AUTHOR: DrLefty on 3/28/2026 FIRST: Nancy Moser on 3/30 | RECENT: William Perry on 4/2
Comments
I looked up the article, and wow, that’s complicated. We have an estate attorney, a trust (that then flows into our daughter’s trust once we’re both gone), and a local fiduciary as the successor trustee, so she’ll have all the advice she needs. If I’m understanding it correctly, a key variable that’s hard to predict is whether you/your spouse dies before RMDs are required. Once that happens, it seems like most decisions are already made. I guess if the surviving spouse disclaims the inherited IRA, that changes the time line a bit. But I wonder how many people are really in a position to do that. Makes my head hurt. https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/ira-decision-that-affects-your-kids
Our agent has been amazing. Not only did he help us make great deals on both ends, but everyone he’s recommended, from a mortgage broker to a contractor for repairs to our remodeling firm has been first rate. What a pleasure to have a real professional just handle things. When our purchase closed last week, he came over with a bottle of wine, chocolate, and several generous gift cards for a “date night”—movie theater, our favorite restaurant in town, the local bookstore. We were pretty blown away.
Thanks, Mike. Yes, the summer heat is brutal. The plan for that is to take “beat the heat” trips elsewhere in July or August. We’ve been doing that for a few years—up the coast in Sonoma County one year, South Lake Tahoe another year, on the beach in San Diego County last year. Even with increased expenses for the new house, we should still be able to afford that. I’ll just have to start filtering VRBO searches for places where we can bring the dog after we get him. We also own about a month worth of timeshare time, and with advance planning, we can use that for breaks from the heat. That said, about 9-10 months per year, the weather’s pretty great, and even in hot summer weather, mornings and evenings are generally OK. After 35 years living here, we’ve learned to work around it. Moving is always stressful, but this time I think we’ll be OK. For one thing, we downsized our stuff quite a bit when we moved to our 3 BR condo, and now we’re going to a 4 BR house with a guest cottage. We actually bought the guest cottage furnishings for one flat price from the sellers and some of their outdoor furniture and tools, too. We’re also buying a couple of pieces of new furniture, which will be delivered to the new house. We’ve hired movers to pack and move us on May 12-13, and the price was a happy surprise. It isn’t so bad when you’re only moving 1 mile away and don’t have that much stuff. The timing has turned out to be great. We closed on the purchase on April 7. The seller is staying in the house until May 5, so we can get ready to move at a reasonable pace. From May 6-12, we’ll have some minor repairs done at the house (contractor already booked and quotes done), and then we’ll move. Meanwhile, our condo sale closes May 26, giving a couple of weeks after our move to touch up and clean. We’ll get our money out then and our first mortgage payment on the new place is June 1, so no double payments. We’ll see how it works out in real time, but on paper, it looks manageable 🤞.
As I understand it, the statute requires that the buyer's agent be compensated at 2.5% of the sales price. In the past, that was just understood, the seller paid the commission, and the two agents split it. But now you have to sign an agreement with a buyer's agent if you hire one, specifying that you understand that the 2.5% commission is part of the deal. In practice, the seller is still usually paying the whole thing, just as in the past. But it's part of the offer sheet to specify who pays the buyer's agent. In our offer on our new home, we asked the sellers to pay our agent, but they countered with saying they'd pay 2% and we'd pay the other .5%, which came out to a little over $6K. We accepted that because the price we were getting the home for was still very competitive. We paid the $6K as part of our closing costs on the purchase. For our sale, we just agreed to pay both agents' commissions. We were happy to get a quick, clean offer and didn't want to haggle over a few thousand dollars.
Thanks, Chris. Yes, I think our condo buyers were very happy to make a full price offer knowing they'd get what they wanted and not have to compete for it. Worked out for everyone.
The past six weeks have been something. I’ve had to be careful to create systems for emails and downloaded/scanned documents (“Purchase,” “Sale,” “Remodel”). But we lucked out in just doing this quick off-market sale and not having to stage the place, vacate for open houses, and so forth.
Comments
I looked up the article, and wow, that’s complicated. We have an estate attorney, a trust (that then flows into our daughter’s trust once we’re both gone), and a local fiduciary as the successor trustee, so she’ll have all the advice she needs. If I’m understanding it correctly, a key variable that’s hard to predict is whether you/your spouse dies before RMDs are required. Once that happens, it seems like most decisions are already made. I guess if the surviving spouse disclaims the inherited IRA, that changes the time line a bit. But I wonder how many people are really in a position to do that. Makes my head hurt. https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/ira-decision-that-affects-your-kids
Post: The IRA Decision That Affects Your Kids
Link to comment from April 17, 2026
Our agent has been amazing. Not only did he help us make great deals on both ends, but everyone he’s recommended, from a mortgage broker to a contractor for repairs to our remodeling firm has been first rate. What a pleasure to have a real professional just handle things. When our purchase closed last week, he came over with a bottle of wine, chocolate, and several generous gift cards for a “date night”—movie theater, our favorite restaurant in town, the local bookstore. We were pretty blown away.
Post: Buying and Selling our Condo (Our Big “Little” Move, Part 2)
Link to comment from April 17, 2026
Thanks, Mike. Yes, the summer heat is brutal. The plan for that is to take “beat the heat” trips elsewhere in July or August. We’ve been doing that for a few years—up the coast in Sonoma County one year, South Lake Tahoe another year, on the beach in San Diego County last year. Even with increased expenses for the new house, we should still be able to afford that. I’ll just have to start filtering VRBO searches for places where we can bring the dog after we get him. We also own about a month worth of timeshare time, and with advance planning, we can use that for breaks from the heat. That said, about 9-10 months per year, the weather’s pretty great, and even in hot summer weather, mornings and evenings are generally OK. After 35 years living here, we’ve learned to work around it. Moving is always stressful, but this time I think we’ll be OK. For one thing, we downsized our stuff quite a bit when we moved to our 3 BR condo, and now we’re going to a 4 BR house with a guest cottage. We actually bought the guest cottage furnishings for one flat price from the sellers and some of their outdoor furniture and tools, too. We’re also buying a couple of pieces of new furniture, which will be delivered to the new house. We’ve hired movers to pack and move us on May 12-13, and the price was a happy surprise. It isn’t so bad when you’re only moving 1 mile away and don’t have that much stuff. The timing has turned out to be great. We closed on the purchase on April 7. The seller is staying in the house until May 5, so we can get ready to move at a reasonable pace. From May 6-12, we’ll have some minor repairs done at the house (contractor already booked and quotes done), and then we’ll move. Meanwhile, our condo sale closes May 26, giving a couple of weeks after our move to touch up and clean. We’ll get our money out then and our first mortgage payment on the new place is June 1, so no double payments. We’ll see how it works out in real time, but on paper, it looks manageable 🤞.
Post: Buying and Selling our Condo (Our Big “Little” Move, Part 2)
Link to comment from April 17, 2026
As I understand it, the statute requires that the buyer's agent be compensated at 2.5% of the sales price. In the past, that was just understood, the seller paid the commission, and the two agents split it. But now you have to sign an agreement with a buyer's agent if you hire one, specifying that you understand that the 2.5% commission is part of the deal. In practice, the seller is still usually paying the whole thing, just as in the past. But it's part of the offer sheet to specify who pays the buyer's agent. In our offer on our new home, we asked the sellers to pay our agent, but they countered with saying they'd pay 2% and we'd pay the other .5%, which came out to a little over $6K. We accepted that because the price we were getting the home for was still very competitive. We paid the $6K as part of our closing costs on the purchase. For our sale, we just agreed to pay both agents' commissions. We were happy to get a quick, clean offer and didn't want to haggle over a few thousand dollars.
Post: Buying and Selling our Condo (Our Big “Little” Move, Part 2)
Link to comment from April 16, 2026
Thanks so much--and I hope so, too.
Post: Buying and Selling our Condo (Our Big “Little” Move, Part 2)
Link to comment from April 16, 2026
Thanks, Chris. Yes, I think our condo buyers were very happy to make a full price offer knowing they'd get what they wanted and not have to compete for it. Worked out for everyone.
Post: Buying and Selling our Condo (Our Big “Little” Move, Part 2)
Link to comment from April 16, 2026
Thanks, Jerry. We think so, too. We just wanted a fair deal we can live with, not to "win" the highest bid.
Post: Buying and Selling our Condo (Our Big “Little” Move, Part 2)
Link to comment from April 16, 2026
We definitely hired the right realtor. It makes a huge difference.
Post: Buying and Selling our Condo (Our Big “Little” Move, Part 2)
Link to comment from April 16, 2026
The past six weeks have been something. I’ve had to be careful to create systems for emails and downloaded/scanned documents (“Purchase,” “Sale,” “Remodel”). But we lucked out in just doing this quick off-market sale and not having to stage the place, vacate for open houses, and so forth.
Post: Buying and Selling our Condo (Our Big “Little” Move, Part 2)
Link to comment from April 16, 2026
I think we’ll wait until after our remodel is done. That seems like a lot to bring a puppy into. So…maybe late fall? We’ll see how it goes.
Post: Buying and Selling our Condo (Our Big “Little” Move, Part 2)
Link to comment from April 16, 2026