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Author: j_chot on February 13 2008 Viewed 2495 times. 17 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
People who enjoyed reading this: ignatius, breakscience, tylth, jogn, shamann, DrexonField, Fognozzle, atum, infradead, jdg, frnortnr, sAMsKi, doofgoblin, subset, Tridact, SenorFrio, monty
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hey.
I'm probably gonna buy a house soon. I could type out all the details, OR I could just post an exerpt from my wife's email to her dad....
"John and I looked at a house this morning, and we're interested in it
but I have a lot of questions about how everything works. It's an
older home, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1350 sq ft for $56,900, on a little
less than a 1/2 acre lot. It's got hardwood floors in the living room
and hallway and newer carpet in the bedrooms, eat-in kitchen,
dishwasher and stove, the central a/c and heat were installed 5 years
ago. It's in the Decatur High School district and the neighborhood
seems to be mainly older people. Some cons are the houses are close
together, the backyard would eventually need fencing, and it's an
older house, so there's probably some repairs to be done (although the
visible ones were minor, like replacing a light fixture).
Besides all that, yesterday I was looking at different mortgage
options from Redstone, and I went ahead and filled out the online
application for loan pre-approval, but haven't submitted it yet. I
hesitated to submit it because 1) I wanted to see if the type of house
we can afford is something we really wanted to pursue and 2) I still
haven't sent it today because since we really like this house, I'm
wondering if we should make some sort of offer, and if it's accepted,
to go ahead and apply for a loan specific to this house. I'm also not
sure what kind of offer would be acceptable or if they would take an
offer seriously if there wasn't a pre-approved loan behind it.
Also, we're in the lease for this apartment through the end of April,
so if we bought this house soon, we'd still have to pay rent here for
March and April. We couldn't afford to do that without help. While it
seems best to wait until our lease runs out, obviously the house will
not be there anymore, and it'll be really close to my due date - I
don't want to be trying to look for and buy a house and move into it
when the baby will arrive any day..."
and that's pretty much the whole story....
oh and the kitchen has a frickin sweet wet bar. | |
Comments
02/13/08
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lowlifi
Just make sure you dont get a place with a basement, the red clay shifting will fuck it all up and leave you with an unstable foundation.
02/13/08
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deltasleep
$56900!!??
God life in cheap in AL. I'm 2 hours away from you and nothing is available under double that. Of course where I want to move, things are about 5 times that...
Thats got to mean a payment thats lower than your rent, right?
Congrats, I hope this all goes well for you.
02/13/08
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breakscience
haha, that is so cheap. We have been looking at $250,000...and thats a standard 2-3 year old home, nothing fancy.
02/13/08
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shamann
I'd recommend getting pre-approved for a mortgage before bidding. It can be a really big hassle if you wait until you put an offer on a property, especially if you are later approved for a too low amount or if your bank delays. I'd also recommend not relying solely on a website, but actually talking to a someone at the bank.
If it's older than 20 years, make your offer on condition of a home inspection. I rescinded an offer on a house that initially looked fine, but had been subject to a lot of shoddy repairs, and the problems weren't obvious visually (for instance the roof was in bad shape, which we couldn't go on and see when we first were looking at the house).
Good luck.
02/13/08
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j_chot
red clay doesn't shift.
EVER!!!!!
basements are really expensive to dig because the shit is so dense and hard.
the house has a crawl space.
02/13/08
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ignatius
wow. $56,000 for a whole house on 1/2 an acre??? sounds nice to me. i don't know about basements in your area. shifting clay? really? bummer. basements rock.
1) before you buy anything have it inspected by a certified house inspector who YOU hire (not your realtor if you have one)
2) make a low ball offer first and see what the sellers reaction is (through your realtor if you have one). it never hurts to see what you can get away with. but be careful not to be absurdly low.
3) double triple check the AC/heating systems and the roof. check faucets for water flow, check for lead paint if possible and asbestos and MOLD.
4) if something's broken, deduct the price to replace from your offer or have it written in to the deal that the seller has to fix it as part of the deal.
5) look at at least a few places even if you know which house you want. it helps keep things in perspective.
6) w/a baby on the way i'd be wary of buying a house that needs a ton of work. too stressful.. that's just me though.
7) getting pre approved for aloan is a good thing. check w/your bank. get a fixed apr not one of those subprime adjustable "we'll fuck you w/the interest later" loans.
8) have your prop taxes and homeowners insurance paid out of escrow.
happy hunting! and congrats. owning your own place will be great. no shared walls!
02/13/08
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j_chot
oh the inspection is included.
02/13/08
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cartesia
2-3 year old home, nothing fancy
Dont most people live in houses that are like 20-30 years old?
02/13/08
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jogn
yeah i really recommend doing 5), just in case, cos it sounds like it could be a bummer if something crops up after.
02/13/08
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ignatius
cartesia said: " 2-3 year old home, nothing fancy"
Dont most people live in houses that are like 20-30 years old?
i think so but the burbs are relatively new and getting newer all the time. have a look at california. swaths of freshly built homes. my house was built in 1946 i think. i'm sure it's had its share of new roofs, windows, doors plumbing etc.
02/13/08
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Zanf
breakscience said: "haha, that is so cheap. We have been looking at $250,000...and thats a standard 2-3 year old home, nothing fancy."
change that $ to a £ and you have the average price for a 3 bed house in London in a semi decent area. It wont be 2-3 years old but more like Victorian.
£28k will get you smack in the head and you might have change left over for the bus home.
02/13/08
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infradead
my wife and i just bought our first house a little over a month and a half ago.. big assed hassle but worth it..
what age is the house?
since you have a kid on the way how are the school districts that you're in? somthing you have to think about... can i make an alabama joke now ;)
one very nice thing with us is we closed in the middle of the month and our lease ran out at the end of the month. that gave us time to do a bunch off little things around the house before we moved in.. it was a bit of a hassle for me but much easier in the end...
when its inspected BE THERE AND BE LOOKING OVER THE INSPECTORS SHOULDER ASKING QUESTIONS!! the inspection is huge for two reasons
1) if the house has major problems you know and you can walk away at this point
2) if the house has minor problems you have something to use to make a counter offer on a lower price or at least get them to fix..
i recommend one of the "homebuying for dummies" type books.. its filled with a lot of shit you don't know but will need to get through everything, you're looking to spend nearing 60K so 20 bucks at the bookstore is well spent...
good luck with everything
02/13/08
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atum
nothing less than brick i hope
02/13/08
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jdg
$56k ftw
02/13/08
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adcBicycle
jeezuz that's cheap.. buy two.
my one word of advice, choose a mortgage that you can pay off as fast as humanly possible, and avoid teaser rates and all that. Also, not sure if they have them in the states but variable rate mortgages are the way to go.
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