|
Can't you avoid PMI by putting 20% down though?
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2012 22:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 30, 2024 00:33 |
|
|
Astro7x posted:Can't you avoid PMI by putting 20% down though? Yes, but most first time buyers don't have 20% to put down. A lot of people have the income to afford the mortgage, but just don't have the cash savings. Rather than spend years saving to get to 20%, they put less down and can own their own place sooner.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2012 22:44
|
|
|
Realjones posted:Yes, but most first time buyers don't have 20% to put down. A lot of people have the income to afford the mortgage, but just don't have the cash savings. Rather than spend years saving to get to 20%, they put less down and can own their own place sooner. My husband and I have the cash to put 20% down now, but it leaves us with a little less in emergency fund/cash reserves then I like. Our options at this point are either to: 1. Try to get an 80/10/10 mortgage to avoid PMI (where we put 10% down, and two other loans for 80 and 10 percent of the purchase price are taken out) 2. Find a lender, if there is one that exists, that doesn't charge PMI 3. Put 10% down, pay PMI 4. Put 20% down, have less then I feel comfortable with in savings, especially after having bought a house (althought we'd have about $50k left in savings at that point). I'm sure we'd want to use some of this to fix up anything in the house though, and until we know what house we want, I'm not sure how much money we'd need to change or update things. 5. Wait about 6-9 months, have 20% easily, and still have enough in savings after that 20% that I will be satisfied. Does anyone see mortgage rates going up a lot in the next 9 months or so? I don't see prices in my area rebounding enough/at all for me to consider that an issue, so it is mostly about the mortgage rates.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2012 23:22
|
|
|
I still think your best bet is to put 20% down. $50K in savings (I'm assuming this doesn't include retirement funds) is pretty substantial. Whether you want to wait or not is up to you. Since you haven't even found a house yet just keep saving and you'll be fine. No one knows what mortgage rates will do in the future.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2012 02:11
|
|
|
The important thing to remember about FHA PMI (henceforth referred to as MIP) is that you cannot avoid it if you are going with 20, 25, or 30 year terms. It is equally important to remember that MIP is not going to fall off for you simply because you reach 20 percent loan to value (this may also be true for conventional loans). However, if you are going to fall in the wide group of people who got their loans in early 2009, you are probably still going to be fine. You did miss a pretty awesome opportunity though if you did not streamline around the end of last week, pricing was pretty good and lenders probably would have gone pretty short for you, knowing that FHA might be a little lean over the next couple months. In regards to the question about why PMI might be a little bit less than what first showed up...a lot of times your PMI is tied into your current LTV (loan to value or more simply the amount of equity you have in the home). If an appraised value came back good for you, or they dropped your loan amount it is possible it could vary. edit...while I agree no one knows what rates are going to do, pricing will probably go up around election time, simply because it is quite likely the economy will get a short election bump. The better things do generally speaking in the economy, the worse pricing will get for the consumer in terms of their interest rate.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2012 02:24
|
|
|
What are everyone's thoughts on buying a house from my parents and leasing it back to them for a few years until I'm ready to move in? I'm just renting a room in a house right now, and am happy staying here for at least the next 1.5 years, if not more (we're re-signing the lease in August, and the landlord wants us to stay indefinitely). It's in a good location, 5 minutes from my work, close to the city, and valued within my price range. I like the house, and the neighborhood is nice, safe, quiet, and has no HOA. They're in their early 60's and want to retire out of state in the next 2-4 years. We're in California. I think they have about $120-150K in equity, it's valued around $300K. I'm just starting to toss this idea around, but I was thinking I could lease it back to them for enough to cover my costs, and in a few years when they're ready to retire, move in myself and keep it going. I'm planning on being in the area long-term, and am starting to get my down payment and savings built up, so if this doesn't happen, I'm looking at other places in the same city anyways. I know we'd have quite a few things to discuss, like who's responsible for what in the meantime, etc., so I'm trying to get an idea of the general feasibility of the idea.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2012 21:16
|
|
|
Why wouldn't you just buy it from them when they are actually ready to move? Edit: Or are you planning to live there while they are living there as well for the next couple of years? If so, then it makes more sense, but if you're not actually planning to live there yet, I don't know why you wouldn't just wait. A lot of things can happen in a couple of years.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2012 21:24
|
|
|
Does anyone know how USAA gets such lower mortage rates aside from the fact that they are tangentially related to the US government? I got a quote from them that was .25% lower than what a local broker was able to give me.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2012 22:38
|
|
|
Bucket Joneses posted:Does anyone know how USAA gets such lower mortage rates aside from the fact that they are tangentially related to the US government? I got a quote from them that was .25% lower than what a local broker was able to give me. USAA isn't related to the federal gov't to the best of my knowledge. They're a for profit financial institution, but they're very picky about membership and investments. In general they're ran more conservatively than other institutions and don't have shareholders to answer to, so the external demand for profits isn't there.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 01:17
|
|
|
Silvah posted:What are everyone's thoughts on buying a house from my parents and leasing it back to them for a few years until I'm ready to move in?
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 03:45
|
|
|
Me and the wife went to a First Time Homebuyers seminar tonight hosted by Redfin and found it pretty informative. They did a pretty great job at not pushing hard about their website, while still being really informative about the whole process. I found it quite interesting that their agents work on salary and not commission (Although their "bonus" is determined based on a survey you fill out on them, so it's basically a commission...), but if you use them as your agent they will give you a refund of what their half of the closing costs would be. Has anyone actually done this before? Edit: Oh yeah, one of the questions me and my wife had that I thought I'd ask here. How long does it typically take to close on a house from start to finish? It takes 30 days to close, but how much longer does it typically take with making and accept an offer? 60 days total? 90 days total? I realize it can also happen much much faster, and sometimes families wait until June to close until after school is out for the kids. But in past goon experiences, how long has it taken? Astro7x fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Apr 11, 2012 |
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 07:34
|
|
|
First visit to the place to moving in was 6 weeks, I think that's fairly quick though, the house was already vacant and not a short sale or anything like that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 13:04
|
|
|
Astro7x posted:But in past goon experiences, how long has it taken? It can take a lot longer than 30 days to close with as picky and incompetent as banks are these days. Last house I bought took about 100 days from first visit to closing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 14:00
|
|
|
Astro7x posted:But in past goon experiences, how long has it taken? I just closed and we were aggressive with the timing but it still ended up taking ~70 days from offer to close. There is stuff that has to happen behind the scenes that just can't usually be rushed.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 14:55
|
|
|
That's frightening. Here in Austin it seems like houses are rarely on the market more than a few weeks before they are sold.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 15:40
|
|
|
Astro7x posted:But in past goon experiences, how long has it taken? My wife and I saw our house the day it was listed, 2/25, put in an offer on 2/26, it was accepted on the 2/27, and we closed on 3/20. The house was vacant (conventional sale though), and I was traveling for works two days after closing - hence the need for a quick date. We went with a small regional lender, and that I think that's what made it possible. I was in constant contact with the lender for about two weeks, getting them everything they wanted as soon as humanly possible. If we had gone through a big bank, I don't think we could have made the closing date. But we had talked to the lender prior to making the offer, and he said it was totally possible to do in under 30 days. It's actually why we got the house. There was a 2nd offer on it the same day as ours, and they had more money down, but we were closing a lot faster. Northern VA. Voodoo fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Apr 11, 2012 |
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 16:52
|
|
|
Astro7x posted:Edit: Oh yeah, one of the questions me and my wife had that I thought I'd ask here. How long does it typically take to close on a house from start to finish? It takes 30 days to close, but how much longer does it typically take with making and accept an offer? 60 days total? 90 days total? I realize it can also happen much much faster, and sometimes families wait until June to close until after school is out for the kids. But in past goon experiences, how long has it taken? I found my house in the middle of June and asked my realtor to set up a showing for me. I got the keys December 15. 6 months for me, but I was in absolutely no hurry and the house had been vacant for 2 years. My offer was accepted exactly 6 days, 23 hours after I put it in with a 7-day expiration :facepalm:
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 16:54
|
|
|
spaceship posted:That's frightening. Here in Austin it seems like houses are rarely on the market more than a few weeks before they are sold. There is quite a bit of time between when a house is taken off the market and move-in day.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 17:04
|
|
|
Here's some anecdotal evidence that people in Seattle still REALLY WANT THAT FUCKIN HOUSE:A friend on facebook posted:here's a glimpse into the seattle housing market right now: we are about to put an offer in on a house, only to learn that they already received FOURTEEN other offers, nearly all above the offer we planned to make (which was already $10,000 more than the asking price). did I mention the house HAD NO CLOSETS?! pure comedy. I think this particular friend is looking in NW Seattle.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 17:22
|
|
|
Konstantin posted:There is quite a bit of time between when a house is taken off the market and move-in day. Makes sense. I'll be buying my first house in two years. Looking forward to it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 17:45
|
|
|
On the topic of time from seeing to close. I looked at a house March 9th, put in an offer March 12th. I close this Friday (April 13th). Things moved quickly and smoothly.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 20:05
|
|
|
Astro7x posted:I found it quite interesting that their agents work on salary and not commission (Although their "bonus" is determined based on a survey you fill out on them, so it's basically a commission...), but if you use them as your agent they will give you a refund of what their half of the closing costs would be. Has anyone actually done this before? Yes, I used one of Redfin's competitors, I-Agent, and they refund 2/3 of their commission. I did not go with Redfin because at the time the person showing you a home was not the same person that would be placing an offer on the home, and I didn't like that (with I-Agent I worked with one realtor the whole time). Redfin has since changed their model to the one transaction one person thing, but they have also really jacked up their prices (ie lowered their rebate). Redfin cut their rebates down to some silly tiered system earlier this year, so I don't think the 1/2 back thing still applies. I randomly chose a $500K home and they are offering a $5300 rebate - that's only 33%. A $350K is under 28% and a $800K is 44%. See: http://www.inman.com/InmanINF/lowes/news/178656
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 22:40
|
|
|
Realjones posted:I still think your best bet is to put 20% down. $50K in savings (I'm assuming this doesn't include retirement funds) is pretty substantial. Whether you want to wait or not is up to you. Since you haven't even found a house yet just keep saving and you'll be fine. You are correct, that does not include retirement savings. You are right, it can't hurt to start/keep looking I guess.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2012 23:02
|
|
|
necrobobsledder posted:For starters, if you rent out to family you qualify for basically none of the tax deductions that most landlords get, so it's kind of a lose-lose as far as your benefit v. theirs is concerned. I'd say it's better to just let them pay down the mortgage in the meantime so someone is getting a tax deduction somewhere between the two parties and then buy when you've saved up. That's a good point that I didn't consider. Thanks for the info.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2012 21:58
|
|
|
Thanks goons, I'm now a home owner. Apparently this is one of the smoothest sales either of the realtors have had. Only hiccup was an hour delay with the mortgage company sending everything over. Next week at this time I'll be sitting on my back porch enjoying my new house. Followed shortly by projects, fixing things and chores I'm sure but I'm looking forward to it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2012 20:30
|
|
|
Edit: crap, wrong thread...
Astro7x fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Apr 13, 2012 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2012 20:55
|
|
|
I just read this on RedFin, emphasis mine:Some Person On Redfin posted:On Monday I saw a house that looked promising and my Redfin agent was able to schedule a tour of it within a couple hours of it going on the market. We made an offer about 2 hours later and scheduled a home inspection for the next morning. When it was obvious there were going to be multiple offers on this house my agent suggested adding an escalation clause to my offer and removing the home inspection contingency before the offer was accepted. No serious issues were found during the inspection. I took his advice and ending up paying $27K more than asking price and winning the house by only $1,000 over the next highest offer. There were 2 other competing offers. This seems really sketchy. How can people, in good conscience, purchase a home (worth in excess of $400,000) without first finding out if it's going to be a money pit? Seattle houses are loving OLD. Edit: Seriously, with a few outlying homes, Magnolia is all houses built between 1920 and 1960. And some of those outliers go back to 1900. DR FRASIER KRANG fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Apr 13, 2012 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2012 21:00
|
|
|
Does anyone know anyone that has purchased a modular built home? There is a company in ft worth called brenco that has some nice floorplans and thry are saying $65 ish a sqft for a 2700 sqft house. They build it in sections then put them on the foundation on site. On paper it seems like a good option. My wife is afraid they will use substandard materials that will not hold up. I do share that concern.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 00:08
|
|
|
NitroSpazzz posted:Next week at this time I'll be sitting on my back porch enjoying my new house. Followed shortly by projects, fixing things and chores I'm sure but I'm looking forward to it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 02:01
|
|
|
So they accepted my offer on the house with barely a word of protest and now things are moving very quickly. I thought this was supposed to take longer, now I'm kind of freaked out.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 02:16
|
|
|
Bucket Joneses posted:This seems really sketchy. How can people, in good conscience, purchase a home (worth in excess of $400,000) without first finding out if it's going to be a money pit? I agree. I'm guessing the buyers wanted the home bad enough ($27K over list drat) that they were willing to roll the dice on their earnest money to get their offer accepted. If something really ridiculous (foundation damage or something) showed up during the inspection they could technically still walk away. Not a great tactic for most people, but if you REALLY want the home and know there will be a ton of offers on it, you have to do what you can to present the best one...
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 05:22
|
|
|
Citycop posted:Does anyone know anyone that has purchased a modular built home? There is a company in ft worth called brenco that has some nice floorplans and thry are saying $65 ish a sqft for a 2700 sqft house. They build it in sections then put them on the foundation on site. On paper it seems like a good option. My wife is afraid they will use substandard materials that will not hold up. I do share that concern. While many modular built homes are build with good materials, the big issue is that they don't hold value nearly as well as stick built homes. This means you may be underwater and unable to sell the home if you need to move. If you can afford a 10-15 year mortgage and absolutely know you are going to stay in that home for at least a decade then it may be a good deal regardless, but I'd take a hard look at property values for comparable modular homes. Build quality is another issue, and you should absolutely pay an independent professional to go over the plans and the materials so you know what you are buying.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 14:40
|
|
|
Realjones posted:I agree. I'm guessing the buyers wanted the home bad enough ($27K over list drat) that they were willing to roll the dice on their earnest money to get their offer accepted. If something really ridiculous (foundation damage or something) showed up during the inspection they could technically still walk away. Not a great tactic for most people, but if you REALLY want the home and know there will be a ton of offers on it, you have to do what you can to present the best one... Regarding earnest money, someone else in that thread on RF said they did the same thing and they doubled the earnest money payment. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 16:32
|
|
|
Sophia posted:So they accepted my offer on the house with barely a word of protest and now things are moving very quickly. I thought this was supposed to take longer, now I'm kind of freaked out. There's a joke about rolls being slowed here somewhere but I'm honestly too tired to find it
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 17:09
|
|
|
Sophia posted:So they accepted my offer on the house with barely a word of protest and now things are moving very quickly. I thought this was supposed to take longer, now I'm kind of freaked out. Don't get too excited yet. We put an offer on the house I mentioned a few weeks ago. It was accepted within hours, inspector said it was one of the nicest renovations he had ever seen, financing has been a breeze. Then the appraisal came back a couple days ago. It came in 30k under the offer which was already 15k under asking. Apparently the seller is devastated and doesn't know what he'll do. We're hopeful he'll just accept it quickly to move on but I don't know what the chances are of that. I feel bad for him, it's clear he put a ton of time, effort, and money into the house and now he could end up not making any money (or even losing something) on it. From what our realtor has told us it sounds like his realtor may have hosed up. When they were pricing the home she based it partly off of comps from DC because this house is two blocks from the district line but the appraiser can't use those comps (for good reason). It really sucks for us as now we're stuck in a limbo for the next couple days of not knowing if this might still go through or if we need to totally start over. So yeah, don't say it's gone smoothly until you're moved in.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 20:29
|
|
|
Yeah, that's true. I won't be going through appraisal process but there's still inspections and the like, so I know there's many a slip twixt the tongue and the lips. But the process still jumped forward a lot more quickly than I was expecting.Soothing Vapors posted:There's a joke about rolls being slowed here somewhere but I'm honestly too tired to find it My roll is rolling away too fast.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 20:35
|
|
|
We put our offer in on 3/30. After being countered and then counter-countering, our offer was accepted on 4/03. We just finished going through the various inspections we felt were necessary and this morning we submitted our terms in light of the inspection results (we're asking for $7.5k in closing costs). I'm still fully prepared to wait until the beginning or middle of May to actually move in.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2012 21:51
|
|
|
Back a couple months ago I posted about my fiance and I maybe buying a house. Despite the warning: Do Never Buy, we did anyway. We closed on Friday and started ripping out carpet that afternoon! Here she is!  We have a lot of work to get done (like stripping wallpaper, which was applied on top of BARE DRYWALL) and are very excited to see the final result. So here's our quick story for anyone else who might be able to glean something from it. Us: 24 and 26, engaged and our first kid arrived about 6 weeks ago. We gross $54k a year together (what our mortgage was based on) and my fiance has an inherited stock portfolio from which we got our 46% down payment. Story: we started seriously looking in January and I did a lot of research on house-buying. This thread was super helpful! We decided to buy instead of rent because 1. we want to stay in this area forever 2. rates are great for money borrowers and 3. we were fortunate enough to have the money to make a sizable down payment, allowing us to get a better house with a comfortable monthly payment. What I learned: - Don't just rely on a realtor, look at the MLS yourself. However, do listen to your realtor, as they know way more than you do. - Don't judge a house by the photos you see online. Looks great? Might not be. Looks like a sad wreck? Might have great bones, etc. - Research your area's flood zones, tax rates, utility rates, etc before making any offers. Know exactly what you're getting into. - Location is the only thing that can't be changed about your new property. Remember that, it's important. - Don't be tricked: We looked at some more affordable homes that had undergone DIY-style renovations. These homes looked better than some others, but when you poked around, the shoddy workmanship was obvious. - Climb into the attic, open all the closets, turn on faucets ... check it all. - Look at a lot of properties! This will give you a real sense of what is available and for what price. It helps to have realistic expectations as you search. We took the renovation route and have spent the past 3 days tearing out wallpaper, cabinets, carpet and overgrowth. It's really hard work and we've already run into several surprises, but we're gung-ho about it and ready to put the time (and money) in. It's absolutely rewarding to be able to work on your own place. So, do never buy, but maybe sometimes if everything is right, buy. And then be prepared to break your back/bank for it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2012 23:53
|
|
|
Are those real brick walls? If so, how thick are they? I grew up (and live) On fault lines so masonry structures are alien and novel to me. How much was the house, if you don't mind?
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2012 02:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 30, 2024 00:33 |
|
|
Sophia posted:Yeah, that's true. I won't be going through appraisal process but there's still inspections and the like, so I know there's many a slip twixt the tongue and the lips. But the process still jumped forward a lot more quickly than I was expecting. Quick, DVR like 20 episodes of Holmes on Homes and Holmes Inspection and marathon them~
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2012 04:55
|
|
