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My step mom works in the title insurance industry. I think she's above the level where she'd hear stories of claims, but I should ask her if she's got any.
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Jan 21, 2023 20:41
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Popete posted:Buying a home is a real eye opening process in how inefficient the entire real estate system is, maybe inefficient is the wrong word because it is incredibly good at sucking every last dollar it can from the buyer/seller. Realistically that's not what you're paying for. You're paying someone to dig through records and find any/all encumbrances against the property. So it's not just to make sure the title is valid and actually yours, but to hunt down any undisclosed easements or liens that are buried in the records somewhere. Also of concern is if the seller hires a bunch of contractors to fix up the place prior to selling and then skips town on payment, which could result in a bunch of mechanic's liens being filed after closing. I don't know if that's a default coverage or extra, though, but it's something to ask about.
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Jan 21, 2023 20:54
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The only person I feel like I've got a good bit of respect for in this whole process has been the escrow attorney we are using. He's one paranoid motherfucker about wire transfer instructions because of all the scammers constantly trying to get the transfers sent to accounts they control, and I appreciate that.
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Jan 22, 2023 05:43
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Yeah my real estate attorney was vital as a first time buyer, they are the only person during the whole process solely looking out for your interests and they were very helpful explaining things. I know some people don't hire a lawyer but she paid for herself easily.
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Jan 22, 2023 05:49
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Hadlock posted:Not only is it an estimate, but the estimate is usually thousands of dollars off. Most of the people processing your loan can just barely work a computer and their email system. Thread title reigns supreme the exact day you close determines how many days of interest you'll pay up front to cover the days until the first billing period, so that's always an estimate until the day you sign the actual home owners insurance you get will determine your up-front insurance premium; the estimate is just some random "average" of what people pay or possibly a quote from some random insurer, so that's always an estimate until you have the final papers I think property tax is also a variable but that may depend on state/county/city - pro-rated to the day you close, you pay only the amount owed for the remainder of the current taxed period, or some poo poo like that... so anyway yeah that's an estimate till the day you close the estimate may include "average" numbers for e.g. the notary or escrow co's fees, because you or the bank might switch to a different or specific notary and/or escrow co. depending on who is actually available for the day you wind up closing so tl;dr the number isn't wildly off because of incompetence, it's because you might not close on a specific pre-estimated day and there are variables that aren't in the control of the lender or broker writing the closing estimate that doesn't rule out the possibility of incompetence also leading to additional wrong numbers, of course
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Jan 22, 2023 07:52
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Pretty much all of those could be given in a table of Closing Dates and corresponding not-to-exceed Estimates though. Make someone other than the buyer and seller responsible for when the estimate is too low and I'm sure you'd see those estimates get really loving accurate.
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Jan 22, 2023 14:32
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Shifty Pony posted:Pretty much all of those could be given in a table of Closing Dates and corresponding not-to-exceed Estimates though. In fact there is a tolerance and if the gap is too large then they have to issue a new estimate and you have to wait another 3 days before closing. But the bank also can’t control who you select for a closing agent or for insurance. There are too many variables to really nail it down.
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Jan 22, 2023 18:41
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I love how everyone involved on the financing side of things acts like yours is the first mortgage they’ve ever even heard of.
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Jan 23, 2023 00:34
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Dik Hz posted:I love how everyone involved on the financing side of things acts like yours is the first mortgage they’ve ever even heard of. Sighs, taps thread title. And it really is every time. New mortgages especially but also refis.
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Jan 23, 2023 00:39
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Motronic posted:Sighs, taps thread title. We're never getting rid of this title. It's truly evergreen.
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Jan 23, 2023 04:09
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Oh you want to borrow money to buy a house? Let me check to see if we can do that.
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Jan 23, 2023 21:18
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Leperflesh posted:
Not bucking for a new thread title, but I just want to point out that if we didn't have the FOREVER GOAT thread title this would be a strong loving contender. Basically the Drew Brees of thread titles.
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Jan 23, 2023 22:44
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Elephanthead posted:Oh you want to borrow money to buy a house? Let me check to see if we can do that. I just had this experience, but with wiring my earnest money. AmEx didn’t send any kind of confirmation and when I called to get documentation they helpfully informed me “we don’t do that”. Welp, as it turns out they do if you become annoying enough. That was a nice extra helping of stress
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Jan 23, 2023 22:56
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Elephanthead posted:Oh you want to borrow money to buy a house? Let me check to see if we can do that. This, but you talked to them at 9:05am and the email containing their response was sent at 5:15pm on a Friday, and they close at 5 The next email you get from them will also be at 5:15 monday evening wanting to talk at Tuesday 4:45pm where they'll request a document over the phone that you could have prepped at any time monday or tuesday. Even if you rush and get them the doc before 4:59pm you won't get a response back until wednesday at 4:30pm when they request another document world's slowest game of telephone 
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Jan 23, 2023 23:08
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I had the opposite experience, but I used a mortgage broker. That was more like: initial phone call after 5 pm, sent over a bunch of documents that night, got pre-approval the next day. Dude was motivated, and really easy to work with.
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Jan 23, 2023 23:26
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The pre-approval's the easy part.
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Jan 23, 2023 23:28
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Muir posted:I had the opposite experience, but I used a mortgage broker. That was more like: initial phone call after 5 pm, sent over a bunch of documents that night, got pre-approval the next day. Dude was motivated, and really easy to work with. Getting a preapproval means that you have a pulse. They are literally meaningless and non binding because nobody is verifying anything you tell them. It proves to sellers that you at least kinda are vaguely aware that a mortgage is a thing you'll probably need.
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Jan 23, 2023 23:31
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Getting rates from other folks and then getting my actual mortgage from my regular bank made the process pretty simple. Would recommend as they have yet to sell my loan and probably won't.
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Jan 23, 2023 23:39
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real estate agents are parasites
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Jan 24, 2023 00:08
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Motronic posted:Getting a preapproval means that you have a pulse. They are literally meaningless and non binding because nobody is verifying anything you tell them. Well, he was equally prompt and responsive through the rest of the process as well. I'm sure he was well incentivized to get deals done, of course, but it was a good experience on my end customer service wise. Upgrade posted:real estate agents are parasites Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's perfectly possible to buy a house without using a real estate agent. Hire a real estate attorney to handle the transaction and coordinate title insurance and the like, find houses you want to make offers on by yourself, etc. If you don't see the value in using one, don't. Muir fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Jan 24, 2023 |
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Jan 24, 2023 00:59
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We bought our house without an Agent. Yeah, they are 100% parasites. They fill out some paperwork and direct you through Zillow Listings for 3 - 5% of the purchase price. That service is worth maybe a tenth of that.
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Jan 24, 2023 01:04
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Motronic posted:It proves to sellers that you at least kinda are vaguely aware that a mortgage is a thing you'll probably need. Which as we noted in this thread puts you fat above a large number of real estate "professionals".
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Jan 24, 2023 01:13
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I will say that my mortgage broker has been 110% on the ball. We went from pre approval to "all underwriting done, just waiting on the title search" in seven days. Granted this was with me hounding them for ways to speed it along but still. I think business might be a bit slow right now.
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Jan 24, 2023 01:39
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:We bought our house without an Agent. Yeah, they are 100% parasites. They fill out some paperwork and direct you through Zillow Listings for 3 - 5% of the purchase price. That service is worth maybe a tenth of that. our place we bought wasn't listed in MLS (or Zillow, or anywhere) but our agent knew the people were gonna move in half year. in that case, in a hot area and for a desirable property, he was well worth his cut. otherwise I totally agree with you.
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Jan 24, 2023 01:41
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Buying a house is a stupid thing to do, and you might realize that and abort the process. The realtor is there to keep the wool over your eyes so the deal gets done
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Jan 24, 2023 01:43
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:We bought our house without an Agent. Yeah, they are 100% parasites. They fill out some paperwork and direct you through Zillow Listings for 3 - 5% of the purchase price. That service is worth maybe a tenth of that.
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Jan 24, 2023 01:44
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Slugworth posted:Realtor fees have always fallen on the seller when I've purchased my homes, is this a regional thing? I've never hesitated to use a realtor when buying, but every time I've sold it's been a bitter pill to swallow. I mean, that's technically true but it's a bit of a shell game. The seller typically splits their fee with the buyer's agent. At the end of the day, the money's still coming out of the purchase price that you pay. I don't know how it would work if one side isn't using a realtor.
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Jan 24, 2023 01:50
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Shifty Pony posted:I will say that my mortgage broker has been 110% on the ball. We went from pre approval to "all underwriting done, just waiting on the title search" in seven days. Yeah I've been a proponent of working with a broker for years. They get paid by the bank, not you, and while that cost is theoretically borne by the customer somewhere, my original mortgage and all three refinances over the last 13 years were cheap as gently caress because my broker is good. Even so, there were times he didn't return an email for two days. For our first refi we were basically like "we have no deadline or rush, but we want the best possible rate and lowest possible fees, any time in the next couple of months" and ideally he could have checked twice a day but realistically him checking a couple times a week was fine and we wound up with a refi that cost us zero dollars out of pocket (refund of pro-rated up front MIP covered up-front costs of like $1500) which was pretty sweet. He works with over 30 lenders, no way is any normal human being operating on their own gonna get 30 quotes before picking a lender. That's the broker's value-add. quote:I think business might be a bit slow right now.
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Jan 24, 2023 02:03
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pmchem posted:our place we bought wasn't listed in MLS (or Zillow, or anywhere) but our agent knew the people were gonna move in half year. in that case, in a hot area and for a desirable property, he was well worth his cut. otherwise I totally agree with you. Same thing for me, I had all but given up looking and got an email of a description that sounded promising but no photos cause the place wasn't even listed yet. Went and saw the property and it was exactly what I was looking for. Without the realtor I probably wouldn't have this place but as far as the actual home buying process goes my lawyer was a hundred times more useful.
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Jan 24, 2023 02:03
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Looked at a house today. Needed a bit of work that I could (and want to) do, but the neighborhood sucked. Too many houses where people just didn't give a poo poo to keep up the outsides. Ah well, the search continues.
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Jan 24, 2023 02:08
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Muir posted:I mean, that's technically true but it's a bit of a shell game. The seller typically splits their fee with the buyer's agent. At the end of the day, the money's still coming out of the purchase price that you pay. I don't know how it would work if one side isn't using a realtor.
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Jan 24, 2023 02:27
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Alright I have two very different questions: 1. I'm looking at condos in downtown Portland. Their value has dropped an easy 20% from peak a few months ago. A couple have been on the market at $450K for nearly 3 months in an area that would work for us both short and long term. The catch is, a lot of HOAs for these towers are in the $500-$1,000+ range. We can afford the lower end of that, but I'm struggling to figure out the value. I know a big chunk goes to exterior maintenance and a rainy-day fun. I've seen a couple which include "insurance" (not sure if that is homeowners' insurance?). Most include trash and water. I asked a real estate agent what is typically included in higher priced HOAs and he said it was a "loaded" question. 2. Another option my Fiancé and I are exploring is buying her family's house. Her mother (and her two siblings) inherited a house in the Bay Area which is now worth between $900K to $1.2M. I've looked into it a bit and it appears we could buy it from them at ~3.6% interest using the "Applicable Federal Rates" from the IRS. It gets a bit wonky. What I've pitched from them is to structure it so our payment is $3,000 per month. This ensures that after 30 years the overall payment is a $1M and each family member gets $1,000 per month basically for the rest of their lives. The only way this will really work is if we stay under Prop 13, so the property taxes are low, which I think is doable, but haven't gotten that deep into it. I normally hate dodging taxes, but considering my parents' house was foreclosed on and I'm going to die poor, I'm cutting myself some slack. Is this buy-from-family thing a terrible idea?
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Jan 24, 2023 08:03
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For #1 you could probably ask to see what the HOA covers. My HOA (and I think this is pretty standard) only covers the exterior of our town home, everything inside we have to cover with our own insurance which basically amounts to renter insurance. My brother who lives in NYC has really high HOA fees but that's because they cover property taxes. So again, you need to look at the actually HOA rules. #2 you would absolutely need to hire a lawyer to figure out how to structure that properly. EDIT: Also would the family even go along with that scheme? Seems like they would much prefer to just sell the place and get more money upfront instead of dealing with the hassle of a 30 year 0% interest payout. Popete fucked around with this message at 08:21 on Jan 24, 2023 |
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Jan 24, 2023 08:14
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Popete posted:For #1 you could probably ask to see what the HOA covers. My HOA (and I think this is pretty standard) only covers the exterior of our town home, everything inside we have to cover with our own insurance which basically amounts to renter insurance. My brother who lives in NYC has really high HOA fees but that's because they cover property taxes. So again, you need to look at the actually HOA rules. Yeah, for #1 I think I'll just need to contact the selling real estate agent? I'm trying to avoid getting a real estate agent until we are closer to actually buying. I also have enough real estate relatives that, I feel like we could probably do it ourselves with guidance and a real estate attorney. And for #2, absolutely. I figure that would be the first step if finally pulled the trigger on selling.
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Jan 24, 2023 08:23
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As discussed above as the buyer you do not (directly) pay a real estate agent so if you're holding off or thinking of not using one but the seller has one it's kind of a moot point. The seller is factoring in the total fee for both real estate agents so if you're going to use one or a relative you could just go ahead and have your realtor do the dirty work of gathering documents from the seller.
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Jan 24, 2023 08:40
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Popete posted:As discussed above as the buyer you do not (directly) pay a real estate agent so if you're holding off or thinking of not using one but the seller has one it's kind of a moot point. The seller is factoring in the total fee for both real estate agents so if you're going to use one or a relative you could just go ahead and have your realtor do the dirty work of gathering documents from the seller. It's not moot at all; being an unrepresented buyer has a bidding advantage, as the seller gets to keep the 3% fee that would have gone to the buyer's agent. Real estate agents are all con artists, so a seller's agent will try to secure the buyer's agent fee despite only representing the seller, but there's not any good reason to agree to this.
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Jan 24, 2023 09:21
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Mean Baby posted:Alright I have two very different questions: You'll have to figure out what HOA covers For us, it covers pool, gym, clubhouse*, two hot tubs, elevator maintenance, front desk staff, 5 day a week property managment staff, cleaning, vaccuming, garbage, hot water, actually probably cold water too, fire system/maintenance, the keyless rfid entry system/maintenance, a full time maintenance guy, plus yeah, rainy day fund we just had the exterior of our building repainted for the first time in 20 years, was looking pretty rough before that, and landscaping the entry + the courtyard, dealing with city regulations, paying a lawyer to interpret those regulations and make sure we're in compliance so we don't get sued. There's an annual inspection of your dryer vent to make sure it's not a fire hazard. I forget the other stuff. We probably pay the city for the mandated annual fire drill. A condo is a tiny city or village, you're not just paying for xyz, you're paying to run a village and all the services within. Services vary wildly from building to building. There are some buildings that were built in 2005-2009 where people just.... stopped paying HOA dues due to the meltdown, and their reserve fund is wildly behind, and so HOA dues are really high to catch up. I forget what the % is but you want a reserve fund of like, 60%? 90%? To cover xyz, your mortgage company will want to know what that number is. I'm not sure what the deal is in oregon but in california you have... i think it's called sb800 which basically fucks anyone trying to sell a condo less than 12 years old, unless you get a mortgage through ... new republic, i think. It's way more complex than that. $400-600 on a 4-20 unit condo is expected. Once you get in to the 30-600 unit range it's extremely common to have $750-1100/mo HOA dues. We pay ~$890/mo but all we pay is electric and internet and everything is handled besides the plumbing inside our condo. If (more like, when) the hot water heater breaks, it's covered by the HOA and the maintenance guy goes and does whatever it is he does. I don't even know where the hot water heater is in my building. if your HOA is really high, expect the $/sq ft to be lower to compensate, generally *  clubhouseco-ops are a whole different game, that's an east coast thing, you have to be interviewed and approved. coop fees also include property taxes typically. you'll know right away if it's a coop. that's the first thing they'll mention, just like a TIC Hadlock fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Jan 24, 2023 |
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Jan 24, 2023 11:00
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Mean Baby posted:The only way this will really work is if we stay under Prop 13, so the property taxes are low, which I think is doable, but haven't gotten that deep into it. I normally hate dodging taxes, but considering my parents' house was foreclosed on and I'm going to die poor, I'm cutting myself some slack. Is this buy-from-family thing a terrible idea?
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Jan 24, 2023 12:11
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Mean Baby posted:Alright I have two very different questions: The law that passed in 2021 changed how inherited properties were treated under prop 13. The inherited property must be the child’s principle residence now and it cannot pass directly to a grandchild without being reassessed. My SO and I were in the same boat in 2021 and that basically destroyed the math for us. If you forge ahead, it would be much simpler to have your partner’s mom buy out her siblings and then do the family loan with just her parents. El Mero Mero fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Jan 24, 2023 |
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Jan 24, 2023 12:32
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QuarkJets posted:It's not moot at all; being an unrepresented buyer has a bidding advantage, as the seller gets to keep the 3% fee that would have gone to the buyer's agent. As a seller, a deal falling through devalues the property in the short term and costs a lot of money. When you’re selling, the deal that is most likely to close on time without fuss is the one that commands a premium. This has been shown time and time again by sellers prioritizing cash offers.
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Jan 24, 2023 12:34
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