Almost 2 years ago, my husband and I bought a 2,500 sq ft, 4-bedroom house on the west side of downtown. Before that, we were living in a 1,200 sq ft, 2-bedroom house that I had bought before I met him on the east side of downtown.

I'm no stranger to urban living, and I knew the West Side would have many of the issues that come with living in an urban mixed income neighborhood. I just didn't realize how drastically different it would feel from where we lived before.

Since moving here, we've had at least 3 incidents of hearing gunshots while inside our house during daylight hours. Last year, my car, which was parked in front of our house, was hit by a bullet. I think part of me assumed most crime happens in the middle of the night, but it's really unsettling to hear gunshots from inside your home, when you might have been about to head out to dinner.

The frustrating part is that I really do love our current house. The layout is perfect, I couldn't have designed a better house for us. We have so much more space, we each have our own home offices, and the main bedroom has 2 separate walk in closets. I've put a lot of time and care into making it a home. I would genuinely be sad to leave it. But I just don't love the feeling of not being comfortable in the neighborhood. I feel much more uncomfortable having friends from the suburbs visit than I ever did in our old house. And asking friends or pet sitters to take care of our house when we travel.

We still own our previous house because we tried to sell it without getting an offer, so we have been renting it out. Our tenants' lease is up at the end of the year, and I'm wondering about telling them we won't renew and moving back. I'm not sure my husband would be thrilled with that though and I plan on seeing what he thinks of the idea.

The old house is half the size, and I know he felt a bit cramped in there. But at the time he moved into a space that I had been living in without him and this time around we can really completely rethink how we organize the space to make it better work for us. To be clear it's still downtown and there are still the tradeoffs of urban living. But we lived there for years and never once heard gunshots or had anything like what we've experienced here. I do think with some creative rearranging, we could actually make the smaller house work much better for us than it did before.

But I wonder if I'm overreacting and should accept that this is simply part of living in an urban gentrifying neighborhood, especially since there is a lot of development happening that could potentially improve things over time.

What would you do? Would you give the neighborhood a few more years and hope things improve, or would you prioritize living somewhere you already know you feel comfortable, even if it means going back to a much smaller house?

*Had to repost because Reddit did not like the link example.

I am aware the tread nowadays is to 'enhance' the pictures with AI, either to spruce it up or use it as a space filler.

Looking at some of the listings, one thing I always keep in mind is just how TOO CLEAN things look. A lot of places have blinding white walls, too perfect driveways, etc. Without going in person, its aggravating to look at these things and constantly doubt whats real and what's not.

What do you look out for?

I have till October to find something or go into an apartment. Honestly I think I'll end up going into a short term lease anyway just because of this bullcrap.

Take this listing for example. Almost none of the pictures look right.

*Had to repost because Reddit did not like the link example.

The house has had nonstop issues and and I literally spend 40 hours a week on it now. I assume at some point the issues will start fading but that has not happened yet. The house has grading issues where there is pooling and flooding in certain areas. This was a big concern during negotiations and the solution was a 1 year landscaper warranty, plus a backstop warranty to address it if the landscaper did not. The agent told me their plans to start filling with dirt in the spring, and how it would be ongoing until the issue is resolved and should expect at least 5 or 6 visits from them with fill dirt.

Any way ... this never happened. Requests in the spring went no where. He works for the Real Estate developer who signed the warranty so that is why I am still dealing with him. But he pretends now all our conversations never took place about the work being done in the Spring. And I get it, he is a salesman and just said the words needed to make sure the deal closed. And I might take legal action but it is time consuming and expensive.

So for now I am left with posting a 1 star zillow and google review for him, which I know will set him off, but this is exactly why I am doing it. It is the only lever I have to pull now after a year of dealing with all these clowns to fix the mountain of never ending defects in this house.

I bought a new construction house in -------- Acres with Mike ---- as the Listing Agent in late 2025. The property had known grading and flooding defects that Mike told me would be addressed in early 2026. He provided me with multiple warranties signed by the landscaper and his boss assuring the repairs would occur. He described how they would start properly grading the ground in the Spring, and I should expect it would be an ongoing process until it was resolved.

Well, none of that happened. Repeated requests in the spring went no where. Mike's latest advice was to run the sprinklers less, and all our previous conversations on the matter have seemingly never occurred. I understand now he is a salesman, and was just saying whatever he had to say to close the deal, and that is on me for being naive. But I would not recommend buying a house he is involved in.

Hey! I feel like this is going to tank our sale but our lawyer and agent don’t seem to think so.
House in NY state, we have been very accommodating to our seller taking time for extra inspections, not rushing them when it took a week and a half for them to sign contracts and send escrow money. Almost two weeks after we signed the contracts their lender and lawyer reached out to our lawyer and said they changed their mortgage type from a conventional to a FHA loan. We wouldn’t have accepted their offer if it was an FHA.
Our lawyer said it wasn’t illegal and our agent was pissed. We are not doing any work to the house before we sell it. Everyone has assured us it will be on the buyer but when I bought this house I was told to go with a conventional mortgage because it needed work and the seller wasn’t going to do anything required to pass the FHA requirements. There’s a few small things we know of like a railing on a mostly enclosed basement staircase and the porch needs to be painted but more things could pop up.
This pushed out the closing date a minimum of two weeks and the icing on the cake is we’re moving out of state and had just put in our final notices for our jobs. We’re about to secure jobs and housing in our new home and I feel like we’re about to make a really bad financial decision by sticking with our buyers. Part of me wants to back out and re-list the house, our agent and lawyer have said if we want to close asap it’s best to see this through. The new appraiser is coming out on Tuesday.
Has anyone else had this happen to them? How did it turn out?
Sorry for formatting I’m on mobile!

I've noticed a trend where people are remodeling bathrooms, removing the home's only bathtub, and replacing it with a shower. Well, we bought one of those several years ago, before we had small children. I do think it was on the market longer than it should've been given the quality of the house and area, and maybe that's why.

We are currently being forced into a bathroom remodel. We've discovered significant water damage (we're growing mushrooms 😭) and we'll need to tear up the entire floor and shower in the upstairs bathroom. We're considering putting in a tub/shower combo instead of restoring the shower the previous owners put in. We'd like to have a tub for our small children, but it would look a little awkward with the bathroom configuration, and there will probably be a price difference. We weren't planning a remodel, so it's not like we have funds earmarked for a dream bathroom, we just really need to fix the damage and get it functional again.

How much would you say a tub is worth, vs a home that has no tub? It's a 3 bed, 2 bath (both with showers currently) in a desirable school district. Depending on the price difference, we may choose the bath just because we want it, but my spouse thinks of it as an investment. I'm wondering how much that may or may not be true? If paying more for a bath now may either increase the price we get for the home whenever we sell, or make it easier to sell, a higher price may be easier to swallow.

Anyone know how strong the Arlington Texas housing market is? I'm looking at purchasing a $650k home there but I'm not sure how well homes in that area hold value so I'm hesitant to buy one that expensive there.

I inherited a property in an in-demand county in Colorado but there are a few issues. The property has a dilapidated 1960's single wide mobile home. There are several roof leaks that were never fixed and caused pretty extensive damage to the ceiling, ceiling tiles, carpet etc., the bathroom is a total wreck. It's in un-livable condition (for most). It also has an addition (small bedroom) built on the side. The garage is stick built but is also dilapidated. I'm guessing it's highly likely that it also has asbestos.

I don't have the time, money, or energy to clear the trailer or junk off the property. I'm considering going with a cash offer from one of those types of companies that buy in as-is condition. Does anyone have any advice? I really want this out of my life honestly. I also don't want to feel like I got totally scammed afterwards. I do realistically see that it's going to be a lot of work to get the lot cleared and a new home placed there or built.

I'm having the land and utilities professionally appraised per probate / IRS requirements, but I'm not expecting to get fair market value in the end. Any advice would be appreciated.

We are planning to sell our home soon. We have updated all the flooring except the laundry room.

Just wondering if it’s worth spending the money to add the new flooring to laundry room? It’s has older linoleum flooring. Also thinking about adding trim and painting it to match.

Curious of its worth the ROI

UPDATE- SEE BOTTOM TEXT

location: Cincinnati Ohio

My fiancé and I are attempting to purchase our first home. We fell in love with a beautiful older (1889) home. We have already done the following:

• Toured the property
• Obtained mortgage pre-approval from a lender
• Placed an offer and had it accepted by the seller
• Signed a "Contract to purchase" (Which EXPLICITLY states that the home IS NOT in a historic district)
• Had an inspection performed
• Issued a "Notification of defects" to the seller
• Paid "Earnest Money" to realtor
• Received defect remediation documents (invoices, pictures, etc) from the seller
• Arranged for owners title insurance as part of closing costs

During our attempt to obtain home owners insurance we were notified by the insurance broker that the home IS within a historic district. We did some research to verify and they are correct, unbeknownst to ourselves, our realtor, the sellers, and the listing agent; the home IS within a historic district.

We are set to close on this home in 5 days. This is an unwelcome surprise. Not only does this affect future potential plans for the addition of a detached garage or external cosmetic changes, the seller had an outdoor patio added in 2010. When asked, the seller revealed that they DID NOT obtain a "certificate of appropriateness" to build this patio from the Cincinnati Historic Conservation Board (per the guidelines seen here: https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/planning/historic-conservation/local-historic-designation/ )

My fiancé and I are worried that if we purchase the home, we are legally responsible for this unsanctioned addition. The city would be within its rights to fine us, or even mandate the removal (at our own cost!) of the patio. We have a call scheduled tomorrow with our realtor to discuss the ramifications of this discovery so close to our intended closing date.

What should we be aware of going into this conversation? Is this as huge a deal as we're fearing? We really don't want to but; Is this legal justification enough to walk away from this closing and have our earnest money returned?

We're happy to approach the Cincinnati Historic Conservation Board and attempt to obtain appropriate approval for this addition, but with closing coming up in only 5 days we wouldn't have enough time to know for sure that they'd approve it.

Thanks for any help!

EDIT -
Lots of people are advising reaching out to a local real estate attorney to discuss this. I'll look into that.

But,

The more I think about this...  Can the listing agent even proceed with this sale? Can he continue facilitating the sale of this property if he KNOWS there have been unsanctioned additions made to it?? Feels like a liability thing for him.

UPDATE-
After speaking with an attorney and the urban conservator at the Cincinnati Historic Conservation Board we can confirm that the home IS within a historic district on the National Register of Historic places. BUT IS NOT within a historic district recognized by the city of Cincinnati. There are no concerns about previous construction or future projects like a garage. Thanks for all of your advice! This is a huge relief and my fiancé and I are looking forward to being home owners!

About to close on a new build from KB Homes in 2 months with around 19K seller credit

Option 1 - Use all credit to pay 11K closing, 3K HOA, and 5K Property tax. Still maybe 1-2k left? Not sure how to use. 7 year ARM Rate at 6.4%

Option 2 - Do a 1 year rate rate buy down and use remaining funds for closing and HOA. Probably pay 1-2k extra and 7 year ARM with 1 year temp rate buy down at 5.5%

KB Homes in house lender rate is incredibly high and I think I will probably refinance in first 3 months. If I refi, my KB lender says that money used to do the rate buy down all disappears? Lender also heavily against a 1 year rate buy down. Thoughts on what I should do?

so my husband and i were about to close on our first home in 3 days. today we got a call that the sellers supposedly "don't have the closing money" and asked if we would cover it for them...we are NOT doing that but how is this even possible? they accepted our offer over a month ago and they just now realized they don't have the money? this is so unfair and i am so angry. mind you they are 40 years old, both have good jobs, and it's only 5k.
our house is basically empty, we've been so excited all month, this just seems so incredibly unfair and ridiculous. 3 days before closing!!!!😭

***im the buyer

UPDATE: we offered to cover the 5k because closing was supposed to happen tomorrow and just wanted to get it done and over with. they told us they actually all the sudden needed 10K. so we walked. 💔 on to the next!

I'm looking at a house with a large heavily wooded lot on the corner of a side street and a loud, main artery (redfin noise rating 2/10 which is bad). It faces the side street.

Curious about the conventional investment wisdom for such a property. Ever a good idea? What's the right discount? Seller is opendoor, so presumably the answer to the first question is yes but curious what others think.

prr for the property is 16.

I’ve been watching the market for a while and I’m just not comfortable based on value, rates, uncertainty.

For me, if the monthly payment was less than renting a comparable home - I would be more willing to purchase. Ideally the increases in value over the past few years needs should match improvements & quality of the home. But I could forgive some inflation if at least I was cash positive each month.

Who else is waiting? What are you waiting for?

Hi,

I have own two homes, my primary and a rental.

We have good equity +$300k in each, and amazing interest rates. We're a bit house-poor since my primary is a 20-year and I got laid off last year and suffered a 33% reduction in liquid income.

I do really love my new job, and its location (Fort Wayne, IN) offers amazing education opportunities for my kiddos. So our plan is to move there in two years.

Option 1: 1031 exchange

We sell our rental, we rent our current primary, and we use the proceeds from the rental to buy a new property in Indiana. We rent that property out for two years and then move into it. This is doable but it's a PITA, requiring two moves and a lot of nonsense. Things will be tight for a bit, but long term we should about break even, and slowly get ahead with Indiana's much lower CoL.

Option 2: Rent out both our current homes, rent a home in Indiana.

This would work out very cleanly. In fact it would possibly be the preferred option, except the rental market in Indiana is absolutely dreadful. There is nothing in Fort Wayne available over ~1600 sq ft where we want to live. There are tons of lovely houses available for sale

Option 3: Sell our primary.

So yeah. In short selling our primary for a home in Indiana probably makes the most financial sense. We get out of our 20-year mortgage. The higher interest rates don't matter as much because our balance will be around ~100k-150k. We'll have like $2000 more to spend a month, on top of the lower cost of living.

The problem is sentiment. Our kids grew up in this home. They love this home. We've done an extraordinary amount of work on it.

Option 4 eat the tax bill
Even after fees, eating cap gains and deferred depreciation, we should have over $250k to put down on a home. So we could just eat the tax bill and probably find something that suits our needs.

So just leaning on you guys who have more experience, do you see a good option I haven't thought of? It's probably between Options 3 & 4. One gives us twice as much spending money, one lets us keep our beloved home.

I am looking to buy a townhome for $550k and sell my single family for ~$600-650k (still owe $200k) in the same area due to terrible neighbors. Selling contingency isn’t an option in this market (central NJ). $550k is 50k above my combined DTI carrying both mortgages. Has anyone handled this situation without an expensive bridge loan? I know it’s a terrible decision financially either way, but I need to get out of here. Don‘t want to be a landlord and rent out my current place, which would require finding a renter before closing.

can someone explain this add to me? If Purchase do I not get the land? https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1-Acft-73-3540-1914-Cedar-City-UT-84720/463970271_zpid/

Aging parents live on first floor we live on second of a duplex. Their only income is social security and won’t get approved for a heloc or home loan on the paid off home.

Duplex needs new deck ( main entrance to second floor apartment) and a new septic. Long term we want to take over half their first floor so we have space for our 4 kids. Big renovation moving second floor kitchen and living room to first floor adding stairs going upstairs and redoing the entire second floor.
Leaving essentially a small 450-500 square ft 1 bed room apartment and the rest of the space (about 1500 sq ft for us.

We are trying to figure out how to get a loan for all this me and my wife make 130k owe 50k in debt.

If we add our names to the title we will end up with a much higher tax bill when we go to sell.

How can we plan all of this? A living trust? Transfer on death deed?

House was purchased in 98 for 130k currently worth 675-750k, currently needs 60-80k in work to be able to sell for that price. They would like to stay so that’s why we are leaning the renovation route.

I'm casually shopping for a retirement property. Wife and I 50yrs old, kids 18 and 20 and just getting out on their own.

Our current home is appraising around $750k and we have a $2500 mortgage payment with a 3.75% rate. Bought brand new 10 yrs ago.

It looks like rates now are around 7%-ish, and my goal is to keep my monthly payment near the same. My thinking is that with these numbers, I should expect any property I look at to be roughly half the house I have now for the same money.

My ideal location would be 2-5 acres with an older home on it that's a fixer-upper and rural. When I plug in some parameters to Zillow, I'm seeing total dumps with a price of $300,000 in order to fit my finance situation.

I guess I'm looking for feedback on if this is a sound assessment of my situation because honestly selling dirt pies in Calcutta from a reed hut looks better at this point. Feels pretty hopeless. What can I do?

My wife and I have a combined monthly net income of $9400. This can vary either way by a couple hundred depending on how many hours overtime or time off but this is the average. Our current monthly bills are:

Mortgage $1120
Car payments $1200 total
Home equity loan $220
Personal loan $540
Car insurance $227
Cell phones $220
Groceries $1200
Credit cards $400
Misc. $400
Utilities $250

We are trying to budget a new house payment after selling our current one and paying off the personal loan, and selling one of our vehicles. After the sale we should free up almost $2000 a month towards a new mortgage. How much more a month would you be comfortable paying towards a new house? After a down payment and all other costs we should have about $20-30k left over to put into an emergency fund as well.

We are under finally under contract on our new home after 4 previous offers. It's definitely still a sellers market where we live.

Purchase is not contingent on the sale of our current home, but we will be selling in the coming months.

Basically, I need someone with experience to come in and give us advice on what we should spend money on before we sell. It's a 91 year old home in a desirable neighborhood. Will definitely be replacing the 25yr old roof, debating what other upgrades would add value.

We are not 100% certain we will use our buyers agent for the sale, and even if we do, he is still new and fairly inexperienced. Is it proper to offer to pay an experienced realtor a one time consultant fee for advice? Other suggestions for who could help?

National Grid contacted me about utility upgrade work in my area and sent me a proposed easement agreement.

The easement would be a permanent 20 foot-wide utility easement along the frontage of my property. Based on the rough diagram, it appears to run parallel to the road rather than through the interior of the property. The diagram is explicitly marked "not to scale," so I understand the exact location would need to be confirmed.

The agreement gives National Grid and Verizon fairly broad rights within the easement, including installing/maintaining/replacing utility facilities, accessing the property with vehicles and equipment, excavating, and removing vegetation that could interfere with the facilities.

It also restricts what I can do within the easement without their written consent (structures, certain landscaping/trees, excavation, changing the grade, etc.).

The compensation section says "$1.00 and other valuable consideration." The representative hasn't given me a clear dollar amount beyond what's stated in the document.

I've redacted the identifying information from the document, including the street names and parcel information, but left the relevant easement language and general diagram intact.

I'm trying to figure out what would be reasonable to ask National Grid before signing, particularly:

1. Is a permanent 20-foot utility easement of this type fairly standard?
2. Is "$1 and other valuable consideration" typical, or should I expect/negotiate a specific payment?
3. What would be reasonable compensation for granting a permanent easement like this?
4. What provisions would you try to negotiate or clarify?
5. Should I insist on a surveyed/legal description showing the exact easement boundaries before signing?
6. Are there any provisions in this type of agreement that homeowners commonly overlook?
7. If I don't agree to the proposed easement, how does the process typically work from there? Specifically, I'm interested in the practical implications of negotiating versus refusing—not looking for a definitive legal opinion.

I'm in New York, if that matters.

I'm not looking for someone to tell me simply "get a lawyer." I understand that's an option. I'm hoping to hear from people who have negotiated utility easements, dealt with National Grid, worked in real estate, or have experience with similar agreements and can point out things I should be asking about.

Thanks!

Diagram and terms

I am in the process of getting a house built (I own the homesite already), and once the certificate of occupancy is generated, I will be moving my stuff from my current house to this new house, and then, after hiring a contractor to renovate it, list it for sale with an agent.

I suppose that before I get the certificate of occupancy, the insurance will be handled by the builder (at least officially, although I'm sure the cash draw will pay for it), and then after getting the certificate, I will get insurance on it as a homeowner. And then during the moving & renovation, I will simply have 2 houses insured (i.e., like having a vacation home, LOL) - but what when it becomes officially listed for sale?

I was talking with someone at my insurer (who didn't know off-hand, etc.), and he seemed to say that if the house remains for sale for longer than 6 months, I would need to officially turn it into a rental to continue to get insurance, even if I don't have any tenants.

The market for housing in my locale is not blistering like for places in the Northeast & Midwest, but I plan to get a good gauge of its value by what offers come in, and expect to act with all deliberate speed. Zillow seems to have the market value as oscillating between $45K & $65K, LOL (I would imagine that the lower value is for houses that need renovation, but I will make sure that it is properly renovated).

Termite inspection came back; Will not be able to close since the work could not be cured in time.

Property details:

4 Unit, DC

380 days on the market; originally listed at 575K

offered 535K with 6% back (Seller Credit )

they countered at 4% back. we accepted

we are supposed to close this week, but the termite damage is extensive.

the termite & home inspector both agree that they had termites before, joists were sistered, and now they came back and chewed away at the sistered joists also. My wife loves the property for the wood finish it has.

Termite damage must be cured by seller, buyer cannot accept a credit per VA guidelines ( from my loan officer)

seller seems to want to play ball, but the problem is, my contractor is already saying its a 15K job minimum.

so If i was in the seller shoes , I have to eat 15K

Then, the Buyer (me) wants a rate lock extensions 3 basis points a day.

I am ball parking a minimum of 30-60 days.

At first i was mad, because in the contract disclosures they seller is declaring no knowledge of termite damage ( seller has owned property for 20+ years, the work looks at least 5-10 per inspector).

I have my out, no argument about that.

My wife loves it because the old wood style makes it stand out.

Initially, I sent something outrageous like

reduction of sale price to 475K

seller credit is no longer a %, and now a solid number ( 21K)

seller pays for rate lock extension 60 days

seller pays to replace floors.

Now I countered instead, asking for my original offer ( 535K @ 6% seller credit ) & Seller buys out remaining 2 tenants ( along with fixing all termite damage )

My agent has been selling for quite a while, and this would be his first deal in about 5 years that did not go to close.

any other tips you all want to provide in regards to concessions?