Good
Pulte - OmarBadu - Bought 04/07 - Sold N/A
Beazer - MOODY - Bought 11/07 - Sold N/A
KB Homes - David0603 - Bought 06/07 - Sold N/A

Bad
KB Homes - MOODY - Backed out due to shadiness between both KB and Countrywide

Yeah, I've heard bad things and good things about multiple places. Maybe people should list specifics for why they didn't like certain places. Personally I liked kb and countrywide b/c they agreed to do 99% of correspondence via e-mail amongst other things.

[Edited on April 21, 2008 at 10:16 AM. Reason : ]

4/21/2008 10:14:52 AM

Good:

Westfield/Standard Pacific- Bought 12/03 sold hopefully soon
Orleans - So far so good, but still to early to say that with certainty. bought 6/08.

4/21/2008 10:22:55 AM

Good
Pulte - OmarBadu - Bought 04/07 - Sold N/A
Beazer - MOODY - Bought 9/07 - Sold N/A
KB Homes - David0603 - Bought 06/07 - Sold N/A
Westfield/Standard Pacific - BobbyDigital - Bought 12/03 sold hopefully soon
Orleans - BobbyDigital - So far so good, but still to early to say that with certainty. bought 6/08.

Bad
KB Homes - MOODY - Backed out due to shadiness between both KB and Countrywide (Amberly community in particular)

[Edited on April 21, 2008 at 11:04 AM. Reason : i posted the wrong friggin date]

4/21/2008 11:03:19 AM

Smooth. I ended up buying in Stone Hill in Durham.

4/21/2008 11:06:23 AM

yeah i posted about my problems way back in this thread, but i was treated as a "kid" by the folks at kb's amberly and they acted as if i had no clue what i was doing and as if i had no money. my mom was with me and could tell the guy was going the wrong route and trying to mislead me and said "oh he won't be using your recommended attorney, my husband and i are real estate attorneys."

he completely backed off then, was abrasive and didn't help me out at all. he told me that all of the lots were sold and he never returned my calls and i was ready to purchase a house. so i found the townes at umstead, which i love btw, and he called me back about three months after i met with him and said "we have some promotions now and you might can afford a house here."

i responded with "oh well thanks for your call, but i actually purchased a new home at the townes at umstead for a little more than what i was planning to spend in your community after 'all the lots sold.'"

then i hung up. i know he was an exception, but it definitely turned me off to that community if not kb homes entirely. but employees =/ companies all the time.

4/21/2008 11:21:02 AM

Actually I did go by there. I didn't interact with the folks much. The main office was very busy that day, so I just went ahead and started looking around the models. Eventually someone that worked there came by. She seem kind of weirded out that I just went ahead and started roaming around the models. I can't remember exactly what she said but I did feel as though I was being talked down to as if I was a "kid"

4/21/2008 11:25:05 AM

Good:

DeltaBeta - KB Homes, bought September 06. Sold: N/A

4/21/2008 11:36:00 AM

Centex been mentioned yet? I bought a place up near the Carmax there back in 2004. Sold in 2006. I thought there were pretty decent for the price. Neighborhood appreciated quite nicely and the homes were built pretty well.

I am currently living in Glenwood North, A Standard Pacific Homes community, and I have enjoyed it. Though it is a very mixed neighborhood, starts at 2 bedroom, no car garage town homes, all the way to 2 car garage, 3 story homes with walk out basements.

4/21/2008 11:47:02 AM

keep it in the format you lazy people

4/21/2008 1:40:22 PM

my offer on a condo in cary was accepted, should be closing end of may. its my first house, im pretty happy, slightly over whelmed though with all the stuff i need to do

4/21/2008 2:19:30 PM

I just bought from Satterwhite Construction last month and am very pleased. I did have to play hardball though.

4/21/2008 3:09:14 PM

congratulations. while it is stressful now, it is very rewarding in the long run.

4/21/2008 3:10:15 PM

$395 for a home inspection because the house is "older"...does that sound right? i realize they have to check more stuff, but $395 still seems a bit pricey

nm, just spoke with 2 others that were recommended to me...one was $400 and the other was $450

in fact, the guy that seemed the best of them all (the most honest and with the best recommendations) was the cheapest

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 12:19 PM. Reason : V good point, and i agree...i just didn't know what the average rate was for these things]

4/22/2008 12:12:44 PM

The reputation of the inspector is far more important than the $50 you will save by going with someone else. If you know you have a good inspector I wouldn't sweat it.

4/22/2008 12:16:53 PM

we're gonna need an inspector within a month. pm me good ones

4/22/2008 2:15:52 PM

i'm going with ron coddington, who MOODY recommended...he seems like a genuinely good guy, but i'll post my official review after my inspection with him tomorrow

4/22/2008 2:18:48 PM

Please do.

4/22/2008 2:29:49 PM

Good

Beazer- prep-e - Bought 03/08 - Sold N/A

Bought a new construction townhouse near Carmax in 'Towns at Umstead' off Ebenezer Church Rd. The whole process was incredibly smooth aside from a couple mortgage issues. I locked in on my loan at the perfect time, got a 30yr fixed (95%LTV) at 5.375% with 1% origination fee. Seller paid $3500 in closing costs and included $2,000 in building upgrades.

They were very good about fixing discrepencies and their customer service is outstanding. As far as value and potential appreciation goes, these townhomes are probably the best bang for the buck around here. It's a great location (right off Glenwood Ave, 5 minutes from Brier Creek) and the neighborhood is much smaller and less congested than Glenwood North or Brier Creek.

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 2:50 PM. Reason : /]

4/22/2008 2:49:26 PM

Quote :

"i'm going with ron coddington, who MOODY recommended...he seems like a genuinely good guy, but i'll post my official review after my inspection with him tomorrow"

ron is a quality guy. i needed him once when he was out of town, so he came by before he left and after for no charge to make sure everything went fine. he's the only guy i plan on using for a long time.

^we are neighbors!

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 3:00 PM. Reason : /]

4/22/2008 3:00:32 PM

i may need that inspector by sunday/monday

4/22/2008 5:06:42 PM

^ i THINK he said he was available on thursday and friday, as well (not sure, though)...he DID say he doesn't like to do friday inspections because he wants to get the report to you by close of the next day, and that means he either needs to work on the weekend or get it to you monday, neither of which he wants to do (i don't blame him at all)

4/22/2008 6:09:45 PM

^we see the house on saturday

i'm taking my father in law to unofficially inspect the place now. he has years and years experience in carpentry, electrical works, plumbing, etc.

this is a dumb question, but is it required to get an official inspection?

4/22/2008 9:29:21 PM

you'd be an idiot to not get an inspection by someone who does it for a living

4/22/2008 9:31:13 PM

well, my father in law worked on things like this for a living for a long time.

i was just asking if it had to be someone legally recognized as an inspector.

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 9:35 PM. Reason : i never said i wasn't going to get inspected. just curious about the legalities ]

4/22/2008 9:34:17 PM

get a real inspection, period.

and i think it is required for most if not all banks.

4/22/2008 9:35:25 PM

my bank doesn't require it (NCSECU), and there's no law requiring it, but i agree, you REALLY need to have a professional do it...my dad has worked in construction (he does remodeling, restoration, renovation, and contractor work in general) and he walked through it with me...he didn't see anything that was even suspect, but even HE said it should be inspected by a licensed inspector

it's worth the $250-400

4/22/2008 10:17:14 PM

my realtor is pretty incredible and my mom has been in real estate for 25 years and her and my stepdad built their house...they noticed about 5% of the things that ron coddington found in his inspection. i was days away from buying said house and he literally saved me tens of thousands of dollars with some of his discoveries and highly recommended that i have them fix certain issues before moving forward.

a good inspector will not only find the issues, but he'll help you sort them out and know which are really deal breakers.

4/22/2008 10:22:41 PM

Can you describe the whole process? My one year warranty is going to expire soon and I'm looking to get an inspection done.

4/22/2008 11:19:04 PM

well you'd schedule the inspection and arrange a time for the inspector to have access to your house. you can be there if you want, but he or she will do their own thing. it usually takes about half a day and they'll generate a report with everything they find.

mine was 14 pages and i received it via email the next day.

anyone curious about the quality of work ron coddington does can pm me. i'm comfortable sending a copy of my inspection report to show you how thorough it was and what you should expect.

i'll be having my one year in a few months (around 10 months of owning) and then making sure every little detail is taken care of during the warranty period. most inspectors recommend this and it's good that some of you already know about that!

oh some specifics include:
foundation, basement and structure
exterior
roof
plumbing
electrical
central heating
air conditioning
interior
kitchen appliances
summary
items to be considered unsatisfactory

each of those has sub-categories and more details. anything unsatisfactory is described as well as a proposed plan of action

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 11:47 PM. Reason : /]

4/22/2008 11:43:48 PM

Quote :

"get a real inspection, period."

4/24/2008 9:49:07 AM

thanks for all the advice. i think we found the house.
negotiations start monday.

4/27/2008 10:09:55 AM

think the real estate market will turn around before spring '09? i don't want to miss the boat.

4/28/2008 2:16:03 AM

most ppl i've talked to that are in the real estate business are expecting it to start turning around after the election and be pretty much back in good shape about a year from now.

i just hope i can hold on to my place that long

4/28/2008 8:09:20 AM

Quote :

"most ppl i've talked to that are in the real estate business are expecting it to start turning around after the election and be pretty much back in good shape about a year from now."

That is exactly what I am hearing too. Not just water cooler talk, but also consultants who brought in a lot of data and convincing arguments for their position.

Another interesting fact, in 2007 our market still saw about 4% appreciation. In the couple of years prior it was between 6-7%. That is excellent, considering national trends that saw home values slide by hundreds of thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks.

The thing I tell people to keep in mind is that we never had a "boom" here like many other areas. Our property values have gone up slowly, but consistently. Since they never shot up, they do not have much room to fall. People are still selling their homes here, it is just taking longer and they are having to be more responsive to the market, but not to the point of slashing prices in $50,000 increments.

If you have been waiting to buy because you are worried about prices dropping further you might miss the bus. I do not think they are going to drop any further. Everyone is saying the kind of jobs our region attracts are very sustainable and growing. People are going to continue moving here and bring money, extended families, and the kind of growth that creates more jobs.

If you plan on living in this area 3-5 years odds are you should go ahead and take that leap because it will pay off for you.

4/28/2008 9:37:04 AM

Quote :

"not to the point of slashing prices in $50,000 increments."

yea, I've dropped mine $50K already and still am getting almost no showings... the biggest issue right now is I'm on a golf course (myrtle beach) that is shut down... it's in the middle of being sold with promises to be open in 90 days, but until the sell actually happens (was suppose to happen the 11th of this month) we have to advertise it as on a closed golf course.. which sucks

I think I may take it off the market until the golf course closing happens then jack the price back up...I'm one of the only places on a golf course and on the waterway so I should be able to get a decent price for it considering how nice the place actually is

The myrtle beach market is just flooded with condos.. over 8000 are listed last time I checked

4/28/2008 9:52:38 AM

^^Where do you get that 4 percent number? Everything I have read says prices have gone up ~1% over the last year from MLS data. Some areas more, some areas less. With 1% appreciation, you are essentially losing equity when you take account inflation. Some houses have fallen in value over the last couple years, I know because I have been looking to buy and see asking prices lower than what they sold for in 2006. Granted, this is not most houses but the only area that I have seen decent appreciation in my search is in Brier Creek. Also I'm assuming youre talking about SFH when you give the 6-7% figure, townhomes dont tend to appreciate near that much unless you buy during construction. Although we havent seen the boom that the rest of the nation has seen, we have seen some sort of a boom. You dont buy a house as a pure investment in my opinion. SOMETIMES you might be lucky and come out ahead, but houses can be a money pit. Think about it this way, just the TRANSACTION costs of buying a selling a house add up to about 10%. Historically over time appreciation is slightly above inflation at 3.5-4%. At this appreciation rate you would need to stay in the house for 3 years to break even. This doesnt even calculate the opportunity cost of not having your down payment in the stock market or not investing the extra money you would have each much from renting

That being said, I do think its a good time to buy. Just dont do it for investment purposes; becaues in reality I think there are a lot better choices.

4/28/2008 10:43:59 AM

Anyone else fight their tax reassessments? I think they're supposed to send out notices beginning of May to see if you were successful.

4/28/2008 2:52:44 PM

If anyone needs a good inspector this guy is pretty good. His report is excellent...he emails you various copies of it via email as PDF files with pictures, tiered importance of issues and well organized.

Alan D. Brown
US Inspect
abrown@usinspect.com
http://www.usinspect.com
Scheduling: 888-874-6773
Post Inspection: 877-211-5723

4/28/2008 3:24:31 PM

^that's who we're gonna use

4/28/2008 5:44:11 PM

they accepted all demands and even threw in a washer/dryer. they live out of state now, so i can understand why they don't feel like coming to get it/dispose of it.

4/29/2008 1:20:16 PM

what kind of demands did you ask for? how much (% wise) were you able to knock off of the list price?

4/29/2008 1:26:27 PM

I'm wondering what a reasonable commission would be for an agent that we are using to sell our house, who we also used as a buyer's agent...

Just trying to get an idea of what others are finding.

4/29/2008 1:42:54 PM

2.5%

4/29/2008 1:47:50 PM

6%

4/29/2008 1:53:19 PM

1%

ok he's my uncle.

4/29/2008 1:58:13 PM

Quote :

"what kind of demands did you ask for? how much (% wise) were you able to knock off of the list price?"

our situation was bit odd because we wanted to put as little down as possible. so we offered 94K on a 91K (asking price) house. the demand was that they pay 3K in closing costs, and the additional 3K of the loan is to cover upfront payments like insurance that we have to fork over. we also asked for the fridge and stove, and to have the current tenants out by 30 days (the tenants knew the property was for sale already, for the past 3 months). so the sellers get 88K for the house, and we have nothing out of pocket.

i realize it's not a perfect situation. i wish we had money to put down (don't get me wrong, we can afford the mortgage and all additional dues without problem), but we hadn't gotten a lot saved up because we had planned to be in our apartment for another year. but my job (and new policy changes at our apartment complex) made it that we really needed to get out. and moving into another apartment wasn't reasonable with 5 cats, a dog, and 140 spiders, lol. so we decided, after much discussion with both sides of the family, that it was time to get a small starter home.

so now we have a cute little ranch house to fix up. we plan on replacing the masonite wood siding with vinyl siding, replacing the carpet, repainting all the rooms, remodeling the bathrooms, creating a breakfast bar, fencing in the yard, restoring the lawn and paving the driveway. it sounds like a big investment, but it's not really that bad because most of it is stuff we can do "eventually" and my father-in-law is very proficient in everything repair-related. the only things we want to do before we move in are steam clean the carpets (the tenants had a puppy), put in the breakfast bar, remove wallpaper/repaint all the rooms to a clean "off white" (think: clean slate and improve later), fence in the yard and replace the small standing shower with a tub shower so my claustrophobic husband can shower in the master bathroom.

besides, what else are we gonna do in durham? might as well work on the house!

4/29/2008 7:59:24 PM

so when can you moving in vs apt lease ending? i.e. how much time will you actually have to do all of that?

[Edited on April 29, 2008 at 8:02 PM. Reason : leaving out words again]

4/29/2008 8:01:38 PM

unfortunately, the current tenants don't have to be out until may 28th. however, starting in may we're on a month-to-month situation with our apartment complex, as our lease ends at the end of april. this would mean we have to do all home repairs and moving in a span of 2 days (during the weekday) if the tenants take until may 28th to leave. i'll be driving to/from UNC-CH (over 30 miles, 1-1.5 hours with traffic one way) monday through friday for my work, so there won't be a lot of time or energy to get it done.

given the potential hang-ups with paperwork and tenants and moving and repairs, we've opted to pay june rent as well and therefore have our apartment secured until the end of june. this way, we can make the repairs during the week and then move the following weekend. of course, we'll be paying about $800 for an extra couple days in our apartment, but it could be longer if something goes wrong and then we'd have no where to stay. they may be our in 2 weeks from now for all we know. but we have to give our 30-day notice (if we were to move out by may 30th) tomorrow, and we can't get a guarantee like that quick enough.

4/29/2008 8:14:41 PM

so I need to go ahead and get pre-qualified for a mortgage. i didn't really have anyone in mind, since state employees doesn't have the best fixed rate around...so my agent says she has some companies i should check out...she says as a first time home buyer i won't have to pay origination costs, points etc. i'm just a wee bit skeptical since it seems like kickbacks can be common when there's this much $ sloshing around.

1) what are the things to look out for when evaluating a mortgage provider? i'm planning on reading up on it, but what are the major things to look out for?

2) what kind of damage will be done to my credit (750 avg) by running 2-3 mortgage applications? i don't think much, but i just want to see what u guys think about it...

3) Will I get GFE (good faith estimates) from each application, or do you specifically have to ask for them?

4/30/2008 9:37:01 AM

On one of the pages #2 is talked about the general consensus was almost none as long as it's all mortgage applications within a certain time frame.. now if you're applying for credit cards, car loans and a mortgage all at once then that'll make a much bigger difference

4/30/2008 9:44:00 AM