Home buying thread
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Cutlery
Kill All the White People
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Which is true considering the turnaround time on a bid on a short sale.Cad said:
Inspection was today on mine...nothing of any consequence whatsoever. There"s a GFCI in the basement bathroom that needs to be replaced (MAYBE 20 bucks and 5 minutes) and the right side of the kitchen sink leaks (Pretty much the same).
The best part was going out there and seeing the "Sold" sign.
Start to finish (first touring the home to being handed the keys) took almost exactly 30 days. Great mortgage, great fixed APR, no hidden costs, etc. In fact, I thought my experience was easier than buying a car, odd as that sounds. Guess I was lucky that I had a positive experience. I won"t bet on it a second time.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Follow up question;
What where you total closing costs? Im looking at something in 60-90k range.
As of right now Im kind of in a bind. Id love to try and get a house before december so I could get the tax credit but thats somewhat kind of hard considering I am in San Diego and not Phoenix where I am going to be buying. Anyone have experience buying a house "hands off" so to speak? Purchasing a house in another state where you just cant go inspect or sign paperwork at the drop of a hat that is.
What where you total closing costs? Im looking at something in 60-90k range.
As of right now Im kind of in a bind. Id love to try and get a house before december so I could get the tax credit but thats somewhat kind of hard considering I am in San Diego and not Phoenix where I am going to be buying. Anyone have experience buying a house "hands off" so to speak? Purchasing a house in another state where you just cant go inspect or sign paperwork at the drop of a hat that is.
Cutlery
Kill All the White People
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Got my closing costs right in front of me.
1% loan origination fee (1% of the amount you borrow)
$475 FHA appraisal fee (only required for FHA loans, but because Conventional loans charge points, or as I refer to them, "Extortion fees," you"re better off FHA.
$25 credit report fee
$495 commitment fee (extortion)
$16 Flood certification (probably varies by state)
$5 MERS fee. (Forgot what this was, 5 bucks, who cares)
$395 Broker Admin fee (I notice this was conveniently left off of all of the estimates he did for me before the final one. Shady, to say the least).
Title Charges
$295 Settlement Closing Fee
$175 Title Search
$801.48 Title Insurance
$25 Name search (seems fucking redundant)
$92 recording fees
$553.24 Mortgage Registration Tax
$5 Conservation fee (This was explained to me as the 5 bucks to plant new trees to replace the paper they use for this process)
$60 PLAT drawing/Survey
$45 Recording Service Fee
Then you need to put 1 year of homeowners insurance up front, and come up with the taxes necessary if you"re going to escrow. The mortgage guy says closing costs are typically in the 3-4% of loan value range. Mine are almost exactly 3.5%, but that includes prepaid items (taxes/insurance)
1% loan origination fee (1% of the amount you borrow)
$475 FHA appraisal fee (only required for FHA loans, but because Conventional loans charge points, or as I refer to them, "Extortion fees," you"re better off FHA.
$25 credit report fee
$495 commitment fee (extortion)
$16 Flood certification (probably varies by state)
$5 MERS fee. (Forgot what this was, 5 bucks, who cares)
$395 Broker Admin fee (I notice this was conveniently left off of all of the estimates he did for me before the final one. Shady, to say the least).
Title Charges
$295 Settlement Closing Fee
$175 Title Search
$801.48 Title Insurance
$25 Name search (seems fucking redundant)
$92 recording fees
$553.24 Mortgage Registration Tax
$5 Conservation fee (This was explained to me as the 5 bucks to plant new trees to replace the paper they use for this process)
$60 PLAT drawing/Survey
$45 Recording Service Fee
Then you need to put 1 year of homeowners insurance up front, and come up with the taxes necessary if you"re going to escrow. The mortgage guy says closing costs are typically in the 3-4% of loan value range. Mine are almost exactly 3.5%, but that includes prepaid items (taxes/insurance)
Agency loans have specific adjustments set by FNMA/FHLMC for risk adjustment - FHA loans have these loan plan adjustments too, just significantly fewer - easier fico requirement, no LTV adjustments, no loan amount adjustments once you break 100k. The FHA lending limits are also lower than the conforming limit of 417,000, so an FHA isn"t a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone. For most of the people on this board (younger, first time homebuyers, presumably smaller houses, etc), though, an FHA is the way to go.TheCutlery said:
Edit: just saw he"s in the military, so a VA loan is probably the best bet.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
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I did a VA loan and I"m doing the VA Streamline refinance right now. It"s definitely preferable, I can"t imagine why you wouldn"t use it if you have it available. The real benefit, besides no money down etc, is the rules they have protecting veterans from shady lending practices.
Psh saving up $120,000 is easy coming straight out of college with $30,000 grand in loans, a car note, insurance bill, and not a single asset worth even $1,000 to your name.
Easy I tell you!
Easy I tell you!
Ryoz
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I've been posting on and off, deviating from this thread, but I'm a first time homebuyer. I'm still in college but I also work a full time job and I've been saving as much as I possibly could. I got married last year, my wife has student loan debt ($30k, fortunately interest rates are low) but we're paying that off slowly but surely.
We began looking at houses quite randomly from a family friend who is a realtor. I already knew our income and expenses and figured we could buy a house if we really wanted to. From then on it turned into a full on hunt, we wanted to get into a house and take advantage of the tax credit.
I decided to check out some lenders (this was in May of this year) and eventually went with Commerce/Metro Bank. My brother-in-law worked there and they actually pre-approved us, where as my credit union wasted $250 of my dollars to tell us that unless we could show them $25,000 in savings we were out of luck ($160,000 pre approval, mind you).
Once we received the pre approval we hit the ground running. We told our realtor exactly what we wanted to see and wanted to start immediately. He showed us one property that we put a bid on, but it was way over our budget. Over the next few weeks we hardly heard from him, getting calls about foreclosures or houses in areas we didn't want to see. Eventually we gave him the boot and decided to do this ourselves. We used the interwebs to find homes all over our area we wanted to see. We mapped out a driving route and went by each and every one. By the end, we had a solid list of houses we were interesting in seeing. Before we could call, I received a call from my father, telling me a co coworker of his was going to be selling his home.
We met up with the couple and took a look through their house. No price had been discussed, but it was a ranch home, 3 Bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1400 sq ft with a fully finished basement. It also had a two car detached garage and sits on .49 acres. It was in an excellent township and school district, central to nearly everything we'd need. We decided almost immediately that this was the home for us. The couple had not yet put it on the market and were allowing us the opportunity to work out an offer. Although it was odd to work out an offer with the sellers directly, eventually we reached the agreement of $158,000 with sellers paying $5,000 towards closing, or $163,000.
We ordered the inspections and they came back with very little problems: 2 windows at the rear of the garage are rotted, rotted wood trim along bottom of a few doors outside, nail sticking through a roof shingle, rag instead of a cap at the y in the main waste line, thermal seal failed in master bathroom window, white neutral wire in the main electric box that's not connected.
The only one that concerns me is the neutral wire, because I'm not an electrician and I'm not trying to kill myself doing it. Everything else is fairly easy to handle.
Other concerns. well there are three sumps, I didn't grow up with a basement, so some of this stuff is new to me. They couldn't find any indication of water damage, but it still does worry me since the basement is finished and we plan to utilize a lot of the space (media room, wet bar, my "bro cave" for gaming/hanging).
At this point we're just counting down... 8 days until settlement. We were able to get an FHA loan meaning we only had to put down 3.5%. The total closing and down we have to bring to settlement (minus the $5k from seller) is roughly $9,800. We're very happy, although a little scared since we never went through this process before. I think we got a great deal on the home. It's a truly great school district, parks nearby, 20 minutes from the capitol and 15 minutes from Hershey Park. With nearly half an acre, we have a lot of property to work with. The only down side, I'm a shitty handyman. My excuse, I've never had the opportunity. I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can. Any helpful advice would be appreciated - cheers!
We began looking at houses quite randomly from a family friend who is a realtor. I already knew our income and expenses and figured we could buy a house if we really wanted to. From then on it turned into a full on hunt, we wanted to get into a house and take advantage of the tax credit.
I decided to check out some lenders (this was in May of this year) and eventually went with Commerce/Metro Bank. My brother-in-law worked there and they actually pre-approved us, where as my credit union wasted $250 of my dollars to tell us that unless we could show them $25,000 in savings we were out of luck ($160,000 pre approval, mind you).
Once we received the pre approval we hit the ground running. We told our realtor exactly what we wanted to see and wanted to start immediately. He showed us one property that we put a bid on, but it was way over our budget. Over the next few weeks we hardly heard from him, getting calls about foreclosures or houses in areas we didn't want to see. Eventually we gave him the boot and decided to do this ourselves. We used the interwebs to find homes all over our area we wanted to see. We mapped out a driving route and went by each and every one. By the end, we had a solid list of houses we were interesting in seeing. Before we could call, I received a call from my father, telling me a co coworker of his was going to be selling his home.
We met up with the couple and took a look through their house. No price had been discussed, but it was a ranch home, 3 Bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1400 sq ft with a fully finished basement. It also had a two car detached garage and sits on .49 acres. It was in an excellent township and school district, central to nearly everything we'd need. We decided almost immediately that this was the home for us. The couple had not yet put it on the market and were allowing us the opportunity to work out an offer. Although it was odd to work out an offer with the sellers directly, eventually we reached the agreement of $158,000 with sellers paying $5,000 towards closing, or $163,000.
We ordered the inspections and they came back with very little problems: 2 windows at the rear of the garage are rotted, rotted wood trim along bottom of a few doors outside, nail sticking through a roof shingle, rag instead of a cap at the y in the main waste line, thermal seal failed in master bathroom window, white neutral wire in the main electric box that's not connected.
The only one that concerns me is the neutral wire, because I'm not an electrician and I'm not trying to kill myself doing it. Everything else is fairly easy to handle.
Other concerns. well there are three sumps, I didn't grow up with a basement, so some of this stuff is new to me. They couldn't find any indication of water damage, but it still does worry me since the basement is finished and we plan to utilize a lot of the space (media room, wet bar, my "bro cave" for gaming/hanging).
At this point we're just counting down... 8 days until settlement. We were able to get an FHA loan meaning we only had to put down 3.5%. The total closing and down we have to bring to settlement (minus the $5k from seller) is roughly $9,800. We're very happy, although a little scared since we never went through this process before. I think we got a great deal on the home. It's a truly great school district, parks nearby, 20 minutes from the capitol and 15 minutes from Hershey Park. With nearly half an acre, we have a lot of property to work with. The only down side, I'm a shitty handyman. My excuse, I've never had the opportunity. I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can. Any helpful advice would be appreciated - cheers!
Cutlery
Kill All the White People
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Fairly similar to my situation. Seller paying 8k, 245k sale price, need to put down 9228. We got the kid into the Science and Art magnet school, no clue why it"s called that, but this place has a gigantic budget. It"s an elementary school with a science lab. I wish my parents would have loved me that much. The Zoo is biking distance away, we"ve got a gigantic regional park just past the zoo, pretty quick commute for both of us to work.Ryoz said:
We"re waiting on the appraisal right now, I guess that can break a deal, but my mortgage guy hasn"t seen it lately (knock knock). It"s planned to close on Aug 31st, but school starts Sept 8th. That leaves us 7 days to get the house primed/painted, buy a fridge/washer, replace the basement carpet, and get moved in, or we"ve gotta haul the kid across the city to school twice a day. The worst part is the close on a monday, so we gotta do all this crap during the work week, and only have one weekend, a holiday weekend to get it all done. I"m mostly jaded now about how much of a pain in the ass it is to get anything done in a timely fashion in this process. YOU need to get your shit done quickly, but everyone else can take their sweet ass fucking time and all you can do is twiddle your goddamned thumbs.
Shitty handyman should be zero problem these days. With the internet, and a desire to learn, you should be able to manage almost any task that you don"t need heavy machinery to do.
a couple of concerns/red flags about this:Ryoz said:
are you getting any financial help from mom or dad?
it seems like you got approved for 160k, and you set out to spend the max of 160k.
additionally, its a really low downpayment you are making. if the valuation of the house is closer to 200k, then thats a different story. but from what you are saying it appears you are leveraged just about the max. the fact that you didnt get approved for 300k means that the debt/salary to monthly payment ratio is hitting its ceiling.
correct me if im wrong of course. being still in college and fairly young(?) its not the most common thing to buy a house right away.
my advice to you would be:
1. absolutely look at the other houses you searched. if nothing else, it will help educate you further.
2. dont feel forced or obligated into buying this home because its a friend/coworker.
3. dont feel pressured to meet the tax credit deadline. this is a small amount over time, and will only serve to help the sellers since you will be rushed to agree to a price.
3. the leverage issue/numbers in your story even makes me uneasy, and im a pretty big risk taker.
4. if you havent already, go to a website like zillow.com and look at the pricing history of your house, and those of surround houses on the street and surrounding area. this can be enlightening.
5. the fact that you arent using a real estate agent is a bit worrisome, especially on your first purchase. i know most agents are scum, but if you can find one you trust and will use regularly, it can be worth it to develop that relationship.
good luck either way.
Splorge
Ryoz
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We were pre approved from Metro for $180,000 (could have gone a little higher they said). I indicated $160,000 with the CU because I wanted to point out the insane down payment they wanted, rather, required us to make. We do have a bit of room as far as the mortgage payment goes. Not to mention I just paid off my car which frees up nearly $200 extra a month. Bonus.
As far as the agent goes, it was a risk. The agent"s husband, the seller, and my pop all work together and have for nearly 20 + years. That"s not to say she wasn"t looking out for their interests over mine, but we decided to go for it. I still got opinions from the outside to make sure we weren"t getting screwed over on anything and it all seemed pretty standard.
Thanks.
As far as the agent goes, it was a risk. The agent"s husband, the seller, and my pop all work together and have for nearly 20 + years. That"s not to say she wasn"t looking out for their interests over mine, but we decided to go for it. I still got opinions from the outside to make sure we weren"t getting screwed over on anything and it all seemed pretty standard.
Thanks.
Cutlery
Kill All the White People
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Not necessarily. I told my mortgage guy that I was looking at houses in the 210-240 range, he got me approved for 250, and I don"t think he even tried any higher. I told em that"s fine, I don"t plan on spending anymore to begin with. Who knows what I could have been approved for if I wanted to buy a better house?splorge said:
why would a bank not approve you up to the maximum allowed according to their policy?
it seems inefficient to give a yes/no answer to an arbitrary number, instead of saying you are approved up to and including X.
it seems inefficient to give a yes/no answer to an arbitrary number, instead of saying you are approved up to and including X.
If you as a lender approve someone up to $417,000 at the peak of the borrowers" allowed debt-to-income, then you as a lender legitimize someone going out and buying a home that may be above the borrower"s real means / needs. The MLOs I worked with got verbal information from the borrowers about their income, debts, etc. for preapprovals, before pulling credit reports and getting W2s, etc. Without an actual property and contract on said property we wouldn"t turn a pre-approval into a full-fledged application.