Home buying thread

Cad

<Bronze Donator>
24,487
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Yeah, I mean I have nothing to go on at this point except his business card and a verbal veiled threat. But considering this is the City of Dallas, I could get that letter next week, next year, or never. Meanwhile I have some potentially life altering event hanging out there.



No, I finally fixed that pos condo and was able to sell it just before buying this home. Thankfully, I have only had minor cosmetic issues with the place with the exception of a giant steel hangar door that wasn't insulated, and acted like a giant freezing radiator in the winter. Had to fight with the builder to get him to clad it in insulation and wood.

Until there's a letter and/or violation, there's nothing hanging out there. Forget about it until you get a letter.
 

fris

Vyemm Raider
2,004
2,180
Kind of a home kind of a credit question

In 2 years I want to refinance or move into a new home. @ 4.75 now. Credit karma says I'm at 761 credit, so I could drop that a good bit. I'm 1% utilized with a bunch of young accounts. 2 years ago, I didn't have a single credit card. Now I have 5. My hope is that once my average age breaks 2 years again, I'll be 780.

Is it worth waiting to see if I can get to 780 (which I hear gets you discounts on fees when buying) or should I do it sooner?
 

Vinen

God is dead
2,782
486
Kind of a home kind of a credit question

In 2 years I want to refinance or move into a new home. @ 4.75 now. Credit karma says I'm at 761 credit, so I could drop that a good bit. I'm 1% utilized with a bunch of young accounts. 2 years ago, I didn't have a single credit card. Now I have 5. My hope is that once my average age breaks 2 years again, I'll be 780.

Is it worth waiting to see if I can get to 780 (which I hear gets you discounts on fees when buying) or should I do it sooner?

I'd do it sooner. Rates are getting low. I don't think you will see much a difference between 760 and 780 in terms of rates. I'd talk with a broker to understand better.

4.75 is really high in the current era. How long ago did you take out a loan?
 

sadris

Karen
<Donor>
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Why would someone take a cash offer of $X over a financed offer of $X+Y.

They get the money either way, but they get $Y extra money, just 20 days later.
 

Captain Suave

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
4,761
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Why would someone take a cash offer of $X over a financed offer of $X+Y.

Bird in hand, etc. When I sold my house I had two financed offers fall through despite that they were "pre-approved". I lost whatever other offers I had on the hook at the time and delayed sale by several months, incurring several thousand in carrying costs.
 

ver_21

Molten Core Raider
975
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Bird in hand, etc. When I sold my house I had two financed offers fall through despite that they were "pre-approved". I lost whatever other offers I had on the hook at the time and delayed sale by several months, incurring several thousand in carrying costs.

Did you get to keep any earnest money deposit out of it?
 

Vinen

God is dead
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486
Stinks. Do you get to see any sort of official documentation of it? Annoyed to hear that pre-approval doesn't mean anything (though not surprised) =/

You get a copy of the pre-approval as part of the offer. You can nix the contingencies but the buyer would need to agree.

When I sold my last house the buyer
- Waved Mortgage Contingency
- Waved Inspection Contingency

Note: My house was in one of the hottest markets in the country. Arlington, MA. If houses are on the market for more than a few days they are considered aged in this market.
 
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Poster

Lord Nagafen Raider
119
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Kind of a home kind of a credit question

In 2 years I want to refinance or move into a new home. @ 4.75 now. Credit karma says I'm at 761 credit, so I could drop that a good bit. I'm 1% utilized with a bunch of young accounts. 2 years ago, I didn't have a single credit card. Now I have 5. My hope is that once my average age breaks 2 years again, I'll be 780.

Is it worth waiting to see if I can get to 780 (which I hear gets you discounts on fees when buying) or should I do it sooner?


Refinance now. 30 year fixed should be low-mid 3 handle. I just took out a 7/1 ARM at 2.375%.
 

Aychamo BanBan

<Banned>
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Hey all, looking for some input.

I have the "new house bug." The house I'm looking at is $1,250,000, I offered $1,000,000, they countered $1,100,000. So we aren't far apart.

The property is weird though. It's in an older part of town, but it's on the river, so it's desirable, because you can have a boat, etc. It actually has water on the front and back of property so both views are awesome. House is on like 2 acres, almost brand new, beautiful, but will require a lot of upkeep, which I'm not really fond of. Like the fences are all painted, so probably thousands of feet of fence that need to be cared for, etc. When they built the house, they first built a 2000 sq ft boat house with two boat lifts underneath, then a gorgeous boat house 3/3 up above. This boat house takes up a little more than 1/2 of the river front property for the house. They are not including the boat house with the sell because they want a ridiculous amount of money ($500,000 if I buy it with other house, otherwise listing it for 600-700). So, that means that my part of the riverfront property has no boat house, lift, or anything. It does have a concrete bulkhead so I could build whatever I wanted, but that's expensive.

My current house is $410,000, and I have a 15 yr biweekly loan so it will be paid off basically the day my daughter finishes high school, which is also when my child support payments end. So on that day, my monthly expenses drop to about $1200-1500 (I currently pay $2400 child support / month and $3200/month mortgage (it's really biweekly but thats the sum)). Such low monthly expenses is basically financial freedom to me which means I can do anything and work as little or as much as I want, and I'll be like 51 then. And I can probably pay the house off quicker because I put extra on top of my payments even though its biweekly.

What worries me is the house is the new house would be 5000/month for 30 years. So when my daughter finishes school, and I'm 51, I'd still have 17 years left on the mortgage. I can't retire with a $5000/month mortgage. I mean, by them I'm sure with inflation $5000/month may feel like $3000/month or so, but its still a hefty sum. And I'm terrified about upkeep, because it's a huge house, and so much stuff is painted, and it's on the river which is salt water so I'm sure it will need lots of paint, etc. Not to mention that I know when I move in I'll spend 10-$20,000 on furniture, and I'll invariably find things to modify, etc. I'm just worried about it being a ridiculous expense. And with spending more money on that, it's less I can save for retirement, so saving less, spending more per month, and then having a longer mortgage puts me at much much further out to retire. ... If I did the 30 year mortgage without paying it off early, I would spend $700,000 on interest alone, which is almost twice my entire current house value, lol.

It just seems really stupid, right? I can technically afford this, but it means that my early retirement plans are going down the drain. I make really good money, but I have to work for every cent I earn, I don't like have a business that earns money when I'm home. I'm paid hourly. I feel like this is a very bad idea. What do yall think?
 

Asshat wormie

2023 Asshat Award Winner
<Gold Donor>
16,820
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Hey all, looking for some input.

I have the "new house bug." The house I'm looking at is $1,250,000, I offered $1,000,000, they countered $1,100,000. So we aren't far apart.

The property is weird though. It's in an older part of town, but it's on the river, so it's desirable, because you can have a boat, etc. It actually has water on the front and back of property so both views are awesome. House is on like 2 acres, almost brand new, beautiful, but will require a lot of upkeep, which I'm not really fond of. Like the fences are all painted, so probably thousands of feet of fence that need to be cared for, etc. When they built the house, they first built a 2000 sq ft boat house with two boat lifts underneath, then a gorgeous boat house 3/3 up above. This boat house takes up a little more than 1/2 of the river front property for the house. They are not including the boat house with the sell because they want a ridiculous amount of money ($500,000 if I buy it with other house, otherwise listing it for 600-700). So, that means that my part of the riverfront property has no boat house, lift, or anything. It does have a concrete bulkhead so I could build whatever I wanted, but that's expensive.

My current house is $410,000, and I have a 15 yr biweekly loan so it will be paid off basically the day my daughter finishes high school, which is also when my child support payments end. So on that day, my monthly expenses drop to about $1200-1500 (I currently pay $2400 child support / month and $3200/month mortgage (it's really biweekly but thats the sum)). Such low monthly expenses is basically financial freedom to me which means I can do anything and work as little or as much as I want, and I'll be like 51 then. And I can probably pay the house off quicker because I put extra on top of my payments even though its biweekly.

What worries me is the house is the new house would be 5000/month for 30 years. So when my daughter finishes school, and I'm 51, I'd still have 17 years left on the mortgage. I can't retire with a $5000/month mortgage. I mean, by them I'm sure with inflation $5000/month may feel like $3000/month or so, but its still a hefty sum. And I'm terrified about upkeep, because it's a huge house, and so much stuff is painted, and it's on the river which is salt water so I'm sure it will need lots of paint, etc. Not to mention that I know when I move in I'll spend 10-$20,000 on furniture, and I'll invariably find things to modify, etc. I'm just worried about it being a ridiculous expense. And with spending more money on that, it's less I can save for retirement, so saving less, spending more per month, and then having a longer mortgage puts me at much much further out to retire. ... If I did the 30 year mortgage without paying it off early, I would spend $700,000 on interest alone, which is almost twice my entire current house value, lol.

It just seems really stupid, right? I can technically afford this, but it means that my early retirement plans are going down the drain. I make really good money, but I have to work for every cent I earn, I don't like have a business that earns money when I'm home. I'm paid hourly. I feel like this is a very bad idea. What do yall think?
If it's an impulse buy its retarded. If it's something you have wanted for a while, do it.
 

Captain Suave

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
4,761
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I can technically afford this, but it means that my early retirement plans are going down the drain.

Retire early in a more modest house. Or by this one and don't. We can't answer that for you.

More directly to your question, fuck properties that require a lot of maintenance. Unless you can just throw money at maintenance or you can do it yourself and enjoy the work it will be a source of stress as long as you live there.
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
60,585
132,598
it's stoopid b/c you have no dock, the whole reason for that property is to sail your gay ass boat and meet your other gay ass neighbors on that lake, at least thats what happens when i go over the work friends house. his house would be worthless w/o the boat. his dock is junk b/c he has no lift.

the eye candy and the value is in the boat house
 

Fogel

Mr. Poopybutthole
12,124
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I'd go with smaller house + earlier retirement. My 2nd house I went smaller because you tend to underestimate the amount of maintenance, cleaning, and utilities a much larger house requires.
 

Frenzied Wombat

Potato del Grande
14,730
31,802
Don’t buy a larger house than you need. Maintenance isn’t just a money pit, it’s a sanity pit too. Unless you can afford a full time handyman/house manager, you’ll be spending all your free time hunting for maintenance people and writing checks.
 
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