hell is upon me - no net access - plus Chicago housing thoughts

[tzikeh]

So, our internet access went out Thursday around midnight and they can't come until Monday to fix it. I'm currently in a cybercafe, checking email and updating lj, but I cannot make more Gay Pants until Monday at the earliest. So those of you with requests in, be assured they will get filled - just not this weekend, alas.

In other news, I can't decide if I want to try to purchase a condo or just rent again for another year or so - I mean, the reason the Loop was gonna work out was that I didn't need a down payment (my landlord was giving me a deal) and there were no broker fees or anything like that. Now I have 'til Oct. 1 to find another place to live, and I don't know if I even *can* buy at this point, because I don't have nearly the money saved for a down payment PLUS closing costs, and I don't know that you can find a place and get it all done, assessment et al-wise, in a month - August is right out for shopping since VividCon is comimg up - bleah. I think I may just rent for another few years. Gah.

Anyway, off to see Pirates of the Caribbean for the second time! ARRR, mateys!

Comments

[melina123.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you can guess my feeling on this: if you possibly can buy, buy. Rent is money gone forever, while every dollar you put into a mortgage is an investment.

My suggestion would be to first find a trustworthy mortgage broker and get pre-qualified for a mortgage you can afford. You want to know what the montly payment will be for TMI: taxes, mortgage and insurance. Get an honest assessment of what closing costs would be. It might not be as much as you think, if your income is appropriate and you have good credit. I didn't think I could possibly afford my place when I bought it -- I had significant credit card debt and huge student loans (all gone now thanks to subsequent refinancing). A good mortgage broker can really help; they know all the tricks.

Think through (or get help with) the tax issues; you get to deduct mortgage interest, so you can afford to pay more for a mortgage than you can for rent and decrease your withholding to make it all work out. It's like free money from the government, put towards something that builds equity for you.

Once you know how much house you can afford, find a trustworthy realtor who really listens to your criteria and let them do the heavy lifting on looking for a place. I wouldn't count August out altogether; if you're working with a good realtor you won't need to spend entire days schlepping from place to place.

There's no question, getting this all done by October 1 will be challenging, but not impossible. Not having a place to sell makes it that much easier. I'm not sure how it's done in Illinois, but a 30 day escrow is pretty normal here, though 15 day ones aren't unheard of. Seriously? Once you find the place you want, buying isn't that much harder than finding a new apartment and doing the actual moving. Just practice signing things.

And right now? Is the best time EVER to get a mortgage. Low interest rates are your friend, you can afford more or pay less. You wouldn't believe the difference that owning your own home can make to your finances; if you can do it, do it. And if for whatever reason you can't, don't give up and put the idea aside; make it a serious goal to do it as soon as you possibly can.

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

And of course if you have other kinds of debt, a couple of years after you've bought the house, you can get a home equity line of credit and pay off all of the stuff that is at a higher interest rate.

My house was too big for one person and when I bought it and I couldn't afford to live here by myself. I rented part of the house to Carol. This means that now that I have a little more money coming in, I can afford to make improvements to the property. Half of the cost of everything I do to maintain or improve the property is now tax deductable as a business expense because half of my house is a rental property.

Owning a home radically alters your relationship with money. There is always something breaking down that needs to be fixed and it usually costs an arm and a leg so you always feel broke. But as you fix all of these things, the value of your home increases and you have more equity.

My home has practically tripled in value since I bought it. I just qualified for a $65,000 home equity line of credit of which I am currently using about $8,000. If I wanted to quit my job and go back to school or maybe start my own business, I have access to $57,000 at 4.25% interest to use for that.

Hey, wait a minute! If you check into what sort of mortgage you can qualify for, you may find that you can buy the loop house condo and continue to rent to your friends who are not willing to commit to property ownership. (When I went to qualify for my mortgage, I had to bring a letter from Carol saying that she would continue to rent from me at whatever amount per month for 6 months.) I'm not sure exactly how that would work. Condos may have different rules than private homes.