Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with homeowning

What's bad about FHA loans?

RobotNinja — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:45:31 -0800

Should I take this FHA refinance, or wait for the new mortgage plan to take effect? Update to a previous AskMe. I bought a house in 2007 around the peak of interest rates, and am looking to refinance now that rates are low. Like a lot of other people, I'm having problems getting a conventional loan since decreased home values have led to an increase in my loan-to-value ratio. However, my mortgage broker tells me I can get an FHA loan and has written up an estimate. My current mortgage seems to be backed by FreddieMac, so I ought to qualify for the new mortgage assistance refinance plan, but my lender doesn't have guidelines set up for the program yet.

Currently I don't pay any mortgage insurance because I have a 2nd mortgage which brought my primary loan below an 80% L-V ratio. Under the FHA loan, I will have to pay mortgage insurance, but my monthly payment will still be lower than it is currently. My understanding of the new mortgage plan is that I would still have to pay some sort of insurance, but I might save a little bit at closing because appraisals may or may not be required - my lender requires 2 independent appraisals for high value FHA loans. So should I take the loan at 5%, or wait for the new mortgage plan? What is the down side to an FHA?

Help me understand the refinancing process.

RobotNinja — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:00:30 -0800

Help me understand how my home equity loan, declining market values, and in-progress home improvements will affect my refinancing options. Long time reader, first-time poster. Help me MeFi!

My wife and I bought our first house about a year and a half ago at, in retrospect, the height of the interest rates curve. We have an 80/10/10 deal - 80% mortgage, 10% down payment, and 10% home equity loan. Since then, we've done some pretty major landscaping that increases our "curb appeal" and are in the middle of an unexpected bathroom renovation from some bad plumbing. With interest rates so low, we are looking into refinancing, but there are a few things I'm unclear on:

1) As I understand it, a refi will require a new home appraisal. If this is an interior & exterior inspection, the appraiser will see a bathroom currently stripped completely down. Will this negatively affect our appraisal, or can we simply explain that it will all be fixed up soon? Is there any way this can actually increase the appraisal since the final design will be much improved, or will the appraiser not take our word for that? Should we wait until the project is finished to begin the refi process?

2) To get the best rates, it seems one has to have 80% loan-to-value ratio, or at least 90% in other cases. Does this only apply to the first mortgage, or does it include the home equity loan as well? Clearly, we overall still have only slightly more than 10% equity, or less if the appraisal comes out much lower due to market conditions. On the other hand, if we only refinance the first mortgage, then it will be close to 80% of the value of the house. So how exactly does the home equity loan affect this process? If it helps, my wife and I both have excellent credit.

I have a general understanding of most of these issues, but I thought someone out there could explain more succinctly for me. Thanks!

What should a homeowner know about electricity in the home?

Brandon Blatcher — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:09:18 -0800

What should a homeowner know about electricity in the home? Just looking for a general guide to electricity and an explanation of how it works and its use in homes. Basic stuff like why the outlet for the 'frig is different from a regular outlet (beside the obvious "it needs more power"), how much electricity should you plug into an outlet, the difference between volts and amps and their impact on the various circuits in the house, 15 vs 20 amp circuits, things to check for, things not to do and especially anything I'm too ignorant to even be aware of.

Yeah, I know to map the circuits if they aren't already mapped.

Note: this is not about doing any electrical work, but just a general guide for someone who knows nothing about electricity.

How many dorks does it take to change a lightbulb?

COBRA! — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 07:03:48 -0800

My wife and I have the dumbest homeowning question ever: we can't figure out how to change a light bulb. Specifically, we can't figure out how to get the glass off of the light fixture in our kitchen to get to the bulbs. We just bought the house a few months ago, so this is our first time dealing with it.

I've looked for set-screws on the metal base; there aren't any. I've tried twisting the glass part in the hopes of unscrewing it; it doesn't move much, and when it does, the metal base moves with it. I've tried pulling down to see if there's a clip mechanism; if there is, it takes more force than I'm comfortable exerting without knowing for sure that I'm not going to rip the thing out of the ceiling.

I've taken a few pictures of the thing (including an attempted close-up of a little slot that seems like it might be part of a removal mechanism, though I can't figure out how); I'm hoping that someone here either has the same fixture (the kitchen was redone in the past few years, and I believe most of the material came from Home Depot, if that helps identify the fixture) or at least has some suggestions on how I can work the goddamned thign off. Cooking in the dark is no good.

Do we need a financial planner?

tastybrains — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:46:19 -0800

Because we are looking to buy our first home in the next few months, my husband and I want someone with more knowledge to help us figure out our financial situation - where we're at and where we should aim to be. I am not sure if what we're looking for is a financial planner, or if this is even really necessary to do before we go home shopping. My worry is that most financial planners (if that's even what we'd want) seem to be focused solely on retirement planning & investing. I'm not sure if that's what we need. Basically, my husband & I are 27 & 26 respectively and were married last year. We both have decent jobs, and are not in a ton of debt - I have a credit card balance that we need to pay off, and some student loans that are very low interest that we're not in a rush to pay off. We have no car payments and pay all our bills on time, etc.

Due to our personal savings and some generous wedding gifts, we're at a point where we feel ready to put a down payment on a house. We pay a lot in rent to live in an apartment that doesn't really meet our needs...we're both extremely tired of apartment living and feel ready to take on the responsibility of owning a house. All of the mortgage calculators we've tinkered with have indicated that we should be able to afford the type of house we're looking at with our down payment amount plus a monthly payment that's not that much more than our monthly rent.

We are also at the point where we're thinking about having a child within the next 2-3 years.

Because of these two huge responsibilities, we kind of want someone with more experience to look over our finances and help us determine if we're doing the right things with our money, and how best to prepare for our future goals.

What's the best way to do this? Is there a professional we can hire to do this? If so, how do we find one who is reputable and won't try to sell us stuff?

Or would we be better off getting some books (any recommendations would be appreciated) and doing some hardcore research?

What do most people do in our situation?