Advice - Believe it or not, I love the advice of strangers :)

[tianapb725]

Okay, going through the process of home buying now.  After inspection, found out the house needs a new furnace. Agreed upon $4K from seller.  Originally was going to up my closing costs to $5K (was getting $3500) and get back $2500 at closing, but found out you can't do that, but the option is to have the furnace replaced prior to moving in or taken off sale price - $175,000.

The only "pickle" I'm in is that I was going to possibly upgrade the furnace to a higher efficiency and perhaps add central air.  I didn't have that figured into the HVAC quote since I didn't feel that was the seller's responsibility to pay for things that I wanted.

Now, should I have it taken off sale price, update the furnace or explore discount points and have the seller put the $2500 towards that?  My interest rate is 4.125 conventional.  I'm 31, so this is not likely my forever home.

What would you do?

Original Numbers:

House price - $175,000

DP: 17,500

4.125%

$3500 in closing from seller.

TIA

[coterotie]

How much did the house appraise for?

I would probably skin the cat this way.

Original purchase price 175,000

Let's say the house appraised for 185,000.

Have the seller put in the new unit that you pick out.  You should be able to get this done for $7,000 or under.

Re-write the purchase contract for 179,500, all other conditions to remain and you come up with the additional down payment amount.  If he doesn't want to lay out the cash ($4,500), escrow it and disburse when the work is done.  The seller might not want to pay an extra couple of hundred in real estate commissions, but that should be easy to work out.

This way you keep all the conditions the same and he walks away with the exact same amount of money in his pocket.

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@tianapb725 wrote:

Okay, going through the process of home buying now.  After inspection, found out the house needs a new furnace. Agreed upon $4K from seller.  Originally was going to up my closing costs to $5K (was getting $3500) and get back $2500 at closing, but found out you can't do that, but the option is to have the furnace replaced prior to moving in or taken off sale price - $175,000.

The only "pickle" I'm in is that I was going to possibly upgrade the furnace to a higher efficiency and perhaps add central air.  I didn't have that figured into the HVAC quote since I didn't feel that was the seller's responsibility to pay for things that I wanted.

Now, should I have it taken off sale price, update the furnace or explore discount points and have the seller put the $2500 towards that?  My interest rate is 4.125 conventional.  I'm 31, so this is not likely my forever home.

What would you do?

Original Numbers:

House price - $175,000

DP: 17,500

4.125%

$3500 in closing from seller.

TIA

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