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sanchez posted:We had our guy generate pre-approval letters for a little more than the offer each time, it seems beneficial to have everyone involved thinking you're at your limit or close to it. No idea what our actual limit would have been, as that always seems ridiculously high anyway. I've had the same thoughts regarding preapproval. Is it the concensus here that bringing a vastly overinflated preapproval can weaken a negotiating position? If I'm trying to haggle for a thousand dollars around $300k and have a preapproval for $600k, and the other party has knowledge of this, it seems like a dumb idea to have not shown a lower preapproval.
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Jun 27, 2012 15:27
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How much stronger is an offer without the "must sell our current house" contingency? Is not having that contingency generally seen as a "nice to have" on top of the offer, or is having that contingency in place seen as unattractive? I assume that it depends on the seller's situation, competition for the house, etc. If we have already done the legwork of finding the house, getting our preapproval, and are reasonably confident we can navigate the process (been through it once before), is it worth considering not using a buyer's agent? Let's say the buyer's agent commission would be 2.5%... I'm considering asking the seller's agent if they would consider refunding 2% to the seller if we don't bring a buyer's agent, netting them another 0.5% and us 2%. Is this common, and if so, I assume it's information that's withheld from the seller himself? I would need this in writing, so I assume that if the seller's agent is willing to do this, they would be willing to write this down. Based on my perception of the demand for the house that we're looking at, I'm considering putting in an offer that is discounted X% from the listing price, with a 2% refund to the seller. Making the house a X% discount from my standpoint and a (X-2)% discount from the seller's standpoint. Based on the sale-to-list ratios in the town, I'm considering starting with X as 4 or 5%. The offer would be contingent upon selling our current house, an inspection, and financing (with an attached preapproval letter). I forget, do I attach earnest money to the inital offer or is this put up at P&S signing? I seem to remember something like $1,000 with the offer and 5% of purchase price at P&S. Maybe I'm just imagining the money that went in with the initial offer... Lastly, what is the timeframe like to sell a current house if we make the offer first? This is Massachusetts, if that's required information. Just wondering if we will have literally 2 weeks to sell, or how it would work. I'm sure the RE agent we're getting will answer this, but I wanted someone else's perspective, especially people that have been through it (trying to sell a house under pressure). uwaeve fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Jul 2, 2012 |
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Jul 2, 2012 13:45
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We put in an offer on a house that's been sitting for 100+ days (and was on the market last year). It was rejected due to us having a contingency where we must sell our own house (technically not rejected, but the response was "can you remove that contingency so we can talk?"). The next day, the realtor calls and tells us she just wants to inform us that there's another offer. Is this standard manipulation? I mean I was pretty much expecting this, but I've never known whether or not it's pretty much standard business practice to make up fake other offers. There's never any way to prove it.
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Jul 14, 2012 22:51
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Thanks for the thoughts. We thought long and hard about removing the contingency, and decided to go ahead with it. We obtained a preapproval to carry both mortgages and can swing both for a limited time. Of course, we're still going to be fairly aggressive about selling our house but carrying both doesn't break us, and we have far more in savings than equity in our current house, so we're not desperately depending on the proceeds to go forward. So we've got an accepted offer, all without using a buyer's agent (yeah I know it's "free," but I have my own feelings about that). Next is finding a good home inspector. I'm told they don't exist. If anyone has recommendations for Middlesex County, MA, I'm all ears.
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Jul 17, 2012 00:39
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Wow, thanks. Are these guys you came up with on your own or on recommendations? Or were they recommended by your realtors?
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Jul 17, 2012 10:43
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Had the inspection done yesterday. Was pretty pleased with the process, it took 3 1/2 hours for a 3700 SF house built in 1994. General view was that the house was extremely well maintained. Inspector caught the obvious stuff like missing sink stopper, missing outlet cover on outside outlet, spent some time finding the GFI reset location for all the exterior circuits, etc. The biggest issue is that his assessment of the roof using binoculars was that the north side had 1-2 years left before he'd recommend replacement, and the south side 4-5 years. I had read to make sure to use an inspector that went out on the roof, etc, but most of the other pros outweighed this con, and honestly if he's not a roofer all we were looking for was whether this assessment would trigger us to want to have a roofer (or three) come out, and at this point I think it does. Notwithstanding we're in Massachusetts and I would have expected the southern exposure to have worn faster, we're kind of at a loss of what to do here. On one hand, it's unreasonable in our opinion to just say "give us a new roof on a house you won't be living in," not only from the cost burden perspective but because despite thier apparently super anal-retentive maintenance ethic and attention to detail, human nature is going to take over and they will probably do the cheapest job they can. On the other hand, even though I had planned for maintenance, my model kind of assumes at least SOME time to save up for the biggest ticket item. Granted, all the major mechanicals are 18 years old as well, but nothing is as expensive as the roof. At this point for us to replace the roof is drawing down our down payment/furniture/maintenance fund right off the bat. Does anyone have a sense of how to proceed from a contractual standpoint? How should I suggest we proceed? I'm going to wait for the roofers' opinions, becaues honestly, someone could say the inspector was being conservative and with careful monitoring, the north side could go 4 years instead of 1-2, and that would put us more in line with what we were thinking initially as far as being able to save, and getting 20-25 years out of a 15-30 year product on a generally very well-built and maintained home. If the answer comes back "yeah, if this were my house I'd do this within a year or two," I'd want it done before the 31 Oct move-in. My inclination is to propose that we mutually choose roofers to do the evaluation, mention that if recommendations are for immediate (within 2 years maybe) replacement we expect to share the cost of repairs, contingent upon us going through with the purchase. Is there any insurability risk or financing (from the appraisal for the mortgage perspective) risk to this if we just decide to take it as-is? I believe I mentioned before that we aren't using a buyers' agent, or else we'd be asking them these questions.
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Jul 19, 2012 11:16
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Molybdenum posted:If the roof is in bad shape, lower your offer an appropriate amount to replace it, citing that as the reason your offer is lower. Then you replace it/have it replaced yourself. The issue is cash flow. If the roof costs $10,000 to replace and I lower the offer by $10,000, I only generate $2,000 to fix the roof (because I have to bring that much less to closing for the down payment). My monthly payments would be lower as well, but that doesn't help me replace the roof until those savings accrue. Alternately, I could just say "fix the roof and I'll buy the house."
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Jul 19, 2012 17:16
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Leperflesh posted:It's harsh, but: I think most of us would agree that you should have the cash to handle a roof replacement as part of your emergency house reserve, and if you don't, you might not be able to afford to buy until you can save that up. Harsh but fair. Technically we have the money, it's just it's earmarked for other purposes at this point. I understand it then becomes a subjective question of whether we're willing to reallocate funds, and no one can help us with that. What I was looking for was more along the lines of "yeah, this comes up a lot and here's a good way to handle it: " or "looks like it's another round at the negotiating table, steel yourself for it" or "here's how we equitably split the cost of the roof replacement in a similar situation..." Thanks for the help. So far they seem reasonable and nice (which may just be an indication that I'm being bent over a barrel...when it comes to money sometimes I think that unless someone's yelling or screaming at you you're getting ripped off), and I also want to be fair to both parties.
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Jul 19, 2012 18:42
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fat poo poo cat posted:We just went through this on our purchase. After inspection, the home needed about 8k worth of work (new roof and some foundation repairs). We asked the sellers to meet us in the middle and raised our offer by 4k, which they accepted. Have you actually gotten bids for a new roof yet? I thought ours would have cost much more, but all of the bids we received were right around 4-5k (for a 2 story 1800sf home in with an additional 300sf outbuilding that also got a new roof). Have not gotten bids, I'm working off of colleagues' estimates of prices. Also we have a little sheet that came with our inspection report gave national estimates per square foot. Since I'm buying in a suburb of Boston, I basically multiplied that by 2 (even though my gut told me 3 or more  ). It's not so much an issue of whether it's $8k or $12k, it's more how we should share the cost proportionally if they have basically used up the roof during their stay.Like I said, I feel like the next step is basically saying we'd like to have contractors come out to estimate, and let the sellers be party to that process to be fair. So the sellers don't propose a terrible job for 50% of the real cost, and we don't propose 400% of the real cost to get a slate roof or something.
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Jul 19, 2012 18:46
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Kalli posted:Are they removing the existing roof or just adding on a new layer? Also prices depend heavily on the location / availability of work / labor I imagine. There's nothing set in stone yet, but the recommendations I've gotten all say that it's preferable to do the removal and cleaning. If it becomes that big of a sticking point I suppose we can overlay (the current roof is the original one from 1994), but honestly I'd rather (with help from the seller) pony the money to strip it down to examine the sheathing for maintenance, inspect or update the water & ice shield or whatever (not sure what was standard practice 18 years ago). It is our plan to remain in the house for the long haul, and it seems to me that within reason we should be investing in it accordingly. Which doesn't necessarily mean a $30,000 roof that will last fifty years, but I would like to continue to maintain the home as it has been, which is very very well from our multiple inspections to date. Edit: Leperflesh posted:What? Is that a thing? Well, to be clear we're talking here about the shingles reaching the end of their economic life, not the roof caving in/having structural issues (as far as we know). As I understand it, it is appropriate to have up to two layers of shingles on, meaning that you can get away with reshingling on top of the first layer. As I mentioned, without knowing anything about roofing is that you lose the advantage of being able to inspect the sheathing or any other barriers or whatever. Why do I have the feeling I'm going to learn more about roofing than I ever thought I could in the next like week. Edit2: And yeah, I'm happy to talk about roofs but I was trying to keep it constrained to the real estate/financial side. Though I'm not sure if there is a roof porn thread, so whatever. uwaeve fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Jul 19, 2012 |
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Jul 19, 2012 18:50
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The house we have a signed offer to purchase for needs a roof within a year or two and the basement is radioactive.
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Jul 23, 2012 03:43
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Revision: roofer came out and said he wouldn't do that roof if it were his house and we probably have some years left, and the sellers agreed outright to put a radon mitigation system in (with our input if we want an upgraded system). P&S to be signed Thursday, can't wait to sink all my money into this mother.
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Jul 24, 2012 23:43
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Signed the P&S last night, need to select a lender today. Problem is I can't get either of them to give me a GFE without paying their application fee. Is this for real? One of them said they'd send me the worksheet they generate the GFE from, the other hasn't gotten back to me yet. How am I supposed to compare lenders without dropping the non-refundable application fee?
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Jul 27, 2012 14:10
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Thats bullshit. I checked 4 lenders before I went with mine and not a single one asked for a fee for that. Also... I didnt pay an application fee either. That's what I thought. The credit union agreed to give me a GFE prior to the formal application but the lady blew a gasket on the phone because I asked for it. "Are you thinking of going with another lender? WELL I HOPE THEY'VE PUT AS MUCH WORK IN ON THIS LOAN AS I HAVE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..." I mean yeah, I called you a bunch of times with questions about the process but poo poo lady, that's business. If someone else is going to offer me a better deal than you, you expect me to go with you because you did your job? That being said, the deals aren't that much different that I think I'll just go with the CU, the big thing now is the other place would have locked my rate yesterday whereas I need to float a while with the CU (closing is way out at Halloween). I can tolerate an eighth or three but I guess I'm just crossing my fingers that I'm not gonna get stuck with a 6% interest rate come September. Everyone tells me this won't happen...
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Jul 27, 2012 16:18
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cornface posted:Sorry if this isn't the right thread for this, but I was wondering if anybody had advice on evaluating and choosing home inspectors (north Houston/Spring area if it matters). After doing some research I tried to go with someone off of here but it didn't work out due to timing. Best advice I can give is make sure they are accredited/certified, do home inspections as their sole source of income, have significant experience, and ask to see sample reports. After you read through a half dozen you can tell which are just running around making indecipherable checklists and which are going to take the time to take pictures, point stuff out, etc. Ours wound up being $620 and we were happy with him. This is in a high-cost-of-living area outside Boston, but still we'd had a couple people laugh at us because we "shouldn't be spending over $300" or something like that. I assume those are the broker-pushed ones. Edit: OK, who's had a radon mitigation system installed? The proposal for the house we just purchased came in and they are going with an outdoor-fan subslab depressurization system. Which made me immediately skeptical because I've heard outdoor-fan/routed systems are easiest and cheapest to install (highest profit for installler), run into fan life issues due to freezing of condensation, and are ugly as poo poo. I'm sure an indoor-routed/fan one could be done more elegantly at a higher cost. Anyone have any thoughts or opinions? uwaeve fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Aug 9, 2012 |
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Aug 9, 2012 18:22
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Konstantin posted:Yeah, I'd move into a 2-bedroom and wait a couple of years. Once you have some savings built up, you can afford to conduct an extended search, waiting and watching the market until the right house in the right neighborhood comes along. It's a lot easier on kids to move before they start school rather than after, so you want to make sure the house you buy is one you are willing to spend decades in. Do this. You will be a far more informed real estate shopper if you can be patient about it. Make it sort of a hobby. Go to open houses without the expectation of moving, and resist the urge to jump on a property because it's perfect or the best you've seen yet. We took this approach and it paid off in a big way. We basically sat down and came up with our (realistic) dream house, and started watching a few towns. Every 6-12 months we'd go through the "how close are we financially" exercise as well as getting back into the search/open house thing. This has been going on for 5-6 years now, starting right after we got married. In the meantime we've had our first child, and now that he's a year and a half old, we went through the exercise again. This time, we found we were very close to "there" financially. We happened to luck into what we think is a great deal that gives us almost everything we were looking for, and affordable enough that we were all the way there financially. Just bought it and expect to be there for 30+ years with no regrets and raise 2.3 kids there, etc. I'm sure I'll post in six months when I find out we're on a Native American burial ground or nuclear waste dump or whatever, but that's independent of recommending a slow, steady approach to finding and buying your dream house.
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Aug 17, 2012 19:41
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I have a choice between 3.375% with 0.25 points and 3.5% with 0 points. I figured out the break even time and all, but I was just wondering if this was an unusually low discount fee to get the eighth off the rate? I realize the difference changes daily, but in my limited experience it seems like its usually like 0.75 to 1.0 points to get the eighth percent discount off the rate. Any thoughts? It's more of a subjective question for someone that sees a lot of loans I guess.
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Sep 25, 2012 17:56
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mono posted:Man, house hunting is starting to get frustrating. I've been looking at places for about 3 months now and haven't found anything I like (except the HUD house I missed out on). How long have you guys typically taken to find a house you really dig? I'm not looking for a McMansion or anything but it's been slim pickings in RI so far. Six years. Technically we weren't 100% involved in the process continuously, but we would spend a month or so every 12-18 months actively looking, and just keeping tabs the rest of the time.
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Sep 25, 2012 17:59
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Thwomp posted:It took us about four months to find our house. Confirming this. We had a couple times that we almost pulled the trigger and we are glad we didn't now that we found The One. I'd encourage you to stay somewhat involved, because you are going to be a much better judge of what is right for you with a lot of houses looked at under your belt. After a couple rounds, we were pretty good at knowing exactly what we wanted and just waited for that to appear on the market. I'm not saying take six years, all I'm saying is avoid the trap of buying the best thing on the market at the time you decided to buy. With a little experience you'll be able to figure out if it's really The One or nothing special.
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Sep 25, 2012 18:14
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The closing on our dream house in MA is scheduled for 11 AM Tuesday. Something about a Frankenfurter storm... I'm hoping that we have a walkthrough and not a walkover. Plus all our poo poo is in storage literally right on a river, so that is probably going to end well.
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Oct 28, 2012 01:53
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ZentraediElite posted:Can someone help me out with understanding the workflow for buying a house? We had to prove that we, without help, had 5% of the purchase price. The way we proved it was I believe 2 months of pay stubs and asset statements. If anything big (didn't ask about the threshold of big as we wound up covering it) came in during those 2 months, it needed to be traceable. This meant statements showing it entering our checking account AND statements leaving the other account, whether it be our investment account or a parents' account. Furthermore, they wanted documentation called a gift letter saying that you were not under obligation to pay it back. Otherwise it counted as liability for our debt-to-income ratio. I'm not sure if you can say you are free and clear if you have parents pour money into your account then wait four months, as they also ask for 2 years of W2s and permission to pull 2 years of tax returns. No idea if they do black magic to figure anything out from that, perhaps someone else can comment. Our lender was pretty candid and helpful throughout, so if you have a good lender perhaps they will spend some time with you explaining the rules some more. Without outright advocating mortgage fraud, the woman basically said that they just need to collect the documentation like the gift letter, and that after closing we were welcome to do whatever we wanted with our money. That's all I can think of, and again your lender is the best to answer the specifics about what accounts and names are allowed or disallowed, but figured this might help a bit.
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Nov 19, 2012 21:38
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caiman posted:EDIT: Maybe the correct term should be "potential investment." That still puts it above renting, which is a guaranteed non-investment. Except with renting you limit your downside. You pay a certain amount a month that you will never see again. With a purchase, you are (typically) leveraged by a factor of 5 plus transaction costs, so it's not improbable that you lose a shitload of money on TOP of having to pay a certain amount a month that you will never see again.
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Dec 6, 2012 18:35
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FunOne posted:Appraisal came through, inspections and everything are done. I should have a new house by Xmas. Got myself some new furniture and a new giant-rear end fridge. Now I just need a new mattress. Does anyone have any recommendations? Everyone swears by the Tempurpedics, but I don't know if I can justify spending 4+k on a drat mattress. BedInABox has decent online reviews, but has anyone here used one? Do they last? Get the contour select or whatever the low end Tempur is, I think all the upgraded ones are gimmicky tbh. We had one for 10 years and it gets softer and not as dramatically memory-foamy after a few years, but still awesome. Just upgraded to a king and after looking at all the expensive ones just decided on the entry model. It's pretty great. Be prepared for your bedroom to smell like a chemical plant for 1-3 months. The question about lasting is probably more about when you pass the threshold of it not feeling like you want anymore. It's not like the old one was busted down or falling apart, we just wanted a bigger bed. Also be aware their warranty is prorated heavily I believe, so if that is a big factor, compare it closely with other bed warranties. I think the king was a lot less than your figure above.
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Dec 21, 2012 14:14
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agentq posted:On this note does anyone have a rule of thumb for cash on hand when buying a house? I understand 20% down, but what about cash on hand for repairs and emergency fixes? A lot is going to depend on what, if anything, the inspection turns up. Additionally, what the remaining life of the major mechanicals and replaceable items (which the inspection should also tell you). Other than that, I have heard 1-3% of the home's value annually to devote to maintenance, depending on the age of the house and other factors. You may want to figure out what a roof, well pump, septic system, heating system, etc might cost, as these tend to be the biggest normal expenses that will come up. I say normal because there are a shitload of abnormal expenses that have come up in this thread alone. These are the things you are paying your inspector to find, generally.
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Dec 22, 2012 03:19
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gvibes posted:Anybody have any experience with mortgages over the GSE limits? Say I want to buy a 700k home, and the limit is 417k. Assume 20% down Can you get a cheap 417k mortgage and a more expensive 143k HELOC on top of that? Or would I need a 560k jumbo? Check to see whether you are in a high cost of living area, in which case you may be able to get some options that are not the full premium of a jumbo mortgage. It's by county here. Be aware that not all lenders care about it, many we checked with just stuck with $417k and any higher amount was a jumbo. Ask around with lenders, we eventually found one that worked to the higher limit without calling it a jumbo. I'm not positive about the hybrid option you asked about, sorry.
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Dec 28, 2012 19:41
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Advent Horizon posted:Credit underwriter? Huh? FWIW the lender we went with was a local credit union, so I'm not positive you would have to go out of town or to some Internet only bank if that's what you were thinking of. Though at $700k you are probably above all limits everywhere. I wish you luck, the whole process kinda blows.
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Dec 28, 2012 21:29
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Here is the bulk of a random advice email I wrote up for a couple of friends that are first-time homebuyers; I figured it could do some people some good here. Some links or prices may be location-specific, sorry if you are lucky enough to live somewhere else. Enjoy your low cost-of-living-to-income ratio. I am not an expert, have only bought two houses/sold one house. Some of this poo poo may be wrong, and if someone points out something wrong I'll remove it, but I'm mainly posting for the advice about meeting neighbors, spending time in the neighborhood, going to town offices, scouring the assessor's databases, etc. All of that stuff led to some of the more valuable insights during our current dreamhouse acquisition. Good luck, you are about to hate life forever, hopefully this stuff will help minimize the hatred. Demographics Mass Stats town-level demographic mapping UI, worked great for us. City-Data has a different presentation of similar data, sometimes broken down within towns as well GreatSchools has good school data The Search Redfin is what I’d say is the best interface (including iOS) and overall site. Search a town, modify search options to show sold homes for all time, and you have a map of where you should be looking (after adjusting for real estate prices for sales more than a couple months ago). Realtor has a great heat map display within their map, showing you the neighborhoods to focus on within towns based on your spending habits. Zillow has their (in)famous zestimates, and I believe their maps can show recent sales as well. Trulia has some good demographic/stats/trends I believe Town websites! More and more towns are going to public databases and GIS Mapping of their data, including assessment data. For instance, our town has a GIS mapping section that tell you lot dimensions, where the flood zones are, whether you’re going to be next to wetlands and can’t wash your car without your neighbors calling the EPA, who owns the houses, the transaction history with prices, assessor’s data like room dimensions and grade of construction, among other useful things. From a specific property you can hit “Property Record Card” that takes you to the database of assessor’s info. Real Estate Agents We wound up not using a buyers’ agent for a couple of reasons, but I just wanted to mention that if you want to keep this option open, DO NOT sign anything anyone puts in front of you. This includes the open house sign-in sheet for that house you want to look at. You will probably get dirty looks and maybe even bullied, but this is because everyone wants to be the one to claim the 2.5% commission for being your buyers’ agent. In our opinion, this is money that’s on the table and if you fancy yourself a good negotiator and are willing to do a lot of research yourself, YOU can claim this money. You will never know if you’re successful or not because concessions between the seller and sellers’ agent will never be seen by you, but we’re convinced we got some of that money in our transaction. This is probably overkill, but we never felt that we did ourselves a disservice by not signing anything. Not knowing much about real estate law we were trying to avoid giving anyone our "cause to procure," which I believe is real estate agentese for "gotcha, bitch." Contrary to the above advice about not associating yourself with any realtors, I’d sign up for someone to send you MLS updates. You set up search parameters and you get updates as they hit MLS, which is maybe faster than the other services and catches more of the properties? It is also important if you want some running data on sale-to-list information for houses. One of the things you’ll find is that once a house goes under contract, it disappears from the real estate sites (so you don’t remember what it was listed at or what the pictures were like), and doesn’t show up for a while in the registry/assessor’s databases, where you can find out what it actually sold for). However, we got this info by periodically snapshotting the MLS list (screenshots or pdf), and every month or so the agent would send us a PDF of recently sold properties (we had to ask for this each time), which she has access to much faster than you will be able to find them. This lets you develop the discount you should be negotiating towards, which was our most important task as people without a buyer's agent. I have folders full of listings which I saved, then they went off the market and were subsequently useful after the fact for comparison etc. Sometimes individual realtors’ personal sites show their listings, including sold ones, which can be useful too. Check for local superstar agents, check their websites often. Again, more data is better, and unless you watch the market over months or years sometimes there are not a lot of samples on the market at any one time. Financing Financing is probably going to be personal. Depending on your situation, different banks are better for different people. For instance, our bank was more flexible and helped us to stretch where we needed it. For preapproval this isn’t absolutely necessary but when it comes time to finally choose which place to fully apply with, make everyone give you a Good Faith Estimate. It’s a particular form that is (I believe) particularly binding on the bank’s part. As such, some will try to avoid giving it to you, to the point of belligerence in some cases. Even our contact at the bank we went with, who was super-nice and spent a ton of time with us, turned into a psychopath when we asked for a GFE. "I HOPE YOU'RE NOT CONSIDERING GOING WITH ANOTHER BANK AFTER ALL WE'VE DONE FOR YOU..." Subjectively, she had a point, and they were really helpful etc. but that's unprofessional and hey lady, it's business, it's other peoples' money, etc. General Advice Set up a throwaway Gmail address that you can use for everything related to the purchase. This way it’s easy to set up filters to ignore the spam everyone will blast your way, everything is self-contained, and you can just walk away from it (and all the junk) when you’re done if you want. You absolutely will get daily updates from some of the people you give your address to. Buy a good quality medium to large D-ring binder and put everything related to your search in there. When you find a house you want to put an offer in on, empty it out and start filling it up with stuff related to the house, mortgage, insurance, etc. Get everything in writing. Real estate agents can and will break verbal agreements when money is on the table. Do as much due diligence as you can stand. For example, when shopping for a loan, lawyer, mover, inspector, etc. I am instantly skeptical of anyone recommended by the realtor you’re working with due to the conflict of interest. I believe it pays off to find people as independent as possible, and this costs time and effort to find and sometimes more money to hire. Go to the town office and ask for everything they have on the house you’re considering once you get to that point. We got as-built septic plans/permits/installation data/pumping records, plot plans, well water test results and installation data, floor plans, permits, insurance claims, Title 5 certificate, and more. Call around in the town offices and ask questions. Get friendly with the planning board, they can tell you if the developer you’re buying from is always in court with the town because he interprets the rules creatively. Get friendly with the health department, they can tell you about violations and what to expect from well water results. Get friendly with the town clerk, they can tell you about the water damage insurance claim that was filed on the house you’re looking at but the sellers “forgot” to disclose. While you’re in line at town hall trying to dig up records on a property, you just may meet a developer in there filing for a permit that knows a bunch of useful stuff about the neighborhood you’re looking at, and has good contractor recommendations. All these things happened to us. It takes time and arguably we did it because we weren’t working with a real estate agent, but then again you can never have too much information in my opinion. If you’re buying in a development, find out about the builder, you will eventually find out where else they build (other towns) and can go visit THOSE neighborhoods and town offices to see if the builder has a reputation for quality or junk/leaving developments half-finished or whatever. Town libraries can be a good source of information as well. Chat up the librarian. She's bored and probably knows who in town is a crook. If you have the time and inclination, just drive around a lot. Find neighborhoods you like and visit them over time. Go to open houses for houses you aren’t even interested in. You’ll get a better sense of what’s important to you (as well as what the showing agents want you to think is important), as well as the realm of the possible of features you can find in your price range. You can fairly quickly start to form your own opinions on WHY this house has been on the market for a year and a half, or why that house that you went to for the opening weekend open house was gone in four days. Over time you will also find landmines that you would have missed if you rushed the process. That house next to a gravel pit that you drove by on Sunday and it looked wonderful? Monday through Friday from 6 AM to 7 PM there are semis using their engine brakes right outside your front door as they slow down to turn in. That house with the beautifully landscaped lot? Drive by during a thunderstorm and take note of the pond that used to be called the side yard. That great neighborhood? Drive by during rush hour to find out the only good way to commuter routes is to sit in a line for 20 minutes only to take a left with no stoplight onto a blind curve where no one will let you out. Quiet neighborhood? Not on Saturday mornings when they’re skeet shooting at the rod and gun club a half a mile away. Want to enjoy that beautiful yard? Not for two months out of the year when being downwind of the small dairy farm a few houses down means your yard smells of concentrated liquid cow manure. We did this driveby over time approach with a bunch of houses and neighborhoods. Since one of our top priorities was the friendly quiet neighborhood thing, one thing we noticed was that every time we were in the neighborhood of the house we eventually bought, everyone in cars and in yards or on the sidewalk waved to us and smiled. Like 95% of people over 10-12 drive-bys over a few weeks. Kind of a silly thing, but that stuck out a bit, as no other place we visited was like that. Some of the other “nicer” neighborhoods, we got a lot of “who is that, I don’t recognize that car” looks and we joked that we were probably getting on some pretty choice crime watch lists. Again, a small thing but just putting yourself around the houses you’re interested in can give you some interesting information. See if the towns have newcomers’ clubs or associations. We joined ours way back when we were still looking. My wife went to some of the events where all people do is gossip about their neighbors, the towns, the schools, the services, etc. Good information. If schools are super-important to you, call the schools and ask if they have a program where you can come in and talk to someone about the schools. We didn’t get a chance to do this due to summer but we got this recommendation from a friend who moved from Town X to Town Y. The result: Town X didn’t really want to have them in for an appointment, showed them around hastily, seemed put out by having to talk to them, etc. Town Y: had a program specifically for people interested in the schools, were very enthusiastic and proud to show off the schools and talk about the curriculum, etc. It’s anecdotal and you can argue that it’s marketing, but it was an interesting comparison and can tell you a little about who will be teaching your kids. If you find a house you might like, definitely talk to the neighbors. I just drive around until I catch someone, and ask politely if they can tell me a little bit about the neighborhood, and have never been turned down and ALWAYS get something useful out of it. I can’t remember all the good information I got from these trips, but people will tell you a lot. One question I like to ask is whether there’s anything they wish they could change about the neighborhood, or something they wish they knew when they were buying. They’ll tell you if the road is used as a drag strip or if you’re directly under final approach for the local airfield or if the homeowner association is embezzling their fees, etc. You can find out who may be selling in the future, maybe they will tell you about the reasons the house is on the market, tons of good stuff. For budgeting, go shopping as if you had to furnish and maintain the house. Write down the MINIMUM you’d be willing to spend (zero if you’re willing to eat off the floor, $2k if you’re super-thrifty craigslist shoppers, $40k if you want to walk into a chain store and completely fill the house with new mid-end stuff and won’t settle for less, etc.). Include a couple grand for really nice blinds that you forgot to make sure were in the P&S. Depending on the age of the house, plan to replace the roof and boiler in the first couple years at $8-$12k and $5k respectively. That nice clapboard exterior may need $4k in paint every 5 years. You’ll probably want a basic low-end John Deere riding mower at >$2k, and to get out of your sweet 500’ driveway in under an hour in the winter you’re going to want a >$1.5k snowblower. Add all this up and subtract it from what you think you have for a down payment. I’m only partly joking. I’m sure you’re budgeting for all this stuff but I just wanted to reiterate that there is a pretty large cost of home ownership aside from just the house and utilities. If everyone was conservative and risk-averse and followed all the advice, no one would ever buy a house, but it’s worth being aware of the types of stuff that can start adding up as you get into a house. uwaeve fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Jan 28, 2013 |
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Jan 28, 2013 19:10
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The way I see it, if I don't understand it I am probably getting ripped off. Don't take it lightly, make sure you understand, and ask questions. If they dodge, they are probably trying to rip you off.
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Apr 4, 2013 23:52
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Wait.
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Apr 7, 2013 14:20
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Captain Windex posted:The conforming loan limit is $417k in Washington, $506k is the high cost limit for the Fannie high balance/Freddie super conforming programs. High Balance/Super Conforming rates won't be as good as regular conforming Fannie/Freddie products, but should still better than portfolio jumbo products. This is exactly what happened with us. It varies by lender in high cost of living areas. Some will term everything over the national limit (417k or whatever) as jumbo, while some will give you a break if you are between the limits (above 417k but under your county's max conforming loan limit). I found no lender that would give us the under-417k rate for one that was between the limits. Basically, try to find a lender that doesn't charge you the full jumbo rate if you are in between limits.
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Apr 26, 2013 15:10
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alucinor posted:Has anyone used a land surveyor? Can you give me a rough ballpark of what you paid? We got some local recommendations from folks who said they paid about $200-$300. We just got quoted $1000-1200. Now it's possible that the lower quotes are for quarter acre suburb lots, we've got 1.27 acres. Is a grand roughly reasonable for a lot our size? Located in central WI. I have never used one but from what I understand the quote is pretty sensitive to what you want done and the quality and quantity of the surveyed markers around you. I wanted our lot line verified for a driveway I never wound up putting in, and while I don't remember the exact quote it was at least $1200, it may have even been $1600 and there was a caveat that it could go higher once the guy got out there. From a presumably reliable, established firm, not some random guy. Our deed literally said "the parcel starting at the street and the border of the land owned by the Johnson family, bordered on the northwest by the land owned by the Perkins" etc. Literally no reference to a fixed point. The surveyor said a lot of properties around us were similar, and he'd have to survey a couple lines to even get to our property from a reliable marker. Honestly I have no idea how that deed was legal, but whatever, we sold the house last year.
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May 9, 2013 20:14
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When we were locking, we could pay different fees for different lock lengths. 60 was standard, we could pay more for 90. Unfortunately I don't know how much, but I'm guessing the people setting the fees know what is happening to rates and will charge accordingly.
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Jun 14, 2013 12:28
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LemonDrizzle posted:My wife and I are currently in the process of buying our first house (in the UK). We've identified a property and put in an offer at the asking price of £190k, and have an agreement in principle for a mortgage with a 20% deposit. When we initially put in our asking price offer, we did so on the basis that the estate agent had told us the vendors were considering another bid that was at a relatively late stage in the buying process - specifically, they said that the prospective buyers had already commissioned a survey/inspection and that it was going to be conducted very shortly after our first viewing of the place. We liked the house a lot when we viewed it and so a week later, we made an offer at the asking price in the hope of outbidding the would-be buyers mentioned by the agent. We subsequently found out that the property had been on the market at its current price for around six months and are rather suspicious of the agent's behaviour: immediately after accepting our offer, they changed the listing on their website and the various property pages to "sold subject to contract", which it hadn't been when we were first looking or when they told us about the supposed earlier offer. This makes me think they just made up the earlier offer, especially since we're at a much earlier stage in the buying process than the supposed earlier bidders were. I'm rather annoyed about this, partly at myself for seemingly being played and partly because I'd prefer to spend as little money as I can. In my few transactions as a buyer and some friends' experiences, the listing agent has breathlessly informed the buyer about another offer during negotiations. I chalk it up to a cheap shot meant to put you under time pressure and play on your emotional attachment. The first time I just took it in the shorts because I was young and stupid, offering asking price. The second time I increased our offer slightly and made it clear it was our best and final, and it was accepted. I guess what I'm saying is it's my opinion that these offers were probably not real, but there is no way to ever know. It all comes down to how much you want a particular house I guess. As far as reducing your offer goes, it probably depends on where exactly you are in the process, what is signed, and what you have paid for earnest money. I have no idea how it goes in the UK, but it sounds like you might be at the accepted signed offer, which would put maybe $1000 of yours at risk. You may have inspection clauses in your agreement that say something along the lines of "if items totaling more than $0 to fix are discovered, we the buyer can back out and get our money back." You may consider checking the agreement for language like that if you want to play hardball and call their bluff. I'm not a lawyer or solicitor or wizard or whatever you have over there, just someone who's been played as well before.
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Jun 22, 2013 03:03
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wixard posted:While we're talking about moving prices, I got quoted $1650 to move my 1BR apartment 450 miles (PA to NC) to the house I'm purchasing, all I have to do is pack. My realtor thinks that's a pretty great price, and the quote I got from UHaul for just a truck for $1000 seems to agree. You guys are freaking me out with all these $300 local moves, should I keep looking for a better price on a move as far as mine? Anybody have recommendations for long distance movers for (relatively) small amounts of stuff? Anecdotal, but as far as a local move goes: In MA we paid $900 to move a 3 BR house (including a fair amount of attic/basement/garage junk) 10 miles. This was with us having almost everything boxed, beds disassembled, furniture disassembled or empty. Took basically 5 hours with 4 people, which seems long until you realize some of the junk was not really packable (floor jack, random planters, skis, all that poo poo that lives somewhere in between "boxable" and "furniture") that I felt took a lot of time to deal with by the movers. Not sure what the hourly rate was but we probably could have shaved that down a little with some more planning/better packing. Didn't get a truck rental quote, I'm lazy. We also got quoted $2200 and $3400 for the same job, from the realtor-recommended places. Basically if a realtor recommends anything I assume there are conflicts of interest, or kickbacks or however you want to call it. uwaeve fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Jul 11, 2013 |
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Jul 11, 2013 16:58
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iv46vi posted:There are also Pod moving companies that provide you with a container to load on one end, then move it for you to unpack on the other end. In addition to the above post, my research indicated that they may not be as weatherproof as advertised, and certainly aren't temperature and humidity controlled. If you are allowing anyone to take your stuff anywhere other than directly to your new place, consider the possibility of someone basically holding your stuff for ransom. This happened to someone we know, a company moved their crap to storage (owned by the moving company) and demanded more money to release it back to the people than agreed to. While you are fighting this battle, storage fees are growing, so its a pretty good racket. Reminds me of towing companies that impound your car. Also, with a pod system, holding your stuff hostage doesn't even tie up a truck or force them to unpack into storage...they can just dump it in a field they own and wait for you to pay. Maybe I read too many horror stories or whatever but these were some of the factors that caused me to forget about pods early in our process. In our situation we moved to storage then from storage to the new house a month later.
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Jul 11, 2013 19:20
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Sleepstupid posted:Does anyone have any experience with home warranties? We're getting ready to close on a new place that needs a few things done and several people have mentioned looking into one of these. My first thought was that these would be super strict about "pre-existing" conditions, but I've heard a few anecdotes, plus read a few warranty web sites that say no inspection is required. If that's the case, what's stopping me from getting a warranty and then making a bunch of claims to fix the things that need to be done? Another thing to look very carefully at is the actual limits they will pay out. Not like it won't help to have some money when something goes wrong but looking at the one that came with our house, if something big like the furnace went the payout wouldn't come close to the cost of a good, efficient unit I believe.
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Aug 8, 2013 01:53
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Ranma posted:What are some good things to look for when examining a house? I'm mostly trying to think of the little things that you might otherwise overlook. Stuff like outlets and light switches, are they in good places or are they gonna make you crazy. If I were you I'd pay a lot more attention to the things you can't change about a house. Location. There's a good reason it's the three most important things in real estate. Next up is stuff like the lot, especially regarding drainage and usability. Then on to foundation, basement, plumbing/electrical and major systems. Floor plan etc is next. Outlets are one of the last things to worry about (fixable by you or someone else), probably only surpassed by paint/wallpaper and decor.
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Aug 13, 2013 16:31
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Lt. Chips posted:The best shot at getting a house my wife and I liked fell apart today, as the seller refuses to address any of the issues that came up in the inspection. (radon mitigation system needed, roof at the end of its life despite seller claiming it is four years old, basement wall showing signs of bulging and refuses to let a structural engineer look at it) It's no small consolation but the sellers are going to have a hell of a time selling the house if this is their attitude. The radon system is a  item. We tested for radon and found elevated levels. The seller immediately agreed to have a system installed at their cost. Depending on your local laws, once a buyer discovers a problem like that it has to be put on the seller's declaration for all future potential buyers to see. Not so for roof or basement wall, unfortunately. Look on the bright side, you didn't hire a structural engineer at your cost only to find out the sellers won't pay for any repairs.It sounds kind of like the sellers are unrealistic about getting the most dollars out of selling the house or may not have money for repairs. I mean they probably shouldn't have put the house up for sale if that's the case but with most of the seller costs not realized until you sell, I guess people can just hope for a unicorn buyer that just wanders in and buys for above market as-is. Keep at it, it took us around 3 years to find the perfect house.
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Sep 24, 2013 15:12
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Pool chat: if it's an above-ground pool, consider that they could be relatively easy to take down and sell the parts. Friend of mine bought a house with a pool with aluminum sides I think, took it down in a weekend and had people come pay him for stuff by listing the equipment on Craigslist. I believe a scrap company picked up the metal for free or paid for it. Coincidentally, this story is the only reason I now have an above-ground pool. When we were looking at houses I immediately discounted anything with a pool, but realizing I was at any point a weekend's worth of work away from not having a pool, we decided to take the plunge.  On the downside, given it needed a liner and wall repair, it has cost me roughly $300 per swim so far. That, however, is somewhat independent from the house purchase decision. When I found out it needed repair, I could have decided to rip it down but chose to make it functional.
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Oct 10, 2013 21:02
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 00:04 |
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Roof, major mechanicals, driveway, septic, well. They're probably not all going to break at once, but once your house is more than 20 years old everything is a financial time bomb. Also all the little luxuries are more poo poo to break. Whirlpool tub, central air, heated tile, pool, sprinkler system, alarm, water treatment, etc. Also, moving from apartment/condo to house, consider what a lawn mower, snow blower, leaf blower, various yard tools like wheelbarrow, hedge trimmers etc. cost. If you like new stuff that will last you're looking at like $5k straight out of the gate. Or live somewhere without snow for a discount.
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Nov 19, 2013 14:03
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