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Just focusing on the rate is myopic, yeah. When I was mortgage shopping, I had in mind a break-even time of around 4 years when I was making that kind of decision. But it's a personal thing - how likely are you to be in the house longer than 8 years, to make it worth it? When you're comparing scenarios, don't forget to account for any differences in mortgage interest tax deductions as well as rate and points/fees.
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Apr 9, 2014 01:17
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LogisticEarth posted:Well for one, I'm not in DC, I'm outside of Philly. Our household income is a good $30k above the area median. Where are you, on the Main Line? There's tons of cheap property all over Philadelphia and the suburbs, and they're not all in high-crime areas. There are enough wealthy people to keep houses expensive on the Main Line, in Center City and Old City, and in some places in Bucks County. I don't know what you mean by 'area median', but I bet if you looked at the median household income of the folks buying the $400 and $500k houses it's a lot more than $100k.
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Apr 9, 2014 02:49
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LogisticEarth posted:Well for one, I'm not in DC, I'm outside of Philly. Our household income is a good $30k above the area median. I work in Philly and where are you looking? The market here is very generally soft and unless you're talking main line or enormous houses, 250k is plenty to buy you something in the 3 bed 2 bath space. I'm one of those assholes who is purchasing rental properties, but the only reason I am is because they're dirt cheap and sitting on the market forever, and I haven't been using cash because rates are so low. I'd happily give you some advice on places to look if you want to PM me. E: Forbes listed the top 10 buyers markers recently and Philly was 2 or 3 And median income 81.5k, but that's the entire metro area so Camden, Wilmington and all the burbs are taken into consideration. Bloody Queef fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Apr 9, 2014 |
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Apr 9, 2014 02:59
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I'm looking in the Lansdale/Souderton area. We're pretty set on that due to combinations of work, family, and commuting options. I think part of the problem is we have somewhat specific criteria for the house. No twins, preferably off-street parking, and contrary to most buyers I really don't want any new construction, although we don't rule that out. The top of our budget is like $230,000 (if student loans were gone we could probably go higher). If we're paying the top of our budget, I want too get what we want. Otherwise it's keep renting and hope to find a job back up in the Lehigh Valley where our family is and everything is far cheaper. Maybe I'm also a little bitter too because realtor bullshit has screwed us out of two great properties. The median household income is based off of the area census data, and other searches I've seen. I live in Conshohocken right now, which is a really hot real estate market at the moment. That's mostly where I've seen the crazy home prices. LogisticEarth fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Apr 9, 2014 |
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Apr 9, 2014 03:21
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LogisticEarth posted:I'm looking in the Lansdale/Souderton area. We're pretty set on that due to combinations of work, family, and commuting options. I think part of the problem is we have somewhat specific criteria for the house. No twins, preferably off-street parking, and contrary to most buyers I really don't want any new construction, although we don't rule that out. The top of our budget is like $230,000 (if student loans were gone we could probably go higher). If we're paying the top of our budget, I want too get what we want. Otherwise it's keep renting and hope to find a job back up in the Lehigh Valley where our family is and everything is far cheaper. Maybe I'm also a little bitter too because realtor bullshit has screwed us out of two great properties. Yeah, sorry after I posted that I went over to the Philadelphia thread on LAN and saw your posts there. I know absolutely noting about that area having lived in Bucks County and now South Philly. That being said, I think it's hard to check a lot of boxes for ~$200k anywhere. I bought a very small house in Morrisville (lovely school district, quite a bit of nuisance crime) for a little less than $200k and it had lots of compromises. No driveway, very old construction (1915) with terrible insulation and lots of deferred maintenance. I bought it after searching for months.
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Apr 9, 2014 04:37
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Bloody Queef posted:I work in Philly and where are you looking? The market here is very generally soft and unless you're talking main line or enormous houses, 250k is plenty to buy you something in the 3 bed 2 bath space. Huh? Where is this? Are you talking about inside the city limits?
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Apr 9, 2014 04:40
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Blackjack2000 posted:Huh? Where is this? Are you talking about inside the city limits? There's still a lot of pockets in blue collar but non slummy areas where the majority of the houses on the market are short sales or foreclosures. I guess cheap is a relative term, and you're not going to necessarily live where you have tenants. Yo, gently caress Conshy. That place is a poo poo hole yet for some reason the housing prices are crazy. Lansdale is sort of a tough market for what you want. So much of the housing up there is condos they slapped together in the 80's and 90s. Or it's nice older homes that'll be too costly. It's not an area I frequent a lot when looking for properties as I live in North Wilmington and like to be 30 minutes from them.
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Apr 9, 2014 04:54
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My wife and I finally bought a house in the SF bay area after casually looking for a few months, and then hardcore looking for a few months. The market got crazy, but at least you got to hear interesting things about houses going 35% over asking and the consolation prize of being close, like having the 4th best offer out of 22. One weird thing came up after the offer was accepted; a future neighbor two houses down mentioned that the neighbor between our two houses might have encroached into our property. I am just guessing that maybe that neighbor did that to them, so they are suggesting we be on the lookout for it? After they mentioned it and looking at the boundary, the fence does jut in a little, and also I noticed that the fence at the rear of the property extends past the corner. The lot is rectangular shaped, so I would not expect there to be any jagged edges to it. I looking up getting it surveyed, and it is quite expensive. We are going to measure it ourselves to get a rough idea if anything is missing before doing anything, and then speaking to the neighbor if anything does seem off. However, is there any statute of limitations on it if there is some property encroachment that cannot be resolved speaking with the person? They have a big shed that looks like it has electricity that would probably need to move if the fence goes 2 feet towards their lot, and the landscaping in the backyard fits the current yard size, so I have no idea if any potential encroachment was done 2 years ago or 30 years ago. We don't want to pay for a surveyor and then find out there is nothing we can do. Here is a crappy MS paint of the situation, with the grey box being their shed, showing the little bit of fence extending into nothing and the slightly irregular shape of the fence on that side of the property. Assuming the fence stuff is inline from the wider part near the front of the house, I would guess it is ~ 2 feet of space running almost the whole length of the property. Also, since it is somewhat house related and I feel like sharing it, my wife applied to go on HGTV's house hunters but we backed out because you need to miss a week of work and other dumb stuff, and it is 100% fake. They only accept people who are already in escrow, then you look at a few houses including the one you are already in contract with, then you pretend like you are deciding between some random houses and the house you already bought.
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Apr 9, 2014 07:27
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You are receiving this broadcast as a dream...We are transmitting from the year one nine... nine nine ...You are receiving this broadcast in order t
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Pain of Mind posted:Also, since it is somewhat house related and I feel like sharing it, my wife applied to go on HGTV's house hunters but we backed out because you need to miss a week of work and other dumb stuff, and it is 100% fake. They only accept people who are already in escrow, then you look at a few houses including the one you are already in contract with, then you pretend like you are deciding between some random houses and the house you already bought. So they pay you a decent chunk of change then or something?
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Apr 9, 2014 13:18
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Ugh, we sent the seller our list of repairs that we would like making (including some things that really should have been on the sellers' disclosure) on Monday, and haven't heard anything back yet. Option period ends tomorrow. Apparently the seller flew out on vacation yesterday. Who goes on vacation the week they are selling their house? I'm getting pretty anxious. Some of the things on the repairs list I'd be happy to let slip and just get done myself, but some things (termite treatment, grounding electric outlets) I really want done, especially since I offered over asking price.
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Apr 9, 2014 15:28
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baquerd posted:So they pay you a decent chunk of change then or something? Nope. I don't even remember if they pay you at all. I think you might get a $50 gift card or something.
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Apr 9, 2014 15:31
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lumbergill posted:Ugh, we sent the seller our list of repairs that we would like making (including some things that really should have been on the sellers' disclosure) on Monday, and haven't heard anything back yet. Option period ends tomorrow. Apparently the seller flew out on vacation yesterday. Who goes on vacation the week they are selling their house? So, the seller has made contact. They are willing to pay for the termite treatment and a minor roof issue, but not the grounding. The rest of the things on the list are still being hashed out. Not paying for the grounding is disappointing, but probably not worth walking away over. Some of the outlets are grounded, others aren't, so I may be able to get away with installing GFCIs for the ungrounded outlet.
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Apr 9, 2014 19:56
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Having spent the last weekend in my attic, I can tell you that in some cases it's trivial to ground an outlet and in some cases you'll have no choice but to rip open the walls, and there are some in-between levels of effort possible too. But replacing an outlet with GFCI is something any homeowner can do, assuming you can confidently and securely shut off power while you do it. You just need a screwdriver.
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Apr 9, 2014 23:02
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? Why did my escrow just jump up 30 bucks this month?.  Obama.
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Apr 10, 2014 01:19
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A dealership that I leased a car from last year somehow caused 9 different banks to do hard inquiries 13 times in one day. The underwriter asked asked my LO to have me explain each one. Is this normal? Every other time I've bought a car there is one hard pull per dealership I end up allowing to run my credit. This seems excessive and my LO suspects it's why my score is 30 points lower than this time last year.
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Apr 10, 2014 04:32
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necrobobsledder posted:In the DC area, you have a generally older population that's fiscally conservative compared to the rest of the country. Both income and investable assets are rivaling New York City, plus there's a metric ton of rich foreigners with ties to the capital of the developed world economy. Most of the houses where I am are not bought by investors and are all-cash and median is about $750k for a home. When it's pretty typical for a middle class household to hit $200k / yr what do you expect? I know what you mean. I live in DC and work for the Feds and my home buying options at this point are pretty much, either live in a rundown house in the hood (even those go for 250k+) or live way outside the beltway due to the fact that homes here are locked out for me price wise. Luckily, I'll have the option to telework anywhere from the US in a while, so I might just pack it up and move down south where home prices are less insane with warmer weather included. I'm thinking Charleston or Columbia South Carolina.
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Apr 10, 2014 06:51
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Delorence Fickle posted:Charleston or Columbia South Carolina.
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Apr 10, 2014 07:15
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Jealous Cow posted:A dealership that I leased a car from last year somehow caused 9 different banks to do hard inquiries 13 times in one day. The underwriter asked asked my LO to have me explain each one. No, it is not.
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Apr 10, 2014 13:09
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builds character posted:No, it is not. Not normal or not the reason my score dropped so much?
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Apr 10, 2014 13:29
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Jealous Cow posted:Not normal or not the reason my score dropped so much? Not normal, for exactly the reason you're experiencing.
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Apr 10, 2014 15:55
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:? Why did my escrow just jump up 30 bucks this month?. Mine did too. It's not a big deal, but sort of wish I got any sort of notice about it rather than just noticing it in my account? I assume it's because my property taxes have went up.
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Apr 10, 2014 15:58
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ExtrudeAlongCurve posted:Mine did too. It's not a big deal, but sort of wish I got any sort of notice about it rather than just noticing it in my account? Financial Samurai has a post about fighting this if you want to: http://www.financialsamurai.com/exploit-online-data-to-lower-your-property-taxes/
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Apr 10, 2014 21:31
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Leperflesh posted:Having spent the last weekend in my attic, I can tell you that in some cases it's trivial to ground an outlet and in some cases you'll have no choice but to rip open the walls, and there are some in-between levels of effort possible too. Fingers crossed it's the first case. If not, at least I have a screwdriver. On the plus side, they've agreed to just about everything else. So, should be fully under contract by this evening 
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Apr 10, 2014 21:31
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builds character posted:Not normal, for exactly the reason you're experiencing. I talked to the dealership and they don't have records going back that far on inquiries. The GM agreed to write a letter accepting responsibility and stating it was an oversight on their part. Hopefully it doesn't come to that but at least he's willing to step up. That being said, I submitted an offer to Freddie Mac today. Let's see what happens....
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Apr 10, 2014 23:04
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slap me silly posted:Charleston, for your information. Jesus, how is it even a question Got a lot of family ties in Columbia.
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Apr 11, 2014 00:10
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Yeah, that or job is the reason everyone I know in Columbia lives there...
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Apr 11, 2014 00:27
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Apparently the taxes and insurance went up $200 bucks for the year. I understand why the insurance would go up but I thought the taxes was determined by an assessment from the city, which hasn't happened in awhile. My guess is a portion of property tax goes to the state and they reassesses the value every year?
Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Apr 12, 2014 |
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Apr 12, 2014 00:05
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slap me silly posted:Yeah, that or job is the reason everyone I know in Columbia lives there... ZOO  Seriously, Charleston all the way. Although, I really like Fort Mill/Tega Cay and it has the benefit of being near Charlotte NC for work. Columbia isn't that far from there. An hour and a half sounds like the perfect distance from family for me. edit: Sorry I didn't mean to dbl post.
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Apr 12, 2014 00:08
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Apparently the taxes and insurance went up $200 bucks for the year. I understand why the insurance would go up but I thought the taxes was determined by an assessment from the city, which hasn't happened in awhile. My guess is a portion of property tax goes to the state and they reassesses the value every year? The assessment determines the value of the property, but that's multiplied by your millage rate to determine the actual tax amount you'll pay. Generally property taxes are assessed as a dollar or cent amount per $1000 of assessed value, so your millage rate is a combination of all of these figures charged by the city/county/state/etc multiplied by the assessed value. If you've had any levies or property tax increases pass recently in your area then your millage rate goes up and so do your taxes the next time the bills go out even though your property value may remain the same. Frequency of re-assessment varies by state and county.
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Apr 12, 2014 00:23
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This is sort of an odd question, but has anyone here ever heard of installing hot water baseboard heat in a house with forced air? We saw a place today that seemed like 75% of the way to perfect. But two of the big drawbacks (for me) were forced hot air, and oil heat. I'm wondering if it would be somehow make sense to do some kind of system rebuild, where we could bring in gas service from the street, and install a boiler and baseboards rather than a force air furnace.
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Apr 13, 2014 22:17
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Apparently by this time tomorrow I'll know if Freddie Mac accepted our offer or not 
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Apr 14, 2014 00:44
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Delorence Fickle posted:I know what you mean. I live in DC and work for the Feds and my home buying options at this point are pretty much, either live in a rundown house in the hood (even those go for 250k+) or live way outside the beltway due to the fact that homes here are locked out for me price wise. DC is absolutely insane. It's one of the wealthiest, most educated cities around, the closing costs for the buywe are way above average (so just the barrier for entry is quite high, not even touching financing and competing offers), and right now supply is low (not a lot of people selling for various reasons). We bought in DC last year and it was a shitshow to get an offer through.
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Apr 14, 2014 14:47
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I'm a week from closing, going FHA. The house I'm looking at is 2.5 bath, but one of the full baths is stripped as the original owners were in the middle of redoing it. It is tiled up but there's no fixtures. Considering there's already a functional full bath in the house, is there any chance the FHA appraisal is going to come back requiring that other bath be finished before closing?
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Apr 14, 2014 15:38
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couldcareless posted:I'm a week from closing, going FHA. The house I'm looking at is 2.5 bath, but one of the full baths is stripped as the original owners were in the middle of redoing it. It is tiled up but there's no fixtures. Can I ask why you went with FHA? I ask because FHA was usually the go-to for under 20% down, but since they made the change to PMI FHA is no longer a good place to go for under 20% down. edit: not trying to sass or challenge you, just wondering under what set of circumstances that ended up being the right thing for you.
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Apr 14, 2014 18:59
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It came down to cash we needed on hand at closing really. My fiance and I are in a weird spot right now where we are living rent free at my parents, and had planned to do so for another 4-5 months while saving up our down payment, but my parents suddenly got in a bind and they are selling their house. Yes, we considered renting, which I'm not opposed to, but I'm looking at it as a last resort at this point as I'm tired of bouncing around as I have for the past few years and considering we are getting married come November, I want to have our own place at this point. On top of that, we have discovered a house right in line with what we were looking for at a price that is a steal for a very nice area due to it essentially being a divorce house (they were never married, lived together, fixed up the house post Katrina, broke up, selling it) I wanted conventional, but the timing and our current savings aren't really making it work for closing costs and down payment. Lender estimated it would probably be another 5-7 grand at closing if we went conv vs fha which equates to another couple of months of waiting for us, which I can't say we have.
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Apr 14, 2014 19:34
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Freddie Mac verbally accepted. So I should get a signed contract back between tomorrow and the heat death of the universe. Edit: well not technically verbally accepted; they proposed pushing the closing date out by two weeks as the only change to the offer, which I accepted. Jealous Cow fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Apr 15, 2014 |
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Apr 15, 2014 00:41
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couldcareless posted:It came down to cash we needed on hand at closing really.
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Apr 15, 2014 03:52
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Delorence Fickle posted:I know what you mean. I live in DC and work for the Feds and my home buying options at this point are pretty much, either live in a rundown house in the hood (even those go for 250k+) or live way outside the beltway due to the fact that homes here are locked out for me price wise. My husband and I also work in DC for the feds. We closed on our house in Fredericksburg earlier this month and today is the first day of my husband taking the VRE to work (I go tomorrow). We both have telework 3 days a week, so at least that isn't too bad. We lived in Arlington before, but were renting and couldn't imagine dropping 550k on a 1200sqft 2/1 house like our friends. Also, if you go to SC, I found Charleston to be a lot nicer. I lived for four years up around Fort Mill outside of Charlotte, and my sister moved to Charleston after graduating from college and loves it. The house prices there are a bit out of the norm for the rest of SC, but its way better than the DC area.
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Apr 15, 2014 11:30
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House inspection today. Hoping for the best.
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Apr 15, 2014 17:40
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Appraisal came back, appraised 12,000 over our offer, but we can't go to closing because the spare bathroom needs some grouting, a toilet, and a vanity. Great.
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Apr 15, 2014 18:01
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