Excuse the Rant

[RoseRed]

So I am trying to help my mother find a house. Sadly she cannot get a normal loan, but has to get a special loan by the government. She is 100% convinced that it is the perfect loan. I agree that it's nice that it gives her a very nice rate and gives a forgivable loan of 10-20% down payment no interest. Where's the problem? Simple, the house has to have 0 issues. Perfect house. And in her area, that means 90% of houses are crossed off the list. The loan is very picky on the condition of the house.

Now why in the world are houses in these conditions in the first place?! After having hearts broken again and again because the house had issues, I am getting really pissed off at some home owners. I have never owned a house before, so maybe you guys and gals can help me understand how someone lets their house decay to the point where it will cost $100,000+ to fix? Yes we have had that happen. There was a house that was perfect on the inside but the porch was so rotted that it would cost $50,000 to fix, not counting the fact that the whole house needed new siding. How do you buy a house with a porch and not expect to have to keep the porch maintained? How do you see it decomposing year after year and do nothing? If you can't afford to maintain the house, don't buy it. There is more to a house than just paying the mortgage and insurance. One of them even had a new updated kitchen, but did they bother fixing the foundation? Nope, not important. And to just go on with the ball, one house had three different foundations. ???? I am completely confused on that.

The recession had a big impact on people's amount of money to spend I understand that. But some of the issues that I ran into are so bad that those houses are going to be demolished, because not even contractors think the house is worth fixing up. This seems like another result of the cause of the housing crash, people buying houses they could not afford (either payment wise or maintenance wise). When first buying their house, my family had bought one they could easily afford. Not stretching the limit.

And the people who made special loan (Governor Quinn was the one who proposed it), know this. How can they not? I understand they are trying to make owners buy homes and keep them. But why allow some fixing up of the house? Especially if the house is so under budget that even with the contracting loan, the total amount would be much less than the max amount my mother was approved for in a loan? Why is the loan so strict with no issues what so ever? Why not have a deal if a professional contractor goes to the place, writes down all the issues and estimates the amount of money it would cost to get all the issues fixed. And then have an appraiser go to the house and give his/her opinion on how much the house is worth. Then the banker can look at the value of the house and compare it to the amount of money it would cost to fix and decide if the house is worth fixing. That sounds better to me than sealing off a huge chunk of the market.

I'm sorry if this is trivial, but it is aggravating when I spend hours going through hundreds of houses (I have literally looked at every house within a 10 mile radius of my mother's town), eliminate to 10 houses between the two of us. and travel a total of 640 miles between the two trips - Just to get denied because the houses had issues.

 

[Tavia]

I'm not really sure why people are starting to feel no need to take any care of their home but it does seem to be spreading. My mom and step dad are realtors in Texas and also bid out to clean houses, either ones being put up for sale or rentals before being rented out again. The rentals are generally awful which is pretty much expected but still sad. However, they have been seeing a rash of one to two year old houses that people had bought and are now trying to get out of, that they have completely trashed inside and they aren't cheap houses, they had been very nice houses.

 

[BlackBear123]

I'm sorry you're going through this. I hope your mom is able to find a home to purchase a soon.

Different things are important to different homeowners. That's the beauty of being able to have almost complete freedom do what you want with your property. Some homeowners aren't maintaining their houses with thoughts of selling in the future- they're thinking about what's going to make them happy while they're living there. If an updated kitchen is more important than a fixing the porch to a particular owner- then they have every right to spend their money to update that kitchen as long as the porch isn't causing a safety issue for the neighboring properties. You own it- you choose how to you want to maintain/upgrade it. No one should be able to tell you otherwise (again, unless it's a safety concern). Now you may get way less when you go to sell- but if a party is okay with that- then so be it.

Just be thankful you found a contractor that's able to spot all these issues off the bat. It's much better to find them before signing all the papers...

 

[Nanci]

In my experience, a house is a money pit that you pour money into, continually. One thing after another. So that's a strain, and if you add on unexpected expenses like emergent vet bills and car repairs- something is going to lose out, and it's the house, because you don't _need_ it to get to work, and it isn't going to die if you don't act immediately.

 

[spyderk]

We just bought a house with 35 acres, and while I have complained about some things that are on the inside, I have tried to look at it from the old homeowner's point of view. They did not intend to leave this place; I know that. However, it is what is outside that bothers me. There is a beautiful creek and surrounding area that is full of old water heaters, windows, doors, cabinets, etc. I get that they didn't want to pay for the disposal, but it baffles me why you would have 35 acres of beautiful woods and creek, complete with nice wide trails everywhere, and then dump your large trash out there. You have to work to haul it out there, so it does not appear to be a temporary place to store the trash!

 

[Alli_Draggy]

The good news is that when it warms up, some of that "big trash" will be great snake habitat. That's actually the kind of area that our field biologist/herpetologist friend likes for field reptile herping because those big dumped pieces attract them (they provide shelter and sometimes a heat sink as well. I wish we had more land and more wild land (as it is, I'm waiting for the "you need to maintain your property" note from code enforcement. We're trying to give the plants a little more time to build up food before we mow/trim, because it was SUCH a hard winter here-but all our neighbors have mowed, so we're looking rather shaggy in comparison...)

Probably not when there's still snow on the ground, though.

Rose, I hear you on the house condition. We moved into this one 8 years ago, and honestly, every time we turn around we find another system that was either badly done in the first place or wasn't maintained, so we're having to replace it before it's time. So far, that's included all the HVAC, siding, the roof, water heater, and completely gutting and redoing a bathroom due to mold issues. This was a house that got a CLEAN bill of inspection-I hate to think of what might have been wrong with one that wasn't eligible for an FHA mortgage (we had a standard mortgage, but still did the FHA inspection-didn't help).

We own it free and clear at this point, and I swear it was like the house knew that we were no longer paying a mortgage because it immediately started demanding money.

I hope your mother finds a good house soon.

 

[smigon]

I don't know your area, but we had the same problem buying our first house. We had almost no credit (I opened a Sears card to get us started!), so the loan would only cover houses that were 100% perfect.

We found a new subdivision and the builder was selling the model homes as rent-to-own. We paid rent to the builder and about 1/3 of that money was put towards the down payment of the house. A year later we purchased the house, it was still nearly perfect, so we got the loan with no problem.

Good luck, I hope to never move again!!!

 

[Nanci]

The good news is that when it warms up, some of that "big trash" will be great snake habitat. That's actually the kind of area that our field biologist/herpetologist friend likes for field reptile herping because those big dumped pieces attract them (they provide shelter and sometimes a heat sink as well.

I took a class years ago, underwater, in Bonaire, about how the sea life had adapted to man's encroachment. Dumped tires made perfect homes for fish, etc.

 

[smigon]

I took a class years ago, underwater, in Bonaire, about how the sea life had adapted to man's encroachment. Dumped tires made perfect homes for fish, etc.

I have heard that too. They are coming up with all sorts of ways to create reefs from human discards which is so great. One sad thing I read was that the Great Barrier Reef will probably be destroyed by the end of the century due to pollutants and other man-made problems.

 

[MysticExotics]

I understand your frustration, I really do! I bought my house last year. I had to rule out several houses that should have been really nice, because they were in horrible shape.
A big part of the problem was due to so many people having to sell on a short sale or forclose, they just gave up on any upkeep on the house.

My selection was very limited. When I did find one, it was a short sale. I put an offer on the house beginning of March (2013). It didn't close until Sept 27. It was an incredibly stressful 7 months.

Spyderk, I am incredibly jealous of you!!!
I would absolutely LOVE to have that much acreage!!!
Not to mention the trees and the creek running through!

 

[Elsa]

I see it all the time, I am a realtor, I make it a point to preview a lot of properties for my buyers who us VA and FHA (and other gov't alphabet soup loans). It is hard to find a home that meets the rules. I hate to see them disappointed, loving a house that pest qualify.
Keep looking, just be ready to jump on it when it shows up.

As for maintaining homes, I have also seen plenty who buy, put the seller through the ringer to give money for repairs, then when it comes time for them to sell- usually job change/or loss a few years later, they spent the money on something else and did not fix the problem, then they get mad when a buyer does the same to them....it's crazy.
Anyway, my job is how I ended up with a corn snake! It's always an adventure


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[spyderk]

I understand your frustration, I really do! I bought my house last year. I had to rule out several houses that should have been really nice, because they were in horrible shape.
A big part of the problem was due to so many people having to sell on a short sale or forclose, they just gave up on any upkeep on the house.

My selection was very limited. When I did find one, it was a short sale. I put an offer on the house beginning of March (2013). It didn't close until Sept 27. It was an incredibly stressful 7 months.

Spyderk, I am incredibly jealous of you!!!
I would absolutely LOVE to have that much acreage!!!
Not to mention the trees and the creek running through!

Our selections were limited also, and we spent 2 years looking at places. This one was best by far and I am glad the others didn't work out. I feel very lucky to be here and cannot wait to see what herps we find out here. I already know the deer and turkeys are plentiful. And as far as the trash, I know it's good habitat for things - but it just looks terrible in the creek as water rushes over it! We'll put boards and log piles up here and there for habitat that blends in better than water heaters and old windows.