All Forum Posts by: Adam Juodis

Just placed an offer on a property, which both my agent and I feel strongly about that the owner will accept. I will likely need a home inspector within the next week or two to inspect the house when the offer is accepted. Can anyone refer me to a reliable home inspector that is diligent and charges a reasonable amount? As the title says, the home is in the St. Charles / Geneva, IL area.

I also will require an attorney for when closing time comes. Can anyone recommend a decent attorney that is relatively cheap?

Thank you!

As the title states, I am looking to purchase my first home (To live in) and I would like to get pre-approved very soon. I was exploring the option of both conventional 20% down and FHA loans. I had several questions regarding pre-approval and the loan types:

1. When shopping around for a loan, only 1 hard pull will affect my credit(In the 30 day period), no matter the type of loan I apply for, correct?

2. Are there any special first time home buyer programs that offer great rates as well as waive any fees to strong candidate lenders (For reference, I have a perfect credit history with a score of about 800)?

3. Any benefits to cosigning a mortgage with a spouse (Spouse has credit score in high 700s), or am I better off signing for it on my name only? (For the price range I am looking at, I am not concerned about not having enough income)

Thank you!

@Aaron K. I have considered the FHA 203k loan, but I've read that they take a very long time to process/close. Right now, I have around a 3-4 week window to find and buy a property, considering a 45 day standard closing period (Conventional loan). Do you have any experience with the 203k loan?

I am looking to buy my own home (Not for renting purposes). I am interested in buying a foreclosure/fixer upper properties that I can put rehab dollars into, to create some equity and get into the certain area for cheaper than buying a ready to move in property.

Now, I have the cash to put down 20% on the property, but I do not have the additional cash to provide for the rehab costs. I now need to find a hard money lender so I can fund my rehab budget. Lets get to some numbers as an example.

Say I purchase a 3 bed, 2 bath fixer upper home for $190k. I put in $38k for the down-payment

Rehab costs $45k.

Looking at comparable properties, I assume a ARV of 270k.

For the sake of this example, lets say I refinance 75% of the bank appraisal of 270k, which leaves me with 203.5k.

Using the 203.5k to pay off the original loan remaining amount (152k after downpayment) and the hard money loan ($45k+ $5k interest) just about leaves me with nothing leftover.

I now have $38k of my own money and a loan for $203.5k, giving me a house cost of about $240k. Considering the ARV, that's $30k equity gained, a remodeled house that's designed per my vision, and only $38k of my money rather than $54k (20% of 270k).

Am I overseeing something here, or would this be a viable strategy? I also have someone close that I can borrow hard money from for relatively cheap (~6%), so that plays more into my favor. Your insights are very appreciated!!

@Zachary Myers How hard is it to use those liquid leveling substances? I've never used them before, and I'm no pro at installing flooring (Installed laminate a couple of times). I fear that I would mess up the floor level even more by potentially not spreading it even over the entirety of the surface, or am I scaring myself for no reason? haha..

Yeah, I was definitely eyeing the Allure Vinyl planks. I stopped at home depot, and they certainly seemed sturdy enough not to cave in at the small grout line points where the tiles meet. The only way I could imagine caving is somebody putting a lot of concentrated pressure right on the small area of the grout line.

Still getting a bunch of mixed responses though. My worst case scenario is that I dedicate an entire weekend to ripping out tile. I can put in underlayment over the tile, but I also have to watch the height of the floor, and that it won't clash with the doors swinging out and other structural features. Do you guys think a thin foam underlayment would solve any potential grout line issues(Such as the one in the link  below)? 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/TrafficMASTER-Standard-...

@Austin Fruechting the entire unit is covered in these tiles. (Also, 4 units in the building) I'm trying to do a quick rehab turnaround time, and only have a decent amount of times on the weekend. A weekend spent on just busting up tile would be valuable time lost. I'd rather just build up over it, but still not sure-might have to bust the tile out. PS, congrats on the retirement!

@Ante Vujic Yeah i was looking at either getting the Allure or Trafficmaster brand luxury vinyl. Both have very good reviews.

@Dale Riola What type of underlayment, like plywood right on top of the tile, and put some adhesive over so it doesn't move? Could be a possibility, but not sure if I can afford to go up 1/4" + the size of the vinyl since it might mess with the door heights and other features in the unit.

Wondering if I can place luxury vinyl plank flooring right over existing ceramic tile without having to level the grout lines. The grout lines themselves are not much deeper than the top of the ceramic tile(See picture below). I'd rather not demo the existing ceramic tile, since my budget is pretty tight, and that will take a decent amount of time(For about 800 SF).

If I do need to fill the grout lines, what is the easiest and most cost effective solution? I've been reading some other media about this, but with the grout lines being small and not that deeper then the top of the tile, I can't image the vinyl planks 'dipping in' due to the slight imperfections of leveling. 

This is the type of flooring I am looking to put in, since it looks nice, its waterproof, and solid choice for wear-and-tear. Thoughts?

@Christopher Rutherford So as soon as you finished the rehab and got the second half of the funds from the bank, you went to refinance into a physician loan? Did that cost you some fees, and how much did you interest go down?

Doing some google searches and trying to find info about not being able to refinance out of PMI anymore, I can't seem to find anything of the sort. Can anyone else confirm if you can still refinance out of PMI?

I'm thinking about doing a FHA, 203k(rehab loan) on a 4-plex unit. The initial numbers after the rehab work out, but they're not great. I'm willing to go for that since the property is in a great area. My mortgage lender told me i'd be paying about 0.3% extra interest on the loan for taking out the rehab dollars. The monthly PMI would be around $300 for the property+203k loan amount.

The PMI assessed from the 203k rehab budget would cost me around $25 a month, and the addition 0.3% would cost about $100 per month. When would I be able to refinance to remove the PMI payments(At 20% equity). Is there anyway I can remove the PMI that is based off the 203k loan amount? Thanks!