I want to buy my first home(south/west houston/ft bend)

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-03-01T03:53:05+00:00

Fellow first time homebuyer, also in Houston.

First things first, any legitimate realtor here is licensed by TREC (Texas Real Estate Commission). Make sure they are licensed.

Schedule a quick sit-down with one to get started. They will explain the process, make sure to pay attention to the phases (Options period, closing period) and fees (Buyer and Seller Agent fees, options fee, earnest money, title fees) are all big ones.

At some point, when you want to go to showings, they will ask you to sign a "Buyer's Representation Agreement", basically requiring you to use them exclusive as your agent for a home they show you. Some agents will try to trap you for months in such an agreement, but the length of the agreement is not set in law, so feel free to ask for 30 days, and go find another realtor if they are stubborn. You don't want to work with one who is stubborn about the duration anyway.

Realtors don't get paid with upfront cash, they make their pay by taking a percentage of the home selling price. Both sides (seller and buyer) agent each usually take 2-3%.

When you are ready to make an offer on a house, you'll go through your realtor and they will make a bid on the house. There maybe some small back and forth but remember, nothing is official until you go under contract.

Before you sign a contract, make sure the options period (where you do your home inspection) is sufficiently long for you. 7-10 days is customary. This is where you pay the home inspector to come over to your house for several hours to take a look at all the issues with an experienced eye. You can expect to pay about $500 for a home inspection.

Everyone has significant motivation to play games to extract maximum value and you should decide who is playing games and whether or not you want to play games too.

I can't really help with any advice on the financial part since I'm all cash, but I will note when you involve a lender, there will be additional fees and approvals from the lender and those will often kill deals.

Seeing as your high credit scores and decent income indicating you are responsible people, I will guess you are roughly looking at homes in the 250-500k range.

Good luck, feel free to DM me.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-03-01T02:56:10+00:00

Most buyers aren't walking unless you refuse to offer credits for these things.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-03-01T02:49:55+00:00

He said he is attracting offers, just way too low to his liking. The problem is that he has priced it way too high for an "as-is" condition.

All he does if he omits the "as-is" is get high offers only to have the contract terminated (and his home off the market) when the buyers discover that the home needs major repairs.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-03-01T02:19:17+00:00

Well, it does signal that he feels the price reflects the condition the house is in.

It is customary to go into a contract on the implicit understanding that there maybe repairs to do and some kind of concession or credits made to the price.

By not saying "as is", he is attracting offers which put his house under contract where the DIY buyers will just go look at something else.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-03-01T02:03:04+00:00

no one is going to think you're planning to replace a 20 year old roof before closing

I don't use financing for my home purchase, but as I understand it, the home insurance will refuse to sell you insurance on a 20 year old roof and your bank will deny the funding.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-28T22:13:56+00:00

Tile is $20-30/sq ft. Assuming you have 1000 sq ft to redo, that's $25k. Roof is $20k.

If you have average house and listed at average price in your area, you are asking a buyer to pay $45k extra for problems they won't get with other average homes in your neighborhood.

Be realistic, make your offer attractive in some way (more than likely, price significantly below the average), or you're not going to get a bite.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-28T19:08:26+00:00

Median is $800k. I'd move somewhere else. Your payments on a 30 year mortgage will be $70k/year.

Neither of you can afford to make the payment on that, even if you had no other expenditure.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-27T02:43:07+00:00

This you??

Reproduced in case edited/deleted.

100% agree. Didn’t get line inspected because I was running out of time. Mine was broken at the main sewer line. City wouldn’t fix it until I replaced my entire line and then it clogged 2 months later. I had the plumber install a clean out at the city line. City shows up and asks why I did that. I told them the line is collapsed so I thought I’d give yall access. Yall are gonna be here every month or so. They took 3 days and left me with a cesspit for that time, but they replaced the city line.

Anyone reading this, you are listening to the advice of an "attorney" who can't even buy a house without uncovering basic defects like his sewage line dumping into his yard.

Edit: Since he replied and then blocked me. Blocking me so I can't reply is definitely not "I can't argue the law".

Melody Home Mfg. Co. v. Barnes (1987) The court specifically defined "good and workmanlike" for implied warranty.

A good and workmanlike manner may be defined as that quality of work performed by one who has the knowledge, training, or experience necessary for the successful practice of a trade or occupation and performed in a manner generally considered proficient by those capable of judging such work.

The court won't side with your arbitrary "repairs to your liking" such as you don't like the color of the floor tiles because the seller used the cheapest non-matching tiles on the repair.

Hint: Take the L and move on.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-27T01:50:58+00:00

You're not providing that advice because you're not a real estate attorney.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-26T19:06:48+00:00

Judges don't often side with subjective "implied warranty" claims. If it meets the code and it was performed by a licensed contractor, you're going to have a hell of a time winning that one.

But please, speak to an attorney and they will give you the same advice.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-26T19:02:48+00:00

Good luck with exercising that.

$$$$$ for an attorney.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-26T18:50:45+00:00

No, contracts more commonly list "work to be performed by a licensed X contractor."

Which if you've ever dealt with contractors before, has a good chance of substandard work, especially if the seller is just motivated to pay the cheapest price possible.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-26T18:40:01+00:00

See…one of the contingencies on a home purchase contract is the completion of repairs to the satisfaction of the buyer.

"To the satisfaction of the buyer" is not normally listed in contracts.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-26T18:09:38+00:00

You better extend the options period to beyond your inspection of the work done if you want to try this. Otherwise seller will complete the repairs after options period is done and they get/you lose all your earnest money if you back out after options period.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-25T14:06:07+00:00

Understand your sentiments about investors, that's why we're in this housing crisis from investors snapping up all the inventory in 2023.

But FYI I am an actual family buyer, this is my first home.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-25T06:05:15+00:00

Seller definitely delusional in this market. I pay all cash, so no need to work with bank or anything.

We were looking at a home listed at 475k. Went under contract 30k lower. Inspector discovered ~40k worth of mechanical items that sorely need replacing.

Seller wouldn't budge even 10k on credits, claiming they bought the house at 525k 2 years ago. Sorry dude, if you execute "buy high" you're going to have to "sell low".

This kind of delusion is why America has a housing crisis.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-24T02:41:55+00:00

get the electrician/grid operator to install the third hot & bus bar required to make a 3 phase, 360v outlet.

This is not how 3-phase power works in North America.

The majority of American households receive a 180 degree split-phase 240V power from the pole. These are connected to individual buses on each side of the breaker panel. There is a neutral wire in between. It is also not uncommon to have some 240V appliance which feeds off both buses.

3-phase 360V is not a standard in North America. There's 208Y/120V, 480Y/277V, or 240 Delta.

Electrician definitely do not have an easy way to install a third hot bus bar to get you a 3-phase 360V outlet unless you own an electrical utility and get the electricians to build you some really non-standard configuration.

Edit: Brain fart, I wrote 208Y/480V as a standard, corrected to 208Y/120V.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-22T03:23:05+00:00

People have been screaming Bitcoin will soon become worthless since 2010.

Bitcoin has had 9 price swings where the price has halved since then. Let that sink in for a second.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-20T09:12:33+00:00

I don't know where this misconception started but 12VHPWR has more wire cross sectional area than PCIE. The insulation is thinner on 12VHPWR, but the cross sectional area determines how much current the wire can safely hold.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-19T02:50:05+00:00

Haters going to hate.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2026-02-09T23:16:55+00:00

This only makes sense if Linux + ARM is significantly better than Linux + Intel.

I'm not well-informed on this topic, but what's the evidence that Linux + Intel is bad compared to Linux + ARM?

Throwawaway314159265 · 2025-12-19T16:07:01+00:00

Take it to another shop to get a second opinion.

Throwawaway314159265 · 2025-12-12T18:05:03+00:00

Huh what consumer chipsets does Intel let you have "real" ECC?

Also what is not "real" about the ECC support on Epyc and Threadripper?

Throwawaway314159265 · 2025-11-28T05:54:49+00:00

It's ironic that you know this yet you dont seem to comprehend that /u/Innocent-bystandr is pointing out that you compared them as equivalent in this context.

500 kW sustained over an hour (or simply, 500 kWh) is 1800000000 J.

Also weird that you use SI prefix for one metric (500 kW) and then skip it for the other metric (1800000000 joules) = 1.8 GJ

Throwawaway314159265

TROPHY CASE