Home buying thread

I"d bet on his credit score alone you could hit 6% possibly even 5.x if your lucky. In any even talk to the company your going to finance with and see what rate they will give you for combined or separate filings.

WIth the $8000 credit (possibly MCC if you have it in your state) and an FHA loan you don"t need to put more then a few hundred dollars down. If you want to save more to put down then by all means have at it but I"d advise saving that money for the first year you move in and using it to buy the things you need to support the house. (lawnmower, gardening tools, kitchen supplies, additional furniture, etc. etc. etc.) you"d be surprised how much there is to get.


Excellent decision though considering it"s only costing you $150 more a month for a house at face value.

Been a couple days, I"ve been on vacation... Evelys, as long as you"re above a 600 FICO you should be fine on an FHA. We tack on a .250% adjustment for FICO between 601-620, but if you"re sub 600 it"s a 1.250% adjustment. That"s just for FHA loans, conventional (Fannie/Freddie) loans have more drastic tier adjustments every 20-30 FICO points or so from 580-740 (anything above 740 is the best possible adjustments).

Just a few minutes ago I was researching the $8,000 tax credit on the IRS website.First-Time Homebuyer CreditAnyways, I printed off the required form to send in. At the top of the page I saw they had some video links about the tax credit. I clicked the link and this is what it takes you to....
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eanmhrlpqWE&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eanmhrlpqWE&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

and,

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SNnUR8Yc1W4&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SNnUR8Yc1W4&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

/facepalm

Seriously? Those are the best videos the IRS could come up with? Lol.

In other news, I bought my first House We are closing on July 25th. I will post some pics when I get a chance. We got an FHA loan for $123,000 at 5.5% interest.

Evelys,

A few things to consider:

1. A FICO below 620 does not meet the minimum FHA guidelines. (used to be no min. score required, but thats changed.) So being unmarried, you can use just his credit score, but you wouldn"t be able to use your income in qualifying. Some underwriters may look at your income at a compensating factor however.

2. $22,000 Gross annual income, will qualify him to carry no more than about $825 in monthly debt. That"s based off a 45% debt to income ratio, which is high, but unfortunetly still pretty common for most home buyers. However, if he has any other debt at all (student loan not in deferment, car payments, credit cards, engagement ring payments!) you"ll have to subtract the minimum payments due from that $825, to get a rough idea of the highest payment he"d qualify for.

3. That payment estimate from the mortgage calculator was just the Principal and Interest. A monthly mortgage payment will usually have property taxes, homeowner"s insurance and mortgage insurance piled on to the payment total. Your $100,000 example on a 15 year note, will have a payment closer to $1,178 a month. May not be a deal breaker, but just keep it in mind. Also, be sure to check for any special tax assessments, Home Owner"s Association dues or melo roos (this is where real estate agents are nice) all of those will just make the payment that much higher.

Hopefully all this nonsense will have helped you out a little. Obviously there are many variables to each transaction, but these figures should be a good shooting from the hip estimate.

Happy house hunting!

Update:

OK guys, we have completely prepped the house for sale, it was put on the market this past Thursday, we did get some showings, but because it was Father"s Day weekend, our realtor said it wouldnt be as much as we would hope since everyone is doing holiday stuff.

The showings we did get, we have yet to recieve any feedback, but the house is immaculate as much as any house built in 2004 could be. Moved out a lot of furniture, major touch up painting everywhere, maid has been out to clean the house 3 consecutive weeks, and we have cleaned the house ourselves the past two weeks. We also powerwashed the driveway, sidewalks, back patio, and garage/garage doors. Repainted the trim out the outside of the house, and cleaned all the light fixtures.

So anyways, I am hopeful we will sell the house in around 2 months or so.


As far as buying a house, here is where we stand:

We have been pre-approved for 265k with a VA loan.

We have found the neighborhood we want to live in,http://www.bridgeland.com

We have two options before us:

1.) Short sale for a house in there area for 200k even, the house is just a tad under 3000 sq ft, and is a 5/3.5 bed/bath. It is great deal for a house of that size in that area. Price would retail in the 270k-300k range, it is almost in foreclosure.

2.) We build a home. We have decided if we build, we will go with David Weekley. We would sell the house first, then move into a cheap 1 bedroom apt (tough it out for 4-6 months), save some more money, and get our own custom home. We are targetting a price of right around 235k for this.


My concern with option 1 is, our house, being that it hasnt sold yet, how does short sale work with contingencies. And the condition of the house itself, since the owner is almost in foreclosure.

My only concern with option 2 is interest rates going up, but I have no idea with the current state of our economy what will truely happen in the next 6-8months.

I would not try to work a short sale while you are selling a house. Banks will drag their feet and dick with you. Then out of the blue they will require you to close within 30 days. However, a lot banks have to prepare their year-end financial statements by September so they are motivated to get short sales taken care of by then and maybe even lower the price. But it is risky to do that before you sell your house. $200k for 3000sq/ft sounds like a great deal, hope you get it.

Looking for a foreclosure, all these "take over payments" scam sites get kind of old. I mean, it"d be awesome if I could actually take over year 16 of a 30 year loan, refi it with my credit (740+), and end up paying basically nothing every month. Just doesn"t seem very likely.

Looks like I"ve got a house bought. It sold for $270k two years ago. I"m getting it for $54,900. I may need to pay a little more. Depends on what the owner"s second mortgage holder does. The current owners owe $46k on the second mortgage and that bank wants to get 10% of that back. So now the negotiations begin to see if the first bank will kick some back for that, will the current owners kick some in, and how much we can get that lowered by. Either way, highest possible price is less than $60k.

It"s a nice house and the owners kept it in excellent shape. They want to close by July 22nd if we can get the second bank out of the way.

ROFL at those prices... a house for 50k that isn"t shitty just amazes me. We didn"t tank here in STL.

Prices where I lived tanked pretty hard... went from over a million to like 500-600k, whee. Then we had a big fire that put a ton of people out of their homes and rent went up a ton. Yay!

The short sale house was a PoS. Basically it sold for 280k and some change according to our realtor.

As we looked at it we just kept finding problem after problem. It looks as if it may have had some major water damage from hurricane Ike. The walls reminded me of a fun house, the walls were wavy. The floors were completely uneven, felt like you were walking up hills. Needed a new paint job, some brick mortaring in the front, tear our the wood rails that had rust nails and split wood, new carpet, kitchen needed some work, resod the front and back yard, emergency drain for one of the AC was being actively used, so something was clogging up the normal AC drain, possible the sprinkler system needed to be fixed as well. Those are things we found, without needing an inspector. So fuck it, we are building.

Here is what I sent my realtor:

I think I forgot a few things, and I wanted to list them out just to make sure.

Options on the House (Divine Floorplan) we would like:

1.) Bay windows upgrade to the Master?s Retreat
2.) Third bathroom upstairs
3.) Stone Fa?ade to the elevation
4.) Tile throughout the entry, dining room, study and family room
5.) Upgraded Tile + a couple of tiled dividers?
6.) Extended covered patio
7.) Upgraded Cabinets
8.) Gas range (gas line for stove)
9.) Floor outlet in the living room
10.) The Study
11.) Upgraded plumbing fixtures
12.) Sprinkler system
13.) Also would like the special that takes effect next month for discounted electricity
14.) Prewire for surround sound
15.) Iceblock window for the bathroom (basically something that gives more privacy)
16.) Fireplace

Home needs to be priced at $233,000

If they balk, you can tell them we will simply wait to save more money (living in an apartment for a year), which will open up more opportunities for other builders to get our business. We want to make sure that this house has everything we want in it from the get go. Let me know if you need anymore info.

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We will see what happens, I think that is a fair price. Hopefully they take it.

This is amazing: In my area, the median home price in 2005 was $322,000. Today it is $88,000.

Kapow.

This is amazing: In my area, the median home price in 2005 was $322,000. Today it is $88,000.

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Wow... quite substantial. It hasn't been too bad in central PA. We've definitely seen a decline, as I'm sure nearly every area has.

After beating my head against what seems like a brick wall for six months we've finally found something I'm fairly sure will be our first home. I realize six months isn't all that long, but it was riddled with lost/rejected offers and a shitty realtor.

In any event, we made an official offer on Monday and it was accepted. We agreed at $158,000. It is a ranch home built in 1978, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms at 1400 sq ft. The house has a finished basement, two car garage with a side carport, and sits on .5 acres. This area is great, central to everything, only 20 - 30 minutes from downtown Harrisburg (where I work) and less than that from Hershey (where my wife works).

I'm waiting for a call back regarding the inspections - I have another 14 days to get them completed. We are planning to settle on August 27 at this point. I do still have a few concerns about the home though which I hope the inspections should clear up.

Firstly, the roof was put on in '95. It is a ranch, so a slight slope, but nearly every shingle on the roof (front and back) is curling. He admitted to my father in law that the roof needs replaced, but he wants the inspector to come back saying the roof needs replaced before he'll fix it. Also, the radon levels in the home at the time they purchased the home were higher than the "normal" level of 4 pCi/L. The basement was at 14 Pci/L, the upstairs bedroom was at 7. They indicated that the home was vacant for two years when they bought it, so they believe those levels were inflated a bit. Additionally, a few years after they bought the home, the basement wall caved in. Now, this was apparently due to the builders putting the clay right up against the basement wall. They sued the builders and won and had a very respectable and well known engineer in our area (guy who did Twin Ponds) fix the wall. They haven't had any problems since and put in an additional two sumps in order to keep any excess water out of there. They've disclosed that they do not get any water down there. I couldn't smell anything either, without a dehumidifier running.

I guess we'll see how the inspections come back. If the inspector gives us the OK on the basement and tells this guy to fix his roof, I'll be happy. It would be very difficult for us to pull together the money to put on a new roof roof a few months into this purchase.

I close on my house this coming Tuesday. $56,500 turned out to be the final price. Two years ago it appraised for $240k. I still shake my head in amazement.

Wolfen said:

I close on my house this coming Tuesday. $56,500 turned out to be the final price. Two years ago it appraised for $240k. I still shake my head in amazement.

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wait what? perhaps i need to read this thread but you closed on a house for 56k? In North Dakota?

Where the heck did you get North Dakota? I"m in Florida.

Wolfen said:

Where the heck did you get North Dakota? I"m in Florida.

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I just cant believe you can buy a house that cheep.. just blows my mind. LA is still wicked expensive compared to that.

The house i live in still goes for 500k

Yeah, it"s amazing. It"s a 3/2/2 in immaculate condition. I believe my area is considered to have the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Here"s a neat tip: go to maps.google.com. Type your city and state in the search box. Click the link for more search options. Select Real Estate from the drop down menu. Hit search. Every dot you see on the map is a house for sale. Click on a dot for a price, the realtor who has the listing, and street view picture.

Just moved into my first house. Bank owned property, bought it for 144,900. It sold for 285,000.00 two years ago. In same neighborhood I grew up in - just down the road actually. Needed some work, but we got that taken care of and got moved in this past weekend. Feels pretty good. Especially since I am on the deed but only the girlfriend is on the note/mortgage.

Places in this neighborhood of similar style are still selling for 200-250k so this feels like a total steal.