Home Buying & Real Estate Thread

[super t1ght]

http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...502953,37.117621,-122.13192_rect/10_zm/0_mmm/

thats in san jose--mind you SF area prob is worse and you get even less for your money and an even older house, anyways in SJ any decent home in good neighborhoods is easy 700K+ while bad neighborhoods in the notorious east side is still $500K, these should only show single family detached homes. no condos or townhomes just beause thats whatI'm looking for. so folks saying i have to save up $140K 20% downpayment to avoid PMI, plus i have to set money aside for closing cost, property tax if not impounded, and other misc. when and how am i just gonna get $140K, that downpayment is some of the homes people posted here in other states that have been remodeled with nice big yards.

its very discouraging to say the least. I'm in my 30s and a lot of my peers who live here simply cant afford to buy even if they wanted to. Even those with college educations. Even buying a $500K house, which means it will be crappy and dated that definitely needs to be remodeled or fixed up in a lot of ways, in a not so good neighborhood. thats $100K downpayment 20%. even those making 100K a year will struggle or not even be able to afford a home here. You prob need dual income both making about $100K a year (200K+ combined) to play ball.

a lot of folks here still live with their parents, simply just accept the fact they will rent forever, or move out of their parents only to move in a house with other friends renting a room for $500-600 a month just to say they moved out of their parents. Rent around here for a 2 bedroom is easy $2000, and 3+ or a house to rent is easy 2500-4000+ thats some of yall mortgages if not more for the big *** house and lot.

so even if i was able to pull 20% out my *** lol on a $600K house, on a 3.8% interest 30 years. which lets say i save this amount by the time im 45 years old lol. based on the average property tax, insurance, my monthly mortgage will be near $3000 a month, not including utilities and other expenses. and say i have 2-3 kids by then. thats paycheck to paycheck and if either myself or wifey lose our job, we done. definitely no living comfortably in those conditions

so is this real life fam? if so.. im dead fam..

Its your choice to live in the bay. If that is that important to you, then i guess thats real life. Theres plenty of great places to live in this country though. Living with parents if your older than 18 is ridiculous to me but to each their own.

 

[eugenile gts]

Its your choice to live in the bay. If that is that important to you, then i guess thats real life. Theres plenty of great places to live in this country though. Living with parents if your older than 18 is ridiculous to me but to each their own.

lol I agree bro but it's too common out here. Even married couples with college educations. Still in same roof with parents. Whether it's their house or parents house. Just so it's not paycheck to paycheck and folks can help on the high mortgage and bills. Gotta put privacy aside.

That's it I'm moving to Texas where my $3000 rent give me a fat mansion!!

 

[capital sb]

Question guys,
Right now I'm renting out a place with a buddy. But I've been looking for a place to buy for a while. Haven't found a home I like at all in my area. But I found a 1 bedroom condo w/ garage that got foreclosed on(dirt cheap). Would it be a smart decision to purchase this condo( it would be cheaper to buy then what I'm currently paying in rent)

I figure If anything I could rent it out maybe turn it into investment property? Any advice would be helpful.

You can't bank on a condo being an investment property. The HOA's only allow a set amount of condos to be rented out in the property, so that is a gamble.

HOA also never goes away and usually rises over the years, so you want to make sure the HOA fee is manageable. I have seen some places around here with $600-$1000/mo HOA fees.

 

[sneaksoy]

Yes sneaksoy is suggesting that people should just grind and drop that 20% on a 350K-500K home in their 20s. Not really sure how it's possible to save up 60K-130K in a few years, but that is the suggestion.

Longer you wait the more prices increase and the longer you must save,

This is where I wanted to live potomac yards, crystal city area lol probably never will. All of the lower price homes are studios or condos sub 1200sqft.

You're taking me a little out-of-context but that's alright.

Look, everyone's situation is different. I'm not going to tell another man how he should or should not spend his money. But I just don't encourage someone without any real savings to jump into a house as an investment, especially not in a market where home prices are already inflated. And just because the monthly payment may be feasible doesn't mean it's not still beyond someone's means... A $400k house with a 4% downpayment, financed over 30 years on a FHA loan (with PMI and a higher interest rate) is going to run $1800/mo minimum just in mortgage payment, plus another $1000 from property tax/home insurance/PMI so you're looking at around $2800/month? Even in areas where rent is high, you can definitely find something cheaper than that while you continue to save for additional down payment. If you can afford a $2800/month mortgage payment but only have $10k to put down (+ assistance), you can find a place for $1500/month, save that $15k per year you would have been putting towards a mortgage and boom, in 5 years you'll have saved $75k and will be able to put almost 19% towards that $400k house.

Nothing wrong with renting a house in your 20s. Nothing wrong with having a roommate, splitting rent, etc. Nothing wrong with renting in your 30s for that matter. Too many Americans just want to live a lifestyle that does not include saving for major purchases, they want to have the government subsidize it, maximize the amount of house they can get, and then cry foul when they lose a job/market turns down/extraordinary circumstances come up and they're not able to keep up with the mortgage they were so eager to get in to. I'm not saying any of this is relating to you directly, BeezyGotSole, I'm just not eager to push these programs on people who may not be ready for it.

Buying a house is one of the most important decisions you'll make in your life, it's not something that should be rushed into. A little patience while saving up is a much better way to go about it. /rant

 

[sneaksoy]

Its your choice to live in the bay. If that is that important to you, then i guess thats real life. Theres plenty of great places to live in this country though.

This is important. We all make choices on where we want to work, where we want to live, etc. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices (renting a house rather than owning one) to get other things that are more important to you (living in a major metropolis, etc).

 

[capital sb]

 

[lightweight champion]

Sometimes it's worth it to just eat the PMI. If you buy a home for even $200k at a conventional loan then the ideal down payment is $40k. If you bid less than that, we'll say 5% for $10k your PMI for a couple hundred bucks a month could very well be worth it. In 3 years if the value of the house increases to $232k (good possibility) then you can refinance if you owe $185k or less and remove the PMI. This means you've spent A TON less on PMI than you would've have on a $40k down payment to not have PMI in the first place. So yeah, PMI isn't always a bad thing.

 

[jordman23]

If you want to buy a house move to Texas.

Great value and damn near guaranteed appreciation.

4 years ago I was scared kept renting then I bought a house at the start of August this year.

If I bought 4 years ago I could have sold my house and pocketed 60K.

Two of my co-workers literally sold their houses for above asking price in about week.

I can't speak for everyone but here you are an idiot if you keep renting.

Hell I closed on my home on July 31 this year and if you want the exact same house in my subdivision the asking price is 20K more from what we paid.

The apartments I lived in 4 years ago have jumped in price 150% in that time frame.

Companies are flocking to Dallas for the tax benefits and in my area more Fortune 500 companies have moved here than I can count.

Where are you at? I'm in Plano, currently looking for house also before the market explodes with all these companies moving in. Once the Toyota HQ opens up, there's not gonna be anything left. I moved here a year ago and it's been going good, but my rent went up $60, and it sucks because you can only sign a one year lease maximum.

I want to buy a house asap, got 20K cash for down payment.

My co-worker had a 2 floor- 5 bedroom house built from ground up for $240k with all amenities in the HOA.

Time to invest is now, that's my goal for this year.

 

[edshoecator]

Where are you at? I'm in Plano, currently looking for house also before the market explodes with all these companies moving in. Once the Toyota HQ opens up, there's not gonna be anything left. I moved here a year ago and it's been going good, but my rent went up $60, and it sucks because you can only sign a one year lease maximum.

I want to buy a house asap, got 20K cash for down payment.

My co-worker had a 2 floor- 5 bedroom house built from ground up for $240k with all amenities in the HOA.

Time to invest is now, that's my goal for this year.

I dont know how Torrance is going to survive that hit of a whole campus just picking up and moving to Texas.

I'm looking to sell and move to Torrance/SB too but the prices are super high.

Hell anything in South Central is stupid high and is trash.

I need to convince my wife to start applying in Texas so I can retire and be a stay at home dad in Texas.

 

[monstar]

http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...502953,37.117621,-122.13192_rect/10_zm/0_mmm/

thats in san jose--mind you SF area prob is worse and you get even less for your money and an even older house, anyways in SJ any decent home in good neighborhoods is easy 700K+ while bad neighborhoods in the notorious east side is still $500K, these should only show single family detached homes. no condos or townhomes just beause thats whatI'm looking for. so folks saying i have to save up $140K 20% downpayment to avoid PMI, plus i have to set money aside for closing cost, property tax if not impounded, and other misc. when and how am i just gonna get $140K, that downpayment is some of the homes people posted here in other states that have been remodeled with nice big yards.

its very discouraging to say the least. I'm in my 30s and a lot of my peers who live here simply cant afford to buy even if they wanted to. Even those with college educations. Even buying a $500K house, which means it will be crappy and dated that definitely needs to be remodeled or fixed up in a lot of ways, in a not so good neighborhood. thats $100K downpayment 20%. even those making 100K a year will struggle or not even be able to afford a home here. You prob need dual income both making about $100K a year (200K+ combined) to play ball.

a lot of folks here still live with their parents, simply just accept the fact they will rent forever, or move out of their parents only to move in a house with other friends renting a room for $500-600 a month just to say they moved out of their parents. Rent around here for a 2 bedroom is easy $2000, and 3+ or a house to rent is easy 2500-4000+ thats some of yall mortgages if not more for the big *** house and lot.

so even if i was able to pull 20% out my *** lol on a $600K house, on a 3.8% interest 30 years. which lets say i save this amount by the time im 45 years old lol. based on the average property tax, insurance, my monthly mortgage will be near $3000 a month, not including utilities and other expenses. and say i have 2-3 kids by then. thats paycheck to paycheck and if either myself or wifey lose our job, we done. definitely no living comfortably in those conditions

so is this real life fam? if so.. im dead fam..

My brethren we in the same boat. Im 27 tryna buy but a detached is just out of the question, Ive been looking to buy up north south of oakland have you looked at townhouses and condos north of fremont?

Spent majority of my life between north san jo and oakland so leaving or looking to move out past livermore is kind of out of the question at the moment.

Some folks have even looked to morgan hill and gilroy

Its your choice to live in the bay. If that is that important to you, then i guess thats real life. Theres plenty of great places to live in this country though. Living with parents if your older than 18 is ridiculous to me but to each their own.

You dont live here so I wouldnt expect you to understand

 

[jthagreat]

Own a condo...

HOA went from 140, to 160, to 200 in 2 years.

think its time to rent this out and cop a new place. (thats more of a lofty thought), but i think this motivates me to start looking into a new situation.

the extra money doesnt hurt me (even tho it does) but it an HOA doesnt sit right with me anymore.

Any thoughts guys/gals?

 

[jordman23]

I dont know how Torrance is going to survive that hit of a whole campus just picking up and moving to Texas.

I'm looking to sell and move to Torrance/SB too but the prices are super high.

Hell anything in South Central is stupid high and is trash.

I need to convince my wife to start applying in Texas so I can retire and be a stay at home dad in Texas.

It's a drastic change for me, because im from the NYC area so coming down here was different.But in terms of raising a family, this is definitely the spot to do so.

- Low Crime Rate
- Ranked Best Cities in the US to live
- No Income Taxes
- Very good infrastructure (roads, bridges)
- Low cost of Living
- Great Public School Districts



But the downside also bothers me.

- No Corner Bodegas
- No Good pizza (only bbq and mexican food)
- Boring Lifestyle
- Downtown Dallas is smaller than central park I think lol
- No diversity in Ethnicities
- Lots of racist republicans
- If you speak spanish, they assume you are Mexican automatically lol

 

[yeah]

I need to get into the HOA business

But seriously, I'd make moves if I were you jthagreat . Thats a 43% increase in two years. Unless you just got a new pool or something else to justify that increase, its probably only going to get higher until it matches the other HOA fees in your area.

I was really keen on getting a condo until I factored in the HOA, as the properties I was interested in came with $300-$600 of HOA expenses on top of the mortgage. The extra expense, coupled with the fact that some HOAs are ran like the mob, made me lean towards a house. I'm not paying an extra $500 so some cats who have lived in the building forever can pay some cat $300 to mow the lawn and pocket the rest.

 

[fahqu001]

 

I'm waiting for you to show me the way, sensei. lol I just moved to Mission Valley from Houston. Anyway, where exactly is that? One day when I'm bored, I wouldn't mind driving past it.

If I weren't leaving town for the holidays I would've given you a tour. This property is in Del Cerro (near SDSU). I'm closing escrow on another property in the same area and I should be getting started the first week of 2016. I'll be sure to post some pics.

If you have free time and you want to meet up, I'll be more than happy to talk real estate/flipping and possibly provide opportunities for you. Just PM me your info and we'll get together.

Thanks for the offer. I'll have to convince myself not to be a Mary and to buy. I'm military and my housings varies by location. Seeing a $500k+ mortgage has me rather hesitant. Wouldn't bother me as much if I knew I was going to be here longterm. My buddy, they guy I replaced, bought a foreclosure and walked away with I believe $3 or 400k in his pocket when he left to go back to FL. That's what got me to think about buying. I'm Southern and will hopefully move back to Houston once this tour is up and retire from the gov't gig when it's up.

 

Where are you at? I'm in Plano, currently looking for house also before the market explodes with all these companies moving in. Once the Toyota HQ opens up, there's not gonna be anything left. I moved here a year ago and it's been going good, but my rent went up $60, and it sucks because you can only sign a one year lease maximum.

I want to buy a house asap, got 20K cash for down payment.

My co-worker had a 2 floor- 5 bedroom house built from ground up for $240k with all amenities in the HOA.

Time to invest is now, that's my goal for this year.

I dont know how Torrance is going to survive that hit of a whole campus just picking up and moving to Texas.

I'm looking to sell and move to Torrance/SB too but the prices are super high.

Hell anything in South Central is stupid high and is trash.

I need to convince my wife to start applying in Texas so I can retire and be a stay at home dad in Texas.

TEXAS

 

 

[willie mcfly22]

Thought about moving to texas(DFW) was looking at houses like man lets go. but that weather would have me miserable. Plus I was thinking of Cali income for them house prices. So you make less, obviously cost of living will be less...doin sticking to Cali

 

[bale]

Own a condo...

HOA went from 140, to 160, to 200 in 2 years.

think its time to rent this out and cop a new place. (thats more of a lofty thought), but i think this motivates me to start looking into a new situation.

the extra money doesnt hurt me (even tho it does) but it an HOA doesnt sit right with me anymore.

Any thoughts guys/gals?

get outta there unless the cashflow from the rent is really sweet.  I reckon you'd eventually wanna put that money into a HOA free house if landlording is your thing.  HOAs suck, I think mines may be giving me cardiac and respiratory problems.

 

[super t1ght]

My brethren we in the same boat. Im 27 tryna buy but a detached is just out of the question, Ive been looking to buy up north south of oakland have you looked at townhouses and condos north of fremont?

Spent majority of my life between north san jo and oakland so leaving or looking to move out past livermore is kind of out of the question at the moment.

Some folks have even looked to morgan hill and gilroy
You dont live here so I wouldnt expect you to understand

Ok bro. Youre the one that sounds like theyve lived in a bubble, and doesnt want to leave the bubble. I dont live in the bay but ive lived in the west coast as well as a few other places and visited the bay several times. Some people have different priorities, thats all there is to it. I prefer independence and wealth and found that Florida is a great place to live
Others want to stick with what their used to and stay near family and that's fine too, as long as youre cool with a mortgage payment til your 70 and retire when your 80.

 

[monstar]

Ok bro. Youre the one that sounds like theyve lived in a bubble, and doesnt want to leave the bubble. I dont live in the bay but ive lived in the west coast as well as a few other places and visited the bay several times. Some people have different priorities, thats all there is to it. I prefer independence and wealth and found that Florida is a great place to live
Others want to stick with what their used to and stay near family and that's fine too, as long as youre cool with a mortgage payment til your 70 and retire when your 80.

sorry if i come off as of ive lived in a bublle but i dont.

Ive lived in the bay , atlanta, ny, and texas.

I just prefer out here. From lifestyle to the job availability and presence of immediate family.

 

[capital sb]

If you were interested in real estate investments VA loans are a great way to do it. 0 money down and you can get an unlimited amount of VA loans. One couple on BP is up to 8 properties from moving around due to the military, all secured through VA loans.

 

[dam itz lou]

Ok bro. Youre the one that sounds like theyve lived in a bubble, and doesnt want to leave the bubble. I dont live in the bay but ive lived in the west coast as well as a few other places and visited the bay several times. Some people have different priorities, thats all there is to it. I prefer independence and wealth and found that Florida is a great place to live
Others want to stick with what their used to and stay near family and that's fine too, as long as youre cool with a mortgage payment til your 70 and retire when your 80.

Florida does seem like a great place to live for those reasons. I'm self employed so I wouldn't have to look for a job. No state income taxes and a lower cost of living seems like a WIN WIN. Anyone own property in Miami Beach or Miami in general ?

Where I need to be.

 

[food4thgt]

Take it from someone who bought a short sale that needed a lot of work. BUY SOMETHING THAT IS MOVE-IN READY! Unless you have folks on folks on folks who know how to do renovations (luckily I did) you will be absolutely screwed.


My home purchase was part necessity (getting married) and part availability. I found a house for a very good price in a nice neighborhood and it had a front porch. The biggest selling point was that it backed to woods, a stream and a railroad track. I wanted to get sort of a secluded feel while still being right by a mall.


And the most important thing to understand about buying a house. Save 25% more money than you THINK you need. There are always expenses that pop up that you simply didn't plan for/ couldn't have foreseen. So if you need $20k for a down payment and closing costs or whatever, save around $25k before you pull the trigger.


If you need any specific pointers feel free to PM me.

Did you buy you guys buy the house before you go married?

 

[slicknick951]

Finally close on Monday after months of this ish. Ill provide a final update then

 

[aepps20]

Finally close on Monday after months of this ish. Ill provide a final update then

Congratulations to you my dude.

 

[food4thgt]

[/quote]

Yes sneaksoy is suggesting that people should just grind and drop that 20% on a 350K-500K home in their 20s. Not really sure how it's possible to save up 60K-130K in a few years, but that is the suggestion.

Longer you wait the more prices increase and the longer you must save,

This is where I wanted to live potomac yards, crystal city area lol probably never will. All of the lower price homes are studios or condos sub 1200sqft.

Looking around the same area (Fairfax) its a rough place out here man...live outside of DC but paying DC prices..

 

[lazyj10]

Own a condo...

HOA went from 140, to 160, to 200 in 2 years.

think its time to rent this out and cop a new place. (thats more of a lofty thought), but i think this motivates me to start looking into a new situation.

the extra money doesnt hurt me (even tho it does) but it an HOA doesnt sit right with me anymore.

Any thoughts guys/gals?

I mean, what's the reason for the raise? EVERY condo owner has to foot the bill, so it's not like the board is blindly gong to approve it...

things to consider: how old.new is the condo? Typically, newer builds have the situation you're describing, low HOA first year but increases thereafter until it stabilizes. Another fact pattern could be your reserves are low and major or multiple updates are planned to occur.

When I had a condo, I had one increase in 3 years and it was less than 5%. The building was built in the 80's and had solid reserve cash, too. Your condo HOa should provide for condo financial statements.