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Steve French posted:Check out https://www.bluhomes.com/
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Mar 20, 2014 13:46
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| # ? May 30, 2024 20:56 |
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I'm closing next week but for any people currently looking I would highly recommend watching Holmes Inspection (might also be called Holmes on Homes). I've been watching season 1 over the past week and it's a great illustration of not only the things to look for but also how much work it can be to properly fix something. I spend a good portion of every episode going  as they find one problem that leads to another that leads to another and before you know it the whole yard is tore up or they've gutted the entire basement. They do go above and beyond what an ordinary homeowner might but it's still pretty crazy how much work it can be to fix something if you want it done entirely to code.
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Mar 20, 2014 16:50
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Summit posted:I'm closing next week but for any people currently looking I would highly recommend watching Holmes Inspection (might also be called Holmes on Homes). I've been watching season 1 over the past week and it's a great illustration of not only the things to look for but also how much work it can be to properly fix something.
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Mar 20, 2014 19:04
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I'm supposed to close on the 31st and my file can finally be seen by underwriting after today. I had all documents in on the 5th, but the title work still hadn't been sent back from my settlement agent. I ended up talking to them today, after finding out last night, and it was sent over to my lender this morning. Finally received confirmation that they have it and can review my loan file. They didn't tell me it was missing when I talked to my lender on Monday, and I was told I should have an underwriting decision by today (not gonna happen). I'm so ready to be done with the home buying process. I feel like I need to check in on the progress of the mortgage everyday as we get closer.
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Mar 20, 2014 22:13
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On the other hand, my closing just got moved up a day because the sellers are gonna be leaving earlier than they'd anticipated and I've got the "cleared to close" from the lender.
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Mar 20, 2014 22:24
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I'm scheduled to close next Wednesday and I just had the bank walk away from the loan because the HOA can't send them a one loving paragraph response to some simple questions*. Now I've lost the rate I had locked and the market just shot up. Totally with you on wanting this poo poo to be over. *there's some pending litigation about an unrelated foreclosure.
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Mar 20, 2014 22:27
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So the tenant (I should have known better) living at the house ran off with the key on Friday, and so they couldn't complete repairs to the home. The closing is on the 31st. The sellers signed this in the repair agreement:  Since they want to extend the closing date I have every right to make demands of my own correct? My realtor is trying to act like I do not. do never buy. ugh. If this starts to get bad I'm going to go with 3 and bail. My guess is I would need to get an attorney asap right?
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Mar 22, 2014 14:25
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:So the tenant (I should have known better) living at the house ran off with the key on Friday, and so they couldn't complete repairs to the home. The closing is on the 31st. The sellers signed this in the repair agreement: Get an attorney yesterday. They are the only person in the entire housing transaction that has your interests in mind. Your realtor does not want to lose the deal because at best they will have to spend more time finding you a house to get their $$ and at worst they won't get any $$ from you being a client. If the seller and their situation is making demands you should also be making demands. You're not their friend or family, you gain nothing be bring conciliatory.
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Mar 22, 2014 14:31
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Yeah, I'm going to look into finding an attorney now. Ugh, I loving hate realtors.
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Mar 22, 2014 14:32
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Ugh, I loving hate realtors. New thread title.
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Mar 22, 2014 15:22
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"I loving hate realtors" and "I should have known better" 
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Mar 22, 2014 15:25
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If you are certain of the cost of the repairs just negotiate an amount higher then that to be escrowed in your custody at closing. That usually satisfies the lender. Make sure the money is enough to pay for the lenders inspector to prove the work was completed. If that fails then give notice of termination of the agreement with your new found lawyers help. Then post "I loving hate lawyers" and "I should have known better" when it all goes to hell.
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Mar 22, 2014 21:00
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I might be jumping back into this game again. The house I'm eying is out in the country and eligible for a USDA Rural Development Guaranteed loan. My income is eligible and if I put my boyfriend's numbers in ( he won't be involved in the loan, but I guess his income is factored in anyways) we're on the cusp of eligible. Does anyone out there have some insight on this type of loan vs conventional? Pros or cons? It seems that you don't have to have a down payment but I do have a decent chunk to throw down (15%). What would the implications be if I put less down so that I could do repairs, updates, etc.?
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Mar 24, 2014 21:52
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Lixer posted:I might be jumping back into this game again. The house I'm eying is out in the country and eligible for a USDA Rural Development Guaranteed loan. My income is eligible and if I put my boyfriend's numbers in ( he won't be involved in the loan, but I guess his income is factored in anyways) we're on the cusp of eligible. An engaged coworker did a USDA loan before he got married. There's no way they'd qualify if their incomes were combined. She lived with him until they got married IIRC, so you should be good to go. You probably need a lender who is experienced with USDA loans. I'm doing a 203k loan on a hud foreclosure and I seriously think I want to off myself right about now. that backyard though...
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Mar 24, 2014 22:53
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A week of loving about with the mortgage broker and HOA trying to get paperwork figured out. I'm going to miss my closing date, I'm hearing it might be 2-3 weeks extra, and everyone is blaming everyone else. I mention that I'm having my lawyer look over some of the paperwork, two hours later everything is sorted out, everyone is best of friends, and I can close end of the week/early next week at my original locked rate with no extra fees or anything. Burn this loving industry to the ground. I could walk into a car dealership and walk out with a loan nearly this size. There's no reason for it to be this complex and time consuming.
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Mar 26, 2014 00:17
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Lixer posted:I might be jumping back into this game again. The house I'm eying is out in the country and eligible for a USDA Rural Development Guaranteed loan. My income is eligible and if I put my boyfriend's numbers in ( he won't be involved in the loan, but I guess his income is factored in anyways) we're on the cusp of eligible. We did a USDA loan a couple of years ago. Not every lender will deal with them, so you are more limited in that aspect. You also want a lender that has decent experience with them, because they have to send stuff in to the USDA to get approval, which takes longer than a traditional loan. In SC, that meant mailing a bunch of paperwork in, because the local office didn't do things electronically. There is also an annual fee for the life of the loan.
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Mar 26, 2014 00:28
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I finally made it out of underwriting today and came out with a conditional approval. All that is needed is an addendum because our realtor placed an item in our contract for the sellers to fix nail holes in the wall. Just need the sellers to say it is fixed, and all of us sign off on it. If that can get in tomorrow, we still have a chance to close on time Monday.
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Mar 26, 2014 00:40
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oxbrain posted:Burn this loving industry to the ground. I could walk into a car dealership and walk out with a loan nearly this size. There's no reason for it to be this complex and time consuming. I underwrite both home and car loans and I can tell you the latter have far fewer regulations and protections to gum up the works. Also, this January everything became much more of a pain in the rear end with home loans with respect to income verification and also collateral. I only do portfolio products so I imagine it is only worse for confirming loans which are securitized and sold like your purchase loan undoubtedly is. With a car loan I can do basically whatever the hell I want as long as I don't discriminate on a protected basis and the feds will give zero fucks. On home loans now we have to crawl up the borrower's rear end asking for documents on as little as $10 of interest income or the feds will crawl up ours.
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Mar 26, 2014 03:48
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The actual purchasing process has been easy for me, I just wish I had got to a real estate attorney instead of a realtor.
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Mar 26, 2014 06:03
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therobit posted:I underwrite both home and car loans and I can tell you the latter have far fewer regulations and protections to gum up the works. Also, this January everything became much more of a pain in the rear end with home loans with respect to income verification and also collateral. I only do portfolio products so I imagine it is only worse for confirming loans which are securitized and sold like your purchase loan undoubtedly is. What makes the new ATR requirements a pain in the rear end? I'm on the auditing/forensic side of underwriting now so I haven't had to deal with the new regs yet, but from what little I read it didn't sound too awful. Dealing with portfolio loans from 2006 or so has certainly been something so far though. So many god awful loan programs 
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Mar 26, 2014 08:45
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Cranbe posted:It's a risk-mitigation tactic that benefits them at your expense*. They collect the money from you up front so that you can't forget to pay your taxes and lose the property to a tax sale, which would also wipe out the mortgage. Escrow has a buffer set by the lender, so it's usually just the opportunity cost of that money perpetually sitting around that's the downside, I think. The two places I've lived require estimated quarterly tax payments, so its the difference between monthly and quarterly, not monthly and yearly. I've never been one to try to push things like this though, so I'm not sure if there's some dodge where you can avoid any repercussions while paying yearly.
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Mar 26, 2014 14:20
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I put in an offer on a condo and it looks like I will get it for ~235k a tad under list. I am concerned that maybe I overpaid. Looking at comparables in the same building (sold 1 and 2 years prior) I may have overpaid by 10-15k depending on how much the market has changed over that time. Also its on the first floor while the other 2 were 2nd floor (I don't know how to value this.) I like the place a lot but I will probably be moving in 5 years realistically so I will have to resell it. I feel like I may have thrown a bid in quickly cause my realtor said there were other offers. That later fell through after my bid. The house was only on the market for 4 days or so, I still have a contingency to cancel the contract for the next day or so though. She says its reasonably priced (she gives me very subjective evidence though) and I don't really have the experience to value these houses well. How much can I trust the appraiser from my bank to correctly appraise it? I don't want to buy it if I am significantly overpaying. Is the appraiser a safeguard for this or do they just stamp the purchase price on the form? Anything I can do to make sure I get a fair assessment, honestly I would much rather lose the property than significantly overpay? My Realtor was unsuccessful in calming my fears because she isn't very quantitative.
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Mar 26, 2014 19:08
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Bigntasty posted:I put in an offer on a condo and it looks like I will get it for ~235k a tad under list. I am concerned that maybe I overpaid. Looking at comparables in the same building (sold 1 and 2 years prior) I may have overpaid by 10-15k depending on how much the market has changed over that time. Also its on the first floor while the other 2 were 2nd floor (I don't know how to value this.) I like the place a lot but I will probably be moving in 5 years realistically so I will have to resell it. I feel like I may have thrown a bid in quickly cause my realtor said there were other offers. That later fell through after my bid. The house was only on the market for 4 days or so, I still have a contingency to cancel the contract for the next day or so though. She says its reasonably priced (she gives me very subjective evidence though) and I don't really have the experience to value these houses well. What kind of neighborhood is it in? If you bought in an area surrounded by single family homes, the comps are going to be a complete crapshoot and the appraisal can be very unpredictable and dependent on the individual appraiser's opinions/phase of the moon/etc. If you are in a downtown area surrounded by other condos, they should be able to find good comps and your appraisal will reflect the market. I was in the former situation when refinancing/selling my condo and it was stressful.
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Mar 26, 2014 19:23
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Why the hell are you buying a Condo (terrible idea) when you plan on moving in 5 years?
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Mar 26, 2014 19:24
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Bigntasty posted:I put in an offer on a condo and it looks like I will get it for ~235k a tad under list. I am concerned that maybe I overpaid. Looking at comparables in the same building (sold 1 and 2 years prior) I may have overpaid by 10-15k depending on how much the market has changed over that time. Also its on the first floor while the other 2 were 2nd floor (I don't know how to value this.) I like the place a lot but I will probably be moving in 5 years realistically so I will have to resell it. I feel like I may have thrown a bid in quickly cause my realtor said there were other offers. That later fell through after my bid. The house was only on the market for 4 days or so, I still have a contingency to cancel the contract for the next day or so though. She says its reasonably priced (she gives me very subjective evidence though) and I don't really have the experience to value these houses well. If I were you and had the option, I'd just cancel the contract. It sounds like you're really uncomfortable with this price, and it will probably bother you for years if you move ahead. There are other houses and condos out there. In the future, if you're not in a hurry to buy (and you shouldn't be, for this reason among others), consider putting in offers somewhat below where you feel a property should be, within reason. You might get passed over several times before a seller bites, but you'll get a better deal. (Caveat: This is not a practical strategy in some markets.) To answer your question, based on my and others' experience, the appraiser often gives a value pretty much equal to the contract price. What an amazing coincidence that costs you $400!
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Mar 26, 2014 19:25
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skipdogg posted:Why the hell are you buying a Condo (terrible idea) when you plan on moving in 5 years? Easy answer, just get hired by a company with an insanely good relocation package when you are ready to leave  (I am a lucky rear end in a top hat)
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Mar 26, 2014 19:28
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Cranbe posted:To answer your question, based on my and others' experience, the appraiser often gives a value pretty much equal to the contract price. What an amazing coincidence that costs you $400! That makes me wonder, how often does an appraisal come back at more than contract price? Does it ever happen? I only ask because we just had our extremely low ball offer accepted on a divorce house and I'm cautiously hopeful that we walk away with some free equity on this.
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Mar 26, 2014 19:34
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A two-year old sale is totally worthless as a comp, and 1 year old is practically worthless too. The market can move the price by tens of thousands of dollars in just a month or two, and most markets in the US have changed significantly over the last two years. You didn't mention where this condo is, but if it was near my house, I'd expect it's value to have gone up by 30% or more in the last two years. You need an independent appraisal to have some idea of the market value of that condo. But yeah if you're planning on moving in 5 years you shouldn't be buying, period. The risk of losing a ton of money is too high. You realize when you sell you'll have to pay commissions, right? Typically 6% or so of the property value? That means just to break even you have to achieve a 6% gain in price over that period, but actually more like 10%+ to cover all your other related expenses, and for a condo it's probably even more, given your condo fees. In this thread we usually tell people not to buy if they might have to move within the next 8 to 10 years.
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Mar 26, 2014 19:35
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Leperflesh posted:In this thread we usually tell people not to buy if they might have to move within the next 8 to 10 years.
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Mar 26, 2014 19:45
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Also, question for the thread. Has anyone bought a home from their landlord? I am renting a house now and am toying with the idea of buying it after living in it for 3 years. I can buy it in cash directly and as such I think the transactions costs will be minimal (no realtor, no bank.) I'd imagine all I need to do is get an inspection, etc and perhaps an appraisal unless we can come to a price on our own, and a title company to facilitate the transaction? Anything I am missing?
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Mar 26, 2014 19:47
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Landlord, Nope that will do it, you might want a lawyer to do the purchase agreement, and I would hire an appraiser myself and try to screw the landlord on the sales price.
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Mar 26, 2014 20:26
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couldcareless posted:That makes me wonder, how often does an appraisal come back at more than contract price? Does it ever happen? It does happen, particularly when the seller is motivated to sell such as divorces and bank foreclosure and is willing to accept a low ball offer just to get rid of the property. Sometimes buyers and sellers do a crap job of evaluating comps as well. I've seen appraisals where just being on the right side of the street caused the homes to sell for $30k+ more than the other side because of a superior view.
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Mar 26, 2014 21:33
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nebby posted:I am not sure but I think this should be qualified with "if you are going to take out a mortgage." If you buy the house in cash then a 10% realized loss is no big deal if you are planning on buying another house with it, since that house will be cheaper to buy, unless you are worried about the relative spread between markets changing. Relative prices do change across markets (or even neighborhoods within the same market), for sure. But if you take a 10% real loss by selling the property for exactly what you paid, then that implies the market is flat. Basically the point is that if you fail to appreciate enough to cover the (huge, relative to other types of investment vehicles) transaction costs, you take a loss... and given the historical national average rate of property appreciation over the last century, after accounting for inflation, is something on the order of 1 to 2 percent... that's where the 8 to 10 years time horizon comes from. But you are absolutely correct that if you pay cash you are more resistant to that, in part because you can avoid some of the transaction costs and in part because as an all-cash buyer you generally can underbid financed buyers, because cash offers are more attractive to sellers. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Mar 26, 2014 |
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Mar 26, 2014 21:45
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Leperflesh posted:Relative prices do change across markets (or even neighborhoods within the same market), for sure. But if you take a 10% real loss by selling the property for exactly what you paid, then that implies the market is flat. Basically the point is that if you fail to appreciate enough to cover the (huge, relative to other types of investment vehicles) transaction costs, you take a loss... and given the historical national average rate of property appreciation over the last century, after accounting for inflation, is something on the order of 1 to 2 percent... that's where the 8 to 10 years time horizon comes from.
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Mar 26, 2014 21:57
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couldcareless posted:That makes me wonder, how often does an appraisal come back at more than contract price? Does it ever happen?
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Mar 26, 2014 23:22
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Maybe I was clinging to those properties that sold years ago and wanting to extrapolate legitimate numbers out of them, but maybe they are too far out now. Pricing just seems like a lot of hand waving and pulling a number out of your rear end. In terms of why I'm buying my parents think I should buy a place and will be helping me out a lot, which probably wouldn't happen to that degree if I didn't buy, so financially it'll probably work out for me and I'll get to have a place I own to do with it what I want. But I don't like the idea of making bad investments.
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Mar 26, 2014 23:53
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Captain Windex posted:What makes the new ATR requirements a pain in the rear end? I'm on the auditing/forensic side of underwriting now so I haven't had to deal with the new regs yet, but from what little I read it didn't sound too awful. Dealing with portfolio loans from 2006 or so has certainly been something so far though. So many god awful loan programs Mostly the combination of not being able too disregard any source of income without a note from the sales team that the borrower doesn't want it considered combined with the fact that the sales staff don't understand income documentation to begin with. These arw refi and equity only and it is almost as much documentation as purchase mortgages. $10 in interest income? Please ask the borrower if they want us to consider this income and if so please provide schedule b and bank statements to support. And the only exceptions we are allowed to make are if a document simply does not exist. Prior to ATR we could look at yes on the paystub and 40 hrs a week and say "looks like a full time employee" and calculate ot at hrly x 2080 and move on. This helped compensate for branch bankers that had no clue as to the required documents and didn't think it was thier job to have one. Edit: sorry, phone posting therobit fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Mar 27, 2014 |
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Mar 27, 2014 15:09
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therobit posted:Mostly the combination of not being able too disregard any source of income without a note from the sales team that the borrower doesn't want it considered combined with the fact that the sales staff don't understand income documentation to begin with. These arw refi and equity only and it is almost as much documentation as purchase mortgages. $10 in interest income? Please ask the borrower if they want us to consider this income and if so please provide schedule b and bank statements to support. And the only exceptions we are allowed to make are if a document simply does not exist. Ah, that's special. I had to do similar poo poo at my last job, but it was mainly if I saw any schedule C income on the 4506t results at all, no matter how insignificant. Apparently Fannie threw a fit with our auditors and really wanted those tax returns even though they wouldn't tell you anything else of value. Yep, I am definitely going to delay this purchase closing because the borrower actually reported the $50 they made mowing the neighbors lawn or whatever and can't find their 1040s 
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Mar 27, 2014 16:33
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Bigntasty posted:Maybe I was clinging to those properties that sold years ago and wanting to extrapolate legitimate numbers out of them, but maybe they are too far out now. Pricing just seems like a lot of hand waving and pulling a number out of your rear end. If you are taking out a 30 year mortgage and only plan to stay for 5 years I guarantee you are making a bad investment. Condo HOA fees eat up anything you would have saved versus renting plus you are opening yourself up to a lot of unpredictable financial liability. The only way it could possibly work out in your favor is if you are buying in a very quickly appreciating market with consistent demand. You should thank your parents but ask them to invest the money in a blue chip stock or something until you are ready to settle in longer term. For reference, I stayed in my condo for 3 years and came out flat even versus renting only because 1)Uncle Sam gave me an $8k gift, 2)Microsoft covered my closing costs, 3) my HOA fee was only $145 for 2.75 of the 3 years I owned.
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Mar 27, 2014 19:16
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| # ? May 30, 2024 20:56 |
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Closed on my first home today! The whole home buying process from start to finish was surprisingly easy and smooth. Hopefully the home owning process is just as painless…
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Mar 28, 2014 00:24
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