On Feb 8, 2:42 pm, (Sharon) wrote:
Young people need to be reminded that the banks are NOT their friends.
It seems like in the 'olden days' banks wouldn't lend you any more than they
felt you could responsibly pay off. These days they love the late fees, and
practically throw money at you knowing you're likely to default.

- Sharon
"Gravity... is a harsh mistress!"

And in the olden days, a bank lost money on a bad loan. This kept
them honest.
These days, most places sell the mortgage to the secondary market.
Mortgage insurance, FHA, VA, Fannie Mae and the rest cover the
potential losses, so there is little downside to most mortgage lending
operations.
You get scammed by the title insurance also.

The plusses of the house are that it is the absolute BEST VALUE we've
seen in this price range, and we've been looking for several months.
It is also the type of place that with a little sweat equity, we could
really raise the value of the house (which isn't true with most
starter-ranch homes).

But you'll be in a situation where you won't have anything left over
to pay for those improvements. Even if you do the work yourself, it
_will_ cost money. In other words, you'll be living on very little, in
a house that needs work.

For newlyweds, with the normal stresses of the first year of marriage,
living with this kind of debt _and_ dealing with the difficulties of
home repair could create some big problems.

We survived a bathroom and kitchen renovation doing much of the work
ourselves, but it was still expensive and got old _very_ fast. I don't
recommend it for people under financial stress and who don't have some
history with each other.

Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it.

As it turns out, the seller wouldn't go lower than 430k. At that
price, the house is still a fair deal, which is why it sold about two
weeks after we looked at it.

We were somewhat relieved that we didn't get the house. 400k would've
put us in the poor house for a while. Instead we started looking in
the 325-375k ballpark. As it turns out, everything under 350k in the
towns we were looking were complete and utter DUMPS! We ended up
finding a gem, though. Its a 1500 sf ranch with a 3/4 finished
basement (walkout, another 600sf of potential living space) on 1.13
acres. We're sacrificing 1 floor, 1 acres and 500sf [against the
house we were originally looking at] but we're at a much more
comfortable 355k purchase price.

Thank goodness for the internet. To get 42 experienced resposes in a
few days really gave me a full breadth of opinions and experience.

Thanks again!

wrote in message
oups.com...
Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it.

As it turns out, the seller wouldn't go lower than 430k. At that
price, the house is still a fair deal, which is why it sold about two
weeks after we looked at it.

We were somewhat relieved that we didn't get the house. 400k would've
put us in the poor house for a while. Instead we started looking in
the 325-375k ballpark. As it turns out, everything under 350k in the
towns we were looking were complete and utter DUMPS! We ended up
finding a gem, though. Its a 1500 sf ranch with a 3/4 finished
basement (walkout, another 600sf of potential living space) on 1.13
acres. We're sacrificing 1 floor, 1 acres and 500sf [against the
house we were originally looking at] but we're at a much more
comfortable 355k purchase price.

I wish you many happy years in the place. But that just reinforces my
impression that I'm gonna have to stay in flyover country- the notion of a
1500 sf walkout on around 1 acre, for 'only' 355k being a good deal, makes
my head hurt. I know all such things are relative (and I have relatives
living in such areas, to boot), but around here such places are common below
200k. In fact, around here, the only things that are commonly north of 200k
are the drywall McMansions and/or waterfront or water access property. I
only paid around 1/3 of what you did, for 1400 sf on a 100x300 lot. (~2/3
acre?)

aem sends....

In article .com,
says...

Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it.

As it turns out, the seller wouldn't go lower than 430k. At that
price, the house is still a fair deal, which is why it sold about two
weeks after we looked at it.

We were somewhat relieved that we didn't get the house. 400k would've
put us in the poor house for a while. Instead we started looking in
the 325-375k ballpark. As it turns out, everything under 350k in the
towns we were looking were complete and utter DUMPS! We ended up
finding a gem, though. Its a 1500 sf ranch with a 3/4 finished
basement (walkout, another 600sf of potential living space) on 1.13
acres. We're sacrificing 1 floor, 1 acres and 500sf [against the
house we were originally looking at] but we're at a much more
comfortable 355k purchase price.

Thank goodness for the internet. To get 42 experienced resposes in a
few days really gave me a full breadth of opinions and experience.

Thanks again!


Sounds like things worked out.

Really, think if this is really the house you *need*, rather than the house you
want. Your description pretty much fits my own house (except I have less land -
a good thing IMO for me), in which I and my family have been perfectly happy for
13 years. Although, with my salary, the banks would tell me I could afford at
least twice more.

Cheers,
Banty

wrote ...
Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it.

As it turns out, the seller wouldn't go lower than 430k. At that
price, the house is still a fair deal, which is why it sold about two
weeks after we looked at it.

We were somewhat relieved that we didn't get the house. 400k would've
put us in the poor house for a while. Instead we started looking in
the 325-375k ballpark. As it turns out, everything under 350k in the
towns we were looking were complete and utter DUMPS! We ended up
finding a gem, though. Its a 1500 sf ranch with a 3/4 finished
basement (walkout, another 600sf of potential living space) on 1.13
acres. We're sacrificing 1 floor, 1 acres and 500sf [against the
house we were originally looking at] but we're at a much more
comfortable 355k purchase price.

Thank goodness for the internet. To get 42 experienced resposes in a
few days really gave me a full breadth of opinions and experience.

Thanks again!

You did what we did when we bought our first house. We had the ranch for
9 years and then sold it when the kids were starting to ride bicycles.
The great appreciation in that time enabled the bigger house, and there
was no financial stress. Good move.
Tomes