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TraderStav posted:So internet, we have some pretty smart people here who are in the business. Can you clarify what constitutes cash reserves? It depends on your lender, since drat near every lender these days has overlays (additional restrictions/requirements) on top of FNMA/FHLMC. Checking/savings are the easiest form of reserves. Most places will also take non-retirement investment accounts at face value. Retirement account funds can often be used at 60% of value as long as you can prove that the funds can be withdrawn and at what penalty/cost etc. Hope that helps!
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Apr 4, 2011 23:03
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Fire Storm posted:Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but any ideas on KEEPING my current house? Honestly? gently caress the house. I would just stop paying and let the bank try to force you out, then sue them so they have to bring prove of their ownership of the lien. At this point you really have nothing to lose. A lot of Michigan is barren and falling apart and the bank will lose their shirt when you duck out of it anyway. Don't waste your money, just cut and loving run. Or rather, do everything you can before you cut and run. But I wouldn't keep underwater on that house. Especially in this lovely state.
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Apr 5, 2011 00:26
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Need advice on some housing options. We'll be moving to South Bend/Mishawaka Indiana in the Spring for my husband's job: it's academic and will last at least two years but probably no more than three. My husband wants to buy. I'm not so sure it's a good idea. We'll be making around 65,000/year (assuming I stay home and take care of the kid) and would be looking at buying something in the 100 - 150k range. We have 45,000 saved right now and would be putting 20% down. The main issue is that we really can't find a rental that works for us. We'd like a house, but everything seems to be in either the bad part of town or in student neighborhoods. We can buy something nice for what we can afford because this area is so economically depressed. Is this a really stupid idea? I bought a house when I was in grad school and squeaked out with 20,000 in profit right before the market crashed, but I still remember all the stresses of home ownership (cost of new roof and furnace, etc).
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Apr 5, 2011 03:11
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slowfoot posted:Need advice on some housing options. What's the plan when his job ends in 2-3 years? If you think you're moving again it seems utterly pointless to buy considering that, as you said, the area is economically depressed, so the price will probably remain flat at best, and there's probably a very small chance that you would break even (after transactional costs), nevermind make a profit. What happens if the house's value decreases further and you end up underwater on the loan when you are looking to move again? It sounds like you already realize all of this, so good luck.
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Apr 5, 2011 03:20
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senor punk posted:What's the plan when his job ends in 2-3 years? If you think you're moving again it seems utterly pointless to buy considering that, as you said, the area is economically depressed, so the price will probably remain flat at best, and there's probably a very small chance that you would break even (after transactional costs), nevermind make a profit. What happens if the house's value decreases further and you end up underwater on the loan when you are looking to move again? Yeah, we're not looking at this as a possible money-maker or to break even really. We'd be going into this knowing full well that we're most likely going to be losing money to live somewhere comfortable for a few years.
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Apr 5, 2011 03:28
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slowfoot posted:Yeah, we're not looking at this as a possible money-maker or to break even really. We'd be going into this knowing full well that we're most likely going to be losing money to live somewhere comfortable for a few years. Have you been able to come up with any numbers to get a comparison of what it would cost to rent (comfortably or not) versus the potential costs of ownership for those few years (without even factoring in trying to sell it when ready)?
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Apr 5, 2011 03:36
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senor punk posted:Have you been able to come up with any numbers to get a comparison of what it would cost to rent (comfortably or not) versus the potential costs of ownership for those few years (without even factoring in trying to sell it when ready)? I think she's saying that the rental options suck, so they're almost stuck buying. Would it make sense to buy and then rent it out when you move away?
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Apr 5, 2011 03:40
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Well I started reading this thread two years ago and finally got a sweet deal on a great, but not perfect place for the right price. Thanks thread 
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Apr 5, 2011 05:45
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senor punk posted:Have you been able to come up with any numbers to get a comparison of what it would cost to rent (comfortably or not) versus the potential costs of ownership for those few years (without even factoring in trying to sell it when ready)? We've done a bit: we end up at about the same spot, even assuming we sell the house for slightly less than we bought it. quote:I think she's saying that the rental options suck, so they're almost stuck buying. This is the main issue (and why I don't think we'd be able to rent it out if we have trouble selling): there just aren't any nice 'family' homes available for rent in the area. We'd be paying about twice in rent what a mortgage payment would be for a poo poo-carpeted, wood-paneled, place in a not so good area. This also makes me think there's not a market for the type of rental we'd be able to offer if we kept the house. It is a dilemma 
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Apr 5, 2011 11:35
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slowfoot posted:We've done a bit: we end up at about the same spot, even assuming we sell the house for slightly less than we bought it.
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Apr 5, 2011 16:13
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necrobobsledder posted:The other problem you run into will be whether anyone will be buying your place when you do want to move in 2-3 years. This is the primary problem I have with people buying places in economically depressed areas - to be able to move on, someone else has to want to move in and make the commitment to buy. I mean, it'd be kind of cool in some circumstances if you could just sell to someone like the bank and move on, but they're not stupid either despite the stuff you hear on the news. Yep, that's my main concern.
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Apr 5, 2011 22:59
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slowfoot posted:Yep, that's my main concern.
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Apr 5, 2011 23:01
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Tricky Ed posted:So, yeah. I'd walk. There are other nice houses that won't make you pay an extra $6k and haven't been "fixed up" at great speed by the lowest bidder using the cheapest materials available. So, quick flips are a warning flag, but by no means a deal-breaker. Check out the references of the flipper and his other projects. A good builder can flip a house in 30 days if he has good contacts, has done his research, and is skilled at his profession. Also, just like a used car salesman or pawnshop, the profit is made on the pick-up, not the sale. So flippers are usually quite willing to negotiate.
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Apr 8, 2011 01:54
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So... I found a mortgage broker that says I have a 50/50 chance of actually getting a loan, and the final decision is actually up to the underwriter, but he is willing to give me a pre-approval for my allowed debt/income ratio. We believe that we have found a house that we like a lot, and are ready to put a bid in on it. We are aiming very low, then seeing what they counter-offer. I am unclear on how the proceedings actually take place. Since I have a 50/50 shot, I would like to minimize my out of pocket expense until I am sure that I have the loan. The realtor I am using mentioned that I would need to get a home inspection within 7 days of the buyer accepting the bid? Is this correct? The realtor is from my fiance's family, and while I know he would act in our best interest to his knowledge, I am not sure if he himself is sure on the proceedings of house buying. My mortgage broker also told me to ask for 45 days when I go to sign the contract(a longer period of time) so that he can have extra time to re-submit my loan to another lender for underwriting if one comes back with a denial. My question really is - Do i really have to pay an inspector to come out within 7 days of the bid being accepted? I understand that i may or may not lose the earnest money i put down, but i would like to minimize my cost if everything goes awry. E: Got my answer, removed personal info. solarisin fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Apr 10, 2011 |
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Apr 10, 2011 07:48
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solarisin posted:My question really is - Do i really have to pay an inspector to come out within 7 days of the bid being accepted? I understand that i may or may not lose the earnest money i put down, but i would like to minimize my cost if everything goes awry. It could be longer if you have your realtor make your due diligence period longer in your contract. Either way you are probably going to have to suck it up and have an inspector out before you know on the status of the loan. It isn't worth risking your thousand(s) of dollars in earnest money because you didn't want to pay someone $300 for an inspection in time.
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Apr 10, 2011 14:02
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It kills me that out of the entire real estate transaction process people always point out the inspection as something they don't want to pay for. My sister just put in an offer on a house conditional on a home inspection. The home was only about 110K, but the inspector found over 15,000 dollars worth of stuff that needed to be repaired. If she would have bought the house blind she would have had to come up with that out of pocket. I would say that 400 dollar inspection she paid for saved her 15,000 bucks. Seriously though, between the FHA mortgage insurance prepay, monthly payment, taxes, points, and all the other fees, the inspection is one of the cheapest things to pay for.
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Apr 10, 2011 14:33
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Arzakon posted:It could be longer if you have your realtor make your due diligence period longer in your contract. Either way you are probably going to have to suck it up and have an inspector out before you know on the status of the loan. It isn't worth risking your thousand(s) of dollars in earnest money because you didn't want to pay someone $300 for an inspection in time. Paying it is fine, I just want to make sure I HAD to at that point to not get screwed. Thanks for the terminology (due-diligence). solarisin fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Apr 10, 2011 |
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Apr 10, 2011 15:50
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skipdogg posted:It kills me that out of the entire real estate transaction process people always point out the inspection as something they don't want to pay for. I've seen enough poo poo on Holmes Inspection to be pretty  at the whole inspection process, I'll have to bring my Dad who really knows his poo poo, and Uncle who works in construction to take a look at whatever I plan to buy in the future.
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Apr 10, 2011 16:05
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FISHMANPET posted:I've seen enough poo poo on Holmes Inspection to be pretty An inspection report is a lot easier to negotiate with than, "my dad says it needs a roof," no matter what you think of the inspection process.
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Apr 10, 2011 16:12
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Yes, you have to get the inspection done before the inspection contingency expires, because if you wait until afterward, you cannot use the results of the inspection to back out of the deal without losing your earnest money. Of course, failing to get financed is also a contingency, but the bad scenario is: you wait to do your inspection, financing comes through, the inspection shows something very expensive to fix, and you cannot back out of a house you no longer want because you've let the inspection contingency deadline pass. Now you either walk away without your huge earnest money deposit, or you eat the loss on whatever the inspection problem is. Also: I agree completely that you need to do as much inspection as possible. Since I bought in California, I got a termite inspection even though the regular general guy didn't find any evidence of termites. Because in California pretty much every wooden house (which is all of them) is at risk of termites. (As it turned out this house didn't have termites, so you could say my extra $250 was wasted, but I think it was well worth it). It is true that you might wind up blowing $500 on an inspection for a house that you wind up not buying. That is a cost of house shopping that you should resign yourself to. It is especially important to make this mental shift because you do not want to find yourself tempted to buy a crappy house with problems, just to avoid losing that inspection cost. Be prepared to spend that money again on the next house if this one turns up a problem you don't like.
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Apr 10, 2011 18:37
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eddiewalker posted:An inspection report is a lot easier to negotiate with than, "my dad says it needs a roof," no matter what you think of the inspection process. I mean more along the lines of I wouldn't really trust any inspector unless I knew a bunch about them. I'd use family as a supplement, not a replacement, and then if there was some bad poo poo I'd bring back an inspector and say "Hey, look at this." E: Has anyone seen this show? Basically some people buy a house, get an inspection that says all is well, then there's all sorts of problems, and then Mike Holmes comes in and does a couple hundred thousand dollars of repairs, very often structural. Maybe just another reason to DO NEVER BUY. One of them was so bad they were debating if they should gut to the studs or just tear down and rebuild. FISHMANPET fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Apr 10, 2011 |
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Apr 10, 2011 21:30
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FISHMANPET posted:E: Has anyone seen this show? What is the name of the show/channel its on? Sounds like a good show for an inexperienced home buyer.
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Apr 10, 2011 23:00
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He's Canadian. It's on our network HGTV with two shows: Holmes on Homes; and Holmes Inspection. Both are good shows. Wife and I watch Disaster DIY as well.
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Apr 10, 2011 23:56
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quaint bucket posted:He's Canadian. It's on our network HGTV with two shows: Holmes on Homes; and Holmes Inspection. We get HGTV in the US too.
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Apr 11, 2011 00:06
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I honestly had no idea and didn't want to assume the US had the same network.
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Apr 11, 2011 00:10
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The best shows on HGTV in the US are Canadian  .Mike Holmes is a pretty sweet guy, he has actually three shows: Holmes on Homes, an older show where he would come in and fix contractor's gently caress ups. He had a show in New Orleans where he did the same where homeowners had been preyed upon by disreputable contractors. Holmes Inspection is a show where he comes into homes that were purchased with a clean home inspection, and then turn out to have problems the inspector should have caught. The last episode I watched the inspector missed termites, and in fixing that revealed the house was built on dirt and likely to collapse. That was $100k-$150k to fix (Either the show pays for the renovations or his charity does, haven't been able to figure it out). In another episode, they had to rip it down to the studs, and if they hadn't the ceiling was going to collapse (it already sagged a couple of inches, idiots pulled out all the walls on the main floor and didn't properly reinforce the ceiling). Now I'm quite sure these cases are incredibly atypical, but they definitely mean you should make sure to get a good inspection, especially if the house is recently renovated.
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Apr 11, 2011 01:04
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I love all this talk since my wife and I are closing on our first house this Friday.  I really have to thank this thread for all the info. Some of it was really valuable but it served as a great guide. Especially at what not to do. I know DO NEVER BUY and all that but we're as ready and prepared as possible.
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Apr 11, 2011 02:46
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Congratulations Thwomp! DO NEVER BUY but still, it's an amazing thing to do, if you're prepared. I don't regret it (yet). My main/general inspector came recommended from my agent; we looked around and his rates were a little higher than the cheapest we could find, but that seemed fine if he was going to do a good job. He found a lot of minor issues and seemed to be pretty thorough. I was present for the inspection so I could ask questions, and get a sense for what parts of the house he was looking at and how. We also got the termite guy who actually also looked for any other sort of wood decay/rot. He found some wet-rot (some of the beams where the patio addition meets the house had been gradually damaged from leakage) that the general guy missed.
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Apr 11, 2011 03:36
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I get very nervous about using the inspector recommended by your agent. Always remember your agent's incentives: make a sale. Your agent does not want something found that will derail the deal. I used the agent-recommended inspector when I bought my current home, and he did a fine job, but I wouldn't do it again.
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Apr 11, 2011 04:40
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As DM said, don't use whomever your agent suggests. Either get some recommendations by people who've purchased a house recently or sign up for https://my.angieslist.com/ and read their reviews.
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Apr 11, 2011 14:59
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DancingMachine posted:I get very nervous about using the inspector recommended by your agent. Always remember your agent's incentives: make a sale. Your agent does not want something found that will derail the deal. Thirding this... my agent recommended a fine inspector, i'm sure. But, I went with a non-affiliated one so that I can sleep at night knowing that he was MY man doing the inspection, and what a hell of an inspection he did. He spotted some potentially counterfeit Chinese breakers in the electrical box. Good eye... It's not that the realtors will give kick backs to them, but will continue to refer clients... that's powerful stuff right there.
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Apr 11, 2011 15:13
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Has anyone bought a new car shortly after buying a house? The wife and I need a new car badly, as in, it costs us more in car repairs monthly than most car payments would. Does having a brand new mortgage and your credit report being pulled and scrutinized make getting a car loan harder?
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Apr 11, 2011 15:34
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Grem posted:Has anyone bought a new car shortly after buying a house? The wife and I need a new car badly, as in, it costs us more in car repairs monthly than most car payments would. Does having a brand new mortgage and your credit report being pulled and scrutinized make getting a car loan harder? Shouldn't as long as your numbers add up to what the dealer finance company wants to see.
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Apr 11, 2011 15:58
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Grem posted:Has anyone bought a new car shortly after buying a house? The wife and I need a new car badly, as in, it costs us more in car repairs monthly than most car payments would. Does having a brand new mortgage and your credit report being pulled and scrutinized make getting a car loan harder? Your credit can be pulled by different industries once without being considered 'a hit' on your credit. You can apply for an auto loan, a credit card, a rental, and a home all in the same time without getting knocked for more than one pull. However, if you got two pulls for your mortgage, you would get the hit. Isn't the system so helpful for consumers? Discourages you from shopping around...
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Apr 11, 2011 16:22
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Most dealers don't look much beyond your credit score as a quick passover anyway. If you had the credit to be able to buy a house with the lowest rates possible, then you should be able to get a car loan. My credit score went up after I bought a place so who knows, maybe you'd get a better deal from them than you would have otherwise?
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Apr 11, 2011 16:23
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Grem posted:Has anyone bought a new car shortly after buying a house? The wife and I need a new car badly, as in, it costs us more in car repairs monthly than most car payments would. Does having a brand new mortgage and your credit report being pulled and scrutinized make getting a car loan harder? My score dropped 40 points in the few months after my loan closed, and recovered (and went WAY up) within 6 months.
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Apr 11, 2011 16:40
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Grem posted:Has anyone bought a new car shortly after buying a house? The wife and I need a new car badly, as in, it costs us more in car repairs monthly than most car payments would. Does having a brand new mortgage and your credit report being pulled and scrutinized make getting a car loan harder? I did, but that was back in 2002. Closed on the house and bought a new car less than 3 months later (0% financing even).
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Apr 11, 2011 17:59
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We might be going through with this buying thing, so I have another dumb question One of the houses we're looking at is priced significantly higher than the assessed values of the other houses around it (I know those are just estimates). Those houses are in the 40 - 80,000 range while this one is listed at 129,000. The surrounding homes are well-kept and neat, but are smaller. The house we are interested in is on a double lot and has a barn converted into a 3 car garage (it's quite a bit older than the other homes in the neighborhood). So, I understand that neighboring home values will have a big affect on home value, but is this a bad buy even if you're getting something larger and with better features? Or will these little houses always drag the price down? How much of a price differential is too much?
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Apr 11, 2011 20:07
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You're not really comparing apples to apples. When a bank/appraiser looks to see if the house is properly valued, they're going to find the best comparable homes in your area. Not just the local neighborhood but sometimes in other towns. It really depends how unique your house is and how prevalent that style is in your area. (Obviously, your barn/garage is not going to have many comparables but your main house might).
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Apr 11, 2011 21:08
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Does any one have a good argument for: It is better to wait until you have a decent down payment (say >5%) and closing costs saved up for a year or two from now. Then to go buy a house now while the rates are low. A huge number of my friends are jumping on the "Buying a house" bandwagon and are showing some decent numbers for buying a house now. This for a $130,000 house and property tax of 4,200 a year. Today with 0 Down and APR 5.2 (with PMI and Property Tax) 1,120.18 30 Year total = 390307.23 Closing cost ~9,000 Total: 399307.23 1 or 2 Year with 10% Down (13,000) and APR 6.2 (with PMI and Property Tax) 1,117.18 30 Year total = 388636.33 Closing cost ~9,000 Total: 410636.33 Rent over 2 years at 800 a month = 19200 Grand Total: 429836.33 Difference: 30529.10 in favor of buying now With this in mind people are convinced that it is cheaper to buy now instead of waiting. The only thing I can think of if something big were to happen in the first few years of moving in you wouldn't have the equity to take out a loan and fix it. Also the 0% down is just for the example most are looking at the 3.5% range. Dbhjed fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Apr 11, 2011 |
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Apr 11, 2011 23:13
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