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Andy Dufresne posted:LTV ratios affect borrowing costs. I'm locked in right now, and if my house appraises $10k low my options are either to take a quarter-percent higher loan or add $7500 to my down payment (planning the latter). Oh. I thought you meant appraisals at some future point. Your appraisal will reflect the last 6 months or so of closed comparable sales.
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Mar 3, 2015 04:39
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Andy Dufresne posted:LTV ratios affect borrowing costs. I'm locked in right now, and if my house appraises $10k low my options are either to take a quarter-percent higher loan or add $7500 to my down payment (planning the latter). Yeah, but you'll pay lower property taxes, so that's nice!
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Mar 3, 2015 05:30
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ryde posted:I'm a first time house buyer. I found a pretty decent condo. Its a tight fit for my family, but it looks like we can squeeze in. I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger though. I'm not sure if this is just firt-time-buying jitters or if its a sign I should walk away. This might be a weird thing to ask but did anyone else have a hard deciding on their first purchase, and did they regret it afterwards?
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Mar 3, 2015 06:17
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gvibes posted:Is there a chance your family may grow in the nest 6-8 years? There is a high chance, yes. I guess my hesitance is because it doesn't really offer any huge advantages over our current apartment (space, neighbor proximity, etc) other than being right next to a very nice park. Objectively, it is a *very* nice place and I expect it to sell well, but I can't get myself to feel like its right for us. If I were single, or my family were DINKs, it'd be a no-brainer.
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Mar 3, 2015 06:27
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ryde posted:There is a high chance, yes. To illustrate this, plug in some numbers comparing one one side, rent, and on the other, transaction fees (assume maybe 9% round trip), maintenance (maybe 1.5-2% a year), RE taxes, assessments, opportunity cost on investment income from any down payment.
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Mar 3, 2015 06:36
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Hahahah who is paying 2% a year to maintain their house? That's insane. What kind of shoddily constructed money pits that need a new roof every six months are you people buying? I guess some people just dump all their disposable income into renovations/additions constantly as their hobby, but aside from those people I can't imagine dumping that much money on fixing things.
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Mar 3, 2015 17:24
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Andy Dufresne posted:LTV ratios affect borrowing costs. I'm locked in right now, and if my house appraises $10k low my options are either to take a quarter-percent higher loan or add $7500 to my down payment (planning the latter). Logic that never works: "Hey, appraiser: if I'm paying $X.xx for the house, then isn't it worth that much?" In all seriousness though, if the market is as hot as you say, he will probably have enough comps to get the appraisal figure up to what you're paying for it.
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Mar 3, 2015 18:15
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Pryor on Fire posted:Hahahah who is paying 2% a year to maintain their house? That's insane. What kind of shoddily constructed money pits that need a new roof every six months are you people buying? When you amortize the cost of long term, expected maintenance and repairs over a decade or more, like roof replacement, siding work, painting, carpet replacement, floor refinishing, HVAC maintenance, recurring annual expenses like yard and garden maintenance, gutter cleaning, chimney sweeping/inspection, and infrequent unexpected expenses like plumbing problems and appliance replacement, 2% is not a crazy figure on an average house in the United States, where the median home value is right about $180,000
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Mar 3, 2015 18:36
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:When you amortize the cost of long term, expected maintenance and repairs over a decade or more, like roof replacement, siding work, painting, carpet replacement, floor refinishing, HVAC maintenance, recurring annual expenses like yard and garden maintenance, gutter cleaning, chimney sweeping/inspection, and infrequent unexpected expenses like plumbing problems and appliance replacement, 2% is not a crazy figure on an average house in the United States, where the median home value is right about $180,000 If there is any reason to complain about that estimate, it is that it could be misleading because you may need 15% a year and a month after move in because 3 major things break within a couple weeks of each other, then nothing for 10 years. It isn't like anyone is trying to pretend you will have exactly 2% costs every year.
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Mar 3, 2015 19:13
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ryde posted:There is a high chance, yes. I'd say if you're already having doubts, walk away. It might be hard to get your partner on board, but real estate purchases are not to be taken lightly. And you're talking about a condo, where you'll have monthly condo fees, and you don't own the land. If it's not an upgrade to your lifestyle, then what's the point? It's certainly not the best way to invest money, if that's your concern. As others pointed out, in order to break even, it's not good enough for the condo to "sell well". It has to sell for a fair amount more than you paid: enough to cover all the closing costs, fees, taxes, etc. from both the original purchase and the later sale; plus, all the maintenance costs. Plus you ought to account for the opportunity cost, and realize that you can't predict the future: perhaps the value will go up, but maybe it will go down, and if it does, you lose all the money on the drop in value too. And when you do go to sell it, perhaps it will sell in a month, or perhaps it will languish on the market for six. Home buying is pretty scary, so if it's really just that you're nervous about such a big purchase, well... talk it over with your partner, make sure that you're both fully on board with the concept of buying a home. If you are, then probably your worry is this home, and if that's the case, then don't buy it. There are a lot of other homes, there will be more opportunities to buy something, but once you buy this one, that door is closed and you're stuck with it. As for the 2%, that's just a rule of thumb. There are too many variables for it to apply universally. The size, age, and condition of the home, and the local costs of labor and materials, all have a profound affect on maintenance costs. When figuring out your budget, though, you want to save more than enough rather than not enough, so 2% is a pretty reasonable number to shoot for if you really have no reason to think your maintenance costs will be higher. If you wind up with an extra ten grand in the bank after five years because your costs were actually lower than 2%, well, great! If your sewer line bursts and you'll have to have the driveway torn up to replace the sewer line and then replace the driveway and it's going to cost $20k, hey, you'll deeply regret not having saved that money up front. (This is not hypothetical, it's what actually happened to my parents a couple years ago.) Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 19:26
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ryde posted:I guess my hesitance is because it doesn't really offer any huge advantages over our current apartment Leperflesh posted:I'd say if you're already having doubts, walk away. Yeah, Condos aren't the most "flexible" real estate investment. If you're going to be looking elsewhere in 6-8 years, you'll barely be putting a dime of equity in that thing.
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Mar 3, 2015 19:50
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I blame the thread for not wishing me luck! Our offer wasn't accepted, there were too many similar offers from potential buyers in similar circumstances - however, we pretty much expected this as the market in this area is heating up quite a lot, and the offer price would have been a bargain even at 5% more. However, if we really want the place, we may have to offer above that. Anyone in the UK know of any good tools to determine 'value'? We have been looking at local sold prices on Zoopla, Rightmove etc and using market value 'calculators' (which just mash figures out of sold prices and historic indices?) which both peg it higher than I would expect. Ideally more things to compare area, I don't think I fully appreciate how much more space there is available in this property than others in this price bracket...
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Mar 3, 2015 21:18
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Oh my god, buying a house is really hellish. Remember - if you give and inch to a seller's agent just to try to ease the process along and act in good faith, they will try to take a mile and poo poo on you for good measure.
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Mar 3, 2015 22:04
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blarzgh posted:Yeah, Condos aren't the most "flexible" real estate investment. If you're going to be looking elsewhere in 6-8 years, you'll barely be putting a dime of equity in that thing. A realtor told me this weekend she used to promise everyone looking at condos that they could flip them for a profit within 2 years, now she's saying they'd need to wait 5-7 years. In my market it seems like everyone is shying away from condos because it's a lot cheaper to rent, so the small SFH market is booming.
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Mar 3, 2015 22:06
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The inspection on my prospective home went really, really well. It has been taken care of for a 30 year old home. I'm asking for $1500 back for repairs which I think accurately reflects the things that need fixes (a large window with broken thermaseal, an oven that is about 50 degrees off, sprinkler pipe leak, missing trim, and a foundation patch), but I fully expect the home owner to tell me to stick it up my rear end.
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Mar 3, 2015 22:29
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Pryor on Fire posted:Hahahah who is paying 2% a year to maintain their house? That's insane. What kind of shoddily constructed money pits that need a new roof every six months are you people buying? I think it's worth differentiating between what you have to spend to keep your house from physically falling down around you and what you have to spend for it to maintain its developed value. I think if you are paying less than 1-2% per year on your house over a greater than 5-10 year period, then that probably means that the house is slowly getting worse. But that doesn't mean you are avoiding fixing stuff that is broken.
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Mar 3, 2015 22:36
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The cashiers at Lowes know me by name 
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Mar 3, 2015 23:14
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Thanks for the advice. I'm in the Seattle market and things are ... fun ... here housing-wise.
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Mar 4, 2015 00:06
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Andy Dufresne posted:The inspection on my prospective home went really, really well. It has been taken care of for a 30 year old home. I'm asking for $1500 back for repairs which I think accurately reflects the things that need fixes (a large window with broken thermaseal, an oven that is about 50 degrees off, sprinkler pipe leak, missing trim, and a foundation patch), but I fully expect the home owner to tell me to stick it up my rear end. My house appraised at 30 years "effective age." I don't know if that's good.
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Mar 4, 2015 00:40
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Citizen Tayne posted:My house appraised at 30 years "effective age." I don't know if that's good. I think that means it won't do well after a late night of drinking.
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Mar 4, 2015 01:08
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Andy Dufresne posted:I think that means it won't do well after a late night of drinking. Me drinking or it drinking? I closed on Friday. Gonna get some electricians in to add a few outlets. Can't wait to move in.
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Mar 4, 2015 01:10
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Citizen Tayne posted:Me drinking or it drinking? You work in IT, you're clearly technically-minded. Why pay some schmuck? Grab a spool of romex and get to work.
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Mar 4, 2015 01:17
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PCjr sidecar posted:You work in IT, you're clearly technically-minded. Why pay some schmuck? Grab a spool of romex and get to work. I'd rather pay a professional than half-rear end it.
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Mar 4, 2015 01:44
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ryde posted:Thanks for the advice. I'm in the Seattle market and things are ... fun ... here housing-wise. Yeah, I'm also in the greater Seattle area as well. It's been frustrating to say the least. I'm pretty sure the avg time for houses to be on market without a contract in place seems like one day. My map is filled with Pending houses and a million short sales. 
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Mar 4, 2015 01:58
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Citizen Tayne posted:Me drinking or it drinking? Please post the first crack you find.
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Mar 4, 2015 03:10
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Everything has been going flawlessly with processing my new mortgage except for one thing. I am using the VA home lone and my COE has me listed as Active Duty instead of reserves. The lender is waiting for the VA to respond to the correction request and the government is sloooooooow. Has anyone else had to deal with this before and do you remember how long it took?
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Mar 4, 2015 03:11
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uwaeve posted:Please post the first crack you find. Ever heard of a crack house? Most people think that means a house where people smoke crack cocaine, but the true etymology is even weirder. Cocaine used to be a drug for the rich. When that new form of cociane hit the streets, the only people using it were people who lived in run-down houses with hairline cracks in the slabs, a so-called "crack house". People started calling it "crack house cocaine" and the name was shortened and stuck as "crack cocaine" 
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Mar 4, 2015 03:47
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uwaeve posted:Please post the first crack you find. There are none. I did my homework.
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Mar 4, 2015 03:57
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blarzgh posted:In all seriousness though, if the market is as hot as you say, he will probably have enough comps to get the appraisal figure up to what you're paying for it. Hot markets actually make the problem worse. Closed sales necessarily take a while to appear in the appraisal database, so appraisers are constantly shooting behind the target. This is especially true if the selection of comps for your property is limited for some reason. The appraisal may be comparing to year-old sales and they generally do not make any adjustments for whole-market movement between the comp sales date and now, even if there has been significant whole market movement in the meantime. The other issue is that the law now requires appraisers to be selected randomly from pools that cover very broad geographic areas, in an effort to ensure the appraisers are independent of the loan process. So you may be assigned an appraiser who has no idea of the neighbourhood-level dynamics that can affect value.
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Mar 4, 2015 04:29
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Citizen Tayne posted:I'd rather pay a professional than half-rear end it. Once we were renting a house and there was a pot light that the owner had installed that wouldn't work, so we asked him to fix it. He brings his kid there, and then starts fiddling with it without flipping the breaker. When I mention my concern to him, he tells me "yeah, don't worry, it will be fine." I was holding my breath wondering if his son was going to see his dad get killed by a god damned kitchen light. In the short sale we are in the process of purchasing, our inspector found fuses that were rated too high for the wires that the current owner (still waiting on bank...) had installed in the panel. And also, no front to the, uh, panel. No big deal, we can just get an electrician in to deal with it and the half assed job he did hanging the wires in the basement, but still, it gives me the willies.
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Mar 4, 2015 05:57
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we are in Texas, where you can select your own appraiser, and our MLS listings update in 24 - 48 hours, usually.
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Mar 4, 2015 06:28
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Bozart posted:Once we were renting a house and there was a pot light that the owner had installed that wouldn't work, so we asked him to fix it. He brings his kid there, and then starts fiddling with it without flipping the breaker. When I mention my concern to him, he tells me "yeah, don't worry, it will be fine." I was holding my breath wondering if his son was going to see his dad get killed by a god damned kitchen light.
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Mar 4, 2015 06:41
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When I moved to Wisconsin about two years ago, I had an inkling I shouldn't buy a house. I had another inkling that said I shouldn't replace all the doors and trim and paint the whole thing. Welp. gently caress you inkling, you should've hit me or something. So I've got a few doors that still need the trim put around them, a couple windows, two bathrooms worth of baseboards to install, and all my trim needs to be patched and then painted along with all the solid wood doors I put in. I'm going to see like none of the money I put in this place, but at least the relocation package covers all fees to sell the house and move me. Now I just get to figure out if I want to carry two mortgages (I don't) while I wait for this place to sell, or if I want to try to have them put me in a short term lease while I wait for it to sell (I don't.) Why? Well, I have two kids and my wife is about halfway through a pregnancy with twins. So having her place she can nest is apparently important, and I sure as gently caress don't want to be moving myself in a few months when the twins are like a month old. poo poo gently caress rear end.
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Mar 4, 2015 16:44
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Unless you're in the middle of Montana I don't think you could have walked into a better market to immediately sell your house. Wouldn't be surprised if you made money on it after the fees involved.
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Mar 4, 2015 18:12
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Snow covered Wisconsin. As long as the handyman doing the finishes doesn't break me, I think I could come out alright. If he does break me, then I'll do it myself and hate life for a week while I'm burning the candle at both ends.
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Mar 4, 2015 18:18
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No Butt Stuff posted:When I moved to Wisconsin about two years ago, I had an inkling I shouldn't buy a house. I had another inkling that said I shouldn't replace all the doors and trim and paint the whole thing.
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Mar 4, 2015 21:02
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Because I wasn't planning on moving, so I was just working at my own pace.
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Mar 4, 2015 21:21
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Homeownership: My pace is measured in family generations  Took 2 years to finish my basement, actual work took place over maybe a month or two.
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Mar 5, 2015 14:01
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dietcokefiend posted:Homeownership: My pace is measured in family generations That's generally how it goes. Depending on what the contractor says this evening I may just send the family out of town for a week and finish it all myself in some sort of weird, whiskey fueled 80s montage.
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Mar 5, 2015 14:22
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This is more of a home selling question: Where's a good place to keep the proceeds from selling my house? I don't want to buy for at least another year or so (I'm in transition) but I don't want to put that money in just a regular savings account. It's not a lot but it's more than $10k. When I do buy again I would like to be able to pull it out without getting asked a lot of questions from the mortgage people. Any ideas? I was thinking maybe a mutual fund, something relatively low risk but with a better return than a savings account?
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Mar 5, 2015 19:17
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