133
votes
Accepted
Should I deplete my saving and buy a house with cash, or should I rent?
Because you don't have the jobs lined up, it makes more sense to rent for a few months for a couple of reasons:
A: You should never deplete your emergency fund of 3 to 6 months for non-emergencies
B:...
- 1,269
80
votes
Accepted
Why would the bidding on a foreclosed property start at the outstanding amount of the loan?
The bank only cares about getting paid the owed amount as quickly as possible. Anything more than that the bank has to give to the owners whose property they're auctioning.
Also, a house that could ...
- 2,316
76
votes
Accepted
Why would a home seller ask a buyer to offer LESS?
Something sketchy is definitely going on. Real Estate agents are obligated under the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics to take all written offers to the homeowners, regardless of how low ...
- 13.8k
75
votes
Case against home ownership? High income, no home, don't necessarily want one
The answer is really simple: if you don't want to own a house, don't buy one. (Especially if you're the sort of person who thinks 1800 sq ft (167 m²) is too much for one person.) Unless you have a ...
- 11.2k
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
61
votes
Buy home and leverage roommates, or split rent?
what I should think about.
How much cash can you put toward a down payment? Anything less that 20% will significantly raise your mortgage amount.
What if your roommates decide that they want to move ...
- 131k
57
votes
Owning house for 3 years. 15 or 30 year mortgage?
You said that you figured the interest you will have paid over the first 3 years will be the same with the 15- and the 30-year mortgages. That is not quite accurate.
Let's look at the numbers.
From ...
- 115k
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
42
votes
Why would a home seller ask a buyer to offer LESS?
Based on the question update, the seller intends to declare bankruptcy, and in order to do so they must have a certain minimum amount of debt based on their income and assets. They must be currently ...
- 47.2k
41
votes
Accepted
Can an unmarried couple buy a home together with only one person on the mortgage?
It is highly unlikely that this would be approved by a mortgage underwriter.
When the bank gives a loan with a security interest in a property (a lien), they are protected - if the borrower does ...
- 2,131
38
votes
Why would a rational buyer offer to buy with no conditions precedent?
It doesn't feel savvy to offer without Conditions Precedent like
Financing Condition, Subject to Appraisal Inspection, Legal Review,
Survey.
For the average buyer, those typical conditions are ...
- 136k
37
votes
Accepted
Do I care if the housing market has gone up or down, if I'm moving from one house to another?
There are often taxes (by whatever name) that scale with the property price. Agents’ fees are also often a percentage of the property price. These costs are usually a small but noticeable percentage ...
- 9,332
33
votes
Should I deplete my saving and buy a house with cash, or should I rent?
@Adam Klump gave the advice I would personally follow, but I want to give a third possibility.
I'm not from the US, but it seems to me that you don't have to buy the house outright in cash, you still ...
- 431
33
votes
How much income am I getting by renting my house?
Does it make sense for me to keep the house
Are you willing to be a landlord for $91 a month? What happens if your house goes unrented for 3 months? 6 months? How will you pay its mortgage?
In my ...
- 131k
33
votes
Accepted
Buy house now, refinance later
You should not buy a house that you cannot afford given your current financial condition.
Buying a house that you can't afford now hoping that interest rates will go down is a huge risk. If you can ...
- 131k
32
votes
Accepted
Buying a house with my new partner as Tenants in common. How do we work out what is fair for us both?
Other answers advise you to get legal advice, and I agree that doing so would be advisable.
In an ideal world, I presume you'd each like to contribute equally and own a 50% share of the house at all ...
- 494
31
votes
Buy home and leverage roommates, or split rent?
"...instead of all of us draining our money into a landlord..." Instead, you are suggesting that still everyone (except you) will drain their money into a landlord, just that now the landlord is you.
...
- 523
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
Case against home ownership? High income, no home, don't necessarily want one
Since your primary obsession seems to be "paying less taxes" as opposed to having more spendable income. You could do one of the following.
Earn less by working less/part_time.
Give to ...
- 875
28
votes
Accepted
How should I save for a down payment on a house while also maxing out my retirement savings? Is that not feasible at my income level?
You are saving 44.7% of your income for retirement and living like a miser as a result, so the question I propose is simply, "Why?" I must admit that the allure of financial security in ...
- 396
25
votes
Is it typical to start charging HOA fees before a community is fully built?
It is normal to be required to start paying the HOA fees even though the community isn't fully completed. As others have stated there are some things that start day one, and others that phase in over ...
- 136k
24
votes
Why would the bidding on a foreclosed property start at the outstanding amount of the loan?
As Patrick87 cogently points out (+1), anything more than the outstanding debt on the property being foreclosed on (plus various fees for filing the foreclosure paperwork etc) belongs to the original ...
- 31.6k
24
votes
Should I deplete my saving and buy a house with cash, or should I rent?
You are overlooking the real cost of automobiles
People have a strong tendency to wildly delude themselves about the true, total costs of automobiles. AAA tallies up the total, real ownership cost ...
23
votes
Was this a good deal on a mortgage?
That seems a very bad offer, it borders on fraud.
In the current US economy, you should be able to get between 3 and 4 % APR (and that number is what you should look at). That means that for $300,000 ...
- 37.6k
23
votes
Case against home ownership? High income, no home, don't necessarily want one
Home ownership doesn't necessarily improve your tax situation. Many homeowners no longer itemize deductions because of the increase to the standard deduction. You'd have to figure how close you are to ...
- 69.1k
22
votes
Boyfriend is coowner of a house with his sister, he wants to sell but she doesn't
He needs to go see a lawyer to find out what all his options are, and the consequences of any of them. Then he needs to get help extricating himself from this situation, in whatever fashion he chooses:...
- 486
21
votes
How should I save for a down payment on a house while also maxing out my retirement savings? Is that not feasible at my income level?
You can't do it all.
This is why I dislike "put everything in your 401k!" advice: it ignores the reality that there are things other than retirement which are worthwhile to spend money on .
- 50.6k
19
votes
Can an unmarried couple buy a home together with only one person on the mortgage?
I will expand on Bacon's comment.
When you are married, and you acquire any kind of property, you automatically get a legal agreement. In most states that property is owned jointly and while there ...
- 76.1k
19
votes
How much income am I getting by renting my house?
Is my calculation correct?
More or less. Your list of expenses is not complete and repair/maintenance expenses can vary wildly. You'll also depreciate the house (not the land), so with your current ...
- 69.1k
19
votes
Why would a seller require a cash offer on a property?
They want a cash offer because they don't want to wait for an appraisal for the lender. They also don't want to wait for the loan approval process.
It might be a red flag. Especially if you also skip ...
- 136k
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