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Deviant posted:So, I haven't even made my first mortgage payment yet, and my mortgage includes an amount for Taxes & Insurance, which I agreed to pay via escrow when I took on the loan. Purely informational. I actually got the same tax bill in the mail today because my loan servicer, PennyMac, requested the information from the county. Nothing in your post seems weird, extraordinary, or unusual. You should know that they won't pay it when it's "due". They will pay one day before the penalty kicks in.
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Oct 29, 2020 00:31
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How do I use my one-time float down option? My lender lets me get up to 0.375% off as long as I request the float down more than 3 days ahead of closing. Do I just... ask them every day what the VA loan interest rates are at and tell them to go ahead if it looks good? Will they even tell me? (I checked the first post and it didn't quite go over this)
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Oct 29, 2020 01:43
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Fallom posted:How do I use my one-time float down option? My lender lets me get up to 0.375% off as long as I request the float down more than 3 days ahead of closing. Do I just... ask them every day what the VA loan interest rates are at and tell them to go ahead if it looks good? Will they even tell me? Yes.
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Oct 29, 2020 02:42
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We closed today! The whole process was actually quite straightforward and without issue, so I expect an appliance will explode in short order to restore balance to the universe. Deviant posted:So, I haven't even made my first mortgage payment yet, and my mortgage includes an amount for Taxes & Insurance, which I agreed to pay via escrow when I took on the loan. Our attorney was super clear with us as first-time buyers and explained to us that we are going to get a property tax bill from the city, it will look like we ought to pay it, and we're meant to ignore it because it will be paid by the servicer out of the escrow. So yes, you're good, it's informational. BRAKE FOR MOOSE fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Oct 29, 2020 |
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Oct 29, 2020 03:11
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My realtor said the same thing and has an email out just to confirm so I'm not worried. Thanks all.
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Oct 29, 2020 03:51
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Residency Evil posted:We're at 80% LTV and have fine credit so should qualify for pretty standard loans. I'm looking at options to refinance our jumbo mortgage. I get spammed with ads for these insane, 2% rates advertised on 15-year fixed loans, only to call and find out those rates are for standard loans, and their jumbo rates are at/around 3%, which is where we are now. Is lending just tight everywhere right now?
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Oct 29, 2020 12:33
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Dik Hz posted:3% on a 30-year jumbo is still unfathomably low for pretty much the entire existence of the 30-year mortgage. Likely lower than inflation, too. My bad if I wasn't clear: we're on a 15 year at 3%.
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Oct 29, 2020 13:09
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I've been checking in on jumbo rates using Costco's mortgage program. It has a minimum of screwing around, but I haven't gone past the look loo stage thus far to know if it gets more annoying further in.
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Oct 29, 2020 13:37
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Always remember to shop around for mortgages if you can, that helped us get a 2.375 on a 30 year with 20% down. So worth it. A few random questions for the latter stages of closing: - Inspection went well, except he couldn't tell us if a particular column was merely decorative or actually structural. If we get the plans from the county and it doesn't show, who would be a good person to have come in and look? (Save for talking to the neighbors and finding out if they did something similar) We also have to have someone come in and take a look at the roof trusses that someone apparently cut through.. so we're already planning on having someone come out, but I'm not sure how to look for this. - Got the HOA docs from the seller's agent, and... latest meeting notes are 2015, latest reserve study is 2010 (despite the meeting notes implying one was done in 2015). The budget seems up to date, so I'm hopeful they just ordered the wrong documents. - Any gotchas I should look for in the governing documents as well? Skimmed through the 170 pages of addendums and random things and it seems pretty lax, except a weird statement about how "no trucks over 3/4 tons are allowed" in the commercial section. That would seem to exclude... all trucks.
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Oct 29, 2020 16:28
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Nybble posted:Always remember to shop around for mortgages if you can, that helped us get a 2.375 on a 30 year with 20% down. So worth it. 3/4 ton is related to payload (1500lbs in the bed) so basically no semis no F650s etc
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Oct 29, 2020 16:48
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Nybble posted:- Got the HOA docs from the seller's agent, and... latest meeting notes are 2015, latest reserve study is 2010 (despite the meeting notes implying one was done in 2015). The budget seems up to date, so I'm hopeful they just ordered the wrong documents. Demand meeting notes from the most recent mandated meeting by the bylaws. (If monthly ask why there is no meeting from the past 31 days for example.) Demand up to date bank statements for the account showing relevant cash flows. You don't want to find out that Jimmy the hoa treasurer has been paying his buddies for "maintenance" to the tune of the sum of their truck payments for the past few years. If they cannot/will not produce an accurate accounting that your lawyer says is fine walk. Also have a lawyer review this.
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Oct 29, 2020 17:03
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Residency Evil posted:We're at 80% LTV and have fine credit so should qualify for pretty standard loans. I'm looking at options to refinance our jumbo mortgage. I get spammed with ads for these insane, 2% rates advertised on 15-year fixed loans, only to call and find out those rates are for standard loans, and their jumbo rates are at/around 3%, which is where we are now. Is lending just tight everywhere right now? gwrtheyrn posted:I look forward to your next refinancing post in 6 months You were 1.5 months earlier than predicted  What happened to the 2.5% rate you were looking at?
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Oct 29, 2020 18:10
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Nybble posted:Always remember to shop around for mortgages if you can, that helped us get a 2.375 on a 30 year with 20% down. So worth it. With points? My mortgage is at 2.375 on a 15 year with 20% down, but I paid like $5000 or so in points up-front. I think from the last time I did calculations, I should be getting the value of this back in about 6 years or so.
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Oct 29, 2020 18:27
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gwrtheyrn posted:You were 1.5 months earlier than predicted Figured I'd wait to see if rates dropped further. My current lender was offering that 2.5% rate, and is actually offering lower rates than that now, however they sold off their banks in my state and are no longer underwriting new loans under the program that I'm currently a part of, only standard 80/20 loans at 2.75%.
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Oct 29, 2020 18:43
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So we got beaten on our first offer. Another couple came in with a higher offer and more cash upfront, so hard to be upset. Does have us thinking of just sucking it up and selling before we buy just because having all our equity in-hand would make it so much easier. One thing that made me think of this thread and also the homeowners thread... We paid for a pre-inspection before we put in the offer and I had a page and a half on a legal pad of things he said needed fixing. And his conclusion was still that it was an above average house, which kind of put it all in perspective. The HVAC was brand new, so that kind of overpowered the water damage, the old water heater, the bad wiring, DIY plumbing jobs, etc. etc.
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Oct 29, 2020 20:25
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The way I look at inspection findings is to identify which findings are a Visible Roach. That is to say: if you see one roach in your kitchen, there are a thousand more hiding somewhere. Really squeaky hinges on a shower door? Not a roach. You can clearly scope and limit the damage, it's an easy fix, etc. Water damage near a baseboard on the second floor? That's way roachier. You can dig into that task and find soooo many roaches that your inspector couldn't get to. Ground faults in outlets? Potential roach. Upstairs ceilings spot-painted in various locations all throughout the house? So on, so forth. I will walk away without bidding on a house or execute my inspection clause in a heartbeat if it has a roach I find too scary. I wouldn't be particularly worried by the length of the list, so much as the particulars on it. Bad wiring and DIY plumbing jobs scare me, as does ever seeing the word "un-permitted" in any major modification, to the point that I turn around and walk away if "un-permitted" or any variant of it shows up in a listing. My favorite findings I walked on were a house that came with an unpermitted barn with "Foundation: Unidentified", and another where the inspector could not find any sewer line cleanouts on the property plus an un-permitted conversion of the garage to a third bedroom where the house still looked like it had a garage from the outside. No qualms with walking away from that. Sundae fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Oct 29, 2020 |
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Oct 29, 2020 21:08
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Sundae posted:
Yeah, our inspector gave us a 62 page document full of all the poo poo that was wrong with our house. Thing is, it was all minor poo poo that I can do myself with some weekend trips to home depot, minus a single electrical issue on the garage and exterior circuit. Oh and the chimney is a giant question mark, but if the sweep says it's good we'll do whatever needs to make it OK and if they say it's poo poo we'll just block it off and make sure it doesn't collapse onto the roof. I'm thrilled that he typed all that poo poo out too. It's basically just a to-do list at this point, full of all the dumb crap that I would normally find myself over the course of a year. But yeah, long report isn't bad in and of itself. I'd rather have a hundred pages of dumb bullshit than one paragraph of "yo, your foundation's fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked"
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Oct 30, 2020 01:35
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There was so much dumb poo poo on the ones the previous buyers got. poo poo like 'there are leaves on the roof, these should be removed'. Buddy,,, have you checked the calendar??
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Oct 30, 2020 01:44
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Owning a home is like being a project manager. In the software world at least you'll never extinguish the list, you just constantly add to it and reprioritize. I roll my eyes sometimes at people who freak out about what inspections find; houses are typically never in better shape than when they are being sold. Still, if you can buy a house from a retired but still active guy who fixes everything the day it breaks that is best.
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Oct 30, 2020 01:45
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owning a house is an exercise in picking your battles
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Oct 30, 2020 01:59
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Andy Dufresne posted:Owning a home is like being a project manager. In the software world at least you'll never extinguish the list, you just constantly add to it and reprioritize. I roll my eyes sometimes at people who freak out about what inspections find; houses are typically never in better shape than when they are being sold. Still, if you can buy a house from a retired but still active guy who fixes everything the day it breaks that is best. Well, the point about knowing what is a big deal and what isn't is important. If I had an inspector tell me the roof of a house I was eyeballing was one spring rain away from falling into the living room I'd worry a bit more than, say, the one that noted "leaves on the roof"
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Oct 30, 2020 01:59
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My last inspector did a great job with a list of issues, photos, and suggested repair actions that I steadily took care of over a few years. Now that I'm a little more experienced, though, I'm not sure what an inspector would do for me that I wouldn't be able to pick up on my own. Definitely hiring a sewer scope guy forever, though.
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Oct 30, 2020 02:04
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Andy Dufresne posted:Owning a home is like being a project manager. In the software world at least you'll never extinguish the list, you just constantly add to it and reprioritize. I roll my eyes sometimes at people who freak out about what inspections find; houses are typically never in better shape than when they are being sold. Still, if you can buy a house from a retired but still active guy who fixes everything the day it breaks that is best. Our seller flipped their poo poo that our inspector would DARE to stick a knife in to their rotted out trim. But then they paid like $140 for an electrician to replace a GFCI lol edit: also our inspector didn't know how to work the gas logs so he marked them up loving lol home inspectors are worthless
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Oct 30, 2020 02:13
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The inspector of my old house said the stove burner didn't work because it was slightly offset after we cleaned it. Of course we gave the seller a credit because it was one of many things, some real and some not.
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Oct 30, 2020 02:32
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When we sold our house recently, the inspector put together a 60+page professionally formatted document about everything wrong with our house in minute detail. All sorts of petty poo poo. But he missed the termite damage, the water intrusion in the basement, the fact that nobody has any loving clue where the septic system is (or if it's functional), and the full-grown recently dead tulip poplar poised to fall on the house. So, yeah.
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Oct 30, 2020 03:15
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Dik Hz posted:When we sold our house recently, the inspector put together a 60+page professionally formatted document about everything wrong with our house in minute detail. All sorts of petty poo poo. But he missed the termite damage, the water intrusion in the basement, the fact that nobody has any loving clue where the septic system is (or if it's functional), and the full-grown recently dead tulip poplar poised to fall on the house. lol that must've been a relief
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Oct 30, 2020 03:25
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So this Sunday my wife and I called our realtor to say we were interested in making an offer on a home we saw during an open house. He sold us on waiting to see the property with him on Thursday, the earliest he could schedule a showing. Since we have a shitload going on with handling the settlement of our house we relented and made the appointment. Unsurprisingly the place has a pending offer Wednesday morning. Is there a reason we shouldn't can his rear end for a fundamentally terrible judgement call?
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Oct 30, 2020 03:42
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Cyrano4747 posted:Well, the point about knowing what is a big deal and what isn't is important. Which the overwhelming majority of people buying one, even when that thing is the most expensive thing they'll ever own, have no loving clue about what matters, how to maintain them, how their mortgage works, how their taxes work, or where to even find the cleanout for the poo poo pipes. Or what to do with that if they could.
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Oct 30, 2020 03:51
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Dik Hz posted:When we sold our house recently, the inspector put together a 60+page professionally formatted document about everything wrong with our house in minute detail. All sorts of petty poo poo. But he missed the termite damage, the water intrusion in the basement, the fact that nobody has any loving clue where the septic system is (or if it's functional), and the full-grown recently dead tulip poplar poised to fall on the house. You didn't know if the septic system in your own house was working?
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Oct 30, 2020 04:57
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The Puppy Bowl posted:So this Sunday my wife and I called our realtor to say we were interested in making an offer on a home we saw during an open house. He sold us on waiting to see the property with him on Thursday, the earliest he could schedule a showing. Since we have a shitload going on with handling the settlement of our house we relented and made the appointment. Unsurprisingly the place has a pending offer Wednesday morning. Is there a reason we shouldn't can his rear end for a fundamentally terrible judgement call? Realtors should be canned frequently and with great prejudice, see my post a couple pages back about our realtor driving an hour each way to get the keys to the house on a Saturday night on 10 minutes notice, doing a private showing for us that night, and then putting together the offer that night Currently posting from said house Get the house you want, don't put up with lazy employees when it comes to your house
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Oct 30, 2020 06:00
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Is there a general building company 'tier list' or way to find reviews? Wife is interested in looking at new construction here, but I don't see much in the way of reviews; either great generic articles that read like they're from the company, or only 5 or 6 reviews of the builder on Yelp which isn't necessarily enough to go on. I figure it may be region dependent, but was hoping at least to find out if there were any major ones that should be avoided nationally for sure. For what it's worth, the ones he she's looking at is Quadrant homes. Edit: I don't entirely trust most national builders who build as many houses as quickly as they say they do here; all I able to hire my own inspector during construction at major milestones, or can builders restrict that in some way? PageMaster fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Oct 30, 2020 |
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Oct 30, 2020 06:27
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Motronic posted:Which the overwhelming majority of people buying one, even when that thing is the most expensive thing they'll ever own, have no loving clue about what matters, how to maintain them, how their mortgage works, how their taxes work, or where to even find the cleanout for the poo poo pipes. Or what to do with that if they could. People should educate themselves about what is probably the largest single purchase in their lives, yes. That said, you don't have to be the sort of person who can personally re-wire the bedroom on weekend and install a new hot water heater the next. If you've got a decent home inspector who doesn't have a stake in the sale (i.e. isn't your realtor's guy or, worse, the seller's) you should be able to get them to sit you down and tell you what the big, show stopper poo poo is, what the "you need to fix this in the next year" poo poo is, and what the ticky tacky bullshit is. Don't get me wrong, I think everyone should take the time to learn the basics of how to take care of their poo poo, but if you don't have that experience all ready there are generally people you can hire to get you through the immediate need.
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Oct 30, 2020 15:09
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I truly think the homebuying process was the most stressful part of my home yet. So happy that that's over. Ally Bank was bad enough on both the personal bank front, and the mortgage company front, that I think I'm going to switch away from them. Now that I own it I actually am having less trouble so far then I expected. But I've only been moved in for two weeks. It's also amazing what new paint and new blinds can do to a home. It went from looking pretty dated to no longer looking dated. Some other changes I've done is replace Fridge as the old one was broken. And I think I'm going to replace the countertops as they are laminate. But I really don't know if I want to spend the money since that means I'll change the sink as well. Next year when the winter is over, I also want to get the place powerwashed as it has been a while. Also, I thought I got a good rate at 2.625% at 30 years, but wow with some of these rates people are getting. The one thing I'm worried about is my mortgage was sold to the money source which is normal. But I can't set up autopay with them yet. I'm hoping this is just because they are likely selling my loan again, but I'd rather just have the mortgage payments on autopay.
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Oct 30, 2020 17:08
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I have some sympathy for home inspectors. Not a day goes by on the Reddit homeowners/real estate subreddits where someone discovers an issue in their house and wants to sue the inspector for missing it. Home inspectors are almost forced to list 8 million items, even small ones, to avoid any liability (even though they disclaim liability away). At the same time, they aren't typically licensed as experts in any particular trade, so they can't really tell you what that crack means or if the electrical is 100% safe; they have to insert a standard 'consult with a X...'. They have at best a few hours to perform the inspection, where they are limited by not being allowed to damage anything during the process. Things like water intrusion may only show up during heavy rains or the house may be concealing all kinds of foundation/mold problems with finished basement walls.
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Oct 30, 2020 17:16
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B-Nasty posted:I have some sympathy for home inspectors. Not a day goes by on the Reddit homeowners/real estate subreddits where someone discovers an issue in their house and wants to sue the inspector for missing it. These are hilarious because they're invariably something that wouldn't have been found without tearing the house apart or some other unusual circumstance. They didn't warn me that the house wouldn't stand up to a 100-year flood!!! Some inspectors will have a clause in their contract saying they can be held liable for mistakes up to a certain amount, though.
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Oct 30, 2020 17:25
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Fallom posted:Some inspectors will have a clause in their contract saying they can be held liable for mistakes up to a certain amount, though. What? No. They all have clauses that they can't be held liable period, other than in state with specific performance laws that require them to say they are liable for damages only up to what the person paid them for the inspection - which is the same thing as not liable at all since just the court filing fees would consume half of a typical inspection fee.
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Oct 30, 2020 17:40
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Honestly, the most useful thing a home inspector can do is be familiar with how homes in the area are/were built and common bullshit that those homes experience or that shady contractors pull. As others have said, they can't possibly see everything that's wrong with the home, but if they've seen enough of the same kind of house they can usually pick out stuff that they are pretty sure is screwy.
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Oct 30, 2020 18:06
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Motronic posted:What? Doesn't really seem like a no to me, just that you're not going to get a $10k payday Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Oct 30, 2020 |
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Oct 30, 2020 18:07
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PageMaster posted:Is there a general building company 'tier list' or way to find reviews? Wife is interested in looking at new construction here, but I don't see much in the way of reviews; either great generic articles that read like they're from the company, or only 5 or 6 reviews of the builder on Yelp which isn't necessarily enough to go on. I figure it may be region dependent, but was hoping at least to find out if there were any major ones that should be avoided nationally for sure. For what it's worth, the ones he she's looking at is Quadrant homes. Do always hire a 3rd party inspector when building new construction. Literally no one gives a poo poo about you in the entire process except on how they're going to make money off of you. I was so far up my construction managers rear end on my last house it wasn't funny. There's no good way to find reviews on builders. Things are very regional, a builder could have 2 different quality of houses due to the subcontractors or even the construction manager working on them. 2 neighboorhoods from the same national builder could be much different. Any house is only as good as the sub contractors that built it. My first home was a entry level Centex and it was great. I've seen 500K homes in my current area slapped together by the cheapest sub contractors with uneven floors and wavy walls. The best advice I can offer is find a neighborhood they built in the last 5 years or so and ask the people that live there about their homes. It'll give you an idea how they handle warranty work, general quality of the home, etc.
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Oct 30, 2020 19:11
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Elmon posted:
Is this something a lot of people do? I don't like anything automatically coming out of my account. I have a set day of the month where I pay all my bills and that way I know they are getting paid. What happens if that auto pay doesn't auto pay that month because the system is down, or you change accounts, or for some reason you don't have that amount in your account because maybe someone stole your account info and drained your bank account and now you've missed a mortgage payment.
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Oct 30, 2020 19:24
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