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SurgicalOntologist posted:Sure, but that's a big "if" (the second one). Her salary is already more than enough for all our current expenses, in a higher COL area, with our current rent roughly equal to mortgage payments. To put some numbers on it, we're sitting on $100K cash and looking at $200K houses. Let's say we move with enough salary lined up to pay expenses and continue maxing out our Roth IRAs, and have 1.5 years emergency savings after the down payment. Are you telling me that's too risky? Only you know your risk tolerance. I would do this plan if you're confident in your spouses ability to stay employed, or for you to pickup employment should it be required. You're going to need to be friends with your bank. And yes, you can indeed just pretend you don't exist for income purposes. Just make sure you understand how title works in your destination in event of divorce. I would make sure you are both on the title and mortgage. Edit: \/ Get a realtor. They are paid 10% of your rent to find good tenants. We wound up in a great* below market private rental for several years. * Rapid boom construction condo which frequently backed up sewer water into our living room, the AC was undersized, and the storm+sewer sumps weren't on a maintenance contract, but it had a low HOA fee!!! (Likely illegally low, not my problem.) H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Apr 27, 2017 |
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Apr 27, 2017 15:47
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SurgicalOntologist posted:
Someone should be renting a house somewhere, you just won't find it on the apartment sites. Trawl Craigslist and any local weekly papers and you should see a couple.
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Apr 27, 2017 18:04
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I got a big decision to make. We bought our house at the height of the bubble. I was also a dumbshit kid living in a dumbshit Alabama town making a lot of other dumbshit mistakes in my life. This year I have an opportunity to finally get my career on track and move to Atlanta with a decent job in tech. The problem is I'm of course underwater on my mortgage. I have about $77,000 left on the balance, and it seems like my house won't sell for any more than $55,000. This is from Googling I've done and a couple of conversations with a realtor I trust. I'm not sure what my options are if I sell with $22k to owe. I'm pretty sure I don't qualify for any sort of assistance because my lender is the state housing finance authority, and it's Alabama. They explicitly told me they don't qualify for HARP. I don't want to foreclose, and there are no short sale options. I considered renting it out until I can sell, but I've gotten advice from landlord friends saying "lol don't do that" because it's not worth the stress and time. I have my doubts about that anyway. So what can I do? I plan on renting when I get to ATL, so I don't really care about buying a place up there. I know I would have to bring money to the closing if it sells underwater, but could I take out another loan to try to cover that? It's possible my job would pay enough to cover the added expense of a personal loan, depending on what happens this year. Plus I'm married, so I'll be moving up there with the wife, who will be working also.
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Apr 27, 2017 19:49
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Here's a kind of weird question - is it kosher to contact the seller with questions about the house after the sale has been finalized and closed? It's mostly dumb things like "any idea what this switch does?" or "how do you turn on these lights?" Along those same lines...how in the gently caress do you figure out what all of the light switches in your house do? It's an old house, so I am not surprised if there are just a ton of blanks all over the place, but flicking the switch and having nothing happen makes me feel like something is broken that I'm just not aware of. Is mapping those something an electrician could do or something? Mikey Purp fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 19:45
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If it's an old house some of the switches might control outlets. But yeah, an electrician can probably figure it out, or you can pull the switch cover off and see if it's even connected to anything.
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Apr 28, 2017 19:53
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Mikey Purp posted:Here's a kind of weird question - is it kosher to contact the seller with questions about the house after the sale has been finalized and closed? It's mostly dumb things like "any idea what this switch does?" or "how do you turn on these lights?" Get a bunch of lamps/radios and go to town. Remember top and bottom of a duplex outlet may be wired differently from switched vs always on.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:07
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Mikey Purp posted:Here's a kind of weird question - is it kosher to contact the seller with questions about the house after the sale has been finalized and closed? It's mostly dumb things like "any idea what this switch does?" or "how do you turn on these lights?" I occasionally contact the seller on my house with questions. If they are decent they will answer, if not who cares, it's not illegal or anything. For the second part, plug in a lamp or something and see if any of the plugs are controlled by the switches.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:25
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Went through an inspection today. Found some water ... In the breaker box! Yay! Electric meter outside was missing caulk and rain was dripping in through the conduit. I'm extremely surprised this has never been an issue for the seller yet. There was a whole bunch of other fun stuff too. Basement is 3/4 size of the house, and we found that other 1/4 contains a buried brick cistern from god know when.
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Apr 29, 2017 04:39
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Judge Schnoopy posted:1/4 contains a buried brick cistern from god know when. Is the current homeowner named Montresor?
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Apr 29, 2017 15:27
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Looking for some advice. Walking through this house, the living spaces were amazing, location is a dream, yard is fantastic. Inspection came back with some pretty huge glaring issues. Knob and tube wiring in the attic (and no insulation), old cloth covered wiring run through the basement, most outlets don't have grounding, the garage has some heavy lean and the inspector recommended demo. Little bit of asbestos on some air ducts in the basement and other issues here and there. It's extremely clear that our offer price is miles away from market value. I'm looking at an estimated 30k in improvements years 1 and 2. How hosed am I from trying to hammer the sellers back to a reasonable sale price? Is it better to let go of my $350 inspection and $200 attorney fee and start over somewhere else?
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Apr 29, 2017 22:25
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Judge Schnoopy posted:Looking for some advice. I was thinking that it's not THAT big a deal to redo electrical if everything else on the house is perfect... then you got to the asbestos and the sinking garage. I would walk away from it unless you are in an area where every house is 50+ years old.
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Apr 29, 2017 22:26
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The house is 120 years old so I'm sure we'll run into another 25k in improvements within 10 years, likely twice over.
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Apr 29, 2017 22:38
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If you don't want the hassle then just walk away. You're avoided throwing away tens of thousands of dollars, congratulations If you're still interested in buying the house and you just want these hosed up things to get fixed, then you should get an estimate for the items that you think you'd want done in order to buy the house. They don't have to be thorough or exact, you just want the contractor to ballpark and estimate. And then you give them those estimates + the inspector report and you say "These are huge problems that I didn't know about. I want these contractors to do this work to fix these huge problems, and I want you to pay for it. Or we make up a new purchase agreement with a big price reduction. Otherwise I walk". If they balk, then you walk. If you go the latter route then you probably shouldn't assume that the seller will pay for redoing the electrical (because old-as-gently caress houses usually have old-as-gently caress electrical systems) but the asbestos remnants is a health hazard and the sliding garage is a safety hazard and that poo poo needs to get done
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Apr 29, 2017 23:14
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Judge Schnoopy posted:Inspection came back with some pretty huge glaring issues. Knob and tube wiring in the attic (and no insulation), old cloth covered wiring run through the basement, most outlets don't have grounding, the garage has some heavy lean and the inspector recommended demo. Little bit of asbestos on some air ducts in the basement and other issues here and there. In theory if you tell them they must disclose it to future buyers. This gives you leverage, especially the asbestos and garage. Consider asking them to get certified abatement for the asbestos, figure out if you want to rewire the house ($10-15k depending, plus any further asbestos they find), and figure out the replacement cost of that garage from a reputable contractor. I wouldn't buy it with the asbestos fibers free floating in your forced air ducts. It doesn't cost you anything to ask them to do everything, the worst that happens is you're in the same boat you were in when you started. $500 is nothing compared to what you have found. Be glad it was only $500 to find it. Scope the sewer? H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Apr 30, 2017 00:19
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Oh yeah I forgot to mention that you should get the sewer scoped if you're thinking of not just walking away
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Apr 30, 2017 02:08
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Man the market out here sucks though, 2 month absorption, poo poo gets bought up within days of being on market so prices are stupid high. Walking away, which I'm honestly thinking is the wise choice, will set me back a month or two before finding something else. But I absolutely know that's not a valid reason to make a bad decision.
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Apr 30, 2017 02:33
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Judge Schnoopy posted:Man the market out here sucks though, 2 month absorption, poo poo gets bought up within days of being on market so prices are stupid high. Walking away, which I'm honestly thinking is the wise choice, will set me back a month or two before finding something else. So when do you close?
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Apr 30, 2017 02:37
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Judge Schnoopy posted:Man the market out here sucks though, 2 month absorption, poo poo gets bought up within days of being on market so prices are stupid high. Walking away, which I'm honestly thinking is the wise choice, will set me back a month or two before finding something else. My biggest fear wouldn't be the $30k of improvements you'd have to do in the first couple of years, it's the unknown number of critical repairs when walls get opened up during the improvements.
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Apr 30, 2017 12:11
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Hi thread, I did a bad thing. I posted here a couple months ago asking if I should buy and the answer was a pretty firm "probably not." Then I went and did it anyway. What changed my mind was that my dad, incredibly generously, offered to be my emergency fund. He said he'd cover my rear end until my savings are back up where I want. I guess my grandma had done the same for him. I'm very lucky to have family in a position to do this for me. So now I'm pending on a lovely little 50s ranch in Portland that has a ton of features I didn't think I could afford: fireplace! third bedroom! great location! attached garage that isn't falling down! The inspection and sewer scope came back a-okay, the worst is the panel needs to be replaced, for which we're going to ask for closing cost credit. My main worry is the appraisal. Any Portland goons here? My offer was about 20k higher than I've seen things go for in the neighborhood, but the only sales nearby in the past few months have been fixers. My realtor thinks it'll appraise. How much do the appraisers take into account the general (insane) market in our city? Has anyone had an experience with a low appraisal and the ensuing fallout? I have a contingency and I'll walk if I have to, but this was my 6th offer and I definitely don't want to go through this again.
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Apr 30, 2017 19:58
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Hydronium posted:My main worry is the appraisal. Any Portland goons here? My offer was about 20k higher than I've seen things go for in the neighborhood, but the only sales nearby in the past few months have been fixers. My realtor thinks it'll appraise. How much do the appraisers take into account the general (insane) market in our city? Has anyone had an experience with a low appraisal and the ensuing fallout? I have a contingency and I'll walk if I have to, but this was my 6th offer and I definitely don't want to go through this again. I just got an appraisal back a few weeks ago in Chicago, and it explicitly mentioned the market and low inventory. We were pretty worried about it coming in low, but it came in a little over.
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Apr 30, 2017 20:01
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Zapf Dingbat posted:I got a big decision to make. Nobody replied to you, so I'll give this a shot. If short sale isn't actually an option (and don't just believe someone on the phone that it isn't, because the bank has a huge interest in convincing you to keep making payments instead of trying a short sale), then I think these are your options: 1. Keep the house and rent it out. 2. Sell the house, and bring cash to closing to cover any gap between your sale price and what you owe (plus selling costs, which are also your burden) 3. Walk away from the house and let it get foreclosed 1 is, as you said, not a fantastic option. Being a landlord is an actual job, and if you're not living in the same town as the house, you'll probably have to hire someone to do it. The house will have to be brought up to whatever standards are required to rent it out, someone will need to do repairs and maintenance, you'll have to find good tenants and then when they move you'll have to do more maintenance, cover your payments for a while until you get new good tenants, and so on. If you want to break even, you'll have to rent for substantially more than your mortgage payment + property taxes to cover the maintanance and labor costs involved here. 2 requires you to come up with some money and if you don't have it, borrowing it is an option. But that option depends heavily on your credit. If you are looking at borrowing $22k (plus closing costs etc) on credit cards or with a personal loan, you will have a much higher interest rate than your mortgage was at, because this is unsecured debt. 3. Well. This option sucks. It especially sucks because based on a quick google search, Alabama is a full recourse state. That means that after foreclosing and selling your house, the bank can then sue you for however much money they lost. It doesn't necessarily mean they will sue you - if they're convinced the costs of suing you will be higher than whatever they could recover in court, they might choose not to, or as that link says, you might be able to get your lender to agree to something less than a full lawsuit. But they can sue you, which is different from "non-recourse" states where the lender just has to eat the loss. But you can of course get out of that debt by filing for bankruptcy. Getting foreclosed on is bad for your credit but bankruptcy is worse. It's probably not ideal for your situation moving to a new town, getting a job, finding an apartment, etc. I also have no idea to what degree your wife might get screwed by you being in bankruptcy. So I think what you should do is talk to an attorney. It's possible that your bank is not being entirely honest with you about your options, and you absolutely need legal advice before doing 3. I know it seems awful to spend money on a lawyer when you're in bad financial straits, but initial consultations are often free and if you need more than that, it's often just an hour or two to pay for. Find a lawyer that specializes in real estate issues. http://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/practicestate/foreclosure-alternatives/alabama It's possible that a foreclosure attorney contacting your lender will get a very different response than you did. Good luck and my commiserations on your lovely situation. Since you are moving anyway please consider moving to a state with less lovely laws.
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Apr 30, 2017 20:24
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Hydronium posted:Hi thread, Appraisals usually come back fine unless the house has glaring issues or you simply offered way, way too much. They're not really the "true" value of the house, it's basically just a document saying that a professional has judged that your offer is in the right ballpark and the number is otherwise meaningless unless it's below your offer
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May 1, 2017 00:42
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Hydronium posted:So now I'm pending on a lovely little 50s ranch in Portland that has a ton of features I didn't think I could afford: fireplace! third bedroom! great location! attached garage that isn't falling down! The inspection and sewer scope came back a-okay, the worst is the panel needs to be replaced, for which we're going to ask for closing cost credit. Fellow Portland goon here - who bought a place very similar to yours in November. My appraisal came back just fine, about 10k over my offer. I would imagine you'd be ok too, good luck!
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May 1, 2017 02:32
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QuarkJets posted:Appraisals usually come back fine unless the house has glaring issues or you simply offered way, way too much. They're not really the "true" value of the house What is a more accurate piece of data on price than literally what someone is willing to pay for something?
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May 1, 2017 14:44
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Here we go
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May 1, 2017 15:23
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Leperflesh posted:<some good advice> Thank you for this. I didn't take into consideration the full recourse thing.
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May 1, 2017 18:13
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Instead of walking away from my deal I just firmed up contingencies with my attorney, seller will be on the hook for about 20k in repairs before closing plus 12k back in credits. If they're insane, they'll take it and I'll get a really nice house out of the deal. If they're sane, they'll reject it and I won't have to worry about getting into a money pit.
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May 1, 2017 18:39
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Motronic posted:What is a more accurate piece of data on price than literally what someone is willing to pay for something? You would think. I am currently selling my house. Received three offers within 5k of each other. Took one, inspection was fine, then house appraised for 20k less than the highest offer. gently caress me.
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May 1, 2017 20:00
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Can't you contest the appraisal or something in that case? Seems off to me, especially considering the three comparable offers and the fact that the system seems built in such a way that it's almost always in the appraiser's best interest to get the value pretty close to offering price to ensure that the sale goes through. Although that's assuming the buyer is using a lender and took a referral from them for the appraiser. I guess if they shopped for their own independent appraiser and/or they are making a cash offer and no lenders are involved then yeah...that would maybe make more sense. Also, I am very new to home ownership in general and have never sold a house, but if I were going to sell I think I'd probably go and get an independent appraisal to help me price it accurately in the first place. Isn't that pretty common practice?
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May 1, 2017 20:39
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Mikey Purp posted:Also, I am very new to home ownership in general and have never sold a house, but if I were going to sell I think I'd probably go and get an independent appraisal to help me price it accurately in the first place. Isn't that pretty common practice? Sometimes, but not always. Sometimes thing sell for what they sell for. You set your price slightly high and then see what kind of offers you get. Appraisals are super easy in cookie-cutter neighborhoods with recent sales of other houses. Things get pretty dicey to downright laughable when appraisers try to calculate home values in older areas with wildly varying house types, sizes, property sizes and very few home sales like where I live now. Some place just down the road appraised at like $50k less than the 4 or 5 offers they got and the person buying called in another appraiser who was basically like "look, I would have appraised it the same way based on the available comps, but when you look at the fact that houses around here rarely go up for sale and the fact that people obviously want to live here it sure does make sense that it's worth x+$50k." Fortunately their bank accepted that and gave them the loan.
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May 1, 2017 20:45
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Motronic posted:What is a more accurate piece of data on price than literally what someone is willing to pay for something? ... that's my point. Appraisals usually come back fine because whatever you offered is probably what the house is worth Obviously your offer is 1 data point and has limits to its accuracy but most of the time it's going to be fine. Problems only really arise when the appraiser notices things that may indicate that your offer is significantly out of whack
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May 1, 2017 22:57
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Motronic posted:What is a more accurate piece of data on price than literally what someone is willing to pay for something? I dunno, but when we sold our last house the bank appraisal came back 15% below the sale price and caused all manner of trouble. So clearly there are factors that can be considered more accurate!
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May 1, 2017 23:23
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Subjunctive posted:I dunno, but when we sold our last house the bank appraisal came back 15% below the sale price and caused all manner of trouble. So clearly there are factors that can be considered more accurate! Have to ask, what exactly went down when that happened? I'm just worried because it's pretty standard practice here to offer 60-80k over asking (for starter homes in nice walk-able neighborhoods). Of my 6 offers, the lowest was only 25k over asking and the highest was 75k over. I got this house because I put in the offer an hour after listing and put a 24-hour deadline on it, so there are no other offers to fall back on and say, "hey there are literally 17 other people who would have paid this same price too"
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May 1, 2017 23:34
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How does it become standard to list your house 60k-80k below what it will probably get, why not just list it closer to what you expect?
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May 1, 2017 23:39
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Based on my experience buying a house in Denver, it's a pretty common strategy for sellers to knowingly list their property a good 5-10% below market price to elicit a bidding war. Seems like it works well as a way to take advantage of low inventory in a hot market and ensure a lot of interest and a quick sale.
Mikey Purp fucked around with this message at 23:51 on May 1, 2017 |
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May 1, 2017 23:49
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Hydronium posted:Have to ask, what exactly went down when that happened? The bank wouldn't mortgage the full amount, so the buyers had to make up the difference. They figured out that with liquidation of non-registered savings and borrowing from parents they could get to $price - 30K, and asked if we'd accept. We didn't want to utterly destroy their lives, so we "countered" at $price - 50K, which was a number we would have happily accepted anyway. (We also didn't walk away with their earnest money for the same not-wrecking-someone's-life reason.) The buyers' agent refunded her commission to the buyers, which I understand to be pretty rare. They resold 4 years later at $finalprice + 75K, so everyone came out OK in the end. Mikey Purp posted:Based on my experience buying a house in Denver, it's a pretty common strategy for sellers to knowingly list their property a good 5-10% below market price to elicit a bidding war. Seems like it works well as a way to take advantage of low inventory in a hot market and ensure a lot of interest and a quick sale. It's common everywhere. Listing price is primarily marketing, not economics.
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May 1, 2017 23:54
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Subjunctive posted:I dunno, but when we sold our last house the bank appraisal came back 15% below the sale price and caused all manner of trouble. So clearly there are factors that can be considered more accurate! Same happened to me as a buyer. My realtor pushed through a different mortgage company and that appraisal miracle of miracles came in 10k over asking.
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May 1, 2017 23:56
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QuarkJets posted:How does it become standard to list your house 60k-80k below what it will probably get, why not just list it closer to what you expect? I wish I knew. I feel like everyone's running around with their hair on fire, throwing piles of money in the air.
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May 2, 2017 01:33
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That sure does inspire confidence in the current pricing trend
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May 2, 2017 01:49
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QuarkJets posted:That sure does inspire confidence in the current pricing trend Totally not emptyquoting here. If you know some real estate agents well enough you get to learn this game, and it's ridiculous in many ways. But the pricing part is possibly the most.
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May 2, 2017 02:13
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