Home Buying & Real Estate Thread

thats cool. I went sherwin williams too "repose gray" in love with this color.
 
anyone have experience or deal with land/acreage deals?

i live in az and always wanted a couple acres of land with a small manufactured/modular home. since this would be my 'first home' ive been looking into first-time-buyer type stuff, but have come to find out that land/home mortgages are a little different. just looking for a little advice if anyone has any. thanks!
 
Anyone had to deal with noisy neighbors ? The nice weather has rolled around and this dude across the street just loves to blast music. I live in a really quiet neighborhood. No one else on the block does it. I don't hear anyone blasting music when I'm driving through the neighborhood or walking my dog. This dude came up to me to introduce himself a couple of weeks ago and started talking to me about a guy two doors down and his family leaving their cars on the block for over a week without moving them. He felt the need to say something because he's disrespecting the neighbors. The ironyyyy. :{

I can see my tenant wanting to move because of this too. You can hear the music with the windows closed. Of course i'm directly across the street from him. :|
 
Anyone had to deal with noisy neighbors ? The nice weather has rolled around and this dude across the street just loves to blast music. I live in a really quiet neighborhood. No one else on the block does it. I don't hear anyone blasting music when I'm driving through the neighborhood or walking my dog. This dude came up to me to introduce himself a couple of weeks ago and started talking to me about a guy two doors down and his family leaving their cars on the block for over a week without moving them. He felt the need to say something because he's disrespecting the neighbors. The ironyyyy. :{

I can see my tenant wanting to move because of this too. You can hear the music with the windows closed. Of course i'm directly across the street from him. :|

I live in a condo with an HOA, so these kinds of issue generally can be handled by them; but they also state if its during the night time hours (9-10pm - 6 am) youre better off having your tenant call the police.

I think most would prefer not to have the police involved, but who wants to deal with that stuff?
I wonder what the neighbors next to him think sheeesh
 
I live in a condo with an HOA, so these kinds of issue generally can be handled by them; but they also state if its during the night time hours (9-10pm - 6 am) youre better off having your tenant call the police.

I think most would prefer not to have the police involved, but who wants to deal with that stuff?
I wonder what the neighbors next to him think sheeesh

My neighborhood is made up of mostly two family homes. We missed out on a house across the street from these 4 family co-ops/condos. You have to deal with more people but at least they have rules against things like this. I was actually worried about moving across the street from a bunch of 3 family buildings. :{
 
My brother would definitely be that neighbor. I cant stand when people have no respect for other people when they blast their music.

I would say to talk to him but i honestly doubt it would be beneficial.

Has it just started since the good weather? Or has it been going on for a while?
 
My brother would definitely be that neighbor. I cant stand when people have no respect for other people when they blast their music.

I would say to talk to him but i honestly doubt it would be beneficial.

Has it just started since the good weather? Or has it been going on for a while?

We moved in close to November so it was already cold by then. Yesterday, was the worst. The loud music from the early afternoon until 10PM, BBQ in the front of the house out of the garage, a lot of people, tons of cars double parked. :{
 
Best to try and talk to him and ask him to turn it off at 10PM.

if he still doing it after 10PM call the cops and report a noise disturbance.

How long do you plan on staying there, this is the house hack right?
 
Last edited:
when selling, if ur not using an agent, all u need is a lawyer? would love to save commission but damn i heard the closing process is like a full time job!
 
Last edited:
when selling, if ur not using an agent, all u need is a lawyer? would love to save commission but damn i heard the closing pricess is like a full time job!
Consider using Redfin, they claim to charge 50% less than other realtors
 
Last edited:
when selling, if ur not using an agent, all u need is a lawyer? would love to save commission but damn i heard the closing pricess is like a full time job!

Yes, find yourself a good real estate attorney/title company.

How do you plan on finding buyers, though?
 
Went to a NACA meeting last weekend and it sounds promising. A lot of ground work to work on as far as savings but it sounds promising. My first counseling session isn't until August though :{ But I'm chalking that up to it only being one woman handling them and she's based out of Cleveland since Pittsburgh never showed interest in the program to get an office up here.


Be prepared to take atleast 8 months to get a loan and close. Heard it took some people a year with NACA.

Well yea, it takes a while due to the things they want you to do. They want you to save a certain amount so that it becomes habit to live within a certain means so that you don't overextend yourself. They also want you to have paperwork in order and show a paper trail of major bills like rent. I feel like what they're asking for isn't unreasonable considering the majority demographic that they're dealing with (bad credit, moderate to lower income, bad saving habits, etc.)

They have a fast track to those that have everything together and are ready to buy real soon also. Out of the group my wife and I were in, it was about 6 people out of 100+ who were ready that day to purchase so there were other things they had to go over w/ them after we left.

I don't anticipate buying a house in the near future, which is good because I can't swallow the property taxes here in Pittsburgh, came across a 4br/2ba house for $152k and about $4k in property taxes, can't do it.

I'm going through the process now. My first meeting/consultation with NACA was 02/12/2016.. I've gone to about 4-5 diifferent meeting with them for a number of reasons. They always want additional paper work that I can't provide on the spot so I have to reschedule. Like tax transcripts/documents from the IRS that take weeks to arrive or a passport since my ID was out of state. That took 4 weeks or so. My credit score was fine so they didn't require me to show monthly bills and all so that was cool... It's been 3 months though and I still technically haven't been approved by their underwriter.

Lastly, I'm paying them $12 every time they pull my credit. So far it's only been at two different meetings but I'm starting to wonder how long they're going to keep me jumping through these hoops and in addition to the $25 membership fee how much this is going to cost me. A local bank approved me within a week and had me looking into 1st time owner programs quickly that offered $5-$7K. they however required about $2-3K in closing costs and much higher interest rates without the ability to buy them down.

My agent tells me it's worth it since I can buy down my interest rate, and I don't wanna pay PMI so I'm going to stay the course. I'm doing my first volunteer day as well this week I think... to save thousands on closing costs and PMI this all my be worth it.



Hey guys, just wanted to follow up regarding the entire Naca process. I was able to close finally on 06/23...

Naca is absolutely a pain... especially if your counselor/loan officer is incompetent.

However, if you stick with it it pays off pretty well. I was able to buy my interest down to 3% flat, no PMI, and no closing costs.. all the money I paid throughout the process for credit checks and things like that were also refunded to me thankfully. Just wanted to follow up and offer encouragement to anyone going through the process.
 
Hey guys, just wanted to follow up regarding the entire Naca process. I was able to close finally on 06/23...

how much was the property? and how much does NACA require DP? Also did they throw in any free DP $?
 
Thinking about buying a condo to rent out in Chicago. What are some decent areas? Colleges? I've only been there a handful of times but I feel like that's the next city to pop.
 
Thinking about buying a condo to rent out in Chicago. What are some decent areas? Colleges? I've only been there a handful of times but I feel like that's the next city to pop.
well it's generally a popular area with working people and students from all over the country, so most probably you will not go wrong if you invest here. though to advise smth one needs to understand your strategy, like how much you are going to invest and how much you want to get from it. and what is your strategy overall? if you aim at students then choose any area as close to local colleges as possible (or well connected to them) if it's not the only option you are considering you can turn to office or industrial spaces that are very promising in Chicago too (from PwC research here) so hard to tell really, depends on your plans and needs.
 
Thinking about buying a condo to rent out in Chicago. What are some decent areas? Colleges? I've only been there a handful of times but I feel like that's the next city to pop.

Pop how? The schools are bad the property tax is attrocius and the city is not great in PR with drugs crime and money. Where you looking?
 
Officially closed on my second home in June and will be moving in two weeks.  Townhome here in the Bay Area right along side a golf course.  The prices out here in the Bay are freaking insane but i honestly wouldn't live anywhere else other than Socal.  The job market out here is like no other and i have an amazing job.  
 
Officially closed on my second home in June and will be moving in two weeks.  Townhome here in the Bay Area right along side a golf course.  The prices out here in the Bay are freaking insane but i honestly wouldn't live anywhere else other than Socal.  The job market out here is like no other and i have an amazing job.  

Congrats! Purchasing a home here is a huge accomplishment with the price tag they have on them.
 
Last edited:
well it's generally a popular area with working people and students from all over the country, so most probably you will not go wrong if you invest here. though to advise smth one needs to understand your strategy, like how much you are going to invest and how much you want to get from it. and what is your strategy overall? if you aim at students then choose any area as close to local colleges as possible (or well connected to them) if it's not the only option you are considering you can turn to office or industrial spaces that are very promising in Chicago too (from PwC research here) so hard to tell really, depends on your plans and needs.
just looking to rent out properties for extra income, I have about 60K to use

been looking at properties around Uni of Chicago and John Marshall Law


Pop how? The schools are bad the property tax is attrocius and the city is not great in PR with drugs crime and money. Where you looking?

I don't know the areas, I'm in here asking what areas I should be looking at :lol

Pop in the sense that the prices in the south for decent housing are starting become a little expensive. More than likely people are going to began to migrate to another region of the US.

Just me being a conspiracist I feel like we're about to see Chicago have a huge turn around as far as media PR/schools/crime. It's about to get gentrified.
 
just looking to rent out properties for extra income, I have about 60K to use

been looking at properties around Uni of Chicago and John Marshall Law
I don't know the areas, I'm in here asking what areas I should be looking at :lol

Pop in the sense that the prices in the south for decent housing are starting become a little expensive. More than likely people are going to began to migrate to another region of the US.

Just me being a conspiracist I feel like we're about to see Chicago have a huge turn around as far as media PR/schools/crime. It's about to get gentrified.


Isn't most of Chicago already gentrified? Condos near Depaul / John Marshall Law School go from $500k-$1m. $60k won't even get you 20% down on most units down there, except for 1 bed / 1 bath.

A lot of RE investors use the 1% rule, where your monthly rent charge should be 1% of the sale price of the unit/house. So a $300k condo, should rent for $3k per month. Not sure there are many around Depaul like that
 
if the universities are your basis, check out Rogers Park...it's just north of Loyola Chicago, and south of Northwestern in Evanston, which is really expensive...RP and Evanston are both on the Purple Line, so its a straight shot for students going north to Northwestern's campus...
 
Back
Top Bottom