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Having to replace all your outlets with those dumb tamper resistant versions sucks. 
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Dec 9, 2014 05:56
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Jastiger posted:Bah screw you I bought a 48000 grain clack unit 5 years ago online and it's worked perfectly ever since. I probably spent 700 on parts and 250 on install. 5K for a softener is beyond criminal.
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Dec 9, 2014 08:33
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I bought a house back in may with not a lot down, on a 203k loan. the loan sold almost immediately after closing. The bank who bought my loan called me and said they want to pay my closing costs so i can refi from 4.625 to 3.75. She said this would save me about $150/mo on a 240kish loan. She also said the only cash to closing i'd be responsible for is the difference between the refund on my upfront mortgage insurance and whatever the upfront premium is for the second loan. a) Assuming everything she said is true, I'd be stupid to not do this, right? I am going to pore through all of the paperwork this weekend. b) How is the bank making money on this? Why would they even make me this offer?
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Dec 12, 2014 18:26
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I think you can get a lower rate than that.
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Dec 12, 2014 18:35
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PuTTY riot posted:I bought a house back in may with not a lot down, on a 203k loan. the loan sold almost immediately after closing. The bank who bought my loan called me and said they want to pay my closing costs so i can refi from 4.625 to 3.75. She said this would save me about $150/mo on a 240kish loan. She also said the only cash to closing i'd be responsible for is the difference between the refund on my upfront mortgage insurance and whatever the upfront premium is for the second loan. Your first rate was way too high, that's how they can make money on it.
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Dec 12, 2014 18:36
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PuTTY riot posted:I bought a house back in may with not a lot down, on a 203k loan. the loan sold almost immediately after closing. The bank who bought my loan called me and said they want to pay my closing costs so i can refi from 4.625 to 3.75. She said this would save me about $150/mo on a 240kish loan. She also said the only cash to closing i'd be responsible for is the difference between the refund on my upfront mortgage insurance and whatever the upfront premium is for the second loan. a) Read the paperwork and make sure they're not doing anything funny, but in general refis are legit. b) There's nothing tricky about it, bank B pays off the principle of your loan from bank A today. Bank A gets cash in hand (to lend to other people), and bank B gets all your (lower, but still valuable) interest payments.
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Dec 12, 2014 18:42
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gvibes posted:I think you can get a lower rate than that. And not pay closing costs? That would be awesome. Is there a resource that compares refi rates or am I back to researching everything myself like I did (apparently not so well) the first time around? Twerk from Home posted:Your first rate was way too high, that's how they can make money on it. I think it was high because it was a 203k, maybe they just took me to the cleaners though.
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Dec 12, 2014 18:42
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PuTTY riot posted:I think it was high because it was a 203k, maybe they just took me to the cleaners though. Do you pay PMI on top too?
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Dec 12, 2014 18:43
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Inverse Icarus posted:Do you pay PMI on top too? Yes. monthly and the upfront. Supposedly the difference in the refund from my upfront on the first loan and my upfront premium on the second loan is the only cash to closing I need. e: I'll have to refi again to a conventional when I have enough equity to get out of PMI. I am aware of this.
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Dec 12, 2014 18:44
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Twerk from Home posted:Your first rate was way too high, that's how they can make money on it. Yeah you got loving torn up at 4.625% plus PMI, refinance as soon as you possibly can assuming they actually aren't charging you any fees. Keep in mind that you're still going to have to pay for closing, title, and tax bullshit though, which they are presumably bundling into your principal.
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Dec 12, 2014 20:39
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203k loans are more expensive than normal loans (by about a point, according to the Internet), so the original rate seems fine to me.
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Dec 12, 2014 20:43
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I have a mortgage question. I've been keeping in touch with my mortgage guy because we're in the process of buying some more land; he mentioned refinancing our house (only 4 months into the mortgage) from 4.5% to 4.125% with no closing costs (he'd pay the recording fees, appraisal, title fees and any other 3rd party charges). That sounds like a great plus with the only negative being starting over on the loan period by ~5 months. Are there any downsides to this that I'm missing?
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Dec 12, 2014 20:56
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You refinancing people need to sit down and calculate out what the refinance is actually going to cost you, rather than rely on some hand-wavy bullshit from somebody who has a clear conflict of interest. Here: http://www.mtgprofessor.com/CalculatorArticles/Refinance%20Calculators.html Often, a refinance can be a great idea! Equally often it can suck even if your rate goes down.
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Dec 12, 2014 21:53
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slap me silly posted:Here: http://www.mtgprofessor.com/CalculatorArticles/Refinance%20Calculators.html The Bitcoin thread made me believe this was a financial advice website that had its origins as a place to learn how to build a totally sweet Magic deck.
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Dec 12, 2014 22:11
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slap me silly posted:You refinancing people need to sit down and calculate out what the refinance is actually going to cost you, rather than rely on some hand-wavy bullshit from somebody who has a clear conflict of interest. Here: http://www.mtgprofessor.com/CalculatorArticles/Refinance%20Calculators.html
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Dec 13, 2014 02:26
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PuTTY riot posted:b) How is the bank making money on this? Why would they even make me this offer? Inverse Icarus posted:b) There's nothing tricky about it, bank B pays off the principle of your loan from bank A today. Bank A gets cash in hand (to lend to other people), and bank B gets all your (lower, but still valuable) interest payments. Most of the profit on a mortgage transaction is going to be from the fees charged to close the loan and the pricing markup between what is offered to you the borrower and what they are able to sell the loan for. When the bank is offering to cover your closing costs, let's say 2% of the loan amount, they may then be turning around and selling that loan to Fannie Mae/private investor/whatever and getting paid 3-4% of the loan amount for a tidy profit. Most loans are sold to another investor or into a mortgage backed security which is then sold off. When they do this, generally the bank keeps a very small portion of the monthly mortgage payment as payment for handling the servicing of the mortgage and the rest of the principal/interest payment is passed along to whoever invested in the MBS/loan. The only situation where a bank is making a significant amount of money off your loan after closing is when they keep the loan on their books, which generally they try to minimize since that's money they could instead be using to fund more loans that they can sell to investors which is generally going to be more profitable than passively collecting 3-5% interest rates and hoping the borrower keeps paying on time.
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Dec 13, 2014 06:08
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PuTTY riot posted:Yes. monthly and the upfront. Supposedly the difference in the refund from my upfront on the first loan and my upfront premium on the second loan is the only cash to closing I need. Actually, this isn't always the case; some banks will drop PMI if you have enough equity and you ask them politely.
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Dec 13, 2014 19:28
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QuarkJets posted:Actually, this isn't always the case; some banks will drop PMI if you have enough equity and you ask them politely. As far as I can tell, not with an FHA loan after some recent date. this is because of the 07/08 crash sucking the insurance fund practically dry.
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Dec 13, 2014 19:31
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PuTTY riot posted:As far as I can tell, not with an FHA loan after some recent date. this is because of the 07/08 crash sucking the insurance fund practically dry.
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Dec 13, 2014 19:33
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PuTTY riot posted:As far as I can tell, not with an FHA loan after some recent date. this is because of the 07/08 crash sucking the insurance fund practically dry. Oh, I didn't realize that we were talking about an FHA loan. I just know that it's done for conventional loan PMI
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Dec 14, 2014 05:41
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Strange question, but my wife and I will be in the market for a house in the next year. We know that home buying season is in the spring, and while we have a lease in an apartment for the next year our early termination penalty is 2 months rent worst case. Even so, knowing how long the process takes from watching several people go through it, we're going to start looking in the next couple months because we want to get the hell out of apartment living. We have recently been advised that 2015 is the year that the county we're looking in revalues property. Apparently they do it every 8 years, and 2015 is the lucky year. The advice we were given is to buy ASAP to get in before they revalue everything. Looking at the charts, average home prices are still lower than they were in 2008 (the last re-valuation), so I don't think this will result in anything but a lower value. With prices trending up, though, I really can't say for sure what's going to happen. At the same time, this is an assessment by the county for tax purposes, based on a very specific calculation schedule, not an appraisal. I can easily argue to a seller that county assessments are over-valued (which they are) and they have no impact on anything except for taxes, meaning that now I'll have to pay more for the next 8 years to live in your cruddy house. But I know that it's a seller's market right now. Again, we've watched a few people go through this, and by all accounts anything worth buying is sold for cash, for more than the asking price, within days of being put on the market. So even if the assessment brings the value down, I can easily see a seller trying to spin the number to his/her advantage (it's higher than others in the neighborhood/look how much you'll save on property taxes/etc.). Worse, if the assessment goes up, then I expect a seller to cherry pick that and say, "See, the value went up! Give me more money!!!" So my basic question is three-fold: 1) How much will this actually affect house prices, 2) in the same vein, is it worth trying to sneak in before the assessment (all else equal, NOT considering personal financial situation) , and 3) in the highly-likely scenario that we don't get in before the assessment, how do I argue to a seller that the revaluation doesn't mean I have to pay more? I think I have several good arguments for #3, but I'd like some back-up arguments since I know people like to cherry pick facts and ignore reason.
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Dec 16, 2014 15:20
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In all the house hunting we did, assessments never seemed to matter much. They were always lower than the sale value and is basically just your marker for tax payments. For the most part, I ignored the assessed value and cared more about what parish (county) the house was located in as the tax rate is outrageously different in some areas here. I'm pretty sure if you bought into a house that suddenly reassessed for a lot more, you can make a case to the city's assessor as to why the assessment is too high if you drop some simple comps from zillow or something (I believe this has come up before in the thread)
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Dec 16, 2014 15:42
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Because the assessed value is almost certainly lower than the actual selling price of a house, it can be handy to know if you are getting a deal. You can also sort of use it as a predictive indicator of what a house in a certain area will be worth. And if you get something below assessed value, you've done well. At least you've done well if you are looking for a fixer-upper as there will almost certainly be something very wrong with the house if it can be bought for less than assessed. Though you should be careful on that too, as occasionally agents of marginal homes will price them in the neighbourhood of their assessed price to start a bidding war.
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Dec 16, 2014 15:55
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DaveSauce posted:We know that home buying season is in the spring, I'm curious what this means to you. Why did you mention it? DaveSauce posted:But I know that it's a seller's market right now. But you're still going to try and buy?
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Dec 16, 2014 18:08
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DaveSauce posted:Strange question, but my wife and I will be in the market for a house in the next year. We know that home buying season is in the spring, and while we have a lease in an apartment for the next year our early termination penalty is 2 months rent worst case. Even so, knowing how long the process takes from watching several people go through it, we're going to start looking in the next couple months because we want to get the hell out of apartment living. 1. Probably not very much 2. You should start looking for a house when you are personally and financially ready to do it (i.e. have either the cash or the downpayment and approved financing) and use patience and flexibility in your housing situation (which it sounds like you have) to your advantage. Seasonal tides may or may not apply but they're not going to override the particulars of any given property. 3. You don't really get to argue with a seller, that isn't how it works. The only thing you get to "say" to a seller is an offer number with a couple of little details regarding diligence and closing attached. They either accept your bid or they don't, and a lot of that depends upon the interest of other buyers in the property. If it is truly a seller's market as you say with a lot of cash offers and bidding wars then you are often in no position to negotiate about anything.
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Dec 16, 2014 18:50
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Were you advised to get into a house ASAP by someone who works in the industry? Because that's what they always say
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Dec 16, 2014 19:07
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Why would it matter if you got into the house the day before it was valued or the day after? You will still pay taxes on the new value I'd assume unless you get one year of taxes at old value which would matter almost nothing.
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Dec 17, 2014 01:14
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LloydDobler posted:
I was asking myself the same question this year. It's definitely a Seller's market in my region right now, and being a buyer isn't that fun. I ended up buying anyway because historically buyer/seller cycles are on the orders of years, not months and I didn't want to wait 2 years. Because the market has been trending up, I chose to spend far below my buying power so I was less financially leveraged in the event real estate isn't great from an investment standpoint in the next few years. It's hard to synchronize the point in your life where you are financially ready to buy with when the market is ripe for you to enter it.
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Dec 17, 2014 01:18
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Here is the thing, from an affordability standpoint you have two great times to buy: when rates are at their lowest (probably now) and just after they peak, and home values reflect high rates. In the first scenario, you pay more for a house (because higher prices are still more affordable) with a locked in low interest rate. With the second, you probably get less house, but have an opportunity to refinance at a lower rate and pay a lot less over time. If it were me, I would probably buy right now if I could. <3.8 for a 30 year or <3 for a 15 is amazing.
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Dec 17, 2014 01:26
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couldcareless posted:In all the house hunting we did, assessments never seemed to matter much. They were always lower than the sale value and is basically just your marker for tax payments. So I'm a dummy and easily confused but really? I didn't know that. What does it mean if the assessment is more than the sale price? Our assessment is about 20% higher than the sale price, does that mean we are paying to much in taxes or is that not going to be a big difference?
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Dec 17, 2014 04:25
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It's very region specific. Where I am, sales prices and tax assessment values are nowhere near each other and you don't even bother looking at tax value (except to know how much taxes you will pay).
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Dec 17, 2014 05:03
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Queen Elizatits posted:So I'm a dummy and easily confused but really? I didn't know that. What does it mean if the assessment is more than the sale price? Our assessment is about 20% higher than the sale price, does that mean we are paying to much in taxes or is that not going to be a big difference? You can contest assessment values each year. As proof of your argument that the value is less, you can show them the sales price. In most places the assessment value is less than the sales price, so it generally doesn't come up.
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Dec 17, 2014 05:18
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LloydDobler posted:I'm curious what this means to you. Why did you mention it? To me it means buyer demand will be higher, so prices will be higher and homes will disappear quicker. More importantly, to us it means we either get something very soon, or we wait until summer/fall before we seriously consider anything. I'm personally inclined to wait. I just didn't know if the county assessment would inflate prices in the area, and I didn't want to find out the hard way that we missed our window to get a good price. quote:But you're still going to try and buy? We have the means and we have the desire. We know it can be a long process to find the right place, which is why we're intending on starting soon. And I'm not trying to get in to an argument here, but if you're going to look at it that way, then with the market on an upward trend we either want to buy ASAP before prices get higher, or wait for the bubble to burst again and catch something on the downslope. I don't want to rent for the next 1, 10, or 100 years waiting for a burst that may never happen. For all I know, the market could skyrocket tomorrow and we could be stuck renting for years before prices become affordable again. But barring any extreme circumstances, any significant change in trend will take months at minimum. And since we were originally planning to start looking in months, I was worried that the whole area being re-assessed would be used as an excuse for sellers to jack up prices by the time we were ready to buy. canyoneer posted:Were you advised to get into a house ASAP by someone who works in the industry? Because that's what they always say No, this is second-hand information from a co-worker. That's not to say he isn't parroting what his realtor told him. slap me silly posted:It's very region specific. Where I am, sales prices and tax assessment values are nowhere near each other and you don't even bother looking at tax value (except to know how much taxes you will pay). This is what I have read about my area, although I'm sure it's even city or neighborhood specific. I've read that it's not uncommon for a home in the area to be assessed at $50k higher than fair market value. That's when I really got worried that it might have an impact on home prices. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Dec 17, 2014 |
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Dec 17, 2014 14:39
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DaveSauce posted:
Market values aren't the only reason for buying a house. If housing costs are flat, but your costs to own are similar to your costs to rent, then it's still advantageous to own. In my opinion, the only reason not to buy would be if home prices take a giant dump which usually requires major change (like the mechanization of agriculture, outsourcing of jobs in certain areas, or maybe oil prices falling off a cliff?), or if the cost to rent is just so much cheaper than buying. Buying a property is just as much a lifestyle decision and value-based decision as it is an economic decision for most people. You want to be smart about it, but you don't need to be paranoid about the economy.
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Dec 17, 2014 16:25
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So I have this Brother in Law who built a huge house during the boom and didn't walk away from it. It's assessed at 1 Million by the town and he's been listing it for 1.6 million on and off for 5 years. Realistically how high over assessed value will a house actually appraise and sell for.
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Dec 19, 2014 01:15
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daslog posted:So I have this Brother in Law who built a huge house during the boom and didn't walk away from it. It's assessed at 1 Million by the town and he's been listing it for 1.6 million on and off for 5 years. There's absolutely no rule of thumb, it depends upon many factors including the market conditions and the specifics of the tax assessment process.
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Dec 19, 2014 02:03
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Appraised value tells you basically nothing about what the house might sell for. Houses are generally valued at price per sq. foot. Real Estate appraisers will look at a list of comparable, nearby properties that have sold recently, [mathematics] the average sales price of those houses, per square foot, and then apply that square foot price to the number of square feet in the subject house. Thats your baseline value, and then the market dictates where you list and ultimately sell from there.
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Dec 19, 2014 18:26
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DaveSauce posted:Strange question, but my wife and I will be in the market for a house in the next year. We know that home buying season is in the spring, and while we have a lease in an apartment for the next year our early termination penalty is 2 months rent worst case. Even so, knowing how long the process takes from watching several people go through it, we're going to start looking in the next couple months because we want to get the hell out of apartment living. Alternatively, you could look into renting a house. I understand the frustration of apartment life, so we rent a house now while we search for the right house to purchase. But we've been extra slow, because home prices here are really high in our area; for a similarly sized home at 20% down, our non-principle portion of our monthly payments (interest, insurance, utilities, etc) would be greater than our monthly cost of rent. Include the time and money that gets sunk into home maintenance and it becomes apparent that the obvious financial choice for us right now is to keep renting until something special comes along. You should have a look at rental homes and see if it makes sense to go that route. I don't think that buying in right before a revaluation provides you with any benefit, in any case, so I don't think that you should feel pressured to by now now now. adorai posted:Here is the thing, from an affordability standpoint you have two great times to buy: when rates are at their lowest (probably now) and just after they peak, and home values reflect high rates. In the first scenario, you pay more for a house (because higher prices are still more affordable) with a locked in low interest rate. With the second, you probably get less house, but have an opportunity to refinance at a lower rate and pay a lot less over time. If it were me, I would probably buy right now if I could. <3.8 for a 30 year or <3 for a 15 is amazing. That's what people were telling us a year ago (BUY NOW BEFORE RATES RISE), and then 30 year interest rates dropped another half-percent. Locking in a really low rate is great, but I don't think that it should be the primary driver behind buying now vs being patient and buying in a year.
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Dec 20, 2014 12:16
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QuarkJets posted:That's what people were telling us a year ago (BUY NOW BEFORE RATES RISE), and then 30 year interest rates dropped another half-percent. Locking in a really low rate is great, but I don't think that it should be the primary driver behind buying now vs being patient and buying in a year.
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Dec 20, 2014 15:19
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| # ? May 29, 2024 01:20 |
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After waffling on and off about a house we found for about a week, we pulled the trigger yesterday and put a contract on it with a 60 day closing window. It's on the upper end of our price range, but we negotiated full closing costs paid by the seller. We've been preapproved for a loan at 3.25% for a 30 year and are just waiting to talk to them Monday to lock it. This whole process moved a lot faster than we thought it would, we weren't expecting to find anything until early/mid next year, holy crap.
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Dec 21, 2014 18:25
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