I am tired of $830 per month in rent, its ******* gay. I never thought of home ownership as an option before because of the temporary nature of my job. However, now that rent is going up to $940 in February, I'm pretty much over the whole apartment thing.

I'm thinking about getting a house in a decent part of town, preferably one that I can get for a reasonable price that will need some remodeling and updating. I'll have about $15-20k to throw down on something like this or http://www.ebby.com/pictures/325353.html.

That way I can finally have my own garage and not get lease violations for swapping wheels, dealing with gay ****, and throwing money into a black hole. I guess I have to accept that nothing in life is set in stone, and I won't be able to cut a check for a house like I planned.

 

If it's got a good roof/heating/AC, then everything else is just your time and learning curve.

 

My apt lets me slide alot. But I hate not having a house and a garage. I grew up with an acre yard and a shop out back. We did what we wanted.

Even though utilities and up keep suck. A house is the only way to go.

 

That's not a flipper, it's in too good of shape. What I am getting ready to buy is a flipper... It's Foreclosed on over a year, it has mold issues, and it's in a really great neighborhood. It sold in '06 for $440,000 and I am offering $286,000 on a listed price of $325,000. That's a good house to flip.

Houses that are bad to flip are not distressed and do not need much work. The best flips need cosmetic work but have good underpinnings or an easy to fix problem, like the mold in the property I am getting is from a leaky roof, fix the roof and replace the sheet rock and the mold is done.

I will be putting 3% down and getting an FHA loan. You should look into this, FHA loans are generally cheaper. If you were a veteran I would suggest a VA loan.

Mark

PS - Judging from the tax records, neither of those houses are great bargains, although the one on college street is probably the better deal?

 

mold scares the hell out of me, walked away from a couple houses because of it

 

those are just examples of what I could live with. I have some time to decide. Thanks for the info. How much different is the bidding process from buying a car or **** at a pawn shop?

 

http://www.ocwen.com/reo/residential...fm?proptype=VA

This link may be of interest to you. This is a listing for VA forclosures. The VA usually just wants their money out of it. Unlike some other forclosures where the banks try and turn a profit.

 

there is absolutely nothing wrong with a house.....the ones you linked are very nice too. I just got my keys last week, bought a foreclosed house for pennies compared to what its worth. I say go for it, it is a smart financial decision

 

mark, double check the FHA requirements. I think (among other things) they just raised the down payment limit to 3.5%. Not sure when it goes into effect. FHA was awesome for me.

Oh and you all know there's a 7000 tax credit (15 year interest free loan) available right now? Yah. Stimulate my economy baby.

 

Didn't know about the tax credit, what's the deal on that? The 3.5% starts on the fiscal year (Oct 1.) hopefully I will be able to close prior to that. It's not a big deal, I could put 10% down, just don't want to.

Mark

 

7500... but I think that's for two people.
http://www.realtor.org/GAPublic.nsf/files/chart_homebuyer_tax_credit_.pdf/$FILE/chart_homebuyer_tax_credit_.pdf

I'm sure more info is out there if you use the right google terms.

by the way, the best piece of advice i can give on buying a house? haggle the interest rate with your bank! I shaved off 3/4 a percent just by showing them a competing offer. no points.

 

you need to do a lot of research noob! seriously though there's so many variables on the difference between what you should offer and the asking price. really there's many things to consider, but probably your biggest bargaining chip for lowballing will be the amount of time on the market, obviously the longer the better

 

I don't know much about the house buying deal but speaking from experience living in an apartment is really sucks.If it was within my means,I would do it.

 

that is absolutely correct, however every house too long on the market we found to be complete ****, and after lowballing they wouldnt budge. we said to hell with that

 

i've had similar results, plus my father who knows everything moved across the country so my ability to take on a large project has somewhat diminished. I'm not one to hire people, it's not my nature and i've seen real **** work and people get ripped off. speaking of that, why is it common for someone to take all your money, start a job, and not return?

 

Hahaha, mortgage interest is an even blacker hole. If **** breaks in the house, it's your ****. It's much harder to move than if you rent, and you lose 6% when you sell. Consider also that the housing downturn is very likely to get worse and worse:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north625.html

 

Apartments do suck. We moved into our house last year and having my own garage is great.

I tried to find a home without a realtor for almost 2 months before finally giving in. The seller's agents try to make it really hard to buy without one, though it's possible.

My biggest suggestion is to shop until you drop; for the house, realtor, and bank. Deals are out there if you look long enough. Don't let a realtor talk you into something you don't want.

Some good advice:
http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/home/index.aspx
Slightly dated; http://www.mtgprofessor.com/mistakes_to_avoid.htm
WSJ, 1st time home buyers tax info: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1218...alEstateMain_1
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/money...ey101/lesson8/

We're currently looking at buying a VA foreclosure to rent out. Let me know if you wanna move to Austin, I'll hook you up with a cheaper deposit.

For all the TX vets out there, it's at %6.12 right now.
https://secure2.glo.state.tx.us/vlb/...l/interest.cfm

Chris

 

I only considered this idea for a short time, but what stopped me was the whole 'flip' part of the process didn't seem like it would work and I didn't want to be stuck with a piece of property for a long time while living elsewhere and hurting for money.

 

It might be worth it in the long term, but a house needing work is a money-pit. Just like a car, there is always more "modifications" to make.

 

We just bought a house. Started looking in February, put in a contract on May 10, waited for the short sale bullshit with banks dragging their asses, and finally closed three weeks ago. Been fixing it up in the mean time and will move in this weekend. I will try to contribute some numbers to the scenario.

The biggest financial benefit to owning your home is that the mortgage interest is all tax deductible. However, on the houses hustler posted, you're not going to get a huge benefit in that regard because the houses just aren't that expensive there. Must be nice! Assuming a $130K house w/ 15K down = $115K mortgage, over 30 years at 6.3% you pay $600/mo in interest, or ~$7200 a year that is tax deductible. However, that's not very much higher than the standard deduction of $5350 for single folk, a difference of ~$1850, so your annual tax burden would be reduced only ~$460-520 depending on what bracket you're in.

Even though the mortgage interest benefit is minimal, your monthly P&I on the above loan is only $711. Which by itself is damn cheaper than your rent, although property taxes will bring it back up closer to a similar monthly expense. Electric/gas bills will be about double that of an apartment's.

Keeping in mind that I am neither an accountant nor a realtor nor a lawyer, it seems to me there is little financial downside in those houses compared to your apartment. It is a certainty that if you stay in the same apartment, you'll be pissing away $11,280 in rent every year that you'll never see again. Why pay your landlord's mortgage when you can pay your own?

If you think you'll stay in the same area for a few years, and want a place to stretch your legs and work on your car without being hassled by the man, and you can handle the upkeep, go for it. If you're still moving around a bit, I'd hold off. Now is not a great time to be flipping houses. Most properties are taking a good while to sell, and closing costs & realtor fees can eat you up in the short term.