Help me find a place

[Apoc]

The lease isnt worth shit if your renters just pack up and leave town. You get their security deposit, but good luck trying to collect on what they owe you for the rest of the year.

Great... and that security deposit gives you a month to find another renter. I still don't see where selling your house is a reasonable option.

[.RJ]

Great... and that security deposit gives you a month to find another renter. I still don't see where selling your house is a reasonable option.

I did not bring up selling the house rather than finding additional renters. Just pointing out that a signed lease doesnt mean shit for an individual renting rooms in a house.

But, if you cant get renters, or if you cant get renters at a price that makes living with the same mortage cost feasible then what else are you going to do?

[Apoc]

I disagree... I think it means shit for the 90% of people who won't pack up and leave town. You can guarantee that if they don't fall off the face of the earth I'd be taking their ass to court and getting the Sheriff to confiscate their assets to sell and pay me.

[Evan]

I doubt your monthly payments will be much higher than renting

You can rent for $600-800/mo easily. Even 20 year old 2br condos in reston sell for almost $300k.... Reason #1 why I have no interest in buying here.

While it is true you might not be able to buy a house in the same area that you can RENT, you are still better off sinking your $$$ into a house. Is that 6-800 for the entire place, no roommates? I doubt it. So buy a house and get a roommate, problem solved, a 300k house, given the right person doing the financing could only run you $1500, or less.

There is NO argument for renting, unless you just HAVE to live in the middle of a city and not 15-20 minutes outside of it.

Thats not necessarily true
You have to realize that when buying a house you are still "throwing away" a good chunk of change in interest. The tax deduction effectively reduces the interest paid by 30%. What usually offsets this is that the house is appreciating. Since we are in a flat (to negative) market for the short term (2 years?) you have to look at things differently.

For example,
In a $500k 30y mortgage, you have about a $3100 payment, $2700 of which goes to interest! Factor in tax deduction which means you pay about $1900 in interest. Compare that to rent at about $600-$1000 (heavily depending on personal preference of course) and renting is the more economical.
Ordinarily if homes were appreciating that would be well worth it, but since they arent in the short term, that would be $65k paid in interest ($45k tax adjusted) in just 2 years, compared to $14k-24k in rent. And since the houses arent appreciating you arent missing out on that equity gain as a renter, and that money you save in not paying interest you can save for a down payment.

Anyway, this is just my personal thoughts, and my reasoning for not buying a place for 1-2 more years. It changes things of course if you get renters to cover half or more of the mortgage.

[.RJ]

You can guarantee that if they don't fall off the face of the earth I'd be taking their ass to court and getting the Sheriff to confiscate their assets to sell and pay me.

So, you lose a month, maybe two, of rent - is the legal cost to reclaim it worth it? And even if you do drag their ass into court, they could produce a bank statement showing zero assets... maybe they spent all their money on hookers and coke. I'm just sayin'.... a signed lease wont mean shit if they just skip town.

[WRXtranceformed]

The bottom line, aside from whether or not it's right to sue your friends/renters for backing out of a contract or whatever, is don't buy a place you can't afford without that extra monthly contribution coming in. Renters should be a financial augmentation towards the place you live, not a necessity.

What you may need to do, depending on your current assets and amount you have in savings, is rent for a while and set aside some money to cover down payments / closing costs on a mortgage. Closing costs are what a lot of people forget about when they go to buy a home. Some builders in some communities offer to cover some or all of the closing costs of your mortgage, so you may want to keep an eye out for that.

[Apoc]

You can guarantee that if they don't fall off the face of the earth I'd be taking their ass to court and getting the Sheriff to confiscate their assets to sell and pay me.

So, you lose a month, maybe two, of rent - is the legal cost to reclaim it worth it? And even if you do drag their ass into court, they could produce a bank statement showing zero assets... maybe they spent all their money on hookers and coke. I'm just sayin'.... a signed lease wont mean shit if they just skip town.

It cost like $50 to file a suit in small claims... and if you win, which you will if there's a legal document, then the money comes out of their pocket. Who cares if they have any money in the bank, they stll have tingible goods (car, stereo, computer) that can be seized and auctioned. Ask me how I know.

[white_2kgt]

I doubt your monthly payments will be much higher than renting

You can rent for $600-800/mo easily. Even 20 year old 2br condos in reston sell for almost $300k.... Reason #1 why I have no interest in buying here.

While it is true you might not be able to buy a house in the same area that you can RENT, you are still better off sinking your $$$ into a house. Is that 6-800 for the entire place, no roommates? I doubt it. So buy a house and get a roommate, problem solved, a 300k house, given the right person doing the financing could only run you $1500, or less.

There is NO argument for renting, unless you just HAVE to live in the middle of a city and not 15-20 minutes outside of it.

Thats not necessarily true
You have to realize that when buying a house you are still "throwing away" a good chunk of change in interest. The tax deduction effectively reduces the interest paid by 30%. What usually offsets this is that the house is appreciating. Since we are in a flat (to negative) market for the short term (2 years?) you have to look at things differently.

For example,
In a $500k 30y mortgage, you have about a $3100 payment, $2700 of which goes to interest! Factor in tax deduction which means you pay about $1900 in interest. Compare that to rent at about $600-$1000 (heavily depending on personal preference of course) and renting is the more economical.
Ordinarily if homes were appreciating that would be well worth it, but since they arent in the short term, that would be $65k paid in interest ($45k tax adjusted) in just 2 years, compared to $14k-24k in rent. And since the houses arent appreciating you arent missing out on that equity gain as a renter, and that money you save in not paying interest you can save for a down payment.

Anyway, this is just my personal thoughts, and my reasoning for not buying a place for 1-2 more years. It changes things of course if you get renters to cover half or more of the mortgage.

This coming from someone who argues that buying a new car is a better financial decision than buying used.

Lets see how you all are making out in 10 years still renting.

[.RJ]

This coming from someone who argues that buying a new car is a better financial decision than buying used.

Apples to Kumquats.

A more reasonable argument in that regard would be buying new, vs. leasing new... and thats really a wash depending on how much you drive and the deals available - just like buying vs. renting.

[Evan]

Lets see how you all are making out in 10 years still renting.

10 years? apparently your reading is about as good as your math.

[HAULN-SS]

So - want to PM me with some info being that I am a potential first time home buyer? Or you can post it here, if people are interested.

[CaptainHenreh]

So - want to PM me with some info being that I am a potential first time home buyer? Or you can post it here, if people are interested.

X2

[white_2kgt]

So - want to PM me with some info being that I am a potential first time home buyer? Or you can post it here, if people are interested.

What do you want to know? Go find a Real Estate Agent and start looking. Don't sign some retarded contract that you will give them all your business for 6 months, call up your bank, get a loan approval letter and start researching loan options to see how much you actually COULD swing for a house. Set a realistic goal for yourself as to how long you plan on staying in the house, that will determine the best type of loan for you and how much to spend on the house and what condition you want it in. In MD first time home buyers don't have to pay certain closing fees (added up to several thousands when we bought).

[HAULN-SS]

Well, I mean Lee said he could go over financing programs and first time buyer programs, etc etc. I'm all about hearing about that kind of stuff

[.RJ]

What do you want to know? Go find a Real Estate Agent and start looking.

Its not always that simple.

If you dont start looking without having any clue what you're looking for, or how you plan to buy it then you're much more likely to get hosed. Its like walking into a car dealership and paying full sticker for a car and then financing it @ 12% because you didnt know any better.

[WRXtranceformed]

The advice I could offer would be based on your financial information, which you may or may not want to be sharing with the rest of the world here hehe.

If you're really interested, send me a PM and I can run some numbers for you. I can calculate your ratios to see whether or not you would be qualified for a loan and I can give you an estimate of your monthly payments based on whatever the purchase price minus the down payment of a home that you find will be. I can also roughly calculate your closing costs as well as play around with down payments / current outstanding debt payoffs to find out what would work best for you.

[Andy]

In my mind, if you don't have close to 40-50K sitting in the bank, looking for a house is a waste of your time unless you're just researching the market.

Joan and I were almost about to pull the trigger on a house in Burke but that number was too stupifying.

[HAULN-SS]

PM sent

[WRXtranceformed]

In my mind, if you don't have close to 40-50K sitting in the bank, looking for a house is a waste of your time unless you're just researching the market.

Joan and I were almost about to pull the trigger on a house in Burke but that number was too stupifying.

That's not exactly the case =) I won't have 40-50k in cash when I look to purchase a house next year. You can finance down payments / closing costs as well. The more you have to put down generally makes payments easier on you, unless it makes more sense for you to keep it in savings to earn interest on it, or to pay off outstanding loans to reduce your monthly debts.

[WRXtranceformed]

PM sent

Cool, I'll run some numbers later tonight for you. I'll send you a PM if I have any questions for you 8)