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Daylen Drazzi
Mar 10, 2007

Why do I root for Notre Dame? Because I like pain, and disappointment, and anguish. Notre Dame Football has destroyed more dreams than the Irish Potato Famine, and that is the kind of suffering I can get behind.

Trillian posted:

I am expecting my closing costs to be over 3k, not counting the downpayment. Right now you don't even have an emergency fund for regular stuff, because the money you have in the bank is borrowed.

Very aware of this. I wasn't sure if there were other sensible options that someone knew about, but apparently not. I'm limiting myself to looking at apartment rentals now.

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adorai
Nov 2, 2002

10/27/04 Never forget
Grimey Drawer

Trillian posted:

I am expecting my closing costs to be over 3k, not counting the downpayment. Right now you don't even have an emergency fund for regular stuff, because the money you have in the bank is borrowed.
What kind of loans are you people getting? My closing costs, including my down payment are actually less than the down payment is. The sellers will give you a real estate tax credit for the time they have been in the house this year, and you probably only have to prefund one or two months of real estate taxes if you escrow. Beyond that, you will need 6-12 months of home owners insurance paid, origination and title fees which should be less that $1k, and a prorated months worth of interest.

I bet a first time homebuyer could buy a $100k house on a freddie mac loan with no more than $3k out of pocket. $6k first time homebuyer plus the downpayment plus program from the federal reserve and HUD should get you $11k toward the purchase. Add in prefunded escrow ($1k?), inspection ($350), Homeowners insurance ($500), origination and title ($1k) and lawyer ($250) for a grand total of $3100 out of pocket and $11k in equity from day one. A single guy making $47k could do very well if he is handy. Do some basic updates yourself over 5 years and sell. You will likely sell for at least the purchase price + cost of materials for updates, netting yourself $11k in profit (plus however much equity you build). Or just stay there, because $89k at 4.25% is a pretty cheap mortgage. A 30 year would probably cost you $650/mo, a 15 would be more like $900/mo. Estimate another $2000/year for repairs, maintenance and updates. And realistically, if you could afford the 15 (get a roommate) you could probably start leveraging home equity for your updates after 3-4 years if you really wanted to sell after 5 (which you would want to wait for, as that is how long you have to stay for that first time homebuyer credit).

ChristsDickWorship
Dec 7, 2004

Annihilate your demons



Does anyone know much about USDA loans? After looking at a bunch of houses, 2 of the 3 on my short list qualify for USDA loans, and my income is within the limits in the counties where I'm shopping. My understanding of the costs associated with USDA loans is that you pay:

A - Same interest rate as conventional loans?

B - Instead of PMI, you pay a fee of 0.4% of the money you still owe, and it's rolled into the loan for the life of the loan, no matter how much equity you have

C - Pay a Guarantee Fee of 2% of the cost of the loan

D?- Still pay lender origination fee?

As far as I can tell, the major advertised benefits are no money down and no limit on the amount of money loaned.

Does it make any sense to go after one if I can make the 20% down payment without too much trouble on a conventional loan? You can assume I won't be day-trading the down-payment money for great profit if I don't put it into the house. I would probably put some of it aside for an extra emergency fund and put the rest in a safe-looking mutual fund.

But unless I'm missing something, I would be paying more for the USDA loan no matter how much I put down, right?

10-8
Oct 2, 2003

Level 14 Bureaucrat

Daylen Drazzi posted:

It was also not my intention to immediately go out and buy a house, but something in 5-6 months after saving up another $3,000 or so.

You didn't save the first $3,000! Do you really consider borrowed money to be savings?

Twerk from Home
Jan 17, 2009

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.
How necessary is a 3-stage new home inspection on a new build compared to doing my best to educate myself and visiting the site frequently and doing a DIY inspection? Either way the builders are equally required to fix defects, is it worth the $600+ for a three stage new home inspection?

WeaselWeaz
Apr 11, 2004

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Biscuits and Gravy.
Just interviewed a buyer's agent today. It was a good experience but man the market is scary. Our idea area has homes selling within an average of 10 days.

Daylen Drazzi
Mar 10, 2007

Why do I root for Notre Dame? Because I like pain, and disappointment, and anguish. Notre Dame Football has destroyed more dreams than the Irish Potato Famine, and that is the kind of suffering I can get behind.

adorai posted:

What kind of loans are you people getting? My closing costs, including my down payment are actually less than the down payment is. The sellers will give you a real estate tax credit for the time they have been in the house this year, and you probably only have to prefund one or two months of real estate taxes if you escrow. Beyond that, you will need 6-12 months of home owners insurance paid, origination and title fees which should be less that $1k, and a prorated months worth of interest.

I bet a first time homebuyer could buy a $100k house on a freddie mac loan with no more than $3k out of pocket. $6k first time homebuyer plus the downpayment plus program from the federal reserve and HUD should get you $11k toward the purchase. Add in prefunded escrow ($1k?), inspection ($350), Homeowners insurance ($500), origination and title ($1k) and lawyer ($250) for a grand total of $3100 out of pocket and $11k in equity from day one. A single guy making $47k could do very well if he is handy. Do some basic updates yourself over 5 years and sell. You will likely sell for at least the purchase price + cost of materials for updates, netting yourself $11k in profit (plus however much equity you build). Or just stay there, because $89k at 4.25% is a pretty cheap mortgage. A 30 year would probably cost you $650/mo, a 15 would be more like $900/mo. Estimate another $2000/year for repairs, maintenance and updates. And realistically, if you could afford the 15 (get a roommate) you could probably start leveraging home equity for your updates after 3-4 years if you really wanted to sell after 5 (which you would want to wait for, as that is how long you have to stay for that first time homebuyer credit).

I'm actually looking at the disclosure documentation the credit union sent me, and you're pretty close to spot on. It's actually $3063 needed at closing for a $100k loan, and the total payment including RE taxes and PMI is a little over $800 a month.

adorai
Nov 2, 2002

10/27/04 Never forget
Grimey Drawer

Daylen Drazzi posted:

I'm actually looking at the disclosure documentation the credit union sent me, and you're pretty close to spot on. It's actually $3063 needed at closing for a $100k loan, and the total payment including RE taxes and PMI is a little over $800 a month.
But don't forget, the sellers will be writing you a check for the taxes for the time they have been in the house since the last payment credit (which is done for the previous year, so typically you'll get 6 to 12 months of taxes) and you only have to prefund a few months of escrow. So if the tax rate is 2%, and you are assessed on 1/3 the value, you will get approximately $666 dollars that you can use toward your closing costs or downpayment. You will "lose" this money when you sell, but it will come out of your sale proceeds. I don't know for sure if your lender uses these proceeds in the GFE you get during the loan process, but it's worth asking about them. For an FHA they are not allowed to ever disclose them, for a Freddie or fannie they can.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

There plenty of places where there is no such thing as a $100k house.

canyoneer
Sep 13, 2005


I only have canyoneyes for you

FCKGW posted:

There plenty of places where there is no such thing as a $100k house.

And many more areas where all the $100k houses are on mainstreet of Murdertown, USA.

Dead Pressed
Nov 11, 2009

adorai posted:

What kind of loans are you people getting? My closing costs, including my down payment are actually less than the down payment is. The sellers will give you a real estate tax credit for the time they have been in the house this year, and you probably only have to prefund one or two months of real estate taxes if you escrow. Beyond that, you will need 6-12 months of home owners insurance paid, origination and title fees which should be less that $1k, and a prorated months worth of interest.

I bet a first time homebuyer could buy a $100k house on a freddie mac loan with no more than $3k out of pocket. $6k first time homebuyer plus the downpayment plus program from the federal reserve and HUD should get you $11k toward the purchase. Add in prefunded escrow ($1k?), inspection ($350), Homeowners insurance ($500), origination and title ($1k) and lawyer ($250) for a grand total of $3100 out of pocket and $11k in equity from day one. A single guy making $47k could do very well if he is handy. Do some basic updates yourself over 5 years and sell. You will likely sell for at least the purchase price + cost of materials for updates, netting yourself $11k in profit (plus however much equity you build). Or just stay there, because $89k at 4.25% is a pretty cheap mortgage. A 30 year would probably cost you $650/mo, a 15 would be more like $900/mo. Estimate another $2000/year for repairs, maintenance and updates. And realistically, if you could afford the 15 (get a roommate) you could probably start leveraging home equity for your updates after 3-4 years if you really wanted to sell after 5 (which you would want to wait for, as that is how long you have to stay for that first time homebuyer credit).

This is the poo poo that got people into a lot of trouble. The 6k home buyer credit is no longer a thing. Even if you qualify for additional hud assistance you're still not considering the costs of selling the home in your valuation. Also, appreciation via improvement has 100 percent proved itself not to be a sustainably expected return (note-your actually lucky if you get a full return from initial costs).

Even if he were able to swing the house, he would be devastated by almost any issue. Much less than that-have fun taking out loans for a lawnmower, basic tools, etc. To recommend he even consider it at this point would be extremely wreckless, and that's not even digging into a surefire lack of retirement savings...

Trillian
Sep 14, 2003

FCKGW posted:

There plenty of places where there is no such thing as a $100k house.

Really I shouldn't have responded because I've only ever lived in those places. Here's something I didn't think was possible:

adorai posted:

lawyer ($250)

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
Any guides on first-time sellers?

We bought our 100k single-story 3br just over five years ago. Though I am proud that we never had a late payment - even at the cost of mac and cheese some months - we have decided that suburban home ownership in Northwest Arkansas is not for us. We are relocating to the Denver/Boulder area, and plan to rent/lease a little place for five to seven years until we can save enough up to buy Real Land Out In The Woods, and build An Awesome Cabin House Ranch thing on it, in which I can do woodworking and build custom guitar amps until I get old and grey.

We just, quite honest, want to /dump/ this thing. I don't care about making a dime. We have more or less been 'house poor' for the duration, not because we overbudgeted, just Life Kicking You In The Balls type stuff - uninsured medical costs, etc. Still, we are stacking up savings at the rate of ~1k a month.

What do I need to do to sell a house? In this situation, where we can't really pick and choose the best bid, nor do we care about doing so, what would our first steps be? We're in the cleanup/repair phase now, painting bad spots, shining it up. Our other option is....the house is an 1100 square foot 3br/1ba, 0.75 miles from the University of Arkansas. It would rent out to college students until the end of time for better than the current mortgage note, but I am scared of dealing with property management and becoming a Landlord. Should I even consider this?

Konstantin
Jun 20, 2005
And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
Absolutely not. Being a landlord sucks, being a landlord when you are hundreds of miles away sucks even more. You should probably get an agent, and also spend a few hundred dollars on a professional home inspection. That way you won't get any nasty surprises when the buyer does his inspection and he demands thousands in repairs.

Acrolos
Mar 29, 2004

My wife and I have received an offer on our home. We live in a rural area of North Carolina where the market hasn't picked up to the level of other places, and typically houses are sitting on the market for a little while longer than elsewhere. We certainly aren't getting multiple offers and bidding wars like in most places.

We've have the house on the market for about a month and a half, and outside of the open house we recently had (with 4 people looking at the house), we've had just one person look at the home.

We put the house on the market at $121,900.

The offer that came in was...

$110,000 + 3,000 in closing costs, a $450 home warranty, and all of our blinds and patio furniture (both are relatively cheap and easy for us to replace)

I have been through this game before, so I wasn't insulted by the offer...but as it's a time where selling is definitely in my best interest, to avoid rapidly increasing interest rates on the new home we want to buy, how should I respond?

Is a counter of $120,000 + $2000 in closing costs, along with the $450 warranty and the blinds/furniture too much to counter with? Too little?

I'm willing to sell the house for a base of $115,000 after my expenses, although I'd obviously like a little more. Any thoughts from the experts on how to handle the counter/discussion would be great!

daslog
Dec 10, 2008

#essereFerrari
I have a brother in law who is a builder. Back during the peak, he decided to build a speculation house which he sunk about a million dollars building, and listed it for 1.7 million. It’s a really nice house, and he used lots of amazing new materials when he built in. The problem with the house is the location; it’s 5 miles from the large lake in New Hampshire on a3/4 acre lot that’s too close to the neighbors. The tax assessment is at 1.05 million. I know that tax assessment doesn’t reflect the market, but few appraisers are going to exceed the tax assessed value. He had it on the market for 2 years before and they had a handful of showings, but almost no activity beyond that. The house was even featured on a TV show. Still nothing.

So here is what I’m wondering: How does a Real Estate agent tell their customer that their house isn’t going to sell at the price point they want to list it at? Is there some mentality among builders that is they keep adding stuff to it,, then it will sell eventually?

Economic Sinkhole
Mar 14, 2002
Pillbug

Jonny 290 posted:

Any guides on first-time sellers?



I am far from an expert, but I can tell you how we got started selling my girlfriend's condo. Step 1 was cleaning and fixing, as you are doing. We also removed a lot of stuff to a storage unit to make the place feel much more open and airy. Little things like cleaning all the windows inside and out helps a lot. We wanted people to walk in and say "Oh, this is really clean."

Step 2 was internet research. Use Redfin if you can- they have a really great tool to help you value your house by searching for comparable sales. Otherwise try Zillow to get an idea of what you should be asking. Step 3 was getting a seller's agent. Our agent did more in depth research on the MLS and walked us through the process. With her help we settled on a price and picked the important days (listing, open house).

Step 4 was keeping the place perfectly clean and allowing people to view the condo all the time. This part sucked because we are not the type of person that always puts dishes in the dishwasher immediately and vacuums every day.

Step 5: profit! Or not... see my last post in this thread about our buyer pulling out right at the end. We're still fighting for the earnest money on that one. In the mean time, we sold the place to another guy, so go us!

BulimicGoat
Mar 19, 2007

Acrolos posted:


I'm willing to sell the house for a base of $115,000 after my expenses, although I'd obviously like a little more. Any thoughts from the experts on how to handle the counter/discussion would be great!

Here's how I would approach it, but I may be way off from how others see it. This all depends on how quick you want to sell, how long you can stand hold the property, etc.

You listed at 122k and they essentially offered 106k (110k-3k closing, $500 warranty and $500 in furniture).

If I was you, I would keep the other conditions the same (closing, warranty, and furniture) and only work on the price. Based on their financing, they might not have wiggle room for closing costs, and the buyers will feel like they've already achieved a small victory if all those conditions are accepted.


I would say 120k, all else equal, would show that you're willing to entertain and give you the added cushion of going down to 119. If you want to clear 115 after closing, your basement price is going to have to be 119k, so you don't have too much room to play with a counter offer.

razz
Dec 26, 2005

Queen of Maceration

Jonny 290 posted:

Our other option is....the house is an 1100 square foot 3br/1ba, 0.75 miles from the University of Arkansas. It would rent out to college students until the end of time for better than the current mortgage note, but I am scared of dealing with property management and becoming a Landlord. Should I even consider this?

Hi, I am a real college student that has rented at least 5 houses in a college town (state university probably pretty similar to University of Arkansas).

Do not rent your house to college students unless you want it completely trashed within five years. I am totally not kidding on this. Apartments are slightly different because they often have on-site maintenance but I have lived in a few college houses and been friends with dozens of people who have rented college houses and they all WENT TO poo poo extremely quickly. College students in general do not care about the state of their house, particularly if it's a *house* and not an apartment, because you're way less likely to get neighborly complaints if your house is not attached to 6 other peoples' houses.

All your carpets will be ruined. All your hardwood floors will be ruined. All your tile or linoleum will be ruined. Anywhere water can leak, it will leak and go unnoticed for months to years. Your yard will go COMPLETELY to poo poo. All of the outlets in the house will be destroyed (somehow). The garbage disposal/dishwasher/washer/dryer/fridge will either be destroyed or will become nasty beyond cleaning. Every cabinet and every drawer in the house will come off its hinges or off its rails and will never be fixed, it'll just stay broken and no one will tell anyone because it's too big of a hassle to have a landlord come out and fix a wobbly cabinet door hinge. Windows will be left open during storms and water will get all in the house and rot down into the window frames.

This is just a small smattering of things I have personally dealt with in the college rental house scene. And I am a totally anal neat freak so I did not do these things because I like where I live to look nice. These are things that previous tenants (or slovenly roommates of mine) did, with no remorse, and no consequences. Best you can hope for is your $500 deposit back, to do $30,000 in repairs.

NEVER RENT TO COLLEGE STUDENTS. Just sell it. Sell it to a rental agency and let THEM deal with the fallout, because they're used to the destruction and they don't care.

Damn Bananas
Jul 1, 2007

You humans bore me

Konstantin posted:

and also spend a few hundred dollars on a professional home inspection. That way you won't get any nasty surprises when the buyer does his inspection and he demands thousands in repairs.

I don't really understand this. I see two scenarios:

1. You do not buy an inspection, but the buyer does. The buyer demands $X worth of repairs, or a lower price.

2. You buy your own home inspection, so you're out $300+. You're also legally required to disclose everything that is found to all potential buyers. Then the hypothetical buyer will buy his own inspection from a different company, who will likely find additional things your guy did not find. He also might not have found some things that your inspector found, but you disclosed it, so you're still on the hook. You are now out $300 and your buyer is aware of more problems than if you had done nothing, so he demands >$X in repairs, or an even lower price than if you had done nothing.

Am I looking at things too simply? Or was that just to make sure there's nothing SO wrong with the house, that selling it at all is just a bad idea now?

Guinness
Sep 15, 2004

razz posted:

Hi, I am a real college student that has rented at least 5 houses in a college town

Me too. I rented 4 different houses while I was a college student/recent grad. A couple of them were even "nice" and as a group we took "good" care of it compared to many other college houses I've been in.

There's a reason most of the landlords that deal in college housing rentals are either a) shady lawyers or b) shady real estate agents. Because the only way to make money in that racket is to know exactly how little maintenance and upkeep you can legally get away with. I still drive by a couple of the houses I rented as a college student 5 years ago and they obviously haven't seen anything beyond the absolute bare legal minimum in maintenance and repairs in that time.

Captain Windex
Apr 10, 2005
It'll clean anything.
Pillbug

Acrolos posted:

The offer that came in was...

$110,000 + 3,000 in closing costs, a $450 home warranty, and all of our blinds and patio furniture (both are relatively cheap and easy for us to replace)

I have been through this game before, so I wasn't insulted by the offer...but as it's a time where selling is definitely in my best interest, to avoid rapidly increasing interest rates on the new home we want to buy, how should I respond?

Is a counter of $120,000 + $2000 in closing costs, along with the $450 warranty and the blinds/furniture too much to counter with? Too little?

Don't include personal property in the contract if you can avoid it unless the buyer is doing all cash, it can make the loan approval a lot more obnoxious.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

drat Bananas posted:

I don't really understand this. I see two scenarios:

1. You do not buy an inspection, but the buyer does. The buyer demands $X worth of repairs, or a lower price.

2. You buy your own home inspection, so you're out $300+. You're also legally required to disclose everything that is found to all potential buyers. Then the hypothetical buyer will buy his own inspection from a different company, who will likely find additional things your guy did not find. He also might not have found some things that your inspector found, but you disclosed it, so you're still on the hook. You are now out $300 and your buyer is aware of more problems than if you had done nothing, so he demands >$X in repairs, or an even lower price than if you had done nothing.

Am I looking at things too simply? Or was that just to make sure there's nothing SO wrong with the house, that selling it at all is just a bad idea now?

Your logic makes a decent amount of sense, but you are missing the time factor.

If your inspector discovers that, say, you need a new roof, or you need to rip out some bad wiring, or you need to repair a leaking sewer line, you can find a contractor on your own time, get multiple bids, and get the repair done in a reasonably timely manner for ($$) or maybe even ($).

On the other hand, if you accept an offer from a buyer and want to close in 30 or even 45 days, and then halfway into that period their inspector discovers the roof/wiring/sewer problem, you may be on the hook to either have it repaired on extremely short notice ($$$) or give them price concessions equal to the estimate their inspector came up with (potentially $$$+). Being forced to find a contractor to do a repair in a week can radically reduce your cost options.

But it's your call. If you feel confident there won't be any major issues, I guess it'd make sense to let the buyer's inspector find the little nitpicking things themselves, and not just add more little nitpicking things to the list.

Robo-Pope
Feb 28, 2007

It has big taste.

Captain Windex posted:

Don't include personal property in the contract if you can avoid it unless the buyer is doing all cash, it can make the loan approval a lot more obnoxious.

I had my loan officer hilariously call me a week after closing, begging me to sign an addendum to the contract to remove the dude's TV from the sale, because their underwriting department completely missed it during approval and they couldn't sell the loan with it in there.

Konstantin
Jun 20, 2005
And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Leperflesh posted:

If your inspector discovers that, say, you need a new roof, or you need to rip out some bad wiring, or you need to repair a leaking sewer line, you can find a contractor on your own time, get multiple bids, and get the repair done in a reasonably timely manner for ($$) or maybe even ($).

On the other hand, if you accept an offer from a buyer and want to close in 30 or even 45 days, and then halfway into that period their inspector discovers the roof/wiring/sewer problem, you may be on the hook to either have it repaired on extremely short notice ($$$) or give them price concessions equal to the estimate their inspector came up with (potentially $$$+). Being forced to find a contractor to do a repair in a week can radically reduce your cost options.

But it's your call. If you feel confident there won't be any major issues, I guess it'd make sense to let the buyer's inspector find the little nitpicking things themselves, and not just add more little nitpicking things to the list.

That, and if you come out and disclose the repairs that need to be made, you can get the initial offer with those in mind, and those issues are off the table. If they are found in inspection, then that creates a new opportunity for the buyers to renegotiate. If the buyers are savvy negotiators who are willing to walk away, and you aren't in a strong sellers market where you can pick and choose between offers, then the buyers can easily drive a hard bargain long after you think you've agreed on a price.

razz
Dec 26, 2005

Queen of Maceration

Guinness posted:

There's a reason most of the landlords that deal in college housing rentals are either a) shady lawyers or b) shady real estate agents. Because the only way to make money in that racket is to know exactly how little maintenance and upkeep you can legally get away with. I still drive by a couple of the houses I rented as a college student 5 years ago and they obviously haven't seen anything beyond the absolute bare legal minimum in maintenance and repairs in that time.

Yep, my town actually passed a law when I was an undergrad that all rental properties had to be annually inspected and deemed up-to-code by the fire marshal or city or whoever and the giant group of landlords that basically control the rental market and thus a huge chunk of the town's economy successfully got it overturned.

Captain Windex
Apr 10, 2005
It'll clean anything.
Pillbug

Robo-Pope posted:

I had my loan officer hilariously call me a week after closing, begging me to sign an addendum to the contract to remove the dude's TV from the sale, because their underwriting department completely missed it during approval and they couldn't sell the loan with it in there.

Hahaha, nice. We wouldn't even take that if it was my bank they were trying to sell to, once that can of worms gets opened up you're SOL. Hope they had fun documenting the value of that TV and trying to reduce the purchase price accordingly. After closing. Hope you're not at maximum financing :v:

baquerd
Jul 2, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

Robo-Pope posted:

I had my loan officer hilariously call me a week after closing, begging me to sign an addendum to the contract to remove the dude's TV from the sale, because their underwriting department completely missed it during approval and they couldn't sell the loan with it in there.

"Sure, I just need $X from you to make that happen." (Where $X = cost of TV brand new)

Elephanthead
Sep 11, 2008


Toilet Rascal
Hey that TV is probably structural. I wouldn't sign anything until they pay for an engineering study.

canyoneer
Sep 13, 2005


I only have canyoneyes for you
Having just moved in, I've noticed my junk mail volume has probably quadrupled. My favorite are the ones that want you to get some kind of insurance, or a paper copy of your deed or whatever. They make it look like the VERY OFFICIAL STUFF YOUR BANK SENDS and try to hide that it's from a company you have no business relationship with.

And I'm shooing away alarm and pest control salesmen daily. I feel like the belle of the ball :swoon:

Dogen
May 5, 2002

Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride
Also companies pretending to be the tax assessor collector wanting to file your homestead exemption for you!

We did get one ADT guy after we already had a very well regarded (I did a lot of research) local company install the system like the day after we closed. My wife was like "See this sign? <points to other company sign> GET LOST." It was awesome because we had used them at a house we rented once previously and they were awful.

Also, we got a weird fake package delivery notice... which we were both home when it showed up. Apparently this is some sort of way to look inconspicuous while casing a house?

The moral of the story to new homebuyers is, leave room in your move in budget for a security system and some sweet blinds. We spent a lot of money on the blinds but we'll never have to replace them as long as we have the house and they are gorgeous.

Slappy Pappy
Oct 15, 2003

Mighty, mighty eagle soaring free
Defender of our homes and liberty
Bravery, humility, and honesty...
Mighty, mighty eagle, rescue me!
Dinosaur Gum
Hopefully this isn't off-topic but does anyone know how to "opt out" of all the garbage mailings? For every legitimate piece of mail I receive there are literally 50+ pieces of garbage in my mailbox. It's a crime against nature and it means I have to check my mail every other day instead of every week like I'd prefer.

Economic Sinkhole
Mar 14, 2002
Pillbug
If anyone was curious on my girlfriend's condo and earnest money situation (quick recap: the buyer walked and was trying to claim the earnest money), we found out late last night that all of the earnest money is being released to us. We are picking up the check from the title company today, and it should cover the extra mortgage payment and HOA dues we have to pay while we wait for our current sale to close.

I'm very glad to be done dealing with this guy's incompetent realtor as well. According to our realtor, every document he sent her was filled out incorrectly, missing signatures, etc. Apparently he has had the signed earnest money release for days and only just remembered to actually send it to us last night.

Dogen
May 5, 2002

Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride
Was that the guy who was getting transferred or whatever? I didn't know he was actually trying to get the earnest money back, what a jerk. I told you it would work out, though.

root of all eval
Dec 28, 2002

Yesterday was signing day, and final inspection day. With 2 hours left before the signing, Chase banks all over Phoenix lost their ability to network and create cashier's checks. After 40 minutes we were all set to withdraw $10k in cash and get a cashier's check from Wells Fargo. Right in the clutch the check final comes through. Crisis averted.

So we casually do our final inspection. What could go wrong? Oh what? The seller let the water and electricity expire? He also has let the back yard grow into a mini-jungle? Oh no problem.

I can't even begin to know what the gently caress he was thinking letting all of the utilities get turned off before the final inspection. He could have walked away today with $211k if he weren't such an absolute dumbass.

Now he has until Monday to get everything turned back on and loving INSPECTABLE.

What a loving idiot.

Rooster Brooster
Mar 30, 2001

Maybe it doesn't really matter anymore.

Spamtron7000 posted:

Hopefully this isn't off-topic but does anyone know how to "opt out" of all the garbage mailings? For every legitimate piece of mail I receive there are literally 50+ pieces of garbage in my mailbox. It's a crime against nature and it means I have to check my mail every other day instead of every week like I'd prefer.

If you have a smart phone you can look into PaperKarma, but it won't stop them from coming, only from coming a second time (maybe, possibly).

I've heard rumors that it's the post office that sells your info to some companies when you file a change of address form, but I don't know that for sure. I'm sure it could just as easily be the fact that you have to, you know, file public papers to buy a house.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

Spamtron7000 posted:

Hopefully this isn't off-topic but does anyone know how to "opt out" of all the garbage mailings? For every legitimate piece of mail I receive there are literally 50+ pieces of garbage in my mailbox. It's a crime against nature and it means I have to check my mail every other day instead of every week like I'd prefer.

Go to https://www.optoutprescreen.com and opt out of any credit offers. This will stop any credit card and loan offers for up to 5 years if you do it online or permanently if you paper mail it. Run by the big 3 credit bureaus.

Also what Rooster Brooster said, get Paper Karma and start snapping pics of everything you don't want. They will figure out what company it is and send an opt-out notice on your behalf. Believe it or not, if you're really not interested in the mailers then the company wants to know about it. They don't want to spend the money on mailers people won't read and it means they can charge their advertisers more for "targeted" mailings.

All property deed transfers are recorded by the county so whenever that occurs you'll start getting tons of mail. When I started doing both of the above I've eliminated nearly all my junk mail in about 6 months.

Omne
Jul 12, 2003

Orangedude Forever

FCKGW posted:

Go to https://www.optoutprescreen.com and opt out of any credit offers. This will stop any credit card and loan offers for up to 5 years if you do it online or permanently if you paper mail it. Run by the big 3 credit bureaus.

Also what Rooster Brooster said, get Paper Karma and start snapping pics of everything you don't want. They will figure out what company it is and send an opt-out notice on your behalf. Believe it or not, if you're really not interested in the mailers then the company wants to know about it. They don't want to spend the money on mailers people won't read and it means they can charge their advertisers more for "targeted" mailings.

All property deed transfers are recorded by the county so whenever that occurs you'll start getting tons of mail. When I started doing both of the above I've eliminated nearly all my junk mail in about 6 months.

Just as an aside to this: if you have a pre-existing business relationship with a company, they can still send you stuff even if you opt out. They can also call you with marketing offers. I'm not sure what the amount of time is between ending the relationship (i.e. closing your checking account at Chase) before Chase has to stop sending you mailers for credit cards.

Slappy Pappy
Oct 15, 2003

Mighty, mighty eagle soaring free
Defender of our homes and liberty
Bravery, humility, and honesty...
Mighty, mighty eagle, rescue me!
Dinosaur Gum
Thanks for all the replies. I'll definitely do those.

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canyoneer
Sep 13, 2005


I only have canyoneyes for you

Omne posted:

Just as an aside to this: if you have a pre-existing business relationship with a company, they can still send you stuff even if you opt out. They can also call you with marketing offers. I'm not sure what the amount of time is between ending the relationship (i.e. closing your checking account at Chase) before Chase has to stop sending you mailers for credit cards.

Yep. However, I've never had a problem getting banks and utilities that I'm a customer of to stop sending me stuff while I'm a customer.

I once had a company that wanted to charge me $2/each or something for statements in the mail, but would gladly send a dozen solicitations for crap during that same period free of charge :haw:

BossRighteous posted:

Yesterday was signing day, and final inspection day. With 2 hours left before the signing, Chase banks all over Phoenix lost their ability to network and create cashier's checks. After 40 minutes we were all set to withdraw $10k in cash and get a cashier's check from Wells Fargo. Right in the clutch the check final comes through. Crisis averted.

I'm sure you're relieved you didn't have to carry $10k of cash on your person while you drove between banks :ohdear:

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