Living the American dream

[JaySVX]

I made an offer on a house last night. Everything sort of fell into place at one time. I have been casually browsing for about 2 years, but then I saw this, and bam, perfect. My kids stay in the same school district, it's 100k below average house cost in the area, I'm looking at roughly 3.25% interest on a 30yr mortgage, and the house has the features that I want.

It's a 3 bedroom with 1 full bath and 2 partial bath house. There's a nice living room with fireplace, dining room, kitchen, and family room with a claw foot wood stove. It's a split level, with 4 steps between stories, and has a wide open feeling to it. There's new hardwood floors in the living room, dining room, stairs, and bedrooms/hallway. There is new tile flooring in the foyer and family room. A new roof was put on in 2007, and the heating system was new in 1995. It has a 1 car garage and 2 car carport. It has a nice back porch overlooking the yard, which is quite sizable. There's an in ground pool and shed as well. Plenty of mature tree's, and a line of pine trees along the back and sides of the property line giving plenty of privacy. It's on a low to no traffic road and taxes are pretty reasonable. I placed my offer at 245k, below their asking price, but in line with what other comparable homes in the area have gone for.

A couple pictures:








I should know today or tomorrow at the latest if they've accepted my offer. I'm really hoping they do, as houses in this area rarely, if ever, go up for sale, not to mention in this price range making it affordable. The average cost is around $350k, so it's a steal for me.

There are some things it needs. The in ground pool needs some pretty serious repairs, the back porch needs to be replaced, the fence needs to be re-routed and repaired to meet township standards for enclosing a pool, and the carport needs a new roof. Not major things in my book though.

Thanks for looking!

[Crazy_pilot]

Wow, looks great! I'd probably close in that carport though, a little more enclosed space for the less warm months. Good luck!

[benebob]

Congrats on the find Jay 3.25? sounds about 1.5 too low unless you have a gov't program. I'd suspect around 4.75. When we refinanced a month or so ago it was a 4.25 for a 15 year.

Forget about the pool, it is beyond repair since it wasn't cared for. Cost for filling in is about 5-7.5k. If a pool is a must you'll want to replace the entire thing! At least you already have a hole!

I'm guessing it is a mid 70s house right? If so check the electrics real good as aluminum wire was common and is at the end of its lifespan (definate fire hazzard) Expect about 8-15k to replace the wiring plus repairs to walls and ceilings as needed. Service should be 200amps (125 is barely addequate espec. with a pool)!

Get a home inspection even if it isn't required and be there for the walk through. Don't forget a radon test and pay for a chimney inspection as you'll want to know what they burned and how well they took care of their maint. Judging from the pool I'd already be suspect on their care! Go to the municiaplity and put a request for the property file in. It is public records so it should be available for the cost of copies but may take a week or two with the new open records law clogging up the system. Verify at the very least that there is a valid CO on file which is for the entire house and pool. If the downstairs was origially unfinished and it isn't finished according to the Cert. of Occupancy that can be a major issue! (PM me if you have questions about that)

That garage is just way too small btw!

[SilverSpear]

Wow, nice house!
Hope you get it Jay!

[Landshark]

$350k???

that's about a $175k-$200k house around here.

Collegeville must have some serious oontz going on.

[shelfy]

Originally Posted by Landshark

$350k???

that's about a $175k-$200k house around here.

Collegeville must have some serious oontz going on.

i think he's saying the average house is $350K, not this one.

what is oontz?

[JaySVX]

Thanks guys.

A year or two ago this house would have been 350k, other new homes that would have been 500k are 350k now. The housing market is crazy expensive here. There's new construction town homes in the area "starting in the mid 400's" as the signs say. And that's even right now. This home was built in 1963, and the woman prior to me bought it new.

The 3.25% I bought. The starting % was 6%, the seller is buying a point, which lowers to 5%, my father offered to buy a point, taking it to 4.125%, and I'm buying a point, taking it to 3.25%. It's a VA loan. My mortgage broker said he had never seen a point for a % before, and reccomended that I jump on that. I decided to extend it and max out at 3 points. This is a 30 year loan.

A pool is a big thing for me. I grew up with a pool and know all about how to maintain it, fix it, etc. Depending on the foundation condition, it may be repairable. It popped up about an inch. That could be fixed by removing the existing concrete around the pool, and re-concrete at the appropriate level. The pump and such are in good condition. Depending on the location, I may be able to patch the liner. Sadly, these are all things I've been through already with my parents pool growing up, but on a good side, I know plenty about them.

Plans down the road, is once I get the yard cleared up, I will take out that car port, extend the house to where it is, and make the garage a hot tub room, and add a bedroom upstairs and something else downstairs next to the garage, move the driveway out and around towards the back of the yard, and put a 2 car detatched garage there, something like this:


I'd move the shed which you see in that picture to the back corner of the yard, and will significantly reduce the size of the fenced in area for the pool to the pool + 15' back, which will get paved so I don't have to get a mower in there. The misc crappy shrubbery in the dead center of the yard I'm going to remove, a piddley task for the Excursion.

There's also a very large front yard of space that I'm not sure what to do with. Perhaps I will put the shed there. It's actually much more spacious than it appears in picture, but it gives a general idea.

[Mike621]

Good Luck Jay.

[Landshark]

Originally Posted by shelfy

i think he's saying the average house is $350K, not this one.

does look like it comes with some land. i'm also looking again this year, must has two-car garage and smaller yard for less grass cuttings B.S.

what is oontz?

http://dcoontzorama.ytmnd.com/

oontz is the sound of techno music (oontz oontz oontz ....), and also describes trendy, upscale or high-end things

[JaySVX]

From the 2000 census:
The median income for a household in the borough was $77,499, and the median income for a family was $90,733. About 1.0% of families and 2.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under age 18 and 2.1% of those age 65 or over.

And it's only gone up since then. And I don't live actually "in" collegeville, they're our neighbor, we're a small no-name next to collegeville, and collegeville has sort of a dirty lower income feeling compared to this area. I don't make a whole lot, so for me to find a single home that I can afford is rather uncommon, kind of like a dream come true.


Also, the house has 100a service. I'm going to have PECO run 200a to the house and put a bigger box in and re-route the electric so I can run some serious power. Until then I will evenly distribute electric via extension cords so I'm not blowing breakers every 5 minutes.

[subeman90]

hope if goes well for you jay. That is a great yard to do great things with (like a 4 car garage with lift)

[benebob]

I thought it may be a VA loan and points. VA loans usually aren't very competative with standard loans so you may want to check out your options. VAs are nice in a couple of areas as they give credit at lower rates to those with less than perfect credit but if your credit is good then a standard loan even now is 1.25 lower than the VA. Metlife and Fulton seem to be two of the lower ones in our area.

Remember I managed a 50 year old steel pool for 4 years, worked with a friend who designs $100k plus pools and grew up with a pool too. From an honest standpoint even if you fix a 20 year old beater car you end up with a 20 year old beater car which doesn't leak as badly. Pools are the same way. Don't put too much into it when you can start from scratch and have a better result. It isn't like you can put classic tags on it!

Make sure you know the zoning and land use restrictions for your grand scheme as I can already see you'll have some water run off issues in most townships based on your already paved area. Very expensive to do a run off plan and put in basins on a residential property!

Oh and I see a bent Excursion bumper in your future!

Originally Posted by JaySVX

Thanks guys.

A year or two ago this house would have been 350k, other new homes that would have been 500k are 350k now. The housing market is crazy expensive here. There's new construction town homes in the area "starting in the mid 400's" as the signs say. And that's even right now. This home was built in 1963, and the woman prior to me bought it new.

The 3.25% I bought. The starting % was 6%, the seller is buying a point, which lowers to 5%, my father offered to buy a point, taking it to 4.125%, and I'm buying a point, taking it to 3.25%. It's a VA loan. My mortgage broker said he had never seen a point for a % before, and reccomended that I jump on that. I decided to extend it and max out at 3 points. This is a 30 year loan.

A pool is a big thing for me. I grew up with a pool and know all about how to maintain it, fix it, etc. Depending on the foundation condition, it may be repairable. It popped up about an inch. That could be fixed by removing the existing concrete around the pool, and re-concrete at the appropriate level. The pump and such are in good condition. Depending on the location, I may be able to patch the liner. Sadly, these are all things I've been through already with my parents pool growing up, but on a good side, I know plenty about them.

Plans down the road, is once I get the yard cleared up, I will take out that car port, extend the house to where it is, and make the garage a hot tub room, and add a bedroom upstairs and something else downstairs next to the garage, move the driveway out and around towards the back of the yard, and put a 2 car detatched garage there, something like this:


I'd move the shed which you see in that picture to the back corner of the yard, and will significantly reduce the size of the fenced in area for the pool to the pool + 15' back, which will get paved so I don't have to get a mower in there. The misc crappy shrubbery in the dead center of the yard I'm going to remove, a piddley task for the Excursion.

There's also a very large front yard of space that I'm not sure what to do with. Perhaps I will put the shed there. It's actually much more spacious than it appears in picture, but it gives a general idea.

[demonsvx]

Around here you can get up to 25-30 acres for that kind of money! Im glad my parents property is nearly paid off. 50 acres and 2 houses was picked up for 39k in 1989 but refinanced to remodel one of them and it now appraises at 495K Pond full of catfish which average around 15lbs ,smallmouth bass, deer and turkey.

[JaySVX]

Originally Posted by benebob

Oh and I see a bent Excursion bumper in your future!

You can't possibly think I have a bumper hitch... I'm not even sure that it was an option on an Excursion! 12,500# towing capacity, I can't see a 3-4" stump putting up that much resistance. I'd be more weary of spinning some tires if the ground wasn't perfectly dry.



Well, it's update time!

I received a counter-offer from the seller. I'm no real estate agent, but I'm super number savvy. Their asking price was $274,900, comps in the area were $235-245k. I offered $245k, and wrote exemptions for the pool, back porch, fence, and carport roof, and included $12k seller assist, meaning they pay my closing costs, and buy me a point. They countered with $274,900, but agreed to the $12k. That, to me, is not budging. They'd spend more than 12k to fix that pool and porch just to get Use & Occupancy permits, which I'm 99% sure any other buyer would require. I grew up with a pool, repairing, maintaining, etc. I'm familiar with them and the PITA's they can be.

I don't want them to fix the porch, because they'd do the bare minimum to bring it to code. That would be slap 1.5" of concrete on top of the existing, hiding a problem until 3 years pass and that is cracked to hell. I don't want them to fix the fence, because they'd slap something crappy together. I don't want them to fix the pool because they'd simply fill it.

To me, their counter-offer is them not being willing to budge. Today I went back with $265k and $13k seller assist. Now, I don't plan to pay $265k, but I need them to come to the table. VA will not lend more than a house appraises at. Once we're at the point where we do appraisal, we've put some time in, and have a pretty good idea what sort of closing date is coming. Then the appraisal will come in around $255k tops.

At that point, they can adjust 10k, or go back to the drawing board, wasting all the time they have invested, and starting from scratch, and who knows how long it'll be until they have another offer. It's an estate sale, and they want to get out from under it soon, so chances are, they won't, and hopefully I will get it for the $255k range. However I had to drop a point and a half due to additional closing costs for the new estimate and am sitting at 4.5% for the 30yr.

Still, that's not final though. The mortgage isn't written yet. The 255k comes through, and I may have enough to buy it to 4%. This is a long term house for me, so I can justify buying points. If I planned to flip it in a year or 5, then no, doesn't cover the cost. However the points pay for themselves in 2-4 years, and after that it's all savings.

[subeman90]

I'm not the most number savy but I like money (who doesn't ) so I'll leave you with this..Good luck man! Work them over cause you are exactly right..estate sales usually like to have quick cash so stay strong and like i said...Good luck!!!!!!