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Jealous Cow posted:So: I'm an Adjunct instructor (job fluctuates), so this is kind of scary. CrazyLittle posted:How much can you rent that place out for? If we're talking strictly "family net worth" its in your parents' best interst to hold onto the property. Prop 13 is literally, "do never sell." I think the magic number around here for these townhomes is 2300-2700.
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Sep 5, 2013 22:42
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| # ? May 30, 2024 16:46 |
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Any thoughts and/or advice on appraisals to remove the PMI on my conventional loan? Does the equity I've gained through the appraisal get applied to the LTV calculation?
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Sep 5, 2013 22:59
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Brazen Apothecary posted:I'm an Adjunct instructor (job fluctuates), so this is kind of scary. See if you can convince your parents to hold onto the property and just rent it out instead, with the hope that you inherit it later. IMHO The lump sum from a sale won't help you or them as much as the perpetual income (that's probably going up) over time.
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Sep 5, 2013 23:52
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ETB posted:Any thoughts and/or advice on appraisals to remove the PMI on my conventional loan? Does the equity I've gained through the appraisal get applied to the LTV calculation? My PMI agreement had a minimum number of payments - I had to pay 2 years' PMI even if my LTV went below 80%. But I re-financed and when the appraisal came in at 78% for the new loan I obviously didn't have to do PMI. Not exactly the same as what you're asking but I learned that the PMI agreement is tied to the loan so if you're pretty sure you're below 80% LTV you can re-finance to get out of PMI.
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Sep 5, 2013 23:53
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Brazen Apothecary posted:But I AM worried about the HOA, which is almost 500 a month. Christ on a stick, I pay less than that on a high-rise condo. What the hell do HOAs do in California?
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Sep 6, 2013 02:58
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Robo-Pope posted:Christ on a stick, I pay less than that on a high-rise condo. What the hell do HOAs do in California? Mostly just fine you for infractions like grass being too tall, non-approved property improvements, or not bringing your trash cans up from the street fast enough. They sometimes pay for maintenance on green areas, security, and if there are neighborhood pools or play areas.
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Sep 6, 2013 03:15
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jabro posted:Mostly just fine you for infractions like grass being too tall, non-approved property improvements, or not bringing your trash cans up from the street fast enough. They sometimes pay for maintenance on green areas, security, and if there are neighborhood pools or play areas. Yeah, it's pretty bullshit, and they go up pretty regularly. Ours does the following for our 144 home complex: Pays for water Maintains groundskeeping areas and shitton of grass everywhere Maintains the complex's pool and spa Is responsible for any outside-of-the-house repairs (anything from the inside of our walls moving outward (outside paint, roofing, termite inspection, etc) Paints every 7 years Repaves the streets in the complex every 10 years Enforces parking with a truly unforgiving and annoying hand ~~*CALIFORNIA*~~ There's probably something else I'm forgetting If my parents weren't so willing to cut me a good deal, I wouldn't even be considering housing in this area. As it is, I'm still waffling. I'm going to bring up renting to them either way--I know they really want a lump sum, but we can work around that, and I think it might be more beneficial for them to hang on to the place for a bit. Either way, guess I'm movin' out again.  Rent out here is similarly atrocious.
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Sep 6, 2013 03:31
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Stopped by our house build on my way home tonight and the house is pretty much done at this point, just a few small touch ups left. Everything else in installed and working at this point from what I could tell. The walkthrough should be next week and we close on the 18th. The mortgage underwriter has signed off on the loan and insurance is in place. Really can't wait to get this wrapped up.
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Sep 6, 2013 05:04
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Woot, now Zillow estimates that my condo has appreciated $75,000 over the past 5 months. I'm a rich man now!  Always buy. Always.
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Sep 10, 2013 23:20
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Brazen Apothecary posted:If my parents weren't so willing to cut me a good deal, I wouldn't even be considering housing in this area. As it is, I'm still waffling. Are you totally against the idea of buying the house from your parents and then getting a roommate? Charge them market rate for rent and it would offset a lot of your costs.
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Sep 11, 2013 00:54
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razz posted:Are you totally against the idea of buying the house from your parents and then getting a roommate? Charge them market rate for rent and it would offset a lot of your costs. Yeah, as much as I agree with "do never buy" even in your case, I think your parents should strongly consider "do never sell" as part of it. I don't think you can deffer income against the sale of a house. How much do they REALLY want to pay CrazyLittle fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 08:14
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I should have come here first, I just put in my first offer for a home and reading through the advice has me  . I've got what looks like a really good pre-approval and the home is fairly new. The surrounding neighborhood is rough, but not the worst in town.I'll pop back in and let you folks know how it goes and ask questions as snags arise. I'm a little nervous now but the math looks good on the benefits, even if I'm looking 4-5 years out.
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Sep 11, 2013 11:23
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CrazyLittle posted:Yeah, as much as I agree with "do never buy" even in your case, I think your parents should strongly consider "do never sell" as part of it. I don't think you can deffer income against the sale of a house. How much do they REALLY want to pay upwards of 35% on the cost of the house in income taxes? Home sale would be long-term capital gains, not income. First $500k of appreciation is exempt for a married couple if they lived there 2 of the last 5 years. Engineer Lenk fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 15:40
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Engineer Lenk posted:Home sale would be long-term capital gains, not income. First $500k of appreciation is exempt for a married couple if they lived there 2 of the last 5 years. Thanks for that correction. I completely forgot about the lower rate for capital gains.
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Sep 11, 2013 16:23
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The other interesting thing is that real estate losses on your primary income are not deductible unless you treat the property as commercial / rental, and even then you cannot deduct more than somewhere around I think $100k (basis adjusted) unless you count as a real estate professional. So basically every other tax treatment of properties encourages property prices to go up monotonically thus artificially creating a price floor. 1031 exchange helps cement this part in as well, although most assets that are applicable under 1031 have not appreciated anywhere like housing has (do we pay 20 times as much for beef as we did in 1980?) If I lost a crap-ton of money in stock, I can carry over the losses for years to come offsetting my gains. If I was in Detroit in 1990 and left recently losing everything, I couldn't get a deduction for anything - I may even have a tax bill due to how 1031 exchanges can recapture the depreciation while I lived there! This is a fundamental reason why you do not treat your primary house as an "investment" - it is not characterized as an investment by the US IRS, plain and simple. While there are some upsides financially, the downsides are not protected like you would be if you put money in the stock market or even your 401k. Real estate: be rich or gently caress off
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Sep 11, 2013 17:25
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We successfully got through first round of negotiations on our first place, good price in a great location and a really decent looking first house. We applied for the loan yesterday and they required upfront cost of appraisal upon submitting the application. Then went immediately to home inspection and BAM, structural concerns. Looks like cracking on the bricks on the front of the house, looks like one part might be moving outward, interior doors and an exterior door aren't square and have trouble closing. The inspector was optimistic and said he's seen tons of these turn out to be nothing, just initial settling and nothing more but I'm pretty nervous about it now. We are having a structural engineer take a look, but even if they say it's good to go I'm not going to shake the feeling that in 10 years we'll be in the seller's position of trying to unload a possibly unsound house. I'm heavily considering canceling the contract (I need to double check but I"m sure we had all the usual contingencies) as most advice pertaining to foundation stuff I've seen is RUN AWAY. Anyone else have other experiences?
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Sep 12, 2013 17:46
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Foundation and structure issues are the scariest, to me. I'm far more willing to accept a crappy kitchen that I'll have to upgrade or some problems with a roof I'll have to replace, than the prospect of the house being literally unsafe for habitation until I spend tens of thousands of dollars. Get that structural inspection and if there are any significant problems, I would say walk away. You'll be out the cost of your inspections but that's a lot less than being out the unknown/potentially enormous costs of repairing the structure.
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Sep 12, 2013 18:15
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Foundations can be fixed but fixing them right is very expensive. Moving the house on top of a properly constructed foundation is the best solution. There are other ways to fix a failing foundation as long as you know why it failed and are certain this condition won't cause the rest of the foundation to fail in the future.
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Sep 12, 2013 18:36
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We don't really know the extent of it as of now, and like the inspector said it could be nothing to worry about; however I'm not sure if I want to live with that nagging feeling. If the engineer says it needs repair, we are likely not even going to bother asking them to fix it and just walk away if we can. My feeling is that I might not even want to wait for the engineer, being a first time buyer I don't want this hanging over the whole thing.
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Sep 12, 2013 18:56
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Danger posted:We don't really know the extent of it as of now, and like the inspector said it could be nothing to worry about; however I'm not sure if I want to live with that nagging feeling. If the engineer says it needs repair, we are likely not even going to bother asking them to fix it and just walk away if we can. My feeling is that I might not even want to wait for the engineer, being a first time buyer I don't want this hanging over the whole thing. Let the eng do his/her job and see what's up.
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Sep 12, 2013 19:35
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It's clearly doing something, as you can see it bowing a bit along the side and the doors not closing effectively and such; however I know the engineer will say more definitely either way and we still have time for them to take a look. Everything else about the place is great, so of course we had to find foundation stuff to deal with.
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Sep 12, 2013 20:19
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Danger posted:It's clearly doing something, as you can see it bowing a bit along the side and the doors not closing effectively and such; however I know the engineer will say more definitely either way and we still have time for them to take a look. Everything else about the place is great, so of course we had to find foundation stuff to deal with.
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Sep 12, 2013 21:02
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SiGmA_X posted:I almost have to ask why you made an offer on a house you can see bowing out the sides above the foundation, but I'll refrain. I see why you're scared off now. I may be too... Engineer will know for sure. Ya doesn't that always seem to happen with things, you get 95% of what you want and the last tiny bit could blow the whole deal? Life's a bitch! Well, it looks normal and I only noticed it (and the cracks) after the inspector pointed it out. They really aren't blatant. The bowing is really just a door frame of an exterior door, but that plus the cracks could add up. The house looks great besides that, it was built in 1991 and has nice updates, good drainage, great roof, etc. I wouldn't have considered the foundation to be a problem until this stuff was indicated by the inspector, granted that's why he's there in the first place. The inspector said himself that he has no reason to think it'll be anything massive, just that it's enough to have someone else take a look. Maybe we're just being jittery, but we'll see.
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Sep 12, 2013 21:15
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Danger posted:the doors not closing effectively and such;
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Sep 13, 2013 00:14
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Which is why houses that settled a long time ago tend to have already replaced doors so that they still close, despite a wonky frame. If the doors don't close properly now, that suggests the issue is more recent.
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Sep 13, 2013 05:55
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Alright, we've moved forward into the loan process. Negotiated a decent price, the appraisal is ordered - now we play the waiting game. Holy poo poo I might have a house here soon.
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Sep 13, 2013 07:27
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Bavius posted:Holy poo poo I might have a house here soon. It's a surreal feeling, isn't it? I've been in my house for a while now and I still can't believe it's mine.
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Sep 13, 2013 10:50
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Ugh; we close on Monday. Totally a surreal feeling. Cant wait for the plethora of problems a nearly-100-year-old home in the nation's capitol is going to bring.
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Sep 13, 2013 12:58
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Walked posted:Cant wait for the plethora of problems a nearly-100-year-old home in the nation's capitol is going to bring. At least you can be sure a 100 year old home was built solidly, because it hasn't fallen down yet. Modern homes seem to be made of plywood and short-cuts. Just bought a 100 year old home myself.
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Sep 13, 2013 16:40
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Walked posted:Ugh; we close on Monday. Totally a surreal feeling. Just wait until you have to deal with the DCRA permit system for ANY improvement you want to make. Let's also hope you have off street parking. Oh, and they just revamped the visitor pass zoning system, and my visitor permit expires at the end of the month (although I have it in writing that the expiration date has been extended to the end of October, but I wouldn't trust the ticket writers to know that, and good luck fighting a ticket in DC) There is a new process for the visitor passes for zoned residential parking, but no way to apply for it yet and no timetable for receiving the passes. Anything else you want to know about DC? I work for the city government (and have for several years). Seriously it can get a little crazy when you have to deal with the city government.
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Sep 13, 2013 17:17
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alternate.eago posted:Just wait until you have to deal with the DCRA permit system for ANY improvement you want to make. Ha; I'm fairly sure we're in good shape right now. We do have offstreet parking, and only one car of the two of us anyways, and it's not zoned parking for visitors. Shouldnt be a big trouble. (though I'm prepared to eat my words on this) already becoming familiar with the permit BS but there's no way around that one
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Sep 13, 2013 17:32
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Oh I know the permit process VERY well, how often are you at 4th St SW? (although the permit center used to be on N Cap St by Union Station) So your street isn't Zone 1, or 6 or anything? They are going to be changing the zones on a lot of streets in the near future as they are changing the entire visitor pass system. But seriously, it's not a bad city to live in, and if I hadn't just inherited a house outside Ft Meade with my brother, I would probably be looking at places in Annacostia (because on my salary that would be all I can afford). the way around the permit BS was to not buy in DC
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Sep 13, 2013 18:36
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alternate.eago posted:Oh I know the permit process VERY well, how often are you at 4th St SW? (although the permit center used to be on N Cap St by Union Station) Right now the street is entirely free of zone regulation, yes. If it changes, we'll evaluate when it happens. We have a driveway in an alley on the backside, too. I've lived in the area my entire life, and in DC proper for the last two years now; finally ready to commit to a long while here; hence the purchase. (We're in somewhat upper NE for this purchase)
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Sep 13, 2013 18:42
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Leperflesh posted:Which is why houses that settled a long time ago tend to have already replaced doors so that they still close, despite a wonky frame.
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Sep 14, 2013 00:06
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Did the final walkthrough on my new home build today. It went fairly well, mostly paint touch ups and one dent on a panel on the microwave that they have on order, but there was one issue that I'm surprised no one but me had noticed. There is a empty nook/desk area in the kitchen that I'm going to turn into a coffee/beer bar after we move in and the nook is really out of square. Not within a reasonable amount, but off 2 inches over the 74" span. It was easily noticeable looking at the tile floor, I don't know how the flooring guys didn't notice this when they were putting it down. They're going to pull the drywall and square up the framing and fix it for me prior to our close on Wednesday thankfully.
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Sep 14, 2013 04:17
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rockcity posted:Did the final walkthrough on my new home build today. It went fairly well, mostly paint touch ups and one dent on a panel on the microwave that they have on order, but there was one issue that I'm surprised no one but me had noticed. There is a empty nook/desk area in the kitchen that I'm going to turn into a coffee/beer bar after we move in and the nook is really out of square. Not within a reasonable amount, but off 2 inches over the 74" span. It was easily noticeable looking at the tile floor, I don't know how the flooring guys didn't notice this when they were putting it down. They're going to pull the drywall and square up the framing and fix it for me prior to our close on Wednesday thankfully. It is entirely possible the tile guys saw it, said "Not Our fuckin' problem," and moved on.
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Sep 14, 2013 05:12
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I've spent sooo much money at Home Depot in the 4 months since we closed. Soooo much. I'm about to take down some wallpaper and paneling to see if the plaster is hosed, fine, or repairable. All the rest of the plaster walls in the house are in great condition, but it's killing me not knowing for sure.
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Sep 14, 2013 06:08
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therobit posted:It is entirely possible the tile guys saw it, said "Not Our fuckin' problem," and moved on. Yeah, that's sort of what I was thinking.
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Sep 14, 2013 06:18
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therobit posted:It is entirely possible the tile guys saw it, said "Not Our fuckin' problem," and moved on.
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Sep 14, 2013 17:23
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| # ? May 30, 2024 16:46 |
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So, we're interested in buying a house. However, I think we waited about a year too long. Here's the city we're looking at: http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Santa-Rosa-home-value/r_26967/ Regarding Santa Rosa, it's about 50 miles north of San Francisco. It also has a very good Junior College. There's not one HUD house for sale in all of the city, let alone county (Sonoma). Good stuff that was in our comfortable price range (350k) a year ago no longer is. Houses are being sold and flipped in the area of the city we're looking at. Using Zillow, there's a decent amount of pre-foreclosers available at good price ranges, but that's it. Is it pretty safe to assume that something listed as a pre-foreclsore is simply not available? So my question is, should we try to buy now, or do the wise amongst us believe there's going to be a down-swing soonish (within the next year or two)? It seems like we're in another bubble, with +30% increase per year, but this is Northern CA, so who knows... Any advice? Besides reading the OP, I'm completely ignorant regarding the whole situation.
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Sep 14, 2013 20:58
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