Home Buying & Real Estate Thread

I had budgeted for the foundation beforehand but I was just surprised by how big the root was.

How much is that to fix? Also when you bought I assumed you were all cash no contingencies? or was the home inspected.
 
How much is that to fix? Also when you bought I assumed you were all cash no contingencies? or was the home inspected.

There were cracks in the kitchen, family room, master bedroom, and the living room (pictured) and we added caissons to prevent future foundation issues and it costs $30k. We bought the property all cash no contingencies.
 
How much is that to fix? Also when you bought I assumed you were all cash no contingencies? or was the home inspected.
Investors generally do a pretty thorough walk through to get their numbers in line before offering with no contingencies. Then they budget a certain portion for unforeseen things such as root in the foundation :lol
 
Investors generally do a pretty thorough walk through to get their numbers in line before offering with no contingencies. Then they budget a certain portion for unforeseen things such as root in the foundation :lol

I know he bought w/ out contingencies, I wanted to confirm.
 
Decided to do a Quartz waterfall on the kitchen island. I've done it on the last 3 projects. Debating if I should do it again on my new project. What do u guys think?

700

700

700
 
How much does that cost?

As a realtor, I think it looks awesome because it's something I don't see everyday. Just don't know much the general public would actually value that...
 
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How much does that cost?

As a realtor, I think it looks awesome because it's something I don't see everyday. Just don't know much the general public would actually value that...

Cost varies depending on the Quartz/slab, size, etc...

In this case it wasn't much extra since we already paid for the Quartz and we had enough left over to do it. This is the first time I've incorporated it on an island and I'm diggin it. We wanted a focal point as soon as you walk in and have a "wow factor" since this will mainly be used as an eating surface.
 
Yeah man it definitely looks good.

My point was that most buyers won't even recognize off the bat how nice it is, so you could probably get away with leaving it out and saving some money (in this case you already had it left over).
 
So a house down the block from me was foreclosed a few years ago and ended up going to auction. I knew the owner and he just walked away from it. Moved out over night. The guy had just built a garage for the boat he had just bought which he was towing with his new Chevy z71. He had lived there my entire life so I didn't really understand why he was walking away. I saw the new owner a few times trying to do some rehab work by himself, sometimes with his wife. Seemed like a pretty small time type of guy. I started seeing less and less of him until one day some heavy activity picked up over there. I noticed they had dug a trench around the whole house and had supports up against the foundation. Then I knew why the old owner had walked away. Fast forward a couple years to today and they completely demolished the old house and have just finished building a huge new house in it's place. I'm pretty sure the original auction buyer never anticipated building a house from scratch twice the size on that lot. So my question is, can buying homes at auctions really turn out that bad? It seems to me this guy bought a simple foreclosure/rehab that ended up having serious foundation damage which couldn't be salvaged. I know they say you aren't really allowed to do inspections or given much info at all about the condition of properties at auctions. Can anyone talk about how to guard against something like this happening, or what are the safest ways to do auctions/forclosures/short sales/bank sales.
 
Yeah man it definitely looks good.

My point was that most buyers won't even recognize off the bat how nice it is, so you could probably get away with leaving it out and saving some money (in this case you already had it left over).
I get what you are saying...not everybody will know what it is unless i point it out to them. Even then, some people will be like whatever. lol.
 
 
Damn, how would this be resolved? Gutting the foundation?
We gutted the foundation in that room pictured and made the necessary cuts in other areas of the house. That's like the least of our worries...the property is on a hill so it's sloping. To prevent it, we are adding caissons. We are fixing the foundation correctly so that the future homeowner will not have to worry about anything.
 
I like the quartz waterfall, I am going to assume that you are going for a high end look. High end buyers will appreciate the look and the quartz. Very easy to tell the difference between quartz and granite.
 
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.
 
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Sounds stressful.

But you sound like you know what you want from the program so just stay on task and im sure it will be fine.
 
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.

The worst part tho is I'm currently living with my GF who I don't plan on moving in with when I get my home. Because we live together now though they required her attend the first meeting which was uncomfortable somewhat and that I provide her pay stubs at each meeting throughout the process. They also pulled her credit, and a HARD pull that appeared on her credit report which didn't go over well because they told us it was a soft pull. Fortunately she's being cool about it but it's just uncomfortable all around to have her name and credit throughout this process when she won't actually be on the mortgage.

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.

Ive done loans and still do conventional loans for friends and family but I don't know much about NACA except for the fact they have you take classes, etc...

But why would they pull your GF's credit or have her provide pay stubs if she's not even on the loan? And for them to say it's a soft pull is ridiculous. So if you told them you lived on your own they wouldn't have to have your GF's info?
 
brandon3000 brandon3000 my goodness bruh. Our first meeting isn't until August so until then, we're getting our paperwork in order. Keep us posted on your progress, I hope things stay going more smoothly for you.
 
My mother wants to purchase a home. Shes retired and has a pretty nice amount in her ira but only has social security for income (like $2k a month). Debt isnt too bad. Any suggestions?
 
Since we bought our house, we decided to renovate it before we moved in.  It's an older home so I knew we would have some plumbing and electrical to do.  The structure of the home was in great shape, and some of the details were so cool.  I've been enjoying the hell out of it.  Working out the little design details that give people the "ohhhhhhh, ah ha" moments...LOL

The original state

Mid demo

Floors gone, and to be re-leveled.

Super cool joist hangers.  Formed from steel.  SO dope!!!

New sub floor and exterior framing done. [needed insulation]

I'll keep you guys updated through the process.
 
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