Imagine your wife says she wants to move...

^ true anecdotal evidence from MasterMech - I've seen family members "step-in" to help with a home purchase or remodel...didn't end in disaster right away but ultimately creates a strain on relationships
How can you sit there and look your father in-law in the face at the dinner table and tell him everything is great when you're possibly laid off and he's dumped 60-80k into a remodel and you're still in personal debt up to your eyeballs with the mortgage bank near about knocking.

Not saying this is where you are starting from The Wood Wolverine

 

Prime example of why a marriage should have a financial understanding/agreement or some form of budget - doesn't even have to be written down.

All major purchases pass the mutually scrutinized - Do we really NEED IT? or do we really WANT IT? and the latter should have some long term financial (or in this case mutual life enjoyment) justification.

 

I've had to do that a couple times to my wife. She graduated with way more student debt than any one person should have, and it's taken until her mid 30's until her earnings have caught up. Just last month she showed me a house on the market that she liked. I told her there wasn't a chance of us moving until her loans are gone. Heck, we could probably buy a small vacation home somewhere with what we pay on her loans every month.

 

Boat: noun.
Money pit that floats on water.

 

Bust Out Another Thousand.

 

Imagine your wife says she wants to move...
So long. Write when you can. Bit crass,huh?

 

So true. The only one that watches out for you, is you! I look at the back of the local paper each week and still see houses being foreclosed on. Debt without a cushion can literally ruin your life. I flew by the seat of my pants when I was younger with my own businesses, wife and two kids, working 70-80 hours a week. My family came out of it alright, but I've got to thank God because he was watching over me. Things can happen to shake your life up, and if that happens, the less debt you have the better.

 

Exactly what I used to say...until I sold it.

 

It's scary here too. A few houses in our development sitting five or more years. One got stripped out so bad they leveled it. They put up a modular and sold it. Town legislator told me the bank's don't even take title of the foreclosed house so they don't have to maintain it or pay the taxes. They have too many backlogged foreclosures to sell off. And unless you know how bad it really is, they tell you the market is great!

 

Or a motorcycle (yes, I get the song reference, I just like my version better )

 

Or sports car(s)..

 

I vote for 2 wheels
Wife sure is trying hard to convince. The numbers are just a bit tight IMO. The agent selling this property was a friend of my wife in H.S., so I'd like to think she'd get us the best deal possible. She's coming this weekend to walk through our house.
It's 15 ambient here right now and with wind chill... 5 degrees. Imagine moving in this.

 

Sales training teaches you to use your friends/family relationships to make more money...so it all depends on how good of a friend she really is (and if she has good character) as to if you are really going to get the best deal or not...

 

Realtors, no matter how well you know them, are about like the mortgage brokers trying to get you into "what you can buy" vs. what you genuinely feel comfortable purchasing.
Once you've involved them in the buyer&seller relationship they have a better(or for worse) understanding of the finances and how much house they can upsell you on

I wouldn't hesitate to allow the wife's friend sell your house, but you're probably better off finding a non-selling agent in a purchase

 

The agent representing the sellers has a fiduciary responsibility to the sellers, get your own agent.

 

What Basod said. But, she will only offer what you allow her to offer. When you say that this is your "final and best offer". that is it. She most likely will not tell you what that number really should be (and if she does, knock it down a bit because she is there to make money and the more you pay, the more she makes).