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shrike82 posted:LOL, please don't give advice on investing. I can't tell if you're being disingenuous or ignorant, but you really shouldn't be portraying equity investing as risk-free. There's a joke in the stock picks thread that it's "safe as houses". I'm not giving advice, I'm pointing out the best case scenario for these two assets.
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Dec 9, 2012 02:38
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shrike82 posted:LOL, please don't give advice on investing. I can't tell if you're being disingenuous or ignorant, but you really shouldn't be portraying equity investing as risk-free. There's a joke in the stock picks thread that it's "safe as houses". The words "risk free" do not appear in his post. I don't think he implied any such thing. Look: there's no such thing as a risk free investment, nor is speculating risk free. Thus, obviously, this is something that is not a differentiator between investments and speculations. Tiananman describes in this post quite carefully exactly what the difference is between the two terms, semantically. Degree of risk is not a part of that difference. Quite obviously, then, one should conclude that both investments and speculations can have a range of risks from "very low" to "astronomical". As for myself, I deliberately didn't suggest in this post that one should purchase "a dividend-paying stock" as an investment. Instead I suggested dividend-paying mutual funds. A mutual fund composed of many equities which provide income is resistant to the scenario where a particular company suddenly stops paying dividends on its common stock, because it's very unlikely that all of the components of a mutual fund will suddenly simultaneously stop producing income. Still, it's correct to point out that anything which both produces income, and has a variable market price, is both a speculation and an investment. But: this is true of essentially all investments, isn't it? Even something like a bond can be resold before maturity at a market price, and that market price is subject to fluctuation. But words have meaning, and the words "investment" and "speculation" are not synonymous. I feel tiananman has tapped into a significant issue, which is that the word "investment" in its vernacular use has become inherently misleading to people not well versed in the subtleties of finance. People like to dismiss this kind of argumentation by saying "well you're just arguing semantics," and I hate that because semantics are incredibly important. Semantics are literally the meanings of words, and if we don't all agree on what a word means, then we are often going to have failures of communication. Worse, in some cases - including this one - people can be actively manipulated, to their detriment, by those who exploit a semantic misunderstanding. To whit: real estate professionals deliberately referring to homebuying as "investing in a home," knowing perfectly well that this is a misleading promise of financial security and wisdom for a lot of people. If those people had a firmer grasp on the semantics of the word, they'd be less likely to be fooled. We should be in favor of restoring a clearer distinction between investing and speculating, at the same time that we're helping people to recognize the different risk profiles of various investments and speculations (especially homes).
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Dec 9, 2012 06:37
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I work in finance and disagree with this -Tiananman posted:In the world of finance though the actual (and I admit, strictest) definition of an investment is a business (or other venture) which returns capital to you in the form of regular cash payments. I have literally never encountered a definition of "investing" which specifies it as requiring regular cash payments. Not to mention that there's no iron law that a firm (or bond) paying dividends (coupons) today is going to continue paying dividends (coupon) in a predictable fashion in the future. You're telling me that investing in Greek bonds is an investment because you're supposed to get regular coupons? Anyway, this is a bit of a derail so if you want to continue the discussion, I'd suggest creating another thread, or going to the Long-term investment thread.
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Dec 9, 2012 13:50
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I think a house is an investment for many people in that it forces them into a situation where they are putting money into something on a scheduled basis where as that same person would not necessarily have the self discipline to invest in any other way. Even with the huge overhead costs and the miniscule returns over 1/2 decade increments it works out to be a money making venture in the end. It may be a horrible investment, but it can work out. I know when I sold my house after 6 years I had 15K in hand. I would not have had that if I was renting. On the flip side I turned around and put that right back into another house. Also if the housing market takes a dump you may end up living in your lovely investment or taking a huge hit (risk vs reward).
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Dec 9, 2012 19:10
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For people in this thread still wondering how expensive it is to sell a house, or thinking about buying with a short time horizon, I've a real world example. My wife and I are finally selling her old house and it'll hit the MLS tomorrow. The damage (as percentage of asking price): 1.5% - Make ready costs for a general contractor (paint and trim) and a floor specialist (refinish hardwood floors). This is the cost with considerable sweat equity factored in - it would have cost another 0.5% to have the contractor do everything. And this is a house that was in pretty good shape to begin with 5.5 - 6% Sales commission. We get a small break if our listing brokers bring the buyer 0.5% per month carrying cost (interest, insurance, & taxes only). This is pure deadweight since we're not living in the house. We're think we're priced appropriately to get attention immediately, but 30-90 days is still a typical marketing time even for correctly priced properties. Total: 7.5-10%, assuming we close within 150 days. And this is just the sell side of the transaction!
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Dec 10, 2012 06:23
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I had my (general handyman dude) neighbor remove a tree yesterday. It's been growing against the side of the house, and we got worried about it impacting the foundation (it was starting to put a dent into the wall on top of the foundation). $800 including disposal, which frankly was a bargain, since he had to call in two more guys (on top of himself and his brother) to help him haul up the much-bigger-than-expected underground portion w/ taproot. He didn't want to rock it back and forth because that might damage the wall, so the guys used tools (and broke a chainsaw) to cut roots and then just pull it straight up with sheer musclepower. He exposed a ~3' section of the foundation and unfortunately there's a large (maybe 2" diameter?) root that goes right under the concrete. He didn't want to fill in the hole with it down there and didn't feel qualified to try and get it out - undermining the foundation being probably not an awesome idea. So today I get to figure out if it's a job I/we can do, and/or if we need to go under the house in the crawlspace and dig from the other side or something horrendous like that. The crawlspace is low enough that you can't actually crawl on hands and knees, it's more of a squirm-on-your-belly thing, and above you are all kinds of exposed nails from the subfloor sticking down to impale your skull if you're not careful. Plus of course decades' accumulation of spiders, and the surface is basically small rocks, clods of dirt, and the dessicated remains of ancient spiders. So: 1. Anyone got any advice/experience about pulling roots out from under a concrete slab foundation? This is typical 1950s California wood house on concrete slabs w/ crawlspace. 2. DO NEVER BUY
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Dec 10, 2012 19:26
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How do you have both a slab and a crawlspace? Typical slab-on-grade construction uses the slab itself as your subfloor. Typical crawlspace construction uses wood or concrete piers to support floor joists. I can't see how you'd construct it to end up with both.
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Dec 10, 2012 21:40
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This is the terminology used around here. But I think by "slab" what they mean is long straight pieces of concrete around the edges of the house, plus a few pillar-shaped chunks in strategic places in the middle of the house. The wood frame rests on them. It's not a big flat concrete slab, though. It always seemed like an incorrect way to describe what I've got, to be honest, but I just shrugged and took on faith that this is what it's called? On doing some googling, it looks like this is properly called "foundation wall"? e. Opened up my old appraisal report and it says I have "crawl space" rather than slab. e2. Finally found my inspection report. "Concrete stem walls." Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Dec 10, 2012 |
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Dec 10, 2012 21:58
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Leperflesh posted:e. Opened up my old appraisal report and it says I have "crawl space" rather than slab. That makes more sense. As for your root issue, I'd call a foundation repair company and get their assessment. You may even be able to just leave it.
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Dec 10, 2012 22:16
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Yeah, I'm doing some googling and it seems the big problems with tree roots are A: lifting a slab foundation from underneath (rare), and B: the roots drawing moisture from the clay under the foundation (especially during dry seasons), allowing the clay to compact and you get foundation subsidence. For me, though, the concern is that as the root dies down there, it could attract termites to the dead wood. Termites are a big problem in california and once they show up they can be really hard to get rid of permanently. I may have to call around. I don't want to leave this hole open for very long though; it's dry right now but it could rain later this week.
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Dec 10, 2012 22:28
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Hey everyone, I'm in the process of closing on a condo in a large apartment building in Chicago. It's a short sale, so I'm getting the unit at a very reasonable price, but the building has had some major issues in the past. The original developer apparently did a shoddy job on construction and is now being sued by the city, and the HOA went through a long process of addressing violations. The vast majority of the work has already been completed, including construction on the facade, but they'll be doing some additional work on the roof this spring. The special assessments for the work have already been paid, and according to my lawyer, the HOA's funds are healthy. My main question: if a building has a history like this, should I absolutely stay away? Like I said, they seem to have done a very thorough job of addressing all of the outstanding issues, and the city inspectors are satisfied. I'm just worried that, given the building's past, new issues might always be popping up. I've obviously had the unit inspected, and it came away with a clean bill of health. No major issues, no indication of any leaks, etc. I've also talked to my real estate agent about this, but I haven't been completely happy with her throughout this process. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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Dec 10, 2012 23:53
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Photos of my foundation/root problem: The mud on the wall makes a face. :|  Here you can see the exterior wall sitting on the concrete foundation. The wall is damaged - it bows in slightly (maybe a quarter inch at the center?) where the tree pressed against it. And there's a chunk of stucco that's come out.  Zoom in  Zoom in again  Zoom in again   And here's a detail shot with annotations. I am roughly approximating where the concrete foundation's bottom edge seems to be.  The clay here is really thick. I didn't want to dig around the root too much, for fear of removing compact clay from beneath the foundation wall, but I think I've got a rough idea of where the root is. My neighbor's crew cut it off flush with the wall, probably they had no choice since the tree was right up against the house and they had to cut it to get the trunk and taproot out.
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Dec 11, 2012 02:05
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What about renting a compactor when you refill the hole?
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Dec 11, 2012 02:08
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Leperflesh posted:Photos of my foundation/root problem: dig it out and fill the hole with concrete?
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Dec 11, 2012 02:14
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Leperflesh posted:Photos of my foundation/root problem: Was two penetrations a foot apart really the best answer to this cabling issue? And it's not in line with the window. This is making my eyes twitch. On the inside do those cables go straight to a wall outlet or are they going around the basement to connect with the room cables down there?
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Dec 12, 2012 01:30
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Welp, looks like the pressure reducing valve outside my house decided it wanted to make a pond in my front planters. I don't even know if I can replace this without cut+solder, and there's no way I'm attempting that on my own. DO NEVER BUY
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Dec 12, 2012 18:48
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Crazy Mike posted:Was two penetrations a foot apart really the best answer to this cabling issue? And it's not in line with the window. This is making my eyes twitch. Hahah, yeah, previous owners wired the entire house with numerous independent runs of cable, including to the garage. In this case though, that's roughly in line with the wall separating the living room with a bedroom, and so those two cables come in at the corners of the two rooms. There's no basement. Thanks for the foundation suggestions guys. I've decided to have a pro come and give me advice. Half of me wants to just shovel dirt into the hole and forget about it, but the other more cautious half says to go ahead and do things properly.
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Dec 12, 2012 19:26
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How strict are most banks on the rule that the down payment on a house (on a conventional loan) cannot come from a gift? Will I have to account for every deposit made into my savings account, or what?
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Dec 12, 2012 22:31
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quote is not edit
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Dec 12, 2012 22:31
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caiman posted:How strict are most banks on the rule that the down payment on a house (on a conventional loan) cannot come from a gift? Will I have to account for every deposit made into my savings account, or what? Every bank could be different. Advice I was given by my mortgage broker was to let funds "season" in my accounts for at least 60-90 days. When the bank asks for your statements, ideally those "gift" deposits won't show so they won't question the origin. I doubt this applies to all scenarios.
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Dec 12, 2012 22:34
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caiman posted:How strict are most banks on the rule that the down payment on a house (on a conventional loan) cannot come from a gift? Will I have to account for every deposit made into my savings account, or what? For ours they wanted a certified bank statement showing the funds in the giver's account, the cancelled check, a gift letter saying we didn't have to pay it back, and our bank statement showing the funds going in. They also wanted documentation of every non-paycheck deposit into any accounts we were drawing funds from for the last two months or something. And then I screwed up an accidentally sent them two years of bank statements because the Schwab website was slightly confusing, so that was fun. Don't do that...
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Dec 12, 2012 22:45
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caiman posted:How strict are most banks on the rule that the down payment on a house (on a conventional loan) cannot come from a gift? Will I have to account for every deposit made into my savings account, or what? ^Mine was similar but only needed the gift letter signed by both the giver and myself. My down payment was 60% gift money.
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Dec 12, 2012 22:47
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caiman posted:How strict are most banks on the rule that the down payment on a house (on a conventional loan) cannot come from a gift? Will I have to account for every deposit made into my savings account, or what? Eh? If you're <=80% LTV your entire down payment can come from a gift assuming primary residence. Exact documentation requirements vary a bit by bank, but figure on a gift letter, copy of the cancelled check or wire transfer details from the donor, and evidence of deposit into your account or into escrow. As far as sourcing large deposits, again varies by bank. We want to document anything >30% of your gross monthly income that doesn't show as payroll direct deposit, social security, or similar obvious income streams.
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Dec 13, 2012 05:40
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I literally just saw a realtor use the word "awesomesauce" in a listing. :facepalm: E: http://cosprings.craigslist.org/reb/3431713077.html the good fax machine fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Dec 14, 2012 |
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Dec 14, 2012 00:29
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marauderthirty posted:I literally just saw a realtor use the word "awesomesauce" in a listing. :facepalm: Better than new! What the hell could that possibly mean?
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Dec 14, 2012 07:04
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tiananman posted:Better than new!
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Dec 14, 2012 07:17
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How early is too early to start seriously looking at houses when you have a timeframe for moving in mind? Our lease on our house is up at the end of June. We're casually checking out listings just to get an idea of what houses go for in different areas that we're looking at, but I don't really know what the recommended timeline is for when you have a deadline. I know that things like how long it takes to close are hard to predict sometimes, but how far out should we start visiting houses and when should we be targeting to make a decision by? This is in Orlando if for some reason that factors into anything.
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Dec 14, 2012 15:01
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I'm not a home owner, but I expect if you start physically looking at houses now, you'll develop a more precise sense of what you do and do not want in a house. As you said, I would also expect to get a better sense of what a house is really worth because you'll have the market context for the past several months.
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Dec 14, 2012 15:31
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Plus, it's never too early to do some preliminary research. What are commute times to your jobs from different areas? If you have kids or plan to, what are the schools like, both at the district level and at the individual school level? Is it important that you move somewhere that is close to various amenities or has easy access to public transportation? What specific features do you want your house to have? Does your potential agent have solid references that check out? What about your bank, mortgage broker, and home inspector? Have you taken an honest look at your income and credit, determined what you can afford to spend, and considered what is available in that price range? There's a lot you need to research, but once you get all your data in order and narrow your search, you can make your buying decision with confidence.
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Dec 14, 2012 16:33
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We started the process at the beginning of October and we're scheduled to close January 15th. That includes pre-approval at the credit union and realtor interviews, but we also found a house pretty darn quick.
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Dec 14, 2012 17:32
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It's never too early. One thing to be careful of, though: it's very hard to "time" a buy so that it closes right on the date your existing rental lease runs out. If at all possible you should arrange to go to month-to-month lease so that you can continue to live in your existing place if your purchase gets delayed by weeks or a month or two. Failing that, you might even look into short-term rental options (and storage for all your stuff). Because otherwise, you may be seriously limiting your buying options. And you don't want to buy the wrong $200k home just because your rental term is up on a given day and the house you really wanted sold a few weeks early or went up for sale a few weeks late.
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Dec 14, 2012 18:26
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Yeah, the month-to-month lease was essential for me. I was doodling along looking at a bunch of crappy houses and all of a sudden WHOMP and there was the one I was going to buy. The whole process unfolded over months and I had no idea when it would end until I was signing the paperwork. I gave my landlord one month's notice as soon as I could and I still had a few weeks of overlap to move the furniture.
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Dec 14, 2012 18:42
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Totally agreed on the look as soon as you know you're in the market and on the month-to-month / some kind of concrete option if you end up with a gap. My timing worked out almost as perfectly as I ever could have hoped but I still had to fall back on my generous parents letting me live in their basement for a month and store my stuff in their garage until closing.
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Dec 14, 2012 19:03
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rockcity posted:How early is too early to start seriously looking at houses when you have a timeframe for moving in mind? Our lease on our house is up at the end of June. We're casually checking out listings just to get an idea of what houses go for in different areas that we're looking at, but I don't really know what the recommended timeline is for when you have a deadline. I know that things like how long it takes to close are hard to predict sometimes, but how far out should we start visiting houses and when should we be targeting to make a decision by? This is in Orlando if for some reason that factors into anything. Also, having a month or two of overlap may cost a couple rent payments, but can be a life-saver if you want work done on the house before moving in.
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Dec 15, 2012 00:05
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moana posted:Welp, looks like the pressure reducing valve outside my house decided it wanted to make a pond in my front planters. I don't even know if I can replace this without cut+solder, and there's no way I'm attempting that on my own. DO NEVER BUY Seconding the month-to-month thing. I was able to refinish the floors in my house with the extra two weeks I had renting, which was a huge relief. Also not having to move everything in IMMEDIATELY. Take your time and build in some breathing room, you'll thank yourself later.
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Dec 15, 2012 20:41
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Thanks everyone. I definitely plan to discuss a month to month option with my rental company in the case that we do not close on our house in time. I have a feeling that won't be an issue as we're in our 4th year of the lease and the owners seem to like us so that much is good. I'd like to have a minimum of a week before we move in for painting and small stuff anyway. We did that when my family moved when we were in high school and it was so much easier painting an empty house than moving everything to do it. I think we're more than likely aiming to close with overlap of about a month just to give us time to get things in order with the new place. I'd rather spend a months rent giving us some cushion to take our time rather than stress about it. As for the physically looking now so we get an idea of what we like and don't like. I think we're at an advantage in that aspect because we're living in a single family home now and have been for over three years, so that's given us a pretty good grasp on what we'd change or keep if we were buying a home. We have been causally looking at listings online the last couple weeks to get a gauge on what things are worth. We had an idea just because we'd seen listings in our area in the past, but we're looking toward the other side of the city now so we wanted to see if it was any different over there (seems to be roughly the same). That's the main thing we'd be taking into consideration is location. My job has me driving a lot, but I can do it from anywhere in Orlando really. We lived on this side of town because it was close to my previous job, but now it leaves my fiancee with a 35-40 minute commute to work, which we'd like to cut down on drastically. No plans for kids anytime soon so schools aren't a concern either. It's pretty much just finding a house that's both close to her job and closer to the theme parks. As for our price range. I'm honestly not sure what we'd get approved at, but I'm pretty certain it will be safely over what we expect to spend for what we're looking for as housing costs are pretty reasonable here. We obviously won't know for sure until we get pre-qualified though. I think after the new year rolls around I'll probably start to look for a realtor. Potentially using the goon run service to aid in that and then probably talk to some mortgage companies to get a pre-approval, just so we can get some local and firsthand advice on the market and where we should be on a time frame. One last question I had is on closing date. Typically how willing are people willing to work with you on that. I know it's sort of a case by case basis depending on the seller's situation, but once the house has been approved are people usually looking to close on it ASAP or is there usually room for a gap in there. For instance if we signed the paperwork at the beginning of may, is it usually easy to make a closing for the start of June, that sort of thing? rockcity fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Dec 15, 2012 |
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Dec 15, 2012 20:58
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I have a Best Buy credit card which I've paid off and not used in over a year. Do specialty cards like this count in the same way that non store-specific cards count? I'd like to cancel it, but I'm going to be buying a house this Spring and don't want to do anything that could impact that.
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Dec 15, 2012 21:55
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Sales update: We've been listed on the MLS 4 days, and we've received 4 offers. I knew we were aggressive on pricing, but I didn't expect a frenzy like that. After a round of soliciting the interested parties to improve their offers, we ended up taking an offer above list price - it was actually the 2nd best offer in terms of raw money, but it offered a quicker close, no finance contingency, and a much bigger earnest money payment. At first I was worried that we undercut ourselves and left serious money on the table but seeing the bid competition in action convinced me that we didn't miss much, if anything. And closing sooner rather than later has a significant financial advantage for us, too. So the lower list price that led to the frenzy of activity at the start helped us by getting all the interested parties to come to us immediately. Now we wait out the option period and hope this buyer wasn't jerking our chain when he promised to close in 31 days.
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Dec 16, 2012 06:40
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My brother is putting in an offer on a house today and I'd like to get him a general home handyman book for Christmas preferably covering issues such as leaky pipes, minor wiring issues, etc. Anyone have any recommendations?
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Dec 17, 2012 18:31
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It's called the internet and it is much better than any one book. Buy him something useful instead, trust me. Here are the greatest things you can get him if he doesn't already have: - A good hammer - A zip it for plumbing, super cheap and useful! (http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100665735/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=zip+it&storeId=10051#.UM9cHG9kCRM) - a pipe wrench or a wrench kit or both - A drill with lots of different bits - A caulking gun and some caulk - heavy duty gloves Alternatively, a gift card to home depot would be a great present.
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Dec 17, 2012 18:56
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