So... If you're bored, Lisa and I are thinking of buying a house now...

$650 on rent?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Keep renting if you like the place. That is unheard of here, even in the ghetto projects :eek:
 
You're probably estimating low on the mortgage payment when factoring in escrow. I'd guess more like $2,200/month.
 
redrumloa said:
$650 on rent?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Keep renting if you like the place. That is unheard of here, even in the ghetto projects :eek:
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Our current mobile home is completely paid for. The lot rent is $650
 
redrumloa said:
You're probably estimating low on the mortgage payment when factoring in escrow. I'd guess more like $2,200/month.
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Currently, the paperwork suggests $1882/month. It’s quite a leap for us
 
Wayne said:
Currently, the paperwork suggests $1882/month. It’s quite a leap for us
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That's accounting for full escrow? You'll be paying property tax on 100% of the sale price.
 
redrumloa said:
$650 on rent?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Keep renting if you like the place. That is unheard of here, even in the ghetto projects :eek:
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My home is €450

It's everything but ghetto; it's very small though.
 
redrumloa said:
Aaah, ok. I was thinking apartment. Mobile home in FL is not safe.
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You say that… And you’re not incorrect… But this one along with the 200 in this park have sat here for almost 40 years…

As I said with Palmetto there are literally thousands of mobile homes down there that have been there for decades….
 
Wayne said:
You say that… And you’re not incorrect… But this one along with the 200 in this park have sat here for almost 40 years…

As I said with Palmetto there are literally thousands of mobile homes down there that have been there for decades….
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I know you're not really arguing the point, but I'm a historian on this shit nowadays :confused:

Before Hurricane Andrew in 1992, there had not been a direct strike of a hurricane in South Florida in 28 years. Andrew was an extremely compact (small) category 5 hurricane. It was like a chainsaw through it's path though. We don't know the top speeds or even top sustained speeds, because after ~200 mph the wind gauges broke. Literally ninety-seven percent of all manufactured homes in Dade County were totally destroyed during Andrew. Further north in Broward a lot of them were too, but I don't have that statistic. The west coast of Florida gets direct strikes at times too.

Even worse, you mention 40 years old, meaning it was built prior to the 1995 Post-Andrew codes.

Improved Mobile Homes Weather Storms

When Hurricane Charley swept across Punta Gorda, Fla., most older mobile homes disintegrated while many newer ones survived unscathed. The reason is a law that changed mobile home construction requirements in 1995. The question for the upcoming hurricane season is how to protect people in the thousands of older homes.
 
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Wow, that Interest rate is sweet, the insurance seems unreal and the property tax is pretty good. It seems your county/city has benefits over the Tri-County.
 
Hey Jim,

As I said, we're at the "pre-qualified stage". I just submitted the formal application yesterday. The mortgage guy estimates between $1820/mo and $1888/mo which pretty much jives with the information above. The PMI applies because of the Chapter 13 I went through about 7 years ago (discharged only 5 years ago) and the fact that we didn't have $60,000 (20% down). Even if we had $60k, the PMI would still apply for a while. Hopefully rates will still be comparable when we're able to pay on it for a few years.

When I popped that number to 5%, the cost went to $2122. Maybe you should consider refinancing at the lower rate?
 
Wayne said:
Confession time: I haven't slept all night. Well maybe two hours. I honestly stayed awake wondering how we're going to pay for it all, and how life is about to change. We're going from a comfortable living with $650 rent on a place we own, to roughly $1800 to $1900 / month for a mortgage. My brain won't let me stop worrying that even though this is what we want to do (get a real home), this is a terrible idea.
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These are all perfectly normal feelings. Once you get some equity behind you, this includes market fluctuations, you can always renegotiate a better rate and or repayment. You could chance it and go interest only for a couple of years to see which way the market heads and renegotiate then. Always shop around the lenders too, never fall into any kind of loyalty trap.
 
adz said:
These are all perfectly normal feelings. Once you get some equity behind you, this includes market fluctuations, you can always renegotiate a better rate and or repayment. You could chance it and go interest only for a couple of years to see which way the market heads and renegotiate then. Always shop around the lenders too, never fall into any kind of loyalty trap.
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Thank you Adz. I appreciate the words of encouragement and support. We saw people go interest-only and end up homeless, so that's a no-go for us. Maybe if I were 70, that would be fine. but I plan to be around long enough to get it paid off.

Since Florida is pretty much land-locked, the area we're moving to is "new" and rapidly expanding. The same house around us would be $600k+ considering that to build around here, you would first have to destroy whatever building is on the land ($$$$) then build over it.

The idea, or should I say hope here is that since the area is exploding with growth and we're getting in while it's still "in the boondocks", we can hopefully sit on it for a few years, building equity in it while the home prices around us go up. Then refinance when we're clear of the PMI requirement and lower our monthly outgo a bit.
 
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In Victoria, it's a similar set of circumstances, except here people seem to cling to the idea that Melbourne is the centre of everything and you need to be as close to it as you possibly can. For many years, development around Melbourne focussed on the East and South-East, but now the West is expanding rapidly as is the North. We purchased land in the outer North, around 30km from Melbourne, and then built ourselves (that was fun...), total cost was around $450k, within 5 years, houses of similar size and land area are selling in excess of $700k.
 
Just an update. Yesterday the mortgage guy called to tell me the rate had dropped down to 2.875% (from 3.00%) and asked if I wanted to lock in, or hope and wait for 2.75%. I went ahead and locked in because it's not my luck that things go down, but they certainly go up.
 
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Wayne said:
Just an update. Yesterday the mortgage guy called to tell me the rate had dropped down to 2.875% (from 3.00%) and asked if I wanted to lock in, or hope and wait for 2.75%. I went ahead and locked in because it's not my luck that things go down, but they certainly go up.
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The only reliable way to get the rate to fall is to lock in. :)
 
Wayne said:
Just an update. Yesterday the mortgage guy called to tell me the rate had dropped down to 2.875% (from 3.00%) and asked if I wanted to lock in, or hope and wait for 2.75%. I went ahead and locked in because it's not my luck that things go down, but they certainly go up.
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Absolutely the right move to lock it. That is a crazy good rate and probably unprecedented. Just think, in the Carter era it was in the mid-high teens, or worse. We are living in cRaZy times so I guess it is not impossible to go down, but I wouldn't chance it either.

And yes, I'll be looking to refinance later this year. I need to go through my credit reports to see if there is anything needed to be cleaned up.
 
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