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I only contacted Progressive for my homeowners insurance due to the reduced rate because I have my cars there as well but I will say to call their customer service after you get an online quote number. The online quote system is fairly simple, and gave me a quote of $551/yr for high deductibles and the basic coverages and with a phone call they offered me $475/yr, lowered the deductibles, increased my coverage, and added a rider for my wife's wedding rings. After that I gave the person on the phone the number for my mortgage broker and they handled the rest of the information, which I think was my broker giving loan specifics to Progressive and Progressive providing a doc called a DEC page to the broker/bank.
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May 19, 2009 20:02
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orinth posted:One day, I decided to check out craigslist which I didn't do too often since most everything on there is on the MLS aside from FSBOs. I found a FSBO which looked nice, and we went and looked at it and put an offer on it later that night. I ended up piecing together a sales contract from the internet that was less than 2 pages long. Could you expand on how the rest of this process went? Looking at my sales contract I could easily piece together one of these, but I was worried about anything else that needed to be done after you were under contract. How did you protect yourself to take advantage of doing this yourself (Not having to pay a buyer's realtor 3% commission).
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May 19, 2009 20:12
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Tap posted:My question is: based on this information, would I be ready to purchase a home @ 250k? No way. The payment of just the principal and interest on 250K @ 5.00% will be $1340, plus taxes, insurance, and PMI will be looking to be over 50% of your take home pay. Your 13K is not a significant down payment and money in your 401k shouldn't even be a consideration.
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May 28, 2009 17:44
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HankHill posted:Your total expenses after purchasing are $1700/mo and you take home over $4K. You could write a check for ~$2000 each month for your mortgage and have the place paid off in under 5 years if you wanted to. That said, consider things like the stability and future outlook on your job, and also whether or not you want to stay in the area. Other than that you are pretty set, PMI or no PMI. If you purchase before Dec 1st you can choose to amend this years taxes and get an $8000 check a few weeks later (Your tax person can do this for you if you have one, being self employed and all). Or you can save it for next year.
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Jun 10, 2009 12:27
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Strict 9 posted:I still am stunned that the government didn't find a way to make the $8000 available for use as a down payment. Apparently this is starting to happen in Missouri, but that's about it. I can't believe that banks also don't have some type of system setup for this. I mean I wouldn't even mind paying a fair amount of interest for a two month $8000 loan that I would pay back the moment I received the credit. I don't know if that would be the best idea. If $8,000 would make or break your first home purchase you really need to reconsider purchasing. I just purchased a home and am already a few thousand deep in new tools, yard equipment, and other things. Its much more of a blessing after the fact rather than to help borderline cases get into homes and end up having to put a lawnmower, trimmer, edger, ladder, etc. etc. etc. onto a credit card and be worse off than they were before.
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Jun 17, 2009 18:23
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Numbnuts posted:Has anyone used TurboTax to file their form 5405 for the tax credit? When I did my taxes earlier in the year I got about $2500 back, now after going over my 2008 return again and adding in the first time homebuyer credit my federal refund is at $10,600. If I submit this will I only get the 8k back or will I get that full $10,600. I feel like I might be loving something up with this... sorry if this was already answered but I didn't see anything. You overpaid them by $2,600 so they owed you that money anyways. You will get your return + $8,000. If you already received your $2,600 amend your return and they will send you the other $8,000. Cmdr. Shepard posted:My question is, I guess for anyone in areas where property taxes are high, why haven't property taxes gone down in conjunction with dropping home values? After looking at what people around the country are paying for property taxes, the $4,100 I'm looking at on a $126,000 house seems outrageous. Yes that is an extra $400/mo on what should be a $700/mo loan. Either Chicago has retarded property tax, your house was last assessed during the boom, or a combination of both. So you are paying $1100/mo + another $100-200/mo in insurance to own a $126K home. Your first payment of $1300 will result in you paying down ~$140 on your principal. $1160 just went down the drain. It doesn't get much better down the road, 10 years into the loan your monthly principal payment has grown to a whopping... $240. By then you have paid $156,000 in payments ($41K in interest) and you still owe $104K on the $126K house. I bet a $125K house anywhere near Chicago would immediately destroy your $12K savings with repairs along with everything else you need to buy for your first home. Other Options: Investigate whether you can get a much lower tax rate by avoiding certain city limits or counties. That home inside city limits in Atlanta would be a very similar rate, outside the city limits it would be $1200-1300. Look up tax records on the county's website and see how it is broken down. You can also see what the house was assessed at and call the county/city and see when it will be assessed again to possibly go down. Get a loan with a better interest rate. I've pimped this non-profit organization I used a few times here and they are really good at helping you find out what you can really afford if you get a good counselor. [img]www.naca.com[/img] They also have no closing costs so anything the seller gives as a concession can be used to pay down your interest rate, 1% up front for .25% permanent reduction. I purchased at $125K and the seller was offering $6K in closing costs. After my lock at 4.25% it paid down with the $6K to 3.0%, fixed, for 30 years, on a 100% loan. I was $1200 out of pocket on the entire ordeal, to fill up escrow accounts and pay title insurance with another $200 for a home/termite inspection. Oh yeah I forgot to account for PMI in your payment earlier, there isn't any on NACA loans. There are downsides for sure, you are supposed to volunteer 5 times a year for them (But everyone I know of has never volunteered at all and they dont keep track), and you have to be a member of their club for $50/mo after you close for the first 5-10 years (Cheaper than PMI), and the process is a pain in the rear end. If you are interested at all shoot me an e-mail at my username @ gmail. I don't get anything for it but I'll be happy to answer any questions you have it you are interested.
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Jul 1, 2009 15:57
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Tax rates will most likely go up due to the assessed value of everyone's home going up. The city needs its money somehow. What pisses me off is that tax rate will probably stay up after home prices recover. So goes the cycle of increased dependency on government spending... But the assessed value of everyone's home are going down recently. The problem has been tax rates are staying high during the home pricing drop, making $150K houses that were assessed at $350K 2-3 years ago have prohibitively high tax rates. Eventually enough homeowners/sellers/banks will put in the effort to challenge their assessment to a more reasonable level but will probably never get back to to a realistic level until housing prices head back up. Homeowners and sellers are too uninformed to care, banks are too lazy to challenge assessments on the foreclosures they own, and government is too dependent on the revenue to make the process actually move. I could see a slight automatic drop off as assessments are triggered from sales or other causes based on the jurisdictions laws, but not a rise right now. Eventually as housing prices start to rise they will meet these levels again and taxes will obviously stay the higher rate.
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Jul 1, 2009 21:49
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Cmdr. Shepard posted:This is what it says on my county assessors website: I would make a phone call asking what happens if a property is sold at $126K and is currently assessed for $260K. As retarded as they are, someone with some sense may have given you some sort of legal recourse. That said it doesn't help you a whole lot now, and it would be sort of a gamble to bet on being reassessed properly. Can you look up the tax bills on the property and find out whether its Chicago's fault or Cook County's fault and try aiming outside city limits if the majority of the tax is coming from Chicago? In Atlanta you pay ~1-1.3% for any metro county, but Atlanta proper is ~3% more but only covers a small area.
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Jul 2, 2009 00:27
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Realjones posted:The problem is that the people that use the money that comes from property taxes are already facing huge gaps in their budgets from foreclosed homes that aren't paying any property taxes anymore. I have wondered about this for a while, wouldn't the banks be paying the property taxes on these homes? I wouldn't think the government would just give them a pass because its a bank owned property rather than a person owned property. Seems to me if the bank wasn't paying the property tax the government would put a tax lien on the property. Cheesemaster200 posted:Err, my bad, meant the assessed value going down prompts the tax rate to go up to compensate. I get that now, but I guess that depends on the local government to pass higher taxes. I'm sure there are more than a few places around that would string up their local officials for attempting to raise taxes right now.
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Jul 2, 2009 13:35
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peengers posted:And my realtor is a retard. Everyone in real estate is retarded, top to bottom. 
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Jul 12, 2009 03:46
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Ottoman posted:They are willing to lend 3x to us because Jim has a credit score of 810. Also FHA loans treat potential rental income as actual income when deciding your max amount. That being said we are definitely leery about the whole multi-unit thing in general, but the mortgage specialist also included repair/maintenance expenses in our budget for a multi-unit. I was just wondering about the FHA loan on a 5-unit but I'm thinking that 5-units are automatically commercial and thus we can't do it? I typed up some big long thing but just erased it. In the end you are going to buy a house and feel like you are chained to it because its more than you need to be handling right now. Get any sort of steady work, even part time, and you will be in a much better position to look. Buy a $100-110K house with 20% down and keep the rest as a nest egg. Oh and taxes in PA are going to make you change your mind about ever owning a house.
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Jul 26, 2009 03:20
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xaarman posted:What is the general consensus of buying down your interest rate? Worth it or a waste of $$? How long are you buying down and at what exchange rate?
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Jul 27, 2009 20:09
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professor of whales posted:The degree would be a Bachelor's in Accounting. I have enough experience at my current job that it could be applied to a higher paying job. I have been hesitant to jump ship just because of the current job market, although Accounting has been reasonably stable in this area. I agree that I would need to take a hard look at the income. As far as the projected monthly mortgage payment, does 900-1000 a month seem reasonable? Seems fairly accurate depending on how bad property taxes are.
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Jul 28, 2009 16:04
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dreesemonkey posted:I can't wait to get student loans knocked out and then start shoveling money on the mortgage until we at least get rid of that PMI. It'll be a couple of years, though How much in student loans do you have left compared to the amount you need to get PMI erased? If you count PMI as just additional interest that moves your $138,700 loan up to 6.95%. Are you suffering under a 5 year timer to be able to challenge your PMI?
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Jul 28, 2009 21:09
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Shazbot v2.0 posted:If you need to spend $150-190K to feel safe you do not need to be purchasing right now. Your pay at $45,000 will be borderline at the lower end of this, you don't have enough money for a quality down payment along with all the usual "Im buying a house" costs. Not to mention to are thinking about running off in a year and you will not want to have a chain tied to your ankle like a house, even if you can rent it out. If your tenants leave you are $1,000/mo in the hole and your salary cannot support that. Don't borrow from your retirement savings to pay for a house. Especially if you have to pay it back. All that does is add another payment to your budget. Use that inheritance to pay off that line of credit and begin saving your money. Go find an apartment with a friend and when you are more settled in a few years begin thinking about it again. Get a job, figure out if you like it enough to stay in Winnipeg for it, figure out if you want to marry your girlfriend and where she wants to live. Oh and going from a broke college student to $40,000-45,000 is a big change. You will have a lot more disposable income and you will gently caress it up and not save any money if you let yourself buy a new flatscreen, xbox, blu-ray player, etc. etc. etc. Make a budget and you can easily be saving $1K+ per month.
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Jul 29, 2009 15:46
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Shazbot v2.0 posted:In regards to the neighborhood comment, Winnipeg is fairly small, so if I do stay here I don't think I'd have a problem picking where I want to live. I have an appointment with the bank in about a months time to go over a financial plan with them so I'll hold onto the money for now. My $4500 in RRSPs would have been worth more but when the market tanked I transfered a lot of my high risk stuff into a no risk mutual fund thinking I would use it for a house. No big deal though, thanks again for the advice and info. Off topic, but get that money back into the market right now. That money has 30-40 more years to grow and you took it out when it was low and the DOW has gone up 35-40% since March. I started my 401K at this time last year and my $3200 investment is worth $3890 right now. And I was down 40% like everyone else in the beginning.
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Jul 29, 2009 21:52
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peengers posted:Ok, so this house that we made an offer on (short sale, offer was accepted) now has a newly-discovered second mortgage and also a $6000 judgment against it. A title search was done and the company that held the second mortgage folded, but not before selling it to bank of america. RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN Just walk away this isn't worth the pain.
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Jul 30, 2009 14:24
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$325K @ 5.25% is $1800/mo just on principal (initially $375) and interest (initially $1425). By the time you pay taxes and insurance you will be way over half of your income going to pay for housing. Not to mention HOA fees on a condo added in there as well. The interest on your mortgage will equal what you are paying in rent halfway into year 4. If you have a $400/mo tax payment and $200/mo HOA fees you will begin breaking even versus renting around year 19. My wife and I have a little more in take home, and with no debt we would still only feel comfortable at ~$200K, and that would be single family homes with no HOA fees.
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Sep 2, 2009 14:31
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Sophia posted:^^ I don't see why that would be way too much - the payment he talked about is something I could easily make with a few lifestyle modifications (get rid of the gym membership, take domestic vacations instead of international ones, cut down the cable package, buy generics and plan meals more carefully) and still save ~$300 / month, plus I would gain about 1,000 square feet and two bedrooms. Maybe I just live less expensively than other people, I don't know. Its not that you couldn't afford it, you can probably make the payments, but $2300 is almost 60% of your take home. That is heads and feet above what most people consider reasonable for housing. On top of that you just need to be aware that it is not a sound financial decision over renting. Do you really want to adjust your savings, vacations, cable plan, and eating habits just for another 1,000 square feet of living space that you have to share with a roommate? Have you investigated renting in the communities you are looking at?
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Sep 2, 2009 16:21
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Abbeh posted:The owner's children asked to have closing that far away so they could find a new place to live, but we'd either have to let them live there for 3 days for free (which makes us liable for ANYTHING that happens to them there) or start the whole process over with two days before closing. Mine stayed a week, with an occupancy agreement we signed at closing that they are responsible for new damage, liability, etc. etc. for the agreed period. I am sure something could go wrong, but if its seriously make or break on the house just have your lawyer write up an amendment you are happy with and tell them to sign it and enjoy their 3 day free rental. Strict 9 posted:I'm curious, did anyone here file an extension and do their $8k that way instead of an amendment? I knew it was likely I'd be buying a house this year so I just filed an extension on my federal taxes. I wonder if that will make the rebate check any sooner (or later) than if I had done an amendment. Yes I filed an extension and when it did file I got my return in the 7-10 days they said it would take, $6,500 return. This was May.
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Sep 16, 2009 14:34
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geetee posted:My thinking is always buy what you'll enjoy. The seller found you and you'll find a seller one day. Hopefully selling won't even be a concern of yours for many years to come anyway. Old people and couples with younger children. It is something you do have to take into consideration. Is the quad level attached to other units? If so you have to look into HOA/repair monthly fees and how much that is adding to your monthly payment over the free standing home.
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Sep 21, 2009 16:08
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Zewle posted:Actually, does anyone here any knowledge of general repair prices? It will vary drastically by market but general contractors will be more than happy to give you an estimate.
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Oct 3, 2009 05:29
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Dik Hz posted:The $8k is going directly to the sellers, and housing prices will most likely go down when the program ends. If we presume that house prices are inflated by $8K then you could think of it this way, but there is more to look at. Sure the seller gets their $8K from you, you take on an additional $8K on your mortgage, but you get the $8K cash. You are, at worst, taking out a $8K home equity line of credit at the same rate as your mortgage with no additional fees (a pretty good deal). No one is really losing anything unless you are "overpaying" for the home by more than $8K. And when you start getting into that much money hopefully the appraisal and comparable properties will disqualify you from doing something stupid. Lets say you are looking at a home for $108K, putting your 20% (21.6K) down which will deplete your savings completely. After you close you will replenish your savings to $8K. If you waited till after the credit, you may be able to buy the house for $100K, put $20K down, and your savings will be $1.6K, a pretty big difference. The $6400 difference in the mortgages won't account for a whole heck of a lot of money per month and you aren't underwater if you put the appropriate money down on the house. This is pretty simplified, but its the exact reason I bought in May. I don't feel like I overpaid at all, I'm out of an apartment into a significantly cheaper house, and have the money to fix things that break.
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Oct 26, 2009 05:10
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Dik Hz posted:Here's the deal: Your house will be worth $8k less after the stimulus goes away. Not only that, but you're buying into the tail-end of a still inflated market. You will have $8K less equity in your house after the stimulus goes away, you will also have $8K in your pocket. Thanks, I guess? Tell me how this affects me any differently than any other wasteful government program. Other than the fact this one benefited me directly.
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Oct 26, 2009 14:41
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Daeus posted:Does this make sense? I was pretty surprised when I got the actual numbers, I didn't think it would have that large of an impact. If anyone has any comments or critique I would appreciate it. It makes sense, but you have to note that despite the 5-10% different in house price needed, it won't affect your total payment by 5-10%. It feels lower because you typically add on another $150-250 in taxes and insurance in the same payment and you aren't feeling it as much. It still sucks though! Sorry to get into the argument of whether or not the stimulus should or should exist/get extended. I really don't care either way. What should be talked about in here is whether or not people should buy if the stimulus exists and I think there are many situations where it would be smart to buy now if you get $8,000 and not smart to buy if you don't. The majority of the time in here it is a matter of the person not being in the position to buy regardless of the $8,000 and the extra money is tricking them into thinking its a good idea. For example, having $0 in the bank, borrowing $8,000 from daddy under the table for the 3.5% Down Payment and Closing Costs, and buying a home when you have $0 saved.
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Oct 27, 2009 06:03
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I filed for an extension and I e-filed my return in May and didn't have to send anything in. I typed in my closing date and cost of the home into TaxCut and 3 weeks later my money was direct deposited into my account. Didn't take very long at all but that is probably because I didn't amend. The accountant probably asked for proof so he didn't get himself in trouble filling out a false return because you could be lying.
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Oct 27, 2009 17:28
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Strict 9 posted:Man, this poo poo just never ends. Sort of, but we found out that they wanted a week to move a few days before closing. Ended up taking longer, but we just sucked it up because we weren't moving for a few weeks anyways. Good news is carpet is pretty cheap I guess! Curtains and blinds too. Seems weird for them to take the blinds.
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Oct 28, 2009 16:41
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jassi007 posted:Are we in a position to buy? A little more information is needed: A) Amount, Interest Rate, and Payment on upcoming wife student loan. B) Amount and Number of Payments remaining on your cars C) Property Taxes in your area. My parents live in PA (Mt. Joy) and they are paying taxes in the 3-4% range compared to my 1-1.25% in GA. It makes it fairly prohibitive to purchase if they are too high. Find a few houses in your area and look up your county tax commissioners office website and you should be able to pull tax bills and get an idea. D) Will your new company count your old company as time worked with them for your employment history check? If you are trying to get this loan and are shown as being at your current job for only the past few months, there is no way you are getting approved. Assuming a best case scenario of your wife's student loans being small, being able to get at least one of your cars paid off, and property taxes being low in your county I would say you still need to build a larger cash reserve. Filling escrows, closing costs, fees, inspections, etc. will eat up the majority of that $10K very quickly possibly leaving you with less than 3.5% minimum down. Then you end up paying PMI on top of that. What do you get for $575/mo renting? Why not look at trying at trying to rent a house for the time being until you can build up $20-30K and get the cars paid off?
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Dec 31, 2009 17:29
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I think I posted on NACA earlier in this thread but I'll cover it again. Its a lot of work to get a loan through them, but its really worth it.Leperflesh posted:Hmm. I had never heard of these guys before but I gotta say, this web page does not inspire confidence. Especially Step 5, it reads exactly like a MLM or cult or something. You have to commit to start doing your volunteer work before Step 7, which is the initial Qualification; that's crazy. Any other bank performs a mortgage qualification for free and without commitment. You don't have to do any volunteer work for NACA before you get a loan. There is nothing in your loan documents that is contingent on you volunteering to NACA 5 times per year. You sign a "commitment" promise that is completely non-binding. I talked with the NACA lawyer at close and he said its not mandatory legally speaking. I also talked with a few friends who had NACA loans and they said they hadn't actually done anything and no one had ever contacted them (Atlanta area, YMMV). The volunteering is pretty much helping out at a 4 hour meeting or a day in their office, and you can fulfill one by having a NACA yard sign. Leperflesh posted:There are some more warning signs. Look at Step 11: "You need to hire a NACA approved home inspector to inspect the property and provide you with a written report containing valuable information such as necessary or future repairs, utilities and energy efficiency. ... If repairs are needed, they must either be made by the seller or from funds provided by the seller, buyer, government entities, or financed as part of the mortgage. " You must hire a home inspector that has been approved by NACA. They don't work for NACA, they just have done the step of sending in their insurance paperwork and business docs to show they are a real home inspector. If you have your own, they can send in some paperwork and be "NACA APPROVED!". Same for real estate agents and contractors. On the second part, certain things cannot be accepted and fixed later. An inspection report is sent to NACA and anything they deem necessary will have to be A) fixed by the seller B) financed by you and contracted out to be fixed post closing. You will have to get a quote for the work before you close and the quote will have to be approved by their rehab department. For little poo poo like GFCI outlets and other things people can fix themselves the inspector will typically put that in their report to you but not tell NACA because they know whats up. I ended up financing $13K into my mortgage to fix up the house I was purchasing. NACA made me contract out drywalling off the water heater/furnace from the rest of the garage, repair some vinyl siding, garage door openers, repair chimney flue, fix slow drains, new water heater, new AC/Furnace. I also got to finance in "optional" things like all new kitchen appliances and carpet in the bedrooms. This doubled the amount of work I put into buying the house and is a whole other post. Leperflesh posted:Yeah, despite their apparent status as a "HUD Certified counseling agency" this deal seems a bit too, uh, 'religious' for my tastes. Maybe someone would be better off saving up 3.5% for an FHA down payment and going with that... This I agree with. They are rabid about bad lending practices. They blame the recent bust 100% on banks tricking people into bad loans and 0% on personal accountability. They frequently close their offices to fly their entire workforce to picket bank CEOs houses. The 4 hour intro meeting you go to is at least 3 hours of the history of NACA making GBS threads on banks. THE GOOD NEWS: I financed a $110K HOME + 13K in repairs. No closing costs means the seller concessions of $6K went to buy down the interest rate which got the 4.5% rate down to 3.0%, fixed, 30 years, with 0% down. I was about $2000 out of pocket on the entire deal, which went for the pre-buy/post-renovation inspector, filling insurance/tax escrow accounts, and title insurance. THE BAD NEWS: $50/mo NACA membership fee built into my house payment. Cheaper than PMI + higher interest rate. I think I can officially cancel that after 5 years, but as I haven't really jumped on volunteering I think its the least I can do. Adding another middle man to an already retarded home buying process makes for a really painful buying experience. I found my house in mid-March and closed at the end of May which I guess isn't terrible for a short sale. The house must be owner occupied and there is a lien on my title that says this. I can rent out my basement but I may not move somewhere else and rent the property without refinancing my loan. This is to keep people from using NACA to buy rental property. Banks hate NACA. The bank handling the short sale of this house canceled the deal three times, once the day before closing. NACA has a well deserved reputation for taking forever. I think they say give at least 60 days from bid to closing to get all your stuff done, and lots of folks don't like that. I think financing the home I wanted plus most of what I needed to make it livable at 3%/30years fixed at practically no out of pocket cost to me was worth 2 months of excruciating anxiety. Its $60,000 over the life of the loan and $160/mo difference over a 5.25% loan, and that's just the mortgage payment. And their rates are currently 4.65%, -.25% for every point paid (Use seller's concessions for this, because you won't need them for closing costs that don't exist). Edit: If anyone has any questions about getting started doing this feel free to send me a PM and I'll try and answer anything. 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Jan 7, 2010 20:59
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Realjones posted:I went to the first intake meeting for NACA and I guess they are ok, but they REALLY slow and won't due anything unless you constantly hound them. Dependent on the counselor but serious hound the hell out of them if your paperwork is ready there is no reason she can't click the "submit" button on her computer. Realjones posted:
The loan max they let you have is whatever gets you to 35% debt to income ratio which is generous. No idea on that 2 unit stuff that seems really weird. How single family homes work is that you have a payment to meet that includes the house payment, taxes, insurance, and the $50/mo NACA membership. When you get approved you will get something that says "You are approved for $150K at *current rate, 4.625%*". Now that means you can go find a home that is $175K and have the rate bought down by a point by the seller and it will get approved because the payment is the same. Or, as happened to friends of mine, you can find a house inside the city for the amount you are qualified for with an additional $3600 in taxes per year than outside city limits which is what the estimates lean towards. Then you walk away because throwing away another $300/mo to the city is retarded. (Atlanta city limits is a very small area and if you are inside them you pay ~4% instead of ~1-1.3% for everywhere else). It doesn't help if the $155K home you are buying sold last for $450K and is still tax assessed in the $350s. Realjones posted:They won't let you make ANY down payment, even if you want to. Any seller assistance has to be used to buy down the interest rate. A nice feature no doubt, but it does line NACA's coffers. The secondary lien is pretty lame as well. Whoever told you this is wrong on the down payment part. It was a key part of my post pre-approval meeting on you can either put a down payment on the house or buy down the interest rate to get into your approved monthly payment range. Sellers money does have to go to the interest rate buydown, or you can just go to the seller and say "lower your price by the amount of concession" instead. Realjones posted:Also I believe it was $30 in membership dues that you have to pay before your first meeting, whether you ever get qualified or lot. I bet a substantial amount of their income is from people paying those $30 dues. The NACA office I went to had sold 300 homes in the last year. There were 400 people at the meeting I went to alone (and they have a meeting every week basically), so even if only 20% ever meet with a counselor...that's a lot of money. NACA is a non-profit organization so they aren't really out for your :20bux:. The first thing I was asked was if I had a bankruptcy and if so save your money and don't pay for the credit report or membership fee. The counselors so get paid pretty well but are completely commission based off of number of sales they close. Its really odd how lazy some of them are when I learned this. Luckily there is nothing to up-sell you on when everyone gets the exact same terms. As to the 400 people that is just at the initial meeting which costs nothing and is informational. A lot get disqualified due to bad credit/bankruptcies within 3 years. I would bet at least 80% shouldn't be buying a house in the first place and couldn't get the required $34000 in savings to even get to the pre-approval stage. They will work with you if you have marginal credit but that involves budgeting and proving to your counselor you are worthy. Lots of hoops. I wouldn't doubt a NACA bid could get given lower priority to others because it can take a while especially if there are repairs. The chances of a NACA loan falling though once accepted are pretty slim, and their underwriters are pretty quick. Pre-approval by NACA is just as easy as a FHA loan. If your counselor says you are good you are good. If you have good credit and the loan passes the debt-to-income ratio check you are fine.
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Jan 8, 2010 02:44
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El Mariachi posted:Other than that, If I wanted to buy now, where do I even find the numbers to justify a low bid? Why do you have to justify a low bid to anyone but yourself? Your realtor could probably give some insight by looking at recent comparable sales, or if you are doing it yourself look for recent sales on Zillow or Trulia. If you are doing it yourself the only thing you have to lose is a few minutes faxing off a bid. If your realtor is doing it they might say "That bid is too unreasonable" and try and save himself some work putting together the bid for you. Mine never cared, it will sometimes get you a counteroffer back that is still acceptable to you. If they don't counteroffer then you just move on because they want way more than what you bid. There is no one to piss off except homeowners you will never see again or a bank manager you will never meet.
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Feb 1, 2010 17:08
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Caustic posted:Any advice on that front? Beyond the fact that you are in no position at all to be buying a $300,000 piece of property when you have $1K in the bank, yes. While not necessarily down payment assistance, NACA has been covered a little bit in this thread and might be of use to you. They will be able to get you a loan with $0 down/no closing costs but won't let you do it if you have $0 in the bank. In Atlanta purchasing a $120K home they required me to have $4K in the bank, I wouldn't be surprised if it was $10K for you. They will require more if they determine your house payment (+insurance/taxes) will be increasing your monthly costs. I think its 6 months of whatever the difference is. You need to have a few thousand liquid just to put down in earnest money with a bid plus money for inspectors, escrows, and such. $10K would be a starting point for me using NACA in CA, and nowhere close to what I would be trying to save if I was doing an FHA loan. Purchase limit also looks like $323K (No income limit). $323K at their generous 4.625% is $1660/mo before taxes and insurance so you will surely be paying more than that $2K per month you are paying now. Obligatory southeasterner  at California housing market. My wife and I clear $70K/yr and would probably feel house poor trying to go above the $120K mortgage we have now and all we have is a few hundred bucks a month in student loans.
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Feb 8, 2010 21:10
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necrobobsledder posted:But in reality, what happens is that most condo owners live in it for about two years then rent out their condo and deduct the HOA fees on their taxes while claiming depreciation, then before 5 years are up, they sell it and get to keep all the appreciation. No what happens in reality is they live in it for 2 years, rent it and deduct HOA fees, then before the 5 years are up realize they are $100K underwater on a lovely apartment they got to own and declare bankruptcy. dy. you make $75K which is nowhere near what you need for a $200K loan with <20% down in Maryland (My grandparents always complain about high property taxes so I assume its around 2-3%). You won't get much benefit from the interest deduction because you probably don't have enough stuff to itemize to make it really worthwhile unless you are paying a poo poo rate. If you do get $40K to pay a 20% down payment you will pay $8K/yr in interest year one on your $160K loan. So instead of taking your $5700 standard deduction you get to take $8K instead. Lets say you have another $2000 worth of random deductible items and you get $8K + $2K - $5700 = 4300 * 25% rate you would have paid on that $4300. So you are on the hook for a $200,000 property of questionable future value paying probably $1600-1800/mo after taxes/insurance/HOA so you can save $1075 on your taxes and get an $8K credit (Which you won't get because you can't close before April 30th). Oh and you have to find $40,000 to make this work and it has to be a gift not a loan. Don't do it!
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Feb 25, 2010 22:43
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Not impossible, but way out of my comfort zone, and almost assuredly a poor financial decision.
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Feb 26, 2010 00:23
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Even if they put $60,000 into a $260,000 house that doesn't justify a $100,000 price hike. That is the same mentality everyone who bought a fixer-upper to flip over the course of the last used and its completely unsustainable. People are starting to realize paying someone an extra $40,000 so they call the contractor instead of calling him yourself isn't a great idea. With basic code violations like electrical and insulation issues it looks like they had a poo poo contractor too. Or they really did put $25,000 into it, did the work themselves, and value their labor at $35-45K (plus another $40K on top, of course). How do the comps compare directly to that house? Driveway? Deck? Fully renovated? It sounds like that house has a few things that would make it less desirable than the comps could be and you are indeed getting taken.
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Apr 5, 2010 16:47
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Has that "comp" actually sold at $395,000 or is it just on the market for that? Everything that is sitting on those websites could be sitting there because they are someones pipe dream. Have you sat down with your realtor and actually looked at the recent sales in the area?
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Apr 5, 2010 20:01
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Does the "max profit" include the 6% realtors are taking from you in commission when you sell and other costs associated like repairs or even HOA fees? I guess with a condo you shouldn't have all sorts of complications with inspections beyond maybe a water heater or something so you won't get dinged late in the selling process by that. Is there any upside to the purchase other than the supposed discount on the property? No closing costs? Low interest rates? I have this Google stock worth $300 and I will sell it to you for $200 but you can only sell it for $200 plus 5% of whatever it gains in the future! On the face that looks pretty terrible. There is one pretty big upside in that the housing market could lose 33% in value and you would lose nothing. You do have to trust that this appraisal price that they are discounting off of isn't bullshit. What do comps in the area look like? I'd be interesting in seeing how one of these programs affects surrounding property prices (MAH PROPERTAY VALUES  )You are right in the idea of "why not just rent an apartment" but that is more based off living in the south and not being able to wrap my head why anyone would ever want to own their own little apartment instead of an actual house with land that you can do stuff to and park things in. Speaking of renting, I assume there are rules that the property must be your primary residence at all times? Else you take the awesome deal and just rent it out for market value. I went through a loan program for some pretty awesome benefits (3%/30yr fixed , no closing costs, ability to do repairs as part of the mortgage a la a 203k loan) but I can't leave and rent it out, I would be forced to sell.
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Apr 14, 2010 01:15
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lowcrabdiet posted:The max profit is whatever the numbers based on the formula are. The commission comes out of whatever you sell it for. The biggest upside is that you get to live in a really nice place that's really close to the metro. Ok so lets say your max profit is $5,000 so you list it for $264K + 6% to pay the realtors. Then during inspection your client realizes the water heater is 10 years old and the AC unit isn't as efficient as they want or they want a new dishwasher because they feel like it (IE the same sort of negotiating that goes into any other deal). In a normal situation you would have to cave into the buyers demands, counter-offer, or walk away. Or is all of this moot because the program would be doing that sort of negotiating for you beforehand? lowcrabdiet posted:The surrounding property values shouldn't be affected that much. It's a WFH program, not section 8 housing. The minimum income to live there is something like 48.5k if there is one person in your household at the time of purchase (household includes kids too). It goes up to 55.5k if there are two people in the household (two adults OR 1 adult 1 child). And it goes up even higher the more people you have in a household. So you do need a decently paying job to live there. Also, because of the profit cap, I'm sure other owners in the area don't care too much that the WFH is selling for cheaper since the WFH owners wouldn't be making much (any?) money if the market goes up. I wasn't looking at it as a Section 8 next to Fancy Highrise comparison but more of a $340K condo next to a $270K condo comparison. If I assume there is similar living space next door currently selling for $340K that has similar or worse access to public transport/commerial areas I can't see that building selling at $340K for very long. If you can get a similar, maybe even better, place next door that is price controlled in the $200's the only way you will ever sell is if the top-income cutoff is very low creating an upper class group of buyers that are simply excluded from purchasing the WFH condos. I don't think you have to worry too much about the lower end of the spectrum because no one making $55.5K/yr should be buying a $260,000 home in the first place. You said the range is 80-120% of median income which would put the top income for a 2 person family at $83,250? That actually sounds somewhat reasonable for a couple to purchase a $260K starter home in the DC area. Sorry if this is a giant big derail. After thinking it over from your perspective if it is significantly cheaper than renting a similar apartment and has everything else you want, it seems like an excellent way to get affordable housing that is unlikely to ever lose value but won't gain you any, ever. But if you can find a similar rental I wouldn't bother with all the trouble of buying a place and going through with a program like that. Make sure to take into consideration HOA fees, property taxes (on the full appraised value I'm sure), and maintenance into your savings calculations. Plus there is the comedy option of the county disbanding the WFH program, removing all the liens that would exist to enforce these profit rules, and you get to sell at full value!
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Apr 14, 2010 02:51
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I did think of one other potential nastiness. Assume the surrounding property value drops 25% whether it be WFH driving down prices or just a continuing of the housing bubble deflating. Now you are still trying to sell your $269K home vs a $280K (formerly $370K) home next door. I can understand taking the downsides of this program if you are saving $100K, but no one is going to bother if they are only saving $10-20K. Any sort of price adjustment in the surrounding market will affect your homes value in the program. It doesn't sound like it has much potential to me anymore.
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Apr 14, 2010 02:58
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Black Jasper posted:My question is do I have much to gain by waiting to see if house prices drop further? By my calculations, if a $200k home drops to $180k my mortgage payment decreases by <$100/mo, which to me isn't something worth waiting for. I conceive that if I wait I may able to purchase more house for the same price, but that would mean higher utilities, taxes, etc. I'm happy with what I can afford right now. On a monthly basis you are only out $100/mo. But if the house drops in value $20,000 you are out $20,000. If you don't have a down payment you would be underwater for the first 6 years. If you do have a down payment you would just be throwing $20,000 away. That said, you probably can't predict a 10% price swing in a neighborhood. If its worth $200,000 to you, buy it at $200,000.
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Apr 19, 2010 17:12
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