All Forum Posts by: Tim Sughrue

I am currently seriously considering purchasing my first house. I basically found exactly what I was looking for (worst house in best neighborhood). This house is not a "gut job" by any means but it definitely needs a ton of work. (roof, electric, heat ext.) My ideal purchase was either something cheap enough where I would have a low mortgage and have weekly cash to dump into it or if it was closer to my max price it would need minimal work. Of course, I stumble across something that needs a lot of work but is higher than my ideal price range for something like this. I then learned about renovation loans which will give me enough or close to enough money to get what needs to be done to the house. My Realtor suggested a company to go through when the time comes. He also suggested a 203B which I am told is up to $35,000 and is a lot less headache and processes to go through (not really sure what he means by this). I am afraid $35,000 isn't enough, though it may be, I simply don't know. $50,000 I feel would be a sufficient amount because I can cover the basics and may have enough to remodel a kitchen/bathroom. Has anyone done these or is familiar with them? Also, should I seek out a few different mortgage companies and have them bid against each-other for the best interest rates or does it not work like this? Also I am a first time buyer so do I get any beneficial rates like I would with a conventional mortgage?

Thanks in Advance!

Thanks for all the help! Sorry that it took a little while to respond but I've been busy working and searching for a house.. GREAT ADVISE!! Very much appreciated!!

Thanks for all of the information! I'm new to this process so I am a little confused on how to go about finding off market deals. Can you please send me in the right direction to go about doing this.

Thanks!

My house search has gone from a fairly large area, now narrowed down to 4 towns. Price range is $250,000 - $375,000. I know you need to keep emotion out of the buying process but my area is starting to get ridiculous. Houses that have been on the market for more than two weeks are seriously defective. Ex. awful additions, main roads, swampy yards. All i want is a solid NORMAL looking design that needs work; I'm in the construction field and I can do roofs, hvac, siding, all that good stuff. The problem is every house that is like this literally sells almost immediately and every time I am too LATE!!!!! I have about 3 Realtors working for me sending me email lists daily but this doesn't seem to help. I've been looking for a year now and I just happened to stumble on this perfect $260,000 house which was prime location and a very simple design that needed some TLC and it was a score. On trulia.com it was a "pre-forclosure" but when i contacted my agent she said its under-agreement and suppose to close April 15th. Now i am wondering why i never got this listing sent to my email by any of the agents, is there something I am missing here?

Definitely helped, I was not aware of owner occupied loan terms. I am definitely going to be doing some research on this.
Thanks Kelly! :)

I've saved a decent chunk of change (enough for a 10% down payment on a $300,000 house with a few thousand left over). I've been looking for about a year and after almost purchasing 3 of the first 6 houses that I looked at, I realized that this purchase is TOO BIG to just buy anything. I have also realized that I have absolutely no clue what I want, literally no clue. I feel the pressure to buy because the market is so low and I am told it will most likely start building up again soon. I essentially want to be able to sell my purchase for more than I bought it for, but I don't want to tie up so much of money that I am barely getting by after my monthly payment. So $300,000 is my absolute MAX purchase and that is pushing it.

The problems I am realizing is that the more I search I've noticed that houses under 250,000 in my area have major flaws such as location and/or unfixable architecture (mostly tear-downs). My family is extremely handy when it comes to fixing/remodeling houses so I definitely have that on my side, what I don't have is the bankroll to make it happen in a hurry.

On the other-side of real estate I have been researching condo's which seem to fit more of my immediate living needs (location, cost, and comfort). The typical condo close to boston which is the more desired location in the area goes from anywhere between 150,000-250,000. If my main goal was to just live in the moment for now and see what happens later this seems like a no-brainer (buy the condo). The problem is, I want this purchase to eventually carry me to the next stepping stone towards my life goal of being a real estate entrepreneur.

My family members tell me that condos are bad investments and you have condo fees and blah blah blah. (I'm hesitant to solely listen to family because I feel they have bias opinions based on what has worked for them). Maybe this is true, I'm not sure. Which is why I'm hoping someone can give me some direction on how I should go about this purchase.

P.S. I'm currently searching in the (5-20 minute) range from boston.... I could go a little further out about (30-45 minutes) and can get a far better house for the same money but these areas aren't as desired by buyers and my commute would be longer..

Thanks in advance for your responses!!!!