Anian

I looked at house with and without. I was amazing at the crap that people did in non-HOA neighbourhoods, so many nice houses ruined by awful neighbours. From car-parts covering the "lawn" to smashed up fences.

My HOA veers from good to bad. It's a thankless job usually done by the worst people for it - those who have the time and want control over people. There was a campaign against the HOA in my neighbourhood, which failed mostly because the stated reasons for the campaign applied to the people who had been voted out a year before.

King Gimp

My lady and I have just stepped into the home buying ring - We have both found this website useful - Clear explanations of bizarre financial lingo and so on.

http://www.thetruthaboutmortgage.com/

Good luck!

HarryTheSpider

Thanks!

Tarkak9

Know what the laws are in your state about short sales and forgiveness of the remaining balance owed after payoff. As part of the terms of a shortsale, some banks are more lenient than others - eg USBank typically don't forgive the borrower and normally the amount will follow the borrower (ofcourse this could all change on a whim at the banks' discretion, rights and laws change); so why get a loan from them in the first place should you face a shortsale down the road?

tamms_1965

That is because there is not proper zoning regulations/local ordinances which protect you from that. Where I live no one can have these things, no HOA needed. If you do not comply the local gov takes care of it and adds the bill to your property taxes.

Bob

Which where some relatives live up in Maine is causing a small scandal, as the town councilors have been doing that, then when property taxes not being paid, reposes the house and they get sold for peanuts on quiet auctions, where spouses and other family members of the councilors have been buying out those properties.

tamms_1965

Naughty, naughty...sounds like the state should investigate.

In the farm community I moved to this past year they actually have a volunteer "clean-up/repair" program for the elderly/ill/etc.. They either get nominated or ask for it themselves....works pretty well.

paulinespens

My wife and I was pretty lucky when it came to myself buying a house last year.

We had a good mortage broker worked really hard to make sure we got our house. We was reccomended a realtor who was really good and was there for us when it got stressful with the underwriting.

The Morgage underwriting is the most stressful part.

We had our closing costs paid for us by the seller so I only had to put down $100 earnest money to cover the house.

We got a USDA Guranteed Mortage for 30 years and a fixed rate. No Pentalty if you pay it off early either.

We don't pay PMI monthly they just added a 2.15% fee on top of the mortage.

And we ended up with a 3 bedroomed detached bungalow that had been completely refurbished.

MsElui

the laws also change state by state. Here in ohio its illegal to have an early repayment penalty if the mortgage is over something like $70k when its taken out.

The pmi insuramce is charged (at least here) on any mortgage over 80%. The good news is that at the point in time you drop below the 80% mark you no longer have to pay it. On our recent remortgage -they told us on what date the 80% would be hit and when the extra payment would stop (assuming the house value didnt go up in the future and take us below 80% before then.

One thing to learn about and understand is escrow. Some mortgage companies insist and some don't. Basically for us - we pay one payment each month into escrow that covers one 12th of the property taxes, one 12th of the house insurance and one months mortgage. The escrow account then pays the mortgage payment and stores the property tax til the next bi annual payment, and the insurance money til the next annual payment. It effectively is making a monthly payment out of the annual or biannual charge so its easy for us to budget. (the property tax can only be paid bi annually here so you have to put money aside if your escrow scheme doesnt cover it). And more importantly - to set up our escrow the mortgage company insisted we put in 14 months worth of insurance and 6 months of property tax when we closed. So this meant we had to turn up with a bigger sum of money at closing that we initially planned (ie it doesn't come out of your deposit monies). So make sure you understand what the mortgage company is likely to require so you are not surprised. We ended up getting a extra refund after a year as we had 'too much' in the escrow account to cover the projected outgoings.

The charges for mortgaging here are a gazillion time higher than in the UK -s o be prepared for a long list of things you will be paying for on on top of the mortgage. Decide with your realtor if you want to add all theses charges in to the loan or not - or again plan to bring more cash to closing to cover it.

With the HOA - ask the realtor to tell you how much the annual fees are so you are not surprised. (ours were $150 annually so not a big hit but you need to make sure you know what your could be). Also ask to see a copy of the HAO rules to see how strict they are about stuff like color of mulch used, or fence sizes etc. and ask how many times they have taken legal action against any of the HOA members and what for (ie lawn mowing infractions, or leaving garbage cans out lol)- if they are an uber uptight bunch then its worth avoided that sub division as that can bring a lot of stress. You want an estate to look nice but you dont want to be hassled if you leave your lawn a few days longer one week before cutting it. If you go for a place without a HOA - then take a good look at the neighboring properties and how close they are - and how much it might devalue your own place or be an eyesore for you if they suddenly decide to park 5 wrecked cars on their overgrown lawn.

fatbrit

Yes and no. FHA mortgages, for example, are different.