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gvibes posted:Is that rule in your decs or condo rules? It's stated in the CC&R. I dont think its anything I can contest but they're still going to hear from me.
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May 19, 2011 22:25
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lapse posted:Personally, I was looking at houses early last year to try to take advantage of the first time home-buyer credit, but after reading threads like this one and talking to some people with my interests at heart, decided to wait a year. And then a year passed, and I decided to wait another 6 months to try to let my credit score get high enough to get a good interest rate. I agree with this, I was looking to buy in ~10 months now before I read this thread and got advice. What did I end up with, talking to the fiancee and deciding to wait until a year after we are married to buy a house. The USDA Rural loan? They do look good on paper, but there are some draw backs. They add 3% into the down payment, oh the seller can cover up to 6% of that well guess what if you ask them to cover 6% that doesn't leave you with much haggle room at all, and worst of all NO EQUITY, good luck with that. Also your loan APR will be higher. Plus you can only live in a place with less than 10,000 people, Hello commute! Getting married soon? Bad time to buy a house buddy. Weddings like buying a house have hidden fees, what is worse buying a house and having a wedding around the same time, a buddy of mine found that out the HARD way, it meant no more honeymoon for them Not married, want a cool bachelor pad? Rent trust me! It is better to wait to get your house until you are married and discussed children and what you two want in a house. I know what I want in a house and what my fiancee want in a house are two different ideas, we will have to meet in the middle when we do look. Fresh out of college? RENT! There is a lot of things life throws at you later. I thought I was getting settled in my budget when I forgot a few bills that have honeymoon phases, main one being cable bill that is going up 30 dollars more in the next month since I've had it for a year. Also you can't plan for the hurt of student loan until you start paying them. Along with this make sure your job is stable before you buy a house. Even if you make 20% of a down payment, if you lose your job and have to move your stuck! Have a good about of debt? Also instead of saving up for a down payment, pay it off. I was given this advice from some people here. Best advice ever. I am now putting more in my savings every month then I would be paying just for the principle of my loan. For the average person in their 20's unless you never plan on marrying, get a 100K out of college, and live close to your parents if the crap hits the fan; rent for a few years. I just signed my lease for the apartment I live at for another year and I am not looking back! Owning a house might be the American dream but if you go at it wrong it could turn into a nightmare.
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May 19, 2011 22:52
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What happens if you defy the HOA and rent the unit out, what is the worst they can do? Put a lien on your condo and keep slapping fines on you or what?
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May 20, 2011 02:15
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IratelyBlank posted:What happens if you defy the HOA and rent the unit out, what is the worst they can do? Put a lien on your condo and keep slapping fines on you or what?
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May 20, 2011 02:30
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So I'm looking over the lease for an apartment I want to rent and there's a certain clause I'm sort of concerned with:quote:21. ADDITIONAL PAYMENTS AND COST OF SUIT. In the event I do not leave the premises in a clean and in rental condition at the time I vacate, I agree to pay a reasonable cleaning expense. Further, I agree to pay You all bank charges for checks returned for any reason, all late charges, all costs for repairs, replacements redecorating and or refurbishing the premises for anything other than ordinary wear and tear. So, I'm kind of concerned with the part in bold. Does this mean if he decides to sue me for any fees/charges for anything that I have to pay his legal fees? Can he even do that? (Is this a fairly common practice?)
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May 20, 2011 17:42
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singe posted:So I'm looking over the lease for an apartment I want to rent and there's a certain clause I'm sort of concerned with: quote:(a) You prevail in a suit against me me for Rent, damages, or other charges, and or But you should probably put this in the legal questions thread.
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May 20, 2011 17:52
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Just because something's in a lease doesn't mean it's legal or enforceable, landlords are generally pretty lovely at knowing what the law is. But yeah, get some legal advice if it bugs you.
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May 20, 2011 18:09
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Bought a condo years ago and managed, against all odds, to sell it for a profit right as the market was tanking circa 2007. Was on the market for 9 months though, and took decades off of my life in stress. I was contemplating walking away when an angel appeared and bought it...despite the next unit over being both larger and cheaper (heh, stupid angel). Grossly inaccurate sites like Zillow now show the condo as worth approximately 200K. During the time I owned it, the HOA went from $104 to $209 to $280. That's an almost 300% increase in HOA fees in two years. What did the Old Biddy Brigade do with that money? They stopped heating the pool for 10 months out of the year, had a bunch of awesome landscaping ripped out and not replaced, and enforced strict parking rules despite there being no previous parking problems and a surplus of spots. They also proceeded to not fix the roof as well as not fix the aging garage doors. Now I rent, and although the decor and popcorn ceiling is straight out of 1978, I whistle as I write that monthly check and "throw my money away". Do. Never. Buy.
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May 20, 2011 18:44
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I bought a condo six years ago, and assessments have only gone up $22, but that $22 added internet and satellite TV. There was a $600 special somewhere in there.
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May 20, 2011 18:48
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http://money.msn.com/exchange-traded-fund/why-home-prices-are-falling-again-mirhaydari.aspx
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May 20, 2011 19:03
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gvibes posted:Yeah, there are usually escalating fines, and if you don't pay, they can put a lien on the condo. A condo association can actually foreclose on a unit with too many outstanding fees and take it over. As I understand it, it almost never happens but there is a legal procedure for this. Also, that sucks jerkstore, but it's pretty common. One of the questions prospective buyers always ask an association is the percentage of rented units, and too many rentals is seen as a property-value killer.
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May 20, 2011 21:44
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Saveron_01 posted:http://money.msn.com/exchange-traded-fund/why-home-prices-are-falling-again-mirhaydari.aspx Note: trying to time the market is impossible so don't try it. It may be useful to know, however, that prices are still falling a bit overall but your market may vary.
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May 20, 2011 21:58
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As a current homebuyer (in the process of closing, but extremely attuned to the market), I have noticed that high-quality, ready to move in homes in the area I am looking are moving VERY fast and prices are rising. Bear in mind that these are pockets of properties and exist amongst numerous bank-owned and other shoddy homes. It is not unusual for a high-quality home to receive multiple bids on the first day of listing while others that are more average will sit on the market for months. The home I am purchasing was on the market for 4 hours before 4 bids were submitted. I was the prevailing bid. Here was my strategy, which I thought was tits: I had known that the range for $/sqft for the area I was looking at for high-quality homes was $89-100. When I saw this home listed for $229, ($88/sqft), I bid $240 with $10k as a deposit (as I knew it was a bidding war, so HIGHEST and BEST quality loans would win. Conv>FHA) knowing that the sellers would appreciate the seriousness of my earnest money. In the back of my head I knew/felt that there was little chance that the appraisal would come in as high as $240k, but was willing (and comfortably able to afford, not only value the home at that price with my own rubric, not the 2006 guidebook...) to pay that much. I overbid in the hope that when the appraisal came back the sellers would have little choice but to match that value. Good news, the appraisal came back at 225! The sellers, knowing I was a very serious buyer, and that in this market appraisals were not ridiculous anymore relented and brought their price down. So I secured a home in a very premium location, extremely great condition, and met our criteria perfectly by analyzing the market and staying within our predetermined affordability guidelines. tldr: I had 3 martinis tonight after a long week of work and felt like bragging about a sweet deal on high-quality homes that were rising in prices amongst the poo poo that was falling in prices.
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May 21, 2011 02:52
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I had my builder call me yesterday at 5pm to tell me that they want me to do a pre-drywall walkthrough on Monday morning. I thought it was pretty short notice, but I am off Monday, so I accepted. I called an inspection place to do a pre-drywall (phase) inspection so they can't hide anything once they start hanging drywall. Was able to get the inspection scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, which I figured was pretty good considering I scheduled it on a Friday. Told the builder this and he seemed a bit perturbed about it and told me he wanted to start hanging the drywall immediately after the Monday walkthrough. Anything in particular I should be looking for then as it sounds like he's trying to rush me through it?
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May 21, 2011 03:03
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I put an offer on a house today about 10% below what the seller was asking... he outright denied the offer. My real estate agent said she was actually surprised that he didn't counter offer. We decided to offer again, basically at what we were willing to spend max (within 5% of his asking price), and he hasn't responded. The real estate agent wrote on the offer that response was required by 8:00 PM, but he never responded...
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May 21, 2011 03:24
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Kashwashwa posted:I put an offer on a house today about 10% below what the seller was asking... he outright denied the offer. That sucks if you really wanted the place, but there are other fish in the sea even if it's not readily apparent. If not today, then soon as spring/summer is prime season. Know what you want and what you are willing to pay and be patient, good things will come!
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May 21, 2011 04:09
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Hazardous Taste posted:What up, fellow AK goon? The house is near the Campbell Creek Science Center, in the Elmore and Abbott area. Technically, the house belongs to my girlfriend though. The combination of being under the gun to find someplace within 3 months, everything being so damned expensive, my unfortunate lack of employment at the time, and some other factors led to us splitting up. Fortunately, now that things have calmed back down and we're both rational again, we're patching things up and getting back together. Where abouts did you end up finding a place? Elmore and Abbott, nice. I just bought off Lake Otis, south and west of the intersection with Tudor...so the "good" part of that area I'd guess. I know what you mean about Anchorage being the land of the "Quarter of a Million Fixer-Upper". This house was priced a bit below that, and it wasn't a fixer upper. It was on the market for about 2 weeks before I got to see it, and I was involved in a multiple bidding scenario. I was the lowest bid, but I got it as the seller preferred my loan (Conventional w/20% down). The other bidders were VA and FHA loans. I also got the seller to put about $20k worth of work into the house finishing up some electrical work, vapor barrier in the crawl space, and doing some work this summer to protect the frame against soil heaving that is so common up here. Seems like the seller just wanted to be rid of the house as she got it in the divorce with her husband and had been renting it to a pastor's family ever since. She still made an assload of money off the house after the real estate agent's had taken their cut, judging by the balance sheet I saw when I recorded. Oh, and I'm glad you two are getting back together. Buying a home has been, without a doubt, the most stressful thing I've ever done in my life. I can see how the situation you described could lead to a break up.
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May 21, 2011 04:20
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TraderStav posted:That sucks if you really wanted the place, but there are other fish in the sea even if it's not readily apparent. If not today, then soon as spring/summer is prime season. Know what you want and what you are willing to pay and be patient, good things will come! Heh.. they got back to us... even though my offer was written "FIRM", they said nope, we'll take it for $2,000 more. They're almost not budging at all... honestly at this point it's more frustrating because I'm half not giving what they want out of spite, and half not because we're already $2,000 past our maximum. I thought we were almost being generous by making an offer that was very close to their asking price. If I did give what they were asking that'd put me $4k past my maximum. The house definitely fit the bill but I wasn't in LOVE with it. My real estate agent said there are tons of houses coming on soon, so I actually think I'm going to hold off on this one for now.
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May 21, 2011 05:23
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Bovine Delight posted:I had my builder call me yesterday at 5pm to tell me that they want me to do a pre-drywall walkthrough on Monday morning. I thought it was pretty short notice, but I am off Monday, so I accepted. I called an inspection place to do a pre-drywall (phase) inspection so they can't hide anything once they start hanging drywall. Was able to get the inspection scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, which I figured was pretty good considering I scheduled it on a Friday. Told the builder this and he seemed a bit perturbed about it and told me he wanted to start hanging the drywall immediately after the Monday walkthrough. Anything in particular I should be looking for then as it sounds like he's trying to rush me through it? If you don't know already, you won't see anything. Having said that, here are some things to look for: subfloor - glued and screwed or just nailed? the latter squeaks, the former doesn't joists - holes for plumbing, hvac, electric in the middle or notches out of the bottom? the former is good, the latter turns a 2x10 into a 2x6 or whatever your joists are and the cut depth is insulation - all cavities filled or not? insulation compacted or not? compacted is bad bathroom vents - vented to the outside or just sitting on the insulation in the attic and venting moisture into a spot that doesn't need it? electric: no junction boxes that will be hidden, everything looks tight, all wires at least 1 1/2" back from the front of the stud? plumbing and electric: stud guards (basically metal plates that block screws or nails from hitting the pipes or wires) in front of anything not 1 1/2" back from the front of the stud? plumbing: do some reading on venting and make sure it looks like your vents are right This is by no means comprehensive, but it gives you some things to check.
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May 21, 2011 05:50
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jackyl posted:If you don't know already, you won't see anything. Having said that, here are some things to look for: Thanks. I am having the inspector come out anyways, I guess I didn't word it correctly.
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May 21, 2011 06:22
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Bovine Delight posted:Told the builder this and he seemed a bit perturbed about it and told me he wanted to start hanging the drywall immediately after the Monday walkthrough. Anything in particular I should be looking for then as it sounds like he's trying to rush me through it? He is just trying to rush you since he has the drywall crew scheduled and a delay may cause them to leave for another job before it is done.
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May 21, 2011 12:48
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oriface posted:He is just trying to rush you since he has the drywall crew scheduled and a delay may cause them to leave for another job before it is done. I can understand this and it's not my intention to put them in a scheduling bind. The short notice for my inspection window doesn't really allow much in the way of alternatives.
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May 21, 2011 17:26
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Bovine Delight posted:I can understand this and it's not my intention to put them in a scheduling bind. The short notice for my inspection window doesn't really allow much in the way of alternatives. You need to make a business decision. Are you willing to let him potentially screw you just so you can be a nice guy, or are you willing to inconvenience him to make sure he's doing his job right. Bear in mind that after everything is done, you'll have a gently caress of a time getting money out of him if he did screw up. "I'm terribly sorry, but I must insist on my inspector seeing the work."
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May 21, 2011 17:36
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ductonius posted:You need to make a business decision. Are you willing to let him potentially screw you just so you can be a nice guy, or are you willing to inconvenience him to make sure he's doing his job right. Bear in mind that after everything is done, you'll have a gently caress of a time getting money out of him if he did screw up. Yes, I am moving forward with the inspection regardless. I'm sure his short notice was deliberate to make scheduling an inspection more difficult. I don't want to put anyone in a bind but at the same time I'm not going to get proverbially bent over.
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May 21, 2011 17:59
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Bovine Delight posted:Yes, I am moving forward with the inspection regardless. I'm sure his short notice was deliberate to make scheduling an inspection more difficult. I don't want to put anyone in a bind but at the same time I'm not going to get proverbially bent over. I was just explaining why he is antsy about it(hung drywall in the 90's VA housing boom). Definitely have the inspection. Better his headache than yours down the road.
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May 21, 2011 18:13
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If it's properly insulated and vapour barriered, it'll be hard to see anything in any outside wall/joist cavities. If your really determined to see everything, bring a knife and a roll of tuck tape. That way, if your so inclined, you can cut some slits out in the poly, do a little poking around, then just re-tuck tape it. If the builder pulled permits, the different city inspectors and an engineer should have already been out. My biggest concern would be looking at all the load points, depending on how the house was framed. Make sure the load points were done to spec, none of the trades ripped into them too much, and that all the joints hangers are filled with the correctly specced nail. Also make sure that all the plumbing/electrical is secured properly and at the right depth. Nothing is worse than a drywall monkey hitting a pipe with his screw, especially when the pipe should have been secured 2 inches higher into the joints cavity.
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May 21, 2011 18:28
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My wife and i currently starting to look at buying a house in NY capital district area. We're fairly low income as i work as a machine operator and her a nanny. We've talked to a bank rep referred to us by my mother who is a real estate agent. (Also, she's kicking half her profit to us, hooray.) He ran some preliminary numbers yesterday and says we can expect to be able to afford around 100k while maintaining payments similar to our current rent, including taxes, insurance, etc, which is about 800/month. Having learned to be more realistic with my purchasing power when i bought my first car a year and a half back, i'm looking more into the 50-75k range in a more rural area. What sort of things should i be prepared for in my situation? I'm skilled and equipped for most basic carpentry/plumbing/electrical/roofing work and so have no problem buying something ugly as sin, but with a solid base to work with. Thanks in advance guys!
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May 22, 2011 19:30
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An interesting article anyone who is considering buying a home should read. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/business/economy/23glut.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss quote:EL MIRAGE, Ariz. — The nation’s biggest banks and mortgage lenders have steadily amassed real estate empires, acquiring a glut of foreclosed homes that threatens to deepen the housing slump and create a further drag on the economic recovery. I'm not saying don't buy. If you do buy a house, you probably will probably owe more than it's worth for a long time. One guy I work with just wrote a check for $9,000 to sell his house after owning it for 3 years. It's a tough market, and the 'oversupply' of houses may continue to push prices down.
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May 23, 2011 12:31
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daslog posted:One guy I work with just wrote a check for $9,000 to sell his house after owning it for 3 years. This is me, right here. I bought in 2006, 2 years before the bubble burst, and in 2009 I refinanced to a 15-year loan. I still would have to write a 5-figure check if I sold my house right now at a reasonable price. Do never buy, especially if you are putting less than 15-20% down.
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May 23, 2011 13:01
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daslog posted:I'm not saying don't buy. If you do buy a house, you probably will probably owe more than it's worth for a long time. One guy I work with just wrote a check for $9,000 to sell his house after owning it for 3 years. He is in a lot better shape than a lot of people. If I hadn't been making way more than the minimum payments, I would probably have to cut a check for >$50k to sell my place, after owning it for 5.5 years.
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May 23, 2011 15:59
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My wife's mom is at least $160k in the hole on the townhouse unit she bought in 2007 (against our advice). But she can afford her payments and thus has had no luck getting her bank to cut the mortgage using the federal programs or whatever (again, we give advice to get a lawyer but it's not followed). Ozmiander: make sure you're accounting for all expenses. Not every banker puts everything into estimates. You need to include: -mortgage -interest -real estate taxes (varies by county & state & sometimes city as well) -PMI (mortgage insurance, required if paying less than 20% down) -maintenance (varies by region & property condition & age & type of construction & amenities) -utilities (often larger than you've been paying for an apartment or smaller rented house) +tax advantages (you may be able to deduct interest from your taxes, but this is often of much smaller value than people expect - in your case, you are looking at sub $100k properties where the amount you'd deduct is smaller than your standard deduction, so it'll probably only be a benefit if you already itemize your taxes) Add in closing costs, inspection costs, and moving expenses as one-time up front expenses, and now you've got a realistic ballpark figure for what buying a house will cost you. Do that math and you're in better shape to shop. Also be aware that a pre-qualification process is not a promise of a loan or rate; it's just a guesstimate of whether you might qualify for a loan. Ozmiander posted:What sort of things should i be prepared for in my situation? I'm skilled and equipped for most basic carpentry/plumbing/electrical/roofing work and so have no problem buying something ugly as sin, but with a solid base to work with. I'm not sure about typical construction methods in New York (I live in California, where pretty much all houses are wooden frame on a concrete foundation with no basement or cellar), but I'd say, be certain of the house's foundation. After that, make sure anything is in good condition that would be difficult to repair while you're living in the house. Remember: it may not be especially complex to put pipe together, but how many days would you enjoy living in a house with no working toilet? Unless you have somewhere else to live while you work on the house, you're going to want to get any major jobs done before you move in. I'm pretty handy myself and have repaired leaking water pipes, fixed electrical issues, and so forth... but we re-surfaced the hardwood floors before moving in and it was a huge, expensive, messy, and very difficult job I never want to do again. Even so I'm super-glad we did it before we moved in because trying to do it room-by-room while living here would have been unbearable. Buying a fixer-upper isn't just about what kind of work you can do; it's about what you'll have the time and money to do, and can live with being done for weeks on end. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 22:10 on May 23, 2011 |
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May 23, 2011 22:01
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How many of you guys pay your mortgages throughout the month rather than one big check at the beginning? I was thinking of enrolling in that just to avoid potential cash flow issues.
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May 24, 2011 22:23
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Anti-Hero posted:How many of you guys pay your mortgages throughout the month rather than one big check at the beginning? I was thinking of enrolling in that just to avoid potential cash flow issues. If your employer has direct deposit you can typically put a certain amount or percentage into another account. Might be easier and you basically won't see the money, so you may have less inclination to overspend.
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May 25, 2011 00:21
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I keep a buffer in my checking account of at least 2x my mortgage payment. Savings has another minimum 4x my mortgage payments. In this way I ensure I have enough cash to handle any sort of problem with my employment (they gently caress up a direct deposit or something) without endangering the mortgage payment. Of course by "mortgage payment" I mean, the full check that includes payments into the escrow account for taxes and insurance.
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May 25, 2011 00:51
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Anti-Hero posted:How many of you guys pay your mortgages throughout the month rather than one big check at the beginning? I was thinking of enrolling in that just to avoid potential cash flow issues. This is a sign that you are living paycheck to paycheck and
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May 25, 2011 01:30
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daslog posted:This is a sign that you are living paycheck to paycheck and Assuming you don't have a buffer, yes.
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May 25, 2011 01:43
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Anti-Hero posted:How many of you guys pay your mortgages throughout the month rather than one big check at the beginning? I was thinking of enrolling in that just to avoid potential cash flow issues. If you're talking about those services that you'll get mailing advertisements for they're a total scam. I got one in the mail a few months after I bought my house and the terms were ridiculous. I had to sign up and give them a 200 dollar fee to start, and then they were going to be so generous as to automatically debit my account every two weeks for 1/2 my mortgage payment (plus a fee), and then send 13 mortgage payments over the course of the year. My bills are really lopsided towards the first part of the month, I came into some extra scratch at work and used it to start paying poo poo almost a couple weeks in advance that way I'm always ahead of where I need to be. I keep a small buffer in my checking account, and have about 4 months expenses in savings, but I just pay things right as they come in now. I do prefer getting cashiers checks for the mortgage payment that I have to mail (they don't accept electronic payments) because they take forever to cash a check and it messes with our system.
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May 25, 2011 02:46
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daslog posted:This is a sign that you are living paycheck to paycheck and I just bought my house and my first mortgage payment is due 6/1/11. I was just doing the math and saw that all my bills are due on one of my payperiods, and one full paycheck won't cover them. However, that is not a concern since I save money every month and I maintain a buffer like others have mentioned. So it sounds like I'm worrying over nothing and I'll just stick to one payment for my mortgage.
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May 25, 2011 02:47
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skipdogg posted:If you're talking about those services that you'll get mailing advertisements for they're a total scam. No, this was through my lender, Wells Fargo.
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May 25, 2011 02:48
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Oh man, get ready for the onslaught of people trying to sell you crap. There's services that gather all the local sales data and then sell it to marketers. Expect plenty of people stopping by selling lawn care, alarm systems, and everything else under the sun. The mail advertisements are the best. Some company wanted a 'low low fee of only 99 dollars' to fill out my homestead exemption form. It's one sheet of paper with some basic information, but I guess there's a sucker born every minute.
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May 25, 2011 02:58
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