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alukaiser posted:My girlfriend and I are looking at homes in Los Angeles with a max of $325,000. We've found one house that wasn't a complete shithole in five months- it was a short sale where the owner fled to mexico, good times. I'm in Orange County, and is seems like 95% of the home search websites pull data from http://www.socalmls.com. You can tell because all the pictures of the property have the watermark on them.
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Feb 7, 2011 19:34
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UrbanFarmer posted:I REALLY appreciate you guys checking that I'm not being a moron though, it's very cool of you! And I'm sure I AM being a moron in some ways with this that I don't realize yet, so by all means, keep trying to find some holes  Just make sure that if you're planning on staying there for good, you pick a place by a good school. I grew up in the Florida school system and can attest to the horrible schools, so be careful to do your research. The reason cash buyers are usually more attractive is that the bank doesn't have to wait for them to get through the approval/lending process, they can just write a check. Same with current homeowners - you're probably a better candidate because you're renting and it's easier for you to get out of your current housing situation without any hassle. I don't know if it's really that big of a deal, though - your agent will probably have a better idea of how important that is.
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Feb 7, 2011 20:20
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moana posted:The reason cash buyers are usually more attractive is that the bank doesn't have to wait for them to get through the approval/lending process, they can just write a check. Same with current homeowners - you're probably a better candidate because you're renting and it's easier for you to get out of your current housing situation without any hassle. I don't know if it's really that big of a deal, though - your agent will probably have a better idea of how important that is. It's not just the time required, really. With a financed house, the lender will insist on an appraisal and if the appraisal comes in below the amount the borrower is offering, they'll deny the loan. This can cause the entire purchase to fall apart (because failure to appraise is always one of the contingencies in the offer contract). Whereas a cash buyer does not have to get an appraisal at all. My wife and I bid on a house (just up the street from the one we eventually got); we bid 230k. There were apparently five bids, but the bank sold the house to a cash offer of 210k. So they were willing to lose at least twenty thousand dollars in exchange for not having to risk the house failing to appraise for 230. In retrospect we're glad. The house we wound up buying is better, even though we paid 240k. The dude who bought the one for cash has a big stupid lifted truck that is never anything but glisteningly clean, and he also has motorcycles and is otherwise the epitome of a redneck stereotype, but his front lawn is permanantly dead and he still hasn't repainted over the horrible bright orange. It is a reminder that not every monster-truck-driving redneck stereotype is also poor (because hey, he had $210k in cash!) Also that place had two illegally added bedrooms in what used to be a backyard patio area that were really shittily done, and were going to need to be torn out. Really glad I didn't have to deal with that.
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Feb 7, 2011 21:06
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greasyhands posted:People make this argument a lot. Why would you expect houses to revert to the prices of over a decade ago?
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Feb 7, 2011 23:30
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necrobobsledder posted:What I have noticed is more people from overseas buying up houses in the US (China and India, go figure) and renting them out to us folks in the US, further moving American wealth overseas since they're collecting all the benefits of a recovering housing market moreso than those living here. Is it really that new of a phenomen? I've noticed it going on for 10+ years (at least in Canada) and I wouldn't be surprised if a fair percentage of "canadian buyers" are proxies for foreign buyers. This is all based on my observations, not statistics.
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Feb 8, 2011 00:16
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quaint bucket posted:Is it really that new of a phenomen? I've noticed it going on for 10+ years (at least in Canada) and I wouldn't be surprised if a fair percentage of "canadian buyers" are proxies for foreign buyers. But based upon the fact that the middle classes of China and India have had most of their growth in the past 12 years or so, I wouldn't be surprised if this is an increasing trend. And if they were any bit smart, they'd have been waiting for prices to drop like they have in the past few years. I know that when I was selling my place last year at an enormous loss I had several cash buyers bidding, zero of whom were born in the US very obviously.
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Feb 8, 2011 00:53
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Not sure if this is the exact place, but I have a question regarding a home purchase. If a parent was willing to purchase a 150k home for their child and wants the property to eventually end up in the child's hands, whats the best way to do this while avoiding as many tax penalties as possible? The child is legally an adult. The house is brand new, so no appreciation or depreciation has occurred. I've read that if the parent and child enter into a promissory note that is subsequently cancelled, the IRS considers this a prearranged gift and taxes it as such. If it was set up under a real mortgage contract and the child paid a mortgage into an account, would this be something that the child could receive up to 13k as a cash gift without incurring the gift tax? If so, would it go from the parent, to the child for the child to deposit in the parents account? Or just taken off the actual mortgage amount?
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Feb 8, 2011 03:38
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Since you say 'eventually', if the parent's net worth is under whatever the estate tax of the future turns out to be (at least a few million), the easiest/cheapest thing will usually be for the parent to just hold onto the title and leave it to the child in their will. If not, this rapidly turns complicated and you should be asking not the Internet.
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Feb 8, 2011 04:07
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Adar posted:Since you say 'eventually', if the parent's net worth is under whatever the estate tax of the future turns out to be (at least a few million), the easiest/cheapest thing will usually be for the parent to just hold onto the title and leave it to the child in their will. So not an easy way to do, in essence, a straw purchase without getting hammered on taxes?
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Feb 8, 2011 05:20
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Bovine Delight posted:So not an easy way to do, in essence, a straw purchase without getting hammered on taxes? quote:Giving more than the annual exclusion amount Talk to your CPA, blah blah blah.
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Feb 8, 2011 05:36
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Bovine Delight posted:So not an easy way to do, in essence, a straw purchase without getting hammered on taxes? You should probably talk to a CPA or T&E lawyer (I know this is fairly common in transferring property to a trust for estate planning purposes).
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Feb 8, 2011 16:27
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The tax rates and exemption have changed for 2011, as well. http://www.cnbc.com/id/41391925 quote:Another regulation combines estate- and gift-tax exemptions for the first time. That means the $5 million estate-tax exemption can also be applied to gifts—which had a previous exemption of only $1 million. There are enough changes to the rules that if you chat with someone who isn't fully versed in the new structure for 2011, they're likely to give you incorrect information.
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Feb 8, 2011 21:47
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gvibes posted:This should be easy to do using yearly transfers under the gift exemption. If the child has two parents and the child is married, you can actually gift 4x the gift exemption a year. So, basically, they buy it, then deed over X% of the value a year, where X% of the value is less than 4x the gift exemption. Should take only 3-4 years. Cool, thanks. I knew about the gift tax part but I wasn't sure how you would take off the amount from the mortgage.
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Feb 9, 2011 03:50
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Replace old drafty windows vs. replace existing 80% efficiency furnace, which is old and uncertain how long it will last, with another 80% furnace - which is most cost-effective assuming $6500-$8000 range for windows vs. $2900 estimate for the furnace?
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Feb 10, 2011 18:23
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If the window is drafty, wouldn't you end up losing all that heat even with a new furnace?
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Feb 10, 2011 19:31
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MJP posted:Replace old drafty windows vs. replace existing 80% efficiency furnace, which is old and uncertain how long it will last, with another 80% furnace - which is most cost-effective assuming $6500-$8000 range for windows vs. $2900 estimate for the furnace? How many windows do you have? Quality vinyl replacement windows shouldn't run you more than $300/ea. I replaced the 23 year old furnace when I moved into my current home 2 years ago, and am just now doing the windows. Anecdotally I have heard that window replacement takes forever to pay itself back in energy savings. I just want windows that I can open smoothly and don't look like poo poo. New double hung windows are just so much nicer than the metal poo poo they put on houses down here in the 80's. I only have 7 windows so it shouldn't cost me more than $2500, if I had 20-25 windows I would put it off a lot longer or man up and do it myself.
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Feb 10, 2011 19:46
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Arzakon posted:Anecdotally I have heard that window replacement takes forever to pay itself back in energy savings. I just want windows that I can open smoothly and don't look like poo poo. New double hung windows are just so much nicer than the metal poo poo they put on houses down here in the 80's. I've been wondering about this. We're renting a 1960's house with original windows - single pane, wood frames which slide left-right. I have to put plastic sheeting over them every winter to keep heat in, and as there's no locks or latches on any of them to keep them closed, they always expand themselves open a crack and are generally just drafty as hell. Our landlord really wants us to stay another year and has offered to do some upgrades as incentive, and having him replace the windows is one of the things we were considering asking for. Would replacement windows be a poor investment even on ancient windows, or does that "takes forever to pay for itself" really only apply to upgrading from ok windows to great windows?
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Feb 11, 2011 19:53
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High-k windows won't be much more effective than what you have if the windows are fitting poorly to the frame and leave gaps, but it'll be better than doing nothing. It's just that the return on investment will take longer to recoup (a few years or so from what I estimated on an early 1970s place I looked at before). Now, what you may want to do is look into some window butyl and some weather sealing options that might be cheaper and more effective than all the other options.
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Feb 11, 2011 20:02
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Bought my house 2.5 years ago for $160k Next door neighbor just sold at $115k. gently caress. Zillow had me on a small upward trend over the last 4 months. I just took a $2500 hit this month. Just here to vent folks. I love not having to answer to a landlord, but gently caress almost everything else about home ownership.
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Feb 11, 2011 21:17
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Why do you care? Just stop checking Zillow, pay your tiny mortgage and enjoy life.
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Feb 11, 2011 21:29
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So far what I've learned from this thread alone is that the only way to "invest" in a house/condo/townhouse is to be a landlord, pretty much. Buying a property with the intent of living in it forever is a good idea if you're stable in your job(s), stable income, and put down a good downpayment. Is this about right?
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Feb 11, 2011 21:49
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Zillow is ridiculous. It valued my house at $185k when I bought it for $129k three years ago on a normal sale (no foreclosure, short sale etc) It's still listing me at $150k but there's no way I could get that.
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Feb 11, 2011 21:51
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The word 'invest' needs to just be completely removed from anything associated with housing at all. I bought a house. I'm not INVESTING in the house, I'm paying for a place to live, maybe one day the thing will be paid off, but housing costs never go away. They'll always be taxes, insurance, upkeep and maintenance costs.
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Feb 11, 2011 22:21
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quaint bucket posted:Buying a property with the intent of living in it forever is a good idea if you're stable in your job(s), stable income, and put down a good downpayment. Ugh... I never considered buying a house, because I didn't want the responsibility of ownership. I'd rather pay the rent and let someone else maintain the place. Then I ran into the worse landlord I've ever had in my life. We got out of that house, lived with my in-laws for a couple of months, and bought a house in Oct 08. I had been in my job for 7 years at that point. I was feeling pretty secure. I had built good relationships, and garnered respect, and was a positive influence on the bottom line. I was laid off in Nov 10, after 9 years. Never saw it coming. Company lost $1m in October and panicked, laying off 10% of the workforce. I Took 2 sterling recommendations from the CEO and the Natl Sales Manager, and 1 month of severance. Still unemployed. Just got off the phone with "Keep Your Home California". My point? Nothing is secure. I suppose the mortgage nut is no different from the rent payment, but god drat... be careful. Anything can happen. I'm about to dip into my 401k to pay the bills and keep the car.
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Feb 11, 2011 22:33
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Exi7wound posted:I was laid off in Nov 10, after 9 years. Never saw it coming. Company lost $1m in October and panicked, laying off 10% of the workforce. I Took 2 sterling recommendations from the CEO and the Natl Sales Manager, and 1 month of severance. This sucks. I'm seeing home ownership as almost a giant ball and chain. You can't leave where you are since you're tied to the house. You might be able to easily find a job where the economy isn't so bad. Texas is doing really well. Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio all have really good job markets. If you're tied to a house in California though, short of walking away from it you're stuck looking for local jobs. Renting would at least give you freedom to walk away with little or no obligation. I wonder if one of these finance guys can come up with some crazy math equation about how much the 'Option' of renting is worth. I know poo poo is rough, but your 401K should be a last resort. I would personally file Bankruptcy on everything before touching my 401K.
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Feb 11, 2011 22:46
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Exi7wound posted:I'm about to dip into my 401k to pay the bills and keep the car. I'm really sorry about what's happening to you, that totally sucks. But I absolutely agree: don't dip into your 401k. It's protected in a bankruptcy, it's tax-advantaged in a way you can't replace if your loan from the 401k isn't paid back, and it should be your last resort. You're better off taking a big loss on the house than taking a big loss on your 401k.
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Feb 11, 2011 23:13
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Leperflesh posted:I'm really sorry about what's happening to you, that totally sucks. "Keep Your Home CA" will pay up to 6 months of the mortgage if I'm approved. So, if that comes through I'll be ok. If not, I don't know what'll happen. I'm seeing job growth in a lot of places... just not NorCal. I'm actually eyeing a potential move to Seattle. A lot of tech companies hiring marketing geeks right now.
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Feb 11, 2011 23:21
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Check out my Zillow! Note the dollar sign, that is me buying the house for $110K (And $6K towards closing costs, so $104K) while is was still above $180K on Zillow. After $20K worth of work I think I could realistically get $140K for it. I was running some numbers for fun today to see what kind of return I would need to get to make any decent money. If I put another $25K into the house to make it "perfect", and sold it for the top end of what fully renovated houses are going for in the neighborhood I could walk with a whopping $10K profit after I get eaten by realtor fees and a likely 3% closing cost allowance. That doesn't count all the payments I would have been making as an investor. Real estate is so profitable! I'm glad I don't have a reason to move on the horizon.
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Feb 12, 2011 02:02
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Arzakon posted:Check out my Zillow! Why wold you pay 6k in closing costs on a 104k mortgage? Also, whoah stop the presses flipping houses usually isn't a big money maker, particularly if you're paying contractors to do the work which, based on the numbers you're throwing out it sounds like you are. Where are you expecting the huge profits to come from? Market value should increase roughly at the going contractor rate for whatever improvements you do, paying someone 10k to overhaul your kitchen doesn't magically add more than that to the house. Doing work yourself can be a better moneymaker though, if you have the time/skill. alucinor posted:I've been wondering about this. We're renting a 1960's house with original windows - single pane, wood frames which slide left-right. I have to put plastic sheeting over them every winter to keep heat in, and as there's no locks or latches on any of them to keep them closed, they always expand themselves open a crack and are generally just drafty as hell. Our landlord really wants us to stay another year and has offered to do some upgrades as incentive, and having him replace the windows is one of the things we were considering asking for. One piece of advice I got when I rehabbed a 60's house was to check the exterior wall insulation before spending money on windows. You may have very thin insulation or no insulation at all (more common than you think depending on the climate where you live.) It is much cheaper(i.e. your landlord will like it more) and will probably save you more money to get the walls insulated properly. greasyhands fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Feb 12, 2011 |
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Feb 12, 2011 03:48
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Zillow attempts to estimate house values based entirely on statistical analysis. It does not much of the information a real appraiser would have, such as (especially) condition of the property. If it sees another property with similar numbers of bedrooms, bathrooms, and garages, it'll assume they're comparable even if they're actually not. In my neighborhood, one street over there's a bunch of apartments. Zillow looks at the low prices on those and discounts the houses on my street because some of them have like two or three bedrooms. But an apartment isn't a house! You can't use apartments on an appraisal as comps to an actual house with, like, land, and no fees/HOA/whatever attached. The main thing I think Zillow is useful for is to track average prices in an area, to see if they're going up or down. That's independent of what any single property would actually appraise for, so it's reasonable to consider it good information about pricing trends. It's also interesting to see what a specific house last sold for. Like I can see what the house around the corner from me, that I know is actually quite similar to my own, went for a couple months ago.
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Feb 12, 2011 04:22
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Leperflesh posted:In my neighborhood, one street over there's a bunch of apartments. Zillow looks at the low prices on those and discounts the houses on my street because some of them have like two or three bedrooms. But an apartment isn't a house! You can't use apartments on an appraisal as comps to an actual house with, like, land, and no fees/HOA/whatever attached. I live in a 620 unit Co-Op in a neighborhood that is otherwise 2-3 family houses. Zillow does the same kind of poo poo for me, but usually in reverse. For the actual bank appraisal they ended up only using sales from within my complex for comps because nothing else in the area matches.
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Feb 12, 2011 04:32
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greasyhands posted:Why wold you pay 6k in closing costs on a 104k mortgage? Also, whoah stop the presses flipping houses usually isn't a big money maker, particularly if you're paying contractors to do the work which, based on the numbers you're throwing out it sounds like you are. Where are you expecting the huge profits to come from? I wasn't expecting huge profits, I was showing how there aren't any. I didn't pay 6K in closing costs, the owner gave me $6K that I didn't need. It was more beneficial to me to just take the 6% even though I didn't need it because my loan had a buydown option on the interest rate. I was just showing how terribly off Zillow can be and it shouldn't be quoted as any sort of accurate figure. As Leper said its great for aggregating lots of other information, but the estimates are silly. Of the renovations, $14K was contractor because I built it into the mortgage like a 203(k). That was new AC, Furnace, Carpet, A room drywalled, kitchen appliances, water heater, some gutters, and various other things. $3.5K was me tearing out the kitchen myself and redoing it. Then another $2.5K in various little things like new toilets and fixtures and paint. I plan on fully doing both bathrooms myself, but I'm not going to do my own roofing, siding, or windows, so my estimates might be off a little bit. Flipping wasn't my goal, I'm doing all these things because I want a nice house to live in. I do like those shows on HGTV where they add 3 or 4 bushes to the yard and the REAL ESTATE EXPERT comes in and says that increased their home value by $15,000.
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Feb 12, 2011 14:11
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I bought a home a few months ago and since then I've kind of taken a different view on the whole matter. I was renting a 1000 sqft apartment for $750/mo (that included water/sewage/trash, so maybe $700/mo just pure "rent"). Purchased an 1800 sqft house for $160.5k and with 20% down, M&I+Taxes+HOI is ~$850/mo. Not a huge monthly increase, but the quality of our place and living style is much higher. Anyways, I'm really looking at this more as "put a long-term hold of 20% down, and you can rent this house for $850/mo." So now looking at it as renting, instead of "buying" (because really you are just renting from the bank anyways), just seems to make a lot more sense to me. And if/when we decide to move, we'll effectually just get a return of our (20%) deposit. Yea, you could argue that the 20% should be sitting in some higher yield vehicle, but does everything in life have to be about getting the highest/best return? Right now that 20% is giving me a high return in the form of "happiness". Am I in left-field on this, or has anyone taken a similar or otherwise non-traditional view like this on home "owning"?
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Feb 13, 2011 08:53
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SirPablo posted:Am I in left-field on this, or has anyone taken a similar or otherwise non-traditional view like this on home "owning"? I agree with you here, but you do have to see appreciation and/or principal paydown to cover closing costs in and out plus whatever you spend on maintenance for it to truly be a "hold" on your 20%.
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Feb 13, 2011 20:00
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SirPablo posted:
There's nothing non-traditional about that at all. You're a little off in thinking you are paying rent to the bank, but the general idea is how housing has always worked. The non-traditional thinking was the 10 year period we just got out of where people were looking at houses as ATMs that appreciated 20% per year. I think the biggest problem with the discussion in the this thread is most of the people in it are so young they never knew anything except that past 10 years, which was very anomalous, and that colors their entire thinking about what kind of investment buying a house to live in is.
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Feb 13, 2011 20:28
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SirPablo posted:I bought a home a few months ago and since then I've kind of taken a different view on the whole matter. I was renting a 1000 sqft apartment for $750/mo (that included water/sewage/trash, so maybe $700/mo just pure "rent"). Purchased an 1800 sqft house for $160.5k and with 20% down, M&I+Taxes+HOI is ~$850/mo. Not a huge monthly increase, but the quality of our place and living style is much higher. Realjones posted:I agree with you here, but you do have to see appreciation and/or principal paydown to cover closing costs in and out plus whatever you spend on maintenance for it to truly be a "hold" on your 20%. While I can afford to live alone, I'm still going to try to rent a room or two to help out even more at $350 per room and put the money towards the principal. Best case scenario I'll have the house paid off in 2019 with my current plan and only pay $20,000 in interest throughout the term. I'll still want to get an overnight job and still might rent a third room, but doing that will be harder to pull off.
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Feb 13, 2011 20:54
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SirPablo posted:And if/when we decide to move, we'll effectually just get a return of our (20%) deposit. Just don't forget it costs you 6% of the sale price in agent's fees when you sell, plus whatever other sales costs you'll incur. To compare: it would be like buying 1000 shares of $10 stock and then when you sell it, paying $600 in commission to your broker.
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Feb 13, 2011 21:19
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Leperflesh posted:Just don't forget it costs you 6% of the sale price in agent's fees when you sell, plus whatever other sales costs you'll incur. Unless you have an employer that covers all of that as part of your relocation package 
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Feb 13, 2011 23:37
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So, I'm ready to put an offer on a house. Yay! The house is going for 329k and I'm going to ask for 300k. The house has been totally remodeled from top to bottom. The problem is, it's right on the line, about .5 miles away, from a really bad neighborhood. Just like most major cities, a crossing of a street can be stepping into a whole different world. If anyone knows Philadelphia, the house is in West Germantown (the next section) right near West Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. I've checked the city's crime stats and you can see the reflection of the good and bad neighborhoods. What do you all think? The neighborhood has a very active association. http://www.trulia.com/property/3042078035-259-W-Tulpehocken-St-Philadelphia-PA-19144
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Feb 13, 2011 23:54
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PoliSciGirl posted:So, I'm ready to put an offer on a house. Yay! The house is going for 329k and I'm going to ask for 300k. The house has been totally remodeled from top to bottom. The problem is, it's right on the line, about .5 miles away, from a really bad neighborhood. Just like most major cities, a crossing of a street can be stepping into a whole different world. If anyone knows Philadelphia, the house is in West Germantown (the next section) right near West Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. I've checked the city's crime stats and you can see the reflection of the good and bad neighborhoods. What do you all think? The neighborhood has a very active association. Funny, I looked at renting a house in the exact same neighborhood, and I know what you mean about it really changing 1/2 mile away. I do think that generally there isn't as much spillover of crime as you might think, but there is always the possibly of the actual demographics changing and with that, the crime. And that is quite a lovely looking house. Personally, for me, safety was far and above the number one concern when looking for a house. Of course, I'm just starting a family and not everyone is in that situation. I guess I'd recommend hanging out in that neighborhood a bit, and imaging yourself driving to the city or check out where you'd be going for groceries and errands, and see if you'd be comfortable doing that every day.
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Feb 14, 2011 19:38
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