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A MIRACLE posted:Does it make sense at all to buy in LA when your household income is ~190k? I'm renting in Silver Lake and commuting to Burbank right now. My partner works in Alhambra. I have some savings. But the sticker shock is crazy here. Cheap pieces of poo poo are going for $700/sqft. But I'm also sick of renting. I turn thirty this year. So just curious what people's thoughts are on the LA market in general I guess It depends mostly on how long you plan on living there. If you have great credit, job history, and down payment, you are going to use most of the space, and you are going to live in the same place for 10+ years you will come out ahead financially buying a home instead of renting. If you are going to live there for less time the transaction costs are more significant, and there is more risk from fluctuations in the price of local real estate. Most people do not live in the same home for that long, but it really depends on your personal situation. Many areas around LA have rent control so the break even financially is longer than usual. Because of prop 13 owning a home for 30+ years is much cheaper than renting. Even if all of that is still true, you can afford to do either and it is a lifestyle choice. Not everyone wants to deal with everything that goes into owning a home. Vonnie posted:So to be more serious than I was in my last posts, I have actually been thinking about buying a home for a while now. The market for mortgages for homes under $50k is different from the conventional market, and has higher rates or other closing costs. Look for local banks that can work with you on this, many of the big ones won't even do small mortgages. Is it a home path property? This helps with the financing. If it is a foreclosure and has been vacant for a long time it may need much more work that it would appear. If the water was turned off the seals will be dried and cracked and there will be leaks. Make sure the utilities are all on before you do an inspection, ideally for a few days before. There is usually a lot of other maintenance that is overdue compared to non foreclosure property but it is manageable. Why was it foreclosed on, and are there many foreclosures in that area? If you want to move for another job or any reason, will you be able to sell for what you paid, or will you be able to sell at all? It is common for "correctly" priced listings to be active for a year or more in many lower cost rural areas, and for areas that have no growth you could lose a lot of money or be stuck paying the(small) mortgage. It could be a lot cheaper to continue renting if the city is not growing and real estate values are dropping.
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Apr 4, 2018 21:06
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Are you outstate, Vonnie? Because you're getting absolutely hosed on rent if that's metro area. I'm trying to figure out where you could be looking in the metro and all I can think of is a carriage house in Philips that's actively being used for meth production.
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Apr 5, 2018 05:26
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How exactly do you find a good home inspector? There's so much astroturf online that it's hard to figure out where to start
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Apr 5, 2018 05:31
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There’s a voluntary inspector association at least here in California. I picked a master CREIA inspector and hoped for the best. It was good.
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Apr 5, 2018 06:59
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Paracaidas posted:Are you outstate, Vonnie? lampey posted:The market for mortgages for homes under $50k is different from the conventional market, and has higher rates or other closing costs. Look for local banks that can work with you on this, many of the big ones won't even do small mortgages. Is it a home path property? This helps with the financing. Mandalay posted:With mortgage payments like that, and rents like that, Minnesota seems like a great place to be a lovely first time landlord! H110Hawk posted:I would expect to spend that again to get the house into pristine state. Does Minnesota offer any energy efficiency upgrade rebates? You're going to want to do those immediately to keep your utility bills sane. 4x the size in this case is probably going to mean close to 4x the utility bills in the winter if you don't do some serious upgrades. (I don't know when this house was built, or what its current condition is but think: Insulate the walls, attic. New furnace and forced air unit. Windows.) QuarkJets posted:It's probably reasonable, depending on some things. What do your finances and credit score look like? Do you already have cash for renovations or would you be looking at using a renovation loan to fix the place up? If you hire a home inspector and he's like "this place could collapse at any moment" are you cool with losing ~$1k and walking away? H110Hawk posted:You're probably looking at $7,400 down to even talk to the bank, plus several thousand in closing costs, on top of the inspections you need to order. The bank is going to warranty basically nothing, including the title so you need to also buy "Buyers Title Insurance" (this is different from Lender's title insurance.) Call it $14,800 to buy the mortgage. I wouldn't buy this house below 20% LTV, assuming the value is in fact $37k. Is not going under 20% due to the higher payments, or is there more to it? Would posting pictures from the listing be useful for further input/advice?
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Apr 5, 2018 11:25
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lovely landlords are everywhere.
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Apr 5, 2018 14:15
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Sanity check: seller has owned a house for just over a year. They came into a bunch of money and are building a new house out in a private country lot. They did an inspection a year ago when they purchased and had everything of note fixed by the previous seller. They provided me a copy of that inspection and it all looks great for a 20 year old house. I've opted to not do my own inspection, taking the 1 year old inspection as 'good enough'. Am I taking a massive risk here?
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Apr 5, 2018 16:26
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Judge Schnoopy posted:Am I taking a massive risk here? You're buying a house. So, yes.
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Apr 5, 2018 16:37
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Well yeah but I mean a risk beyond promising a quarter million dollars for a structure that could disappear for a number of reasons at any given time
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Apr 5, 2018 16:41
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Judge Schnoopy posted:Well yeah but I mean a risk beyond promising a quarter million dollars for a structure that could disappear for a number of reasons at any given time Do you know any landlords? Ask them how much people can screw up a house in a year. Or even in a month. Get a current inspection and have an inspection contingency in the contract. You have no idea what they've done to this place since they bought it - both breaking things and having lovely "repair" work done by unlicensed contractors that pulled absolutely no permits. Also, I don't give a poo poo what their story is about why they are selling. Sounds like the house is being flipped. Check what they paid for it.
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Apr 5, 2018 16:52
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The old listing pictures are up on Zillow still, they didn't make any structural changes or improvements. They painted, that's the only difference. Certainly not a flipper. But yes I totally understand how much damage and duct tape fixes can happen in a year. Might opt for that inspection anyway.
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Apr 5, 2018 16:58
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Always use an inspector. You are spending many 10's to 100's thousands of dollars on a home, there is no inspector whose fee is even a meaningful fraction of that.
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Apr 5, 2018 17:12
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Judge Schnoopy posted:The old listing pictures are up on Zillow still, they didn't make any structural changes or improvements. They painted, that's the only difference. Certainly not a flipper. Paint hides water damage like you wouldn't believe.
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Apr 5, 2018 18:02
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H110Hawk posted:Paint hides water damage like you wouldn't believe. I've never seen an inspector dig deep enough to uncover water damage behind paint anyway. It's a split level and the garage goes all the way to the back foundation which is completely underground. The foundation walls were bone dry and didn't display any warning signs of previous water: they were dusty too, indicating the previous owners didn't wash any deposits or residue away.
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Apr 5, 2018 18:09
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Judge Schnoopy posted:I've never seen an inspector dig deep enough to uncover water damage behind paint anyway. Why are you so against having an inspection? Even if it comes back clean, that’s more information than you have now, right? You don’t know if the PO’s standards for construction and maintenance were as high as yours. If they really only painted in the time they had it, there could be looming maintenance debt.
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Apr 5, 2018 18:21
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Subjunctive posted:Why are you so against having an inspection? Even if it comes back clean, that’s more information than you have now, right? You don’t know if the PO’s standards for construction and maintenance were as high as yours. If they really only painted in the time they had it, there could be looming maintenance debt. I'm not "so against it" and indicated I'm going to order one anyway. I'm just trying to justify spending the money out of pocket (small, I know, but I'm also moving across state lines and there are plenty of other expenses piling up). So far the reasons to skip it are: Saves cash, have an inspection from a year ago detailing the age of every appliance / condition of the house, and a visual inspection with my own eyes not finding new flaws where they would most likely crop up. The reasons presented to buy it are: it's not that expensive compared to the mortgage, 'just do it'
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Apr 5, 2018 18:40
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Judge Schnoopy posted:I've never seen an inspector dig deep enough to uncover water damage behind paint anyway. They still climb around in your attic to look at the underside of the roof, poke at wood to see if it's soft, that sort of thing. Water splotches give them places to investigate further. The risk is mitigated in that they "only" had a year, and if literally none of the fixtures are different it's probably fine, but why risk it? Scope the sewer at least.
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Apr 5, 2018 18:42
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Judge Schnoopy posted:I'm not "so against it" and indicated I'm going to order one anyway. I'm just trying to justify spending the money out of pocket (small, I know, but I'm also moving across state lines and there are plenty of other expenses piling up). One reason is that you can pick the inspector, rather than the PO’s realtor’s drinking buddy. I’m actually surprised that insurance doesn’t require a purchase-time inspection, so they don’t have to take your word for the condition of things at move-in.
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Apr 5, 2018 18:45
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Judge Schnoopy posted:I'm not "so against it" and indicated I'm going to order one anyway. I'm just trying to justify spending the money out of pocket (small, I know, but I'm also moving across state lines and there are plenty of other expenses piling up). Never forgo inspection. A lot can change in a year.
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Apr 5, 2018 18:54
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Subjunctive posted:I’m actually surprised that insurance doesn’t require a purchase-time inspection, so they don’t have to take your word for the condition of things at move-in. Sometimes insurance will send out their own adjuster to look at things and double check the condition of the house. This has more to do with perceived risk. My dad had it happen to him since moving to live out with the hill people where rates of fraud, meth, and neglect damage are high, and he's been a customer with them for >35 years. That being said, it surprised me as well that they were willing to just take my word on the condition of a lot of things. Obviously if it's found out that I'm lying the penalty is pretty steep between not getting paid and maybe going to jail for a felony.
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Apr 5, 2018 18:57
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You’re potentially risking tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to save a couple hundred. I mean, the choice is yours but I’d sure as hell prioritize an inspection over some of your other moving expenses.
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Apr 5, 2018 19:14
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What a stupid loving perspective. "I'd like to save a few hundred bucks here!" On the one professional designed to assess the purchase price of your several hundred thousand dollar asset. Talk about penny wise but pound foolish.
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Apr 5, 2018 20:25
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:What a stupid loving perspective. the bank assessor assesses the purchase price, it's right there in the name  The inspector has fuckall to do with assessing the purchase price of a house
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Apr 5, 2018 20:27
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You know what? You're right. Save yourself the money.
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Apr 5, 2018 20:29
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K buddy thanks for reading i'm glad you're here to be a dick to everyone, it's super helpful and i hope these forums are blessed with many more of your kind. Meanwhile I'll follow through with what I said (twice) and order an inspection
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Apr 5, 2018 20:36
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:You know what? He's already said he's going ahead, and you are incorrect about the inspector assessing home value. That's an appraiser.
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Apr 5, 2018 20:39
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Judge Schnoopy posted:the bank assessor assesses the purchase price, it's right there in the name I can't tell if you're being intentionally obtuse considering you're getting on the borderline of just trolling the thread, but I will assume the best of you and try to explain what everyone is telling you by giving you a specific example. I am lookng to buy a home in California. Early on my wife and I found a home that we really liked and we put an offer down on it. The home was built in the 1920s but had a lot of work done on it to make it look more modern, and energy efficient. Because of these upgrades and how well kept the house was, the price for the home was astronomical for its size. We hired a general inspector who cost $425. He pointed out some issues and suggested we get experts in those fields to inspect. We then hired a plumber ($150), an electrician ($75), a roofer (free), a termite inspection (seller pays), a foundation engineer ($375), and lead testing ($298). The end result is that we discovered the home had a roof that was going to blow off any day, plumbing and wires from 1920 that were well past their shelf life, a foundation whose wood was contacting soil ($74k repair price), and was contaminated with lead dust. That told us the house was not worth the price the seller or the appraisal claimed it was. It also told us our buying agent was poo poo because she kept poo pooing us getting so many inspections. Anonymous Zebra fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Apr 5, 2018 |
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Apr 5, 2018 20:50
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Oh don't get me wrong I completely understand the benefit of an inspector. A year ago my wife and I were putting offers in and we loved an older home from the 1920s. The inspection revealed a ton of useful information, including cover-ups of failing foundation, lingering knob-and-tube wiring in the attic, and a few spots that would require asbestos testing. We bailed out of that offer because it was way too much for a first-time homebuyer to get into. I would never assume that an inspection is worthless. My query was more "how good is a 1 year old inspection on a 20 year old house versus buying my own inspection". I have received the answer and am ordering the inspection.
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Apr 5, 2018 20:54
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We got a standard inspection, a radon test, mold inspection, and a sewer scope all on a house that looked perfectly fine. Sellers PROMISED everything was up to code, realtor told us we didn't need anything except the regular inspection and started hand wringing about the sellers getting spooked or whatever. Of course, every inspection found poo poo and we used that as leverage to get a bunch of seller's credits and a price reduction.
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Apr 5, 2018 20:59
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Always hire an inspector, it's money well spent. I'm building new construction right now and paying for the inspector to make sure it's done right. My last house was new construction and it took 4 or 5 years for some issues to pop up, long after the builders "warranty" was over. If I would have hired an inspector back then a couple of things probably would have been caught and I wouldn't be paying double the inspection costs in repairs before I sell. I am also prepared for the buyer of my current home to hire an inspector and for him to find things I don't even know about. My realtor straight up told me to expect 2500 in concessions for stuff the buyer is going to ask for. I hope the inspector for my new home doesn't find anything honestly, it'll still be peace of mind that things were done the right way. Subcontractors sometimes do things wrong, and the construction manager might miss them. Having the experienced independent 3rd party check things out is worth it.
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Apr 5, 2018 21:10
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So I've been checking out houses in various conditions, and one of the difficulties I have is I have no idea how much various home improvements would cost. For example, if I wanted to replace old-school windows with modern, energy-efficient ones, how much should I expect to spend? What about getting an "island" built in the kitchen area? What about replacing chain-link fence around the lot with modern fence? Is there a place that can give me an idea for how much this type of stuff would cost?
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Apr 6, 2018 22:44
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enraged_camel posted:So I've been checking out houses in various conditions, and one of the difficulties I have is I have no idea how much various home improvements would cost. You can normally find estimates online/pricing calculators/etc for a lot of this kind of stuff. Of course it is going to vary by area, details of what you are replacing things with, etc. For the windows specifically, we did this in our former house with 12 mostly standard windows a few years back and it was around 6k. That was the middle quote of the three companies we had give us estimates.
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Apr 6, 2018 23:01
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Yup the cost of the window at a supplier is going to vary a lot by materials and quality and especially size, if you need a custom size vs. a standard one; whereas the labor then varies a lot by region. Combine those two and it becomes almost impossible for anyone to give you a reasonably useful rule-of-thumb price. The same thing applies to loads of other home improvement things, including kitchen islands (what material? does the floor need to be replaced? New piping and power run? New support under the floor? How much is labor where you live?) and even fencing (a very basic picket fence with no paint, vs a fancier nicer taller two-sided fence, painted or something, in an area with expensive labor). Your best bet, then, is to get an idea of what sorts of materials and construction type you want, and then find out from people you know in teh same area roughly what their labor costs were, but even then you'll still likely be off on your estimate, possibly by many thousands of dollars.
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Apr 6, 2018 23:12
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The only time to not get a home inspector is if you're planning on tearing down the house, pulling out the old sewer line and foundation in the process, and building something from scratch
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Apr 7, 2018 06:58
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QuarkJets posted:The only time to not get a home inspector is if you're planning on tearing down the house, pulling out the old sewer line and foundation in the process, and building something from scratch And even then, you should have someone in to test for asbestos and other hazmat so you know what your demo will cost in order to negotiate the price.
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Apr 7, 2018 15:00
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I found a house that I like, but it has two issues: 1. The backyard is gigantic compared to other houses in the area. It's around 0.2 acres. When I first saw it my immediate thought was, holy poo poo this will cost a lot to maintain. Are there any benefits to an oversized backyard that can offset maintenance costs? 2. The backyard itself offers a lot of privacy, but the street in front of the house is fairly busy. There is an apartment complex across the street with lots of cars going in and out. I told my agent that I personally don't mind it, but she pointed out that it might affect resale value, as most people want neighboring units to also be houses. I'm on the fence about putting in an offer, but I wanted to solicit some opinions from the more experienced buyers/sellers here. Here's the house, for reference.
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Apr 9, 2018 00:00
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I got the inspection for my potential house. Drove up there with my brother who is a construction manager and rebuilt his current house (foreclosure, total gut, moved walls and poo poo, ended up increasing value by 100k) to boss the inspector around and make sure he was doing a perfect job. Inspection came back perfect, everybody is happy, and that $400 bought me a lot of peace of mind. Thanks to everybody who convinced me to just do it. It's ready to live in as-is but there's lots of room for cosmetic improvements over the next three years. Should be able to break even if we want to sell later and upgrade to a bigger place.
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Apr 9, 2018 00:32
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enraged_camel posted:I found a house that I like, but it has two issues: Here's some thoughts. I'm not in Texas, I'm in the Bay Area, so it's colored by my location, but: -A big back yard is generally desirable. For kids, for gardeners, for people who play sports, and for the option of expanded storage or even an in-law or studio-type outbuilding out back. It doesn't look too massive to me, although maybe on the border between wanting a small riding mower vs. a push mower. -I'm not personally bothered by traffic, but some people are. That should affect your price the same as its resale price, though, so that should come out in the wash. Couple things I notice from the photos: -Those high ceilings in a couple rooms could mean there's no insulation between those rooms and the roof. Worth checking out. -There's a whole wall visible in the back in photo #25 that has no windows in it. That's a bit odd. -I don't see any large, picture windows. The french doors to the deck are the largest windows in the house. I personally prefer the more open feeling of having large windows, at least in the main living area. That high roof is also a missed opportunity for a skylight. -You've got mostly tile in the main living areas, and wall-to-wall carpet in some bedrooms. In the bay area, I think most buyers would prefer hardwood floors to either one, but neither is a dealbreaker. In a hot texas climate I could see the tile being nicer than hardwood floors, and they're much nicer if you have pets. -The size is basically identical to my own home: 1150 square feet, 3/2. For me with no kids, it's great, I have a bedroom, an office, and a third room for activities and stuff. Buyers with families these days are looking for more square footage in their three-bedrooms. It's a typical size for 1962, though, so probably most of the houses in the same neighborhood are of similar size. -There's some nice trees and shade and it seems like a perfectly fine house in general. -Garage looks like small 1 car. I like lots and lots of storage and work space, maybe you don't need it, but I think modern buyers anywhere generally prefer a larger garage. I'd say if you're happy with it otherwise, the bigger yard shouldn't be a dealbreaker. It's flat, and if you hate lawns and mowing, you can go with some kind of xeriscape or garden or even hire someone to do it for you. The traffic thing is more of a personal question and I would not focus as much on how it affects resale value, because your house should first and foremost be a place for you to live, not an investment for you to try and maximize. There's likely going to be buyers who feel the same way you do about the apartment across the street, either way. I suspect a big draw for this house to the market in general is the recent updates and new kitchen - it's presented as move-in ready with no remodeling to be done. You definitely pay for that in the purchase price. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Apr 9, 2018 |
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Apr 9, 2018 23:51
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Leperflesh posted:Here's some thoughts. I'm not in Texas, I'm in the Bay Area, so it's colored by my location, but: Thanks, this is great info for someone like me.
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Apr 10, 2018 00:03
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My opinion is that the freeway noise is going to bother you more than living across from an apartment complex. That Mueller redevelopment area nearby is great in terms of appreciation but might also increase traffic on that arterial road quite a bit.
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Apr 10, 2018 01:00
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