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Maggot Monster posted:Oh god I had another offer accepted. Oh god I have to pay for an inspection and downpayment and closing costs and oh god oh god oh god how do I breathe <-- this is how the entire loving process makes me feel. hehe, take deep breaths, you'll get through it. We closed yesterday, get the keys Sunday. Now I feel this crushing weight of debt on my shoulders, still makes it a little hard to breathe, but at least I get a house to pace around in!
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Apr 24, 2010 03:42
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jassi007 posted:hehe, take deep breaths, you'll get through it. We closed yesterday, get the keys Sunday. Now I feel this crushing weight of debt on my shoulders, still makes it a little hard to breathe, but at least I get a house to pace around in! Don't worry, in about 6 months maybe a percent of that debt will be paid off.
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Apr 24, 2010 17:26
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mlmp08 posted:Don't worry, in about 6 months maybe a percent of that debt will be paid off. No, only about .409% 
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Apr 24, 2010 21:01
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We are in the process of buying our first home and I have been obsessed with reading this great thread. I have a question for those of you that have experience with short sales. We finally made an offer on a house that's in short sale last Wednesday. It's Sunday, we've heard nothing (yes, I'm well aware that banks are closed on Sunday). Should I worry yet? Any advice on shortsales? Or maybe just advice on how to function while waiting? That super excited/super terrified feeling is killing me. Really. I can't get anything else done except sit and wait and think about the house.
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Apr 25, 2010 15:01
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Our agent told us not to mess around with short sales, because a lot of the time you can end up waiting months only to find out that your offer wasn't accepted. My mom bought a condo like that, and it took her 8 months to hear back from the bank that she had been accepted. If you can accept that it's going to be a very very long timeline, then great. If not, then you might want to avoid them specifically for that reason. It sounds like you're super anxious about waiting, and so you might just want to stick to regular purchases or bank owned houses which will give you a shorter timeline. In the meantime, read up on home improvement, how to fix basic plumbing and the like. It'll pass the time and get you more prepared for what's ahead 
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Apr 25, 2010 16:44
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Yup, what moana said is exactly what we heard from our agent as well. If you manage to get a response from the bank (positive or negative) within two months, you're way ahead of the curve. If you can't take that kind of aggravation, avoid the short sales. Also, you've already made an offer, but I absolutely would not stop looking for a house in the meantime. If you find something non-short you'd like just as well, you can withdraw your offer on the short sale and make an offer on the non-short house. It'll give you something to do and it's not at all unethical (the banks are screwing themselves with the massive delays on short sale approvals and that's not your fault).
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Apr 25, 2010 18:21
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Wow, 2 months. Our realtor (whom I really like..) wrote a time-schedule in the offer with us being handed keys on May 28.. so I was expecting a yes or no this week. I guess we'll see what happens. We haven't stopped looking yet, because the bank can always turn us down. Thanks for the feedback. I think looking at update stuff, decor mags, etc. is making it worse!
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Apr 25, 2010 19:55
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N. Ratched posted:Wow, 2 months. Our realtor (whom I really like..) wrote a time-schedule in the offer with us being handed keys on May 28.. so I was expecting a yes or no this week. I guess we'll see what happens. Based on my own experience, I would politely describe your realtor as extremely optimistic. Closing within 30 days of agreement or so is an exhausting and laborious process. You have inspections to do, and those inspections will have results, and those results may need to be discussed. You'll find other surprises that have to be ironed out, and you'll have to figure out who's dime that's on. If it's in an HOA community, you'll want to verify with the HOA that the house is free of violations. And, of course, you have to get a mortgage -- and the mortgage company will want their appraiser out there, and they'll want paperwork, and they'll lose the paperwork, and then they'll decide that they need more, then they'll say that there was a problem with the first paperwork you sent them, but the underwriting department wasn't clear on what and that guy is off today. But, you're not getting an agreement that fast. I did a short sale and got a reply within about 3 weeks. I tell realtors this, and they are astounded. More typical: 3 months. There was another short sale that I offered on at the same time as the one I ended up buying. After we closed (weeks late, thanks to more delays with the seller and his bank), I asked my realtor if we ever heard anything back about it. He said, yeah -- the day after closing, we finally heard back from the bank, probably 2-3 months after offering. They said, "could you give us a 6 month extension to consider your offer?"
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Apr 25, 2010 21:24
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Should i consider getting a 10/1 ARM? I seei can get an interest rate of 3.625% by paying 2 points on a 10/1 I figure i'll stay in the house 7-10 years anyway.
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Apr 26, 2010 18:42
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Can you be certain that you can definitely afford the payments after the rate adjusts? If the answer isn't "definitely yes" then I advise you to avoid an ARM. Even a 10/1 ARM. You have no idea what interest rates will be in 10 years (nobody does) and all manner of life-changing things can happen in the interim that could affect your willingness or ability to sell or refinance. Also, interest rates are presently at historic lows. Why not lock in a low rate now? It's a fantastic time to get a fixed rate because you should be able to get around 5% to 5.5% anyway. Rates in the future might be the same, or higher, but it's exceedingly unlikely they'll ever be lower. Then you'll have the security of a fixed payment that can't go up, and no 'deadline' by which you must sell or be screwed.
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Apr 26, 2010 18:51
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Leperflesh posted:Can you be certain that you can definitely afford the payments after the rate adjusts? most ARMS have a cap on how high the interest rate can go up each year, right? What are the usual terms on that?
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Apr 26, 2010 18:55
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I know 2/1 ARMS often have lifetime caps, but I don't think 10/1s do, typically. Also, 10/1s sometimes have a prepayment penalty if you try to sell in less than (say) 5 years, so you'd want to look into that as well (some states allow this and some don't). How much house are you buying? The difference between 3.625% and (a likely) 5.5% fixed needs to be enough actual money that it's worth the risks of the ARM. Compare the savings to the cost of your points at a minimum, and also consider the cost of a re-fi. If it works out to only a couple thousand dollars over 10 years, that's probably not worth the risk.
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Apr 26, 2010 19:07
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My wife and I are looking to purchase a larger home. We should be able to net 120k or so from the sale of our current home (which will sell for 220k-240k). We are looking for a home in the 275-300k range. We're looking for a conventional 30 year mortgage. We want to bring at least 120k to closing, which will be over a 33% downpayment. Here comes the question -- I'm worried about getting approved for a mortgage. I'm self-employed, and my wife is a stay at home mom right now, which means that our income will be all 1099. My wife's credit rating is exceptionally good (820+) and she is debt-free besides a car. My credit rating is OK (740), never missed a payment, but it is dragged down by some significant revolving credit which I really can't easily get rid of right now, which I incurred when starting my business. The only option I have right now to get rid of the revolving credit is to borrow money from a friend or from family. The revolving credit is solely in my name. (I know that the correct answer is to pay down the credit before we make a move but with a new baby there's definitely a lot of incentive to move soon.) Does the fact that we'd be bringing a lot to closing, and thus looking for a smaller loan (150-180k) ease at all the requirements for qualifying for a mortgage? Second question -- if I were to borrow money from a friend to pay off the credit cards shortly before we try and qualify, is that going to be a red flag? Is that a viable option? I know that the credit report will show that the balances suddenly went to zero, and figure the mortgage lender will (correctly) assume that I borrowed from another source to clear the report. Gracias.
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Apr 27, 2010 02:47
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Borrowing money from a friend, and not listing it as a debt/liability is mortgage fraud. That's bad, you don't want to do that. The amount of revolving debt won't matter as long as your debt to income ratio isn't out of whack. Your monthly payments on all debts need to be in the sub 40% range compared to your gross monthly income. You're big down payment, good credit scores, long history of mortgage payments, etc are all positive factors in trying to get a mortgage but since you're self employed the lender is going to want at least 2 years of tax returns proving your income.
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Apr 27, 2010 03:58
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Thanks for the reply. You're absolutely right about the fraud issue, I hadn't thought of that, I was just thinking about the credit report and not the disclosures that would have to be made in the application. What if I took the personal loan to cover the credit card debt and, as required, disclosed the loan, but had agreed upon terms with the lender so that the monthly payment was relatively low, backed up with a promissory note? Would that assist in the ratios or is that too clever by half? EDIT: our tax returns will demonstrate our income, which has been relatively steady, so that's not an issue. Seventyfour fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Apr 27, 2010 |
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Apr 27, 2010 04:03
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Well before you go trying to outfox the system, run your ratios. Without getting creative, are the minimum payments on the revolving debt pushing you past 40% with your projected mortgage payment?
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Apr 27, 2010 04:30
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IIRC, an amount under 10k can be gifted without tax implications. Additionally, the money would not be going towards the down payment, it would be going towards your debt. To pay them back, you can simply re-gift the money back to the relative. eta: looked it up.....it's $13,000. Arkane fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Apr 27, 2010 |
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Apr 27, 2010 19:28
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Arkane posted:IIRC, an amount under 10k can be gifted without tax implications. Additionally, the money would not be going towards the down payment, it would be going towards your debt. To pay them back, you can simply re-gift the money back to the relative. Just be careful with this because lenders generally want 3+ months of banking statements so a bunch of money suddenly appearing can be bad.
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Apr 28, 2010 01:03
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They will ask for documentation of where the money came from. I had a gift of 10k from my mom: I needed the receipt of the deposit, a copy of the check from her, and a copy of her bank statement showing that she already had that money (e.g., she did not borrow it herself). You may need to document this chain of ownership right back to your friend, so be sure he's OK with giving you a bank statement or other proof that the money was cash and not borrowed.
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Apr 28, 2010 01:11
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Wuhao posted:Based on my own experience, I would politely describe your realtor as extremely optimistic. Closing within 30 days of agreement or so is an exhausting and laborious process. Yes. My wife had to deal with closing about 35-40 days after our offer was accepted with the following issues: 1. She worked 40+ hours a week M-F so she had major issues making all the appointments, being at the house for inspections, etc. 2. I was in the Middle East and couldn't really help at all besides a few phone calls and scanning and Emailing some documents. 3. The lender decided they'd wait til about 9 days before closing to tell us they needed a bunch of new documents they hadn't mentioned before. It was pretty awful, and she was not happy.
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Apr 28, 2010 15:28
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Hopefully this isn't against any forum rules, thought I'd link to my post in what did you just buy with a picture of the house we bought. This thread helped a lot in navigating the maze that is buying a home. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2496772&pagenumber=184#post376149217
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May 1, 2010 04:23
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Trip report: signed contract on a house in Henderson Nevada, contingent upon bank approval of short sale (lots of area specific information and personal experience jibber-jabber, therefore prolly be boring read to 99% of you...for that other 1%, you're welcome) So I had a crazy idea to buy a house about two months ago...I have a good deal saved up, and figured now was a good a time as any with interest rates so low, housing prices low (in real dollars), and a free $8000 from the gummint. I'm self employed so I could live anywhere, and chose (gasp) Las Vegas. Pros: no state income tax, legit poker (I used to be real good, now it's more of a slightly profitable hobby), youngish demo, incredibly depressed housing prices, relatively inexpensive area to live, convenient access to airport (I travel a lot), and about 8 months of good weather (esp coming from NY). Cons: 4 months of (I hear) terrible weather, connotation of living in Las Vegas, actually living in Las Vegas, housing market could still fall (a lot? shadow inventory that people ramble about?), and I'm now a 4 hour, $300 plane ride away from my immediate/extended family in NY (semi-important). I was also considering Dallas, Texas & Orlando, Florida but nixed them for varying reasons. For those familiar with the Las Vegas area, I did (what I consider) a lot of research online and kind of narrowed it down to Summerlin or Green Valley Ranch. This was before setting foot in the area (been to Vegas many times but not to look at houses). This was based on incomes in the area, crime levels, demographics (age/families), housing prices (in this case, being higher & more stable relatively speaking), desirability, schools, and % of vacant homes per neighborhood (i.e. some places around the Southern Highlands area had shitloads of vacants & more houses were being built!). After talking with realtors and reading online, I pushed Summerlin off the list for traffic concerns, it being slightly older construction-wise, airplane noise and distance to the airport...although I did drive through Summerlin while I was there to look at one home (didn't like it at all) and the area was absolutely gorgeous (and I'm a dude, so I don't use that word loosely). So pre-arrival, I was pretty much set on Green Valley Ranch. Not sure if that indicated naivete or good research, but that was my mindset. When I arrived into town, the first house I wanted (Green Valley Ranch, walking distance to a park/schools/that District thing) was under contract with another party! A big downer, but moving on wasn't all that difficult given the vast amount of homes available. So at first I searched the 606 MLS which is basically south of the 215 and east of Silverado Ranch, and I was ONLY looking at homes that were not short sales or foreclosures in order to ensure a June 30th close date. Some obscenely high amount like 90% of active listings in Vegas are foreclosures or short sales so there wasn't all that much to look at. Someone had recommended Silverado Ranch so I almost immediately expanded to the 303. Someone had also said that Green Valley North & South were similarly nice, so I included the 602 as well. I was still focused on Green Valley Ranch, though, but figured it wouldn't hurt to look at additional areas for comparisons. Did a real long trip with my realtor and we wound up heading to those three areas plus the 505 where she showed me a new home about to be complete (she gets more commission I'm guessing, which is kind of a weasely thing to do but my parents hate realtors so I was savvy to trickery from minute 1). The new home was, though, absolutely gorgeous. I was seriously considering it but there were just too many unknowns like the schools in the area, tons of new construction, the specific neighborhood having a good amount of foreclosures (they started at the back in 2006 working their way forward and the final homes were being completed for sale to those seeking the first time home buyer tax credit), and the potentially shoddy construction method which was to basically build a bunch of houses really f-ing fast (which isn't that abnormal, but this was REALLY fast). I might not find out about a corner they cut for another 2 years down the line. So ultimately I nixed that house. During the trip around those MLS areas, I wound up looking at about 15 houses. Was not a fan of the Silverado Ranch area nor of the amount of vacancies so I eliminated that (yeah the prices are way, way lower but for good reason). 2 of the houses in Green Valley South came to the top, and I came back with my realtor and did research in preparation for bids. Neither of the houses comped out in my favor, and in fact my #1 choice of the 2 choices already had a bid and it was above list! Bah, f that noise. So I kind of gave up hope on finding a house for the $8k (wasn't gonna force myself to buy something just to get a 3.5% discount on $230k house). Took the weekend off and regathered my thoughts and felt that the value was in the short sales given that I had abandoned hope on the $8k and that I had a lot of time that I could wait for the sale to ultimately go through (i.e. August 15th would be perfectly fine close date if bank doesn't give an answer until July 15th). So after a weekend of thought and giving up on the $8k, I eliminated every single area except the 606 (i.e. everything but Green Valley Ranch) and wanted to just look at short sales and regular sales (again, no foreclosures...too many unknowns + forms + AS IS verbiage nonsense). Came back with fresh eyes on Monday (i.e. 4 days ago) and the first short sale I looked at in Green Valley Ranch I absolutely loved (only one lien on the house...the mortgage). I looked at a couple more, and drove by about 4 more. None of them compared in my view. Did the comps on the house, and the comps were very favorable to me...possibly too favorable. My realtor flat out said that even if you bid above list, the bank is going come back with something about 8% higher based on the closings of similar homes in the past 90 days. She further explained that this was common to have a listing price this low, that I would basically become the guinea pig to get a firm response from the bank (and if I don't accept, they relist the house with SHORT SALE APPROVED at the dollar amount that the bank approves). To use fake numbers, the house was listed at $1,000, I bid $1,000, the seller accepts my offer which then gets sent to the bank, and she was saying the bank might come back at $1,080. If I don't accept the $1,080, the listing then goes back on the market at $1,080 with future buyers knowing that the bank has already approved this number. So I left needing some more time to think about it, and having set up another viewing of the house to check out a couple of additional details like the hot water heater, AC units, etc. (which would be checked in the inspection anyway, but wanted to know the age). Next morning comes and everything is all good in the house. Having now looked at comps on paper, the realtor and I now look at houses that are much higher priced per square foot (but similar size) in the same neighborhood to try and figure out if I really am getting a favorable price or if these other comparable houses are just THAT much nicer. This was a very worthwhile trip as it allowed me to create a baseline for what the house was worth. I figured that my house was worth $113 per square foot - $5 for upgrading the kitchen (cabinet space) OR $108 per square foot. The house was listed at $98 per square foot. I also priced in a little leeway by assuming the market would drop 5%, and gave myself a $103 per square foot bid price INCLUDING closing costs (or $100 without closing costs). Yeah my value of the home is above list, which again makes sense with what the realtor was saying about pricing it low to get a firm answer from the bank. It was at that time that my realtor got a phone call from the seller's agent of the house telling me that there were two other offers, one of them was a cash offer, and my highest and best bid must be in by 5pm as per the stipulations on the cash offer. It was early morning. So I headed back to my hotel to check out and thought about it for about an hour. Went back with my realtor, printed out bank statements (blacking out sensitive stuff) showing proof of funds, got my pre-approval letter printed out, got my earnest money check, and decided on $104 psf as my highest and best offer (about $101 per square foot was my offer + I'd be paying $3 per square foot closing costs). I submitted a clean offer, which was basically that I would pay all closing costs, and I was not requesting anything out of the ordinary. Went and played some poker, and got the phone call from my realtor. There was a 4th bid at the last minute, but it was a hair below mine, and the seller had chosen my offer.....BUT they wanted to wait one more day (at this point I was a bit confused, as I thought it was already highest and best offer?). So I boarded a plane last night, and waited it out one more day, and got the call from my realtor a few hours ago my offer was the one they would be submitting to the bank. Step one complete. And apparently short sales are going through much faster right now, and my realtor said I have about a 25% chance that the seller's bank gets back to me in 30 days for a potential June 30th closing (pleasant surprise!). If that does end up being the case, then I have $8,000 worth of wiggle room in my price, which would be beneficial to EVERY party except, well, the taxpayers. So overall I am very happy thus far as: the house is in Green Valley Ranch; it ticks off all my boxes in terms of room sizes, floor plan, "backyard" (relative to Vegas), and square footage; and it has been well-maintained/is move-in ready. Now begins the arduous journey of waiting for the bank's response after their appraisal. This may yet end in disaster if the house appraises for way over my estimates.
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May 1, 2010 04:27
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This thread hasn't quite been a year, but I wanted to say thanks for all the advice in other threads given over the course of me purchasing my first home last year. Today is our 1 year house anniversary. One year down, twenty nine to go! To everyone else looking right now just get through the torture of the process, after you close it all feels better.
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May 1, 2010 05:37
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jassi007 posted:Hopefully this isn't against any forum rules, thought I'd link to my post in what did you just buy with a picture of the house we bought. This thread helped a lot in navigating the maze that is buying a home. Wow, it's already been a year since we moved in. It went by so quickly! I felt bad that we weren't making fixes fast enough but my mom said her rule was two rooms a year, any more and we'd burn out on home repairs. I'm going to see if I can fix up a list of estimated costs for all of the stuff we did just to give people an idea of what to expect financially in the first year of owning a home.
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May 1, 2010 15:09
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Well, I signed a P&S and did the inspection today and everything was (mostly) fine. An old high deck is wobbly crap and needs to be rebuilt but all the rest of the inspection was the regular 'neutral and ground under one screw!!! RAGE!!!' type stuff, and it was certainly a lot less stressful than my last inspection. Now I have to do 8 hours of some stupid first time home buyer's class for 'MassHousing', the people doing our mortgage, so that's going to suck. All I have to do now is put together all the paperwork for the mortgage guy (which I have most of, except for my latest W-2 being missing but I already requested a replacement from work!). So, feeling a lot better today. Even had a train go by while I was in the house and it's not so bad. Loud, like I expected, but not TOO loud, you know? No louder than my drunk upstairs neighbor slamming doors as he stumbles in with his ugly wife at 0200 like they currently do, fuckers.
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May 1, 2010 20:42
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My husband and I were thinking about getting a house in San Francisco. We currently rent with a roommate, and with her moving out in the summer a mortgage would only be a reasonable increase on the rent, we have a bit saved up now for a down payment (my parents would help as well), and we're sure we would want to stay in the city. I've been following this thread and read everyone's advice/experiences; I know there are several goons who have bought houses in the Bay Area--are there any additional resources/websites specifically for SF? I like how RedFin and some other sites have sqft prices, housing trends, etc. but I couldn't find any analysis done on specific neighborhoods in the city. We would probably save up for another half-year at least as well as doing more research.
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May 6, 2010 00:21
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Hi, I bought a house in January and recieved a letter from my bank saying that if I make an arrangement to change my mortgage payment from monthly to bi-monthly I will pay the loan off 10 years sooner and save $100k in interest. The fee to sign up for this arrangemet is about $400. Is this a scam? Thanks!
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May 6, 2010 01:50
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Not a scam, but a ripoff. You can achieve the same effect yourself for free by sending in half your mortgage payment every two weeks. You will pay the equivalent of 13 full payments a year on this plan, and that is where the savings come from . Depending on your mortgage interest rate and opportunity cost, this may or may not be a worthwhile endeavor.
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May 6, 2010 02:10
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betty finn posted:Is this a scam? Yes Are you sure its even from your bank? You could make a half payment on the 15th and 31st but there is no math equation that would make that turn your 30 year loan into a 20 year loan. If instead you paid every 2 weeks (26 payments per year instead of 24) you would probably be finished about 10 years sooner, making only 260 payments over 20 years instead of 360 over 30. It costs nothing to do this though, just set up your automatic billpay to send them a half payment every 2 weeks (or a full payment every 4). You just did for free what they wanted $400 for.
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May 6, 2010 02:10
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Okay, added up the costs of approximately everything we bought in the first year of owning a home. The results may surprise you (not really)! - washer and dryer - $1k - termite tenting - $2k - various home improvement things (gardening stuff, installing dripline system, paint for rooms) - $1k - renting a sander and redoing all of the floors - $500 - furnishing three extra rooms - $2k - hot water heater - $400 - fridge - $500 - roof - $6k - front yard everything getting removed/mulched - $1300 - remodeling back half of house, adding patio: $20k and counting This is all estimation and I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff, but drat, that is like $35k in addition to the mortgage and insurance payments. Hey, at least we are not throwing away money by renting! The contractors asked us to pick a color to paint the back room and gave us a color sample thingy to pick from. I have been trying unsuccessfully to convince my boyfriend that of all the shades of off-white, "Pearl Necklace" is the perfect color. I don't think I am mature enough to be a homeowner 
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May 6, 2010 05:18
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jomiel posted:I know there are several goons who have bought houses in the Bay Area--are there any additional resources/websites specifically for SF? I like how RedFin and some other sites have sqft prices, housing trends, etc. but I couldn't find any analysis done on specific neighborhoods in the city. We used realestate.com and zillow.com (neither of which is specific to SF). Zillow shows a fair amount of neighborhood stuff: http://www.zillow.com/homes/san-francisco_rb/ lets you look at prices by neighborhood, and http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-San-Francisco/r_20330/ has a fair amount of by-neighborhood data. Your best resource is going to be advice and listings from a (good) buyer's agent, though. Realestate.com had hundreds of listings that had actually already had an offer accepted (because seller's agents are loving lazy and don't bother to update their advertising once a house is in contract), and there was also often a few days' lag between a house hitting the market, and showing up on the listing sites. I assume of course you're aware that you'll be paying a very, very substantial premium for the privilege of a zip code inside the city limits, right? E.g., you can generally pay a couple hundred thousand dollars less for an identical house in Daly City, Brisbane, San Bruno, Pacifica, etc., and still be a very quick drive or four stops on BART from downtown. (Well ok not Brisbane, because it's also hideously expensive, but you get my meaning). The very worst neighborhood in SF (Bayview/Hunter's Point) has average house prices comparable to the average price of a house in many excellent neighborhoods elsewhere in the bay area. If you are dead set on owning within SF, I recommend a very good agent, a patient attitude, and taking your time (as in, assume 6 months+ to find the right deal). Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 06:26 on May 6, 2010 |
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May 6, 2010 06:19
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First of all, I am not looking to buy a home any time in the next 5-10 years and know very little about the process. I'm close friends with a recently married couple who is trying to purchase a home and I'm curious about what it means to have pre-approval for a loan. He finished his master's about a year ago and is working part-time with a nonprofit and teaches a few classes as an adjunct at a local university. He'll be moving up to full-time with the nonprofit very soon. I'm certain he doesn't make much above minimum wage. She's about to graduate with her BSN but doesn't have a job lined up. She's about to go full time as a nurse's aide in the meantime (~$10/hr). Combined, they have over $160K in student loans and around $5k in credit card debt. For some reason I simply cannot comprehend, they want to buy a home immediately. Yes, despite their massive debt and lack of steady, full-time employment history. They say they're tired of throwing money away renting when they could be investing in a home, which is bogus of course. After being turned down by pretty much every bank, they were recently pre-approved for a loan with a 5% interest rate. They are now under contract for a home that costs $80K. They have less than $2k for a downpayment and no family contributions. This sounds like a horrible, horrible idea to me. I can't believe a bank would pre-approve them for such a massive amount of money. Is there a good chance their loan application will ultimately be denied? They said something about how the only condition was that they get $60k of their student loans deferred since their debt/income ratio is 90/10. None of this makes sense to me  .
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May 6, 2010 07:30
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^^^ Jesus, what idiots. Maybe direct them towards some of the online rent vs. buy calculators so they can see how much money they will throw away when they own a house - but it sounds like they've made up their minds. One more foreclosure on the immediate horizon. How the hell did they find a loan??Arzakon posted:If instead you paid every 2 weeks (26 payments per year instead of 24) you would probably be finished about 10 years sooner, making only 260 payments over 20 years instead of 360 over 30. This is true but likely still more trouble than it's worth. Just increase each monthly payment by 1/12 (or more) - there's probably even a little box for additional principal on the statement. It doesn't really matter much when during the month it hits the account. Any prepayment service you pay extra for is a loving ripoff. slap me silly fucked around with this message at 07:34 on May 6, 2010 |
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May 6, 2010 07:32
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amethystbliss posted:stupid couple When it comes time to get the actual loan, they might find they cannot get one at all, or that 5% is wildly optimistic. Then again, $90k isn't very much, really. I mean yes its ninety thousand dollars, but the mortgage payments on that are going to be pretty small... two people working full time at $10 an hour could maybe manage them. The student loans are probably on 10-year payment plans (but deferring them in order to buy a house is of course incredibly dumb, because you can't defer them for 30 years and the interest continues to accrue while in deferment). The big danger for them financially is that student loans are generally untouchable in a bankruptcy, so declaring bankruptcy might not be an option for them at all if they find themselves unable to keep up with their debts. One other factor: some positions at non-profits can pay quite surprisingly well (while many others really are minimum wage, or near it). How certain are you that 'he' isn't actually making a decent income from that job?
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May 6, 2010 08:36
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slap me silly posted:Maybe direct them towards some of the online rent vs. buy calculators so they can see how much money they will throw away when they own a house - but it sounds like they've made up their minds. One more foreclosure on the immediate horizon. How the hell did they find a loan?? Leperflesh posted:Then again, $90k isn't very much, really. One other factor: some positions at non-profits can pay quite surprisingly well (while many others really are minimum wage, or near it). How certain are you that 'he' isn't actually making a decent income from that job? This is a very informative thread! Makes me feel more confident about my current "rent forever" mentality  .
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May 6, 2010 09:05
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Econimically depressed or not, that's only $375 a month in interest payments. What are rents like out there, $400? I guess it's a lot of money in an economically depressed area, but if one could afford to put away $500 a month towards such a mortgage and their work is stable, then they're doing ok.
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May 6, 2010 16:57
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My significant other will be away on a business trip for 3 weeks and it's possible that the short sale we signed for will be approved by the other bank... if i need to get another mortgage or sign for documents, could this power of attorney document be ok enough to allow me to sign stuff on her behalf? http://www.free-legal-document.com/power-of-attorney-form.html
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May 7, 2010 05:36
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First off, congratulations to all the recent home buyers out there, good job! I wanted to bring up my current situation and see if there were any thoughts, positive or negative. Some background I am looking at buying my first home in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. The property is a 2 bed 1 bath with a legal 1/1 apartment detached from the home on the same lot. Originally, we were looking at an FHA loan but due to the arrangement with the apartment and being unable to pull any comps in the area without extreme modifications the loan would not pass FHA's appraiser. I was pretty bummed out, it definitely was not the first home I looked at and the tax credit was running out. I get a call from my realtor about 2 days later stating the seller was looking to offer financing. The terms include 10k down payment (note the home is 75k) with the seller paying the actual closing fees. The kicker is the mortgage would be over 10 years instead of 30 at 6% (I was offered 5.5% with the FHA financing.) Is there anything here I should be asking my realtor? I've researched the hell out of this and don't see any particular problems, especially financially for myself, though I can see where the seller assumes much more risk than through a buyer with conventional financing.
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May 7, 2010 05:52
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Mister Fister posted:My significant other will be away on a business trip for 3 weeks and it's possible that the short sale we signed for will be approved by the other bank... if i need to get another mortgage or sign for documents, could this power of attorney document be ok enough to allow me to sign stuff on her behalf? I have no idea (I am not a lawyer) but my wife and I had a similar situation where she had to travel literally the same day as the house closed. She was able to scan and e-mail documents to me for the bank. 'Wet' signatures were not required so that worked. Worst case, you could get your wife to fedex something overnight...
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May 7, 2010 06:25
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Mister Fister posted:My significant other will be away on a business trip for 3 weeks and it's possible that the short sale we signed for will be approved by the other bank... if i need to get another mortgage or sign for documents, could this power of attorney document be ok enough to allow me to sign stuff on her behalf? My wife was traveling the day we closed on selling our old house and buying our current one, and she gave me power of attorney. I don't remember the form we used, but I was then able to sign for her on both sets of closing docs. There was something special I had to write on her signature lines before signing, but I forget what. Talk to the closing attorney, they'll get you hooked up without charging anything extra. At least ours did.
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May 7, 2010 12:52
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