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I bought a 150k house on a 35k income. My parents helped a little (bit not much) with the 10% I put down, and they showed me a little for repairs over the next couple years. I did end up putting a couple repairs on my credit card since the place was a dump. It worked out really well for me and comparable rent right now would be about a thousand bucks more per month than my current mortgage payment. I also bought at market bottom, had just gotten into more of a career track job, and my wife was a stay at home mom who we knew could pick up a job if things got dire. Evaluate your own situation and rental market, and then figure out what upkeep is likely to cost and see what payment you are comfortable with. I think it actually makes sense to stretch to buy a home of you have prospects for earning more and wan't to stay in one place. Don't let your mortgage broker teal you how much thou can afford. Decide yourself with a real budget.
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Jan 19, 2019 03:50
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So my buying agent recommended a finance company to get my loan through, she said it’s a guy she works with a lot. Is this something I should avoid? Or is it not an issue so long as I make sure they aren’t trying to fleece me on the rate and fees and such?
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Jan 20, 2019 04:00
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:So my buying agent recommended a finance company to get my loan through, she said it’s a guy she works with a lot. You should comparison shop the what is likely the most expensive purchase in your life to date. You'll be surprised how much cheaper everyone gets when there are two other offers on the table.
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Jan 20, 2019 04:23
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:So my buying agent recommended a finance company to get my loan through, she said it’s a guy she works with a lot. Typically, an agent is gonna push you towards somebody that closes deals quickly and on time. All things being equal rate-wise and closing cost-wise, I’d use the agent they recommend. But yeah, definitely shop around.
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Jan 20, 2019 04:39
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Rate compare with better.com, since if they undercut you can use their rate as leverage with other lenders, and if they don't you get some free money.
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Jan 20, 2019 05:19
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:So my buying agent recommended a finance company to get my loan through, she said it’s a guy she works with a lot. Our agent recommended a guy who was incredibly helpful and made graphs and explained every step of the process to us, and beyond that his main selling point was that he would always be available and get it done on time. Cool. We then shopped around and found a bigger, but not huge bank, who was throwing around way lower rates + $2500 towards costs of handling the paperwork. Going back to the smaller guy with those numbers, he said he could never beat it and had no hard feelings. The bank was able to close ahead of schedule, with everything they promised.
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Jan 20, 2019 07:13
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So, wife and I are looking for our first place around Austin, TX. We make about 90k so going from that can afford around 250ish but I'd prefer to keep it around 220. With the housing prices in this area continuing to rise like crazy we feel like we should buy soon. I can use my VA loan to get in with a low down payment. I know most of the people here suggest to save up a lot for down payment and unexpected expenses, but housing prices in the area have moved up 10k a year at least since I've moved here (This was about what we saved every year until the last). So saving up to move in seems like a losing proposition (our rent was 800/mo when I moved in five years ago, and is now 1400/mo with a two bedroom instead of one now). Most of the houses here are either being fresh built into the neighboring farmland in Leander or people selling their houses they bought in the 90s to move into newer places. Most of those 90s places should be due for new roofs and HVAC by now, so how do I ask about if that's been replaced or not. Also my father in law had a house that was built in the early 90s that wasn't insulated properly at all, I think he said his electric +water with a pool was a grand a month in the summer. How do I check what the buildings are and is there a place that I can figure out the costs of monthly bills. We had our child last year and my wife took her full FMLA leave so that cost us her income for those three months, but our lending person said that shouldn't be a problem since she continued working at the same place right after. Is that accurate, we have both had our current jobs for over 2 years.
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Jan 21, 2019 00:59
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take me you ANIMAL posted:I know most of the people here suggest to save up a lot for down payment and unexpected expenses, but housing prices in the area have moved up 10k a year at least since I've moved here (This was about what we saved every year until the last). So saving up to move in seems like a losing proposition (our rent was 800/mo when I moved in five years ago, and is now 1400/mo with a two bedroom instead of one now). You probably won't listen, but it's never a good idea to rush into ('gotta get in now before prices go higher!') one of the biggest purchases of your life. Your second question is a good example of why savings are important. You will get an inspection/seller's disclosure that can tell you the approximate age of roof/HVAC, but if they're not dying/leaking/dead, it's unlikely you'll be able to convince a seller to do much for you. You may be able to knock a bit off the price, but what are you going to do if 6 months later you get hit with a $8000 replacement bill?
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Jan 21, 2019 03:35
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Welp they accepted our offer of $7k below list and 6% closing costs. Now to hurry the hell up and sell our house!
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Jan 21, 2019 21:25
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Wells Fargo owns my home loan (and escrow account), and they haven't yet paid my 2018 property taxes, which are due at the end of the month. Last year they paid them a day before they were due. This makes me a little anxious, but is it pretty standard for big lenders? Related question: Has anybody with a Wells Fargo mortgage had success doing away with escrow in order to manage tax/insurance obligations themselves? I know this assumes a certain payment history and level of equity; just curious if it's possible with WF.
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Jan 24, 2019 18:23
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Your original mortgage may or may not mandate the use of the escrow account, often for a specified period. Once you are past that period you are no longer obligated to use escrow, and the bank has no legal right to prevent you from exercising that option. I personally find it convenient so I have continued to use escrow (note that in California, they have to give you the interest earned on your account; in other states if you're not being paid interest, you might get mad about that $50 a year or whatever) but I don't have to, and if I wanted to change it, I could contact my escrow company and my lender and opt out of the arrangement at any time. Also yeah they typically pay your taxes on the day before they're due, since there's no reward for paying early, but if you pay early you (or whoever is collecting it, see above) give up the interest the cash would have earned between when they paid and when the bill was due.
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Jan 24, 2019 18:31
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Easychair Bootson posted:Wells Fargo owns my home loan (and escrow account), and they haven't yet paid my 2018 property taxes, which are due at the end of the month. Last year they paid them a day before they were due. This makes me a little anxious, but is it pretty standard for big lenders? Wells Fargo also owns my mortgage and pays my property taxes the very last day as you've experienced. I haven't tried to kill the escrow yet so I can't help you out there.
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Jan 24, 2019 18:42
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Thanks, that lines up with what I thought and remembered. I looked in my original loan paperwork (with the lender who sold the loan to WF) and while it makes mention of what the escrow account is, I can't find any language that mandates its use. I think I just need to bite the bullet, pick up the phone, and start calling Wells Fargo to see what I can do about removing escrow.
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Jan 24, 2019 18:44
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 My mortgage is up for renegotiation and its making me want to kill myself looking at the prospect of being stuck in my dead town with an ever increasingly expensive house that I can't sell or rent out for enough to even come remotely close to breaking even.
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Jan 25, 2019 05:54
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Methanar posted:
I don’t understand how people afford houses in expensive countries without 30 year fixed.
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Jan 25, 2019 13:52
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Jealous Cow posted:I don’t understand how people afford houses in expensive countries without 30 year fixed. Let me introduce you to young me in 2004, being told how I'd be stupid to put money down and how amazing a Smart ARM mortgage was, and how I couldn't possibly lose money on it! I lost money on it
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Jan 25, 2019 14:39
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Inspection shows a leak behind the bathtub. Small and localized, but no idea what it’s affected or how long it’s been going on. Everything else otherwise good. Walk? Reduction in closing costs? Contractor?
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Jan 25, 2019 15:33
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poisonpill posted:Inspection shows a leak behind the bathtub. Small and localized, but no idea what it’s affected or how long it’s been going on. Everything else otherwise good. If the tub is being used or leaks even when not in use, and this isnt repaired asap, problems could multiply between now and closing.
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Jan 25, 2019 15:38
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poisonpill posted:Inspection shows a leak behind the bathtub. Small and localized, but no idea what it’s affected or how long it’s been going on. Everything else otherwise good. Hire a contractor on your own dime to inspect it and estimate a full repair and ask for a reduction based on the estimate.
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Jan 25, 2019 15:51
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Thanks. Contractor it is. Sorry if these questions are stupid but it extremely hard to get objective info: would a plumber be the right person to hire, or a general contractor? Can I request being able to pull some tiles back? How do we guarantee this is fixed ASAP (regardless of who’s paying) so that we can fix it before more harm is done?
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Jan 25, 2019 18:14
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poisonpill posted:Thanks. Contractor it is. Plumber. Find out what’s actually leaking. The plumber will also be the one to tear things open to fix the leak, the GC would be the one to repair the cosmetic damage.
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Jan 25, 2019 18:15
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Jealous Cow posted:Plumber. Find out what’s actually leaking. The plumber will also be the one to tear things open to fix the leak, the GC would be the one to repair the cosmetic damage. And if it's a basic tile/paint job just ask your plumber who their tile person is, anyone worth their salt will have an equivalently skilled person in their back pocket to refer things like this. (Note: If your plumber is terrible at their job, their tile person likely is as well.)
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Jan 25, 2019 18:30
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Jealous Cow posted:I don’t understand how people afford houses in expensive countries without 30 year fixed. I'm a total loving idiot and bought a house in a small lovely frozen dead town. I obviously knew it was a bad idea at the time because i was hesitant about committing for longer than a 2 year term on my mortgage. Spoilers: the housing market has continued to implode over the last 2 years because my town is 100% dependent on oil and now my house is worthless and I can't leave this town that makes me want to kill myself without eating like a 35k+ loss, even if I could sell it. Which I probably can't because there are 4 for-sale signs on my street that I can see from my window because everyone else wants to leave too. With the new interest rate. I couldn't even come within 200 dollars a month of breaking even after accounting for property tax and house insurance if I were to rent it out Methanar fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Jan 25, 2019 |
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Jan 25, 2019 18:37
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You do have to get permission from the seller before your plumber can start tearing off tile which you would need to go through your agent for. Tbh at that point it's probably better for the seller to just fix it. In general though you want to do the repairs with your own contractors rather than trusting the sellers not to half rear end a repair. But to your original question, this isn't a deal breaker on the sale, it's just something that needs to be addressed. Andy Dufresne fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Jan 25, 2019 |
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Jan 25, 2019 18:53
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I've got a bigass tree in my backyard that is at the corner of basically 3 other property lines, any of which could be subject to catastrophic destruction if that thing decided to fall over one day. Since it's in my best interest to do what I can to make sure it doesn't fall over, does anyone know what sort of specialist I'd call to look at it and advise me on next steps? I figure most places are in the business of both diagnosing and fixing the problem, but it'd be nice to pay for someone to look at it who wasn't also incentivized to tell me that I need to pay them thousands of dollars for the whole thing to come down cause a leaf looked funky. Like am I looking up "arborist" on AngiesList or what.
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Jan 28, 2019 19:16
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Sodacan posted:Like am I looking up "arborist" on AngiesList or what. Yes. You specifically want one that is an ISA (International Society of Arborists) Certified Arborist. In most cases, arborists like trees, and don't want to see them cut down unnecessarily. They can advise you on potential issues or the best course of action. As with anything home related, try to get a few (at least 3) different dudes out there to provide recommendations. You'll know what the truth is by how much they overlap.
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Jan 28, 2019 19:50
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Sodacan posted:Like am I looking up "arborist" on AngiesList or what. Yes. If the tree is healthy they'll probably offer you trimming or fertilization services more than anything else.
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Jan 28, 2019 19:52
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My wife and I are looking at buying a house in the next 8-36 months. My parents have offered to help with a down payment. At what point will they need to transfer money over to us? Will Banks need to see that in our accounts before we get pre-approved? I'm in the early stages of researching house buying and this seems to be my first stumbling block of many.
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Jan 28, 2019 20:09
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The Slack Lagoon posted:My wife and I are looking at buying a house in the next 8-36 months. My parents have offered to help with a down payment. At what point will they need to transfer money over to us? Will Banks need to see that in our accounts before we get pre-approved? If you're 8+ months out just do it today and let it sit. That will season it. Otherwise wait until you have a loan application going and ask the loan folks how and when. If it's anything other than a wire give yourself at least 2 weeks before closing. Wires it's basically 1 banking day. If they are selling anything (mutual funds, stock, horse lease futures) add 3 banking days. There is just another sheet of paper and a few bank statements they will need to show.
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Jan 28, 2019 20:22
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You will likely also need to have a signed paper saying that the money from your parents is a gift and not a loan, and they may need to provide bank statements showing where the money came from, too. If the money is really a loan, do not commit fraud by claiming it's a gift. This is one weird trick that can land you in jail. Just FYI.
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Jan 28, 2019 20:26
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When you apply for a loan the bank is going to ask for statements going back X amount of time (usually 6 months, I think?) and if that shows a big chunk of money arriving in your hands they will need to know where it came from. So if your parents are willing to transfer it over to you to hold in a savings account or something similar well before you'll probably buy, you can do that and they won't worry about it. My parents gave us help on the down payment and the bank just needed a gift letter and a copy of the transfer documentation to verify the origins. It wasn't difficult and didn't seem to make any real extra work. I think this is a pretty common situation to deal with.
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Jan 28, 2019 20:52
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The Slack Lagoon posted:My wife and I are looking at buying a house in the next 8-36 months. My parents have offered to help with a down payment. At what point will they need to transfer money over to us? Will Banks need to see that in our accounts before we get pre-approved? When I went through this the bank didn't care who had the money but did care about seeing proof that the money existed. Didn't have to move it into our account or anything.
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Jan 28, 2019 21:01
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cinnamon rollout posted:When I went through this the bank didn't care who had the money but did care about seeing proof that the money existed. Didn't have to move it into our account or anything. The scenario listed by the poster here is most common when your gift donor directly transfers the money to the title company involved in the transaction. In these cases, you may need as little as a gift letter (got to prove who is giving you the funds and that it is not a loan) and evidence on your closing disclosure that the funds came from the person who is gifting the funds. Realistically, if your parents are willing to transfer the money over sooner than later, you will quite possibly need no additional documentation at all. Conventional loans will more often than not require 1-2 months of asset documentation, and no underwriter is going to request something 8 months back (unless you need to prove a 12 month payment history for some other reason). If you are more than likely going to apply for an FHA/VA/non-conforming loan, you may need to provide more months of bank statements. Still if your parents are willing to provide the funds sooner, and you aren't going to touch them, I'd just transfer them as soon as practical. As far as preapprovals go - many lenders aren't going to actually ask you for asset statements at all.
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Jan 28, 2019 21:10
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Thanks for the info. They just gave us a specific amount over the weekend. I'm just doing initial research now, and will probably draft a timeline and see when they'd be comfortable transferring funds.
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Jan 28, 2019 21:14
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B-Nasty posted:Yes. You specifically want one that is an ISA (International Society of Arborists) Certified Arborist. In most cases, arborists like trees, and don't want to see them cut down unnecessarily. They can advise you on potential issues or the best course of action. Thanks y'all. I'll be back to let everyone know how it goes if there are any, uh, entertaining results.
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Jan 28, 2019 22:17
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Motronic posted:Key words here. Through WF I had to submit proof of average annual bonuses because without it my income wasn't enough to support my new and my old mortgage (I was selling the old house, just hadn't sold yet and didn't want to lose the new one). I submitted EoY pay stubs that had the bonus highlighted in yellow (it was called AIP) and I spelled out in the emails the exact dollar/cent amount of each bonus, that it was the AIP line item, and the total for the three years. I got an email back saying my loan was disapproved because the bonus was half as much as I had previously said it was and I only got it for one year instead of all 3 years. She had completely ignored every single thing I said in the email, and the highlighting, and zerod in on a one time line item called Ret. Bonus that was totally unrelated.
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Feb 1, 2019 02:02
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Easychair Bootson posted:Wells Fargo owns my home loan (and escrow account), and they haven't yet paid my 2018 property taxes, which are due at the end of the month. Last year they paid them a day before they were due. This makes me a little anxious, but is it pretty standard for big lenders? Wells Fargo does not own my loan and I actually got a letter saying "Why the gently caress haven't you paid your property taxes yet" last year and I ignored it and it seems to have gone away but tbh I don't pay that much attention to my snail mail so maybe I'm about to get foreclosed upon.
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Feb 1, 2019 02:06
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bird with big dick posted:Wells Fargo does not own my loan and I actually got a letter saying "Why the gently caress haven't you paid your property taxes yet" last year and I ignored it and it seems to have gone away but tbh I don't pay that much attention to my snail mail so maybe I'm about to get foreclosed upon. In many counties you can check your tax status online. It's probably worth verifying that someone paid it.
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Feb 1, 2019 02:20
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bird with big dick posted:I spelled out in the emails You should have faxed it. I am not entirely joking.
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Feb 1, 2019 02:31
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The very first house that I put an offer on, and lost because the sellers went with an all cash offer, is now back on the market a whole 6 months later with all the same details, photos, etc. except they want $2k more than they bought it for any are trying to sell it by owner. Had my heart set on that house and have been bummed this whole time that I never got it. Now I'm not sure if I should feel happy or pissed.
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Feb 5, 2019 02:04
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