The Home-ownership Thread

[Samson's Flow]

 

Love the new avatar and screen name. Well done.

 

 

:thumbsup:

Thanks, you 'honourary hoser', but this is my 11,000 ....... ;) ....... you damn yankees always forgetting the 'u' ......... ;)

 

 

I'll spell honour your way if you can agree to spell center correctly. :Nana:

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Wow - waterfront for 215K  ? 

 

That's $215K Canadian, which I figure you know, which is about $175K US.

 

It does not appear to be right on the water.  So many folks around here, especially near the city of Halifax, have been chopping off pits of their property and building 'cottages' on them.  This one is 'century home' though.

 

Most 'cottage' type homes in the area near Halifax are around $500K, so we are wondering what's up with this one.

 

:thumbsup:

I'll spell honour your way if you can agree to spell center correctly. :nana:

 

NEVER!!   ;)

[Winston]

NEVER!! ;)

Don’t you mean nevre??? :P

Edited March 3, 2018 by EichSnipe

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Don’t you mean nevre??? :P

 

The Sabres are burning to the ground and all you jokers are just joking around.

 

I suppose it's better than crying.

 

You do bring up a good point, through ... how come some words are correct ending in 're' and others are correct ending in 'er'?

[Drunkard]

I just pulled up my mortgage info after logging into my credit union's website and I still think the 30 year fix rate is your best bet because it will lower your payment now (enabling you to get a better house) while also allowing you to cut down on the term down the road when you're making better money.

 

I got a 30 year fixed mortgage that started on 9/1/2012 with the maturity date of 8/1/2042.

 

After the first month I started paying an extra $100 over the regular payment with it specified that the extra $100 will go all towards principal. I kept that up for 30 consecutive months until I switched to a lower paying job and ever since 4/1/2015 I've only been making the regular payment. Based on my currently amortization schedule my mortgage should be at a zero balance after my payment on 2/1/2041, so that $3,000 extra I managed to add on to my payment over that 30 month period has essentially eliminated the final 18 months of payments on my mortgage.

 

Typing this makes me realize I really need to go back to paying that extra $100. Hopefully I'll be able to restart it soon, although I'm still paying off my solar panels and my car payment so it will probably need to wait another year until the solar panels are paid off. It's food for thought though. If money is tight right now, the best bet is locking in that low rate for 30 years soon and paying extra down the road when you're in better financial position so you can turn that 30 year loan into a 15 or 20 year loan.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Do you guys know how much more interest you will be paying over 30 years, as opposed to 20 years.  Scary stuff.  The banks are the mafia.

[Doohicksie]

 ... how come some words are correct ending in 're' and others are correct ending in 'er'?

 

That's why Webster did it in his American dictionary:  he made all the er/re endings consistently er.  Looks to be a problem with the Brits, if you ask me.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

That's why Webster did it in his American dictionary:  he made all the er/re endings consistently er.  Looks to be a problem with the Brits, if you ask me.

 

Je suis Canadien d'abord et avant tout.

Edited March 5, 2018 by N S

[irregularly irregular]

Right, but I'm trying to figure out what my minimum is where I can start shopping and not just be a tire kicking jerk who can't make an offer :lol:

 

To be a successful buyer (first time, or fifth) get out there and kick lots of tires. Learn the markets, learn what neighborhoods are trending up, which are trending down. Lots of time looking and a lot less time at the end with buyers remorse. Talk with lots of agents, until you find the one that is on the same wavelength you are. Many agents are not interested in first time buyers since that usually means entry level homes and a smaller check from their broker. Sounds like you have a plan to buy in the future, so you can hit the open houses every weekend between now and then to do your research. If nothing else, you'll gain a few pounds eating cookies.

[darksabre]

To be a successful buyer (first time, or fifth) get out there and kick lots of tires. Learn the markets, learn what neighborhoods are trending up, which are trending down. Lots of time looking and a lot less time at the end with buyers remorse. Talk with lots of agents, until you find the one that is on the same wavelength you are. Many agents are not interested in first time buyers since that usually means entry level homes and a smaller check from their broker. Sounds like you have a plan to buy in the future, so you can hit the open houses every weekend between now and then to do your research. If nothing else, you'll gain a few pounds eating cookies.

:lol:

[irregularly irregular]

Do you guys know how much more interest you will be paying over 30 years, as opposed to 20 years.  Scary stuff.  The banks are the mafia.

 

Make 13 payments in 12 months. Example: $1000 monthly mortgage x 13 = $13000 / 12 = $1083.33 monthly payment 

 

That 30 year mortgage is paid in just over 23 years and you have the ability to dial back a little if you have some months were you need that extra $$$ somewhere other than on the mortgage payment.

 

15 year mortgage is best, but sometimes it's just too big a pill to swallow if you get into a bind (laid off, whatever)

[dudacek]

The most important thing is too pay the most extra you can at the beginning of the mortgage. all things being equal. Don't forget, most areas of Canada has much less expensive real estate than the Buffalo area.

Spoken like a man who lives nowhere near Vancouver Island.

[MattPie]

Speaking of RV living does anyone have any experience, insight or advice. Wife and I are strongly considering in next ten years?

 

There's a Facebook group called Internet for RVers or something, there's a lot of good links in there. MrsPie was toying with the idea of doing that to home school RosePie and we'd ramble while I work remote 100%. It's very likely not going to happen, but I'm still in the group (I think).

 

We're in our 50s and selling one home to buy another, so our situation is a little different.

 

For someone buying a first house though, you have the prospects of realistically taking out a 30-year loan, projecting increasing income over that time, and as long as they're not safety issues, taking more time to do repairs and upgrades.  The important thing is to get in ASAP because economists are predicting rising interest rates going forward.  But... bear in mind that if you're only putting 3-5% down, you'll be stuck in the house for a while because you won't have enough equity to cover commissions to sell the house.  I don't say that to discourage you, but you have to look at both sides.  Personally I would get a home as soon as I could if the opportunity is there.

 

I get the general impression that the Buffalo housing market, like here in Fort Worth, has reasonably affordable housing but prices are rising at a pretty good clip.  If you wait a year, fewer homes will be available to you based on your income since prices are going up faster than pay.  The price point we've been looking at is about $200k.  This is sad because the same homes (or homes in the same neighborhoods) that are in that price range today, were going for $150k a few years ago.  The moral of the story is, get in a soon as you can so that you can ride the wave of rising home values instead of just watching prices go up.

 

One bit of advice:  Invest the money and hire a good home inspector.  We spent about $1200 on home inspections for two houses and it was some of the best money we spent in the process.  It helped us get out of a very good looking house that had major problems hidden just under the surface, and helped us understand what needs to be done on the house we did decide to buy.

 

One other bit of advice:  A loan officer will probably tell you that you can afford something crazy, like $500k for a house.  Don't fall for that temptation.  Instead, look at something like a monthly mortgage payment (PITI) of 1.5 times your current rent payment.  That will be tough to pay in the beginning, but you'll be able to write off mortgage interest on your taxes.  (Disclaimer:  I don't know what your rent payment is, but the general idea is to not reach for the most expensive home you can buy, but rather one you can realistically afford.)

 

We're looking at the same prospect in terms of repairs/upgrades to the house's wiring, windows, etc.

If you can save 5-7% for a down payment, but can get away with only putting 3% down, that extra money will be welcome when you encounter your first home repair.  Think of it as adding the first home improvement or two to your mortgage.

 

Might want to check in on that; reportedly our current administration's tax plan raises the standard deduction so far fewer people will need/want to write off. I suppose it's good in theory for me, but it means the owning a house has almost financial benefit for me.

 

While I'm on tax policy, the people I know that have run the IRS' new withholding calculator have said the new rules mean that many aren't withholding enough and they'd end up with a nasty surprise next year without adjusting. In a few cases, their take-home is the same as it was before the tax cuts.

 

Fireplaces are for fires. I f'n hate TVs over fireplaces. Put the TV in a different room.

 

This. I hate looking way up at a TV, too.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Wow - waterfront for 215K  ? 

 

Well, we did a 'drive by' and there is a good reason for that price point.

 

Needless to say we are not going to be looking at the inside, unless they drop the price quite a bit.  We will monitor that situation.

Well, we did a 'drive by' and there is a good reason for that price point.

 

Needless to say we are not going to be looking at the inside, unless they drop the price quite a bit.  We will monitor that situation.

 

Oooffff ...

 

I just took a look and it's pending already.  No doubt one of those damn Europeans ( ;)  to all our friends in Europe on here) that is buying up all the NS coastal properties with their damn Euros.

[Gramps]

Well, we did a 'drive by' and there is a good reason for that price point.

 

Needless to say we are not going to be looking at the inside, unless they drop the price quite a bit.  We will monitor that situation.

 

Oooffff ...

 

I just took a look and it's pending already.  No doubt one of those damn Europeans ( ;)  to all our friends in Europe on here) that is buying up all the NS coastal properties with their damn Euros.

 

What was wrong with it ? 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

What was wrong with it ? 

 

We could tell that it was not maintained very well and needed quite a bit of work.  Also, it appeared that there was a neighbour that looked like they were up to something in their huge lot ... like ATV racing, or something.

[matter2003]

If you buy at the right time/place it can rapidly increase in value. We bought our house in a nice area on the Depew/Lancaster border and have seen the value go up about 60K in the last 10 years...house prices are really surging upward in WNY over the past year and a half or so...

Edited March 6, 2018 by matter2003

[Winston]

I've been running some calculations to see if paying extra on my mortgage would be worth it. We bought a condo to be our home for the 5 years my wife has left in grad school. Chances are we will leave Columbus when that time is up. Or if we stay, we'll probably be looking for a bigger home anyways to start a family. For the sake of round numbers, let's say we have 60 months of payments before we sell. 

 

5 years isn't a long enough runway for the extra payments to mean much. By my calculations, $400/mo extra would only net us $2700 in savings when we sell. I'd rather take that money and max out my Roth and start investing elsewhere (maybe even my company's lousy no-match 401k) before making the extra payment. But if we planned to stay 10+ years, I definitely would be pumping in the extra money. Unfortunately I have a short enough runway that the frontloaded interest is hard to dodge. 

 

Side note- I almost considered a 5-year ARM since I knew we would be selling in 5-6 years. But you just never know, so we went 30 year fixed. Has anyone else taken out an ARM with the intent to be out before rates change? 

[Taro T]

I've been running some calculations to see if paying extra on my mortgage would be worth it. We bought a condo to be our home for the 5 years my wife has left in grad school. Chances are we will leave Columbus when that time is up. Or if we stay, we'll probably be looking for a bigger home anyways to start a family. For the sake of round numbers, let's say we have 60 months of payments before we sell. 

 

5 years isn't a long enough runway for the extra payments to mean much. By my calculations, $400/mo extra would only net us $2700 in savings when we sell. I'd rather take that money and max out my Roth and start investing elsewhere (maybe even my company's lousy no-match 401k) before making the extra payment. But if we planned to stay 10+ years, I definitely would be pumping in the extra money. Unfortunately I have a short enough runway that the frontloaded interest is hard to dodge. 

 

Side note- I almost considered a 5-year ARM since I knew we would be selling in 5-6 years. But you just never know, so we went 30 year fixed. Has anyone else taken out an ARM with the intent to be out before rates change?

 

Pretty much. If you KNOW you're selling in a 5-6 year time frame, and it appears you do, you are most likely better off investing your money in other opportunities.

[Doohicksie]

Welp, we got the closing disclosures from both houses.  We know what our new payment will be, and we know how big the pile o' money will be that we can use on the new house.  We're getting close.

[darksabre]

Welp, we got the closing disclosures from both houses. We know what our new payment will be, and we know how big the pile o' money will be that we can use on the new house. We're getting close.

:thumbsup:

[Gramps]

I've been running some calculations to see if paying extra on my mortgage would be worth it. We bought a condo to be our home for the 5 years my wife has left in grad school. Chances are we will leave Columbus when that time is up. Or if we stay, we'll probably be looking for a bigger home anyways to start a family. For the sake of round numbers, let's say we have 60 months of payments before we sell. 

 

5 years isn't a long enough runway for the extra payments to mean much. By my calculations, $400/mo extra would only net us $2700 in savings when we sell. I'd rather take that money and max out my Roth and start investing elsewhere (maybe even my company's lousy no-match 401k) before making the extra payment. But if we planned to stay 10+ years, I definitely would be pumping in the extra money. Unfortunately I have a short enough runway that the frontloaded interest is hard to dodge. 

 

Side note- I almost considered a 5-year ARM since I knew we would be selling in 5-6 years. But you just never know, so we went 30 year fixed. Has anyone else taken out an ARM with the intent to be out before rates change? 

 

Yep, I'm on a 7-year 2.3% ARM until 8/2020 before which I'll be downsizing. 

[Doohicksie]

I'm homeless. 

 

We closed on our old house today, we close on the new one tomorrow.

 

(Don't worry, we have a two week leaseback on the old house.)

[Sabres Fan in NS]

I'm homeless. 

 

We closed on our old house today, we close on the new one tomorrow.

 

(Don't worry, we have a two week leaseback on the old house.)

 

Congrats!!

 

And I was not really worried.  One night in the car in the warmth of Texas would not be the worst thing ...  ;)

[Doohicksie]

:P