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Mister Fister posted:Is this a bad idea? Can they afford it even if it sits vacant? How many houses are sitting vacant or for rent in that area? Its probably not a terrible idea, but if houses are THAT cheap, they probably aren't the only people with that idea, so it may just be a supply vs demand issue. I think if they can afford it, and they want to, it's a fine idea. If they can't afford it, or they're just doing it because they think "it's the right thing," it's probably a bad idea.
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Jun 26, 2009 15:33
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Lump Shaker posted:So does anyone have experience selling their house FSBO? Considering doing it because we aren't in a rush to sell. I had a friend of a friend try it in a market that had a well established, well advertised website for FSBO sales. He got a lot less bites doing it that way than when he eventually listed it with an agent. Make sure to include that you're "willing to work with seller's agents" (i.e. you're willing to pay their commission), or else expect no realtor to ever show your house to buyers. When it works, it's great, and there's no downside to trying (besides wasted time). Just don't expect miracles. If it doesn't work, also look into a flat fee realtor. May or may not be available in your area.
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May 8, 2014 22:17
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swenblack posted:The fixed plans are pretty much a scam in my area. I get a couple letters a month from my natural gas company extolling the benefits of switching to a fixed plan. However, when I ran the numbers, I found out I'd pay ~60% more on the fixed plan than I was paying on the variable plan. Also, the fine print on the fixed plan actually said that if it was cheaper than the variable plan over the course of a year, they could bill me for the difference. I've always done the variable plan, so grain of salt, but don't they recalculate your average every 12 (or whatever) months and refund (or at least apply to next month's bill) overages?
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May 15, 2014 12:44
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I'm putting an offer in for a FSBO house as a first time homebuyer without an agent (I have a well regarded real estate attorney retained). I have some questions about negotiation that go beyond legal questions. It is currently not on MLS in any way, just Zillow pretty much. The seller inherited it from his aunt who had it designed and built for her in 1969. The sellers are an older couple from the area with a house they've lived in for 20+ years, so they have no interest in moving. It's not in a great place to rent either. They've owned it for about 5 years, their son stayed in it until recently. It has been on the market for 60 days so far. It is ~1200 sq ft, 2 bd 1.5 bath. It was architected (that's not a word) for them, and is very unique looking. The architect was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and you can tell, it kind of looks like that. It does not appear to need much work at all (although of course I will have it inspected, so that might change), but the windows are old. The only item on the real estate disclosure is that the seller had to clean up some water pools in the basement. It is across the street from a lake. If I were to buy it, I would like to eventually convert parts of the basement. I don't really need the space, and I could see myself living in this house for a very long time, but in case I do decide to resell it, having 3 BD and 2 full baths would help a lot, and I believe it will be easy to do (assuming the water in the basement isn't a problem -- my biggest concern). It is right on the edge of a very nice neighborhood. $150-$200k is about median home price around here, and just a couple of blocks over from this place, all the houses are $500K+++ It is listed for $212k. My feeling is that I have some time to negotiate, since it is not listed on MLS, the seller doesn't live in the house, it's the middle of winter, and it's uniqueness automatically lowers the pool of buyers. It seems like I should offer a low amount and be prepared to play it slowly. $212k is a lot for a ~1200 2bd house around here, but I'm sure the seller feels it's uniqueness, proximity to the lake and nice neighborhood, and ready to sell nature make it worth more (and I agree). It's not a stretch for me at $212k (I'd probably be getting a 15 year mortgage), but my original plan wasn't to get a house for another year or two, so I still have a lease, and while I have enough saved up to not be screwed if things go wrong, I'd probably be doing a ~10% down payment instead of 20+% like I'd like so I'd still have savings for repairs/oh poo poo/etc. So, after all that setup, what is too low for a first offer? I'm thinking of the house as priced at $200k, since neither of us have a real estate agent (I realize the seller might not feel this charitable, but I think it is telling that $212k-6% is the very round number of ~$200k). Is it crazy to offer $180k? I think it might be. I'd do that if I were negotiating for a car, but houses have more emotional attachment, and asking for $20k off a $200k purchase is the same percentage as $2k off of a $20k, but obviously is a lot more money in real dollars. If $180 is crazy, what isn't? $185? $190? I really like this house, and I'm not going to find another like it, and my financial situation is good. It wouldn't be the end of the world if this fell through and I waited another year or two and bought with 20% down. That said, I'm as sure as anyone can be that I'm happy in this city, I have a ton of job prospects around here, am in a stable LTR (buying it with only my name for now, but marriage is probably coming very soon). I realize how stupid this sounds, since no one can predict the future, but I could easily see myself in this house for 30+ years. Help goons!
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Jan 31, 2015 18:17
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psydude posted:Is there any downside to doing a 15 year mortgage over a 30 year mortgage? I was just considering the same. Make sure to put both loans in a calculator and figure out how much total you'd pay for the 15 year loan, then figure out how much total you'd pay for the 30 year loan, assuming you pay it off in 15 years. For me, the difference was small enough that the added flexibility of the 30 years was worth it. EDIT: To your above post, lenders will want you to have more income for the 15 year, since the payments are higher, but apart from that, they seemed comparable to me.
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Feb 10, 2015 21:03
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Pryor on Fire posted:That's like a case study in why you don't let people just build as many million square feet as they want on however much land they want without any government oversight. Like what the flying gently caress. Yeah, but $58/sqft, what a deal!
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May 20, 2015 12:22
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DaveSauce posted:WHY??? For the super fun experience of your toilet catastrophically overflowing at 3 am, so you have to frantically tear it out in the middle of the night. It's great!
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Jan 16, 2016 04:59
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martyrdumb posted:A few thousand, we're hoping that we can get some down payment assistance and only have to put in <$2000 into the transaction though. Maybe through the SONYMA program, which is NY specific. Is there a reason this is so pressing? Why does this have to happen now? Even if you're able to get a very low down payment loan, there are closing costs, maintenance that needs to be done right when you get a house, painting, furniture, etc. Buying a house, especially a first house, is really expensive. If you go in with basically $0 of savings (or negative savings, with credit cards and loans and such, which sounds like it may be the case), then best case, you're in for a tough few years of being house poor and on edge hoping nothing breaks. Is there a reason you can't save for a year or two and buy a house then? It would give both of your credit scores time to come higher (though if they're what CK says they are, you'll be able to get a loan, it just might be an expensive one). It would give you both more time at your jobs. Depending on what the price range of houses around there is, you might be able to save enough to avoid PMI, or at least to have it for a shorter period. Even if you can't avoid PMI, having a larger down payment lets you do a conventional loan (instead of FHA or something similar), which tend to have lower interest rates, and don't need a refi to get out of PMI. It also gives you a cushion if you need to move in a down market. There's a lot of reasons waiting a few years would be a good thing. Only you can decide if your reason for not waiting outweighs all of that. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Jan 23, 2016 |
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Jan 23, 2016 16:12
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DJCobol posted:And now I'm under contract. That was almost too easy. Assuming inspections and appraisals go well, I need to learn how to do the following: I wouldn't anger the housing gods by making a list like this, at least not without adding a "... and everything else that will invariably explode the second I finish closing"
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Aug 4, 2016 18:39
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I'm looking at putting an offer in on a house we saw at an open house. We didn't have an agent at the time (normally I'd use an attorney instead of an agent, but the best RE attorney in town is very slow and I didn't think we'd be putting an offer in this early, so I didn't get the ball rolling with him yet), but a friend of a friend is licensed. She says her broker requires an exclusivity period (for any house we'd find, not just this one). I balked at that. She talked to her broker and they said she can put the offer in and "not include the buyer's agency at all, just a friend with a real estate license putting in an offer." I don't care if the agency is involved, but does that forfeit any protections or anything like that? Basically, should I care if the agency is involved or not? If this offer is accepted, I'll be giving this person a stupid easy commission. It would be hilarious to watch the Realtor system's greed get in the way of that if I didn't just want to get this done. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Feb 13, 2017 |
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Feb 13, 2017 16:12
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Grumpwagon posted:I'm looking at putting an offer in on a house we saw at an open house. We didn't have an agent at the time (normally I'd use an attorney instead of an agent, but the best RE attorney in town is very slow and I didn't think we'd be putting an offer in this early, so I didn't get the ball rolling with him yet), but a friend of a friend is licensed. She says her broker requires an exclusivity period (for any house we'd find, not just this one). I balked at that. She talked to her broker and they said she can put the offer in and "not include the buyer's agency at all, just a friend with a real estate license putting in an offer." I don't care if the agency is involved, but does that forfeit any protections or anything like that? Basically, should I care if the agency is involved or not? Oh wow. Just got a message from her stating that she can't represent us at all without signing the agreement, and sent a form over stating we "acknowledge that she just helped us fill out forms, not representing us as a buyer's agent." Am I right in thinking I'm not asking for something unreasonable here? Should I be running far away from this deal, because that's my instinct right now.
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Feb 13, 2017 17:24
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Grumpwagon posted:Oh wow. Just got a message from her stating that she can't represent us at all without signing the agreement, and sent a form over stating we "acknowledge that she just helped us fill out forms, not representing us as a buyer's agent." Sorry for the self quotes here, this is all moving quickly. She has now stated she can modify the contract to specify for this house only (why didn't you say that before???). I'm back to being ok with that, but after getting jerked around here a bit, I'm skeptical of this person now. Is there something here I'm missing?
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Feb 13, 2017 17:49
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marchantia posted:Re: poster freaking about exclusivity contract with buyer's agent, that's super common in my experience. My buyer's agent sets up all my visits and drafts all my paperwork, he should get the money at the end of the transaction. Not sure why it's a problem? You can fire then whenever and work with someone else if they suck. And fwiw in the market I'm in, if you didn't submit within 24 hrs of the open house, they are in negotiations with a buyer already that showed up with an agent. Also get a well reviewed agent instead of a friend of a friend. Couple of things. First, from how the agent explained it to me, it wasn't an exclusivity contract for this particular house, which I would have been fine with, it was "if you make an offer on any house in the next year, it must be through me." After I complained about this and made it clear I would be able to find another agent to submit my offer without this clause, the broker's concerns mysteriously disappeared. As far as I can tell, it wasn't as simple as "fire your agent and get another if they suck." Secondly, I agree an agent who sets up all visits and drafts all paperwork should get some money for their trouble, but this was me attempting to make an offer on a house I found myself at an open house. This was the first time I had spoken to this agent. Drafting the offer was filling in a few blanks on a standard form. On a side note, I'm pretty sure we're in the same market. The reason I picked any random agent was because I was making an offer on the day of a packed open house after not expecting to make offers this soon. Anyway, in case anyone cares, we made an offer with this agent for the asking price, but they went with another offer. Not surprised, it was very busy at the open house, and we heard several people discussing making offers, but I wasn't prepared to pay more than asking for the house.
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Feb 15, 2017 16:53
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Mikey Purp posted:We are officially under contract on a house! Very excited to enter into the solemn order of people who hate home ownership. Definitely do that. I'd recommend a mortgage broker (recommendations from people you know are helpful, but if you don't have that, just entering your info into Zillow will get you a list of a few). Make sure you ask how quickly they generally close and confirm that is compatible with your closing date.
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Mar 20, 2017 17:13
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What shade of red is this red flag (from a real estate condition report for a country house): "Storage Shed was orig built a few feet over lot line, but never challenged in 35 yrs" I'm aware that's a red flag, but is it a "run in all possible situations" flag, or a "proceed cautiously and get it checked out" flag?
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Aug 11, 2017 21:56
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Twerk from Home posted:Does the shed have a poured real foundation? I'd value the shed at zero or look at it as a cost of whatever it would cost to demolish. What if the "shed" is actually "a 2 car garage converted to a workshop/shed?" Not sure if it is the same building or not, figuring that out now.
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Aug 11, 2017 22:04
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Is buying points bad? I've always heard yes, Seems unlikely that rates will go much lower than the 3.375% (3.691% APR) that I'm being quoted for buying 1.291 points. So a refi in the next few years doesn't seem likely either. What am I missing? EDIT: Ok, I was reading the calculator wrong. The break even point is actually 8 years. That doesn't seem great. EDIT 2: So, since I basically answered my own question, let me ask another. I'm looking at a bunch of different loan options with different amounts of points and closing costs. There are several listed with 0 points, but some have higher interest rates, and lower closing costs (due to a lender credit). I've heard the term "negative points." That's what's happening here, right? So I could compare those loans by using a points calculator, correct? Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Sep 20, 2017 |
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Sep 20, 2017 00:15
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LogisticEarth posted:Just don't let your realtor (or your dreams) let your budget creep up. I know ours was always trying to push us into more expensive places. Take your time and find the right place. Realtors will also love you since financing (which torpedoes so many deals) is almost a given. Agreed. I didn't tell my realtor what I was pre-approved for, only what my desired price range was.
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Mar 15, 2018 18:14
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Nevvy Z posted:My wife and I are looking at houses. We don't have a huge down payment, but are staying in a price range that I can afford alone (150kish), she'll be working part time in grad school and then back to full time and long term I'm sure we'll be fine. Get a quote through Aimloan (just the instant quote, no personal info, no credit check required, just your state and the loan amount). They give you a table of different interest rate and closing cost options that really helped clarify the decision for me. What you're doing is deciding to buy or sell points. Points are just prepaid interest. If you decide to buy points, you're paying in a set amount (which is shown as a higher closing cost) to lower your interest rate. If you sell points, you're receiving money back from the lender (shown as lower closing costs) that is used to pay the other closing costs, like documentation fees and such. The only thing I don't like about the aimloan table is that they don't show negative (i.e. selling) points, it just goes to 0%, but that's what the lower closing cost options actually are. Then, once you understand that, use a mortgage calculator to get an idea of the total amount you'll pay (and how much of that is equity) for the amount of time you think you'll stay in the house. Maybe play with some best and worst case scenarios. I found that playing with those 2 tools for a while made me comfortable with the decision we ultimately made (didn't buy or sell points). EDIT: Also remember that most fees are negotiable. I got several quotes for loans, used the full loan estimates that listed all the fees and compared them line by line. Any fees that seemed out of whack on my preferred lender, I brought up that they weren't present (or were much lower) with the runner up and vice versa. They ended up matching the lowest fees in almost every case. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 19:11 on May 2, 2018 |
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May 2, 2018 19:03
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That's in line with what Aimloan is offering right now. EDIT: I wonder if one of you is quoting APR and the other is quoting interest rates
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May 2, 2018 20:33
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H110Hawk posted:Is this part actually a thing or just something Breaking Bad perpetuated? I know it's a felony and all that, but I thought it's kinda like tax evasion / resisting arrest: Largely there to serve as lubricant for prosecution of other crimes. This is probably off topic, but I'm irrationally invested in saying that it was The Wire that perpetuated this, not Breaking Bad.
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Aug 15, 2018 05:22
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Rex-Goliath posted:Couple hours until the final walkthrough and then closing tomorrow morning. Barring some sort of extreme gently caress up Im gonna be a homeowner tomorrow Remember to come back tomorrow and tell us what the extreme gently caress up was!
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Aug 23, 2018 17:49
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Koivunen posted:Even if you were making 100k, a 250k house should be at the very top of your budget, and even then it’s stretching it if you want to save money. You've said this a couple of times before here, and I think you're being very conservative, even for this thread. $100k is ~$6k monthly take home. $225k 30 year mortgage (assuming 10% down) @ 4% PITI is ~$1500/mo, back of the napkin. That's very doable on $100k. Going back to his actual situation, $55k is tight. Given how frugal he is otherwise, it's doable, but the question is, are the benefits of owning this house worth signing yourself up to be that frugal for 30 years? Even if you're dead set on living alone forever, you may feel differently later, to say nothing about chronic medical situations or whatever. EDIT: Agreed that having some emergency fund left over is mandatory, no matter how good of shape the place you're moving in to is. Putting some amount into retirement is always a good idea too. Lowering it to save a down payment, sure, go for it. Don't 0 it out though. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 03:20 on Oct 8, 2018 |
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Oct 8, 2018 03:08
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