Buying A House: C or D?

leaded glass windows are common too, even in shitty remodels most people keep those

yeah, my house has built-in shelves and some nice details
pretty common for the style: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Craftsman

mh you have a craftsman home? sweet

yeah, cleve and shaker hts have some really nice homes for cheap. shaker taxes though are so outrageous though.

cleveland heights has some amazing deals

yeah, it's funny how widespread the style is. some friends in Regina, Saskatchewan posted pictures of their house from the same era and their living room is like mine from a different angle

if you can work around some of the limitations in the floor plans to make things more practical for modern life, you end up with a beautiful house that's built like a tank

this condo is 39K! but the HOA fee is 2k a month :(

it's been my goal to somehow squat in these condos

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/13805-Shaker-Blvd-Apt-3A_Cleveland_OH_44120_M36250-18982#photo0

holy shit at that fee

yeah, they had to put a new a roof on a historically significant building $$$

whoa

east side market seems more manageable for a buyer right now, way more options and things stick around longer

yep

Generally speaking, I would say that if you're going to spend $275K in Lakewood you need to be closer to the lake that those houses on Grace, but HOLY COW that's incredible woodwork at 1422 Grace. I support capital punishment for those who paint over woodwork in homes of that age. We've had to replace a good deal of painted-over wood, both window trim and baseboards, at our house. Luckily we know a good carpenter.

1485 Marlowe -- my friend lives just south of Detroit on Lincoln (one block over from Marlowe) and likes the neighborhood -- walkable to most everything on Detroit.

The other thing I forgot to mention which may be affecting the prop taxes in Lakewood now is the massive renovation/addition to Lakewood HS.

I don't get this, when a house is listed for sale but there's no open house listed, how are you supposed to look at it?

An agent will take you there for a walkthrough.

I should specify...your own buyer's agent. Never deal with the selling agent.

But I don't have an agent!

nor do I really understand how to obtain one

I didn't really have anyone around here to ask because all my friends are renters, so—and this is most assuredly not the ideal method—I just picked a couple at random, called them up, told them what I was looking for and the parts of the city I was looking in and the timeframe in which I was looking to buy. One of them didn't work out at all (didn't specialize in this part of the city) and the other one worked out great (knew this part of the city really well). If they're slow to return your call or email, move on. If they're not eager up front, they probably wouldn't be later on either.

Most of the real estate sites (Zillow, Trulia, etc) have agent directories in addition to property listings. Line up agents near where you're looking and email or call them.

sometimes you can just walk into an office and say "hello I need a real estate agent"

yeah I've picked my agents based usually on nothing more than a colleague's saying "um I think maybe I know someone who used so and so" and it's worked fine.

our agent says there are two people "moving in the direction of making an offer" which I guess is good news but we already had an offer go wrong this cycle.

having owned two houses now I will say that renting is so much easier

Another thing I'd suggest is checking around your city to see if any local orgs (or even the city itself) offers homebuyer crash courses. The one I went to was incredibly helpful. They brought in a mortgage broker, a realtor, a home inspector and an insurance agent and walked us through every step of the buying process, plus we got to ask all the stupid questions we wanted to. Sure, I spent five hours on a Saturday morning doing something besides sleeping in, but I also ended up going with the mortgage broker who spoke to our "class" and that turned out wonderfully.

we found our agent based on a referral from someone my sister has worked with. we also went with her b/c she works for one of the larger real estate agencies in the area. the agency has the market share in the town where we're looking.

she's working out fine so far, but one thing i wish we did was interview a few different agents just to get a feel for different personalities, communication styles, etc. once you choose someone, they become your dedicated buyer's agent, and if i understand it correctly it can be very difficult to end the business relationship once you've committed yourself.

johnny otm. we met w/ a friend of ours here in boston who is a realtor and she went over the whole process with us, even though we are not buying in boston.

as far as lenders go, we ended up just going with our own bank to pursue it, it seemed way simpler and we know we want a traditional 30-year fixed mortgage anyways. the in-house mortgage brokers at the real estate agency were very slimy and terrible. it might simplify things down the road to have our agent and mortgage broker in the same building but we really did not get a good feeling from them.

having owned two houses now I will say that renting is so much easier

― droit au butt (Euler), Friday, May 20, 2016 8:22 AM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Other than dealing with unexpected shocking rent increases and landlords who don't fix shit, which is a big part of why we bought -- stability. I actually have to say that I love co-op living because you get to build some equity but you rarely have to shell out for a repair because a lot of stuff is the building's responsibility and a lot of other stuff the handyman will do very cheaply under the table.

re: "it might simplify things down the road to have our agent and mortgage broker in the same building" - actually doing the lending through your own bank is simpler. You're only buying a house for a little while. You will be living in a house while having bank accounts for far longer.

For us, having the mortgage and bank accounts all linked means that it is all on one online dashboard; one can slosh money around among them and have instant visibility into what is being paid to whom when. Also simplifies tax time because I don't need to go to a buncha different places to gather forms.

While it's definitely nice to have our bank account and mortgage linked (coincidentally it worked out that way), it's much more important to get the best rate you can get -- it can save you a huge amount of money. I'd probably find a separate mortgage broker with a good rep, or else if you really want to go through your bank at least shop around for some competitive rates, and if you can find better bring it to your bank and negotiate with them.

We moved here for my wife's university faculty job, and her department had sort of an in-house realtor that actually used to meet with people during their on-campus interviews to tell them about housing in the area, particularly because we live 8 miles from a more interesting town in another state with wildly different laws and opinions on most things.

She was incredibly patient and got to know what we were looking for to the point that she actually steered us to a house that hadn't officially gone on the market yet which we immediately made an offer on. When we moved to a different house two years that was for sale by owner, she walked through it with us and went over some things without getting a dime out of it, so we ended up using her when we sold our first place a year later.

And we used our bank's mortgage guy because they had the best rates and it was much easier to have it all in one place but that guy's a dick and I hate working with him even though he is a genius wizard at that stuff.

Now she does things like leave girl scout cookies on our front porch with a "think of me when if you decide to buy or sell again" notes.

Generally speaking, I would say that if you're going to spend $275K in Lakewood you need to be closer to the lake that those houses on Grace, but HOLY COW that's incredible woodwork at 1422 Grace. I support capital punishment for those who paint over woodwork in homes of that age. We've had to replace a good deal of painted-over wood, both window trim and baseboards, at our house. Luckily we know a good carpenter.

1485 Marlowe -- my friend lives just south of Detroit on Lincoln (one block over from Marlowe) and likes the neighborhood -- walkable to most everything on Detroit.

The other thing I forgot to mention which may be affecting the prop taxes in Lakewood now is the massive renovation/addition to Lakewood HS.

― Jeff Wright, Wednesday, May 18, 2016 12:15 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea i totally agree about the woodwork, it is amazing in 1422 grace.

another thing i don't like about a lot of lakewood rehabs apart from tacky modern kitchens is that a lot of them paint over the woodwork, like this one, 1536 grace, http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1536-Grace-Ave-Lakewood-OH-44107/33502609_zpid/

i mean it looks nice for sure but could you imagine that house with natural woodwork?

it's much more important to get the best rate you can get -- it can save you a huge amount of money. I'd probably find a separate mortgage broker with a good rep, or else if you really want to go through your bank at least shop around for some competitive rates, and if you can find better bring it to your bank and negotiate with them.

― www.ramenclassaction.com (man alive), Friday, May 20, 2016 10:20 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea agree w/ this, another reason we went with our bank is that their rates were better

some brokers wanted to charge us $400 just to give us a rate lol

yeah, I like white kitchens, but all the living room trim... I would feel so bad if that was beautiful wood and I painted it over xp

some brokers wanted to charge us $400 just to give us a rate lol

What kind of shady shit is this?

yeah shocking rent increases would be bad. France has pretty strong rules on when and how much a landlord can change the rent in a year, and it's in every contract, and we're talking like maybe 3 euros a month when our renewal comes up in August. this is one reason it's so hard to rent in France, but once you're in, you're ok. evidently it's easier to buy than rent in France for this reason, but we're a long way from that, particularly since we had like zero equity in our USA house (that hasn't even sold yet).

everybody wants some juice xp

xp yeah that's def a scam, but I'm talking about mortgage rates themselves as well as fees. A (non-shady) broker can shop around for the best rate.

yea the interest rates are ultimately the most important thing

OK I'm going to my credit union today to try to get pre-approved. Except let me make sure I understand -- by pre-approving, I am not committing myself to this lender, am I? Like, I can still shop around afterwards? I just want to have some sense of what my options are. I'm not planning to make an offer on a house, like, this week.

Or maybe I'm getting pre-qualified? I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Can I trust my credit union to be level with me about what I'm supposed to be doing or should I approach this meeting with a posture of skepticism?

Pre-qualified is a status that no one really takes seriously.

Pre-approved is actually worth something. However, you shouldn't go around getting pre-approved at too many places, because that might ding your credit score if you decide to wait a few months and have to go through the process again. Chances are your credit union will hit you with a better rate than any dedicated commercial lender will. That's why people join credit unions.

J Fever correct - too many inquiries lowers your score. Presumably because people in bad financial situations tend to go into a frenzy where they apply for credit a lot, or they are applying to several different lenders because they're getting denied.

It's kind of understandable (on the part of credit bureaus) but it contributes to the general fucked-up catch-22 that people will lend you money only if you can prove you don't need it.

Maybe I'm dreadfully wrong about this, but I still think every institution is drawing from more or less the same pool of offers, so where you go matters less than whether you're generally comfortable with that institution.

you probably shouldn't get pre-approved unless you are looking to buy a house imminently

by pre-approving, I am not committing myself to this lender, am I? Like, I can still shop around afterwards?

depends on the lender, in my experience.

our (large commercial) bank pre-approved us but does not require us to commit ourselves to them (we are going w/ them anyways).

the very shady in-house mortgage brokers at the large real estate agency where our agent works only offered us a prequalification, and if we want a preapproval from them, we have to commit (and pay $400 to do it, and they won't give us the rate until we commit -- this is total bullshit obv so we aren't going with them of course)

we like our individual agent a lot but the agency on a whole and their mortgage services are fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked

also, our large commercial bank told us the following:

1) borrowers are encouraged to shop around for rates, so within a 30-day period, multiple credit inquiries will not adversely affect your credit score
2) this is only for 30 days after the first inquiry. once the 30 days are up, there is a 15-day period during which you should NOT pursue additional inquiries because they will adversely affect your score
3) once those 15 days are up, you can shop around again

Yeah, the credit bureaus will take into account some shopping around for big purchases like homes and cars. They allow clustering.

That said, applying is no fun and you should do it as little as possible.

OK so sounds like I should treat this meeting as informational and not start a pre-approval process. I don't know yet whether I want to buy a house imminently, I want to shop around a bit and see what kind of thing is available and what kind of thing I want. But I really have not the slightest clue of what our price range should reasonably be so my idea is that the loan officer at the credit union can sit down with me and my tax form and help me figure this out.

Exactly. Any fool can calculate a the principal part of a mortgage payment, but an agent/loan officer will have a better handle on the final number with taxes, insurance premium, etc. included.