Long story short, I think I'm going to be buying a house sometime in the next year (with my parents help). Budget is $50-75k for something in the Ormond Beach area. The only requirement is a garage and a yard.
So, where do I start? Is there an app for this? Good websites? Personal anecdotes that have little real value but are fun to read?
What exactly does short sale mean?
I'm finding a lot of houses from the 1920s and 30s. Run away? I like them, but I'm not sure what they're like to maintain.
"A house is a full-time hobby" said my mom.
If I had it to do all over again (your age in other words), I would buy at least a 3 bedroom, if not 4 bedroom house and have 2 or 3 roommates at all time. If you get the numbers right, not only could you live in the house for free, you might even put a little money in your pocket. A good friend here in Gainesville started that way while in college and now has a rental property portfolio that keeps him and his family very comfortable and has ~$4m in equity. He's in his early 40s, as am I.
Zillow is just about the worst site there is for real estate. And definitely don't believe a word they say about values.
The city in Cali that was threatening eminent domain to take over foreclosures found out Zillow was 35% low for their area. In our area there's no rhyme or reason as to whether they'll be high or low. You just know they are wrong.
Zillow will show you what's on the market but sometimes their values can really be skewed. When house hunting, the best resurces I found were the consolidated MLS sites such as mls.com The local one up here is colamls.com and it's real user friendly, plus it lists EVERYTHING for sale. Since I was hunting foreclosures homepath.com was a big help. Trulia.com is sort of aggravating to navigate but there's a lot of good stuff to be found there.
Short sale: generally the homeowner is in dire trouble and has to sell the house badly. The mortgage company agrees to a 'short sale' meaning the house could sell for less than the mortgage balance. Here's the problem: the homeowner could very well still be on the hook for the deficit, meaning if they owe $100k and you buy the house for $75k they still owe the bank $25k (they are 'short', thus 'short sale'). The bank knows their chances of collecting on that $25k are not real good so they do whatever they can to drive the sale amount up. It turns into a giant mess, the homeowner can say yes and the bank can say no or vice versa. Avoid these like the plague.
Oh, according to my realtor these also usually have someone living in them who is really pissed at the bank and it's not unusual for stuff to get damaged.
Not sure just how local it is, but our realtor hooked us up with Listingbook and it was the only place we used when looking for a house. Homes hit there a few days before anywhere else, the search capabilities were amazing, and the email alerts were great.
I link to this blog all the time, but it's spectacular for someone looking for an education in real estate:
http://www.searchlightcrusade.net
He's both a mortgage broker and a real estate agent, so he has a vast amount of knowledge in both areas. As a plus, he doesn't pull any punches.
+1 to one of curmudgeon's links, homepath.com is a great resource.
Also watching this thread.
Hoping to get a house in a few years, I WISH values were that low here (DC area)
$150k might buy a condo that is essentially like a 2 bedroom apartment.
Disheartening...
They say that your mortgage should only be for 3x what you make? I would need to make 6 figures to get a house!
If you're going to use a Realtor, then properly use one. Tell them what you're looking for and have them find it. If you're looking under 80k, have them set up a day where they show you everything they have that's 80k or under. No other restrictions, no exceptions. Then go look. There's a lot of variation in 80k houses. You might find out that a rougher house on a nicer lot is your thing. You might find out the reverse. You need to go physically look at houses to find out what's out there. Looking online is OK, but it's a little like looking at cars on craigslist. I wouldn't even try to decide exactly what you want until you've looked at a dozen homes in your price range. Physically looked at them. Walked through them. Then decide what you want to compromise on and what's a priority in your price range.
And for what it's worth, I personally always place priority on the land over the building. As a general rule, there is almost nothing about the structure I can't change, but the is almost nothing about the property that I can. I've been very happy buying E36 M3ty houses on nice land.
For all kinds of info go here
http://www.mtgprofessor.com/
Going through it now, get your pre approval letter in place, get all the documentation you need for where the 20% is coming from. Looks like you are not a jumbo loan so that is good but still get copies of your w2's going back three years. Check you credit to see if nothing weird is on it.
Other then that you should be golden.
Datsun1500 wrote: In reply to carguy123: Not for values, for listings. Zillow will have listings a week before realtor.com. Zillow will also show if there is a pending sale on it, realtor.com won't.
At least out here and when we were house shopping, Zillow was weeks out of date compared to the MLS. If you can get access to your local MLS (ours is freely accessible to punters), then that is your best source, give or take a few realtors who are sloppy updating it.
I'd suggest the following approach:
One thing to keep in mind with short sales is that the sale requires bank approval and especially some of the larger banks haven't been really good about timely decisions on that. It can take months to get approval. Also, like REO/bank owned houses, short sales tend to be as-is-where-is so if some meth heads breaks into the house and steals all the copper a day before closing, you up the creek with no canoe or paddle.
Oh, and one last thing, given that we're talking Florida here, home of the shadiest foreclosure mills (since closed) and messed up foreclosure proceedings - do yourself a favour and buy owner's title insurance just in case. We have similar problems out here and I would have bought a policy hadn't we bought a house that the sellers owned free and clear and had owned before the whole real estate craziness started.
Normal title insurance mainly protects the lender and if you end up with a house that eventually turns out to have a clouded title, you want your own insurance, especially if you put a fairly big downpayment on it.
Land is cool for building garages and such, but it also sucks to mow.
Adding a garages is a losing investment. If you want one, buy someone elses loss, don't create your own (this is the primary reason I will probably move at some point).
Water flows downhill. Seriously. My current place, I loved it, but there was one low spot. Figured "eh, no big deal". Fast forward several years and it's gotten nothing but worse, turned half my yard into a swamp, and I'm probably looking at $10-$20k worth of new retaining walls, grading, and maybe even a sump pump to raise the water to the level of the drainage ditch.
Termites can't eat brick.
My mind can not even fathom a house for $50k-$75k, there is no such thing up here 
mazdeuce wrote: And for what it's worth, I personally always place priority on the land over the building. As a general rule, there is almost nothing about the structure I can't change, but the is almost nothing about the property that I can. I've been very happy buying E36 M3ty houses on nice land.
Which brings us to the 3 L's: Location, location, location. At some point you will want or need to sell your crib, so watch the school district carefully, a nice house in a crappy district is a hard sell. OTOH, a crappy house in a good district is an easy sell.
HiTempguy wrote: My mind can not even fathom a house for $50k-$75k, there is no such thing up here
And we wonder why Tim and Margie express frustration when they have trouble keeping employees...
HiTempguy wrote: My mind can not even fathom a house for $50k-$75k, there is no such thing up here
Come find work in Wichita, for grins I looked around and there's a lot of stuff in that ballpark. The problem is that then you live in Wichita...
HiTempguy wrote: My mind can not even fathom a house for $50k-$75k, there is no such thing up here
I've heard of 5-digit houses in unusual circumstances since the 2008 crash, but is that a normal thing in Florida? Wow.
There's a bunch in the midwest as well. You aren't getting a mansion for that price (unless you get lucky with a foreclosure), but there's entirely decent houses here for that money.
In reply to GameboyRMH:
Yep, that's how it works. A 3/2 in Deland on a 1/4 acre that needs the walls painted is a $35k proposition.
That's dirt cheap. Around here ghetto stuff is higher than that. One of our rental properties is a 3/1 with a carport in nice shape on a big lot, like nearly half an acre, and it's valued at $75k.
Zillow is berkeleying retarded. There is not a single home value ("Recently sold for") that's anywhere NEAR correct in my neighborhood. Last I checked, there was one that showed sold for $450,000 (homes in our neighborhood are worth around $150k) and another that supposedly sold for $65k (tax records show a little over $100k.) If you want comps for the neighborhood, use zillow to see what sold, then check tax records.
Everything Dave said, especially regarding the water thing, ESPECIALLY in Florida. Also, I doubt you're going to find a "nice" riff-raff-free neighborhood in your price range, but get in the nicest neighborhood you can. Look at the cars in the driveway/on the street. They will be your best indication of which flavor of trouble you're likely to run into. My grandpa wouldn't buy a house in a neighborhood with pickup trucks in the driveways. Worked out pretty well for him.
Also, if you get SERIOUS about a particular house. Don't dick around, but DO hire an independent inspector, and go through the house WITH him. Ask lots of questions. I swear 99% of inspectors do a proverbial "tire-kick" on a house, then say "Meh. Good enough."
Great move this early on in your adult life. Now is the time!!! Best of luck!
GameboyRMH wrote:HiTempguy wrote: My mind can not even fathom a house for $50k-$75k, there is no such thing up hereI've heard of 5-digit houses in unusual circumstances since the 2008 crash, but is that a normal thing in Florida? Wow.
And Michigan...
The same house I can buy here for that range near my parents place in Chicago is 200k
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