Home buying thread

I used a good friend as my realtor and it worked out great for us. I mean he made some money, and it didn't appear he screwed us. He even haggled the price down and worked with the seller for us. I guess they had so many offers they wanted to give it to a new family looking to stay somewhere awhile. He worked that angle all by himself and secured it.

In the end my wife was happy so that's all that mattered to me.

Conversely, my brother just bought a place and didn't use a realtor - so far so good for him.

I'd never use a personal friend as a realtor. Way too much money on the line for feels.

Tenks_sl said:

I'd never use a personal friend as a realtor. Way too much money on the line for feels.

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He is attempting a career switch to realty, so I threw him a bone. Because I was throwing him a bone, he didn't really have many other clients at the time and he also appreciated us helping him out. I mean after we bought the house he got us a $250 home depot card and a thank you card. Also when we were house hunting he would drive us around all weekend in his car.

I imagine if you're using an agent with many clients this isn't possible.

Cad_sl said:

$300/mo can't be right, thats insanely low.

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They start at $300/month. They go up from there, 90% of them are catholic schools. Unlike TX where each little town has a school district there if you live in parish X you go to parish X schools. Which means if you live in East Baton Rouge parish you can be sent to any school in the parish....do the math. So people with a job send their kids to a private school. In 10 years the school system went from 30% black to 75%. I would pay $300/month to avoid that.

It may not be a great school at $300/month but at least you avoid a lot of problems like being shot and stuff.

Fuck Wells Fargo.....Closing delayed yet again. Don't do a drive by appraisal dipshit if order calls for full appraisal. 3 families affected due to their dumbassery.

I just got off the phone with BofA. I worked hard throwing money at my principal to get at least 20% into it. So I called BofA to see about refi options. Moving off FHA to get rid of PMI (~$100/mo) and a lower rate (4%) I'm looking at $450 savings every month. It blows my mind you can save that much money by just moving some shit around.

If you're moving principal to a HELOC keep in mind that its interest only on that portion and you'll have a balloon on it and the interest will float. I've watched many people do similar and then take that $450 and buy a new car with it and end up fucked paying interest only on 20k and not ever paying it down.

Tenks_sl said:

I just got off the phone with BofA. I worked hard throwing money at my principal to get at least 20% into it. So I called BofA to see about refi options. Moving off FHA to get rid of PMI (~$100/mo) and a lower rate (4%) I'm looking at $450 savings every month. It blows my mind you can save that much money by just moving some shit around.

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Watch BoA on the fees with the refi. Way too many $0 fee options out there to pay the ridiculous amounts they tried to pack into my refi.

Any of you housing nerds have any experience with tiny house loans? Me and the girlfriend are discussing our options but seems like the only way is to get a construction loan which will require 30% down.

TJT_sl said:

Aren't tiny houses like $40k? The ones they're selling in Austin seem to be around that price.

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Yeah around there but when you account for land and getting the lot up to code, its a bit more than that.

I imagine they'd be no different than a normal home loan but just for a lower amount. Though since I have no personal experience I wouldn't know. However I'm pretty sure my wife and I would kill each other if we lived in a 400 sq ft house.

From what we were told, they won't give out conventional home loans or first time home buyer loans since you can't appraise a home that hasn't been built. After you've lived there for a year you can then refi and get a conventional home loan but the initial loan is a pita.

Would it be considered mobile since at signing it's not tied down or secure? You could check bank of the west. They do rv and mobile home loans. Not sure about tiny.

I mean isn't the difference an axle? Find a shady finance company and buy an old car axle, attach to side of house and document and process mobile home loan?

Check into a prefab unit manufacturer, they may do financing.

Wife and I are looking at doing a refi, so I'm checking out various places. Looking through zillow, I find these places that have like $1 in fees. How legit are those places and what other costs are they hiding there?

My parents have done $0 refis in the past and always had good luck. I think those companies make their money off selling your loan to another company (Chase, BofA, etc...)