Home buying thread

I think it's safe to assume that the landlord will factor all that in and ensure he's not taking a loss on equivalent property.

I will say I somewhat regret jumping into buying a house because I had the assumption renting = throwing away money. In reality between the escrow and taxes on my mortgage the money I throw away on a monthly basis is pretty much the same as when I rented. It is somewhat upsetting reading the monthly mortgage statement and seeing only like $250 is going towards paying down the principal.

But my house is much, much (1000x much) better living than apartment. No shared walls, better finishes, etc etc etc

Just now getting caught up on this thread since my last post.

For me, renting is throwing money away. I am not moving anytime soon and I will most likely be with my current employer for at least the next 5-10 years if not all the way until retirement. I have owned a house before and I chose to walk away when the value plummeted.

I did the responsible thing and built a house I could actually afford back in 2006 and it was my first experience as a home owner.
However, since I settled for what I could actually afford, I had to build in an area I did not like and of course this was only supposed to be a starter home for me, not a long term (10+ years) "home". When the market crashed, I did the math, talked to my peers, did my DD and decided it was time to walk. I tried several times to get a re-fi, checked into all the HUD programs (HAMP, HARP etc) and the big joke is that the banks would not work with me because I could (and did) make my payments. The only people the banks were working with are the dipshits that were sold something they could never really afford, or those that legitimately lost their jobs.

It was a calculated decision and one that actually worked out in my favor. I had taken a home equity loan out shortly after moving in and I used that to consolidate all my debt. Student loans, doctor/dentist bills and my Credit card debt left over from my wilder days. Long story short, when my primary mortgage was discharged, they also discharged the 35,000 home equity loan so in the end I made out like a bandit.

I am now 36 years old and 100% debt free. I have spent the last few years investing money into the stock market, a 2nd retirement account (I have a very good state retirement plan through my work already) and paying off my 2009 truck which I brought brand new at the end 2008.

I will admit that I have my doubts about buying again, (renting is cheaper in the short term) when I could continue to sink that extra money into stocks/investing. I have also considered purchasing investment/rental place instead and continuing to rent the place I am in (which I love).

I long ago came to the realization that I am not going to become rich, but I am headed towards a very nice early retirement given my current situation. This time around I am looking at buying a townhouse because I do not want a single family detached house and all the fucking work that comes with it. I would only get a house again if something too good to pass came along. Life is short and I want to spend as little of it doing shit I don't like as possible. In other words, I am trying to min/max my work/leisure time.

What I have really learned from this entire experience, is that the entire monetary system is really mind boggling. The way currencies, stocks, property values fluctuate is insane. If you really start to think about it, its a very strange thing...fortunes and made and lost daily based on.....rumors, panic, emotions, random weather patterns.

In the meantime, I went ahead and contacted a lender to start the pre-qual process. We'll see what happens.....

Tenks_sl said:

I will say I somewhat regret jumping into buying a house because I had the assumption renting = throwing away money. In reality between the escrow and taxes on my mortgage the money I throw away on a monthly basis is pretty much the same as when I rented. It is somewhat upsetting reading the monthly mortgage statement and seeing only like $250 is going towards paying down the principal.

But my house is much, much (1000x much) better living than apartment. No shared walls, better finishes, etc etc etc

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Yes and if you pay $2500 to gain $250 in equity while your rent would be $1000 and you could invest $1500, of course it's a lose to own. But rent prices are absurd in most areas. I'm paying less to buy a house monthly than I rented 2/3 the square footage. Even though I am throwing 95% of my first few years of payments 'away', I'mstillsaving money, not to mention the tax savings.

Khane_sl said:

You guys sure do like to oversimplify things.

Buying is not the pinnacle of financial responsibility the industry would like you to believe it is. It just isn't. It can be, but it can also lead to financial ruin.

We buy homes because they are more private than apartments, we can do what we want with them/to them, it gives us a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction and it's nice knowing something is yours and you don't have to answer to a landlord or superintendant. It feels adult. If you're buying a house simply because you think it's more financially responsible by default than renting you need to take a close, hard look at everything involved and the risks associated with homeownership.

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wouldn't the best option to be to maximize your rate of return. A house can be a good way, but when you factor in the loan repayment isnt that actually like a horrible rate of return?

Deathwing_sl said:

Are the apartment and house even comparable on square footage? Also, nice job on mentioning the amount interest you pay, now we can get a Khane 2fer as he recycles his diatribe about how you're useless scum if you don't put 110% down and have a 2 month loan term.

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You really are offended.

We got a shit load of documents from the title/escrow company to sign, and I can't figure out why the fuck they would need half of this information from us. It seems more in depth than my security clearance.

One document asks for name, birthplace, birth date, SSN, driver's license, wife's maiden name, and lasttenyears of residences andtenyears of employment information (whereas my security clearance required 7)

Elurin_sl said:

We got a shit load of documents from the title/escrow company to sign, and I can't figure out why the fuck they would need half of this information from us. It seems more in depth than my security clearance.

One document asks for name, birthplace, birth date, SSN, driver's license, wife's maiden name, and lasttenyears of residences andtenyears of employment information (whereas my security clearance required 7)

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I see, so you're just getting started then. If you're self employed, amplify it by about 10.

Corndog_sl said:

I see, so you're just getting started then. If you're self employed, amplify it by about 10.

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I don't get what you're saying here? Getting started with what? If you mean home buying, I'm pretty much at the end of the process. My loan info is with an underwriter, my inspection is complete, and I just need an appraisal. We'll hopefully close in 2-3 weeks.

I was just asking if it's normal for a title/escrow company to require so much information. It seems entirely unnecessary. As a buyer, I don't know why they really need much of any personal information from me.

Tenks_sl said:

I will say I somewhat regret jumping into buying a house because I had the assumption renting = throwing away money. In reality between the escrow and taxes on my mortgage the money I throw away on a monthly basis is pretty much the same as when I rented.It is somewhat upsetting reading the monthly mortgage statement and seeing only like $250 is going towards paying down the principal.

But my house is much, much (1000x much) better living than apartment. No shared walls, better finishes, etc etc etc

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Re the bolded part: Pretty much every single mortgage works this way. You pay all the interest on the front of the loan and towards the end it biases completely opposite. This is why people who flip houses every 5 years usually have fuck all in equity (in a flat market). Making some advanced payments on principle will really kill your loan and interest payments over time. It really helps playing with mortgage calculators that graph out payments to see how all of this works.

So yea, on a 30 year loan, you will not break 50 /50 on interest / principle until year 15. Make those advance principle payments! Save yourself a ton of cash.

Elurin_sl said:

I don't get what you're saying here? Getting started with what? If you mean home buying, I'm pretty much at the end of the process. My loan info is with an underwriter, my inspection is complete, and I just need an appraisal. We'll hopefully close in 2-3 weeks.

I was just asking if it's normal for a title/escrow company to require so much information. It seems entirely unnecessary. As a buyer, I don't know why they really need much of any personal information from me.

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Right, basically until a loan is out of underwriting it hasn't really begun yet. No one really starts looking at things until the end. Basically it sits in underwriting until an appraisal is done. Once that hits then they want to verify everything you've already given them again... And if you end up having any problems like us so far. We are on appraisal #3. Mortgage company #2.

The hilarious part for us, is it's not a financial thing at all. It's purely people not doing their job. One person has been fired from a company so far over it etc.

All I'm saying is expect to sign documents about ever 4 days until your loan closes. Don't be surprised if you end up asking for an extension to close because you're waiting on the lender.

Elurin_sl said:

So the process has moved very quickly for us in just one month. We looked at 20 houses and found two we liked.

Our agent was talking to the agent of one of the houses (on 4/18) and told them it was overpriced. House had been sitting on the market for just over 5 months at $255k. Well, sure enough, they dropped the price to $235k on the morning of 4/19. We put in an offer of $235k which included up to $8k in closing costs (VA Loan, so some of that was required anyway). They countered at $240k with up to $5k in closing costs; essentially their lowered listing price. We countered back with $236.5k with $5k in closing and they accepted. It worked out decently well, since our closing costs will likely be just over $6k, so we didn't give back as much as it seems. I will say that I should have started negotiating way lower, but due to their price drop (which seems like it was in our favor, but I feel like it wasn't) I felt compelled to act fast and close to their price.

So now in the last week it's been scrambling to get all the shit done for our lender. We provided a lot of it for the pre-approval, but now we need even more and it's stressful. That said, we got a 3.25% rate (paid $1200 in points).

Had the inspection a few hours ago and there's almost nothing wrong with it. House was built in 1989. Has a pressure release on the water heater that needs to be lowered, a small leak in the 2nd bath sink (just needs to be tightened), some missing toe kick tiles in the kitchen/master bath (planned on redoing floors), some missing shingles on the roof (we had a roofer look at it prior to our offer, and so we think they blew off in some heavy winds from last week) and a leak in the spigot in the 2nd bath shower. The last one is the only one I'm concerned about, since there's a possibility of water behind the wall. All in all, I'm really happy.

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That passed VA home inspection with a leak in the spigot? nah jk. but where in CA are you getting a 200k house. I am waiting to close escrow on a house in the Bay Area for a brand new build for 520k.

Corndog_sl said:

Right, basically until a loan is out of underwriting it hasn't really begun yet. No one really starts looking at things until the end. Basically it sits in underwriting until an appraisal is done. Once that hits then they want to verify everything you've already given them again... And if you end up having any problems like us so far. We are on appraisal #3. Mortgage company #2.

The hilarious part for us, is it's not a financial thing at all. It's purely people not doing their job. One person has been fired from a company so far over it etc.

All I'm saying is expect to sign documents about ever 4 days until your loan closes. Don't be surprised if you end up asking for an extension to close because you're waiting on the lender.

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Ah, I see. Yeah. the appraisal part is annoying as fuck. I'm hoping for the best with that whole process. Also hoping that because our lender is a small local outfit, it'll be quicker (vice a larger bank).

And Harfle, I live in the high desert. Half a million gets you one of the nicest houses in the area. Mine, at 240k, is basically in the nicest part of town; although it's a bit older than most of the others...hopefully they'll boost my value in the future.

Elurin_sl said:

Ah, I see. Yeah. the appraisal part is annoying as fuck. I'm hoping for the best with that whole process. Also hoping that because our lender is a small local outfit, it'll be quicker (vice a larger bank).

And Harfle, I live in the high desert. Half a million gets you one of the nicest houses in the area. Mine, at 240k, is basically in the nicest part of town; although it's a bit older than most of the others...hopefully they'll boost my value in the future.

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oh high desert like yucca? lol. Nah I was stationed out at 29 palms from 2007-2011. Yeah that explains the price 500k here only gets you 2 and 1 or 3 and 1 around 1.2k so I looked a few cities over in Martinez and got me a 3 and 2 at 1.7k sqft. in a decent area. full VA finance like a boss. rate is only 3.5 though :/

Elurin_sl said:

Ah, I see. Yeah. the appraisal part is annoying as fuck. I'm hoping for the best with that whole process. Also hoping that because our lender is a small local outfit, it'll be quicker (vice a larger bank).

And Harfle, I live in the high desert. Half a million gets you one of the nicest houses in the area. Mine, at 240k, is basically in the nicest part of town; although it's a bit older than most of the others...hopefully they'll boost my value in the future.

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My first lender was my local credit union.. Was a huge mistake. Second one is a large lender, things going much faster and smoother.