|
H110Hawk posted:This is why wire transfers exist. You can also get receipts for both sides of it to satisfy underwriters if you want to save the money but it will be a dumb fight with them.
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 17:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 16:53 |
|
|
New post new me I feel like a huge idiot because I both filed my 2019 taxes without really thinking about the impact it might have and I also sent over my updated statements/paystubs since the last time before asking them if I should have. I am moving in 9 days out of my current place into my parents' house before moving into the new place like 13 days after that. There is nothing about this process I am enjoying. When I finish the purchase, I plan to take advantage of my new privacy by screaming at the top of my lungs at all hours of the day and night. Possibly forever.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 17:47
|
|
|
Hoodwinker posted:New post new me It's amazing how everyone involved in the process seems to be "surprised" at one or more things along the way - a process that they supposedly perform many times a week for a living. It's nearing the time where you should have gotten or will be getting a last panicked request for some document or other that you have already given them several weeks ago.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 17:49
|
|
|
Motronic posted:It's amazing how everyone involved in the process seems to be "surprised" at one or more things along the way - a process that they supposedly perform many times a week for a living.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 17:51
|
|
|
Even though it is a Saturday, doesn't most bank services within their system work even on weekeneds/holidays? Like I can transfer from/to Checking/Savings in their site/app and its pretty much instantaneous. Its things like Check Deposit and payments that may have to wait. Also I am happy I married someone that is meticulous about document and record keeping. She is pretty good at keeping those ducks in a row and I just keep my head down and get things down. That and we are blessed with both a good Realtor and Loan agent that seem to both have their crap together while being both responsive and detailed about stuff they need/ask for/etc. Now the agent I got my car loan though, holy poo poo was she bad and the reason I will never, ever even consider them for a loan of any sort ever again. Typos/miscommunications/etc and then after its all said and done it was still setup incorrectly even though it was setup the way I originally wanted it, but they said it couldn't be done.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 18:14
|
|
|
Motronic posted:It's amazing how everyone involved in the process seems to be "surprised" at one or more things along the way - a process that they supposedly perform many times a week for a living. Sometimes underwriters just make up new requirements on the spot I'm certain. In our case the underwriter wanted proof of employment for my partner so we were like "okay we already sent you her paystubs and our bank account statements showing deposits of those paystubs.". They told us, no, we need a letter written on her employer's letterhead positively affirming that she's an employee. They didn't need that from me though? 
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 18:18
|
|
|
If you're doing a wire transfer from Ally bank here are their wire transfer details. They won't process wire transfers on the weekend between banks. But the 3 day thing is you will receive a final loan form ~3 days prior to closing at which point you should get the go ahead to issue a wire transfer. For me it was the day prior to closing and the wire transfer went thru the same day (I did mine thru Ally bank), if it's unclear when you should do the wire transfer talk to your realtor and the title company. Also when you get the wire transfer details from the title company as someone here suggested to me, call them from a phone number you find elsewhere (e.g. not the document/instructions you received) and ask them the wire transfer details and confirm it lines up with the instructions you received.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 18:41
|
|
|
Popete posted:If you're doing a wire transfer from Ally bank here are their wire transfer details.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 18:45
|
|
|
Hoodwinker posted:Just to make sure I understand this properly: I wait until I receive the final loan form, then I initiate a wire from Ally -> Chase (takes like a day), then on my closing date I'm ready to wire from Chase -> <whoever>. Just do Ally -> Where-ever. Why pay chase $35 or whatever if you don't have to? Or is your money divided up funny? Either way, I would do the wires directly to their final destination. Popete posted:Also when you get the wire transfer details from the title company as someone here suggested to me, call them from a phone number you find elsewhere (e.g. not the document/instructions you received) and ask them the wire transfer details and confirm it lines up with the instructions you received. This.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 19:18
|
|
|
I have $40k in Ally (savings) and $30k in Chase (checking). I will need roughly $65k to cover everything that's not already a part of my earnest money in escrow.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 19:21
|
|
|
Some flawed retirement savings advice on the last couple pages of this thread. The long answer is go read the long-term investing and retirement thread, but here's some moderately long but still actually short stuff: An IRA is just a classification of an account which gets you certain tax advantages. For most people they come in two flavors, ROTH and Traditional (and some special cases like SEP and SIMPLE); with a ROTH IRA, you put money in after-tax, but pay no income tax on that money when you withdraw it; and with a Traditional IRA you put in pre-tax money and then pay income taxes on it when you withdraw. The two types also have different requirements and rules for those withdrawals, but for now focus on those two things. What an IRA is not is any specific investment type. You can keep cash in an IRA. You can invest in dumb poo poo like penny stocks or foreign exchange or soybean futures or whatever, because IRAs are completely self-directed; but the normal typical very good advice is to invest in a set of well-balanced low-fee index-based mutual funds that encompass the entire domestic and a lot of the major international stock market, plus usually some share of bonds; and, as you approach retirement age, some cash, with the balance shifting more towards bonds and cash as you age in order to reduce volatility late in your career at the expense of some earnings potential. There are simple "target date" retirement funds that do this automatically if you don't want to learn any more about portfolio balance. BUT if you are ideologically opposed to participating in the single greatest wealth-generation machine mankind has ever invented (the modern American stock market over the last 100+ years), OK, that's fine, you can just accumulate uninvested cash in your IRA and still get the tax advantage. That's worth doing unless you're also ideologically opposed to reducing your own taxes using legal methods that are intentionally there to encourage you to save money for retirement. The general advice for retirement is to save at least 15% of your income in order to save enough to afford a similar lifestyle in retirement to what you enjoyed during your working years. If you do this beginning in your 20s or maybe early 30s, the assumption is that you're earning around maybe 6 to 8 percent above the inflation rate through 30 to 40+ years of work and that will leave you with a nest egg that you can withdraw from reasonably in retirement (four or five percent drawdown while earning two or three percent above inflation on the balance) without running out of money before you die. If you are ideologically opposed to earning money through investment, you may well fall behind inflation (e.g. the amount even a "high-interest" bank account pays on cash is typically slightly less than inflation) in which case you need to save considerably more of your money annually in order to achieve your retirement goal. That 15% number assumes you're investing and, over 30-40 years, earning around 6-8% above inflation. For many people, due to the way the housing market has gone the last fifty or sixty or seventy years, the "investment" they made in a home turned into a huge percentage of their total net worth at retirement. This has convinced two or three generations that home ownership is a critical goal for wealth building and retirement. If you believe that this trend will continue for the next twenty or thirty or forty years, that still doesn't mean that buying a single house is the best or only way to take advantage of it. Instead of a single huge investment in one property which is exposed to all kinds of risk associated with that concentration (risks like that one house burning down, or that one neighborhood going to poo poo, or that one city having a crisis), you can instead diversify your real estate investment by buying REITs, which are packages of real estate which can include mixes of residential and commercial if you like. So, again if you think wealth building through real estate is going to keep being A Thing, that does not necessarily mean you must buy a home instead of continuing to rent. If your calculation is that, all else being equal, it'll cost you $100k more over 10 years to buy instead of rent, AND you are interested in gambling on the real estate market, consider putting that money into REITs. At least if the real estate market crashes at the same time you lose your job, you're not going to get foreclosed on when you stop making additional deposits into your REITs. But I would suggest instead just putting that money into well-diversified investments like the aforementioned low-cost index-based mutual funds, with maybe a much smaller dabbling in REITs (like 5% of your retirement savings?) if that's your intention. REITs are not "low cost index-based" like certain categories of mutual funds, so they have higher risks and costs, and there's a lot of pretty dangerous (even leveraged) REITs out there. I don't want to overly encourage people to buy into them, but the costs AND the risks on balance are probably lower than the risk entailed in buying a single residential property. Finally: the actual abbreviated order of savings priorities: 1. Employer-based option (usually 401k) with matching, up to the full amount of their matching. This is free money and even a 50% match with a multi-year vesting period beats the return on any other investment you can find. 2. IRA (ROTH or Traditional or a combination), up to the full amount allowed each year (since you pick your own custodian you can often get better investment options (lower cost) than what your employer offers in their plan) 3. Max out that 401(k), past what the employer matching rate was, even if the investment options are lovely, because their shittiness doesn't outweigh the tax advantage. 4. If it makes sense for you and your employer offers one, get a high-deductible health plan and invest in an HSA. Health Savings Plans are tax-advantaged space you can spend on health costs, or, when you hit retirement age, just withdraw from. 5. If you have kids or are going to, and you're pretty sure they'll go to college, and you live in a state with good colleges, and your state offers a good plan, consider investing in a 529 educational savings plan. Read the fine print. 6. Save money for a home if you decided you might want to own a home someday but don't yet have a firm short-term plan to buy a home 7. Non-tax-advantaged retirement savings, e.g. "a brokerage account" You'll note how far down #6 is. You can promote it higher if you find that buying a home is either a very important lifestyle choice for you, or, you are going to live in an area where rents are very high for a long time and you find that you would actually save money over a long period by buying instead of renting. But it should never be higher than #2 and for most people it should not be higher than #4. If you can't afford to put ~15% of your money into retirement savings and save cash for a house, you might need to reconsider whether you can afford a house, or whether you're overspending elsewhere. I say "might" because some people live frugally, some people have expectations of much higher incomes in the future, some folks have inheritances, etc. etc. Everyone's financial situation is unique and different, so all of these guidelines are just generic statements to help people understand their options and give them a place to start from. If you do at least #s 1-3 and if doing that means saving at least 15% of your income (unless you are self-employed, this is $19,500 + match per working adult (401(k)) + $6,000 per individual (married get to put in total of $12k)), and you start doing that in your 20s or early 30s, and the global economy doesn't collapse for more than like 10 years during your 30+ year savings period, you will probably be pretty OK in retirement. If you can add in #4, you can grow money tax-free and then spend it tax-free on all your medical stuff (if we somehow get universal free health care in the US this changes but I bet they'd let people convert their HSAs to IRA or something when that happens) and that's great, and if you find yourself all the way down the list doing #7 you could maybe even retire early. If you can arrange to run your own business and earn lots of money that way, OR if your employer offers after-tax 401(k), you can potentially shove up to $56k per year into your 401(k) (google "Mega backdoor ROTH") but you need to be a high earner (think two or three hundred thousand a year) to fully access that and so it's basically totally legal tax-dodging for the rich but boy if you can do that you can retire early with several million dollars in tax-advantaged savings. OK that's still a pretty drat long post but it's still not really covering everything, but if you refuse to go read the long-term investing and retirement OP and then hang out in that thread and learn stuff, the above should serve as a very basic primer.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 19:51
|
|
|
Hoodwinker posted:I have $40k in Ally (savings) and $30k in Chase (checking). I will need roughly $65k to cover everything that's not already a part of my earnest money in escrow. Just move your cash from Ally to Chase now? Sounds like you have plenty of time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 21:04
|
|
|
Sirotan posted:Just move your cash from Ally to Chase now? Sounds like you have plenty of time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 21:07
|
|
|
Hoodwinker posted:I was told not to do this by the lender. I don't know why. Considering they have all of my bank statements and already signed off on the underwriting, I don't know why they would give a poo poo, but I'm not super interested in making deep waves on this massive purchase. That seems real dumb (from them) but I understand not wanting to incur additional aggravation.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 21:10
|
|
|
Sirotan posted:That seems real dumb (from them) but I understand not wanting to incur additional aggravation.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 21:12
|
|
|
They are watching out for the sorts of money shenanigans that some stupid people pull. They don't want your actual balances to be suddenly very different from the balances they typed on various forms days or weeks ago. They are in particular, not wanting a situation where maybe that $50k in that one account is the exact same $50k that is supposedly in that other account when you have said you actually have $100k across two accounts. They guard against these situations by asking people to just not move money around unexpectedly when it's close to closing. Do what the underwriter says to do.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 22:17
|
|
|
Very good investment post up above btw. Will be focusing on that a lot more post home purchase. On the home buying front, it's now official. They accepted so now its Inspection time.  Pending any major shenanigans the first upgrade I plan on doing is an epoxy garage floor before we even start to move stuff in. Get that done now before the garage gets cluttered with stuff in it besides just cars.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 23:40
|
|
|
Is it still the situation that you need 20% downpayments these days? What about for foreclosures? Glancing through Zillow and it seems like foreclosures are almost all auctions- do people get houses outright from these auctions, or are there then companies or government agencies besides the HUD folks who list them somewhere? This time next year I'll have about 20 grand sitting in a checking account. Is that enough to go home shopping with confidence in the $150k-$250k range?
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 01:12
|
|
|
El Mero Mero posted:Sometimes underwriters just make up new requirements on the spot I'm certain. In our case the underwriter wanted proof of employment for my partner so we were like "okay we already sent you her paystubs and our bank account statements showing deposits of those paystubs.". They told us, no, we need a letter written on her employer's letterhead positively affirming that she's an employee. They didn't need that from me though? I don't work for my company's main office, so I live in Pennsylvania and my paystubs etc say California. They had two paystubs and my W2 from last year but were still concerned about how I could possibly work on the other side of the country. So they needed an email explaining what was up. Sure, why not. Then they needed an email from my work address. Okay, fine. Then they wanted an email from my work address with a signature that indicated my office's address. wolfs posted:Is it still the situation that you need 20% downpayments these days? I had about 12% saved up for a target $150k house, ended up putting down like 7%? so I could use the rest for closing costs and inspections and all the other bullshit and also having a couple grand lying around around to buy any furniture or dumb poo poo that cropped up that I could just immediately throw back at my mortgage if I didn't end up using it. This is not great advice, however. My financial situation definitely differs from yours, and you should evaluate your particular finances to determine if you're going to be able to actually afford your mortage and everything associated with it. My mortgage+taxes+escrow was cheaper than my rent, and I make more than enough to, two months later, have 20% of my mortgage paid down. Also foreclosures are a whole fuckin rabbit hole that you can go down that I didn't have the stomach for. I didn't want to be the guy to have to like, kick squatters out of a house or something, yknow? Sockser fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Feb 19, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 01:27
|
|
|
EdEddnEddy posted:Pending any major shenanigans the first upgrade I plan on doing is an epoxy garage floor before we even start to move stuff in. Get that done now before the garage gets cluttered with stuff in it besides just cars.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 01:36
|
|
|
wolfs posted:Is it still the situation that you need 20% downpayments these days? If you have less than 20% for your down payment, you will have to pay PMI. That's an insurance premium that insures your lender (not you) so it's purely lost cash. The lower your down, the more expensive that PMI gets. Once you pay your loan off to the point where you're at 80% LTV, you can get the home re-appraised and get rid of the PMI. Secondarily, having less equity in your home makes you more exposed to volatility in home prices. Say you bought your home in 2006 with 10% down, and then 2008 happens and your home loses 15% of its value. Now you're still OK as long as you can keep making your payments, but if you ever can't - say you lose your job - you find yourself in an extremely bad situation because you can only sell by bringing cash equal to 5% of the old home value to pay off the rest of the loan beyond what the proceeds of the sale produce, or with a "short sale" in which the bank agrees to take a loss on the sale. Short sales take forever and buyers hate them so having to do a short sale probably means selling for even less than the market value, and if you can't bring enough cash to cover the gap, hey guess what you're gonna get foreclosed on. And keep in mind that transaction costs are not built into that equation. Now also consider the amortization schedule. A larger down payment implies a smaller borrowed amount, which in turn means paying less on interest. So, a larger down payment is better because your house will actually cost you less money, as well as giving you a buffer against a short-term downturn that you might otherwise be able to ride out or recover more easily from. That said, for some folks, a 10% down payment can still work out. It all depends on your specific situation.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 01:46
|
|
|
wolfs posted:Is it still the situation that you need 20% downpayments these days? Leperfish very well covered the 20% stuff. I'll cover the auction thing: you have approximately zero chance of being able to bid in one. You need to have cash in hand/arranged financing. Unless you currently have several properties and a commercial banking relationship with a portfolio loan (or straight cash) this is not a process for you. It it also not a process for you if you have to ask about it cold like this - there are MANY other considerations from "not being able to actually view the property" to "not actually being able to get title insurance" and "whoops, turns out there were unrecoded liens for more than the value of the property that you didn't figure out before you bought it and since you own it they are your problem now" and "congratulations, you won the auction - the old owners have not left: now you get to begin a multi-thousand dollar eviction process that will take 60 days minimum."
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 01:54
|
|
|
LLSix posted:I've never heard of that before. Why do you want that? I don't have any current pictures on me at the moment of jobs I have done in the past, but just Google "Epoxy Garage Floors" and pick images. The main thing is it gives the garage floor a protective coating that is tough as heck, doesn't absorb anything so if you spill anything on it all you have to do is wipe it up, and it looks fantastic over basic grey concrete that is probably stained or miss colored from something leaking into it at some point or another. You can choose all sorts of color combinations for the flakes or even just do a single color if that's your things but it's a fantastic facelift for your garage and we'll, any exposed concrete you want to cover. I'll post pics as soon as mine is done for a before and after.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 03:02
|
|
|
Wire transfers are some sort of black magic as far as I’m concerned. I used it to buy a boat, and it was the most cryptic process. My first attempt was returned and credited to my account, but the withdrawal was also reversed, so I had original balance plus wire amount sitting in my account for like a week until Chase realized their error. And Chase couldn’t explain why the money was returned to me in the first instance.
gvibes fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Feb 19, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 05:01
|
|
|
gvibes posted:Wire transfers are some sort of black magic as far as I’m concerned. I used it to buy a boat, and it was the most cryptic process. My first attempt was returned and credited to my account, but the withdrawal was also reversed, so I had original balance plus wire amount sitting in my account for like a week until Chase realized their error. And Chase couldn’t explain why the money was returned to me I. The first instance. Because humans are involved at 2 or 3 steps of the way. Humans are terrible.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 05:07
|
|
|
What's the current process people recommend for finding a broker? Is there still a site you can put your details in and shop around? Also, any wisdom on a 15 year vs 30 year loan? for reference: Income: $110,000/yr Credit: 800ish. Cash on Hand: $14k and climbing. Anticipate a raise/bonus in March. Debt: Just a car payment, $505 or so. Have credit cards of course, but I zero them out nearly every paycheck. Basically my lease ends in June, and I'm sort of reaching a poo poo or get off the pot moment wrt re-upping for another year. Appreciate any wisdom the thread can provide. Deviant fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Feb 21, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 02:15
|
|
|
Deviant posted:Also, any wisdom on a 15 year vs 30 year loan?
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 02:45
|
|
|
Academician Nomad posted:Alliant is a great national credit union (basically bank but not predatory), though they don't have 2-factor login: https://www.alliantcreditunion.org/ I Is it even legal to run a financial website without 2FA
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 02:56
|
|
|
Academician Nomad posted:With mortgage rates this insanely low I think it's worth borrowing any amount of money at 30 year rates. You can always speed up your payments later. I figured this was the case. So, if rates are low, now is a good time to buy? I know that's sort of a nonsense phrase though.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 02:58
|
|
|
Deviant posted:I figured this was the case. So, if rates are low, now is a good time to buy? I know that's sort of a nonsense phrase though. There's so many factors that go into deciding when to buy a house that "rates are low" shouldn't be a significant one. ("Rates are extremely high" could be a significant reason not to buy a house, but we haven't been in that situation since the 1980s). Far more important are your financial situation and your personal/family/life situation.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:04
|
|
|
Deviant posted:What's the current process people recommend for finding a broker? Is there still a site you can put your details in and shop around? If you get a 30 year note and pay it off with the same $/mo as a 15 year note, you'll add ~2.5 years to the payback. But those 2.5 years will be at current rate dollars on the back end and not inflation adjusted dollars. So it's pretty close. If you're tight on your budget, you should do the 30-year and payback quicker. If you're comfortable with your budget, do the 15-year and pocket the difference. It'd not a huge amount either way if you're living right.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:06
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:There's so many factors that go into deciding when to buy a house that "rates are low" shouldn't be a significant one. ("Rates are extremely high" could be a significant reason not to buy a house, but we haven't been in that situation since the 1980s). Well, i tried to describe my financial above. Personal wise, I live with a roommate who i'd keep renting to, my father visits me sometimes, I'm single, and my job feels as stable as any job can. It's pretty mundane in a good way, I suppose. Not sure if that's what you're after or what else would be helpful. I'm looking because I want to get into something I have more control over, with a nice garage I can work, store my tools, and maybe have a gym set up in. I have good income and credit of course, but I wonder if my smaller liquid cash reserve is going to hold me back or make it worth waiting/saving. Deviant fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Feb 21, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:06
|
|
|
This is so stupid... bank offering me 3.5% rate at 30 years, with 10% down if I borrow 900k and fuckin 5% down if I can get it under 550ish so it's not a jumbo. Just a shame that it's extremely slim pickins in the middle of winter here in Boston. Investment companies are snapping up everything from the looks of it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:08
|
|
|
Deviant posted:Well, i tried to describe my financial above. Personal wise, I live with a roommate who i'd keep renting to, my father visits me sometimes, I'm single, and my job feels as stable as any job can. It's pretty mundane in a good way, I suppose. Not sure if that's what you're after or what else would be helpful.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:13
|
|
|
Deviant posted:Well, i tried to describe my financial above. Personal wise, I live with a roommate who i'd keep renting to, my father visits me sometimes, I'm single, and my job feels as stable as any job can. It's pretty mundane in a good way, I suppose. Not sure if that's what you're after or what else would be helpful. Nah the point is just that rates can't easily be predicted into the future, so like: rates are historically low. But they've been historically low since the 2008 crisis, and there's no way of knowing if that's coming to an end soon (so hurry up and buy!) or if they'll stay low for another decade (so wait till you have more cash!). Anyone who tells you they can predict that rates are soon to rise is lying or wrong. In the short term, rates could go up a few tenths if you wait a few months and maybe half a percent or even a whole percent if you wait a year or two. But maybe they won't, and in the meantime, you can address factors that are actually under your control, like having a good down payment, money to cover closing costs, and money beyond that to cover the initial (often large) expenses of move-in, furniture, and other lifestyle adjustments. Now, as for factors you didn't mention: you're single. Do you think that could change in the next decade? Might you find yourself with a spouse and perhaps even a child or two? If you buy a home suitable for a single person and then that changes in five years, you could find yourself owning a house that is no longer suitable for you, potentially in a down market where it's disadvantageous to sell, or even worse, with zero equity due to a low down payment in a down market where it's disadvantageous to sell. The typical suggestion is to assume you'll own the home for at least 7 or 8 years, and maybe as much as 10+. Maybe that's not a factor at all, nobody can really assess that but you. But that's one example of a personal factor that should be more important to consider than whether you can get a rate of 3.6 or 3.8 on your 30 year mortgage. e. You should also not assume your roommate sticks around for ten years. Are you assuming you'll rent that room to strangers in order to make your payments, or would you be fine making payments on that note without a roommate? Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Feb 21, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:14
|
|
|
Zero VGS posted:This is so stupid... bank offering me 3.5% rate at 30 years, with 10% down if I borrow 900k and fuckin 5% down if I can get it under 550ish so it's not a jumbo. Why is that stupid? To me seems like a fairly straightforward and expected offer for an applicant with excellent credit history. Banks will make well over $100k off your loan, why would they not be motivated to sell?
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:19
|
|
|
Dik Hz posted:It takes ~6 years to make buying on a house a 30-year note revenue neutral in an average market in the US, according to most sources. If you have hobbies or lifestyle choices that make renting prohibitive, then go ahead and buy. If you plan on staying put for 6+ years, go ahead and buy. Otherwise, if you're single and flexible and not anchored to your current community, buying a house represents a big sunk cost. Feels like it's time to buy then. Several of my hobbies would be wildly enhanced by a garage/workshop area, and I like my city, it's become home. I'd have to have a pretty drastic shakeup to move anywhere else. Leperflesh posted:Nah the point is just that rates can't easily be predicted into the future, so like: rates are historically low. But they've been historically low since the 2008 crisis, and there's no way of knowing if that's coming to an end soon (so hurry up and buy!) or if they'll stay low for another decade (so wait till you have more cash!). Anyone who tells you they can predict that rates are soon to rise is lying or wrong. These are all great points. I'm gonna address the roommate/spouse/payment issue as a trifecta: I do not intend to buy anything I couldn't support on my own. I am looking at 3/4 bedrooms, which would easily support a spouse/family. Either the roomie goes on his own to greener pastures eventually, or I explain that I may some day have to ask him politely to leave. We've roomed together for many years now and I have no concerns about that. I hope that answers both questions clearly. Deviant fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Feb 21, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:20
|
|
|
If you are considering family in the future, look into your school district too. That's an enormous factor that families with kids typically look at when buying. Consider that your future potential spouse might not work near the house you buy, or might have their own preferences for what to have in a house. (On the other hand, perhaps owning your own house will make you a more attractive potential mate! I dunno, this is just spitballing stuff.) And as an aside: you can rent a house with a garage, although if you own that garage you can make modifications and stuff, so: when comparing renting vs. buying, you might take a look at what it'd cost to rent a house.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:24
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:If you are considering family in the future, look into your school district too. That's an enormous factor that families with kids typically look at when buying. Fair, and renting a house is on my ideas list. I guess assuming I did decide to buy, what would be the first step? Not gonna do anything today or even tomorrow, but I'm unclear on who to talk to first.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 16:53 |
|
|
Deviant posted:Fair, and renting a house is on my ideas list. Go on redfin or zillow, find houses for sale, and start showing up at the open houses. I see this as a combination of "practice looking at a house for 30 minutes and trying to figure out what's up with that house" and "practice touring around your city and seeing what different neighborhoods are really like." Too many people start looking at houses one week and make an offer 5 days later on the 3rd house they've ever looked at and I think those people often get screwed because they haven't developed an "eye" for what they really want, what sorts of problems there might be, or even just seen what the full breadth of their options really are. When you start getting within like maybe 3-6 months of when you'd like to buy a house, get a preapproval letter (from any bank it doesn't matter at this point yet) for an amount no more than the max you'll bid on a house. This is likely to be a lower number than what a bank will actually offer you. Then, assuming you want a realtor, get a realtor. (You can do without a realtor, such as by going with Redfin's service, or going totally maverick and not having a realtor at all, but: the home selling industry is set up to make this maximally difficult for you, the seller's agent may prefer not to work with you on the assumption they'll have to do more work, and since the commission for your realtor is paid by the seller, you'd have to negotiate something special to actually make this save you money). Depending on your state you may need an attorney; in any state, you may benefit from an attorney. You can retain one before or after you make an actual offer, sometimes you use an attorney just to review the paperwork after making an offer for example. When you are close to making an offer you can pre-qualify (not the same as pre-approve) and then after you make an offer, you'll start shopping for your actual loan (which absolutely does not have to be with the banks you got your preapproval and/or prequal from and don't let them try to convince you otherwise). At this point you'll probably have a realtor and they should be guiding you through this process. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Feb 21, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 03:31
|
|