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Wow, so we just got a letter in the mail from Liberty Mutual telling us that they're cancelling our homeowner's insurance on May 19th. We bought our first home three weeks ago and this was the very last thing I expected to go wrong (and I've already spent thousands on miscellaneous repairs since moving in---which I was prepared for). The letter alleges our coverage was cancelled because: "One set of rear steps do not have handrails. Section of siding on rear of risk missing. Rear shed has dry rot." The kicker is that those typos were included in the letter...I mean, if we're going to ruin someone's day can we at least run the report through spellcheck first? There's a small 1' x 3' panel of aluminum siding missing near the rear sliding door. There's a small three-step "staircase" off the rear deck (which the previous owner opted not to build a railing for in the first place) that's missing a handrail. Now, the shed is like 30 feet away from the house and it is admittedly in shambles but I'm having it removed this week anyway. These all seem like easy fixes and extremely minor *problems* and I understand that it's a liability issue with the shed and the handrail. So I called Liberty Mutual and asked if we were to get the siding repaired, a new handrail put on the deck stairs, and have the shed demo'd/removed if they'd reinstate our homeowners insurance. The lady on the phone said that we would not be able to reinstate coverage with Liberty Mutual even if the repairs were made. So now I'm freaking out, obviously there must be some other reason(s) why they cancelled the policy and they just put that bullshit in the letter to give me the runaround. How common is it for homeowner's insurance to be cancelled on a newly purchased home? Why won't they reinstate my policy even if I get the repairs done? What should I do now? Can I just call another company to insure the home and have the repairs done in the meantime before their appraiser comes out to do an inspection?
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Apr 22, 2014 21:27
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fruition posted:Can I just call another company to insure the home and have the repairs done in the meantime before their appraiser comes out to do an inspection?
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Apr 22, 2014 23:56
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adorai posted:None of the homeowners policies I have purchased in my life have required an inspection of any kind.
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Apr 23, 2014 00:07
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Bananasaurus Rex posted:So what is everyone's opinion on taking out a loan against your 401k to help fund the downpayment for a house? I'm actually interested in this too. I can't do this until July when I've been vested in my TSP for a long enough amount of time, but if I haven't found a house by then I was seriously considering doing it to get to 20% down.
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Apr 23, 2014 01:43
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House buying, in pictures: Wow, that place looks great! Nice backyard, updated kitchen, sweet master bedroom. Let's set up a showing!  House buying, in person: Wow, that place is a shithole! Backyard fence falling down, dishwasher sloping at an angle, unfinished water-damaged basement with several broken windows. 
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Apr 23, 2014 02:30
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Bananasaurus Rex posted:So what is everyone's opinion on taking out a loan against your 401k to help fund the downpayment for a house? We're already pre-approved and everything so this will just be for trying to get to 20% down to avoid PMI. I'm 29 years old. Got 40k in my 401k. I can withdraw 20k of that. Max pay back period is 10yrs. I pay 4.25% interest to myself with no tax implications. If I am let go I can still continue with my payment plan, but I'd have to set up the payment plan myself or whatever. Pretty much every resource I've ever seen says it's a bad idea. You also appear to be setting yourself up on the razor's edge for affordability. If you read through the thread (and from personal experience) you are probably going to spend 0.5-2.5% a year on maintenance and repairs and there is the potential for tens of thousands of dollars of unforeseen expenses right off the bat. That being said, in general I believe there are situations where touching retirement money could make sense. The one that comes to mind is significant oversaving, which, without knowing your income and retirement goals, I can't say for sure but at first glance you don't appear to have oversaved. Bear in mind plans often trigger an immediate call on the loan balance if you are laid off or leave your job.
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Apr 23, 2014 03:37
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Bananasaurus Rex posted:So, does anyone have any advice on this? It seems like if I could get it to all come together it would totally be worth it. Or is taking on even more debt not a good idea? I figure paying interest to myself beats paying it to some bank. I know my investments could earn better than the 4.25% I'm paying myself. But I'm not worrying about that much. But avoiding PMI and lowering my mortgage seems like a good deal. Is there anything I'm overlooking here? It's generally frowned upon, but in your case, it's probably worth it. If you think of PMI as an interest charge applicable only on the amount you borrow over 80%, paying $100/mo is like paying 17% interest on that $7K. Totally worth the opportunity cost of borrowing from the 401K to avoid that. Just make sure you can handle the situation where you lose your job before the 401k loan is repaid.
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Apr 23, 2014 03:49
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When State Farm has insured my family's various houses, I'm certain the insurance agent came by the house to take a look at it first.
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Apr 23, 2014 06:03
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Bananasaurus Rex posted:So what is everyone's opinion on taking out a loan against your 401k to help fund the downpayment for a house? We're already pre-approved and everything so this will just be for trying to get to 20% down to avoid PMI. I'm 29 years old. Got 40k in my 401k. I can withdraw 20k of that. Max pay back period is 10yrs. I pay 4.25% interest to myself with no tax implications. If I am let go I can still continue with my payment plan, but I'd have to set up the payment plan myself or whatever. you're buying too much house. I'm about your age, with roughly double the savings/downpayment ability. we just put in an offer on a house for $340, and I'm still stressing out about us spending too much of our money/savings. for reference, $400 was our absolute cap, including 100% of closing costs, renovations, everything. just to be prudent - not that we couldn't technically afford it or more. and by "afford" I mean pay assloads of interest for 10000 years. edit - far more important than your 401k loan repayments, consider the sheer amount of interest you'll be paying on your home over the term of the mortgage. For 30 year fixed (I'm assuming this is what you're thinking), it's loving insane - can be almost half the value of your house, on top of the value of your house. Maybe re-evaluate what your needs are, and try to get a mortgage you can afford closer to a 15 year fixed. or if you're already planning on doing a 15 year fixed, look at how a 7/1 ARM amortizes if you throw $1000-1500/mo of additional principle on your monthly payments (roughly doing what a 15 year fixed would do you, but with the option to slow down your equity building if cashflow becomes a problem) livejournal : I'm really happy with the payment schedule I've come up with - we'll hopefully be paying like $58k interest and finish our loan in 12 years and live happily forever after in debt-free world. mindphlux fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Apr 23, 2014 |
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Apr 23, 2014 09:00
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I had a "drive-by" inspection from State Farm before they insured my house in CA. I wasn't able to be there so they didn't have access to the inside but they seemed fine with that. Chances are you'll be fine with a new insurer if you fix those problems. Different places have different crazy robot rules about what they can and can not cover. As long as it isn't a structural issue (like poor eave designs in fire territory or no roof strapping in hurricane territory) there should be someone who wants your business.
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Apr 23, 2014 09:03
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a shameful boehner posted:House buying, in pictures: Wow, that place looks great! Nice backyard, updated kitchen, sweet master bedroom. Let's set up a showing! The kicker was the foundation. They added a garage at the same level as the basement floor. Anybody with common sense would just add the garage footprint adjacent to the basement and affected their foundation only by drilling a door in the common wall. Instead, they intersected the garage footprint with about 1/3 of the existing basement (including a new wall for the garage; the basement didn't just open into the garage). What else could go wrong by tearing down most of any foundation wall? Apparently they later found out. There was so much obvious cinderblock foundation replacement for an original basement perimeter and I've never seen cinderblock column re-enforcements.
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Apr 23, 2014 13:32
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quote:So $12k short of 20% down. We don't want to entirely wipe out our savings after closing costs. It would take us 33 months to get to 20%.
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Apr 23, 2014 15:37
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I had an insurance company send me the cancellation letter before. My agent was able to contact them and get me a new policy. You should install stairs though if possible. They don't like that for some reason, probably lawsuits. They also complained about trees to close, I told them the trees would outlast the house and they said fine you pay $10 more a year then.
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Apr 23, 2014 15:39
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Bananasaurus Rex posted:401k loan I agree with Moana if you are focused on $50/mo you are missing the forest for the trees. But it's hard for me to have an opinion on whether you're over-reaching generally unless I also know the rest of your financial picture: your income and expenses, how much cash you will have after the house purchase, whether you budgeted for the expense of maintaining a $400k house, whether you can maintain your retirement savings and cash reserves, etc. I don't know how much you've already thought through all that, but share if you're interested in feedback :>
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Apr 23, 2014 15:50
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moana posted:It would take you almost three years to save $12k? You're not ready for a house that big. In your post you're talking about two-digit monthly payments like they mean something. And if two-digit monthly payments mean ANYTHING to you, you're not prepared for the financial risk of home ownership. Yeah, this seems like good advice. If you can only save ~$360 a month towards your down payment...that just doesn't seem like enough wiggle room. Granted, I don't know your income or expenses, but if you're renting right now and only have that much to spare, it seems like its too much house. Even if you can "afford" $390k, do you really want to? It's a very precarious position to be in.
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Apr 23, 2014 17:29
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Cheesus posted:There was a lot to justify my reservations.  God help me, this applies to almost every property I've viewed. At least I've learned that pictures paint a best case scenario of any property and to go in expecting the worst. Do you have any suggestions for the best listing sites to review for Colorado property? I've been searching primarily on Coloproperty, Realtor and Movato.
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Apr 23, 2014 18:13
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I used both Realtor and Coloproperty.
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Apr 23, 2014 18:45
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Recolorado.com was the one I used.
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Apr 23, 2014 18:55
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Underwriter signed off on my finances and we're just waiting on the appraisal/title/whatever to get a clear to close. What have I done.
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Apr 23, 2014 19:59
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Elephanthead posted:I had an insurance company send me the cancellation letter before. My agent was able to contact them and get me a new policy. You should install stairs though if possible. They don't like that for some reason, probably lawsuits.
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Apr 23, 2014 20:04
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Thanks for all the advice regarding the 401k loan. Exactly the kind of advice I was looking for. This extra 7k I'm coming up with is just to get to 20%. I could burn through more of my savings to get there, but I absolutley want to leave a certain amount in my account. The $58 off my mortgage payments was just a nice bonus and won't affect my finances any. The real goal is avoiding that $100 PMI for three years. I was thinking about if more from an investment standpoint. That 7k is saving me $100 a month, so essentially earning that. But it's also forgoing what it could have made had I left it in my current funds. But if I could pay back the $7k within those three years it seems like it would be a decent investment. Of course paying it back that quickly might turn into a big if. Still, yeah...I feel like I'm reaching too much on this one. Plus, looks like this house just got two bids since yesterday. So I'm staying away. Oh well. Going to look back in my normal range. On a side note, I checked with my company sevreal times and they assure me that if I were terminated I could still continue the payments through my checking account for the original ten year term. So that's a pretty sweet deal. Of course in that scenario I'd have no job...
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Apr 23, 2014 21:13
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Bananasaurus Rex posted:Thanks for all the advice regarding the 401k loan. Exactly the kind of advice I was looking for. This is a false dichotomy between buying the house with money borrowed from your 401k and buying the house with PMI. Keep your house budget where it belongs—low enough that you don't have to steal from your future self.
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Apr 23, 2014 21:37
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Linco posted:I'm putting an offer on a house, and it hinges on it not being in a flood zone. Is anyone adept at reading flood zone maps? It appears to be clear of the flood zone to me. My in laws live near there. It isn't in the flood zone now, but it's a reasonably safe bet that it will be in the future. Great views, though, and an Amato's down the street. Mmm.
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Apr 23, 2014 22:19
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I'm acquainted with this listing agent, who posted this on facebook. http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6609-E-Mary-Dr-Tucson-AZ-85730/8553884_zpid/ The hideous "filters" in those photos
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Apr 24, 2014 01:38
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just looked at a 1000 sqft piece of poo poo house in redwood city. place was a wreck. mold on the walls, old disgusting carpets, place needs to be completely redone on the inside. oh, also power lines running just above head-level right through the back yard. listing price? $735k.
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Apr 24, 2014 01:43
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nebby posted:just looked at a 1000 sqft piece of poo poo house in redwood city. place was a wreck. mold on the walls, old disgusting carpets, place needs to be completely redone on the inside. oh, also power lines running just above head-level right through the back yard. What type of price range and area are you looking for? I live in Redwood City now, and when looking to buy a house we probably went to 20 open houses there. Redwood City feels overpriced just because it is the shittiest mid peninsula city outside of EPA, but the sellers think every house is worth $1m. We actually saw a house we liked in RWC that went for 888k, the neighborhood was a little rough around the edges, but the house was big and pretty nice and up to date.
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Apr 24, 2014 02:29
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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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Cranbe posted:This is a false dichotomy between buying the house with money borrowed from your 401k and buying the house with PMI. Keep your house budget where it belongs—low enough that you don't have to steal from your future self. I'm not disagreeing with your overall point, but isn't "stealing from your future self" exactly what a mortgage is? (or any other form of debt, really)
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Apr 24, 2014 02:54
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canyoneer posted:I'm acquainted with this listing agent, who posted this on facebook.
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Apr 24, 2014 03:04
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moana posted:lovely low-res photos? Let's slap an HDR filter on it, looks great! This seems to be increasingly common. Some rear end in a top hat taught realtors to use HDR photos and panorama shots to the bane of us all.
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Apr 24, 2014 03:40
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Tiny room and/or lovely layout? Fisheye! 
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Apr 24, 2014 03:49
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Steve French posted:I'm not disagreeing with your overall point, but isn't "stealing from your future self" exactly what a mortgage is? (or any other form of debt, really) You have to live somewhere. The most common scenarios are rent or buy. If someone told you "there's an apartment for rent that's just $50 per month more, but it's nicer and all you have to do is remove money from your retirement account to make up the difference..." I'm not sure most people would bite. To put it another way: you're asking if it's a good idea to borrow your own tax-advantaged money to make it cheaper to borrow more money for a product with fewer advantages AND makes you create your own self-imposed penalty.
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Apr 24, 2014 03:59
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Pain of Mind posted:What type of price range and area are you looking for? I live in Redwood City now, and when looking to buy a house we probably went to 20 open houses there. Redwood City feels overpriced just because it is the shittiest mid peninsula city outside of EPA, but the sellers think every house is worth $1m. We actually saw a house we liked in RWC that went for 888k, the neighborhood was a little rough around the edges, but the house was big and pretty nice and up to date. In 2009 my wife and I looked at three or four lovely, 1000 square foot houses in RWC, and decided the neighborhoods were too crap to want to live in. Our budget was $250k and under. I bet those are the same houses being listed at $700k+ now.
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Apr 24, 2014 04:31
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Steve French posted:I'm not disagreeing with your overall point, but isn't "stealing from your future self" exactly what a mortgage is? (or any other form of debt, really) Buying a house with a mortgage is essentially going long on real estate on margin. If real estate values outpace your interest rate, you win big. If they increase at inflation rate, you win due to the necessity of the expense. If values crash, you lose super big if you need to sell. Think about it like this: You have $20k. You buy a stock on margin at 4:1 ($100k is invested, $80k of which you borrowed at 5%). Both gains and losses are now magnified, particularly losses if you cash out. If the stock goes up 10% in a year, you now own $110k of stock on $20k invested and $80 of debt, and you can cash out and pocket $6k ($10k - $4k interest) minus taxes of 15%, a gross profit at a rate of 22.5%. If your stock goes down to 90% of basis, you still owe $80k. Your assets are now $85k (after 5% interest on $100k), and your liabilities are $80k. Cashing out, you can claim capital losses but you are still in the hole for a loss of over 40%.
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Apr 24, 2014 05:38
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Redwood City is a nightmare. I am a hobby hunter more than anything at this point, but it's pretty sad to know that I will never be able to afford a home in the city I grew up in and love  My mom bought her house in Berkeley for 158k, lost it to loan sharks, and it last sold for 535k. This is in a neighborhood where my roommate was robbed at gunpoint at an ATM.I walk by that house all the time and take all the lemons from the tree I planted when I was 10 and feel no guilt. Yuppy gentrifying bastards  (Thanks for getting rid of the drug dealers right before the crash and then fleeing to Albany and North Berkeley, though! I enjoy renting your former homes while I plot my homebuying strategy)
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Apr 24, 2014 05:39
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Nothing major during inspection, but there is evidence in one place of termites a long time ago, so we have a termite guy coming out Monday.
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Apr 24, 2014 17:51
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Trilineatus posted:Redwood City is a nightmare. I am a hobby hunter more than anything at this point, but it's pretty sad to know that I will never be able to afford a home in the city I grew up in and love Until 2008, I was convinced I would never be able to afford to buy a house anywhere in the Bay Area, which I love. I'm a native San Franciscan and even after the crash, my home city was completely unaffordable for me. My point is that maybe you'll still get a shot someday, if there's another catastrophic drop in home prices. Or maybe you'll make lots more money!
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Apr 24, 2014 18:30
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We saw a decently nice but imo overpriced home (needed new windows throughout and a few other minor things) in a suburban area with workable but not-super-great schools yesterday and it's already under contract today for more than asking price.  Is being walking distance to Metro that much of a draw even in the extremely suburby suburbs? This is in the DC area.
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Apr 24, 2014 23:47
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Taco Pirate posted:We saw a decently nice but imo overpriced home (needed new windows throughout and a few other minor things) in a suburban area with workable but not-super-great schools yesterday and it's already under contract today for more than asking price. Largely, yes. What neighborhood? The DC area is low inventory this year so far, and prices are ridiculous from what I've seen. Traffic around here means metro is weighted more heavily than it should be, as well.
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Apr 25, 2014 00:26
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We're "interviewing" a Realtor here in Austin tomorrow. She comes highly recommended, but we'd like to make sure we don't pick someone on the basis of one recommendation without a juju check. So if you could do it again, what kind of questions would you ask your Realtor (beyond the OP) before you stated working with them? If you happen to have experience in Austin, even better.
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Apr 25, 2014 02:06
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Walked posted:Largely, yes. What neighborhood? The DC area is low inventory this year so far, and prices are ridiculous from what I've seen. I'm looking in Fairfax County, there are a few neighborhoods that are walking distance to Huntington and Springfield metros but we're trying to avoid Huntington because of the flooding. I'm just surprised I guess. It's not exactly Bethesda or Arlington over here.
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Apr 25, 2014 12:27
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