Home buying thread

Aychamo BanBan

Aychamo BanBan

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I"ve been renting my entire life cause I"ve been moving around for so many years. I recently looked at buying a house where I live now. I found a really cool 2 bedroom 2 bath in the oldest neatest neighborhood in town. They were asking $200,000. The house is very old and would honestly need about $50,000 in improvements to get it to be nice. The thing is if that house was in any other neighborhood it would sell for $120,000. My agent said I could probably offer $156,000 and get it for around $170,000. That"s still a $50,000 premium for the neighborhood. I figured in this economy I"d be pretty stupid to pay that.
 
Cutlery

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Seventh said:
I just did my taxes (huzzah) a couple of weeks ago, and I claimed 88k last year. I"m salaried + overtime - my base is 75, but I travel a decent amount which makes up the rest. I"m throwing out my average, non-overtime pay - my apologies, should have made that a bit more clear, but my line of thought is that even with travel pay, it"s still cutting it uncomfortably close. I just don"t want to be house poor, know what I mean?
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Still sounds off. I made 42k last year, and I bring in a bare minimum of 2800 a month, if I work no OT at all. To be fair, I have some non taxable income being added to that, but it certainly is not 30k worth. Just think about it, if you made 88k, you could pay off that house in 3 years with no expenses. How could you possibly run it razor thin on a 30 year mortgage with no other significant bills? There"s something off in your math. Either you"re thinking you get paid bi-weekly when it"s weekly, or you think you get paid monthly when it"s bi-weekly, but there"s no way you"re bringing in 3500 a month when you make doubly my salary.
 
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scientia potentia est
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Seventh - I"m not saying you"re wrong about how much you"re bringing home, obviously you know what lands in your bank account each month. I"m just saying if you make 75 or 90k, you should be bringing home significantly more than 3500 each month, you might check where your money is going and what your deductions look like. You"re on the right track about not wanting to be cut too thin on your finances, and I"m not saying "you"ll be okay!", I"m just saying your numbers don"t quite add up.
 
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aychamo_aycono said:
I"ve been renting my entire life cause I"ve been moving around for so many years. I recently looked at buying a house where I live now. I found a really cool 2 bedroom 2 bath in the oldest neatest neighborhood in town. They were asking $200,000. The house is very old and would honestly need about $50,000 in improvements to get it to be nice. The thing is if that house was in any other neighborhood it would sell for $120,000. My agent said I could probably offer $156,000 and get it for around $170,000. That"s still a $50,000 premium for the neighborhood. I figured in this economy I"d be pretty stupid to pay that.
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Neighborhood premium isn"t going to go away while prices go down, nicer neighborhoods cost more for a reason. People want to live there. You may not value what the neighborhood offers and that"s fine - and the house may legitimately be overpriced. Don"t automatically go "oh I could get the same house in another neighborhood for less, so this one sucks."
 
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Seventh

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TheCutlery said:
Still sounds off. I made 42k last year, and I bring in a bare minimum of 2800 a month, if I work no OT at all. To be fair, I have some non taxable income being added to that, but it certainly is not 30k worth. Just think about it, if you made 88k, you could pay off that house in 3 years with no expenses. How could you possibly run it razor thin on a 30 year mortgage with no other significant bills? There"s something off in your math. Either you"re thinking you get paid bi-weekly when it"s weekly, or you think you get paid monthly when it"s bi-weekly, but there"s no way you"re bringing in 3500 a month when you make doubly my salary.
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2800/mo at 42k? My paychecks are all "green" so I don"t have a statement handy, so w/o firing up my VPN to check, here:

pcc.jpg


That"s MA, without taking into consideration retirement deductions. Here"s 42k in MN:

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That"s $2300/mo with nothing taken out for retirement or savings. I have no deductions, and I max my retirement contributions (always have), but that"s a pretty big discrepancy. I do get completely raped in taxes each paycheck, but I make what I make. Again, I have paychecks that are a shitton bigger than that when I get back from 3-4 weeks of extended travel w/per diem and all that shit added in, but I have to budget around base pay. Those big checks get taxed all to hell as well.

Edit: I didn"t mean to turn this into a "Damn, Seventh gets raped in taxes apparently" discussion. My real question is just how you guys doing it on your own afford it and maintain peace of mind. Maybe I just need to bang out some kids.
 
Cutlery

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Seventh said:
..
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My paycheck is laid out kinda fucked up, so I"m not gonna bother scanning it, and I had to dig to find a paycheck that wasn"t "Off" (like the pay period that contained 3 holidays, and I put in 30 hours of OT), but here"s what I got after some digging.

Gross 1800.86 (including 54.99 non taxable)
Taxes 315.39
Deductions 58.00 (union dues)
Net pay 1427.47

I"d say the problem is that you"re expecting a pretty big tax return, aren"t you? I claim 3, wife claims 1, and we basically wash every year. Less than 1k back from Fed, I pay in a little to state.

So yeah, I bring home 2800 a month pretty easy. That check had 1.88 hours of OT, so nothing out of the ordinary. That"s an "average" paycheck for me.

Here, I"ve even got a check that is somewhat comparable to yours too.

Gross 2782.86
Taxes 557.79
Deductions 58.00
Net Pay 2167.07.

Taxes break down as

Fed 249.00
Fica 160.79
Medi 37.69
Minn 110.40

But that check had 26 hours of OT, 3 holidays, and $189.54 in non taxable, so I can"t exactly say that"s an average check for me.
 
Heylel

Heylel

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Bleh, this is getting frustrating.

I made an offer on Friday of last week, with a clause that stipulated a response by 5pm yesterday. Saturday we were forwarded an email that went out to a few prospective buyers asking for our highest and best, while the seller made a decision whether to short sell the property or try to rent it out to a tenant.

Well, we resubmitted our offer, but so far haven"t gotten anything back. The listing agent hasn"t once picked up the phone to talk to my agent, and they"ve only done business so far by fax or email. I have his number, and could call him myself, but I don"t want to overstep myself.

What"s the right play here? I really like this property, and don"t want to walk away from it without an answer, even if that answer is no sale. Of all the places I"ve looked so far, it is the best fit for all my criteria. Do I just sit on my hands and wait, hoping to hear back? Or, do I skip over my agent and start calling the listing agent directly? I"m a pretty tenacious guy, and I"m not afraid to aggressively seek a resolution. I"ve done it a number of times with credit card companies, bad service, phone bills etc. The only thing stopping me is becoming such a nuisance that they tell me no just to make me go away.

Should I just give up on this one, or assume it"s gone? We made a very fair offer with a strong chance of success, we just can"t get a response from the listing agent.
 
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Shoeby_foh

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I feel your frustration, for 2 months we couldn"t get a peep out of our damn agent. I swear to god that must be the easiest fucking job in the world. It got to the point that the wife and I said if we don"t hear back from her by Friday we"re giving up on that offer that we made, and will be looking at going with another agent and starting all over again.

Turns out she called us on Wednesday, so we had no need to go that route. We were buying a short sale and the bank"s attorney had to approve the amount we tossed out there. If I had been given privilege to that number I"d have rung that bitch"s phone off the hook, and I"m really not all that confrontational.

If you have the number, I say go for it. The listing agent works for the seller, so he won"t have to tell you dick, but at best he may give you an idea of where you stand. Not knowing is the shittiest part of it all, hopefully he gives you some feedback.

Good Luck
 
Heylel

Heylel

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Well, not two minutes ago my agent emailed me to say the bank was countering another offer, but they would contact us back if it fell through.

I"m pretty bummed, that makes two homes which I"ve made quite reasonable offers on that I"ve since lost. I"m not blaming my agent per se, there"s little he can do, but I"m not enjoying the feeling of being so disconnected from the process. It"s basically "yeah I like that, offer this" and then being told "um, no, we decided to waste your time listing this one, pick something else".

My enthusiasm for the whole process is beginning to wane. I"ve looked at probably 100+ properties, visited at least a dozen, toured them, and I"m still no closer to the finish line. I"m starting to feel like I"m doing something wrong.
 
Cutlery

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Well, I reckon you can chalk that up to not offering closer to the asking price. That"s something you"ve gotta weigh into the mix. Is this a house you really want? Then be prepared to pay what they ask. If the price is more important to you, then be prepared to lose some bids.
 
Heylel

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TheCutlery said:
Well, I reckon you can chalk that up to not offering closer to the asking price. That"s something you"ve gotta weigh into the mix. Is this a house you really want? Then be prepared to pay what they ask. If the price is more important to you, then be prepared to lose some bids.
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Asking price was 159, I offered 154. I"m quite surprised that anyone offered higher, to be honest.
 
Vandyn

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Heylel Teomim said:
Asking price was 159, I offered 154. I"m quite surprised that anyone offered higher, to be honest.
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In a short sale, don"t be surprised if there is no budge from the list price. Usually in a short sale the list price is already the lowest the bank will go. It"s easier to negotiate with an individual then with a bank.
 
Heylel

Heylel

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Found a place today that might potentially be nice, it"s hard to tell from pictures. Anyway, I"m going by tonight to tour it.

Anyone have experience owning homes with an in-ground pool? This place has one already built. While the prospect of having a pool for summer sounds great, I"m of two minds about taking on that sort of upkeep. What"s the yearly expenditure to keep a pool clean and operable? Also, what are the minimum necessary precautions against kids wandering in etc. that would keep me from getting sued if an accident happened?
 
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Heylel Teomim said:
Found a place today that might potentially be nice, it"s hard to tell from pictures. Anyway, I"m going by tonight to tour it.

Anyone have experience owning homes with an in-ground pool? This place has one already built. While the prospect of having a pool for summer sounds great, I"m of two minds about taking on that sort of upkeep. What"s the yearly expenditure to keep a pool clean and operable? Also, what are the minimum necessary precautions against kids wandering in etc. that would keep me from getting sued if an accident happened?
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In this state, you need at least a 3, maybe 4 foot gated fence all the way around it. That may be in addition to the normal fence around the yard, not sure on that one. But I do know that the entire pool area does need to be completely enclosed with a latching gate.
 
Heylel

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TheCutlery said:
In this state, you need at least a 3, maybe 4 foot gated fence all the way around it. That may be in addition to the normal fence around the yard, not sure on that one. But I do know that the entire pool area does need to be completely enclosed with a latching gate.
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Well, there"s already a fence. As to it"s condition, I can"t say.

The pictures make the house look interesting, but I can"t tell if it"s in any way a decent place. It"s obviously a home where a couple owned it for several years and made lots of additions and improvements. It"s got character, but it"s a little dated in the color and the inside furnishings. Lots of natural woods, very rustic etc.

Potentially I could handle that just fine, but it could also end up being a little redneck. I"ll just have to see.
 
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Ravvenn_sl

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It depends on your area. Pool service here is $90.00 a month (weekly service). It also depends on if you plan to heat it or not, is your heater gas or electric, is there an attached spa, how old the equipment is, etc. Using the spa once or twice a weekend for approximately 45 minutes increases the bill by about $15.00. To heat the pool is like $200.00 so that son of a bitch can stay cold until the summer. Water was like 45 bucks for 2 inches lost from it being hot (I"m not gallon savvy with the pool, but I have a picture if that helps).

Where we live, it was required to have a pool fence (approximately 4" tall) going around the open area of the pool. The open area is basically the side that our gate to the back yard is on (ie: the access side). In addition to that, a 6" fence surrounding the yard has to be up which included a self closing and latching gate that the door swings out (away from the yard). So if your pool is more to the right of your house, you could just make a straight fence from your house to the back fence (rather than a circular fence around the entire pool).

If your heater is gas and anywhere near a window, have fun with that. Those fools wanted to nail our windows shut rather than trust us to not be retards and open the window with the heater running. There"s codes that go with that, but I forgot the distance when it comes to the heater and the window. I got some heat cap thingymajig that seemed to suit the Home Insurance Company fine.

You"re probably close to being disgruntled about this entire process. I SAW at least 80 homes and looked at hundreds upon hundreds online. If you really want a house, does the $4,000 really matter or is it just about getting it for less than listing? As stated (a few times) it"s going to be a miracle if you successfully negotiate a Short Sale.
 
Heylel

Heylel

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The short sale is gone, I didn"t get it. So that ship has sailed.

I went and looked at three more today. Two were foreclosures in godawful shape for about 150. They would have both needed 10k of work just to be livable, so that"s just right out.

I went and looked at the place with the pool as well, and it turned out to be.. surprisingly nice. It"s one of those places that clearly reflects the character of its previous tenants. There"s lots of additions all over. The basement has two large, well finished rooms with a fireplace and a full bath. There"s an exceptionally large screened in porch, and an enormous deck next to the in-ground pool. The back yard fence is just chain link, and clearly needs replaced, but that"s the only drawback.

It"s an older home, built in "85, but the plumbing has been updated and the roof is only 3 years old. Almost everything about it looks dated, which sorta sucks since I"d like to spruce it up a bit, but it"s nothing severe. Paint and maybe a little drywall could do the trick. It"s got this whole rustic cabin thing going with lots of cedar and natural woods through the house, and while it"s cool enough in a few rooms it"s a little too prevalent for my taste. Still, the house itself seems very sturdy.

In general, I liked it when I saw it. The more I thought about it, the more it grew on me. It"s the kind of place a single guy in his late 20s (me) could do a lot with, and lots of the sort of expensive projects I would undertake have already been done. Compared to other things I"ve looked at in the same range, I"m more than willing to spend a few thousand more on a home with all that stuff done, considering that I"m happy withhowit was done.

It"s listed at 164.9k. That"s out of my price range ever so slightly, so my agent asked if they had any flex and was told to send over our offer at 155 and they"d consider it. I"ll go up to 158 or so before starting to balk, so we"ll see how it goes.

Best part is this is just a couple trying to sell the house, it"s not a short sale or a foreclosure. There"s actually someone there now caring for the place, so it"s in good shape.

Fingers crossed on this one!
 
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Ravvenn_sl

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Good luck! Normal Sales are so much more fun than the others, and way less stress. Don"t forget when negotiating initially, you basically get a second chance to negotiate after the inspection. Make sure you get a very good inspector to do that for you, too. I used a loose fence and the gate that wasn"t up to code (regarding pool safety) to get a credit, as well as one for the heater cap and the dishwasher (which I didn"t replace, spent $0.00 having a friend fix it) - the total estimated costs were $2,700 and I got a $2,000 credit off of closing. Escrow screwed up so they just mailed the money, but whatever. I had lots negotiated, but the owner had nice stuff and I wanted it. I got all of her furniture, too!

I assume your agent ran the comps already to make sure it"s appropriately priced (to decide your offer). I assume he also checked what they owe on the house, too, so you can see playing room if they stand for a big profit vs breaking even.
 
Heylel

Heylel

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They bought it in 2000 for 103k. Comps are coming today, but I have access to most of that myself off a website and it"s pretty in-line with the community. I"m not really wild about the neighborhood, it seems like good people but it"s a teensy bit lower class than my own upbringing. Lots of sat dishes in front yards etc., which tells me the HOA doesn"t do much.

The home was built in "85, so I don"t know if much of the construction was added by the current occupants or a previous one. It"s definitely got a strange feel to it with all of the modifications. Kinda like they went one step too far with adding on. You know, build a sun room OR a screened porch OR a back deck, but they went and built all three. Nice to have, but at the same time it"s surprising to see them all on the same home.

The biggest time expenditure would be landscaping. The deck and pool sit up a bit from the house, and the neighbors all around have a pretty unobstructed view of the whole yard, so it would need some privacy for me to feel at ease. Also, the back fence needs redoing, it"s an older chain link fence and looks to be the original. A privacy fence and some strategic trees could fix that real quick, and I imagine I could do it for a fairly small outlay of cash.

It grows on me the more I think it through. There"s a lot more cosmetic things to change than the last place I seriously considered, but nothing at all that"s pressing.
 
Cutlery

Cutlery

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Heylel Teomim said:
They bought it in 2000 for 103k. Comps are coming today, but I have access to most of that myself off a website and it"s pretty in-line with the community. I"m not really wild about the neighborhood, it seems like good people but it"s a teensy bit lower class than my own upbringing. Lots of sat dishes in front yards etc., which tells me the HOA doesn"t do much.

The home was built in "85, so I don"t know if much of the construction was added by the current occupants or a previous one. It"s definitely got a strange feel to it with all of the modifications. Kinda like they went one step too far with adding on. You know, build a sun room OR a screened porch OR a back deck, but they went and built all three. Nice to have, but at the same time it"s surprising to see them all on the same home.

The biggest time expenditure would be landscaping. The deck and pool sit up a bit from the house, and the neighbors all around have a pretty unobstructed view of the whole yard, so it would need some privacy for me to feel at ease. Also, the back fence needs redoing, it"s an older chain link fence and looks to be the original. A privacy fence and some strategic trees could fix that real quick, and I imagine I could do it for a fairly small outlay of cash.

It grows on me the more I think it through. There"s a lot more cosmetic things to change than the last place I seriously considered, but nothing at all that"s pressing.
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Fuck man, you can do a fence in a weekend with your buddies with a shovel, a couple bags of quikrete, a level, and a case of beer. Don"t get too strung up on the little shit that needs to be done if you like the house as a whole. There"s an awful damned lot you can do yourself with a little motivation and some friends.
 
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