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steve... wrote:
This happened to me about fifteen years ago. My landlord had to raise the rent in order to justify the selling price and the realtor would be bringing in people to see the place with only a few minutes notice. I remember once when I was in the bathroom, he let himself in along with some prospective buyers without a warning. I was NOT a happy camper and told him so.
Your former landlord was a brute (I am being nice today). Ours would warn prospective buyers verbally as well as with a sign "Do NOT disturb the tenants" posted in the front lawn.
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If you decide to buy make sure you buy something that you can afford a 15 year mortgage on. It's not that much more a month and you'll save a TON in interest.
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pinion wrote:
If you decide to buy make sure you buy something that you can afford a 15 year mortgage on. It's not that much more a month and you'll save a TON in interest.
(tu) Thanks!
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pinion wrote:
If you decide to buy make sure you buy something that you can afford a 15 year mortgage on. It's not that much more a month and you'll save a TON in interest.
I recommend the opposite, and it is actually a whole lot more per month. I have a house with 7 years left on its mortgage and I'm refinancing to 30 yrs. With 4.875% interest, all of which is tax deductible, locked in for 30 years its the cheapest money you'll ever get. Unless there is NOTHING in your future you may want to spend a substantial sum on, that is. But this is way OT since kap doesn't seem to be house hunting.
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thermarest wrote:
[quote=pinion]
If you decide to buy make sure you buy something that you can afford a 15 year mortgage on. It's not that much more a month and you'll save a TON in interest.
I recommend the opposite, and it is actually a whole lot more per month. I have a house with 7 years left on its mortgage and I'm refinancing to 30 yrs. With 4.875% interest, all of which is tax deductible, locked in for 30 years its the cheapest money you'll ever get. Unless there is NOTHING in your future you may want to spend a substantial sum on, that is. But this is way OT since kap doesn't seem to be house hunting.
All of our houses we owned were on the 30 years fix mortgage. That is usually the route we prefer. 15 yrs would be good depending on other factors.
Has the housing market in So CAL bottomed out yet?
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pinion wrote:
Googling around for some supportive math I found this:
http://www.daveramsey.com/article/why-da..._mortgage/
The biggest thing I take away from that article is the part that talks about how much it costs just in interest to the bank for the first ten years. you've paid almost $162,000, but you've only knocked $36,000 off the loan. So over the past 10 years, you've given the bank $130,000!
So kiss your tax saving goodbye because you're paying more to the bank than you are saving in taxes. All a 30 year loan is doing is helping you buy more of a house that you can't afford to begin with so that the bank can collect extra money from you in interest. It would be better to determine how much you can afford per month and figure up how much house you can buy with a 15 year mortgage based on that. 4.875% is pretty good but current 15 year rates are 3.625% according to Google.
30 years is the norm because that's what the banks like because then they can line their pockets with more of our money. And we like it because we "deserve" to have the big house.
Agree with your assessment. Our first house we got the 30 year mortgage because we did not thoroughly understand the 30 year one versus the shorter one. Close friends and relatives, who have been home owners for a longer time, recommended for the 30. Our second home, we weren't sure how stable our employments were. As it turned out, our employments are lasting ... for a longer time.
