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long story short: Our landlord is a nice person and has let us keep to ourselves and responded promptly whenever we had a problem (our garbage disposal machine passed on and she gave us the go-ahead to replace it and repaid us the cost of the part, letting me do the work) so we're happy to help her out the best we can. My wife and I have recently found a new place to live (bought). Our landlord decided to sell the apartment. Wife and I were like, "ok, we'll help the best we can." Enter the realtor. We made the place into a showroom condition whenever they decided to have an openhouse. We obliged. They've had an open house every weekend for the last 4 weeks w/ no offers (I feel the price was too high). Needless to say, it's wearing on our patience and we would like to have the upcoming weekend to ourselves at home w/o being booted out for 4 hours. Do we have any right to decline an openhouse for this weekend? This is in Canada, BC if it matters.
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Apr 11, 2011 23:41
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Where are you getting 0% loans from? There are a couple options out there, but they offset the 0% with fees and a jacked up interest rate so it kind of defeats the purpose. 3.5% is FHA, which is more reasonable, but the PMI is a bitch. If you don't even have 5% to put down what are you going to do when something breaks? Taking out HELOCs is not the thing to do for home repairs. Anyway there are few worse reasons to buy a home than "all my friends are" and "rates are really low right now."
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Apr 11, 2011 23:50
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Realjones posted:Where are you getting 0% loans from? There are a couple options out there, but they offset the 0% with fees and a jacked up interest rate so it kind of defeats the purpose. I am not looking to buy the taxes up here are sky high and I am putting more in the bank right now then would go into principal payments. (thanks for the advice a few months ago about paying off my debt!) I am just wondering "If something breaks" argument is the only thing out there to deter someone from waiting until they have bigger payment. The 0% is based off a USDA rural loan a buddy of my bought a house with. I am just trying to help them out, since you guys set me straight a while ago.
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Apr 11, 2011 23:57
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0 down is a terrible idea. The minimum for FHA is 3.5% and I would not go any lower than that. Also Realjones is absolutely right. Moreover you can't take out a Home Equity Line Of Credit if you have no equity. Also rates will probably stay low for some time. If rates rise, that will impact prices to some extent. Even if you pay a whole point more from waiting a year, you'll be better off for having saved up a down payment and cash for closing costs and repairs. Also in addition to the mortgage and PMI, you will also need hazard insurance. Also, you didn't factor in the maintenance costs of your new house over those two years. Also perhaps higher utilities. Also, PMI is only until you hit 22% equity (for a FHA loan) or 20% (for a normal loan). So you shouldn't multiply PMI payments by 30 years. Instead, you need to determine when you'd hit that equity mark depending on how much down payment you made (and consequently how much of each month's mortgage payment is going to principal as well), and factor that into your total long-term cost. \/\/\/\/Yep that too. If you sell a house, you pay a minimum of 6% of its value in commissions (the seller must pay that part), plus some additional costs. Whereas unless you are breaking a lease, moving out of a rental unit is free. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Apr 12, 2011 |
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Apr 11, 2011 23:59
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Dbhjed posted:I am not looking to buy the taxes up here are sky high and I am putting more in the bank right now then would go into principal payments. (thanks for the advice a few months ago about paying off my debt!) There is an assumption that you stay in that house for the full 30 years of the loan, which is a big assumption. If you only stay for 5 or 10 years then the math is very different.
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Apr 12, 2011 00:01
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ObsidianBeast posted:There is an assumption that you stay in that house for the full 30 years of the loan, which is a big assumption. If you only stay for 5 or 10 years then the math is very different. Can I get an example of the math? (It might help) I was just also hit with this: I was trying to say in the ~20,000+ I am going to save in the next 2 years, when I buy a house I will have ~13,000 more in equity in the house for the what if factor (plus in my area I need to put a good amount down or deal with a small house). But if I were to buy now in 2 years I will only have ~3,000 in equity. Then the argument was made about 800 in rent to equal 19200. So I would be paying more over the 2 years and deal with the high rate. Also Leperflesh So if the Mortgage rates go up normally the price of a house goes down? Awesome after a carefully worded google search I found this: http://www.wisebread.com/what-it-really-costs-to-own-a-home It is a month to month break down of the big once in while expenses for a house! Dbhjed fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Apr 12, 2011 |
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Apr 12, 2011 00:13
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Dbhjed posted:So if the Mortgage rates go up normally the price of a house goes down? Not really. There have been several studies that have shown this correlation to be weak. Just because you are financing a large piece of it doesn't mean someone else would and the less you finance, the less interest rate sensitive you are. Look for the New York Times buy vs. rent calculator and run some simulations. As for your question in general. Consider that if you buy a house with very little down, it might be impossible for you to leave if the price drops. Unless you can come up with a lot of cash you could truly be stuck. This is a real possibility. There are high transaction costs to just get into and out of a house. Typically it is around 5-6% of a house. If you are in a house for a couple year you bear these costs over a short period of time, making it more attractive to rent. Under some scenarios buying a house might be better than an apartment, but you give up a tremendous amount of flexibility for little gain. You are going to have all of your assets in a single 'investment' and will be terribly non-diversified. I was going to type out a ton of things in detail, but here is a list of things you probably aren't considering: 1) routine maintenance 2) risk of something big breaking 3) home owners insurance 4) taxes 5) risk that price drops 6) transaction costs 7) MIP/PIM 8) risk that house loses value 9) how long are you going to live here 10) other poo poo you need to buy for a house (mower, extra furniture, etc.) 11) delaying other investing (retirement) 12) non-diversified portfolio You are like the DO NEVER BUY poster-child. No money, no good reason to buy one.
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Apr 12, 2011 01:52
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alreadybeen posted:I was going to type out a ton of things in detail, but here is a list of things you probably aren't considering: I am on the DO NEVER BUY (right now) train. For myself: I live in Monroe County NY (Has the highest property tax in the US) All the houses in the 130,000 range are small or old I am getting married soon Taxes I am saving more right now than I would be paying for the principle of my loan I am hoping in 2 years I will be making more money so I can get a bigger loan I can get a bigger house with 20,000 down because yes I can approved for a 130,000 loan but right now that means a 130,000 house, a 150,00 house would be better I don't pay for heat or water right now I get a discount on my Power bill and cable did I mention taxes yet? I am looking for info to help my argument against buying for my buddies who are all like HOME BUYING GO!!!!!! rates are low but so is their savings. Also reading this http://www.wisebread.com/what-it-really-costs-to-own-a-home Really makes me glad about my decision. Dbhjed fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Apr 12, 2011 |
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Apr 12, 2011 02:02
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Dbhjed posted:I am just wondering "If something breaks" argument is the only thing out there to deter someone from waiting until they have bigger payment. Nope, this one is pretty easy: $130K @ 5.2% $350 in taxes per month $560 in interest per month (This only drops to $500 at the end of year 7) $75 in higher insurance rates (Lets guess $25 for renters vs $100 in homeowners) $65 in PMI = $1050/mo to own Or you can rent for $250 less, avoiding the risk of depreciation and maintenance. Just in your ITI it costs you more than renting and that is all "throw away" money. Oh you don't have to pay $9,000 up front to rent either. Change 5.2% to 3%, $4200 in taxes to $1000, no PMI, and raise the cost of rent to $1000/mo and you have my position 2 years ago. It took that drastic of a difference to make me consider buying over renting and I'm probably just barely breaking even on the cost.
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Apr 12, 2011 02:09
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Arzakon posted:Change 5.2% to 3%, $4200 in taxes to $1000, no PMI, and raise the cost of rent to $1000/mo and you have my position 2 years ago. It took that drastic of a difference to make me consider buying over renting and I'm probably just barely breaking even on the cost. I wish the property tax in my area was 1000 or even 4200, most decent houses in my area that are not in the city are closer to the 5,000 range. I just find the bull that is going around right now. NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY!!!!! Everyday is the time to buy when you have the money to do such, don't put the next 30 years of your life out there when you could save up some money now and have a better start. Inspectors can miss stuff. If I had a house I would maybe be able to save 150 a month. Renting right now that is a bit over 600. Adding on to Renting isn't that bad. I HATE my apartment. I mean really hate it but Next year after I get married the future wife and I are looking at some townhouses to get rid of some of the things we hate about the apartment. Things I hate: Laundry room (dirty and always busy) Having to watch steps (older lady lives below complained once about walking to heavy at night) Can't play my Kinect at wee hours in the morning No 5.1 surround sound (old lady) No garage No storage space Small communal mailboxes (can't get magazines or netflix dvds) Townhouse: (plus I don't have to sell anything before I move just wait until the lease is up!) (rent will go up for me 780 to around 835 and I will have to pay for gas, but seems worth it) Most have Laundry hook up (YAY!!!! ) Only neighbors on the sides (yes to Kinect at 3am) 5.1 should be ok there Some have garages Most have basements Bigger private mailboxes Best of all I not responsible for major fixes! I still can't wait to have a house, but I want to have the upfront cash ready. Dbhjed fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Apr 12, 2011 |
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Apr 12, 2011 02:15
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quaint bucket posted:long story short: If they give you notice they can show when they like. But you have no obligation to leave or clean up so well.
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Apr 12, 2011 02:21
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Ahz posted:If they give you notice they can show when they like. But you have no obligation to leave or clean up so well. Does it matter whether or not it's the realtor or the landlord giving us the notice?
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Apr 12, 2011 09:16
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quaint bucket posted:Does it matter whether or not it's the realtor or the landlord giving us the notice? In the U.S. most states specify that it is the landlord that has to give notice. You'd have to check the specific laws for your province though. Have you talked to your landlord yet about the situation? We had a really aggressive agent showing our old apartment with completely unreasonable advanced notice (i.e. one hour before the appointment). Our landlord had no idea that this was going on and remedied the situation quick.
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Apr 12, 2011 14:27
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double post
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Apr 12, 2011 14:28
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Thwomp posted:I love all this talk since my wife and I are closing on our first house this Friday. Also closing on Friday, probably on a different place than we would have ended up with without this thread. It's somewhat terrifying, but the mortgage is entirely manageable (a little over 2x household income) so I think we'll be fine. I'm over living in rented accommodation, it'll be nice to be able to change appliances and have a garage to mess around in at long last.
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Apr 12, 2011 15:47
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sanchez posted:Also closing on Friday, probably on a different place than we would have ended up with without this thread. It's somewhat terrifying, but the mortgage is entirely manageable (a little over 2x household income) so I think we'll be fine.
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Apr 12, 2011 17:03
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gvibes posted:The though of a mortgage of 2x household income terrifies me. Hopefully he means take-home pay...
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Apr 12, 2011 17:09
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Nocheez posted:Hopefully he means take-home pay... I thought he meant 2X annual income, which is about what I pay (i.e 150K house a 75K salary)
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Apr 12, 2011 17:29
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LorneReams posted:I thought he meant 2X annual income, which is about what I pay (i.e 150K house a 75K salary) I suppose there are other variables as well, such as real estate taxes. The area I was just browsing regularly sees property taxes over 10k a year, which has me terrified again.
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Apr 12, 2011 17:35
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LorneReams posted:which is about what I pay (i.e 150K house a 75K salary) The mortgage (eg house price minus deposit) will be about 2x total household income. So pretty much that 
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Apr 12, 2011 18:04
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I am also coming from the perspective where I am quite pessimistic and assume that my income will go nowhere but down, even if I can maintain a job (probably a side effect of getting laid off from my first post-college dream job five weeks after I started). I currently make about 5x what my wife makes, but if necessary, right now we could cut out some small things and live on her salary alone for a long, long time. If we had a mortgage of 2x our annual household income, just mortgage payments plus real estate taxes would probably be more than her annual gross income. So, just paranoid, basically.
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Apr 12, 2011 18:42
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I bought my home when I was making much less than I am now, and didn't have a fiancee who contributes. I borrowed 3.68 times what I was making yearly, and was able to make the payments just fine. I would not recommend this, however. I put zero down and I'm still likely upside-down on my loan.
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Apr 12, 2011 19:01
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Dbhjed posted:Does any one have a good argument for: In addition to what's already been posted, ask them how long they really want to live where they bought. If they say anything less than the full 30 years then they're fudging the numbers to justify their decision, and they should redo it for the term they say, like 5 or 10 years. In that scenario your down payment should give you an advantage, because the sunk cost of the interest will be greater than the 2 years of rent.
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Apr 12, 2011 23:22
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LloydDobler posted:In addition to what's already been posted, ask them how long they really want to live where they bought. If they say anything less than the full 30 years then they're fudging the numbers to justify their decision, and they should redo it for the term they say, like 5 or 10 years. In that scenario your down payment should give you an advantage, because the sunk cost of the interest will be greater than the 2 years of rent. This is why i am waiting . I understand it is nice to own some land but people are getting crazy with the interest rate. In the 80's people were still buying at 13%
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Apr 13, 2011 00:33
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Dbhjed posted:This is why i am waiting . I understand it is nice to own some land but people are getting crazy with the interest rate. In the 80's people were still buying at 13% Bottom line is that the right time it buy is when you can comfortably afford it and desire to stay in the location for a significant period of time. Planning on staying there 5 years? Better buy a place that you'd be happy with for ten, just in case.
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Apr 13, 2011 03:43
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TraderStav posted:Bottom line is that the right time it buy is when you can comfortably afford it and desire to stay in the location for a significant period of time. Planning on staying there 5 years? Better buy a place that you'd be happy with for ten, just in case. I am more or less post this here since a bunch of my friends are thinking they should buy houses since the rates are so low. I am hoping if people are lurking this thread and don't want to read the middle 40 pages just putting out there why I think it is a good idea to wait. When I buy a house in 2 years I am hoping to have around 20,000 in equity and the people that buy now with the minimum (0% with the USDA rural or the 3.5 FHA) they will only have 5,000-9,000 in equity. I was really interested in buying a house because it does seem like a really good deal right now but it is all the little bills and lack of equity that is causing me to suck it up and stay renting.
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Apr 13, 2011 04:15
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It's funny, I bought only for the reason that I was tired of moving whenever either my landload wanted more money, or sold the place out from under me. I was moving like every 18 months and I was sick of it. I'm still paying less then rent.
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Apr 13, 2011 13:44
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sanchez posted:Also closing on Friday, probably on a different place than we would have ended up with without this thread. It's somewhat terrifying, but the mortgage is entirely manageable (a little over 2x household income) so I think we'll be fine. The wife and I are closing this Friday as well. Anyone else closing on Friday? I think we can do better than three. Good luck dudes.
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Apr 13, 2011 18:07
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Dbhjed posted:I am more or less post this here since a bunch of my friends are thinking they should buy houses since the rates are so low. I am hoping if people are lurking this thread and don't want to read the middle 40 pages just putting out there why I think it is a good idea to wait. Unless you buy the house for 15k less than it was appraised for. Instant equity.  But in all seriousness, how the hell are the three of us all closing the same day? That's freaky and almost the opposite of this thread's motto.
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Apr 13, 2011 18:38
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Did you other Friday goons close yet? Ours was smooth and quick, like a good poo poo. The seller was an old lady rocking a sweet Battlestar Galactica sweatshirt. Total badass.
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Apr 15, 2011 19:12
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So my Realtor asked me if I had been approved for a loan yet.. I was under the assumption (and told by a broker) that the approval process starts when I get an accepted offer on a house. The realtor told me that the broker should be looking for a place to accept my loan before then. Is this right (FHA)? The realtor also said that FHA is going to be changing the requirements for an FHA loan to be up to 720 min credit score, and some other things next year. Anyone heard of this?
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Apr 15, 2011 19:55
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solarisin posted:The realtor also said that FHA is going to be changing the requirements for an FHA loan to be up to 720 min credit score, and some other things next year. Anyone heard of this? Nah, thats bullshit. Defeats the purpose of the FHA program. The FHA program was originally put in place to get lower income folks without large downpayments or established credit historiesl There is no minimum credit score for the FHA program. The FHA Lenders put an overlay on what they'll accept which is around 640 right now. My sister got an FHA loan 6 years ago with no credit score. She had to use alternative lines of credit such as utility bill history, etc.
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Apr 15, 2011 20:09
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solarisin posted:So my Realtor asked me if I had been approved for a loan yet.. I was under the assumption (and told by a broker) that the approval process starts when I get an accepted offer on a house. The realtor told me that the broker should be looking for a place to accept my loan before then. Is this right (FHA)? Being approved for the loan is separate from the loan being approved. You need to pre-qualify for a loan, then go look for properties that you know you can afford. Once you have an accepted offer then the property can be appraised and FHA can decide whether it meets their lending criteria or not.
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Apr 17, 2011 04:25
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Hibajubwa posted:Being approved for the loan is separate from the loan being approved. You need to pre-qualify for a loan, then go look for properties that you know you can afford. Once you have an accepted offer then the property can be appraised and FHA can decide whether it meets their lending criteria or not. That's what I thought... and the realtor has my pre-approval letter. That's why what he asked me confused me.
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Apr 18, 2011 02:44
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RichieHimself posted:Did you other Friday goons close yet? Ours was smooth and quick, like a good poo poo. The seller was an old lady rocking a sweet Battlestar Galactica sweatshirt. Total badass. No problems here. We never saw the seller, they suck at cleaning though. Must have found several pounds of rodent droppings so far, along with a vanity that was more or less draining onto the floor (nice job home inspector) I'm trying not to think about the amount we've spent on "incidentals" at home depot etc so far.
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Apr 18, 2011 15:47
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RichieHimself posted:Did you other Friday goons close yet? Ours was smooth and quick, like a good poo poo. The seller was an old lady rocking a sweet Battlestar Galactica sweatshirt. Total badass. Our closing was a bit rocky with the lender taking their sweet time wiring and releasing the funds to the title company. Once that was done, everything was cake. The sellers weren't there but turns out the listing agent lives in the neighborhood so he was really friendly. The house was also really clean and ready for all our poo poo. Despite wind, rain and cold temps, we got everything moved in. Also not thinking about incidentals and trips to Home Depot and Target.
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Apr 18, 2011 16:59
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I ignored the advice in the thread title and am buying a house. The best thing about it is no more mortgage (cash money, baby). Put in the offer Thursday, accepted Friday (BY A BANK! That's fast as hell), looks like closing will be before the end of the month (yay homestead due date). It's kinda bad that I'm looking at it as "I don't care what the inspection says, we're taking the drat house." The house has no major problems and were growing tired of having every house we liked and put bids on being bought without our offers even being considered. It's not an ideal house, but it's still bigger than what we have now with a lot more property and cost less than 30% of what we owe on the current mortgage.
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Apr 18, 2011 19:32
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Fire Storm posted:I ignored the advice in the thread title and am buying a house. The best thing about it is no more mortgage (cash money, baby). Put in the offer Thursday, accepted Friday (BY A BANK! That's fast as hell), looks like closing will be before the end of the month (yay homestead due date).
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Apr 18, 2011 19:46
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Yeah, the first house my wife and I bid on, our bid was $235k and another buyer got it for $210k cash. The bank was willing to take $25k less, just to avoid financing contingency.
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Apr 18, 2011 21:34
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Leperflesh posted:Yeah, the first house my wife and I bid on, our bid was $235k and another buyer got it for $210k cash. The bank was willing to take $25k less, just to avoid financing contingency. I was able to take off 10% from a custom built home because it was cash.
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Apr 18, 2011 21:52
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