House Buying Thread

[Dickie Dunn]

I love that area of Charlotte but at this point everything is so god damn overpriced down there that I have little desire to move.

[meow]

We bought our house in 2016. Its estimated value is 3.5 times what we paid. It’s insane

Other things are dirt cheap. Like taxes and utilities

[The U]

Nice. My in-laws live on Lake Wylie (SC side). Relocated with a big bank like 20 years ago from the northeast. The traffic and housing prices have dramatically increased over the years. We visit like 4x per year. There are certain times of the day I won’t cross the Buster Boyd bridge due to crazy traffic.

Went to Carowinds last summer. Went to our first Charlotte Knights game last month. That ballpark is amazing.

[meow]

Truist Field is amazing.

The Lake Wylie area is the second fastest growing area around Charlotte. I believe @MWB lives in the fastest growing.

[MWB]

Think it’s leveled off some, but yeah, Union county is growing quite a bit. Between Charlotte and SC. And agree, Truist Field is great.

[Dickie Dunn]

Our plan is to go for a visit later this summer. Been probably three years for me and before that was four years between visits and the increase in traffic from 2015 to 2019 was staggering.

[DigitalGypsy66]

@Dickie Dunn the big stinky paper mill near the old Charleston Navy Base is closing down after 80 years fwiw

[Dickie Dunn]

That was like the least bad thing in North Charleston.

[meow]

I don’t know what thread this goes in (here, personal finance, or home improvement), but we’ve been batting around the idea of putting a pool in. We’ve always had cash on hand to handle home improvement projects, but this one is pretty pricey.

Explain a HELOC to me like I am five years old

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

It's basically a credit card secured with your house. So the interest rates are lower than a credit card, but you can borrow and repay at your leisure. Interest only payments for the life of the loan but obviously even a simpleton like yourself realizes paying the minimum is probably a bad idea.

[meow]

So how would I pay contracts with that money? Does scrooge mcduck drop off a bag of cash?

Are interest rates comparable to mortgage rates?

[Troy Loney]

So how would I pay contracts with that money? Does scrooge mcduck drop off a bag of cash?

Are interest rates comparable to mortgage rates?

Higher, assuming it’s a second lien.

You should be able to either write checks on the account or just transfer funds directly to your checking account

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Right now you are probably looking at a rate around 7 or 8 percent. Keep in mind that if interest rates go lower, your rate will be lower because helocs have floating rates.

I think with some helocs you can get an old school checkbook. But nowadays I think it's more common to just "transfer" money from the heloc to your checking account using online banking.

[robbiestoupe]

You may be better off with a traditional home equity loan instead of the HELOC. It has a fixed interest rate, you get the money McDuck style, and there are fixed terms to paying it off. The HELOC just lets you run around with a credit card at a lower rate so if you're an impulse buyer it may not be good. HELOCs are also variable rate loans, so it could fluctuate.

[NTP66]

I'd be curious to hear what your HELOC/home equity loan rates are. Given what I see 30 year mortgage rates at, I assume it's insane.

[meow]

So I’m hearing do a home equity loan and not a line of credit

Any impact on my credit score either way? I’m assuming both would donk me

[Troy Loney]

So I’m hearing do a home equity loan and not a line of credit

Any impact on my credit score either way? I’m assuming both would donk me

Not really

[meow]

Not really to what? My first or second line?

[NTP66]

Yes to both, though I doubt it would be a big hit. And unless you were going to be applying for credit in the near future, then who cares? Doesn't matter.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

At this point do you have a good idea of the cost of the pool?

Once you have a good idea of the cost, I'd get in touch with someone at a branch (if your primary mortgage is with a bank with branches) they probably can do a quick cost/benefit between a term loan and an loc.

As far as credit score goes, a fully borrowed heloc could damage a credit score. But it would be temporary

[Troy Loney]

Not going to hurt your credit score. Inquiries are short term as they roll off quickly

[mac5155]

My buddy's offer got accepted, and the inspection failed the on-lot septic system. (in florida? surprised this is a thing lol). He got a quote to repair - $8600. i said that didnt seem too bad. He wanted to split with the seller. The seller said nope, $2500 is all he'd go to lol. A $640k sale and this seller isn't budging over $1800. Turns out, his agent kept the listing as active for the last week and a half and has been fielding offers on the property while under contract. Apparently this is not a legal practice. So his buyer's agent did something (turned the other agent in?) and now it's becoming a debacle.

[tifosi77]

If the septic inspection revealed something that wasn't part of the seller's disclosure packet to your buddy, the seller should by right be on the hook for 100% of the cost. That your buddy is offering to pay any of it is good faith. Because I believe now the failed inspection point will legally have to be part of the disclosures going forward if the deal with your buddy gets nuked. So the seller is theoretically in a worse position going forward unless they only want to accept as-is offers with no inspection contingencies. (That's common in high-percentage cash markets like SF, but I don't know if that's as much of a thing in F-L-A) But getting obstinate over $1800 in a half million+ transaction is brain dead; he'll pay more in that in any additional mortgage payments he has to make if the property hits the market again or this deal gets unduly delayed.

But re the other offers...... do they do backup offers in Florida? That's a pretty common practice here. It's a valid and normally enforceable contract that just puts the other buyer in the position of guaranteeing their offer will be accepted if the primary deal falls through, preventing the house from hitting the competition of the open market again.

[tifosi77]

Re pools

The cost of installing a new in-ground pool in the LA area will run comfortably north of $50,000, and depending on the specific neighborhood $100,000 wouldn't be out of the question for a pretty basic install. Here's the kicker: That investment does not necessarily add any meaningful value to the home, although it can potentially make the house more readily marketable (depending on your location) if that's a consideration. So I would say the decision to add a pool should be driven by quality-of-life factors, not as an investment. Granted, that might be very different where you live; on my block and the three cul-de-sacs that shoot off from it, there are 41 houses, and only 10 do not have pools (four of which can't have pools because their yards are too steeply graded). So it just isn't a big value-add here, because almost every house already has them. Anyway, be sure you're doing your research on that point.

Monthly maintenance costs run us about $150 for weekly cleaning service. Maintenance on the physical plant can add up to a couple hundo a year over that. If you install a heater, that will balloon your utility bill (if you go with a normal shaped pool you can use a solar cover that costs about $500 for the materials, and then you can heat the pool for free). Surprisingly, to me at least, a pool doesn't hit your water bill nearly as much as you might expect; the electricity to run the pump will cost far more than the water you put in it, but the initial cost of filling a giant 25,000 gallon hole in the ground with water will make your eyes bleed. (Can easily be thousands of dollars for a normal sized pool) So it's definitely worth it to shell out a bit more money up front for a high-efficiency vari-speed pump (we just upgraded our pump last year, and in conjunction with the solar panels it has already pretty much paid for itself).

It has been so long since we had a house in LA that didn't have a pool that I honestly don't remember the difference in cost for home owners insurance re pool-vs-no pool. But I do know it's more expensive, and depending on your local code you may have to do things like install a safety fence surrounding the deck that I as the owner of a legacy pool that has existed for presumably millennia do not have to worry about.

Any below waterline lights in the pool are absurdly expensive things to replace/repair. We had to replace one ourselves at the house in Encino, and the sellers replaced one at the house we're in now, and both ran over $1,000. Those are hits that shouldn't come up more often than every 7-8 years or so.

[mac5155]

If the septic inspection revealed something that wasn't part of the seller's disclosure packet to your buddy, the seller should by right be on the hook for 100% of the cost. That your buddy is offering to pay any of it is good faith. Because I believe now the failed inspection point will legally have to be part of the disclosures going forward if the deal with your buddy gets nuked. So the seller is theoretically in a worse position going forward unless they only want to accept as-is offers with no inspection contingencies. (That's common in high-percentage cash markets like SF, but I don't know if that's as much of a thing in F-L-A) But getting obstinate over $1800 in a half million+ transaction is brain dead; he'll pay more in that in any additional mortgage payments he has to make if the property hits the market again or this deal gets unduly delayed.

But re the other offers...... do they do backup offers in Florida? That's a pretty common practice here. It's a valid and normally enforceable contract that just puts the other buyer in the position of guaranteeing their offer will be accepted if the primary deal falls through, preventing the house from hitting the competition of the open market again.

Not sure and frankly, don't care enough to look into it but it gets better with this seller. The $2500 has to come off the sale price - I think my buddy had expected it to be seller assist. Apparently the seller wont go for the seller assist because he doesnt want to pay increased commission to the agents. What's commission, 3% max? this guy's fretting over $75, and my buddy's bringing $161k cash at close. it certainly feels like he is sabotaging the deal.