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Closing in two days!  my bank account.
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Jul 11, 2022 16:47
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I started working with a realtor, so my condo hunt on the Seattle eastside is finally becoming real. My realtor is an old family friend who has known me since I was a baby, has worked on many property transactions for my dad, and who has 40 years of realtor experience. So hopefully he's good at this. Work finally gave me confirmation that I now have permanent 99% remote work, meaning I no longer have to worry about a commute into downtown Seattle. That remaining 1% is rare occasions where I'll still need to come into the office (probably only a few times a year), so I can't move TOO far away. I want to stay close to family in Bellevue and friends in Renton anyway. Looking mostly at Kirkland, Issaquah, and the nicer parts of Renton. My money goes further in Renton, but it's closer to the airport (noise, pollution). I like Issaquah a lot, but it doesn't have much inventory. Kirkland is more expensive, but I'm much more familiar with the area and I expect Kirkland property values to go up a lot over the next decade or so. I know I shouldn't be considering that kind of thing, but it's hard not to think about. I'd consider Lynnwood, but I think that living in Lynnwood would mean I'd only see the people I care about a few times a year. My lease isn't up until the end of the year, so I've got plenty of time to find just the right place. Just gotta hope I'm not hurt too much more by interest rates while I search.
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Jul 12, 2022 01:37
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Cyrano4747 posted:Rule of thumb, though, pretty much everything in OR/WA that's near-ish to I-5 is going to be fairly liberal. There are going to be weird local exceptions like everything, but that's the basic thrust. Lots of that isn't big HCOL cities. Eugene, Albany, Corvallis are all good. Portland is high COL for Oregon but it really doesn't compare to cities that are high COL on a national scale. Certainly less expensive than Seattle. I don't know Washington as well, though. Eh, I'd be very reluctant to live anywhere on the I5 corridor south of Eugene. Which you sort of implied with your Eugene, Albany, Corvallis examples, but it's worth noting for others that that's really just the top half of I5 in Oregon. It gets pretty red farther south. And east. And west. Obviously talking just about the people, though. Rogue River area is beautiful, for example. Also on fire annually now, but we all will be soon I suppose.
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Jul 12, 2022 04:03
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At the rate things are burning down, giant massive forest fires are probably going to become a thing of the past in the next 5-20 years. Northern California is running out of giant contiguous heavily wooded areas to burn down thousands of acres in just a few days, that haven't already been literally burnt to the ground in the last 10-15 years
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Jul 12, 2022 05:53
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Hadlock posted:Northern California is running out of giant contiguous heavily wooded areas having just taken a trip to mendocino and humbolt, i assure you this is incorrect
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Jul 12, 2022 06:54
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Kefit posted:I started working with a realtor, so my condo hunt on the Seattle eastside is finally becoming real. My realtor is an old family friend who has known me since I was a baby, has worked on many property transactions for my dad, and who has 40 years of realtor experience. So hopefully he's good at this. You should look at the cost to break the lease, depending on what you find and what rates are doing, the few grand to break the lease early might be a drop in the bucket when looking at the entire purchase. It may or may not be worth it.
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Jul 12, 2022 15:22
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DELETE CASCADE posted:having just taken a trip to mendocino and humbolt, i assure you this is incorrect It's paywalled on my phone, but please enjoy this meatspace screen cap https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article252148123.html  For those not familiar with California for some reason, the long skinny middle part with no fires is pool table flat farmland that's irrigated year round. Surrounding that is slow rolling foothills that's often grassland There's still big chunks of unburnt fuel to go, but as time goes by the fire is going to run up against recent burn scars more and more. I wouldn't base relocation plans on this but it's definitely interesting to see what's left to burn
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Jul 12, 2022 15:43
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Having spent a weekend touring around an area in the far northern edge of the state (Klamath national forest) that has burned twice in the last 20 years, it's not your estimation of what areas have already burnt recently that's off, it's your estimation of how long it takes for burnt forest land to regrow fresh fuel that is off. Moreover, grass and brush fires are big and dangerous too, and as our climate shifts and the ecological zones transform from forests to scrublands and chapparal, they'll continue to burn and perhaps burn more regularly than before.
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Jul 12, 2022 18:41
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Kefit posted:I started working with a realtor, so my condo hunt on the Seattle eastside is finally becoming real. My realtor is an old family friend who has known me since I was a baby, has worked on many property transactions for my dad, and who has 40 years of realtor experience. So hopefully he's good at this. Issaquah is nice cause i90 is right there. Makes going anywhere a lot easier. But yeah I can see inventory being a problem.
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Jul 12, 2022 18:55
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Hah, one thing I didn't think about when I was the only one on the mortgage application is our savings account which only has my wife's name on it due to my credit being frozen at the time of creation. That's where all of our money goes and comes out of for paying these expenses. Since my name isn't on the account and her name isn't on the mortgage application, I have to get a letter of gift from my wife.
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Jul 12, 2022 20:35
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Us, the buyers: My wife and I are first time buyers currently renting in the SF Bay Area, but are moving back to the PNW at the end of the year when my wife finishes her post-doc. We have a combined yearly income of 400k, and about 30k of medium interest student debt that’s currently deferred. We have ~260k saved for a down payment, closing costs, etc. The house, ideally:
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Jul 13, 2022 19:15
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Enraged Beekeeper posted:Us, the buyers: My wife and I are first time buyers currently renting in the SF Bay Area, but are moving back to the PNW at the end of the year when my wife finishes her post-doc. We have a combined yearly income of 400k, and about 30k of medium interest student debt that’s currently deferred. We have ~260k saved for a down payment, closing costs, etc. We moved to the area about 4 months ago and went the rent first route. Thin options for renting is an understatement. We ended up with a choice of 2 pet friendly houses within 45 minutes of work. My friend, on the other hand, bought a house from a realtor walking around from a camera. I'd say he overpayed about $50,000-$80,000 for the condition. I'm really not sure there's a good choice here.
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Jul 13, 2022 19:30
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A lot will depend on what you consider "in" Seattle, Bellevue, and Kirkland as well as how much you're willing to pay. The southern/eastern parts of bellevue may feed into Issaquah or Renton schools if you were specifically looking for bellevue school district. There are also parts of kenmore/bothell/woodinville that are south of 522 and the sammamish river. Under 1 might be hard, especially if people are still offering way over. Under 1.5 is probably not that hard, and under 2 you could probably just drop that fat offer and get a house. I know next to nothing about Seattle proper since I have no desire to live there
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Jul 13, 2022 20:00
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Highly recommend sticking to the eastside if you want good schools. I grew up in Bellevue and can attest from personal experience that Bellevue public schools are excellent. Kirkland's schools are reported to be just as good these days. I've only ever heard complaints about public schools in Seattle proper. Finding a spacious cat friendly 2br or even 3br apartment to rent while you house hunt should be doable. You can probably live with a cramped space and without a yard for a few months. Though I totally get wanting to avoid the pain of moving twice.
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Jul 13, 2022 21:29
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Enraged Beekeeper posted:Us, the buyers: My wife and I are first time buyers currently renting in the SF Bay Area, but are moving back to the PNW at the end of the year when my wife finishes her post-doc. We have a combined yearly income of 400k, and about 30k of medium interest student debt that’s currently deferred. We have ~260k saved for a down payment, closing costs, etc. I would recommend renting if at all possible. My wife and I made a cross country move and getting a short term rental (at insane prices) was one of the smartest things I've done. Inventory is in less of a crunch now, but renting first allows you to figure out where you really want to live. Things have changed since you've lived in Seattle. There are new grocery stores, traffic patterns, etc. You'll have a new commute to navigate. Neighborhoods are going to have traffic that changes throughout the week. Throwing the dice on an available house that you see one of the random weekends you decide to "find a house" is something I'd recommend against.
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Jul 13, 2022 21:40
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Mercer Island, 1950s rambler for ~$1.5M, bam, done The rest of Seattle is icky and for jerks
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Jul 13, 2022 22:00
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Mercer Island, 1950s rambler for ~$1.5M, bam, done 1.5 +/- a couple hundred thousand it's plus, not minus
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Jul 13, 2022 22:03
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https://www.redfin.com/CO/Denver/250-Ash-St-80220/home/34176050 This is a house we looked at when it was on the market last year. At that time, they wanted 1.4. The house had awesome bones and awesome detail in the living room/dining room, but all of the bathrooms, kitchen, hallways, bedrooms, garage, etc needed major renovations which we weren't in the mood to do with a baby on the way/construction prices being what they are. A few months later it ended up selling and they've been doing construction on it since early this year. Hit the market for double the original price ($2.8M). I keep on seeing open houses every weekend and they've had a few price drops. Could this be a money losing flip? 
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Jul 13, 2022 22:13
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Enraged Beekeeper posted:Us, the buyers: My wife and I are first time buyers currently renting in the SF Bay Area, but are moving back to the PNW at the end of the year when my wife finishes her post-doc. We have a combined yearly income of 400k, and about 30k of medium interest student debt that’s currently deferred. We have ~260k saved for a down payment, closing costs, etc. We’re getting our old house ready to go on the market (hopefully by the end of summer, it needs a lot of work) and our realtor called today saying that the market out here east of Seattle is slowing down and that we may not get what we want for it. So you might be better off waiting a bit.
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Jul 13, 2022 23:02
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Kefit posted:Highly recommend sticking to the eastside if you want good schools. The debate right now is whether it would be better to live in an urban-ish environment (which we prefer, all else equal) and deal with "good enough" public schools or just embrace the Residency Evil posted:Things have changed since you've lived in Seattle. There are new grocery stores, traffic patterns, etc. You'll have a new commute to navigate. Neighborhoods are going to have traffic that changes throughout the week. Throwing the dice on an available house that you see one of the random weekends you decide to "find a house" is something I'd recommend against. Good point. For us this isn't especially true of Seattle proper, but is definitely true of the eastside. We lived in North Seattle for 7 years, have been gone for less than two years, have friends who live nearby, and have visited several times in the meantime, etc. But neither of us is super familiar with eastside neighborhoods, traffic patterns, etc. and never have been. Rotten posted:We’re getting our old house ready to go on the market (hopefully by the end of summer, it needs a lot of work) and our realtor called today saying that the market out here east of Seattle is slowing down and that we may not get what we want for it. So you might be better off waiting a bit.
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Jul 13, 2022 23:16
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Re: Seattle chat: The new CPI numbers just dropped, 9.1% inflation, I am seeing mainstream news articles about the market predicting a full 1% increase in interest rates by the end of the month, on top of 0.75 last month, and 0.5 This is already expensive with the area you're looking at but these kinds of increases get really pricey fast at your end of the market, I see two obvious options 1) buy the first thing on the market now, lock in a 5.5% apr now, maybe refinance lower in 3-6 years 2) rent now, get your financing sorted in late January, start looking the weekend after super bowl Sunday 2023 in February, be prepared to eat 7-8% apr mortgage rate, but home prices might be deflated somewhat compared to now (3-8%?), Refinance in 3-6 years to realize your  savingsMoving twice sounds like a nightmare, good chance if you rent, the hassle of moving won't make it worthwhile to buy later Lock in a daycare now, by the way, we just got a renewal notice from ours
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Jul 13, 2022 23:52
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Just locked 5.5 today on a nice condo now that my brief multi-generational multi-family dreams got crushed. For the best anyway, didn't want to spend years making up for deferred maintenance.
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Jul 14, 2022 01:05
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I think you should always rent, at least for a little while, before trying to buy in a new area. By "new" I mean "you haven't lived there before"
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Jul 14, 2022 04:19
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I got my rate locked in last week at 4% on a 15 year loan, but it cost me a little over 4 points. So to reduce the calculated point cost I put down 50%, so to lower the overall debt load. I hope to stay in the new property for a long time so I should make back the points' cost several years from now. The Mortgage rep kept trying to steer me to a lower down payment, saying "you can free up that money and invest it". But that didn't sound right to me. Let's say you put $60K down on a $300K property for a 30yr loan. In that case every year you would need to earn a rate of return at least equal to your mortgage rate on your investments _and_ have the available $240K cash already to invest. Which is a difficult task to achieve consistently on a yearly basis, not to mention having that much cash available. I just ignored his suggestion, as he sounded like he didn't know what he was talking about. Perhaps the decreased size of the loan reduced his commission. Now with the current inflation rate being so high it would make sense initially to take on more debt at a rate lower than inflation, but I assume interest rates will eventually get back to lower values in a few years, once the Fed gets the current inflation under control. Anyhow I'm glad I got at least 4% since that's what I'm paying on my current mortgage, though I currently have a 30-year mortgage on the current property.
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Jul 14, 2022 06:09
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nnnotime posted:In that case every year you would need to earn a rate of return at least equal to your mortgage rate on your investments _and_ have the available $240K cash already to invest. Which is a difficult task to achieve consistently on a yearly basis, not to mention having that much cash available. What? No. Yes you need to earn a rate equal to or more than your mortgage interest rate, no you don't have to have the entire amount of your mortgage to invest to have this make sense and no it's not hard to do with something as simple and safe as a low-cost broad market index fund from a reputable brokerage like Vanguard or Fidelity.
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Jul 14, 2022 13:46
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Even at today's rates of ~5.5% i can't see putting more than 20% down. Stocks are cheap, might get cheaper, if you are under 55 i would be just dumping that money in the market.
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Jul 14, 2022 17:46
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Not gonna lie, I’ve been eyeing the money I have in my HYSA and the discount on stocks right now and I’m reaaaaaaaally tempted to put money that I might use in the next 2-5 years into the market. On the one hand, cheap stocks. On the other, down payments and prospective salary growth (or lack thereof). 
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Jul 14, 2022 18:57
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Motronic posted:What? No. Yes you need to earn a rate equal to or more than your mortgage interest rate, no you don't have to have the entire amount of your mortgage to invest to have this make sense and no it's not hard to do with something as simple and safe as a low-cost broad market index fund from a reputable brokerage like Vanguard or Fidelity. The other thing to consider is that your effective mortgage interest rate is lower than the nominal rate if you itemize deductions, because of the mortgage interest tax deduction.
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Jul 14, 2022 22:35
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b0lt posted:The other thing to consider is that your effective mortgage interest rate is lower than the nominal rate if you itemize deductions, because of the mortgage interest tax deduction. You need to have a hell of a mortgage and/or a hell of a lot to itemize since the standard deduction is now well over $12k.
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Jul 14, 2022 22:39
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b0lt posted:The other thing to consider is that your effective mortgage interest rate is lower than the nominal rate if you itemize deductions, because of the mortgage interest tax deduction. otoh the effective interest rate depends on how long you actually live there. The effective rate paid on the amount borrowed is a little higher if you sell in your first year than in your thirtieth QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Jul 16, 2022 |
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Jul 14, 2022 23:13
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nnnotime posted:I got my rate locked in last week at 4% on a 15 year loan, but it cost me a little over 4 points. So to reduce the calculated point cost I put down 50%, so to lower the overall debt load. I hope to stay in the new property for a long time so I should make back the points' cost several years from now. Basically you need to compare "what is my money accomplishing by being a bigger down payment vs investing it in the market". If your mortgage rate is lower than expected stock market returns, it would behoove you to make a smaller down payment and invest the rest of the money instead. Let's assume the house is $300k, you've got $150k in cash, and you can get a 15-year loan at 4%. If you put $60k down, you've got $90k to invest and can expect returns of at least 6% per year. In 15 years you've got a paid-off house and an investment account with $215,000 in it. If you put $150k down, you've got $0 to invest, but your monthly mortgage payment is $665 lower. If you invested that $665 each month for the 15 years, your investment account will have $186,000. And this assumes perfect discipline with scooting that $665 into the market each month. That's $29,000 in extra money, courtesy of compound interest. If stocks return more than 6% over the next 15 years, the difference would be even larger. If investing the $90k for a 6% return sounds like it would be even remotely complicated or difficult, take a trip to this thread https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2892928
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Jul 14, 2022 23:14
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Motronic posted:You need to have a hell of a mortgage and/or a hell of a lot to itemize since the standard deduction is now well over $12k. SALT can bring the minimum interest for deduction down quite a bit, though. Presumably at the very least mortgage-holders have property taxes to pay; the mortgage interest just has to take you over the top. Cassius Belli fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Jul 14, 2022 |
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Jul 14, 2022 23:38
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Wife and I are saving for house down payment. We've always done separate banking and still do, so what we've saved so far is in our own individual savings accounts. I have better credit and also to keep our income below a threshold I will be the only one applying for the mortgage. I'm assuming the money not all being in one place will be an issue for underwriting. What's the best way to handle this?
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Jul 16, 2022 18:34
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Wife and I are saving for house down payment. We've always done separate banking and still do, so what we've saved so far is in our own individual savings accounts. I have better credit and also to keep our income below a threshold I will be the only one applying for the mortgage. I'm assuming the money not all being in one place will be an issue for underwriting. What's the best way to handle this? So your down payment will partially come from this other person? And they're going to partially own the house? But you want to apply for the mortgage on your own? You should talk to an attorney about it, but when I wanted to do something like this a decade ago the various banks I spoke to wouldn't allow it. I didn't talk to an attorney but should have
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Jul 16, 2022 18:48
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We have a similar situation, all our money is in separate accounts. Underwriters just wanted to see a paper trail for all accounts showing money in and out. Consult an attorney for sure just to be safe. Only difference between you and I is my wife is a co-borrower. I have better credit, she has the better income.
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Jul 16, 2022 18:54
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Wife and I are saving for house down payment. We've always done separate banking and still do, so what we've saved so far is in our own individual savings accounts. I have better credit and also to keep our income below a threshold I will be the only one applying for the mortgage. I'm assuming the money not all being in one place will be an issue for underwriting. What's the best way to handle this? Similar situation was mentioned just a few posts ago. Abyss posted:Hah, one thing I didn't think about when I was the only one on the mortgage application is our savings account which only has my wife's name on it due to my credit being frozen at the time of creation. That's where all of our money goes and comes out of for paying these expenses. Since my name isn't on the account and her name isn't on the mortgage application, I have to get a letter of gift from my wife.
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Jul 16, 2022 19:16
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QuarkJets posted:So your down payment will partially come from this other person? And they're going to partially own the house? But you want to apply for the mortgage on your own? Wife won't be on the mortgage, but she'll be on the title. I just have better financials so her being a co-borrower wouldn't help anything. But it looks like a letter specifying it's a gift will work so may just go with that.
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Jul 16, 2022 19:25
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We had money coming from like four accounts Underwriting will want a paper trail going back 60 days for any account that you're doing the transaction with. Any deposit to any account over $N, probably over $1500 that isn't payroll, they'll want an explanation for and maybe a paper trail going back 60 days. They just want to make sure you don't have some off the books loan to cover the 20% down or whatever TL;Dr doesn't matter so long as you have a paper trail. Probably 30% of all deals have 2 or more accounts
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Jul 16, 2022 20:17
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Hadlock posted:We had money coming from like four accounts That's good to hear, thanks
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Jul 16, 2022 21:00
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I'm not sure how marriage laws (in your state specifically) will apply here, but it sounds like you'll have two people that own the home and one person that owns the loan "Don't get divorced" is always the best financial advice, but maybe extra valid here
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Jul 16, 2022 21:04
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