House Purchase Advice

[HAULN-SS]

According to my handy-dandy salary survey tool that I use to build our billing rates, job-for-job is about a 7% delta DC to Richmond.

e.g. Applications Systems Analyst/Programmer with a BS and 5-7yrs, we would expect to have to pay 81K in Richmond and 88K in DC (higher in Fairfax). So, dual income family in NOVA/DC will have about 14K additional gross income to put towards a mortgage. With milk, cars, etc the same price, the extra income almost always gets put towards the hou$e.

That sounds like a low number to me. I work for a contractor as a programmer, and anyone with 7 years is going to be pushing 100K, and I am basing this based on performance increases and stuff that I have seen in the last 3 years, when half that we were supposedly in a recession.

[Apoc]

That sounds like a low number to me. I work for a contractor as a programmer, and anyone with 7 years is going to be pushing 100K, and I am basing this based on performance increases and stuff that I have seen in the last 3 years, when half that we were supposedly in a recession.

Contract work is almost always paid more than salaried employees. You have to remember there are companies with 100 people who have 2 programmers that don't really have the cash flow to pay as much as larger companies. Since the vast majority of businesses are small business, the average gets dragged down.

[Steve85]

To some extent I agree, some are above, some are below the 88K. I have people on a regular basis that produce a a near zero margin but you make up for it on others. These are usually key personnel that the govt has told you, "If you don't have that guy on your team, you won't win the bid".

For the pay grade the skills represent, I'm showing a 40K delta from highest to lowest, with plenty at the 100K you suggest, the avg is in-line though. It gets a little muddy when you try to align job descriptions with labor category descriptions that don't always inlcude specific education requirements and so on. So it's possible to have two people in the same labor cat, working side-by-side, one making 95K and the other 75K.

It's hard not to give govt contractors raises when they know the rate you're charging the govt is going up annually based on predetermined escalation rates.

And Chris is right, Lockheeds rates in many of the same categories we have ,support an additional 20-30K in salary while our small business subs pay almost half for the same "person".

[Evan]

It's hard not to give govt contractors raises when they know the rate you're charging the govt is going up annually based on predetermined escalation rates.

my compnay has no problem not giving out raises but collecting an extra 12-15k every year on the seat.... :roll:

[HAULN-SS]

Hrmm..interesting. I had no idea is was that much of a swing. I had kind of been under the impression smaller java shops and such paid more.

[Evan]

"regular" programmers dont make much. Specialization is where the money is.

[Steve85]

It's hard not to give govt contractors raises when they know the rate you're charging the govt is going up annually based on predetermined escalation rates.

my compnay has no problem not giving out raises but collecting an extra 12-15k every year on the seat.... :roll:

If it makes you feel any better, BAH escalation on a pretty large Army IDIQ, ITES-2S, is only about 2.4%. So even the highly paid Sr Software Engineer ($140/hr to the gov) only collects an additional $6100/yr. Of course if they don't pass any of that along, it indeed, is :roll: . ($3.29/hr increase '08-'09 x 1880 billable hrs).

[.RJ]

So even the highly paid Sr Software Engineer ($140/hr to the gov)

Hmm... Our GSA rate for Sr Analyst/Developer rate is about $50 higher than that :bootyshake:

Good thing I didnt get a raise this year and the company announced a $40M profit for 3Q (3,000 employees). Oh wait wrong thread :lol:

[ViPER1313]

OK, here is where I'm at. I found a townhouse that I really like - good condition, great neighborhood, etc.... This house came on the market yesterday at 162,900, which is really low for the area (last sold in 2005 for $250k, the house shows really well.) I am still waiting to find out if the property is a foreclosure or not (it is not listed as being a foreclosure or a short sale, but it's owned by an REO?? - my realestate agent is trying to get to the bottom of it.)

I am going to make an offer on it today - I filled out all of the paperwork this morning, the question is for how much - these properties turn into bidding wars. My real estate agent is telling me that if it is a foreclosure, banks don't normally deal with escalation clauses.

I could realistically go 10k above the asking price, anything more is REALLY stretching it. I don't want to just throw away 10k extra "just because" either.

Suggestions?

[CaptainHenreh]

Good luck man. All the "really really nice" places we put bids on we got FBXRD to the tune of 25 grand. Bid what you're comfortable with, and don't over extend yourself.

[Mike]

good luck!

[Steve85]

If you are willing and can afford it, then the 10K has value. I don't think it's throwing it away. If you get it, it's a price you were willing to pay. Do you want to throw away the opportunity over 2K because someone else came in 8K above? I'm not saying "do it", just decide whether it's worth 172,500 to YOU. (of course your realtor should determine if the house in the area and so on is worth the range you are dealing with) If it was only worth 168,000 to the next highest offer, what do you care?

Best of luck!

[JustinG]

as soon as you buy a house i guarantee it will become the first SHO ranch in MM

[Evan]

OK, here is where I'm at. I found a townhouse that I really like - good condition, great neighborhood, etc.... This house came on the market yesterday at 162,900, which is really low for the area (last sold in 2005 for $250k, the house shows really well.) I am still waiting to find out if the property is a foreclosure or not (it is not listed as being a foreclosure or a short sale, but it's owned by an REO?? - my realestate agent is trying to get to the bottom of it.)

I am going to make an offer on it today - I filled out all of the paperwork this morning, the question is for how much - these properties turn into bidding wars. My real estate agent is telling me that if it is a foreclosure, banks don't normally deal with escalation clauses.

I could realistically go 10k above the asking price, anything more is REALLY stretching it. I don't want to just throw away 10k extra "just because" either.

Suggestions?

My experience was that I put in an offer for list price, and then the selling agent called my agent to say that someone had bid higher, would you like to ammend your offer.
So its probably safe to assume that you can put in an offer for list price, and if someone bids it up, you will have a chance to increase your offer.

unless of course its a short sale or foreclosure, in which case the bank could just collect contracts for a few weeks and pick the highest one with no communication

[ViPER1313]

This is a foreclosure....

I'm going to put in a bid a little over 170k and ask for a small amount of help closing. I'll see how it turns out.

[JustinG]

good luck sir

[CaptainHenreh]

This is a foreclosure....

I'm going to put in a bid a little over 170k and ask for a small amount of help closing. I'll see how it turns out.

Don't expect more than 3%.

[ViPER1313]

I asked for 2%

[WRXtranceformed]

Good luck bro! Don't get discouraged if you miss out on this one, there are plenty of options out there right now! haha

[ViPER1313]

9 offers on the house. For some reason they lowered the asking price to 146k over the weekend (not getting enough offers initially?!???) Sticking by my original offer - I'll see how it turns out. Hopefully I will know later today.