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Cenodoxus posted:My father-in-law has a deep-seated fear of brokerages and the stock market. But agh, all that potential interest... Interest implications aside, it's way easier to illegally empty somebody's checking account as compared to a savings account (e.g., stolen or forged checks, or a stolen or skimmed check card that functions like a credit card). At least move it to a savings account.
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Jan 30, 2014 02:58
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Cenodoxus posted:Edit: I should state that I have enough liquid and reserve assets between my checking, savings, and IRA to cover the upfront costs and safety net in this case, but I'm curious if including that huge account would improve my odds of being approved. In most situations, if you've already met the minimum asset requirements providing additional statements won't make a difference beyond creating additional work for you, your processor, and your underwriter. If you have an extremely borderline credit profile or a really shaky appraisal the extra assets might help, but I can count on one hand the number of times I've ever used "he's got a shitload of extra assets" as justification for approving a borderline loan. Your AUS findings (electronic evaluation of your credit profile) are very binary regarding evaluation of assets - you either have $X+ and pass, or don't and fail. Manual underwrites have a bit more flexibility, but usually anything beyond 6 or 12 months worth of reserves is all the same. YMMV can vary by lender and loan type of course. Assuming you do end up needing the statements, if your wife is on the loan then you can usually get away with just providing the statements showing she is a joint owner (on a conventional loan, specific banks may be stricter). FHA and VA require joint access letters if there is a non spouse on the account, which is basically just a signed letter from her parents saying that you/your wife have full access to the funds in the account. If your wife isn't on the loan then they'll be providing a gift letter which is pretty much what it sounds like. Either way, it's unlikely you'll need to provide the statements if your asset situation is what you say - you're not obligated to disclose every financial asset you have to the bank, show them the dollar amount they ask for and move on.
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Jan 30, 2014 05:37
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So my wife is in a rather lovely/complicated situation. She is on the title/mortgage with her ex boyfriend on a house they bought together before splitting. I'm purchasing a house as the sole borrower on a VA loan and I was going to put her on the title, mainly so she would get the house in case I kick the bucket. Her ex has kept up with the home well enough, but he can't refinance and get her name off the house. If he were to be foreclosed on or otherwise sell the house while it's underwater, could his lender come after the house we're buying now if her name is on the title? I know this is probably lawyer material, but I just want to get an idea of the risks involved.
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Jan 30, 2014 22:48
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Hakarne posted:So my wife is in a rather lovely/complicated situation. She is on the title/mortgage with her ex boyfriend on a house they bought together before splitting. I'm purchasing a house as the sole borrower on a VA loan and I was going to put her on the title, mainly so she would get the house in case I kick the bucket. Yeah probably. You probably don't need to put your wife on your home's title, though. Just make a will that leaves her the house. Even that probably isn't necessary, I'm pretty sure in most states if you have no will, it's assumed your wife is going to inherit all of your assets. That said, why can't the ex re-fi? Is he underwater? Your wife is fully responsible for that mortgage, which means that if the ex defaults, it is your wife that is on the hook and who will wind up having her credit destroyed. Whether or not a short sale or default would result in actual recovery from your wife, depends on whether the house is in a recourse state. And yes, this is lawyer material, all of the above is what I've gathered from previous discussions in this thread, and I am not a lawyer, so do not make any final decisions based on this post.
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Jan 30, 2014 23:22
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Hakarne posted:So my wife is in a rather lovely/complicated situation. She is on the title/mortgage with her ex boyfriend on a house they bought together before splitting. I'm purchasing a house as the sole borrower on a VA loan and I was going to put her on the title, mainly so she would get the house in case I kick the bucket. Once you've got your home financing all set, pay someone like LegalZoom to re-title the home for you (or do it yourself). It was really easy for me and cost a couple of hundred bucks. In hindsight I could have done it without LZ. Every state has different title laws. I'm in California and it was no problem here. Or like Leperflesh said, if you're just worried about her claim in case you kick the bucket take care of that through a will.
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Jan 30, 2014 23:50
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Thanks. The house is underwater or has little-to-no equity to speak of. He has kept up with payments but his credit is poo poo and he wouldn't have gotten the loan without her name on it. He says he wants to get her name off, but its been 3 years and he's either dragging rear end or continues to be unable to do it. Basically, I don't want to trust any part of our residence to a third party and he talks about quitting his job/changing careers all the time with some half-baked scheme. My lender was asking for an addendum to add her as a purchaser to the house we're buying now which I haven't signed, so I'll just tell them not to bother. I'll get a will set up so she gets it in case I die, that sounds like a much safer option. Thanks again for the replies! Edit: Yeah after looking into it, my state (Virginia) allows lenders to pursue a remaining balance if a house is foreclosed on or short-sold. That's some bad juju we don't want to mess with. Hakarne fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Jan 31, 2014 |
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Jan 31, 2014 00:00
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Leperflesh posted:Yeah probably. No will does not mean it goes to the wife automatically—especially if you have kids (natural or adopted, and whether known to you or not). Intestate (i.e. no will) succession depends entirely on the state. But yeah, just go to an attorney. You may be able to put the house directly in both of your names without worrying about it, but it will depend on the state. Spamtron7000 posted:Once you've got your home financing all set, pay someone like LegalZoom to re-title the home for you (or do it yourself). It was really easy for me and cost a couple of hundred bucks. In hindsight I could have done it without LZ. Every state has different title laws. I'm in California and it was no problem here. Good lord, don't draft a deed to yourself by yourself. You're asking to gently caress something up. (If anybody's wondering, that would be a great example of why people should have title insurance.) And don't some (most?) residential mortgages prohibit that? Like, if you convey the property, the loan immediately becomes due in full?
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Jan 31, 2014 00:06
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Cranbe posted:No will does not mean it goes to the wife automatically—especially if you have kids (natural or adopted, and whether known to you or not). Intestate (i.e. no will) succession depends entirely on the state. Yeah, the way we're looking to set it up now is I'll will the house to her and maintain an adequate amount of life insurance to pay off the mortgage in case I die (which I was going to do anyways). Then my only worry will be making sure I'm worth more alive than dead so she doesn't arrange an "accident" for me. 
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Jan 31, 2014 00:30
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Hakarne posted:Yeah, the way we're looking to set it up now is I'll will the house to her and maintain an adequate amount of life insurance to pay off the mortgage in case I die (which I was going to do anyways). Then my only worry will be making sure I'm worth more alive than dead so she doesn't arrange an "accident" for me. So, I was once a lawyer and my advice to you as not-your-lawyer is that you should 1. Not include your wife on the mortgage, 2. Harass the ex, a lot, 3. Get life insurance sufficient to pay both the current mortgage off and the Ex's house off. You probably don't want her to be in a position where you get in a car accident, you die, she is horribly injured such that she can't work and then ex defaults because he's a jerk and now she's stuck paying the mortgage (although if you want to be careful, to talk to an attorney because she may be able to protect her primary residence in bankruptcy but then again, maybe not. Did I mention harassing the ex? Because that's some bullshit.
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Jan 31, 2014 01:07
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If it were me, I'd offer him like $1,000 just to incentivize him to HTFU.
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Jan 31, 2014 01:26
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You should have a Real Estate attorney at closing anyway. He will then add your wife on the deed after a few days. I had the same situation as you (me being the sole mortgage holder and then putting my wife on the deed, not the ex part) My attorney handled all of this and the closing for a fee of $150. It was an extra $10 for the state fee on issuing a new deed. A bank is not allowed to force repayment for estate planning purposes, this should cover adding your wife. If you get off the deed, however that will trigger repayment.
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Jan 31, 2014 03:14
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Cranbe posted:And don't some (most?) residential mortgages prohibit that? Like, if you convey the property, the loan immediately becomes due in full? Yes, but it only applies for certain types of conveyances. Adding his wife is fine as long as he stays vested on title, if he was trying to put the title solely in his wife's name or something like that then the acceleration clause triggers and the lender can demand repayment.
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Jan 31, 2014 03:41
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Hey everyone. My wife and I are in a great position to buy a house (stable career, plenty saved on downpayment). Even though our state sucks, we're sure to be here at least another 3 years. We've been looking for homes, but everything in the price range we want to buy in has been disappointing. My main question is about buying foreclosure/shortsales. Are there any good posts/resources about the process? We're fairly flush in cash, so if we had to come out of pocket for renovations it would be fine. Should I just be extra clear with my realtor to try and get us in those showings as well? Can I actually save money this route, or is it just even more likely to turn into a money vacuum?
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Jan 31, 2014 23:22
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Social Dissonance posted:Hey everyone. My wife and I are in a great position to buy a house (stable career, plenty saved on downpayment). Even though our state sucks, we're sure to be here at least another 3 years. We've been looking for homes, but everything in the price range we want to buy in has been disappointing. Only 3 years isn't really a great plan fyi. The number i've been told is usually somewhere along the lines of 7 to 10 years in one place.
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Jan 31, 2014 23:36
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Social Dissonance posted:Hey everyone. My wife and I are in a great position to buy a house (stable career, plenty saved on downpayment). Even though our state sucks, we're sure to be here at least another 3 years. We've been looking for homes, but everything in the price range we want to buy in has been disappointing. I am in process of buying a short sale and this is my experience: 1) The price can be better. We got a good discount off the asking price. The seller is motivated to get out of the house, and has no real reason to negotiate against you except if he wants the process to move faster. In that case they may want a higher price because they feel/know the bank may not accept the offer you made (this happened to us, I regret accepting his counter offer and we could have probably saved a little money on this). 2) The sellers bank gives no fucks about you. At all. They will take their sweet time to process the sale, regardless of whether you locked a good rate in or anything like that. They will let the process sit for a week or two at a time without touching it, will ask multiple times for the same documentation etc. We had major issues with communication from the sellers bank/agent where we were told the approval was already done, was nearly done, we'd have it in a couple days etc with nothing actually happening behind the scenes. 3) It will take a LONG rear end time to get through. We're 3 months in now and got the approval 2 days ago. Don't necessarily believe the seller/sellers agent that the bank wants to move this quickly/'fast track' it etc. If you're not willing to wait 2+ months just to get the approval then I wouldn't really consider it. 4) Check your closing costs. The bank's selected title company is charging a much higher than normal fee for what they're doing. I'm not sure if this is something we can negotiate with them or not.
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Feb 1, 2014 00:07
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Foreclosures are very different from short sales. In a foreclosure, the bank typically wants the house off their books and tends to push for fast closing. Foreclosure activity has slowed way, way down recently compared to where it's been the last three years, but there's no reason not to consider a foreclosure. The main thing to be concerned about is condition: in some cases a home may be just fine, but at least some foreclosures will be trashed. When I bought (2009), like 90% of all the houses available were foreclosures, so it was pretty much the only way to go. Short sales, on the other hand, have all of the problems GanjamonII mentioned. Unless you're OK with spending potentially many months, and then at the end of it having the bank decide the price is too low and just denying the whole thing, I'd avoid getting involved in a short sale.
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Feb 1, 2014 01:00
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I started my short sale buy back in mid-October and I'm looking to close around the end of next month. However, things went a lot quicker than anyone was expecting. Dunno why anyone wouldn't do it if they have the chance, a big chunk of equity like this is hard to pass up.
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Feb 1, 2014 01:18
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Tigntink posted:Only 3 years isn't really a great plan fyi. The number i've been told is usually somewhere along the lines of 7 to 10 years in one place. You're right, 3 years isn't really long enough for it to make much sense financially. The two reasons we're even considering it: 1. We may stay much longer than 3 years. If we don't, well, we're out some equity and probably a decent amount of cash. 2. If we end up picking up a short sale/foreclosure, maybe we won't be as super boned in 3 years. We're in no rush, our current living situation is pretty flexible. If the short sale really drags on and something doesn't work out, it's not the end of the world. We just get closer to the time frame of knowing for certain how long we'll be in the area for.
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Feb 1, 2014 03:09
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GanjamonII posted:
Lucky dog. We had to wait 6 months. And then the bank said "we close in 10 days or your bid gets rejected and we start all over" We closed in 11, but I had to browbeat the poo poo out of the bank officer to get that one day extension
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Feb 1, 2014 05:19
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Saw a house today, listed at $220,000, seems to be very well priced for what's in the area, although our realtor will be sending comps later today probably. Assuming we're comfortable with the asking price, would it be prudent to offer $10k under in the hopes they respond with asking price + a seller's assist on mortgage fees? I know it's impossible to know without all the details, just trying to get a feel for negotiating tactics. We don't have a huge amount of experience in that area.
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Feb 1, 2014 18:10
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Hakarne posted:So my wife is in a rather lovely/complicated situation. She is on the title/mortgage with her ex boyfriend on a house they bought together before splitting. I'm purchasing a house as the sole borrower on a VA loan and I was going to put her on the title, mainly so she would get the house in case I kick the bucket. When you buy the new house have your attorney make sure that the property is titled in your names as "tenants by the entirety". Virginia recognizes TBE. TBE means that so long as you and your wife remain married, the house can't be used to satisfy a debt that is owed by only one of you. If the bank were to foreclose on the first house and get a deficiency judgment against your wife, any judgment lien would be inchoate until you divorce or you die. Bottom line, just ask your attorney about TBE. http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+55-20.2
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Feb 1, 2014 18:39
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10-8 posted:When you buy the new house have your attorney make sure that the property is titled in your names as "tenants by the entirety". Virginia recognizes TBE. TBE means that so long as you and your wife remain married, the house can't be used to satisfy a debt that is owed by only one of you. If the bank were to foreclose on the first house and get a deficiency judgment against your wife, any judgment lien would be inchoate until you divorce or you die. Thanks, we'll definitely look into that. Although doesn't that still leave the issue of having a lien against the property in case we want to sell it in the future?
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Feb 1, 2014 19:04
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Hakarne posted:Thanks, we'll definitely look into that. Although doesn't that still leave the issue of having a lien against the property in case we want to sell it in the future? You'll have to ask your lawyer how Virginia handles that. But generally the lien can't attach to the property in the first place if it's held as TBE. The whole point of TBE is to protect spouses from creditors of the other spouse. So there wouldn't be a lien when you try to sell it. If a creditor did file a lien against the property, just because a creditor records something with the country recorder doesn't mean the lien is valid. But again, find an expert in Virginia real estate law. This is something that someone like that can answer for you in 10 minutes.
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Feb 1, 2014 19:19
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10-8 posted:You'll have to ask your lawyer how Virginia handles that. But generally the lien can't attach to the property in the first place if it's held as TBE. The whole point of TBE is to protect spouses from creditors of the other spouse. So there wouldn't be a lien when you try to sell it. If a creditor did file a lien against the property, just because a creditor records something with the country recorder doesn't mean the lien is valid. But again, find an expert in Virginia real estate law. This is something that someone like that can answer for you in 10 minutes. Alright we'll look into that. Thanks!
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Feb 1, 2014 19:37
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LogisticEarth posted:Saw a house today, listed at $220,000, seems to be very well priced for what's in the area, although our realtor will be sending comps later today probably. Assuming we're comfortable with the asking price, would it be prudent to offer $10k under in the hopes they respond with asking price + a seller's assist on mortgage fees? I know it's impossible to know without all the details, just trying to get a feel for negotiating tactics. We don't have a huge amount of experience in that area. Everything depends on your market. If you're in a hot seller's market, an underbid might be totally ignored in favor of the other six bids. If you're in a hard buyer's market, 10k under might still be too much. You need to look at the comps, and then get advice specific to your market, the house, the neighborhood, etc. We've had a lot of discussions in this thread about negotiating and offers, and I think it's fair to say that we don't all agree on approach. I think we would all agree though, that the exact right bid can't be guessed at by people on the internet who aren't familiar with the specifics.
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Feb 1, 2014 20:01
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Leperflesh posted:We've had a lot of discussions in this thread about negotiating and offers, and I think it's fair to say that we don't all agree on approach. I think we would all agree though, that the exact right bid can't be guessed at by people on the internet who aren't familiar with the specifics. Totally understand that point, I guess what I'm looking for are tips on 1.) Judging whether the list price is high or low, and 2.) General negotiating tips. We're working with a realtor who is looking for comps. I don't want to rely solely on one guy who at the end of the day is a salesman. I'm asking around with friends and family and was wondering about advice from the goon hivemind also.
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Feb 1, 2014 20:10
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LogisticEarth posted:Totally understand that point, I guess what I'm looking for are tips on 1.) Judging whether the list price is high or low, and 2.) General negotiating tips. My advice on negotiation, as someone who does it for a living in some sense, is to figure out what you and your wife are willing to pay for the house and stick to it. Don't necessarily offer it, but so many folks get caught up in the process and oh no, they're suddenly bidding 50k over what they were comfortable with. Once you've figured out what you really are willing to pay then you can look at what kind of market it is and just bid based on that. If houses are going for ask just bid ask and be prepared to walk. If they're going for over/under then how much? You're unlikely to get too far off of market (except a seller will always accept more) so it's partly just a function of your time and willingness to wait. If you need a house now then start bidding a little more. If you can wait then no need to push the envelope. For example, if your market is 100k avg ask and houses are going for 10-15 over ask then 1. Find out from your broker what you need to his to be in the conversation but don't go bidding 125 on a house. And 2. If you're comfortable with 110 then bid 110. And 3. Some markets will let you bid an amount and then say "but if you have a hard offer we'll match up to X." Other places may have "we bid X but we'd like to talk about it if you have other offers because we love the house." Still others (NYC for example) tend to be best final with another round of bidding on top of that. For how much a house is worth, spend a like ten hours on trulia of zillow looking at your area and what's for sale and what those houses have and you should be able to get a pretty good idea of how much a particular house is worth.
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Feb 1, 2014 23:45
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Okay, I went through what I honestly believed to be the preapproval process with my bank (USAA), only to get a letter that says "Pre-qualified." My wife did some reading and the internet experts are saying that pre-qualified is basically a step below pre-approved. What the loving gently caress? They pulled my credit, charged me a fee, all that good stuff. I thought it was weird that they only asked me my account balances but didn't ask for statements yet. (They said they only need the statements once I apply.) On the pre-qual letter it says that the next step is to start shopping for houses, and then when we find the property and have it on contract, to use the pre-qual to apply for the actual loan. Am I considered a serious buyer with a pre-qual letter? Are pre-quals at some banks equal to pre-approvals at others? Or do I need to shove some boots up my bank's rear end and get a piece of paper that actually has some weight to it? 
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Feb 2, 2014 05:52
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Short answer: Yes.
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Feb 2, 2014 06:29
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Cenodoxus posted:Okay, I went through what I honestly believed to be the preapproval process with my bank (USAA) A few years ago I got a mortgage with them. When I was at the same point in the process, they wrote me something they called a "conditional loan approval". The conditions were that I show them my bank statements and so on. I'm not sure if they've changed procedure now, or things vary from state to state, or what.
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Feb 2, 2014 06:55
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Cenodoxus posted:Am I considered a serious buyer with a pre-qual letter? Are pre-quals at some banks equal to pre-approvals at others? Or do I need to shove some boots up my bank's rear end and get a piece of paper that actually has some weight to it? Both are basically useless. slap me silly posted:A few years ago I got a mortgage with them. When I was at the same point in the process, they wrote me something they called a "conditional loan approval". The conditions were that I show them my bank statements and so on. I'm not sure if they've changed procedure now, or things vary from state to state, or what. This is normal. Complete loan package submissions are, annoyingly, incredibly rare. Underwriters will issue approvals to fund your loan on the condition that you meet certain requirements due to the missing documentation, so your approval will be full of stuff like "Provide 2013 W2 showing $XX,XXX annually", "Provide 2 months bank statements showing liquid funds of $XX,XXX and provide source of any large deposits", and other poo poo that your broker should have known to provide in the first place because it's standard and 
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Feb 2, 2014 08:26
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Cenodoxus posted:charged me a fee I know people have boners over USAA, but what kind of lovely bank charges you for preapproval? Make sure their fees are in line with the market. Every single bank I've dealt with did free preapprovals and charging for one seems really loving shady.
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Feb 2, 2014 12:25
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Bloody Queef posted:I know people have boners over USAA, but what kind of lovely bank charges you for preapproval? Make sure their fees are in line with the market. Every single bank I've dealt with did free preapprovals and charging for one seems really loving shady.
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Feb 2, 2014 13:33
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Bloody Queef posted:I know people have boners over USAA, but what kind of lovely bank charges you for preapproval? Make sure their fees are in line with the market. Every single bank I've dealt with did free preapprovals and charging for one seems really loving shady. Yeah that is hosed up. Walk into any financial institution and they would be clamoring over you to get you a pre-approval for free. The reason for this is because then they can harass you in the upcoming months about "have you found a house yet. can you come get your loan with us now?" Mortgages are a competitive business; why would they NOT want to give you a fairly non-obligatory/doesn't-say-much piece of paper to try and get you to use their services over other people's? Anyhow, pre-approvals/pre-whatevers are really only useful to stapled onto an offer you make (when you make one) so that the seller can see it and go, "oh okay someone did a cursory glance at your finances and said you can probably buy my house." It doesn't even mean you can actually buy the house because there are still ways to completely fail to get a loan. But it makes people feel better, you know? Technically speaking a bid without a pre-approval might still have a shot but a lot of sellers would probably wonder why it's missing in the first place thereby perpetrating the cycle that a pre-approval should be attached to an offer. So as to the question of pre-qualified vs. pre-approval: They are different if the seller decides that they are. As to my story, we got Bank of America to do our pre-approval because they were literally begging us to use them and were so thrilled to print us up a pre-approval. And then we shopped around and found an awesome mortgage broker who saved our rear end multiple times during the process and was competitive to boot and told Bank of America "WHOOPS SORRY, NO DICE." We sure got a lot of anxious, "Hey did you find a house. Are you ready to borrow from us" e-mails from their mortgage rep though.
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Feb 2, 2014 13:50
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USAA is a great bank, but for some reason their mortgage department is crap. At least they keep all the bad reviews up on their site though, and I knew to stay away.
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Feb 3, 2014 18:27
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Iucounu posted:USAA is a great bank, but for some reason their mortgage department is crap. At least they keep all the bad reviews up on their site though, and I knew to stay away. Then they're not a great bank. There are many credit unions that have the same benefits of USAA and don't act like scumbags in departments.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:01
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That's just not true. Few credit unions come close to the benefits they offer. Anyone who has dealt with them knows exactly how far above the competition they are for banking, credit cards, auto loans, etc. They just apparently send a lot of the mortgage business to third parties, and yeah, they're probably not worth using.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:35
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What's a good process for screening lenders and/or a good broker? I'm just in the begin-to-look phase. Can anybody recommend a few in the Denver area? (I know the topic is beaten to death periodically here, but it's a lot of pages to search through to find the discussion.)
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Feb 3, 2014 20:33
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This guy is in Denver and is an Upfront Mortgage broker. http://www.reedmc.com/ Other than that broker recommendations are usually word of mouth from friends/family/co-workers. Consider a couple of brokers and whomever you have a banking relationship and go from there. note: I'm not recommending that website personally, I just looked for an upfront mortgage broker in the Colorado area. I encourage you do research this company as I know nothing about them. UMB's are more transparent in their process though compared to MB's that don't.
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Feb 3, 2014 20:40
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USAA auto-loans are also ridiculous. They're constantly pestering me to re-fi my 0.9% auto loan that I have with them and the lowest they can offer is 8.9%. It's like they don't even check their own figures.
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Feb 3, 2014 21:53
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