We decided to buy a house

[Kimbear 53]

http://www.visajourn...super-fun-time/

There's a lot of good information in that thread. I don't wanna repeat myself, so I'd say that thread is a great place for info.

Congrats!

awsome info in there..some a bit confusing but great none the less..i think i'm gonna stay away from short sales lol. although forclosures kinda scare me too.

[silvana.toma 15]

WE were told by our current realtors that closing should be around 3% of the total cost of the house...it could be a little more , a little less but for us to have an ideea what to expect.

You probably know this but you can ask the seller to pay all or at least half of the closing, as this is a buyers market ..so we should take some advantage, right? It can save you some money, and worst case scenario you will have to pay, but at least you tried!

We are trying the agricultural loan VHDA, this loan will give us 102%(with fixed rate for 30 years just like FHA) that should also pay for closing, in case we have to.

Good luck in finding your dream home!

With all the head ache and bad luck we had finding a home, we still had an amazing time, so i have no doubt you will have a blast!

[Flames9_RN 358]

HOA would come in handy to prevent this lol: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366978/A-real-Toy-Story-The-house-childhood-dreams-nightmares-of.html

[Udella&Wiz 325]

awsome info in there..some a bit confusing but great none the less..i think i'm gonna stay away from short sales lol. although forclosures kinda scare me too.

Depends what your level of comfort is and wether you have a little extra time - our townhouse was a short sale - it had been empty for about a year but was in good shape. 'As is' can mean many things. All our appliances were intact, relatively new and the house itself was clean and tidy. The bank was motivated to get rid of it as they aren't in the business of owning properties so. Worked out well for us although the selling agent (for the bank) was an absolute pr*ck....he wasn;t going to get much commision out of it so our agent did a lot of the leg work. We didn;t close on our first agreed upon date because he could get his a$$ in gear. We closed a wek later which didn't matter to us...

I'm currently eye-ing a house down the road from us - it's been empty for a while and it's another short sale....it screams 'love me' every time I walk by

[Krikit 1,164]

Anyone have any recent home buying experience? I already know poor Krikits horror stories and i hope we don't have anything similar..no offence Krikit!

You know.... it didn't end there. Two or three weeks ago I heard a noise outside. I looked in the driveway and there was a Sheriff's Office vehicle. I went to the front door and there was no one there. I opened it and saw a bag hanging on the door handle. Inside was an eviction letter and a notice to appear in court. It was addressed to the former owners and/or current occupants. *sigh* I walked to the driveway to tell the officer that they didn't live here anymore but he/she was gone. I contacted our realtor who said he'd take care of it. My husband came home, picked up the documents, and took them over. Our realtor called the lawyer representing the bank. The same bank we had purchased the property from. He then followed up that conversation with an email. Days went by and we still hadn't heard back from the law firm. I sent a document to them with a copy of our deed showing we were the new, legal, owners. We just heard back from our realtor yesterday saying they had withdrawn the eviction and we should receive confirmation in the mail. It all boils down to the asset department not informing the legal department of the sale. Whatever. I just didn't want to come home to my belongings out on the curb and/or my house sealed against entry one day. And the fact that I wasn't getting a response from the law office was making me uneasy.

I am so excited as I have never owned a new home before in my life, have always lived in pre owned and older homes so this is beautiful. Will post a pic on my profile if you wish to look , so I am starting to pack up and gosh my husband has some stuff lol

Your house is beautiful, Barbara. Congratulations!

- Home Warranty. Our house came with one, but anyone we've talked to say if you have appliances (furnace, etc) older than 10 years, pay the $150-$300/year for the warranty! Our water heater actually started leaking, we called the warranty company, paid our $100 deductible and got a brand new one (it wasn't fixable). That would have been a $3,000 job. We will renew the warranty in a heartbeat since we have older appliances.

We asked the bank to purchase our home warranty and it really came in handy. I waited until I had accumulated a number of issues and then gave them a call. Paid the $75 deductible and everything was fixed in a timely manner and by a real sweetheart. We'll renew it when it comes due.

GO to the inspection!!! I wish we had gone to it, we really should have. We are finding some things with our house that should of been asked about at the inspection but neither of us had time to go. Thankfully they are not really bad issues just minor age issues with some things

I found it really informative to follow the home inspector around and ask questions.

Like the others say, Kimbear, keep looking until you find the home for you rather than feeling pressured to get something because your lease will be up. You can talk to your current property manager about the options available to you. You may be able to go month to month or pay a little bit more for a shorter term.

I'm currently eye-ing a house down the road from us - it's been empty for a while and it's another short sale....it screams 'love me' every time I walk by

Go for it, Udella!!

Edited March 19, 2011 by Krikit

[^_^ 5,021]

yes, hoa's can be awesome if management is responsible and the scope of duties does not get whittled down as time goes by. what happened in our neighborhood is they started off doing a lot - and then mismanaged things so bad that there were service cuts every year with accompanying cost hikes.

i used to pay 125 a month back in 2003. today it is up to 210 and they do less than they used to. the playground for kids is gone (its a muddy pit now). they are no longer patching potholes in a timely manner. they no longer clean snow unless its 6 inches or more over a 24 hour period. and a few other things.

[Krikit 1,164]

Oh. One thing to keep in mind about your realtor, Kimbear. They are a valuable resource. Even with regard to jobs and networking. Whenever I am stumped about anything I call them and they are right on it. Our realtor is a real sweetheart. One time an emergency came up and he took care of all the details for me because I was at a complete loss as to what to do. Even to the point of calling a taxi to come and pick me up, as well as calling the gatehouse to let the taxi in. He was a real Godsend.

[Krikit 1,164]

yes, hoa's can be awesome if management is responsible and the scope of duties does not get whittled down as time goes by. what happened in our neighborhood is they started off doing a lot - and then mismanaged things so bad that there were service cuts every year with accompanying cost hikes.

i used to pay 125 a month back in 2003. today it is up to 210 and they do less than they used to. the playground for kids is gone (its a muddy pit now). they are no longer patching potholes in a timely manner. they no longer clean snow unless its 6 inches or more over a 24 hour period. and a few other things.

Ugh. Yes, I've heard of some real horror stories when I was researching them. I've also heard where they go way overboard too. Our HOA management office staff are awesome. Because we were in a short sale then foreclosure situation, we had some really unique issues. Instead of dealing with the companies directly, we mentioned it to them. They were right on it and took care of it immediately.

[Moosker 7]

Ohhh home warranty..Davids father just told us about that..i thought it was on new built homes only. turns out his sump pump blew when they had a flood and he just paid the deductable and got it replaced..

Ya when it comes to barganing i dont know how much to say lol. i mean i can look at the values of other houses in area, etc..but alot of the numbers i see are based on 2 years ago..i'm not sure how to work that stuff. worse case i offer too low and we go back and forth and find a happy medium price?

That tax tidbit is awesome..so i should not be too afraid when i see the price of taxes !

i have been using Realtor.com, redfin.com and trulia.com so far. and then taking addresses and copy past into goodle to see maps google earth views etc too. i dont remember having to sign up for a million sites up in canada ..course it was like 2003 when i bought my house and we just used mls.com lol.

Home warranty can be for ANY house! The sellers we bought our house from just wanted to "beef up" their house on the market, and paid for the warranty. In a heartbeat we'll renew it. So worth it. We have a $100 deductible, but if you think about it, repairs can be hundreds of dollars, so for only $100 you get it fixed (or replaced in our case).

Get a good real estate agent. Ours has been selling houses probably before we were born , so she knew exactly how to play hard ball. We bought a house that was originally $60,000 more when they first put it on the market than what we bought it for! It's competitive, and I would say the ball is in your court for sure. If you low ball them and they say no, it's worth going and trying again. If the house has been on the market for awhile, you have the upper hand. Don't be offensive, but think about the scenario. Your real estate agent should pull the local comps and tell you what is an average price for the area.

Drive by the houses you think you like! We saw a ton of cute houses online and I'd write them all down. Then we'd drive by and give each other looks like - NO WAY!!! They were awful neighborhoods. Because we did that, we didn't wear out our real estate agent.

We did FHA, and lock into that rate! We went through a mortgage company, and then they "sell" your mortgage to a big company. Works out fine because the smaller mortgage companies have a chance to work with numbers a bit more and are a lot more involved. With closing costs, I'm not sure. We had X amount as a down payment and they just worked that into all the numbers. Our sellers paid half of the closing costs. They also had massive real estate fees where we had barely any (more to sell a house than to buy a house with real estate fees). Ask lots of questions! They are there to help you!

YES - go to the inspection!!! We learned a TON for example, some of the "electrical" issues we were told about weren't as scary as they were made out to be on paper. Be at everything you can and be very involved.

Also, foreclosures could be normal people like you and me who just didn't pay and lost their house. They're not always disgusting or falling apart, they could look a regular home. Don't rule them out!

HOA's are hit and miss, all depends on the person. They're great if you have a neighbor that may keep 10 junky cars on his lot and you can complain, because there's a "protocol" typically when you live in one. Sometimes the have nice entrances and do events. It all depends. I was told, if you live in one, get involved! Sit in on the HOA "board".

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I was hesiant about HOA communities, but I agree that it can help set the tone for how everything looks and sometimes that's nice. I don't want to live in a community where my nextdoor neighbour paints his house red and purple and has 5 dead cars in the driveway along with a couch. That takes away from the value of my property.

Now the HOA can be a pain - we wanted to change our outdoor fixtures from all brass to brushed nickle and we had to submit foran approval, but the process was quick and we got our approval in about 2-3 weeks. SOmetimes I've noticed that ours hasn;t done very many inspections lately - we're personally all gung ho on cleaning up our front yard and keeping things tidy, but some of our neighbours could use a little nudge.

[Flames9_RN 358]

All HOA's are different. One we had looked at, you were still responsible for your yard and maintenance of it----they were their just to ensure people kept everything up, were not parkign their card on the lawn etc!! But were moving out of the USA, so not a worry for us,lol Will be truly living in a gated community with Armed guards,lol

[Krikit 1,164]

Will be truly living in a gated community with Armed guards,lol

That should be "exciting". Make sure you check in every once in a while to share your stories!

[Flames9_RN 358]

That should be "exciting". Make sure you check in every once in a while to share your stories!

Yep, if I'm still alive. Good luck on the house Journey. Just do your research. Keep your realtor on track--its your $$$$$$ A great Realtor makes the world of difference. We enjoy our condo, but were not exactly thrilled with the realtor and if he had not liked the condo so much, we would have fired them! Oh well. If it gets too stressful, take a step back. I believe it is sort of like finding a pet----you don't find the pet--the perfect pet finds you. Good luck

[joe_robin66 6]

hehe ya i have a thread in the "moving here ..." forum about my issues with the neighbours and management. Not to mention i've had the extirminator here multiple times since january to get rid of ants etc to no avail. figured its time to move and get our own place since houses are hella cheaper then paying rent here in Chicago. its just the damn county taxes which bloody suck the life out of ya almost..

i'm amazed at how a house can be so darn cheap but have 3-4k taxes..apparently the land here is what its all about. And i dont want the hubby to have a super long drive to work especially with the price of gas being 4$ now..UGH lol.

Good luck on your house hunting! The hubby and I are hoping to buy something next year, I know they say this is the year to do it, but its just not in the cards for us now

We still look around though and keep an eye out for what we really want. I dream about granite counter tops, a big kitchen, and no wall sharing!!! The taxes in cook county and kane county aren't as bad as you think, du page is actually the worst of the three. Not sure exactly where cook is now, but kane is at 2.5%. And I believe lake co is even worse, not totally sure on that one though.

Good luck!

Robin

[Kimbear 53]

HOA would come in handy to prevent this lol: http://www.dailymail...htmares-of.html

oh god that would give me nightmares!!!