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Buying a house is exhausting and soul crushing
- Thread starter Earvin Infinity
- Start date
Congratulations.
Don't go full bore into spending money right away if you get the house for sure. You need to wait on the inspection and see what needs to be fixed.
Also, after you move in, you will have a different perspective on things.
For sure you will need a lawnmower, how big is the lot? A lawn mower with a bagging attachment (either a push mower or a riding mower) will be handy for picking up leaves.
Is there a security system already in place?
A Nest is fine but look at reviews of various thermostats. You may save money and have a better thermostat in the end.
Solar panels and a battery system are expensive, about the cost of a swimming pool. Which would you rather have?
Our Experts Rated This Smart Thermostat Best Overall
It's programmable and adjusts your home's heating via voice control.
www.goodhousekeeping.com
Thanks!Congratulations.
Don't go full bore into spending money right away if you get the house for sure. You need to wait on the inspection and see what needs to be fixed.
Also, after you move in, you will have a different perspective on things.
For sure you will need a lawnmower, how big is the lot? A lawn mower with a bagging attachment (either a push mower or a riding mower) will be handy for picking up leaves.
Is there a security system already in place?
A Nest is fine but look at reviews of various thermostats. You may save money and have a better thermostat in the end.
Solar panels and a battery system are expensive, about the cost of a swimming pool. Which would you rather have?
Our Experts Rated This Smart Thermostat Best Overall
It's programmable and adjusts your home's heating via voice control.
1) Relatively big lot. Will get lawnmower for sure and a trimmer for some of the edges. 6900 square feet lot. Will definitely get one of those push mowers with a bag. God, I haven't mowed anything in a decade lol.
2) Yes, there's ADT already installed. Will probably just use that. Was planning on installing some other cameras though, and for example, get a Ring for the door and install in some cameras in the corners of the house.
3) I was considering the Ecobee since I may just use Apple Homekit to automate some stuff.
4) This is tough. The backyard has a septic tank, but I need to spot exactly where it is because it's a big factor for the pool. We've discussed both options. The house gets a lot of sun, and this is Florida, so if a hurricane comes through we'll be better served with a solar/battery pack than having to wait weeks for power to get back. Also, I like my AC and house cool. I know running the AC gets crazy expensive fast, plus environmental concerns, so having a solar system would probably help a lot with these worries. At the same time, a pool will be nice for relaxation, and we are planning on building a nice backyard deck in a year or two. So we are 50/50. I am very sure we can save up enough to do both within 3 years, without any unexpected expenses in the process which is unrealistic. I'd definitely love to go solar though, I think it adds value to the house and I won't feel like an asshole to the environment due to AC usage.
You could do a above ground pool and fit the deck around it. It would not interfere with the septic tank. Then you could probably save enough to go solar. Although a home generator would keep your AC going as long as you had fuel (propane, diesel, or gas). Battery banks would not keep any 220v circuits going for very long.
I was thinking of putting down a 20% downpayment to avoid the monthly mortgage insurance premium, but you know what?
1. That premium is tiny. Like 50 bucks a month. Will NOT make a noticeable difference to your finances. Don't worry about it.
2. The interest rates right now are incredibly low (2.74% !!! Less than 3% APR.) . The lowest they've been in ... EVER!!!! They used to be 17% in 1982! Interest rates close to 10% were not abnormal in the past 50 years. Check it out for yourself.
This means the benefit of paying a house off early (in 10,15 or 20 years) is very low. You're simply not saving much. I would suggest a 5 - 10% downpayment. Not a penny more! Houses often need tens of thousands of dollars in maintenance New blinds, new floors, new water heater, new AC, new roof, new Fridge, new cabling, new cabinets, new furniture, new doors, new shutters, new electric car charger, new lawnmower, new pool pump, fence and floor repairs, etc. etc.
So you will want to have a solid amount of cash remaining.
So, 2 recommendations:
1. No more than 10% down, you can ALWAYS repay the loan faster AND dodge that interest thanks to some US law. This is key. You can adjust up, but never down, so start low. Also, closing costs are a bitch.
2. Have money saved up for surprise repairs. Replacing an AC unit is close to $10k for example. Plumbing jobs can run into the thousands also. There are home warranties out there you can purchase, but they tend to have large deductibles. It's a better deal for you to use the remainder of your nest egg when needed.
Congrats, man!
Feels damn good to not have to be in the game for so long and get a W like that. Hope it's a smooth process until closing.
I think we lucked out. We even got 5K under listing, which initially was a red flag, but then the listing agent mentioned that he was waving off cash offers and investors, while waiting for locals to reach him out first which was amazing. The house had 4.5K views in Zillow. We got the inspector already and just confirming the septic inspection. Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing with that and the appraisal.
The bolded is my biggest reason for not wanting to dip too far into that nest egg if I can help it especially after hearing some horror stories from friends and friends of friends. Definitely keeping my ears open for any and all advice so I do appreciate what both you and Kylarean had to say here. Also been reading back through the thread for some additional tips as well; it's a pretty awesome high level resource that's for sure!
I know! I am still wary of something going wrong or off in the process. Inspection is Wednesday so I am shitting my pants early on🙂. It's been too smooth in that sense.
For a third time within a year our mortgage has been sold on. And judging by google reviews to the absolute worst company imaginable... fml. The last one was fine and worked without a hitch...
PHH bought mine in May. Have only paid like 3 payments now, but they seem straightforward enough. I hear their app is terrible though.
(Their payment portal looks similar to the my previous people - Highlands).
Hey guys new to this thread - it appears I can get a 2.5 interest rate but it's like 16k in points. 2.75 for 10k. Obviously these points amounts are crazy but is there any sort of reference for knowing when the rate to points ratio is actually good? TIA
Edit updated points amounts
Edit updated points amounts
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Well listed my house. Got an offer today (third day) that I've accepted which has allowed me to put an offer on the house I wanted.
I'm excited but also anxious because this will be the biggest mortgage I've ever had.
What are these points for when getting a mortgage in the US? I have never heard of that up here (Canada).
Had an offer accepted for the first time in the last couple of months, but on both the seller's side and the mortgage lender's side they have been so slow and ropey. Took weeks to get a crucial document from the seller's surveyors and the mortgage people have been asking totally inane questions ("why has your income increased in the last 3 years?" what... I'm getting raises lol) and taking forever to evaluate stuff. My advisor and solicitor are saying this is unusually wack behaviour from a lender.
It all depends on how long you plan to stay in that house and how you plan to pay down your loan!! You also need to know what rate they are offering you without paying for any points.
So in wadsappening's case, that 6k extra payment (difference between 2.5 and 2.75) would save about 5k-10k in overall interest on a 200k loan over 30 years! LIke you could put that 6k into principal directly today instead of paying for points. Especially if you plan to pay the loan off early.
You "buy" a better interest rate from the lender essentially.
That sounds unnecessary. How do you "earn" the points and what can you spend them on?
lol that's just lingo.
1 point is 0.25% in your interest rate. So "buying one point" means you are paying up front to reduce your interest rate from day 1.
Only works in certain situations where you only pay the exact monthly payment for all 30 years. If you sell the house before loan ends or if you are the type to pay off the loan early or if rates change and you refinance, the mortgage people come out ahead.
Ok, that makes more sense but still seems unnecessary.
We just renewed for 1.38% variable and are pretty happy with that, not sure we could expect to get much lower. Fixed would have been 2.24% I believe, but we are willing to do variable for the next 5 years and then see where the market is at then.
Finally closed! Got the house out of 15 other bids (those letters help when it is close.)
My first house is selling Aug 6th so just cleaning it out and moving in.
Downsized to a nice split level house with a flat/fenced backyard and a great sunroom.
My first house is selling Aug 6th so just cleaning it out and moving in.
Downsized to a nice split level house with a flat/fenced backyard and a great sunroom.
Absolutely anyone buying a home needs to have a chunk of cash saved up and ready for repairs etc. Not to mention the usual emergency fund, e.g. 12 months of all living expenses. But I'm not sure that people should be so quick to reduce their down payment.
When you reduce the down payment from 20% to 10% the amount you're paying towards interest also changes. For a home around 400K and a mortgage rate less than 3% it's initially about a $100 per month difference in the interest payment. You assumed $50 for the PMI so that's a total difference of $150 a month– $1800 a year. That adds up to a good chunk: 9K in additional fees after 5 years of ownership. Paying that might be worth it if you need extra liquid funds or can't otherwise afford a home, but personally I'd prefer to commit more to the investment and avoid giving up so much to the middlemen.
Congrats! It looks lovely. That's for sure a mega sun room haha.
I hope all goes smoothly with your home sale. I've never sold a home, so I'm curious: can sellers negotiate the amount of commission they are willing to give the selling agent? In this hot market I have to imagine the amount of work a seller's agent does is minimal. I'm sure there's a fixed amount of unavoidable paperwork, staging, showings, etc, but there's basically no "hustle" at right now. A person lists a home, and BOOM it's sold by next week. Because of this can a seller negotiate a lower commission?
Nice place! Is that a huge hot tub on the right hand side?Finally closed! Got the house out of 15 other bids (those letters help when it is close.)
My first house is selling Aug 6th so just cleaning it out and moving in.
Downsized to a nice split level house with a flat/fenced backyard and a great sunroom.
I thought about replying to the gozu post, but got lazy on coming up with counter points. I think SeaSilver does a good job giving an example with numbers of the other side of the argument. All that said financial advice isn't one size fits all because people's tendencies tend to fluctuate quite a bit. Some have better financial habits than others, or at least different. For me not having a mortgage provides enough financial freedom where it has never been a question of if, but how much I could pay down my mortgage balance in the past. To me the sooner you hit the point of no mortgage, the sooner you can really gain one of the largest benefits of home ownership. Which is you can drastically cut down your living expenses.
I do agree with gozu completely about not under estimating your costs in the first year or two, and how that might be different than what you are used to dealing with. If you haven't dealt with property tax increases it can be an unpleasant surprise, especially if you are buying in a hot market. Then of course how repairable major house appliances are has dropped, while prices on them have when up at least 50% over the past year.
One last thing, home warranties are a waste of money if you ask me, but for some it is totally worth it for the peace of mind of having some cost control. Just make sure to read the terms of the warranty as they might not provide the coverage you think they are.
Nice House.Finally closed! Got the house out of 15 other bids (those letters help when it is close.)
My first house is selling Aug 6th so just cleaning it out and moving in.
Downsized to a nice split level house with a flat/fenced backyard and a great sunroom.
We're clear to close and we were supposed to close on Friday, but like clockwork something annoying came up and we're delayed until next week. The seller decided to move to another state and I guess doesn't understand the concept of digital paperwork so we're waiting for his portion of the closing stuff to be overnighted to him, then overnighted back here.
I think you could get it lower i think the normal currently is 2.5% but it was 3% before COVID. Ours is doing 2% but they are a family friend. As you said, the market is so crazy that we took the pictures ourselves and we had five offers within 3 days.
The sunroom is my baby. I saw the lawn/sunroom and i was pretty much sold...the house is pretty nice too.
Indeed it is, heard they are a pain to manage but I am up for it. Nothing more boring than vacuuming a pool so this couldn't be worse.
That thing is huge!
We have a pool and a robot sweeper, thing is a miracle, I wouldn't own a pool without it. All I worry about is chemicals
Oh wow definitely. Didn't know the crazy bidding had gone that far out.
Finally closed! Got the house out of 15 other bids (those letters help when it is close.)
My first house is selling Aug 6th so just cleaning it out and moving in.
Downsized to a nice split level house with a flat/fenced backyard and a great sunroom.
That's a downsize?! What a beautiful looking house.
I had a raised ranch that was 1800. This house is around 1400. The big part of the house is the sunroom and garage.
We just never filled the rooms with anything meaningful. So rather keep the house simple and the company outside and the sunroom.
That sunroom oooooh maaaaan so niceFinally closed! Got the house out of 15 other bids (those letters help when it is close.)
My first house is selling Aug 6th so just cleaning it out and moving in.
Downsized to a nice split level house with a flat/fenced backyard and a great sunroom.
Finally closed! Got the house out of 15 other bids (those letters help when it is close.)
My first house is selling Aug 6th so just cleaning it out and moving in.
Downsized to a nice split level house with a flat/fenced backyard and a great sunroom.
When my wife and I moved into our first house in 2019, we thought our sunroom was a cool addition, but didn't see using it much. It has become probably our most favorite room in the house. Ours has heat and A/C and we sit in there constantly. Its such a great room.
that's what our realtor told us, (we are in KC though). Haven't see noticed it yet personally. They said that it isn't as bad as it was a month or so ago, but that is based on the house/location/etc of course. for our experience the house we wanted to see the other day had an offer 40k within 12 hrs. There do seem to be more houses on the market right now compared to this time last year (weve been looking for a very long time).
if you're considering getting out before jan, i'd start finding a relator, getting preapproved, and starting the process soon. there's alot to learn and if its anything like my experience it can easily be a very long process.
Thank you for the advice! Yes I've been thinking about starting the process right now and just getting my ducks in order. I'm tired of renting and sinking my money into nothing, would be nice to own the house I live in, but I also don't want to be screwed with buying something way overpriced.
Fingers crossed! I remember being stressed during our inspection of our home. Don't miss the hunting time one bit lol
Clear to Close... those are the only words that mattered to me and the only time I got excited during the entire process. Hell, I didn't celebrate until the lawyer gave me the keys after I signed everything.
It doesn't come up enough, but a lot of stuff can unravel before you're Clear to Close.
Congratulations.
Finally closed! Got the house out of 15 other bids (those letters help when it is close.)
My first house is selling Aug 6th so just cleaning it out and moving in.
Downsized to a nice split level house with a flat/fenced backyard and a great sunroom.
Ah, you wanted 4 houses in one? Instead of just 3...?
;-) Congrats.
Good luck! I️ wish I️ had more advice but we've been stuck in the looking/putting in offers phase for a year or so now. My biggest advice would be to be patient. This process isn't easy and can be frustrating.
Thanks! Yeah that was a big moment when my broker told us. The clear to close is out to our attorney's and we've signed our closing disclosure. Now we're waiting for our attorney to schedule the closing with the seller attorney and the bank attorney. My partners mom is baffled at how many people are involved!
Closed on Monday and could not be happier! This was like the fifth condo I checked out in person and I can't believe how lucky I got. Good luck to everyone still on the hunt