Excellent point. This just happened to me where the seller stated there were no exemptions taken on the taxes. My lawer did some digging and found out that there were exemptions applied and got us the credit for the full tax amount (+ 10%) at closing.



Speaking from my recent experience, this isn't necessarily true. The down market has kept a lot of sellers from even listing their homes now. There are remarkably few homes on the market right now and plenty of buyers who are seriously looking. Good homes are selling within a week of listing (at least on the north shore), because the inventory is both so scarce and full of short/foreclosure sales (I had two offers on my house before it was even officially listed). That's not to say that buyers are over-paying, but there are no really great bargains on good homes right now, and they're tending to go quick. A good agent should be able to tell you how much traffic is going through a particular house, and how much pressure you'll be under to make a decision on it. They should also help you determine it's true value.

The only other piece of advice I could give is that once you find a house you like, go see it as much as you can, at different times of the day, on different days. It amazed me that our buyers saw our house a total of two times before closing (the initial tour and the inspection). I think we went through our new house at least 10 times before the inspection.

Good luck!

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I really do appreciate all of the info and kind words...and even the jokes!
Thanks a ton!

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There are some real professionals giving good advice in this section so there is not much to add other than find a home being listed by a hot, young broker (male or female probably doesn't matter to you), attend the open house at the end of a slow day, tell her you have a contract and find out how far she is willing to go to close the deal.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Imagine if Ugie had started this thread...

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

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They'd have to glue mine to my forehead.

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Sort of, but the traditional real estate "seasons" no longer seem to apply. This year for instance, the big flood of listings that were expected for the spring, never materialized.

The lower inventory certainly adds pressure to the buyer as they have to act quickly in order to get the house they want. That's the main reason to get your ducks in a row before you even start looking (credit reports clean, pre-approval, etc).

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House has a LOT of unexpected expenses that you find out about quickly if you have not had basic construction skills handed down to you. I thought I would be able to take some of this on but it has been incredibly hard. Frozen pipes. The garage door that breaks yearly. Doors that need replacement. Roofs. Siding. Landscaping. All of it is bullshit cost. I think the best thing to do is rent and save money for your kid(s). BigFan's idea is good as well. Renting your place does increase your taxes, but maintenance to the house becomes a deduction on your taxes. Might be a good idea considering the market. Just need to start up an LLC. Doesnt take long to do it and you will reap a lot of benefits from the deductions.

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+1 on the rental suggestion. My sister and BIL's first home purchase was a 3-flat in the city. They did great on it.

+1 on PMI if you must have it. Just make sure you can cancel it.

It is a personal decision but I would avoid any building or neighborhood that charges association fees. To me that is never-ending big money down the drain.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

looking into buying my first house as well, outside of the 20% down payment, what are some of the other fees that we will need to be preapred to pony up for at closing or add to our mortgage. Obviously i know closing costs but ho wmuch are these what else is there?

It's a long list.

I'm sure somebody can come up with most of them of the top of their head.

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It depends a lot on your specific numbers. It's better to use this link and look. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html

The other costs are that you'll likely have to provide the first months mortgage payment, and you probably have to cover the remaining property tax which is paid to the seller since they already paid for it. Also, any association fees. Also, the bank will expect you to have some money left over in your account afterwards. They won't approve the transaction if you are going to have $200 left in your checking account. I seem to remember mine saying that I needed at least 2 months mortgage left in my account.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Just my personal experience, but I didn't need this one for either house (maybe it depends on the specific bank). In fact, the nice thing is depending on the timing of your closing in the month, you can get a month and a half "free" from mortgage to kinda help with the transition and other expenses that pop up.

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You may be right. I'm not 100% sure that I did that either. I know I had to do a lot of things to show I could actually pay. They said after the housing market crash that they got a lot more strict with this as they got burned by some people who couldn't even cover a month of mortgage payments.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

You need to get your homeowner's insurance in order.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

You're also going to need 6 months of savings too. I know it's hard to think about and that sounds like a lot but I spent maybe 5-6k on fixing shit around the house. If there's not a new furnace/ac unit (less than say 5 years old) begin saving. Your roof will need to be reroofed every 10 years or so, and that's another 5-10k depending (maybe less if there's only 1 roof on the house, if 2 or 3 you'll have to strip and reinstall). Have a couple thousand sitting somewhere for when the fuckin sump pump fails or if a damn tree falls in a storm and lands on your house or if (and this happened to my folks house) it gets hit by lightning and there's deductables to pay.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Tell your Real Estate agent that you are interested in short sales...homes that are about to go into foreclosure, but the bank is working with the current owners to sell the home quickly to avoid foreclosure. We know a couple who just bought a 2700 Sq Ft 30 year old home for $149K, which was well below market value. There are short sale homes all over the place.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Short sales can be a huge hassle.

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I have heard that they are getting a little easier now as banks don't want to foreclose & own any more homes than they already do.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I can do a lot of these types of repairs myself. If I can't, I have a guy in just about every other field. When we needed a new roof, my guy had everything delivered (material, dumpster, etc.), and my brother and I did most of the tear off. My brother set us up with the shingles, while my guy and I nailed them down.

As far as sump pumps go, I have an extra one in each size (1 1/2" rain water ejector, and 2" shitter and laundry in basement), so if either goes out in a storm, I'm covered. I have the male adaptor, length of pvc, and coupling glued and ready to roll.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

thanks for the advice, sounds like I will need about 10k more than i first thought

Yeah. You and me would be like that... but most guys ain't like that... just a good tip.
I also had to spend $4k on new windows and who knows what else...

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I am not like that at all, but my brother in law is.

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+1 and I would also ensure your purchase offer is contingent on your approval of a professional home inspection. But based on my limited experience they may not catch everything and appliances always seem to go out in bunches.

And if it is your first house you will need stuff like a lawnmower, perhaps some furniture, etc. And people sometimes underestimate their monthly utility cost and/or don't realize they may have to pay for stuff like garbage and water when they didn't previously.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Another tip, you can ask your realtor to get a yearly average of utility costs for any house you're serious about (they'll get it from the sellers).

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We will be doing the FHA loan. We are looking for houses in the 140-160K range, which is on the high end is less than double our respective incomes, so (hopefully ) we should be able to manage with everything.

Saw the first one we really liked last nite in Oak Forest not far from George Dunne golf course. Needs some painting and landscaping work, but really thats about it. Nothing else really major, just some cosmetic fixes. Had a new roof, new skylites, and 1 bathroom redone with in the last 18-24 months.

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Since it was talked about earlier, I actually paid down enough to get to 22% of my total house(needed 22% to cancel the PMI) and in terms of savings on PMI and interest I will be saving about 5 total payments over the next 3 years.

Paying 20% at the start saves a lot of money, though paying 10% is often better than renting.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!