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Hi. Long time reader, I have some home buying questions. I have never bought a house before and am planning way too far ahead. The numbers below are rounded and approximate. I am changing jobs and moving in a couple months from an area where I would never want to buy a house to an area I would. The earliest I would be looking to buy is November, but I can rent for a bit if nothing good is available. My employment should be fairly recession resistant (government funded science) and even if something goes bad, I can always get a remote job doing computer things and probably get a raise at the same time. Assets Current Salary: $90k, traditional pension New Salary: $150k, not counting benefits or bonuses Savings: $90k 401k, $20k Traditional IRA, $15k Roth IRA, $10k HSA, $30k Taxable Investments (Vanguard ETFs and some collectibles), $5k 529, $10k Emergency Fund in I Bonds, and $1-5k in a checking account. My current job will have to pay out my vacation and pension and my new job has a signing bonus. This comes to about $15k from the pension to a Roth IRA and $15k taxable, after tax. If I left the pension, it would not be inflation adjusted in 30 years when I could qualify, so I am definitely transferring it. Expenses Annual Budget: $36k, guessing high and budgeting in renting a small house in the new area. Student Loan: $40k This should be forgiven through PSLF in 2028. No other debt, I pay my credit card in full every month, 800+ Credit Score. Market The new job is in a LCOL city near family where I have lived before, I am very familiar with the area. The average home price by neighborhood quality is: $150k for acceptable: Biking distance to work or downtown, enough space for a dog to run around. $250k for good: A couple acres of land, biking distance to work, and near trails. $450k for best: Top 5 school districts in the state, top 50 nationally, where the mansions are. Questions 0. How are student loans factored into qualifying? My minimum student loan payment is small (~$325 per month) and I don't want to pay more than the minimum, to maximize the amount forgiven. My 529 plan currently covers at least 15 months of payments and I plan to pay the last 30 out of it, would that matter to lenders? 1. How long should I be at the new job before I take out a mortgage? 2. Is there some level of DTI where I don't need to worry about a home down payment? I can look right now and find homes that will cost less than my yearly after tax salary. I would guess that if I had $50k in taxable investments, $150k in retirement savings and make $150k, there would be some way to buy a $90k house without needing to put down much, but maybe that situation is too niche. 3. How do stock investments count in mortgage lending? Do they look at the dividends and count it as income? How does it combine with W-2 Income, since someone with two sources of income should be less risky than someone with one? 4. If I plow money into my brokerage, could I borrow against it for a down payment? Money is fungible, so it shouldn't matter that much if you have $300k in assets and $150k in mortgage debt, $300k in assets, $120k in mortgage debt and $30k in margin debt, or $270k in assets and $120k in mortgage debt, but I have a feeling that the real estate industry disagrees. For an example, say I have $50k in stock index etfs. If I sell $10k worth of box spreads against the portfolio to fund a 5% down payment, how would that look to a mortgage lender? I would never want to borrow more than 25% of portfolio value, so the market would have to fall 50% to receive a margin call. 5. Are there any compelling reasons for me to touch my retirement money to buy a house? 6. Are there good, non I-Bond investments to stick my $15k job transition money in that I could use as a home down payment but not lose to inflation?
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May 15, 2022 04:20
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QuarkJets posted:Only answering the ones I have any knowledge about : Thank you. I've just checked the USDA site and I am both way over the income limit and most of the area I'm looking at doesn't qualify as rural. Which is weird to me, since I know actual farms are in the "urban" area. 5% down shouldn't be too hard, just annoying to have to sell things or save that much decaying cash. I'll have to get in touch with some actual mortgage lenders to get answers to the other questions and get a pre-qualification. I assume I should talk to a few, the thread has shown that the industry is inconsistent. Is there a way I can do that without them pulling my credit report excessively or at all? Every part of the real estate industry seems to be covered in asterisks.
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May 16, 2022 01:08
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Talk me in to or out of buying a house. Right now, I'm watching the market and seeing if something good comes up. I could also use advice on what to look for in houses, since almost all the houses where I would want to buy are old. So they have problems that I don't know how to identify. All numbers are approximate. Market I live in a cheap, small city in the Midwest. This area is already one of the cheapest in the country for housing, both on an absolute basis and a relative one (Price to household income less than 4). The median price in the city is 120k but it gets pricier in the some of the suburbs and areas I would want to buy. Mean time on the market, number of bids per sold house, and median price are all slightly down YoY. Houses are mostly old, pre-1950 in most cases and the nicer neighborhoods are almost all pre-1910. My primary concerns here are: The plague of high house prices leaves the coasts. If I buy a house in a historic district, what would dealing with the historic preservation requirements be like? Old houses have weird problems that I can't fix or get financing to pay someone to fix. Personal Single, Male, 30. I'm terrible with women, but also religious. If I meet the right girl, I'm probably going to get married, but the odds are good that that never happens. How much of a pain is owning a house pre-relationship/marriage? Financial Income: 150k, ignoring bonuses and benefits 401k: 130k Roth IRA: 35k HSA: 15k Taxable Brokerage: 35k Illiquid Collectibles: 35k E-Fund: 10k Working capital: 10k in a checking account. 529: 9k, can use to pay student loan Student Loan Debt: 38k, qualifies for PSLF in 2028 Target House Price: 200k Max House Price: 275k I spend 900 per month on rent right now for a 1 bedroom apartment in the nicest part of the city and have a yearly budget of 55k. There's a lot of slack in that budget, my actual minimal budget is 40k. I'm pretty sure I'm good for minimal retirement savings, but if I keep maxing out those accounts, I'll take home a little more than 6k per month. A mortgage with 20% down at 275k would eat about a quarter of that, which is why it is my max price. I don't think I'll have financial problems affording a house, besides selling some stock for a down payment. But I should put aside money to handle repairs, insurance, etc. How much money should I estimate this is, especially for older houses? Finally, I mostly want a house for lifestyle benefits, like owning a dog and planting some trees. So there's no real way to get those without home ownership, right?
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Apr 14, 2023 04:19
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Thanks for the feedback everybody. Happy to hear home-owning won't make my dating prospects worse. Probably.Hadlock posted:
Any guesses on what part of that is a function of house price or absolute? I could see if being absolute since it is mostly materials, but labor should be cheaper here than in California. I'm thinking random_stuff_budget = 10k + .01*(house_price). How would your historic group react to planting some fruit trees or other plants in a yard? What if they were planted in the empty side of a double lot? I'm not a big fan of grass, I'd prefer to get some fresh fruit or vegetables out of a yard. in a well actually posted:How’s the economic health of your local city? Are most of the jobs with a single employer? If they close, it could make selling your house difficult (eg the waves of that in Midwestern auto cities over the last 40 years.) This is one of those Midwestern auto cities. Per capita employment in the auto industry was greater than Detroit in 1970. All the remaining large employers are immobile (universities, hospitals), non-software engineering, and the federal government + government contractors. Even if those leave, I can get a remote job computer touching. I plan to stay regardless, I have family here. Cyrano4747 posted:Do your research etc, but don't discount the value of fixed living expenses if it's someplace you intend to live for a long time. This seems to be the primary financial benefit of home ownership. Less helpful now compared to the people who got 2% mortgages, but it would lessen my worries about the whole country receiving the hell of San Francisco Rent. But I want to own a home so I can have a dog, some plants, and build stupid projects in a spare room. A consumption item stapled to a financial asset.
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Apr 14, 2023 15:22
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Inept posted:Old houses generally have poor insulation. Expect a larger heating bill, and maybe more discomfort in the winter. You'll also have to worry about things like knob and tube wiring, asbestos, lead paint/pipes, and radon. Depending on where you live, you may have to have mine subsidence insurance, if there were previously mines below the city. Also, over a century's worth of handyman bullshit. I used to have a house built in 1920. I found a shampoo bottle cap glued onto a drain pipe to plug an old drain outlet. Stuff like that is common. Would you recommend a certain kind of inspector, because I doubt potential sellers will be okay with me knocking down walls to look at the pipes. nitsuga posted:Also, you should probably get a fair bit more in your emergency fund. If I’m reading this right you have $20,000 between some I Bonds and a HYSA. Maybe more like $55,000 if you include your brokerage account. That’s still not nearly enough IMO. Home repairs can get expensive fast, but you should have the income to change that pretty quickly. Maybe that means renting for a bit longer, maybe you can rebalance your holdings some too. Definitely take note of where your money is going now. Yeah, right now I have the lowest amount of possible assets I'd be kind of okay buying a house with. I save at least 2k a month, so it won't take forever to save more, but I'd need to sell some things from the collectible pile to buy next week. So I'm looking opportunistically right now and will be completely ready to buy next year. The 200k number is for a house I'd be fine with for 20+ years, there are cheaper places that have definite tradeoffs. Small lots in good neighborhoods, large lots in bad ones, that kind of thing. freeasinbeer posted:I grew up in HOA suburbia, and now live in a contributing house in a historic district/city Are there any key words or phrases I should be looking for when I read through the historic district policies? There are several in the city and I live in one now, I've never had a problem parking on the street. Provided I can find a space.
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Apr 14, 2023 18:42
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Has anyone ever bought an abandoned property with unpaid back taxes? There should be some way to do it, but I don't know where to start. Here's the context: There is a house for sale in a neighborhood that is recovering from decades of urban blight. It has almost everything I want in a property: historic district construction, lots of internal space, biking distance from work+downtown, and fairly cheap. The only problem is that it doesn't quite have as much space as I want in the yard. One reason why it is cheap is that it is next to a house that has been abandoned and tax delinquent for at least 15 years after a fire. The unpaid taxes come to 32k and I assume the structure is unsalvageable. The plan is to buy it, knock down the ruin, and plant a garden on top. Budgetwise, this should be feasible. My target budget is 200-250k, I have 50k for a down payment. The main house has an asking price of 130k and I am pessimistically estimating 50k in renovations. So that is 180k total, I should be able to finance the mortgage + some renovations. Long term, I don't want to live next to the ruin and I am willing to pay for that privilege. Some quick searching (https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-much-does-it-cost-to-demolish-a-house/) suggests that it would cost 18k to demo, maybe less if I do it in the off peak construction season. The ruin also does not have a basement, according to the tax records, which should also save costs. But I don't know what my options for purchasing the abandoned property are or where I should start looking. I assume the process is worse than I expect because $thread_title, but I don't know how much worse.
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Oct 21, 2023 03:25
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QuarkJets posted:Who owns the ruined property? A 97 year old man who still lives there in secret or died in 2012. My guess is the latter since the obituary matches, but I haven't been able to track down the inheritance yet.
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Oct 21, 2023 04:03
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in a well actually posted:I do not think you have the budget or the connections to do this. I figured I didn't have the connections for it, but it is at least worth asking. The city has an active land bank and several urban renewal initiatives. One of them is supposed to make it easy for property owners to buy lots adjacent to their existing homes, but the documentation on the website is poor. More information on that program is supposed to exist, but it may be difficult to get without actually owning an adjacent property. I haven't called them yet, they're closed for the weekend. The city is also supposed to enforce the code, but this is one of those midwestern auto towns with half of the population it had in 1970. So abandoned houses are a known problem with some existing solutions. Leviathan Song posted:The historic district may not just let you demolish the structure despite the blight. The ruin is not marked as a historic building, but the livable one is. What efforts did you go through and what issues came up? There several buildings around the district that have been demolished instead of renovated, so some (probably well connected) people have been able to do that.
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Oct 21, 2023 05:03
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I will be viewing a fixer upper next week. My plan is to buy it, rehab it back to a duplex, and live in half. Please find problems with this plan. Property Info Asking price: 115k 2900 sq ft, 4200 sq ft lot. 5 bedroom, 2 bath Built in 1904 The home has had interior demolition, but the remodel stopped at some point. It was bought 8 months ago by a real estate agent. The home was listed in early December and not sold or been pending. It is in a good, but not great location, inside but on the boundary of a historic district. It is large for the neighborhood and was once a duplex. Move in ready home values in the neighborhood range from $160k to $360, with large homes selling for more. The prices for more than 2000 sqft homes sold in the neighborhood in the past year, with notes if applicable $90k, Required renovation and rebuild $95k, The property in question $110k, Required renovation and rebuild $110k, multi family, tax foreclosure, required renovation and rebuild $200k $210k, multi family, not in historic district $285k $290k $360k, Even redfin thinks this is down to $310k from the summer Asking rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in the city is $900-$1000. The neighborhood is one of the nice ones, so expect $1100-$1200. This looks like it may be a deal, properties in bad shape have sold for $90k-$110k. This one is larger than most and I expect I can bargain downward to $100-$110. After fixing it up, it should be worth north of $200k, maybe not by a lot. I will be viewing it with a general contractor who my sister recommended. She works as a property manager in the area and knows most of the contractors and construction companies around here. If he screws me over, she does bear grudges and he will lose business. Since the house is partially demoed, we should be able to see more than during most tours. Financial Info Salary: $160k, government funded scientist Savings: $10k Emergency fund, $65k Liquid Savings, $40k Illiquid Retirement Savings: $175k Traditional 401k, $50k Roth IRA, $20k HSA. Roth and HSA already maxed for 2024. Debt: $40k PSLF eligible student loan. Nonzero payments start next year at $380 per month, lasting till 2028. 10k in 529 already saved for those payments in 2027-8. Current Rent: $900 Credit Score: 800+ I can obtain home renovation loan easily, with 25% down. If the total of purchase price and renovation costs come to 200k or under, with 25% down it should be no more than 1600 per month. If it costs $250k, it will be no more than $2000.
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Jan 19, 2024 01:23
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Motronic posted:When is the last time you "rehabed" a property as labor, management or a GC? 2018, personal rehab work when my mother moved. She asked me to manage the process, so I hired all the contractors (electrical, plumbing, hvac, and interior reconstruction with refinished floors), and demoed the kitchen floor, bathroom, and an interior wall. Total cost was ~20k, not inclusive of unskilled personal labor. I still have all their numbers, in addition to my sister's connections. There are two dominant reasons I can think of why the house has not sold. Either the market has been slow and this is the slow time of year or there is something wrong with the property. In the first case, the real estate agent who bought the place ran out of money because total transaction volume is down ~20% from last year. In the latter case, I hope I or one of the inspectors I plan to hire finds the problem before I buy it. Shifty Pony posted:You need to throughly investigate what the historic district requires regarding renovations, because that could make the entire project a complete money pit. Especially if the demolitions destroyed something original that must be replaced. I have been by the property (I live in walking distance) and nothing appears seriously wrong with the exterior. The porch needs to be finished and painted, it looks like they stopped partway through that. Almost all of the city's historic district requirements are for exteriors, so we will have to keep that in mind when viewing. The house has no front yard and old google street view pics show no trees in the back, so we can rule out tree law. Probably. Leperflesh posted:Perhaps the most relevant question back is: what's your alternative plan? Could you just buy a single unit home for half the price that is move-in ready now, and not mess with a distressed property? My relevant alternative is not to buy. My rent isn't too high and other properties will come up for sale, I will wait for one of those. But they will not be half the price, move in ready homes start at 160k in the neighborhoods I care for at 40% of the size. There are also not currently single unit homes for sale where I want to buy them, either the houses are too big and expensive for my needs or not where I like. Buying means I also get most of the lifestyle benefits of home ownership, like space for a dog, painting the walls, etc. I am willing to pay for those, but not too much, which is why I want to plan for bad scenarios.
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Jan 19, 2024 02:14
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Motronic posted:This is encouraging, but post-pandemic is a different world and unless you've kept in touch with your trades I'd suggest reestablishing some communications with them before bidding on this house. I still keep in touch with the plumber and the HVAC guy, they both go to my church. Not the others, I will have to give them a call to check availability before bidding. Which is a bit away, I have not viewed the property yet and will not until next Friday (the first day the GC was available). Cyrano4747 posted:You 100% need to find out what the deal with the local historic board is. Those are like HOAs in that each one is unique and you really have to figure out what the limitations they place on your property are. You could be looking at something pretty simple like not tearing down the building or radically changing the exterior looks, or you could be dealing with one that will dictate what specific building materials you use on repairs and limit what kind of restructuring and renovating you can do indoors. Just the materials issue can be a nightmare and lead to you spending a LOT more on renovations than you would otherwise. I have some knowledge about the city's historic districts. I currently live in one and, from talking to my neighbors, they lean more toward the "use historic materials" end of things than the "HOA from hell" end. The city's historic code is exterior focused and this is a rust belt midwestern auto city, so they're not too picky about people who actually maintain buildings. But I will talk to my neighbors and call the district to get more info on turning the home into a multi-unit. The home was already a duplex once, you can see the two doors built into the property. But "it actually happened before" doesn't mean the historic district approves.
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Jan 19, 2024 02:48
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In case anyone cares, historic district info update. They haven't emailed me back yet, but the website was useful. The property is in the lightest level of historic district control. The street is historic commercial, not residential, which means changes to the exterior which do not affect size, style, or windows do not pass through committee. The committee is also supposed to be more permissive overall, which should make it easier to change back to a multi family. Minimal external changes would be needed, since multiple entrances already exist. I also checked the past two years of meeting minutes, thank you Arsenic Lupin for the idea. About what I expected, people complaining about airbnbs, a few property crimes, and a drawn out saga where the city sold some vacant land without telling the board first. But the most useful thing for me is that the meetings went through the vacant property seizure process in detail and it looks like they have been encouraging people to fix or demolish abandoned structures. So renovation plans on an uninhabitable property should be relatively sympathetic, several renovations on other properties have been approved over the past two years. I went to voicemail with city plans and permits, that's still open. I'm leaning toward there being something physically wrong with the property that makes renovation expensive, rather than regulatory. The historic district approved demolition of several properties based on condition and allowed revised plans after construction began, which suggests that either the city is the problem or the structure is.
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Jan 21, 2024 05:49
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Lyesh posted:That sounds promising. Have you been able to contact the seller to get a sense of why they abandoned the project? It could be a novice realtor who decided to try flipping the original property into an investment duplex, but got in over their head due to lack of experience (that would be my guess). Or it could be someone who's done that kinda thing a few times who found some really expensive problems once they got the drywall off and wants out of the looming moneypit. 1904 means knob-and-tube, asbestos, and lead paint are all in play. Plus an entire century+ of renos, conversions, and assorted other changes done with varying levels of competence. I have not spoken to the seller in detail yet. Best case is that this has been a bad year to be a land middleman, so she ran out of money over something relatively simple. Worst case, the home's original sand foundation has been replaced by a colony of endangered, heirloom termites. I lean toward the latter.
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Jan 21, 2024 22:28
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House Update 3 There is now a new candidate for why the house is on the market. The story is that a group of people bought it and were trying to turn it into a bar. They couldn't get a liquor license from the city, which is why they are selling. This partially checks out, the county has the house owned by an LLC (that the listing claims is owned by a real estate agent) and there is another residential to bar conversion on the street, but I'm still suspicious. Non-Cosmetic Problems: The new part of the front porch was not built to code and may need to be completely rebuilt. Part of porch still sagging. New fascia board needed. There are cracks in the front concrete, will need to be refinished. Same in the back. Back needs a porch. Cellar door needs fixing. Part of the roof will need to be replaced. The sewer main is cast iron and part of it has already been replaced by PVC. If inspected, will need the inspector to run a line all the way to the street to be sure. No Asbestos/Lead test. 2nd floor plumbing needs rework, too many right angles. Drop Ceilings on Second Floor, part of first, with minor water damage on both 2900 sqft, 2 (or 3 at times) unit home has 1 fuse box somehow. No knob and tube, but it has to be overloaded. Nothing metered separately, bad for multi family. "Quirks" No Central Air. Third floor unfinished, no vents, not enough wiring. Staircases narrow, grandfathered. Despite having two back porches, there is only one door to a back porch. The other door was walled up and opening it will require historic district review. First floor hardwood floors ruined, second and third floor hardwoods can be refinished. Not an ideal duplex layout. You can have a lower unit with 2 bedrooms all on the first floor and an upper unit on the second and third with 3 bedrooms (or 1 if the 3rd floor remains unfinished). Apparently there were three units in the building at some point, but that has to have been illegal. Actual Nice Things: New Windows Historic Details Built Ins My contractor is confident that all work required to convert the place back into duplex can be finished for under 100k, barring serious, asbestos, lead, or other home inspector uncoverable problems. I am trying to get in touch with the city planning office to go over details at the moment, but its Friday. Regulatory Update: Checking the county records shows that, despite only one person living there for 18 years and having remodeled the place into a single family home, the property is still registered as a two family dwelling. This is the first thing I want to check with the planning and permits office, but if it is true it greatly simplifies things. All of the construction and demolition that the current owner has done since purchase has not been inspected or approved. So I absolutely want to get all planned renovations approved before purchase and a thorough and complete inspection done. My new leading theory as to how this happened is: a group of people bought this house, started work, but didn't coordinate. So they managed to get a change done that wasn't permitted (like the porch or replacement windows), which led to the group falling apart, and now everyone wants out of the deal. Plus maybe someone I haven't been able to find in the city or the historic district is gunning for them. pointlesspart fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 21:01
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Final update on property buying attempt. The city's zoning will let me turn the house into a duplex, but not one with an upper and lower unit. Since all the plumbing is on one side of the house, renovating it back into the other kind of duplex would be prohibitively expensive. Thanks to everyone who told me to bother everyone in the city about this before buying, the relevant official was deep in the phone tree.
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Feb 3, 2024 21:21
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Hadlock posted:Did you take to them about a variance? Seems like they would prefer it renovated generating tax revenue, vs sitting dilapidated until it must be torn down Yes. The current owner does pay the taxes on it and filed a renovation plan, so it doesn't qualify as a delinquent property anymore, even though it was a year ago. This reduces the options available to me, since I would not actually be buying a delinquent property. Theoretically, the city can grant me an exception anyway and let me do the renovations and rezone after purchase, but I want a promise, in writing, before purchase. Anything else seemed like assuming too much risk for too little reward. The partial renovation situation seems to be turning into a quagmire and it doesn't have to be my headache. Also, you're kidding about the "torn down" part right? There are thousands abandoned structures in city limits, this goes to the back of the line.
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Feb 4, 2024 01:23
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I am doing due diligence again on another potentially massive money pit. The facts: Asking price: $250k Built in 1892 4000 sq ft main house ~2000 sq ft carriage house, includes second floor apartment. Listing doesn't give exact measurements for carriage house. Third floor ballroom was converted to an apartment at some point. County has it listed as multi family, but that may be an artifact of the carriage house and the home occupying multiple lots. Or the ballroom apartment. In historic district, good location. Safe, near a magnet school, businesses moving in, etc. Most of the roof replaced 6 years ago. Old mechanicals I think the PO died partway through renovation, but the name is hard to google. Neighborhood sales prices in the past two years with square footage greater than 3000: 210k, 3100 sqft 260k, 3200 sqft 305k, 11500 sqft (was a church, I suspect the footage has something up with it making it an outlier) 325k, 3300 sqft 335k, 4500 sqft My main goals are to find out exactly how much work is still undone and get estimates. If the work is mostly cosmetic, I'll consider buying. If not, I'll find something cheaper. This appears to be in better condition than the previous, but that is a very low bar. Question: Has anyone disputed a property valuation before and how much of a nightmare is it? I've looked up the process in my state and it seems like an uphill battle. On the other hand, the property is valued by the county at close to 500k and lowering that to close to market value will save a lot of money. Nothing in the neighborhood can support that valuation, despite the recent upswing. And, of course, I welcome any potential problems anyone finds. You all have been very helpful in general.
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Feb 24, 2024 02:20
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skybolt_1 posted:This will be a massive money pit, beginning and end of story, as are all houses of this and older vintage. If you are into renovating old properties to their former glory / enjoy un-loving 132 years of Garys sins / have a burning desire to gut and rebuild the place in order to insulate, rewire, modernize generally, then I strongly suggest you buy it. I have committed to nothing and not yet viewed the property. I have also noped out of other properties for being too expensive to fix, but you don't know they'll be too expensive without looking. It has only been on the market for a week, worth checking out. The neighborhood also provides a ballparkish estimate on costs to get a historic home in livable condition in this area, since some of those homes are fix and flips. Of course, conditions in those homes may be different, this one could have unsalvageable problems, etc. But on a more specific note, asbestos may not be an issue here. Large scale asbestos mining and construction only started in the 1880s and didn't really pick up till the 1900s, after 1910 for the middle classes. Granted, this was a rich man's home and asbestos was a fancy material, so he may have sprung for the good (bad) stuff. But it may still have been too early for that. Lead based paint and knob and tube are far more likely and I will still get everything tested for asbestos, if I even get that far. Later renovations can introduce it. Arsenic Lupin posted:You forgot "ancient plumbing that is at least 70 years past its expected lifespan". Bonus option: steam radiators that are *also* connected to plumbing 70 years past. Fortunately, I am friends with two plumbers. Unfortunately, neither can see through the walls.
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Feb 24, 2024 04:33
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Well, everybody's freaking out but I gave this a low chance of being viable and, after viewing it, it is nonviable. The floor plan will not be easily subdividable and I don't need 3000+ square feet of personal space. You act like I already bought the place, instead of just doing a first pass look. Other fun facts: The lady who owns it broke her hip, she is still alive. Her husband died recently, unfortunately. There is a shaft from the second floor to the basement, without any intermediary stairs or door to the first floor. No idea how that happened. Asbestos free since 2003, according to the disclosures. I'll go back to my normal property search. Most of the properties I've looked at in the past 6 weeks have not been construction projects, the construction projects are the ones which generate questions that I can't answer just from internet searches.
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Feb 24, 2024 21:43
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I got an offer accepted today at $175k, $185k asking, with inspection contingencies on a 125 year old house. The disclosures said there is nothing wrong with it other than remediated minor water damage. Things aren't so hot in the rust belt. I am prepared for this to go poorly, just contacted a home inspector and sent the mortgage people everything they need to steal my identity.
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Mar 12, 2024 02:16
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Cyrano4747 posted:There are also just people out there, especially in HCOL areas, who can afford to throw down cash. Some of those people may not even be selling their investments. Buy, Borrow, Die doesn't work as well now that interest rates are higher, but if you have a decently sized brokerage account, you can pull a good amount out of it for a house, then refinance afterward. This is cheap as a bridge loan. Interactive Brokers was willing to let me withdraw half my account value on margin, without an application. If you are willing to enroll in a proper asset backed line of credit, you can get a loan for a larger percentage of account value.
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Mar 12, 2024 13:58
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Well, the house I was under contract for is a no go. The inspector didn't explicitly tell me to run, but he found very serious foundation issues. He then told me to contact a structural engineer if I keep going and that we can cut the inspection short and call it a consultation to save some fees. Which sounds like run to me. Different question: There is a house for sale that is a land of contrasts. I want internet strangers opinions on it. Basically every positive has a contrasting negative. It is small, 800 sq ft, but on a huge lot. Most of the lot is not buildable, designated flood control area for a creek, but you can raise animals on it (which I have checked and the municipality explicitly allows) and it contains about a buildable half acre. The neighborhood is bad, think a trailer park. But it is 20 minutes, by bike trail, from work, downtown, family, church, basically everywhere local I want to go. It is also cheap, but strictly as is. So the lot is great, the house is meh, the neighborhood is bad, the location is good, and the price is a mystery?
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Mar 16, 2024 00:01
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Motronic posted:There is no guarantee the neighborhood gets better or even stays the same. The lot is compromised, the house is too small for most people. That's a grade D property. If you want a grade D property, make sure you are paying a grade D price for it. The current asking price is 4/5 of my salary. I realize that is still a lot of money and I am not going in to this to waste money, but the margin for error is slightly larger than most home purchasing decisions. No reason to be careless of course. The house is the most expensive on the block, but only by about 40%. I'd liked to get that down to 30% for the extra acres. Useless for developers or proper agriculture, fine for a dog. Arsenic Lupin posted:Do bear in mind that the Federal flood plain maps are waaaaaaay out of date, extreme rains are getting more common, so there's a good chance the land reserved for flood control is no longer sufficient to control floods. Fortunately (?), the local area had one of the most devastating floods in American history 100 years ago and made massive flood control works to handle a flood 50% larger. So odds are better than most cities that it will actually work for normal 21st century floods. Still buying insurance, assuming I get that far.
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Mar 16, 2024 00:52
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Motronic posted:That's always bad. And if it's literally surrounded by trailer park those other "houses" are depreciating in value because they don't work like stick built homes in that regard. The neighborhood is not an actual trailer park, just a similar demographic. The homes there are permanent structures, just old.
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Mar 16, 2024 01:01
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Cyrano4747 posted:Just give us numbers. If you work at Beat Buy and the property costs $30k that’s going to be a very different story than if you’re a computer toucher and it costs 300k I make 165k, it costs 135k. Median home price in the immediate neighborhood hovers just under 100k, the general area is one of the cheapest housing markets in the US.
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Mar 16, 2024 01:10
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hobbez posted:What do you wanna do with the place? Renovate? Tear it down and build a new structure? Live in as is? Live in as is, provided it is habitable. Most of the money I would put into the place at the moment would be in outdoor structures. Chicken coop, dog door, maybe plant some trees or put up additional fencing? I am well aware of the miserable state of housing in the rest of the US, which is most of reason I am pushing myself to buy something. I may not live at the national bottom forever, even if this neighborhood remains locally terrible. But the house itself only has one neighbor, the rest is trees and bike path.
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Mar 16, 2024 01:30
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Tricky Ed posted:You're in the opposite situation from most people buying a house. You can clearly afford it. How long will you be in the situation where you want to live in it? 800 ft is a great starter house, and is even fine for a couple and a toddler. Commuting time under 20 minutes by car to all of work, church, grocery store, downtown, and family. Ideally, bike commuting to at least two of these is viable. Enough yard to have a dog. Ideally, I'd have other animals too. Will not get stabbed (mandatory). Will not get robbed (nice to have). Does not cost fifty percent more my current rent ($900) per month on a net basis. I am not willing to pay a ton for luxuries, especially since owning a house is a lifestyle decision in and of itself. Even if I increase this range to 500k, looking over the past year shows only 21 commuting and neighborhood acceptable houses that had enough space to raise non-dog animals. 2 were within bike commuting of at least one important destination, 0 were within two. The combination of land and bicycle commuting is tough. I had been prepared to sacrifice land for bike with other houses. This search area covers the populated core of my MSA. But there's also only 25 results ignoring price, which now include an actual farm, and three mansions, two of which would never allow anything gauche in their municipality. So little inventory, even if I can afford what little inventory is there. I checked the LexisNexis crime map, the neighborhood is basically crime free. It is run down and poor, but not dangerous.
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Mar 16, 2024 04:54
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:So is there any secret or nonsecret trick to finding a really thorough home inspector The inspector who found foundation problems on the house I was going to buy was specifically mentioned on the company website that they specialized in 100+ year old homes. That's a lot of the market around here, but if you have that problem, you have that problem. So the thread convinced me not to buy the property in the good location but bad neighborhood. Better options should come up. Thank you. My problem is on a different basis than most homebuyer problems. I can easily afford most of the houses that are for sale, but they don't have what I want. The inventory on the market has been historically low and most of it is properties with problems. That means either patience, lower standards, or weird things. Epitope posted:When's the last time biz fin told someone they're living too far below their means House buying is mostly to address this problem. Everything I want to buy requires outdoor space and I would like it to be permanent. Even then, it's not that expensive to get some animals, plant trees, and maybe bees. I want to buy for lifestyle reasons, but I also do not want to give up the lifestyle benefits of low commuting times by car and bicycle. Commuting is terrible. More weird questions, but first context. There is a duplex that is not for sale, but one unit is for rent and the listing has been up since November. From what I can tell, it is a hard unit to rent. The neighborhood is mostly single family homes but each of the duplex units is only two bedrooms. Because of how the yards are partitioned, one unit has the garage and the other half has both backyards. The unoccupied unit is the one with both backyards. But again, this is a two bedroom unit with on street parking that is outside of major traffic areas in a bad school district (the whole city is a bad school district). Not great for families, not great for singles, it has been unoccupied for going on four months. Last sold in July 2022 for $195k. Assuming a 60 day rate lookback, that gives it a mortgage interest rate in the 5% range, not the 2% one. The current owner has a maximum occupancy rate of 90%, assuming there are no other vacancies for either unit in the 21 months they've owned it. The property meets everything I need in a property and most of what I want. Good commuting times, just enough outdoor space in the unoccupied unit, and even a reasonably nice neighborhood. Redfin estimates the price at $218k, Zillow at $223k. I don't know what an appraiser would stick on it. Assuming it would cost $240k, that is still less than a 1.5 home price to income ratio for me. I have enough money saved to put up to 30% down, so financing should not be an issue. How do I approach the owner and tell them that I am not interested in renting the property, but am willing to buy it? The county has it owned by an out of state llc and the rental listing agent is from a property management company. Since the home is for rent, that is closer to for sale than most other homes. My ideal property has more outdoor space and less indoor space, so multiple unit properties are actually better for lifestyle reasons. I don't want the inside and, though I am willing to rent it out, I don't need to to afford the place. pointlesspart fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 03:47
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CloFan posted:Maybe it's just me but I cannot follow what you are talking about. Is this a single-family home? You say the neighborhood is mostly that but then the rest of your post sounds like it's a duplex... Until we get to the part about 9 other renters. It is a duplex, I edited the post to make that more clear. Last time it sold, both lots were sold together and they are combined in the county records with a single owner. Where did I talk about 9 other renters? The current owner has owned both units for 21 months, so that is 42 potential months of rent. At least 4 are unoccupied, based on the fact that the rental listing has been up for that long. 38/42 = .904, so that rounds to 90% occupancy, assuming no other vacancies.
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Mar 18, 2024 04:37
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CloFan posted:Oh I gotcha now. I thought you meant like one unit out of 10 was vacant, so there's a 90% occupancy rate. Nevermind what I said about the backyards then too I doubt they'll sell, but the cost to offer to buy should be low. Plus if they won't sell now but do end up selling later, there's a chance they just call the guy who already offered to buy the place. What's the worst that can happen? Asking rent is $1150, which they cannot get. A unit two blocks down has three bedrooms and the same price, why would you pick the smaller one? The rented unit was at $725 before purchase, rent has probably gone up and/or they've found another tenant. The latter option has costs for the owner in potential vacancy and management fees. Their mortgage, property taxes, and insurance should be around $1050, assuming 25% down for an investor mortgage at 5%. The duplex may just barely be profitable with one unit, excluding maintenance and property management. Of course, if the place is paid off, that's different. But that's nontypical for a real estate investor. pointlesspart fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 05:03
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This afternoon, a real estate broker put 40 properties up for online auction in my market. On average, 160 homes sell per month in the city. They all close next month and you can only bid online (according to the listings). This seems kind of weird, I haven't heard of 25% of a market coming from a single auction before. Has anyone seen something like this? Other info Listing claims the properties are investor owned. I can confirm that at least 3 of them have been for rent in the past year. The market is cheap, average home price hovers around $115k in the city, $200k metro. All of the listed properties are in the city. Other properties are still being listed at about the normal rate. Prices are all low, but they are supposed to be opening bids.
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Apr 19, 2024 22:07
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in a well actually posted:Somebody needs to get liquidity quickly or they died and their heirs want to get the estate resolved. I checked five listings with the county. Three are owned by individuals and two by corporations. All have local mailing addresses, no duplicates. So it doesn't look like this is just one entity.
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Apr 19, 2024 22:34
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Hadlock posted:There might be a tax or liability thing that goes in to effect, or estate tax, on date Y in your local area edit: or rent control Rent control is illegal on a state level, so it's not that. I haven't heard about any tax things or something in local news sources. About half of the county got reassessed three years ago and there's a five year reassessment timeline. The closing date for all successful bids is the last business day of June. The NAR settlement goes into effect in July. Maybe that's the change? All of the lots have a 2% buyer's agent premium, below the normal 3%. Lockback posted:Or the real estate broker kept telling people to wait because rates were about to come down and give prices a kick and just now realized he's got no idea what he's talking about. That would imply some level incompetence by a real estate professional. So there's always thread title.
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Apr 20, 2024 16:40
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Are there cost effective ways to roll other home buying related expenses (repairs, moving costs, furniture, etc) into a down payment or closing costs? I have a lot of my down payment in one of these (https://tos.ohio.gov/homebuyerplus/), which is my best option for keeping a down payment. It is state tax advantaged and pays above market interest rates, which means it beats any HYSA I can find. The rest of the home buying money is held in taxable investment vehicles, like my brokerage account and normal bank account. My market is cheap, thanks Ohio, and I have slightly below the projected 20%+closing costs in the Homebuyer Plus account for the lower end of my price range. I would prefer to keep using the Homebuyer plus account for house related savings, but the proceeds can only be used for down payments and closing costs. But if I keep putting money in to cover my entire price range, it is likely I will end up with excess, which I should find something to do with. My credit union said they pay out excess funds in the account at a penalty for the Ohio tax requirements, so that is the default and it is worse than a normal HYSA. I can just play it safe and keep money in excess of the lower bound of my target price range somewhere else, but could be suboptimal if I can put it toward other eligible expenses. Homebuyer Plus is a very new program, it started in January, so there is minimal guidance about it online.
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Apr 28, 2024 14:26
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silvergoose posted:During winter, sun is on the south side of the sky, so the driveway will actually goddamn melt ever The opposite is true, the sun's path is in the north in the winter. But the southern hemisphere is less populated and the areas that are populated are, on average, warmer. Getting a north facing driveway may matter in the Southern Cone, parts of New Zealand, and Antarctica. Anyone buying a a house there should weigh in.
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May 3, 2024 04:33
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