All such great advice. Really really helpful. You guys totally rock - you know that? I swear -the answers to everything are online - and the vast majority of them are right here in my little LoT home. Where's a kissing smiley when I need one?


Speaking of HOA's. I've heard a lot of horror stories about them. What's your experience with them? Helpful? Or small people who want to rule the world - or at least the neighborhood?

Can I expect them to do repairs that come up in the inspection? Is that a pretty normal thing to have happen? (that is the house needing repairs that the owner wasn't already aware of and them agreeing to fix them)

What's this I see about Land Use fee for all the listings on Red Fin? Do you know what that means?

We did this looking for apartments and what a difference it makes. when I looked at one place, it was street sweeper day and there wasn't a car on the street. That place had serious parking issues every day but Tuesdays around 9am.

Depends on the repair. If an appliance doesn't work (my case), then yes - certainly expect them to repair/replace. However, what you're going to get is a laundry list of every possible flaw. And every home, no matter how well prepared, will have such a list. If the owner is no longer in the area, repairs become more difficult. Is it worth it to you to fight for touching up paint or making other minor corrections? Your realtor will advise you on what is best. If you fight for every little thing, though, the seller may decide you're too much trouble and let the deal fall through.

Depends on who's in charge.

My preference is homes with no HOA, but that's getting harder to find these days, and of course no HOA means your neighbors can be as redneck as they want, and there's nothing you can do to protect your property's value. So it depends on what your priorities are.

The biggest problem with HOAs is that they're run by the people with the time to run them ;)

For me, a big selling point on my condo community was when I saw that everyone had a different fence around their back yard, and different plants in the front. That told me that the HOA wasn't ridiculous with its rules, and that you had some ability to personalize your space. On the other hand, someone else might see that and think that the non-uniformity takes away from our property value.

I lived in one neighborhood in Summerlin (in Las Vegas) that was really cute, but we noticed high turnover in the residents that lived there. Turns out, the HOA was run by a bunch of old people with nothing better to do than drive the neighborhood writing nastygrams to anyone whose lawn was 1/4" too long, oil stains on their driveway, or an ugly truck parked out in front (actually, the nastygram was because there was stuff in the back of the pickup, but I'm sure the real reason was because the truck was ugly and there's nothing they can do to forbid that)

If you come across neighbors when checking out a house, they're a great source of information about the area. Don't just ask them how they like the neighborhood though, because almost everyone will say great. Ask specifics like who are the loud partyers, do the neighborhood kids run around together, are there lots of teenagers around, how's the HOA, etc.

Talk to the potential neighbors! Simple advice yet I don't know that I would have done that first. Good thinking.

re: repairs

The seller is not obligated to fix them, but it becomes a point of negotiation for you. If you want them to fix it, they can either fix it, cut you a deal on the price, or risk letting you walk away from the deal. Some things you will probably get fixed, some other things you might not. Be prepared to pick your battles. Also, there are times when something you need repaired might be better done by yourself, so in those cases, you might be better off asking for a price concession. For example, let's say there was something wrong with the front door, and it needed replacing. Would you want them to replace it with the cheapest POS on sale at Home Depot that day, or would you rather get a different concession (maybe extra money towards closing costs) in lieu of repair, then apply that money now not coming out of your pocket for cc's, towards an upgraded door of your choice?

We made our sellers repair caulking in our place, and that ended up not being the greatest decision because they used some cheap-a$s plastic caulk stripping stuff that looks awful. And naturally, we've been too lazy to go in and undo that, and redo proper caulking.

I don't recall when in the process we got it, but we got a years' worth of HOA meeting minutes to thumb through at some point. That was a good resource because it showed what the HOA was concerned about, how intrusive they were, and whether they were dealing with neighbor disputes well.

Everything in your post is really informative and true but my point about the open houses is to get a hands-on idea of the market before contacting an agent. This would be way before Betty would be ready to make any kind of offer. It's just to look and see real estate without having an agent along.

When Betty has a feel for the market, then definitely, absolutely and positively, she should work with an agent. It's the most streamlined way of getting to a deal.

But agents work for the sellers, as has been said in this thread. It is in the agent's interest to get the highest price possible. It can only help for Betty to come prepared.