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A comment on Maybe Treating Housing as an Investment Was a Colossal Mistake. Parent comment

Re:Maybe Treating Housing as an Investment Was a Colossal Mi... by lolinder on Monday March 06, 2023 @01:45PM (#35045654)
Yes, this can be a real problem.

The mortgage company that we chose had a program where they did all of the underwriting before we even started making offers, and part of our offer was a certificate entitling the seller to $5000 at the mortgage company's expense if we couldn't get financing. Kind of like extra earnest money from the mortgage company offered as a guarantee that there wouldn't be any problems in closing.

We ended up getting the first house we made an offer on in spite of an insane market, so I guess it worked!

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Re:Maybe Treating Housing as an Investment Was a Colossal Mi... by hd95489 on Monday March 06, 2023 @02:05PM (#35045999)
Luck or you just offered enough more that the seller bit. 5k is nothing on a 1m deal.
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Re:Maybe Treating Housing as an Investment Was a Colossal Mi... by lolinder on Monday March 06, 2023 @02:54PM (#35046694)
It's not the money that's the point, it's that the mortgage company is putting skin in the game. The value of a cash offer, aside from going above the appraisal value, is that there is no risk of it falling through due to financing problems. The $5k is nothing except that it shows that our offer may as well have been cash as far as that concern goes.
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