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GanjamonII posted:We want to upgrade windows to hurricane proof (south florida, yay) and we were sent a letter about PACE - Property Assessed Clean Energy. At first I thought it was some scam, but it looks like a legit program. You don't pay anything up front, the city pays the bill to get your windows installed by a contractor of your choosing. $100 buys you 4 sheets of plywood. Why not just get storm shutters?
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 22:51 |
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# ? May 31, 2024 12:19 |
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Bumming Your Scene posted:Got the seller response to my request for repairs. They aren't going to replace the insulation (current stuff resembles sawdust), nor upgrade outlets in the bedrooms to grounded outlets. The outlets are kind of a stickler for me because I'm wary of running a 1kW+ computer on an ungrounded outlet. If I go to the house with a screwdriver, can I look behind a faceplate and determine if the box is grounded or am I going to need an electrician to check if ground wires have to be fished through walls or drywall smashed through? If that's the case, just walk away? Grounding outlets that aren't grounded can be a pain in the rear end, depending on whether or not you have to tear open the wall to run a grounding wire, and what kind of construction you have. But, you can install GFCI outlets and get very nearly the same protection, and that's extremely easy to do. Do not open the faceplate of a live outlet. You must turn off the power to at least that circuit, and then confirm it's off using a testing tool which you first tested on a live wire/outlet (that is, you first confirm the testing tool is giving you a positive, and then turn off the power, and then confirm you're getting a negative on that outlet). Once the power is off, you can use a testing tool to find out if the box is grounded... but if there's only a two-prong outlet on the box, it's unlikely that the box is grounded. In any case, while running your 1kw+ computer on a GFCI outlet should be fine, you should actually be more concerned about overloading the rated amperage on whatever circuit that is. In my home, all three bedrooms are on a single 15 amp ungrounded household circuit. That's quite common for the era of construction (1958 in my case), because all anyone plugged in in their bedrooms was a few lamps, maybe a radio, and sometimes a vacuum cleaner. These days people are running TVs and computers and all kinds of stuff, so having seperate circuits for bedrooms in new construction is more common. You should add up the maximum amperage draw for everything you intend to plug in to a given circuit, and then check to be sure it's rated for more draw than that. Upgrade outlets to GFCI as needed for shock protection, and always use a good quality surge protector for sensitive electronics. As questions in the DIY forum's electrical wiring thread for more information and details. I don't know anything about insulation. lumbergill posted:My credit union offers a deal for certain professions where you can put 5% down and not pay PMI, for a slightly higher interest rate (I guess it's technically a loan for the other 15%?). They've offered me 4.5% on a 30 year loan with 5% down, or 4.35% with 20% down. I could pay 20% down, but along with closing costs it would use up most of my savings, making me think I should take the 5% option. You can't really compare loans just on interest rate and down payment. You need to know what the closing costs will be. So it's hard to know if 4.35% is competitive. You should get several quotes on the same day, which should include down payment, PMI, costs, and fees. I don't understand how paying 5% down instead of 20% down is "borrowing the other 15%" - I mean, obviously you're borrowing more money to pay for the house. Can you refinance? What will you do if the house's value declines? Do you intend to live there for the life of the loan, or will you be reselling at some point? How much PMI are you avoiding, and how long would you pay it? Whether or not this is worth it really depends on your plans for paying off/reselling/refinancing, and what competing lenders are willing to offer you. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Mar 31, 2014 |
# ? Mar 31, 2014 23:16 |
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GanjamonII posted:We want to upgrade windows to hurricane proof (south florida, yay) and we were sent a letter about PACE - Property Assessed Clean Energy. At first I thought it was some scam, but it looks like a legit program. You don't pay anything up front, the city pays the bill to get your windows installed by a contractor of your choosing. PACE programs often take automatic first lien position, you'll want to find out if this is the case for your program as it can make getting financing for the property a bit more difficult (whether through you refinancing or the financing for a potential future buyer). For a conventional loan, if it takes automatic first/senior lien position you would have to payoff the loan either before or at closing to be eligible. So you'll have to bump your loan amount if there's equity or bring in the cash to pay it off on a refinance, or on a purchase you'll be out the proceeds that you would have normally received to pay it off. The only way the lien could be carried over to the new buyer/retained on a refinance would be if the specific program does not automatically enforce first lien position, and if that's the case you'd have to get a subordination agreement and the new loan would have to be qualified with the subordinate financing which may cause loan qualification problems. I believe FHA and VA treat it similarly but can't say for sure.
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# ? Mar 31, 2014 23:54 |
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Leperflesh posted:you can install GFCI outlets and get very nearly the same protection, and that's extremely easy to do. I have a house built in the 1890s and I went around the house installing GFCI outlets everywhere that wasn't grounded (90% of the outlets in my house) it's all plaster and it's saved me thousands because otherwise I'd have to rewire the whole place (Yay plaster making home improvement life misery)
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 00:33 |
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lumbergill posted:My credit union offers a deal for certain professions where you can put 5% down and not pay PMI, for a slightly higher interest rate (I guess it's technically a loan for the other 15%?). They've offered me 4.5% on a 30 year loan with 5% down, or 4.35% with 20% down. I could pay 20% down, but along with closing costs it would use up most of my savings, making me think I should take the 5% option. Also, don't wipe your savings out with a down payment. You need more emergency fund once you own a house, IMO.
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 01:29 |
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Leperflesh posted:I don't understand how paying 5% down instead of 20% down is "borrowing the other 15%" - I mean, obviously you're borrowing more money to pay for the house. Can you refinance? What will you do if the house's value declines? Do you intend to live there for the life of the loan, or will you be reselling at some point? How much PMI are you avoiding, and how long would you pay it? Whether or not this is worth it really depends on your plans for paying off/reselling/refinancing, and what competing lenders are willing to offer you. I wouldn't be paying PMI, I'm not sure whether it works out that they pay PMI, or that there is a 80/15/5 loan. I worded that poorly. If I pay down the standard amount with 5%, I would be at 80% of the principle in 2021 (I intend to over-pay though). I don't know whether I'll live in it the life of the loan, but I certainly have no plans to sell in the next 6-7 years.
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 01:31 |
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I found out I can boost my 45 day lock to a 90 day lock for like $163, which would give me a closing date of early July. That seems like the easiest way to go, not have to fuss with the rent back agreement. My counter is in, we'll see what they come back with.
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 07:32 |
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A coworker just told me that when purchasing his house two years ago, he put down about 7%, acted as his own agent (he's licensed) and used that 3.5% commission towards the down payment, then had a HELOC opened at the same time that put down the other 10% so that he would be at 20% down and wouldn't have to get PMI. Is this something that's usually not done or is often a huge risk?
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 14:20 |
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mastershakeman posted:A coworker just told me that when purchasing his house two years ago, he put down about 7%, acted as his own agent (he's licensed) and used that 3.5% commission towards the down payment, then had a HELOC opened at the same time that put down the other 10% so that he would be at 20% down and wouldn't have to get PMI. Is this something that's usually not done or is often a huge risk? Most people can't act as their own agent, so that's a bit unusual. He got a HELOC on what, though? On the house he's buying with only 7% actually down? That wouldn't make sense, HELOCs require equity to work.
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 15:30 |
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Well if the HELOC draw is used to pay down the first it is creating its own equity. I am glad the banks learned nothing, nothing at all. Bail out 2 electric boogaloo.
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 15:39 |
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baquerd posted:Most people can't act as their own agent, so that's a bit unusual. He got a HELOC on what, though? On the house he's buying with only 7% actually down? That wouldn't make sense, HELOCs require equity to work. Yeah, on the house he was purchasing.
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 17:49 |
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baquerd posted:Most people can't act as their own agent, so that's a bit unusual. He got a HELOC on what, though? On the house he's buying with only 7% actually down? That wouldn't make sense, HELOCs require equity to work. Elephanthead posted:Well if the HELOC draw is used to pay down the first it is creating its own equity. I am glad the banks learned nothing, nothing at all. Bail out 2 electric boogaloo. mastershakeman posted:Yeah, on the house he was purchasing. Buying with a HELOC 2nd is basically the same as buying with a normal closed end 2nd, they would take a draw on most/all of the line for funds to close on the purchase at closing. If they pay down the principal on the HELOC (most are interest only required payments in the draw period) they can re-draw on that equity at a later date. The combined loan to value guidelines for the 1st loan approval are normally the same whether it's a HELOC or closed end 2nd so it doesn't magically create equity. Edit: an agent representing themselves using their own commission for their down payment can be acceptable, depends on lender and type of loan. Captain Windex fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Apr 1, 2014 |
# ? Apr 1, 2014 19:02 |
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Since there's a lot of PMI chat today-- is PMI based on how much equity I have, or how much I have paid on the loan, or both? Say I buy a foreclosure for $175k, $100 down. put 30k in renovation on a 203k loan, and it appraises for 250k. Does that count towards getting rid of PMI once i get to 20% equity?
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 22:31 |
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PuTTY riot posted:Since there's a lot of PMI chat today-- is PMI based on how much equity I have, or how much I have paid on the loan, or both?
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# ? Apr 1, 2014 22:45 |
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Cranbe posted: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… Just to follow up on this: Nope! Pulled up the carpet the day after closing to discover some old water damage! Cut out some floorboards to discover the extent of it, and also uncovered some rotten drywall hidden behind some textured paneling. Cut out some of the textured paneling to uncover rotten, moldy drywall on the near side of the wall, rotten framing within the wall, and clean / newer / replacement drywall on the opposite side of the wall patched in underneath the old plaster that still has mold on it! Still discovering how deep this rabbit hole goes! The only saving grace is that the sellers willfully failed to disclose it, giving me excellent grounds for a lawsuit. Judging by the limited repairs they did and the fact they lived there for decades, they clearly knew it was there. Do always sue!
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 00:05 |
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Misogynist posted:Unless I'm misinformed about the new guidelines, FHA loans don't specify loan-to-value anymore, the PMI needs to be carried for the entire lifetime of the loan and the best way to get rid of it is to refinance. Thanks for this, wish it was better news though.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 00:48 |
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Our FHA PMI on the house we purchased exactly 5 years ago today! (woop!) can officially be paid away. The guidelines for our FHA PMI loan were made post financial crisis and allow you to pay down to 78% of principal and 5 years of PMI. So tomorrow if we wish, we can throw a chunk of cash and kill our PMI.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 05:54 |
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Misogynist posted:Unless I'm misinformed about the new guidelines, FHA loans don't specify loan-to-value anymore, the PMI needs to be carried for the entire lifetime of the loan and the best way to get rid of it is to refinance. It's still LTV based, they took out the component where the length of the loan mattered. Basically PMI is now for the life of the loan if your down payment is less than 10%. If you put down 10% or more, then you have to wait a mere 11 years for it to be cancelled. The first table here outlines the changes: http://www.fha.com/fha_requirements_mortgage_insurance
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 07:16 |
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Practically speaking, you get rid of FHA MIP (PMI equivalent) by refinancing now. Which sucks for borrowers if interest rates rise. I'm lucky enough to have refinanced before the newest rules were put into place, so I can still get rid of mine after five years without having to lose my 3.75% fixed APR.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 17:13 |
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Looking for a place to live in Baltimore, and there are some great prices on the market. I can afford to buy, but the whole concept of owning a house has my head spinning, though, and the prospect of throwing $40,000-$50,000+ at a down payment + closing costs is terrifying. Maybe I'll rent for a year first...
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 17:44 |
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We had our tape walk yesterday...I guess I'm too much a perfectionist because the inspector said I had some requests that were a bit much. We did tape up ~500+ pieces of tape on a 2015 SF house, so, an issue appeared nearly every 4 square feet. I am going away for a few days, and we'll see what gets done between now and Sunday afternoon. Closing is on Monday. In good news, all the surrounding houses price for new houses went up by 5+k, plus they are opening a 2nd phase where prices are expected to take a 10% jump, which means my house will get dat nice insta-equity. I'm psyched. Do buy.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 17:57 |
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Not a Children posted:Looking for a place to live in Baltimore, and there are some great prices on the market. I can afford to buy, but the whole concept of owning a house has my head spinning, though, and the prospect of throwing $40,000-$50,000+ at a down payment + closing costs is terrifying. Maybe I'll rent for a year first... If you're new to Baltimore (or any other place) you should absolutely rent for a year or three before buying. You want to learn about the city, the areas you like/dislike, where your new friends and colleagues live, and watch what the market is doing. What if you wind up hating Baltimore? Buying is a very big commitment to living in the same place for many years.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 18:01 |
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Leperflesh posted:If you're new to Baltimore (or any other place) you should absolutely rent for a year or three before buying. You want to learn about the city, the areas you like/dislike, where your new friends and colleagues live, and watch what the market is doing. What if you wind up hating Baltimore? Buying is a very big commitment to living in the same place for many years. I grew up in the Baltimore suburbs and just moved back after a couple years of working in DC. I currently commute to the downtown area, and I'm probably going to be working there for the foreseeable future. It's more of the concept of committing to the house, rather than the area itself, that's putting the fear of God into me.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 18:22 |
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Cranbe posted:Just to follow up on this: Nope! The horror. Living in the PNW I'm terrified of this possibility if I start looking at houses in the next couple years.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 18:52 |
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resident posted:The horror. Living in the PNW I'm terrified of this possibility if I start looking at houses in the next couple years. When you do your inspection, make sure you have the water running from every faucet for the visual inspection then get the guy to do an IR inspection. We caught water damage this way.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 18:58 |
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Rurutia posted:When you do your inspection, make sure you have the water running from every faucet for the visual inspection then get the guy to do an IR inspection. We caught water damage this way. Good advice. In my case, though, the water damage is old and from a water source that's no longer there (the sink was moved when they renovated the kitchen).
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 20:32 |
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Has anyone here bought a house outright? I'm talking 'cash on the spot'? Looking into purchasing a foreclosed home(bank owned), I read the op and yeah I understand you generally have to do some fixer uppers on it, which doesn't bother me. I'm guesstimating about 10k extra for fixing up a foreclosed home. I mean I financed my car to build credit but hated that so much I'd rather just save up and buy a house up front. So, so me doing out right buy would be easier than trying to finance and mortgage a house.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 20:38 |
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:Has anyone here bought a house outright? I'm talking 'cash on the spot'? There's a big difference between a bank owned property and a property bought at foreclosure auction. Bank owned is not much different than buying from a traditional seller. Sure a few more forms, offers take longer, but the mechanics are the same. You can do an inspection, etc Foreclosure auctions are commonly done without allowing potential buyers into the house. People getting foreclosed upon can also do some heinous poo poo to the house like flushing quik crete down the toilets, taking a sledge hammer to the walls, and actually leaving steaming piles of poo poo. They think they're loving over the bank, when they're really loving over the people at the auction. You can get a great deal at the auctions, but it's a huge risk. I haven't bought from one, but I'm seriously considering going to an auction this weekend where the house sold for 150k in 2006 and the opening bid is 18k. The market didn't rise and crash that much here, so if it's in good shape, it might be worth 130k. If it has concrete in the pipes, it might be worth less than $0.
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# ? Apr 2, 2014 21:38 |
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:I'm guesstimating about 10k extra for fixing up a foreclosed home. I don't have any kind of average (and I don't think one exists) but I think that's wildly low, unless you're buying in a very cheap area (labor and materials) and even then, possibly quite low. I bought a bank-owned foreclosure (not outright, I FHA financed) in 2009. At that time, an overwhelming percentage of properties on the market were bank-owned foreclosures. My wife and I looked at a lot of properties, for over six months. I've been inside of and looked around at probably 30+, and we bid on two. A roof replacement in my area costs $6k to $12k depending. Replacing a broken sewer line can cost anything from $2k for an easy trenchless replacement to the $20k+ my parents paid because their line went under their driveway, which had to be torn up and then re-paved. A kitchen remodel can be done for $10k for a cheapo IKEA remodel to $50k+ for higher-end appliances, granite counters, and high quality cabinetry and fixtures. And all of the above stuff is normal for non-foreclosure properties older than maybe 20 years or so. I saw dozens of foreclosed properties that had multiple serious issues, ranging from needing some basic TLC (paint, refinishing of floors, landscaping) to significant foundation problems ($50k+), to unchecked termite damage that was at the borderline of the entire structure being condemned. If you buy any house that isn't brand new construction, you'd better be ready for $10k of repairs at any time. That's just the normal kind of expense that can crop up with a house. New A/C? New furnace? New roof? Cracked or leaking foundation? The list goes on and on. I don't want to totally discourage you from buying a foreclosed home. They are discounted from FSBO houses because banks want to get them off the books as quickly as possible, but also because they're considered more risky. Banks disavow any knowledge of what might be wrong with the home, so the legal requirement for homeowners to disclose known problems is basically obviated. And while you can have your normal contingencies (e.g., you can walk away and get your earnest money back after an inspection), banks usually sell a house "as-is," meaning if you find out later there's a problem... and inspections absolutely cannot and do not find all possible problems with a property... you're on your own. Lead paint? Asbestos? Radon? Ghosts from the Indian burial ground? It's all on you. So do really thorough inspections, be ready for major expenses regardless, and reject properties that have really serious issues. I bought a house with a really good foundation, no sign of termite problems, and no really obvious damage. I think I probably have $40k worth of problems to fix, which I can't afford to do now, but many can be deferred - the fireplace is unusable until I replace all of the internal ironwork, for example. I refinished my hardwood floors myself, at a cost of $800 in materials and rental and maybe a week and a half of really unpleasant labor, which saved me probably $2k. The kitchen is serviceable, but a remodel is in store, and that'll cost probably $15-20k (it's a modest kitchen and I'll do some of the work myself). One of the two bathrooms has an unusable shower. The roof over the patio leaks badly, which has rotted the timbers on the eves behind the garage; the patio will need a $5k remodel. I'm doing all my landscaping myself, but with three of the four sprinkler lines broken somewhere, if I wanted to replace them it'd cost another $1500+. And there's dozens of small things: some places need paint, a section of the stucco is damaged from a tree that I had removed ($600 because my neighbor did it below cost, woulda cost $2k+ to have a pro do it) was pushing against the outside wall, the garage needs to have some halfass badly-done randomly placed pieces of drywall torn out, the wiring replaced, and then we want to insulate and finish it... probably $4k? The driveway is cracked, I just don't care about it now but we'll have to fix it before we sell, maybe $1500? This roof has probably another 8 years on it before I should replace it, and that'll be $8k. It just goes on and on, and this is a foreclosure that was in quite good condition. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Apr 2, 2014 |
# ? Apr 2, 2014 21:54 |
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:I'm guesstimating about 10k extra for fixing up a foreclosed home. You're utterly hosed if you think it'll cost that little unless you forgot a zero there and meant $100k.
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# ? Apr 3, 2014 00:27 |
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Not a Children posted:I grew up in the Baltimore suburbs and just moved back after a couple years of working in DC. I currently commute to the downtown area, and I'm probably going to be working there for the foreseeable future. It's more of the concept of committing to the house, rather than the area itself, that's putting the fear of God into me.
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# ? Apr 3, 2014 01:05 |
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my wife and i just put our first offer in on a house. in the bay area, where you get multiple offers and bidding wars between all-cash offers. everybody look how stupid I am!
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# ? Apr 3, 2014 02:36 |
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Dik Hz posted:Baltimore is a scary place to buy a house. The blocks can change in just a year or two. So a nice house on a good block can lose literally all of its value if that block becomes poo poo. Of course you can hit the lottery if the mayor decides your block is one of the ones that's going to get re-gentrified. Ugh, DNB. This is my biggest issue, I know that in just the 6 years since I went back to college the parts that were considered "safe" shifted pretty radically, except for the old staples like Sandtown and such. The pressure is on here because I know a guy who is showing me a place next to Camden Yards before it hits the market that would be perfect for me to live while I work downtown, 2 bedrooms so I could just rent out a room and have the other guy basically pay the mortgage. I'm in serious danger of falling in love with it, and I haven't even seen it yet.
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# ? Apr 3, 2014 13:58 |
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Not a Children posted:This is my biggest issue, I know that in just the 6 years since I went back to college the parts that were considered "safe" shifted pretty radically, except for the old staples like Sandtown and such. The pressure is on here because I know a guy who is showing me a place next to Camden Yards before it hits the market that would be perfect for me to live while I work downtown, 2 bedrooms so I could just rent out a room and have the other guy basically pay the mortgage. I'm in serious danger of falling in love with it, and I haven't even seen it yet. Rents are that far out of whack with owning?
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# ? Apr 3, 2014 15:38 |
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MickeyFinn posted:Rents are that far out of whack with owning? In the area I'm looking at, absolutely. Talking the same price for renting a room vs. owning the place outright.
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# ? Apr 3, 2014 15:46 |
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I bought with less than 20% down on a conventional loan. I was assured by the loan officer that I could appraise out of PMI. Turns out, there's a big asterisk there. * I can pay down to 80% LTV of the original appraised value at any time, and pay $150 for a realtor to drive by and say "Yes, this house has not burned down and is probably at least as valuable as when it was purchased" * I can get a new value appraised, but only after two years. I pay $350 for the appraisal. However, if it's after two years but before 5 years, I must reach 75% LTV of the new appraised value, not 80%. * After 5 years, I can appraise out at 80% LTV. So, do always question. I feel like a dummy for not getting paperwork in writing on that.
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# ? Apr 3, 2014 17:50 |
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Anyone with short sale experience that involved 2 lenders around? Both lenders want a payout, and my lender is only going to authorize the first lender to get that "settlement fee". I had a consultation w/a real estate lawyer and she indicated that, while this is illegal, it happens all the time and the 2nd lender usually squeezes it through the title company as some sort of charge that gets kept off the HUD statement. There isn't any risk to me because I'm still abiding by the letter of all the contracts and the price is still good. The problem is that this 2nd lender doesn't want to play, they want my lender to approve it, and the title company isn't trying to help. I'm not in a position where I could pull a cash sale out of thin air, so is there anything else I could do to make this happen?
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# ? Apr 4, 2014 02:07 |
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krysmopompas posted:Anyone with short sale experience that involved 2 lenders around? Both lenders want a payout, and my lender is only going to authorize the first lender to get that "settlement fee". I had a consultation w/a real estate lawyer and she indicated that, while this is illegal, it happens all the time and the 2nd lender usually squeezes it through the title company as some sort of charge that gets kept off the HUD statement. There isn't any risk to me because I'm still abiding by the letter of all the contracts and the price is still good. Try going to another lender. I had to drop my initial lender because they were dragging their feet. I was in the same exact situation you were (short sale with 2 mortgages on it) the next one I went with knew about the situation going in and seemed okay with it. Also good on you for getting an attorney involved. I'm a huge advocate for real estate attorneys. They make everything nice and keep you safe from your scumbag realtor.
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# ? Apr 4, 2014 02:42 |
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we came in 5% below list price hoping to negotiate up to a few % above. house sold at 20% above list price. more than $900k for a 1400sqft 2 bed 1 bath home that needs $15k worth of work. lol at this market, i'll stick to renting. it has to crash at some point, right?
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# ? Apr 4, 2014 17:55 |
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# ? May 31, 2024 12:19 |
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nebby posted:we came in 5% below list price hoping to negotiate up to a few % above. house sold at 20% above list price. more than $900k for a 1400sqft 2 bed 1 bath home that needs $15k worth of work. lol at this market, i'll stick to renting. it has to crash at some point, right? Well, you might want to untick the "walls made of solid gold" filter on Realtor.com
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# ? Apr 4, 2014 18:00 |