[Total Heckler]

Wow thanks for all of the support everyone!

Pest and home inspections are scheduled for Monday of next week. Pretty freaking excited. This house is pretty straight forward with everything, so were not really expecting anything huge on the home inspection (but you never know so keep good thoughts coming this way).

 

[stoney]

Pumped for you Josh! Just make sure you ramp up your savings, and get insurance!

 

[scrublover]

Wife and I just closed on our first place last week. Asking was 315K, appraisal was 297K, we got it for 287.5K. All closing costs paid via a 3% sellers concession, PMI rolled into the loan. We plan to (once no longer required to carry PMI - about five years down the road) refinance into a 15 year, obviously depending on what is going on at the time.

We went FHA for the same reasons others in this thread have: great credit, great jobs, but not having 20% right now. Found a place that we liked and met our criteria, and went for it. 4.25% and not blowing through our savings to get into a house was nice.

New-ish furnace, water heater, roof, electric and plumbing. The place is in very good shape. Cleaning and painting the next couple weeks, followed by a mini kitchen rehab.

Heh. I might get a ride in sometime this week.

Good luck!

 

[bdamschen]

Good work dude!

For those questioning the price and time to buy- My wife and I bought a house in a different desirable neighborhood about 40 mins south of Josh. Our place hasn't gained or lost any value from what we paid in that time. I have since had friends looking for a similar place for a similar price around the area, they have had a hard time finding anything.

Even if we were suddenly upside down on our house, why should I care? I'm not going anywhere for at least 5 years(probably longer) and I can afford the payments.

Even though our place had recently been remodeled and had a new roof, electrical, interior, kitchen appliances, etc. we still kept a few grand aside... mainly because it was built in 1899 and I was sketched that I had missed something before we signed.

Within the first year I replaced our side gate because otherwise it was going to fall down and take the rest of the fence with it and re-roofed the large-ish shed that came with it. (basketball sized holes in the roof). All told I think we spent an extra $1,500.00 on tools, materials and beer. I'd say we were probably another $500 in it for stuff like lawn mowers, weed whackers, rakes, wheel barrow, etc. (for some reason I already had a crap load of shovels and other things that build fun stuff for bikes).

My advise if you get the place:

Buy a ladder. If it's no obvious now, it will be by Christmas.
If you don't have one already, get an 18v cordless drill. Trust me.
Become friends with your neighbors before they meet your friends

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Congrats on the purchase!

 

[stevew]

no pump track no care.

 

[scrublover]

Buy a ladder. If it's no obvious now, it will be by Christmas.
If you don't have one already, get an 18v cordless drill. Trust me.
Become friends with your neighbors before they meet your friends

First thing I did, and it's already gotten a ton of use.

 

[kickstand]

Congrats on the acceptance! let us know when you close.

I'm in the middle of arguing with a douchebag appraisor about a leaky faucet and a 2k discrepency in home value, he's a real peice of work and really holding up the process for me.

 

[loco-gringo]

SO our offer got accepted over the other 2 that the sellers had. We are officially in contract with our first home. Pretty crazy how quickly all of this has come together. Home inspections (pest and general home) are hopefully getting scheduled for tomorrow. Were also going to the city hall to check out all of the homes records sometime this week too.

I am pumped!

Congrats. Our house deal went a lot like that. Turns out I have some issues with the floor to deal with, but nothing too major I suppose. One day I will have a wreck of a house for a couple of weeks. I suppose one day I should post pics of our place. It's been days over a year since we closed and we moved in right around Halloween.

For reference...I think we paid a bit too much, but we got 1700 sq ft on pier and beam with a 2 car garage and a huge yard for $108,500. It was built in 61'. I like having our own house. F*#k the naysayers.

 

[loco-gringo]

My sister's house is next to a house that is 5000sq ft, with a HUGE-a$$ 5-car garage, a pond, and 15 acres. Went into foreclosure after a divorce and the market tank. It sold for ~$210K recently.

Having your sister for a neighbor would be a huge devaluation in any market.

Imagine having you come to visit for a week or two.

Worse than buying land in a hurricane prone environment.

 

[loco-gringo]

If you require a gas yard tool you have WAY too much $hit in your yard to maintain. That's a tip coming from a non-pro yard guy who has all electric yard tools and has for his entire house-owning life.

Piss off hippie.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Having your sister for a neighbor would be a huge devaluation in any market.

You say that in jest... but you have NO idea. I wouldn't move into the place next door even if it was $15K.

Imagine having you come to visit for a week or two.

Worse than buying land in a hurricane prone environment.

Oh... it's not ME.

 

[Total Heckler]

Dropping off the first 1/2 of the deposit today with the title company. Holy crap.

 

[Jimmysal]

GOGOGO. Hows teh appraisal look?

 

[Total Heckler]

Still waiting on all of the reports and inspections. We should have everything together by early to mid next week.

 

[Total Heckler]

A very large check (for me) just cleared from my bank to a title company today. Things are moving along. Next up are inspections (pest and home) on Monday.

Some crappy listing photos of the home:

From the street:

Living room facing the front door:

The kitchen (from the dining room):

Living room / dining room / kitchen:

Sliding door to the back yard:

Back yard:

 

[jimmydean]

Nice looking digs! Good luck on the inspections.

 

[Icantdrive65]

Nice place, Josh!

 

[bdamschen]

Sweet place Josh!

no pump track no care.

 

[Total Heckler]

Inspections today! Send good thoughts and cross those fingers for me!

 

[KavuRider]

That place is nice, good luck!

 

[stoney]

Nice Josh. From an upgrading perspective (see BS house thread), that's a great starting point. Just remember, that for every dollar you put into it, vs. paying down capital on your mortgage, you will be paying compounding interest on. And this is not the burgeoning housing market we grew up into...

 

[descente]

you could totally make a pump track with a roof drop in...

 

[Chumble spuzz]

Edit: Good luck on the house hunting. I put in an offer on my place mid April, and finally closed July 1. Had to do battle with the seller's kids (seller just wanted out of the place) on the price. Had to do battle with the mortgage company on the appraisal (VT is kinda stagnant market, no comps). Super frustrating when you have 20%, 750+ credit, you're barely tapping into your income, and they still say no.

Totally agree with ur analysis of the VT market. Sold our place in lower VT (Windsor) and moved a bit north to Norwich. Took a bit of a hit on what we got for the sale, but nothing we couldn't handle. Am currently renting from the in-laws with the option to buy. Nice house, 30 acres @1200 ft, some sweet views, gardens, apple trees, etc. house abuts the Green Mountain National Forest and the AT... Definitely going to need some power equipment! Have already started on some handmade trails.

 

[Jimmysal]

Totally agree with ur analysis of the VT market. Sold our place in lower VT (Windsor) and moved a bit north to Norwich. Took a bit of a hit on what we got for the sale, but nothing we couldn't handle. Am currently renting from the in-laws with the option to buy. Nice house, 30 acres @1200 ft, some sweet views, gardens, apple trees, etc. house abuts the Green Mountain National Forest and the AT... Definitely going to need some power equipment! Have already started on some handmade trails.

You should take a ride out my way next time jonkranked comes up. We started a pump track labor day weekend and I've been banging out more features as I can after work. Another set of hands would be much appreciated. I'm in Shaftsbury, just north of Bennington.

It sounds like you're on a similar piece of property to mine. I've started a blog talking about my experiences moving in to a large property. I'll probably plug it every now and then once I have some more content.


Edit: It's going to be more of an instructional/info blog than a "this is my day and how I feel" one.

 

[Total Heckler]

A actual quote from our realtor:

"This is one of the cleanest inspections I have ever seen."

A few minor things here and there, but really nothing significant or deal breaking. It looks like were going to be moving forward with everything! This is crazy awesome.

We also made a change with who we are going with for the loan. The bank we were working with basically refused to provide us with a "Good Faith Estimate" for the loan. We asked repeatedly to see a breakdown of their fees and everything and they just wouldn't provide it to us. SO our realtors brought our information to a a couple new mortgage companies and they provided them to us the same day (the bank we were working with hasn't in the last almost 2 weeks we've been working with them).

This actually worked out in our favor because we can now get a rate of 4.25% after we purchase a 1pt credit (which the bank we were working with didn't have the option of doing).

 

[Jimmysal]

Good news!

From what I remember, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act passed by the federal govt REQUIRES a GFE be issued within 3 business days of a loan application. I would steer clear of any institution that refuses to issue one.

edit: my bad, it was RESPA not TILA

 

[Total Heckler]

Good news!

From what I remember, the federal truth in lending guidelines REQUIRE a GFE. I would steer clear of any institution that refuses to issue one.

Watch out for Bank of America.

 

[Jimmysal]

Did you test for Radon?

 

[SkaredShtles]

A actual quote from our realtor:

"This is one of the cleanest inspections I have ever seen."

Is it an inspector that your realtor recommended? I'm just bringing it up so you at least give it some thought.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mtg/20000525.asp

We also made a change with who we are going with for the loan. The bank we were working with basically refused to provide us with a "Good Faith Estimate" for the loan. We asked repeatedly to see a breakdown of their fees and everything and they just wouldn't provide it to us.

Yeah - I'd steer a MILE clear of any place that wouldn't give you a GFE.

 

[Total Heckler]

Did you test for Radon?

That may have been a part of the home inspection? We are getting the full report today and reviewing it hopefully sometime this week.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

That may have been a part of the home inspection? We are getting the full report today and reviewing it hopefully sometime this week.

Usually not. Standard home inspection is generally just a structural/electrical/HVAC/plumbing inspection. Stuff like water quality/quantity, radon in air and radon in water are seperate (and $$$). With public water/sewage it's not critical to test, but with a well/septic tank (like me), it was worth the money to test for peace of mind.

 

[Total Heckler]

The property is on public water/sewage, but I will bring it up to my realtor. Thanks for the advice!

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

The property is on public water/sewage, but I will bring it up to my realtor. Thanks for the advice crabby pants.

The only thing really worth testing additionally then would be radon in air, which is like a $50 test. They stick 2 little canisters in the basement for 48 hours then send them off to a lab to get the results. You could even buy the canisters yourself online and get them tested, but doing it through your home inspector will give you some tracebility if its becomes an issue (read: high levels and a remediation system needs to go in). One of the houses I looked at had radon results nearly 6 times that of the state mandated limit for radon in air. Might not be a big deal health wise, but you're required to disclose that when selling, which could prove to be a major PIA. Would suck to have to spend $3-5k to put in a remediation system just to sell the house.

EPA limits radon levels in public water, so no need to test there.


I guess paying for 3 different home inspections is starting to pay off.

 

[MMike]

A actual quote from our realtor:

"This is one of the cleanest inspections I have ever seen."
.

"And honestly, I don't say that with every deal I close.....no really!"

 

[Total Heckler]

"And honestly, I don't say that with every deal I close.....no really!"

Haha I have known the guy for years now. He's an honest guy. =]

 

[eric strt6]

Santa Cruz is not an are with a known radon problem. Welcome to the association of money pit owners lol

 

[Total Heckler]

Santa Cruz is not an are with a known radon problem. Welcome to the association of money pit owners lol

Thanks Eric! Close of escrow should be right around the end of October if all goes as planned.

 

[Total Heckler]

Locked in our rate today at 4.25% after purchasing 1 point. I am so pumped! We also went through the full pest and home inspection reports and everything is looking good. We also went through the full past owner disclosure report as well. The previous owners have been in the home for the last 30 years so we had pretty much every piece of history for the property in the last 30 years. We are also going to the city hall next week to view the complete history of the home. That should be pretty cool.

 

[Total Heckler]

Close of escrow is 10/23 or sooner since the home is vacant. Holy crap I am pumped right now!