Hopefully a first time home buyer soon!

[remphish1]

My wife and I are looking at houses in Northern NJ. We are eager and excited. We saw two we like and made an offer on one though it was a low offer. Any specific pointers you can share? I know it is very important to do a title search and inspection. Alrighty anyone have any stories to share?

[Lammycat]

Do as good a job as possible as checking out the immediate neighbors around your house. I realize that short of interviewing them/other neighbors it can be hard to tell, but notice how they keep/don't keep their property. If possible, if you are getting serious about a house, go to it in the early evening (when most people are home) and spend an hour or so for a night or two to see if there's undue noise, etc.

 

I failed to do this and regret it a bit.

 

ed. remphish moves quick. The marriage, the house. Bun in the oven right around the corner I'd bet.

 

ed. 2: Get everything. Everything. In writing regarding things to be fixed, repairs, costs, etc. prior to the closing. I assume you have a decent realtor working for you?

[Sir Stewart]

Congrats!

No stories to share, but if you're buying in Northern NJ, maybe VC can chip in for some lawn ornamentation...

[jenbobblehead]

If you haven't already--get prequalified. It will make everything go smoother. Do you own research for mortgage brokers--beware of taking advice from either the sellers or buyer's agent on services like that, although you can ask if the agents get any kind of kickback.

 

If you don't have a buyer's agent, get one. Costs you nothing. Can save you lots. When you look at houses carry a little notebook and a camera so you can take pictures of things you don't want to forget like how many layers the roof has, etc. Do your homework. This book--Making the Most of Your Money by Jane Bryant Quinn--saved our asses when buying a house. I highly recommend you get a copy TODAY. It covers things like mortgages, house insurance etc as well as other important money stuff that you should be thinking about now that you're married and all.

 

To sum up: Get the book and find a buyers agent.

[remphish1]

If you haven't already--get prequalified. It will make everything go smoother. Do you own research for mortgage brokers--beware of taking advice from either the sellers or buyer's agent on services like that, although you can ask if the agents get any kind of kickback.

 

If you don't have a buyer's agent, get one. Costs you nothing. Can save you lots. When you look at houses carry a little notebook and a camera so you can take pictures of things you don't want to forget like how many layers the roof has, etc. Do your homework. This book--Making the Most of Your Money by Jane Bryant Quinn--saved our asses when buying a house. I highly recommend you get a copy TODAY. It covers things like mortgages, house insurance etc as well as other important money stuff that you should be thinking about now that you're married and all.

 

To sum up: Get the book and find a buyers agent.

Yes I did get prequilified! That definatley helps point me in the direction of what we can afford. I did take tons of notes and some pictures. Good pointers! We did just also secure a buyers agent.

[JUDE]

Find a reputable home inspector with decent references, best couple of hundred dollars you will ever spend. As far as title searches that will most likely be handled by the closing/escrow/title company but you may want to look into an owners title insurance policy, this usually only costs a couple of hundred dollars but can save you thousands in case of some cloud on title issues that may pop up in the future.

 

You said that you made a lowball offer, if the sellers counter, you may want to consider raising your purchase price amount and try to get them to pay some of the closing and/or pre-paids (taxes, insurance, etc) these costs can add up quick and it seems that often times sellers have a dollar amount they are trying to get for their home and by getting them to pay some closing costs, while reducing their net anyway, they are more willing to deal. I think it

[remphish1]

Do as good a job as possible as checking out the immediate neighbors around your house. I realize that short of interviewing them/other neighbors it can be hard to tell, but notice how they keep/don't keep their property. If possible, if you are getting serious about a house, go to it in the early evening (when most people are home) and spend an hour or so for a night or two to see if there's undue noise, etc.

 

I failed to do this and regret it a bit.

 

ed. remphish moves quick. The marriage, the house. Bun in the oven right around the corner I'd bet.

 

ed. 2: Get everything. Everything. In writing regarding things to be fixed, repairs, costs, etc. prior to the closing. I assume you have a decent realtor working for you?

 

 

ed 1 I hope not! I am not ready yet....Maybe in 3-5 years but who can plan these things?

 

The realtor we have is pretty good. I figure with time we she will understand our needs and wants 100%. We are a little picky so I admit I am probably a little tough to work with.

[cryptique]

One highly specific piece of advice:

 

If the houses you're looking at are a bit older, find out whether the pipe that connects to the sewer might be made of something called Orangeburg. I don't know if that's an issue in New Jersey, but it sure is in my neighborhood here in Michigan.

 

Orangeburg breaks down after only a few decades and needs to be replace with a sturdier material. It's an operation that can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $15,000, or even more, depending on the distance between your house and the street and various other factors.

 

You can sometimes tell if there's Orangeburg in a neighborhood simply by driving around and looking for evidence of recent trenches dug in people's front yards and new sidewalk squares in the path of the trenches. We bought our house knowing that the Orangeburg needed replacement, and got a bit knocked off of the price as a result.

 

It may also be beneficial to find out about the prevalence of radon in your area. Sometimes you can figure this out yourself by driving around and looking for radon mitigation systems on the sides of the houses. This isn't foolproof, though, because these systems often get sold to homeowners who don't really need them.

 

I'll also echo what Lammycat said about neighbors. Unfortunately, though we did our research, the house next door to us was sold shortly after we moved in, and the new occupants are complete and utter morons.

[moxiebean]

Remember to breathe when you sign the closing papers!

The lawyer's going to hand you a huge stack of paper requiring your signature and you're going to feel like you're literally signing your life away.

[lamradio]

Make sure to have plenty of cigarettes on hand if you are a smoker, and plenty of beer in the fridge if you are a drinker.

 

I'm buying a house right now. We close Thursday, and it's been VERY stressful.

 

All the advice above is great. I'll just add this: Start stashing away as much money as you can. For our mortgage broker, it started with one number we would need for closing/down payment, and it has gone up, and up, and up again. Good luck.

[cryptique]

Yeah, having a substantial downpayment is nice if you can swing it. We put 25% down on our house, which (among other things) meant we didn't have to buy mortgage insurance. I think 20% is the typical threshold for this.

[remphish1]

One highly specific piece of advice:

 

If the houses you're looking at are a bit older, find out whether the pipe that connects to the sewer might be made of something called Orangeburg. I don't know if that's an issue in New Jersey, but it sure is in my neighborhood here in Michigan.

 

Orangeburg breaks down after only a few decades and needs to be replace with a sturdier material. It's an operation that can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $15,000, or even more, depending on the distance between your house and the street and various other factors.

 

You can sometimes tell if there's Orangeburg in a neighborhood simply by driving around and looking for evidence of recent trenches dug in people's front yards and new sidewalk squares in the path of the trenches. We bought our house knowing that the Orangeburg needed replacement, and got a bit knocked off of the price as a result.

 

It may also be beneficial to find out about the prevalence of radon in your area. Sometimes you can figure this out yourself by driving around and looking for radon mitigation systems on the sides of the houses. This isn't foolproof, though, because these systems often get sold to homeowners who don't really need them.

 

I'll also echo what Lammycat said about neighbors. Unfortunately, though we did our research, the house next door to us was sold shortly after we moved in, and the new occupants are complete and utter morons.

 

Yikes. This is the type of stuff that scares me. Stuff I never heard of. Hopefully my home inspector will be on the ball with this stuff! Thanks for the heads up.

 

 

Make sure to have plenty of cigarettes on hand if you are a smoker, and plenty of beer in the fridge if you are a drinker.

 

I'm buying a house right now. We close Thursday, and it's been VERY stressful.

 

All the advice above is great. I'll just add this: Start stashing away as much money as you can. For our mortgage broker, it started with one number we would need for closing/down payment, and it has gone up, and up, and up again. Good luck.

 

 

Oooh...good luck on Thursday! Where you moving to?

[lamradio]

Oooh...good luck on Thursday! Where you moving to?

 

I'm staying in the same area (Greenville, SC).

 

It's a nice house that's kind of half in the country/half in the city. Great location. It was built in 2006 so everything is still new.. Were very excited, just ready for all of the paperwork BS to be over. Give us the damn keys already.

[sweetheart-mine]

My wife and I are looking at houses in Northern NJ. We are eager and excited. We saw two we like and made an offer on one though it was a low offer. Any specific pointers you can share? I know it is very important to do a title search and inspection. Alrighty anyone have any stories to share?

yes. if you look out your window one day and some guy is measuring your driveway, go out and ask him what he's doing. if he says "i have a right of way here to my woods out back of your house and i'm going to build a road to it," throw him off your property and send him numerous copies of deeds and surveys via registered mail, along with warnings to stay away from house, driveway, yard, and you.

[jff]

Don't ask your agent to recommend a home inspector. Find your own inspector. Otherwise, the one you get might be more on the agent's side than yours.

[cryptique]

Don't ask your agent to recommend a home inspector. Find your own inspector. Otherwise, the one you get might be more on the agent's side than yours.

I wish I'd followed this advice. I liked our inspector, but after some unexpected and expensive repairs in recent years, I wonder if he was inclined to rubber-stamp things to facilitate a sale.

 

It's not like we got screwed, but I think a more independent inspector might have told us a few things that this guy didn't.

[remphish1]

Don't ask your agent to recommend a home inspector. Find your own inspector. Otherwise, the one you get might be more on the agent's side than yours.

 

 

That's a really good point! That's a keeper!

[jenbobblehead]

We let our agent suggest a few different people--both with mortgage brokers and home inspectors, and then I did my own homework. We ended up using mortgage guy she suggested, and we had a great relationship with him over the years, he even refinanced when it came time. But we got our own home inspector after being screwed by one on another house we were looking at, who was clearly in cahoots with the previous mortgage broker--a $29K house and suddenly we needed over $100K of work before we could close, and $9K in closing costs. Turns out the mortgage broker wanted to buy the house and flip it so she made it really difficult for us to get the house and so we didn't get the house.

[austrya]

Definitely spend some time driving or walking through the neighborhood at various times of the day. If you walk, you may actually be able to meet some of your potential neighbors.

 

Definitely get the house inspected and if it's a well, get the water tested.

 

If it were me, I'd definitely do 20% down and a 30 year fixed rate. You can always pay it like a 15 year but incase you ever fall on hard times, it's nice to have the lower of the two payments. I'd also pay my taxes and insurance separate. It never fails that the mortgage company will screw up your escrow and have to raise your payment.

[watch me fall]

I'm staying in the same area (Greenville, SC).

 

It's a nice house that's kind of half in the country/half in the city. Great location. It was built in 2006 so everything is still new.. Were very excited, just ready for all of the paperwork BS to be over. Give us the damn keys already.

 

I forgot you'd told me about this. Congrats again and good luck!

 

I echo the 20% downpayment if you can swing it. I could only afford about 12% but I'm trying to pay more on the principal each month so at some point I can get rid of the mortgage insurance. I have to say whomever came up with that PMI scam is an evil genius. I also echo the part about checking out your neighbors although there's not alot you can do if they sell and some assholes move in. That happened to me and was the main reason I moved again last year.

[alison the wilca]

kris and i are planning on looking for a home late winter (feb/mar 09) here in chicago and the thing that freaks me out the most are the property taxes. holy crap... $5k/year for a modest home?! I can't imagine that much money going towards just property taxes every year. So I've been looking at neighborhoods in supposedly lower tax Niles. Niles also offers what looks like an awesome community gym for $29 bucks a month! I was hoping for Jefferson or Portage Park in the city, but I don't know if we'll be able to do it.

 

Anyone with recent Chicago home buying experience?

[remphish1]

kris and i are planning on looking for a home late winter (feb/mar 09) here in chicago and the thing that freaks me out the most are the property taxes. holy crap... $5k/year for a modest home?! I can't imagine that much money going towards just property taxes every year. So I've been looking at neighborhoods in supposedly lower tax Niles. Niles also offers what looks like an awesome community gym for $29 bucks a month! I was hoping for Jefferson or Portage Park in the city, but I don't know if we'll be able to do it.

 

Anyone with recent Chicago home buying experience?

 

$5k is a bargin! Most modest homes in Northern NJ taxes are between $7,000-12,000 a year! Most expensive in the nation

The one we are interested has taxes of $9800 a year

[watch me fall]

I probably shouldn't post what I pay in property taxes then.

[Central Scrutinizer]

Find a reputable home inspector with decent references, best couple of hundred dollars you will ever spend. As far as title searches that will most likely be handled by the closing/escrow/title company but you may want to look into an owners title insurance policy, this usually only costs a couple of hundred dollars but can save you thousands in case of some cloud on title issues that may pop up in the future.

 

You said that you made a lowball offer, if the sellers counter, you may want to consider raising your purchase price amount and try to get them to pay some of the closing and/or pre-paids (taxes, insurance, etc) these costs can add up quick and it seems that often times sellers have a dollar amount they are trying to get for their home and by getting them to pay some closing costs, while reducing their net anyway, they are more willing to deal. I think it

[alison the wilca]

WHAT?!?!?!? How in the world can that even be legal? How do all those little old ladies in their little houses pay property taxes like that from their social security checks?!

 

I come from California, where property taxes have been kept at a lower rate (not to exceed 1% of home's cash value) due to prop 13 since the late 70s.

 

I guess this is all just so shocking to me!