The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Apoc]

 I think you're onto something.

We've been living this out west for a few years.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/western-cit...1528294587

The hot pursuit of places to park money abroad by Chinese investors drove an estimated $100 billion in property purchases outside China in 2016, according to Juwai.com, a Chinese real-estate website. The buying frenzy, which grew from $5 billion in 2010, helped swell prices for housing and commercial real estate in cities on the Pacific Rim and beyond.

[HAULN-SS]

I didn't go to college for you to not post some behind the paywall shit directly to this forum.

[WRXtranceformed]

Didn't Canada put some absurd tax on non-resident homes because Chinese buyers were buying up so much real estate up there? That's one way to fix the problem, make it so that it's financially foolish to park money there

[Apoc]

I didn't go to college for you to not post some  behind the paywall shit directly to this forum.

Works for me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Didn't Canada put some absurd tax on non-resident homes because Chinese buyers were buying up so much real estate up there?  That's one way to fix the problem, make it so that it's financially foolish to park money there

That's what the article says. Problem is they just went to a different city.

[Senor_Taylor]

Just curious. How old was everyone when they finally bought?

No, I'm not planning on buying a house.

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[Ryan T]

Just curious. How old was everyone when they finally bought?

No, I'm not planning on buying a house.

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Bought my first house at 26, second house at 33.

[Sijray21]

Just curious. How old was everyone when they finally bought?

No, I'm not planning on buying a house.

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I lol'd at the disclaimer.

28, but it was 2012 and a dip in the housing market with REALLY low interest rates. Bought a SFH, but I would've bought a TH if I were single.

[JustinG]

First house: 23 (purchased in 2008, womp womp)
Second house: 31
Third house: 52

[Sully]

First house: 23 (purchased in 2008, womp womp)
Second house: 31
Third house: 52

I got super confused for a second lol

First house: 27 apparently

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[HAULN-SS]

First House 23 (2007..dumb)
Second house 33

If I had to do it over again, I'd have saved a few more years and bought a couple townhouses and kept them as rentals in like 2010...hindsight....

[Apoc]

25, 28, 36

[Steve85]

30, in 2002. Sold a couple years later which seemed great but also meant we bought again then too. Second house at 32, third at 44. (We had the pleasure of owning the 2nd and 3rd house together for 8 months)

The second house appraised for something like $150K over the purchase price right before the market crapped itself. It was a drive-by appraisal, the guy never even got out of his car. Such a ridiculous time in every aspect of the real estate industry. It definitely didn't sell for 150K over a decade later...

[D_Eclipse9916]

24: First townhouse, I wouldn't suggest it. I did it because I lived with my mom for 2 years saving for down payment, but the market completely dropped out so interest rates were stupid low and the house was a steal.

31: Current House, higher interest rate, I believe higher risk in terms of growth. Bought anyways because we had extreme specifics and are willing to write off growth/value for those attributes.

[WRXtranceformed]

First house 24 (townhouse). Also purchased right before the downturn but still got a pretty good deal. A few years later, the "Good Mortgage Payer" relief program helped me refinance and gain back a ton of equity, some of which I then used for:
Second house 34 (sf). Our house was the cheapest on the block and I believe if we were to sell now we would probably have between $50,000-$70,000 in equity

[Sijray21]

just curious, how much did most of you pay in closing costs (not including repairs, buyer requests) for selling homes? In the NOVA area it seems common that the seller pay for agent fees, but is that common in other areas?

[D_Eclipse9916]

just curious, how much did most of you pay in closing costs (not including repairs, buyer requests) for selling homes? In the NOVA area it seems common that the seller pay for agent fees, but is that common in other areas?

6% plus some other small stuff.  It's a racket, and if we werent buying another house a state away, I would have considered redfins 1% (instead of 3%).  Paying out $39k to two real estate agents made me sick.  

Then again, our house went under contract the day it was listed with contingencies waived at the price we asked.  It's up for debate if we could have squeezed another $15-20k out of it.  It selling quickly and contingencies waived meant we didnt have to worry about doubling up on mortgage and taking care of anything 6 hours away, ces la vie.

[.RJ]

just curious, how much did most of you pay in closing costs (not including repairs, buyer requests) for selling homes? In the NOVA area it seems common that the seller pay for agent fees, but is that common in other areas?

Seller pays 6% closing costs, split between the agents.

I put about $3k into some final cleanup/landscaping/updates that I wouldnt have done if I werent moving.  The sellers of my new place are going to be in about $6k doing some roof repairs and other small stuff.  

When I bought the house I'm in now it was pretty common for sellers to contribute some money at closing... 7 years on, the market has changed and it seems to be unusual to have that included in the contract.  I'm not getting any on the new house, and dont plan on giving any up on the old house.  It looks like closing costs on the new place are around 3% of the sale at $20k.  I need to go back and do some math on that before we lock the rate because that also includes paying down the interest rate with 1 point ($6k).  

So yeah, moving is fucking expensive.  The closing costs and realtor fees alone would buy me a 996 turbo.

The buying/selling industry is the same as it was in the 1950's and its fucking awful.

[HAULN-SS]

Bought both houses with no realtor. Sellers paid closing costs, or in the case of the second i paid a lawyer 1500 bucks to close the deal for us, and negotiated about 65k off the cost of the house, which was partially the elimination of the buyer agent fee.

[ScottyB]

Just curious. How old was everyone when they finally bought?

33 in 2014 after renting for 9 years. the market sucked so we were super fortunate to get a killer interest rate.

we almost bought our first place in atlanta in 2008, literally 2 months before the crash. if that had happened we would have probably been stuck seriously underwater on it and i'd still be living there to this day.

The buying/selling industry is the same as it was in the 1950's and its fucking awful.

i imagine this is probably why the real estate industry attracts so many complete hacks. finding a good agent is a genuine quest.

[Apoc]

We used to do agents, but this last time we did a real estate broker who is also a lawyer. They did a flat rate of $5000 and the seller paid the 6%, so we basically got $12,000 off our closing costs (e.g. points).

Their rates have gone up quite a bit ($8,000 for sellers; $9,000 for buyers), but we'll still use them when we sell because the old way is dumb as shit. I think we'll upgrade next year and it'll probably save us ~$35,000.

http://walawrealty.com/fees/

Stupidly, the listing agent refused to talk to me and asked I have my agent call him. Dumbass. I will never use a realtor again, if I can help it.