76
votes
Accepted
Cash in retirement accounts to buy a house?
It is normally a bad idea to cash in retirement accounts to buy a house, in your case it is a horrible idea because you are way behind on saving for retirement.
Other fallacies in your reasoning:
...
- 53k
73
votes
Accepted
Could the loan officer deny me even if I have the money as a first time home buyer?
A financial institution is not obligated to offer you a loan. They will only offer you a loan if they believe that they will make money off you. They use all the info available in order to determine ...
- 42k
70
votes
Accepted
In the donut hole of assistance, Should I buy a home?
You're making $100k together per year: you're not in the donut hole, you're in the top 25% of all households, and the top 10% of non-family households (as yours would be). To be blunt, you're not in ...
- 35.7k
59
votes
Accepted
Tips on making a best and final offer
Personally I would send back this note:
"Thanks, we have already made an offer. Feel free to come back to us if you have a counter-offer in the future. For now we are persuing other properties.
...
- 13.8k
56
votes
Why would a seller require a cash offer on a property?
This situation is the reverse: why would a seller require a cash
offer? Is such a requirement fairly common, or a red flag?
I can think of several reasons they could only be interested in cash offers....
- 69.1k
54
votes
Accepted
How hard is it to sell a home which is currently mortgaged?
This is 100% routine and happens in almost every home sale.
Whoever you're buying from probably owes a mortgage too!
This gets handled during closing, and it's "behind the curtain". You/your ...
51
votes
I gifted money to my girlfriend for a down payment on a house and we broke up. Am I entitled to my money back?
In common-law jurisdictions (e.g. the United States but not Louisiana) there is the notion of a “gift in contemplation of marriage” (Google that phrase). The most common case for this is an engagement ...
- 5,502
50
votes
Cash in retirement accounts to buy a house?
So you're making $150,000 per year and you have $245,000 in debts. You're in your late 30s and have $41,000, or less than 1/3 of a year's pay, put away for retirement. That's a bad situation, but not ...
- 22k
49
votes
How hard is it to sell a home which is currently mortgaged?
As RonJohn points out, selling a house that still has an outstanding mortgage balance is very common.
However, having a mortgage can make it harder to sell, one situation to consider is if the local ...
- 69.1k
48
votes
Would I qualify for a USDA loan?
IMHO you are in no position to buy a home. If it was me, I'd payoff the student loans, pay off the car, get those credit card balances to zero (and keep them there), and save up at least 10K (as an ...
- 76.1k
48
votes
Accepted
First job: Renting vs get my parents to buy me a house
Rent.
You have no idea whether you will still be in the same part of the country five years from now; you may not even be in the same country. A house is a boat anchor you really do not need or want ...
- 43k
47
votes
Accepted
Should I pay closing cost and replace HVAC for buyer
A "seller concession" is a good solution for a buyer with no cash who wants things done on the house. You keep the sale price the same, and give them cash back at closing, which they use for the ...
- 17k
46
votes
Should I buy a home or rent in my situation?
If I were you, I would rent. Wait to buy a home. Here is why:
When you say that renting is equal in cost to a 30-year mortgage, you are failing to consider several aspects. See this recent answer ...
- 115k
46
votes
Accepted
Why are 30-year mortgages seen as unwise, if you can pay off the loan in a shorter period of time anyway?
Two reasons are typically cited (I've heard these from Dave Ramsey):
Generally you get a little better rate on a 15-year loan than a 30-year loan, so equal rates at 15 and 30 years is (typically) a ...
- 1,727
43
votes
I gifted money to my girlfriend for a down payment on a house and we broke up. Am I entitled to my money back?
IANAL, of course, but:
It really depends on the jurisdiction. Since you did not mention the country, I will assume Slovakia. You can indeed require to return the gift, but basically the only option is ...
- 967
42
votes
Could the loan officer deny me even if I have the money as a first time home buyer?
My credentials: I used to work on mortgages, about 5 years ago. I wasn't a loan officer (the salesman) or mortgage processor (the grunt who does the real work), but I reviewed their work fairly ...
- 606
40
votes
Accepted
First time buyer- How to decide how much to put toward a deposit?
As much as you can reasonably afford
As long as you still have an emergency fund(which you noted you will have) then its always a good idea to put down as much as you can afford for the deposit.
...
- 651
37
votes
Does a larger down payment make an offer stronger?
There is some element of truth to what your realtor said.
The seller takes the house off the market after the offer is accepted but the contract is contingent upon, among other things, buyer ...
- 1,809
36
votes
How Does Home Sale Transaction Value Get into the Public Domain?
Property ownership in the U.S. (or at least the places I'm familiar with in the U.S.) are public record. That includes tax assessment information which, necessarily, includes the value of the property....
- 2,302
36
votes
Accepted
Preparing for a mortgage application in a year and a half
If it was me, I would work on getting the collections debts cleaned up before anything else. When you get your tax refund checks, call them and offer them between .50 and .75 on the dollar. Write ...
- 76.1k
35
votes
Is it smarter financially to buy a starter home or go for the long-term goal?
I highly suggest you read other posts that discuss the math of home buying. There's a lot of information and shared experiences of the total cost of ownership.
I'd recommend buying the smallest home ...
34
votes
Accepted
Dad gifting me a house for 2 years, how to deal with taxes?
I understand $14k/yr $5.4M max
This isn't the right way to say it. Your dad has a $5.4 million estate tax exclusion that can be used for gift tax. In addition to that (not instead or as part of), ...
- 21k
31
votes
Why are 30-year mortgages seen as unwise, if you can pay off the loan in a shorter period of time anyway?
I haven't heard 30-year mortgages called unwise. As @jared said, the shorter terms often will be cheaper if you are going to pay off within that term anyway, but the extra cost of the 30 may still be ...
- 43k
31
votes
Accepted
Should I wait for a recession to buy a home?
You don't know if/when prices will come down and if they do come down you don't know if they'll go back up or keep sliding.
Renting makes a lot of sense in some markets, like San Francisco, New York ...
- 69.1k
30
votes
Is it typical to start charging HOA fees before a community is fully built?
Yes, it is typical and usual to pay HOA fees after moving in because you will be part of the community and will be consuming services (trash pickup, for example) immediately. When the new phases are ...
- 24k
29
votes
How hard is it to sell a home which is currently mortgaged?
It's that 4th note which concerns me. It's the idea of committing to 30 years of debt.
You're grossly over-thinking a problem that got solved the day after mortgages were invented.
https://blogs....
- 50.6k
28
votes
Emotionally driven to buy a house. Does it make financial sense?
The common "rule of thumb" I have seen is that mortgage payments (including taxes and insurance) should not exceed more than 25-30% of your gross income. That is to leave room for income taxes, ...
- 131k
28
votes
Is it smarter financially to buy a starter home or go for the long-term goal?
Assuming that both homes will appreciate in value at the same rate, and the real inflation-adjusted appreciation is non-negative, you will almost surely save money by buying the more expensive home ...
- 2,316
25
votes
Cash in retirement accounts to buy a house?
Whatever you do, you need to be saving a lot more to have a good chance at retirement at a reasonable age. With a combined salary of $150,000, I'd recommend:
contributing the maximum allowed amount ...
- 3,131
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