Assistance in buying a house

[VersionX]

My new fiancee will be buying a house within the next six months. She's moving here to transfer schools and be closer and her parents (she's loaded) are buying her a house so she'll feel comfortable. Given that I've never purchased one before and know most baggers have been through this before and some even work in the industry, I figured I'd see if anyone had any advice they could give me, especially considering the housing market today.

The area she's purchasing a place in will be the Williamsport, PA area and her budget is 250,000. We'll be living in it for about 5-7 years then looking to flip it and use that sale and some of her other assets to buy a beach house. So any help on buying a house both as a residence and as an investment would be of great assistance. Thanks!

Edit: Fuck, didn't mean to post this here. Mods, if you could move this to the Off-Topic Discussion that'd be cool. Ugh I fail.

[Hudson]

Pretty sure you can get a decent (3 br 2 bath) out that way in that price range. Perhaps some land too. Go out and look at the area. The newer places will ask about the same..but, could be of inferior quality.

[VersionX]

What would get her the best value, both as a residence and an investment?

Like I know to try and get bank-owned property, as they want to unload for pennies on the dollar right now, but what's the best way to go about that?

[jpc165]

I learned a lesson after buying my first house... I need more space. Fucking neighbors can annoy the shit out of you. Even if they are cool now, the next one moving in next month could be the biggest douche on the planet. So my next house will be at least on 1 full acre lot and will be out of hearing distance of the closet possible cunt neighbor fuck.

[Arc Lite]

Don't have a whole lot of advice, except for get a good inspection.

This site might help you out finding what's going on in the area. It's kind of cool. You can put in different criteria and it will give you a map and list of homes that meet it in a certain area.

http://www.zillow.com/

[Three Hole Puncher]

Short answer... learn the market.

Inside and out. Get a good real estate agent and spend the next half a year checking out every property in a 10, 15, maybe even 20 mile radius of your target area. The internet is great, definitely make max use of it, but it's no substitute for actually visiting the houses/neighborhoods. Keep track of the houses for sale and the prices being asked... pretty soon you'll be able to smell the subtle stink of fear that comes off a 'motivated seller', and you'll be zeroing in on short sales before they even officially happen.

Good luck.

PS- Her parent's buying the house for you... are you sure about this? Are you sure you want to 'go down that path'? Buying a house is a business transaction, and family and business go together like Russians and nuclear power plants.

I had a friend who thought it was the greatest deal in the world that his In-laws were going to buy a house for him and his wife and kids... fast forward 5 years... he now says he'd rather be living in a van down by the river than in a house that his pain-in-the-balls Mother-in-law holds over his head like a hangman's noose. Since it's "her house" she feels it's her duty and obligation to let him know, in minute detail, the proper way her daughter and him should go about living in it. The poor schlub is living a nightmare.

Again... good luck and all, but BEWARE.

[LiLJimmysHog]

Have a good lawyer look over the contract and make damned sure the title is clear.

[RIrealtor]

For obvious reasons, I can help with advice. Good ideas from three hole- get a good agent that has your best interests. Interview 2 or 3 agents ( a seller does, why shouldnt a buyer?)and be up front with what your are looking for- when you are looking to buy, where and how much. make sure he/she finds you the home that you want, not what he/she wants to sell you.
As an investment- i know this sounds like bs, but historically real estate is the best investment long term- every ten years property doubles in value on a national level. Now in that 10 years we get ups and downs, but long term, still much better than renting. Depending on your market, you could always look at multi families if you want to hold the home and then buy the beach home.
Any other questions, feel free to pm.
good luck

[BCH]

I learned a lesson after buying my first house... I need more space. Fucking neighbors can annoy the shit out of you. Even if they are cool now, the next one moving in next month could be the biggest douche on the planet. So my next house will be at least on 1 full acre lot and will be out of hearing distance of the closet possible cunt neighbor fuck.

This is not always good advice. I live in a small lot 1930s Westchester County Neighborhood with close houses. While the neighbors' dogs do annoy me from time to time, I do enjoy the fact that my kids are growing up with that neighborhood feel and have plenty of friends close by. They are always outside playing with all the kids and are fit and healthy. When you live in a 2 acre zoning place, your kids can't run next door or across the street to play with their friends. It's all play dates and driving them here and there. They mostly spend their time on the couch playing nintendo. My kids play nintendo max about 30 minutes a day when it's nice out.

Oh and BTW why the fuck is this in cool websites??

I'm moving it if you don't mind... I'll leave a re-direct.

[HummerTuesdays]

Read "The Idiots Guide to Buying & Selling a Home." Lots of useful, basic, information.

[Sinn Fein]

Don't put too much stock in the home inspection. We used one company for one house we almost got. Their realtor ended up being a cunt and talked the seller into backing out of the deal because she seemed to think my wife was asking too much for her place which was up for sale. She made the seller believe that we'd never get that price and wouldn't be able to buy their house. The day we got the deposit check back we got an offer of the full asking price. At this point, they wanted to try and redo the deal. We told them no thanks and looked for another house.

We weren't happy with how passive the home inspector was in terms of the findings. I saw alot of things that I was going to address. But, since the deal fell through I never got the chance.

We went with another company to do the home inspection for the house we ended up with, hoping that we'd have better results. It didn't make a difference.

The thing is, they don't want to piss anyone off. It's almost like they are working to line up your seller as another customer for themselves. They use real soft language in the report if they actually do find something and always try to downplay it. Nothing that they find is ever a big deal that needs attention. They don't give you anything solid that you can use to try and negotiate with the seller to either have something fixed or take money off the deal to cover it.

I'm kinda pissed because they missed some shit. We got a MASSIVE leak in the ductwork in our garage. Our house is a split-level, so the ductwork that feeds our upstairs level runs through the ceiling of my garage. Because of this leak, our garage is fully heated and cooled. I can't get to the spot where the leak is because the ductwork is kinda recessed. Basically it looks like the ductwork was put in, and then the garage ceiling was installed around it. It's in a real tight spot, between where the supply and return ducts run next to each other right before they go through the wall into our utility room. I might try and shove some insulation up there. I don't know if that will work.

Plus, they fed me a line of bullshit about a couple other things. It seems that they'll tell you what you want to hear if they really don't know and/or don't have the right information. The home inspector told us that the well pump here was only a couple of years old and looked great. Well, it shit the bed on us when we were here for only about a year and a half. When we had it replaced, the plumber told us it was almost 30 years old and showed me the date code.

I don't know if these things would have swayed us away from this house, but I think we would have negotiated a lower asking price. I also found that the roof apparently leaked at one time. It was blatantly obvious. The telltale repair signs are there in the closet in what is currently our guest room. I had never even looked in that closet until recently and got really pissed off when I saw it.

Personally, I think the whole thing is a racket.

[AngryPest]

I agree with Sinn Fein. Home inspectors normally don’t want to piss off the realtors since they get some of their business from them. If they cause a sale to go bad that realtor will not send business their way again.

Depending on your state’s rules, they also can’t tell you about the condition of some things. I had one guy refuse to look at my boiler citing some state statute. He also failed to spot termite damage. These two things cost me over $8K to fix. If I had paid my plumber $175 and my pest control company $100 to both take an hour and have a look I would have been fine and have also have saved $25 off the inspection (plus the $8K). (BTW never use Terminix.)

The next time I look at a house I am going to get my pest control guy, plumber and electrician to all have a look for 1 hour. It will probably cost me a little more but I know I am not dealing with some failed contractor.

My only other piece of advice is get a realestate attorney. Most agents (and realtors) don’t know shit about real estate law. They just want their commission check.

[VersionX]

Thanks for all the help so far guys.

Is it weird that no realtors so far have been able to give me any inkling on what properties would be a good investment to sell in 4-5 years? Cause I can't get anyone to say anything other than "I don't know". Kinda makes me wary of buying a house now. I don't want to overpay now and have it drop in value by the time I want to sell it (around 2012).

Also the ones I've found so far aren't foreclosures. What's the best resource to finding them, or at least bank-owned property? I figure that's the best deal going these datys.

I'm researching my ass off but so far the best resources I've found have been you guys. Keep the help flowing if you can. Thanks a ton!

[Lambo]

Get a realtor you feel you can trust, don't be afraid to show them the door if something doesn't feel right. Having the right real esatae agent makes a BIG diffrence

[Arc Lite]

I think you might have missed the boat for this year, but most counties have an annual tax sale. Where properties that don't get taxes paid on them go up for sale.

http://www.lyco.org/Home/TaxClaimBureauHome/tabid/488/Default.aspx

[LBF]

She's moving here to transfer schools and be closer and her parents (she's loaded) are buying her a house so she'll feel comfortable.




Holy fuck. When I moved, my parents gave me a pillow so I would feel comfortable. I need to run with a different class of people.


As for the house-buying....I agree that allowing your not-yet-in-laws to buy a house for you is a road you might not want to travel. However, I would suggest that you have a few other experts come by and look at the place in addition to the routine inspection. It could save you a bundle in the long run.

[Beeman99]

Buying a house is like buying a boat, even if you get a good one, you're going to sink a ton of money into it after you buy it.

I bought mine in 2004, they were asking 190, I offered 180 and got it at that (before the housing market took off, thank fucking god). The Realtor, my lawyer and her lawyer had the deal finalized in one week.

I agree about the inspection being a joke. It was just some kid that came and did it, and all he could find was a GFI plug needing to be replaced, and he recommended I dig up my back yard because along one corner of my house it slopes back towards the house a bit. We're talking an inch difference over 20 feet, but he recommended I spend probably 10 k to fix it. Fuck him.

Make sure any house you look at you go over yourself even if you know fuck all about homes. Look for any signs of water damage, lack of insulation, "self" home improvements, etc etc. If you don't feel comfortable with anything you see, ask questions and if it pisses the Realtor or seller off, then something is up and look at another one. Don't buy it off the cuff or on a gut feeling, you'll most probably regret it in the end

[GoldenOne]

As everyone said, get a Realtor you feel comfortable with.

Also with her budget you can get a house that is very nice, but will be the exact same house it will be when she tries to sell it. I would say tell her to buy a house for $200K and invest the remaining $50K into the house (Brand new kitchen, new garage door, finish basement) You can easily do those 3 things for under 50K, but will increase the value of the house by triple.

[AngryPest]

Here a couple of things I looked for when we looked for our house
Be “Mr. No”. If you don’t like the way it looks, say no. Everyone thinks they are going to make these grand sweeping changes to a house. Other than some new paint and appliances you’ll probably will not change much (so many people think they are going to blow out a wall or two.)

If you know anyone who is a contractor bring them to see the house. (beer helps).

Bring a flashlight. Look at every (outside) wall and ceiling for water damage or repairs. Ask to get in the attic and the crawlspace. Shine the light on every rafter and joist and look for cracks, watermarks/discoloration or sawdust (ants/termites).

Directly ask the realtor if the house has ever had insect/water/structural problems. Ask about termites or ants. Ask if anything unusual has happened in this house (crimes). Get a disclosure statement from the owner where they have to sign off on all this. If they won’t sign it, then walk away.

Turn on the heat and crank it. See if the heat comes on. Take a look at the electrical service. Breakers or fuses? 100amps or 200 amps? What brand of box and breakers (Federal Pacific is a problem). Anything looks funny get an electrician to look at it. Make sure the pipes don’t look too corroded.

Walk around the outside of the house and look for little dirt tubes going into the wood (termites).

Look in the basement. Is there a water line visible? Is there a sump pump? Is it rusted? Has the walls/floor been painted recently?

Are the neighbors slobs? Are they nosy (are they watching you look around)?

Ask the realtor to show you the exact lot lines. Ask to see the markers. Get a plot plan from the town and make sure that makes sense.

Make sure you do a walk through before you pass papers. Do it when they have moved out. It’s amazing what a hutch or a vanity will hide.

[jpc165]

This is not always good advice. I live in a small lot 1930s Westchester County Neighborhood with close houses. While the neighbors' dogs do annoy me from time to time, I do enjoy the fact that my kids are growing up with that neighborhood feel and have plenty of friends close by. They are always outside playing with all the kids and are fit and healthy. When you live in a 2 acre zoning place, your kids can't run next door or across the street to play with their friends. It's all play dates and driving them here and there. They mostly spend their time on the couch playing nintendo. My kids play nintendo max about 30 minutes a day when it's nice out.

Oh and BTW why the fuck is this in cool websites??

I'm moving it if you don't mind... I'll leave a re-direct.

Thats all fine and dandy if you plan on having kids. Which I do not. Fucking haaaattee children. The mere thought of having one makes want to shit and vomit at the same time. I am almost 30 and I feel the same about it now, perhaps stronger, than I did 10 years ago. My brother already had one and is carrying on my family name. So no need for me to do it. Thus I can buy more gooder toys for my selfish ass.

One other thing. Don't have a street light and a somewhat highly traveled road behind your house. Fucking motorcycles reving their shit will eat away at your soul and the wanna be gangstas with their fucking bass will make you more of a racist than you already might be.

Oh ya and don't buy a house with nignogs across the street. (that justs never good). I got a case of the jeffersons across the street from me. They moved on up from the shitty sections the next town over to the ok section I live in, however their children are the spawn of the negro satan. They have caused quite a ruckus around here as of late.

happy house hunting!

[RIrealtor]

Version- can you tell me what a stock will be worth in 4-5 years? Its the same with the real estate mkt- while we can speculate, no one can assure that your home would be worth x percentage more ( or less) in 5 yrs. Long term, real estate is always a good investment.
Sinn & Pest- Depending on state laws, home inspectors are licensed and carry insurance that if there is a blatant oversight you would have recourse as a buyer ( and against the seller too). However, in many states the home inspector can be of little experience or knowledge for the buyer- it is always best to bring a specialist for each item- heating, pest, mold, etc. The inspectors can provide general knowledge but thats about it.
And many of the posts again come back to the agent- it the agent that knows the ins and outs of the deal from start to finish- proper pricing, negotiations, inspections and the closing which sets apart those that should be in the industry and those that should go back to the hair salon. Find that top rated agent and take their advice- they are successful for a reason, and it aint their looks. That being said, they are a lot of bad agents out there- we are on par with used car salesman, etc, but they are a few good ones too.
beeman is correct too- no matter what, you will still have unexpected costs- that is what home ownership is about. want to live for free? then stay with your parents.
good luck