The search for a house begins again...

Also think of the future if you and Kyra plan on kids. Would you rather them go to a Schenectady school or Colonie?

This. School districts play an epic part in resale value. Does this plan to be your starter house, or “the house”.

Just food for thought bro.

I agree with all of you… lol. And i’ve brought up those points to the wifey. But she is still torn because she doesn’t seem to look into the future on what the house will look like when its refinished. So all she is seeing is a very nice house vs. a partial shit-hole. lol

That is very common :thumbup

unless you or your wife got a raise… your budget isnt new.

VERY common trick banks pull, well used to way more befor and now they are paying for it with too many foreclosures and repositions.

I know you are not a dumb dude so this might not necessarily be news to you. Banks love to pre-approved people for way more than they can COMFORTABLY afford to pay. They look at credit, income and outstanding debt. dont care if you like to enjoy a dinner on the town once a week with the wife, dont care if you like to buy parts for your cars, like to ride motorcycles, etc. Many actually assume that you will only pay bills, and therfor think “yeah with this guys income and it seems like he pays his bills on time, sure lets give him a $250K mortgage” all the while they are strapped to make payments each month. This is what effectively KILLED the housing market in the last few years. When I was 23, and my gf was 21, combined income was less than 2/3’s what we have now and were approved for a $280K loan! retarded. young adults looking for a house and the casted out the lure and could have reeled us in. 3 years later we did it again making more money and having better credit, and the approval was $250K. And its been cut back more now. WAY too much credit was loaned out because the banks knew they high monthly payments would be quick money, and the realtor were trying to inflate housing values. MANY realtors worked with banks to preapprove people for houses they couldnt actually afford just to sell the house. And you can see how well that worked out for the economy in the long run.

Your budget shouldn’t have changed at all. Look at your NEEDS and WANTS hard. Put it all on paper all your spending’s, and leave room for unforeseen expenses that could flip your life upside down, god forbid, if something were to happen. Make sure you can make the payments and be happy, not stressed out 12 times a year making a $1500+ payment.

My mother was a realtor for 15years and got out when it started getting too political. Banks were pulling strings and she was being forced by her company to do things she shouldnt, so she bailed. The lady we got our loan through has been in it for ever, and worked with my mother alot. she actually invited us to her office off hours and sat down and helped steff and I balance out budget and made sure we didnt over spend. even though we were approved for 250K, it literally left us with something like $300 a month to save. We settled on a good price point and stuck to it. We also remodeled our entire house with a reconstruction loan included into the mortgage, so we stole the house (total dump from the get go) and put some serious work and money into it. Extremely happy with it now.

In the last 2 or so years owning it, I can tell you I am very glad I didnt over spend. When I went down on the street bike and was out of work for a while it hit us hard that month, and almost a year later dealing with hidden medical bills as they popped up and I fought with insurance. Steff recently shattered her arm and got plates and pins, and has been out of work for 4 weeks now too. Again, its tough. We luckily gave ourselves a decent amount of wiggle room each month which really helps alot.

^Banks are not just handing out loans anymore. Much different structure than two years ago.

yeah that’s my point. a lot has changed, so I am sure they are a lot stingy-er with their money now. Also wasn’t a law passed too making it illegal for banks to preapproved for more than the assessed value of the home or something? I remember my mother telling me something like that a while ago…but I dont know the fact behind it.

but none the less, they will pre-approve you for usually much more than you can comfortably afford… still need to be careful.

House has to “appraise” for what you need to borrow.

Yeah thats what it was. I just got mine appraised and thats when it came up.

Something about banks cant appraise it themselves, you have to pick an appraiser and send them out to do it. To try to keep the banks from “asking” them to appraise it for more than it should be to sell a loan/mortgage on something worthless than its principal balance.

No, I wasn’t talking about the new approved budget… I’m talking about our new monthly budget. We both paid off loans (well her last payment is next month) which is freeing up a lot of money. We are budgeting to stay within the same output as we have been for the last 4 years. That way we know we are comfortable where we have been and it will not change.

It looks like I talked her into it so we are going to take a second look at possibly throw an offer out there. We are trying to possibly see if the seller would be willing to finance the materials to get the house in move-in condition (paint, carpet, etc) and then we will do the work prior to closing that way it will be done and we will be able to move-in after the closing, but also it works to our advantage b/c we don’t have to worry about coming up with the finances for the repairs and the seller makes out b/c even if something falls through, he at least got labor for free. And the labor isn’t difficult so its something I’m willing to take a risk on.

Ohh because the way it was worded it looked like the new “budget” = new pre-approval amount. I figured you were on the right track. and I just spewed that info out there for some ideas thats all. your on the right track bro. :thumbup

Look into a construction type loan. i forgot the exact name of the loan type we got. It was like this. We found a house and location that was perfect, but the house was 1940 original inside and a complete dump. They we ended up getting it for 80K, then my father drew up a materials list for the cost of the improvements to COMPLETELY remodel it. (gut to bare studs, reframe, all new wire, all new plumbing, insulation, rock, kitchen, bath… EVERYTHING.) The loan total was cost of house and money to remodel it, one lump sum simple and done. The project was carried out in 6 phases. Each phase had each level of work completed, and values associated to it (deducting from the dollar amount given on top of the sale price of the house) Once the phase was completed the bank dude came looked at it and verified that the work was completed for the phase, check was paid to us that week. Everything down to dumpster cost and removal was taken into consideration. Project had to be completed in 6 months time. Yeah we busted our balls to do this work.

so, you have to foot the bill in the beginning of each phase. Homedepot credit car was gold. 0% for 6 months. charged the supplies, did the work and a month later got reimbursed after the inspection from the bank. paid the bill. no interest, no out of pocket and got kick ass credit rating increase. Also my fathers company credit for other places like Capital District Supply and Solid Surface… we used to keep the out of pocket to a min until reimbursement. Also if your smart, to can find someone to get things at cost and show a cash payment invoice to the inspector, and get a head of the phases. IE, bank says they will reimburse you for $2500 in sheet rock. I got it for 1500 at cost. I am reimbursed 2500, and now I am +1000$ “in pocket” for the next phase.

Stay on top of the project, keep it planed out accordingly and stay on the books end of it and you will make out great. little to no cash out of pocket to make it happen. Also I think Capital District Supply will give you a line of credit too, and other supply companies. so look around. :thumbup

If you want to take a night and swing by my house, take a look at what we did (we took MANY pics along the way) I will gladly talk the process and what we learned along the way with you and your wife over a beer or wine. :thumbup PM me or give me a call.

We thought about that before however with the FHA loan we are getting, its only a 3.5% down payment which is great b/c we don’t have a lot saved up. With any type of construction loan (FHA plan b or w/e, etc) its at least 10% down… which we def. do not have. There really isn’t that much to be done over-all and the recent comp sales in the area are 210k-250k so the equity is there and when it comes time to sell, we will have NO problem making back anything we put into it… plus some.

Dude I just looked at the one in Colonie online. Place looks awesome man, thats definitely a nice amount of land. Trust me you are going to want at least 2 acres with your hobbies, fucking neighbors can eat a dick. Place looks really nice from the outside bro, buy it.

Send me interior pics if you can. I’d love to see what its like inside.

We are taking a second look today and most likely putting the offer in. I’ll get some pics while I’m there. The interior needs work but its really not that bad. And with the power lines on the one side, and wet-lands just past the back edge of the property, the only neighbor will be the house on the one side which is awesome. And you can’t really tell from the online pics, but the garage is not only 2 wide, but is also pretty close to 2 deep… so basically its a 4 car garage (2x2). Hopefully everything with the offer will go through, then Jammer’s inspection won’t show any major issues, then it gets approved for FHA and appraised, and we actually close on this one… lol. Still a long way to go.

PM me the address? Kind of curious to see the place.

No neighbors is a fantastic thing IMO.

:thumbup :thumbup good choice kid. If the wife argues with you, punch her in the mouth. Garage > *

good luck kenny, hope ya get it

http://realtyusa.com/Property/Property.asp?PRM_MlsNumber=201033816&PRM_MlsName=AlbanyNY&VAR_AgentCode=rusa605&VAR_OfficeCode=3

And if any of you f’ers take it out from under me, I will “hypothetically” hunt you down (won’t be hard since I know where you will live), hang you by your nostrils and beat your testicles with a baseball bat til they pop out your eye sockets… just sayin’. lol

house like this should be a no brainer!

Good luck!

looks like overall and your right that garage would be awesome.