Home Buying & Real Estate Thread

I got my pre approval letter today. 3.75 interest rate from Citi. I sent it to my realtor and she started sending me properties REAL QUICK! :lol
 
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I got my pre approval letter today. 3.75 interest rate from Citi. I sent it to my realtor and she started sending me properties REAL QUICK! :lol

Same interest rate I got. Just got out of attorney review and I scheduled an Inspector to take a look at the house next week. I'm getting very excited right now, I can't believe I'm about to do this.
 
Same interest rate I got. Just got out of attorney review and I scheduled an Inspector to take a look at the house next week. I'm getting very excited right now, I can't believe I'm about to do this.

Im not that far along but I already have that feeling. The two houses I wanted that were sitting on the market for a while just came off in the last few days. Transunion took forever to take off the last negative on my report. :{

Any advice on scouting neighborhoods ? My issue is we live an hour away from where we're looking. I work a lot. My girl has a 9-5. Going there during rush hour would take forever. I guess we just have to suck it up.
 
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Same interest rate I got. Just got out of attorney review and I scheduled an Inspector to take a look at the house next week. I'm getting very excited right now, I can't believe I'm about to do this.

Im not that far along but I already have that feeling. The two houses I wanted that were sitting on the market for a while just came off in the last few days. Transunion took forever to take off the last negative on my report. :{

Any advice on scouting neighborhoods ? My issue is we live an hour away from where we're looking. I work a lot. My girl has a 9-5. Going there during rush hour would take forever. I guess we just have to suck it up.

Where are you guys looking?
 
I would start with citydata its a forum for moms and nosey neighbors but you can get get some good info about cities and neighborhoods. Just check the date on the posts
Citydata a lil iffy to me, stay calling areas "seedy" lol. Good info on there though, but check the neighborhoods for

yourself they are scared of everything on there.
 
Im not that far along but I already have that feeling. The two houses I wanted that were sitting on the market for a while just came off in the last few days. Transunion took forever to take off the last negative on my report. :{

Any advice on scouting neighborhoods ? My issue is we live an hour away from where we're looking. I work a lot. My girl has a 9-5. Going there during rush hour would take forever. I guess we just have to suck it up.

What I like to do also is talking to the neighbors when you find the house you like. Ask them questions like how long they've lived there, if they have families/kids, how's the neighborhood, etc..
And I'm sure you can check online for crime rates in the area.
 
Citydata a lil iffy to me, stay calling areas "seedy" lol. Good info on there though, but check the neighborhoods for
yourself they are scared of everything on there.

Yeah, I made a post on city data and it definitely seems that way. :lol

I was just talking to a loan officer and she gave me some great advice. Just visit the local supermarket. You'll see the type of people who live in the neighborhood.
 
Yup CityData is definitely the post gentrification crowd, wouldn't dare move to a place that isn't cleaned up.
 
Goto neighborhoodscout and plug in the address. It gives you objective information about the neighborhood: ethnicity, language, socioeconomic class, average rents, crime, etc. Then ask a random "im thinking about moving to this neighborhood, how is it?"
 
I got my pre approval letter today. 3.75 interest rate from Citi. I sent it to my realtor and she started sending me properties REAL QUICK! :lol
Yup. Good realtors will not show you a single property until they see that pre-approval from you. Once you can supply that, we are definitely ready to get you into something :lol


Any advice on scouting neighborhoods ? My issue is we live an hour away from where we're looking. I work a lot. My girl has a 9-5. Going there during rush hour would take forever. I guess we just have to suck it up.
Make a list of things that you value most. Proximity to restaurants/shopping, schools, proximity to work, etc. While it may be a bit difficult for you since you live kind of far, make sure to drive through the neighborhoods at different times of day to get a feel for what is going on.
 
So we ran our second application and my girls score was a lot lower than we thought. We pulled her credit report and she has a late payment for a Victoria secret card in 9/2012. She called VS, and they said they only keep track of the last 12 months. I hope it's an easy fix and they can redo the applications.
 
Same interest rate I got. Just got out of attorney review and I scheduled an Inspector to take a look at the house next week. I'm getting very excited right now, I can't believe I'm about to do this.

Im not that far along but I already have that feeling. The two houses I wanted that were sitting on the market for a while just came off in the last few days. Transunion took forever to take off the last negative on my report. :{

Any advice on scouting neighborhoods ? My issue is we live an hour away from where we're looking. I work a lot. My girl has a 9-5. Going there during rush hour would take forever. I guess we just have to suck it up.

I guess that citydata is a good tool. We're still relatively in the same area, so we're very familiar with the town we're moving into. Great school, great town, and it's honestly my "realistic" dream house. I feel like I could go on and on, but I don't want to jinx anything :lol

Popeye's and KFC are pretty close too so... :Nthat
 
I checked out the city data forum. Like someone said before their definition of "shady area" is the most minute thing. If there were 3 persons who are colored coming out of a car, they would claim the area is filled with gangs.
 
Anyone use property shark ? I'm wondering how accurate information like this is.

1000
 
The house has been on the market for 3 days and we've got a full askING price offer. They want a sellers concession though, one more viewing tonight.
 
We might of underestimated our market. The two houses we liked ended up being short sales, so they were discounted and removed from the market just when we started looking. We've been glued to Trulia the last few days and we can't find anything in our budget that we like. She has shown us houses over the budget but we don't feel like over extending ourselves. We're two people and a dog. We don't need a big house and be house poor. She gave us the ol' "10K is only about $40 more a month speech". We pay cheap rent and have to move by next year so we're in no rush. The journey continues...
 
We might of underestimated our market. The two houses we liked ended up being short sales, so they were discounted and removed from the market just when we started looking. We've been glued to Trulia the last few days and we can't find anything in our budget that we like. She has shown us houses over the budget but we don't feel like over extending ourselves. We're two people and a dog. We don't need a big house and be house poor. She gave us the ol' "10K is only about $40 more a month speech". We pay cheap rent and have to move by next year so we're in no rush. The journey continues...

My coworker is in a similar position.

He went to an open house this weekend on the upper west side and because it was "priced low" they had about 40 people lined up half an hour before the open house waiting to go inside.

Best and final offers are due by 12pm today and I dont think he is even going to submit an offer because they kinda feel defeated.
 
10K over budget isn't that bad, but if those houses are well above your needs then it doesn't make sense.
 
10K over budget isn't that bad, but if those houses are well above your needs then it doesn't make sense.

I'm cheap but not that cheap. :lol

She's showing me homes 20-30k over budget. I just want to go into a house thinking we can pay this off in 20 years.

My coworker is in a similar position.

He went to an open house this weekend on the upper west side and because it was "priced low" they had about 40 people lined up half an hour before the open house waiting to go inside.

Best and final offers are due by 12pm today and I dont think he is even going to submit an offer because they kinda feel defeated.

Damn, that's crazy. I know you recently bought a home right outside of NYC. Did you just depend on your realtor to see what homes have been selling for ?

This just went up. It's out of my budget but she's been showing me homes at 330k that still need updating.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/181-W-5th-St-Deer-Park-NY-11729/32620175_zpid/?utm_source=txtshare
 
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10K over budget isn't that bad, but if those houses are well above your needs then it doesn't make sense.

I'm cheap but not that cheap. :lol

She's showing me homes 20-30k over budget. I just want to go into a house thinking we can pay this off in 20 years.

My coworker is in a similar position.

He went to an open house this weekend on the upper west side and because it was "priced low" they had about 40 people lined up half an hour before the open house waiting to go inside.

Best and final offers are due by 12pm today and I dont think he is even going to submit an offer because they kinda feel defeated.

Damn, that's crazy. I know you recently bought a home right outside of NYC. Did you just depend on your realtor to see what homes have been selling for ?

This just went up. It's out my budget but she's been showing me homes at 330k that still need updating.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/181-W-5th-St-Deer-Park-NY-11729/32620175_zpid/?utm_source=txtshare

I was looking half way serious for about 2 years before I bought so I kinda just knew what things were going for and why the prices were different .

Houses are a little weird because they have so many things that can change how much the market demands. But check on trulia or zillow they should have a sold section and see what things are actually selling for and it should give you a general idea.

I like redfin more than the other sites but they aren't everywhere

I did a search for deer park you can take a look at the last 3 months and go from there.

https://www.redfin.com/city/22365/NY/Deer-Park/filter/include=sold-3mo
 
@Dam itz Lou  lol well that makes sense I thought you literally meant 10K over budget. She was hitting you all with the "Every 10K over is only $40 more/ mo" lol.

Are there houses available in your price range in your market?
 
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