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lord1234 posted: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. Are you familiar enough with your new city to be absolutely sure that the house is in an area that you will want to live in for the next several years? That's really the biggest risk when buying a house immediatly upon moving to a new city.
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Oct 24, 2013 19:11
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Krailor posted:Are you familiar enough with your new city to be absolutely sure that the house is in an area that you will want to live in for the next several years? Yes. I identified where most employers in my field are moving and this house is relatively centrally located to all of them.
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Oct 24, 2013 19:32
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lord1234 posted:Yes. I identified where most employers in my field are moving and this house is relatively centrally located to all of them. There are more important things in a neighborhood than being centrally located for work. I can think of a lot of areas I wouldn't want to live that would be near employers.
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Oct 24, 2013 19:50
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three posted:There are more important things in a neighborhood than being centrally located for work. I can think of a lot of areas I wouldn't want to live that would be near employers. Also, I am not buying blind. I have actually walked through the house, and gotten feed back on the neighborhood from multiple independent local resources.
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Oct 24, 2013 19:53
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lord1234 posted:Also, I am not buying blind. I have actually walked through the house, and gotten feed back on the neighborhood from multiple independent local resources. Beware. When I moved to San Diego 12 years ago the neighborhoods where I would have bought a home are not the same places I'd want to live today. I was 30 then, too. Why is this money burning such a hole in your pocket? Live there a couple of years and get to know your city. You may really regret it if you don't.
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Oct 24, 2013 20:02
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This city has a lovely rental market, but a great purchase market. Also, we have 2 dogs, that bark. They are...not conducive to apartment living. I also like having garages/work spaces that I can call my own and modify to my needs.
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Oct 24, 2013 20:14
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Why not rent a house? Renting doesn't equal apartment. Where I went to college, renting a house was often cheaper because you weren't paying for stupid apartment amenities that you'll probably never use or only use sparingly, and also the fact that most people don't even bother to look at rental houses because the idea of "renting a house" doesn't even appear on their radar. I rented 2 different houses in college. Both were cheaper than ANY of my friends' apartments. The landlords took care of the yard. We could have pets. We didn't have to share a wall with random assholes. Look into it! One house that I rented had a big 2 car garage, another had a nice big work shed and a HUGE fenced yard and private gravel parking lot big enough for 4 cars.
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Oct 24, 2013 21:25
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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. Seriously, sit down with an excel spreadsheet and calculate rent vs buy for the next 3-5 years. Add in a lawn mower, extra furniture to fill bedrooms, and discretionary fund for broken house things. If you are in a 30 year you will barely scratch the surface through the first 5 years. I bought a $130k bachelor pad condo when I was 23 and broke even after 3 years only because Uncle Sam gave me $8k and my new employer paid closing costs. If you can't say "I'm definitely staying here for the next 7 years" I'd highly recommend waiting until you think you can. Life changes quickly in your mid 20s. resident fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Oct 24, 2013 |
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Oct 24, 2013 21:26
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resident posted:Seriously, sit down with an excel spreadsheet and calculate rent vs buy for the next 3-5 years. Add in a lawn mower, extra furniture to fill bedrooms, and discretionary fund for broken house things. If you are in a 30 year you will barely scratch the surface through the first 5 years. I bought a $130k bachelor pad condo when I was 23 and broke even after 3 years only because Uncle Sam gave me $8k and my new employer paid closing costs. If you can't say "I'm definitely staying here for the next 7 years" I'd highly recommend waiting until you think you can. Life changes quickly in your mid 20s. Make sure you use an amortization table to understand how much of your mortgage payment will actually go to principal. Then make sure you understand that your housing costs is mortgage payment + insurance + taxes, and on top of that you have to pay for maintenance, utilities, furnishing, and any difference in commute costs. Depending on the size of your down payment, your first year of payments that actually go to principal may be insignificant compared to the freedom to move offered by renting.
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Oct 24, 2013 21:33
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reflex posted:a stupid waste of a year's potential mortgage money. I've paid about $18k in mortgage payments my first year of home ownership so far an my principal has gone down $3k. You're not "throwing away" as much money as you think you are, especially in the first 10 years.
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Oct 24, 2013 21:47
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Don't forget all the acquisition and disposition fees when you buy/sell. 3% closing costs on the purchase and 6 to 8% when you go to sell.
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Oct 24, 2013 22:15
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Also don't forget property taxes. Friend of mine just got their first property tax bill and is already doing the "Gosh buying isn't all that much better than renting when you add in all the costs like property taxes and all the repairs and poo poo we've had to buy" bit. 
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Oct 25, 2013 06:02
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A mortgage is more complex than renting, tax-wise, so a side by side comparison at face value doesn't really paint the whole picture. You deduct mortgage interest, prop taxes, PMI if you have it, and insurance. If you have a fair amount of debt in your household, you can pull credit from your equity and deduct that too. Then there's the fact that a mortgage takes a huge chunk of your monthly housing cost and renders it invulnerable to inflation.
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Oct 25, 2013 13:03
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CatsOnTheInternet posted:You deduct mortgage interest, prop taxes, PMI if you have it, and insurance. The local taxes in your area and your tax bracket/other deductions will make a big difference in the attractiveness of owning vs renting. Really, potential buyers should calculate what their tax bill will be with the house before buying. Also, look into the homestead laws in your area. You can cut your property tax bill down a ton in some places, all it usually involves is filling out some paperwork. Here in new orleans, you can take the first $75k off your home's value with a homestead. Got a house worth less than 75? No taxes. :P
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Oct 25, 2013 15:32
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If you think you have anything in your life figured out at 23 that could warrant buying a house for any reason other than "I have a bunch of money and want to buy rental property because I need to diversify my 7 figures plus in assets" you are probably going to get burned buying a place so young in so many ways. I bought a place for $320k at 23 and it's among the biggest regrets in my life. The biggest thing to take into account when you're young is just the basic amount of time you're spending looking after and taking care of your place. Do you want to spend an inordinate amount of your 20s sitting at Home Depot? Do you think that people that worked really freakin' hard in their 20s and made themselves billionaires by 30 bought houses (hint: almost none have)? After I bought my place, I took count of the hours spent on dealing with the place (and it's a stupid condo) to add further insult to the stupidities of buying at the top of a boom. Even if my place held its value I would have regretted buying it just for the amount of time wasted that didn't actually get me closer to any goal that mattered to me in life. The opportunity costs of owning a house before your life is ready is no different than having children or getting married before your life situation is accommodating to it. Do NOT listen to people's advice on real estate that have only gone through boom years unless they're actually professional real estate magnates pretty much (read: almost everyone over the age of 40). Back when most of these people bought their places, you could in relative terms to our incomes today, get houses for about $175k on average in major cities. That's pretty much impossible now except for foreclosures and short sales, and even then they're nowhere near as affordable as in the early 80s and up to the mid 90s. I consider buying houses to be an optional life choice almost equivalent in impact as having children. Yes, most people don't even think about whether they want children - the know it. But both houses and children are stupidly expensive today when wages are on an accelerated trend downward and costs of living anywhere that's got access to good jobs is going up even faster. But always be careful with advice from those that didn't even think much about the decisions to buy a house and have children "just because" more or less because this isn't 30 years ago.
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Oct 25, 2013 16:14
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FCKGW posted:I've paid about $18k in mortgage payments my first year of home ownership so far an my principal has gone down $3k. Listen to this man right here. Unless you are looking at renting someplace that 1600 a month, you would save money renting.
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Oct 25, 2013 18:22
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FCKGW posted:I've paid about $18k in mortgage payments my first year of home ownership so far an my principal has gone down $3k. Quoting for emphasis. I love everything about my condo but financially it was a terrible decision. I did zero down with an 80/20 split 2 years before the crash, so I'm 7 years in. $86k in payments, $7k of which went to principal. Zero equity due to the crash. I consider myself lucky to not be underwater. I will never buy again without a minimum of 20% down.
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Oct 30, 2013 21:41
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sbaldrick posted:Listen to this man right here. Unless you are looking at renting someplace that 1600 a month, you would save money renting. Even if you were renting a place for $1600 a month you'd still save money. Since the landlord is generally responsible for appliances, heating and cooling equipment, plumbing, roof, property taxes, and sometimes lawn care and part of the utilities, I'd say you'd be better off renting. Just ask anybody who has ever bought a house how much (non-mortgage payment) money they spent on their house their first couple of years in. Renting is nice because your monthly rent is the maximum amount of money you'll pay for housing per month. A mortgage payment is the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM you will pay each month and even then, it's unrealistic to assume that you'll ONLY pay that much. You will always pay more for housing each month than just your monthly mortgage payment because of taxes, maintenance, HOA fees, etc. All of that is included in the price when you rent. If you think of it that way, renting often makes sense, sometimes even over long time periods.
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Oct 30, 2013 22:28
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sbaldrick posted:Listen to this man right here. Unless you are looking at renting someplace that 1600 a month, you would save money renting. Sadly, in the DC area, this is the average cost of renting. Buying a home in this area is pretty much out of the question for me unless I move way outside the Beltway.
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Nov 4, 2013 20:09
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Delorence Fickle posted:Sadly, in the DC area, this is the average cost of renting. It doesn't get much better outside the beltway either. I pay that for a small rental two counties out too.
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Nov 4, 2013 20:28
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Yeah, even out to South Riding and Loudoun County I see signs for "new, affordable homes starting from $500k." And from what I can tell by casual conversations I overhear, almost everyone over 40 with children that works inside the Beltway doesn't actually live there and commute in from that far. This leads to the average commute time in the DC area creeping above 1 hour. In the little area where I am (Vienna, Oakton), the median house price sold was for $800k - over 40% were cash-only transactions. That's still like 8 miles outside the beltway, and prices get even crazier once you cross over. So basically in the DC area, unless you're a 1%er or babyboomer with mid-7 figures in assets, you're not buying a house probably. And unlike California, Virginia is a recourse state, so if prices crash, people are on the hook for the difference.
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Nov 4, 2013 23:07
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I agree that DC area is crazy. That said, inside the beltway is definitely not limited to the rare social elite. You do need to be smart about money and willing to compromise on things within reason, but its not impossible. My fiancé and I bought a 3br in DC near a metro in a low crime neighborhood without having to compromise too hard. Our biggest challenge will be the schools eventually, but she's a DCPS teacher so I'm confident we can navigate those waters.
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Nov 5, 2013 05:16
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Anyone have experience building a house and doing all the fancy wiring? Other than running cat6 everywhere, what should I be thinking about doing?
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Nov 5, 2013 06:36
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crm posted:Anyone have experience building a house and doing all the fancy wiring? Other than running cat6 everywhere, what should I be thinking about doing? I don't know much about additional home automation stuff, but run more cat6 than you think you'll need and prewire for as much as you can think of. I'd carefully plan receptacles and put in a ton.
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Nov 5, 2013 07:18
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crm posted:Anyone have experience building a house and doing all the fancy wiring? Other than running cat6 everywhere, what should I be thinking about doing? I work with networks for a living and deal with customer wiring issues more than I really care to. I just finished having my house wired for data, and then I went in afterward with speaker cabling for my home theater receiver.
CrazyLittle fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 07:27
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necrobobsledder posted:Yeah, even out to South Riding and Loudoun County I see signs for "new, affordable homes starting from $500k." And from what I can tell by casual conversations I overhear, almost everyone over 40 with children that works inside the Beltway doesn't actually live there and commute in from that far. This leads to the average commute time in the DC area creeping above 1 hour. In the little area where I am (Vienna, Oakton), the median house price sold was for $800k - over 40% were cash-only transactions. That's still like 8 miles outside the beltway, and prices get even crazier once you cross over. My husband and I rent in Arlington right now and used to live in Oakton, and could never afford a house in the near future. Our working-couple friends that make over $200k in HHI bought a tiny house within our neighborhood for $550k and have been bleeding money. Anything that is comparable to what we would like is upwards of $1 million because my husband doesn't want a townhouse. We are looking down in Fredericksburg (Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties) for housing and planning to take the VRE up to DC for work everyday. I have had a 2.5 hour commute before going from Arlington to Baltimore, and 1.5 hours going from Arlington to North Bethesda all using public transportation, so having 1-1.5 hours on the VRE is nothing new to me. My current commute isn't that bad though, since it is about 30-40 minutes to downtown DC from Arlington, again using public transportation. I would never drive if I lived out in Loudoun/Stafford/Spotsylvania counties, as the amount of money that we would have to spend on gas and parking is way more than what we would have to pay after our monthly public transit subsidy. If we could afford to live closer in, I would love to, but I just cannot justify the amount of money needed to live within walking distance of a metro stop.
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Nov 5, 2013 16:06
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necrobobsledder posted:So basically in the DC area, unless you're a 1%er or babyboomer with mid-7 figures in assets, you're not buying a house probably. And unlike California, Virginia is a recourse state, so if prices crash, people are on the hook for the difference. You have to be willing to make compromises. I own a garage townhouse in Montgomery Village that I bought for $220k in 2004. It was built in '83 but the previous owners took good care of it. Our combined household income was less than $100k at the time, and it was never a struggle to pay the mortgage + do all the fun things we wanted to do.
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Nov 6, 2013 01:43
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CrazyLittle posted:Trying to pull 16AWG speaker wire, 2x cat5 and a RF coaxial subwoofer wire without a conduit was a pain in the rear end.
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Nov 6, 2013 01:57
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I'll admit I've used cat5 for speaker wire before but I can't recommend it for longer pulls and especially not within walls. You can't guarantee that all your conductors will carry the load equally, and if one strand takes the majority while the other wires resist, you'll end up with melted wire in the walls. So use cat5 for all your data/telecom/twisted pair needs, but don't use it for low-volt power cords or for speaker wire... It's not worth the risk to save a few bucks compared to the cost of the house. Cat5/cat6 solid copper wire is only 24AWG. Most low volt power systems (alarms etc) use at least 18 gauge. Speaker cables > 25ft usually call for 16 gauge or bigger - that's a pretty huge difference. Coaxial and RF cables are shielded too. CrazyLittle fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 07:35
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When making an offer on a house, I've always read that you need to find comparables to come up with your offer. In the area I'm looking, exact or close comparables are somewhat hard to come by. So if a similar nearby sale has less square feet, I've been bumping my offer up from there or vice versa. My buyer's agent seems to ignore any mention of comparables and almost seems to think that the list price must be equivalent to the value and that we should base my offer off of that. How do I deal with that? In one breath she'll call it a seller's market, but in the next she'll acknowledge that the house has been sitting for 60+ days at the same list price. I have to keep on repeating to her that if the list price were reasonable, it would've sold already. And that if she thinks the seller's list price is reasonable, show me comparables to support that. Is it time to find a new buyer's agent?
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Nov 6, 2013 15:41
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Mary loving Poppins posted:When making an offer on a house, I've always read that you need to find comparables to come up with your offer. In the area I'm looking, exact or close comparables are somewhat hard to come by. So if a similar nearby sale has less square feet, I've been bumping my offer up from there or vice versa. My buyer's agent seems to ignore any mention of comparables and almost seems to think that the list price must be equivalent to the value and that we should base my offer off of that. How do I deal with that? In one breath she'll call it a seller's market, but in the next she'll acknowledge that the house has been sitting for 60+ days at the same list price. I have to keep on repeating to her that if the list price were reasonable, it would've sold already. And that if she thinks the seller's list price is reasonable, show me comparables to support that. Is it time to find a new buyer's agent? Sounds like your agent sucks, and isn't willing to do any leg work to help you out. Get a new one
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Nov 6, 2013 15:55
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It really depends on the mood of the market you're shopping in, but like you said, if they can't help you find a reasonable price on a listing that's sat for 60 days, it's time to find a new agent.
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Nov 6, 2013 19:59
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LloydDobler posted:Quoting for emphasis. I love everything about my condo but financially it was a terrible decision. I did zero down with an 80/20 split 2 years before the crash, so I'm 7 years in. This is basically me, except I have paid a couple lump sums so I miiiight have 15K in equity. I basically would have enough to cover closing costs and maybe moving costs should I move. Do never buy.
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Nov 6, 2013 21:04
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Mary loving Poppins posted:When making an offer on a house, I've always read that you need to find comparables to come up with your offer. In the area I'm looking, exact or close comparables are somewhat hard to come by. So if a similar nearby sale has less square feet, I've been bumping my offer up from there or vice versa. My buyer's agent seems to ignore any mention of comparables and almost seems to think that the list price must be equivalent to the value and that we should base my offer off of that. How do I deal with that? In one breath she'll call it a seller's market, but in the next she'll acknowledge that the house has been sitting for 60+ days at the same list price. I have to keep on repeating to her that if the list price were reasonable, it would've sold already. And that if she thinks the seller's list price is reasonable, show me comparables to support that. Is it time to find a new buyer's agent?
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Nov 6, 2013 22:00
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The financial incentive for agents is to make a quick sale and get to the next one. They don't really care if the sale is 10% higher, they want to get their money and get paid for working with you in as short a time and with as little effort as possible. So buyers agents will generally push you to overpay on houses. "Oh, it's a sellers market!" "We dont' want to insult the seller", etc. Sellers agents pull the opposite move. "Price your house to sell!" "It will never sell at your price, list lower!" "Take the offer, don't haggle!" Etc, etc. As a buyer, think of the sellers agent as being on your side. They will often tell you personal info about their clients that is quite useful in extorting a lower price. Like if the seller has already bought a new house somewhere else or has only limited time to sell. Don't tell your buyers agent ANYTHING about your own situation, how bad you want a house, what your spending limit is, etc. Keep your poker face on all the time. Think of them as the seller's buddy, because that is how they function.
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Nov 7, 2013 17:35
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Uhh. So that's exactly what happens if you have a bad agent. A better idea than keeping information as to what you're looking for from your agent is to get a better agent. Get referrals, find people who had good experiences, ask coworkers, etc.
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Nov 7, 2013 17:48
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indeed. Not all agents are scumbags.
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Nov 8, 2013 00:21
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adorai posted:indeed. Not all agents are scumbags. Only the most successful ones. Real estate, like most sales positions, rewards sociopaths. The best will gently caress you over while making you think you got a great deal.
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Nov 8, 2013 04:39
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baquerd posted:Only the most successful ones. Real estate, like most sales positions, rewards sociopaths. The best will gently caress you over while making you think you got a great deal. This is horribly untrue especially for realtors. Great salesmen rely on repeat business. And in real estate, if you get a lovely deal, you'll likely figure it out eventually and won't recommend the scumball agent. Realtors live and die on referrals.
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Nov 8, 2013 17:05
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If I understand this right, in a short sale the lender will accept the loss and not hold the buyer responsible for the gap in owed vs sale price right? If that is the case is there any incentive for the seller in a short sale to turn down an offer without seeing if the bank will approve it? We're looking at buying a short sale and we've offered what we think is a fair offer based on comps in the area our agent put together, but its under the current list price by 11.6%. The house has been on the market for 3 months and had two price reductions, the last a month ago. The selling agent said he expected the owner will probably counter, but I'm not sure I understand why. Isn't it the bank that would do their own appraisal and base their decision on that? The seller owes a shitton more than the property is even listed at the moment for, so I'm not sure why he would want to counter?
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Nov 8, 2013 18:58
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