Answers by Zoltan Peresztegi

The market does not price your builder's resume. It prices permits. That is the single most useful thing I can tell you, and it turns three worries into one task. An appraiser values the finished product against comparable sales. Nobody writes "built by a licensed contractor" into the adjustment grid. So owner-built, by itself, is not an automatic discount. Plenty of owner-built homes appraise right in line with the neighborhood. What does get discounted, hard, is square footage that is not legally permitted. An appraiser generally cannot count unpermitted space in gross living area if it does not match the tax record or the permit history. That space becomes zero-value square footage on paper even though it is very real to live in. So do not guess. Go to your city or county building department and pull the complete permit history plus the certificate of occupancy. That file tells you what you are actually selling. On valuation. If the work was permitted and finaled, you are selling a normal house and it will be valued like one. Rough workmanship still shows up in the appraisal and in buyer reaction, same as any dated or DIY-looking home. If parts were never permitted, expect the appraiser to exclude that area from the living area count, and expect the value hit to reflect the cost and hassle of legalizing it. On financing. Yes, it can absolutely be financed. Permitted and in sound condition means it qualifies for conventional, FHA, and VA financing like any other home. Two program differences to know: - Conventional appraisals focus mainly on value and marketability. They note obvious deficiencies but do not enforce a condition checklist. - FHA enforces HUD Minimum Property Requirements and VA enforces its own MPRs. Both want the home safe, structurally sound, and sanitary. Exposed wiring, missing handrails, active roof leaks, non-functional heat, and peeling paint on pre-1978 homes are the usual failure points. Cash only is not the default. Cash only is the outcome when there are unpermitted additions the lender will not touch, real safety or structural defects, or unfinished areas. If that is your situation you can either sell to a cash or renovation-loan buyer at a discount, or spend the time and money to permit and correct first. Get a bid before you decide, because legalizing the work sometimes pays for itself several times over. On disclosure. Yes. Disclose. Not because it is a nice thing to do, but because it is the thing that protects you. Most states require sellers to disclose known material defects, and owner-built construction plus any unpermitted work is squarely material in most of them. California, for example, runs a statutory Transfer Disclosure Statement under Civil Code 1102 and following. Many states also have owner-builder statutes with their own disclosure and liability provisions, so ask a local real estate attorney what applies where you are. Failure to disclose is the number one source of post-closing lawsuits I see. A buyer who was told and bought anyway has almost no case. A buyer who finds out later can bring claims for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, or breach of contract, years after you have spent the money. Here is the move that protects you best: pay for a pre-listing inspection. It converts unknown into known. Once it is written down and handed to the buyer, it is disclosed, priced in, and largely behind you. It also stops the renegotiation ambush when the buyer's inspector finds it during escrow. One update since this question was posted: as of August 17, 2024 buyer agent compensation is negotiated directly rather than published in the MLS, so ask any listing agent you interview how they plan to price and market a nonstandard build. I am a real estate professional in Los Angeles and the South Bay, not an attorney, so run the disclosure specifics past local counsel. But the sequence is the same everywhere: pull the permits, get a pre-listing inspection, price to the truth, and disclose in writing. Do that and owner-built stops being a liability. Zoltan Peresztegi, happy to talk through your permit file if you want a second opinion. Zoltan

Yes, you can absolutely set the price. It is your house. But as an SRES (Seniors Real Estate Specialist), let me give you the part that costs families real money: the IRS treats the discount as a gift, and that has consequences whether or not anyone intends it as one. Here is the framework. First, the gift. What you are describing has a name. It is a bargain sale, and the difference between fair market value and the price you charge your child is a gift from you to them. In 2026 the annual gift tax exclusion is 19,000 dollars per recipient, or 38,000 dollars if you are married and you and your spouse split the gift. If the discount is bigger than that, and on a home you have owned 45 years it almost certainly is, a federal gift tax return, Form 709, is required. The part people miss: you almost certainly will not owe any gift tax. The excess just draws against your lifetime exemption, which in 2026 is 15 million dollars per person. But the return is still required. Get an independent appraisal dated before you set the price, because that appraisal is your evidence of fair market value if anyone ever asks. Second, your own capital gain. After 45 years, this matters. Section 121 lets you exclude 250,000 dollars of gain if you are single, or 500,000 dollars if you are married filing jointly. Those numbers were set in 1997 and have never been indexed for inflation, which is why so many long-term owners get caught. Your gain is computed on the price you actually sell for, minus your adjusted basis, which is what you paid plus capital improvements over the decades. So selling low does reduce your realized gain. It does not create a deductible loss, though. Third, and this is the one I would think hardest about. Basis. If your child buys the house from you now, their basis is essentially tied to what they paid, and the appreciation you have built over 45 years stays embedded in the property. When they eventually sell, they pay tax on it. If your child inherits the house from you instead, their basis steps up to fair market value as of your date of death. Decades of appreciation are wiped out for income tax purposes. Under a 15 million dollar exemption, most families owe no federal estate tax at all, so there is often nothing on the other side of the ledger. Put simply: selling it to your child cheaply today may hand them a very large tax bill later that inheriting would have erased entirely. That comparison deserves an actual calculation with your numbers before you do anything. Fourth, the practical side. If your child is financing, tell the lender the truth from the start. A gift of equity is a normal, recognized structure. Fannie Mae expects a signed gift letter naming the donor, the amount, and the relationship, plus an appraisal and disclosure on the settlement statement. Handled openly it is routine. Hidden, it is a problem. Alternatives worth raising with your advisors: a life estate, a revocable or irrevocable trust, an installment sale with a properly documented note, or simply leaving the house to your child and downsizing separately. And if you are in California, Proposition 19 adds a wrinkle. Since February 16, 2021, the parent to child transfer of your low assessed value only survives if the child makes it their own principal residence within a year, and even then the exclusion is capped at your factored base year value plus one million dollars. I am a real estate professional serving Los Angeles and the South Bay, not an attorney or a CPA. Please sit down with an estate attorney and a CPA together, in the same meeting, before you sign anything. The two of them talking to each other is worth far more than either one alone. That is Zoltan Peresztegi, SRES, and congratulations on 45 years in one home. Zoltan

You are being taxed twice because the building changes legal category partway through the process. That is the whole answer, and once you see it, the "unfairness" makes a lot more sense. When you bought the metal building, it was tangible personal property. It was a manufactured good sitting on a dealer's lot, no different in kind from a refrigerator or a tractor. Sales tax is a one-time transaction tax on the purchase of tangible personal property. That is the event that got taxed. Once that building is set on your land and attached, it stops being personal property and becomes a fixture, which means it is now part of the real estate. Property tax is not a transaction tax. It is a recurring ad valorem tax on the value of real property, charged every year for as long as you own it. Different tax, different trigger, different theory. You are not paying the same tax twice. The interesting part is that the line between those two categories is not automatic, and you may have some control over it. Assessors and courts generally look at a handful of factors: - How it is attached. Bolted to a poured slab or set on a full perimeter foundation reads as real property. Resting on skids, blocks, or a gravel pad reads as personal property in a lot of jurisdictions. - Whether it can be moved without damaging it or the land. - Whether it is adapted to the specific site, meaning plumbed, wired, or built into the grade. - Intent, meaning whether you clearly meant it to be permanent. A genuinely portable structure on skids is often still classified as personal property and is not assessed as an improvement. But this is not universal. Some counties assess outbuildings as real property regardless of how they sit, and some states run a separate personal property tax that would catch it anyway. A few other things worth knowing before you pour anything: - The permit is usually what tells the assessor a building exists. Permits get routed to the assessor's office, and new construction is what opens the door to an added assessment. - Not every permit results in reassessment, and where it does, only the new construction gets picked up. Your existing house and land generally are not revalued because of it. - The assessed value added is usually well below what you paid. Assessors typically add contributory market value, not your invoice, and outbuildings often contribute a fraction of their cost. - If this is a genuine farm structure, ask about agricultural exemptions. Several states have them. New York, for example, offers a ten year exemption for newly constructed farm buildings if you apply within a year of completion, and Florida has a non-residential agricultural farm building exemption. Rules and deadlines vary a lot. Here is the practical move. Call your county assessor before you build, not after. Ask two specific questions: how would you classify this structure, and would a non-permanent foundation change that classification. Get the name of who you spoke with. Ask the permit office the same thing. Fifteen minutes on the phone can be worth several hundred dollars a year for the life of the building. I am a real estate professional in Los Angeles and the South Bay, not a tax professional, and this genuinely varies by state and by county, so treat this as the framework rather than the final word and confirm with your assessor or a local CPA. That said, if you want a second set of eyes on how the barn will affect resale value later, I am happy to talk it through. Zoltan Peresztegi, and good luck with the build. Zoltan

Before you fall in love with a specific home in The Villages, ask one question: is the bond on this address paid off, and if not, what is the remaining balance? As an SRES (Seniors Real Estate Specialist), that is the single number I see people miss most often, and it can swing the true cost of a home by tens of thousands of dollars. Now to your actual question. No, you are not required to have an outside agent, and yes, The Villages really does have its own process. Here is how it works. There are two separate inventories. - The developer sells its own new and previously owned homes through an in-house sales organization and its own listing system, often called the VLS. Those sales representatives are licensed Florida agents, but they work for the developer. They are not representing you. - Separately there is a resale market listed on the regular MLS by outside agents. Those two pools are largely different homes. If you only work one lane, you only see part of what is available. That is the practical argument for having your own agent even in a community that will happily sell to you directly. The cost structure is where people get surprised. There are three different charges and they are not the same thing. - The bond. Most homes carry a non-ad valorem bond assessment that repaid the infrastructure for that district. It is separate from your purchase price, it shows up as a line on the annual tax bill, it is typically amortized over roughly thirty years with interest, and it can be paid off in a lump sum. Some listings advertise "bond paid," which means a prior owner already retired it. - The annual district maintenance assessment, also on the tax bill. - The monthly amenity fee, which is around 204 dollars a month as of January 2026 and gets adjusted annually. Ask for the exact bond balance on the specific address, in writing, before you write an offer. The district government publishes amortization schedules, and a good local agent will pull them for you. Two other things worth knowing. The community is age restricted under the federal Housing for Older Persons Act, which generally requires at least 80 percent of occupied units to have a resident 55 or older, plus published policies and age verification. That matters if anyone younger might live with you. And the community is governed through Community Development Districts, which are local special purpose governments, not a traditional HOA board. One update since this question was posted. As of August 17, 2024, an agent has to have a written agreement with you before touring homes, and buyer agent compensation is no longer published in the MLS. It is negotiated directly and can be paid as a seller concession. So ask up front what your agent charges and who is paying it. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney or a CPA, and I work in Los Angeles and the South Bay, so I will not pretend to be your local expert in Sumter County. What I can do is introduce you to a strong agent in the Villages area from my referral network, someone who works both the MLS resale side and knows the district bond schedules cold. Just say the word and I will make the connection. That is Zoltan Peresztegi, SRES, and it costs you nothing to ask. Zoltan

It works, but much less than that article implies, and the reason is a rule almost every consumer article on this topic leaves out: the period of nonqualified use rule in IRC Section 121(b)(5). The article is right about the front half. If you move into your second home and use it as your principal residence for at least 24 months out of the 5 years before you sell, you clear the ownership and use test and Section 121 is available. Up to 250,000 dollars of gain if you are single, 500,000 dollars if married filing jointly. Those caps were set in 1997 and have never been indexed to inflation. Here is the half the article skipped. Congress closed this exact move in the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008, which added Section 121(b)(5) and applies to sales after December 31, 2008. The portion of your gain allocable to periods of nonqualified use is not excludable at all. Nonqualified use means any period after December 31, 2008 during which the property was not the principal residence of you or your spouse. The disallowed share is a ratio: aggregate nonqualified use during your ownership, divided by your total ownership period, applied to the gain. Periods before January 1, 2009 are left out of the numerator but still count in the denominator, which is a real break for long-time owners. A concrete example, because the ratio is what people underestimate. Say you bought in January 2014 for 400,000 dollars, used it as a vacation home for 10 years, moved in as your primary residence in January 2024, and sell in January 2026 for 900,000 dollars. Gain is 500,000 dollars. You owned it 12 years, of which 10 were nonqualified use. Ten divided by twelve is about 83 percent, so roughly 416,667 dollars of the gain cannot be excluded no matter what. Only about 83,333 dollars is eligible. You satisfied the 2-of-5 test perfectly and still shielded a small fraction of the gain. Now the asymmetry that makes the order of events matter more than anything else. Under Section 121(b)(5)(C)(ii)(I), the portion of the 5-year lookback period falling after the last date the property was your principal residence is not treated as nonqualified use. Translation: primary residence first, then converted to a rental or second home, is treated generously. Second home or rental first, then converted to primary, is treated harshly. Same two uses, same years, wildly different result. Note the exception is anchored to the 5-year window, so it is narrower than it usually gets summarized online. Two more items that catch people: - If the property was ever rented, depreciation allowed or allowable after May 6, 1997 is never excludable under Section 121. It comes back as unrecaptured Section 1250 gain taxed at up to 25 percent. And "allowable" matters. If you should have depreciated and did not, it can still be treated as taken. - If you acquired the property through a 1031 like-kind exchange, Section 121(d)(10) bars the exclusion entirely if you sell within 5 years of the acquisition date, no matter how long you lived there. Whatever is not excluded gets taxed at 0, 15 or 20 percent federal, plus a possible 3.8 percent net investment income tax, plus your state. If this is genuinely an investment property rather than a personal second home, a 1031 exchange is the tool that actually defers the whole gain, and Sections 121 and 1031 can interact in one transaction under Rev. Proc. 2005-14. I am a real estate professional, not a CPA or a tax attorney. Before you move a single box, take your original closing statement, every capital improvement receipt and any depreciation schedules to a CPA and have them run the allocation with your actual dates. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, a real estate professional on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and throughout the South Bay and greater Los Angeles. If you tell me where the property sits, I am glad to introduce you to a strong local agent and to a CPA who handles conversions and exchanges regularly. Zoltan

No, and I would not defend the claim that they do. The two jobs are different in kind and in timing, not equal in amount, and pretending otherwise is why this question keeps getting asked. Here is the honest comparison from someone who does both sides. The listing side is front-loaded and capital-intensive. Before a single dollar arrives, the listing agent is doing pricing analysis, deciding what to fix and what to leave, coordinating cleaning, paint, staging and repairs, and paying out of pocket for photography, floor plans, video, print and paid digital placement. That money is spent whether or not the home ever sells. If the listing expires unsold, the agent eats all of it. The listing agent's highest-leverage moments are the pricing decision and the offer strategy, and both happen early. The buy side is spread out and heavier on hours. The typical buyer today spends about 10 weeks searching and views around 7 homes, which sounds modest until you count the properties previewed and ruled out, the showings scheduled and rescheduled, and the offers written that lose. A buyer agent's real leverage moment comes late, at the inspection and repair negotiation and again at the appraisal, which is precisely where thousands of dollars move. Now the part nobody says out loud. The listing side carries more capital risk. The buy side carries more hours per closing and a much higher failure rate, because buyers change their minds, lose jobs, get outbid, or simply stop. A listing agent might work five sellers and close four. A buyer agent might work five buyers and close two. Averaged across a year the two workloads land closer together than either side likes to admit, but they get there by completely different routes. What that means for payment in 2026 is the real change. One number used to be negotiated with the seller and split with the buyer's side through the MLS, so the two sides were paid roughly equally by convention rather than because anyone decided they should be. Since August 17, 2024, offers of compensation can no longer be advertised on the MLS and there is no seller-pays default. The two sides are now negotiated separately: - A seller negotiates the listing agent's fee in the listing agreement, and separately decides whether to contribute toward the buyer's agent, which is normally handled as a concession negotiated inside the purchase contract and can be capped at a dollar amount. - A buyer negotiates their own agent's compensation in a written buyer agreement, signed before touring, stating a specific amount or rate. If the seller's contribution comes in below that number, the buyer covers the difference in cash at closing. So the answer to "should they be paid the same" is now genuinely up to the parties. It is no longer a convention. If you think a buyer agent's work is worth less in your situation, you can negotiate that directly, in writing, and the document has to say in plain language that fees are negotiable and not set by law. If the real question is whether you are being overcharged, here is the test I would use. Do not compare the two sides to each other. Compare what the agent is doing for you against what it costs and against the outcome. On the listing side, ask for the marketing budget in dollars and the agent's list-price-to-sale-price ratio. On the buy side, ask what they got credited for their last three buyers at inspection. With buyers financing at roughly 6.7 percent, a repair credit won at the right moment is worth far more than the fee difference you are weighing. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, a real estate professional working the South Bay, the Palos Verdes Peninsula and greater Los Angeles. If you let me know your city I am happy to introduce you to a strong agent in your market who will give you the same straight answer. Zoltan

Hi Becky, You are not being disrespectful at all. Asking about compensation is exactly what the current rules want you to do. Here is how it works now, and it changed meaningfully in August 2024: - There is no standard rate, and there never legally was. Every commission is negotiable. - The two sides are now negotiated separately. The seller negotiates what their listing agent earns. You negotiate what your buyer's agent earns, in writing, before you tour homes. In California that agreement must spell out the exact amount or formula, and for individual buyers it cannot run longer than 3 months (AB 2992, since January 2025). - Sometimes the sides earn the same, often they do not. It depends on what each party negotiated. - Who pays your agent is itself negotiable. You can ask the seller, as part of your offer, to cover some or all of your agent's fee. Many sellers still agree because it helps the deal close. So the practical answer to "should I negotiate a fair price": yes. Ask the agent what they charge, what services that includes, and what happens if the seller contributes. A good agent will walk you through it without flinching. I am a real estate professional serving Los Angeles' South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. If you would like an introduction to a strong Bay Area agent from my network who is transparent about compensation, I am happy to connect you. Zoltan

You are not being disrespectful, and you are right that this is a business negotiation. Here is the part most people miss: the highest-return move is not grinding down the percentage. It is negotiating scope, structure and exit terms. A good agent will happily trade you real value on those and will quietly resent a pure rate cut, which means you get better cooperation and a better outcome. Ground truth first. Commissions have never been set by law and have always been negotiable. Since the industry practice changes took effect on August 17, 2024, that negotiation happens more openly and in writing on both sides of the deal, so asking is completely normal in 2026. Open with something like this, before they present: "I want to hire you, and I want to understand exactly what I am buying. Walk me through what is included at your rate, and then let's talk about whether there is a structure that works better for both of us." That framing signals you are hiring, not shopping, and it moves the conversation to substance instead of a number. Then negotiate these, in this order. 1. Scope. Get the marketing plan itemized and the budget in dollars, not adjectives. Ask specifically: professional photography, floor plan, drone or video, staging consultation or paid staging, print, paid digital placement and on which platforms, and how many open houses. Ask who physically attends showings and the inspection, the agent or an assistant. An agent charging less because they do less is not a discount, it is a different product. 2. Structure. A tiered rate is the single best thing to ask for. A lower base rate up to your target price and a higher rate on every dollar above it. It costs you nothing if the home sells for what you expected, and it pays the agent to fight for the last 20,000 dollars instead of pushing you to take the first offer. Also ask about a reduced total rate if the same agent ends up representing both sides, and a package rate if you will also buy your next home through them. That second one is often the biggest discount available and nobody thinks to ask. 3. Term and exit. This is worth more than a quarter point. Ask for a shorter listing period, say 90 days rather than 6 or 12 months, with the option to extend. Ask for a written unconditional cancellation clause so you can leave if service falls apart. And read the protection or safety clause, which says the agent still gets paid if a buyer they introduced comes back after expiration. Ask to narrow it to a short list of named buyers and a short window. 4. The buyer side. Buyer-agent compensation can no longer be advertised on the MLS and there is no seller-pays default. If you are selling, contributing to the buyer's agent is now a separate decision you make deal by deal, usually as a concession negotiated inside the purchase contract, and you can cap it at a dollar amount rather than a percentage. If you are buying, your compensation is set in your written buyer agreement, which must state a specific amount or rate, and any shortfall between that and what the seller offers is yours to cover in cash at closing. Negotiate that number, and the shortfall language, before you tour homes. One question worth more than all of the above: ask for the agent's list-price-to-sale-price ratio and median days on market on their last twelve listings in your price band. An agent who nets you 3 percent more on price has already outearned any concession you extracted. And one honest caveat, the lowest fee sometimes buys the least marketing. With buyers financing at roughly 6.7 percent and being picky, exposure and presentation carry real weight. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, a real estate professional on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and across the South Bay in Los Angeles. If you tell me your city, I am glad to introduce you to a strong agent there who will not flinch at any of these questions. The ones who flinch are telling you something useful. Zoltan

Hi Daniel, The honest answer: there is no "normal," and anyone who quotes you a standard rate is describing their preference, not a rule. Every buyer agent commission is negotiable, and since the industry changes of August 2024 you agree to it in writing before touring homes, which is the contract your agent is asking you to sign. Since you are in California, know your protections under AB 2992 (in effect since January 2025): - The agreement must state the exact compensation and the services included - For individual buyers it cannot run longer than 3 months - It cannot auto-renew So even if you sign at his number, you are not trapped for long. But negotiate first. "Reasonable" depends on scope, so ask him: 1. What exactly do I get? Full representation through closing, or showings only? Some agents now offer tiered service at tiered prices. 2. What happens if the seller contributes? In many deals we still negotiate for the seller to cover some or all of the buyer's agent fee as part of the offer. Ask how his agreement treats that: does a seller contribution reduce what you owe, or does he keep both? Get the answer in writing. 3. Will you do a shorter term or a per-property agreement to start? How he reacts to reasonable questions about his own contract tells you how he will negotiate for you. If it still seems high after that conversation, interview another agent or two. Fees vary more than most buyers realize. I am a real estate professional serving Los Angeles' South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. If you would like an introduction to a San Diego agent from my network who is transparent on fees, happy to connect you. Zoltan

Before you spend another hour hunting for rent-to-own listings, get your Certificate of Eligibility. As a veteran you likely have access to a loan that beats essentially every rent-to-own deal on the market, and a lot of people go the rent-to-own route only because nobody told them that. Here is the comparison in plain terms. A VA-backed purchase loan requires zero down payment and charges no monthly mortgage insurance, which is a permanent monthly savings a conventional or FHA borrower does not get. If you have full entitlement there is no VA loan limit, so the county figures you see quoted only matter for partial or restored entitlement. The one-time cost is the VA funding fee, which in 2026 is 2.15 percent of the loan on a first-use purchase with nothing down, and it can be financed. Crucially, that fee is waived entirely if you receive VA compensation for a service-connected disability, including a compensable zero percent rating. The waiver also reaches surviving spouses receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation and active-duty Purple Heart recipients. If a rating comes through retroactively covering your closing date, you can get the fee refunded. Getting the COE is easy. A VA-approved lender can usually pull it instantly through the VA's Web LGY portal, or you can request it yourself at VA.gov, or mail VA Form 26-1880. Do that first. It costs nothing. Now, the honest version of rent-to-own, since you asked. - A lease-option gives you the right to buy at a set price. A lease-purchase obligates you to buy. Those are very different documents and sellers sometimes use the words interchangeably. Read which one you are signing. - The option fee typically runs 1 to 7 percent of the purchase price and is normally non-refundable. If you cannot qualify when the term ends, that money and your accumulated rent credits are usually gone. - Rent credits only count toward your down payment if the agreement is structured the way lenders require. Done wrong, the lender simply treats the credit as a lower purchase price and asks you for cash you do not have. - In most of these deals the tenant-buyer picks up repair and maintenance responsibility while holding none of the ownership protections. - You are exposed to the seller's problems. If they stop paying their mortgage or a lien attaches during your lease term, your option can be worth nothing. That last point is also the answer to your search question. These deals are rarely on the MLS, which is why no agent can hand you a tidy list of them. They surface through owner-financing and for-sale-by-owner networks, small local investors, and property managers. Any website promising a national rent-to-own database is usually selling subscriptions, not homes. If credit is the real obstacle, that is fixable and a much better problem to solve. The VA itself sets no minimum credit score; the 580 to 620 numbers you hear are lender overlays and they vary a lot. Talk to two or three VA-experienced lenders, and use a HUD-approved housing counseling agency, which is free. On RE/MAX, I would gently redirect you. It is a fine brand with plenty of excellent agents, but the sign color has close to zero bearing on outcome. What matters is whether that individual agent has personally closed VA purchases, understands VA appraisals and the minimum property requirements, and knows how to keep a listing agent from dismissing your offer out of ignorance. Ask how many VA transactions they closed last year. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, a real estate professional in the South Bay and greater Los Angeles, so I am not your local market, but I am happy to introduce you to a strong agent near you and a lender who genuinely knows VA lending. Thank you for your service, and check your entitlement before you sign anything with an option fee attached. Zoltan

Ask your agent for a written seller net sheet before you sign a listing agreement, not after. On a home you own free and clear, a realistic planning range is 6 to 10 percent of the sale price all in, and only about 1 to 3 percent of that is fixed closing machinery. The rest is negotiated agent compensation. Here is the sheet, line by line. - Agent compensation. Fully negotiable and never set by law. Since the industry practice changes took effect on August 17, 2024, this is two conversations, not one number. You negotiate your listing agent's fee in your listing agreement. Buyer-agent compensation can no longer be advertised on the MLS and there is no seller-pays default anymore. If you choose to contribute, it is usually negotiated as a concession inside the purchase contract, and you can cap it at a dollar figure. - Title insurance and escrow, or attorney fees in attorney-closing states. Owner's title policy commonly runs about 0.5 to 1 percent, and escrow or settlement fees about 500 to 2,000 dollars. Who pays which half is regional custom and is negotiable. - Transfer taxes. This line varies more than any other. Sixteen states charge no state transfer tax at all, including Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Indiana, Missouri, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky and South Dakota sit near 0.1 percent. Delaware is the high end at roughly 2.5 percent state and 3 to 4 percent combined, and Pennsylvania is commonly about 1 percent state plus about 1 percent local. City taxes stack on top in places like Washington and New York, so look up your county and city, not just your state. - Prorated property taxes through the closing date, plus any unpaid assessment. - HOA charges if your current home has one. Transfer fees commonly run 250 to 600 dollars and resale or document packages 150 to 400 dollars, higher in California and New York, with statutory caps in some states. - Recording, notary, wire and courier fees, plus prep like staging, paint and cleaning. - Repair credits negotiated after the inspection. This is the line almost nobody puts on a net sheet and it is often the largest variable one. Carry a placeholder of 1 to 2 percent until you have an inspection in hand. Now the part specific to you. Having no loan removes the payoff line, so your net proceeds will be unusually high, which is exactly why the tax side deserves attention before you list. Under IRC Section 121 you can exclude up to 250,000 dollars of gain if you are single or 500,000 dollars if married filing jointly, provided you owned and lived in the home as your principal residence for 2 of the last 5 years. Those figures were set in 1997 and have never been indexed to inflation. A long-held, paid-off home is precisely the situation where gain runs past the cap. Gain is measured against your adjusted cost basis, not against what you owe, so dig out receipts for every capital improvement you ever made. Anything above the exclusion is taxed at 0, 15 or 20 percent federal, plus a possible 3.8 percent net investment income tax, plus your state. I am a real estate professional and not a CPA, so run your numbers with one before you sign, not in April. On sequencing, with no loan you have options many sellers do not: sell first and negotiate a rent-back so you are not homeless on closing day, or buy first if you are comfortable carrying two properties briefly. Being a cash-strong buyer with a fast, clean close is real leverage on the condo. And read the HOA reserve study, the special assessment history and the master insurance policy before you remove contingencies. That is where condo buyers get hurt. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, a real estate professional working the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the South Bay and greater Los Angeles. Transfer taxes and closing customs are intensely local, so if you tell me your city I am glad to introduce you to a strong agent there who can build you a real net sheet with your county's actual numbers on it. Zoltan

Your deadline is three years after the day you moved out, not two, and it is measured to the closing date, not the contract date. Since you moved out in 2023, that window is either about to close or has just closed as of August 2026, and the exact month you left matters enormously. Here is the arithmetic, because the "two years" answer you will hear everywhere is wrong. Section 121 lets you exclude gain if you owned the home and used it as your principal residence for at least 24 months out of the 5 years ending on the sale date, and those 24 months do not have to be continuous. Your residence use ended when you moved out. So the question is whether 24 months of that use still sits inside the five year window looking backward from your closing date. That works out to: last day you lived there, plus three years. Move out in January 2023, deadline January 2026, already gone. Move out in November 2023, deadline November 2026, you still have room but you need to list now, because a condo sale plus a 30 to 45 day escrow does not happen in a weekend. One piece of good news that cuts your way. Renting it out after you moved is not held against you. There is a "nonqualified use" rule that shrinks the exclusion when a property was a rental before you lived in it, but the statute says nonqualified use does not include the part of the five year period that comes after the last date you used it as your principal residence. Your rental period is after, so no haircut. If you close in time, the timing test is simply pass or fail. Now the two things nobody in this thread has raised, both worth more money than the timing question. First, the depreciation trap. For the rental years you were required to depreciate it, and Section 121 never excludes gain attributable to depreciation taken after May 6, 1997. It comes back as unrecaptured Section 1250 gain, taxed federally at up to 25 percent. The word that hurts is "allowable." The recapture is the lesser of your gain or the depreciation taken or allowable, so if you never claimed it on Schedule E, the IRS still calculates it as though you did. On a condo with roughly a 90,000 dollar basis and about three rental years, figure very roughly 8,000 dollars of depreciation and up to about 2,000 dollars of federal tax on it. Unpleasant, not catastrophic, and selling faster does not make it go away. Second, the basis, which is the big one. You wrote that a relative "put the property in my name" and paid 90,000 dollars for it. How that transfer happened changes your bill dramatically. - If the relative deeded it to you while they were alive, that is a gift, and you take carryover basis. Your basis is roughly their 90,000 dollars plus improvements. Sale at 160,000 dollars, minus selling costs, leaves you something in the 55,000 to 60,000 dollar range of gain. - If you received it because they died, you get a stepped-up basis equal to fair market value on the date of death. If the condo was worth close to 160,000 dollars then, your gain is close to zero and the whole timing question stops mattering. - There are in-between structures too. A deed with a retained life estate, joint tenancy with right of survivorship, or a Florida enhanced life estate deed (people call it a Lady Bird deed) can each produce a step-up or a partial step-up. Which one applies depends on the exact words on the deed. So the single most useful thing you can do this week is pull the recorded deed and take it to a CPA along with the relative's purchase records, any improvement receipts, and your Schedule E filings. The deed language is the difference between owing several thousand dollars and owing almost nothing. Two more notes. Florida has no state individual income tax, so there is no state capital gains tax and this is purely federal. Federal long-term rates are 0, 15 or 20 percent depending on taxable income, with a possible additional 3.8 percent net investment income tax at higher incomes, so confirm your bracket rather than assuming 15 percent. And if the 121 window has already closed, do not panic and do not fire-sell. Once it is fully a rental, a 1031 exchange into another investment property becomes available to defer the gain, a door that was shut while it was your residence. Ask your CPA to price both paths. I am a real estate professional, not a CPA or a tax attorney, and this is general information rather than tax advice. Ask your CPA specifically about Publication 523 Worksheet 2 and Publication 551, and have them run it both ways before you sign a listing agreement. I am Zoltan Peresztegi and I work in Los Angeles and the South Bay, so Florida is not my market and I will not pretend otherwise. If the clock says move quickly, I am glad to introduce you to a strong agent from my referral network near your condo who can get it priced and listed without wasting weeks you may not have. Zoltan

The reason 35 years of effort has not worked is that you have been treating the smell. The smell is not the problem. It is the exhaust from a moisture source that is still running, and until you find and stop the water, every cleaning, sealing, carpet removal and air freshener buys you a few weeks. What you are smelling are microbial volatile organic compounds, the gases microbes give off while metabolizing damp organic material. They are produced continuously and absorbed by textiles, paper and upholstery, which is exactly why they follow you out the door. That pattern tells me the source is still running. For a 1938 two-story cream city brick house, here is the order I would investigate, most likely first. 1. The basement or crawlspace. In the large majority of these cases this is it. Look for three things. A dirt or unsealed floor with no vapor barrier, which quietly evaporates ground water into the house all year. Capillary rise, sometimes called rising damp, where groundwater wicks up through the masonry foundation and evaporates into the basement air. And bad water management outside: soil sloping toward the house instead of away, downspouts dumping at the foundation, window wells that hold water. Aim for roughly six inches of fall in the first ten feet away from the wall and get every downspout discharging at least six feet out. 2. The brick itself, and this one matters specifically for you. Cream city brick is a soft, highly porous clay brick, with water absorption commonly measured around 18 to 21 percent. It is meant to breathe. If anyone has ever painted it, coated it with an acrylic or elastomeric masonry paint, or applied a film-forming sealer, that traps moisture inside the wall and the trapped water pushes the face of the brick off. On cream city brick that spalling is not repairable, the face cannot be put back, the brick has to be replaced. If you want any protection at all on that masonry, it should be a vapor-permeable penetrating repellent in the siloxane family, never a film. Check the mortar too: hard modern portland-rich mortar on soft antique brick forces moisture out through the brick face instead of the joint, so repointing belongs to a soft lime-based mix matched to the original. 3. Hidden plumbing. A failed toilet wax ring wetting a subfloor, a pinhole in a supply line inside a wall, a leaking shower pan, or a condensate line draining into a wall cavity. Slow, small, and famous for producing a smell with no visible stain. 4. HVAC. A dirty evaporator coil and standing water in the drain pan are a classic source, and ductwork running through a damp basement will pick up that air and deliver it to every room. If the smell gets stronger when the system runs, this is your answer. 5. The oddballs. A dead animal in a wall or soffit, which fades over months rather than years, and a dried-out P-trap in a floor drain or unused bathroom, which lets sewer gas back in. Pour a gallon of water plus a splash of mineral oil into any drain you never use. Then the fix sequence, cheapest and highest yield first: - Buy a hygrometer for about 15 dollars and put one in the basement, one on each floor. EPA guidance is to keep indoor relative humidity below 60 percent and ideally between 30 and 50 percent. Measure for two weeks before you spend real money. You cannot manage what you have not measured. - Fix the exterior first. Grading, gutters, downspout extensions, window wells. This is the least glamorous and most effective work in the entire building trade. - Then seal the ground. A properly detailed vapor barrier, commonly 20 mil, over the dirt floor and up the walls, taped and mechanically fastened. - Then, and only then, add a properly sized dehumidifier with a condensate pump so it drains itself. A little consumer unit in a big damp basement will run forever and lose. On who to hire, I feel strongly. Do not start with a company that offers free mold testing and also sells remediation. That conflict is serious enough that states with dual licensing programs, including Florida, Texas, New York and Louisiana, legally bar the same firm from assessing and remediating the same project. Hire an independent moisture intrusion inspector, a building science consultant, or an industrial hygienist who sells you a report and nothing else. A few hundred dollars for a diagnosis with a thermal camera and a moisture meter. Then hire the fix separately. One last thing. A persistent musty odor and its underlying moisture condition is generally a material fact you would have to disclose if you ever sell, and inspectors find it in the first ninety seconds anyway. Fixing the source and keeping the invoices is worth far more at resale than any attempt to mask it before showings. I am a real estate professional, not a home inspector or an industrial hygienist, so treat this as a roadmap for who to call rather than a diagnosis. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, I work in Los Angeles and the South Bay, and cream city brick is not a material I get to touch out here, so I will not pretend to be your local expert. If you would like, I can introduce you to a strong agent from my referral network in your area who knows which independent moisture inspectors and old-masonry contractors are the real ones. Zoltan

Yes, and the good news is better than you think: it is not two loans. It is one loan, one closing, one monthly payment, that covers the purchase price plus the renovation budget. These are called renovation or rehab mortgages, and the reason they solve your exact problem is a single underwriting concept that almost nobody explains. A normal lender appraises the house as it sits today, in its beat-up condition, and lends against that. A renovation loan appraises the house as-completed, meaning what it will be worth once the approved scope of work is finished. You borrow against that future number. That is the whole trick, and it is why you do not need cash in the bank for the renovation. Here are the actual products to ask for by name. - FHA 203(k) Limited. For cosmetic and non-structural work, with rehab costs capped at 75,000 dollars. Think kitchens, baths, flooring, paint, roofing, windows, HVAC. No room additions, no moving load-bearing walls. This is the workhorse for most fixers. - FHA 203(k) Standard. For bigger or structural jobs, with a 5,000 dollar minimum repair cost and no separate rehab cap below the FHA loan limit for your county. FHA one-unit limits in 2026 run from 541,287 dollars in the lowest-cost counties up to 1,249,125 dollars in the highest-cost ones. The Standard version requires a HUD-approved 203(k) consultant who writes the work scope, reviews the bids, and inspects each draw. People grumble about the consultant fee. That consultant is also the person who keeps a contractor from walking off with your money. - Fannie Mae HomeStyle Renovation and Freddie Mac CHOICERenovation. These are the conventional equivalents. They follow the conforming loan limits, which in 2026 are 832,750 dollars for a one-unit home and 1,249,125 dollars in high-cost areas, and they generally cap the renovation piece at 75 percent of the as-completed value. They allow a wider range of work than FHA, including some luxury items, and depending on the program and occupancy they can be used for second homes and in some cases investment property. If you have decent credit and can put more than 3.5 percent down, price these against 203(k) before you assume FHA is the answer. - VA alteration and repair loan, if you or your spouse are VA eligible. Same zero-down VA structure with repairs rolled in, but eligible work is limited to livability, safety and utility, most lenders cap repairs around 50,000 dollars, work usually has to finish within about 120 days with a VA-registered contractor, and honestly the hardest part is finding a lender who actually does them. Now the tradeoffs, because these loans are real work: - Bids come first. You need a licensed, lender-approved contractor with a written, itemized bid before you close, not after. Pick your contractor while you are still in escrow. - The money sits in a renovation escrow and gets released in draws as work is completed and inspected. You cannot take the cash and freestyle. - Build a longer escrow. Forty five to sixty days is realistic, and I would write the offer that way rather than promising thirty and asking for extensions. - The rate is typically a bit higher than a plain purchase loan, and there are extra fees for the consultant, inspections and title updates. With the 30-year fixed averaging about 6.69 percent in early August 2026, plan your budget on the assumption you will be somewhat above the headline number. - The as-completed appraisal has to support the total. If it comes in short, you cover the gap or shrink the scope. One thing to skip: buying with a regular loan and then opening a HELOC afterward. On a house that needs a lot of work, the lender may not fund the purchase loan at all until the health and safety items are fixed, and you will have no equity to draw on right after closing anyway. Renovation financing exists precisely so you do not have to run that gauntlet. I am a real estate professional, not a lender, so get pre-approved specifically for a renovation product before you shop, and ask any loan officer how many 203(k) or HomeStyle files they personally closed last year. This is a specialty. An experienced renovation lender is worth more to you than an eighth of a point. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work with buyers in Los Angeles and the South Bay, including plenty who buy the worst house on a good street on purpose. If you are outside my area, I am glad to connect you with a strong agent and a renovation-savvy lender from my network wherever you are shopping. Zoltan

Signing is required. Being locked in is not. Those are two separate things, and the gap between them is entirely negotiable by you. Your agent is not inventing a rule to trap you. Since August 17, 2024, an agent who participates in an MLS has to have a written agreement with you before touring a home with you, in person or on a live video walkthrough. That is a nationwide practice change that came out of the NAR settlement, and it is not optional for the agent. If someone offers to skip it, that tells you something about how they follow rules generally. But here is what most people miss: nothing in that requirement says the agreement has to be long, exclusive, or broad. Every meaningful term is up for negotiation, and you are allowed to say so out loud. Four levers: - The term. This is the big one. There is no minimum. You can sign an agreement for one property, one showing, one day, or one week. A short agreement covering the specific three houses you want to see this Saturday is a completely normal, widely used, entirely acceptable request. If it goes well, you extend. If it does not, it simply expires and you owe nothing. - Exclusive versus non-exclusive. Exclusive means this agent is your only agent for the covered scope. Non-exclusive lets you work with more than one. Many agents will not go long-term non-exclusive, and that is fair, but for a short trial term it is very often agreeable. - The compensation. It has to be stated as a specific number or rate that can be objectively figured out, and it cannot be open-ended or vague. The agent also cannot collect more from any source than what you agreed to. Read that number before you sign it, and know that it is fully negotiable and is not set by law. Separately, you can still ask the seller to cover some or all of it as a concession in your offer, that just is not advertised through the MLS anymore. - Termination and the protection period. Ask how you end it early, and get that in writing. Then look for the holdover or protection clause, the part that says if you buy a home the agent showed you within X days after the agreement ends, you still owe the fee. That clause is the actual trap people worry about, not the term length. Ask to shorten the window and to limit it to a written list of specific properties they actually showed you. One more thing that helps: the agreement is with the brokerage, not with that individual human being. If the fit is wrong, you can often call the managing broker and ask to be released or reassigned to a different agent in the office. Reputable firms do this routinely because a buyer who does not want to be there is not a buyer who closes. Here is a script you can use, word for word. "I am happy to sign, that is the rule now. Can we make it a one week term covering just the homes we tour this weekend, with a short protection period limited to those specific addresses? If we work well together I will gladly sign something longer." An agent who says yes to that is confident in their work. An agent who insists on six months exclusive before you have spent an hour together is asking you to solve their problem, not yours. Also worth knowing: just talking with an agent at an open house, or interviewing them about their services, does not require an agreement at all. Interview two or three before you tour anything. Fair caveat: I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, and state law layers on top of the national rule, so a few states have their own required disclosures and term limits in buyer agreements. Read what you sign, and ask for a copy the same day. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work with buyers across Los Angeles and the South Bay. If you are outside my area, I am glad to introduce you to a strong agent from my network near you who will happily start with a short-term agreement, and that introduction costs you nothing and does not obligate you to anything. Zoltan

You are looking at two different things that everybody jams together, and pulling them apart is what gives you your leverage back. Putting the house back on the market is a marketing act. Releasing the contract and releasing the earnest money is a legal act. Those are not the same event. A seller can absolutely re-list, hold showings, and even sign a back-up offer while your mutual release sits unsigned on their kitchen table. What that seller cannot do is deliver clear title to a second buyer while your purchase contract is still alive. Your contract is an equitable interest in that property, and a competent closing attorney or title company on the next deal will find it and stop the closing. So read the situation correctly: the unsigned release is not the seller's power play. It is yours. Here is the mechanism nobody explains to buyers. The escrow holder, title company, or brokerage trust account sitting on your deposit is a neutral party. It cannot hand that money to either side on one side's instruction, no matter who is right. It needs one of two things: a written release signed by both of you, or an order from a judge. If neither of those shows up, the holder can file what is called an interpleader action, deposit your money with the court, and step out of the dispute entirely. Its court costs and attorney fees usually come out of the deposit itself. That is exactly why dug-in sellers eventually sign. Waiting shrinks the pot for everyone and puts a cloud over the file for the next buyer. Now your actual question. Yes, you can make another offer on the same house, and in most cases it is cleaner to do it as a brand new offer rather than trying to patch the old one. A fresh offer lets you price in the furnace and reset the inspection and financing timelines instead of arguing about deadlines that already passed. What you should not do is sign the release first and then hope the seller comes back to the table on good faith. Tie them together: the release gets signed at the same moment the new terms are signed, in writing, or you present the release and the new offer as one package. Two practical moves that change outcomes: - Get a licensed HVAC contractor to put a written bid on paper for a full furnace replacement, including permit and any venting or code corrections. A 22 year old furnace is past typical service life, and installed replacement costs commonly run in the 3,800 to 12,000 dollar range in 2026 depending on efficiency and how much duct or venting work is needed. Negotiations move when there is a number. "Major issue" is an opinion. "6,400 dollars, here is the bid" is a negotiation. - Ask for a seller credit at closing rather than making the seller do the work. Sellers replacing equipment on their way out the door buy the cheapest unit that will pass. A credit lets you pick the contractor and the equipment. Two honest caveats. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, and this is not legal advice. Contract forms, deposit-dispute timelines, and what a broker must do with disputed funds vary a lot state to state, and many standard contracts require mediation before either side can sue over the deposit. Have your agent pull your specific contract language on default and deposit disbursement, and if the dollars are meaningful, one hour with a local real estate attorney is money well spent. I work in Los Angeles and the South Bay, so I am not going to pretend to know your local forms, but I have sat on both sides of this exact standoff more times than I can count, and it almost always ends the same way: the seller signs once they understand the money is frozen and the next buyer is going to ask why the house came back on. If you would like, I am glad to point you toward a strong agent in your area from my referral network who can look at your contract with you. My name is Zoltan Peresztegi. Zoltan

Direct answer: no state legally requires you to carry homeowners insurance. But if you have a mortgage, your loan contract requires it, and that is not a rule you can quietly ignore. Here is the part that matters most for your decision, because it flips the math you are running. If you drop coverage on a mortgaged home, the loan does not simply go uninsured. Your servicer buys a policy for you and bills you for it. That is called force-placed or lender-placed insurance, and it is a genuinely bad deal. It commonly costs one and a half to two times a standard policy, and it can run several times higher. Worse, it is written to protect the lender, not you. It typically covers the structure only. No personal property. No liability. No loss of use if you have to live somewhere else after a fire. So on a mortgaged home, dropping insurance does not save you money. It costs you more and buys you less. If the home is owned free and clear, then yes, it is legally your choice. But be clear-eyed about what you are self-insuring, because it is not only the house: - The structure, meaning you fund a full rebuild out of savings. - Your belongings, all of them, at once. - Personal liability. This is the one people forget. If someone is seriously injured on your property, a judgment does not stop at the value of the house. It can reach your other assets and, in many states, your future wages. Liability is the cheapest part of a policy and the most expensive thing to be without. If a full rebuild plus a liability judgment would not meaningfully change your life, self-insuring is a defensible adult decision. For most households, it is not. Before you take that risk, here are the levers that actually move the premium: - Raise the deductible. Going from 1,000 to 2,500 or 5,000 is usually the single biggest lever. It keeps the catastrophic coverage you actually need while you absorb the small stuff you were absorbing anyway. Only do this if you can genuinely write that check tomorrow. - Check whether you have a separate wind, hail or hurricane deductible. These are often a percentage of the dwelling amount rather than a flat dollar figure. Ask what yours is in real dollars. - Ask about your roof. Many carriers now settle older roof claims on a depreciated basis instead of full replacement, and some automatically apply a higher wind and hail deductible once a roof passes 15 years. - Shop the whole market every year, and use an independent agent who can quote multiple carriers. Loyalty is worth nothing here, and renewal pricing is where people quietly lose the most money. - Bundle home and auto, and ask specifically for the discount list: monitored alarm, automatic water shutoff, impact-resistant or fortified roof, claims-free history, new buyer. - If nobody will write you at all, your state FAIR plan is the insurer of last resort. Coverage is narrower and it is not cheap, but it is a real option. For context on why this hurts more than it used to: the average US home insurance premium hit about 2,948 at the end of 2025 after jumping 12 percent that year, and is projected to reach roughly 3,057 by the end of 2026. Costs are up about 46 percent since 2021, roughly three times the pace of inflation. Insurance is now about 9 percent of the typical homeowner's housing payment, the highest on record. You are not imagining this and you are not alone. I am a real estate professional, not an insurance agent, so get quotes from a licensed independent agent before you decide anything. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work with homeowners across Los Angeles and the South Bay, where insurance availability has become part of nearly every transaction. If you would like an introduction to a good agent in your area, I am glad to help. Zoltan

Yes, you can, but here is the fact that changes this whole situation: your agreement is almost certainly with the brokerage, not with him personally. The individual agent is the person assigned to you. The contract sits with the company. That means your request does not go to the agent who is ignoring you. It goes to the broker of record, sometimes called the managing broker, at his office. That single move solves most of these cases. Managing brokers do not want to lose a deal that is already under contract, and reassigning you to another agent in the same office costs them nothing. You very often get a competent, responsive person by Friday without a fight, without a lawyer, and without the deal blowing up. Call the main office line, ask for the managing broker by name, and say you need to discuss your representation. Before you make that call, pull out your buyer agreement and find four things: - The expiration date and whether it is exclusive. - The termination or cancellation clause, and who has to sign for a release to be valid. - Any protection period, sometimes called a holdover period. This is the one that bites. It typically says that if you buy a property the agent introduced you to, you may still owe compensation even after the agreement ends. Which can mean you owe on this house specifically, whether or not he stays in the picture. - The compensation amount and who pays it. Since August 17, 2024, agents must have a signed written buyer agreement in place before showing homes, so you do have a document somewhere. Find it before you say anything to anyone. Now the harder half of my answer, and I say it because it may save your deal. You are mid-transaction. That is genuinely the worst time to switch, and some of what you are describing may not be his failing. Once you are in contract, you are on a clock with real dates: an inspection window, an appraisal, a loan contingency, a title review period. Miss one and you can lose your earnest money or your leverage to negotiate repairs. So when he calls with something urgent, it may actually be urgent. Bad communication sitting on top of legitimate deadlines still looks exactly like this. The fix I would try first, before firing anyone, is one direct conversation. Try something close to this: "I want this deal to close and I am not trying to make your job harder. But the way this is going is not working for me. I need two things. First, a written list of every upcoming deadline in this contract with the date each one falls, so I can plan around work. Second, at least 24 hours notice on anything that is not a same-day emergency. If you can do that, we are fine. If you cannot, tell me now and I will speak with your managing broker about being reassigned." That is a fair ask, and it also gives you a clean record if you do escalate. If you escalate, keep it factual with the managing broker. Dates, unreturned calls, what you needed and did not get. No character assessment. You are asking for a solution, not a verdict, and brokers respond much better to "I would like to stay with your firm but I need a different point of contact" than to a complaint. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney. Whether you can be released, and whether you would still owe compensation on this particular house, comes down to your specific agreement and your state's law. If the money at stake is real and the brokerage will not work with you, a one hour consult with a local real estate attorney is money well spent. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work with buyers and sellers throughout Los Angeles and the South Bay. If you end up needing a fresh start with a new agent in your area once this closes, I am glad to introduce you to someone in my network. Zoltan

Honest answer: for what you are describing, the lender matters far more than the agent. These programs are underwritten and funded by lenders, and not every lender is approved to originate every one. So the first question is not "which agent works with government programs," it is "which lenders in my state are approved to originate these," and then you find an agent who has actually closed with them. Here are the real zero-down paths, by name, so you can ask for them specifically. VA loans. If you or your spouse served, this is the strongest program in the country. Zero down, and no monthly mortgage insurance at all, which is the part people underrate. There is a one-time funding fee, 2.15 percent for a first-use purchase with zero down, and it can be rolled into the loan. If you have a service connected disability rating of 10 percent or more, the funding fee is waived entirely. USDA Rural Development, Section 502. This is two separate programs and people conflate them constantly. Section 502 Guaranteed is zero down through a regular lender, with household income capped at 115 percent of the area median and the property needing to sit in an eligible area. Do not assume rural means farmland: eligibility is drawn address by address and plenty of outer-ring suburbs qualify, so check the exact address on USDA's map. Section 502 Direct is the one nobody mentions: USDA itself is the lender, it is aimed at low and very low income households, and it includes a payment subsidy that can bring your effective interest rate down as low as 1 percent. Direct has a waiting list in many counties, so apply early. State Housing Finance Agency assistance. This is the actual source of "help with closing costs." Every state has one, and they typically pair a first mortgage with a second lien covering down payment and closing costs, often deferred with no payments or forgiven after you live there a set number of years. As of April 2026 there were 2,679 homebuyer assistance programs nationwide, and about 56 percent of them are structured exactly this way. Search your state housing finance agency by name plus "down payment assistance." One expectation to set honestly. A truly no-interest first mortgage does not exist for ordinary buyers. The zero-interest or no-payment feature sits on the assistance second, not on the main loan. Your first mortgage carries a normal market rate, running around 6.7 percent as of August 2026. Anyone promising a no-interest primary mortgage is selling something. Two more things worth using: - HUD-approved housing counseling agencies. Free or nearly free, and they know their state's programs cold without being paid on commission. HUD's referral line is 800-569-4287, and the CFPB has a counselor search tool too. - Good Neighbor Next Door. If you are a pre-K through 12th grade teacher, a firefighter, an EMT or a law enforcement officer, HUD sells eligible homes in designated revitalization areas at 50 percent off the list price. The discount is a silent second mortgage with no payments and no interest, forgiven after you live there 36 months. Inventory is thin and each home is listed for only a 7 day window, but the program is real and still running in 2026. When you do pick an agent, the screening question is simple: "How many closings have you done in the last twelve months using down payment assistance?" These programs add a second underwriting timeline, and an agent who has not handled one will mismanage the seller's expectations and put your deal at risk. I am a real estate professional, not a lender, so confirm specifics with a loan officer approved for your state's programs. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work with buyers across Los Angeles and the South Bay. Tell me your state and I am glad to introduce you to a strong local agent who works these programs regularly. Zoltan

Hi Tamrah, The short answer is usually yes, sellers who genuinely no longer want to sell can get released, but there are three things the other answers have not spelled out: 1. Your agreement is with the brokerage, not the individual agent. If your agent resists, you can go to their managing broker. Brokers rarely want to force an unwilling seller to stay on the market, but ask for the cancellation in writing and get written confirmation that you owe nothing going forward. 2. Watch the protection period clause. Most exclusive listing agreements say that if you sell within a certain window after cancellation to a buyer who was introduced to the property during the listing, the commission is still owed. Since you are keeping it as a rental this may not bite, but know it exists before you sign anything. 3. Your specific situation has a rental wrinkle. Read the agreement for any language about the broker earning a fee if the property is leased to someone procured during the listing period. If a showing visitor later becomes your tenant, that clause could matter. One honest note: a few weeks without a full-price offer is a market signal, not necessarily a failed listing. If the numbers still work as a rental, going back to renting is a perfectly rational move. Just close out the listing cleanly. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, so for contract interpretation have a California real estate attorney glance at it if anything is unclear. I serve Los Angeles' South Bay and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and if you want a second opinion on sell versus hold as a rental, I am glad to help or connect you with a strong local agent. Zoltan

Hi Sophia, the FHA score minimums above are accurate, but I want to flag something in your question that nobody has picked up on, because it may completely change your picture. You said your mom has good credit but no income, only her retirement income. Here is the good news: retirement income IS income to a mortgage lender. Social Security, pension payments, and regular retirement account distributions all count as qualifying income, and stable retirement income is often viewed favorably because it does not depend on a job. That matters because FHA loans allow what is called a non-occupant co-borrower, and a parent is exactly who that rule was built for. Your mom can go on the loan with you without living in the home. Her credit and her retirement income get combined with yours, which can offset a weaker score or thinner income on your side. With a family member as co-borrower and a 580 or better score on the file, you can still put down as little as 3.5%. A few honest caveats: - Your mom would be fully responsible for the loan too, and it will appear on her credit. That is a real commitment, so the family conversation matters as much as the math. - Your own credit still counts. Lenders typically underwrite off the lower middle score among borrowers, so spend a few months paying balances down and disputing any errors. Sometimes 20 or 30 points is the whole ballgame. - I am a real estate professional, not a lender, so have a good loan officer run the actual scenario with both of your credit profiles. I work Los Angeles and the South Bay every day and I am glad to connect you with a lender who handles family co-borrower loans well, and to help you find a home that fits once the financing is lined up. Zoltan

Yes, that is normal, and your timing was uncanny. You asked this two days after the industry rules changed nationwide on August 17, 2024. Your agent was describing a brand new world, and he had almost certainly only been living in it himself for 48 hours. Here is what changed and where it stands now. Before that date, sellers typically advertised a payment to the buyer's agent through the MLS, so buyers rarely saw the cost and rarely negotiated it. Two things happened at once. First, offers of compensation can no longer be published on the MLS. Second, an agent working with a buyer must have a signed written buyer agreement in place before touring a home, and that agreement has to state the compensation in a specific figure. That figure matters more than most buyers realize. It has to be objectively ascertainable, which means a flat dollar amount, a percentage, an hourly rate, or zero. It cannot be open-ended. An agreement saying "whatever the seller is offering" or "between 2 and 3 percent" is not permitted. And your agent cannot collect more than the number in your agreement from any source, so there is no quiet bonus arriving from the other side. So can the seller still pay it? Yes, and that is still the most common outcome in most markets. It just gets negotiated now instead of assumed. In practice it is written into your purchase offer, usually as a seller concession or a request that the seller pay a stated amount toward your agent's compensation. Sellers agree to it all the time, because a seller who refuses shrinks their own buyer pool. Now the three practical things I would tell a friend before signing. Negotiate the length, not just the rate. Almost every buyer negotiates the percentage and almost none negotiate the term. Do not sign a twelve month exclusive agreement with someone you have known for one conversation. Ask for 30 to 90 days, or for an agreement limited to a specific property or a specific showing. If the agent is good, you will happily renew. Also ask what the cancellation language says and whether there is a protection period, meaning a window after expiration where you still owe compensation on homes he showed you. Read the shortfall sentence. This is the one buyers miss. If your agreement says 2.5 percent and the seller agrees to pay 2 percent, you owe the remaining 0.5 percent out of pocket at closing. Ask directly: "If the seller pays less than this number, am I responsible for the difference?" Get the answer in writing. Some agreements cap the buyer's exposure at whatever the seller pays. Those are the ones worth signing. Talk to your lender about it early. In April 2024 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac clarified that when a seller pays the buyer agent commission in line with local custom, it is not counted against the interested party contribution limits that otherwise cap seller-paid closing costs. That is useful, but a concession negotiated in the contract can be treated differently, so have your loan officer confirm what your specific loan program allows before you write the offer. You do not want to discover a cap two days before closing. One more thing. Budget for it either way. Assume you may need to cover some or all of it, and if the seller ends up paying, treat that as a win rather than a plan. With rates running around 6.7 percent, knowing your true cash-to-close before you fall in love with a house is worth a lot. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, a real estate professional working across Los Angeles and the South Bay, so I am not the person to represent you if you are shopping outside California. But if you would like an introduction to an agent in your area who will explain their agreement line by line instead of sliding it across the table, I am glad to make one. Zoltan

Hi Rhonda, Five price changes in 117 days tells me the price has been chasing the market down in steps that were too small to change anyone's mind. Please do not price it back up, and do not relist and hope for a reset: the big portals show buyers the full price and listing history anyway, so the history follows the house. Here is the audit I would run before touching price a sixth time, in this order: 1. Open your own listing on your phone like a buyer. The first three photos decide whether anyone keeps scrolling. If photo one is not your best exterior or best room shot, reshoot. Twilight exterior shots and decluttered wide rooms earn clicks. 2. Check the showing data with your agent. Lots of showings, no offers: buyers are rejecting the house in person, which points to condition, smell, light, or layout presentation. Few showings: buyers are rejecting it online, which points to price bracket and photos. 3. Read your description. If it lists features instead of selling a life, rewrite it. 4. Then reposition once, decisively. One meaningful move that lands you just under the price band where the next group of buyers searches beats three more nibbles. Fresh price plus fresh photos plus a reworked description reads like a new listing even without a relist. And yes, have a direct conversation with your agent about the marketing plan: where is it being advertised, what is the showing feedback, and what do the last 90 days of comparable sales say. I am a real estate professional serving Los Angeles' South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Tell me your market and I am happy to give you a more specific read or connect you with a strong local agent from my network. Zoltan

The decision rule is arithmetic, not a rate forecast. Add up every dollar of cost on the new loan, divide by your monthly payment savings, and that number is how many months it takes to break even. Then ask honestly how long you will still own this house and still hold this loan. If you clear the break-even month, refinance. If you do not, skip it, no matter how good the headline rate looks. Round numbers: if the new loan costs 4,500 to close and drops your payment 250 a month, you break even at 18 months. Refinance closing costs commonly land somewhere between 3,000 and 8,000 depending on loan size and state, so run your own version of that division, not mine. Now the part you are actually worried about, which is jumping early and then watching rates fall again. There is a clean answer to that and almost nobody mentions it: the no-cost refinance, also called a lender-credit refinance. Instead of paying closing costs out of pocket, you accept a slightly higher rate, usually about an eighth to a half point above the best available, and the lender credits your closing costs. Your break-even is nearly immediate because you spent nothing. And if rates drop again next year, you refinance again for free. The timing trap disappears. The tradeoff is real. If you are certain you will hold this loan for fifteen years, paying costs up front and taking the lowest rate wins over time. If you think you might refinance again, take the credit. Four things to check before you sign anything: - Do not automatically restart a 30-year clock. If you are a year in, ask your lender to quote a 25 or 20 year term alongside the 30. If the shorter term is unaffordable, take the 30 and keep making the old payment amount voluntarily. - Look at your note for a prepayment penalty. These are rare now. Since the Qualified Mortgage rules took effect January 10, 2014, a penalty is only allowed on a fixed-rate, non-higher-priced qualified mortgage, capped at 2 percent in years one and two and 1 percent in year three, and prohibited after that. But if your loan was non-QM, read the note. - A rate-and-term refinance prices better than a cash-out. If you are tempted to roll in other debt, understand that you are moving to worse pricing. Keep the two decisions separate. - If your original loan was FHA, ask about the FHA Streamline Refinance. It needs 210 days since closing plus six on-time payments and a net tangible benefit, and most borrowers get an appraisal waiver and skip income documentation. If your loan is VA, ask for the IRRRL. Funding fee is only 0.5 percent, usually no appraisal and no income docs, and the VA actually requires your lender to prove all costs are recouped within 36 months. That program has your break-even rule written into its own rules. On timing, since you asked this in 2024 and conditions moved: if you bought around 2023 your note rate is likely in the 7 percent range, because the 30-year fixed averaged 7.18 percent at the end of August 2023 and peaked at 7.79 percent that October. As of August 2026 the 30-year fixed is running roughly 6.65 to 6.72 percent. So for a lot of 2023 buyers the math already cleared some time ago. Last practical step: pull Loan Estimates from three lenders on the same day and compare page 2, sections A, B and C. That is where the real cost differences hide. Mortgage inquiries inside a 45-day window count as one for credit scoring purposes, so shopping hard does not hurt you. I am a real estate professional, not a lender, so have a loan officer run your actual numbers before you commit. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work with buyers and sellers across Los Angeles and the South Bay. If you would like an introduction to a straight-shooting lender or a strong agent in your area, I am glad to make one. Zoltan

Plan on 75 to 120 days from the day you decide to sell to the day you hand over the keys. The reason that number surprises people is that the statistic everyone quotes, days on market, only measures the middle third. There are three phases, and they get counted separately. Phase one, preparation. Two to six weeks is typical. Decluttering, touch-up paint, the repairs you have been deferring, a pre-listing inspection if you want to control the narrative, then photography and staging. It can be three days if you list as-is, or three months if there is real deferred maintenance, a tenant in place, or an estate to sort out. Nobody counts this phase, but it is time out of your life. Phase two, days on market. Listing to accepted offer, and the only piece the headline numbers measure. As of mid-2026 Redfin's national median is around 49 days and has been stretching, not shrinking. The National Association of Realtors reports a monthly median in the low 30s to low 40s. Both are correct; they measure slightly different spans, which is why you will see two numbers for the same market in the same week. When your agent quotes a figure, ask which definition it uses, and ask for your zip code and price band rather than the country. Phase three, contract to close. This is escrow, and it is mostly the buyer's loan. ICE Mortgage Technology reported the average purchase loan closing in 36.8 days in March 2026, the fastest in their tracking, with all origination types averaging 38.2 days. Budget 30 to 45 days for a financed buyer. Cash can close in 7 to 14. Conventional is fastest of the financed options, and FHA and VA typically run about 5 to 10 days longer when the appraisal or minimum property requirements trigger repairs. Add those up and a normal financed sale is two and a half to four months, plus the risk that your first escrow falls apart and drops you back into phase two with a listing that now shows accumulated days. Now the part that actually helps you: what controls each phase. - Phase one is controlled entirely by you. Fastest lever you own, and the one sellers waste. Decide in week one whether you are doing the work or selling as-is, then stop relitigating it. - Phase two is controlled by price relative to recent closed comparable sales. Not the photos, not the flyer, not the open house. Price. Your listing gets its peak audience in the first 10 to 14 days, when every serious buyer working with an agent gets an alert. A home that sits 60-plus days almost always got those first two weeks wrong and then chased the market down. With the 30-year fixed near 6.69 percent in August 2026, buyers are payment-sensitive and they do the arithmetic. - Phase three is controlled by loan type plus two line items: the appraisal and the title search. A low appraisal reopens negotiation and can cost a week or three. Title is bigger and far more preventable. The usual culprits are probate not completed, an old paid-off loan never released, a deceased co-owner never removed from title, a solar lease or PACE assessment, an old mechanic's lien, or an easement nobody knew about. That last one is my single concrete piece of advice. Ask your agent to order the preliminary title report the week you list, not the week you open escrow. It costs nothing extra and it moves every ugly surprise from day 45, when a nervous buyer is watching, to day 3, when you have time and no audience. Two things a 2026 seller should know that were not true when this was posted in August 2024. Seasonality is real: ATTOM's 11-year analysis puts seller premiums at 10.7 percent in March and 10.2 percent in April and May, against 7.9 percent in October, so listing into early spring shortens phase two and improves price. And since the practice changes of August 17, 2024, buyer-agent compensation is no longer published on the MLS and is negotiated, often as a seller concession requested inside the offer. Decide what you will contribute before you list. Deciding it mid-negotiation costs you a round of back and forth and sometimes a buyer. Biggest lever on total timeline: your list price in the first 14 days. Second biggest: order title early. I am a real estate professional, not a lender, so confirm loan timing with the buyer's loan officer once you are in contract. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I sell across Los Angeles and the South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. If your home is in another market, message me and I will introduce you to an agent I trust there who can give you the local version of these three numbers. Zoltan

Start here, because it changes the whole conversation: under the federal Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act, 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d)(5), a transfer of a home to a relative resulting from the death of the borrower cannot trigger the due-on-sale clause. I hold the SRES designation (Seniors Real Estate Specialist) and this is the single point I see families miss most often. Chase cannot call that loan due because you and your sister inherited the house, and you are probably not required to "qualify" the way their phrasing suggested. The statute covers residential property with fewer than five dwelling units and exempts transfers by devise, descent or operation of law on the death of a joint tenant, to a relative on the death of a borrower, and to a spouse or children. You are squarely in the middle of it. There is a second federal layer that gives you leverage right now. In October 2016 the CFPB amended Regulation X to create the "successor in interest." Under 12 CFR 1024.31 and the sections that follow, a servicer must confirm your identity and ownership interest, and once you are a confirmed successor in interest they must treat you as a borrower for the servicing rules: give you loan information, accept your payments, and evaluate you for loss mitigation. That happens before and independent of any assumption. Being a confirmed successor does not by itself make you personally liable on the note; that is state law. The practical move is the phrasing. Call Chase and say, word for word, "I am a successor in interest and I need the written list of documents you require to confirm me." That routes you to a completely different department than a purchase or refinance application. Ask for the list in writing and send your documents certified mail. Now the deed, which is your actual bottleneck. No will means the estate passes by your state's intestate succession statute. Four years of payments, however honorable, does not move title. The mechanism is one of these, depending on your state and the value: - Probate, sometimes in a simplified or summary form for smaller estates. - A small estate affidavit. Careful here: in most states this covers personal property only and cannot transfer real estate. California, for example, uses a separate court process, a Petition to Determine Succession to Real Property, and its small estate limit rises to $239,700 for deaths on or after April 1, 2026. Your state's number and forms are different, so look up your own threshold. - Some states offer an affidavit of heirship for real property, or recognize a transfer-on-death deed, but that only helps if your parent recorded one before passing. Now the thing nobody is telling you, and the one most likely to blow up: those four years of payments. Money spent preserving estate property generally supports a claim for reimbursement or contribution against the estate, ahead of splitting proceeds. That matters enormously the moment you and your sister are co-owners and one of you wants a different number. Handle it while you are still on good terms. Pull all four years of bank statements now, total the principal, interest, taxes, insurance and repairs you funded, and have a probate attorney draft a short written agreement with your sister spelling out how it comes off the top at closing. Sign it before the house is listed. Finally, on "quick sale," a shortcut worth asking about. If the real goal is to sell, you may not need the deed in your names at all. In many states the personal representative appointed through probate can sell directly out of the estate and the buyer receives clean title through the court, which is often faster than transferring title, assuming the loan, then reselling. Ask which path is shorter in your county; the answer is genuinely local. Order of operations: probate attorney in the county where the home sits, 6 to 8 certified death certificates, a preliminary title report ordered immediately so liens or an old unreleased mortgage surface now instead of during escrow, the written successor-in-interest request to Chase, and the sibling agreement signed. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney or a CPA. Run two things past professionals: the intestacy analysis in your state, and the stepped-up cost basis on inherited property, which can be worth real money and is a conversation to have before you close, not after. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, SRES, serving Los Angeles and the South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. If the house is elsewhere, message me and I will introduce you to an agent in your market who handles probate and inherited-property sales regularly. Zoltan

Hi Helen, Yes, and it is worth seeing the three separate layers so nothing surprises you: 1. Property tax. Owed to Riverside County no matter where you live. 2. California income tax on the rental profit. California taxes nonresidents on California-source income, and rent from an Indio property is California-source. You would file a nonresident return (Form 540NR) reporting that income. 3. New York taxes it too, since you are domiciled there, but New York generally gives you a credit for tax paid to California, so you are not doubly taxed on the same dollars. You just file in both states. Two practical wrinkles the other answers did not mention: - Nonresident withholding. If a California property manager collects the rent for you, they are generally required to withhold 7% of payments once they exceed $1,500 in a year and send it to the Franchise Tax Board. You can apply for a waiver or reduced withholding, and anything withheld is credited on your 540NR. Worth setting up correctly from day one. - Renting to family. If you rent to relatives below market rate, the IRS and FTB can treat the property as personal use, which limits the deductions that usually make rentals attractive. Charge documented market rent if you want it treated as a true rental. I am a real estate professional, not a CPA or attorney, and cross-state investor situations are exactly where a good CPA earns their fee, so please confirm the details with one. I am based in Los Angeles' South Bay, serving the Palos Verdes Peninsula and greater LA, and I work with out-of-state investors regularly. If you would like an introduction to a strong Coachella Valley agent or an investor-savvy CPA from my network, happy to connect you. Zoltan

Take a breath. In almost every state, the answer is no. A sale does not terminate a lease. Your 10 remaining months went with the house. Here is the principle, because it helps to know the name of the thing protecting you. A lease is not merely a contract with your old landlord. It is an interest in the real property itself, and it runs with the land. When the deed transferred, the buyer took title subject to your leasehold and stepped into the landlord's shoes for the balance of the term, at the same rent and on the same terms you already signed. They bought a house with a tenant in it. Now the part people get wrong. It matters much less whether your lease was recorded than whether the buyer had notice of it. Recording acts exist, and in theory a bona fide purchaser can cut off an unrecorded interest. But courts follow a long-settled rule: open, visible, notorious possession of a property is constructive notice to any buyer of every right the person in possession has that a reasonable inquiry would have revealed. You were living there. A buyer who could see that and did not ask does not get to call themselves an innocent purchaser. And the seller's failure to disclose you is the seller's problem. If the new owner was blindsided, their remedy runs against the person who sold them the house, not against you. Your security deposit went with the property too. In most states the seller must either transfer it to the buyer or return it to you, and must tell you in writing who holds it. Once transferred, the new owner owes it back at move-out. California, for example, makes the successor jointly and severally liable for repaying it. Do not let the deposit fall into the gap between two owners. If this had been a foreclosure rather than a normal sale, different law applies and it is also good for you: the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act. It sunset at the end of 2014 and was permanently restored by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act signed May 24, 2018, effective June 23, 2018, with no expiration date this time. Under it a bona fide tenant with a lease generally gets to finish the term, with one exception: a purchaser who will occupy the home as their own primary residence can end it on 90 days written notice. Tenants without a lease get 90 days notice. What to do this week: - Email the new owner a PDF of the signed lease plus your last few rent receipts. Keep a copy of the sent message. - Ask in writing for three things: where to send rent, the new owner's mailing address, and confirmation of who is holding your security deposit and how much. - Keep paying rent on time, every time, by a traceable method. This is the one thing that could actually cost you the protection you have. Do not withhold rent while you wait for an answer. - Photograph the condition of the unit now, room by room, with the date visible. - Consider recording a memorandum of lease at the county recorder if your state allows it. It is inexpensive and it puts your interest in the title record. - Save everything in one folder. Texts, emails, receipts. One warning. You may get a cash-for-keys offer, sometimes framed as if it is your only option. It is not. A buyout is voluntary and negotiable. You can accept, counter, or decline. No owner may lock you out or shut off utilities to push you. If you do negotiate, ask for the full deposit back regardless of condition, moving costs, a rent-free final month, a neutral reference, and a signed mutual release, and get it all in writing before keys change hands. Some cities, Los Angeles among them, require the owner to hand a tenant a written notice of rights before a buyout and give a rescission window afterward. Fair caveat: landlord-tenant law is state and often city specific, and I am a real estate professional, not an attorney. A short consult with a tenant attorney or your local legal aid office is worth every minute. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work with owners and tenants across Los Angeles and the South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. If your rental is somewhere else, message me and I will point you to a tenant resource or an agent I trust in your area. Zoltan

You asked this in July 2024, so let me give you something better than a forecast. It is August 2026 now, and I can tell you exactly what happened to sellers who waited. Waiting did not pay. Here are the actual numbers. - Mortgage rates. Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed averaged 6.72 percent across 2024 and 6.60 percent across 2025. As of early August 2026 it is about 6.69 percent. Two years, a national election, and six Federal Reserve rate cuts later, the number a buyer sees is essentially where it was the week you asked. It did dip to 6.01 percent on February 19, 2026, the lowest weekly reading since September 2022, and then bounced back up within weeks. - Prices. The S&P Case-Shiller national index rose about 1.3 percent for all of 2025, the weakest full-year gain since 2011, and it has been running near 1 percent year over year into 2026. A seller who waited from mid-2024 to now picked up low single digits at best, while paying two more years of mortgage interest, taxes, insurance and upkeep. - Volume. Existing-home sales came in at roughly 4.062 million in 2024 and 4.061 million in 2025. A difference of about a thousand homes nationally, and the lowest level since 1995. 2026 is tracking in the same 4.0 to 4.1 million range. That last bullet is the real lesson, and it is the evergreen one. The election moved sentiment and it moved transaction volume. It did not move price. People paused, then resumed, and the price line barely noticed. The reason is mechanical and it has nothing to do with who won. Your mortgage rate is not set by the Fed's overnight rate. The 30-year fixed tracks the 10-year Treasury yield plus the spread investors demand on mortgage-backed securities. That is why the Fed cut six times across 2024 and 2025 and mortgage rates barely budged, and why a February 2026 disruption in oil markets pushed the 10-year up and dragged mortgage rates right along with it. Bond markets price inflation expectations and deficits. Elections are one input among many, and usually a small one. For one individual seller, seasonality is a bigger factor than any election. ATTOM looked at more than 52 million single-family and condo sales from 2015 through 2025 and found sellers do best in early spring: a 10.7 percent premium over estimated market value in March, 10.2 percent in April and May, versus 7.9 percent in October and 8.0 percent in September. That spread of roughly 2.8 points is worth about $14,000 on a $500,000 home and about $25,000 on a $900,000 home. No election in the data comes close to that. So the decision rule I would give you, or anyone asking the same question today: - If you can list in late February through May, do. That is a real, measurable, repeatable edge. - If waiting means carrying the home nine extra months, price out the carrying cost first. Mortgage, taxes, insurance and maintenance for three quarters of a year usually swamps a spring premium you are not guaranteed to capture. - Do not wait for a rate event. Two years of evidence says you cannot time it. - Do watch your own local inventory and days on market. Nationally the median listing is sitting near seven weeks in mid-2026, longer than a year ago. Buyers have more leverage than they did in 2024, and that shows up in your pricing strategy, not in your calendar. One thing that did change materially, and it landed three weeks after you posted: the practice changes that took effect August 17, 2024. Buyer-agent compensation is no longer published on the MLS and is negotiated, often requested as a seller concession inside the offer. Decide your position on that before you list, not after the first offer arrives. I am a real estate professional, not an economist, and none of the above is a promise about the next two years. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I sell across Los Angeles and the South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. If your home is somewhere else, message me and I will introduce you to an agent in your market who can price your specific block instead of the country. Zoltan

Short answer: it is usually not a bribe in the criminal sense, but if you are financing the purchase it can quietly become loan fraud, and that is the part nobody warns buyers about. Here is the mechanism. Your lender is underwriting a price. Every item of value that moves between you and the seller is supposed to be documented in the loan file and shown on the Closing Disclosure. Lenders call these interested party contributions, and Fannie Mae caps them: on a primary residence or second home, 3 percent of the price if your loan-to-value is above 90 percent, 6 percent if it is 75.01 to 90 percent, and 9 percent if it is 75 percent or less. Anything above the cap gets reclassified as a sales concession and is subtracted from the sales price for underwriting. A side agreement that never reaches the settlement statement is the exact pattern mortgage fraud investigators look for. Season tickets and a nice dinner are small, but "small and undisclosed" is still undisclosed, and you are the one signing the loan application. The second problem is fair housing. A personal gift invites the seller to pick a buyer on personal grounds instead of on terms. That is the precise soil discrimination claims grow in, which is why most real estate firms will not transmit anything outside the offer package. Related trap: buyer "love letters." Oregon actually tried to bar agents from passing them along under HB 2550 in 2022, a federal judge struck the law down on First Amendment grounds, and the state conceded. So they are legal again in Oregon. That does not make them smart, and plenty of firms still refuse to forward them. Now the good news. The things that genuinely separate an offer cost you nothing and are all contractual: - A fully underwritten credit approval, not a pre-qualification. Your loan officer runs the file through underwriting before you write. It reads almost like cash. - A shorter inspection contingency. Cutting it from 17 days to 7 or 10 is worth real money to a seller. - A shorter loan and appraisal contingency, or an appraisal gap clause with a stated cap, for example "buyer will cover up to $15,000 of any appraisal shortfall in cash." - Larger earnest money. A bigger deposit says you do not intend to walk. - The closing date the seller actually wants, plus a free or reduced rent-back so they are not moving twice. For a seller who has not found their next home, this beats any gift. - Verified proof of funds and a lender who will personally call the listing agent the day you write. - A clean, complete package. Every disclosure signed, no blanks, no missing initials. Listing agents notice. - Take on the seller's headaches: accept cosmetic items as-is, pay for the termite work, cover their moving cost as a documented credit that appears on the Closing Disclosure where it belongs. One 2026 update, since this question was posted in July 2024. Practice changes took effect on August 17, 2024, so buyer-agent compensation is no longer published on the MLS and is negotiated. If you are asking the seller to cover your agent's fee as a concession, that request is part of your offer and it affects your net to the seller. Know that number before you write, because it competes with everything above. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney or a lender, so run any specific concession structure past your loan officer before you sign. Zoltan Peresztegi here, working with buyers across Los Angeles and the South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. If you are outside my area, message me and I will introduce you to a strong agent in your market who negotiates this way. Zoltan

I do not work in Arkansas, so I will not pretend I can list your lot. But I can tell you how to pick the right person, because vacant land is a different specialty from residential resale and most house agents are not good at it. Screen candidates with one question: how many vacant land transactions did you close in the last twelve months? Not homes on acreage. Actual dirt. Ask whether they belong to the REALTORS Land Institute or hold the ALC (Accredited Land Consultant) designation. In a market like Pine Bluff you may find only one or two who qualify. That is fine. One person who does this beats ten who will take the listing and let it sit. Expect a different fee structure and do not be offended by it. On a low-value lot a straight percentage does not cover the sign, the mowing, the mileage, and the closing coordination. A flat listing fee or a minimum commission is normal here, and usually the sign of an agent being straight with you. Ask how they will market it. Land belongs on the local MLS but also on land-specific channels like the Land.com network and LandWatch. And here is what experienced land agents do that others skip: on a small in-town lot they contact the owners of the adjoining parcels first. Very often your buyer is the neighbor who wants a bigger yard or a garage. Gather from Florida your recorded deed, the most recent tax bill with proof taxes are current, any survey or plat, and the exact parcel number. Check the tax item today, not later. In Arkansas, when property taxes go unpaid the parcel is certified to the Commissioner of State Lands, who can then offer it for sale, and the sale can occur as soon as one year after certification. You can redeem by filing a petition to redeem with payment of taxes, penalties, interest, and costs, but only until 4:00 p.m. Central on the last business day before the sale date. Notice goes out by certified mail, exactly the letter that gets lost when an owner lives out of state. Look up your parcel at cosl.org and call the Jefferson County collector to confirm you are current. Also ask the City of Pine Bluff about liens for mowing or cleanup, common on vacant in-town lots. You never have to travel. Mail-away land closings are routine: the title company sends the package, you sign before a notary in Florida or by remote online notarization where permitted, and you send it back. One change since you posted this. As of August 17, 2024, offers of compensation to a buyer's agent are no longer communicated through the MLS. So ask a listing agent two separate questions: what is your fee, and will you offer anything to a buyer's agent. On a small land deal that answer really affects how many agents bring buyers. My name is Zoltan Peresztegi and I am a real estate professional in Los Angeles and the South Bay. Say the word and I will reach into my referral network for someone in Arkansas who actually sells land, so you are not calling names off a search page and hoping. Zoltan

Before you talk to any lender, answer one question: are you on SSI or SSDI? Everyone in this thread skipped it, and it is the most important question in your whole plan. SSDI has no asset limit. SSI does, and in 2026 it is $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple. The home itself is excluded as a resource once you own it, no matter what it is worth, but the cash you are saving toward a down payment counts every month it sits in a regular account. People have lost benefits doing exactly the right thing. If you are on SSI there is a clean fix, and it got much better this year. An ABLE account is a tax-advantaged account created under Section 529A for people with disabilities. Up to $100,000 in it is disregarded for SSI, and housing expenses are a qualified disability expense. On January 1, 2026 the ABLE Age Adjustment Act took effect and raised eligibility from disability onset before age 26 to onset before age 46, opening these accounts to roughly six million more people. That happened well after this question was posted, so if you were once told you were too old, look again. The annual contribution cap tracks the federal gift tax exclusion, so confirm the current figure when you open it. Most state programs accept out-of-state residents. Also free: ask your local Center for Independent Living to connect you with a benefits counselor before you move any money. Now the real named programs. - HUD-approved housing counseling agency. Free or very low cost, HUD certified, and they build a plan with you rather than sell you a loan. Call 800-569-4287 (TTY 202-708-1455) or use the search tools on hud.gov or consumerfinance.gov. Best first phone call you can make. - Your state Housing Finance Agency. Every state has one, running first-time buyer loans and down payment assistance, and several have programs specifically for households that include a person with a disability. - HCV Homeownership Program. If you hold a Housing Choice Voucher, some housing authorities let you apply it to monthly homeownership expenses instead of rent. Two details that matter here: the employment requirement does not apply to disabled or elderly families, and for a disabled family the minimum income test is the SSI monthly payment for an individual living alone times twelve. Not every authority runs it, so call yours and ask by name. - USDA Section 502 Direct. If the home is in an eligible rural area and your income is low, this is the strongest loan in the country and almost nobody knows it exists. No down payment, no mortgage insurance, 33 or 38 year terms, and a payment assistance subsidy that can drop your effective rate as low as 1 percent. You apply through USDA Rural Development directly, not a bank. Caveat: the subsidy is recaptured when you sell or move out. - Fannie Mae HomeReady. Conventional, 3 percent down, for income at or below 80 percent of area median, and the entire 3 percent can come from a gift, a grant, or a Community Seconds assistance loan. One correction so you do not chase it: HUD Section 811 comes up constantly here, but it is Project Rental Assistance funded through state agencies. It is a rental program, not a path to buying. On qualifying, know your rights. SSDI and long-term disability generally count as qualifying income, and because they are usually nontaxable many programs let a lender gross them up, which raises the income used to qualify you. And if a loan officer demands a letter proving your benefits will continue three years, they are applying the rule wrong. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide section B3-3.1-09 says confirmation of three-year continuance does not require documentation with a defined expiration date and can be met by verifying SSA's own requirements for the benefit. If they will not move off it, get another lender. That misunderstanding derails more disabled buyers than anything else. Two updates since 2024. The 30-year fixed averaged about 6.7 percent in early August 2026, so budget off today's payment. And since August 17, 2024 you sign a written agreement with a buyer's agent before touring, and that agent's compensation is negotiated with you, though it can be requested from the seller as a concession. Sequence I would follow: benefits counselor, HUD counselor, state HFA program list, then a lender who has actually closed a USDA Direct or HFA loan, then an agent. Not the other way around. My name is Zoltan Peresztegi and I work in Los Angeles and the South Bay. I am a real estate professional, not a lender or a benefits counselor, so verify the benefits pieces with someone who does that for a living. If you are in California, reach out and I will walk you through the local programs myself. Anywhere else, tell me your city and I will introduce you to an agent from my network who works with assistance-program buyers and will not rush you. Zoltan

Yes, almost always you can, but "can I" is the easy half. The real question is which of three legal processes your county will make you use, and the answer to that determines whether this takes six weeks or eighteen months. Here is the sequence I would run, in the order that spends the least money first. Step one, one free phone call. Get your parcel number off your tax bill and call the county or city planning department. Ask four things: what zoning district am I in, what is the minimum lot size, what is the minimum street frontage, and is my parcel one legal lot or more than one. That last one is the jackpot question. Sometimes almost 5 acres is already two or three legal lots of record that were never separated, and a certificate of compliance confirms it without subdividing at all. Step two, identify which process applies. Usually three tiers, wildly different in cost. - Lot line adjustment. Moving a boundary between existing legal lots. Cheapest and fastest, often staff-level approval with no hearing. - Minor subdivision or parcel map. Creating a small number of new lots from one. Usually a tentative map, conditions of approval, then a final map recorded. - Major subdivision. Above the local lot-count threshold. Full engineering, public hearings, sometimes road and drainage construction. This is where budgets explode. Step three, access. This decides whether your new parcel is worth real money or almost nothing. A landlocked parcel is worth a fraction of an identical one with frontage, buyers walk, and lenders will not finance it. Determine whether the piece touches a public road with enough frontage to satisfy zoning. If not, you need a recorded appurtenant access easement that runs with the land, with a stated width, a described location, and maintenance terms. A handshake to let them drive across is not access. Step four, survey. A licensed land surveyor sets the new boundary and writes the legal description for the deed and the map. You cannot record "the back 2 acres." Metes and bounds or a recorded map, nothing else. Step five, septic. If this is rural, ask the county health department what a new parcel needs for a septic permit. Usually a percolation test or soil evaluation on that specific piece, plus setbacks between the leach field and any well. If it will not perc, the buyer cannot build, and you want to know before you price it. Step six, the one nobody mentioned. If you have a loan, your mortgage or deed of trust encumbers the entire parcel. To convey a piece free and clear you need a partial release of lien, called a partial reconveyance in deed-of-trust states. Know three things going in: you have no legal right to one, the lender can say no, and some notes prohibit it outright. Lenders that will consider it typically order appraisals of both the piece sold and the remainder to confirm adequate collateral, at your expense, and the review commonly runs 45 to 90 days. Call your servicer's lien release department early, not after you have a buyer waiting. Step seven, taxes. Selling part of a property does not measure gain against your whole original cost. Basis has to be allocated between the piece sold and the piece kept, and in some states creating a new parcel number triggers a reassessment. I am a real estate professional, not a CPA, so put both to a tax professional first. One shortcut: you do not have to finish the split before marketing it. Selling contingent on approval is common, with the buyer carrying the map costs, especially a builder. And often the cleanest buyer is the adjoining neighbor, since adding acreage to an existing legal parcel can sidestep much of the process. Two things changed since 2024. The 30-year fixed averaged about 6.7 percent in early August 2026, and land buyers feel rates more than house buyers because land financing is tougher to begin with. And as of August 17, 2024, buyer agents work under written agreements and compensation is negotiated deal by deal rather than published through the MLS. My name is Zoltan Peresztegi and I work in Los Angeles and the South Bay, where splits mostly mean hillside lots and a stack of geology reports. I do not know your county's rules and will not pretend otherwise. If you are in California, reach out and I will help you directly. Elsewhere, tell me where the land is and I will introduce you to an agent from my network who actually does land. Zoltan

The remedy you are looking for has a name, and nobody in this thread has said it yet: a partition action. It is a lawsuit that asks a court to either divide co-owned property or order it sold and the money split, and you do not need your nephew's cooperation or his signature to file it. I hold the SRES (Seniors Real Estate Specialist) designation and inherited family homes stuck between relatives are a big part of what I deal with, so let me give you the parts that actually move this. The other answers got two things right. A buyer needs every owner on the deed to sign, and being listed first gives you no extra authority. Deed order is just typing order. What matters is how the deed reads. Pull the recorded deed and check two things: whether it says joint tenancy with right of survivorship or tenancy in common, and whether it states percentage shares. Joint tenancy means equal shares and survivorship. Tenancy in common allows unequal shares, and each owner can sell or will their share independently. Your attorney's strategy turns on that one line. Now the part in your favor. The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act was written specifically for inherited family property like your mother's house. Where it applies, the court must first determine fair market value, usually through an independent court-ordered appraisal, then give the other co-owners a right of first refusal to buy out the filing owner's share at that value before any forced sale. If it does go to sale, the act pushes for an open-market listing instead of a courthouse auction, which is the biggest reason heirs used to lose money in these cases. So if he wants the house he pays you appraised value, and if he cannot, it sells properly. Which brings up a real issue. You wrote "Pittsburg," and that is two different places with two different answers. - Pittsburg, California, in Contra Costa County. California adopted the act through AB 633, signed in 2021 and applying to actions filed on or after January 1, 2022, now at Code of Civil Procedure Title 10.5, Part 2, Chapter 10. The California version keys off title acquired from a relative with relatives holding at least a 20 percent interest, which sounds like your situation exactly. - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in Allegheny County. Pennsylvania has not adopted the act. HB 1498 and SB 890 are pending in the 2025-2026 session but are not law. A Pennsylvania partition still works, it just runs under the older rules without the appraisal-and-buyout protection. More than twenty states plus the District of Columbia have adopted the act and the list has grown since 2024, so confirm your state's current status before you hire anyone. Last piece, and nobody mentioned it. Your nephew has collected all the rent for about five years. A partition case does not just split the property, it settles accounts between co-owners. A co-owner who took all the income can be required to account for your share, and that amount is charged against his share of the proceeds. He gets credit for taxes, insurance, and repairs he actually paid, so bring your own records. Ask your attorney about the accounting and offset phase, and how long your state gives you to bring it, because the clock on old rent may already be running. Order of operations: pull the deed, order a title search so you know about liens or any mortgage he may have placed, gather your tax bills and rent records, then meet with a real estate litigation attorney who has actually filed partitions. Many do flat-fee consults. Often the demand letter alone settles it, because once a co-owner learns an accounting for five years of rents is part of the case, a buyout starts sounding reasonable. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, so treat this as a map rather than legal advice. My name is Zoltan Peresztegi, SRES, and I work in Los Angeles and the South Bay. If you are in Pittsburg, California, reach out and I will help you directly. Anywhere else, I am glad to introduce you to a strong local agent from my network who handles inherited property. Zoltan

Lohana, la regla concreta que nadie le ha dado todavía es esta: en casi todo Estados Unidos un cuarto solo cuenta legalmente como dormitorio si tiene por lo menos 70 pies cuadrados de piso, ninguna dimensión horizontal menor de 7 pies, techo de por lo menos 7 pies de alto, y su propia salida de emergencia. Eso viene de las secciones R304, R305 y R310 del International Residential Code, el código modelo que adoptan casi todas las ciudades y condados. Si esos cuartos apenas caben una cama individual y un clóset chiquito, es muy probable que varios de ellos no cumplan. La salida de emergencia es la parte que más se ignora y la más seria. Según R310, cada cuarto de dormir necesita una ventana o puerta que abra desde adentro sin llave ni herramienta, con una abertura libre mínima de 5.7 pies cuadrados, al menos 24 pulgadas de alto y 20 pulgadas de ancho, y el borde inferior a no más de 44 pulgadas del piso. Un cuarto interior sin ventana, hecho al dividir una sala, no cumple eso nunca. En un incendio esa es la diferencia entre salir y no salir. Conviene separar tres temas, porque cada uno se reclama en un lugar distinto: 1) La construcción. El departamento de edificios ("building department") de su ciudad o condado guarda el historial de permisos de cada dirección, y usted puede pedirlo. Si el registro dice 3 recámaras y hoy hay 8, eso solo ya justifica una inspección. Un cuarto dividido con tablaroca no es un dormitorio legal aunque tenga puerta y clóset. 2) La ocupación. HUD, en el memorando Keating de 1991 que adoptó como política en 1998, considera razonable 2 personas por dormitorio como regla general, aunque es rebatible. El límite que de verdad aplica lo pone el código local de mantenimiento de propiedad, que exige pies cuadrados mínimos por persona en cada cuarto de dormir. Más de 10 personas en una casa que legalmente es de 3 recámaras casi seguro pasa ese límite. 3) La habitabilidad. En prácticamente los 50 estados existe la garantía implícita de habitabilidad: el arrendador debe entregar una vivienda segura y sanitaria con instalaciones que funcionen. El aire acondicionado no es obligatorio por sí solo en todos los estados, pero si el arrendador lo instaló, en la mayoría de los lugares debe mantenerlo funcionando, y hay estados donde sí es servicio esencial. En Arizona lo protege la ley de arrendamiento (A.R.S. 33-1364) y Phoenix y Tucson exigen que las habitaciones no pasen de 82 grados. El césped mal cortado, en cambio, casi nunca es habitabilidad; eso es código de nuisance o la asociación. Lo que yo haría, en este orden: - Documente. Fotos con fecha, mida los cuartos con cinta métrica, y registre la temperatura interior. - Pida la reparación por escrito y guarde copia. Ese papel es lo que después le da derechos. - Llame al 311, o busque "code enforcement" más el nombre de su ciudad o condado. En muchos lugares se puede reportar de forma anónima; pregúntelo antes de dar su nombre. - Busque una organización de derechos del inquilino. Legal Aid es gratis y le dirá qué remedios permite su estado: retener renta, reparar y descontar, o terminar el contrato sin penalidad. Un dato que la debería tranquilizar: 35 estados prohíben por ley la represalia del arrendador por presentar una queja de código, y muchos presumen represalia si intentan desalojarla dentro de los 60 a 180 días siguientes. Soy profesional inmobiliario, no abogado, así que esto es orientación general y no consejo legal. Mi nombre es Zoltan Peresztegi y trabajo en Los Angeles y el South Bay de California. Si usted está en California, escríbame y la ayudo directamente; si está en otro estado, con gusto le presento a un agente de confianza de mi red en su zona. Usted no está pidiendo un favor: está preguntando por reglas que existen para protegerla. Zoltan

Alison, there are two separate problems tangled together in your question, and separating them changes what you should do next. Problem one is the unsigned contract. Problem two is whatever the sellers failed to disclose. They have different answers, and the second one is almost certainly the one worth your money. On the unsigned contract. Your agent is wrong about the terminology. A contract for the sale of land generally has to be in writing and signed by the party you are trying to hold to it. That is the statute of frauds, and it exists in every state. A date on a signature line with no signature is not a signature. "Executed" means signed by all parties, and by the ordinary meaning of the word, this was not. But here is the part nobody has told you, and it is the reason I would not spend much energy on the signature issue. You already closed. In most states, when the deed is delivered at closing, the purchase contract merges into the deed, and most of the contract's obligations stop being separately enforceable. There are important exceptions, most notably fraud and misrepresentation, and any provision the contract expressly says will survive closing. So after closing, the unsigned contract mostly matters as evidence, not as the thing you sue on. You own the property. The deed is what transferred it, and the deed is what has to be signed and recorded, which it presumably was or the closing would not have happened. Which means the real question is the one in the second half of your sentence: non-disclosure. That claim generally survives closing. That is where to put your attention. What I would do, in this order. Get the complete file today. Every page: the contract as signed or unsigned, all addenda and amendments in whatever form you sent them, the closing disclosure, the deed, the title policy, and every email and text with the agent. Request the full transaction file from the brokerage in writing. You are entitled to ask, and how they respond is itself informative. Take it to a real estate attorney in your state, not a general practitioner. Ask specifically: does the merger doctrine apply here, what survives closing under this contract, and do I have a viable non-disclosure claim on the facts. That consultation will cost you a few hundred dollars and it will tell you whether you have a case or a grievance. Those are different things and only a lawyer who has read the documents can tell you which one you have. Ask the attorney about the second defendant, because there may be one. If the agent mishandled the paperwork, failed to deliver signed addenda, failed to get seller signatures, or gave you advice that caused you harm, that is a claim against the agent and the brokerage, separate from the claim against the sellers. Every licensee carries errors and omissions insurance for exactly this. A claim against a brokerage with insurance is often a more practical path to recovery than a claim against individual sellers who may have spent the proceeds. Also ask about a complaint to your state's real estate commission, which is free and is a separate track from a lawsuit. Do not talk to the sellers or the agent about the merits in the meantime, and do not sign anything they present to you. One honest caution. Litigation over a home purchase is slow and expensive, and the amount at issue has to justify it. Before you commit, ask the attorney for a candid estimate of cost, timeline and likelihood, and compare that to the dollar value of what was not disclosed. Sometimes the answer is that a demand letter recovers most of it in six weeks. Sometimes the answer is that the case is real but not worth what it costs. Get that assessment early. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, and I have not seen your documents. Everything above is a framework for the conversation to have, not an opinion on your case. Given that you have already closed and that limitations periods are running, I would make that appointment this month rather than continuing to ask around. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay, so your market is outside mine and I cannot recommend a specific local attorney. Your state bar's lawyer referral service will get you to a real estate litigation attorney quickly, and that is the call I would make first. Zoltan

Hi David, First, thank you for your service. Second: your military service is the strongest card in your hand, and I notice none of the answers so far has led with it. The VA loan exists exactly for your situation: - Zero down payment, which matters when credit issues have made saving harder - No monthly mortgage insurance, which keeps the payment down - No official credit score minimum from the VA itself. Individual lenders set their own floors, commonly around 580 to 620, and VA lenders are used to working with veterans rebuilding credit. If one lender says no, another may say yes, so shop several. - If you receive service-connected disability compensation, the funding fee is typically waived on top of everything else. While you work on the score, three moves with outsized impact: pull your free credit reports and dispute any errors (surprisingly common), pay down credit card balances below 30% of their limits (fast score gains live here), and do not close old accounts or open new ones while you prepare. If VA does not work right away, FHA allows scores down to 580 with 3.5% down, and California has veteran-specific programs worth asking about, like CalVet home loans. The single best step: talk to a lender who works with VA loans every day, not a generalist. I am a real estate professional, not a lender, but I have seen veterans with rough credit get to yes more often than they expected. I serve Los Angeles' South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula, right near you in Buena Park. If you would like an introduction to a VA-savvy lender, I am glad to help you and your family get to that forever home. Zoltan

Jenny, four years is not the problem. The sentence that tells the story is this one: "We mostly find our own listings to view online, occasionally he sends an email with a listing." That is the whole diagnosis. You are not being represented, you are being accompanied. A buyer's agent's core job in a market where you keep losing is sourcing: knowing about homes before they hit the portals, calling listing agents in your target neighborhoods to ask what is coming, door-knocking or mailing the specific streets you want, and working their office and their network for off-market inventory. If you are the one finding everything on a website, you have been doing his job for four years while being liked. Let me also take one thing off your conscience. The house where you offered 895,000 full price and the seller came back wanting 1.2 million is not an agent failure. That is a seller who was not actually selling. Losing that one says nothing about your representation. It is the pattern over four years that says something, not that episode. So here is what I would do. First, one direct conversation before you fire anybody, because he may simply not know what you expect. Ask him for three things in writing: a weekly written report of every property he sourced that you did not find yourself, a list of the listing agents in your target areas he has contacted about upcoming inventory, and a written strategy for how you will win the next one you like. Give him thirty days. If nothing changes, you have your answer and you gave him a fair chance, which matters to you because your husband likes him. Second, read your agreement. Timing note: you asked this in July 2024, and one month later, in August 2024, written buyer representation agreements became required before touring a home. So you almost certainly have a signed document now, whether or not you had one then. Read it for the term length, how to terminate, and the protection period, meaning the window after termination during which he may still claim compensation if you buy a property he introduced you to. Understanding that clause before you move is what keeps a change of agent from turning into a fee dispute later. Third, and this is the strategic point about your actual situation. You have three years before your last child graduates, and you are renting a condo in Rochester in the meantime. That is not a weakness, it is leverage, and it should change how you shop. You are not in a hurry and you have no home to sell. That makes you the most flexible buyer on the board, and it should be the headline of every offer you write. Long or short closing, whatever the seller wants. No sale contingency. Rent back to the seller if they need time. Those terms win houses against higher offers regularly, and they cost you nothing. Fourth, given that you keep losing, make sure you are competing correctly rather than only bidding. Get fully underwritten with a local Rochester lender rather than pre-qualified, because local lenders carry weight with listing agents who have closed with them. Ask what terms the seller actually needs before writing. And write on the right houses, meaning ones that have been sitting, where you have real negotiating room, rather than only on the fresh listings where everyone is competing. Fifth, if you do change agents, interview for the thing you have been missing. Ask each candidate directly: how do you find homes that are not on the market, and give me two specific examples from the last year. The answers will separate them in about ninety seconds. One kind word. Four years of loyalty to a nice person is not a mistake, it is a decent instinct. But your family is living in two states, and that has a cost that compounds. It is fair to want the result, and it is fair to say so out loud. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, so have someone read the actual buyer agreement before you terminate it if there is any ambiguity in the termination language. Rochester is not my market, I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay. If you would like an introduction to a Monroe County agent who actually sources off-market inventory, I am glad to help you find one, and I would tell you exactly what to ask them. Zoltan

Hi Eric, everyone above told you to get an agreement, and they are right, but nobody explained what actually goes in it or how you hold title, which is where the protection really comes from. Here is the practical version. First, title. In California, friends buying together almost always take title as tenants in common. That lets you own unequal shares (say 60/40 if you put in more cash), and if one of you dies, your share goes to your heirs, not automatically to your friend. Joint tenancy, by contrast, means equal shares with right of survivorship. Most co-buyers who are not spouses want tenants in common. Tell escrow how you want to vest; do not let it default. Second, the co-ownership agreement, written before you shop, covering: - Who pays what: down payment, monthly payment, repairs, and how unequal contributions are tracked. - The exit. If one of you wants out, the other gets first right to buy at appraised value, with a defined timeline and how the appraiser is chosen. This is the buyout mechanism you asked about. - The tiebreaker. What happens if one wants to sell and the other refuses. Usually a forced-sale clause after a notice period. - Life events: job loss, marriage, a partner moving in, death, or one roommate just wanting their own place. A real estate attorney can draft this for a modest flat fee. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, and this document is worth every dollar. Third, the loan. You will both be fully responsible for the entire payment, not half. If your friend stops paying, the lender looks to you, and the only clean way to remove someone later is a refinance in one name. I am based in Los Angeles and the South Bay, and for Santa Barbara I would be glad to connect you with an excellent local agent from my network who has handled co-buyer purchases. Zoltan

Maggie, before you evaluate a single property, screen the school. In student housing the institution is the asset and the building is just the container, and a great house at a shrinking college is a bad investment while an ordinary house at a growing one is a good one. Here is the screen I would run, and the first item is the one that matters most right now. Pull ten years of enrollment history for any school you are considering. This is public data, available through the federal IPEDS system, and it takes about twenty minutes per school. What you are looking for is the direction of the line. This matters more today than it did a decade ago, because the college-age population in the United States began declining around 2025 as a consequence of the drop in births after 2007. That trend is not hitting every institution equally. Large flagship state universities and selective private schools have largely kept their numbers by taking share. Small regional publics and tuition-dependent private colleges are the ones under real pressure, and some have closed. If the enrollment line is flat or rising through the last several years, the school is winning share. If it is drifting down, do not buy there regardless of how the numbers look today, because your exit in seven years depends on someone else believing in that school. Then check the housing supply side: Does the university require freshmen, or freshmen and sophomores, to live on campus? That tells you which years are actually available to you. Is the university building new dormitories or has a large purpose-built private student housing project been approved nearby? New supply is the fastest way to kill rents in a college town, and it shows up in the planning department before it shows up in the market. What is the ratio of enrollment to available beds, and is it improving or getting worse? Then the property itself, in rough order of importance: walking distance or a direct bus line to campus, bedroom count (four and five bedroom houses generally underwrite better than two and three, because you rent by the bed), a bathroom-to-bedroom ratio close to one to one, in-unit laundry, parking, and zoning that actually permits the number of unrelated occupants you are planning on. That last one gets people. Many college towns cap unrelated occupants per dwelling, and buying a five bedroom in a district that allows three is an expensive discovery. Now the underwriting, which the thread has not done. Build it per bed, per year, not per month, and be honest about the parts that make student housing different: Rent for nine or twelve months? Some markets lease twelve months, some nine. If it is nine, you have 25 percent fewer collectible months, and pro formas that quote annual rent from monthly figures routinely miss that. Turnover every single year, with a full make-ready. Paint, carpet or flooring, repairs. Budget for this annually, not every five years. Higher maintenance and higher wear generally, plus a vacancy assumption that reflects the fact that if you miss the leasing season you may miss the entire year. Student housing leases on a calendar, usually many months ahead. There is no second chance in November. Utilities: decide whether you include them and cap them, because tenants who do not pay for heat use a lot of it. Then compute your cap rate on that realistic net operating income, not the gross rent, and compare it to conventional rentals in the same town. Student housing should pay you a premium for the extra management burden. If it does not, buy the ordinary rental. Two lease mechanics that do most of the work in protecting you, and nobody mentioned either. Use joint and several liability, meaning every tenant on the lease is responsible for the full rent, not just their share, so one roommate leaving does not become your problem. And require a parent guarantee, meaning a creditworthy co-signer for each student. Those two provisions are standard in this asset class, and they are the difference between collecting rent and chasing nineteen-year-olds. Last thing. Decide honestly whether you will self-manage. Student housing is management-intensive, and if you are not local you need a property manager who specializes in it, which costs more than standard residential management. Put that number in the underwriting before you buy, not after. I am a real estate professional, not a CPA or an attorney. Have the lease reviewed by a local attorney, since landlord-tenant rules and occupancy limits vary by city, and talk to a CPA about how this fits your tax picture. Bloomington is not my market, I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay. If you want to compare candidate markets, I am glad to walk through how to read the enrollment data with you, and I can connect you with an agent in whichever college town you settle on who actually works the student rental segment rather than general residential. Zoltan

Morgan, the tool that unsticks a deal like yours is an escrow holdback, and I would put it on the table in the next conversation rather than agreeing to a fifth closing date. Here is how it works. Instead of waiting for the seller to complete the repairs before closing, you close now, and the title company holds back a sum of the seller's proceeds, typically one and a half to two times the estimated cost of the work, in escrow. The seller gets that money only when the work is done and the permits are closed out. If they never do it, the money is released to you and you hire the contractor yourself. It flips the incentive completely. Right now the seller has no reason to hurry, because you keep granting extensions and they keep getting paid eventually. A holdback makes delay expensive for them instead of for you. Two things to check before you propose it. Your lender has to approve a holdback, and some will not allow one where the issue affects habitability or the certificate of occupancy. And the title company has to be willing to administer it. Ask both this week. The rest of what I would do, in order. Understand what you are actually dealing with, because open L&I permits and violations are not a repair problem, they are a title and compliance problem. They attach to the property, and if you close with them open, they become yours. In Philadelphia those can affect the certificate of occupancy, they can block future permits, and they can create a lien exposure. Ask your title company directly whether they will insure over them, and get the answer in writing. That answer may decide everything. Read your agreement of sale for two specific things, with an attorney. Is time of the essence, and what does the default section entitle you to? Those two clauses determine whether you currently have a right to declare the seller in default, and what happens to your deposit if you do. Know your remedy menu, because you have more than two options. Terminate and get your earnest money back is the obvious one and it is the one everybody mentions. But if you still want this house, ask your attorney about specific performance, meaning asking a court to compel the seller to complete the sale. Real estate gets this remedy where most contracts do not, because land is treated as unique. Even the credible threat of it changes the conversation with a stalling seller. Stop signing open-ended extensions. If you sign another change in terms agreement, put teeth in it. Ask for a per diem credit for every day past the new date, a hard outside date after which the deal terminates automatically with your deposit returned, and the holdback provision. A seller who will not agree to any consequence for further delay is telling you something important about whether they intend to perform. Document your damages. Rate lock extension fees, temporary housing, storage, moving costs you have already incurred. If this ends up in a dispute, that list is the case. And ask the honest question: is the seller stalling, or can they not afford the repairs? Those look identical from your side and they lead to different strategies. If it is money, a price reduction that lets you do the work yourself may close this faster than any deadline. Your agent can often find that out with one direct conversation with the listing agent. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, and this one genuinely needs a Pennsylvania real estate attorney rather than a forum. Four missed closings with open code violations is past the point where advice is sufficient. You need someone who can read the actual agreement of sale and the addendum and tell you what your rights are today. One acknowledgment: you asked this in June 2024 and it is now 2026, so I expect this resolved one way or another long ago. I am answering it fully anyway because people land on this question in the same situation, and the holdback is the piece almost nobody knows to ask for. Philadelphia is not my market, I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay. If you are still in it or ever in a similar spot, that is my honest read. Zoltan

Sally, before you spend another dollar on paint and stoves, there are two California-specific facts about an inherited property that nobody in this thread has mentioned, and they change the whole calculation. First, the good news. When you inherit property, your cost basis generally resets to the fair market value on the date of death. That is called a stepped-up basis. It means that if you sell reasonably soon after inheriting, there is often little or no taxable gain, even on a California condo that has appreciated for decades. Your instinct to sell quickly is financially sound, and the reason is better than you may realize. Please confirm this with a CPA for your specific situation, but this is usually the single largest number in an inherited-property decision. Second, the clock you may not know is running. Under Proposition 19, the parent-child exclusion from property tax reassessment only applies if the property was your parent's principal residence and you make it your own principal residence within one year of the transfer. If you are selling rather than moving in, the property gets reassessed to current market value. In Marin County that can be a large jump from a long-held Prop 13 basis, and it means your monthly carrying cost while you hold this condo is higher than the old tax bill suggests. That is a real reason to move efficiently, and it is a better reason than any incentive strategy. So, on your actual question. Given all that, I would be careful about how much you invest before listing. Paint and a stove are usually worth it. Fresh interior paint is one of the few improvements that reliably returns more than it costs, and a missing or dead appliance reads as neglect to buyers and can create a financing problem depending on the loan. Keep the paint neutral and light. Do not choose a color you love. Staging with your own furniture: only if the pieces suit the space. Inherited furniture in an inherited condo often reads as dated, and dated furniture makes a freshly painted unit look older than it is. If the pieces are not right, an empty unit that is spotless and well lit beats a furnished one that feels like the previous decade. Ask your agent honestly and be willing to hear the answer. Stop there. Do not renovate the kitchen or the bathrooms. On a quick sale you will not recover it, and the step-up means you are not protecting a gain by adding value. On incentives, the thread has covered buydowns and closing cost credits well, so here is what I would add. On a condo specifically, the highest-leverage incentive is usually offering to prepay several months of HOA dues, or to cover the HOA transfer and document fees. It is a small number that removes a real friction point, and it addresses the thing condo buyers actually worry about, which is the monthly cost. And here is the piece that matters most for speed on a California condo, which is not an incentive at all. Order the HOA document package the day you decide to sell, before you list. Under California law the association has to provide specified documents to a selling owner on request, and buyers need them to complete their review. The association can be slow, sometimes weeks, and there is a fee. Nothing delays a California condo closing more reliably than an HOA package that was ordered late. Get it ordered now and you will have removed the single biggest source of delay before it exists. While you are at it, find out from the HOA whether there are any special assessments pending, what the reserve funding level is, and whether there is any current litigation. Buyers using conventional financing may run into project approval issues if the HOA has certain problems, and it is much better to know that before you are in escrow than after. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney or a CPA. The step-up in basis and the Prop 19 consequences are real tax matters and deserve a CPA's confirmation for your specific facts, and if the estate is still in probate, the sale may require additional steps and court involvement depending on how title is held. One note on timing. You asked this in June 2024 and it is now 2026, so if you have not sold, the rate environment and which incentives actually move buyers have both shifted. Get current advice before you decide what to offer. San Rafael is in Northern California and I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay, so I am not your local agent. But this is exactly the kind of transaction I handle regularly on my side of the state, inherited property with a Prop 19 clock and an HOA package to chase, and I am glad to connect you with a Marin County agent who understands both. If you have questions about the California-specific pieces in the meantime, ask me directly. Zoltan

Elaine, the reason agents keep steering you toward sales has a specific cause, and once you know it you can fix your approach in one sentence. The thread above has covered who to hire, so let me start with the economics nobody explained. Tenant representation in commercial leasing is customarily paid by the landlord, out of the listing commission, the same way it works on the sale side. That means representation typically costs you nothing. But the fee on a small lease is modest and it pays out over a long courtship, so brokers who are not set up for tenant work will quietly deprioritize you. The fix is to say up front, "I am looking for a tenant representative, I understand the landlord pays the fee, and I am ready to sign a representation agreement." That sentence changes the conversation immediately, because it tells them you are a real assignment rather than a browser. Second, the reason listings look wrong to you. What you see publicly is the leftovers. Good industrial space in the New Jersey I-95 corridor frequently leases before it is ever marketed broadly, through broker relationships and direct landlord contact. The oversized listings you keep finding are the ones that have been sitting. This is precisely what a tenant rep is for. They call landlords and listing brokers directly about space that is not publicly available, including space that is coming available in six months and space a current tenant wants to sublease. That off-market inventory is most of the real market, and you cannot see it from a search portal. Now the substance I would make sure you get, because it is where small-space tenants lose money. Understand what you are actually paying. Industrial space is usually quoted as base rent plus NNN, meaning triple net, which is your share of property taxes, insurance and common area maintenance on top of the base. Two spaces quoted at similar base rents can differ a lot once the NNN is added, and New Jersey property taxes make that spread wider here than in most states. Always ask for the current NNN figure and the last three years of history, so you can see how fast it has been rising. Check the load factor, meaning whether you are paying for a share of common area on top of your usable square footage. On flex space with shared entries and restrooms this can be significant. For industrial specifically, hand your broker a written spec sheet, because it is the difference between seeing ten wrong buildings and three right ones. Include: usable square feet and how much is office versus warehouse, clear height, number and type of loading doors (dock high versus grade level), column spacing, floor load capacity, power service in amps and phase, HVAC in the warehouse portion or not, truck court depth and turning radius, parking count, sprinkler type, and any zoning or use requirement for your specific operation. That last one matters in older New Jersey industrial stock, where the permitted use on the certificate of occupancy may not match what you intend to do. And negotiate the things beyond rent. Free rent months, a tenant improvement allowance, who pays for HVAC repair and replacement, whether there is a cap on annual CAM increases, an early termination option, and a renewal option with a defined rate mechanism. On a small space, the tenant improvement allowance and the HVAC replacement clause are frequently worth more than a small win on base rent. One caution. If the broker who shows you a space also represents the landlord, they are not representing you, whatever the tone of the conversation suggests. Get your own representation before you tour, because a broker generally cannot claim a fee on a building you first walked into with someone else. I am a real estate professional, not a commercial leasing specialist or an attorney, and commercial leases are long documents with real teeth. Have a New Jersey commercial real estate attorney review the lease before you sign. That is not optional at this level. Perth Amboy is outside my market, I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay, and residential rather than industrial. So I am not the right person for this assignment. If it would help, I am glad to point you toward how to vet the tenant rep candidates you find, since the interview is where most of this gets decided. Zoltan

Amme, the most urgent thing in your question is not what your rights are. It is the clock. Pennsylvania's limitations period for breach of a written contract is generally four years. Your addendum is from 2016. If the breach occurred years ago and the clock started then, the window to sue on it may already be closed, and every month you spend gathering opinions instead of sitting with a lawyer makes that worse. There are arguments that can extend or restart it, for example a continuing breach, or a discovery rule if you could not reasonably have known, or an obligation that recurs rather than one that was broken once. Those arguments are fact-specific and they are exactly what a lawyer is for. Please treat this as a this-month problem rather than a someday problem. The thread is right that being named an intended beneficiary matters. An intended third-party beneficiary can generally enforce a contract they did not sign. But there are two questions underneath that, and they decide everything: Was the addendum recorded? This is the one I would check first, and it is something you can do yourself this week at the York County Recorder of Deeds. If the addendum, or a memorandum of it, was recorded against the property, it likely runs with the land and binds whoever owns it now. If it was never recorded, you may only have a claim against the original parties personally, and a current owner who bought without notice may not be bound at all. Same document, completely different outcomes. Who owns the property now, and did they take with notice? If ownership has changed since 2016 and nothing was recorded, that is a much harder case, and it is a different case, aimed at different defendants. When you see the attorney, bring these, organized: The 2016 addendum and the underlying purchase agreement it modified, complete, all pages. The deed and any recorded documents for both parcels, which you can pull at the recorder's office. A written timeline: what was promised, what was performed, when performance stopped, and when you first knew. Every receipt for the work you have been paying for out of pocket, totaled. That total is your damages number and it is what makes the case worth pursuing or not. Every piece of correspondence where you asked anyone to perform, especially anything in writing. That is what shows you did not sit on your rights. Ask the attorney about the remedy menu, because the answer is not only money. Specific performance, meaning a court ordering the other side to actually do what they promised, is often the remedy that matters most when what you want is the work done and the use restored. There may also be a declaratory judgment path, meaning asking the court to declare what the rights are going forward, which can be cheaper and faster than a damages suit and can be worth more if this is an ongoing arrangement. Two practical notes. Find a commercial real estate litigation attorney, not a residential closing attorney. This is a contract enforcement matter involving commercial property, and it is a different specialty. And if the York County Bar Association has a lawyer referral service, that is a reasonable starting point for finding someone in the right practice area quickly. I want to be straight with you about my limits. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, and I have not read your addendum. Everything above is a map of the questions to ask, not an opinion on your case. Given the limitations issue, an actual consultation this month is worth far more than any answer you will get on a forum, including mine. West York is not my market, I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay, so I am not the right person to help on the ground here. But I would not let this sit another month. Zoltan

Hi Genowa, everyone above is right that cash or a hard money loan is usually the realistic tool, but before you shop for money, pin down which kind of redemption window you are actually in, because in California they are very different animals and the 90 days you mention could be one of three things. - If your home was sold at a trustee sale (a nonjudicial foreclosure, which is most California foreclosures), there is generally no right of redemption after the sale. The 90-day window you may be thinking of is the cure period after the Notice of Default is recorded, which comes before the sale. - If it was a judicial foreclosure through the courts, you can have three months to redeem, or up to one year if the sale left a deficiency. - If an HOA foreclosed, California gives you 90 days after the sale to redeem. Your first call should be to the trustee or the levying officer handling the sale to request the exact redemption amount in writing and the exact deadline. Lenders will not move without that number. On the money itself: banks essentially never fund redemptions because of the timeline and the title condition. Realistic options are a hard money loan against the property's equity, a loan from family documented properly, or borrowing against retirement accounts. If the home has strong equity, a hard money lender can sometimes fund in one to two weeks, then you refinance into a normal loan once title is back in your name. Also call a HUD-approved housing counselor (free) before signing anything. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, and redemption deadlines are strict, so an hour with a real estate attorney is money well spent here. I am a Los Angeles and South Bay real estate professional. If you want help figuring out which situation you are in or an introduction to reputable lenders who actually do this, reach out and I will point you in the right direction. Zoltan

Christy, thirteen people answered and not one of them worked with the number you actually gave, so let me do that. Yes, 1,300 to 1,500 a month buys a house in the Fort Worth area. The catch is that in Texas the payment is not mostly the mortgage. Here is the part that trips up every first-time buyer in Texas. Her monthly payment has four parts: principal, interest, property taxes and insurance, plus HOA dues if there are any. Texas has no state income tax, and it funds itself with property taxes, so the tax portion carries a much larger share of the payment here than it would in most states. Two houses at the same price in two different taxing jurisdictions can have meaningfully different payments. Insurance in North Texas is also not cheap, largely because of hail. So do not shop by price. Shop by payment, backward. Have a lender build it as: her target payment minus the actual annual taxes on that specific parcel divided by twelve, minus the insurance quote, minus any HOA, and whatever is left is what can service principal and interest. Then convert that into a loan amount at today's rate. That number, not a general price range, is her budget. Three Texas-specific things that move the payment and get overlooked: The homestead exemption. When she buys and occupies it as her primary residence, she files for the homestead exemption with the county appraisal district, and it reduces the taxable value. It is free and it lowers the payment. Many first-time buyers never file it. There is a deadline, so she should ask her title company or agent to remind her after closing. MUD and PID districts. Many newer subdivisions in the Fort Worth area sit inside a municipal utility district or public improvement district, which adds an assessment on top of the regular tax rate. This is one of the most common payment shocks in North Texas. Before she falls in love with a newer-build community, have the agent confirm whether it is in one of these and what the total rate actually is. The tax escrow reset. If she buys a home whose current assessment reflects a prior owner's exemption or an older valuation, the taxes can jump after purchase and her escrow payment goes up in year two. Ask the lender to escrow based on the expected reassessed value rather than the seller's current bill. This surprises people constantly and it is avoidable by asking one question. On the programs, the thread has covered FHA and down payment assistance. What I would add is that in Texas she should specifically look at the state housing agency programs and the local city and county programs for Tarrant County and Fort Worth, because local assistance stacks on top of state programs and the local ones are usually the ones nobody tells you about. Have the lender pull the full list for her specific address and income, not a general list. Where the payment math actually works at her number: townhomes and condos, though watch the HOA because it comes straight out of the payment budget, older homes in established neighborhoods farther from the newer subdivisions, and the outlying towns where USDA eligibility sometimes reaches and the tax rates are often lower. One honest note on timing. You asked this in June 2024 and it is now 2026. Rates, prices and program funding have all moved since then, so if your daughter has not bought yet, none of the specific numbers she was quoted back then apply. The right first step is one conversation with a lender who will build the payment backward from 1,500 rather than telling her what she qualifies for on paper. Those are different numbers, and the second one is usually higher than what she should actually spend. I am a real estate professional, not a lender. The qualifying and program availability need to come from a loan officer licensed in Texas. Fort Worth is not my market, I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay. If you would like an introduction to a Tarrant County agent who works with first-time buyers and will respect the 1,500 ceiling rather than talk her past it, I am glad to make one. Zoltan

Dennis, keep this simple: you do not want a general agent, you want one who lists distressed and renovation properties regularly, and the fastest way to find that person is to look at who actually sold the fixers near you. How to find them in about an hour. Pull recent sales in South Seattle in your neighborhood that were listed as needing work, sold as-is, or sold to investors. Note which agents represented the sellers, and look for names that show up more than once. Those are the people whose phone rings when an investor is looking for a project, and that list of relationships is exactly what you are buying. Then call two or three of them and ask directly: how many properties needing significant work have you listed in the last year, and what did they sell for against list. Some questions that separate the right agent from a friendly one: Do you have a buyer list of investors and renovators, and how many people are actually on it? Would you recommend I do any work before listing, or sell fully as-is, and why? What do you expect this to net me, and can I see the net sheet? Do you recommend a pre-listing inspection here? That last one matters more than people think on a house that needs work. A pre-listing inspection sounds counterintuitive when you are selling as-is, but on a distressed property it usually helps. It removes the buyer's fear of the unknown, which is what actually drives lowball offers, and it tends to reduce renegotiation after inspection because there are no surprises left to find. One piece of substance that widens your buyer pool, and nobody above mentioned it. Do not assume your only buyers are cash investors. Owner-occupant buyers can finance a purchase plus the repairs in a single loan using an FHA 203(k) or a Fannie Mae HomeStyle Renovation mortgage. Those buyers routinely pay more than investors, because an investor has to build in profit and a family does not. Ask your agent whether the house could qualify, and if so, make sure the listing says so explicitly. That single line in the remarks can change who shows up. One caution. When a fixer hits the market, you will get postcards, texts and calls from people offering fast cash. Some are legitimate investors. Many are wholesalers, meaning they will tie up your house under contract and then sell that contract to someone else at a markup that comes out of your price. If someone offers to buy without seeing it, or wants a long inspection period with an assignable contract, that is what is happening. You are allowed to say no, and you are allowed to ask whether they will be the party closing. On timing, you asked this in June 2024. If you still have the house, the Seattle-area market has moved since then, so get a current market analysis rather than working from a two-year-old number. I am a real estate professional, not a contractor. Whether to do any work before listing should be answered with real bids in hand, not estimates. South Seattle is not my market. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay, so I am not going to pretend to know your comps or recommend a specific agent I have not worked with. What I can do is connect you with someone in the Puget Sound area who does distressed listings, if you would like an introduction rather than a cold search. Zoltan

Ashley, the urgent thing here is not the agent. It is the contingency clock on the house she already agreed to buy, and I would look at that contract today. Most contingent purchase contracts contain a kick-out clause, sometimes called a bump clause. It lets the seller of the new house keep marketing it, and if they receive another acceptable offer, your stepdaughter gets a short window, often 72 hours, to remove her sale contingency or lose the house. If that clause is in her contract, the real deadline is not "when does the current house sell," it is "what happens the day the other seller gets a better offer." Pull that contract out and find out three things: is there a kick-out clause, what is the notice period, and is there an outside date by which the contingency must be satisfied regardless. Everything else follows from those answers. Now on the agent. I want to gently separate two things that are getting bundled together. The eight-day prediction was a mistake, and the bigger mistake was saying it to multiple parties in the other transaction, because that set expectations for people who are now making decisions based on it. That was unprofessional. But 23 days on market is not, by itself, evidence of a bad agent. In a lot of markets 23 days is completely ordinary. The optimistic forecast is a red flag about judgment, not proof of failure. So diagnose before you decide. Ask the agent for these specific numbers, in writing: How many showings, and how many in the last week versus the first week. What is the written feedback from each showing. What is the current average days on market for comparable homes in this price band, not the whole market. What have comparable homes actually closed for in the last ninety days, and where does our list price sit against them. What is the plan for the next two weeks, specifically. The pattern in the answers tells you the whole story. Lots of showings and no offers means the price is wrong. Very few showings means the pricing or the marketing exposure is wrong. If the answer is "be patient, the market is slow," with no numbers behind it, that is when you have a real problem, and it is a problem of process rather than of luck. If the diagnosis is price, the fix is a price reduction now rather than in three weeks, because the contingency clock is running and every week of hesitation costs her leverage on the house she actually wants. If the diagnosis is the agent, here is the order of operations. Talk to the agent directly first, with the numbers in front of you. If that goes badly, contact the broker of record, meaning the licensed broker the agent works under, not the agent. Brokers often reassign a listing to another agent in the office rather than lose it, and that is faster and less painful than a cancellation. Read the listing agreement for its cancellation terms and its protection period, meaning the window after cancellation during which the brokerage may still claim compensation if a buyer they introduced comes back. One thing to be careful about, and it is the reason I would not rush to fire anyone this week. Changing agents mid-listing resets days on market in some MLS systems and not in others, and relisting can also signal to buyers that something is wrong. In the middle of a contingency clock, the disruption may cost more than it gains. Fix the price first if price is the problem. Change agents only if the process is broken. And one practical option worth raising with her: if the current house does not sell in time, ask whether bridge financing or a short extension from the other seller is possible. Sellers frequently grant an extension rather than start over, particularly if the current house is under contract or close to it. That conversation should be had before the deadline, not after. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney, and I have not read either contract. Given that there is a contingent purchase and real money at risk, having a local real estate attorney read the kick-out language is worth every dollar. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay, so Wilmington is outside my market. If she wants a genuinely independent second opinion on the pricing, I am glad to connect her with a local agent who will give a straight read without pitching for the listing. Zoltan

Sandy, your friend gave you two pieces of advice and they are not equally wrong. The seasonal one is arguable. The commission one is not true, and it is worth clearing up first. Commission does not fall in the autumn. It is negotiable, it always has been, and it is negotiated between you and the brokerage you hire, not set by a calendar. What did change, and it changed in August of 2024 just after you asked this, is that offers of compensation to a buyer's agent are no longer published on the MLS at all. Buyer-side compensation is now a separate negotiated term in each deal. So the honest answer is that your leverage on fees comes from interviewing more than one agent and negotiating, in any month you like. Waiting until October buys you nothing on that front. On the seasonal question, the thread above has covered the general pattern well, so let me add the part that gets skipped. Fewer buyers in fall is true. But fewer serious buyers is not. Spring brings volume, and volume includes a lot of people who are browsing, who have not spoken to a lender, and who will still be browsing in September. Fall buyers tend to be people with a reason: a job start, a lease ending, a school situation, a closing deadline. In many markets homes listed in fall sell in fewer days than the raw traffic numbers would suggest, because a larger share of the people walking through can actually buy. Less competition on the seller side matters too. If you are the only decent home in your price range on the market in October, that is worth considerably more than being one of eleven in May. Where the seasonal argument really breaks down is that it is a small effect compared to three things you control: Price. Priced correctly, a home sells in any month. Priced above the market, it sits in the best month of the year and then you reduce anyway, having spent your best weeks. Condition and presentation. Worth more than the season, every time. Your own timeline. The best month to sell is usually the month you are actually ready, because a rushed listing photographed badly in the perfect week loses to a well-prepared one in an ordinary week. There is one thing genuinely specific to selling in Florida that nobody mentioned, and I would weigh it more heavily than the seasonality. Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30. When a named storm approaches, insurers routinely stop binding new policies until it passes, and a buyer who cannot bind insurance cannot close. That means a closing scheduled during an active storm can slip by days or weeks through nobody's fault. If you list in the fall, be aware that your closing window sits inside that season and build a little slack into your dates. Ask your agent how they handle binding suspensions, because a good Florida agent will have a specific answer. Since you asked this in June 2024 and it is now 2026, the retrospective answer is worth stating plainly: sellers who waited that fall generally faced higher rates and more inventory than they expected, and the ones who did well were the ones who priced correctly, not the ones who timed the month. That has been the pattern for a long time and I expect it to keep holding. If you have not sold yet, my suggestion is to interview two or three agents, get a real market analysis and a real net sheet, and decide based on your number rather than on the calendar. I am a real estate professional, not an insurance agent. Confirm the binding and insurability questions with a Florida insurance agent, because in your market that is often the piece that actually decides whether a deal closes. Tallahassee is not my market, I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay. If you would like a straight read on what your home would bring today, I am glad to connect you with a North Florida agent. Zoltan

Barbara, most of it can go, but shred it rather than throwing it away, and pull a short keep-forever pile out first. Sorry for the loss of your mother. Here is the sort I would do. Keep permanently, in a small file: Any recorded deed, and the title insurance policy, for any property she still owned at death. The estate paperwork. Will, trust documents, letters testamentary or letters of administration, probate orders, and the final distribution documents. Death certificates. Get several certified copies, because you will need them for years and institutions keep them. Anything showing a debt was satisfied. A recorded release of lien or a satisfaction of mortgage on property she sold is worth keeping forever, because it is the only easy proof if a title issue ever surfaces on a chain she was part of. That one document is worth the shoebox it lives in. Estate tax returns, if any were filed, and the final personal income tax return. Safe to shred, and shred means shred: Old closing packets, loan documents, and payment histories for properties sold years ago, once the tax years are closed. That is the bulk of what you are looking at. Utility bills, HOA statements, insurance policies on properties no longer owned, old escrow statements, and canceled checks unrelated to the estate. Duplicate copies of anything, which is usually a large share of an old file. On timing, the number people quote is seven years and it is a decent rule of thumb, but the actual frame is this. The IRS generally has three years from the filing date to assess additional tax, six years if income was understated by more than 25 percent, and no time limit at all for a fraudulent or unfiled return. What made property records worth keeping was cost basis, meaning purchase price plus improvements, which determines the gain when a property is sold. Since these properties were sold years ago, those records only still matter if the returns reporting those sales could still be examined. For sales twenty years back, they are closed. For anything sold in the last several years, hold the file until the window closes. The part nobody mentioned, and the reason to shred rather than bin. Identity theft against people who have recently died is a real and persistent problem, because the fraudster gets a full profile and there is nobody monitoring the accounts. Those old files are full of Social Security numbers, account numbers, and signatures. So: shred everything with identifying information, send a certified death certificate to all three credit bureaus and request the file be flagged as deceased, and keep identifying detail out of any published obituary. It is a small amount of work that closes a real door. Two practical suggestions before you shred. Scan the keep-forever pile and put a copy somewhere outside the house, cloud storage or a second family member. And if her estate has not yet been fully settled, or if any sibling could later question how property was handled, wait until it is closed before destroying anything. Once it is gone, it is gone, and files are cheap while disputes are not. I am a real estate professional, not an attorney or a CPA. If her estate is still open, or if any of the sold properties involved seller financing, a partnership, or anything unresolved, run the shred list past the estate attorney or her CPA first. It is a fifteen minute conversation. El Paso is not my market, I am Zoltan Peresztegi, and I work Los Angeles and the South Bay. If any property is still owned and needs to be sold as part of settling her estate, I am glad to connect you with a West Texas agent who handles estate sales, because that transaction has its own paperwork and you want someone who has done it before. Zoltan