For Home buyers

If you just bought a house now is the time to remove any and all items you are storing at your parent’s house. If you are a parent your children will have every excuse there is for not removing their stuff from your basement. Don’t fall for any excuse,

Dear person in their twenties, thirties, or forties,

It is wonderful that you got that new job and were able to move out of your folk’s place a mere________ years after you graduated from college. I know it is a big scary world out there and it is hard to move away. Just think of it as a new beginning.

Your parents love you, we always have and we would do almost anything for you and we probably have and we are very proud of you.

There is one thing that you need to know. We are not being honest with you about something. We have kept a secret from you all these years, and it has nothing to do with Auntie Sue or that one incident a few years back at the water park. We know you did not do that on purpose.

We want to tell you that we are very tired of the boxes and storage bins in the basement and the bike, sports equipment, and rollerblades in the garage. We understand that you also regret having purchased that tacky piece of furniture that you bought the first time you moved out but left stored in the basement this last time you moved out. We hate it too, and yes you may move back in that is true, even though we had the locks changed and you know the secret about the back door, you will find a way, but I suspect you won’t want to use the furniture as you seem to hate it so.

Even though we love you and would do almost anything for you we don’t want to provide storage for your stuff anymore.  We would like to use our basements and garages and attics for something else now. We have our own stuff that needs to be stored and most of our closets are overflowing as we have not moved in years.

It would be heavenly to be able to walk to the washer without tripping over something and honestly, the furnace and water heater have always wanted a room of their own, they watch and wait silently as the stuff piles up around them.   The last time we had a repair man here he couldn’t even find the furnace, I guess he wasn’t much of a repair man.  I never saw him leave the house, he may still be down in the basement looking for the furnace, I guess we don’t know for sure, but hope not because they charge by the hour.

Please come over for dinner tonight.  We promise to cook something you really like and buy a couple of bottles of wine, or maybe you would enjoy a beer instead.   Bring a friend or significant other and a moving van. We will even front you the cash so that you can rent it. After dinner kindly remove your stuff. Don’t make me have to write this twice.  I may be old but I am still your mother and even though you are bigger than I am I can still kick your butt, or at the very least make you feel guilty.

Thanks, your loving mother.

 

Even with a cash offer there are closing costs. Those costs are much lower than the closing costs on a home loan.  When a home is being financed sometimes buyers will ask for cash back from the sellers to cover closing costs.

Before making a cash offer find out what the closing costs will be and adjust your offer as needed. If you will need more cash than you have for a full-priced offer and closing costs, offer less than the full price.  It is really pretty simple. I often ask a title company for help calculating closing costs on a cash sale.

Instead of a pre-approval letter for a loan a cash buyer needs to provide proof of funds, like a bank statement.

Cash offers are more common than they used to be. Last Fall about 31% of purchases were cash.