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Strange question, but my wife and I will be in the market for a house in the next year. We know that home buying season is in the spring, and while we have a lease in an apartment for the next year our early termination penalty is 2 months rent worst case. Even so, knowing how long the process takes from watching several people go through it, we're going to start looking in the next couple months because we want to get the hell out of apartment living. We have recently been advised that 2015 is the year that the county we're looking in revalues property. Apparently they do it every 8 years, and 2015 is the lucky year. The advice we were given is to buy ASAP to get in before they revalue everything. Looking at the charts, average home prices are still lower than they were in 2008 (the last re-valuation), so I don't think this will result in anything but a lower value. With prices trending up, though, I really can't say for sure what's going to happen. At the same time, this is an assessment by the county for tax purposes, based on a very specific calculation schedule, not an appraisal. I can easily argue to a seller that county assessments are over-valued (which they are) and they have no impact on anything except for taxes, meaning that now I'll have to pay more for the next 8 years to live in your cruddy house. But I know that it's a seller's market right now. Again, we've watched a few people go through this, and by all accounts anything worth buying is sold for cash, for more than the asking price, within days of being put on the market. So even if the assessment brings the value down, I can easily see a seller trying to spin the number to his/her advantage (it's higher than others in the neighborhood/look how much you'll save on property taxes/etc.). Worse, if the assessment goes up, then I expect a seller to cherry pick that and say, "See, the value went up! Give me more money!!!" So my basic question is three-fold: 1) How much will this actually affect house prices, 2) in the same vein, is it worth trying to sneak in before the assessment (all else equal, NOT considering personal financial situation) , and 3) in the highly-likely scenario that we don't get in before the assessment, how do I argue to a seller that the revaluation doesn't mean I have to pay more? I think I have several good arguments for #3, but I'd like some back-up arguments since I know people like to cherry pick facts and ignore reason.
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Dec 16, 2014 15:20
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LloydDobler posted:I'm curious what this means to you. Why did you mention it? To me it means buyer demand will be higher, so prices will be higher and homes will disappear quicker. More importantly, to us it means we either get something very soon, or we wait until summer/fall before we seriously consider anything. I'm personally inclined to wait. I just didn't know if the county assessment would inflate prices in the area, and I didn't want to find out the hard way that we missed our window to get a good price. quote:But you're still going to try and buy? We have the means and we have the desire. We know it can be a long process to find the right place, which is why we're intending on starting soon. And I'm not trying to get in to an argument here, but if you're going to look at it that way, then with the market on an upward trend we either want to buy ASAP before prices get higher, or wait for the bubble to burst again and catch something on the downslope. I don't want to rent for the next 1, 10, or 100 years waiting for a burst that may never happen. For all I know, the market could skyrocket tomorrow and we could be stuck renting for years before prices become affordable again. But barring any extreme circumstances, any significant change in trend will take months at minimum. And since we were originally planning to start looking in months, I was worried that the whole area being re-assessed would be used as an excuse for sellers to jack up prices by the time we were ready to buy. canyoneer posted:Were you advised to get into a house ASAP by someone who works in the industry? Because that's what they always say No, this is second-hand information from a co-worker. That's not to say he isn't parroting what his realtor told him. slap me silly posted:It's very region specific. Where I am, sales prices and tax assessment values are nowhere near each other and you don't even bother looking at tax value (except to know how much taxes you will pay). This is what I have read about my area, although I'm sure it's even city or neighborhood specific. I've read that it's not uncommon for a home in the area to be assessed at $50k higher than fair market value. That's when I really got worried that it might have an impact on home prices. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Dec 17, 2014 |
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Dec 17, 2014 14:39
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So this kind of turned in to a wall of text, so bear with me here. My wife and I are considering a house pretty soon here, and we have some questions on a few things before jump in to it seriously. First, a question on our credit history/ability: My wife found out that she basically has (had) no credit worthy of borrowing large amounts. She has had a couple credit cards for at least the past 10 years, and she used them occasionally and always paid them off the next month (with maybe a few exceptions, but she always at least made minimum payment). Her credit score is pretty good, but apparently there's no "real history" on her report. We found this out because about 18 months ago we bought a car. We had tried to get financing through our credit union and they wouldn't give us as much as we asked for because, in their words, she didn't have any credit history showing her ability to pay off large sums over time (i.e. a car or house, things you generally can't pay off all at once). They ended up offering us less than we asked for (because frankly we asked for a couple grand more than we needed, just in case), and it's a moot point anyhow because the dealer had 0.9% financing so we took that instead. I, on the other hand, have a massive credit history in that respect, but it's basically because I have debt. Student loans mainly, and now the auto loan is on my history. That said, I have exactly $0 in credit card debt. No late payments on anything, though I have carried a balance a handful of times. So the question is, we're both about to be first-time home buyers, so how is all this going to impact our ability to get a loan? I just refinanced my student loans a few months ago and they told me my FICO score was 805 (Mint's free thingy tells me 758 right now). I think Mint is telling my wife she's at 775 or something, but again the only big ticket thing she has is the auto loan. We both have very good income, but we're mostly concerned about her relative lack of credit history, and the fact that neither of us have ever owned a home. And then the next question is regarding mortgage terms: So we're debating between a 15 and 30 year mortgage. The issue is that homes that we're looking at right now are in the range of 225-300k. Based on monthly payments, down payment ability, and what's available in the area, we've targeted 250k as our intended price, with 300k as a max. So with that, after you figure taxes/insurance/etc, the 30-year payment seems very manageable, but the 15-year payment is bordering on uncomfortable (we can absolutely afford it, but we just don't want to). Our biggest unknown is how long we'll be staying in the area. We have no plans to move, but we're engineers, so that's a distinct possibility. But we can't really plan on that, since we'd never be able to buy a house until we retire if that were the deciding factor. The thing we KNOW is that we intend on having kids in the next year or two. We figure this gives us a solid 5-7 years before we would really want to plant roots and stay put. This works for and against us, really...but mainly it means that we have the potential to up and move in that time frame, so it complicates the decision slightly. So that said, the main reason we're looking at the 250k range is that we want something that could support a family long-term (3+ bedrooms, 2+ bath, yard, etc.). However, we could also go with a sub-$200k house that's just big enough for the next few years, get a 15-year loan, pump money in to it to build equity, then upgrade to something bigger down the road. But my hesitation there is that rates will likely be higher by then, so while our loan would be smaller we'd be paying higher interest on it. And, if the housing market takes a giant poo poo, we'd be stuck in a cramped house for a while (though we could theoretically rent it out while we buy a bigger house on the cheap, but I don't want to touch that with a 10-foot pole). There's a lot of possibilities, but I guess that's a separate discussion. Here's what what we've figured on a 15-year mortgage on a 250k house: Pros: -Saves us over $90k in interest over the life of the loan, which is an assload of money -More goes to principal sooner (so if we sell/move before we pay it off, we have more equity built up) Cons: -No flexibility on payment (we could overpay a 30-year loan easily, and drop back to minimum if we run in to trouble) -Lower cashflow, so other savings accounts/investments grow slower -Only way to lower the monthly payment is to get less house So with that, I decided to figure out what the lost opportunity cost would be. An easy example is our credit union checking account, which gets a dividend of 2.01% APY each month (as long as we make 30+ transactions each month, which we do easily). My assumptions are: -250k house -50k down payment -30-year rate = 4.375% (worst rate per CFPB.gov, using above numbers, state is NC and credit score is 740-759) -15-year rate = 3.750% (worst rate per CFPB.gov, using above numbers, state is NC and credit score is 740-759) My math gets me a difference in monthly payment of $455.88. If we take that money and dump it in to a 2.01% APY (~1.99 APR) account each month will, over 15 years, turn in to $95,529.27 (compounded monthly). Can someone check my math on that? Looking at it, the actual difference in interest over the life of a 30 year vs 15 year loan is $97,685.31. So we technically lose $2156.04 over 15 years, assuming savings interest rates don't go up at all (and we don't shuffle that money in to something with a higher yield like a retirement account). And this seems to be worst-case. Now, if I take the best-case interest rates from CFPB.gov (3.875/3.125 for 30/15 respectively), the difference in monthly payment is smaller, so over 15 years I end up with about $1,000 less accumulated in savings. However, the difference in interest cost is $10k less over the life of the loan (about $87k instead of $97k), so I would actually come out ahead by using the 30-year mortgage (instead of losing $2156.04, I would gain about $6.5k). So can someone check my logic/math here? Because I think I just talked myself in to a 30 year mortgage, which doesn't seem to make financial sense to me...I must be missing something. Naturally, this ONLY works if we put that extra money each month in to the mortgage or in to savings/investments. It's all out the window if we take that money and spend it on booze (or more realistically, cars we can't afford or a boat or other expensive grown-up toys that we have no interest in).
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Aug 6, 2015 15:34
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So I'm trying to figure out where I made a mistake in my assumptions... So again, we have: -250k house -50k down payment -30-year rate = 4.375% -15-year rate = 3.750% This gets the following monthly payments, with total costs: -30 year: $998.57/mo, at 360 months = $359,485.20 -15 year: $1,454.45/mo, at 180 months = $261,800.00 So the total difference in interest between the two is $97,685.20. The total difference in monthly payment is $455.88. The monthly payment alone nets $82,058.40 over 15 years, so in actuality I'm really only down $15,626.80. And that might be what I'm missing...if I were to put that $455.88 back in to the 30 year mortgage each month, at the end of 15 years I'd still have about $15k owed on the house due to the higher interest rate. And I'm sure it's not exactly that. Dwight Eisenhower posted:So you make one more year of payments and an additional $17k in interest (or, slightly over $1k/year) to have the flexibility to suddenly have another $455 dollars in your monthly budget, if you need it. And there it is. When I first read this I wasn't sure how you came up with it, but now I see what I was doing wrong. I was beginning to think that the $455/mo wasn't real money or something... Yes, I know I'm over analyzing this. I tend to do that. I guess I'm basically trying to justify a 30 year mortgage financially, because I know a 15 year is a much better deal in the long-run. Fact is, I've pretty much already decided on the 30-year, but I want to make sure I can look at it and know it's not a decision that is costing me nearly $100k. I'm just trying to make sure that this money isn't simply vanishing in to thin air, which it doesn't seem like it is. $17k is still a shitload of money, but it's a hell of a lot less than $100k. QuarkJets posted:This is an ill-advised plan. Real estate is not a good investment vehicle, especially not on the timescale of 5 years, unless you're buying a serious shitheap and renovating it yourself, which most people should not try to do. Financially, you would be better off buying a house that you like at current interest rates, making minimum monthly payments, and dumping your extra income into a mutual fund (after maxing out 401k and IRA contributions first, of course). Yeah, I know it is...I just tossed it out as a possible alternative to what we actually want to do. To be clear, though, when I said "pump money in to it to build equity," I meant the loan, not the house. The idea being that because it's a cheaper house than we can afford, we could throw a lot of money at principal in order to essentially save up for a bigger place. A gamble, obviously, since that assumes we would sell that house for as much or more than what we paid. quote:2% is an extremely low rate of return. You should easily be able to get 5% or better with mutual funds in the long term. Absolutely it is, that's why I used it. I wanted to be as conservative as possible with my calculations. I didn't want to assume a 5%+ rate of return and fool myself in to thinking I was getting a better deal than was realistic. But what we'd most likely do is pump the money in to our retirement accounts (if we didn't put it back in to the mortgage). So here's another question: We've both been in our jobs for less than 2 years. My wife finished her graduate degree in October of 2013, and started her job here 2 weeks later (her job is why we moved). I left my job and moved down here with her, and worked on contract for 2 months before I started a permanent position down here in December 2013. Aside from that, I've had steady employment in my field since January, 2008 (though technically somewhere in 2010 I was on "contract" for 6 months, but it was a contract-to-hire thing). Is this going to be an issue? Will lenders fudge that, or are we going to have to wait until December when we've both been in our current jobs for 2+ years? And also, what's considered a contract? Technically while I was on contract, I was actually working hourly for a contract house...I wasn't self employed, my paychecks had the contract house's name on them. I know through my brother's house buying ordeal that lenders get real uppity about contract workers (unless they can prove that they reliably surf contracts for a living). So would that history be considered a contract, or would they consider it actual employment?
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Aug 7, 2015 13:13
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Yeah, we're still doing our background research before we get in too deep. I ran some numbers and my draw dropped when I saw how much the 30-year loan costs over the 15-year loan, which is why I've been trying to figure out if it's REALLY that bad. We were most likely going to go with the 30-year loan anyhow, I just wanted to make sure I had some sound financial justification for it other than the lower monthly payment. OSU_Matthew posted:
Sorry, I should clarify: I was asking about contract employment, and where lenders/underwriters draw the line between a contract job and a full-time job. I was in a situation where I was a contract employee for a company, except that rather than being a direct contractor I was actually an employee of a contract agency. So my paychecks were from a contract agency, who was getting paid by the people I was actually doing work for.
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Aug 7, 2015 18:31
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Dwight Eisenhower posted:It's probably mostly going to be determined by how your income was reported to the IRS. If you got 1099s then the bank will probably have a bug up their rear end. If you got W2s then the bank will happily lump you in with all the other wage slaves. That's good news. I watched my brother go through this process a few years ago and the bank gave him hell about a few things at the last minute. At the time he was even considering using me as a co-signer because his wife wasn't his wife yet (the wedding was 2-3 months off and I was going to rent from them), so there were some issues there. It all worked out, but it left me a little paranoid. QuarkJets posted:Okay, but you've already confirmed that putting the difference in monthly payment into a 2% interest account each month for 15 years would net you roughly the additional amount that you'd pay in interest over the entire life of the 30-year loan. So even when you assume that your rate of return is unrealistically crummy, you're still breaking even with the 30-year but with the comfort of lower monthly payments. Yeah so the confusion is gone. It took me a bit to figure out if my calculations were making sense, because they didn't really at the time. It just didn't make sense to me that I could make money off a loan that had a higher interest for a longer term, but I looked at it from a couple different angles and realized it's real. Mainly, I'm being cautions because it's a shitload of money and I didn't want to make a stupid decision that I was going to be stuck with for a long time. Bozart posted:Keep in mind that home loan interest is tax deductible, which gives you something like a 30% rebate. And student loan interest is not, so you should basically always pay the student loan stuff first and borrow as much as you can on the house to make that happen faster. And your auto loan is almost certainly at a higher rate as well. Go with the thirty year, then throw all of your excess cash at those 2 problems first. The good news is we're getting 0.9% on the auto loan, so that's nearly free money (except for the whole paying interest on a depreciating item...but whatever). My student loan is 5.75% fixed, so that'll probably be the plan of attack.
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Aug 7, 2015 23:26
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Is it just my area, or is every "single family" house on Zillow a goddam townhouse?
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Aug 25, 2015 00:30
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minivanmegafun posted:It's your area. SFHs in Chicago are mostly unattached. I thought SFH was unattached by definition. I was just assuming everyone in my area is trying to unload their stupid townhouses so they list it as single family just to bait people.
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Aug 25, 2015 01:02
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OK question time again: 1) I'm in North Carolina. I learned that there's a thing called Due Diligence payment. I guess the laws are written such that there is a Due Diligence Date in the contract, which allows the buyer to perform due diligence on the property and back out without losing earnest money. As long as you back out before the "due diligence" date, you will get your earnest money back. In practice, this is used by sellers to charge a fee for the privilege of opening up their home to your inspectors. The law allows this, and the law allows the seller to keep that money. The idea is that it's a protection for the seller against people screwing around and the seller having to re-list. I have read that it is generally lower than $1,000, and I THINK it counts towards the house if you make it to closing, but otherwise it's the seller's to keep. Sounds to me like double dipping on the concept of earnest money... Is this hosed up, or is this pretty normal? Can I expect an offer to be accepted without it? Maybe compensate by offering higher earnest money? I don't like the idea of scummy sellers just collecting due diligence money and relisting a dozen times until they find a buyer who doesn't bother to get an inspection done. 2) My wife works with someone who has a realtor license, but doesn't practice full time (this person't husband is, however, a full-time realtor). They claim that in NC, we can NOT make the purchase contingent on an inspection. Basically, we have to use the above due diligence period to rush an inspection (depending on how much time is negotiated), and hope that we find stuff prior to losing earnest money. Is this anywhere near correct, or is it a misinterpretation (or malicious explanation) of how things actually work? 3) Unfinished basement: does that count towards total square footage or not? I was under the impression that any unfinished areas do NOT count towards total square footage, however see below house...total sq ft seems awfully high for the basement not being counted. 4) What's wrong with this house: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/307-Montibello-Dr_Cary_NC_27513_M69528-22428?row=1 The listing tries to hide it, so let me show you: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.823...5m1!1e4!6m1!1e1 Basically it's built on the downslope of a hill. It looks worse in person...we drove by yesterday and holy crap. So will this cause any issues with water beating the hell out of the foundation? Or is this more of an inconvenience?
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Sep 7, 2015 15:50
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Dik Hz posted:1) It's negotiable. Ask your realtor what it customary in your neighborhood. Then disregard their advise because they want to you put more money up front so you're more likely to close and make them easy money. I do know that it's negotiable, and I've read that many areas actually don't expect anything... but this is Cary, and by all accounts it's nearly impossible to buy good houses. I'm mainly concerned that our offer would get thrown out immediately because a Due Diligence Fee wasn't included. I guess when it comes time we'll just lowball it to maybe $100 or something if our realtor absolutely insists that we give something...I was just blown away by the concept of it. If you're not going to be up front about the condition of your house when you're trying to sell it, then why am I the rear end in a top hat for wanting to inspect it without paying you? You put a high ticket item up for sale, then it's fair game for scrutiny. quote:2) Your wife's coworker is wrong. You can go the route of purchase being contingent on inspection. There's a second type of contract where you can only withdraw for certain reasons. Your real estate agent can explain the different between the two types to you. Good to know. Though "only withdraw for certain reasons" sounds scary and potentially costly. quote:4) I sincerely hope you don't have to make a left turn out of your sub-division in morning rush hour. Yeah...we noticed that immediately as we were coming out of the neighborhood. We actually live in an apartment nearby, so we know how bad Harrison gets. Between that and the below-grade lay, we're probably going to ignore that house unless we get desperate.
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Sep 9, 2015 00:23
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QuarkJets posted:That's true everywhere Yeah, but this seems to be a particularly high demand area. It's dead center between Raleigh and Durham, with easy access to the major freeway connecting both. It's minutes away from an international airport (without being in the flight paths), and is renowned for having very good schools. It is home to over 140,000 people, yet the "downtown" area is a blip on the radar. It's literally a giant suburb, but without the downside of being too far from the city. And therein lies the problem. The pile of reasons that make us want to get a house here are the very reasons that attract everyone else to the area. Not to mention, lots of rich people inbound to the growing Research Triangle Park, which is hiring lots of high-paying positions, many of which are established professionals, often with advanced degrees, and are toting their family along and are desperate to get out of a rental and in to a house. So yeah...we're in for a bumpy ride. We're not dead set on this area, but it's certainly our main focus.
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Sep 9, 2015 02:12
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Bathroom carpet. WHY???
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Jan 15, 2016 02:28
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Grumpwagon posted:For the super fun experience of your toilet catastrophically overflowing at 3 am, so you have to frantically tear it out in the middle of the night. It's great! Yeah...it's pretty much an instant NO to any house with that. If we had to, the carpet would be gone in a week. Also that house just went under contract. Our market sucks...or we're being too picky. Our basic criteria are: 0.2+ acres 2000+ sq ft 3+ bed 2+ bath 2+ car garage Max price $350k There are 5 active properties in our search area. We're looking in/around Cary, NC (including Morrisville and Apex). We've only seen about 8 properties in person, and our realtor sent us video walkthroughs of a few others and they were extremely "meh." Usually ends up that they're very dated, or have wacky layouts. So all that said, when to we start compromising or just saying "gently caress it good enough?" Our realtor seems to be hung up on things like slightly off layouts, anything but 9ft smooth ceilings, etc. Certainly things worth considering, but I worry that he's trying to find us the PERFECT house... What are the things we're going to regret compromising on in 5, 10, 20 years? We found an awesome house that got an offer on it the morning after we looked at it. We're trying to get a back-up offer in, but they're asking for $3k more than list...I don't hold out hope that anything will come of it... House hunting sucks. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Jan 16, 2016 |
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Jan 16, 2016 21:17
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Rurutia posted:You're going to have a really hard time there with that criteria. I've helped buy 3 houses there and purely based on school district the prices higher. Please update on how it goes. Yeah, we've figured that one out already...we're barely at it and there's just about nothing. We can either get a house that is nice, but has a 20 year old roof or other expensive imminent repairs (but will still sell fast and for over list), or we can get a 2005 house on a 0.1 acre plot in a cookie-cutter subdivision. We don't want a ton of land, we just want a reasonable backyard for a dog and small garden. Also, we don't want to be able to high-five our neighbors without leaving the house...
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Jan 16, 2016 21:44
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Brennanite posted:A 2000+ sq ft home on 0.1 acres? Does the property exist more than six inches beyond the edges of the house? My parents' house is 1200 sq ft on 0.17 acres and that is the minimum ratio of house to land that should be acceptable. Hahahaha that's cute. Observe: Street View Satellite view 2400 Sq. Ft house on 0.11 acres. We've been inside it...it's nice. But the list price is $319k...it's not that nice. Apparently it's under contract now, so there are people that will buy these things. Slab foundation, shoehorned in, cookie cutter garbage. But people are still buying them up left and right... And believe me, this is not the worst offender. I've seen listings for bigger houses on less land. They're still single family detached, but basically in name only...not even sure you can get a lawn mower between those houses. edit: It's becoming clear that unless we wait forever, that "perfect house" just won't come by. Or when it does, the market around here is so hot that we'll have to put up a boatload of money to even have a chance. So here are the list of things that we're probably going to have to start looking at sooner or later: Longer Commute - Trying to keep to around 30 minutes max. Beyond that is lost time every single day. Smaller Lot - We don't need or want a huge lot, but again I don't want to be crammed in Older Construction - Usually combines with immediate repairs and old appliances, but also needs remodeling if we don't want to get destroyed at resale Cheaper Construction - Usually combines with small lots, potential for expensive repairs down the road Worse schools - No interest in paying for private schools Immediate repairs (roof, HVAC, plumbing, etc) - One time (not really) cost, but big up-front cost means we can't afford as much house Old/dated appliances - Similar to above...could be good in that we buy what we want, but again big up-front cost Of all these things, which would we regret the least/most? DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 20:52
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So far the only places I've checked for mortgages are our credit union, and a bank recommended by someone at work. Are these online lenders really worth looking in to? Yes, we got the line "ooooh don't go giving your information to everyone that's how you get junk mail!!!" from the bank we're talking to primarily. Our credit union is hard to talk to, but only because the mortgage person assigned to us was out on medical leave or something for a while. The rates we're being quoted by both are on the low end of what's CFPB.gov is listing for rates in our area/credit score. Is that the end of it, or should we start looking at other lenders?
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Jan 22, 2016 02:15
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Andy Dufresne posted:It would be foolish not to check zillow given the amount of money at stake. You may not find anything better but there's a good chance you will for almost 0 effort. That's great and all, but if I do find better rates/closing costs, how do I separate the scummy BS from the legit offers?
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Jan 22, 2016 14:25
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Andy Dufresne posted:Why would you think there's scummy stuff on Zillow? Tons of us in this thread have used it and I haven't heard a single horror story. Being a big website on the internet that relies on advertising dollars, I just assumed that they perform no vetting, so Bob's Discount Mortgages can advertise super low costs and then jack everything up at the last minute. If that's not the case then I have no problem checking it out. It's totally an assumption on my part.
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Jan 22, 2016 15:15
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So question on Zillow mortgages: What's included in their fees they show? Some show as low as $88....so I'm going to go ahead and call BS on that. The 2 places we're looking are more or less listing the following as part of closing costs (not including insurance/tax/etc stuff paid in advance): Origination fee Appraisal Fee Credit Report Fee Tax Service Fee Flood certification fee Closing/Escrow fee Lender's title insurance Owner's title insurance Mortgage recording charge The origination fee alone is on the order of $2,000 (for a $330k house), and the rest of the fees add up to something on the order of another $2,000. So which of the above fees are included in the number shown on Zillow, and which ones will I need to account for at closing?
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Jan 23, 2016 17:27
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martyrdumb posted:We are not looking for a fixer-upper. The Tread Title posted:Joke's on you, ALL houses are money pits. Case in point: Guy at work just bought a house. Inspection went fine. A week goes by, he discovers standing water in his crawl space. During inspection, it was only slightly damp, so the inspector assumed it was a small leak or something...turns out it's lovely drainage, and once the rain picked up it was fairly evident. Further, previous owner tried to fix it on the cheap, so while they "knew" about the problem, they "fixed" it so they're not liable. $3500 turns in to $1500 because he got a handyman (same one who fixed it previously) to do it on the cheap. Yup. And then 2 ago, he wakes up to the smell of gas. Turns out while fixing the crawl space, contractors might have hit a gas line. Nobody knows for sure, but he had to get that fixed immediately of course. And while getting it fixed, he finds out his heater was never serviced, as evidenced by the original instructions, still in the plastic bag mere inches from a flame source. The plastic bag was partially melted, of course...could have been a real bad fire. So in less than 3 months, he had to spend over $2000 to fix existing problems on a house that the inspector said was just fine. Don't forget about roofs...seems like every house we've been interested has a roof that is nearly due for replacement. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jan 23, 2016 |
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Jan 23, 2016 23:06
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loving hell. A house comes on the market yesterday at 6:30pm. We get a notice from our realtor's MLS auto-search thingy because it matches our criteria. It's great. Like, beyond great. Exceeds all our minimum criteria, and has several things that put it head and shoulders above similar houses. It had a finished basement (in an area where a basement at all is unheard of). It had a good-sized kitchen. It had a 2-car garage that was pretty huge. It was on 0.35 acres, on a mature wooded lot, at the end of a subdivision and nobody directly behind (dead-end road that MIGHT be more low density residential some day). It has a deck, and a patio a short ways away . We send a note to our realtor instantly saying we're interested. This morning, at 11am, he finally gets back to us: The seller's agent was only taking showings at 1pm or later today. As of 11am today, 27 agents had already scheduled showings/previews for this afternoon. As of 11am today, some out of town buyers had already submitted a "super strong offer" that expired at noon today (they probably sent it in last night) As of 11am today, NOBODY had seen the property except for the pictures. in the listing. Meaning, these out of town buyers hadn't seen it in person and NEITHER HAD THEIR AGENT. As of 11am today, the sellers took the out of town buyers' offer. Son of a bitch. We've seen some houses disappear in 2-3 days around here, that's pretty typical for anything that's good. But less than 24 hours is insane. Our realtor's story, relayed from the seller's agent, is that these out of town buyers had already lost several multiple-offer scenarios on other houses, so apparently they just said gently caress it and went all in. Not going to lie, they probably made a really good buy. I hope the house is infested with termites. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Jan 29, 2016 |
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Jan 29, 2016 00:50
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slap me silly posted:Not picking on you at all but it is very thread-apropos to point out that the difference between the sale price and the purchase price is usually way way bigger than the actual profit made on a house. Yup....you lose probably 6% of the sale price instantly in agent fees. Then you have other closing costs...I don't know what sellers have to eat, but I'm sure it's something. Don't forget all the costs (if not just time) that you eat to clean the place up, stage it, and otherwise get it ready for showing. Then you have all the interest you've paid in to the mortgage that vaporized in to the ether, never to be seen again. Then you have plain old inflation which, unbeknownst to you, has been eating away at your sale price since the day you bought the house. Then you have all the costs of repairs/upgrades that you put in to the house that you'll never get back. Then you have all the costs associated with moving. Then you have all the costs associated with buying a new house (if you're going that route). And if you want to get REALLY nasty, you also have the lost opportunity cost of what that money could have been doing. That cash could have gone in to your retirement account and made 5+% if you're good. But that's a tough one because it assumes you weren't spending that money on living expenses. Dammit, now I'm starting to feel bad for sellers...
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Jan 30, 2016 21:31
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OK so I hosed up. We put an offer on a nice looking house, and they accepted it. poo poo. So what the hell do I do with lenders? We have one we've been working with for the pre-qual, and now we need to get the loan estimate from him and at least our credit union. Our realtor has a few suggestions for lenders, but I'm not sure if it's worth exploring at this point. If I want to "shop" for mortgages, am I going to have to pay a lot of money in application fees and whatnot? Our current lender is stating it will take 3 days to get a Loan Estimate. Is that BS, or legit? He hasn't mentioned any application fees yet, but I know they're around the corner...he says once we send him a copy of the purchase contract, he can execute a rate lock....so high pressure sales, awesome. Mainly, my issue is that our realtor wants us to decide on a lender TODAY so they can get to work with appraisals and whatnot...so again, poo poo.
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Mar 4, 2016 15:18
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Frown Town posted:I was in this same situation last week. Shop around asap and you may be able to leverage lenders' offers against each other. I was able to lower my rate from 3.625 to 3.5 at the local credit union that pre-approved me. Credit Union sent me a Loan Estimate of 3.625. Asked a mortgage broker for a Loan Estimate at 3.5, took it back to Credit Union, then Credit Union matched the rate and gave me more credits. We wrote off our credit union last night. They've been pretty awful in terms of responding to us. They're slow and don't really answer the questions we ask. They just want to fill the paperwork out and get things moving. Which is too bad...their rate is a tad higher, and their closing costs are much higher, BUT we'd be eligible for a bonus dividend every year based on how much interest we paid on the loan...which for last year was about $200. That adds up quick. Plus, we already bank with them, so paying them is dead simple, and being that they're a credit union they're unlikely to sell the loan. So I spoke with the 2 recommendations that my agent gave us. They're both correspondent lenders. One was pretty good to talk to, the other was being a little pushy and kept asking "what do you need to think about? What's stopping you from going with us right now?" So he's toast...his rate was higher anyhow. is there anything sketchy about a correspondent lender? I never heard of that until yesterday. The downside is that they sell the loan instantly, but other than that they seem like they're going to give us the best deal in terms of both the rate and the closing costs. Is there anything I should watch out for? The main reason this guy was recommended by our agent is because he's worked with him for a long time and has a history of working closely with our agent and closing on time with no issues. Our agent claims there's no kickbacks, but even if there were I can't see how we will get screwed by this. If we don't close, our agent doesn't get anything, so he has no reason to recommend bad lenders. Our other option is a direct lender that we've been working with for pre-qual stuff since October. This lender claims to retain 90% or more of the loans they originate. He's been really responsive and great to work with, so we hate to ditch him, but he really can't compete with the offer of the correspondent lender. I don't look forward to having our loan serviced by Big Bank Conglomerate Inc., but for the $3,000+ we're about to save on closing costs and the lower rate, I think we'll survive. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Mar 5, 2016 |
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Mar 5, 2016 19:50
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So what do I need to watch out for in an HOA covenant? I've never had to deal with an HOA, but after a quick glance, I already see that I have to pay some schmuck $275 for a goddamn mailbox if mine were destroyed/in ill repair. And that, while the HOA encourages planting flowers/trees/shrubs, we need to get permission from the architectural committee before planting anything. Anything. However, the website seems to indicate that there hasn't been a board meeting since April 2010. Aside from that, the last posting on the website is a newsletter from January 2015. They seem to be rather defunct...but I don't want to be foreclosed on if I decide to put down some grass seed without prior approval.
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Mar 6, 2016 23:14
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So first, thanks everyone for the replies to my questions earlier...between trying to get poo poo ready for closing, and trying to work, it's been insane. I have some more questions about what we need to do before closing. Basically, what the hell do we need to do outside of a few basic things? Mainly, what sort of inspections/work do we need to get done? Here's what we already have scheduled/selected: -Lender selected (barring issues with Loan Estimate) -Closing Attorney/escrow agent selected (should take care of title stuff) -Home Inspection -Appraisal (to be ordered by lender once paperwork is signed) -Home insurance (State farm, we're already with them for auto/renters insurance) Here's what we may or may not do, depending on what is recommended/needed: Radon test (either by home inspector or 3rd party) Pest (termite) inspection Survey HVAC inspection Plumbing inspection Electrical inspection Structural inspection So what do we REALLY need to do out of the 2nd list of items? The radon test and pest inspection are definitely going to be done. Possibly the survey as well, but we have a copy of the original survey so I'm not sure it's really needed. The house was built in 1999, so it's not super old. We already know the roof is original, so we'll just rely on the home inspector to check it out and if he has any concerns we'll get a 2nd opinion. The HVAC was replaced in 2013, but that doesn't mean there aren't other issues...a guy I work with just bought a house and had to get a shitload of stuff done because he didn't get an HVAC inspecton, so we're a little cautious there. I think his HVAC is older, but I guess it was just poorly done. This is something our agent is saying we should probably have done, but he's not insisting on it. Our agent is saying the plumbing, electrical, and structural inspections are probably not needed unless the home inspector suggests them. The only reason we thought of getting a structural inspection done is because there's a screw-jack in the crawl space for some reason; it's placed right below the kitchen sink. The sellers claim that it was put there by a contractor who recommended it due to a large HVAC duct manifold right next to it. They made no mention of any actual evidence of structural issues; seems like it was a "hey it couldn't hurt" sort of thing. Or they're trying to hide something, but they seem pretty ignorant of most things so I doubt it. This contractor was apparently there to install a new vapor barrier in the crawl space, as well as beadboard in the kitchen...so we have no idea what this person's credentials were. Might just be he was taking them for a ride.
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Mar 8, 2016 15:32
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No Butt Stuff posted:Radon and Pest. I'd have the survey done as well because it isn't that expensive and if you ever want to build an addition or put up a fence or tell your neighbor to stop parking his shitbox on your lawn, you'll need it. We have the survey from when the buyers got the place in 1999 (right after it was built) There don't appear to be any significant changes...the deck was existing, so that's included in the survey. There are no changes to the lot that we're aware of, but of course we'll want to re-check that before definitely saying no to a survey. Only thing we see is a raised garden (looks like it's enclosed with landscaping bricks), but I'm pretty sure that's outside the property line almost exactly. The adjacent lot is a drainage ditch, so the property belongs to the HOA. I'm betting the sellers wanted a garden and didn't want to put up with HOA bullshit, so they put it right outside the property line so they could claim ignorance or something. Anyhow, if nothing apparent has changed, is it still worth it? Our attorney says it'll cost about $450 to order a survey. He recommends doing a survey, but of course he does because it would be extra legal cover. Our agent is against it, because we have the original survey. All that said, we DO want to put up a fence. That might be one of the first things we do after we move in. Other than that, we don't foresee any additions, but who knows. All I could really think of doing is a bigger deck, but that's almost certainly not worth it unless we find ourselves still in this house in 10 years...if we make it that far, we're probably in it for the long haul. slap me silly posted:On the other hand my licensed home inspector wrote a gigantic report yet somehow managed to miss a glaring plumbing problem and a glaring roof leak that cost me $2500 in total and would have been picked up in 2 seconds by the respective experts or even by me now that I've lived through it. So maybe not. So the guy at work who had to do a bunch on his HVAC (and now he strongly recommends that I do an HVAC inspection)? He also had water in his crawl space. Apparently the inspector thought it was a leak, but instead he needed $3,500 to install drainage channels around the house. I think he talked it down to $1,500 to have a handyman half-rear end it. Oddly enough, this is the same handyman who had "fixed" it a few years back for the previous owners...again, half-assed. But since they tried to fix it, they weren't liable...
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Mar 8, 2016 20:34
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Wait...you can deduct state income taxes from your federal tax? What are the limitations? Is it means tested or otherwise only up to a certain amount, or can you deduct the full amount paid regardless of your income level? Because drat....that completely changes my view of itemizing. The mortgage interest doesn't really make it worth it on its own, but I'm pretty sure state income tax will put us over the standard deduction.
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Mar 10, 2016 15:01
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Just need to make a quick sanity check here: How critical is it that the mortgage application is filled out 100% correct right off the bat? There are a few inaccuracies in it, but nothing major. All the important numbers are correct, just that they mixed up my phone number a couple times, and for our assets they just wrote the total number we said we had available...no bank information or anything as we haven't sent that over yet. The problem is we're e-signing these through Encompass. The lender pre-populated all the fields based on a worksheet we filled out and sent them. So we can't make changes; all we can do is click a button to sign it. The processor says she can't fix and re-send them due to the timeline, and that it's not really all that important because we will be "signing and final and corrected version at closing." She says she'll make changes after we sign it and then she'll forward them to us... Is that accurate? I just want to make sure that a) I'm not being taken for a ride and b) having a wrong phone number isn't going to cause the whole thing to grind to a halt 1 day before closing.
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Mar 11, 2016 14:09
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Andy Dufresne posted:If the processor submitting the application says they'll make the changes I wouldn't worry too much, but it depends on what the discrepancies are. Phone numbers aren't a big deal, the assets may be. But you're going to have to provide verification for those later on anyways, so at worst they'll deny you when you get to that point. That's what I thought, it just set off a couple red flags. The first being it feels like they want us to hurry up and sign the paperwork, accuracy be damned. But that's perfectly understandable, since we're absolutely on a timeline and need to get this moving. The other is that I've heard nothing but warnings and paranoia about making sure that every tiny detail is 100% correct or else it'll all come crashing down at the end. But that said, we're corresponding over e-mail, so at least there's a paper trail we can point to to say that we tried to fix it.
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Mar 11, 2016 14:31
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When is it safe to start consolidating funds from our various savings/checking accounts in to a single account for the purposes of making the down payment? Most of our money is at one bank, so I don't expect that shuffling things around there will be a problem, but my wife has a decent chunk at a different bank that we will have to transfer somehow. We asked the lender and they said it could trigger a "sourcing request" that we would have to respond to. Are we going to gently caress up our closing by moving money around? Should we do it now so everyone has time to settle down and not freak out? Or should we wait until the last minute? Also for the down payment: Our lender says a wire transfer will be best, rather than us getting a cashier's check. First, is that right? Second, how the hell do we do a wire transfer? edit: important information, we are closing on April 28. We have had all our inspections done and sent a laundry list of repairs that the seller has agreed to make, so we're well on our way barring any surprises. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Apr 1, 2016 |
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Apr 1, 2016 13:55
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So we're closing on Thursday, and we're going to have a few immediate repairs to do. We have some wood rot to take care of (just a couple spots), the steps on the front porch are tilted (concrete landing sank a bit, just need to level out the bottom somehow). And then we are also looking in to venting the microwave outside (backs to the garage, so easy to run some duct outside). Is this all Handyman work? Or should we call a general contractor for any of this? I'm not used to this whole home repair thing...never had to hire a handyman for anything. Not sure where to draw the line between what they do versus what a GC would do.
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Apr 25, 2016 16:18
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No Butt Stuff posted:The wood rot can be handled by a handyman or house painter. The steps need to be mudjacked (they'll try to sell you polyjack, just do mud) and you'll need a concrete repair company for that. Not sure about the microwave venting. I left out an important detail: The steps are wood; it's just the landing that is concrete. The posts for the hand rails are embedded in the dirt so they're fine, but the stringers for the steps just rest on the concrete landing. So it should just be a matter of "shimming" the stringers with something that won't get eaten by termites and can support the load. Shouldn't be more than 2-3 inches at the most, and that's probably way more than it actually requires. Probably need to re-secure the steps to the porch, since the existing nails/screws/whatever are probably bent...that'll probably be the hardest part. Andy Dufresne posted:The microwave venting is something that's inspectors point out for no reason IMO. Almost no microwaves are actually vented to the outside, ask your friends and family to check theirs. It's not in the realm of repairs, it's an upgrade, so make sure you're appropriately evaluating how much it's worth to you. To clarify: the microwave is not currently vented; we would be adding a microwave vent. We do a lot of cooking and are constantly setting off the smoke alarm when frying/searing/etc. Since the microwave backs up to the garage, it should be pretty easy to run the vent line to the outside world. We know it's an upgrade, but we wanted to get this done right off the bat if it's going to be easy. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Apr 25, 2016 |
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Apr 25, 2016 19:10
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Just closed, waiting for deed to be recorded. That was fun. Anyhow, the sellers aren't giving up the code to the alarm system. What gives? First, they have been advised by the monitoring company to "not arm the system any more effective today because the account has been discontinued." That's fine, we don't want monitoring, but if I want to arm the system I'm going to arm the system. Second, they've also told us that the "installer's code" is proprietary and will not be given to us. So how the hell do we reset the alarm code? Is this typical? I don't know anything about home alarm systems...we've been given the contact info for the seller's account manager at the monitoring company and we were told to talk to him. Sounds the monitoring company is telling the seller a bunch of BS to make us call them so they can try to talk us in to getting service from them, or to charge us for someone to come out and change the codes for us. This is in North Carolina...all I can find in the contract is that "Possession, including all means of access to the Property (keys, codes, garage door openers, etc.), shall be delivered upon Closing [...]" I don't know if we can force the issue or if they legitimately can't give us the code.
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Apr 28, 2016 18:07
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Pryor on Fire posted:Alarm companies are generally pieces of poo poo that do the absolute bare minimum (and often not that) to get you to keep paying their monthly fee. Maybe it was worth it back in the 80s or whenever burglary was actually statistically significant, I'd just rip all that poo poo out nowadays. Yeah, we were planning on running it unmonitored (if at all). We don't plan on getting service, we just want the drat code so we can disarm it if it gets set off.
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Apr 28, 2016 18:55
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No Butt Stuff posted:Guess you should've written it into the contract? What is their logic exactly? I guess...the text of the contract doesn't appear to call out alarm system codes specifically, and our agent is saying the same thing, so we seem to be stuck. I have absolutely no idea what their angle is. It can't be that difficult to write down a 4 digit code or whatever...the only thing I can think is that maybe they use the same code for their ATM pin? I dunno. They seem to be doing everything in their power to avoid giving us the code...very weird. And the weirdest part is they're not even refusing directly. Our agent asked for it last night, got no response. He asked again at closing today, and their agent said she would get it. Then the response we get is "don't arm the system call the monitoring company." canyoneer posted:Seller not giving you alarm codes is exactly why you have a realtor. We've tried. He claims they have no contractual obligation to give it to us, and I guess that's true looking at the contract. He's asked them several times and they just won't give it up. His suggestion is to try to figure out which buttons have the least dust on them and just start punching those in every combination... And also we just closed today, so we're SOL as far as leverage. I guess it's my bad for assuming it was a simple request. This seems like the easiest thing in the world...I'm just confused as to why they won't give us a straight answer.
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Apr 28, 2016 20:09
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OSU_Matthew posted:If I were you, I'd absolutely go with a sternly worded letter with lawyer letterhead, because they are contractually obligated to give you the codes for access. Thought about it, but frankly... quote:
Yeah, I'm probably going to go that route instead. I've been dreaming about home automation for the last 5 years, I just didn't have a home to automate. We're already planning on getting the Nest thermostats (2...dual zone). No idea when the smoke detectors were last replaced, so we'll probably automate those as well. I'd love to get cameras set up, but that'll be expensive as well...the list is endless, but so is the price tag, so we're probably going to start off with the thermostats and work up from there. That said, I work in industrial automation, so I could pretty easily rig something up for the alarm system. Completely different stuff, but in the end it's all just switches going back to a controller. If I can figure out how to wire the switches in to a home automation system, then I can just rip out the rest of it. At the end of the day, this is a super safe neighborhood. I see absolutely no need to have the alarm code except to disarm it...so I'm probably just going to un-wire the existing controller.
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Apr 30, 2016 20:33
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OSU_Matthew posted:
It is my understanding the main point of this is for color temperature control. Obviously yes, you can go disco nightclub or have the house appear haunted to intruders, but I don't think those are the main selling points. Is there a home automation thread anywhere? I don't want to take over this thread, but I'd definitely like to learn more. Also lawn care...is there a thread for that as well? The biggest problem with the house we bought is that the yard is in horrible shape. We knew this going in, but now that it's May everything is going crazy, so we want to try to at least tame some of the weeds before they take over the neighborhood (or the HOA yells at us).
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May 1, 2016 15:34
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Medullah posted:Might not be the right thread for it, but oh well. That's called a sidelight window. We learned this the hard way. It's surprisingly difficult to find window treatments for those if you don't know what they're called... took a while googling to stumble on that term, and once we did it was a lot easier to find stuff. We have these on both sides of our front door, and we opted for curtains. I think we got the curtain rods at Lowe's, and maybe the curtains online at JC Penny? There's several different options. We bought I guess a standard type curtain... it's not a blackout curtain, but it's not sheer. Pro-tip: sidelight curtains have a top and bottom rod pocket, so it's a bit more challenging to hang than a standard curtain. Take time to measure/line everything up. With all the molding/fiddly crap and small margins around the windows, you don't want to mount the top rod and find out that the bottom rod ends up short of the window or something. Koivunen posted:My question is regarding having him stay at the house after it is listed. If there is only a bed in the house, is it obvious that someone is staying there, and if so, is that bad? There’s not tons of random violent crime and there hasn’t been a murder in the neighborhood since we’ve been there (six years). A lot of breaking/entering and vandalism does happen, and that’s what we are worried about. We are unsure if he will stay there after it’s listed, if he does it’s for the protection of the house. If the neighborhood is as bad as you say, then you're probably not going to have people turning their nose up at the situation. Honestly most of the houses I viewed were still full of stuff and obviously-inhabited. Occasionally they'd be completely empty, but rarely. So it'd be odd to have just 1 bed in an otherwise empty house, but I don't think that's going to be a big deal. Maybe have him use an inflatable mattress and toss it in his car when he leaves? Residency Evil posted:With regard to the 7/1 ARM versus 30 year mortgage option, does the thought regarding 30-year vs 7/1 change if we're planning on paying it off in under 10-15 years? I mean short answer is yes, but the follow-up is why not get a 15 year fixed then? The problem with ARMs is you have literally no idea what the rate will adjust to. But since rates are historically low and are on an upward trend, I would be pretty confident that they're going to go up in 7 years. If you can pay it off in 7 years, then by all means get the ARM. Maybe just start crunching the numbers? Figure out what you'll pay over 15 years on the ARM using worst case interest hikes, then re-calculate using best case interest hikes, then the same for a 30 year (or 15 year). Easier said than done, but it's the only real way to see how much you're paying. The ideal situation is to pick whichever gives you the lowest overall dollar figure, but also consider "what if" scenarios. A 30 year fixed gives you a predictable minimum payment, so if you pay it off on a 15 year schedule and then lose your job, you can drop down to a lower payment until you get back on your feet.
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Nov 1, 2018 14:26
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The House Buying Thread: How will you ever know how much you got scammed?
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Nov 8, 2018 14:15
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