So we found a new house... before pre-approval!

[vanillahip]

Blargh. Not what I was anticipating. I've kept my eye on the market/ what's been available for a year with nothing that I just **had** to go see. But today we were in our local "cute little hipster" town and I thought "hey, let's go peek at that one house I saw online!".

He's in love, he wants it now! Super weird because I thought I'd have to drag him kicking and screaming through this process.... And I figured we wouldn't seriously start until the fall because I don't want to mess around with all of the other buyers in the summer, kwim?

Soooo.... crap. What should I do? Try to get a pre-approval asap through my current bank, just to get an offer in right away? I don't want to let it sit too long without at least getting an offer in but I have no clue what our mortgage timeline will look like (our current mortgage is private so I didn't have to eff around with banks last time around).

Any thoughts? (FTR, the house is listed at a price wayyyy under what we'd be approved for according to a our income, a little research and those nifty mortgage calculators, so I'm hoping that'll make it move along at a nice little clip? Or am I being naive?)

And hey- has TH&R been around here? This is me totally ignoring your advice and buying a second house and we'll definitely be renting ours out. You may absolutely say "I told you so" when I start whining about it

[house]

I would try to put an offer in first. Then try to get pre-approval asap. We are in process of buying a 2nd house too. We are pretty much settled after 3 yrs of being in our current town. So while I know a lot of people advice against a 2nd mortgage we are still going for it. The rent is just way too much and apartment life is just not worth it to us anymore. We listed our house for sale (see post below). We got pre-approval soon as we found a house we loved one but lost it due to cash offer. Now we have an offer on a short sale house which was also listed way under. To us it makes sense to buy a house with current low mortgage rates and due to the housing market. If we can't sell our house we are renting it out again. We had 5 showings for rent the day after listing.

[kaylie]

I would try to get one tomorrow morning. We were able to do ours through a local mortgage broker in about 30 minutes over the phone. He emailed me the pre-appoval letter within the hour.

If you're keeping your current house/mortgage, that might make it a bit more complicated. I know the requirements get more strict when you have two and rent one out.

I don't think I've seen TH on here yet, but Jewel has been over on the real estate board =)

[vanillahip]

May 13, 2012 17:33:26 GMT -5 kaylie said:

I would try to get one tomorrow morning. We were able to do ours through a local mortgage broker in about 30 minutes over the phone. He emailed me the pre-appoval letter within the hour.

If you're keeping your current house/mortgage, that might make it a bit more complicated. I know the requirements get more strict when you have two and rent one out.

Ahh, via phone and email sounds perfect! My work sched next week bites, meetings every day!

And yeah, I'm prepared for the 2nd mortgage crap, but our current private mortgage is not actually reported for anything but taxes- because it's private and doesn't have to be- but more in our favor, we're frugal (ie: cheap as hell) so the total cost of both houses is actually pretty far under what I believe we'll be approved for. But thanks for the heads up!

[vanillahip]

Got the pre-approval!! Ahhh YEAY! Counting down to 5pm to go see it and place our offer!!

[FoxInFiji]

Have you tried to sell your current house yet? Is there a reason why you wouldn't put a clause in your offer that if your home doesn't sell within a certain time frame that the contract falls through? Personally I would never want to deal with renting out a home that wouldn't sell. I know multiple people with second homes that are renting them out because they couldn't sell or they would have to take a big hit on them and every single person is frustrated beyond belief with it. Another friend is choosing to take a hit on their old home so they can move on with their lives and buy a bigger, better house. They are under contract to sell and actively looking for a new home. Happy and excited to start fresh in a new place.

If your current home is inexpensive and/or small the rent won't be very high on it either. If the rent is cheap then you could easily be attracting the wrong kind of tenants. Renters in general treat houses like crap but cheap renters are even more likely to destroy your house. Good luck selling it then.

[vanillahip]

We haven't tried to sell, we'd barely break even (or possibly take a loss) if we did, but we don't need to. I meant it when I said we're cheap as hell LOL, I was just pre approved on my income only, paying for both houses. So there's no reason NOT to at least try renting it out, rentals in our neighborhood are going for well over the cost of our PITI, so I'm not at all concerned about what'll happen to the current house! (plus we have a friend looking to rent at the end of the summer, and he loves our house... It might work out well as long as the rental contract is specific and he understands it!)

[house]

Yay! Congrats on the pre-approval! Thanks for the update! Goodluck!

[vanillahip]

:N: :N: :N: The sellers are liars! Wahhh I'm so bummed. The house was listed as 4/2 with a library, formal LR and FM. Ummmm.... really?! Where exactly is the FM and 4th bedroom?! Is there a portal to another dimension where they exist that I just didn't see? Effing liars. The house is NOT worth the price to us at 3/2 no FM, no basement. Plus the garage is not tall enough for H to build a mini ramp in. I think we're going to pass. Our realtor's still pulling the comps to see what a fair offer might be considering it's THREE flipping bedrooms, but we're not in love anymore.

[housegeek]

Did you not see it before you put an offer in? I'm confused.

[vanillahip]

May 14, 2012 19:55:52 GMT -5 housegeek said:

Did you not see it before you put an offer in? I'm confused.

We didn't put an offer in- we were going to tonight! Absolutely would have, if it was actually 4 bedrooms. It's a 100 year old bungalow that was added on to a couple of times and could be reconfigured for a 4th bedroom but that's wayyy more work than I'm willing to do (blowing out walls on both floors) at that price point. Boo.

[housegeek]

Oh I gotcha. I was under the impression you saw it since your husband loved it. If you decide against it, I'd love to see the listing! I wonder how they got away with listing more rooms than it has?

[kaylie]

At least now you have the pre-approval ready for next time. Ugh, I late real estate listings. Never have I seen more disagreement between definitions of "well maintained". I've also seen them call rooms without closets bedrooms, even though they aren't supposed to do that.

[vanillahip]

May 14, 2012 21:44:37 GMT -5 housegeek said:

Oh I gotcha. I was under the impression you saw it since your husband loved it. If you decide against it, I'd love to see the listing! I wonder how they got away with listing more rooms than it has?

Probably not, sorry. Metro Detroit is large but we're staying in this area, I'm not comfortable sharing actual addresses here. But H loved the yard/ outside. I'm really handy, I can change any room and fix MOST problems in a home (which is why we were both ready to place an offer) but I can't magically add rooms lol, and the price has to be LOW to consider the headache of rearranging the floor plan and all of the crappy variables that go with that, kwim? ::sigh::

[housegeek]

That's fine, I *totally* understand. I hope they get realistic for you!