All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

On your loan estimate, which is required to be provided 3 days after application,  you will see the amount of interest you will have paid after 3 years.  It's on the 3rd page,  fairly prominent.  When you close and get your closing disclosures,  page 5 will have the total interest you will haveto pay life of loan. So the banks arent trying to trick anyone, people just don't pay attention

When it comes to real estate I think it is needed.  I've been looking for a primary home for the past couple years in Detroit Metro and the housing prices are unreal.  Just try to find a nice middle class home in a good school district out here that is actually affordable--- you can't.  There is no way the economy and peoples incomes can keep up with how high the house prices have gotten and it needs to slow down a little. 

@James O. if you want to give your buyers an idea about race in the area without in any way getting yourself in trouble tell them to go to the website GreatSchool.org, enter the address, click on the school that would be assigned, then scroll down to Student Demographics. 

And there you go, a fairly good estimate of the demographics without you having to say what they are. GreatSchools.org is also a link in the Schools section of Zillow. 

I just wanted to add my 2 cents about lifeproof since its been recommended a couple times-- that product is garbage. We put it in our personal house and the scratches were unreal! If one grain of sand was under anything, a box, a shoe, a chair leg, and then dragged then instant deep and noticable scratching occured. And we were really tring to be careful. We have used a variety of other vinyl plank products with 0 issues. Sorry but i dont remember the names. Just wanted to warn againt lifeproof.

@Account Closed,

Thanks all for your sound advice.  I definitely learned a lot with this rental-- and in the future will give a more hands on guide to the house and it would be good to get inside and make sure everything is working well. But ugggghhhh.... so many requests. 

and before you think we just threw some people in a dump we didn't! We did some renovations, painted, fixed items and it was looking cute and was ready to rent but things came up after in a series of unfortunate events-- like the call I got from the tenant about animals in the ceiling... so I hired a trapper I to get rid of the critters... and the call a month later about a gross smell coming from the back of the house... which turns out was a rotting squirrel family in the ceiling-- guess the trapper didn't quite get the critters out before plugging the hole where they were getting in.  Or the leaking roof, or the drywall guys who came left junk in the backyard...and I could go on!  If this was our first rental I would seriously consider if this is the direction I want to go with my investments!  Luckily it isn't and I know things can be a lot easier.

So thanks for keeping my head on straight about the pilot light, it really is a good thing to have a reason to get in and make sure things are all good in the house.

We have a newer tenant in a SFH who, through a series of legitimate issues that were not her fault, got into the habit of contacting us to help her with every. single. thing. The most recent is that she can't get the water to heat up. I asked if she checked the pilot light and she said she looked but can't figure out where it would even be. Now, I don't want her to burn down the house messing with something that is beyond her abilities, but to get someone out there to light a pilot light and then eating the cost seems a little beyond being a good landlord to me. I would like to know your thoughts.... we are going to get someone out there, but can I pass this cost to the tenant?

And is there a way to nicely wean her off of contacting us at least twice a week?  The first 10 issues or so were really not her fault, so I feel like we do kind of owe her our patience but our tenants tend to stay a long time and so I would like to cut this behavior off sooner rather than later. In her application she did say she and her boyfriend are good at making small repairs....

I've been in the mortgage industry for a while now and i would say that by far what slows down the process is the borrower.  As soon as you get your conditional approval letter then collect every single item on it as quickly as possible bc that is what the uw is going to want to see to get you clear to close. Do not trust your loan officer or processor to tell you what is needed bc they seem to always miss a doc or 2. Demand a copy of the letter and get the items in the first section "what we need from you"  

If there is any chance that chipped paint  is lead paint or is covering lead paint you might want to fix it.  Especially if they have kids. Lead paint tastes sweet and so kids will pull it off the walls and eat it and that is a cause of kids getting lead poisoning. 

Assuming you don't currently live rent free then  house hacking would be a great way for you to get a feel for owning real estate.  You could get a duplex to a quad then rent out the other units and even rent out bedrooms in your unit. you could get an idea of what it's like to have renters,  deal with maintenance issues, have ownership and let someone else pay your mortgage.  I saw a billboard for a local credit union recenly offering a 100% finacing with no pmi for a primary--- i don't know how legit it is but do shop around there might are bank deals out there.  

With only 12k and no experience i wouldn't start with a straight investment project.  

Wow... just wow.... and no.  This is a terrible idea.  A free $1000 for all??? Who is going to pay for this? If everyone gets 1000 more a month then all it will do is increase inflation very quickly.  For the most part people who are very poor already get subsidized housing,  food,  medical.  why would regular people need this?