Home buying thread

Brando

Asshat Brando

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I would have to go back through the thread and read every response I gave but I don"t recall defending any bank practice, I was simply giving my experience in regards to dealing with REO"s and how usually work is done. Every market is different as I was noting to Cut, I can"t possibly know in whatever part of MN he lives in what is for sale, how long they"ve been for sale and the state they are in without being there.

REO"s aren"t an investment for banks, they lose money no matter what. Without sidetracking this further in a lot of cases they aren"t even the investor of the loan in question and have no say in what happens. There isn"t a lot of transceparency in this to the buyer which makes it so frustrating.

Sucks if those are the type of houses you"re looking at, even the most incompetant of asset managers and listing agents is going to know you can"t close on a house with mold. Strange...
 
Ameraves

Ameraves

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Cad said:
I know you typed this thinking it sounds impressive and all, but holy fuck thats a $120k house in TX, and you feel like you got a steal at $300k. What city in the bay area?
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We are in Concord, over in the east bay. I know it sounds crazy but when you look at comparable houses, we couldn"t even touch that size house with 300k. I understand compared to many other parts of the country, notably Texas, that 300k goes much further. However, all my wife"s family is up here and we love it.

OneofOne said:
Lot size sucks ass (imo) but he did get a good deal, unless the roof was collapsing and shit. Really not sure why you"ve take the tack you have.
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We actually didn"t want a huge yard by any means. With my being stuck in a wheelchair and very limited on doing any yard work, and my wife just not being into gardening at all, we only needed something that had a front yard and decent sized back yard.

There is no structural issues with the house at all. It was literally just dirty. The people were plain slobs and they left a ton of trash and shit behind. The only major work we had to do was raise the living room floor since it was sunken, and have it level with the rest of the house. Here are a couple of pictures of what it looked like after day 1 and then just this weekend.

So we will put in new flooring in the living room, dining room and kitchen that are all connected there. The side of the house that has all the kids rooms in it has brand new wood floors, we just had to pay to get them sanded, filled and finished. The previous owners had a flood back in 2006 or so and had to replace all the flooring. Apparently the insurance company requires you to replace what was there before (at least that is what we were told) but they had an autistic kid and the loud floor bothered him. So they laid the new wood floor and put carpet right on top of it. Other than that it is just lots of painting and cleaning.
 
Cad

Cad

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That looks very scarily unfinished. :\

I"m not knocking what you paid or where you live; gotta be where the family is, I agree. That just seems shockingly expensive for what looks in the pictures to be a half-complete dwelling.
 
Z

Zodiac_foh

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Cad said:
That looks very scarily unfinished. :\

I"m not knocking what you paid or where you live; gotta be where the family is, I agree. That just seems shockingly expensive for what looks in the pictures to be a half-complete dwelling.
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Apparently houses are like triple the cost everywhere else in the country other than TX. My sister and her husband just moved from CO and her husband basically said that you can get 3x the house here compared to where he is from.
 
Ameraves

Ameraves

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Haha, yes we have a bit of a ways to go. Thankfully my in laws are doing all of the labor so we only have to pay for material. My father in law has been in construction his entire life (used to have his own company as well) and my brother in law is an electrician. So all of that is extremely helpful to us, and comforting knowing it is being done properly. They have already done this to both of my brother in laws houses, and we were just the next ones in line to purchase ours. Hell, my father in law built an entire addition onto his house by himself almost 30 years ago.

None of this stuffhadto be done to the house, it was just things we wanted to make it our own. Other than all the trash that was left behind it could have been moved straight into. In the end we will probably end up spending about 10k in materials and clean up. Really not too bad.
 
Falstaff

Falstaff

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Zodiac said:
Apparently houses are like triple the cost everywhere else in the country other than TX. My sister and her husband just moved from CO and her husband basically said that you can get 3x the house here compared to where he is from.
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Yep. When my brother moved from Chicago to Round Rock around 10 years ago, his house was 3 times the size and about 2/3rds less cost
 
AladainAF

AladainAF

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Draegan said:
Anyone else get a good 30 yr fixed rate? I managed to nail down 3.99%

Happy day.
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Not to ruin your happy day but if you put anything reasonable down (10-20%-ish) you should easily be able to get 3.25% with good credit (760+).

If you"re putting 0 down or have a sub-par credit, though, I guess 3.99 isn"t bad.

I haven"t locked in my rate yet because our home won"t be ready for move in till Jan. Will be crazy expensive to lock in 6 months ahead of time heh. But I do know that the current rate (within the last 3 days) with my lender is 3.25%.
 
Cad

Cad

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Haha I bought last year I thought I got a smoking deal at like 3.6%... interest rates are nuts! Take the free money while it lasts guys.
 
Brando

Asshat Brando

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Pricing differs by region and some banks even do it by state but that would be the first instance I"ve seen of 3.25%. Unless you"re getting a Jumbo the Fannie/Freddie risk adjusters kick in at 75% LTV regardless of FICO for risk. The FICO cutoff is 740 anything above that and you"re getting the best anyway.

If you"re dealing with Wells they should still have their Builder Best lock which will give you a free float down on the 6 month lock. Think it was a point deposit that gets refunded at closing but it"s been a while.
 
AladainAF

AladainAF

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Box loans offers 3.25% atm on 30s with 0.50 points. For 3.375%, it"s a -0.375 points so you get some credit.

It"s crazy.
 
Brando

Asshat Brando

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Ok, so it"s not zero points. Make sure you check how much your saving by paying the 1/2 point compared to taking the 3.375% and what your break even point is. While it"s impossible to predict the future you want to have a reasonable idea that you"ll still have the house and loan by at least that date.
 
Gilgamel

Gilgamel

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I"m closing on a home today and I am trying to figure out how to handle a situation. The seller agreed after our inspection to do some repairs and sow grass in the back yard. The seller told the agent that the repairs had been done and the yard had been sown. Then last Friday I went down for the final inspection and the yard had not been sown, and only one of the five or six repairs that had been agreed upon had been completed. For the most part these are minor repairs(an outdoor light, doorknobs), but three outlets in two different rooms are not working and seeing as the seller agreed to make the repairs I don"t want to close without them being done. I also have appliances and other items arriving on Wednesday so I"d like to avoid delaying closing for any long term duration.

So I guess what I"m saying is do I, as the buyer, have the right to demand compensation of some sort or a reduction in cost from the agent due to incomplete repairs? At this point I don"t even want the guy to do them because he"s lied about it once and he"d probably just do a shitty job. But I also believe he is technically responsible for them since he agreed to them after the inspection, and I refuse to just let that shit go. Any tips for handling this situation?
 
Cad

Cad

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Tell them you"re not closing unless they make a cash adjustment of $X due to the repairs not being done. And be willing to stick to it.
 
S

splorge_foh

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Hi,

I"ll give my advice but please take it with a grain of salt. I am a licensed to conduct real estate transactions, but only in common law countries, so if you are in the U.S. it may not apply.

It depends whether or not you put these fix or six repairs into writing or its just a verbal agreement. If its just verbal, then you have no recourse. If these are in writing signed by the seller as part of closing, then you have recourse. Unless specifically stated that the seller needs to pay either money or complete the tasks as part of closing, then the only recourse you have is to refuse closing until the landlord fulfills the contractual agreement. If you delay, and the seller has signed that the above tasks are to be completed, he can be held liable for quite a few costs of the transaction falling through. He would still have to pay commission to all participating agents/realtors, and whatever down payment you have made will be refunded and any costs incurred on your part can be claimed.

tl;dr version:if you dont have it in writing, then dont bother. if you have it in writing, threaten to delay, but offer to accept reasonable cash equivalent to settle it on your own so you can expedite the transaction. Whether or not you follow up with delaying is up to you.
 
Gilgamel

Gilgamel

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It was in writing. He"s supposed to have the contractor there to fix the wiring and the light this afternoon and he"s going to bring the invoice to closing. We"ll see I guess. I just hate that he was dishonest in the first place, makes me question a number of things about the house. We used an inspector but now I wish I"d made him be extraordinarily thorough.
 
V

valryte_foh

shitlord
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It was in writing. He"s supposed to have the contractor there to fix the wiring and the light this afternoon and he"s going to bring the invoice to closing. We"ll see I guess. I just hate that he was dishonest in the first place, makes me question a number of things about the house. We used an inspector but now I wish I"d made him be extraordinarily thorough.
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No inspector is going to catch every little thing. Expect issues to come up once you move in. If you aren"t prepared for this, then you shouldn"t be buying a house. You"re situation is done and passed, but for others, let this be a lesson. Take care of your shit before closing. Your agreement for repairs should have clearly stated that the repairs should be completed at least 15 days prior to closing. You don"t wait till the day of closing to address repairs. Your realtor should have been on top of this, if not then you should have.

Which leads me to, wtf was your realtor doing? Did you even get a buyers realtor? It sure doesn"t sound like it.
 
Brando

Asshat Brando

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The request for repairs is an addendum to the contract or to escrow depending on the state that you are in. You should be noting on the request that the repairs are to be done by a licensed contractor and you need a copy of receipt. The deal can"t close until this addendum has been signed by all parties noting the repairs are done. Him just telling you that doesn"t mean that"s it. Though it sounds like some of the items you requested should have never been put on a repair request in the first place as they are so minor it"s not even worth the trouble. I"ve never seen landscaping be requested either. Usually just major items that would impair the health and safety of you living in the home or that would cost thousands of dollars to repair if you didn"t find them until after you closed.
 
M

meStevo_foh

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There a downside to FHA streamline financing aside from jumping back out to 30 years? Would be going from $1024/mo / 5.65% to $933 / 3.75%. Would be more if MIP didn"t jump from $50 to $130. Don"t qualify for HARP 2.0 because we purchased our house several months late - 11/09 instead of 5/09 - lame. Latest worksheet from BofA has me at just over $800 out of pocket for the refi.
 
J

joeboo13_foh

shitlord
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If you are more than 3 years into your current 30 year loan, jumping back out to 30 years at those prices is losing you money.

$1024 x 12 months x 27 years = $331,776

$933 x 12 months x 30 years = $335,880

I wouldn"t do it unless you are only a year or two into your current loan, or if you just flat-out can"t afford paying that extra $91 per month. If its a financial issue, I"d find somewhere else to save $91 per month than resetting my home loan out to 30 years for that little of a savings.

edit - looks like you are almost 3 years in (going off of your 11/09 purchase date, unless you already refinanced once), you"d be losing money even without considering the extra closing costs for this refinance.
 
M

meStevo_foh

shitlord
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I guess my thought is just that we"ll probably be in this house for ~15-20 tops, not the full 30 so the 3 years is moot (though that"s been a sticking point for me too).

We"re also going to probably go through Financial Peace University pretty soon and start managing our finances better... in theory this will give us more money in the short term to put towards that effort, and ideally we"d be paying off our house entirely in the next several years if that.
 
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