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Hey guys. I'm wasn't looking to buy a house, my wife and I are trying to pay off her student loans first, but I found one yesterday that looks like a great home for us. Income: $4200/mo net Debt: $32k in student loan debt, however "minimum" payments on these loans are roughly $250/mo. We've just been paying like crazy on them ($17668 since October 11). Home price (asking): $149k Property taxes: $2100 Estimated down payment: $7-10k, depending on how much we'd be expected for closing costs. Estimated mortgage w/ taxes and PMI for a 30 fixed at 5.5% (guess): $1100 We were hoping to pay off the student loans first, then save a sizeable down payment (though this would probably be less-likely because we'd be going crazy looking for a place) and then have a 15year fixed mortgage. In this situation, I'd be more comfortable going with a 30 year just so we could continue paying as much as we can on our student loans. I'm guessing it would probably add another year or two to our payoff plan (which would have been 1.5 years from now, approximately). How much do closing costs usually run? I'm not as worried about $2-3k, but if it's like $5k or something that's a bit more worrying. I told me wife if we saw this place, assuming we could get preapproved (should be zero issue, my credit score is 790) and like the place and make and offer, I would sell my motorcycle (worth roughly $4-5k) to aid with the money required. I called today to get an appointment to go see it (stopped last night to look at it - it's vacant) but they haven't called me back yet - I may tell my wife to call when she gets back to work, haha. I know I should be pre-approved before looking at houses ideally, but like i said we weren't seriously looking. The cons about this place: It would have been the first house we've looked at, take longer to pay off our student loans, more general financial 'risk' and me being a worry-wart it would probably take me a while to un-freak myself out. The pros: Aside from "yayyyy we own a house" this place is pretty drat close to exactly what we're looking for, for what we think is a good price. It's a smallish ranch, built in 1975. Has over an acre, a two car attached garage and a massive shed out back (like a two car sized enclosed shed - very big). It's a private lot (partially wooded), it's in a small group of 6 or so houses on a "back" road. Has amazing views out the back (butts up to a corn field with rolling hills), a big deck out back (16'x35'), central air, and has a finished basement with wetbar. New roof last year and new well pump, new furnace in 2006. It's not perfect, it definitely needs updating but who cares? That's half the fun. Obviously you can tell I'm going gaga for the house already, but honestly the area, setting, privacy, and house are all about 95% of what I'd consider an ideal place for us. Having been casually looking since we got married, this is the closest thing I've seen that would be perfect for us that's reasonably priced. Anyway, so given the "numbers", give me your thoughts.
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Jun 3, 2009 15:05
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Dik Hz posted:Just out of curiosity, what % is the student loan at? You'll probably come out ahead saving for a more substantial down payment in lieu of trying to pay the student loan off as fast as possible. Well that's what we'd do, but since the house is vacant I would assume the closing would be sooner rather than later, so we'd only be able to save up another $1000 or $2000 max by that point, which may only be partial closing costs or something. But to answer your specific question, I think the one loan is 5.35% fixed ($18k+), and the other is somewhere around 4.5 variable ($13k - this is the one we've been paying aggressive on). Yes, I know we should be paying off the higher interest loan first, but the variable interest rate loan is co-signed by her father, and that's why we're doing that.
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Jun 3, 2009 15:39
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FidgetyRat posted:Your estimate on $1100/m is pretty drat close. Don't forget to factor in the extra costs so you don't get blinded by the "$1100/m is better then my rent!" stereotype. I'm definitely not underestimating, and right now we actually have a really decent place we're renting for $500 so it's definitely a sweet deal there. The only downside is that it gets ultra hot in the summer (second floor, sun all day) and it's not 'ours'. I don't feel like I'm throwing away money, but I would really love to have a place to call my own and be able to have people over and entertain and make the yard look pretty. AND HAVE A loving GARAGE ALREADY  And no neighbors living below you who's apartment stinks like sweaty tacos all the time.But yes, the "only" thing we'd primarily be paying for is electric (aside from heating oil - I know another "bad", but we like to keep the house chilly anyway) since it has a well/septic. Electric would be probably 5x higher than what we pay now due to no gas appliances, etc. But yea, all that stuff really freaking adds up. Not to mention PA's electric rates are going up 30% or so in January. Homeowners would probably be around $500 instead of the $100 or so I pay now in renter's insurance, etc. etc. etc. It never ends, really haha... FidgetyRat posted:If you are going to do a down payment that requires PMI, keep in mind that it goes in brackets, so doing 5% down and 7% down, hell even 9.999% down is all going to be the same bracket.. When you cross the 10% threshold, then it reduces, is if the decision is 7%-10%, make it 5% or 10%, but not inbetween. Good to know, I think I read that somewhere before at some point but completely forgot about it. 10% would be roughly $15k, and I think that's out of the picture unless we could negotiate for seller to pay for closing/partial closing or whatever and then I could sell my motorcycle. But that's a lot of ifs. FidgetyRat posted:Once this house thing is decided and/or over, consider consolidating that 4.5 variable.. That should remove the cosigner requirement (if you expect to get a mortgage, then there's no reason you can't drop the cosigner) as well as let you lock in a lower fixed rate.. Especially if that is a federal direct loan (those are due to drop yet again this July 1) My wife consolidated these loans (AES bought them from a private bank) and they said something about having to stay under her dad's name for whatever reason. I have no clue, it's a pain in the rear end. We were making such quick progress on it that it didn't even matter to me, really. But it's something to think about. Anyway, the wife followed up with the real estate office and the dude is going to give me a call today. I was hoping to look at it today during the day, but it's probably not going to happen. My little sister is graduating tonight so I'll be out of the area until late. I have a sneaking suspicion that this house will go fast, but I dunno. edit: here is the house in question: http://www.fishre.com/detailedListing.aspx?id=56664 dreesemonkey fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Jun 3, 2009 |
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Jun 3, 2009 16:32
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Well for a short update we just looked at the house with a realtor present. The guy was very helpful and wasn't shady at all or anything like I thought he would be. The pros: - Everything on the outside of the house is awesome. The location, the lot, the views, the neighbors (most likely), and it's still close to town but still definitely "country living" - Selling because of a divorce. I've heard this is good because they just want to get out of the property. This is unfortunately only half the story. - Took my cousin-in-law with us who knows a lot about construction and homes in general and he didn't have anything real bad to say about it as we were there (we're going to see them later to get the full details). - Seemingly "move in" condition. - Tons of storage for a house this size (2 car attached, 2-car-sized shed in the back yard, closets everywhere. The cons: - The interior is really dated. A lot of paneling, the bathroom is small and ugly (but it works, I guess). We DID want a "fixer upper", but this is a bit expensive for a fixer upper. A lot of the cost is the location, which is fine with me. So far there were aobut 8-10 showings, but no further interest. Most likely because of it being dated and all that. - The rooms are small and awkward. It being a 5 bedroom is really like a 2.5 bedroom to me. 2 bedrooms upstairs and a third really small one (no closet). The other 2 are in the basement, small, and again no closets. I don't call those bedrooms. - Access to the "finished" basement is through the garage. This is a bit clumsy, again there is no way you could call those rooms down there bedrooms when you have to go through the garage to get there. But it is a large space and it would be easy to rip those rooms out to make a larger space down there for whatever. You could also enclose the one entrance to the garage (there are no fewer than 4 doors!) off the 'dining room' type area to make more sense of it. - To go along with the pro of it being a divorced couple, here is the bad part. They are/were behind on their mortgage, the woman's father stepped in and got them current and I believe he is now paying their mortgage. The realtor guy told us that they were upside down on their loan, but the father was going to eat the difference for his daughter to get her out from under it. But he also wasn't going to "give it away", he said and can carry it for a while if he wants to. He owns a roofing business and did the roof on the house in 2007, no less. - Basement was definitely musty, but to be fair there was no dehumidifyier or anything down there and we have had literally 2 weeks of nothing but rain, we've probably gotten 5"+ recently. No other leaks were noted. That's about it. I'm going to get some contacts at banks from the realtor to talk to a few people and get pre-approved and see what our options are there. The realtor said with a conventional mortgage we'd need 5% down (which we have) and 5% for closing costs, which if I sold my motorcycle we could probably scrape together. Otherwise it would be like getting an FHA loan and then re-financing to a conventional down the road a bit, which I would probably be fine with.
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Jun 4, 2009 19:19
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FidgetyRat posted:Just keep in mind refinancing sometimes costs almost as much as the original closing. You really only want to do this if the amount you save over 30 years will outweigh the cost of the refi., assuming you DO stay in the house 30 years. I asked the realtor what he thought of the price and he thinks it was listed a bit high, he though high $130s would be more reasonable. Which is what we would initially offer, probably. And 3% seller assistance or whatever. If they didn't go for that, I have no qualms renting and building up savings while they mull it over. That's a good point about the refinance, I didn't know that. I do have a lot of cons listed but honestly I think the property is great overall, and I do think it could be something we live in for a very long time. It's stupid to try and speculate on this sort of stuff but assuming the interior was updated it could be a very desirable house if we were ever going to sell. Like I said before we weren't really looking for a house, and if we don't get serious about this one I will happily go back to renting and paying off the student loans aggressively (and I'll probably be able to sleep again, hah). What's keeping us around is that it's exactly what we're looking for, it just needs 5 years of night/weekend projects to be pretty
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Jun 4, 2009 19:51
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Our first pre-approval came in at 5.85% for a conventional  And my wife and I both have good credit (her over 700, me almost 800). We have another meeting tomorrow but it looks like their rates are the same as well. Still haven't made a decision on the house yet, but we're looking at it again today. The realtor said two other couples have been through it twice, so it looks like there is some interest. If we decide in favor of it, we're going to offer $145k with 3% sellers assitance, but I'm unsure if they'll take it. The 3% is key, it's a difference of $4800 or so. At this point I'd almost be relieved if we didn't get it, just so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore
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Jun 9, 2009 18:45
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Well someone put a bid on the house we're interested in, today we're also submitting a bid. What we have going for us is our realtor also happens to be the listing agent, so the seller would get a slight break on their fees by going with someone through their agency vs. another realtor. We went to look at the house for the second time yesterday and it actually looked better to me this time than it did before which I was very pleased about. Hopefully by tomorrow evening we'll know if we've bought a place or not! Hank Hill - You make tons of money, I would definitely buy over renting in your situation, and I wouldn't bother with a 30 year mortgage, definitely do a 15 year for your income vs. what your payment would be. I'm no tax expert by any means, but I heard one way to access the $8000 obama money is to alter your W4 (for normally employed people) to take less income tax from your checks to get the money that way. So I'm assuming since you're self employed you could do something similar and then just pay in $8k less than you normally would. Aside from your down payment, don't forget to budget for closing costs. On the house we're looking at we would need about $6k to close aside from the down payment. It's more pricey than what you're talking about but still a lot of the fees are fixed, so figure in at least another $4000 or so if you don't get seller's assistance.
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Jun 10, 2009 12:56
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FidgetyRat posted:Does it work that way? I always assumed that the sale fees were split between the buyers and sellers agents.. In the event that agent was both, he/she would simply keep both halves. I thought that too, but the realtor said that in those types of cases they do offer a small break (probably 1%). He said it wouldn't be a lot ($1300-1400), but every little bit helps when you're the seller.
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Jun 10, 2009 14:37
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Fidget, are you going to be like  today at 2? Bernaki is giving another "yay economy pep talk". We just met with another lender and she said it's going up today for sure Again.
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Jun 10, 2009 18:27
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glompix posted:A mess I don't even know if you borrowed against your car or whatever if you'd still be able to qualify for and FHA loan. Having sat through two lender meetings this week it's my understanding that FHA looks at your finances very closely to avoid people doing exactly that, borrowing a down payment. I can't comment on KY in particular, but PA has some of the nations highest closing costs. Closing on that house with $4k sellers assistance here in PA would be an additional ~$4k out of your pocket. The house we're putting a bid on tonight ($149k asking price) is about $6500 to close on, we're hoping for the seller to agree to 3% assist. So the question is, how can you back out of your sales contract? Lecture: You're not ready to buy a house.
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Jun 10, 2009 20:32
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Well to update on my situation (mostly to fidget, haha) we made an offer tonight of $145k and 3% sellers assistance on the home in question (not a very aggressive offer, but it's only been on the market less than two weeks and it has received a bid). An hour later they countered our offer for an extra $1k (and at this point, oh well), so we agreed! Assuming the inspections go well (standard home inspection, water quality, sewer (septic), radon, and wood swarm thing) we'll be closing July 17th. Holy loving balls, we just bought a house! I've been in shock most of the evening  I don't know what to do, think, or say. It's crazy!
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Jun 11, 2009 02:16
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HankHill posted:Does the interest rate drop 1% or .5% with a 15 year compared to a 30 year? It looks like most places it's around .5%, which is kinda crappy if you ask me. I thought it would be more along the lines of 1%. Still, regardless. For someone who is pocketing $50k+ a year (cash), having your mortgage at $650 instead of $500 shouldn't be a stretch at all. Enjoy the fact that you're in excellent financial shape, sir.
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Jun 11, 2009 13:24
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I didn't feel like gambling so I'm officially locked in at 5.75% from yesterday afternoon. Yay. Woo.
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Jun 12, 2009 15:01
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SlapActionJackson posted: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. My lender, on our convential loan does not have a 2 year requirement as best I know. I can cancel PMI whenever I want once I hit 20%, and it automatically cancels itself when I would hit 22% equity anyway. One of the reasons we didn't go FHA is because of the 5-year minimum for PMI, although it is much less.
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Jun 23, 2009 13:48
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Small update on the home buying process. We got the home inspection done last week and it was pretty clean for the most part with the following exceptions: 1. Gutters were super clogged, most likely leading to some minor moisture in the basement. Cleaning the gutters and getting the water to run another 3-4' away from the foundation should solve this. 2. Attic ventilation is non-existent. They put extra insulation in the attic, but they covered up the soffet so no air is getting into the attic. Also there is nowhere for the air to go, apparently. The bathroom vent is also just venting to the attic, though that should be easy enough to fix. 3. On the water test it came back positive for coliform bacteria, but this was expected. The house had been vacant for a few months and when the water isn't used it's no uncommon for it to build up. The seller's are going to 'shock' the well and have it re-tested, most likely it will come through clear. The "big" bacteria we were worried about (the e coli poop stuff) was absent, so yay. 4. The "main" problem right now is our RADON test. We came out to 13.1 whatevers, where PA says anything over 4 is worth fixing. The seller has offered to split the cost of the mitigation system, so for another $500 out of our pocket I think it's well worth the piece of mind. There seems to be a lot of debate in general about RADON in general, but we thought since we'll end up using the basement as living space down the road it's best to take care of it while we're at it and not have to think about it again. That's about it. So far everything seems to be on schedule and all that so I'm quite pleased. About 24 days until closing, woop woop!
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Jun 23, 2009 18:45
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Yea woo our appraisal came back today right on the money so when it's signed off by the underwriters we're good to go on that end. 3 more weeks, a bunch of packing and a mountain of paperwork/money and we'll have a house! Too excited
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Jun 26, 2009 14:24
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Mister Fister posted:Yeah, they're going to pay with cash (i mean 60k, sheesh). The housing bubble pop in FL was particularly nasty... i just want to know if long term prospects are good there. Man I was expecting to see a shack or trailer for $60k in florida, but that will buy you a nice looking house down there. That said, holy poo poo what a suburban nightmare and market saturation. Zillow shows a HUUUUGE number of homes everywhere you scroll. Unbelievable. Since they're paying cash, assuming they can afford the property taxes it seems like it would be nice to have. They might not get many renters (because holy poo poo look at all the places for sale down there), but it's still a freaking HOUSE for $60k.
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Jun 26, 2009 16:07
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Dead Man's Ham posted:Does anyone have any tangible evidence of home prices being jacked up 8000 due to the rebate? Ive been keeping an eye on the prices in my area and haven't seen any pronounced changes in the momentum of house prices. It's probably a lot more obvious in higher-priced markets. Around here in somewhat rural PA you can buy a house anywhere from $50k-$300k, most priced between $100k-250k. I don't think I noticed much, if any, price increase around here but we're in a cheap area for sure.
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Jul 7, 2009 14:22
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peengers posted:Other than walking away, what options do I have? Should I go traditional mortgage, borrow into the equity, and just fix it that way without having to rush into repairs before even being able getting the FHA one? If your home appraises for over 80% of the loan value, do you even have to put down 10%-20% these days? It's been so long since I've looked at these things I'm not sure.... I assume you were going with a FHA loan over a conventional one because it was a lower rate? How much were you putting down? From what it sounds like, you were putting a bit down. FHA: - Minimum 3.5% down - Can request up to 6% towards closing costs (don't know how this works with short sales) - Mortgage insurance is required for a minimum of 5 years. It's like PMI for a conventional mortgage, but it's about half for whatever reason. I'm assuming this doesn't apply if you're putting 20% down, though. Conventional: - Minimum 5% down (at least around here) - Can request up to 3% seller assist for closing costs - PMI up until 20% equity, no "minimum" time period. It is much more expensive, though. We went with Conventional even though the rate was a little higher because I didn't like the minimum 5 year mortgage insurance term. I like to pay stuff off and I'm hoping to get to 20% before five years. Also, there was some minor stuff at the house that would have needed finished before closing and it just seemed like a hassle to have to hurry up and get it done. Assuming you have 5% down and enough for closing costs, just go conventional. The rate isn't going to matter that much, since you're apparently pretty good at saving money pay $100 or so extra on the mortgage and you'll do way better than a quarter point of interest. Also, if you're good at saving money you'll have that $1000 to fix the pool in no time.
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Jul 10, 2009 18:41
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FidgetyRat posted:Sounds like you just got lucky on your FHA because they are generally higher then conventional. Well, again this was a month or so ago when all this rate craziness was happening, but both lenders I met with FHA had a better rate at the time (which I thought was not the norm). I close in 49 hours. Holy crap.
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Jul 13, 2009 18:35
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Ophelia's Ashes posted:I have a semi-stupid question so please bare with me: Great job getting your student loans paid off, I know what you mean about "sacrifice" for the greater good. I can understand wanting a nice car (my car, my wife's car, and my truck combined are worth less than my motorcycle, which is probably only worth $5500), but you're just getting out of debt for another $40k for the worst "investment" asset you can own? Unless you're buying a highly desirable collectors car (which you're not, for $40k) the value is going to do nothing but tank, especially in this economy. I'm not saying that you don't deserve a nicer car, but it's a pretty terrible financial decision. At least let someone take the initial depreciation hit for you. As for the car's specific effect on a possible mortgage, I think the rates are based primarily on your credit score (they go with the middle score from the "big three), and they just confirm your debt to income ratio isn't out of hand. But I'm not 100% sure.
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Jul 15, 2009 15:03
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Ophelia's Ashes posted:Thanks so much everyone for the advice! I really appreciate it and def. take it all to heart. I don't want to derail this thread as well, but I appreciate everyone giving me their input, it's nice to have some objective views. Are you in Canada? I saw "Alberta" on car website dealer locator thingy. If so, I'm not sure how mortgages are in Canada, but when you apply for a mortgage here in the states it's sent to underwriting, so basically someone looks over all your bank statements for large deposits so that they determine you're not financing any other part of your down payment/closing costs. So in theory, they would easily flag that $15k you're borrowing for a down payment and potentially deny your application because of that. Also, there are some strings attached to gifted money as well, I'm not sure if it's just an amount limit or just a time limit (the money has to be in your account for so long). You make really good money, so you've got that going for you. But if you really want a house and all you've saved so far that wasn't gifted money is under $10k, you've got a ways to go financially. This would probably involve driving around your old hoopty a while longer. If you really want a house more than a nice car, make that your priority. If you find a house and can afford it and live in it for a while and you're comfortable enough with your finances to get a nicer car, I think that's a better plan. Also - I see you're looking at BMWs. There is no reason to buy new. You'll be able to find a 1-2 year old car still under warranty for literally $10k less (or more, who knows with this economy) than you'd buy new. It really makes no sense. In any case, good luck! ---- Unrelated note: I closed yesterday and I'm now a home owner! The closing was the most anti-climactic thing yet, it was like "sign these bunch of papers, here's a key ok see ya!" I had some sort of super moving team at my disposal, we packed the uhual, moved, and unloaded at the new house in right around 2 hours. A 24' truck full, too! I love it already 
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Jul 16, 2009 14:44
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Jack Burton posted:I live abroad and want to purchase a house in the USA. I am US citizen, I have over 100K for a down payment and make sort of a lot of money. Continue to save and buy a house outright? What is the purpose of the home? Vacation type place or are you moving back, or something in the middle? Where are you looking to buy? Have you tried to call any local bank branches around where you want to live? They may be more willing to work with you other than "online bank-o-rama". You might also try joining a credit union, they tend to have good customer service and may be more willing to lend.
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Jul 27, 2009 13:19
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Jack Burton posted:So, for your questions... 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  ) 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. I can see that it may look rather risky to mortgage companies if you're living and working overseas because it's probably much more difficult to "go after" someone who doesn't live in the country. What you do have going for you is that you have a big hunk of money to put down and that will probably ease the minds of the bank/credit union when you talk to someone personally. Do you have a realtor yet? They could help you with this as well. Our realtor mentioned some mortgage broker people he recommended and it worked out really well for us (but we seemed to get pretty lucky and found a great realtor). It's probably hard to find a realtor or get recommendations when you're half a world away, though. Good luck!
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Jul 27, 2009 17:01
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professor of whales posted:My wife and I are looking at buying a house and I wanted to see some opinions. Our combined gross income is approximately 50k. Our savings is about 15k. We live in the Greater Cincinnati area and are looking for a house in the 100-120k range. We were thinking of doing a FHA loan with 3.5% down. In the 120k range, which would be the absolute max house price, I was expecting to have to put down about 8k between closing costs and the down payment. We are shooting for a mortgage payment of around 900-1000 a month (Principal, Interest, PMI, Insurance and Taxes). As far as debt, we have no cars or credit card balances (between the two of us, about 8000 in usable revolving credit). She currently has Stafford loans totaling about 16k and I am currently doing an online program that has loans in deferment for about 2 more years and will total about 30k when done (also a mix of sub/unsub Stafford loans). We currently pay 750 a month in rent. We also put about 400 a month into savings which would not be affected by the increase in monthly housing cost. Any advice or discouragement would be appreciated. I think you guys definitely have the right mindset, which is fairly evident due to your excellent savings relative to your income. I do think the income is questionable, though. I don't mean that as a put down, it's just not a lot of money assuming both of your work. Your student loans are in forbearance now, but once those start back up that will be another large chunk of your monthly income. Is your online training going to significantly increase your income when you're finished? My wife in I are in about the same situation (we started with almost $50k in student loans, down to about $33k) and we just bought a house ($138k financed) but our combined income is around $70-75k or so (I would assume our cost of living is similar to yours). If you finish with your schooling and can raise your income level up to where ours is, then I can tell you you'll be in pretty good shape overall, but I think it's a pretty big gamble to buy now when you still have 2 years of schooling left.
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Jul 28, 2009 14:50
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professor of whales posted:The degree would be a Bachelor's in Accounting. I have enough experience at my current job that it could be applied to a higher paying job. I have been hesitant to jump ship just because of the current job market, although Accounting has been reasonably stable in this area. I agree that I would need to take a hard look at the income. As far as the projected monthly mortgage payment, does 900-1000 a month seem reasonable? Doesn't seem too far off. Our payment is: code:
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Jul 28, 2009 16:39
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Arzakon posted:How much in student loans do you have left compared to the amount you need to get PMI erased? If you count PMI as just additional interest that moves your $138,700 loan up to 6.95%. Are you suffering under a 5 year timer to be able to challenge your PMI? We have a conventional mortgage so we could be done with PMI tomorrow if that was an option. If my math is right, $146k purchase price, we would have to get to $116,800 to have 20% equity on the loan. We haven't made our first payment yet, so we have $137,800 + interest until Sept 1. So at best we have ~$22,000 to go to get out of PMI. We have about $32,000 left in student loans. So I dunno how the math works out. To be completely honest, I'm more of a psychological bill payer than mathematical. Student loans were our goal to pay off in three years after getting married, and we're going to get them done first. Mathematically, it might not make that much sense, but I never said I make much sense We're not going to pay just the minimum on our mortgage though either, since I get paid twice a month and one of my checks is about $100 more than the mortgage payment, I'm going to apply that $100 to the principal. It's not going to make a HUGE difference like we are with student loans, but it's a start. Then once those student loans are paid off it's a race to 20% equity, and then I think I can chill for a little bit. We'll probably have kids by then and have other crap to spend our money on anyway.
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Jul 29, 2009 18:23
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^^^^ Maybe he's worried about the appraisal not coming through? I thought that a conventional mortgage it didn't matter either, but I guess I could be wrong.
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Aug 6, 2009 21:08
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Bong Goblin posted:Do you mean that if the appraisal is greater than or equal to the amount loaned, the underwriter will just rubber stamp it? Yea my thought was the mortgage guy hearing that the place needed work, he thought the appraisal would come back way undervalued to what he was assuming already.
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Aug 6, 2009 21:29
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Bong Goblin posted:Oh goddamnit. My conventional lending fell through because the mother-in-law house out back wasn't built "properly" back in the 60's, which is to say there's a "zoning issue." Which means that if it were to burn down, it couldn't be rebuilt. But it can be insured, so what the gently caress do they care!!!!!! So if you bought the place and fixed both of them up you still wouldn't be able to sell the property as multi-dwelling or whatever since it's not zoned for it? It may be more headache than it's worth. I suppose you could always look into what rezoning would entail, but I highly doubt it's a short or cheap process.
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Aug 14, 2009 14:19
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Strict 9 posted:Has anyone here owned a house, or known someone who owns a house, with a septic system? We are looking at purchasing a house which was built in 1978 and still has the same septic system. It just passed inspection with flying colors, but I know these things last 20-40 years. Did the septic pass the inspection or the rest of the house? If you didn't get the septic inspected, definitely do that as a first step. Our home that we just bought has one, and it was pumped and inspected (looked good) in January so we didn't do the inspection. Also our home was built in 1975. I've heard that people aren't allowed to do septic systems anymore, it's all sand mounds. Maybe that's only for new construction, though. This post isn't very helpful, sorry.
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Aug 19, 2009 13:28
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I love the fact that if I would have bought my house for $80k with less than 20% down, and it appraised at $35M, I would still have to pay PMI until I got to 20% equity on the original loan terms. This is probably just a clarification to what everyone has said, but my mortgage company says when I get to 20% call and request PMI to be canceled. They automatically cancel it when it gets to what they determined 22% is, but you can do it as early as 20% and (of course depending on the lender) you shouldn't have to jump through any hoops to get it stopped. Also - Inferior, I wouldn't take a loan from your 401k, especially if you're not going to avoid PMI in the process. If you were to leave the company you're at that loan would be due in full at that point, from what I understand. And get going dude, you don't have much time to find a house and close before Nov 30th. Do you have any idea how busy realtors are going to be in Nov? Seriously, you need to find a house like in the next few weeks. We closed two months ago any the realtors were already super busy.
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Sep 15, 2009 18:34
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MJP posted:I have a question about PMI. FHA loan: PMI required for 5 years if you don't have 20% down, even if the day after you close you find $50k and apply it to the principal. PMI under FHA loans are about half of what you pay for PMI on a conventional for whatever reason. Conventional loan: PMI required if you don't have 20% down. There is no minimum amount of time. PMI under conventional is pretty expensive compared to FHA loans. Anecdotally ours is $108/mo for $137800 borrowed. It may vary lender to lender, but from what I've heard they are required to remove PMI at 22% equity, but you can request it be removed at 20%. The 2% difference is probably just the continuation of the gravy train trying to suck every last penny out of you because it may be inconvinient to remember you can have it removed at 20%. Again, depending on the lender they may balk and say you have to get it appraised at that point to make sure you have the right level of equity. I would venture to guess this would happen more often with crappy lenders, or in market shitfest meltdown mode.
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Oct 21, 2009 18:31
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I'm pretty sure it all depends on your market. I live in a fairly small area and I don't think prices have moved much either way the last couple of years for the majority of homes. Granted, there has been a drop in price of the "premium" homes (sub development newer construction mini mcmansions), but the majority of the homes in the area are not these flash homes.
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Oct 26, 2009 16:58
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Should I expect a similar delay for closing on our house in July? What a clusterfuck.
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Jan 19, 2010 14:20
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Leperflesh posted:July 2009, right? If you haven't already filed for the credit, then yes, absolutely. Yes, and damnit to hell. We don't NEED the money, but we're trying to pay poo poo off and it would certainly come in handy!
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Jan 21, 2010 14:55
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Is refinancing really as expensive as basically paying closing costs again? ($8k or so on our house, I think) I'd love to lock in a lower rate and get it over the my credit union but man that's nuts. I wouldn't mind $1-2k or so out of pocket I guess. I have a current rate of 5.75% and my CU is offering 3.375% for a 15 year fixed with 0 points. I think we could qualify for that as my credit score is over 800 and my wife's was only "low" (low 700s maybe?) three years ago because she didn't have a long credit history. Would raise our payments approximately $100 a month.
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Mar 29, 2012 19:37
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Next-Gen posted:I'm currently refinancing. Your first closing costs included pre-funding both your first year of insurance payments and your first year of homeowners insurance, which probably accounts for half of that 8k. When you do a refinance, you do still have to prefund the escrow account but the other one will be disbursed back to you when the old mortgage is paid off. Thanks for the information. I'm going to be calling my credit union tomorrow to see approximately what it would cost me. It would be great to get a lower rate and be at the bank where everything else I have is so it would be extremely simple to look at my loan balance and throw some extra money at it now and again. I'm quite excited
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Mar 29, 2012 21:01
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What's the deal with PMI, anyway? I'm in the middle of a refinance (well, the beginning, I guess) and my good faith estimate the PMI actually is about $30 or so cheaper a month. Is it my credit union getting me a better rate? Some equity I've built up?
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Apr 9, 2012 21:02
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Baronjutter posted:This is all still way too early because my wife is on a contract that will be ending soon. But once she actually finally gets a full-time non-contract job we can get serious about this poo poo. And with her career track she'll actually have a chance of making over $15 an hour. God I wish she was still making $24 at a union job and got bonuses and such. But we knew it wasn't going to last so we managed to squirrel away $40 grand in just over a year and a half. So close to our target $50k for a down-payment but I'm actually totally hapy living in a basement (Specially in the summer!) and part of me just wants to say gently caress it, we're saving up until we can pay in cash. It's awesome that you can live really cheap and squirrel away money, I very much recommend doing that at the very least until you know what's going to happen with your wife's employment. It's been said before but for living in a fairly expensive area, $15/hr jobs kinda suck. Yea, money isn't the end all be all but it certainly helps when you don't have to worry about how to pay your bills.
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Jun 25, 2012 16:11
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