VA Loans - and My Dilemma

[Cow Poke]

When I bought my house I used a realtor that I knew from my church. She was great and found me the perfect house and was glad to help me negotiate the lowest price. She took her obligation to the client seriously and did everything she could to find the best deal for them (and me.)

AND, her husband works for Kia corporate and when I bought my SUV, he got me an employee discount at my local dealer!

Yeah, I think most realtors are good people, and it wouldn't make sense for them to get greedy and not represent their client -- especially in a close community.

My realtor, naturally, wants the sale price to be as high as possible for my profit, but in this case, the VA appraisal will have an impact. I think I already mentioned that I had already paid for our own appraisal (which we won't disclose unless we need to) so we know what the ball park actually is. If the VA appraisal comes in too low, we can offer our own appraisal as a counter.

Supposedly, however, this VA inspector/appraiser will do his best to help the Vet get the home, knowing that if he comes in too low, we have a right to reject the offer and move on to another buyer.

Currently, we have a backup offer, and a very interested third potential buyer. It just seems like this is taking forever.

[Sparko]

Yeah, I think most realtors are good people, and it wouldn't make sense for them to get greedy and not represent their client -- especially in a close community.

My realtor, naturally, wants the sale price to be as high as possible for my profit, but in this case, the VA appraisal will have an impact. I think I already mentioned that I had already paid for our own appraisal (which we won't disclose unless we need to) so we know what the ball park actually is. If the VA appraisal comes in too low, we can offer our own appraisal as a counter.

Supposedly, however, this VA inspector/appraiser will do his best to help the Vet get the home, knowing that if he comes in too low, we have a right to reject the offer and move on to another buyer.

Currently, we have a backup offer, and a very interested third potential buyer. It just seems like this is taking forever.

My problem when I bought my last house was that it was during the housing crash. It was indeed a buyer's market, but I also had a house to sell, so I couldn't buy the new house until the old one sold. I put my old house on the market and it took me 4 months to sell it. By God's grace, I found my new house at the very same time someone decided to buy my old one. I had been looking for those 4 months but couldn't find a house I liked, could afford, and was in the right location. God's timing was perfect. And the house I bought was on the market for a year and they just lowered the price for the second time, and I even asked for less than that, and they gladly accepted and threw in a radon remediation pump (the inspection found radon in the basement) and a home warranty. They were really nice people. So everything worked out perfectly for me in the end. God is good!

[Littlejoe]

Yeah, I think most realtors are good people, and it wouldn't make sense for them to get greedy and not represent their client -- especially in a close community.

My realtor, naturally, wants the sale price to be as high as possible for my profit, but in this case, the VA appraisal will have an impact. I think I already mentioned that I had already paid for our own appraisal (which we won't disclose unless we need to) so we know what the ball park actually is. If the VA appraisal comes in too low, we can offer our own appraisal as a counter.

Supposedly, however, this VA inspector/appraiser will do his best to help the Vet get the home, knowing that if he comes in too low, we have a right to reject the offer and move on to another buyer.

Currently, we have a backup offer, and a very interested third potential buyer. It just seems like this is taking forever.

If it's gov't related, it will take at least twice as long as conventional...JS

[Cow Poke]

If it's gov't related, it will take at least twice as long as conventional...JS

But I'm beginning to think a lot of the "VA Aggravation" is manufactured by the buyer's agent to get what he wants for his client. We'll see in a couple days.

But, yes, definitely draws the process out over time.

[Jaecp]

VA loans are government related, but unless something has changed, they don't issue them. An affiliate bank should be the one actually handling a lot of the stuff and following the stipulations for, basically, the guaranteed business. What the VA loan reduces to is always having a guy cosign with you who has 40k laying around to reassure skittish people that the vet is not going to cost them money

[Cow Poke]

VA loans are government related, but unless something has changed, they don't issue them.

Correct - a third party lender is handling this, subject to approval of the VA inspector, who is at my home even as we speak.

An affiliate bank should be the one actually handling a lot of the stuff and following the stipulations for, basically, the guaranteed business. What the VA loan reduces to is always having a guy cosign with you who has 40k laying around to reassure skittish people that the vet is not going to cost them money

[Jaecp]

Is there a specific part that is ??? Or...

[Cow Poke]

Is there a specific part that is ??? Or...

Obviously, we're not on the same wavelength. Part of what that is what?

[Sparko]

how long before you hear back from the va inspector?

[Cow Poke]

how long before you hear back from the va inspector?

Officially, I will hear from him in "2 or 3 days", which would be Friday or Saturday. However, after his inspection, I asked him if he had a few minutes to talk, and he very cheerfully told me, "absolutely, what's on your mind?"

I told him I have a handyman coming over tomorrow (today) and I know I have some wood rot to repair, but it would really help if I knew of any other things that needed attention. Again, quite cheerfully, he said, "no problem!" He told me that the main thing was wood rot - anywhere you can push an ice pick or small phillips screwdriver through the wood - and any place where paint has chipped. Since the house was built prior to 1980, it has to be assumed that there's lead paint. So, any place that the paint has chipped, it needs to be smoothed over and primed and painted.

I asked, "that's it?" and he replied "That's it!" I had already fought back the jungle (trimmed the oleander, azaleas, pompous grass, shrubs, cactus, etc to 18" away from the house, and removed some dirt that came up to the foundation level - those were requirements I already knew)

So, TODAY, Mark and I will replace some wood siding, do some scraping and painting --- things I was going to do ANYWAY.

But we can scrap the extensive list the buyer had demanded as an amendment to the offer. We're back to "full sale price" (subject to VA Appraisal) and "as is", with wood rot mediation.

As for the "new sale price", that depends on the appraisal he does, so we'll see where that goes. Should know that soon.

[DesertBerean]

Any house prior to 1980 may have lead paint????

[Cow Poke]

Any house prior to 1980 may have lead paint????

Quite possibly, yes.

[Sparko]

Any house prior to 1980 may have lead paint????

And Asbestos too.

From the 1970s there was increasing concern about the dangers of asbestos, and its use was phased out. Mining ceased in 1983. The use of asbestos was phased out in 1989 and banned entirely in December 2003.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos

[Cow Poke]

And Asbestos too.

From the 1970s there was increasing concern about the dangers of asbestos, and its use was phased out. Mining ceased in 1983. The use of asbestos was phased out in 1989 and banned entirely in December 2003.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos

And asbestos is a huge can of worms! In many places, they have determined it is better to "seal the asbestos in" than try to remove it. We (our Church) bought a public school in Cleveland, Ohio, to turn into a Church and mission facility. (one of those "pay me a dollar, it's yours" kind of things) The basement had miles and miles (or so it seemed) of steam pipes and hot water pipes that were insulated with asbestos. The mediation team determined it would be far more dangerous to try to remove all that, so they got approval to "plaster it in place" (so to speak). This was years ago, so I don't remember the wording, but all of those pipes looked like they were in plaster (like when you break an arm and get a cast put on) and labeled "do not disturb - asbestos...." (something like that)

http://www.asbestos.vic.gov.au/in-th...ement-products

[Sparko]

And asbestos is a huge can of worms! In many places, they have determined it is better to "seal the asbestos in" than try to remove it. We (our Church) bought a public school in Cleveland, Ohio, to turn into a Church and mission facility. (one of those "pay me a dollar, it's yours" kind of things) The basement had miles and miles (or so it seemed) of steam pipes and hot water pipes that were insulated with asbestos. The mediation team determined it would be far more dangerous to try to remove all that, so they got approval to "plaster it in place" (so to speak). This was years ago, so I don't remember the wording, but all of those pipes looked like they were in plaster (like when you break an arm and get a cast put on) and labeled "do not disturb - asbestos...." (something like that)

http://www.asbestos.vic.gov.au/in-th...ement-products

my first house was built in the 30's and had an old gravity fed furnace. When I decided to sell the house, I replaced the furnace and they found the ducts had asbestos on them. For a modern furnace the ducts had to be replaced anyway, but since they had asbestos on them I had to have the house "remediated" and it ended up costing around $1500 and a few days of me not being able to be in my home. While they were inspecting the ducts they went ahead and inspected the rest of the house and found that the linoleum floors in the kitchen and attic had asbestos in them too but they were safe unless I tried to remove them. Covering them up with another floor would be acceptable. So I left them alone but I had to let the potential buyers know about it.

Usually a home inspection doesn't check for things like asbestos, and they say so in the fine print. Pretty sure that is because they don't want to be responsible for NOT finding it if it is there. So if anyone is buying an older home they should get a separate asbestos inspection to be sure. If I hadn't have decided to replace the furnace, then I would never have known about the asbestos and would never have had to tell the buyers, and their inspection would not have revealed it. I wasn't told about it when I bought the house (which makes me mad)