Just bought a house!

• O-Trap

  

  Wife and I just agreed with the seller on an 1,100 sq. ft. house pretty close to where we're living now. Inspection pending, but the home was gutted and redone. New roof, windows (energy efficient), carpet, water heater, and furnace.
  
  And with property tax and homeowners insurance, we'll still be paying about $300 less per month than we currently do renting.
  
  So, the question is ... now what? I know we have to get an inspection and finish the loan details (how much we're going to put down), but is there anything that experience has taught anyone here to watch for?
• derek bomar

  

  O-Trap;1361785 wrote:Wife and I just agreed with the seller on an 1,100 sq. ft. house pretty close to where we're living now. Inspection pending, but the home was gutted and redone. New roof, windows (energy efficient), carpet, water heater, and furnace.
  
  And with property tax and homeowners insurance, we'll still be paying about $300 less per month than we currently do renting.
  
  So, the question is ... now what? I know we have to get an inspection and finish the loan details (how much we're going to put down), but is there anything that experience has taught anyone here to watch for?

  don't tell the place you're renting from that you're leaving until everything is signed. I gave what I thought was enough time prior to buying my place, and wound up homeless for a few days because the closing took longer than anticipated.
• O-Trap

  

  derek bomar;1361787 wrote:don't tell the place you're renting from that you're leaving until everything is signed. I gave what I thought was enough time prior to buying my place, and wound up homeless for a few days because the closing took longer than anticipated.

  Thanks. Yeah, we've actually been curious about this, especially because our current landlord wants to sell the house, so he's been pushing to get us out so he can get it on the market, so we don't want to give him any more reason than he already has to kick us out until we have somewhere to go.
• gut

  What's your closing date look like? Many banks now, with all the regulatory red tape, take darn close to 30 days to finish. You want to stay proactive in moving that process along.
  
  I'd also recommend finding and hiring your own inspector. The one realtors recommend sometimes have the realtor's interest (i.e. commission) ahead of your own.
  
  Even being gutted and re-done, the inspector is likely to turn up some concerns and repairs. Sometimes you can go back and ask for money/price from the seller to mitigate, but at this price probably not.
  
  I might also recommend a mold inspection. Maybe that's cost prohibitive, but being an older home that's been gutted all the otherwise outwardly visible signs of mold/water damage an inspector would see have been covered-up. I'm no expert, so get some other opinions.
  
  Anyway, congrats. Isn't it disgusting at how much more expensive renting is these days?
• mcburg93

  

  Congrats
• gut

  O-Trap;1361795 wrote:Thanks. Yeah, we've actually been curious about this, especially because our current landlord wants to sell the house, so he's been pushing to get us out so he can get it on the market, so we don't want to give him any more reason than he already has to kick us out until we have somewhere to go.

  But you also don't want to flush money down the toilet paying rent and a mortgage. Definitely don't do anything until it passes inspection. Then if you have 30-45 days I'd give notice to my landlord.
  
  After inspection & legal review, the only hang-ups I can think of are:
  1) appraisal (doesn't sound like it should be an issue, should appraise at what you paid)
  2) approval from the bank - not the slamdunk you might think...10-15% of applicants end-up rejected ("pre-approved" doesn't mean much)
  3) seller walks away - sounds completely unlikely in this case.
• O-Trap

  

  gut;1361800 wrote:What's your closing date look like? Many banks now, with all the regulatory red tape, take darn close to 30 days to finish. You want to stay proactive in moving that process along.
  
  I'd also recommend finding and hiring your own inspector. The one realtors recommend sometimes have the realtor's interest (i.e. commission) ahead of your own.
  
  Even being gutted and re-done, the inspector is likely to turn up some concerns and repairs. Sometimes you can go back and ask for money/price from the seller to mitigate, but at this price probably not.
  
  I might also recommend a mold inspection. Maybe that's cost prohibitive, but being an older home that's been gutted all the otherwise outwardly visible signs of mold/water damage an inspector would see have been covered-up. I'm no expert, so get some other opinions.
  
  Anyway, congrats. Isn't it disgusting at how much more expensive renting is these days?

  Projected closing date right now is February 23rd. We're staying on it, but we want to give ourselves a few days of buffer time to get moved.
  
  We are hiring our own inspector.
  
  Mold and wood-damaging insects are the specialized inspections we're getting in addition to the general inspection.
  

  gut;1361804 wrote:But you also don't want to flush money down the toilet paying rent and a mortgage. Definitely don't do anything until it passes inspection. Then if you have 30-45 days I'd give notice to my landlord.
  
  After inspection & legal review, the only hang-ups I can think of are:
  1) appraisal (doesn't sound like it should be an issue, should appraise at what you paid)
  2) approval from the bank - not the slamdunk you might think...10-15% of applicants end-up rejected ("pre-approved" doesn't mean much)
  3) seller walks away - sounds completely unlikely in this case.

  We're merely going to pay the full month of February to ensure that we have time to move. It's only 5 days of overlap.
  
  We're still working with the bank, but for the loan amount, I can't imagine too much of an issue (almost a 1-to-1 ratio between the house cost and my yearly salary). Plus, we are getting some family help in addition to what we are personally required to put down. Hopefully, that should help.
  
  We agreed to the seller's counter, and the house has been on the market for a month and a half without another offer. Plus, the agreement ended up getting them closer to their asking price than I think they were anticipating, which was fine by us, as we would have even paid the asking price if they'd stuck to it. Would it be silly to balk over a measly $1,900?
• gut

  O-Trap;1361837 wrote:Would it be silly to balk over a measly $1,900?

  Well, haven't you signed the offer already? lol
  
  I'm not going to say if $1900 is a lot of money for you or not (I think 2-3 counters is a min to get the best price). But at roughly 5.5% of the selling price that's pretty steep. But still sounds like a good deal.
  
  Sounds like you've got everything pretty well thought out and covered.
  
  How much notice does your landlord require? I'd wait until the inspections are complete and you're satisfied with the reports before giving my notice. You just don't know. It appears to be the one thing with a decent chance of tanking this deal.
• O-Trap

  

  gut;1361847 wrote:Well, haven't you signed the offer already? lol
  
  I'm not going to say if $1900 is a lot of money for you or not (I think 2-3 counters is a min to get the best price). But at roughly 5.5% of the selling price that's pretty steep. But still sounds like a good deal.
  
  Sounds like you've got everything pretty well thought out and covered.
  
  How much notice does your landlord require? I'd wait until the inspections are complete and you're satisfied with the reports before giving my notice. You just don't know. It appears to be the one thing with a decent chance of tanking this deal.

  He wants 30 days notice, which is fine. He's been badgering us to buy the home for about four months, now, but it's only about 400-500 sq. ft. bigger, has more potential repairs (hot water heater is 12 years old), has jobs left undone in the home, and he's asking double what we're getting the other house for.
  
  He seems to want us to shit or get off the pot, which is fine. We're getting off the pot.
• Pick6

  

  congrats. In Akron still?
• O-Trap

  

  Pick6;1361860 wrote:congrats. In Akron still?

  Yep. North Hill area. Got the house for a solid deal, so we couldn't say no.
• stroups

  

  The financing portion should look like this. After you apply you should recieve a GFE within 3 days and if you accept those estimated closing cost then the next phases should go something like this
  
  1) appraisal- house comes in lower than purchase price(unlikely) you could be in trouble because most banks will base the value on the lower of the 2. Usually appraisals are only a problem on refi's because on purchases the appraiser knows the selling price and barring any glaring problems will stay around that.
  
  2) inspections- looks like you are taking care of that.
  
  3) Flood search- not a common problem in Ohio. Sucks if you're in one though.
  
  4) survey- bigger problem than most people think. Seen a bunch of shit in this area. Believe me, you dont want to find out down the road that part of your house is sitting on the neighbors property.
  
  5) title search- make sure you get owners insurance (most financing places with require it). Complete opposite of any other insurance because it protects you from events in the past that didnt show up on the search.
  
  6) If everythings comes out ok you can schedule the closing date, be prepaired though, you will have to sign 20-30 papers.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  This thread belongs in the basement.
• thavoice

  On a side note.........dont count on the security deposit for the apartment. Landlords find a way to screw ya outta that money. If ya get it, great, but dont earmark that $$ for anything.
  
  -Before you hook up cable at your new place..hook up a TV to see if it works. There are LOTS of drive by disconnects in the cable biz and ya just may be lucky enough to have a place that the cable guy turned in the order as it being disconnected (so ya wont get a bill) but he really didnt do it!
  
  
  Congrats.....Now the fun begins! All the other added expenses of owning your home, repairs, lawn and yard work, etc. You will learn to 'figure stuff out' when something doesnt quite work to save a service call!
• gut

  O-Trap;1361852 wrote:He wants 30 days notice, which is fine. He's been badgering us to buy the home for about four months, now, but it's only about 400-500 sq. ft. bigger, has more potential repairs (hot water heater is 12 years old), has jobs left undone in the home, and he's asking double what we're getting the other house for.
  
  He seems to want us to **** or get off the pot, which is fine. We're getting off the pot.

  30 days is plenty fair. Give him 32 -email and writing. You want to make sure the inspections are kosher and also that your lawyer verifies the title is free and clear (or whatever the terminologies), no tax liens, etc..
• O-Trap

  

  ernest_t_bass;1361879 wrote:This thread belongs in the basement.

  
  lolwut
  

  thavoice;1361886 wrote:On a side note.........dont count on the security deposit for the apartment. Landlords find a way to screw ya outta that money. If ya get it, great, but dont earmark that $$ for anything.
  
  -Before you hook up cable at your new place..hook up a TV to see if it works. There are LOTS of drive by disconnects in the cable biz and ya just may be lucky enough to have a place that the cable guy turned in the order as it being disconnected (so ya wont get a bill) but he really didnt do it!
  
  
  Congrats.....Now the fun begins! All the other added expenses of owning your home, repairs, lawn and yard work, etc. You will learn to 'figure stuff out' when something doesnt quite work to save a service call!

  We're not counting on the security deposit. We've been in rental apartments and not gotten it back.
  
  We don't do cable. I stream any show via our internet, which is through my phone.
  
  We actually have been renting a house for the last four years, so we've been doing most of the repairs and all the yard work. The only time we ever called the landlord's maintenance crew was when a pipe in the wall was leaking. Other than that, however, we've dealt with leaky pipes in the basement, cracked ceilings, regrouting, repairing kitchen countertops, fixing broken door latches, etc. Initially, we moved into this home in a rent-to-own agreement, so we were planning on staying here, so we've been treating the current home a lot like it was ours, even if it wasn't.
  
  Actually, that was why we were so curious about the landlord wanting us out. We've kept the home in such good shape. We do our own repairs, mostly. We take care of the yard. We pay our rent on time every month. By all accounts, I couldn't think of any reason why we didn't seem like the perfect tenants. However, he apparently has to refinance the house in a couple years if he doesn't sell it, so if we're not going to buy, he wants time to fix it up and get it on the market.
  
  He's kind of a shady guy. Friendly, but shady. I'd have a beer with him, but if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have entered a contractual agreement with him.
• LJ

  

  Just an fyi, in Ohio a 30 day notice is 30 days from your next payment date on a MTM lease
• O-Trap

  

  gut;1361903 wrote:30 days is plenty fair. Give him 32 -email and writing. You want to make sure the inspections are kosher and also that your lawyer verifies the title is free and clear (or whatever the terminologies), no tax liens, etc..

  Thanks for the tip. We'll get the title verified as well before telling him. I've actually heard of that being a problem before. Friend of mine was buying a house from a guy, but as it turns out, the guy selling didn't have sole ownership, and the house was still in both his and his ex-wife's names. She knew about it and raised hell when he sold it. Did not go well, and my friend had to ultimately leave the house, as the sale I guess wasn't fully legal.
• TedSheckler

  

  You can afford a house? Sounds like you haven't been paying your fair share.
• O-Trap

  

  TedSheckler;1361914 wrote:You can afford a house? Sounds like you haven't been paying your fair share.

  It's a cheap house. I got it for $33K. Plus, the seller is handling the closing costs. So yes, I can afford the house.
  
  Not sure what that even meant, but there you go.
• FatHobbit

  

  congrats!
• vball10set

  O-Trap;1361917 wrote:It's a cheap house. I got it for $33K. Plus, the seller is handling the closing costs. So yes, I can afford the house.
  
  Not sure what that even meant, but there you go.

  $33K? nice...it isn't one of those "container" homes justin was talking about, was it?
• Belly35

  

  House is a house an can be called home
  
  Very good Congrad .... when the OC open house party ? Could have a OC moving party also .... I would help...
• O-Trap

  

  vball10set;1361954 wrote:$33K? nice...it isn't one of those "container" homes justin was talking about, was it?

  
  LOL It's a nice little house. Like I said, only 1100 sq. ft., so it's not big by any means, but it has 3 decent-sized bedrooms and a bathroom, so it's plenty for my wife and I (and dogs).
  

  Belly35;1361966 wrote:House is a house an can be called home
  
  Very good Congrad .... when the OC open house party ? Could have a OC moving party also .... I would help...

  Not big enough for an OC open house party. As for moving? I will buy lunch for anyone that helps us move. LOL
• wildcats20

  

  Congrats sir.