Ole Gray
Mayor of the Woodshed
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2008
- Messages
- 31,292
- Reaction score
- 100
- Location
- Watkinsville, Georgia
- Handicap
- Average
Congrats Ary! Enjoy the new home :blob:
The House Searching / Buying/ Building Thread
arydolphin
GTHC!
Thanks guys. I'm not going to lie, I'm still a bit nervous because it's the biggest purchase that my wife and I have ever made, and I'm still thinking that something will go wrong between now and then. However, it's also exciting to start building up some equity and finally move on from apartment living.
Here's the best feature: it has an outdoor deck, and this is the view from it:
The wife and I have started discussion on our next move as we're not too keen on the middle school district we are in. Here's the hiccup, my daughter starts kindergarten in a couple years, and that's a little earlier than we were hoping for the move so we're trying to figure out where/what we want. We've got it down to a couple different scenarios:
Both options get us into school districts we're comfortable with.
The big question for us is, old/new? Price is probably the biggest factor, just can't get myslef to think getting what I want is worth the money when some of the houses we looked at already have a ton of space for less money. I don't mind a little work. I'm just not handy enoug for a remodel!
- Older home that may need a little bit of work but nothing big. We save some money on the older home and most of the time end up wtih more square feet which brings our price per square foot way down. The layout may not be exactlly what we want and the neighborhood isn't the first pick.
- New/Build home which gives us the finishes and layout we want. We'll end up paying quite a bit more. The new neighborhoods aren't where we want to be and don't knwo where the neighbor expansion will be in a couple years from now. Price per square foot isn't great.
Both options get us into school districts we're comfortable with.
The big question for us is, old/new? Price is probably the biggest factor, just can't get myslef to think getting what I want is worth the money when some of the houses we looked at already have a ton of space for less money. I don't mind a little work. I'm just not handy enoug for a remodel!
ripper
New member
Icey, something with a moderate amount of work could be very interesting, even if you end up hiring someone to do the work for you. Getting a slightly older place that needs some TLC can give you a lot of negotiating power when buying. Good luck!
JRod
Well-known member
Congrats Ary! Why is the closing date so far out? I've never gone farther than 45 days.
arydolphin
GTHC!
Tons of properties turn over around September 1 around here with so many colleges, so the sellers wanted it closer to September 1, we compromised on that one. It's typical to have 60 days between offer and closing up here though...silly lawyers. :wink:
JRod
Well-known member
Agreed on the lawyer bit, and that sounds reasonable enough. Congrats again dude buying a house is awesome. We just sold ours and are closing on July 6, and moving from a 2300 sq ft house to a 710 sq foot rental until we find something else. Our bed only fits in the living room heh.
marshallucf
Member
wife and i are looking to upgrade before we start our family. we just put an offer on a short sale, now we just wait on the bank.
congrats on the place ary! view looks awesome!
congrats on the place ary! view looks awesome!
arydolphin
GTHC!
Just as an FYI, we locked in a 3.875% rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage. Even if you are just thinking of refinancing instead of buying a new place, it's worth looking into getting a rate like that, I doubt it goes much lower.
It really is incredible to get a 30 year rate like that. We refinanced in February at something similar.
- Staff
- #212
We just re-fied for something stupidly low. I want to say 3.65, but Erica handles all that. Our 30 year will become a 15 year for basically no difference in monthly payments.
Congrats on the new place, Ary! Also, looking forward to having another THP'r in the area, jacob!
Congrats on the new place, Ary! Also, looking forward to having another THP'r in the area, jacob!
Yeah, we ran some numbers and can pay $200 less a month for up to 10 years, then resume paying what we were paying before the refinance, and still pay off the house 5 years earlier than we would have with the old loan.
It is crazy low right now....our house % 8 years ago when we locked was 5.6% on a 30....which was crazy low then!
arydolphin
GTHC!
That's awesome that you got to a 15 year mortgage. If we saw ourselves staying in this place for more than about 5-7 years we would have considered it. However, we couldn't get an ARM to work out well, so that's why we went with the 30 year fixed.
- Staff
- #217
Ours ended up being 15 yr fixed through our credit union we've been with for a long time. She's been wanting to do it for awhile, but we wanted to get 20% equity first so we could kill off that ridiculous PMI.
bonknhead
New member
That's a great rate for a 30 yr. mortgage Ary, congrats! :thumb:
Rates are amazingly low; we re-fi'd in March at an incredible - get this - 3.125% loan for 15 years! We had re-fi'd back in 2009 at 4.5% and thought that was good. It was, but 3 1/8% was too hard to pass up. Yeah, we basically re-started the 15-year "clock", but since our mortgage payments are now ~$400 less/month, we're going to pay an extra $300 toward the principal every month so we'll be making two extra month's payments a year.
Am I right to think that by making two extra payments/year, I'm bringing a 15-year mortgage down to a 12 1/2-year one? Or is my math off?
bonk, tough to say without knowing your loan amount.
Try using this calculator : http://www.interest.com/mortgage/calculators/mortgage-calculator/
You can put in all your numbers and include the extra payments.
bonknhead
New member
Thanks TFX! Looks like my house will be paid off in 2024! Sweet!
- Moderator
- #221
Just a personal opinion but if you have any other outstanding debt, pay that off first and then rollover that payment into your next etc until all that's left is the house. Two extra payments a year definitely drops a mortgage payment down fast, but think how fast it drops when you're throwing an entire car payment or more on top of it per month.
bonknhead
New member
We're pretty good at handling our money so we have no outstanding debt other than the mortgage. Our credit cards have no balances since we pay them off every month and all our cars are paid off.
This is so un-American.
Stone and brick work completed on the outside:
Moving right along!
Moving right along!
jt2929
Equipment Junkie
wow, that is a beautiful house, Nate!