Home buying thread

Vinen

Vinen

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Noodleface_sl said:
The $169k was in Freetown, which I don't blame you if you don't know what it is. It's basically between Taunton and Fall River and really small. The others are all in Fall River right now ($200-250k average for a new/newer raised ranch or colonial to give some idea).

Freetown is perfect because it's a very wood-sy town, the problem is the houses can be really old and/or dilapidated. Fall River has a lot of development, so there are newer houses, but all of the houses are really close together and the city of Fall River isn't known as being a great place to live (moderate crime rate).

We're also looking around Middleboro/Taunton/Raynham/Bridgewater - all about the same as Freetown with places like Bridgewater being way higher in taxes.

Also I'd prefer to live closer to work, but as you move that way the prices skyrocket like you said.

Edit: The good thing is although we weren't approved for a shit ton of money, at $350k we have a lot of extra money to really pick and choose the right house for us in this area. We're aiming at $250k but we aren't opposed to paying more for the right house.
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Ohh god, Fall River.. not jealous anymore.
 
Noodleface

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Vinen_sl said:
Ohh god, Fall River.. not jealous anymore.
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Depends, right now we live on the edge of Fall River and it's actually pretty nice - just in a shitty apartment. Some of the houses we were looking at were unfortunately right next to some projects though. Projects + Fall River = nopeing right out.
 
Crone

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This is where I'm a little hesitant to start looking for a house in a city where I know nothing of the neighborhoods. A little different in Texas than east coast MA, but I feel like I would be the sucker that bought into that house right near the projects, and regret every minute of it.

Oh well, guess just gotta bite the bullet, and look around, and try and talk to people in the area to get the real scoop!
 
Falstaff

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If you find two houses that are relatively the same size, have the same amenities, etc. but are priced wildly different in the same general metropolitan area, you can probably easily figure out which one is in the shit neighborhood and which one isn't.
 
Noodleface

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Our agent suggest we not only drive by the houses before he sets up a walk-through, but also drive around the neighborhoods and do a google maps inspection of the general area.
 
Falstaff

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Yeah, a lot of realtors will tell you to go drive around places you like at different times of the day too... and I think that's pretty smart.
 
Noodleface

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Eyashusa_sl said:
Yeah, a lot of realtors will tell you to go drive around places you like at different times of the day too... and I think that's pretty smart.
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We went at night last night.. we saw a drug deal going down right out in the open next to a house so it was immediately crossed off the list
 
lindz

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Opinion on FHA loan vs standard loans with low down payments? It seems everything I read is if you can avoid FHA, do so because of the increasing insurance rates. What are the downsides to going for a standard loan with a low down payment (like 7-10%). Our credit is good (760+) so we qualify for good rates. Do they just limit us more on the size of the loan?

We're looking to buy for the first time so I'm a complete nub, just trying to do as much research as possible before we star looking in the next few months. Also curious about the best way to choose a lender if any advice there.
 
Deathwing

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Low down payment on a standard loan will affect your PMI(in increments of 5% down payment) and your monthly payment. I don't believe it affects how much you can borrow.

When we were considering FHA loans, I believe they had changed something recently that made them less attractive. I THINK FHA's version of PMI is baked into the life of the loan now. If you can afford 10% down, you shouldn't consider FHA. It's really only for people that have almost no savings. And then, it's debatable you should be buying a house.


As for choosing a lender. Just hit up banks, ask for a prequalification quote. You tell them some info(how much you make, how much you want to borrow, how much you might put down, etc) and they'll give you a short document back on how much it would cost to borrow from them. I found when I was doing the same last year, the difference between 5 different local banks was almost nothing. The margins on lending then was so small. So we just went with the bank we already had an account at.
 
Brando

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lindz_sl said:
Opinion on FHA loan vs standard loans with low down payments? It seems everything I read is if you can avoid FHA, do so because of the increasing insurance rates. What are the downsides to going for a standard loan with a low down payment (like 7-10%). Our credit is good (760+) so we qualify for good rates. Do they just limit us more on the size of the loan?

We're looking to buy for the first time so I'm a complete nub, just trying to do as much research as possible before we star looking in the next few months. Also curious about the best way to choose a lender if any advice there.
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You can look at FHA as only for shit buyers but that's really not true. Since there is no way to predict the future there is never just a black and white answer to any lending scenario. Depending on your expectations for the future a loan that may not look good to someone can look very appealing to someone else, the amount of I/O ARM's I'm doing right now after all the hubbub about how bad they were in the past certainly reflects that.

In general though a conventional loan is always cheaper, maybe not in interest rate, in overall costs compared to an FHA loan. The reason being is conventional loans are subject to risk based pricing where you with your 760 FICO will get a better offer for financing compared to someone with a 660 FICO. FHA doesn't work like that for most lenders, if you qualify for the program you get the same pricing as everybody else so you the more qualified person has to should the burden so to say for the less qualified person.

Whatever lender you go to should be able to give you your options in a pretty straightforward manner. As far as the lender, you can have a good or bad experience with anybody as if you get stuck with some shit newbie sitting in a bank branch he may fuck up the deal regardless of how well thought of the lender is overall. I would look for recommendations from friends and family first before just going out randomly.
 
U

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The big issue with FHA loans is that MI is for the life of the loan vs getting rid of it on a conventional after you hit 80ish%.

In a raising rate environment, you're not going to be able to refi to get rid of the MI and save money in the future.
 
Hachima

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Brando

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Unidin_sl said:
The big issue with FHA loans is that MI is for the life of the loan vs getting rid of it on a conventional after you hit 80ish%.

In a raising rate environment, you're not going to be able to refi to get rid of the MI and save money in the future.
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Again, depending on your starting LTV it may be anywhere from 5 to 9 years before the MI even goes away normally assuming no accelerated principle reduction. Are you even going to be in the house that long?
 
lindz

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Ugh I am so bad.

We're still 4 months away from our lease being up and I've started casually looking for the past week. Told myself I would go see a realtor until the 3 month mark, but just browsing is ok. Already found a couple places I am totally in love with.
 
Noodleface

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lindz_sl said:
Ugh I am so bad.

We're still 4 months away from our lease being up and I've started casually looking for the past week. Told myself I would go see a realtor until the 3 month mark, but just browsing is ok. Already found a couple places I am totally in love with.
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I am starting to be convinced you are actually my wife posting here.

GET BACK TO WORK DELIVERING MAIL LINDSEY




Told her to wait until we did stuff, like meet the realtor and get pre-approved. Instead she found her dream house online and it sold from underneath her. She was all depressed.
 
lindz

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Ha! I feel somewhat vindicated. Just spoke with my realtor (who has actually been my property manager for the last two year and just left to form her own real estate company) and she said now is the right time to start looking. Getting started on pre-approval and making a list of priorities. Excited!
 
Noodleface

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Now is a good time because I think spring is the start of home-buying season, at least that's what I gathered.


We're looking at our first set of houses tomorrow officially. Hoping it doesn't take us a long time to find something, although I'm prepared to take my time if I need to. Still have to give the bank a whole bunch of letters of explanation for stupid things. They want one for why we have our mail delivered to her parents house instead of our address, one explaining why my wife's paycheck varies (she's hourly), one explaining why I made so little the last two years and all of a sudden make 7x as much (graduated). Just a lot of BS.
 
lindz

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Are you guys still on a lease or month to month? My biggest worry is finding something too soon or too late and fucking with my current lease. I don't want to end up paying mortgage and rent and also don't want to trying to get month to month at my current place.

Any ways to deal with this situation better?
 
Noodleface

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Funny enough our lease ends in June (which is why I joked that you were my wife). We're prepared for worst case where we'll have to pay for a month or two of rent but we're thinking the house-buying process is going to take a little time once we have an offer accepted somewhere.

Our plans now is to go month to month at the end of the lease if we haven't found anything yet.

The only alternative is you can find someone to sublet your apartment until the lease is up.
 
T

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Just need to vent. All the work I'm doing to get the house move-in ready is going great. Eletrical is redone, knocked out a wall and built a bar, stripped the carpet, dozens of small things. Floors are scheduled for today, paint for Monday, some stuff I have to do over the weekend and it'd be finished. Right?

Nope. The HVAC guy, who was supposed to start Saturday and said it'd take two days, started Tuesday and STILL isn't done. So everything else has to be pushed back. So now painters are Thursday and I don't even know when I can reschedule the floor guy, he is booked solid. All because of one guy who is a fuck up. I'm over there every day getting the house ready and this guy works so fucking slow.
 
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