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Obsolete posted:What would be an acceptable amount of fees, and if they were "more reasonable," would it then make sense to refinance, or does my original concern of not really paying off the house any faster have some merit?
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Nov 12, 2014 20:01
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Tricky Ed posted:Just be honest. Say "I'm still renting but will likely enter the market as a first time buyer in the next couple of years. I'd like to check out some houses in an area I'm interested in to get an idea of what's available and price ranges," and then don't give them contact information. Take their card, be polite, and decide if you might want to work with them in the future. Or throw the card away when you get home. Lots of people go to open houses even if they're not planning to buy/sell soon. In fact most people at open houses are generally from the neighborhood and are curious about what their own house might be worth.
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Nov 12, 2014 20:08
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The FHA 100k loan guy. Can you give a detail of the fees? Normally you can refi with zero fees, 10% is crazytown unless it includes a ton of prepaids and interest buydowns.
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Nov 12, 2014 21:12
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Elephanthead posted:The FHA 100k loan guy. Can you give a detail of the fees? Normally you can refi with zero fees, 10% is crazytown unless it includes a ton of prepaids and interest buydowns. It looks like I was a little off. The loan itself was $104,000, with $6k being the fees part. It has things like "Appraisal Fee - $475; Title Fee - $775; Tax Reserves - $1750" and so forth up to $110,000. Not sure if that actually makes it any better. It does say "Estimated Prepaid/Buydowns - $2995; Estimated Total Closing Costs - $2450" at the bottom in a "summary" section. I looked at that PenFed place and their rates look better. I'm also assuming their closing costs are better too.
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Nov 12, 2014 22:18
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Obsolete posted:It looks like I was a little off. The loan itself was $104,000, with $6k being the fees part. It has things like "Appraisal Fee - $475; Title Fee - $775; Tax Reserves - $1750" and so forth up to $110,000. Not sure if that actually makes it any better. It does say "Estimated Prepaid/Buydowns - $2995; Estimated Total Closing Costs - $2450" at the bottom in a "summary" section. Makes more sense since you're having to buy the interest rate down to get 3.3% and some of that is escrow for taxes and insurance (not real new costs since you already have to pay them), but still high closing costs. Shop around for the best rates and fees but if it saves you about $250 a month in interest you'd recoup the closing costs quickly.
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Nov 12, 2014 22:23
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Keep in mind your fees may include funding a new escrow account, and your old escrow account will be returned to you.
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Nov 13, 2014 05:00
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Voodoo posted:Saw an interesting article in the Washington Post this morning, and immediately thought of this thread. This is kind of silly, they're talking about how you're better off putting money into IRAs and 401ks than into real estate. That's totally true, but there are also limits on how much one can contribute to those kinds of retirement accounts. Always max out your IRA and sock at least enough into your 401k to get any employer-matching benefits, of course. The rest of the article is kind of common sense stuff. Do buy if rent is high relative to the cost of ownership, do not buy if rent is low. The tax benefits for home ownership are negligible for low-income families but pretty good for high-income families. This is like saying "buy low and sell high" or "in order for this football team to win, they're going to have to score points while preventing the other team from scoring more points"
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Nov 13, 2014 08:59
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Obsolete posted:It looks like I was a little off. The loan itself was $104,000, with $6k being the fees part. It has things like "Appraisal Fee - $475; Title Fee - $775; Tax Reserves - $1750" and so forth up to $110,000. Not sure if that actually makes it any better. It does say "Estimated Prepaid/Buydowns - $2995; Estimated Total Closing Costs - $2450" at the bottom in a "summary" section.
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Nov 13, 2014 13:13
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Obsolete posted:I am notoriously terrible at math. I'm having a hard time determining if a refinance is really "worth it." It is a fairly complicated question. This is the only calculator I know of that accounts for most factors: http://www.mtgprofessor.com/CalculatorArticles/Refinance%20Calculators.html It accounts for the income tax deduction, which people tend to forget about and which typically works against the benefit of refinancing to a lower rate.
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Nov 13, 2014 21:03
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It's also worth noting that most people think they will be in their house far longer than they actually end up being there, it's a common overestimation in these calculations. Life changes unexpectedly and people have to move/sell/whatever, so try to err on the side of underestimating how long you'll stay put.
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Nov 13, 2014 23:46
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Dik Hz posted:Are you currently paying PMI, and would a refi knock that off? When did you take the loan? Before or after FHA loans adopted the new PMI requirements? How long are you planning to live in the house? Are you meeting your other saving goals? My PMI is $52/month, so before they jumped like crazy. A refinance SHOULD clear it off - it would depend on the appraisal. I could wait a few more months and get the balance down another few thousand and be guaranteed to clear it. I'm not planning on moving for awhile, but you never know. I would certainly like to be closer to work. I max my 401k (matched 100% up to 15% of salary) and a Roth with no other debts, and pay down an extra $750/month on the house. Thanks for that calculator. I haven't tried that one.
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Nov 14, 2014 03:58
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Obsolete posted:My PMI is $52/month, so before they jumped like crazy. A refinance SHOULD clear it off - it would depend on the appraisal. I could wait a few more months and get the balance down another few thousand and be guaranteed to clear it. I'm not planning on moving for awhile, but you never know. I would certainly like to be closer to work. I max my 401k (matched 100% up to 15% of salary) and a Roth with no other debts, and pay down an extra $750/month on the house.
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Nov 14, 2014 06:23
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Obsolete posted:My PMI is $52/month, so before they jumped like crazy. A refinance SHOULD clear it off - it would depend on the appraisal. I could wait a few more months and get the balance down another few thousand and be guaranteed to clear it. I'm not planning on moving for awhile, but you never know. I would certainly like to be closer to work. I max my 401k (matched 100% up to 15% of salary) and a Roth with no other debts, and pay down an extra $750/month on the house. Also, do NOT extend your mortgage time frame. You do not want to pay it off over a longer time to get the payments down. I would advocate moving it to a shorter loan even. Sounds like you were going for the same years remaining, which is definitely a good idea though. Sometimes you see people moving their 30yr with 25yr remaining to another 30yr, and while its smart because they're saving interest due to lower rates now, its dumb because they're paying more interest over 30yrs than if the refi was for the same lower rate over 25yrs.
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Nov 15, 2014 03:15
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Any idea how enforceable something like this would be? Seems to me like a crazy idea from a crazy lady.
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Nov 15, 2014 22:42
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FISHMANPET posted:Any idea how enforceable something like this would be? Sounds bullshit, once it's sold she doesn't own, or have any stake in it, anymore so what right does she have to tell people what they can do with their own property?
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Nov 15, 2014 23:40
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Deed restrictions are a real thing. There have been issues locally with restrictions like "if this property ever stops being used as a church, the property reverts to any surviving member of [family from 100 years ago]". So yeah, you could probably do it but I imagine it would negatively effect your property values since it creates a potential legal headache basically forever.
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Nov 15, 2014 23:49
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Rudager posted:Sounds bullshit, once it's sold she doesn't own, or have any stake in it, anymore so what right does she have to tell people what they can do with their own property? Restrictive covenants exist so it's not completely far-fetched. I'm no lawyer or real estate anything so I don't know the actual process for one to be legit.
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Nov 15, 2014 23:51
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Sometimes those things happen and a speculator buys the property and just lets the house rot so it's destruction will be ordered anyway. In that way it is easily circumvented and I don't know why she (or anyone) would do something like that because it basically means the house will be a blight on the neighbourhood for the next 30 years.
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Nov 15, 2014 23:56
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A family friend who was a hardcore nature lover bought up nearly 500 contiguous acres of wetland over the course of his life and worked with the local DNR to maintain it as pristine waterfowl habitat. When he got too old to live there he sold it off with a restrictive clause like "this land can never be sub-divided, only one home is allowed on the property, and these restrictions must be passed along to the next buyer(s) forever". He basically built his own do-it-yourself wetlands protection area. IANAL, but presumably as long as the buyer was informed of the restrictions and agreed to them as part of the contract they should remain effective. It's kind of like a real estate version of the GPL for people who care about a property for reasons other than money.
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Nov 16, 2014 01:33
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I just bought a house thats deed says the land cannot be subdivided, and only one house can be on the 5 acre lot and thats binding for me. It also says no prefabs, no mobile homes, and no log cabins so its a clause I am very happy the entire area has to live by. I will never have more neighbors than I do now and none will ever be trashy. Its glorious.
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Nov 16, 2014 02:12
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I am not a lawyer, but you can put whatever random deed restrictions you want on a property, however then it's up to you as an interested party to surveil and enforce the restriction by litigating. Also you can petition courts to discard deed restrictions if they are arbitrary or burdensome and generally you can't make restrictions in perpetuity. Conservation easements overseen by a conservation trust are a different beast entirely and often have special legal status.
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Nov 16, 2014 03:23
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It's also worth to note that Nicole Curtis exclusively rehabs older homes in historic neighborhoods often near city centers so it would make sense that she has them on her houses. Your typical buyer in a regular subdivision probably doesn't need it.
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Nov 16, 2014 04:00
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The title of this thread is looking like it may become prescient for me. The home I'm in the process of buying had a kitchen expansion done 18 years ago. There's a crack on the floor where the new part of the house meets the old part, but that's to be expected since they weren't built at the same time and would have settled slightly differently. When I did my walkthru I thought "that's a normal expansion crack", when my architect uncle did his walkthru he said "that's a normal expansion crack", and when the appraiser did his walkthru he noted it as a normal expansion crack. Unfortunately when the bank read the appraiser's report they saw FOUNDATION DAMAGE and flipped out and insisted that I have the property inspected by a foundation specialist. Fine, whatever. I got a foundation specialist to come out for a mere $250 and during the inspection he said "yep, that's a normal expansion crack alright". Unfortunately in his report he couldn't just state that fact directly, he had to lard up the writeup with all of the services his company offers and now the bank won't sign off on the loan because of the uncertainty he raised. We're a little more than a week out from closing at this point and the bank needs 3-4 days to do its thing after all issues are resolved so if this isn't settled out by Tuesday at the latest the closing will get delayed and all the other involved timelines are gonna go to poo poo. I've got movers scheduled, notified my landlord of intent to vacate, and took time off of work over Thanksgiving week to move with the expectation that everything was going to go as planned. Thanks, foundation inspector guy, for insisting on plugging your unwanted services and potentially making this harder and more expensive than it needs to be. Guess what company won't be getting any future business from me based on your shittily-timed sales pitch. PDP-1 fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Nov 16, 2014 |
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Nov 16, 2014 04:56
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Antifreeze Head posted:Sometimes those things happen and a speculator buys the property and just lets the house rot so it's destruction will be ordered anyway. Couldn't you just go inside the house and basically wreck it to the point that it needs to be demolished? It seems like there are a hilarious number of cheap ways to get around the "no razing" statement, which includes the "let it rot" thing that you mentioned. And the deed applies to the entire lot, not just the house, right? So if you build something new there, does the no razing restriction apply to the new house, too?
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Nov 16, 2014 06:53
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PDP-1 posted:The title of this thread is looking like it may become prescient for me. This probably won't help you now, but why did you give your bank the inspection report? Anytime I've done a mortgage the only thing they needed inspection wise was the wood destroying insect report. I always try to give the bank as little as possible including financial documents. I generally just show the bare minimum of what I think would qualify me.
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Nov 16, 2014 12:17
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Bloody Queef posted:This probably won't help you now, but why did you give your bank the inspection report? Anytime I've done a mortgage the only thing they needed inspection wise was the wood destroying insect report. I always try to give the bank as little as possible including financial documents. I generally just show the bare minimum of what I think would qualify me. My mistake - the report came from the appraiser that the bank sent out, not the home inspector.
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Nov 16, 2014 15:01
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Stultus Maximus posted:Restrictive covenants exist so it's not completely far-fetched. I'm no lawyer or real estate anything so I don't know the actual process for one to be legit. Someone brought the question to the legal thread, and here is my [revised for context] response: Very generally, a restriction like the kind described above needs a reciprocal obligation, or "executive right" vested in a third party to be enforceable. Think of it this way - if some rear end in a top hat nephew ends up owning the property, who's going to stop him from building ten houses on the lot? If the Audubon Society or whoever sues A-hole to enforce the restrictions, he will dismiss their case because they lack standing - no legal right of theirs is affected by his conduct. If the seller of the property, or the estate of the deceased does the same, its the same result. In order for clauses like that to be enforceable, someone else would have to get the property from A-hole if he violates the terms. Something like, "i give my land to my rear end in a top hat nephew, and for so long thereafter as my rear end in a top hat nephew follows the rules. And if he doesn't, the property then reverts to the Audubon Society." The restrictions are of the same kind that Homeowners Associations use to keep the lawns all mowed to 1.275" at all times, except the reciprocal obligation exists amongst all the houses in the neighborhood, and rather than the property "reverting" if someone breaks the rules, they get fined, or the majority of States allows for a lawsuit to force the house to comply with the deed restriction. There's also an issue called the rule against perpetuities. You should generally ignore this concept as its caused a great many law students and lawyers to turn to the bottle. Suffice it to say, a single restriction like the kind mentioned can't survive more than a couple of generations.
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Nov 17, 2014 15:29
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FCKGW posted:It's also worth to note that Nicole Curtis exclusively rehabs older homes in historic neighborhoods often near city centers so it would make sense that she has them on her houses. Your typical buyer in a regular subdivision probably doesn't need it. Yeah, she'll fight like crazy to keep old houses from being torn down if they're even remotely capable of being renovated.
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Nov 17, 2014 19:40
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Is it customary for a condo association's financial statements to be withheld until the buyer makes an offer on a place? My husband and I are interested in buying a condo and asked our agent for a copy of the association's bylaws and financial statements, and although she was able to get an electronic copy of the bylaws, she said the financial statements/history of any special assessments wouldn't be available until we make an offer since those documents are part of a resale package that takes about two weeks to get at a cost of about $300.00 to the seller.
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Nov 20, 2014 00:07
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embykins posted:Is it customary for a condo association's financial statements to be withheld until the buyer makes an offer on a place? My husband and I are interested in buying a condo and asked our agent for a copy of the association's bylaws and financial statements, and although she was able to get an electronic copy of the bylaws, she said the financial statements/history of any special assessments wouldn't be available until we make an offer since those documents are part of a resale package that takes about two weeks to get at a cost of about $300.00 to the seller. Sounds about right. Those forms were one of the fun things my HOA charged for and was able to collect money on when properties changed hands in the neighborhood.
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Nov 20, 2014 00:21
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Seriously?? Tell me people at least make their offers contingent on satisfactory financials.
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Nov 20, 2014 00:37
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slap me silly posted:Seriously?? Tell me people at least make their offers contingent on satisfactory financials. But you're out your $300 either way. That's astounding to me. It seems like those forms should be available at cost (i.e. free) to the owner, and the owner should be able to provide them to the seller through the RE agent (or directly). If not, it's time for some regulation. Seriously, that's horrible.
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Nov 20, 2014 00:48
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HOAs are the worst.
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Nov 20, 2014 01:16
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Our agent explained that once the resale package is delivered, the buyer has three days to back out of the contract without penalty. I'm not interested in moving forward until I see what state the association's finances are in. Since the seller of this condo is bringing close to 70k to the table to avoid a short sale, I'm guessing there's a reason for his reluctance to pay a piddly $300 fee to provide prospective buyers with all the documents to avoid someone backing out of the deal at the last minute.
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Nov 20, 2014 05:06
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embykins posted:Our agent explained that once the resale package is delivered, the buyer has three days to back out of the contract without penalty. I'm not interested in moving forward until I see what state the association's finances are in. Since the seller of this condo is bringing close to 70k to the table to avoid a short sale, I'm guessing there's a reason for his reluctance to pay a piddly $300 fee to provide prospective buyers with all the documents to avoid someone backing out of the deal at the last minute. That is absolutely 100% the right approach.
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Nov 20, 2014 05:46
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embykins posted:Our agent explained that once the resale package is delivered, the buyer has three days to back out of the contract without penalty. I'm not interested in moving forward until I see what state the association's finances are in. Since the seller of this condo is bringing close to 70k to the table to avoid a short sale, I'm guessing there's a reason for his reluctance to pay a piddly $300 fee to provide prospective buyers with all the documents to avoid someone backing out of the deal at the last minute. Did you just ask the seller if they've been assessed since ownership and what their dues are etc, or did they just tell you to submit an offer and pay for the resale disclosures? I'm with you, if they're cagey about it then just walk away without wasting your time negotiating and your diligence money to find out what's in the mystery box.
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Nov 20, 2014 14:22
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:Did you just ask the seller if they've been assessed since ownership and what their dues are etc, or did they just tell you to submit an offer and pay for the resale disclosures? I'm with you, if they're cagey about it then just walk away without wasting your time negotiating and your diligence money to find out what's in the mystery box. We were told right off the bat what the current condo fees are. We asked our agent if she could obtain any information on the HOA's history of assessments, how often fees have been raised, how much is sitting in reserves, how many units are being rented out, and if there's any pending litigation against the association. Our agent was only able to tell us that the rental cap for the subdivision is 50% and that it's been reached (this is a military town and since the subdivision was built during the bubble, it looks like owners have opted to rent out rather than take a loss in selling), and that all other information would be made available in the resale package that's obtained after we make an offer. The condo was built in 2003 and the seller purchased it in 2006 so he would be able to give an informal summary of the association's track record.
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Nov 20, 2014 18:55
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embykins posted:Our agent explained that once the resale package is delivered, the buyer has three days to back out of the contract without penalty. Don't trust what the agent says about this, by the way. It is a legal question, which real estate agents may have some experience with but are not qualified to actually answer.
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Nov 20, 2014 19:02
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embykins posted:Our agent explained that once the resale package is delivered, the buyer has three days to back out of the contract without penalty. I'm not interested in moving forward until I see what state the association's finances are in. Since the seller of this condo is bringing close to 70k to the table to avoid a short sale, I'm guessing there's a reason for his reluctance to pay a piddly $300 fee to provide prospective buyers with all the documents to avoid someone backing out of the deal at the last minute. Fire your agent if he/she didn't suggest a contingency for acceptable financials. 3 days may not be enough time. Also you could do a $100 earnest payment. I successfully did one for $0 which my agent at the time (will never give her business again) tried to talk me out of and kept saying it's not done and the bank wouldn't accept blah blah. This was a shortsale and gently caress me if I'm letting someone else hold a large chunk of my money for 6 months to a year. E: the short seller and bank were fine with it and it's the house I currently live in
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Nov 20, 2014 22:33
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I found a foreclosed house owned by Fannie Mae that looks absolutely perfect for me. There is one major with the house, the roof on the rear porch failed and there is water damage that caused the ceiling to fall in one spot. No real loss, its only a porch and it was ugly wood that was due to go anyway. However, my financial guy is saying that without this issue being fixed the house most likely won't get an OK from an appraiser. Since there is no chance Fannie Mae will fix this issue what are my options? I know they recently did away with their homepath program that would have made this simple. I don't expect to find any other major issues with the house, however I don't want to get a home inspection and appraisal done to find out I won't be able to get a mortgage because of the porch roof. I'm really not seeing any way to make this work, are there any other options I have?
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Nov 25, 2014 03:02
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