Not sure if IA works this way, but you can go to your county plat map website and see the owners for each lot. Then head to Facebook. Start with the woman on the title if there is one. Far more likely to have a social media profile.
First time homebuyer
- Thread starter HGoat1
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Not sure if IA works this way, but you can go to your county plat map website and see the owners for each lot. Then head to Facebook. Start with the woman on the title if there is one. Far more likely to have a social media profile.
I know common advice is to take that extra and put it into retirement instead. It probably makes more sense financially but we do a combo. We rounded up to the next hundred on our monthly payment (do 50 or some other number, whatever works) and then do an extra principal payment once a year. It's randomly timed for us but doing that at tax return or bonus/raise time is good. Those two things end up being about 1.5-2 extra mortgage payments a year which has us on track to knock 4-5 years off the loan.
Also, I know a lot of people will recommend a 15 year vs 30. We purposely went for 30 even though we probably could have made it work on the 15. Decided in case life caved in on us, we'd like to have that wiggle room - and then we just pay ahead/extra instead.
Umm... $1300 for some refrigerant?We got a new exterior unit installed for $1,500.
That's because your new unit uses R-410A, not R-22.
Dues for ours are $25/yr and restrictions are reasonable and/or don't apply to us. In some areas, can be hard to avoid them for what you're after.
oh man, I already had daycare built into my hypothetical budget.......though I underestimated the cost by about a third. Actually pulled out on an offer because I decided if we got pregnant with twins and one of us lost our job, we'd be in trouble. It really just wasn't the right house but yeah.....I was a little anxious about tying ourselves to that big of a financial commitment.
Lived in a condo in Indy and loved it. Nice community and a few hundred units. Lived in a condo here in Spokane (custom build - really cool!) and there were only 11 units. Just took a few strong personalities to ruin it and we left after 12 years.
HOAs can be the devil...
I would add : in terms of finding a legit inspector, don't rely on the realtor to make the recommendation for you. The realtor is focused on closing - they are sales people. The focus on closing in not aligned with your interest - you want to close ONLY IF there are no serious issues with the property. Search for the inspector accreditation organizations (I don't remember the names), and choose one with high level credentials. A good inspector should take at least 2-3 hours to thoroughly check out / test all of the systems, check the levelness of the foundation, etc.
Don't be afraid to walk away if the inspection finds serious issues, but also if you have a thorough inspector, it is also important to recognize that almost EVERY house has issues of some kind - most are very minor. I have bought 8 properties and sold 4 (including one my wife had before we married), and there are always at least some issues. Sometimes it's an issue of codes and standards changing over time. A good inspector will note those, but it doesn't mean you need to change things. As an example, in our most recent sale, the buyers noted a couple of places where there should have been GFCI (I added), gutters that had some debris (we hadn't bothered with cleaning them as we got it ready for sale - slipped our minds), tub / shower switch (diverter) that was sticking in "tub" setting, outside A/C compressor that "needed cleaning" (even though we had it serviced a few months before), dryer connection w/ 3 prong instead of the newer 4 prong, and an outside circuit breaker box that was showing wear / rusting (after 30 years), and a number of other nits. The buyers pushed us for concessions, but I added the GFCI, fixed the diverter, and cleaned the gutter (fun), and conceded nothing further. The buyers went forward. It was a very well-maintained house, but it was more than 30 years old, so there are minor issues.
I hope that helps you have some perspective. You want a very picky inspector, but you have to be careful to not freak out when they give you a report with 20-30 "issues".
Also, avoid PMI (mortgage insurance) if at all possible. If you can swing it, I think a 15 year mortgage is better - enables building equity faster. I would also set it up where you pay your insurance and property taxes directly, rather than using an escrow account - these are a money-maker for the banks / mortgage companies (so not as good for you).
Good luck!
Almost four years in our new house and we still haven't bought a bedset for the spare room. Only hung up anything on the walls two years ago. Depends on your personality type but we were fine not painting or putting furniture in for a while. Dumped it all into the down payment. We built though, so we weren't as concerned with the A/C dying on us the first summer. Slowly upgraded/added our furniture over time.
Though we did have to reseed the yard three times that summer.......and pay for blinds.
Though we did have to reseed the yard three times that summer.......and pay for blinds.
Just looked it up and ya it looks like prices have skyrocketed. Might as well just put a new unit in place. Still high but $20-30 lb cost for R-22.
That’s not a lowball offer though. A lowball offer is giving a bid of 150k on a house that would appraise for 200-210k and is listed around 220k. If it’s over priced, fine.
We didn’t get blinds right away. I figured if the neighbor ladies wanted a good look, why deprive them of it.
The full moon shining into our bedroom at night got annoying for me. Think that lasted only a couple weeks til we got temp ones up. The actual ones got ordered and sat under their respective windows for about 3 months.
I have those things installed so the wife doesn’t ride me non stop. Sometimes 50 bucks is cheap sanity medicine.
I would like to see where you could procure R-22 at $20-30 per pound. Most places seem to be in the $80-$120 range, and that's only going to go higher with it being phased out (this is the last year of R-22 production). On my last repair, they used R-422D as a drop-in replacement, but it doesn't perform as well. Certainly was cheaper, though - $250 for accumulator change out, R-22 capture and processing, and about 8 lbs of refrigerant.
There was also some duct work modifications and whatnot that weren't covered by the home warranty as well. Which is another thing to be mindful of when it comes to home warranties.
They make a blue pill to help with that, and it's generic now...
completely agree on the inspection. hire your own and make them do a good job.
a 15 year note speeds up equity but limits your purchasing ability. In the age of electronic payment, it's easy to have a 30 year and pay more aggressively, even on the same schedule as a 15, and achieve nearly the same equity...all while giving you the ability, should something come up, to have a much lower payment monthly than a 15 would.
that is a factually incorrect statement. often times banks and mortgage companies front the escrow accounts, both insurance and taxes, for borrowers. not sure how you propose they make money on those but they don't.
I think this thought is common with a lot of home buyers, but I'd only recommend going that route after you've done the math.
Looking at bankrate now, it has the 15 year note at about a .6% discount over a 30 year: on a per month basis, for a $200k loan that's an initial difference of about $95 in interest per month - IMO a high premium to pay for the option of paying more with a 30 year, opposed to just getting the 15.
Stand in the front yard and just listen.... Listen for the daily traffic going by in the neighborhood or nearby highways. Most people forget to think about the quiet factor and are disappointed how noisy it might be AFTER you already bought the place.
