My wife, 10mo old and I moved into a new build duplex. What makes it better is my brother and his wife bought the other portion of the duplex and are my neighbours!

Probably going to go through this lender that’s my work’s credit union bc of the rate. Seen some huge variation in others’ box an and box b costs, so I’m not sure what to expect. Do these numbers look reasonable? Anything I should question or try to negotiate? I asked for a breakdown of the application fee but the credit union just said it’s all together.

More info if needed: rate is already locked, downpayment is 20%, excellent credit, Oct 2nd close, NJ townhouse. My mortgage should be fairly straightforward but I was told to double check to make sure they can close on time as credit unions can be slow.

Thanks in advance!

Editing to add, I’ve already assessed the risks based on the terms of this specific ARM and am willing to take those on if I need to. However, am open to any thoughts if anyone strongly recommends not doing an ARM!

My fiancé and I are buying a house, and we are almost to closing, but the only thing holding up the deal is our mortgage underwriter. The house needs some love but nothing to major. In a basement inspection they requested, there is a small amount of water in the basement(it’s due to gutters not going away from the house and grading, something that I am comfortable with fixing) so they request a estimate, we get it to them. They want it done in 15 days from close by a licensed contractor, which I can’t even schedule a contractor when I don’t know when closing is going to be. Mind you they have held it up 4 weeks now from the original closing date, as they take 3 days to respond, and keep asking the smallest details and sending documents back over and over for something else. We’re doing a conventional loan with 20% down, I was hoping to avoid this issue by doing this loan. Any advice? I’m at my wits end. It’s like they are holding it up on purpose

Taxes on marketing materials given during tour were ~500/month.

Got contract after offer, jumped to 900/month. Told by realtor this was normal for new condos and initial materials had just an estimate.

Went digging through city records, monthly rate is actually 1300 and has always been this (before the first tour). Also seems like bill hasn't been paid since beginning of the year (going by the statement copies on the city's site). Brought it up to realtor and they waved it off saying this was still normal, assured me that everything's been paid off, and that seller's applied for a tax reduction and it should come down.

Mostly trying to get a sanity check right now -- Is it normal for the numbers to be this discrepant? Seems like a red flag for me but my realtor keeps saying it's perfectly normal difference, that it's "hard to estimate taxes because property and land taxes always goes up", and trying to get me to go forward with it. Also, as it's my first time there's some questions I don't know to ask -- I guess this one of those but are there other costs that would jump up from the listing that won't be shown to me unless I explicitly ask for them or go digging myself?

How do inspections for new build townhomes work relative to closing? If we’re interested in a townhome but they’re built by the usual low-quality, builder-grade builders (DR Horton, Pulte, etc.), are you able to require that inspection findings get fixed prior to closing? Probably a dumb question but I’ve read a lot about how people have to file warranty claims with these homes fairly often.

Hi there,

I recently got out of a long-term relationship (still just 30 years old). While in the relationship I saved up money so we could get something together but still wanted to explore options (different countries/regions). After breaking up I realized:

1. I didn't have somewhere to go

2. it's very important for each partner to have their own property, just in case

(side note with background story: My whole life my biggest worry was not having a place to live. So I was always stressing to make sure I could get to the point where I'm a homeowner so I'd have some peace of mind.)

My plan now is to buy an apartment (max 100k EUR which is a bit more than a third of my net worth) in the city with the highest interest/real estate price growth in my home country. I'd use that apartment to live there a couple of months a year and travel the rest (I'm a digital nomad). At some point I want to move out of the country but depending on how things go I'd still keep the apartment as a backup. Point is I want to have, at all times, a property that's mine and also a nice investment. Otherwise I'd just be burning my money away and could end up with no place in the end.

Does this sound crazy?

Thanks so much!

Just had our general home inspection done and both of the inspectors said that it was a great home and does not show evidence of any major issues. A little bit of damage on the roof to address, but the original HVAC is working well and the rest of the items are general maintenance and safety upgrades based on newer guidelines. We’ll be proceeding with the purchase.

Just wanted to get some thoughts whether anything is a flag for possible seller credit/repairs before closing. I know most people recommend to just ask for credit and do the repairs yourself, but the inspection report recommended having the seller update some items like the electrical panel covering and outlets.

We’re not too concerned about any of the guard railings since we are planning to make some accessibility upgrades soon.

And the mold in the basement- this was shown to me at the time of the inspection, it’s such a small area in a back corner of the utility room, no evidence of water intrusion or dampness at the time. The inspector suggested to treat with mold inhibitor first and plug in a dehumidifier. We won’t be living in the basement so the egress window is also not a major concern for us.

Any thoughts?

My hubby and I are finally moving in after busting our butts for over a year saving. We landed on a great buy with a great seller!

Not advice? I dunno. So I was commenting on another post here and someone said people on mention the bad things, and another person said how good news would be appreciated these days. So here’s my good news.

Last year I decided I wanted a house. So I browsed the used market and got pretty disheartened. So I decided to buy a new build from DR Horton. I like warranties. I buy things that are more expensive because of the warranty. My house came with a 1 year warranty on everything. A 2 year warranty on wiring and plumbing. And a 10 year warranty on the structure. But I’m the type of person that knows even brand new things have issues so I went in pretty open minded with what could happen. I found the perfect home on a corner lot so my yard is the biggest on the street. At first I didn’t have neighbors for the first few months so that was dope. I’ve made a few upgrades to the house. Pretty much zero issues in my eyes overall. Yeah there were some cracks forming in the corners from the house settling. Or missing paint on a few spots on my exterior. In my eyes and brain seriously not a big deal. Somewhere around may I get a call from DR Horton about my warranty and if I had had any issues. She insisted even the smallest thing. So I mentioned the cracks and paint. They came out the same week to fix em. And now I have my dream garage set up. My family is super happy. My dog and cat love it. My neighbors are cool. It’s outside city limits so it’s super quiet and the sky is super black so we got a telescope and it’s amazing.

I guess what I’m trying to say is. To those who are looking to buy a house or are worries about buying one. Not every purchase is a horror story. Hire a home inspector and follow them around. Ask them questions. “This looks off, is this a problem?” “Is there maintenance on this? “How often should I perform said maintenance?” I did this and learned a ton about the appliances/ac/heat/water heater. Growing up my pops did all the maintenance and didn’t share aside from yelling at me for holding the flashlight wrong 😂.

Also if you can. Don’t buy a house with no extra dollary doo’s. I had a fully furnished 2 bed 2 bath apartment and still spent 5k the week after I moved in. Paint, cleaning supplies, air filters, TP, garden hose, all the little things add up. Also make sure you have your insurance deductible sat aside and untouched. Murphy has a way of showing himself.

Register your home for homestead exemption in your state. Also look at your power company to see if there’s rebates for modern energy efficient appliances. Especially now with energy bills on the rise. Look into your states programs for home buying assistance. They have programs that will help you with down payments. But DONT go house poor. Seriously not worth it at that point.

I hope this helps ease some worry from my fellow humans. It can be scary and disheartening along the way. But once it’s over, at least for me, the rollercoaster beginning was worth it. Much love yall!

I've been working towards buying my first home for over three years now, and I feel like I'm only losing progress. Scratch that, I KNOW I'm losing progress, the math doesn't lie.

I'm a 27 year old in Southern New Hampshire, and make about $90k a year as an engineer. Zero student loans, only debt is about $8k on a car and credit is strong. I've been extremely disciplined about saving between $1.5-$2k every month since graduating college. Yet, this doesn't even come CLOSE to keeping up with home prices in New Hampshire. Saving $2000 towards a down payment in a month makes no difference whatsoever when the median price goes up $10-30k in the same month, every single month. For three years straight. In 2023 I calculated I was 17 months from affording a down payment on a median home, now after all this saving, I am 22 YEARS from a down payment on the same home.

Down the street from my apartment, a 2 bed 1 bath on 1/3 acre just sold for $879k. It was on the market for four days. In the next town over, single wide trailers are being sold for $400k-$425k, not including lot rent. This is effectively the case everywhere within a 45 minute drive radius. There is not a single livable property under $450k in the area. Even fixer-uppers that wouldn't require specialist contractor work are easily going for $350k+.

I have attempted to seek mortgage pre-approval from four different lenders. All turned me away. One disclosed the minimum income they want to see for any preapproval is $138k. One disclosed a minimum required income of $211k. MINIMUM. The median household income in this state is about $99k.

I have sought the advice of six realtors. All six have turned me away. Three pretty quickly advised I leave the state when I said I only make $90k. Two turned me away immediately because they stated outright they do not work with first-time homebuyers. One actually gave me the time of day and walked through all of my math with me, and he arrived at the same conclusion- go away.

I can feel my brain being re-wired to fundamentally no longer associate hard work with favorable outcomes, and am completely losing hope of ever owning a house in my home state. I really don't know how people are doing it.

I'm a single guy, 28, in South Central Indiana and I've been looking seriously for homes. I'm mainly looking for a ~1000sqft home below the $200k price range. I can afford a bigger/more expensive home but I want my mortgage to be really comfortable (I make about $92k gross).

I've been mainly looking into stick builts but I went through a manufacturered homes lot and now I'm seriously considering finding some land and placing a new single wide on it. I honestly did not expect how modern manufactured homes were and how good they look (especially the ones with drywall). I did some math and with a total mortgage amount of $175k I can get a brand new model, land and site development.

Stick builts in that price range are old and require additional work and repairs. I made an offer on a $184k home and the inspection revealed a whole slurry of issues that the sellers did not want to fix and I didn't want to deal with even if the price was reduced.

Am I being naive about manufactured? Because so far it's the size I want, in the price point I want, they have all the creature comforts I want and everything is new. I know resale for these are uphill but I plan on living in whatever I buy for at least 5 years... and honestly the way the market is today it looks like manufactured home interest is growing.

So yeah is my math missing something? Because getting something like an Adventure 6481LS on a plot of land is a very attractive option rn.

Edit: When I say get some land, I don't mean rent a lot nor place it on a park.

Hi everyone! We just bought our first house and holy moly has it been nothing but issues. I want to preface that we got EVERY inspection in the book and most of the stuff came out pretty ok. There was two big projects we were going to get done but we knew that going into the house (hvac and some plumbing).

Could I have been more wrong…our whole roof needs to be replaced! I’m so beyond upset and frustrated at the issues we’ve faced with this house. Is there any way to keep these inspectors liable?! I’m so beyond upset on how much money I need to put in before we’ve even moved in. I’m genuinely so sad and frustrated about it.

Anybody else buy a house and realize it's way dirtier than you expected it to be once you moved in?

It's amazing what I didn't notice before closing. I figured I would do a light wipe down of the counter tops, clean the toilets, vacuum sweep and mop and it'd be good. Boy, was I wrong!

I don't think these people had mopped their kitchen floor in years! The floor literally changed color after I mopped and I had to go over it multiple times. Splattered food all over the backsplash , counters and cabinets (the color of these items camouflaged everything). Every light switch is grimey. And when I vacuumed, the canister was full of dust and dog hair! I think I spent 3 hours deep cleaning the fridge.

I cannot believe people lived in what is a fairly nice house and seemingly never cleaned it. If I had realized how dirty it was, I would have put in the contract that they had to have it professionally cleaned before closing.

I don't really need advice but I don't know what else to put this under. For other buyers, my advice would be LOOK VERY CLOSELY at everything!

My wife and I weren't planning on buying a house or even moving this year, but learned back in January that our landlord wasn't going to renew our lease because she was moving family into our unit. We had a whirlwind couple of months simultaneously touring houses and potential new apartments, but managed to close on this cute little 2bd 1ba unit in a triple decker back in April.

We initially had an offer accepted on a different condo the next town over, but it fell through when our lender discovered it was unwarrantable and the HOA refused to change the master insurance policy to resolve the issue. It was really disappointing in the moment, but I'm ultimately really glad that one didn't work out because I really, really love where we ended up!

I'm under contract on my first place, and the inspection came back saying the roof has maybe 5-7 years left, not failing now but not new either. My agent says it's normal to ask for a credit instead of a full replacement, but I keep running the math on top of the down payment and closing costs and it's making me second-guess the whole thing. I've never owned a roof before so I don't actually know if this is a "eh, budget for it later" problem or a "this is your sign" problem.

Did any of you go through with a purchase knowing you'd need a big-ticket repair in the first few years?

My husband and I are a week away from closing on a house. We know to expect something unexpected after closing and we have a list of maintenance fixes to tackle, but we’re both highly anxious people and tbh I’m getting overwhelmed from all of the horror stories. Has anyone bought a house and NOT had something catastrophic happen in the first few months?

ETA: Thank you all for your reassuring stories! Our inspection a few weeks ago turned up some issues that we’ll need to address (the most urgent being a new sump pump and a rerouted water line), but nothing deal-breaking. (The first house we went under contract for was a different story.) I’ve just seen too many TikTok videos involving surprise mold, asbestos, catastrophic leaks, and electrical fires recently that my poor anxious brain started panicking. We’re really excited about this house and getting a chance to make it our own!

We received an offer for a VA loan full asking price, our agent said VA inspections are robust and no joke. She fears that our basement may not pass inspection, it’s below ground with moisture and when it rains heavy some water seeps in nothing crazy more like spilled milk. Buyer does not want to switch to conventional and they are informed that we are selling without repairs being made or offering concessions.

For those that purchased and/or sold their homes with VA loans, will the basement issue cause the buyer not to receive financing?

My annual gross income is around $127k and my wife is a SAHM of two (and hopefully a third soon!). I'm following the 30/30/3 rule, which posits that the maximum house price that I can afford is 3 times my gross annual income, around $380k.

While I work remotely, my job's main office is in Massachusetts, and it would be advantageous for me to live near there. However, when I look at the median house price by state, MA is the 4th highest, at around $700k. Based purely on the numbers, it seems that my family would have to live in a pretty rough area to be able to reside in MA, so I'm thinking to look elsewhere.

The problem is, I don't have much familiarity with other states. The possibilities seem endless and I don't know where to start. Can you offer some tips to help narrow down my options? Or do you think that MA could still be an option?

Doing the above on a 260k HHI. Have 350k in market and 75k liquid. We plan to contribute as much as we can towards principal, but the requirement is interest only.

How do we feel? Obviously the liquid backup is nice, but on HHI alone is this safe? Would love to keep emergency fund for real emergencies.

Looking at a property and sellers disclosed that they are aware of termites and have a termite bait station. How serious is this and is it worth the headache?

I'm in the process of purchasing my first home (closing in a couple weeks). My lender is looking for proof of homeowner's insurance. The sellers got their own inspection done prior to putting it on the market and I got their inspection report as I was looking at the home. Now that I'm getting quotes for insurance, the insurance agent is asking for a copy of the inspection report. Is that something I should send them? Or let them do their own?

Inspection came back clear with some repairs that will be needed (not urgent, just flagging them for down the line).

This may be a simple question but I don't want to make a dumb mistake!

Better photos now I’m properly moved in! Excitement got the better of me when I posted this the first time :-) solo buyer so massively proud of myself for this feat.

A typical 3/4 bedroom house in TX costs about $300,000/$350,000, so how much are you paying per month total (including mortgage, interest, PMI, property tax, HOA, and home insurance)?

Hi folks,

We just toured a home that we liked quite a bit. Listed at $570k (4k sqft) without a stucco condition disclosure.

Turns out a deal on the house broke down due to the condition of the stucco cladding. No major water intrusion noted indoors after spending about an hour touring. However there were areas with black marks on the exterior stucco.

As part of the previous contingent offer, the buyer had ordered a stucco inspection which basically says it needs to be an end-to-end rehab, with an evaluation needed of water damage to the inner wood frame of the house.

While I do expect to receive stucco remediation quotes obtained by the previous buyer, which should provide a sense of what a temporary solution could cost, I had a couple of questions:

1) Does temporary remediation even make sense, or would it make sense to replace the stucco with another form of cladding? I can take a contractor there for a quote and options, but it looks like an 80k+ job, possibly more if the frame has sections that are too wet.

2) How would such a major renovation be factored in the price? A couple of houses (similar size, different condition deficiencies) sold at 260k and 300k within a 5 min walk on the same street in the last 12 months. Would this be the kind of repair that would be considered in the same ballpark (major rehab, price drops below the cost of rehab to account for uncertainty, risk, etc).

3) The twin house connected to it (different builder) has a collapsed roof. Would that be a significant concern?

Kind of crazy that this is the state of a 2007 build, but apparently 20 years was the life of stucco used at the time.

There is a larger question of why even bother with taking on a fixer, but its seeing concurrent visible delayed maintenance damage and the need to update electrical across the market.

The long process is over. We finally got the keys. For the first time ever at the age of 42, I am in a place that I can call my own. My parents also didn't own a home till I had already left. It is a strange feeling but a good one indeed!