The Swamp

Closing was scheduled for yesterday, but the buyer's still haven't gotten their mortgage approved. Their lawyer has reached out to ours every day since last Wednesday saying Wells Fargo is promising it will come through "tomorrow" every fucking day. Obviously closing did not happen. Once they get their mortgage commitment, we need to wait for their closing document, and then a 3 day waiting period after that, so not closing until the end of next week at best. My wife is worried that they are a risk, as they are both freelancers. She writes music for Broadway shows, which aren't going to happen for the foreseeable future, and he is an actor, with production shut down for the foreseeable future. Not sure how much that factors in to getting a mortgage. We were actually feeling good that we didn't have to worry about either of them getting laid off in this economy. I just need this shit to be done, and before the damned roof starts leaking again. Forecasts for severe thunder storms almost every day isn't helping me.

buy a bunch of tarps

not really kidding

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:45 ambig decision next day or so -- put a bid in and then get moving in selling the TH - don't need it to coincide but rather not carry two notes for two long.

Missed this heading into the long weekend. What did you end up doing?

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:37 am buy a bunch of tarps

not really kidding

If it was one spot, I would have. Shingles were put on wrong, so periodically one will pop up. It's happened in just about every room on the second floor at some point while I lived there. Didn't redo the roof, as we thought we were adding an addition, and the roofer said not to put on a new roof until after the addition.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:44 am

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:45 ambig decision next day or so -- put a bid in and then get moving in selling the TH - don't need it to coincide but rather not carry two notes for two long.

Missed this heading into the long weekend. What did you end up doing?

Oh shit, me too. Are you looking to stay in the same town?

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:45 am

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:37 am buy a bunch of tarps

not really kidding

If it was one spot, I would have. Shingles were put on wrong, so periodically one will pop up. It's happened in just about every room on the second floor at some point while I lived there. Didn't redo the roof, as we thought we were adding an addition, and the roofer said not to put on a new roof until after the addition.

Gotcha.

We had a hail storm... Maybe 5 or so years ago?

Anyways, insurance paid for a badly needed new roof. Whenever other minor things need repairing here, I remind my wife we got so incredibly lucky on that roof job.

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:45 am checked out both houses w our realtor and her contractor (who turns out is the brother of one of the club's coaches)
first house, beautifulproperty - nearly 1/2 an acre - house is all. and i mean all original from 1920s... needs far too much work to make it ours.. but the property is beautiful.
two blocks away, the other house.
bigger house, smaller yard but still far better than our th -- missus spent over an hour going back and forth w the contractor i left early to run a trivia happy hour for my team on MS Teams
we drove up to the second house as the realtor was getting in her car. smiles all around. she called our realtor after to let us know the couple who arrived as we were leaving was consideering making an offer. my wife spent most of the evening playing around w the floorplan.

big decision next day or so -- put a bid in and then get moving in selling the TH - don't need it to coincide but rather not carry two notes for two long.
going to be painting today - had already planned it so it works out -- we've put in a new roof, painted the siding, new patio door, fixed the deck, new a/c furnace water heater and all appliances are under 2yrs old... only a couple of minor repairs and will be ready to show in two weeks or so. but not sure. we'd been looking to move to dc area and the same money we would spendn would get us so much more (especially in northern moco or carrol or howard)

they've rejected two other offers so far -- divorcing couple w kids can't agree on it - we're going in tomorrow again w contractor - he is going to formally write up proposal so we can get the mortgage/reno loan at same time - if its within budget we'll put an offer as soon as we get the deets from contractor.
and then the fun will start. of course in the meantime my wife is going batty planning out all the reno phases for the next ten years. oy vey.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:48 am

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:44 am

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:45 ambig decision next day or so -- put a bid in and then get moving in selling the TH - don't need it to coincide but rather not carry two notes for two long.

Missed this heading into the long weekend. What did you end up doing?

Oh shit, me too. Are you looking to stay in the same town?

yeah. we like the town - moving within nj doesn't make any sense because of schools, etc.going on 15 yrs here.
option is always there to move back to dc area for Mrs. El flaco's career (i'm pretty much wfh 100% or on a plane)

if this house doesn't pan out -- we'll keep looking. small town, tiny inventory at our price point.

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 9:39 am
yeah. we like the town - moving within nj doesn't make any sense because of schools, etc.going on 15 yrs here.
option is always there to move back to dc area for Mrs. El flaco's career (i'm pretty much wfh 100% or on a plane)

if this house doesn't pan out -- we'll keep looking. small town, tiny inventory at our price point.

I hear you, having to stay in the same town makes it difficult. Good luck.

just got a call from our realtor -- another property in town hitting the market tomorrow - going to check it out right after the contractor visit -- this other one would be very close to top of range - but looks move in ready although doesn't appear to have the charm of the 1920's house (and we all know i'd be posting in house repairs constantly)

will update tomorrow.

Which town are you again?

Metuchen.

me touchen u smilin

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 1:30 pmMetuchen.

Ah that's right. Home of the Marina for people with speech impediments that make Rs into Ws.

marina?

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 10:02 am just got a call from our realtor -- another property in town hitting the market tomorrow - going to check it out right after the contractor visit -- this other one would be very close to top of range - but looks move in ready although doesn't appear to have the charm of the 1920's house (and we all know i'd be posting in house repairs constantly)

will update tomorrow.

or thursday.

beautiful property (the new one) taxes however would kill us .
the 1920s is still in play - got the proposal from the contractor, basically need to add $80k up front to make it livable-- haven't pulled the trigger (nor has anyone - two offers rejected -- its overpriced) if we're so cautious then likely not going to although she keeps marking up the floor plans w ideas for next phase and beyond.
meanwhile i'm thinking maybe its best not to get into a large mortgage these days. you never know. alrightie - to the batcave! (my home office is in the basement)

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:40 am

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 10:02 am just got a call from our realtor -- another property in town hitting the market tomorrow - going to check it out right after the contractor visit -- this other one would be very close to top of range - but looks move in ready although doesn't appear to have the charm of the 1920's house (and we all know i'd be posting in house repairs constantly)

will update tomorrow.

or thursday.

beautiful property (the new one) taxes however would kill us .
the 1920s is still in play - got the proposal from the contractor, basically need to add $80k up front to make it livable-- haven't pulled the trigger (nor has anyone - two offers rejected -- its overpriced) if we're so cautious then likely not going to although she keeps marking up the floor plans w ideas for next phase and beyond.
meanwhile i'm thinking maybe its best not to get into a large mortgage these days. you never know. alrightie - to the batcave! (my home office is in the basement)

Good luck. If they are overpriced and still on the market in a few months, they'll get the message. Houses are still selling insanely fast here, and they will see all their neighbors going under contract.

In other news, my sale actually went through on Tuesday. Tropical storm on Friday led to some roof leakage and damage to a couple walls in the master bath. My idiot lawyer never bothered to tell me they scheduled the closing for Tuesday, and his assistant was saying we didn't have the closing docs yet, and mandatory 3 day wait after that. I planned on peeling the damaged paint (it was like folded latex and peeled off in strips) and painting on Wednesday. Found out around 3:00 pm Monday, couldn't get there before 9:30pm, walk through the next morning. My realtor saved my ass, she had an hour, so she peeled paint and spackled, so it'd be dry when I got back. Other realtor really saved the deal by telling the Buyers the water damaged fell under the category of credits we gave for the roof so they couldn't raise it as a concern. So fucking relieved to have this shit behind me.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:56 am

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:40 am

elflaco2 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 10:02 am just got a call from our realtor -- another property in town hitting the market tomorrow - going to check it out right after the contractor visit -- this other one would be very close to top of range - but looks move in ready although doesn't appear to have the charm of the 1920's house (and we all know i'd be posting in house repairs constantly)

will update tomorrow.

or thursday.

beautiful property (the new one) taxes however would kill us .
the 1920s is still in play - got the proposal from the contractor, basically need to add $80k up front to make it livable-- haven't pulled the trigger (nor has anyone - two offers rejected -- its overpriced) if we're so cautious then likely not going to although she keeps marking up the floor plans w ideas for next phase and beyond.
meanwhile i'm thinking maybe its best not to get into a large mortgage these days. you never know. alrightie - to the batcave! (my home office is in the basement)

My realtor saved my ass, she had an hour, so she peeled paint and spackled, so it'd be dry when I got back. Other realtor really saved the deal by telling the Buyers the water damaged fell under the category of credits we gave for the roof so they couldn't raise it as a concern. So fucking relieved to have this shit behind me.

That's an all star realtor there. Keep that one in your pocket.

Except...maybe they didn't have their customer's interest at heart and just wanted to get paid? I'm glad it worked out for our boy, though.

Oh wait...you were talking about the first one probably. Yeah, that was nice.

Congrats syb.

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 8:50 am Except...maybe they didn't have their customer's interest at heart and just wanted to get paid? I'm glad it worked out for our boy, though.

Oh wait...you were talking about the first one probably. Yeah, that was nice.

Yeah, their realtor acted in her own interest, not her clients for sure. On the other hand, my wife may have walked if they raised another issue. The credit we gave them was so large, the bank refused to accept it, and drafted the closing docs $4,000 short on credits. Weird that the bank would refuse to make us pay the extra. Rather than delaying the closing, their lawyer asked ours if we would cut a check after closing for the amount. I got the exact amount extra at closing, so it's no difference to me, but they couldn't put this in writing because it is mortgage fraud. My sister who represents banks at closings is telling me to fuck them and not write the check. There is no agreement and they can't sue us to enforce their mortgage fraud. My thought is that I am living in the same small town, and have friends in the old hood and will be back there somewhat regularly, so it's not worth $4,000 to have that over my head.

My agent isn't exactly a friend, but we've known her for years. Met her when we interviewed her 6 years ago when we put the house up, and see her around town all the time and talk. Her son is in my son's grade, ran on the same X-country team for a year. We dragged her through hell buying our house, as she was also the listing agent. My wife is convinced she knew about and hid problems, and is helping out of guilt. I think she was just desperate for the walk through to go well and be done with us.

So I didn't think that refinancing my mortgage would've made fiscal sense a few months ago, but now I'm reading that mortgages have dropped below 3% with 15 year fixed even being at 2.5%.

I have yet to call my lender (Navy Federal) about what I can get as a re-fi, but would any of you take advantage of this moment? I have a 30 year fixed right now (I'm 2 years into ownership) with a 3.75% APR (2 years ago this was really, really good). And I planned on keeping this house as a rental once I'm retired and living elsewhere.

Just wondering if this is a good idea.

Note: I walked into this place with a few grand in equity (the VA appraisal) and if Zillow is to be believed, it gained another $20k in value over the last two years. Oh, and I had the kitchen remodeled. So the value of the house is pretty good.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:21 pm So I didn't think that refinancing my mortgage would've made fiscal sense a few months ago, but now I'm reading that mortgages have dropped below 3% with 15 year fixed even being at 2.5%.

I have yet to call my lender (Navy Federal) about what I can get as a re-fi, but would any of you take advantage of this moment? I have a 30 year fixed right now (I'm 2 years into ownership) with a 3.75% APR (2 years ago this was really, really good). And I planned on keeping this house as a rental once I'm retired and living elsewhere.

Just wondering if this is a good idea.

Note: I walked into this place with a few grand in equity (the VA appraisal) and if Zillow is to be believed, it gained another $20k in value over the last two years. Oh, and I had the kitchen remodeled. So the value of the house is pretty good.

You need to figure out how much you'll save each month with the refinance, and see what the fees are. See how many months you need to stay in the house to pay make up the fees. Fees are about $1,000, so you probably won't take too many months to make it up. We refinanced twice, and ended up saving significant money. Second time we reduced from whatever was left in a 30 year mortgage to a 15 year. Monthlies only went up slightly because of the much lower interest, and percentage of payments going towards paying down principal was a huge difference.

tl:dr: if you are staying in the house for more than a year, its almost certainly worth it. I was seeing as low as 2.7% on a 15 year mortgage. My sister bought a house last year and just refinanced down to 2.9%.

Word.

If I'm using the Google mortgage calculator right, the difference in payment is ~$300 monthly. (Assuming I'd re-fi only what's outstanding on the mortgage with a 2.5% APR.)

But over the course of the loan, I'd save $100k.

The extra bucks I earned on deployment and lack of a car payment means I should be able to cover that without issue.

Thanks, Syb.

A lot of the time you can get a no-fee refinance loan. In your situation it’s be a no-brainer to take a no-fee 30-year fixed refi at a lower interest rate.

Yeah, pretty much anyone who can should be refinancing at the moment if you're going to be in the home for more than a couple of years.

(Also, Zillow inflates, but also doesn't know you redid your kitchen, so it's probably closer than usual. But if you can use an appraisal to get you below the PMI threshold if you aren't already, then do that)

We're refinancing right now from a 3.5% to 2.7%. We are about 3 years into our 30 yr fixed and investigated 15, 20, and 25 options but found that there wasn't a lot of difference in interest rate through our lender.

So our plan is to refi back to a 30 yr fixed but pay it like it's a 20 yr. That does allow some flexibility too with lower required monthly payments in the case of job loss, etc.

phxgators wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 10:05 am We're refinancing right now from a 3.5% to 2.7%. We are about 3 years into our 30 yr fixed and investigated 15, 20, and 25 options but found that there wasn't a lot of difference in interest rate through our lender.

Almost exactly the same situation. 3.5 to 2.75, 4 years into our current. Figure we can always overpay if we want but with "everything" up in the air in the entire world I'd prefer the short term flexibility.

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 7:22 am Yeah, pretty much anyone who can should be refinancing at the moment if you're going to be in the home for more than a couple of years.

(Also, Zillow inflates, but also doesn't know you redid your kitchen, so it's probably closer than usual. But if you can use an appraisal to get you below the PMI threshold if you aren't already, then do that)

Depends on your market, Zillow was under estimating here, even before the COVID boom. And that depends on time of year. I think they only use comps from the past 6 months, so when you are starting the Spring market, everything is undervalued, because they use comps from the lowest market periods. Since there are much fewer sales in the Winter, one comp far outside the norm can and skew everything. As for a new kitchen, you can enter all that shit into Zillow. My wife made some changes and immediately got the estimate to jump $75,000, but then when we went to market, her edits were replaced by the agent's and the estimate dropped by $50,000, and the agent adding the new kitchen and deck didn't raise the estimate. It's a mess.

All that, but our mortgage guy also said zillow is used to see if a reassessment is necessary. So its stupid and wrong and all that ... but also used.

Navy Federal has 3.25% for 30 year fixed and 3.125 for 15 year fixed. That seems high. I will probably have to shop around. Tonight I'm having dinner with my buddy who's also my realtor, so I'll ask him if he's seen it cheaper.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 5:39 pm Navy Federal has 3.25% for 30 year fixed and 3.125 for 15 year fixed. That seems high. I will probably have to shop around. Tonight I'm having dinner with my buddy who's also my realtor, so I'll ask him if he's seen it cheaper.

Check out bankrate.com and lendingtree.com. You can get better rates than that.

I've got a 3.75% fixed with 22 years left on it. I'd like to refinance, but I can't. I'm retired and living off my pension and savings. So, even though I have no trouble paying a higher payment, my ratios are such that I can't get a re-fi loan into a lower payment. Crazy.

So, as some of you may have seen from my post on FB, today they are tearing down the house across the street from me. It's a constant occurrence in our neighborhood. People either tear down their own place and rebuild, or a developer/contractor buys a place and tear it down to build a spec house to sell. Since the first of July, three houses within a stone's throw of my home have been taken down, with new home construction underway, or soon to be underway.

It's just crazy. These are small lots - 50' x 150', but they sell for around $1.2 million. The realtors are already listing the prospective homes even though they are several months from being completely built, with pictures of what they are projected to look like, going for well over $3 million for about a 2,500 sq. ft. home in our little burg. Crazy, because we aren't Palo Alto, or Woodside, or Menlo Park by any stretch of the imagination. But, that's the market. Thank goodness we bought our place in 1998, before it got this out of hand.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 3:33 pm So, as some of you may have seen from my post on FB, today they are tearing down the house across the street from me. It's a constant occurrence in our neighborhood. People either tear down their own place and rebuild, or a developer/contractor buys a place and tear it down to build a spec house to sell. Since the first of July, three houses within a stone's throw of my home have been taken down, with new home construction underway, or soon to be underway.

It's just crazy. These are small lots - 50' x 150', but they sell for around $1.2 million. The realtors are already listing the prospective homes even though they are several months from being completely built, with pictures of what they are projected to look like, going for well over $3 million for about a 2,500 sq. ft. home in our little burg. Crazy, because we aren't Palo Alto, or Woodside, or Menlo Park by any stretch of the imagination. But, that's the market. Thank goodness we bought our place in 1998, before it got this out of hand.

Now that you're retired have you given any thought to selling and buying somewhere else?

brian wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 3:39 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 3:33 pm So, as some of you may have seen from my post on FB, today they are tearing down the house across the street from me. It's a constant occurrence in our neighborhood. People either tear down their own place and rebuild, or a developer/contractor buys a place and tear it down to build a spec house to sell. Since the first of July, three houses within a stone's throw of my home have been taken down, with new home construction underway, or soon to be underway.

It's just crazy. These are small lots - 50' x 150', but they sell for around $1.2 million. The realtors are already listing the prospective homes even though they are several months from being completely built, with pictures of what they are projected to look like, going for well over $3 million for about a 2,500 sq. ft. home in our little burg. Crazy, because we aren't Palo Alto, or Woodside, or Menlo Park by any stretch of the imagination. But, that's the market. Thank goodness we bought our place in 1998, before it got this out of hand.

Now that you're retired have you given any thought to selling and buying somewhere else?

Definitely thought about it. My daughter’s not quite 20 yet, and we want to be relatively close to her, both now, and in the future. And, I don’t want to live anywhere that is, on average, pro-Trump/right wing. Which eliminates a lot of possibilities. We’ll probably downsize and move within 10 years. The west Sonoma County wine country is probably the leading contender. (Working part-time pouring wine at a small tasting room might be fun.)

‘The housing market is on a sugar high’: Home sales are soaring, but is it a good time to buy? Here’s what the experts say

Man, oh man. This was not the worst time to be told to leave America. My house should hit the market relatively soon. Just gotta get a few more things taken care of and it's ready.

Two trucks and a van unloading the house across the street. Can't wait to find out how playing the new neighbor lottery works out.

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2020 10:47 am Two trucks and a van unloading the house across the street. Can't wait to find out how playing the new neighbor lottery works out.

I've got a neighbor I'll trade you.