Home buying thread

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Chaotic_foh

shitlord
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Do you guys use any national sites to view houses? Also, I mentioned it very early in this thread, and I feel compelled to again - you guys are getting gorgeous looking houses for so cheap, i hate you.

It"s awkward for me here in NY, I was having a discussion with my friend before - i"m making $50k a year (student still, but I have a nice full time job) - I have a nice car, nice stuff, anything material I really want I already have (within reason, i"m not one of those $200 jeans guys, and I was reasonable when i purchased my car too, paid 75% of it cash and my monthly payment is nothing) I only mention this because I feel at this point I have no purpose with really having my money - no "next step" so to speak.

I"d have to save 10 years to be able to afford the monthly payment on a house. It"s like, what the fuck do I do now? Average house in my area is still in the $350-400k mark and property taxes range from $6000-$10000 a year (I think my parents pay $8500) I can get an apartment for that. It just blows my ass. Almost makes me wish I lived in another state, but I do like it here =\


I"m debt free and student loan free ( so far ) and saving, but man it sucks, especially reading a thread like this. I want to play too.
 
Cutlery

Cutlery

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Kool aid man speaks the truth. If you"re making 50k in the midwest you"re doing just fine. 50k in new york might as well be minimum wage.
 
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r3probate_foh

shitlord
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@Chaotic - check out zillow.com if you"re just looking for real estate listings/photos/prices. It does an OK job of showing pricing trends in an area and keeps track of recently sold properties on the map as well. Alternatively you can just get straight at the MLS data if you"re just browsing.
 
Cutlery

Cutlery

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r3probate said:
@Chaotic - check out zillow.com if you"re just looking for real estate listings/photos/prices. It does an OK job of showing pricing trends in an area and keeps track of recently sold properties on the map as well. Alternatively you can just get straight at the MLS data if you"re just browsing.
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rofl. Uhh, no.

My house was vacant for about a year before I bought it in September. I paid $245 for it. Since January, Zillow has raised the "value" of my house from $225 to $413. I assure you, despite what I would like to believe, I did not put $190k worth of work into it, and it did not appreciate while it was vacant.
 
C

Chaotic_foh

shitlord
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zillow has interesting trend data at least, thanks for the link.

My question to you home owners: I was doing some math.

Let"s say the that my mortgage itself is $1000 a month, let"s assume a $250,000 loan or whatever, that I sit and calculate with interest will be approximately $1000 a month (these are rough hypothetical numbers)

What, actually is the actual cost of ownership monthly? Fees that get bundled into your loan, electric water gas property tax etc - what are the "hidden costs" so to speak. I"m trying to figure out fiscally if I could pull it off with $50k down or something which is reasonably feasible for me, and then rent out a section of the house, just food for thought for long term planning I guess.
 
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splorge_foh

shitlord
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Chaotic said:
zillow has interesting trend data at least, thanks for the link.

My question to you home owners: I was doing some math.

Let"s say the that my mortgage itself is $1000 a month, let"s assume a $250,000 loan or whatever, that I sit and calculate with interest will be approximately $1000 a month (these are rough hypothetical numbers)

What, actually is the actual cost of ownership monthly? Fees that get bundled into your loan, electric water gas property tax etc - what are the "hidden costs" so to speak. I"m trying to figure out fiscally if I could pull it off with $50k down or something which is reasonably feasible for me, and then rent out a section of the house, just food for thought for long term planning I guess.
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im not really sure what you are asking. If you are talking about the monthly cash flow only, it should be fairly simple arithmetic. add up the various costs like bills, mortgage, insurance, tax, estimated repairs per annum, cutting the grass etc. if you are assuming your salary will only remain 50k forever, then you will have a lot of trouble meeting costs due to inflation. if your salary grows at pace or greater than inflation, you will have an easier time of paying the mortgage back with inflated dollars.

If you are asking what is the "cost" of buying a house, this is a far more complex question which depends on your salary, downpayment (options), the details of your mortgage (interest), what other investments are currently available (opportunity cost), the price of the house (are you getting a good deal), your current quality of life vs. the one you will have if you move (subjective), the stability of your job, amongst a host of others.
 
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Chaotic_foh

shitlord
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I meant more like things I wouldn"t realize - like whatever escrow is, or other costs incorporated into the mortgage (inspections for example, i don"t know)

For example, if I didn"t know about property tax it"s not something I would ever calculate for - and boom there"s $500-$700 a month on top of what i"m already paying.

I know it"s mortgage + bills + repairs = net cost - I mean things you wouldn"t anticipate as a newb home buyer.

I can say that I can afford a 250,000 loan because my payment would be 1000 and my electric 200 gas 40 water 70 phone 50 - but it"s not and can"t be that simple (property tax comes to mind, as I mentioned)
 
Big Phoenix

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The only true variables are ARM(lol who has those?) and random repairs that come up. Obviously tax rates/utilities will rise or drop depending on the time of the year but generally you should be able to calculate what would be your payment each month fairly easily.

But what to look for?

HoA fees
electricty/gas
telephone
cable
water
property tax
mortgage
 
S

Sharmai_foh

shitlord
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Chaotic said:
zillow has interesting trend data at least, thanks for the link.

My question to you home owners: I was doing some math.

Let"s say the that my mortgage itself is $1000 a month, let"s assume a $250,000 loan or whatever, that I sit and calculate with interest will be approximately $1000 a month (these are rough hypothetical numbers)

What, actually is the actual cost of ownership monthly? Fees that get bundled into your loan, electric water gas property tax etc - what are the "hidden costs" so to speak. I"m trying to figure out fiscally if I could pull it off with $50k down or something which is reasonably feasible for me, and then rent out a section of the house, just food for thought for long term planning I guess.
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$1000/month loan is more like a $150,000 house imo. Hidden fees are mortgage insurance, taxes, and homeowners association fees (HOA). Sometimes you will pay the HOA out of pocket and not as part of your loan. Note that these hidden fees I"ve mentioned are most likely part of the $1000/month you pay not an additional amount on top of the $1000.

Other fees include water bill (minor usually insignificant like 30$ a month), electric/gas bill (major probably $150-$300 a month varying), sewage bill (minor $30/month).

That"s pretty much it. There are other fees you should consider like cable tv, cellphone, phone, additional insurance or other stuff you might buy but its all optional.
 
Cutlery

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Chaotic said:
zillow has interesting trend data at least, thanks for the link.

My question to you home owners: I was doing some math.

Let"s say the that my mortgage itself is $1000 a month, let"s assume a $250,000 loan or whatever, that I sit and calculate with interest will be approximately $1000 a month (these are rough hypothetical numbers)

What, actually is the actual cost of ownership monthly? Fees that get bundled into your loan, electric water gas property tax etc - what are the "hidden costs" so to speak. I"m trying to figure out fiscally if I could pull it off with $50k down or something which is reasonably feasible for me, and then rent out a section of the house, just food for thought for long term planning I guess.
Click to expand...
I can give you all of that. My home was $245k, we put 3.5% down, so ~8500 or some nonsense. My mortgage amount was a shade over $240k.

Principle and Interest is $1365 (should only vary based upon interest rate. Mine is 5.5%)
Property tax is $264 (mine are 3300/yr, obviously variable)
Homeowners insurance is $82
Mortgage Insurance (FHA) is $107.

Total is a shade over $1800 every month for a $245k loan. Mortgage insurance drops off after 5 years at your request, or when you"ve got 20% equity into the loan. So, hidden costs? $500ish a month for me in suburban MN.

Electric? Figure 50% more than you use now, should give you a ballpark. Gas? Depends on where you live. I"ve got a buddy living in an apartment in Seattle with a gas range, and the fucker is getting raped. Pays way more per therm, uses less, ends up with like the same bill during the summer. Obviously during heating season I"ll be paying more, but I was pretty shocked that he pays literally triple what I do for gas per therm. Trash is like $100 every 3 months or so. I haven"t gotten a water bill yet...the assclowns that lived here before racked up almost $1000 bill while it was vacant though, which the city was nice enough to assess onto my property taxes for me. Still in the process of getting that shit sorted out.
 
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r3probate_foh

shitlord
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TheCutlery said:
rofl. Uhh, no.

My house was vacant for about a year before I bought it in September. I paid $245 for it. Since January, Zillow has raised the "value" of my house from $225 to $413. I assure you, despite what I would like to believe, I did not put $190k worth of work into it, and it did not appreciate while it was vacant.
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Hey, home prices will always increase over time, right?

Sorry, it was pretty accurate in the areas that I"ve lived, so I thought it was a fair shot. Your mileage may vary on it I suppose.
 
Cutlery

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meStevo said:
So yeah, getting nervous. Have like 5 days to close, and bank is still waiting on Chase to verify something.
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Don"t worry about it. We lost a shitton of sleep over ours, they pulled the same crap with us. The Wednesday before the close on Monday, they say they need a bunch of shit faxed over, and they still had no information on my wife"s student loans, which were all in deferment at the time, and had just been sold. We literally had no idea who even owned the loan, and couldn"t get that information.

We still closed just fine. All that bullshit you hear about needing all your ducks in a row is just that...bullshit. I thought for sure there was no way we were gonna get this loan with the 80k in student debt my wife has. I was wrong, and I didn"t even have to sweat it. Honestly, it"s a joke. If you"ve got a job, you"ll get the house.
 
M

meStevo_foh

shitlord
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In hindsight I expect to be in full agreement, but until then, nervous it is!

I"m the steady unaffected one though, otherwise my wife would be even more stressed out and emotional. I haven"t even really gotten excited about all of this, will be once we have keys.
 
S

splorge_foh

shitlord
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TheCutlery said:
I can give you all of that. My home was $245k, we put 3.5% down, so ~8500 or some nonsense. My mortgage amount was a shade over $240k.

Principle and Interest is $1365 (should only vary based upon interest rate. Mine is 5.5%)
Property tax is $264 (mine are 3300/yr, obviously variable)
Homeowners insurance is $82
Mortgage Insurance (FHA) is $107.

Total is a shade over $1800 every month for a $245k loan. Mortgage insurance drops off after 5 years at your request, or when you"ve got 20% equity into the loan. So, hidden costs? $500ish a month for me in suburban MN.
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why was your loan over 240k if you paid 8.5k down? shouldnt the loan have been around 236K? did you borrow the insurance and they lumped it in?
 
Cutlery

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splorge said:
why was your loan over 240k if you paid 8.5k down? shouldnt the loan have been around 236K? did you borrow the insurance and they lumped it in?
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No, I paid cash for the insurance. When you buy a house, they nickel and dime you to death on everything. Loan origination fee? 1%. Filing fee? Title company fee? Oh, you wanna close on a Monday? Fee for that.

The end result was that I technically put 8.5kish down, but I only brought a check for $6kish to closing, since I had already paid for a year of insurance, 6 months of property taxes (to set up the escrow accounts), the appraisal, and all the other shit that"s gotta be done. You can"t ever get a house for what the actual purchase price of it is.
 
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CnCGOD_foh

shitlord
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Yea those fees add up fast. Loan origination counts as interest for tax purposes btw so you can get yourself a chunk of that back.
 
Vandyn

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Just a quick word on Zillow from someone who recently bought a house earlier this year.

As far as home values are concerned, Zillow really is only useful for getting a ballpark figure and nothing more (an even then it may be way off). Zillow comps are only going off data that it can get publicly, therefore never taking into account intangibles that a real appraiser would take into consideration. When we were looking at houses, there were some examples where zillow was way off by upwards of 15-20k of what the actual home should be worth. A good lesson to learn is always go off the assumption that Zillow is wrong, because in almost all cases it is.
 
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CnCGOD_foh

shitlord
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Zillow is an appraisal algorithm that works with imperfect information. And hell informed appraisals are often wildly different so it does a 1/2 decent job imho.
 
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