Background: The spouse informed me the other day that the landlord is fighting with the homeowners' association over some fishing nonsense and is refusing to pay his dues. Not something you want to do with a HOA, they can be real bitches.
I hopped online, did a little realty research and found something that would benefit us in more ways than one (I think at least, this is where your opines come in). I found a little 2bdrm, 1bth bungalow/cottage that needs work of course but is nothing that we can't handle. The big draw, it's $9k. Something that we can handle even if the spouse gets cut back to part-time hours (not that he would, I hope). I was thinking of proposing to the owner/agent the following...tell me what you think...zero down, 12% interest for 5 years. That would put our monthly at $200, less than half of what we pay here. I know the interest is high, but honestly our credit sucks so we have to deal with what we can.
Second bonus, the extra saved could be put toward our OUT OF TOWN land purchase thereby paying it off sooner so we could work on building AND we would have an in-town residence that we could be in further saving money by walking to where we need/want to go. It's only a few blocks from the spouse's job, the store and the library. We also wouldn't be caught in the middle of something as stupid as we are in right now with the HOA and the landlord.
There is also a yard, something we don't really have here in the sense that the entire rental is surrounded by gravel and the screamers can't just go out front and play (main road through the subdivision is less than 50ft away). We have woods aplenty but technically they belong to someone else as we are renters here.
Am I just trying to talk myself into this? A good idea, a bad idea? Whatcha think?
3 comments:
Sounds good if they'll do it, but please check anything that would be covered by "due diligence".
From an outside web source (just google "real estate" "due dilligence")
Do your initial exterior inspection. Be sure that the electrical and plumbing systems are up to date and meet current codes. Estimate of how many years of use the roofing has left, and look at driveways, landscaping, and the condition of exterior paint.
Your due diligence should include an interior inspection. Look for any problems you'll have to fix in the coming years. Watch for water damage or fire damage, pest problems, and obvious "problem areas. Get the necessary safety inspections. Some Fire Marshalls will do a free inspection to verify that the building meets current codes.
Call local authorities. Ask about any zoning or encroachment issues, or permit problems. Have there been any fire code violations, and were they fixed?
Just as a small sample. Good luck.
Part of the plan, ML, but thanks for the reminders. We do know that it is older (1946) so we'll have to do all the lead checks and such as this area was/is a big lead mining area. So we have a nice long checklist of things to go through and over before we work on buying it.
If your data is correct I see no reason to not do the bungalow deal.
Michael
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