We did early possession as well (from the buyer's side of course) and I refused to pay for it and they finally gave in. Ours was a situation where they pushed the closing back so many times and we finally HAD to move out of our apartment and I wasn't about to pay premium for a short term rental apartment and I certainly wasn't going to pay them to live in the house when it was their fault it got pushed back so many times.

12/11/2012 9:31:13 AM

The USDA has been behind forever; and some of their rules are stupid too. I tried to go with USDA and they delayed my closing by a month; I ended up with a conventional and lower payment.

BD - thanks for the suggestion.

For page 80:

Any recommendations for granite and cultured marble counter cleaners

Also any recommendations for window screens?

[Edited on December 11, 2012 at 9:38 AM. Reason : .]

12/11/2012 9:38:24 AM

thanks for the info... we're already out of the house and everything, so definitely has nothing to do with us, but it still sucks... I'm just ready for this whole experience to be over... from a seller's perspective, I'm also worried about the delay extending and then what if it falls through, then what... we responded and told them we weren't comfortable taking on the liability

12/11/2012 10:31:25 AM

Quote :

"So for those of you that have gone through the miserable process of selling a house...have you considered just renting from now on? "

yes, after 9 years of owning homes, we had to sell for an out of state relocation and walked away from closing with $2700. That's all I had in terms of equity after 'owning' for nearly a decade. Yeah, i get that lots of folks are far worse off, and it's bad timing, but it still stung.


So after 6 months of renting, we're closing on buying another home in two days.

so that whole renting thing didn't last...

12/12/2012 10:18:57 AM

haha. I definitely understand. I enjoy owning a house and I wouldn't really enjoy renting at this point unless it was some nice condo in the heart of a good, walkable downtown where the location would make up for it. Outside of that possibility, I hope I don't have to rent again.

Now, knock on wood, we haven't had any major problems so that probably skews our perspective. But I have loved doing house projects and making the place our own.

[Edited on December 12, 2012 at 10:49 AM. Reason : ]

12/12/2012 10:36:16 AM

Rates are so low I'd hate to sell if I could rent.
I'm down about 20% on my place, but luckily don't plan on moving any time soon.
Unrealized loss ftw? :-/

12/12/2012 11:24:08 AM

That's the other thing. Right now, I could easily rent our house for 40% more than our mortgage based on what few houses around us have rented for recently (most houses aren't rented in our neighborhood but a handful are). If we had to move, I really think I'd keep this house and rent it and not even worry about selling it. That obviously depends on how far away we moved.

[Edited on December 12, 2012 at 12:54 PM. Reason : ]

12/12/2012 12:54:11 PM

random question for recent refinancers. i don't know if this applies for all properties or mine is a special case since i own it and rent it out to tenants but i am having a bit of an issue with getting my refinance to go through because the bank is "concerned" about some budget/reserve stuff with my HOA/company that manages our HOA. apparently when the bank requested the yearly budget, the HOA didn't disclose how much reserve we have and how much out of our HOA dues they're putting toward the reserve fund. no big deal - bank goes back to the HOA and requests it and the HOA hands it over. i guess the bank is now worried because whatever the HOA told them isn't very good and this could result in my refinance not going through. i'm waiting to hear back from my lender on the final results but he pinged me today to tell me that this "doesn't look good."

my thing is - i get it if my lender came back and said, the bank isn't so sure about you right now. okay cool, that's my problem to deal with. but i feel like if i am being blocked because of my HOA's issues, then this could potentially open up a whole other can of worms (or maybe not - who knows).

anyone else deal with this? i can't imagine that i am the only one attempting to refinance and running into problems since the company that manages my HOA is a pretty well known property management company here in Raleigh.

12/12/2012 8:43:59 PM

I refi'd in May and our building had an issue with the previous rule because our developer was a piece of shit and ran the building on a negative balance before handing over the books, so we had to be creative with our budgeting in order to meet the requirement. was easy because we're a 10 member board. could be more difficult for a larger building or development.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/23/business/la-fi-harney-20120923

Quote :

"FHA eases burdensome condo financing rules The controversial rules had caused thousands of buildings across the country to lose eligibility for FHA financing. September 23, 2012|By Kenneth R. Harney WASHINGTON — Here's some encouraging news for condominium unit owners, sellers and buyers: The biggest source of funding for low-down-payment condo mortgages, the Federal Housing Administration, has revamped controversial rules that caused thousands of buildings across the country to lose their eligibility for FHA financing. The revised guidelines, which were issued Sept. 13 and took effect immediately, should make it easier for large numbers of homeowner associations to seek certification by the FHA. The certification process is intended to provide the FHA, a government-run mortgage insurance agency, with key information about a development's legal, physical and financial status. Without approval of an entire development — regardless of whether it's a small complex in the suburbs or a massive high-rise in the center city — no individual unit can be financed or refinanced with an FHA mortgage. The agency's previous rules were criticized as heavy-handed, costly and not in touch with the economic realities of some parts of the country. For example, the rules prohibited FHA insurance of units in buildings where more than 25% of the total floor space was used for commercial or nonresidential purposes. Yet many condominiums in urban areas have lower floors devoted to retail stores and offices that generate revenues that help support the entire project. Many of those buildings suddenly found themselves ineligible for FHA financing for residents. The revised rules allow exceptions of up to 35% commercial use, and provide for additional case-by-case exceptions to 50% or higher. As a result of the previous FHA rules, just 2,100 of the estimated 25,000 condominium developments nationwide that were eligible for unit financing were recertified by late last year, according to the agency. Insurance volume also has plummeted. FHA estimated that it would insure 110,000 condo unit loans during fiscal 2012, which ends this month. But by July, it had insured only 35,433 units. Although the previous rules focused on entire buildings, individual unit owners seeking to sell often have taken the brunt. The Community Associations Institute, the condo industry's largest trade group, welcomed the relaxation of the FHA rules, predicting that "this will spark home sales and help tens of thousands of condominium communities begin to recover from the housing slump." One of the most significant changes the FHA made involves personal legal liability for condo association boards and officers. The previous rules required officers to attest that they had "no knowledge of circumstances or conditions that might have an adverse effect on the project or cause a mortgage secured by a unit" to become delinquent, of "dissatisfaction among unit owners about the operation of the project or owners association" or of "disputes concerning unit owners." The penalty for officers who "knowingly" and "willfully" submitted information to the FHA that was found to be false: fines of up to $1 million and 30 years in prison. Not surprisingly, many board officers declined to take on what they interpreted as lifetime legal responsibility for such details as whether the condominium fully complied with state and local environmental and real estate requirements. Although the FHA insisted that the associations were overreacting, the new certifications contain much less scary language. The penalties for intentional frauds against the government remain the same, however. Among other key rule changes: • Greater flexibility on investor ownership. In existing developments, one or more investors are now allowed to own up to 50% of the total units provided that at least half of the units are owner-occupied. The previous rule required that no more than 10% of units could be owned by a single investor. • The previous treatment of unpaid condo association dues was raised to 60 days from 30 days. Under the revised rule, condo communities where no more than 15% of unit owners are 60 days late on payment of dues can be approved for FHA loans. • Clarification of certain insurance requirements that many communities found burdensome."

[Edited on December 13, 2012 at 4:08 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on December 13, 2012 at 4:13 AM. Reason : .]

12/13/2012 4:07:42 AM

interesting - yeah i'm in a larger complex so i wonder how this all goes into play. now granted i am kind of peeved considering i pay a very high amount per month for my HOA ($200/month) and i'm on the lower end of the dues spectrum (some pay upwards of $500/month) so either someone is mis-managing our money or there are homeowners in my neighborhood who are delinquent on paying dues.

never mind the fact that i asked my HOA to bring our exterminator back out to re-spray the outside around my condo (some exterior work was done this summer and the contractors disturbed a roach nest and guess what - the bugs found their way into my condo. i been having my exterminator come out to spray the interior for the last 6 months but it's not enough) and the company that runs our HOA is telling me they "don't have money in the budget to bring the exterminator back out." i would think if we have a standing contract with an extermination company, it shouldn't cost TOO much to ask for them to come out and re-spray a certain area of 1 building. i would have my exterminator do it but because i don't own the outside of my condo, she technically can't.

12/13/2012 9:33:14 AM

i should add that i was refinancing back into a conventional, but we still had to square away our budget reserves under the rule prior to Sept. But as someone eyeing a lot of equity for a cash-out refi, albeit into another conventional, I should probably figure out what the deal is going forward.

[Edited on December 13, 2012 at 10:25 AM. Reason : .]

12/13/2012 10:22:30 AM

sooooo it's official - my HOA is BROKE and i cannot refinance or even potentially sell my condo right now. i'm working on a game plan and am going to get in touch with our HOA president to see if they have any clue what is going on. from what my mortgage specialist and the bank found out, our property management company has been mishandling our money.

12/14/2012 4:23:44 PM

just another reason to avoid HOA's like the plague.

12/14/2012 5:13:47 PM

Who is the property management company?

12/14/2012 9:25:00 PM

Re-financing almost done. Appraisal just came in at $25k over the original purchase price (purchased a little over two years ago). Sweet!

12/18/2012 11:12:19 AM

Nice.

I keep thinking I should look into it more (we bought at 4.75 I think) but just have been too stressed with work any other things to really put much thought into it.

12/18/2012 11:19:26 AM

Its dumb for me not to. The fiance moved in and we're putting her on the mortgage. My original loan is FHA, so adding her and re-financing will take the PMI off (as well as take my step-father off as a co-signer) and hopefully reduce my monthly payment significantly. It's going to be a big boost to our monthly savings.

12/18/2012 11:21:32 AM

right. Yeah our PMI wouldn't come off for another 18-24 months depending on if I up our payments. We were already the only ones on this traditional 30 year loan. The real benefit would be the change in interest rates if we continue to live here for several years (which right now I think is feasible).

12/18/2012 11:24:03 AM

Yeah the unit above mine, at 175 sq ft. smaller, is under contract, rumored sale price is roughly $85k more than i paid for my place two years ago. as soon as i see a closed sale price, i'm going to cash-out refi up to the amount that would leave 20% equity intact so as to avoid any further PMI, and then hopefully flip that cash in to a down payment on a house, retaining the condo as a rental.

12/18/2012 11:29:34 AM

List of currently identified woes in the new (to us) house-- built in 1992.

-original water heater. this will be replaced very soon
-30+ doors with awesome brass hardware. replacing all of that shit
-Master bedroom has wallpaper. that the previous owners decided to paint over.
-previous owners never locked their doors and could only find one key to hand over at closing, which only works on one particular door.
-tons of cosmetic stuff like light covers, sockets, vents that are horribly dated.
-all the ceiling fans are shitty and need to be replaced
-roof is original and will need to be replaced in 3ish years.
-HW floors in master are slightly warped from a moisture problem that we made the sellers address.

12/20/2012 1:33:14 PM

Merry Xmas to me!

Sewage backed up yesterday and now I'm having plumbers dig up my walkway to replace a section of my main sewer line & install a curbside clean-out (for 3k). Or I could have them replace the whole line & add install a clean-out for 4.5k.

12/20/2012 6:57:20 PM

how old is it? I would have just replaced all and added a clean-out.

12/20/2012 9:19:18 PM

Dunno, guessing as old as the house (1959). I bought the place in May so I don't know the history.

The main sewer line was blocked by a foot plug of roots, grease, and crap Idiots before me apparently never heard of pouring your grease into a bucket and throwing it away. Plumbers described the line heading under the street to the city sewage as "shattered" so the city will have to come and dig up & replace that part.

12/20/2012 9:39:28 PM

I got a letter from BB&T saying that my homeowner's insurance had been canceled. This is news to me, I thought it was still current! Don't have any letters from the insurance company saying they dropped my ass either. This should be a fun wednesday. >_<

1/1/2013 11:51:40 PM

That should be pretty easy to check online.
I always forget about mine until the autodraft hits mid year.

1/2/2013 11:10:19 AM

I'm thinking about getting some LED rope light to illuminate the outside of the house at night...

Right now the house has about 6 flood lights with dual bulbs on each fixture, to accomplish this. It's a single story ranch and I mostly want to illuminate the house so that my home is less tempting to burgluries compared to my neighbors, who all live in absolute darkness.

Any do/try this setup? I figure not only will it help me cut down on electicity (by 66%) and save me on spending ~$50 a year on bulbs, but it'll help the house look more modern and provide passive security.

I'm looking at getting these kits:

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1993.html

1/2/2013 7:16:51 PM

Wrong link?

1/2/2013 9:02:47 PM

^^ are you going to go all the way around the house? I can't quite figure out how you'd use rope lighting to replace regular exterior lights.

1/2/2013 9:24:19 PM

Quote :

"That should be pretty easy to check online."

Erie insurance has pretty crap online support and I paid them in full for the term through 10/2013 prior to them canceling. Just waiting for Erie to check their records because their local insurance agents and their corporate office seem to have communication issues.

1/2/2013 9:39:21 PM

AHHH.. Wrong link. Shows I didn't proof-read

http://www.flexfireleds.com/

Copy/paste fail

I'd need 45' from end to end, front only.
debating between these:

http://www.flexfireleds.com/colorbright-bright-white-by-the-reel-led-strip-light/

http://www.flexfireleds.com/colorbright-warm-white-5m-reel-led-strip-light/

Red Brick Ranch Style. I'm leaning towards bright white...

I was actually going to do the front only. The rear will have a solid wooden fence that comes up to the sides of the house. If a criminal is going to hit up the rear of the house, I doubt it will matter much if it's illuminated or not. Also the fence proposal can be both good and bad depending on how you look at it; good in that it would be easier to go to my neighbors back door rather than hop my fence and break into my back door and bad in that if they do hop over the fence, no one is gonna notice anything that goes on in the back yard.

Roof slopes from front and rear of the house, so illuminating the sides from the roofline will look odd, IMO. Maybe it'll look odd having the front only illuminated by LED, but the flood lights on the side are high enough that they do what they were intended very well. The front and the rear as about 8' off the ground and the light beam isn't wide enough to illuminate the house how I wanted. I would have been better off illuminating the house from the ground, but then I'd have to mow around a light fixture in the ground unless I made it complicated and recessed it into the ground, covered it with a plate, etc.


[Edited on January 2, 2013 at 9:57 PM. Reason : .]

1/2/2013 9:40:51 PM

You didn't link to the waterproof ones, but you are going to need that if you are going to put it outside.

1/2/2013 11:23:31 PM

http://www.kidde.com/Pages/BeattheBeep.aspx

Quote :

"Is your alarm beeping? Seven years after initial power, a Kidde CO alarm will begin sounding an end-of-life warning every 30 seconds. You’ll know it’s not a low battery chirp because replacing a battery won’t stop it. It will stop only when the alarm is out of power. Find out if your beeping alarm is in end-of-life."

It had to beep in the middle of the night

1/3/2013 10:40:11 AM

anyone in the Durham area that has had their air ducts cleaned and can recommend someone? The downstairs has floor registers so I'm sure there is 20 years worth of crap down there and I'd like to have it removed since I've got bad allergies to everything (mold, dust, and dust mites).

1/4/2013 10:53:07 PM

Let me find my receipt. I had mine done a few months ago


Air quality concepts

(919) 661-7803

[Edited on January 4, 2013 at 11:12 PM. Reason : .]

1/4/2013 11:05:58 PM

If they don't work out for you try lewis heating and air.

1/5/2013 2:30:18 AM

^ how soon to you see the benefits of the Nest? I have tentative approval to replace our two thermostats when we get home

1/5/2013 3:11:26 AM

Cracked drywall in several places

We've been in the house nearly a year, and the previous owners had just put a fresh coat of paint on inside before putting it on the market. We moved in last Feb and saw no cracking then.

I just can't believe that our house would start settling like that in one year. It was built in '03.

1/5/2013 10:59:22 AM

Is your house on active soil? My brick ranch is, the cracks would get bigger and smaller as the year went on. When we went from having almost drought conditions to holy shit everything is soaked conditions over a couple months some of the cracks got pretty big. They're all patched now, but I know there will be more in a couple years.

1/5/2013 11:51:11 AM

^^^ I actually haven't hooked it up yet. I was debating whether to put it upstairs or downstairs since my parents only got me one unit. I think I'll put it upstairs since I use the fireplace a lot downstairs, plus it's the worst when I come home later in the summer and its 88 degrees uptstairs and all I want to do is go to bed. The book that came with it shows a timeline up til 90 days so I'm guessing it will take that long to calibrate. I think I'm most excited about being able to control it over wifi.

1/5/2013 4:34:29 PM

Those things look nice and being able to control over wifi is pretty cool (but I don't know how much I would use it) but honestly I don't see much benefit over just a nice 7-day programmable thermostat. There is not really any period for calibration either (it does learn the time to get to temperature, but the initial lag is nearly negligible after a day or two)

1/5/2013 7:37:08 PM

I got this thermostat and love it.
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202352449/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=Wifi+thermostat&storeId=10051#.UOjI0Xy9KK0
It's easy to setup and I love being able to sit on my ass or in the bed to cut on the heat/AC

1/5/2013 7:45:13 PM

What do you mean by active soil?

1/6/2013 4:10:34 PM

Maybe this needs it's own thread, but how do Home Equity loans work? We built a new house last year with some unfinished space in the basement (moved in last March). In retrospect, I wish I would have gone ahead and finished that space to start with. We put 20% down on the house to avoid PMI. If we did a home equity loan to finish the basement, would we be subject to PMI since we've have > 80% of the value of the home when you include mortgage + equity loan?

Some fact:

House Cost: $289,000
Down Payment: $57,800
Cost to Finish basement: $20,000

We could pay for the basement finishing out of our savings as another option, but I'd rather pay it out over a fairly short term instead of all up front to keep the money fairly liquid.

Thoughts? Advice?

1/6/2013 4:58:59 PM

If you're looking for a short loan term, why not just save the money and then pay for it? If the loan payments weren't going to be a big burden, then it shouldn't take long at all.

There are worse things in the world than an unfinished basement, like a lost job or a bad car crash that can happen in that year or two or three that you would be saving.

Less paperwork, less complication, interest in your favor instead of the bank's, and heftier emergency savings in the mean-time. The only upside to doing it earlier by loan is that it's done earlier. If it doesn't have an immediate purpose (like taking in a family member or you need it for kid/kids to live in), I'd wait.

1/6/2013 5:55:22 PM

Has anybody around here looked at moving a house? I own a house and just recently lost my renters. Houses in Orange County and stupid expensive and not selling at all where I live. I own a very small plot of land in Halifax County that the house is on and did some work on it and my family was pretty content with it. Have any of ya'll looked at costs to move a house? My house is 28" wide and a single story, so it would not be a big house to move, or that wide. I wonder if its even economically feasible to look at shipping a house from eastern NC to the Triangle. Guessing not, but thoughts?

1/6/2013 7:49:12 PM

Quote :

"My house is 28" wide and a single story, so it would not be a big house to move, or that wide. I wonder if its even economically feasible to look at shipping a house from eastern NC to the Triangle. Guessing not, but thoughts? "

At 28" wide you should just ask a friend with a truck to transport it after work one day

1/6/2013 9:07:11 PM

^^^ Thanks for the advice. That's the direction I've been leaning. Honestly the space is a walk out basement that would be used as office/living space for us now (just an added bonus) and would be an in-law suite in case we ever have to take one of them in (a probability because my wife is an only child, so if one of her parents or both need somewhere to go, it'd be us). It's not currently a necessity. I'll continue working on massing enough savings to cover it. If we continue at our current pace, we should be there in another year or two anyways.

1/6/2013 9:33:13 PM

^^haha. It is a long house, but not real wide obviously. I honestly do not think it would be terrible to move as it is fairly simple, and a brick house from the late 50s. It is nothing real special, just was cheap and I own it and have had difficulty selling or renting it. Property is so much more up here that I could probably come out alright on it if I could find some land for a reasonable amount. Only paid $55k for it.

1/6/2013 11:22:20 PM

28 inches is definitely in that 'not real wide' category - that's what he was getting at

1/7/2013 2:50:30 AM

Haha wow totally missed the " not '. Sorry too late last night.

1/7/2013 7:42:26 AM