Watchtower April 24, 2004 Share Watchtower Member April 24, 2004 Yup thats right. We're looking into buying our first home. I'm wondering what kind of tips all you seasoned veterans can give n00bs like me.. Financing is secured. Any tips/stories/horror stories/things to prepare for would be appreciated. Wish me luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilco April 24, 2004 Share wilco Member April 24, 2004 My girlfriend and I are currently looking....the only current roadblock we have is clearing some debt. School loans and credit card crap mostly. ALso a sizeable downpayment is always good. So with the help of some excercizeable stock options we have through work we will probably rent one more year clear debt off and clear at least one of our car notes. Thats the best we can do for the moment unless we win the lotto On a side note....Im assuming your planning on getting married and perhaps having a kid down the road....let that factor into the area your looking at. Schools and neighborhood are important as well Im sure some homeowners will offer up some tips that we both can learn from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Shertown Pimp April 24, 2004 Share Sir Shertown Pimp Member April 24, 2004 two words : reliable broadband. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchtower April 24, 2004 Author Share Watchtower Member April 24, 2004 Yeah, Roadrunner for sure. Wilco, you'd be surprised at some of the first time buyers programs.. 0 down, 1% percent down.. It is definitely wise to square up as many debts as you can.. Which I pretty much did with my tax return.. Good job GW! Helped me buy a house And yeah, neighborhood is pretty important to us.. I wish it weren't tho becuase I'm looking at nice houses for 1/2 the price... I keep trying to convince Trouble that a pitbull, an alarm system and a shotgun under the pillow and we'd be cool but she's not buying it.. The price we pay... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linch April 24, 2004 Share linch Member April 24, 2004 Financing is secured. Muhaha... Foolish human! We had our down payment secured, etc. But if you need to do any minor fix ups, plan on more hidden things that you'll notice in the next few months. We decided to get a mortgage with cash back, and used that for all those expenses. I tell ya, even though we had a fair amount already, their must of been like 500-800 dollars worth of stupid stuff. My point basically is, make sure you have extra money available! I'm not sure what type of area your buying in, we purchased a house a few miles outside the main city (burbs I guess), some areas are on well, or septic, etc. So make sure you know about those and if any of those could play into your possible building plans in the future. The main things imo to look out for are - roof condition - foundation and trees around the house causing leaks (check to see if their were any problems in the past) - electrical up to code? - window condition - privacy was a big thing for me, our yard has a lot of trees - water heater (is the heater owned or leased) - type of heating (is it cost efficient?) Their was a lot of stupid small things for us like , water pressure, neighbors (which we already knew pretty much), getting owners to leave some appliances that we didn't have. We had almost bought a house, but backed out due to a ton of small fixer-uppers that would have added up to like 5k , so we backed out and got a call 3 hours later from my fiancés mother. Her mom's co-worker was just going to put her house on the market the next day, we saw it that night...loved it and bought it privately! I'm not sure what the house market is like down there, but whatever you do...be patient, this is the biggest purchase you will ever make. I wish you both best of luck! P.S. Don't forget to haggle the price Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowbar April 24, 2004 Share Crowbar Member April 24, 2004 Wife and I are just about to close the deal on our first house. Looks like everything is in order, we're just waiting on paperwork to clear. Both the seller and creditor say we shouldn't have any problems, but I'm still waiting for something to go wrong. It's been too easy. I guess one word of advice I have is to check with friends in town. See if there are any houses for sale on their streets. We looked around with a buyer's agent for awhile, found a couple we liked which both sold the day we found them. Then our friends across town told us about a house next door to them that's for sale, we called the owner, looked at it, and now we're on our way to buying it. Neighborhood is so-so, but we'll have our good friends right next door and the house is in great condition. Also, yeah, 0% down programs can be had just about anywhere. We're doing an FHA loan, which is through the government. 0 down, and we've got our closing costs rolled into the loan. Homeowners insurance should be all we need to buy before closing the deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mossad April 24, 2004 Share Mossad Member April 24, 2004 Just read this on CNN, thought it might help ya out. http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/22/real_estat...dex.htm?cnn=yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox April 25, 2004 Share appalachian_fox Member April 25, 2004 I just bought a house, and I can tell you what I considered in the process: -Location: Neigbors? Road network -- Can I get to where I need to go? I had the advantage of living in my town for many years and I had an idea for traffic patterns, too...How is it during rush hours? Can I get out of my driveway? -Condition of 'stuff': We passed on a bigger house because it was much older and things like the water heater were going to need replacing soon. It became much less of a deal then. -Utilities: What does the house run on? Can I get decent broadband (yes, that was honestly a criteria ) -Property value growth rate: A house is your biggest investment. I picked a house in an area of town that had a high growth rate to ensure my investment would keep pace with inflation. Also, think about it...will it stay high? -Potential improvements: Makes the house more "home" and gives you more return later. -Cost: I wanted a monthly payment as high as I could afford for a house. Again, this is an investment policy so it is a personal thing, but the more valuable the house the larger the corresponding investment growth. Also, it's easier to sell a 3-4 BR house than a 1-2 BR house, so by picking higher up I can better assure resale potential. I know I left many things out, but this is getting long... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchtower April 25, 2004 Author Share Watchtower Member April 25, 2004 Ahh yes, good tips everyone.. Gotta check that link Moss. Here's one I saw on MSNBC.com tonight.. Arm vs Fixed Talks about loans and what-not. ARM vs fixed and stuff.. That's one thing that is motivating me right now is the interest rate. He said I'm at 5 3/4% with 1% down.. Linch, I hear ya on the extra stuff.. I see some lenders are starting to require 3 months reserves or something like that.. We have a new washer and dryer, but I'm looking at aquiring the rest somehow.. Alot of people leave their fridge i'm going to start a "community collection".. "The Coalition Army" I'm also considering somewhat of a "fixer-upper".. But I'm afraid of a money pit. Turn a little elbow grease into cash eventually.. And I'm not really thinking long term on this deal because I know that right now I could not afford my "dreamhouse" so I'm kinda thinking get my monthly payment down(rent to mortgage), get something with a little more space and some room to work, and turning a small profit when ready to upgrade.. Wow, how about That for a sentance Oh And having a place for Minis aquarium :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox April 25, 2004 Share appalachian_fox Member April 25, 2004 Good plan. Make sure you can turn around that fixer-upper, though. My uncle did a good job with his, but it ended up being a lot more work than he ever expected...Much of it wasn't to the code of the time it was built, which wasn't exactly stringent. But he made it out alright and came out on top. It's possible, just keep the ambition and best of luck! And better to put some away as equity than to dump it down the rental toilet. Oh, another thing I almost forgot: My loan officer said one extra payment a year on my loan would end up dropping my 30-year mortgage to 21 years. How's THAT for something else? I didn't check the numbers myself (partly because amortization is a beast and I'm lazy) but it sounded good enough to me and she was a family friend, so I'm going to try my darndest to come up with it. I just thought that was worth mentioning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Knight April 25, 2004 Share White Knight Member April 25, 2004 When I'm not hungover I'd love to give you info, tips, etc. We just had our housewarming party in our first house last night. Basicl deal is...wait until you find the perfect house for you. Come up with your list of musts and maybes and stick to it. If the house doesn't "feel right" then it aint right. Past that, its a long, drawn out, pain in the donkey experience. But well worth it. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gond April 26, 2004 Share Gond Member April 26, 2004 We have built both houses we have owned. Very fun experience being able to decide on everything. I'd suggest at least checking out some new subdivisions, if nothing else for the comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Knight April 26, 2004 Share White Knight Member April 26, 2004 In florida it takes 15 months to build a house. And because of that new homes are actually cheaper than used homes. Pretty weird...we waited 9 months for our brand spankin new home, and it was cheaper than like 10 year old homes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Shertown Pimp April 26, 2004 Share Sir Shertown Pimp Member April 26, 2004 we bought our house at 85,000ish 5 years ago and now its valued at 118-120 because of all the work we put into it. We've redone everyroom except 1 bathroom, built a massive shed/barn in the back, built a retaining wall with TONS of flowers and shrubs, and also installed gutters, windows, and sprinkler system. Entire family has done a lot of work but its going to pay off eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magruter April 26, 2004 Share Magruter Member April 26, 2004 Wilco where are you guys moving?? Maybe we could be neighbors. Then i can come over everyday and give you hugs!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linch April 27, 2004 Share linch Member April 27, 2004 Wilco where are you guys moving?? Maybe we could be neighbors. Then i can come over everyday and give you hugs!!! Sounds like a bad neigborhood to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soul .gc April 27, 2004 Share soul .gc Member April 27, 2004 Something big to remember is Taxes.... Figure out the location you want to live then look at the surrounding townships and see which one has the cheapest taxes, also look at living outside city limits as that cuts down on them as well. We live 1 mile outside the city limits and pay $1800 in taxes while a similar house inside the limits is $4500. Taxes are usually something most people do not think about until after signing the mortgage forms. Also - Look at financing online. You can usually get a little lower interest rate but places like LendingTree.com have airline mileage deals as well.....I believe right now it is 3000 miles per 10k dollars on Northwest and several other airlines. This is a good deal since 25k miles is a free ticket in the US on Northwest and it does nto cost you anything extra. Most issues were covered above, I would also suggest you think hard about NOT doing an ARM. You get the lower interest rate now but if you plan on staying in the house past 3,5,7 years (however long the ARM is) then you will most likely pay a higher rate since the current rates are the lowest in years and everyone expects them to go up soon....this is also incentive to buy NOW instead of wait a year when the higher rates may kill you. Oops---forgot about PMI (Mortgage Insurance). If you can get 20% equity in your house either by putting 20% down or buying at a steal of a price when the home appraises for 20% more than you pay then you can get rid of this annoying payment which averages $150 a month I believe for most folks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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