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Elephanthead posted:I assume Sabbath mode plays war pigs when your oven timer goes off. I had to look this up because I had never heard of it before and your description was so compelling. Wikipedia has an article on it, and unfortunately it doesn't involve War Pigs.
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Nov 18, 2013 15:53
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krysmopompas posted:It would certainly be appreciated if someone knows enough to start a megathread of sorts. Yeah, I would love to learn about buying furniture also. I've heard that furniture has margins upwards of 80-90%, and that you're a total rube if you pay list price, and quality can vary wildly between price points.
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Nov 18, 2013 17:04
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skipdogg posted:I would stay out of the big box retail stores for appliances. There's no need to spend 1500+ on a washer dryer set or 2700 dollars on a new fridge. Thanks for all the help, I have a better idea of what to look for and where now. The only thing I worry about with the discount stores is the warranty. I don't really want to have to learn washer repair. Will I be ok with just the manufacturers' warranties? I usually think of big box store warranties as scams, but in the case of appliances I could see making a case for them. I may also look at Costco - I assume their appliance prices are better than other big box stores, right?
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Nov 18, 2013 17:34
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canyoneer posted:Yeah, I would love to learn about buying furniture also. I've heard that furniture has margins upwards of 80-90%, and that you're a total rube if you pay list price, and quality can vary wildly between price points. Seconding this. I'm closing on a house next week, and dropping $1000 on a stupid couch bothers me more than anything with my mortgage. I do plan on actually going out on black friday to punch old ladies in the face in order to steal good furniture deals. Might end up being lucky to close right before Thanksgiving. scavok fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Nov 18, 2013 |
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Nov 18, 2013 17:56
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skipdogg posted:Yes, mortgage brokers charge for their services in the US. It's a terrible business since the commissions can be very large and almost no education is needed to be a broker. Some people, and I suspect you, refer to the buyer's agent as a "broker." This should not be confused with the type of broker who works with a borrower to select a loan offer from one of many banks. In some states this can (and often is) the same person playing both roles, but that's not the case everywhere. A buyer's agent is paid on commission, almost always by the seller of the home. A mortgage broker is paid by an origination fee by the lender, not the borrower. In both cases this is obviously a conflict of interest, but it's important to understand that the buyer usually isn't paying the agent directly in either case.
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Nov 18, 2013 18:04
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Rotten Red Rod posted:Thanks for all the help, I have a better idea of what to look for and where now. The only thing I worry about with the discount stores is the warranty. I don't really want to have to learn washer repair. Will I be ok with just the manufacturers' warranties? I usually think of big box store warranties as scams, but in the case of appliances I could see making a case for them. Right now is the best time to buy actually. Home Depot started their Black Friday sals on appliances early and has put a shitload of appliances on sale and Lowes/Best Buy/Sears have all matched. Home Depot's deals are good until mid-December I think. http://www.homedepot.com/c/Appliance_Savings?cm_sp=Homepage-_-11_15-_-Hero-_-Shop_Appliance_Savings I was in the market for a washer/dryer and even places like Sear Outlet had used items for the same price as new. If you can get a 10% Lowes movers coupon on eBay you can stack that as well.
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Nov 18, 2013 18:23
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Rotten Red Rod posted:I may also look at Costco - I assume their appliance prices are better than other big box stores, right?
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Nov 18, 2013 18:50
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Go to a big furniture store to get an idea of the difference between new high quality stuff and new cheap stuff, then go to consignment stores and get high quality stuff for about half the price. Also look around your area for swap meets. I've found an unbelievable amount of artwork for less than the cost of the frame at my local swap meets. As long as you're patient and don't need to buy everything today, you can find everything you need eventually. Really the biggest secret I can pass on is to never buy anything unless you've seen it before. Every purchase I've regretted came from walking into a store and buying something without doing any comparisons.
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Nov 18, 2013 18:56
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FCKGW posted:Right now is the best time to buy actually. Home Depot started their Black Friday sals on appliances early and has put a shitload of appliances on sale and Lowes/Best Buy/Sears have all matched. Home Depot's deals are good until mid-December I think. Unfortunately I may miss the black Friday sales, I won't be buying these until early Jan. :/
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Nov 18, 2013 19:38
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Buying furniture is retarded. There's unfortunately not much information out there. There's a good chance this list is imperfect; maybe someone else can help out and point mistakes I've made or anything I may have missed. Helpful furniture buying tips
E: typos Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Nov 18, 2013 |
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Nov 18, 2013 19:51
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skipdogg posted:Look around your area for appliance discount stores or scratch n' dent places. I've gotten a dryer and fridge from local businesses that sell mostly to contractors, and they're more than willing to knock off hundreds of dollars if you're willing to take a dryer with dent in one side. Considering you never really look at the side of your dryer it's a no brainier.
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Nov 18, 2013 19:58
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Knyteguy posted:[*]The weight of the furniture often means something (heavier is generally made out of better wood). The exception here is particle board, which weighs a loving ton, and is also horrible. You see this most often with flatpack you-assemble-it stuff. Which isn't necessarily wrong. It's OK to buy a $75 desk at Ikea if what you need is a cheap desk that will last for a few years. The big problems with this stuff is that it shatters and crumbles when you try to move house. But if you have $75 for a desk, you can probably get a much nicer one made of real materials on Craigslist or at a swap meet or flea market or garage sale, if you're willing to put in a couple hours of your time.
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Nov 18, 2013 20:07
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Leperflesh posted:The exception here is particle board, which weighs a loving ton, and is also horrible. You see this most often with flatpack you-assemble-it stuff. e: Also, La-Z-Boy is complete crap (based on everything I've read). Mostly at myfurnitureforum.com, admittedly. gvibes fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Nov 18, 2013 |
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Nov 18, 2013 20:10
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Knyteguy posted:Buying furniture is retarded. I've found 2 things true about buying new furniture. 1) Dollar for dollar, you can't beat Big Lots. If they have a couch, sectional, or armchair that fits your room it will be hundreds of dollars cheaper than in another store. You can also get great discounts of 10 or 20% off if you time it right. My sectional has been around for 3 years and still looks brand new, and I only paid $600 for it. 2) If you want something a little nicer, Value City Furniture is worth a look. We bought our bedroom set there and the furniture is very well made. Avoid Ashley furniture like the plague. They charged steep prices for shoddy furniture. If you have the money, Ethan Allen is definitely the place to go. But be prepared to spend a lot.
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Nov 18, 2013 20:15
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A quick question about buying a house (an underwriter opinion here would be very valuable): Our situation 1) I've been employed at my new job for about 7 months, my wife has been employed for about 7 years. I'm pretty much the sole breadwinner however, making about 75% of the income. 2) Before my new job, I was pretty much self employed as a contractor. I also ran a small business (unlicensed, but earnings were reported on my tax return). I was self employed for roughly 2 years with a few months of normal jobs here and there on top of that. My wife made about 66% of the income. Because of this drastic change in income, and the relative instability of my income as a contractor, how would this be viewed when trying to get a loan? The reason for this instability is I was changing fields from basically a general laborer at warehouses (this industry tanked in my area), to a computer programmer. The years running my business (which I still run now even) as my sole income was in my current tech industry, I just couldn't command much of a premium. Our down payment goal is 20% with an FHA loan; we're paying $1,100 in rent right now which is higher than a mortgage would be in the price range we like, so we know it's time to start looking. Plus my wife and I both play instruments, so not having to worry too much about the neighbors would be liberating. Would it be financially dumb to just to come up with the 3.5% and try to secure an FHA instead, considering our high rent? My sister lives with us now, but she won't be in another few months; at this point our rent goes up to $1,500 (we needed the room with her and her 2 kids with us, but now when she leaves). It will go up even higher if we don't commit to another 1-year lease, and even higher if we go month-to-month. Also here's some cool houses we're kind of looking at (just for fun, there's pretty much 0 chance they'll be available when we buy 12-15 months from now.) 145k - 289k Thanks in advance. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Nov 18, 2013 |
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Nov 18, 2013 20:30
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gvibes posted:Right. Or it means plywood instead of hardwood. Their couches have always seemed really solidly built, but I struck that point out just in case.
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Nov 18, 2013 20:34
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Leperflesh posted:Some people, and I suspect you, refer to the buyer's agent as a "broker." This should not be confused with the type of broker who works with a borrower to select a loan offer from one of many banks. In some states this can (and often is) the same person playing both roles, but that's not the case everywhere. I'm talking about the wholesale mortgage broker business. Mortgage brokers can make money on the the 'front' of the deal, i.e. origination points and fees, or on the 'back end' of the deal, in the form of a rebate from the wholesale lending institution the broker places the loan with. Like I mentioned before, wholesale buy rates at that guys interest rate right now are paying between 1 and 1.5% rebate on the back end of the deal, and he's paying a point up front, total gross compensation on that mortgage is around 2.5%, which is around 7,000 dollars on a 280K note. In my experience it's a 50/50 split on the profit of that loan between the broker and his firm, so the guy who closes that loan might walk away with 2K in his pocket all said and done. If he didn't want to pay the 1 point origination fee, a 4.5% conventional loan is paying around 3% rebate on the back end which would cover the brokers fees and provide him a tidy profit while reducing his out of pocket upfront expenses. 2800 dollars now vs. .25% interest over the life of the loan is the decision that has to be made.
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Nov 18, 2013 20:48
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Rotten Red Rod posted:Kind of a tangential question about appliances - I can't think of anyplace else to ask, though. I bought my parents a brand new washer and dryer, and the washer cleans just as well as any other we've ever used. Uses far less water and power than the old ones did too, so it's a win win.
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Nov 18, 2013 21:16
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Knyteguy posted:Would it be financially dumb to just to come up with the 3.5% and try to secure an FHA instead, considering our high rent? My sister lives with us now, but she won't be in another few months; at this point our rent goes up to $1,500 (we needed the room with her and her 2 kids with us, but now when she leaves). It will go up even higher if we don't commit to another 1-year lease, and even higher if we go month-to-month. Buying a house with almost nothing down because you're worried about a rent increase is a great recipe for financial disaster (especially combined with the fairly new job/income).
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Nov 18, 2013 21:28
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Zhentar posted:Buying a house with almost nothing down because you're worried about a rent increase is a great recipe for financial disaster (especially combined with the fairly new job/income). Seriously. My house payment is only $770 right now but when the roof/carpet/anything needs replaced it comes out of my pocket. Do you have 10% of the house value ready to go when poo poo starts breaking? Because I can warn you, poo poo will break. And it never breaks at a convenient time.
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Nov 18, 2013 21:43
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Zhentar posted:Buying a house with almost nothing down because you're worried about a rent increase is a great recipe for financial disaster (especially combined with the fairly new job/income). Thanks. Our life focus right now is pretty much financial stability. We can afford the higher rent; that rent vs buy calculator seemed to suggest buying a really reasonable house now (the $141k one) would save us money as quickly as 1 year from now. Obviously we're stuck in our lease so it doesn't matter yet anyway. I'm thinking that in 12-15 months we should be able to get our ducks in a row to get a nice place with 20% if we're adamant about paying our debt down and saving. We're slowly knocking all of of our installment debts down while paying for absolutely anything we buy in cash (with a 1% cash back Paypal card). We're hoping to pay off one of the vehicles this tax season. I seriously hope we never have to finance a car again.
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Nov 18, 2013 21:43
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Knyteguy posted:
FHA rules have changed several times in the last few years. Currently, if you get an FHA loan with attached mortgage insurance premiums (roughly analgous to PMI for a non-FHA loan), the MIP is for the life of the loan. It used to be that you could get rid of it once you hit 22% loan-to-value (and paid a minimum of 5 years) but now it's there forever. Of course you can get rid of it by refinancing into a conventional non-FHA loan. But planning to re-fi means accepting whatever interest rates might be when you refinance. Because of the above, I do not recommend an FHA loan if you can afford to put 20% down. Note that Congress made this change specifically to reduce the amount of loans the FHA has been backing, because they're concerned about the amount of risk the FHA has exposed itself to. Knyteguy posted:we're paying $1,100 in rent right now which is higher than a mortgage would be in the price range we like, so we know it's time to start looking. Do all your math. Include not only your mortgage payment (principle + interest), but also mortgage insurance (if you put less than 20% down), homeowner's insurance, taxes, maintenance costs, and any other increased costs related to your moving (expanding your living space? add in furniture. Utilities paid for at your rented place? Add utilities costs for the new home, and don't forget a larger place costs more to cool and/or heat. Longer commute? Different cost of living? Etc.) Also, the main thing that should push you to buy a house should be your desire to live the lifestyle of home ownership. Financially it is rarely a benefit to move from renting to owning, once you include all the above costs, plus the risk associated with placing a significant portion of your life savings/earnings into a single illiquid extremely-undiversified asset. To put it another way: buying a home isn't so much an "investment" as it is a decision about quality of life and lifestyle. Bear in mind that if what you really want is to live in a house instead of an apartment, there are houses for rent.
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Nov 18, 2013 21:50
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Nocheez posted:Seriously. My house payment is only $770 right now but when the roof/carpet/anything needs replaced it comes out of my pocket. Do you have 10% of the house value ready to go when poo poo starts breaking? Because I can warn you, poo poo will break. And it never breaks at a convenient time. What cost you 10% of your house's value to fix?
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Nov 18, 2013 23:43
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New roof.
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Nov 18, 2013 23:53
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Economic Sinkhole posted:What cost you 10% of your house's value to fix?
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Nov 19, 2013 00:55
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slap me silly posted:New roof. Must be a hell of a roof. Estimates on a new roof for my place are 6-12k, or 2%-4.5% of our house's value. I don't mean to say that a repair fund isn't a good idea, but 10% seems pretty high to me. ETA: SiGmA_X posted:Roof, sewer, random plumbing breaking and requiring wall replacements... poo poo happens, house repair funds are required. Imo it means one should have about 30% in hand when they buy a house. Which for me means about 70-90k which means renting for a while. Roofing costs must be drastically different around the country if a new one costs you that much. We had our sanitary sewer line repaired under the driveway (dig up concrete, replace a pipe, repour section of concrete) and it cost about $2k. Insurance would cover a burst pipe and resulting damage (minus the deductible). Last edit: Not trying to argue here, and if you want to save 10-30% for repairs, that's great. But I think those numbers represent the high and extreme ends of what a given repair could cost a person, given a $250k house value. Economic Sinkhole fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Nov 19, 2013 |
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Nov 19, 2013 01:05
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That's true, 10% is probably the high end of roofs. Though prices vary - no way will anyone will reroof my $250k house for $6k, and the only reason my neighbor was able to get her sewer line replaced for $2k was because the guy who did it thought he was gonna get her to gently caress him. And I personally spent $2k on urgent repairs in the first month after close. Mostly it's that someone going in with the idea "I'll have $5k in the bank after closing, I'll be fine" may be taking a lot more risk than they realize.
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Nov 19, 2013 01:33
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Roof, major mechanicals, driveway, septic, well. They're probably not all going to break at once, but once your house is more than 20 years old everything is a financial time bomb. Also all the little luxuries are more poo poo to break. Whirlpool tub, central air, heated tile, pool, sprinkler system, alarm, water treatment, etc. Also, moving from apartment/condo to house, consider what a lawn mower, snow blower, leaf blower, various yard tools like wheelbarrow, hedge trimmers etc. cost. If you like new stuff that will last you're looking at like $5k straight out of the gate. Or live somewhere without snow for a discount.
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Nov 19, 2013 14:03
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uwaeve posted:Also, moving from apartment/condo to house, consider what a lawn mower, snow blower, leaf blower, various yard tools like wheelbarrow, hedge trimmers etc. cost. If you like new stuff that will last you're looking at like $5k straight out of the gate. Hrggh this is all I'm asking for for Christmas. Buy me a rake, lawnmower, leaf blower, hedge trimmers, push broom, extension cords, and string trimmer, thanks. And I also need to figure out how to fix my irrigation, and replace the carpets in every room besides the master bedroom. And I don't even live somewhere with snow  The good news is that very little of my yard is grass.
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Nov 19, 2013 17:38
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I think a percentage of your house's value when considering a number for emergency repairs is silly, considering the costs to repair/replace doesn't increase in a linear fashion with house cost. Having $15k to $20k on hand probably wouldn't be a bad idea, though. Real life example: My $330k house needed a new roof a few years ago (15 years old in Florida) and it cost me $10k total, which was Owens Corning architectural shingles with "50 year warranty". No quotes we recieved were over $12k from other contractors. My friend has a $180k house and he is getting quotes in the $9k to $11k range for a similar product. Similar situation with A/C units (2 stage heat pumps with air handlers) running around $6k installed for my square footage but around $5k for his. Almost half the house cost does not equal half the cost to replace/repair items.
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Nov 20, 2013 16:52
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Yeah, I agree, especially since in more expensives areas the primary driver for higher real estate prices is the land plot, not the house itself. Contractors and whatnot will be somewhat more expensive in a higher COL area, but a quality roof on a 2000sqft house isn't going to be 5x more on a $500k house vs a $100k house, and your major appliances aren't going to cost 5x more either.
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Nov 20, 2013 18:52
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My wife and I are going to make an offer on a house in the SF bay area, and we are pretty sure it will go above the listing price, since it is about 600sq feet larger than other similar priced houses. We went to the open house on the first day it opened 15 minutes before it opened and there were already about 7 or so different families/ or individual buyers. The realtors have mentioned that the market has cooled down compared to earlier in the year, but I know similar houses in the neighborhood were going for ~15% over asking back in the summer. 15% would probably stretch it out of our budget, though it would be close. Would something like 5% over be at least reasonable enough for them to let you know that someone has made a higher offer, or do you just need to bid the max you can afford to pay and end up potentially paying 5% more than needed. They mentioned everyone who makes an offer will need to submit a letter to the owner, so maybe some sob story about us actually being interested in living in the house would help, since from what I have heard it seems like half the houses sold are bought with cash by foreign investors to turn into rental units. Also, we are currently preapproved at a 4.5% interest rate, which seems somewhat average. I know on Zillow whenever you look at a house it gives a long list of lenders I have never heard of, but some of them go down to 4.1-4.2%. Are those legitimate, or is that dependent on an absolute perfect scenario that is unlikely to occur?
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Nov 25, 2013 17:10
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You are receiving this broadcast as a dream...We are transmitting from the year one nine... nine nine ...You are receiving this broadcast in order t
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Pain of Mind posted:Would something like 5% over be at least reasonable enough for them to let you know that someone has made a higher offer, or do you just need to bid the max you can afford to pay and end up potentially paying 5% more than needed. Use an escalation clause in your offer (your agent should help you craft one). It should include the absolute max you are willing to pay and then the amount you're willing to beat any other lower, competing offer by (but the clause won't allow that to go above your max). Pre-inspections can help in these markets; if the seller has an offer for less than yours but the buyer has waived and inspection clause (due to already having one) the seller will likely take the lower offer because there's no telling what a higher offer might counter with post-inspection.
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Nov 25, 2013 19:00
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My realtor's advice was that escalation clauses are bullshit. I'm inclined to agree. Telling them "Well I'm willing to pay $550K but I only want to pay $500K" doesn't exactly put you in a strong bargaining position.
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Nov 25, 2013 20:17
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Zhentar posted:My realtor's advice was that escalation clauses are bullshit. I'm inclined to agree. Telling them "Well I'm willing to pay $550K but I only want to pay $500K" doesn't exactly put you in a strong bargaining position. Perhaps it varies by region, but when I bought a house in Seattle this summer, of the four houses I put offers on there were 4-10 competing offers and they all had escalation clauses. In all cases pre-inspections were done so there was zero bargaining past the initial offer.
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Nov 25, 2013 21:35
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Zhentar posted:My realtor's advice was that escalation clauses are bullshit. I'm inclined to agree. Telling them "Well I'm willing to pay $550K but I only want to pay $500K" doesn't exactly put you in a strong bargaining position. I personally found it to be a pretty efficient way of finding the lowest price that resulted in the seller sitting down at the table with me. It would have made me sick to my stomach to come in with my highest offer every bid, and I guarantee I'd still be house-less if I tried to lowball the sellers around here. Edit: forgot the quote Damnskippy fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Nov 25, 2013 |
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Nov 25, 2013 22:05
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Sorry for not responding to this earlier. We're still waiting on short sale approval, but had a couple of questions. We're being quoted 4.125% with 0 points by an online lender, and a $1700 lender credit which covers their origination fee and appraisal etc with a little left over. I've been told by a couple of lenders that they can't get fees/rates that low. One of them (quicken loans) basically implied the current lender is going to do some sort of bait and switch and try to get us to pay points at closing or something like that. This doesn't seem to be that far off what I am getting quotes on from other places and other lenders I see on zillow.com. The good faith estimate/itemized fee worksheet from this lender doesn't show any origination/discount points - does that cover us in terms of them trying to add those later in? The mortgage broker we were talking to earlier wasn't willing to budge on his fees/rate so that's out at this point.
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Nov 27, 2013 19:48
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GanjamonII posted:Sorry for not responding to this earlier. We're still waiting on short sale approval, but had a couple of questions. I don't know the market now but that's the exact same rate I was quoted when I re-financed about a year ago - also with no points. This was for a non-conforming (jumbo) loan. In my case I felt it made sense to buy it down to 3.625% The rates can change day-to-day until you "lock" though. I am pretty sure the mortgage broker can't quote you the exact rate until the day you lock - so from that perspective I suppose it's entirely possible for him/her to be planning a bait and switch. Remember that since this is the original purchase, any points you buy are completely tax-deductible as pre-paid interest. This isn't the case for refi's.
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Nov 27, 2013 19:58
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GanjamonII posted:We're being quoted 4.125% with 0 points by an online lender, and a $1700 lender credit which covers their origination fee and appraisal etc with a little left over. I've been told by a couple of lenders that they can't get fees/rates that low. Which online lender? My experience was that I had to figure out the TOTAL fees and points before I could compare loans. A lot of lenders hosed around with the fees to make their deals look better. For instance USAA had slightly higher rate and points, but a rock bottom origination fee. Later, PenFed was trying to build their mortgage portfolio I guess, so they had a great rate+points and no origination fee at all, and I ended up refinancing with them. It was a real pain in the rear end to figure everything out every time. I do recall that this guy had legitimate and competitive options for my situation (which was pretty basic): http://www.mtgprofessor.com/ShoppingReasons/CertifiedNetworkLenders.html
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Nov 28, 2013 02:04
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Its BNC National Bank.
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Nov 28, 2013 04:09
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