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QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

So my fiance and I both moved to Maui for work about 6 months ago, and we want to start the process of looking for our first house. Neither of us have ever owned a house, so I'm aware that we qualify for programs like FHA. Most of Maui also qualifies for USDA rural loans, although I think that our combined income would exceed the USDA income restrictions for this island (although individually we would each be under the income restriction, so it might be worth asking whether just one of us could carry the loan). I'm hoping to find a mortgage broker who can explain all of our options to us and get us the best setup.

Is it generally better to go with a big bank like Wells Fargo, a credit union of some sort, or a private mortgage company? There's a private mortgage office down the road from my rental, is it worth walking in or should I call or what?

QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Dec 28, 2012

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QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Advent Horizon posted:

Call and make an appointment, explain exactly what you're thinking and that you want to discuss options. Our first meeting with a loan originator was basically being walked through all the stuff we needed to have (and him being amazed that we had it all there, printed out). After than he ran our credit (this was optional, since we didn't have a realtor yet) and we ran theoretical numbers on the fuckoff huge mansion he should have never said we could afford.

Have you been in related jobs over six months? It seems like that's an awfully short timeframe to start looking for a place, they probably won't like your employment history if you just started new career paths. Plus, have you really had the time to figure out where on the island you want to stay forever?

I'm fresh out of grad school, basically, but the field is highly related. So we're looking at 5.5 years of lovely grad student income and 0.5 years of awesome private industry PhD income, whereas my fiance has basically been doing the same job for about 4 years but now has a new employer. But in this equation there are no loans or debts of any kind for either of us, just some credit cards that get paid off every month and a spotless credit report, so that has to help, right?

As far as the island goes, we have a good read on the various areas that would be practical for us. The real estate market is super tight, so we're ready to sit down and be patient until the right place comes along. I'm expecting to not even find anything that we like in the first 6 months of looking. The longer we wait, the larger our down payment will be (although I think that interest rates may start slowly rising in the next few years, so we don't want to wait forever).

moana posted:

Hey Quarkjets, just curious what part of the island you're looking at. Building houses is surprisingly cheap to do on Maui once you've bought land, and if I ever moved there that's what I would do. Depending on your price range, I also hear they're doing some development near Olowahu that's supposed to be affordable (~250k).

We're looking at the south-central part of the island (Kihei), since that's where we're renting now and it's close to both of our places of work... and central/south Kihei is a great area. Olowahu would be a little too far for us to commute (but a very pretty area to build in).

I'm having a little trouble finding out how much it might cost to build a home + purchase a lot. How much do you think a 1500 sqft home might cost to build? We've been browsing Zillow for the past few weeks just to get a feel for what things are selling for in the areas in which we're interested, and we're seeing around $250-$300/sqft, although that includes the land. We could already afford this on just my salary without hitting that magical 36%, so we have some wiggle room. If building a house is competitive, then maybe looking at empty lots is something that we should be doing?

(if we end up saving money by just building on a lot instead of buying a house, then maybe we could even build an ohana and rent it out! Please, tell me more!)

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

moana posted:

I would guess around $150-$200/sq ft to build, though it might be cheaper in Kihei since you're not shipping things as far as most places in Maui (hah, guess that's expensive compared to the mainland, but not really that bad compared with pre-built homes there!) The nice thing about building is that you really don't need as much square footage since it's almost always nice and sunny, so you can build out a lot of stuff outside like garages, sheds, living areas, etc (example, my mom's boyfriend built this outdoor dance hall: http://aquaponicsinparadise.com/APforums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1001.0;attach=96638;image).

My mom built out a 500 sq ft ohana cottage on her property for $17k, but that was a decade or so ago so prices are probably higher now. I would definitely recommend building out a ohana like that if you can, since they can recoup the costs quickly if you're in a touristy area like Kihei. Her boyfriend runs a hippie commune thing in Haiku and has built all of the cottages there himself as a general contractor, so if you find a lot and are considering building, PM me - I can see if he has any recommendations for good contractors.

Thanks for your help so far

It looks like vacant lots run in the range of $200k-$300k or more, depending on how much land you want. Ideally we could buy the land and build the ohana first (we're renting a 500sqft ohana right now), live in it while building equity, and then build the main house. That sounds like a pretty cool plan. But first thing's first: we need to talk to some lenders and see what we qualify for.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Feces Starship posted:

I'm currently paying 1K per month in rent for an apartment in a city where housing is dirt cheap. Has anyone ever purchased a house and saved money in PITI as a result? If so, how does that change the calculus of what I need to be thinking about?

Of course it's possible depending on the area, the house, and how much you were paying in rent. A friend of mine in the Phoenix area bought a house recently and is paying slightly less per month now in PITI than he was in rent, but houses there are dirt cheap right now and rents went up over the last few years. That said, he also purchased in a pretty cheap neighborhood

Having a lot of cash on hand is still as important as ever (down payment, closing costs, maintenance, etc).

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

marauderthirty posted:

You must live in a coastal city or something, because your numbers seem outrageous to me. I live in the Midwest, and it's neither a depressed area nor is it rural. We are in Colorado Springs, and while housing is a bit more expensive up in Denver, it's still nowhere near 450k for a "starter house." For reference, the house we just bid on was listed at 136k, 4 bedrooms/2 bath with only a little bit of work needed, and it was in one of the more desirable neighborhoods in town. If we wanted to live in the ghetto, or at least this towns version of it, we could easily get the same size house for under 100. 450k would get you a whole lotta house on an acreage around here.

We were outbid on the house though.. We only offered a thousand above listing price, and while the realtor said it was a very strong offer, it still seemed like too good of a price to be true. So now we get to keep searching. It's only been 2 months and I'm already so tired of looking at houses.

I live in Maui and even here you can get a 2-bedroom starter home for $150k if you're not picky about area (this is for a home within walking distance of the beach, but you'll also get a lot of smoke wafting through your back yard twice a year when the sugar cane field next to your back yard get set on fire). An FHA loan would make this easily within reach of most families (although you'd be paying out the rear end in mortgage insurance)

Frankly, a condo is just not a good choice for most people. You'll probably end up paying a lot more for it than if you had just rented a nice apartment, and it's a huge anchor around your neck until you can manage to sell it off.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Nicol Bolas posted:

I know this whole discussion isn't quite about my question anymore, but this popped out at me:


That's actually a bit heartening. I live in Cambridge, MA and am looking in the same area, and almost everything was built something like 75 years ago. (One of the places I bookmarked today was built in 1920 but has a new furnace, new hot water heater, new hardwood floors, and a new kitchen.)

I mean, obviously that's not enough to make up for all the reasons that we should wait, but still--I feel better about potentially buying a condo in the area.

That's good. I don't know much about Cambridge, but I imagine that the areas you're looking in don't have too many affordable homes anyway. When you're looking at a place in which you are interested, knock on neighbors' doors and ask what they think of the complex, the other neighbors, the HOA, etc. If they say that everything is above board and if the price is right then I don't see any harm in buying a condo, but you'll have to keep in mind that it's still a financial risk

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

three posted:

We're looking at homes now, and the kind of home we like is going to end up being in the suburbs and move my commute from about 20 minutes to an hour. To keep the same commute, we would have to look at older homes, and they just seem so outdated whereas we prefer modern. Everything about the houses farther away are great except the commutes...

Should that be a deal breaker? How bad do you guys have it commute-wise, and is it worth it driving longer to get everything else we want in a home? What is an average commute time for people in larger cities?

Basically I agree with what everyone else said. I lived in an apartment with an hourly commute by bus to work and got really sick of it by the end of the third month. And the bus system where I lived was actually pretty nice, I never had to wait long. Losing 2 hours (or more due to traffic or other delays) per day to commuting just really tears at my soul for some reason, it didn't matter that I was filling a lot of that time with reading.

If you're going to be driving yourself, I'd say forget about it. An hour commute is pretty bad with public transport, but it will be a lot worse if you have to drive.

QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Jan 6, 2013

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Cage posted:

Well, now we're back to the emergency buffer which I can add to whenever I have extra money sitting around. I didnt mean to derail the whole thread, I only wanted to ask a question about down payment.

That's cool. I still think that you shouldn't buy a house with your current income.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Cage posted:

Well the OP says 2.5x your income, and Im looking at homes below 2x.

That guideline really just defines what you can afford to purchase with a mortgage. It assumes that you're not near the poverty line and that you'll be able to afford upkeep. The house itself may be cheap, but the additional costs of owning a house are still going to be high.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

skipdogg posted:

I don't think your in the do never buy camp, but a 270k house on your income might make you house poor. Not sure what property taxes are like where you live but 225K financed at 3.5% for 30 years is right around 1k. Throw on insurance, property taxes of 1 to 3% a year and your monthly payment will be closer to 1400 which eats up a big chunk of your income. Factor in increased utility costs, upkeep, etc. it gets expensive.

Are you looking at their take-home pay or their monthly savings? $1400/month is only 35% of their take-home pay, leaving them with about $2500/month after mortgage, taxes, etc. That sounds like a pretty good buffer to me even if you slice off half of the remainder for upkeep; not house rich but not exactly house poor, either.

JKicker, have you made up a solid budget and looked at what your monthly expenses generally are? This is a good idea even if you don't buy a house.

You should definitely not pull from your IRA. Seriously, you need to explain to your wife that an IRA (Roth I hope?) is an amazing retirement tool no matter how you slice it. It may sound tempting to lower your interest payments with money from your IRA, but with interest rates so low it would make more sense to just leave your IRA money exactly where it is. It sounds like a 20% down payment is within reach without needing any help from the family, which is great.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Spamtron7000 posted:

For my part, I appreciate the feedback. I sometimes overlook the fact that the banks have recourse inasmuch as they own the house when loans are defaulted. However, I do strongly feel that many American borrowers are smart enough to recognize how the laws that protect them can be abused to either default or sell short out of perfectly good and fair loans and that it's a problem. All the market risk is now passed on to the bank. Sometimes it's a fine line to draw between righteousness and fraud. Many Americans just don't care about that fine line - they're selfish and feel entitled to poo poo all over the same bank who lent them the money to help fulfill the dream of home ownership. That's what I don't like about the system.

Someone I am very close to went to a short sale seminar to learn how to get out of a home she no longer wanted. She squatted and didn't make payments for 18 months and was able to use the situation to force the bank into a short sale (I don't know the details). Not only did she get out of a bad loan (not bad because the conditions were fair - bad because she made a bad purchase decision and was upside-down) but she ended up with those 18 mortgage payments ($50k) in her savings account after it was all said and done. This is someone I respect very much who feels she is very responsible but when she told me about this I was appalled. She kept $50k she owed to the bank just because she felt she deserved a mulligan. I recognize that the banks include this type of shenanigans in the cost of doing business and that they evaluate this kind of risk when they lend money. But that cost gets passed on to the rest of us who are responsible borrowers - or more likely they mean that other less qualified but solid, honest people may not be able to get their loan next time because the banks are slowly losing trust in us as borrowers.

I admit to being a little high and mighty about all this because after my first marriage ended I got stuck with over $70k in credit card debt that quickly ballooned to over a 30% APR plus a few other debt surprises left to me by my beloved ex-wife. I could have gone a different route and chosen any number of debt relief options but I manned up and paid my debt - in all it cost me over $150k. I had to close my retirement account (substantial penalty) and live like a pauper for 4 years to pay it off but I did it. In hindsight it would have been better for me financially and better for my credit if I'd given up and let the vultures pick at scraps but I paid it off myself. I'm proud of that because I know I can take care of myself and I don't need the government or anyone else to bail me out or protect me from myself. It's funny how little credit companies care about this. All they see is someone who was consistently 60 or 90 days late while climbing out of debt - they don't consider whether I was truly accountable for my debts and because of FICO for a long time I looked worse to them than someone who filed for bankruptcy. Weird - I should be bitter toward the lending community for not giving me credit for repaying my debt. But instead I learned that I made a mistake getting all that credit in the first place (or co-signing for my ex-wife's credit) and I had no one to blame but myself. So when I consider situations like this I empathize with the borrower. What would I do? I'd re-pay my damned loan and I think other people should, too.

Banks aren't forced into short sales. Believe me, banks aren't the victims in that kind of situation. In general the bank bears very little risk in giving out mortgages, especially when real state prices are rising. This is what led to banks giving out such risky mortgages in the first place; when real estate prices rise particularly quickly, then repossessing homes and then reselling them can actually be quite profitable, so branch lenders were pushed by management to get out as many loans as possible no matter how lovely the person's credit was. Even if someone defaults, they can just sell the house to someone else for even more than the previous loan was worth. Obviously this scheme falls apart if home prices don't rise quickly enough or if home prices fall. Banks engaged in this kind of risky behavior because bank managers foolishly believed that real estate prices would continue rising at unsustainable rates.

Banks understand the risks of lending. Let's not pretend that banks are helpless victims in a foreclosure or short sale situation.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Weinertron posted:

I understand that this is a personal decision, but if your mortgage is under 4% then its incredibly likely that putting that $600-800 a month towards an index fund or mix of funds will beat 4%, and later you could pay off your mortgage in one huge chunk if you so desire with the earnings.

On the other hand, if the stock market takes a bad turn then suddenly all of those >= 4% earnings don't count for poo poo, so it's not like that 4% is risk-free. It's a complicated question. Frankly, I think that paying down the mortgage now makes more sense even if you're likely going to make more money with an index fund. Although investing in retirement funds first should be a no-brainer (401k to get employer matching, then Roth IRA because Roth IRAs rule, then think about paying extra on the mortgage or opening another investment account)

But yeah, it's a personal decision like you said.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Pfhreak posted:

Well, I'm signing documents on Monday to get our house bought!

Holy. poo poo.

So I need a big mega cashier's check or to wire the cash over. This is how I enter the landed gentry, right? From here out I can collect the value of the work of the peasants on the estate? Is that difficult or what?

Only if you can rear an heir will your hold on your house be secure.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Ciaphas posted:

I'm considering withdrawing about $3000 from my rollover IRA from my last job to help get me into my first home. I was wondering if anyone could poke holes in my logic or tell me why this is a stupid idea, so here's the background.

I'm 28 years old, and looking to buy my first home in the Las Vegas/Henderson area. I have about $7500 in scratch saved for the home buying process, plus completely empty credit cards. Estimates for absolute worst case closing costs for the range of homes I want (about $105k) is about $10k at 3.5% down, 3.75% interest. Right now I'm paying $1000/mo rent for 1000 sq ft of apartment; from the various estimates I've gotten from my loan officer, I'd be paying approximately $800/mo for a 1300 sq ft home after PMI, property tax, P&I, HOA, etc. So I figure I can withdraw from my IRA penalty (but not tax, I know) free to cover the worst case scenario, and use credit to cover the miscellany of moving (movers, initial shopping spree, etc).

I make just shy of $70k/yr gross with max company-match 401k contribution (half of 8%), and my only other major ongoing bill is my car lease payment at $390 per month. (Also food, entertainment, etc. Not huge numbers though.)

The way I figure it, with the amount I'd be saving paying for a mortgage over renting, I could make up for the IRA loss via Roth contributions (or increased 401k contributions, I suppose) in like two years, less if I'm diligent. So while I'm normally loathe to consider even touching my retirement accounts, this seems like a winner of a situation.

Which obviously means it isn't because I'm a bitter pessimist :v:. So what am I missing here? What makes withdrawing from my IRA a bad idea? Are the alternatives like loaning out from my (considerably richer) 401k worth considering?

(Also, I realize I could just wait and save the scratch normally, but home prices are starting to go up and I've also found a couple places I reeeeeeeeeeealy want to make an offer on as soon as possible.)

Don't do it. If you have $7500 in cash and $3k in your IRA, then you're going to be squeezing every last penny just to get the house. That's a bad situation to be in. And you accounted for things like PMI and HOA, but did you also consider the additional utilities and other monthly costs that people tend to forget are involved in house ownership? It's probable that you're going to be wiping out those additional monthly savings in other monthly costs. Even if you really do save $200/mo, you're going to have to put those savings aside for house maintenance costs, and you may still lose money overall. And if you have to leave within the next 3-5 years then you're probably going to lose money in the sale of the house.

Honestly, with your salary and rent at $1k/mo you're sitting pretty. Here's what you should be doing instead:

First, you should be contributing to your 401k up to at least your employer match. I'm assuming that you're already doing this.

Second, you should be making the maximum Roth IRA contribution each year. You are absolutely making enough money to do this. The deadline for the 2012 contribution is April 15, 2013, so take that $7500 in cash and drop $5k of it into your Roth IRA right now.

Third, create an emergency fund. This should be money in a easy-to-access bank account. $2500 is not an unreasonable amount to keep around for emergencies.

After those are all done, start putting money into an investment account. Save up for the down payment + additional cash for closing costs this way. Have at least 5% down ready before you make an offer. Don't withdraw from any of the above sources for this.

Robo-Pope posted:

It is, but if you're tapping every penny you have available to put down 3.5%, you are setting yourself up to be part of the next round of defaults. You will no longer have money to buy anything outside your normal monthly spending, let alone handle emergencies.

I don't buy into the 20% thing myself--PMI isn't a dealbreaker, and I'd rather lock in the interest rate now, get a nice place, and have more cash on hand--but if you're struggling to put up well under 10%, you're just setting yourself up for failure and pain.

I agree completely, especially with the bit on PMI. You can eventually get PMI dropped, so you're probably saving more money overall by waiting and getting stuck with a higher interest rate later.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Ciaphas posted:

Oh yeah, I'm company matching my 401k plus a couple percent. Be crazy not to, it's literally free money even if I can't have it for a few decades :v:. The IRA is a rollover from a rather terrible job that's just been sitting and going up and down with the market doing nothing else for six-ish years; it's maybe 5% of my retirement thus far (and getting less every month, with aforesaid 401k contributions).

Haven't given a Roth any consideration; I probably should one of these days.

(In my grimmer moments, or when I forget my antidepressants, I think I'm not healthy enough to make it to retirement age, and I have no/don't plan to have any heirs. Makes me wonder what the bloody point is.

Then I get over it, but still.)

If you're going to be dead by 40 then why even consider a house at all? Set up the Roth IRA today, throw $5k at it, and then throw $5.5k at it sometime during the next 14 months. At worst, you end up withdrawing that money a little early for whatever reason. At best, you're making a strong choice for retirement.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

SlapActionJackson posted:

You want a broker or these guys: aimloan.com

Getting rejected outright at one bank is bad news. You'll likely have trouble at other banks, too - not because they'll see the rejection and hold that against you, but because they all use similar underwriting standards. Did you get pre-approval or pre-qualification before you made the offer? At this stage of the game, you should have a very good idea of what you can get approved for and just shop for cost/rate.

gently caress aimloan.com, they don't service Hawaii! :argh:

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Leperflesh posted:

You don't have to convince a lender that the property is worth what you are paying, but only a fool buys a house without getting an appraisal. What's $400 to $600, compared to how much money you're risking on this home?

Some agents operate under the belief that their clients will pay more than they initially say is their top end, especially if they prequalify for more. Their belief is not entirely unfounded. Tell your agent you will not consider one red cent over $x and that you do not want listings from y area. If they continue to waste your time, dump them. You don't have to tolerate that kind of poo poo at all.

You can't avoid paying taxes on you home by trading for it with your comic book collection.

What if you buy a house with BitCoins?

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

three posted:

Okay, so 110 isn't the oldest but it's far past a reasonable life expectancy and there is no cutoff age so a 110 year old couldn't be declined for a 30 year mortgage either.

What is in place for lender "protection" for situations like that?

When that person dies the debt doesn't just disappear, either an inheritor picks it up or the lender forecloses on the house. The ability to foreclose is lender "protection"

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

three posted:

Isn't foreclosing pretty expensive? Can people be discriminated against for their health? What if someone with a terminal illness wants a mortgage?

I guess it's cool that these people aren't discriminated against, but it seems weird.

Foreclosing costs money, but the bank gains whatever additional value the house accumulated + whatever interest the homeowner paid before dying, so foreclosing on a dead person is generally going to be a profitable venture.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Jose Valasquez posted:

So it's for people who are really bad at math.

It's also for people with bad credit and no disposable savings who can't afford to just drop $1k on a new water heater.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Spamtron7000 posted:

AKA "people who should not buy homes"

Could be that they had good credit at one time, aka pre-mortgage bubble popping. Or maybe they inherited the house. Either way, rentable water heaters are not just for people who can't do math

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Does anyone have experience with modular homes and prefabs? I live in Maui, where real estate is extremely expensive, but renting is about as bad (rent prices are extremely high, much higher than an equivalent mortgage payment if you rent a small house, but then you don't have to worry about things like maintenance or home insurance so it probably balances out). Our landlord is also trying to sell the house that we're renting now, but he has listed a little high for the area so we probably have at least 6-12 months before we'd be looking at getting kicked out. It's also a very small house, we'd like to move into something a little bigger.

In addition to looking at local real estate, we're also thinking of buying an empty lot and then putting a small prefab on it, probably a 2-bedroom in the 600-700 sqft range. Is this reasonable, or would we probably be better off just building a house with a local contractor? Are there any pitfalls in going with prefab?

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Looking at a house built in 1929, but with a new roof, plumbing, and electric. Needs paint and some drywall patching, needs a new washer and oven. It's raised, and everything underneath looks good to my untrained eye.

We're concerned about the age. If an inspector says that things are fine, is there anything else to worry about, or Do Never Buy an old house?

Other factors: we love our rental, but rent is high; we'd be paying the same after mortgage, homeowners insurance, extra utilities, etc. Our rental is also cramped; we'd have another 500 sqft with the house. The house also has a huge kitchen and a huge patio, which I find appealing

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

So what should the plan here be, hire like 3 different inspectors and hope for the best or just walk away whistling?

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

PC LOAD LETTER posted:

If it were me unless I realllly loved the house + was getting a steal (ie. 30%+ under market value) I'd walk away. Even with the updates that were done. Very few ever do the updates properly due to the costs involved so things tend to get done half assed "good enough" manner that festers behind the walls and blows up a year or 2 down the road.

FWIW even the best inspectors will miss stuff and the most important + expensive things they simply can't check without ripping open walls and ceilings left and right. Typically very old houses are huge on-going financial disasters that you get to live in.

Sounds good, thanks thread. I've walked away. It definitely wasn't a steal or a perfect dream home or anything

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

We're going to go talk to a mortgage officer at a bank, and they've requested 2 pay stubs, 2 years of W-2s, 2 years of tax returns, etc.

The only issue is that I got my new job a little over two years ago, and it pays a lot better than my old job did. So of my two tax returns, one is representative of my income situation and the other is about 2/3 of my current income, because for the first half of that year I was making a lot less. Will bringing the older tax return and pair of W-2s screw me? Should I wait another 6 months so that I can have 2 full years' worth of tax returns from a single high-paying job?

QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Jun 28, 2014

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Captain Windex posted:

If you're using bonus/OT/commission to qualify it might cause an issue depending on your debt ratios, what the job/industry change was, and how picky the lender is. If you're just qualifying off your base salary/hourly rate your W2 and tax returns from a prior job 2 years ago aren't going to matter much compared to year to date earnings and the last year W2 outside of some weird edge cases.

Yoked posted:

Hello, fellow new home owner! :toot:

I think making less in an old job will not end up making much difference. Anecdotal evidence: my wife and I were able to qualify when my previous job was being a graduate student. The two places we shopped for loans were both concerned about my wife working in sales and possibly earning commissions (which she doesn't), but did not give a drat about my job.

Awesome, thanks guys. That's exactly what I wanted to know. We're meeting them in about an hour, hopefully things go well

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

We did a walkthrough of a foreclosure recently for what could be a really nice house if its cosmetic problems get dealt with. The home is about 10 years old. The wife and I are good at doing things like drywall, flooring, landscaping, and other cosmetic improvements, and that's all that we were able to find ourselves. It looked like the previous tenant punched some holes in the walls, busted up a door, and sold off all of the appliances. This raises some additional concerns

I'm concerned about the possibility of something malicious having been done to the plumbing or electrical system. We've put an offer in for what we think the value of the home is worth if the plumbing and electrical are in good shape.

1) Water and electrical are both turned off right now, what needs to happen to get these turned on?

2) Would a general home inspector be able to find plumbing and electrical issues, or do we need to hire specialists during the due diligence period and really fine-tooth-comb the place with different inspectors looking for different things? How much would it cost to get various specialists? Do I just need to call a plumber and an electrician to do those respective inspections?

3) Are there any other recommendations for things to check or look out for during the inspection period?

There are 2 other offers on the property, but I'd like to be ready in case our offer gets accepted. The holes in the wall are a major worry, since who knows why they're there (did the previous occupant just punch holes in anger during the foreclosure proceedings, or was stuff taken out of the wall, such as copper wiring? At least with holes already there it might not be too hard to go in and check out what's behind some of the walls)

e: Also, the dryer, fridge, and oven/stove were gone, but the microwave and the washer were still there and looked fine. Some of the ceiling fans are damaged or missing, half are fine. A/C unit is still there and all hooked up. Cabinets all look good, no broken or missing windows. It's a mix of "I'm going to bust up this house by occasionally punching a wall" and "I'm going to sell whatever I can", I guess? This makes me hopeful that the plumbing and electrical are fine, since selling all of the appliances (especially the huge A/C unit) would be an easy first step if you really wanted to gut a house, while removing all of the wiring and plumbing would probably be the last thing that you'd do. I guess that they could have poured something nasty down the sink, that's more the sort of thing that I'd be trying to check (and that the existing electrical system won't burn down the house)

QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Jul 28, 2014

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Our offer on a foreclosure has just been accepted, and the real estate agent sent us a short list of home inspectors. What's the probability that she's in cahoots with them? Should we go with another agency? It's a relatively small community (~100k people), so there aren't a lot of options. Running a Google search for "home inspector" in this area basically pulls up the names that she recommended

Help me house buying thread, I'm scared of getting a home inspector who intentionally ignores some hard to find major problem and causes us to pass the contingency period :(

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

uwaeve posted:

http://www.independentinspectors.org may help. If you pick one and your agent says not to use him, you've made the right choice.

Apparently there are no Independent Home Inspectors registered in Hawaii :(

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

So we've had our offer accepted on this foreclosed home, very nice price and a pretty easy repair job overall (just flooring, painting, and drywall patching; all things that my wife and I are already good at). We've been working through a local bank to get our mortgage, but the bank that owns the foreclosure is also requiring that we get a prequal letter from the internal lending service, but after that we're free to go with whoever we want. However, if we go with them then the foreclosure-holding bank "can" pay up to $5k in closing costs and "can" pay for some or all of the lender-required repairs, so basiclaly they're suggesting that there may be an incentive (no guarantees) that I assume we'd negotiate later. I don't mind getting the prequal letter either way, but:

A) What kind of repairs does a lender usually require? Are we talking about only major issues, like pipe replacement, roof replacement, etc. and not minor things like drywall patching?

B) Does anyone have any experience with using the foreclosure-holding bank as a lender? Is this generally a good idea, bad idea, or what?

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

PuTTY riot posted:

If this was an FHA foreclosure I'd be able to tell you more, but yeah, the stuff they required me to do was stuff like 'replace the 20 year old roof that's missing shingles and is falling apart, replace rotten screen door trim, T&P valve on water heater' stuff like that. We ended up doing a lot more than just what was required, but I think an FHA loan/foreclosure is going make you do more than a 'conventional' foreclosure.

I don't know if the foreclosure is FHA or conventional. We're taking out a conventional loan, is that what you mean?

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

So, we're several weeks into buying the foreclosure that I mentioned some pages back. The bank that owns the property signed our addendum requiring that the inspection contingency be valid up to 7 days after we receive notifications that water and electric are turned on. The bank has turned on the water, which is good; I was able to test all of the sinks, toilets, etc successfully. We're still waiting for electric, and then we can hire a home inspector to comb through the property.

If the bank never gets around to turning on the electricity, then our only recourse is to walk away. We'll get back our earnest money, thankfully, since the contingency period would still be in effect. The electric company has been waiting for a month to receive a single document. The bank's agent and our agent are constantly yelling at the bank to get their poo poo together and get the electricity turned on.

So I have a question. The scheduled closing date is late September. Does a deadline of two weeks prior to closing seem reasonable as a deadline for the bank to get the electricity turned on? All that we need at this point is a home inspection, an appraisal, and a survey; I don't want to pay for the latter two until the inspection is done, so does 2 weeks to schedule and finish those three things seem reasonable?

What really sucks about the whole situation is that we really like the house, and we really like the price that we're getting, but we may be forced to walk away because the bank that owns the property is incompetent

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Elephanthead posted:

If you are serious about the house just pull the meter and turn on the juice long enough to do the inspection. They seriously just put two caps on the back of the meter to turn off power. Say the previous owner did it. Don't electrocute yourself. Homeownership ain't for the weak.

I'm definitely not going to do this. Even if it wasn't totally illegal, the house has been empty for two years, and no one is going to believe that the previous owner happened to showed up and turn on the power during the week of my home inspection

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Elephanthead posted:

You guys probably should all stay renters.

Maybe

Cost of rent here is way more than the cost of owning, for the same square footage. For the price that I'm getting the foreclosed house, I'll be saving an extra $800/month vs renting (yes, rent price/sqft here is that high), before repairs but after taxes, insurance, HOA, etc. A lot of things would have to go wrong in order to wipe out those savings.

The only thing stopping the sale is the REO bank failing to give a piece of paper to the electric company. It's going to be very sad if this sinks our purchase, because there's simply no way that we're going to purchase a house that hasn't had its electrical system inspected while the power is on.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Leviathan Song posted:

Why not just call the electric company and tell them to turn it on? It's not like they're going to ask for your deed or something. As long as you foot the bill and follow their process they won't care what your relationship to the house is.

My wife did this, and they've stated that they can't turn on the power until they get some document from the REO bank. Normally you just pay a flat fee for the day, but not in this case. They won't tell us what that document is. The fact that the bank has taken over a month to procure this document worries me greatly

e: I'd like to call the electric company again tomorrow, just to be sure that they can't turn on the electricity at this house for a day. I've been told by a few different inspectors that the electric company does this all the time for foreclosed properties in the area, so maybe when my wife spoke to them they just misunderstood what she wanted

QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Aug 17, 2014

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

I've also considered submitting an addendum that lowers the sale price if the bank doesn't hurry up and get the electricity turned on. There's no guarantee that they'd sign it, but at least it would inform them that we're really serious about walking if they don't do something. If they do sign it, then we get the cost of rewiring the house knocked off of the sales price and we find an inspector with a generator.

Another weird detail: the REO bank did authorize us to get the electricity turned on ourselves, so I'm guessing that whatever paperwork that needs to be submitted is likely just something that they've lost

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Oh no, we just received our conditional loan approval, and one of the conditions is that the price has to not decrease at all, or else the entire loan has to be reprocessed. That's... kind of weird. It seems like having to borrow less money shouldn't be a condition for restarting the entire loan process.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

adorai posted:

See my edit above. It's not that you are actually likely to die in a pedestrian accident, it's just that you are very unlikely to die from lung cancer from radon exposure.

Those statistics don't really prove your point; pedestrians and cars are everywhere, in every city, whereas most people don't live in a home with high levels of radon.

The risk actually is low, but the way in which you're explaining that is terrible

QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Aug 23, 2014

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QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Jastiger posted:

Sorry for causing massive Radon derail...though I guess it IS on topic.

I'm getting the mitigation and banning my family from ever crossing the street. It'll be a hard life, but a safe one. A good life.


Hopefully this satisfies all posters.

We're just waiting to hear how they will handle the fridge since their warranty was going to pay for parts to fix the fridge, and they were going to pass that $200 parts check on to us. However, per the report we saw at the house, the fridge is beyond repair.....so the warranty won't give them a check for parts that are useless. So it looks like they will have to give us a check out of their pocket for a new fridge. I hope they just give us a few hundred and be done with it. They were super hard ball on the sale negotiations and now they gotta shell out money for the radon. Fingers crossed!

I think that the "legal" way is for them to claim that the check is for "parts" and to give you enough money for a working used fridge, which is about $200

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