Poll of the Day > put in offers on two houses

(+) Yeah! (+)

idk if we'll get any bites. the realtor made it seem like a long shot because we don't have a ton of money to kick in but i think she just wants me to be realistic

i guess we'll see what happens

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How do the two look? Bed/bath? Distance to work? Do you have a preference between house A and house B?

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i definitely prefer one house over the other. it's a new build from this year. the neighborhood looks ugly because there's no hoa but it's low crime.

the other is bigger and in a gated community. they're both pretty close to where i live now.

one is 3 beds 2.5 baths and two stories.

the one i like is 3 beds 2 baths and one story. it has a HUGE unfinished yard and a very large kitchen and huge bedroom walk in.

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No HoA is a good thing, you can start one if you like, but at least be there to help create the rules and put in some protections so they don't change in the future. HoAs can REALLY suck.

Don't buy something your just ok with, especially if you don't have much to put down. It's a pretty large investment and it could be a few years before you can sell it and not lose a significant amount of money in the process (due to taxes + realtors fees etc).

Manufactured homes are mobile homes pretty much, it's just the old term for them (When they actually would be moved around etc). They can be significantly cheaper, which means little to no payments per month, but unless you are buying the land on them, you have a lot rent you need to pay. That being said they can be really nice and quite large (plenty of space for your pets).

If I was buying anything right now (it does depend on the state and property values in the area) I would go with a mobile/manufactured home, just because the taxes are low on them, you can still get decent ones for $30-$50k in most areas, and lot rent is often not much more then HoA fees would be.

The end result is with a home you can easily have an $800-$1000 mortgage payment every month (most of which goes towards interest for the first few years) + 300-500$ a month for HoA fees, + around $100 per 100k value of the home in taxes (again depends on the state). It can add up significantly and if you do end up having to sell the home within the first 10 years actually be a net loss. It's also not a great time to buy because the housing bubble is probably going to burst again (hopefully not as badly) in the near future, and will at least probably not increase that drastically in the near future.

Anyway I wish you the best luck in the world finding a great place for you and your family (BF and pets). Don't settle, find something you love:)

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The house I plan to look at has an HOA. It's only $12 a month, which isn't bad. But I really don't want someone else to micro-manage my house/life. If I wanted that, I's just stay renting. But I figured I'd still see the house, as I really like what I've seen so far...
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One house is in an HOA and it's $80 a month. Which I don't like but Mando really likes the house.

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Jen0125 posted...

One house is in an HOA and it's $80 a month. Which I don't like but Mando really likes the house.

That's the problem for me, as well. The house (from what I've seen so far) s amazing. And works pretty perfectly for what I want. But the HOA is what's making my apprehensive. Especially considering my pets. But I still want to look at the rules and get as much info on it as I can. And maybe talk to the people around, if any. The price of $12 isn't bad at all. But the rules might be atrocious...

If I can't do the rules here, I still might be able to use that realtor. And ask her to find something similar without an HOA...
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I mean $12 or $80 is insanely cheap, our HoA was $380 and it's gone up cause they have to replace all the balconies (our HoA is responsible for anything outside of our walls).

They were horrible....horrible.....evil people though. Seriously (the people in charge of it).

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wolfy42 posted...

I mean $12 or $80 is insanely cheap, our HoA was $380 and it's gone up cause they have to replace all the balconies (our HoA is responsible for anything outside of our walls).

They were horrible....horrible.....evil people though. Seriously (the people in charge of it).

The people in charge are usually pretty bad. But as I said, it's not the price that's stopping me. It's the HOA itself. I don't like that I have to let someone else control how I live my life and my house. One of the reason to own a house is that you can do what you want with it. But with an HOA, you buy a house to let someone else control how you live in it. I mean, I also don't like having to pay another fee to live in my house (and a fee to give control of my house up), but with the price being so low, I figured it was still worth a look...
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My wife was an attorney and I worked with her for years if either of you want to PM me the HoA rules/bylaws etc I'd be happy to go over them. Mine was horrid, they wouldn't let me have roomates and I could have fought it in court, but all 3 of the members were attorneys and the looser paid attorneys fees (and the bylaws basically stated that you couldn't rent out the property in any way and only have relatives live there).

What is worse, I am a very friendly person so I helped all my neighbors (about 18 homes in the HoA) and sold things for them etc, I was very well liked. The leaders of the HoA waited till the day after the yearly HoA meeting (when I could have easily gotten a vote to change the rules) to send me a notice I couldn't have people renting/living in my house.

That is why I ended up having to sell my house etc, I wasn't going to live there all alone. Horrid people. My roomates were quiet and never caused any problems, there was no reason for them to do that.

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Stuff like that is why I don't want an HOA. I don't want others being in control of my house and my property. And telling me what I can and can't do. For example, on my own, I can afford the house... barely... But I can. I plan on having my roommate live with me. And we may also get a third roommate to lessen the bills even more. I'll have enough bedrooms, so it should definitely be fine. But if they tell me I can't have roommates and only family, it'll be a bunch of hard years for me to pay... Though I could just get married to my SO, and he could help. But still... And even if they said I could at first, or don't have rules against it, that could change later on...
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They can't change things after you sign the original papers, so if they don't currently say you can't have a roomate etc, then they can't change that later.

You just want to read everything carefully, our bylaws for instance referenced an earlier but of rules/papers and we didn't see it (and we both looked over them), but it was not really a problem for us when we moved in.

But yeah, your safe unless you sign something and they can't force you to sign something later on, just before you move in/buy the property.

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At least that's good to hear. Since it was a new house, I was hoping to move in before they had one. Because I know they can't make you join if you move in before they have one. But I guess they started early...

Though, if the rules say no roommates already, then it's instantly a no-go. I absolutely have to avoid those, as I'm not planning to get married, but will most likely live with my SO eventually. Unless they have a rule that I can still live with an SO unmarried even if I can't have roommates. But that's risky, as well...
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Yeah, just read them carefully, if it's brand new there may not be many rules yet, but mine had original rules (That were not part of the papers we saw) that included no roomates/renters. I could have fought it in court, but if I lost.....all the attorneys fees would have gone to the HoA leaders and so they would have happily litigated everything to death, so it just wasn't worth it (I was not up for the stress etc).

But yeah your only restricted by what you sign, so if it's not part of the bylaws/rules when you buy the property you are safe.

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Daaamn, we just accepted a counter offer on the house we really wanted. >___> does this mean we get the house!

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If you accepted a counter offer then yes it does

IF you made a counter offer then you have to wait and see if they go for it, but if you accept theirs, your all done (as long as your bank clears everything if your doing a loan etc).

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Yay we got a house!

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Jen0125 posted...

Yay we got a house!

Woot congrats!! May you both have a very happy life there:)

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Congrats!
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