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Ignore DoctorRenter
Registered Feb 20, 2009

DoctorRenter's most recent comments:

• On 30 Sep 2011 in real estate agents: all your base all belong to redfin, DoctorRenter said:

  Just used Redfin to close on a home purchase today--wincing in advance, I know my patrick.net reading peers are going to say we're crazy to buy. As mentioned in an earlier post, we think we got a good deal on an estate (earlier thought to be probate) sale that needs a lot of work. With past and current landlord troubles, we think moving will improve our quality of life, even if we lose in the near term on a purely financial basis.

  The Redfin team did a great job helping us out, very flexible in scheduling house tours, leading us through a very complicated negotiation about who would pay for deferred maintenance, and calming the nerves of the seller's agent when the mortgage process took us well past our initial finance contingency removal date.

  Actually we found the house with a Redfin agent the weekend after our realtor fired us! She thought we "weren't being realistic" having been looking for several months and having expressed some doubt about whether we were a significant priority for her. We had also told her we simply hadn't seen anything that would persuade us to leave our decent rental.

  It also feels good to keep half the commission the realtor would have taken and give the other half to Redfin, who provided us with useful service (even if I'd prefer they'd get a bit less commission, in truth). Not having bought a house before, we weren't quite game to hire a real estate attorney and do it ourselves.

• On 22 Sep 2011 in What are YOUR reasons for wanting to buy?, DoctorRenter said:

  My wife and I are getting ready to close on a house purchase in Lamorinda (SF East Bay). I'm a long-time Patrick reader, but after having problems with our second straight landlord--this time, health threatening pest problems not being fixed in a timely manner--and with two young children, one starting Kindergarten and the other starting preschool in the near future, we wanted to stay in the same small community and decided to take the plunge.

  We found a reasonably priced probate sale that needs some work (helping us limit crazy, Prop 13-inflated taxes). Financially, we will probably take a loss over time, since it probably will remain cheaper to rent since I believe prices are likely to drop further. Since housing is really an amenity, we see it as an upgrade like paying more to buy a nicer, newer car.

  I'll admit that the federal mortgage limits dropping to 625K was an incentive for us, even though I expect prices to drop with this limit change. After many years in grad school, I now have a healthy income but little downpayment saved. Putting 10% down now on a non-jumbo mortgage gets us into a market which we wouldn't be able to enter for a few years once 20% down (plus reserves) is needed for what will soon be defined as a jumbo mortgage.
  With my higher income, the tax benefits dampen the loss if prices drop substantially.

• On 19 Feb 2009 in How To Protest?, DoctorRenter said:

  I'VE BEEN READING THIS SITE FOR YEARS BUT AM USUALLY WORKING TOO HARD TO COMMENT. NOW IS THE TIME FOR ACTION, NOT CHATTING. IF WE CAN HELP MOBILIZE ENOUGH DISCONTENT, THIS MORTGAGE BAILOUT PROGRAM WILL NOT GET OFF THE GROUND. CALL YOUR SENATOR, CONGRESSPERSON, THE WHITE HOUSE. LET THEM KNOW WHY RESPONSIBLE SAVERS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY THEIR NEIGHBORS DEBTS. LET'S TRUST THAT IF ENOUGH VOICES PROTEST, THE PLAN WILL BE FOUGHT DOWN.