Good plan in covid era
Buying a Home is a Headache
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Mister_DoItNice
Leading The Regime
Ended up not getting the house a made an offer on a few days ago. Someone else overpaid and they went with that offer. Fortunately, I saw another really good property yesterday that had more space and was $35k cheaper. My realtor had past experience with the seller, so he called him up to discuss terms at it was a done deal. Paying asking price and we’re splitting the closing costs.
I just signed the mortgage commitment letter from the bank. Locked in at a 2.7 rate. Expecting to close late Feb.- early March.
Moving from a nice and high floor 2 bed 1 bath apt with a great view to a 5 bed, 3 bath house with a nice backyard house and very close to the L.I. sound. Walking distance to parks on the water and beach. This working from home situation with a kid and wife in my face all day has been rough. Kept telling myself my kid's next bday celebration will be in a backyard. By April, she should be good to have it. It has been a pain though. Luckily all paperwork was done electronically. I could only imagine the headache it was back in the day when you physically had to go back and forth with the bank and with a lawyer.
We looked at many and actually paid for the inspection for 3 houses that we were serious about. Two we decided not to go into contract with after the inspections. The last one we went with. Definitely worth the money having that done for my situation.
Moving from a nice and high floor 2 bed 1 bath apt with a great view to a 5 bed, 3 bath house with a nice backyard house and very close to the L.I. sound. Walking distance to parks on the water and beach. This working from home situation with a kid and wife in my face all day has been rough. Kept telling myself my kid's next bday celebration will be in a backyard. By April, she should be good to have it. It has been a pain though. Luckily all paperwork was done electronically. I could only imagine the headache it was back in the day when you physically had to go back and forth with the bank and with a lawyer.
We looked at many and actually paid for the inspection for 3 houses that we were serious about. Two we decided not to go into contract with after the inspections. The last one we went with. Definitely worth the money having that done for my situation.
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HacksawJimThuggin
All Star
It sounds like the frustrations in this thread are from people that can't afford the house they actually want to purchase because it's more expensive than they'd like due to it being a Seller's market.
Like others have said, just be more reasonable with your "must have's" or look at a different area where those things won't cost you as much.
If you're going to be where you're at for 5+ years and don't see yourself moving, buying a home is almost always a sound financial move.
I'll never understand the "it's too expensive!" criticism. You're going to be paying a mortgage whether you rent or buy. At least when you buy, you're paying off your own mortgage; as opposed to renting, you're paying off the landlord's mortgage for them and don't have a damn thing to show for it at the end of your lease. All that money went down the drain. By the time you add up first, last, and security deposit; if you have some additional cash - it makes more sense to just drop that on a conventional mortgage loan at 5% down. You'll have PMI but at least it falls off once you reach the requisite equity in your home.
Like others have said, just be more reasonable with your "must have's" or look at a different area where those things won't cost you as much.
If you're going to be where you're at for 5+ years and don't see yourself moving, buying a home is almost always a sound financial move.
I'll never understand the "it's too expensive!" criticism. You're going to be paying a mortgage whether you rent or buy. At least when you buy, you're paying off your own mortgage; as opposed to renting, you're paying off the landlord's mortgage for them and don't have a damn thing to show for it at the end of your lease. All that money went down the drain. By the time you add up first, last, and security deposit; if you have some additional cash - it makes more sense to just drop that on a conventional mortgage loan at 5% down. You'll have PMI but at least it falls off once you reach the requisite equity in your home.
HacksawJimThuggin
All Star
If you were selling a house and there were multiple offers, wouldn't YOU want a bidding war lol. A Seller's objective is to the get the best offer.
It's more than just rent versus mortgage though.
There's interest, insurance, repairs, maintenance and taxes. Not to mention HOA fees.
I agree except for settling on must-haves. Alot of people are doing that just to get into a house which is even worse than continuing to rent in the short-term. Looking 3-5 years down the road I don't see that ending well for FOMO Buyers. I would never settle on must-haves as long as its within financial reason. Prices have shot up so I would likely have to go to the top of my budget but it is what it is.
And PMI is really, really awful. It's not throwing away all of your money like renting, but its almost as bad considering you're paying mainly interest at the start of a loan in addition to that. A 10-20% downpayment ties directly into home affordability and if this bubble ever bursts there will definitely be a correlation between people who had a good downpayment vs. people who only put down 3-5%
Art Barr
INVADING SOHH CHAMPION
Oh snap cause they work like 3 days a week.
dawg firefighters be living the life of decadence and luxury.
in and out of the firehouse to their real house. In high school i worked for a firefighter and his wife. At the paddle boats at Lincoln park zoo.
duke talked about eating nuffin but steak relaxin around a fire house and bbq's. plus he worked downtown too. So the prospect. of a fire downtown at this time. was null and void past meddling or nonsense.
art barr
HacksawJimThuggin
All Star
Okay, and if someone is renting... do you think they're JUST covering the landlord's mortgage, or do you think all of those things are being covered via their rent payment as well?
Why would a landlord rent a place for less than their all-in costs on a property in a market like this?
Typically - interest, insurance, and taxes are included in the mortgage payment, assuming you escrow those things. So it's really maintenance and repairs. Which are most definitely not a cost that a smart landlord is just going to eat. They'd likely be losing money on a monthly basis if that were the case.
I have rental properties and the first thing I do is calculate my monthly all-in cost and include incidentals like repairs...and THEN set a rental price that will allow me to recoup all of those costs AND make additional money on top of that.
HacksawJimThuggin
All Star
I agree with that as far as someone just settling and getting into something that they're not ultimately happy with. I guess I more so meant being realistic about what things are TRULY must-haves and what would simply be nice to have.
While paying PMI sucks, paying rent every month and paying off someone else's mortgage is even worse.
Just closed on my house this afternoon 
Had to shovel that shyt as soon as I closed because of all the snow today and the sellers left to Florida
Sellers left mad cans of paint in the basement though
Had to shovel that shyt as soon as I closed because of all the snow today and the sellers left to Florida
Sellers left mad cans of paint in the basement though
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Hoshi_Toshi
Superstar
Got my pre approval this week. Now the fun starts