|
When I bought out HUD, they were very adamant about NOTHING being done prior to closing. My first-time home buyers inspection failed the first time and almost derailed my financing because of a broken hand railing, but said railing miraculously fixed itself one day prior to a reinspection. Also, my realtor was the only helpful person in the whole process, and I never met the selling agent. What I'm saying is, do never buy HUD unless you're willing to forego an inspection, because poo poo like this happens and HUD will absolutely stonewall you on resolving anything prior to closing. I feel like they'd sooner torch the house to the ground rather than help a prospective buyer do a proper inspection even with an accepted offer.
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 04:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 11:23 |
|
|
PitViper posted:When I bought out HUD, they were very adamant about NOTHING being done prior to closing. My first-time home buyers inspection failed the first time and almost derailed my financing because of a broken hand railing, but said railing miraculously fixed itself one day prior to a reinspection. Also, my realtor was the only helpful person in the whole process, and I never met the selling agent. Good to know, this is what I pretty much figured because HUD
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 05:30
|
|
|
Can we talk about the decision to buy a house in cities where both house prices and rents are increasing at a stupid pace? I'm in Seattle, and while I can thankfully afford rent and will probably be able to for quite some time, I could probably also afford to buy a reasonable house in this place and throw a decent sized downpayment. I think like the idea of buying a house because...I can ensure I won't get priced out of a city I like? That's basically what I'm coming up with for pros right now. A personal problem for me is now that I have a downpayment of the requisite size, I look at that downpaymet and realize how nice it is to have that cash. I could probably rent a decent apartment in many other fine cites in the US for years without having to work, and that's a nice feeling. I also feel sketched out about getting a mortgage for a house in Seattle because it's making a bet that I can continue making similar money for the next 30 years. That feels pretty ballsy even though I have a good job and my skills are in demand. What do? Don't let rising rents scare me? Do never buy?
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 05:44
|
|
|
People who worry about getting priced out of the housing market usually wind up getting screwed when the bubble pops. Don't be one of those people. If your only reason to buy a house is "but what if prices and rents keep going up", then you probably shouldn't buy a house.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 07:24
|
|
|
I bought a house in Seattle because I got tired of moving every year, and because it was the easiest way to live with the people I wanted to keep as my roommates. It's not like I was doing anything with the down payment money. Plus now I can drill holes in everything and also I live in a much nicer place than the "the front door won't latch if it's hotter than eighty degrees" rental I left. But if your only reason to buy is based on anxious speculation about the market in the future you should probably not buy.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 07:37
|
|
|
Do you have a yard? Gardening is a fun thing and it's my favorite reason to own a house. I can plant whatever I want wherever I want (although most of my back yard is useless grass, I'm slowly expanding my garden)
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 08:32
|
|
|
QuarkJets posted:Do you have a yard? Gardening is a fun thing and it's my favorite reason to own a house. I can plant whatever I want wherever I want (although most of my back yard is useless grass, I'm slowly expanding my garden) You can get a plot in a community garden for around $20 a year in almost any place. Why own when you can rent? Plus you get to see how everyone else is gardening and share a laugh at the guy that doesn't weed and all his plants are dead. Edit: Plus they are full sun where my back yard I can only get 70% sun locations. Elephanthead fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Sep 9, 2016 |
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 14:28
|
|
|
I'm going to disagree with the do never buys here. If you have a bunch of cash lying around and you think you will remain in the area for 5 years or more, then buying a house is not a terrible idea. Interest rates are low, so getting good returns on that cash is hard anyway, and the tax deduction will be nice.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 14:42
|
|
|
Elephanthead posted:You can get a plot in a community garden for around $20 a year in almost any place. Why own when you can rent? Plus you get to see how everyone else is gardening and share a laugh at the guy that doesn't weed and all his plants are dead. Pests from the guy who doesn't weed, shared tools in poor repair, people "mistaking" the garden for a free farmers market and stealing your produce, having to go out of your way to get to the garden, etc. I have poor experiences with community gardens. As always, it's best to own so you can do whatever you want without having worry about someone else's bullshit. I mean, I love them and work with community garden organizers all the time, but if you don't have dedicated people watching after everything they can go to poo poo. We have one garden a few towns over where a bunch of people have carpeted parts of their garden because they don't understand how to control erosion or drainage. Also loads of junk, muddy trenches, etc. all exacerbating the problem.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 15:09
|
|
|
Bozart posted:I'm going to disagree with the do never buys here. If you have a bunch of cash lying around and you think you will remain in the area for 5 years or more, then buying a house is not a terrible idea. Interest rates are low, so getting good returns on that cash is hard anyway, and the tax deduction will be nice. Agreed. That said, don't buy because you expect to make money, or because you think prices are going to go up uP UP! You're buying a house, not an investment. So only buy yourself a house if you plan to stay put for a while, like the idea of controlling your housing situation, and don't mind dealing with the headaches associated with home ownership. nah thanks fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Sep 9, 2016 |
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 15:18
|
|
|
Bozart posted:I'm going to disagree with the do never buys here. If you have a bunch of cash lying around and you think you will remain in the area for 5 years or more, then buying a house is not a terrible idea. Interest rates are low, so getting good returns on that cash is hard anyway, and the tax deduction will be nice. This and people also don't often realize that as a renter inflation is loving you over, versus a homehowner with a fixed mortgage benefits from inflation.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 17:13
|
|
|
revmoo posted:This and people also don't often realize that as a renter inflation is loving you over, versus a homehowner with a fixed mortgage benefits from inflation. Inflation affects property taxes, utilities, cost of appliances, repairs, renovation...
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 17:27
|
|
|
Drunk Tomato posted:Inflation affects property taxes, utilities, cost of appliances, repairs, renovation... And? You're paying for those items indirectly as a renter to begin with. The point isn't that inflation doesn't affect homeowners, it's that it affects them significantly less than renters.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 17:37
|
|
|
I've owned a place for about three months. Clearly it was time for my first drain backup. Yay for it quite possibly being a tree root since my snake runs in to something solid about 18 feet down the pipe but water can still get through, just slowly since it takes about 2 minutes to back up.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 19:17
|
|
|
Bozart posted:I'm going to disagree with the do never buys here. If you have a bunch of cash lying around and you think you will remain in the area for 5 years or more, then buying a house is not a terrible idea. Interest rates are low, so getting good returns on that cash is hard anyway, and the tax deduction will be nice. It's actually pretty easy to outperform inflation using mutual fund investments. As far as long-term investments go, the stock market is more likely to give you a higher return than buying a house. But if you've got the down payment and the time, and you want to buy a house, then buying a house is a totally acceptable decision to make. "Do never buy" is directed at people who have come into this thread with big dreams about buying a house with 5% down and then flipping it a few years later because the market is just so hot right now, and also people who fail to budget for maintenance.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 19:35
|
|
|
Well, gently caress you guys. I was hoping to hear "hell naw don't buy that house!" Really though, I would love to keep my same place for at least the next 5 years or until the job market in Seattle collapses or the city literally collapses when the subduction zone ruptures. Does anyone have any experience or advice for offering your landlord money? If I can't end up buying the house I'm currently renting, I'm a lot less motivated to buy, but I feel like it's totally mandatory to try this. I assume getting a direct offer from your tenant is preferable because you don't need to pay 5% to your real estate agent, right?
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 21:27
|
|
|
QuarkJets posted:"Do never buy" is directed at people who have come into this thread with big dreams about buying a house with 5% down and then flipping it a few years later because the market is just so hot right now, and also people who fail to budget for maintenance. Dreadite posted:Does anyone have any experience or advice for offering your landlord money? If I can't end up buying the house I'm currently renting, I'm a lot less motivated to buy, but I feel like it's totally mandatory to try this. I assume getting a direct offer from your tenant is preferable because you don't need to pay 5% to your real estate agent, right? If you represent yourself as a buyer, the landlord saves at least 3% in theory, but if he has a selling agent, that's about 3% spoken for. It's a lot easier as a seller to not use an agent if there's an offer though already on the table.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2016 22:17
|
|
|
necrobobsledder posted:I bought a house in 2015 and sold it in 2016 for 11% return after all fees and commissions and the worst thing that happened in maintenance was I had to pay $2k for a sump pump when I sold the house. Do not buy because this is probably not a good sign of a healthy housing market if a place with no freakin' jobs like Asheville, NC heats up that much for sellers. Right, you can totally come out way further ahead than you expected on a house purchase. But you can also come out way behind. People tend to assume that a house purchase is a guaranteed financial win but it really, really isn't. It'd be like using all of your money buying lotto tickets because sometimes people win the jackpot
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2016 02:23
|
|
|
I just found a house with an air-conditioned garage. Be still, my beating heart.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2016 15:50
|
|
|
QuarkJets posted:Right, you can totally come out way further ahead than you expected on a house purchase. But you can also come out way behind. People tend to assume that a house purchase is a guaranteed financial win but it really, really isn't. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2016 16:02
|
|
|
necrobobsledder posted:Psst, I lost $35k+ of my down payment buying a house in 2007 and even with that 11% it's not enough to offset that loss completely 2007, oof. That's rough timing.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2016 16:03
|
|
|
MrYenko posted:I just found a house with an air-conditioned garage. Currently posting from my air-conditioned garage. It owns. We got really lucky with our house. It's in a neighborhood where houses often sell for above asking within hours of going up for sale. Pretty much somebody has to die to get into certain blocks here. My mom was in foreclosure and I took over her mortgage. Went that route for about four years to get my credit up and then bought it. We ended up walking into 44k of equity (closing costs included) just from the four years we lived in the house. That's over 10k a year in appreciation. We'll drop PMI in a year. And the awesome thing about having already been in the place is that we've already done a lot of work to it. Brand new HE Trane furnace, new flooring in almost every room, paint, etc. Of course, we'll never sell or get a HELOC so that money will just sit there forever. If our city heats up like SF then maybe we'll sell and move to the country. I'd basically either move if taxes priced us out or if I could fully fund our retirement by moving.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2016 17:14
|
|
|
I don't think I've ever heard of an air conditioned garage around here before, but I'd imagine it's drat nice in the evenings in mosquito/humidity country.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2016 18:09
|
|
|
Pryor on Fire posted:I don't think I've ever heard of an air conditioned garage around here before, but I'd imagine it's drat nice in the evenings in mosquito/humidity country.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2016 18:27
|
|
|
I don't even have a garage. Or A/C at all. Home ownership really runs the gamut of options.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2016 18:29
|
|
|
The garage is seriously why I bought a 250k house instead of a 130k house. I prefer to live further below my means than this, but I couldn't resist. Basically the previous owners pulled some strings and got permits to build this thing somehow. All the rest of the houses in the neighborhood have little detached one-car deals and then this thing is the same footprint of the house and occupies most of the backyard. I really would love to know how it got permitted. It's the sort of garage you'd see on a rural or farm property and it's stuck right in the middle of a city. I'm 10 minutes from downtown DURING rush hour.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2016 19:07
|
|
|
QuarkJets posted:Right, you can totally come out way further ahead than you expected on a house purchase. But you can also come out way behind. People tend to assume that a house purchase is a guaranteed financial win but it really, really isn't. I believe most house purchases would be very smart decisions if the occupants have the capacity and ability to keep the place in good condition and they didn't have to move for 20-30 years, but various pressures to move combined with the real estate cartel cause it to usually be a bad investment.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2016 01:42
|
|
|
Specifically regarding Seattle's rental and residential real estate market: There is currently no end in sight. It's getting particularly troublesome regarding property taxes. For instance, in 2014, my taxes went up ~$100. In 2015 they went up ~$200. Then this year they went up over $1000. If this continues, people could conceivably be priced out of their own mortgages.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2016 02:45
|
|
|
HEY NONG MAN posted:Specifically regarding Seattle's rental and residential real estate market: There is currently no end in sight. Sounds like you need prop 13!
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2016 03:39
|
|
|
HEY NONG MAN posted:Specifically regarding Seattle's rental and residential real estate market: There is currently no end in sight. If you're in the city of Seattle, those folks have never met a property tax they didn't like. I still cringe remembering that monorail project that would've cost 11 billion dollars and gone like 5 miles from downtown to Crown Hill. For reference, the California bullet train which will go from LA to San Francisco is supposed to be like 70 billion. As someone who's lived in the area for my entire life, I find it mind boggling how much property is going for, but as long as there are jobs things probably aren't going to change.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2016 04:02
|
|
|
BeastOfExmoor posted:As someone who's lived in the area for my entire life, I find it mind boggling how much property is going for, but as long as there are jobs things probably aren't going to change. Another horrible thing is what it's like to talk to real estate agents or loan officers in Seattle. It feels like they are all barely holding back from frothing at the mouth in greed. Maybe by the time I get priced out of renting in this city it'll be time to go make some other place more expensive. Pittsburgh: the next Seattle
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2016 07:07
|
|
|
Thoguh posted:I've owned a place for about three months. Clearly it was time for my first drain backup. Yay for it quite possibly being a tree root since my snake runs in to something solid about 18 feet down the pipe but water can still get through, just slowly since it takes about 2 minutes to back up. Did you get water back on your insurance? And to add my own misfortune to help you feel better, I've been in this house just over a week. On Tuesday a storm caused a power brownout or surge and it toasted my AC capacitor. I never did it as a renter, however there's no way I'm keeping less than 3k in a repair fund.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2016 13:54
|
|
|
BeastOfExmoor posted:... If you think that will be even remotely on budget...
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2016 14:39
|
|
|
OhDearGodNo posted:Did you get water back on your insurance? Luckily it just backed up to the sink and a little bit under the sink, so there was no water damage. We just can't use the kitchen sink for extended periods right now. My plan is to open up the drywall in the basement right before the pipe goes in to the foundation and if there isn't an access point there already, to install one. Then I'll call around and get quotes for cleaning out the pipe. I had a plumber come out after my snaking it didn't do anything but all that did was waste a couple hundred bucks for him to try and blow it. Which didn't fix anything and is why I figure its a root or something along those lines.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2016 16:07
|
|
|
OhDearGodNo posted:Did you get water back on your insurance? Btw those things are incredibly easy to replace and like 30$. I highly reccomend doing some reading up on house ac, you can save a ton of cash repairing extremely simple electronic circuits. Literally all you need is a multimeter and hand tools.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2016 18:39
|
|
|
While I like having separate home searching and home ownership thread now the titles make it tough to know which one is which, and that's as somebody who frequents this subforum.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2016 16:31
|
|
|
I don't think it matters much you can complain about lovely agents or lovely roofs in either thread no sheriff is going to ride in and end your reign of terror.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2016 16:44
|
|
|
revmoo posted:The garage is seriously why I bought a 250k house instead of a 130k house. I prefer to live further below my means than this, but I couldn't resist. Basically the previous owners pulled some strings and got permits to build this thing somehow. All the rest of the houses in the neighborhood have little detached one-car deals and then this thing is the same footprint of the house and occupies most of the backyard. I really would love to know how it got permitted. It's the sort of garage you'd see on a rural or farm property and it's stuck right in the middle of a city. I'm 10 minutes from downtown DURING rush hour. Thoguh posted:Luckily it just backed up to the sink and a little bit under the sink, so there was no water damage. We just can't use the kitchen sink for extended periods right now. My plan is to open up the drywall in the basement right before the pipe goes in to the foundation and if there isn't an access point there already, to install one. Then I'll call around and get quotes for cleaning out the pipe. I had a plumber come out after my snaking it didn't do anything but all that did was waste a couple hundred bucks for him to try and blow it. Which didn't fix anything and is why I figure its a root or something along those lines. SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Sep 13, 2016 |
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2016 20:24
|
|
|
Thoguh posted:While I like having separate home searching and home ownership thread now the titles make it tough to know which one is which, and that's as somebody who frequents this subforum. The one with "bought a house" in the title is about buying houses, the one with "homeownership" in the title is about home ownership
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2016 21:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 11:23 |
|
|
QuarkJets posted:The one with "bought a house" in the title is about buying houses, the one with "homeownership" in the title is about home ownership People buying houses are often getting their first taste of the second job that is homeownership, so there's quite a bit of overlap.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2016 22:21
|
|