Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with housebuying

New London NH or Lebanon/West Lebanon NH ?

mmw — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:50:53 -0800

My spouse works at Dartmouth College in Hanover NH, since April. We are therefore going to be moving from coastal Maine to the Upper Valley and we're having a hard time finding affordable housing that's within walking distance of a decent town, one with at least one good coffee shop, a number of useful stores, public library, banks, pub, and ways to meet other people like bookgroups, classes, informal gatherings. Being near good public transit (to Boston, e.g.) would be nice, too. ... ... My question is, should we try to live close to Hanover, close to New London (which is 35 mins south of Hanover but has a good coffee shop and very cheap and interesting classes through the college there!), or perhaps try another town? We've ruled out Claremont, White River Junction, Wilder, Windsor, Eastman, and the rural areas for various reasons after spending time house-hunting in all of them. We've looked for something near the green in Lebanon but nothing has come on the market that matches what we're seeking and is within 3/4 mile of the green.

There are houses in West Leb (1 mile from D'mouth) and New London that we are currently considering but we can't decide on location. Spouse doesn't mind the NL commute (had similar one in Maine) but I might mind the distance to get to Dartmouth for plays, music, restaurants, etc. Would New London offer enough?

Help?

How to overcome weird snags when I'm buying a house?

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:14:00 -0800

Please help me with a weird house-buying situation caused by the mortgage crunch. My wife and I are first-time house buyers. We finally found a house we love, and we want to buy it. Apart from some old medical bills, we're in a "not bad credit, just no credit" situation, because we have a good income, and we don't have any credit cards but buy everything with cash. When we applied for a mortgage, we were rejected because the mortgage industry won't lend money to anyone who doesn't have really good credit right now.

The house was advertised several months ago (that's how long it took us to get the mortgage application together and get turned down) as having a rent-to-buy option, so our next thought was to move in, clean up our credit, rent to own, and try again for a mortgage in a year or so.

The de facto owner of the house is an immigrant man who thought he could make a living flipping houses in the US. He bought the house with the help of a friend (whose name is on the existing mortgage) and has sunk several tens of thousands of dollars into the house. Then the mortgage crunch hit. Now he's getting cold feet but is at the same time obviously desperate and doesn't know what to do. As far as I can make out, he's paying the $2300 monthly house payments with his credit card and sinking deeper into debt every month.

Now instead of the $1500 rent-to-own payment cited in the ad for this property, he's asked us for $2000 a month and $10,000 down. (The property is worth about $250,000.) The $10,000 is meant to cover the payments he's missed or had to pay with credit card. The $2000 or more per month is meant to cover his mortgage payments -- or not quite. He says he's not sure a rent-to-own situation is even feasible for him anymore.

I told him we could cover the mortgage payments he's put on his credit card and we could completely cover the $2300 monthly payments from now on if he would sign his mortgage over to us. He said he would let us move in if we did that, but he wanted to keep his name on the mortgage. This is when he told me how much money he had already sunk into the house, and how much he stood to lose by just signing over the mortgage. I certainly can't blame him.

I pointed out that he would continue to lose money anyway if he didn't do something, because we're the only people to have shown any interest in the house in many months. (There's the mortgage crunch and also the fact that the house is unassuming, even ugly, on the outside, but beautiful on the inside, with special features such as a second detached building that would be especially useful to us in our professions -- but I'm trying to keep this anonymous, so I'll leave it there.)

So here we are on opposite sides of a chasm caused by the mortgagequake of 2008. We can see his position and he can see ours. We want to buy the house and he wants to unload it. But how?

Thoughts I've had: Our credit rating has improved a little in the past few weeks because we've been working on it while we're going back and forth with the owner. Should we apply again for a smaller loan, just enough to buy the owner out of his mortgage, paying off the house payments he missed and what he's sunk into the house? Or should we try to convince him that the money is truly sunk, and the best thing he can do is to get the hell out? After all, he's trashing his credit (or his friend's) if he defaults on the mortgage.

I'm really lost here and don't know what my options are. I will say that we have been working with a sympathetic mortgage broker and a real estate agent, ditto. The latter says she can't help much with rent to own, except that she can look over the rental contract to make sure it's sound. Still, they know us and we can marshal their help if necessary. My wife also stands to inherit (IIRC) some tens of thousands of dollars some months in the future (she must wait for a family property to be sold). Apart from that, we have some $15,000 in savings, some of which must be used for moving expenses. We also have good brains and the power of Ask Metafilter, so... Go Team Metafilter!

p.s. If your answer is "Ditch this clown and buy another house!", please don't. This is the only house we've seen that we've both loved, and it would break my wife's heart not to be able to buy it.

I can has propertee?

Kellydamnit — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:16:15 -0800

Tell me what you know about NACA, or their rehab division HAND. Anyone use them to purchase a new home? It seems too good to be true.

Alternatives To A Short Sale? Negotiation tips, please?

mhh5 — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:37:23 -0800

So I'm looking to buy a house, but my short-sale offer was rejected by the seller's lender. (I assume the seller's financial situation is not as dire as necessary for their bank to approve a short sale for them.) Any suggestions on how to buy the house without throwing money away? Without their lender's approval, the seller has offered a counteroffer that is above his/her loan amount and just barely covers commission costs (which I would have to pick up). I want the house, but I don't want to pay that much more just to cover this guy's loan situation. Are there other options?

For instance, can I ask the seller to set the price of the house below their loan amount... and tell them to throw in their car/boat/furniture/1stborn? I'm thinking that I want to minimize the price of the house (so that its property taxes are kept low), but I get more "stuff" to justify my paying off the seller's full outstanding loan amount. Is that fair? (I assume people are going to say I'm a vulture or something, but I don't want to pay more for a house that isn't worth it. And I'd be helping the seller avoid possible foreclosure, I assume. Is that so wrong?)

Any suggestions? Should I just move on to find another house? Wait until the housing market calms down? Pay full price and stick my head in the sand for 10 years?

Thanks!

Is this substation a problem?

ascullion — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 02:17:19 -0800

I'm considering buying a house that's right beside a small electrical substation (just a small path between it and the wall of the house). Are there any risks attached to this? I'm primarily concerned about two things..

1) Health: I've read plenty of stuff over the years about the health effects of living near electrical infrastructure, but never paid enough attention to know if they were just meaningless scare stories

2) Interference: Is there any risk of interference with electrical equipment, or with tv/radio reception, or with a wireless network, for example?

In relation to the actual substation - it's quite small, total area is no more than about 8 square feet. It gives off an audible buss, but nothing that you would be able to hear from inside the house, for example.

I know it's hard to generalise with this stuff, and that I'm not giving you much info about the nature of the substation, but I don't have anymore information at this stage. Any advice appreciated.

Will we ever be homeowners?

starbaby — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:20:35 -0800

Help me find resources to help me figure out when I might be able to buy a house. My fiance and I are trying to figure out when we might be ready to buy a house. We know without a doubt that we want to do this long before we could possibly save the 20% we'd need for a regular loan. That's about all we know. I have tried and tried and tried to find books or websites that might help me understand low- and no-down payment loans, PMI, closing costs, etc, but they all seem to go over my head. I need something geared toward first-time home buyers with pretty much no knowledge of real estate and no large amounts of money who don't feel ready to contact a realtor just yet. [I don't want to contact a realtor because I don't feel I understand any of this well enough to even know when we might be able to make the jump from renting to buying, when we will be able to afford it.]

Basically, this is what I am trying to figure out:

Based on a down payment of $X, an assumed interest rate, and an assumed finance period, how much house could we afford if we want our TOTAL monthly house-related costs [mortgage, PMI, taxes, homeowner's insurance, EVERYTHING] to be $X or less? Until I know the answer to this question, a realtor is far beyond my league, as I won't know if I can afford anything at all.

If any of you can explain this me, with as much dumbing-down as possible, great. If you can't, I would really prefer a book I can ILL or a website that would explain this to me.

What's a fair offer for a house that needs major repairs?

jay_wiese — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:10:34 -0800

My wife and I put in an offer on a house for $187,000, which was accepted by the sellers. However, the inspector found a major problem that will cost about $22,000 to fix. What's a fair counter-offer given this problem? House is a 3/2 built in 1958.

Here's what needs to be done, according to one contractor:
>Scope of work:
>Demo interior bathrooms, removing all fixtures, interior walls and tile,
>removing floor/subfloor, inspecting all electrical wiring and plumbing.
>Remove all construction debris
>
>Installing new sub-floor in both bathrooms, install imperial board with
>textured plaster finish, new tub in hall bath, new light fixtures, new
>contractor grade tile, (white or bone color), tile work includes tub
>surround and walk-in shower and ceramic tile for the floors. Install new
>commodes, 4' vanity with a single sink for the hall bath and 24" vanity for
>the master-bath. Vanities with cultured marble tops would be procured
>from local distributor, (contractor grade selection, any custom build or
>difference in price of customer selection would at owner expense above
>contractor price). Prime and paint interior walls with paint matching, (as
>close a possible to current paint scheme).
>Any electrical or plumbing work will be done by licensed contractors, all
>sub-contractors names and phone numbers will be given to owner upon
>completion of project if requested.
>
>Total price including materials, labor and permits:
>
>$22,500.00 (twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars)

Other than that, the house is still in relatively good shape.

I don't want to die of frustration before we buy our first house; can you help? Please?

eebs — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 19:11:14 -0800

Tucson, AZ real estate filter: Trying to buy our first house in central Tucson, AZ (I find the whole process intensely painful for reasons outlined below). Should we wait a little longer for the prices to go down a little more? Background: My wife has been looking actively for 2 months. I joined 3 weeks ago. I went into about 20 houses with realtors; she's seen probably 40-50. Almost bought one, it fell through when the seller rejected to fix the roof. Another offer we made yesterday was rejected (no counter offer, seller flat out rejected our offer). I don't know if it is true for everybody, but both my wife and I seem to change our minds by the hour about a place when we get close to make decisions (making an offer, counter offer etc.). We unintentionally change roles; one minute she thinks we should go for it and I resist, next minute the opposite happens. Weird.

The central neighborhoods are very patchy in curb appeal and taste. It is not unusual to see a gorgeous, well-kept house in the same street with another house where a wheel-less car sits in the front yard. A good percentage of the houses for sale in central are bought by "flippers" last year, who performed cheap, rudimentary renovations. Now, they are charging $70K-$130K more for the houses (I understand this is the way it goes). So, the ones we like (and can afford) are not at the right location; the ones at the right location (and we can afford) are dumpy, which could potentially turn into major money-pits. Also, most houses in central have these weird additions that are counted in the sqft area. They do not match the original house - in some cases they are made of different materials (e.g. brick house with a wooden added room, bright green painted outside), they have window AC, sometimes you can see through where it attaches to the original structure (and many more drawbacks). However, they "add" to the value of the house, which is reflected in the price. So, preferably, we would like to buy one with either no additions or with additions done properly. This constraint reduces the number of candidates out there. But, all things considered, we still want to stay in central and not go into one of the developments.

The real estate prices took a dive after Feb. 2006 in Tucson according to www.zillow.com (I certainly don't take the actual price estimates at face value, but I believe the trends and comps provided have merit). It looks like the prices will continue to drop, albeit slower. Also, there is talk about interest rates going up (altough refinancing in 4-5 yrs when the rates are low again reduces the importance of this item).

What is your opinion on the right time to buy a house in Tucson, AZ if you're looking to buy soon?

Based on what I described above, do you have any advice for me?

Thanks a million!

Lender Paid PMI - where's the catch?

schwa — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 15:50:14 -0800

I'm about to buy my first house and I'm shopping around for a mortgage. The best deal so far is a mortgage where the lender pays for the mortgage insurance. I'm aware of using 80/XX loans to avoid paying PMI but I've never come across Lender Paid PMI. What exactly is it and what's the catch? The mortgage with the lender paid PMI is about a half point higher than the traditional mortgage. But the PMI-free mortgage is about $30 or so per month cheaper. This seems like a great alternative to the 80/XX loans. But there has to be a catch. Realistically we dont expect to spend the rest of the lives in the new house so there's a good chance we will be moving before we would be able to remove the PMI due to changes in house prices. Anyone know what gives? Has anyone used them in the past? Are there any special questions related to this type of loan I should be asking the lender?

Mortgages with friends?

nafrance — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 11:30:50 -0800

MortgageFilter: I'm in the UK, and starting to look around for a house. Yes, I'm going to see an Independent Advisor, but for one reason or another, I can't just yet. So I thought I'd ask here first... I'm not looking to live on my own, and unfortuantely, not with my girlfriend at the moment. For the near future, it's myself and my friend who are wanting to get a house.

How does the mortgage work in this manner? Friends (not lovers, partners, married, common-law couple etc.) paying a mortgage on a house together?

My friend is on a lower income than me [although we both have solid income that I believe is a very good monthly income], but has a large savings balance that he suggested we use for a deposit.

Is the whole thing likely to work better if it were just me alone, or with my partner? Or is it not as uncommon a circumstance as I seem to think it is!?

Tell me about "We Buy Any House" companies

OmieWise — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 08:54:29 -0800

I live in a very depressed urban area (Baltimore) where there are blocks and blocks of boarded up or burnt out houses. I see signs around town that say "We Buy Houses-Any Condition." Why are these folks buying houses? [+]

Tell me everything about buying a house

pieoverdone — Mon, 10 May 2004 12:43:08 -0800

I want to buy a house. I have no idea where to start.