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Tips On Buying A House


Brother Adam

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Brother Adam

[quote name='socalscout' timestamp='1299698527' post='2219591']
Check to see if it has an HOA and if so the covenants and dues. Ask the neighbors what they think of the HOA if one exists. You might save yourself some heartache by avoiding a gestapo run HOA. They can be horrible

Check the utility district this can be added costs

Check the school district. If Property taxes are very low then that could be an indicator of the schools but hat depends how much of the taxes are from the School District.

Good Luck and congrats
[/quote]

No HOA. School district is blah, but we home school, so its all good.

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homeschoolmom

[quote name='Brother Adam' timestamp='1299700008' post='2219599']
Thanks for the information about Zillow. That was interesting to see.

here is the home we are looking at: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1411-Adams-St-Dansville-MI-48819/74059524_zpid/
[/quote]
It's lovely! I hope you get it.

[quote name='Brother Adam' timestamp='1299700432' post='2219601']
No HOA. School district is blah, but we home school, so its all good.
[/quote]
Even so, the school district can effect selling your house if you should ever need to. But yeah... not likely to matter too much.

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Brother Adam

We were told we are going to get an answer tomorrow. I am not sure that is a good sign since this is an approved short sale.

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southern california guy

Uh oh, it is a "short sale".. A "short sale" is when the bank allows the owners to sell for less than they owe on the mortgage -- and consider the mortgage paid in full. The problem with a short sale is that the owners usually take out a second loan -- an "equity loan" -- to do repairs and such. And in a short sale the bank that holds the mortgage, plus the lender who made the second loan, have to sign off the papers to sell it. The lender who made the second loan basically doesn't get anything out of the deal so there's no real benefit for them to sign. They'd rather wait until the foreclosure -- when they can get something out of the deal.

I guess that the best that you can do is to make an offer and find out if there is a second lender involved. If not then you have a good shot.

Good luck!

PS The one possible positive of it being a short sale is that most people don't want to mess with a short sale because if there is a second lender involved then the sale can drag on for months. But if it turns out that there is no second lender then you might get it for a steal.

Edited by southern california guy
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Brother Adam

Right, which is why we are concerned we are hearing back after only a week. Though it might make a difference that previous buyers evaporated after the bank approved everything. Maybe they are just waiting for a buyer at this point. We'll see.

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Brother Adam

Everything is approved with the sale. We are now working on our to do list for our mortgage company to get formal approval. There is just one big ? mark in the balance, if we get that sorted out we should be able to move in by the end of April or early May.

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Brother Adam

Well, we are listening to our friends and are now getting competing offers. Our first bank gave us an origination fee of nearly 2%. The second bank said "pft we've got you covered, we'll do .5% and cut the interest rate". First bank is upset they might lose us. We'll see what third bank says. Hoping this thread is helpful for other people!

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Brother Adam

Got the inspections done. It was well worth it to pay on the higher end and have a great inspector. He immediately caught things we never would have thought of. If the seller agrees to do a repair on a leak he found we will have cleared that hurdle and it just leaves us with financing. We will have three competing lenders by the end of the day.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Brother Adam

We got the appraisal back today, which turned out fine (as expected). We tried for and found out we do not qualify for downpayment assistance in our state. Even though our income is 1/2 the limit, it does not pay with the government to work hard and save money. We had slightly more liquid assets than allowed.

Due to IBR (Income Based Repayment) rules with our student loans and the home lender rules everything is very up in the air for us. It is far too complex (and private) to type out here. We may or may not qualify for the home with the lender. However, after being pre-approved and conditionally approved a lot of people, including the lender would lose a lot of money if it doesn't go through. At this point my expectation is to be denied for the loan, but we are praying it does go through. With the appraisal done the only thing left is to wait on the underwriter. Our prayer is to get the clear to close soon, which means we would have to close on 4/25.

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Brother Adam

More information we learned - our D-to-I ratio actually is a moot point, we figured out how to get around it with the school loans. The trustee on the short sale was transferred and a new trustee has been brought in. This trustee feels that the price on the home is too high and is making all parties re-write the sales contract for $6500 less (!!!). That makes the home $68,000 less than what it was bought for in '05. Due to the complex nature of the short sale and our finances it could take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months to finally close on it if nothing else goes terribly wrong.

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Brother Adam

And if anyone wants to help us move when (if) it does finally all go through all you can eat pizza and beer are included. :)

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Brother Adam

Had to drop off 4 more documents today. Geez. There is about a 25% chance we will be closing next Monday.

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