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Silver Spring/Kensington/Wheaton represent. There is a lot of infrastructure going up in the Wheaton area, especially by the metro stop. I feel like Wheaton is going to be the next Rockville in a decade or so (or maybe I'm just dreaming), especially with the two final red line stops in that area. Could be a reasonable investment over the long term.
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Mar 21, 2013 01:17
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I just don't much care for north of Wheaton. It's really a difference in suburban feeling north of University.
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Mar 21, 2013 02:44
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As a lender, I can promise you that they have not relaxed standards at all and this isn't a 'bubble'. 5 years of Americans spending less, saving more, and putting off home buying has more people ready to buy than any time in decades. Interest rates are at in the 2-3% range and values are coming off a 20 year low. That lower borrowing/purchase cost and more available homebuyers has simply eaten up stock. Let the media catch wind and start talking about it and more homes will go on the market as families rush to sell to upsize. The interesting story is what happens in 10 years when all those first time homebuyers that have 3 bedroom homes at 3% and want to go upsize. Do they go buy a larger home that now costs twice what their first home did and get a mortgage at 6%? Is an extra bedroom or two worth the quadrupling of house payment? Or do they go get an equity line and 'add-on' a wing like they did in the old days. Im guessing the second.
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Mar 21, 2013 05:00
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Randomly posted:As a lender, I can promise you that they have not relaxed standards at all and this isn't a 'bubble'. Standards depends on the time frame you're looking at. We're certainly more liberal with guidelines now compared to 2009/2010 or so. 2007 and earlier? Hell no, but those guidelines were hilariously stupid. I do not look forward to HELOCs becoming a thing again though.
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Mar 21, 2013 05:09
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Randomly posted:As a lender, I can promise you that they have not relaxed standards at all and this isn't a 'bubble'. They buy all the houses that were 60 to 70 year old looking to downsize or estate sale houses.
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Mar 21, 2013 05:13
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Randomly posted:The interesting story is what happens in 10 years when all those first time homebuyers that have 3 bedroom homes at 3% and want to go upsize. Do they go buy a larger home that now costs twice what their first home did and get a mortgage at 6%? Is an extra bedroom or two worth the quadrupling of house payment? Or do they go get an equity line and 'add-on' a wing like they did in the old days.
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Mar 21, 2013 12:19
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To chime in on DC chat: my fiancée works down in the Fair Lakes area and had been commuting from DC for years. One of our goals was for her to have a much easier commute. I don't go in every day so I decided to take a hit on my commute. We started looking in West Falls Church but in our price range everything was either a pile of poo poo or got snapped up too fast by ridiculous offers. In the end, we decided on Reston because 1) I really liked the running paths 2) eventually the Silver Line will show up 3) we felt like we weren't getting a terrible deal. The big downside is the toll road which I just don't stress about. Moving from DC we are saving so much each month in taxes that it more than evens out.
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Mar 21, 2013 15:06
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bergeoisie posted:To chime in on DC chat: my fiancée works down in the Fair Lakes area and had been commuting from DC for years. One of our goals was for her to have a much easier commute. I don't go in every day so I decided to take a hit on my commute. We started looking in West Falls Church but in our price range everything was either a pile of poo poo or got snapped up too fast by ridiculous offers. In the end, we decided on Reston because 1) I really liked the running paths 2) eventually the Silver Line will show up 3) we felt like we weren't getting a terrible deal. The big downside is the toll road which I just don't stress about. Moving from DC we are saving so much each month in taxes that it more than evens out. What I'm curious to see, is just how well all of the new expensive condo/townhouses in the area are going to do. There are a ton of buildings going up right next to Vienna Metro, Dunn Loring Metro, and by the new Mosaic district. I think the lowest prices I've seen for the townhouses start in the 600s. That seems like an awful lot for a first-time home buyer, even for this area, and especially considering it seems like they're marketing towards 20 and 30-somethings.
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Mar 21, 2013 17:13
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600k is something a household making 200k can buy, plenty of those people around here. A friend is shopping in that price range for a townhouse and has been beaten out twice even after offering more than list price, probably by all cash buyers. sanchez fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Mar 21, 2013 |
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Mar 21, 2013 17:34
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It's completely loving insane what has happened in the DC area. My parents bought a home in the south side (older/poorer) Vienna for $67,000 in 1977. They retired and sold that home in 2001 for $305,000. The Redfin estimate for that house today is $700,000. This is a house whose vents I pee'd into for years because I was afraid of toilets when I was a child. Joke's on you prospective buyers! I hope you like breathing in my 35 year old pee. What's crazy is the streets nearby that used to be littered with 1,200 square foot ranch style homes that were half the size of mine. Half of those have been torn down and replaced with 4,000+ sf million dollar mansions so you have these neighborhoods with huge mcmansions mixed in with lovely little 1950's houses. Vienna was a really great place to grow up but it's turned into a very strange place.
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Mar 21, 2013 17:34
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So after ignoring the rule of NEVER DO BUY, I am currently in escrow for my first home. The Phoenix market is seeing a similar trend where there is very little inventory on the market and any new homes tend to go under contract in four days or less due to a combination of people wanting to take advantage of the market and out of state investors plopping cash offers down sight unseen. My girlfriend and I found a perfect home for our family. Fully remodeled, gorgeous pool in the backyard, three year old roof and A/C unit, modern kitchen, etc. Overall a great home. When we did our comps with our real estate agent, houses in the area had sold in the last six months as low as thirty thousand less than what we are buying this home for. We don't feel it was overpriced at all based off the last four months of house hunting, but the comps make us nervous due to the bank appraisal. So my question is: How much influence do comp sales from when the market wasn't going as strong have in the appraisal process? I would hate for our appraisal to come back low and mess up anything with our mortgage. I'm not sure if it makes any difference at all, but when I did a home insurance quote with Liberty Mutual, the coverage amount they determined based off square footing, age of roof, pool, etc came back at right around our purchase price. Thanks in advance for the help.
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Mar 21, 2013 18:38
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Yeah, looking at fix-me-ups that cost over $500k has been in kill-me territory.
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Mar 21, 2013 18:41
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Dik Hz posted:What's going to happen to the property value of a starter house when interest rates triple?
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Mar 21, 2013 18:43
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Vilkata posted:So after ignoring the rule of NEVER DO BUY, I am currently in escrow for my first home. The Phoenix market is seeing a similar trend where there is very little inventory on the market and any new homes tend to go under contract in four days or less due to a combination of people wanting to take advantage of the market and out of state investors plopping cash offers down sight unseen. They have some value in that they are important for establishing some trends and sometimes there is no other data readily available, but a good appraisal of value is not going to be based off them so much as the value of land + improvements ASSUMING there are no really applicable recent comparables. And even that can be hard when land itself is becoming scarce with so many builders trying to keep up with the sudden demand. I know that in the Austin market right now, I can't go back further than about 2.5 months in establishing comparables since the market has gone batshit crazy since that time and I would be giving my clients bullshit data if I based much off 2012 prices even. It can make determining some housing prices incredibly difficult and tedious because neighborhood values in Austin are also shifting so fast that it's sometimes hard to even valuate the land. For example I had a home that I helped bid on early in the year that was probably on 75k worth of land (according to sales as late as December 2012), the home was pretty beaten up and worth maybe 20-30k if for some reason you wanted to keep it. The property sold right as the market was beginning to go nuts for somewhere around 50% over list price, and was promptly tore down and a new house was built to sell for 350k as the land itself screamed up in value by more than 50% during that same time period. I couldn't make that poo poo up if I wanted to. I Love You! fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Mar 21, 2013 |
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Mar 21, 2013 18:48
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Voodoo posted:Yeah, inventory is so low in the DC area right now, it's pretty crazy. My wife and I bought a townhouse last year in Fairfax close to Vienna. We put in an offer within 24 hours of the place hitting the market, and we still had to beat out another offer by wanting to close faster. And from what I've seen things have only gotten worse. You really do need to spend a lot of time looking in difference places around the area. We personally avoided Reston becaues of the constantly increasing costs of the toll road. $800+ bucks a year for me just to get to work is a lot of money. A guy I work with just bought one of the new townhouses behind the Vienna metro. He got in early and ended up paying in the low 700's which included some upgrades. From what he's told me, the prices increased from there and the developer hasn't had any trouble finding buyers. I'm really hoping that the market will open up a little thanks to ramped up new construction soaking up some competing buyers, continued decreases in negative equity that should allow more sellers to come to market, and the usual seasonal increases to inventory heading in to the spring and summer.
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Mar 21, 2013 21:59
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Randomly posted:As a lender, I can promise you that they have not relaxed standards at all and this isn't a 'bubble'. Some areas may be starting a bubble again. This time it's driven by the rental market. The article posted:Q: Florida home sale data certainly are eye-catching. Single-family home sales in January were up 11.7 percent year over year, according to Realtor data. Median sale prices for both single-family homes and condos increased, year over year, for the 13th consecutive month. Should Floridians be celebrating a recovery? It's also in more places than just Florida. The other article posted:Created last year by private equity titan Blackstone Group, Invitation Homes has spent about $3.5 billion buying 20,000 houses in nine U.S. markets, including Southern California. It's a new business model emerging from the misery of the mortgage meltdown. So what happens when the rental market gets saturated and some of these homes can't be rented out for a profit?
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Mar 22, 2013 15:52
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I certainly believe that the real estate market in the Seattle area right now is being primarily driven by rental demand, with the other large factor being far too limited supply of both rentals and for-sales in the city proper. The rental market has gone absolutely full retard over the past 3-5 years. I've been in the unfortunate position of having to move approximately every year due to various circumstances, and every year rents have gone up $100-200/mo across the board for the same quality/size of place. And any decent place gets rented within 12-24 hours of being put on craigslist; if you even try to negotiate you will lose the place. It's gotten to the point where you can't even find a reasonably nice/modern studio apartment in a central neighborhood for under $1000 - and even that would be cheap. I feel lucky to be "only" paying $1400/mo for my 1bd w/ 1 parking garage space just outside of downtown. The rapidly rising rental prices definitely have me considering buying since $1400/mo is the better part of the mortgage payment on a 400-500k house (after 20% down), which is about as cheap as they come around here if you want to be in the city and not be buying an extreme fixer-upper/teardown. I could get into a nice 1-2 bed condo for like 250-300k, but I'm not entirely sold on the idea of buying a condo. I want to believe that this can't be sustained, but with our booming economy (unemp. < 6%) and continued rapid growth I don't really see an end in sight. For so long Seattle has been a relatively small metropolis with primarily SFHs or small apartments, but now there's a huge population of wealthy young adults under 35 that all want to live in the handful of central urban neighborhoods. New "luxury" highrise apartments and condos are going up constantly but then they all have rents that start at $1500/mo for a studio or sell for 20% over asking price to an all-cash investor. It's ludicrous. Guinness fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Mar 22, 2013 |
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Mar 22, 2013 18:04
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Pendragon posted:
Then you get to hear the pop as the bubble bursts and home values fall. I saw a post by a lender earlier promising that there isn't in a bubble, and maybe he's in an area that there isn't, but for spreading sections of the US it is a developing issue.
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Mar 22, 2013 18:14
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We should bear in mind that there's been a three to five year stretch with very low number of new housing starts, but at the same time, US population continues to rise. I think we're going to see a short period of demand outstripping supply in particular for high-quality newer homes, but that the homebuilding industry will catch up within 9 to 12 months and begin to satisfy that demand by next year at the latest. At the same time, while foreclosures were largely driven by unemployment rates, families were forced into rental situations. Many of these families with a foreclosure on their records will have to wait a few more years before they can qualify for a new home loan, and therefore, I think we'll see an extended period of higher demand for rental situations at the lower end of the market. So my view is we'll see in the next two or three years, housing prices in the 200k+ segments in most places recover in price as family one-home buyers get back into the market, while the lower-end and poorer areas will continue to see mostly investors looking for rental properties and relatively high rents for those segments. That is, we're going to keep squeezing the poor and lower middle class, pushing more of the latter into the former category; while the relatively well-off will be back on their feet and doing OK pretty quickly. 
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Mar 22, 2013 18:32
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Pendragon posted:Some areas may be starting a bubble again. This time it's driven by the rental market. Then they list the homes for sale and unload them for what they believe to be a higher price. They are buying a commodity for a low price (values at near bottom) using cheap money (rates being at near bottom) that pays dividends (rental income being equivalent to 6% to 12% dividend which is amazing) in the hope to unload it for a higher price (believing the analysis of 4-7% value growth a year). If you had the money to do it and the appetite for risk, you'd invest too. Edit: Hah, I go read the first article and they say what I thought. There is localized risk in the affected zipcodes for a bubble but its not a national trend. Randomly fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Mar 22, 2013 |
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Mar 22, 2013 23:49
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DC chat: Do any of your agents push for northern Montgomery County? Schools are better than Wheaton and most of Silver Spring but you have to live out in the sticks.
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Mar 23, 2013 02:32
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Randomly posted:Then they list the homes for sale and unload them for what they believe to be a higher price. They are buying a commodity for a low price (values at near bottom) using cheap money (rates being at near bottom) that pays dividends (rental income being equivalent to 6% to 12% dividend which is amazing) in the hope to unload it for a higher price (believing the analysis of 4-7% value growth a year). So what you're saying is that there is a lot of profit to be made in this sector. If that's the case, what's to stop investment firms from smelling blood in the water and throwing money around in an attempt to catch the next big wave? It may be local right now, but it is occurring in areas across the country. Read that second article. The second article posted:The firm has also invested in Northern California. Statewide, Blackstone has poured close to $740 million into California real estate through January, according to DataQuick figures. Nationally, the firm has invested in seven other regions: Atlanta, Phoenix, Charlotte, Seattle, Las Vegas, Chicago and multiple cities in Florida. Another article says that institutional investors made up 19% of all sales in Las Vegas, 21% in Charlotte, 23% in Phoenix, and 30% in Miami. Some areas are already seeing their rental prices fall due to the number of houses available for rent (which may prevent a bubble from forming if that spreads). You are right that it is localized to a few areas right now, but that doesn't mean it can't grow bigger. Heck, look at how much people complain in this very thread about losing homes to all-cash buyers.
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Mar 23, 2013 03:03
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http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2927-Santee-Rd-Bethlehem-PA-18020/10139597_zpid/ I am seriously considering this house. My father is gifting me an unspecified $50k-$80k to help with the downpayment. Is there anything hideously wrong with the house that I'm not seeing? It seems like it should go for lower at the least. I am thinking $190,000? I have toured the house. It is really kept up well and everything seems solid. Any feedback is appreciated! Insane Totoro fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Mar 23, 2013 |
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Mar 23, 2013 03:09
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Insane Totoro posted:http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2927-Santee-Rd-Bethlehem-PA-18020/10139597_zpid/ Do you have an agent? I mean, realistically they should be able to identify if there is anything obviously wrong there. I don't really know the market well offhand so I couldn't really comment on the pricing.
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Mar 23, 2013 03:13
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I do have an agent. He said it was a good buy but he'd run the numbers to see how low we could offer
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Mar 23, 2013 03:33
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Fuzzy1 posted:Then you get to hear the pop as the bubble bursts and home values fall. I saw a post by a lender earlier promising that there isn't in a bubble, and maybe he's in an area that there isn't, but for spreading sections of the US it is a developing issue. I think the word "bubble" is now almost as useless in reference to real estate as the word "investment." But today even, I heard perma-bull douche-master Kai Rysdall on NPR talking about how real estate is again becoming the ideal way for poorer people to maximize their net worth - more-so than savings. They highlighted a single mother making $26,000 who was eligible for a $90,000 loan with only $2,700 down. This lady overdraws her bank account several times a month, has little to no savings, and yet still believes that buying a house and going into huge amounts of debt (for her) will SOLVE her money problems. There's still a very deep-held belief that you can buy-a-home your way out of money problems, and despite a terrible real estate crash, people still believe. There's still huge amounts of people who believe that a house is a literal investment - just like buying a CD or a blue chip dividend stock. Say what you will about bailouts and mortgage relief plans from the government, but I don't think many people have learned much of a lesson about real estate at all. I'm thrilled that my wife and I bought when we did (locking in rates close to all time lows this past fall), but I think it would be foolish to forget that there's probably another shoe waiting to drop. More importantly: if you buy a house thinking it's going to make your money problems go away and it will be a "safe" investment, that you'll break even if you're lucky.
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Mar 23, 2013 04:03
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Uh, to Totoro: Based on the zip code and neighborhood trends from zillow, maybe $185-195k? Split levels are totally out of fashion but if you like it ok who cares. The baths and kitchen have been somewhat updated, right? Probably gonna need new laundry machines pretty soon, and gently caress the armstrong ceilings in the basement, but you can't have everything... Looks solid if structure, electric, plumbing are in good shape. Good luck. Now please post your finances so we can tell you why you can't afford to buy after all.
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Mar 23, 2013 04:05
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I have a question about Redfin. Me and my wife have been casually looking for a home for the past year, using Redfin to search and occasionally do a home tour. Well we found the house we ant to place an offer on as a first time home buyer. Well the agent for our area is fairly experienced and seemed okay, but he is currently on vacation and they assigned us a guy that is very green and can't answer any of our questions for us. So we have not signed a contact with Redfin at all, and we want to place an offer on this house which we love. So are we in any way obligated to keep using Redfin if the offer falls through? It just made me think a lot less of the company when we were given this guy that knows nothing, and his mentor told us that he'll be writing up the offer. Maybe I'm over thinking this too much...
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Mar 23, 2013 06:37
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slap me silly posted:Uh, to Totoro: Based on the zip code and neighborhood trends from zillow, maybe $185-195k? Split levels are totally out of fashion but if you like it ok who cares. The baths and kitchen have been somewhat updated, right? Probably gonna need new laundry machines pretty soon, and gently caress the armstrong ceilings in the basement, but you can't have everything... Looks solid if structure, electric, plumbing are in good shape. Good luck. Now please post your finances so we can tell you why you can't afford to buy after all. Dad promised $50-$60k for downpayment. Will provide a gift letter. Our family net salary is roughly $30,000. We currently rent for $720/mo and bank about 33% of our income monthly. Both wife and I are possibly moving up in positions at work soon. Mortgage prequalification letter says we'd get at worst a 3.5% interest rate on the mortgage.
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Mar 23, 2013 06:43
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lord1234 posted:It's a sellers market her in MA as well(or at least in my town). I'm trying to capitalize Yeah, I'm looking on the MA/NH border and have been for 3 months. My real estate agent just told us its transitioning to a sellers market. I'm starting to get very frustrated. We loved this one place that's on the market for 240. They bought it for 150 in 2004, and the house next door just told for 180. All the comps were around 180-200, so we offered 205 with 5 back for closing. Rather than come back with a reasonable counter, they came back with 239 and wouldn't budget. The second was a condo for 200k. All the other condos sold for 170-180 in the complex, so we offered 185 with 5 back...and they said no. Thursday we saw http://www.newenglandmoves.com/property/details/607946/MLS-4222740/5-Larson-Hampstead-NH-03841.aspx and made an offer for 162 with 5 back for closing. They called an hour later and said they had two other offers and "was that our best offer?" We said 165 with 5 back. Yesterday they called and said they wanted to work with us, but they didn't want to deal with closing costs, even at 170 with 5 back (which would be the asking price). This is so frustrating. We've made 3 offers, had 2 get offers before we could make one and now the interest rates are going up and nothing good is on the market right now.
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Mar 23, 2013 16:10
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I'm helping out my GF with an FHA streamline Refi. Anyone have advice? I'm sure this is a pretty common issue, but I haven't seen it discussed in here lately. Thanks!
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Mar 23, 2013 18:26
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tiananman posted:I think the word "bubble" is now almost as useless in reference to real estate as the word "investment." Couldn't agree more with you on both those points. One our of lines of business deals with real estate, so I get a lot of questions about when the best time to buy is or what will happen over the next 5 years. My answer is usually the same - the best time to buy is when you find a house that you and your family love and will be comfortable staying in for a long time. What's going to happen over the next 5 years? I have no clue, and neither does anyone else. Either the big firms that are buying thousands of properties will look around, dump inventory for a gain and depress the market or new home construction may pick up - or neither, and the market rises even farther. Or a combination of this, or things that I haven't even thought about. At least it's exciting  BTW - relevant to the discussion of lender's standards. In my meetings with banks I have seen the opposite - they are doing everything short of stated income to get mortgages done. I have seen 5% down non FHA programs and the like already. Besides my anecdotes there was an interesting piece in the Times today: Report: Mortgages become slightly easier to get as standards ease: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-mortgage-lending-standards-ease-20130322,0,5307201.story I hope everyone looking for a home in this thread gets one that they're incredibly satisfied with.
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Mar 23, 2013 19:07
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Astro7x posted:I have a question about Redfin. Me and my wife have been casually looking for a home for the past year, using Redfin to search and occasionally do a home tour. Well we found the house we ant to place an offer on as a first time home buyer. Well the agent for our area is fairly experienced and seemed okay, but he is currently on vacation and they assigned us a guy that is very green and can't answer any of our questions for us. So we have not signed a contact with Redfin at all, and we want to place an offer on this house which we love. So are we in any way obligated to keep using Redfin if the offer falls through? It just made me think a lot less of the company when we were given this guy that knows nothing, and his mentor told us that he'll be writing up the offer. I used Redfin a lot when searching for a home but never went through their agents, just used them as an MLS tool. It looks like you'd only need to go through their agents if you want the Redfin Refund or whatever that is. If you don't like the agent they gave you, this is on their site quote:You can ask to use a different agent -- Redfin or otherwise -- at any time with no hassle and no obligation. so get a new agent if you aren't happy. This is going to be the biggest purchase of your life, don't feel like you're trapped or obligated to use an agent you don't trust or a website you don't like.
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Mar 23, 2013 19:28
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Astro7x posted:I have a question about Redfin. Me and my wife have been casually looking for a home for the past year, using Redfin to search and occasionally do a home tour. Well we found the house we ant to place an offer on as a first time home buyer. Well the agent for our area is fairly experienced and seemed okay, but he is currently on vacation and they assigned us a guy that is very green and can't answer any of our questions for us. So we have not signed a contact with Redfin at all, and we want to place an offer on this house which we love. So are we in any way obligated to keep using Redfin if the offer falls through? It just made me think a lot less of the company when we were given this guy that knows nothing, and his mentor told us that he'll be writing up the offer. Unless you have signed a contract with the agent/brokerage firm he is represented by, you're generally free to work with whomever you please. Many agents will try to get a Buyer's Representation agreement under ink in order to guarantee payment should you make a purchase, but if this contract does not exist there is nothing enforceable about an agreement typically, even for the current house you are looking at, though he could make an argument to the selling agent that commission could come his way in the event of a sale. In general, if a client of mine isn't under a buyer's rep agreement, they can simply get a new agent whenever they please - it's one of the main reasons I try to only work with clients interested in signing an agreement in the first place. It's just too easy for them to find a home on the way to work or whatnot, then sign the deal without me or with another agent they're friends with, etc. As a buyer it's in your best interest to find the best representation you can - a good agent will cost you as much as a bad agent (nothing, unless you're buying a home that doesn't pay his commission or isn't on the MLS) and can save you a lot more, so there's little reason not to demand excellence. You'd never entrust 200k of money to an investor who couldn't answer your questions, but a lot of people end up doing that with real estate. If you do end up moving on, and are still on the lookout for a good agent, feel free to drop me a line at kerry@maxavenue.com - I run a free agent matchmaking service, and would be happy to conduct some interviews on experienced Realtors in your area to find one that might be a good fit for ya. I Love You! fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Mar 23, 2013 |
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Mar 23, 2013 20:07
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Thanks for the advice everyone! Here is just some of the bullshit this guy put us through, we asked TWICE for him to find comparable homes in the area to come up with an offer price (in writing and in person), and he flat out didn't do it. He asked him to contact the seller and ask if there are other offers being made, and he said "I might not want to do that, it could hurt you guys in the long run". We asked him about putting in an escalation clause into our offer and he only responded with "I don't think they're accepting those, they are kind of new". He also offered zero advice on negotiating and suggested we bid asking price because "it's going to go fast". Long story short, we contacted the guys boss and we have been working with him directly at Redfin. They have done a great job so far at answering our questions and scrambling to get our offer in by the deadline. They did a price analysis, and everything in the area is selling about 20K below asking price, nothing higher or at asking price. He also gave us some good negotiating tactics so what to place an offer at, and has been extremely easy to reach even though the guy is in the middle of a bunch of showings today. Might consider another agent if this house falls through, but hopefully it doesn't.
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Mar 23, 2013 21:21
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Does anyone have any experience being on a strata council or HOA? After buying a condo in June, my wife and I were pretty disappointed when we discovered how poorly our neighbours treated the building, how often the parking garage and mailboxes were being broken into and how indifferent the strata council was to do anything about it. I was elected to council in December and have been bashing my head against a brick wall of apathy since then trying to get people to even agree to authorize me to make simple, obvious changes like installing security cameras to do something about all of the crime. The amount of money that we could make off of fining tenants for illegally dumping furniture in the parking garage would cover our costs within a year. The moral of the story is do never buy a condo in a building that's 80% renter occupied.
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Mar 24, 2013 06:12
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Rockzilla posted:The moral of the story is do never buy a condo in a building that's 80% renter occupied. I'm sort of amazed that the bank would even write a loan for a condo building that's 80% renter occupied. Can you find anyone else in the building that cares enough to get themselves elected? Build your own council!
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Mar 24, 2013 20:06
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At that point, its like you're just buying in an apartment complex.
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Mar 24, 2013 22:07
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This may be beyond the scope of this thread, but I've noticed there's some lenders around, so what the hell: would it be wise for me to steer clear of incorporating my sole proprietorship as an S-corp and drawing a salary as a tax avoidance strategy until after qualifying for a mortgage? I'm unsure if the lenders will be looking at my net profit statements on my tax returns, or my net income as an individual. I found an article that mentioned a large amount of expenses claimed could cause issues, but that won't be a problem for me. I can't find anything addressing this issue specifically. Anything else I need to know in order to prepare for house shopping next year? I'm already planning on just socking away as much cash as I can - I read some lenders will expect at least a 30% down payment and six months of expenses in the bank before considering a self employed person, so I'm basically just planning on shoveling everything into savings. But if there's any other tricks I can deploy I'd love to know.
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Mar 25, 2013 00:18
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Jessi Bond posted:This may be beyond the scope of this thread, but I've noticed there's some lenders around, so what the hell: would it be wise for me to steer clear of incorporating my sole proprietorship as an S-corp and drawing a salary as a tax avoidance strategy until after qualifying for a mortgage? I'm unsure if the lenders will be looking at my net profit statements on my tax returns, or my net income as an individual. I found an article that mentioned a large amount of expenses claimed could cause issues, but that won't be a problem for me. I can't find anything addressing this issue specifically. Hey Jessi Factory, Good to see where your amazing success is taking you! You're right in that the lenders in this thread probably have the best answers for you with regards to the method for best reporting your income for the purposes of obtaining a loan, but I've personally gone through similar things with regards to income reporting on LLCs/S-corps before and would be happy to go over my own experiences with regards to taxation and reporting if you care. I've had different accountants handle things differently and have had businesses under a few different umbrellas, so depending on what you're trying to do you certainly have some control over how your "reported income" is perceived. I dropped you a PM about the preparation for house shopping - I'd be happy to help out as I work with a good number of goons helping out first time buyers. There's a lot of great advice in the OP of this thread to get started, but even if you're still a ways out with regard to buying I'd be down for reviewing the early stages of the process with you and helping out to set some baseline expectations and "first steps" to get started along the way for now. Hit me up if you want to talk about this and/or related matters, but I'll leave it to the lenders to give any financial advice in the thread since this can get tricky real fast and tends to vary depending on the lender you're talking to. I Love You! fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Mar 25, 2013 |
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Mar 25, 2013 00:39
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