Thanks so much for the words of wisdom guys! Truly appreciate it. We have been reading up on things but it’s always nice to hear personal experiences from those that have already gone through it.
On that note… KEEP EM COMIN! 
Yuck! Sorry to hear all that man haha. I was upset that it took my house a week longer to close then it should have haha.
I didn’t realize that. I wonder if you can take out a small personal loan and use the personal loan money for your actual expenses and use your banked money for the down payment. I guess I’m lucky I got my house before all the shit went down. I have $5K-$20K deposits and withdraws from my account monthly for stupid car shit lol.
love this story.
Closing dates are a joke. Get a good lawyer!
Considering I had early occupancy for my goods, but not myself, EVERYTHING was already moved. The week after that south buffalo/west seneca storm is when I moved. So when closing fell through, all we had was the mattress, a box of cereal and a gallon of milk in the snow. No fridge, no stove, no microwave, no furniture… We had to go buy towels, shower curtain for the week we were stuck. They tried to shut off my utilities b/c I had a transfer of service to the new place, had to open new utility accounts for a week to keep the pipes from freezing as well as for ourselves b/c the buyer didn’t have utilities opened in his name. I drove around for a week with my wife’s dresser in the back of my Honda Element.
Spam16v - ouch, sounds like a hell of a closing.
The closing when I just sold my house was almost 2 months late… All on the buyer delaying crap with financing, and such. We were supposed to close the Friday before Labor Day, they didn’t close until the 3rd week of October, and that was only after we filed a 10 notice to close or face breech of contract.
That the real estate market was going to crash in 2008
I thought a house was my next move. I began the search for a house and started doing a lot of research. Some of the reasons have been covered already in this thread but here they are.
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Have money saved up. Too many people I know of go into a house with barley any saved, put as little down as they can, and pay for the closing costs with what is left in their account leaving them broke with no money left to even the simple things like paint to change things, let alone the random things that break or need fixing right away.
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Put down 20%. The time it will take for you to pay up to 20% and float the mortgage insurance, it will add up to a lot of money over the time. Depending on your income, you can take advantage of certain bank programs that will give you things like $4 for every $1 you save up for a house up to like $7,500 for your closing costs and down payment which is huge savings. Some people mentioned a second loan if you have collateral to get a good rate and can pay it off quick but I never looked into that aspect of it.
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Don’t fall in love with a pretty house. I was convinced I wanted a move in ready house and when I was looking, only looked at ones that were the color, interior and room layout that I liked. That stuff can be changed. Get something with a solid roof and appliances and save yourself the huge replacement costs in a few years.
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Look at your life plans. If you are looking at something for 10+ years or you are looking for 2-5 years. If you buy a house, and sell it within 3 years, you better hope you can get an additional few thousand for everything you paid to buy it or you will lose money.
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Take your time. Don’t come to the end of a lease and suddenly thing you want to buy a house. Find something you want to be in, do research on the area, and make sure it it something you can hold on to. Buy a house because you are ready for one.
QFT.
I had to close twice. I was told that I was not getting closing cost assistance at one point during my months of back and forth with the underwriter.
No news is BAD NEWS when they are involved. I also bought a house too soon after my wedding. It cleaned out all my accounts, then after the wedding I made large deposits.
That money was not “mine” as far as the bank was concerned.
Fast forward to the 1st closing, I had closing cost assistance. The lawyers and bank said there was no way they could take it away. soo…
we bought a bunch of stuff to fix the place. a few days later I had a call that the sellers lawyer screwed up and I had to come up with ~3K cash in less than 24hrs. or I would not be able to
buy the house. It was after the threat of legal action that I even got a closing date. HSBC totally screwed my SONYMA loan process. I’m pretty sure it took nearly 3 months.
Trust no one, and document everything. Make sure your money has been in the bank long enough to actually be “your” money.
Yeah, I love that. You just deposited it, it’s not yours. Uhm… why not? We don’t know where it came from… my mattress, an IRA, a CD, wtf does it matter? We need documentation, 3 affidavits, and a blood test to verify. Do you have pictures of the money in question?
My closing was a breeze, just over 6 weeks. Closing cost was like 1400 lower than my good faith. I thought it was going to be a nightmare since it was an estate sale with 3 siblings fighting over the money. My Realtor was a yes man, if I like the house she liked the house, if I changed my mind she changed her mind. I used my own lawyer and had everything in order with money, credit, and pre-approval. Only had to submit info when I applied for mortgage, never asked for anything after that. I was lucky it went so smooth.
Any money gifted to you the gifter has to provide bank statements unless the money is seasoned in your account. I had to provide 2 months of bank statements, resent pay stub and w-2 from the year before.
Edit: get ready to sign, sign, sign. At my closing the bank had the house zip code wrong, I had to initial every place the zip code was listed as she changed it.
Lucky bastard. Second estate here… LOVE the siblings trying to make a million dollars off a dead relative, I know all too well. I used my VA Home loan credit the second time to save mortgage ins, the interest rate was lower and cheaper WITH mortage ins. going FHA the first time, vs. VA, 2nd time it wasn’t. I had relatives showing up trying to steal shit out of the garage, changed locks that day, and had people trying to get in. GTFO my lawn.
I was lucky, I can only hope my next house will be as easy.
Mine was an estate sale as well.
I put my offer in before the realestate agent could get any money:)
They accepted, then listed the house anyway. The part of my offer than got me the deal was “as is”
The sellers had a bunch of other offers with you fix’em clauses…
lol. Like I would ever trust someone to fix something the right way, just so they can sell it faster.
I’m big on no neighbors in the back.
Patience
Also on the shopping aspect it is important to be realistic yet picky. A house is a major investment and you should be somewhat picky.
Being realistic about how long you will stay there is important. Im no advocate for renting but buying a home you ill outgrow in 2-3 years does not often yield great returns.
+1,000,000 Love looking out over my backyard onto a big pond. I’m spoiled, but I think my next house will need atleast woodlands or something else other than another house.
I’m big on that too, but I’m always skeptical. I’ve seen it over and over in Hamburg- a neighborhood backed by beautiful woods and fields, only to be sold and cleared by a developer. They even illegally sold designated parkland. You end up with a sea of monster houses behind you and no trees to separate it. They level everything and squeeze as many houses and possible and don’t give a shit about anyone. My old boss bought a house and business, and the previous owners had sold the rear acreage to a developer. They screwed up and sold 1/3 of the small pond they had out back. They had us drain the whole thing so they could fill in 1/3 of it. It was a tiny pond. We tried to save all the fish to put back in, but they all died. Not can you lose your awesome backyard view, but you’re also possibly losing a huge selling point. I always consider this when I look at a house, things like who owns the land, would I own enough to keep a good buffer zone, and if it would be prime land to develop or not. “Not” is what I’m looking for.
I shoulda saved more rented another couple years and bought bigger/nicer/updated.
If you are looking, and plan on putting kids in public schools… Start looking into what the school districts are doing this year.
Ken-Ton was 12 Million short and will raise taxes while cutting services and staff to “fix” it. (~75 people)
But they saved the full day kindergarten instruction for another year.
Stay away from schools in low rent areas. It’s better to live in the worst house on a good street, than the best house on a poor one.
A lot of people do not give a damn about the education of their children so long as they are out of the house most of the day.
Even if you are looking at private schools you have to consider where you are moving. We are looking to move to Hamburg but want to send our daughter to Nardin… That is quite the drive on a daily basis. Also if you are looking in the city and can handle being a landlord, a double is a great investment as the percentage of renters is greater than the percentage of owners.