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Seems to me you could take out a HELOC and do the repair, then sell the house without wrecking your credit. Guess it depends on where it falls in that $10-20k range. I've rented 3 single family homes over the last 6 years and a question on every app is whether or not you've been foreclosed on or walked away from a property. I think it's an absolute disqualifier. Your mileage may vary -- I'm sure it's not a big deal with apartment complexes.
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Oct 16, 2013 22:03
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Talked to some bank reps. There are a couple of options; walking away is the worst because they get your credit, the house, *and* they sue you for the owed amount. Working on a structured plan to basically give it back (forget the term) we dodge the lawsuit. basically they hose credit and get the house. This is fine with me. The best option is to arrange a short sale that we have the fundage to cover (difficult/impossible) or to FSBO it to somebody who knows what they're doing, and doesn't need a bank to approve their money (cash house flipper types). So, there are options. I'm so spent today, I feel dead, awful, burnt. Such a bad experience.
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Oct 16, 2013 22:14
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Jonny 290 posted:Talked to some bank reps. There are a couple of options; walking away is the worst because they get your credit, the house, *and* they sue you for the owed amount. As a side note, it's aways stricken me as bullshit that some states do allow it, since the possibility of losing money is a risk inherent to investing money (i.e. lending money to homebuyers). Hell, that's why they incentivize you to put down 20% in the first place (and strongly disincentivize you to put down less with PMI and higher interest rates). Just seems like a cake-eater policy if you allow banks to further mitigate the inherent risks of investing. I haven't checked the numbers, but it would be especially frustrating if those states don't have correspondingly discounted interest rates on mortgages as compared to states that don't allow banks to sue for the difference.
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Oct 17, 2013 07:12
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Is selecting the lowest rate/fee combination from bankrate or zillow a 'good' way of selecting a lender or is that a good way to fall some kind of scam? I've never heard of some of the companies with lowest rates and don't really know how best to check that its all legit. Basic question I know...
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Oct 17, 2013 21:08
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GanjamonII posted:Is selecting the lowest rate/fee combination from bankrate or zillow a 'good' way of selecting a lender or is that a good way to fall some kind of scam? I've never heard of some of the companies with lowest rates and don't really know how best to check that its all legit. Rate and APR are two different things. Bank of BFC offers you a mortgage at 4.5% interest rate, with no lender fees or upfront costs. Bank of Lowtax offers you a mortgage at 4.25% interest rate, with a $4,000 in fees up front. Bank of Canyoneer offers you a mortgage at 3.99% interest rate, with $6,000 in fees up front. Which one is the better deal? That will depend on a number of factors, including term of mortgage and value of principal. That's where we look at the APR. Here's a good summary of the difference. https://www.bankofamerica.com/home-loans/mortgage/finding-the-right-loan/apr-vs-interest-rate.go The short of it is that you should be comparing the APR, not the rate. And all the APRs and rates you see advertised are estimates that may or may not apply to you.
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Oct 17, 2013 22:41
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The banks that you've never heard of, with the lowest rates on those sites, depend pretty much entirely on having the lowest rates to earn their business, rather other factors, such as word of mouth. Maintaining a profit while offering a lower price than anyone else means you need to have lower overhead than everyone else. With those two together... don't expect great customer service.
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Oct 17, 2013 23:03
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I've seen my first house in person today after only looking online for the past year (because I didn't have the money until now). This is the best house I've seen online in that whole year and it turns out that it's just as nice in person. To my untrained eye, everything looked fantastic and I really want to put in an offer. My realtor said that basically everything looked brand new. (It appears the house was bought for dirt cheap this summer and fixed up.) I don't remember whether it had a boiler or furnace (and I don't know the difference) but it had a receipt on it from this July. The windows looked brand new, so did the roof. The fridge didn't even have the plastic wrap on the drawers taken off. All of the appliances looked new, including washer and dryer. What kinds of mechanicals should I know about before putting in an offer and potentially getting an inspection? Do I need to know how old they are before I move to an inspection? What kinds of other things do I need to know before I make an offer? I may very well be naive but won't I learn whether it's too good to be true during the inspection? Is there any better way to know?
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Oct 18, 2013 02:38
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Mary loving Poppins posted:I've seen my first house in person today after only looking online for the past year (because I didn't have the money until now). This is the best house I've seen online in that whole year and it turns out that it's just as nice in person. To my untrained eye, everything looked fantastic and I really want to put in an offer. My realtor said that basically everything looked brand new. (It appears the house was bought for dirt cheap this summer and fixed up.) Basically you put in your offer, and get it inspected afterwards (about $400). If your inspector finds something bad, and your real estate agent is worth anything, you will get your earnest money back and walk away down $400 (don't ask new how I know. Still mad about it.) Stuff like water heater, ac unit, etc can cost a bit, but as long as the house favors well against the comps, go ahead and pull the trigger. A few questions here people here about title insurance. ) have you ever used it? 2) My GFE had lenders and owners at 870/950 respectively, the HUD has it at 985/1210. I don't see how the price on something that standard can change... Is that legit? 3)If I don't get it, and it turns out somebody else owns the house or has a lein on it, could I not just sue the seller for misrepresentation of what they were selling me instead? The Big Jesus fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Oct 18, 2013 |
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Oct 18, 2013 14:15
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Here's one: I bought a fixer-upper as my main house in 2009 and put some work into it, and after talking to a realtor I should be in the green for a 50-60k profit when I sell next year. Thing is, I want to take that profit and roll it onto the downpayment for my next house. So I can't really buy my next house and swing right into it; I have to sell first and then buy. What would you do in that situation? Find an apartment with a month to month lease? Hope that a given seller will accept an offer contingent upon my sale? Option C is crash in my parents' guest room for a few weeks, but my wife will probably stab me in the heart if I propose that option. CatsOnTheInternet fucked around with this message at 14:19 on Oct 18, 2013 |
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Oct 18, 2013 14:17
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CatsOnTheInternet posted:Thing is, I want to take that profit and roll it onto the downpayment for my next house. So I can't really buy my next house and swing right into it; I have to sell first and then buy. The two ways around this are doing a contingent sale where your home must sell before you close on the new one, or doing a leaseback of your old home where you sell it and become a renter for a pre-negotiated term before moving out. My parents are doing a 3-month leaseback on their house while waiting for their new one to finish building, but it can be hard to find a buyer that flexible.
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Oct 18, 2013 14:27
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CatsOnTheInternet posted:Here's one: I bought a fixer-upper as my main house in 2009 and put some work into it, and after talking to a realtor I should be in the green for a 50-60k profit when I sell next year. Hole up in an extended stay suites type place for a while. It's our plan. -Sell house while living in AR -Move into extended stay in AR while working out my notice -Move to CO, stay at extended stay until I start a job -Find an apt near wherever I get a job A storage unit for Stuff should be like $50/100 for that month. Extended stays here are about 199-229 a week.
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Oct 18, 2013 15:12
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Mary loving Poppins posted:I've seen my first house in person today after only looking online for the past year (because I didn't have the money until now). This is the best house I've seen online in that whole year and it turns out that it's just as nice in person. To my untrained eye, everything looked fantastic and I really want to put in an offer. My realtor said that basically everything looked brand new. (It appears the house was bought for dirt cheap this summer and fixed up.) Before you offer, ask your realtor to pull up the previous listing and look at it. Hopefully it'll have pictures so you can look at specific repairs done between the last sale and the current listing. Look up the model numbers of the appliances. Are they quality units or are they the cheapest ones from Sears that came in stainless steel? If you know anyone who is a contractor or used to work on houses or is at all handy even, ask them to come to the inspection with you so they can check it out. It is relatively easy to do the finish work like new paint, new laminate floors and new appliances. Many house flippers buy trash heap houses and slap up a coat of paint and cheap flooring and try to cash out, while leaving the rotted subfloors, leaking roof and broken furnace for the next schmuck who owns the place. When you schedule your inspection, I would ask the inspector to be especially nitpicky about looking for concealed issues. If the HVAC system is not brand new, have it inspected. It cost us $74 to have an HVAC inspector come out and he found problems that ended up with our seller replacing the whole furnace at a cost of over $3k to them. Also have a sewer scope done. Ours was $125 and it found a major blockage that cost our seller $2200 to fix (replace sewer line under the driveway). If you have any questions at all, have a specialized inspector check it out. It is very cheap insurance. You can hire a roofing inspector (not a roofing company) to check out the roof. An engineer can examine the structure. Electricians will inspect the electrical. Your general inspector will give you an overview but should say in his report that he is not qualified to do in-depth inspections on HVAC, plumbing, pests, etc. It is not always necessary to have all these separate inspections done, but if anything seems questionable, have it looked at. A coworker just bought a house for north of $375k and found out that water pours into his garage through the block wall when it rains, and here in Oregon, it rains sometimes. He thought the wall looked odd when he viewed it but never followed up on the hunch. Turns out that fresh paint on one wall in the garage was to cover up the staining from the water leaks. His estimate to seal the wall and install a weeping tile system in the yard to divert the water was in the area of $12k (remove pavers, dig down 8', seal wall, install tile and drains).
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Oct 18, 2013 16:57
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Also re: temporary housing, check Craigslist's Temp/Sublet section. You'll often find people there who need someone to take over the last few months of their apartment lease, so you can move in at a more reasonable rate. I have used that to get into and out of two apartments.
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Oct 18, 2013 17:30
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canyoneer posted:Also re: temporary housing, check Craigslist's Temp/Sublet section. You'll often find people there who need someone to take over the last few months of their apartment lease, so you can move in at a more reasonable rate. I have used that to get into and out of two apartments. I'm thinking about springing for that, or one of those extended stay places. (Problem is I live around Boston and it's hard to find one that isn't crazy-expensive.) I might also shoot an email to an apartment agent and see if they can hook me up with some landlords who are okay with month to month leases. The leaseback idea is superb, though; I didn't even know that was an option. It's also entirely feasible because the housing market where I live is pandemonium lately.
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Oct 18, 2013 17:41
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Weinertron posted:The two ways around this are doing a contingent sale where your home must sell before you close on the new one, or doing a leaseback of your old home where you sell it and become a renter for a pre-negotiated term before moving out. My parents are doing a 3-month leaseback on their house while waiting for their new one to finish building, but it can be hard to find a buyer that flexible.
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Oct 18, 2013 17:50
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Economic Sinkhole posted:If you know anyone who is a contractor or used to work on houses or is at all handy even, ask them to come to the inspection with you so they can check it out. It is relatively easy to do the finish work like new paint, new laminate floors and new appliances. Many house flippers buy trash heap houses and slap up a coat of paint and cheap flooring and try to cash out, while leaving the rotted subfloors, leaking roof and broken furnace for the next schmuck who owns the place. Here's the thing about house flipping: increasing the resale value of a home by 90% of the cost of a home improvement project is a very good return. Actually making decent money on a flip (other than just through appreciation) means you've either got to be very savvy about what improvements to make for the best return, or you've got to make the improvements look like they're worth a lot more than they actually are (which means cutting corners like hell and papering over any serious problems).
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Oct 18, 2013 18:35
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Economic Sinkhole posted:A coworker just bought a house for north of $375k and found out that water pours into his garage through the block wall when it rains, and here in Oregon, it rains sometimes. He thought the wall looked odd when he viewed it but never followed up on the hunch. Turns out that fresh paint on one wall in the garage was to cover up the staining from the water leaks. His estimate to seal the wall and install a weeping tile system in the yard to divert the water was in the area of $12k (remove pavers, dig down 8', seal wall, install tile and drains).
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Oct 18, 2013 23:55
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My wife and 2.5 year old son and I just passed our 1 year anniversary in our first home in central/northern Vermont. We have 7.5 acres of mostly wooded property, intersected by 2 small streams that come together right behind our house. We're JUST far enough from "civilization" to make us feel like we're in the middle of nowhere, but close enough to grocery stores and gas stations and such that we could walk or bike if we really had to. We have bear and deer and coyotes come through our property, as well as tons of smaller critters like LOADS of salamanders, frogs, snakes, chipmunks, mice and the occasional moose. We were lucky enough to put 20% down, our mortgage + taxes is a skad less than we were paying in rent, and I'm pretty sure we bought at the absolute low of mortgage rates... Last month, we replaced the roof, this month we finally fixed a rotting wall. We've replaced a rotting area around a leaky toilet, and have figured out that it's about half as expensive to heat our house with firewood than it is with propane (our only other fuel source). It's been a great transition, we feel like we got the right price on a serviceable house and a nice hunk of land - but we STILL have no illusions that we're coming out ahead on this transaction. We love this place. My wife scoped out the area a year before I even thought about owning a home, and even though we're still crazy about this house and land, we could have easily walked away if it wasn't right. Just some perspective to not quite counterbalance all the "do never buy" talk. Buy for the right reasons, and you'll be fine. 
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Oct 19, 2013 01:58
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tiananman posted:My wife and 2.5 year old son and I just passed our 1 year anniversary in our first home in central/northern Vermont. How many copies of Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium do you own?
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Oct 19, 2013 06:36
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Well, it's not a "house", but as of next friday I'll be the owner of my first piece of a "property". Two-bedroom newer condo. Would've liked a house, but prices in the greater Vancouver area are crazy as poo poo. My agent made the process as painless as possible, but his neverending need to change appointment times 6 times for every appointment was certainly trying. That, and today was handing over the 20% down-payment; my bank account is hemorrhaging blood from multiple orifices. Just counting down the days now until I can exhale.
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Oct 19, 2013 13:30
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canyoneer posted:How many copies of Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium do you own? zero
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Oct 20, 2013 16:28
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In the "do never buy a condo" line, we (rent, thankfully) a condo that's had some slowly-growing water stains on the ceiling. We're right under the roof so I assume there's a couple leaks up there. We've told the maintenance guys but they shrugged and offered to paint over them. Apparently, the paint over the water stains could no longer hold a huge chunk of the drywall (I assume? whatever the gently caress you'd put out there) and insulation in the ceiling over our porch, so we woke up this morning with that scattered on our porch and looking alarmingly wet. I assume there's another roof leak up there somewhere since it didn't rain last night but did a couple days ago, but when we called the maintenance line they said they'd get to it when they got to it. Between this and the black mold in the vents that they dismissed as "just dirt" until I observed dirt wasn't usually fuzzy, I'm feeling kind of bad for the guy who owns this place.
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Oct 21, 2013 00:45
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I'm under contract for an amazing home, and I'm extremely excited. My one worry is that there are few comparables in the neighborhood, given the size, and amount of renovations/additions they've done. I worry that the appraisal will come in under their asking. I was going to walk away because I was worried that I'd likely be out $650 on an inspection and appraisal, as they only moved down about 2% from their original asking, but they put in the contract that the seller would refund the appraisal cost if the deal falls through due to a difference that they would be unwilling to match. Part of what convinced me to move ahead was that my agent mentioned that appraisals for VA loans stick to the house for 6 months. This city is heavily military, so if they wouldn't be willing to drop to the appraisal estimate, that would severely limit their potential buyers and more or less force them to match the appraisal. Doing a bit more research though, I'm not entirely understanding how this works. If I were to back out, and another buyer comes along using a VA loan, would the VA/lender get another appraisal done, or would they be forced to use the appraisal I had done until 6 months had passed? scavok fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 02:00
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I have a house-buying quandary: We would like to buy a house in the 270,000 range. We have 230,000 to put down or so, which leaves a shortfall of around 40,000 we'd need to finance. Our agent says we're going to have issues getting a mortgage for such a small amount, plus we already have a mortgage for our current house and we might have trouble getting another one. Is this true? Should we talk to a broker? Any better options? Are we stupid for doing this?
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Oct 21, 2013 02:40
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newts posted:I have a house-buying quandary: Bullshit. I got a mortgage for $35k. I don't know about the multiple mortgage thing, though.
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Oct 21, 2013 03:02
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newts posted:I have a house-buying quandary: I don't know if you are stupid for doing it without the context of how you came to have so much cash, what other assets you have, what you intend to do with the other house, how much you owe on your other house, what your income picture is, etc. As far as getting a loan that small some of the mortgage guys here may be able to tell you whether fannie and freddie have minimum loan amounts (assuming you are American). I would call you bank and at least one broker and ask about minimum loan amounts, and if they can't help try some credit unions and small community banks and ask if they do portfolio loans for smaller amounts. The other option might be to take a second on your other house if you have equity, or do a cash out refi if you don't have a rate lower than what market rates are now.
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Oct 21, 2013 03:06
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newts posted:I have a house-buying quandary: As long as you can qualify with the payments on both homes simultaneously having an existing mortgage isn't usually an issue, particularly when it makes sense that the new house would be an upgrade (bigger, newer, closer to employer, etc). FHA and USDA have some rules regarding having an existing loan/home that may prevent you from getting a 2nd FHA/USDA loan, but since you're putting ~85% down I'm guessing you're not trying to get a government loan. For conventional loans if you're retaining an existing primary residence then you'll need to have either 2 or 6 months worth of PITI reserves for both properties documented (depending on equity position in that property) on top of your down payment. The small loan amount may cause issues just due to the relatively low amount of money your LO/broker would stand to make on the deal and them deciding it's not worth their time, but that's something where you just need to call around to see what your options are. I don't know of a minimum loan amount set by Fannie or Freddie, any limitation you run into would likely be bank specific.
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Oct 21, 2013 03:26
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Thanks for the replies! Let's see... I'm not the main financial person, so I'll try to do my best. The money is from an inheritance plus savings. We have an additional 30,000 in savings that we won't touch, and money in retirement, etc - not sure how much. We owe about 70,000 on our current house, with about 25,000 in equity or so. We are planning on selling it. Income is about 80,000 /year. An issue is that we're moving to a small town with not a lot available that fits our needs (and that's slightly more expensive than our current city) so we basically have to jump on something when it comes along. We have also outgrown our current house and need something bigger. We're also considering paying off our current home before taking out a new mortgage, but maybe that makes no sense either... newts fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 03:31
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Is there any reason why you can't just get whatever the minimum sized mortgage is, and then immediately pay it down with however much more you want to pay? Of course you should get a mortgage with no prepayment penalty, but everyone should do that anyway.
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Oct 21, 2013 06:10
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Leperflesh posted:Is there any reason why you can't just get whatever the minimum sized mortgage is, and then immediately pay it down with however much more you want to pay? Of course you should get a mortgage with no prepayment penalty, but everyone should do that anyway. You are paying more on fees than if you only got the right sized mortgage correct?
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Oct 21, 2013 13:44
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Chin Strap posted:You are paying more on fees than if you only got the right sized mortgage correct? Yes - loan origination (usually), discount points, transfer taxes, some county/state fees, and title insurance costs are based on the size of the loan amount. Depending on the bank they may also not recalculate your payment based on the new outstanding balance after making the additional payment (my company didn't as far as I'm aware).
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Oct 21, 2013 19:31
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Chin Strap posted:You are paying more on fees than if you only got the right sized mortgage correct? For fees that are a percentage of the loan size (rather than the purchase price of the home, or a fixed cost), yes. I'm not sure how many of those there are. I imagine given the loan sizes in question, it'd amount potentially to a few hundred dollars?
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Oct 21, 2013 19:31
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newts posted:I have a house-buying quandary: It might be easier if you just pay off the 70k you owe on your current house leaving you with 160k for a down payment. This would result in needing to finance around 110k for a 270k home. This is a pretty standard mortgage size so you shouldn't have any problems finding a bank and you won't have to deal with the hassle of trying to manage 2 mortgages. Just make sure your new mortgage doesn't have a pre-payment penalty so then when you sell your current home you can apply some/all of that to the mortgage on your new place.
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Oct 21, 2013 21:42
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Krailor posted:It might be easier if you just pay off the 70k you owe on your current house leaving you with 160k for a down payment. This would result in needing to finance around 110k for a 270k home. This is a pretty standard mortgage size so you shouldn't have any problems finding a bank and you won't have to deal with the hassle of trying to manage 2 mortgages. We're thinking about this, but our current mortgage has a better rate than any new mortgage we might get. Still might have to do this, though, if no one will give us a new mortgage because of our current one.
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Oct 21, 2013 22:19
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newts posted:We're thinking about this, but our current mortgage has a better rate than any new mortgage we might get. Still might have to do this, though, if no one will give us a new mortgage because of our current one.
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Oct 22, 2013 00:39
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I am 23 and grew up in the "never rent" mindset. I am attracted to the pride of ownership/my money contributing to an asset. I have six months salary banked in case I can't work. If/when I buy within the next year (in the $200-$225g range), it will be a bachelor pad instead of a family-raising home, and I one day want kids. My plan is to knock out some payments, and then when the time to move on comes, move on. How big of a dumbass am I? I also want to live near this city's river valley so I can do me-thing likes hike and run and bike. I think it might be a good idea to bank my downpayment money for now, rent for a year where I think it's cool, and continue to (slowly after I'm moved out, if at all) build more downpayment money; but my "never rent" mindset thinks that's a stupid waste of a year's potential mortgage money.
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Oct 23, 2013 23:26
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reflex posted:my "never rent" mindset thinks that's a stupid waste of a year's potential mortgage money. Read the OP. Owning involves throwing away tons of money just like renting. Renting is not a bad thing. What owning gets you is a very highly leveraged speculative investment, and the ability to make changes to the property. Maybe you could look into renting a house if you want to be in a house?
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Oct 23, 2013 23:32
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reflex posted:I am 23 and grew up in the "never rent" mindset. I am attracted to the pride of ownership/my money contributing to an asset. I have six months salary banked in case I can't work. If/when I buy within the next year (in the $200-$225g range), it will be a bachelor pad instead of a family-raising home, and I one day want kids. My plan is to knock out some payments, and then when the time to move on comes, move on. How big of a dumbass am I? I also want to live near this city's river valley so I can do me-thing likes hike and run and bike. I think it might be a good idea to bank my downpayment money for now, rent for a year where I think it's cool, and continue to (slowly after I'm moved out, if at all) build more downpayment money; but my "never rent" mindset thinks that's a stupid waste of a year's potential mortgage money. I had your mindset when I was 23, but it was in 2008 when the housing market was in the tank and the federal government would literally pay me to buy a house. Then, my concern was valid. Now, its not a big deal. Go ahead and rent for a while; a year of mortgage payments is not a lot of equity. CatsOnTheInternet fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Oct 24, 2013 |
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Oct 24, 2013 00:10
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I'm now in a similar situation(except I'm 30)...I'm moving to a new city, where the house market has recently been booming. I have a 10% downpayment on the house I am looking at, and will be making sufficient money to make double payments if I want to on a monthly basis. That being said, I know that I want to stay in the city, and I am sort of sick of renting. The house I am looking at is very reasonably priced for the area, and quite nice. Has all the amenities we are looking for. Tell me why/how this is a stupid idea, because I think it will be great.
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Oct 24, 2013 14:17
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Weinertron posted:What owning gets you is a very highly leveraged speculative investment, and the ability to make changes to the property. And a lot of responsibility to go with it. Having just bought a house... I am so glad I wasn't responsible for one when I was 23.
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Oct 24, 2013 15:25
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