Buying a House

[tgpo]

Howdy everyone, long time no see.

Thought y'all would like to know that Evonne and I am in the process of buying a house. All we have left to do is get the loan, and have the home inspected, and all that other junk.

[thecoalman]

Good Luck!

[yoda313]

Congrats

[ZAPPER]

Are you scared or excited?

Have you seen the movie Money Pit?

Congrats and good luck!

[makntraks]

Howdy everyone, long time no see.

Thought y'all would like to know that Evonne and I am in the process of buying a house. All we have left to do is get the loan, and have the home inspected, and all that other junk.

Good luck! The paperwork is most often the biggest headache you'll face... We already made our purchase (closed 10/31/05) and that is part of the reason why I've been out of the scene here....

makntraks

[Dv8ted2]

Good luck! The paperwork is most often the biggest headache you'll face...

makntraks

No joke....

It is about an hours worth of signing paperwork.

[Epicurus8a]

Good Luck! Home ownership is a joy and a curse at the same time. Just be absolutely sure you can afford it. (Remember, everyone who was forced to sell a house due to financial problems once qualified for a home loan.)

[gll99]

Good decision tgpo!

Buy as much house as you can afford even if it's a bit tight at first and think ahead to what (who) may not be in your plans yet

You're young so don't fret about possible loss. The debt is partly false because you would have to pay rent anyway. As long as you do your homework and check the age of the roof, furnace etc.. so there are no immediate surprises, the only possible real loss would occur if you had to sell quickly for a loss due to some emergency. Your house will appreciate and probably be your main financial asset for a long time. A fixed asset like this will also provide you with access to much lower interest personal loans, lines of credit and credit cards when needed.

Good luck!

[Bodyslide]

Congrats on your new 30 year purchase. Hope all goes well. Glad to see your back for a spell. Are you still in South Carolina?

[Faustus]

Yeah congrats. This can be a stressful process, you have been warned.

[Guest]

Make sure a financial advisor determines how much you can afford,not the realtor or mortage person.They will tell you you can afford more than you actually can.

[Doramius]

Ah, the migration to home ownership. What a joy to behold.........

<COUGH> That's some f**ked up s**t. I'm a home owner and my mortgage payment doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. I find I have more stuff to repair and less time to do it in. Taxes are a killer up the wazoo. I don't know if I'll ever get the place paid off, even though I've never pulled anything out on the equity. I'd like to sell my home and get cash for the equity, but I'd have to leave state. I could barely afford the house I'm in right now due to the rise in house values. I was transferred out to this s**thole in the first place because of work, and finding a job back east isn't going to be as easy as it was before. Every home in the southwest here has g*d f**king tile on them and they crack and shift over time, and they are B**ch to repair, especially when they are the ones on the underside. G*d forbid trying to hold on to anything when those things start sliding under your feet. You gotta replace the whole f**king section. damn tile isn't that cheap anyway. I'd rather use cheap shingles if the 100 CELSIUS weather out here didn't curl the little pieces of s**t. And painting in the desert is a b**ch of a time. friggin sand and dirt getting all over your fresh paint and screwing up the look. No wonder everyone's got the a** boring stucco look. It hides the fact that sand sticks to EVERYTHING and it doesn't wash off or paint over easily. <AH-HEMM!!>[straightens collar]


Anyway, it's great getting your first home. We got about 1600 sq feet and it's now worth about $350k where we bought it for $250k. Not a bad investment and good luck with your new home. Lot a good memories.

[tgpo]

We went today to fill out the loan papers. We should be hearing back soon about everything. I'm excited about that.

[Doramius]

Good Luck on that. PM me off board if you need any help or have any questions on it. Remember, my profession is a Mortgage Officer. I know the quirks and special things most people don't tell you or know about.

[Hardcoreruss]

Howdy everyone, long time no see.

Thought y'all would like to know that Evonne and I am in the process of buying a house. All we have left to do is get the loan, and have the home inspected, and all that other junk.

Whats the inspection all about?

[canadateck]

I guess it's good to have the house inspected before you buy it, although some mortgage companies require you to have a home inspection.

[tgpo]

The inspection is when an indepentent person goes through the house and notes everything that SHOULD be fixed. You can then use that info as leverage on the price or tell the seller they must fix those things before you buy.

[Doramius]

Home inspections are pretty standard, but how thourough they are depends on the buyer. The basic and required inspection may not do a detailed mold test, check attic space, check wires, check pipes and other home improvements that may have been done by the previous homeowner.

[smearbrick1]

Home inspections are pretty standard, but how thourough they are depends on the buyer. The basic and required inspection may not do a detailed mold test, check attic space, check wires, check pipes and other home improvements that may have been done by the previous homeowner.

Correct. Independant home inspection agencies are usually much better than those who are sent out by the mortgage company. My inspection was very quick and not very detailed. FHA required an inspection and they got one. The only thing that was noted was peeling paint on the garage windows and doors. I don't think they even looked at the attic. In fact, I know they didn't look in the attic because the wiring is not all run through the ceiling joists but just laying across the top of them. This is not up to code.

The biggest pain in the ass when buying my house was the mortgage company's underwriters. Everyday (I'm not joking) one of the underwriters would call and say "we checked your savings and checking accounts and see that you have not yet deposited the money required for closing. Are you going to do this? Do you have the money?" PAIN IN THE ASS! Why is it such a huge deal that you have your closing money in plain view? What if I stuff my mattress with cash because I don't trust banks? Between that and the hour worth of paperwork at the end... sucks... Not to mention the little things you find wrong with your house once you move in.

I had to replace almost every receptacle in the house because the guy who lived there before me (I swear) never washed his hands. There was all kinds of crud all over the receptacles and wall switches. Not to mention the built in microwave. Instead of spending a ridiculous amount of time cleaning it... I took it out and installed a new one. Problem solved.

Enjoy!

[Doramius]

You might want to put those wires to code for personal safety & security. I's no hard to do yourself, but it takes time. You just need to get junction boxes for splicing and reconnecting after feeding through the joists. might want to get some extra cable too. Some people go the extra mile and get conduit. Unless you're living in and area where you get extreme temperature changes (IE: areas that have both cold & hot seasons), it's not a major requirement. Nice thing about conduit is you do not have to run it through joists and it's not that hard to feed the cable through. but the conduit needs to be secured to the joists properly. Cable can come from a junction box down a wall spacing to an outlet/switch without conduit, but not preferred if you plan running nails through the wall. Professionals "usually" put a metal plate where pipe & wires are to prevent accidental shock. I took out a wall and found that hadn't been done. For that wall, I just placed the metal plate on the spacers where the cable was fed through and fastened the cable. That's 1 wall out of many others.


That's a common problem found all over Las Vegas because of cheap a** construction companies and contractors. A lot of them try to cut corners and costs. I had to redo a lot of my wiring in my new place. I also changed all of the switches & outlets too. The outlets weren't dirty or bad, I just decided to upgrade them to something more asthetically pleasing. Below are pictures of what I switched to. I also had to rewire the GFI for 2 bathrooms. I blew the fault in the Master bath and couldn't find where the heck the damn GFI outlet was. It wasn't until I noticed the other bathrooms power was out and reset the GFI that both came on. So I separated the 2 rooms and set the master bath independently. That's what prompted me to make sure the rest of the rooms in the place were setup independently. $570 later, it's all setup the way it is supposed to be and to code.


I also did the phone, LAN, and cable outlets like this too because there's a modular style outlet that matches the wallplates. If a wallplate cracks for whatever reason, they are easily replaced by the exact same one.[/img]

[Craig Tucker]

Good luck TGPO, moving house is the biggest pain in the ass ever. I have done it 3 times and hope to never have to do it again.