|
Here's a question: My HVAC guy said to use a thinner filter during the summer while my A/C is pumping more often for better airflow. I wonder if that matters or not.
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 17:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 17:06 |
|
|
No Butt Stuff posted:Here's a question: You should use whatever filter and schedule is recommended for the system and the way its designed. My system is designed for the thin fiberglass filters that get changed monthly. Putting a thicker filter in there screws with the airflow in the system and makes it less efficient. If your system is designed for the thicker filters you change less frequently use those.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 17:26
|
|
|
It's not, that I'm aware of. I'll pull the documentation tonight to be sure.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 17:28
|
|
|
Where does one get information related to those things that you never knew you didn't know how to do before owning a house i.e. how to de-winterize your sprinkler lines? I know I could just google, just wondering if there's like a specific website that deals with mundane home ownership and maintenance stuff.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 17:40
|
|
|
Mikey Purp posted:Where does one get information related to those things that you never knew you didn't know how to do before owning a house i.e. how to de-winterize your sprinkler lines? I know I could just google, just wondering if there's like a specific website that deals with mundane home ownership and maintenance stuff. I usually just google every single one. For that one, there's a little box in the front of the house and you just turn the water valve back on. In my city we have to have backflow testing and reported to the city by every July, so usually they just turn it on then.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 18:24
|
|
|
skipdogg posted:You should use whatever filter and schedule is recommended for the system and the way its designed. My system is designed for the thin fiberglass filters that get changed monthly. Putting a thicker filter in there screws with the airflow in the system and makes it less efficient. If your system is designed for the thicker filters you change less frequently use those. Alereon fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Apr 19, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 18:30
|
|
|
EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:I prefer cool white (just 1000K warmer, and more readily available) but I agree that warm light should be for listening to vinyl records in lamp lit rooms only. this is the correct light bulb opinion
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 19:09
|
|
|
I have a mortgage documents question, which ultimately might be beyond this thread's ability to give advice for, but there's no harm in trying. I've signed an offer to purchase, and have chosen a mortgage lender. This lender provided a Loan Estimate for a 10/1 ARM when I applied, and a 15 year traditional a few day later at my request. I'd like to go with this lender for the 15 year traditional, but the documentation they've provided to me to sign all references the earlier, 10/1 ARM estimate. I've requested that they change this to reference the estimate I'd like to go with, but the representative I've talked to says: 1. They can't change the wording on the original documents due to Dodd-Frank, and 2: It isn't important which estimate the documents reference as I have email correspondence indicating that I'm pursuing the 15 year option. Having looked at what I assume are the related legalese, and I'm not-a-lawyer certain that 1. is untrue, as the borrower (me) is asking them to make a change to the original estimate. The 2nd part seems unusual to me, as this would be a pretty easy paperwork fix. What I'm looking to know is - Do these documents really matter, or can this all be changed before closing, and, If they do matter; should I request that a different representative handle my mortgage, or just run like hell from this company?
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 23:47
|
|
|
Blorange posted:I have a mortgage documents question, which ultimately might be beyond this thread's ability to give advice for, but there's no harm in trying. Do not, ever, sign anything that indicates something other than exactly what you want. Never Ever. They absolutely can provide you with a different loan, they cannot change your qualifications for the loans. You are bidding this out to several lenders right?
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2017 23:51
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:Do not, ever, sign anything that indicates something other than exactly what you want. Never Ever. Absolutely. Yes, I've gone to multiple lenders, and the annoying thing is this estimate is beating the others by decent amount. I'm still 2 months out from close, so if this falls through I have other options to fall back on.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 00:03
|
|
|
We did it! We closed on our house!  
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 01:16
|
|
|
Blorange posted:Absolutely. Tell them you're going to go with a lender who will give you the terms you want, emphasize you aren't changing anything about your income, appraisal value, or amount financed. They likely make more commission off that ARM than the fixed rate mortgage. Take your Loan Estimate for the 15-year fixed to your next best offer lender and ask them to beat it. I bet they at least meet it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 02:17
|
|
|
Mikey Purp posted:We did it! We closed on our house! Better break out the Lowes card you're gonna need a lot of LED light bulbs
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 03:46
|
|
|
Photex posted:Better break out the Lowes card you're gonna need a lot of LED light bulbs This got a geniune lol out of me, thanks. I had an energy audit done today, and the conclusion from the guy was while I might want to caulk around my window, including considering temporary caulk on my seals during the winter, the energy advantage to payoff going from double pane to triple pane windows would "literally be longer than the lifetime of my daughter's children." My daughter is 10 months old. He did give me a free programmable thermostat and some low flow showerheads and faucet aerators though!
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 03:48
|
|
|
therobit posted:I gather leasehold is a lot more common in the UK, but I don't really know the reasons for it. In about 5 years dealing almost exclusively with home refinancing in the US, looking at thousands of loans, I think I have seen one or two leaseholds. It seems like it is only common here in indian reservations. Probably some weird historic lord / serf arrangement. I think it's basically not solvable at this point as essentially all flats here are leasehold.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 09:40
|
|
|
Blorange posted:Absolutely. Tell the ARM lender that they can provide you with a 15 year fixed Loan Estimate or that you will go with one of their competitors. I bet they'll figure out the law real quick.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 14:31
|
|
|
Yea, I am pretty sure that the leasehold/freehold situation basically derives from more feudal arrangements of ownership, where largely only nobility owned actual land, and so everyone else was essentially building their homes on land that was owned by whatever local noble, who retained the ownership of the actual land. Obviously that changed, but the practice of separating the ownership of land and structures already established and perpetuated. There is also the fact that most leaseholds were very long, usually decades or more, so they were difficult to change and would exist concurrently with any new developments for many years, making them very resilient to change. The UK actually leased Hong Kong from China on a 99-year lease, an arrangement that survived two changes of government.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 14:40
|
|
|
After submitting the list of things we want the seller to fix or credit us for, he offered to have the HVAC serviced plus crediting us a grand. That's $1,000 to replace a decayed load-bearing exterior post, repair or replace a sliding glass door with a broken moisture seal, plus some minor but important plumbing and electrical work (including a cracked garbage disposal). I get that he doesn't want to arrange all these repairs from out-of-state, but he's going to have to credit us more than that. Just thinking out loud, I suppose.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 15:00
|
|
|
EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:This got a geniune lol out of me, thanks. I am afraid of what my energy audit would say. I need to get one.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 15:03
|
|
|
Dwight Eisenhower posted:Tell the ARM lender that they can provide you with a 15 year fixed Loan Estimate or that you will go with one of their competitors. If the poster can get the claim of a 15 year fixed for signing the arm paperwork in writing (email will do) he would have a hilarious court case where that lender would hopefully lose their license.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2017 15:20
|
|
|
EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:This got a geniune lol out of me, thanks. What about attic insulation and air sealing?
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 00:34
|
|
|
I'm filling out a form to get a mortgage pre-approval and it's asking for a list price on the property. We're getting this for house hunting, so we don't have a price yet. What do I put there? I can't not put anything.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 01:36
|
|
|
A pre-approval is for a specific amount of loan. Just put down how much you want to borrow. But. You generally should not present to a seller a pre-approval for a lot more money than the price you're going to offer on the house, so it's common to get a pre-approval for a specific offer. For now, just pick how much you're budgeting for.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 01:41
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:A pre-approval is for a specific amount of loan. Just put down how much you want to borrow. Ok that's what I did. Just wanted to double check. We have our first meeting with a realtor next week and they wanted us to have spoken to a lender before our meeting. I've asked if that means a pre-approval or just shopping around and I'm waiting to hear back before I officially submit an application.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 01:49
|
|
|
Problem! posted:Ok that's what I did. Just wanted to double check. The realtor just wants to make sure your finances are not so hosed up that lenders won't talk on you. So you're probably fine, just bring in a pre approval or some sort of pre-qualification letter. You can get that from like a bank website in five minutes
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 03:10
|
|
|
Problem! posted:I'm filling out a form to get a mortgage pre-approval and it's asking for a list price on the property. We're getting this for house hunting, so we don't have a price yet. What do I put there? I can't not put anything. "Yo bank bro I make $gross_income and have $x other debt servicing how much can I borrow" - They will tell you the maximum ratio, put that down. That sheet of paper is as worth while as used toilet paper. Do not borrow anywhere close to that amount of money unless you really enjoy financial hardship. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Apr 21, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 04:02
|
|
|
devicenull posted:What about attic insulation and air sealing? Apparently our attic has a (very high number) R of insulation everywhere except right over the access panel into the attic itself, so I'm going to think about that as a long term project. He said energy savings on that project would be on the order of $15 a year or something.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 16:42
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:"Yo bank bro I make $gross_income and have $x other debt servicing how much can I borrow" - They will tell you the maximum ratio, put that down. That sheet of paper is as worth while as used toilet paper. Fun ratio, I was independently qualified by our lender to borrow 6x the eventual purchase price of our home, without incorporating my wife's earnings (or lovely credit) at all. We're not struggling to make payments but wow is it nice not to have to choke on a mortgage every month. Buy as little house as you possibly can.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 16:43
|
|
|
If you're in a market that can afford it, 3x your yearly earning is a fantastic guideline for making sure you buy a house that doesn't leave you broke and living paycheck to paycheck.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 17:22
|
|
|
EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Fun ratio, I was independently qualified by our lender to borrow 6x the eventual purchase price of our home, without incorporating my wife's earnings (or lovely credit) at all. We're not struggling to make payments but wow is it nice not to have to choke on a mortgage every month. It's insane. We were prequalified for $625k @ 3.5% down. We bought a house for 25% less than that with 10% down.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2017 18:48
|
|
|
EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Fun ratio, I was independently qualified by our lender to borrow 6x the eventual purchase price of our home, without incorporating my wife's earnings (or lovely credit) at all. We're not struggling to make payments but wow is it nice not to have to choke on a mortgage every month. Yeah, living below your means is really nice as far as that goes - we ended up borrowing about 1.9x our yearly (combined) income, no worries about the payment whatsoever.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2017 16:24
|
|
|
So lenders are still willing to make large, risky loans to people that would have a difficult time affording payments. Isn't that one of the big reasons for the housing crash of the mid 00's? One lender I talked to qualified me for a loan nearly 6x my yearly net income with as little as 3% down payment. I did some quick math and calculated such a loan would mean a monthly payment of almost 70% of my monthly income not counting PMI fees. Granted, I had excellent credit, stable employment and a huge sum of savings in the bank at the time, so I was an ideal low-risk candidate for a large loan. But not committing to risky financial obligations like borrowing such a loan is exactly why I was a great candidate in the first place. I think a good general rule is not to borrow the maximum amount you're qualified for. I ended up borrowing about 1.6x my yearly income and I have no trouble making payments. You can't put a price on peace of mind.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2017 19:00
|
|
|
If you borrow the max amount you either can't afford a house or you can't afford the house you want to buy.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2017 19:06
|
|
|
Vinny the Shark posted:So lenders are still willing to make large, risky loans to people that would have a difficult time affording payments. Isn't that one of the big reasons for the housing crash of the mid 00's? One lender I talked to qualified me for a loan nearly 6x my yearly net income with as little as 3% down payment. I did some quick math and calculated such a loan would mean a monthly payment of almost 70% of my monthly income not counting PMI fees. Granted, I had excellent credit, stable employment and a huge sum of savings in the bank at the time, so I was an ideal low-risk candidate for a large loan. But not committing to risky financial obligations like borrowing such a loan is exactly why I was a great candidate in the first place. Lenders' actuarial tables tell them that borrowers in your category are a certain very very very low % risk of default. That is all that matters. They don't know or care how you manage your finances; your credit score tells them you're reliable, your debt-to-income tells them this new loan doesn't put you over a certain threshhold where you'll be a higher default risk, so you're fine. Some people will go ahead and live like paupers on a large income in order to afford a ruinous payment. As long as they're not defaulting, the bank don't care.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2017 20:24
|
|
|
My wife and I are under contract on a home and the appraisal came back higher than the contract price. We decided we would prefer to amend our contract for 2k more and have seller put up 2k in closing. The sellers rejected paying any closing , but said they wanted to change the sale price to the 2k increase anyway. My realtor was trying to stifle laughter as he rejected this "counter".
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2017 23:07
|
|
|
Was the appraisal right or was it like mine where they somehow included a duplex, and a house that was missing windows on 3 sides but had really nice tarps stapled over the holes? The appraisal also had a house where if you put a marble on the floor it would break the sound barrier before it hit the closest wall. Tilts everywhere. The appraiser stood by his appraisal until I had the lender visit the other two houses. Then we had someone else do the appraisal.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2017 01:37
|
|
|
Spermy Smurf posted:Was the appraisal right or was it like mine where they somehow included a duplex, and a house that was missing windows on 3 sides but had really nice tarps stapled over the holes? The appraisal was over our contract price , but we decided we wanted a few thousand extra in our pocket rather than going to closing costs so we were going to change our sale contract to $212,000, which is more than the original signed contract amount ($210,000) in exchange for the sellers to pay 2k in closing (leaving them with the same net). They said no to paying any closing but then asked our realtor if we could still pay the $212,000. im just trying to justify any thought process where It made sense to the seller / their agent In which we would randomly agree to pay $2,000 more for literally no reason 30+ days into closing. Kanish fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Apr 23, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2017 04:10
|
|
|
Kanish posted:The appraisal was over our contract price , but we decided we wanted a few thousand extra in our pocket rather than going to closing costs so we were going to change our sale contract to $212,000, which is more than the original signed contract amount ($210,000) in exchange for the sellers to pay 2k in closing (leaving them with the same net). They said no to paying any closing but then asked our realtor if we could still pay the $212,000. im just trying to justify any thought process where It made sense to the seller / their agent In which we would randomly agree to pay $2,000 more for literally no reason 30+ days into closing. You would be surprised what people will sign. See the above poster where the mortgage lender tried to trick them into an ARM. Doesn't hurt to try, and it isn't stupid if it works.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2017 04:25
|
|
|
Kirios posted:If you're in a market that can afford it, 3x your yearly earning is a fantastic guideline for making sure you buy a house that doesn't leave you broke and living paycheck to paycheck. This varies so much by market and things like local property tax that I can't find a way to a sane rule of thumb. I'm moving from a market where I could easily buy a house for 1x annual household income that meets our needs well to a market where choices are limited at 3x our income. Of course, property tax rates and homeowners insurance rates are way, way lower where we are moving so I'm able to buy 3x the house for less than 2x the PITI with the exact same 20% down, so what does that say?
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2017 21:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 17:06 |
|
|
For all of you that have recently purchased homes, what did you end up doing about the Title insurance? I know the lender insurance is mandatory and the buyer insurance is optional, and from everything I've read most of the buyer insurance is actually just going to the closing lawyer as grift, but... It appears to be a pretty even split of people that say "definitely get it" and people that say "don't bother getting it."
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2017 19:56
|
|
