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I was pretty adamant about not buying a house without Google Fiber, but the pickings are so drat slim right now that I'll pretty much have to bite the bullet and hope they come back through whatever neighborhood in a reasonable amount of time(if at all). No way I could handle a place that couldn't get broadband of some sort.
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May 31, 2014 05:40
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I don't do online gaming much these days, but streaming poo poo is kind of a thing, as well as downloading way too many drat steam games. The latter I can easily do at work and stuff them on a USB stick or whatever, so that's not much more than a minor annoyance. Work is 90% terminal but that other 10% is kind of a thing. We'd be able to make do, but I guess we'll find out if we have to. It'll definitely be a bit of a thing. As far as why they're not getting married, they're plenty of committed to each other. It has nothing to do with that. Both just don't see the necessity for marriage. One of them also refuses to even consider getting married until their gay friends are allowed to get married because it's bullshit that they can't. Mostly, though, it's because neither one of them has ever felt the need to get officially married to show commitment to each other. Whether or not they should buy a house has fuckall to do with marital status. ssb fucked around with this message at 07:39 on May 31, 2014 |
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May 31, 2014 07:37
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May 31, 2014 14:03
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Woke up for the first time in my own place today! Having breakfast at this awesome little diner right across the street. Thanks for all of the information since I started looking over a year ago! Good luck no-broadband dude.
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May 31, 2014 14:58
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fknlo posted:I was pretty adamant about not buying a house without Google Fiber, but the pickings are so drat slim right now that I'll pretty much have to bite the bullet and hope they come back through whatever neighborhood in a reasonable amount of time(if at all). No way I could handle a place that couldn't get broadband of some sort. There's 0 places with google fiber even in the SECOND CITY THEY EVER ANNOUNCED lol. Google is such a colossal gently caress up when it comes to fiber its embarrassing. Hire me google, thanks.
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May 31, 2014 20:33
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I'm just starting to look at homes now. I've got my down payment together, preaproval, and think I've found a decent buyers agent. I was looking around and found a short sale cash only for about $60K that's the perfect size in the perfect location, my style of architecture, everything. I have about $25K saved up for a down payment and was planning to finance the rest up to about $100K. Theoretically though, I could cash out my Roth IRA and buy this house in cash. Right now it's just a hypothetical as I could always find something horribly wrong with a house. I'm really wondering if cashing out the Roth isn't just as financially reasonable as going the traditional route. I'm already contributing to a 401K at 5% with full matching and have a pension. There wouldn't be a tax penalty to withdrawing the money, just a lack of tax free appreciation in the future. Without a mortgage payment or rent I could easily rebuild the $30K that I'd be taking from the Roth. What do you guys think? Am I missing something here? Could this be a good idea with this house or another amazing deal cash only property? The allure of living the rest of my life without even mortgage debt is really tempting.
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Jun 1, 2014 21:06
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Leviathan Song posted:I'm just starting to look at homes now. I've got my down payment together, preaproval, and think I've found a decent buyers agent. I was looking around and found a short sale cash only for about $60K that's the perfect size in the perfect location, my style of architecture, everything. How old are you? If you're sinking in 30k of Roth money then the opportunity cost is losing ~6 years of contributions that you will never get back and the investment earnings that would come with it tax free until the time you retire. Obviously the reward is no mortgage and the chance to save/invest/use the amount that you would pay monthly. If you have decades before you retire, then the greater value is likely with keeping the Roth intact. If you're near retirement age then it skews towards eliminating the monthly expense. Of course take this with a mountain of salt since there is a ton of other factors. Edit: oh and make sure you have a big enough emergency fund after the purchase because if it's a cash short sale there is a decent chance for some major repairs to be done 
balancedbias fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 21:34
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balancedbias posted:How old are you? If you're sinking in 30k of Roth money then the opportunity cost is losing ~6 years of contributions that you will never get back and the investment earnings that would come with it tax free until the time you retire. Obviously the reward is no mortgage and the chance to save/invest/use the amount that you would pay monthly. If you have decades before you retire, then the greater value is likely with keeping the Roth intact. If you're near retirement age then it skews towards eliminating the monthly expense. Of course take this with a mountain of salt since there is a ton of other factors. I'm 30 years old, expecting to retire in about 27 years. I'm setting aside my emergency fund from the above calculation because repairs are absolutely a concern. That's roughly what I was thinking but...if I can get what would typically be an $80K house for $60K and a bit of cleaning and painting doesn't that make up some for the all of the lost tax free growth? Obviously I'd need to put what would have been my mortgage payment into my 401K instead for about 6 years to make up for the retirement but at that point it looks like I'm way ahead.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:04
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Leviathan Song posted:if I can get what would typically be an $80K house for $60K and a bit of cleaning and painting Keep in mind you can always take money out of your Roth IRA to pay down the mortgage. You don't have to decide now.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:24
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Plus don't forget about the mortgage tax credit. That's like the top way for most people to shield income.
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Jun 2, 2014 14:09
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Lowness 72 posted:Plus don't forget about the mortgage tax credit. That's like the top way for most people to shield income. Are you talking about a MCC? Other than that, there aren't any tax credits, just the mortgage interest deduction. Anyone know how much you need to borrow at today's rates to even break even on the standard deduction for either single or MFJ, assuming no other deductions?
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Jun 2, 2014 14:38
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shortspecialbus posted:I don't do online gaming much these days, but streaming poo poo is kind of a thing, as well as downloading way too many drat steam games. The latter I can easily do at work and stuff them on a USB stick or whatever, so that's not much more than a minor annoyance. Work is 90% terminal but that other 10% is kind of a thing. We'd be able to make do, but I guess we'll find out if we have to. It'll definitely be a bit of a thing. We live way out in bumfuck (because we want to) and I have Exede. It works fine and the latency isn't as bad as I'd feared. We don't game or stream TV or anything so it wasn't that big of a deal. The overall speeds are fine and are comparable to cable/dsl. There's a semi-new satellite called Viasat that Excede uses that has a ton of capacity and is pretty fast. As long as you live in an area that can see the Viasat spotbeams (known as Exede 12) you should be able to get by with it. I don't use VNC much but I ssh into a lot of things and there is definitely a second or so for echoes to come back when I type. It's annoying but you get used to it. It's not as bad as I thought and if you really need occasional super-low-latency access for work you can always get a 4g paygo USB stick or something. I wouldn't walk away from a deal over it.
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Jun 2, 2014 14:43
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Appraisal came in 1% higher than the agreed selling price, which seems to be very common looking back at the last couple pages. Looks like there's not much more in the way of getting this house! Closing date is the 23rd. I already feel poor.
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Jun 2, 2014 14:46
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Adiabatic posted:Appraisal came in 1% higher than the agreed selling price, which seems to be very common looking back at the last couple pages. You are rich in Real Estate, it is not like fake money backed by politician promises is worth more then a money pit house that will eat up all your time and money for decades to come! I am bad at arguing. Anyway Zillow update. Some crazy lady and her family are willing to pay me 25K more then I listed my house on Zillow for. Full low interest bubble confirmed. Now my only problem is every replacement house has equally inflated in price.
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Jun 2, 2014 14:54
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baquerd posted:Are you talking about a MCC? Other than that, there aren't any tax credits, just the mortgage interest deduction. Anyone know how much you need to borrow at today's rates to even break even on the standard deduction for either single or MFJ, assuming no other deductions? The standard deduction was $6.1k this year, increases to $6.2k for 2014 and increases $100 or $150 each year. So at an interest rate of 4.1%, the interest deduction from a 150k loan will hit that for only the first year. A 200k loan will surpass that for 6-7 years and a 300k loan will surpass that for maybe 11-12 years. Double the standard deduction for your typical married couple, so start at around a $300k loan. It's also $8.7k if you're single with dependants, so a ~$220k loan.
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Jun 2, 2014 15:08
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Except that many people already have some things that they could itemize, if they were itemizing, but they don't have enough prior to having a mortgage to have those items exceed the standard deduction. So it's impossible to know exactly how much of the loan interest someone can effectively cut from their annual budget due to the deduction. Example: if my wife and I made charitable donations, had unreimbursed business expenses, and etc. to the tune of $11,000 in 2014, but didn't own a house, my wife and I would take the $12,400 standard deduction. But if we did own a house, we'd itemize, and only the remaining $2400 of interest needed to take us over the $12,400 threshhold is effectively nondeductible for us.
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Jun 2, 2014 20:42
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I am in Virginia. We have an accepted offer on a house and close June 23. We already did all the addendums prior to signing the offer and getting it accepted, then the inspection, then the inspection addendums, and everything was signed by all parties May 24. The home is being sold by a relocation company acting on behalf of the owner. All forms were signed by the relo company, and we had to sign a big ol addendum and initial inspection report they had done back in April and submit it with our offer. All of that concluded just fine. Today we got an the email from the seller saying that prior to the relo company taking position from the owner tomorrow that we would have to sign a NEW form which reads as follows: quote:The undersigned (“Buyers”) desire to close on the purchase from Relocation Company (the “Seller”) of the residence at RESIDENCE (“Home”) and take possession of the Home after having been given the disclosures set forth on Relo Company's Inspection Disclosure Addendum (“Disclosure”) and having had the opportunity to complete their own inspection on the Home. And we have to turn this in by tomorrow morning. This smacks of bullshit because it is just something typed out on a MSDOC form. Furthermore we have a signed, accepted offer, and signed inspection addendums. All the real estate paperwork is done and we are just waiting to do the final walk through in late June and sign. So my thinking is to tell them tough titties because we had a done deal. Throwing something in like this is pretty much a poison pill, and not much different if they just slapped a post it note on my desk saying "Pay me lots of money/do something inane/let me key your car or the seller walks!" So if I tell them to get lost and they try to scuttle the deal, what recourse do I have? I placed an order for appliances which I could cancel pretty easily, but I don't want to lose my $4k earnest money if somehow they get away with bullshit like this in VA real estate. I am thinking I will edit this new addendum to read that they are free and clear of any secondary problems caused by the previous existence of mold in the house, but it seems like signing this thing as written would let the current occupants kick in the walls and poo poo and I would have no recourse during my final walk through. My wife is a RE agent here, but this is her first transaction in this state. She has done several in AZ, but we don't know all the kinks of VA law. We have already asked her brokerage for insight. Turnquiet fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Jun 2, 2014 |
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Jun 2, 2014 21:55
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Leperflesh posted:Except that many people already have some things that they could itemize, if they were itemizing, but they don't have enough prior to having a mortgage to have those items exceed the standard deduction. So it's impossible to know exactly how much of the loan interest someone can effectively cut from their annual budget due to the deduction. Oh agreed, I was just answering his question. It's pretty likely that someone at the stage of buying a house would have other deductions. Heck, I'm in year 3 of my loan and after doing my IRA deductions had a refund that just about pays my property taxes for this year.
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Jun 2, 2014 22:10
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Yeah, I'm covering I think about half my mortgage interest from deductions and since I refinanced in 2011, I'm only two and a half years into my current 30-year loan. For some reason I didn't notice "...assuming no other deductions" in that quote of his. I think most people can find a few other deductions, though, if they have good advice about what sorts of things to track or look for.
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Jun 2, 2014 22:24
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The deduction is actually a really good point that I didn't consider, I think that tips it in favor of a traditional mortgage. Last year I was like $40 short of the standard deduction and the year before I was able to itemize so that makes a big difference. I'm off too look at some other houses tomorrow.
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Jun 2, 2014 23:06
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I'm in NYC. I've had the itemized deduction for a few years despite not having anything really out of the ordinary. I think it's because of high state and city taxes? Hopefully turbo tax isn't loving me. Buying will save me a few hundred bucks a month in tax savings. I'm really looking forward to that if I can figure out this insane market.
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Jun 2, 2014 23:30
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Please also consider that the mortgage interest deduction has received some congressional scrutiny in recent years. If I remember right, the ability to deduct PMI/MIP hasn't even been renewed (yet?) for 2014, and it might not be. Maybe in a future year they could get rid of the interest deduction too. I only mention it because Congress has kind of been on a tear lately about loving with mortgage laws, including maybe shutting down Freddie, revising the FHA rules repeatedly, and general sentiment seems to have shifted from "everyone must buy a home it's the key to being in the middle class" 1990s thinking to "nobody should buy a home but rich people because if you help the poors buy a house, pretty soon the global economy collapses". Both extremes are idiotic, of course, but there's a reason Congress has single-digit approval ratings.
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Jun 3, 2014 00:16
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Lowness 72 posted:I'm in NYC. I've had the itemized deduction for a few years despite not having anything really out of the ordinary. I think it's because of high state and city taxes? Hopefully turbo tax isn't loving me. Yeah, state income taxes can pretty easily cover the entire standard deduction (as can property taxes, for that matter, once you've bought the house).
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Jun 3, 2014 00:38
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The current owner of the house was at the well/septic inspection today (which went swimmingly - apparently it's a very good setup on both fronts) and I asked him about the internet. They do indeed currently have 15mbit DSL which works just fine, and I figured out why the local telco is so loving confused as well - apparently the address changed a couple years back, so the phantom address that has the service is actually this house. So we're good to go on that front. I'll still let them do the survey on the line or whatever, but that's a load off.
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Jun 3, 2014 01:00
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We went under contract today in Virginia  This is going to be a stressful few weeks. The sellers want to close by June 26th so they don't have to pay their interest for July on their FHA loan.  Fortunately I'm well on my way with my lender, and the lender assures me that we will be able to close by the 26th. And at least there are no holidays/3 day weekends in June to eat up precious time!
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Jun 3, 2014 02:21
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Thought you were dealing with a huge idiot, then I looked it up and wow, FHA loans actually work that way! Jesus, what a bargain. Good luck!
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Jun 3, 2014 02:27
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slap me silly posted:Thought you were dealing with a huge idiot, then I looked it up and wow, FHA loans actually work that way! Jesus, what a bargain. Good luck! One of the many reasons we didn't go with an FHA loan!
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Jun 3, 2014 12:52
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Turnquiet posted:I am in Virginia. We have an accepted offer on a house and close June 23. We already did all the addendums prior to signing the offer and getting it accepted, then the inspection, then the inspection addendums, and everything was signed by all parties May 24.
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Jun 3, 2014 14:03
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Dijkstra posted:Did you use a closing attorney? That's the first person I'd ask. So if you don't sign it are they canceling the sale? Tell them to pound sand. Why is the seller emailing you documents directly? Sounds like you are buying a mold death house.
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Jun 3, 2014 15:42
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Elephanthead posted:So if you don't sign it are they canceling the sale? Tell them to pound sand. Why is the seller emailing you documents directly? Sounds like you are buying a mold death house. I'd talk to my realtor or my bank if that happened, but I'm not sure how that would apply in your situation. Either way I think the proper response is ultimately going to be "get bent."
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Jun 3, 2014 16:03
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I wouldn't even talk to my realtor (unless he/she was a good friend or something), other than to just let them know what was going on. I'd go straight to my attorney. Right now the realtor has a pretty big interest in just seeing that the sale closes so they get paid. If they thought everything was signed/sealed/delivered already they may be loathe to give advice that will interrupt the cash flow they were probably already counting on at the end of the month.
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Jun 3, 2014 16:52
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We checked around and ultimately told them to get bent since the transaction has already gone through ratification. This is just corporate BS from the relocation company's legal department that they wanted to have taken care of when they take possession of the property from the owner to complete the sale to us- something outside of our real estate transaction. We told them that the document as written leaves us with no recourse and the only way we would sign it is after the owner has vacated and we have done our final walkthrough. They can bluster all they want but they are over a barrel on this one. Them sending me a waiver of liability after mold remediation made me raise my eyebrows, but we have been inside, outside, and upside down the guts of this place. The "mold" spot in question was just a spot of fungus from a damp spot in the attic where their roof needed repair (and the repairs were done). They hit it with some treatment via a licensed mold remover and we have letters, seals, warranties and all sorts of poo poo from that company on that front.
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Jun 3, 2014 17:05
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Turnquiet posted:We checked around and ultimately told them to get bent since the transaction has already gone through ratification. This is just corporate BS from the relocation company's legal department that they wanted to have taken care of when they take possession of the property from the owner to complete the sale to us- something outside of our real estate transaction. We told them that the document as written leaves us with no recourse and the only way we would sign it is after the owner has vacated and we have done our final walkthrough. They can bluster all they want but they are over a barrel on this one. Personally, at this point of the transaction, there is no way that I would consider signing any document of that sort even if it's modified a bit, before or after closing.
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Jun 3, 2014 17:17
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I purchased my home in March of 2012 for 215k. The appraised value came in at 230k. I got an FHA loan and put down 3.5%. Each year the assessed value of the property has gone up slightly. I just received the assessed value for this year and the land value has doubled from 30k to 60k taking the assessed value up to almost 260k. Can I use this as leverage to get rid of my PMI? Ninja edit: I currently owe <200k in principal.
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Jun 3, 2014 20:44
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After having an inspection done on a house and checking out the attic I'm a little puzzled. It's a walk up attic with insulation "paneled in" to the roof with lovely 70s looking cardboard fake wood siding. There is no ridge vent or any other venting in the attic so where would the air even go from the whole house fan unless you open a gable window? Also the 2nd floor bathroom exhausts directly into the attic as well. I didn't notice any of this during my first walkthrough of the house because I'm a first timer and all these things are new to me. The roof is only a year old and I know it's not a huge deal to redo the insulation but how important is the ventilation?
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Jun 3, 2014 20:55
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I Love Topanga posted:I purchased my home in March of 2012 for 215k. The appraised value came in at 230k. I got an FHA loan and put down 3.5%. Each year the assessed value of the property has gone up slightly. I just received the assessed value for this year and the land value has doubled from 30k to 60k taking the assessed value up to almost 260k. Can I use this as leverage to get rid of my PMI? It should just require an LTV of 20%+ with proof of appraisal or assessment provided to lender? I've never done this personally, but from my reading that is the process. And since your loan was prior to the "no more getting out of PMI" fha loans, you should be fine
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Jun 3, 2014 20:56
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I Love Topanga posted:I purchased my home in March of 2012 for 215k. The appraised value came in at 230k. I got an FHA loan and put down 3.5%. Each year the assessed value of the property has gone up slightly. I just received the assessed value for this year and the land value has doubled from 30k to 60k taking the assessed value up to almost 260k. Can I use this as leverage to get rid of my PMI? I believe you have to refinance out of your FHA loan, but assuming you'll appraise for enough to get your LTV at 20%+ you'll be OK. edit: here are lots of details about this. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 20:57
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I Love Topanga posted:I purchased my home in March of 2012 for 215k. The appraised value came in at 230k. I got an FHA loan and put down 3.5%. Each year the assessed value of the property has gone up slightly. I just received the assessed value for this year and the land value has doubled from 30k to 60k taking the assessed value up to almost 260k. Can I use this as leverage to get rid of my PMI? I thought PMI prior to the permanent PMI required a minimum of 60 months before you could cancel it regardless of LTV%. edit: above link says yes for 30 year, doesn't matter for 15 year.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:36
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Sounds like there is a chance, but may require an appraisal. I don't think my house would appraise high enough based on comps in my area. I hope the assessed value is enough. I just put a call into my mortgage broker to get her opinion.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:38
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An assessment (like by a county assessor) is not an appraisal. If you have a 30-year note from March 2012, you must either: A) pay MIP for a minimum of 60 months, AND have LTV above 78% B) refinance into a conventional (non-FHA) loan, which will require an appraisal. There is such a thing as an FHA streamline refinance, but that does not involve an appraisal, puts you into a new FHA loan, and does not get rid of your MIP. It's just a refinance for the purposes of getting a lower interest rate, if you're in a higher rate than the current market. I did one in 2010. It was basically free, but it reset my mortgage, and my MIP actually went up (but by less than the amount my payments went down due to the decrease in my interest rate). Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 21:50
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