Q: I am a first-time buyer, not in any rush, looking for a Northeast house, but my real estate agent seems to be in a rush to find me something. He is very nice and knows the area, but I feel like he maybe just wants
to make the sale. Do you think I should just find a new agent?
A: If you’ve signed a Business Relationship Agreement with him, then you need to ask him to let you out of the agreement. If not you can just go find another agent if you want. My question to you is why aren’t you in any rush? There are very real time sensitive, monitary-related reasons for homebuyers to want to purchase sooner rather than later: continue reading »
Q: I am looking at houses in Northeast Philadelphia and mauve rugs seem very popular. Yuck! I just can’t bring myself to live in a house with mauve rugs. My agent told me if I didn’t like the rugs in a house that I could ask for a “carpet credit” and get the seller to pay for new rugs. None of my friends have ever heard of this. Can you ask the seller for things that are cosmetic? I thought you could only ask them to do safety repairs if it doesn’t pass inspection.
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Aug19
Q: I am buying a house in Mayfair the seller got at a Philadelphia Sherriff’s Sale in May. When I signed the contract in June, my agent said we would make settlement Aug. 14. I gave notice to my landlord that I would be out by Aug. 31. Two days before we were supposed to make settlement my agent called me and said that the mortgage company won’t let us settle until Sept. 4! Apparently there’s some FHA rule about how long someone can own a house before selling it. What can I do? I have to be out Aug. 31! continue reading »
May20
Q: I’ve recently heard that you can use the $8,000 First-time Buyer Tax Credit from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act now and pay them back when your income tax comes back. How true is it?
A: Across the country there are programs in the works to facilitate use of the first-time home-buyers $8,000 tax credit prior to filing your 2010 income tax return. In some states, these programs already exist and are working to improve housing markets. Locally, however, there are many ideas in the preliminary stages but lenders agree most seem as though they will never come to fruition in the next six months before the credit expires. continue reading »
