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moana posted:
To clarify, for the 28% rule, you should include Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance (PITI) whether or not all of those things are included in the amount you send to the bank. Also, it's gross income we're talking about for the 28/36% rules.
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May 6, 2009 18:27
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FidgetyRat posted:I have a general PMI question.. Can you reappraise your house after sale and have the PMI dropped if you exceed the 20% due to increased equity? Im in the process of building right now, and in the past few months, the builder raised prices 10k and fixed a price of 15k on the properties to the left and right of me.. So at closing, my house is already 25k more then what I am buying it for.. If I were to appraise it for the price the neighbors get, could that extra 25k equity go into the PMI calculation so i'd be that much closer to getting rid of it? What about if the appraisal for some reason comes back lower, could that hurt? Depends on your lender. Mine let me drop PMI based on a re-appraisal, provided the loan was at least 2 years old and the appraisal showed a minimum of 25% equity. Call your lender and ask whether they allow this and what the requirements are.
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May 6, 2009 18:29
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Barry posted:How are you paying $200/mo on PMI? I also doubt that the mortgage company would be able to track it down to being loaned money if it's sitting in your bank account as cash. You could basically just call it a gift from your father. I have no real idea though, just seems tough to track. The mortgage company will ask to see bank statements, and you'll have to explain any unusual activity. So you'll have to do this well ahead of time to avoid the "look back" period. Even then, your mortgage company will also ask you to sign an affidavit that none of your down payment money is borrowed. If they do find out about the arrangement, you'll have to disclose the terms of the loan (and have it counted as a debt for loan qualification purposes) or get your father to sign the mortgage company's "gift letter" stating that the money is a gift, not a loan. Having your parents "gift" you money, and then "gifting" it back over time is the traditional way of skirting the bank's rules here.
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May 7, 2009 19:56
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Yes, in the past it was rather linear, but that was before jumbo loans, ARMs, government subsidy for housing, modern mortgages procurement, and tons of other factors which led to this bubble in the first place, factors which aren't going away All of those things in your list predate the housing bubble. The main driver of the bubble was retarded risk pricing in secondary finance markets. That ain't coming back any time soon.
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May 12, 2009 21:56
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Strict 9 posted:I thought I read earlier in this thread that depending on the bank, you might need to own the house for longer than two years, or need 25% equity to get rid of the PMI? If not though, that's not a bad option. I suppose I should go ahead and ask my bank about this. The 25% equity & 2 years requirements were for when you wanted to drop PMI based on property appreciation (re-appraisal). Allowing this at all is up to the lender. On the other hand, they are required by law to drop PMI at your request when you get to 20% equity from the original value when you closed the loan, provided the property has not declined in value and you don't have any other liens on the property. Edit: These rules do not apply to FHA loans. They have a different set of rules. SlapActionJackson fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Jun 21, 2009 |
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Jun 19, 2009 13:29
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FidgetyRat posted:Why Bond market? Why? I assume this was a rhetorical question, but in case others out there don't know why: The US Congress has quite boldly asserted that it has an infinite supply of money. The Bond Market, whose constituent members - unlike our esteemed legislators - can do math and are familiar with basic economics, gets the pleasure of re-introducing those numbnuts to reality.
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Jun 19, 2009 13:36
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FidgetyRat posted:In the past people just didn't realize they had the 20% or that they had to manually call to have it removed. It wasn't too long ago that they passed a bill requiring PMI companies to automatically terminate at 20% original equity after 12 months of the homeowner not calling I believe. They must automatically drop PMI on their own at 22% equity, and they must drop it at your request at 20% equity. If you got a fixed rate loan, they are required to disclose to you at closing the date on which your loan is scheduled to reach 20% equity so you know when to ask.
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Jun 20, 2009 00:39
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MrMidnight posted:Can somebody here explain this to me and tell me this is normal? It's normal assuming you're setting up a loan with escrow (impounds) for insurance. Basically, they will pay for your insurance up front and a year's worth at a time, so you have to pay for a year's worth at closing (line 903). In addition, they will set up your escrow account with a cash cushion, and require you to fund that at close as well. 2 or 3 months' worth is common and that's line 1001. You will still pay a monthly charge for insurance from payment #1. This way, one year from closing, you will have a year's worth of insurance premium in the escrow account (plus a cushion) that they will use to buy your next year's worth of insurance. P.S. gently caress escrow. I would recommend avoiding it if you can. SlapActionJackson fucked around with this message at 14:04 on Jun 24, 2009 |
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Jun 24, 2009 13:56
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MrMidnight posted:Other than higher monthly payments, why do you recommend avoiding escrow? You will receive little to no interest on a substantial chunk of money that is just sitting around. You lose flexibility to do things like paying two years of property tax every other year for the tax benefits. You will have to do extra accounting work to make sure your taxes and insurance are getting paid properly and that nothing else is screwed up with the escrow account. Your escrow payments will adjust based on the lender's formula which is probably not as accurate as what you could estimate on your own. This can lead to nasty whip-sawing of payments in certain situations. It's just cheaper, easier, and less risk of something getting screwed up if you pay the tax and insurance yourself. MrMidnight posted:I won't have 20% equity, so I should probably ask now if I want to avoid escrow. Then escrow will likely be mandatory for your loan. You can ask anyway. Cheesemaster200 posted:By law, you can opt out of the loan contract within three business days. Depends on the state, and rescinding is usually an all-or-nothing deal. I.e. you can't keep the refinance and drop the escrow account.
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Jun 25, 2009 00:51
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moana posted:If it's like ours, you can choose anytime to stop the escrow account and just start paying it yourself. But ask anyway as soon as possible. I had to refinance to get rid of mine. Check with the lender.
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Jun 25, 2009 00:54
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Even buyer's agents will want you to sign an exclusive agency agreement. Read what you agree to.
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Jun 26, 2009 00:48
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In the grand scheme of life, 25 basis points is nothing. Don't worry about it.
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Jun 26, 2009 02:05
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Ambihelical Hexnut posted:For my own curiosity: how does this benefit you? It's only helpful in a certain situation: Your itemized deductions would be more than the standard deduction if you counted two years of property taxes, but less than the standard deduction if you only count one. Since you get to deduct property taxes in the year you actually pay them, you can pay two years worth of property tax in one year (e.g. Jan 1 and Dec 31) to take a larger itemized deduction every other year, and the standard deduction in the in-between years. This saves you a bit of income tax compared to just taking the standard deduction every year.
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Jun 27, 2009 08:58
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Realjones posted:It's retarded and everyone knows it's retarded. A home's taxes should be based on it's assessment, and should go down if the assessment does down. The problem is that the people that use the money that comes from property taxes are already facing huge gaps in their budgets from foreclosed homes that aren't paying any property taxes anymore. If you bought a house tomm for $250K that sold for three years ago for $450K, the rates should definitely be adjusted (and you should have legal recourse for that), but I believe what the bank is saying is that if you bought a house for $450K and are staying in it they aren't about to adjust the rates downward just because the assessment is lower (which makes no sense and everyone knows it). It's not the bank saying anything, it's the county/local Tax Assessor's office. And I think what they're saying is that as assessments (values) drop, millage (tax rates) will go up to keep total tax revenue more or less the same - since reducing spending is an utterly alien concept to most governments. Therefore homeowners should expect to see their assessments decline, and their rates go up proportionally so that the total tax owed is about the same.
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Jul 2, 2009 05:17
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Ophelia's Ashes posted:I make: 7150 (approx) a month before taxes. Your fiance makes $25,000 /yr and you expect her to pay for half of a $250,000 house? Will you be gracious enough to feed her after she's spent her entire take home pay on the mortgage? You're also very likely underestimating maintenance costs (1% ad valorem per year is reasonable) and costs of "stuff" to fill the house - furniture, tools, hardware - that goes with home ownership. That said, you certainly make enough money to afford that car, if you want it. Most people in this forum see cars as expensive depreciating appliances, so they're not gung ho on fancy cars. But you get to spend your money on things that are worth it to you.
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Jul 16, 2009 03:24
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Ophelia's Ashes posted:And just so you know SlapActionJackson, I'm the female My bad. The point still stands, just reverse the gender of the pronouns.
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Jul 16, 2009 03:39
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Welcome to the wonderful world of homeownership. If you want my advice, I would learn to do as much as you can yourself, it makes it so much more rewarding, easier and cheaper. It will also mean much more of it gets done correctly the first time.
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Jul 16, 2009 20:32
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roadhead posted:How much leverage did I just gain with this new knowledge? A few thousand dollars worth. None of those things are really a big deal if you otherwise like the house. 1. Cracked or split rafters can be repaired by sandwiching the busted rafter between two good pieces of 2x4 or 2x6 and bolting the whole thing together. Easy DIY. 2. The rotten siding needs to be replaced and the soil in contact with wood re-graded so that it doesn't touch. Difficulty/expense depends on the extent of the rot and how much soil is in contact. 3. Sounds like the breaker panel in general is no longer adequate. Get an electrician to come install a new and larger breaker panel. 4. Problem description is not very helpful here. If it's just a lack of GFCI outlets, those are an easy DIY install. 5. You can buy anti-siphon valves to screw on the hose bibs. 6. If the leaking piping is accessible then replacing it shouldn't be too difficult. 7. May not need addressing depending on where the heater is located 8. So don't tip it. 9. May just need lubrication or rail alignment. I'd get a general contractor to give a quote on fixing all of these items, then asking the seller for a concession in that amount. SlapActionJackson fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jul 22, 2009 |
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Jul 22, 2009 19:14
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roadhead posted:Its in the middle of the drat house! In a closet. I assume this has something to do with venting Carbon Monoxide and it collecting in the living area, or possibly the natural gas itself! I assume this would be bad? The report says you're missing an intake, not an exhaust vent. That means the air that gets burned comes from inside the house. This creates a partial vacuum inside the house, so if you've got other gas-burning appliances going, this could interfere with the proper exhaust of their combustion gasses. It's a bigger deal the more air-tight your house is and the harder it is for it to leak in the air being consumed by the heater.
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Jul 23, 2009 14:44
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Ottoman posted:The reason I'm posting in this thread was my original question about the 5-unit qualifying for the FHA loan since we got conflicting information. I'm more inclined to believe our mortgage specialist that we are not able to get it, just wondered if anyone had more input since this seemed like the right place to ask. Everything I can find says that FHA loans can be used for 4-plexes but not 5.
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Jul 26, 2009 19:58
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dreesemonkey posted:There is a federal credit union that I've heard here on the forums quite a bit that is apparently pretty nice. It's like a military or gov't employee one, but if you're not either of those (which you're not because you have money PenFed: https://www.penfed.org/howtojoin/overview.asp
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Jul 27, 2009 18:00
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) it's like $20 to join. -edit- Some good can maybe help me with the name? -edit- There are probably many specific to CA as well.
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Jack Burton posted:I could do that in a few years. But I am afraid by that time that the market will have shifted back to where it was. I was really hoping to take advantage of the current "crisis". If a few years is less than 5, I would not worry about needing to buy right now. The CA real estate market has a long way to go before this crisis is over: 
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Jul 27, 2009 18:05
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xaarman posted:What is the general consensus of buying down your interest rate? Worth it or a waste of $$? It depends on the buydown rates and the anticipated duration of the loan. There are plenty of online calculators to help you decide to buy down the rate or not.
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Jul 27, 2009 21:56
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Mister Fister posted:So based on this, the housing market won't recover until 2013 and i should not buy a house this year? Obviously nobody knows this for sure, but I would not bet on significant appreciation in the near time frame. The subprime mortgage blowup that started in 2007 triggered the housing implosion we're seeing now. As you can see from the graph, we're just starting to get to the point where the poo poo Alt-A and Option ARM mortgages blow up, triggering more defaults, foreclosures, and REO holdings. If you're not familiar, Alt-A are basically subprime loans given to people with good credit, and usually means the borrower did not have the income or assets that would stand up to normal 'prime' underwriting standards. Option-ARMs allow borrowers to pick a payment every month ranging from interest-only (sometimes even less than the interest owed) to fully amortizing. These were historically used by investors that had unpredictable cash flows on a property, but have recently been used by people who could only qualify for the loan because of the low interest-only payment option. There's a lot of poo poo in these loan classes. So Jack doesn't have to worry about missing opportunities. On the other hand, if you've got the cash for a normal 80% LTV loan, and you can stomach the thought of that equity potentially disappearing if the RE market continues to deteriorate, you can go for it.
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Jul 28, 2009 06:25
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Your lender isn't going to let you close without getting clear title. If there's not enough money to satisfy all parties, then everyone with an existing lien will need to negotiate amongst themselves who gets what share. The parties in subordinated positions have incentive to hold up the works until they get tossed a bone, but they will get nothing if the property goes to foreclosure. The parties in senior position will want to give up as little as possible, but don't really want to go though the hassle or expense of a foreclosure. Plus they're all overwhelmed, and this could be a lengthy process in the best of times. So yeah, I hope you have a nice long lock on your loan, because this could take months to resolve.
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Jul 30, 2009 15:13
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bankrate.com and interest.com have rate searches. Go from there.
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Aug 12, 2009 03:48
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geetee posted:You should only need one appraisal and that's when you're getting the mortgage. Even if your house appraised for half the price two months later, 20% of your loan is still the same. Most lenders don't require a second appraisal to drop PMI at 80% original LTV, but they are allowed to make you get one to ensure the house has not dropped in value.
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Sep 14, 2009 13:47
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You can kill mold with a sprayer bottle full of bleach, but you also need to address the source of moisture it's feeding from, or it will just come back. I'm pretty skeptical of this toxic mold boogey man - certainly toxic molds exist, but I think most of this "toxic mold" FUD from contractors is meant to scare suburban housewives and fleece insurance companies for remediation work.
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Sep 20, 2009 02:44
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That's highly dependent on what is in the purchase contract and your state law. It's probably best to consult a RE attorney.
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Sep 25, 2009 05:32
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You've got the right idea, you pay a LOT of interest on a 30-year amortization, so the interest rate has a rather strong affect on the cost of the house. Note that the discount rate you use in the NPV calculation will heavily influence the results. So you may want to run low, mid, and high discount rates to get a idea of how things change with that.
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Oct 27, 2009 04:34
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skipdogg posted:Plans in life changing and you not being out in 5 years. That and yield curves are very flat right now. It may only cost you 25-50 bp to get a 30 year fixed compared to a 5/1 ARM, and that gives you increased financial flexibility.
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Oct 29, 2009 17:36
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Leperflesh posted:It's an important chart to look at and good to keep seeing it, but, it should be understood that there is a huge difference between subprime mortgages and the other types, in terms of quality (that is to say, the rate of default we should expect). Not really. Alt-A and Option Arms are a powder keg waiting to go up - for exactly the same reasons sub prime blew up two years ago. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124657539489189043.html
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Jan 21, 2010 05:49
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Leperflesh posted:Be careful that the difference between what you're paying and the market value doesn't somehow become a (tax-due) gift of $175,000. This is a valid concern, but for Grandma, not PoliSciGirl. In the US, gift tax is the responsibility of the giver.
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Mar 1, 2010 02:54
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Backno posted:Random question: is there a minimum amount of tiem you have to pay PMI for? So if we put 10% down on a house and a week later got enough to pay it up to the 20% mark would we have to keep paying it for a set ammount of time? 2 years is typical on a conforming loan. You'll have to ask your lender to be sure.
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Mar 4, 2010 05:24
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Arkane posted:Also for USAA members, how have you found their mortgage rates? I'm not in the military or a veteran, so VA isn't an option. My mom said that USAA never has the best rates when they shop (and my parents have moved a whole bunch). I'm going to shop around, but I would definitely prefer USAA because I do everything with them. I was able to do slightly better with e-loan in 2003 (before the secondary mortgage market went to poo poo) and a local broker in 2008. Both times, USAA's rates were just slightly worse than the best I could find elsewhere. You may end up paying a small premium at USAA, but that could be totally worth it to you for an easy transaction with a company you know won't screw you over.
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Apr 23, 2010 00:01
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Not a scam, but a ripoff. You can achieve the same effect yourself for free by sending in half your mortgage payment every two weeks. You will pay the equivalent of 13 full payments a year on this plan, and that is where the savings come from . Depending on your mortgage interest rate and opportunity cost, this may or may not be a worthwhile endeavor.
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May 6, 2010 02:10
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We made an offer on a house in early June. The counteroffer (that we accepted) came back right before we left the country for vacation. Holy poo poo is it a pain in the rear end to do all of that initial paperwork while you're away. Especially with a 6-hour time difference and $1.50/min international roaming rate. Can't wait to see my cell phone bill this month. And christ have the banks gotten strict on their underwriting guidelines. Our initial app failed underwriting because they (incorrectly) calculated DTI at 47% and 45% is their hard limit. So I've got to figure out what went wrong there and fix it. Except our loan officer at this bank is completely unresponsive this week, presumably due to the homebuyer tax credit fiasco. And I also come to find out those loving morons at comcast have erroneously listed an account in collections om my report, so I get to clean that up as well. I love buying real estate.
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Jul 2, 2010 15:25
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I think underwriters are now being more picky and slow in general. I'm still not closed on my place, and we're into the 3rd contract extension period. We've finally gotten the bank to generate the loan paperwork, so we should actually close his time... 38 days after the original closing date.
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Aug 30, 2010 21:30
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We're gonna close tomorrow.  A mere 79 days post-contract and 34 days after the original closing date. Better late than never.
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Sep 3, 2010 05:40
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Farking Bastage posted:If there was ever a reason to get out the Silly man, TARP funds aren't for lending; they're for recapitalizing reckless banks.
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Sep 8, 2010 19:37
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and declare that lenders are doing everything they can not to loan out TARP money, I don't know what is.