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ntan1 posted:Wait... inspections done at the last sale? Inspections both at the last sale and for this one. (Two sets)
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Sep 18, 2019 07:27
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How long in the past was the last sale?
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Sep 18, 2019 07:29
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ntan1 posted:How long in the past was the last sale? 4 years
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Sep 18, 2019 07:32
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ntan1 posted:
It's a bit of a strange property. In a berkeley-type area (good schools, high values in the area, well located, fairly competitive and desirable, etc etc) and it has two complete houses on one parcel with ~2700 square footage for both houses combined. Comping it has been hard.
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Sep 18, 2019 07:39
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Whats the sqft of the lot size? The sqft of both houses does not significantly affect a price you should offer it given that you have so much work to do. Oh, and I think Berkeley's permitting dept is pretty asinine.
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Sep 18, 2019 07:47
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ntan1 posted:Whats the sqft of the lot size? It's not berkeley, but a nice area in the east bay. e: ~5000 square foot lot. my bad El Mero Mero fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Sep 18, 2019 |
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Sep 18, 2019 07:50
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Weird-rear end country real estate acquisition update We were getting pushed to sign the "projet d'acte de vente" (purchase deed) because the notary is going on holiday (lol) and felt like it was a bit of a rush so declined. The notary is supposed to be neutral and make everything "fair" but it all felt somewhat half-assed - stuff like it's a new build but there's no mention of a warranty in the deed - so we decided to get a lawyer. This has to be specific to the canton, I guess similar to the US. It took a few goes to actually get a lawyer as no one calls you back or answers emails, but managed to get one after about a week. Unclear what people do in any kind of emergency. I think the lawyer has been quite helpful, he has reviewed the acte de vente and land registry extract and made some recommendations to go in to the acte about tax liability. The sellers also agreed to the (legally mandated, but somehow not transferred if not explicitly stated) warranty in the contract. The estate agent says the additional things we want to be included should get added to the deed on the day of signature which sounds like a recipe for disaster, so going to get the acte de vente redone once the lawyer is finished with his review. The lawyer is also "stunned" that there is no restriction on the use of the property as a second home as generally the area is covered Lex Weber which restricts new builds to primary residence. Looks legit though. I think that's it. Doing a transaction in a foreign language in a country with a completely unfamiliar legal system is a bit taxing.
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Sep 18, 2019 14:12
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I think my real estate attorney is ducking my calls and ignoring my emails. Any objectionable language has been removed from the seller's counter-offer. How terrible an idea is it to strike a deal without their review? E: for information, he has reviewed the contracts for past offers, so I've talked with him about them. There are no legalese changes, just price change and inclusions changes. carticket fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Sep 18, 2019 |
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Sep 18, 2019 16:14
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Mr. Powers posted:Quick, check for any hidden form inputs for the mortgage rate. Maybe you can apply and give yourself a negative rate! 0xDEADCODE
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Sep 18, 2019 17:52
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Better sent me an email that there is no correlation between Fed cutting rates and mortgage rates declining and that I should finalize my application immediately before they go up.
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Sep 18, 2019 22:16
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Is this rate cut already priced in? Is this weird stimulus thing the fed is doing going to do anything to mortgage rates? 
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Sep 18, 2019 22:33
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Better sent me an email that there is no correlation between Fed cutting rates and mortgage rates declining and that I should finalize my application immediately before they go up. Didn't we already establish that these guys are all about the hard-sell? Of course Better is gonna tell you "sign now" regardless of what rates are going to do.
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Sep 18, 2019 23:22
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Such a LOL at how different lenders are. Not only did Better and JG beat Wells Fargo by 75bps, but Wells was quoting me $16,000 in closing costs compared to $2,400 for Better and $850 for JG
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Sep 18, 2019 23:26
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ThanosWasRight posted:A great piece of advice is to stop trying to buy houses in places where they are prohibitively expensive. There's a reason they are too expensive. Too many people live there in the first place. The world and every single major us city needs a lot less people, not more.  . Also, I'd like to live around the people I care about, in a place that I'm happy living. Buying some cheap house in detroit or whatever city the new hotness for finanically-savy-back-patting house purchases is is just a waste of money for me, since I can achieve "not owning a house in the place I want to own a house" for a lot cheaper by continuing to rent.I'm expecting my mortgage to be higher than my current rent by at least $500, I was just listing it for info as to my current payment situation, since I know the "think about your mortgage vs your rent, floor/ceiling" conversations are always a big (and valid) point, especially when people are stretching to be able to afford buying the house initially. H110Hawk posted:*reflexively posts* First off thanks a lot for responding. I know that since this is an area I have no practical experience in, I'm likely to overlook or underestimate risks that I don't fully understand, and I definitely don't consider raising real issues "being down on my situation". Here's another giant wall of text to show my appreciation! Regarding the FHA loan specific issues: I was figuring I'd refi out and try to reach 10% ASAP, as I was aware of PMI sticking around for the life of the loan as long as it was FHA. I'm not aware of any other options for loans that would really work, since the only other low down-payment loans I know of that I'd qualify for would be a conventional 97%, which would limit my price range to the lower end of things, or possibly the HomeReady (Or Home possible? I get them mixed up unless I'm looking at them in front of me), but because of the average income requirements, looking at a map on fanny mae's site a while back there were little chunks of city that I would qualify to buy a home in, and one block over I wouldn't, then another 2 blocks over I would again. Doable, but unless there's some broker or tool that will handle that for me, would make things way more of a pain in the rear end when trying to find places. Regarding the Negative nancy stuff: So, a little context on my budget (Not excuses! None of this is intended to imply any criticism or red flags are less valid, just that I'm aware of problem points). My spending over the last few months isn't reflective of my more general spending habits, I had a series of really unfortunate personal events at the same time as my job kicked into crunch time, and several of my close friends hit either familial or financial crises, all during/right after I moved across the country, . Some of my spending was to mitigate that either for myself or my friends, and some of it was indulgence and tech nerd retail-therapy, which I usually avoid like the plague. My future planned spending is based on my much more usual spending, and I'm not especially concerned about maintaining the CC or Dumb Bullshit drop, as it's much closer to the budget I followed for the majority of the last decade, while being severly underpaid at previous jobs (which is why I don't have larger savings to use for a downpayment). I adjusted upward on food from my previous budgets, because I'm a slowly-fattening realist, and I decreased my bullshit budget by $50 from the "pre-crisis" level, because I expect I'll be insanely paranoid about non-food luxury spending for a while after I buy a house, based on how I've been in smaller scale "large" spends. Takehome pay minus 401k & personal roth IRA: ~$5600 a month Current (Last couple months) monthly spending: Rent: $1750 Utilities (Excluding internet): ~$130 Internet: $90 Groceries: ~$400 Restaurants: ~$200 Auto fees (excluding work on vehicle): ~$7 CC payments: ~$1800 (Paying down in large amounts currently because I hate debt, which is why I'm looking for advice on getting into way more in the least efficient way possible) Dumb Bullshit (Video games, general non-food luxury, twitch subscriptions, treating friends in worse financial situations, etc.) : ~$1000 ----- Total Spending: ~$5377 Total Remaining balance after spending: ~$223 Total Spending minus rent/utilities: ~ $3477 Total Remaining balance after spending (excluding rent/utilities): ~$2123 Future (excluding housing/utilities) planned monthly spending: Internet: ~$60-90 Groceries: ~$450 Restaurants: ~$50-70 Auto fees (excluding work on vehicle): ~$7 CC payments: ~$100 (Generally outside of big life events, I pay my cards down to $0 as soon as a transaction is fully processed. I've been good about this overall across many years, so the $100 is what I consider a reasonable buffer for expected carried balance. Open to any thoughts on why this might be too low.) Dumb Bullshit: ~$200 ---- Total Spending (excluding rent/utilities): ~$917 Total remaining balance after spending (excluding housing/utilities): ~$4683 For clarity, I used the higher number in calculations when I provided a range for future spending. On the "Don't spend yourself down to $0", you're absolutely right, and yet I'd still probably be willing to go in with less than 3 months saved if it was a home I'd love. Ideally I would have as much cushion as possible though. I think a lot of it is, it's very hard for me to think of something not working in a house I loved and bought that I wouldn't be willing to just suffer through until I could fix it unless we're talking "your house just blew up/is so full of black mold it's attained sentience" level event, in which case it's hard for me to imagine not being totally hosed anyway. Electrical or Plumbing completely shutting down would be a big suck, but I could work around it for a month or two. 
surc fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Sep 18, 2019 |
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Sep 18, 2019 23:27
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Just because I've gone thru loan stuff a lot recently. Having a "fair" credit score and lingering CC debt along with less than %10 down payment is gonna be pretty harsh on your loan terms I think.
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Sep 19, 2019 00:02
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surc posted:Regarding the FHA loan specific issues: I was figuring I'd refi out and try to reach 10% ASAP, as I was aware of PMI sticking around for the life of the loan as long as it was FHA. FHA isn't bad, it's just a very expensive program for what amounts to very high risk buyers. (Basically 0% equity day 1.) Seems like you get that, it's fine. Budget: You understand the how and the why pretty coherently around why you have credit card debt. The difference is with a house if you get into this hole THEN the poo poo hits the fan you lose the house. (If it's not a covered loss from your home owners insurance then you're in very expensive debt land.) Don't spend yourself down to $0: To be blunt, you would be an idiot to do this. If you took one point from all 681 pages it's not to do this. A slow leak behind the walls can indeed turn your house into a black mold bomb which your insurance explicitly does not cover. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3878671&pagenumber=235#post498417048
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Sep 19, 2019 00:02
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H110Hawk posted:FHA isn't bad, it's just a very expensive program for what amounts to very high risk buyers. (Basically 0% equity day 1.) It's less than zero. Nthing the "don't spend yourself down to 0", but waiting for the "it worked for meeeeee!" post.
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Sep 19, 2019 00:33
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Motronic posted:It's less than zero. It worked for meeeeee! I used a New Hampshire first time buyer's program that gets paired with an FHA loan. The numbers involved were much smaller, though, and total mortgage debt relative to income was just about 2 years gross (probably not a good way to measure). Anyway, the FHA loan sucked and that was under the older PMI program. it did work out in the end, though. E: what really sucked was buying while the knife was still falling (wasn't trying to market-time), and being unable to refinance into a better rate without going into the FHA refis that brought along the worse PMI program. Moral of the story, it worked out for me, but things swinging a little bit more towards the bad times and it would have been pretty bad for me. carticket fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Sep 19, 2019 |
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Sep 19, 2019 01:09
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Mr. Powers posted:It worked for meeeeee! I used a New Hampshire first time buyer's program that gets paired with an FHA loan. The numbers involved were much smaller, though, and total mortgage debt relative to income was just about 2 years gross (probably not a good way to measure). Your post indicates that you understand you were fortunate and things could have gone very wrong. That''s the only point I'm trying to make here.
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Sep 19, 2019 01:34
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Motronic posted:Your post indicates that you understand you were fortunate and things could have gone very wrong. That''s the only point I'm trying to make here. I was trying to support your point, yeah.
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Sep 19, 2019 01:47
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Whelp, our counter-offer went in. We came up slightly after a few more rounds of offer/counter offer. We're comfortable with our offer and we're strict about not going over any of our limits (although we had to concede our ideal position). It sounds like we're not the highest by any means but we waived some contingencies and made it clear we could close quickly, and it sounds like the other (higher) offers might be more complicated than ours. Still curious what people think about this lender offer though: El Mero Mero posted:
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Sep 19, 2019 02:55
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El Mero Mero posted:Whelp, our counter-offer went in. We came up slightly after a few more rounds of offer/counter offer. We're comfortable with our offer and we're strict about not going over any of our limits (although we had to concede our ideal position). It sounds like we're not the highest by any means but we waived some contingencies and made it clear we could close quickly, and it sounds like the other (higher) offers might be more complicated than ours. What does the $50k deposit... do? Is this like "open a savings account and maintain a balance" or ...?
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Sep 19, 2019 03:05
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H110Hawk posted:What does the $50k deposit... do? Is this like "open a savings account and maintain a balance" or ...? yeah, they want the banking relationship. Sorry, I just realized I said deposit and that was confusing.
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Sep 19, 2019 06:05
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H110Hawk posted:What does the $50k deposit... do? Is this like "open a savings account and maintain a balance" or ...? Banks are fighting for market share amidst ongoing consolidation. Making you open a deposit relationship with them in addition to a mortgage makes you stickier, and less likely to leave. The more products you have with them the less likely you are to leave because it will be a bigger pain in the rear end to change over your accounts. I'd also guess that they are in need of deposits, and probably aren't paying OP anything close to Ally/Marcus rates (~2%) on that deposit. More deposits funds more loan growth and if they aren't paying much this can incrementally push down their cost of funds and increase their interest margin, especially if they sell off the mortgage and let someone else take the low yield. ETA: This is historically more common in commercial banking, but its leaking over to consumer segments now too.
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Sep 19, 2019 14:18
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It worked for usssssss But we were living with our in-laws (ick) with a new baby (ick) living 45 minutes away from where we worked (ick) earning salaries > 160% of the purchase price of the house we decided to buy (yum) and were just cash poor for the two months it took to pick a little house to live in because we'd just finally gotten big kid jobs. Unless you're suddenly making new major league money, don't spend yourself to zero.
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Sep 19, 2019 16:25
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Realtor quoted me 5,000 to do the paperwork for my off market purchase RE Attorney quoted 1,000. Excellent thread advice as always!
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Sep 19, 2019 18:05
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Realtor quoted me 5,000 to do the paperwork for my off market purchase Even better, the attorney will do it correctly and make sure you don't oops your way into a tax liability or something. Using a realtor when you don't have to is bad with life. Get title insurance.
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Sep 19, 2019 18:12
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Realtor quoted me 5,000 to do the paperwork for my off market purchase You could flip those numbers and I'd tell you to stick with the lawyer.
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Sep 19, 2019 18:36
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Thanks Hawk, Motronic, and Popete  Good to know I'm not totally off base in general, and good to hear the vehemence on not spending down to 0. I'll see if I can figure out a way to be better situated, and worst case I'll grit my teeth and wait. Also good to hear the input on credit score/balance, since that was something I wasn't really sure on the impact of, and was finding conflicting information on. EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Unless you're suddenly making new major league money, don't spend yourself to zero. This was, I think, a large part of what was influencing my thinking on it. I moved across the country for a new job a year ago, and was suddenly getting paid literally twice as much as I had been previously, and they have good enough benefits that emergency expense concerns are severely curtailed. Now I moved back to a lower cost of living area that I want to stay in, while keeping the job, and I'm still so used to being broke that when I look at morgatge calculators for what I might be paying, and realize I'd still have several thousand a month after that, I just kind of assume "Yeah I can handle it if it comes up".
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Sep 19, 2019 18:57
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I'm by no means an expert as I only just bought my first place and I was getting tons of advice from people far smarter than me in this thread. But if you can you may just want to wait a few months to a year and build up as big a buffer as you can (emergency account first and then down payment). You'll likely feel much more confident going into contract on a home. It took me awhile to find my place and at the point it popped up I had all but given up for the time being, but the extra time I did have well looking allowed me to build up more in savings and I felt much more comfortable going forward with the purchase. Play around with rate quote websites and change your credit score to something higher and see what that does for your quotes, you may find it makes more sense to build up a better credit score before purchasing.
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Sep 19, 2019 19:14
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H110Hawk posted:Even better, the attorney will do it correctly and make sure you don't oops your way into a tax liability or something. Using a realtor when you don't have to is bad with life.
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Sep 19, 2019 20:45
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I am apparently buying a house. I will report back next week with the fun and exciting things found during inspection. I assume they will discover a landfill full of old trains and a bridge in the front yard.
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Sep 19, 2019 21:33
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An easement for migratory seagull breeding grounds
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Sep 19, 2019 22:22
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Congrats Mr. Powers! Curious to know who else had their appraisal come in "right at purchase price" (mortgage broker's words). Whether this was due to an appropriate offer based on extensive knowledge of the regional housing market or a lazy rubber stamping, I will never know. Totally cool way to throw away $495 and lose sleep for days, A++++ would recommend
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Sep 19, 2019 22:25
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Mine came in exactly at purchase price. It helped that there are 40+ other mostly identical units to pull sales data from.
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Sep 19, 2019 22:28
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Sirotan posted:Congrats Mr. Powers! Did you feel like you offered more than the house was worth?
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Sep 19, 2019 22:29
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Sirotan posted:Congrats Mr. Powers! Heh. We had one come in way above purchase price, one come in way below. 
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Sep 19, 2019 22:29
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Did you feel like you offered more than the house was worth? Nope not at all. If anything I feel like I got a bit of a deal.
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Sep 19, 2019 22:34
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Sirotan posted:Congrats Mr. Powers! Understand that an appraisal is the bank's way to make sure it isn't issuing you a million dollar note for a trailer on 1/8 of an acre. If everything passes the sniff test the absolute most relevant piece of data the appraiser has is what someone (you) is willing to pay for that exact house unless it's a development with a bunch of identical homes and recent comps. Take appraisal at purchase price to mean "this deal looks legit, write the note they are asking you for."
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Sep 19, 2019 22:34
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I understand what an appraisal is/does/why it happens. I just feel generally suspicious (that any actual work was done on the appraiser's part) when it comes in exactly the same as my offer price. From what I've read this is also extremely common.
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Sep 19, 2019 22:36
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