All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Delmore

Hire someone to do it to be sure it's taken care of to your satisfaction. 

Hello!  I grew up in Fond du Lac.  I haven't lived there in 20 years but it's always fun to see it pop up :).  

When we had a friend renting our out of state house, we had him deposit his rent directly into our account.  He has been one of Matt's best friends for almost 30 years though, so we weren't at all concerned with him possibly getting information about our account and It was a small local credit union.  Check with your bank for notes/holds you can put on the account to prohibit information like account numbers and balances being given out to see if they have any options that would work for a direct deposit.  Otherwise the money order seems like a good idea too.

 Yeah, but if the market falls enough it can still go *poof* and you can't get it back by selling the property.

Save your money, repair your credit so you're ready to buy when all the pieces are in place.  You'll need a pre-approval letter from someone willing to lend you the funds for a deal in order to submit offers, so focus on that.  

We switched when we moved out of state 6 years ago.  We considered "shopping" out tax prep the last two years, but they send us a form with our last years info and a link to upload all our docs and we just upload it all and say thank you when it comes down to T-day.

 As someone who is still upside down on a 2005 purchase (tenant pays the mortgage - eventually it'll be a cash cow LOL), it's absolutely unrealized appreciation until you sell the property.

Figure your numbers assuming both sides are rented. If it makes sense, make the offers.  you will be competing with investors who will be putting 25% down, so it will probably take more legwork or being willing to buy a beater property and put some sweat into it to find your deal though.

Does your lease have an early release clause if you buy a home?  Have you talked to your leasing agent about staying where you're at month to month?  We were actively looking and had an offer on a home when our lease expired.  They extended us 2 months at a slightly higher rent (but not as much as they wanted to raise us to renew our lease for a full year) while we closed and moved.  

If you find a place I'd start making offers and just have the reserves to continue to pay the rent til your lease is up if necessary.  Remember when you close on your mortgage you "skip" your first months payment (essentially you prepay it in your closing costs, but... whatever...).  So if you close in June your first Mortgage payment will be due August 1, so if you have to pay rent in July it's annoying, but not terrible.

You might be able to get your Realtor to do that - for a fee at first (maybe applicable toward closing costs/brokers fees when you actually close on the deal), maybe even for free once you have a relationship with them and have bought a property or 2 or 4 proving you actually do make moves and they're not spinning their wheels to do a video walk-through for you. 

Google Streetview can give you an initial feel for the neighborhood too.  Spend some time "cruising" the streets.