are currently aware of that may affect the material value of the property, but it is not your responsibility to actively investigate and identify additional defects that may exist.  If you already possess written inspection reports or estimates, you’ll have to pass those along to your buyer. The same is true for any information that has verbally been shared with you by inspectors or vendors and any existing defects at the property that you are aware of but have not yet investigated. 

There are several reasons why Realtors might advise sellers to have inspections completed prior to going on the market. Knowing the current condition of your home can help you to better price the house for an “as-is” sale, and may reduce the chance of surprise inspection items blowing up your transaction during escrow. Some sellers are happy to have the opportunity to fix repair issues in advance to minimize buyer nerves during the inspection process. In extremely competitive situations, providing inspection reports up front can help to streamline the process and may encourage buyers to waive the inspection contingency in their offers. 

Despite these benefits, there can also be downsides to providing inspection reports to buyers ahead of receiving offers.  Inspection reports are often 50 – 100 pages and can be very daunting for buyers to read, especially if they are new to the process. Looking at a pre-existing report is a very different experience than talking with an inspector in person at the property. Inspectors are obliged to note in their reports any defects they find, regardless of how inexpensive the items may be to fix, and they typically do not include repair estimates. Buyers get a much better understanding of repairs when they can speak directly with the inspector to clarify what is considered a safety hazard, what is a typical maintenance item, and what is an “optional upgrade”. I work with buyers often and have had many situations where clients who would have otherwise submitted an offer decided against doing so because they were scared off by an existing inspection report. Overall, the decision to complete inspections up front should really be driven by your specific selling scenario and your goals for the sale. 

Kari Carson

DRE #01903828

(818) 424-5537

kari@karicarson.com

Neighborhoods Served: La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, Glendale, Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Greater LA area

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With the market in our area continuing to perform well and prices starting to rise above the pre-recession peak, many home owners are beginning to consider cashing out their equity in their current property in order to trade up to a larger home. If you are a homeowner who bought in 2011 or 2012 near the bottom of the market crash, you could be in a particularly good position to move up. However, if you need to sell your current home first in order to purchase a new home, it’s important that you understand how contingent offers work and how to best protect your deposit money throughout the process.

If you’d like to move forward with making an offer on a home before the sale of your current property, but you need the funds from your sale in order to buy, you are writing what is called a “contingent offer”. Along with your offer paperwork, you will submit a form called a COP, which stands for “contingency for sale of buyer’s property.   The COP is hugely important to the process because it sets clear timelines for moving forward and it protects you against getting into a situation where you are contractually required to move forward with a purchase, but are unable to do so because you haven’t sold your current home.

There are three main points of negotiation included in the COP. The first is the length of your contingency. Ideally, you want the contingency for the sale of your home to remain in place until you close both properties (which is often done concurrently on the same day). However, some sellers will try and negotiate that you reduce that contingency to a shorter term – they may ask that you remove your COP after two or three weeks regardless of the status of the sale of your current home. Be sure to carefully consider whether or not you are comfortable removing the COP based on your situation. If you end up removing the COP and then run into a problem that cancels or delays the escrow on your current home, you could be at risk of losing any deposit you submitted on your replacement home purchase.

The second item specified in the COP is the length of time you have available to get your current home into escrow.   If your home is already in escrow at the time you make your offer, this item hold less importance. However, if you are making an offer before putting your current home on the market, this stipulates how long you have to get your home under contract. It is common for sellers to give buyers 14 – 21 days to get their home under contract. If you are unable to get your home into escrow within that time period, the sellers are allowed to cancel your contract. It’s important to note that if the sellers decide to cancel based on you failing to meet the timeline set for your own home sale, they are not able to keep your deposit as long as you have not removed the overall contingency for your home sale.

The final item noted on the COP deals with the sellers’ ability to market the home and accept backup offers while you are in escrow. The COP has an option that allows the sellers to accept your offer, but continue to market the house. If they get a better offer that is not contingent, they could then cancel your escrow. It’s important that you modify this term on the COP to prevent the sellers from having the right to basically kick you out of your sale if a better option comes in. There is a section in the COP that allows you to prevent the sellers from canceling your sale to accept a backup offer for a set amount of days. Ideally this amount of time would be the entire term of your escrow, but it’s more common for it to match the amount of time the sellers have given you to get your current home into escrow.

Buying and selling at the same time can be complicated and stressful process. However, if you understand the rights afforded to you by your COP, you can make sure that you have covered yourself against any unexpected issues that may arise!