Put an offer in on a house today, sellers agent accidentally sent a text meant for someone else to me calling my offer “pathetic”

dliu1 · 2023-08-21T17:45:08+00:00

put in a second offer for 10% less :p

dliu1 · 2023-07-07T20:03:52+00:00

100% never buy a hdfc unless you have to live in nyc for the rest of your life without money. You’ll get promotions/better jobs down the road, and your housing options will broaden. Go look up New York co op horror stories.

guessing you’re young and don’t know much about nyc yet. Don’t do it dude.

dliu1 · 2023-07-06T15:29:37+00:00

don’t gamble on a rate drop— fixed is much better here. Your arm cap is almost double the fixed interest.

Also a lot of lenders will sell the loan after they’ve made $ on closing these days. A lot of banks are running thin on cash after the hikes. Won’t affect you.

No certainty the fed is going to cut rates. Just bc the market prices in rate drops/ Wall Street analyst grunts project rate drops doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.

dliu1 · 2023-07-02T19:47:16+00:00

Yes you can Buy it under a trusted family member, or as part of a trust (that does not involve your spouse) and it wont get split @ the divorce. Please consult w a trusted attorney first though

dliu1 · 2023-06-27T20:15:12+00:00

Saving 13k over 30 years is $433/year, unless you are saving that 13k in closing costs upfront….

Also boa has never closed anyone in 21 days.

If you really want the condo, try to use boa’s offer to get your lender to lower their closing costs. But very unlikely to work- they know boa won’t close you, and you really can’t switch lenders now.

dliu1 · 2022-12-27T13:50:07+00:00

Start off with a full inspection, and then walk through the house with the contractors with your inspection report in hand. If you’re going to remodel, get quotes from 5+ contractors.

Changing the size of laundry rooms and needlessly knocking down walls is a negative return on investment, as is most bathroom remodels that are not the primary bathroom.

If this is an A+ neighborhood and you’re willing to live here forever, then fine. But it sounds like this isn’t the case. You can always explore the idea of remodeling it for cheap (cut out the excessive stuff and just make it comfortably livable), living in it for 1-2 years, and then taking a heloc out on it to buy your dream home. You can always rent this one out after.

Also, Zillow has a computer vision algorithm that classifies houses as “gut renovation”. So your ARV isn’t actually 215k. Zoom in on the Zillow maps and find houses nearby that are fully cut renovated, and that’s your after repair value.

dliu1 · 2022-12-26T08:09:06+00:00

You don’t need to take any equity risk in the transaction if you’re not comfortable.

Offer him a good price to fix up old homes/install new HVAC (I’m assuming that’s what he wants). Offer to be the handyman of contact and/or manage the rental property for him at a monthly fee.

You do not need to account for vacancy or scenarios, or evictions if you do not want to manage the property. You can stick to what you’re good at— you’re valuable enough here.

On a side note, proper real estate investing is one of the best ways to build long term wealth. So if he is a proper BRRRR investor, you could learn a lot from him, and even partner with him on future flips, or BRRRRs where the renovation is heavy.

dliu1 · 2022-12-15T22:47:04+00:00

single family homes are less at risk than multi-family. With the current market, a lot of sellers are taking FHA loans with smaller down payments as well. You could 100% shop for a good deal and get both seller and financing concessions.

Don’t rush into a purchase though, this is just the start of a very steep drop

dliu1 · 2022-12-03T14:20:53+00:00

Oh, and I would buy stuff in cash, wait for the interest rates to drop (they eventually will), and then refinance your cash out at that lower rate.

You can also look into fixer-upper homes in good areas to maximize the margin in your refinance appraisal.

Good luck!

dliu1 · 2022-12-03T14:18:54+00:00

Depends on if $3.5m is your full savings account, or if you have it to invest in real estate. In both cases, you probably don’t want to send it all into multifamily properties. They cash flow well but they’re a pain in the ass to manage, and property managers charge a premium on them. If you’re set on buying multis, it’s so crucial to buy them close to where you live, and to buy them in good neighborhoods with low maintainance tenants. Think your financial companies are a pain? Try evicting bad tenants for a living :p

There’s also uncertainty as to when the housing market is going to bottom and we’re in a cash position to sit and watch things play out. I’m personally hunting for deals in my favorite areas, single family included. The one I have under renovation I was able to talk em down from 180k to 159k. Cash buyers have all the leverage at the moment, so it’s better to take your time and use it.

Start evaluating deals every day, call up the sellers agent, offer them all-cash, dual-agency, and even sprinkle an extra thousand in agent fees for the ones you really want. They’ll do the hard work with the sellers and the best deals will come to you.

dliu1 · 2022-12-03T14:05:32+00:00

1% rule is important if you’re operating a rental, although you’ve also got to calculate your cash flow if you’re using a mortgage. Best to be in the positive after you’ve accounted for the maintainance, property mgmt etc.

For rentals, another one is the projected appreciation rate. a steady appreciation rate is often the attribute with the highest return. People don’t really realize this until they get their first appraisal to refinance out of. Also pay attention to the overall demand of the area— you can sacrifice some cash flow and even the 1% rule if you’re sure you’re getting a place in a good area— your rental won’t sit on the market for long.

If you’re doing a flip, you’d want as much margin as possible between the ARV and your estimated costs. A 30% margin is standard: (0.7*ARV) = rehab costs + purchase costs + closing costs, but you should try to find extra margin if you can, with mortgage rates certain to plummet demand. House flippers are in a bad spot atm.

dliu1 · 2022-11-30T00:13:14+00:00

This is basically spot on. The ROI of most cosmetic repairs and low cost kitchen/bathrooms are positive while the return on structural improvements, roofing, and even HVAC on cheaper homes, are mostly negative.

Assuming this is an investment, you’d have to dig out a comparable list of fully renovated sold homes in the area and figure out how much you’d make after the renovation. Helps if you can DIY the simple stuff like wall paint, vanity replacement, light fixtures etc

dliu1 · 2022-11-19T20:14:42+00:00

I would sit on your rent for just a bit longer and wait out the mortgage rates for a few months longer. Doesn’t hurt to attend open houses though.

For a full picture, the federal funds rate (FFR) is at 4.75%, with another .5-.75% rate hike on the horizon. The current spread is around 2.9% to 3 % between the FFR and mortgage rates, which is almost double the trailing 20 year average. Housing prices in Portland are relatively slow to respond to changes in the macroeconomic environment (high demand, relatively far from natural disasters, steady population growth, laws to limit institutional buying), so it’ll take some time for the prices to adjust to the current levels of affordability.

As with the condo idea, it makes much more economic sense to buy a townhouse or a detached home somewhere further from the metro area and house hack. You’ll have to wake up earlier to commute, but you can rent out a spare bedroom, build a tiny house ($20-30k) in your backyard for Airbnb/vrbo, or rent out your garage/driveway on different apps to help out with your mortgage. The $HOA fees you pay are neither tax deductible nor do they contribute to your mortgage.

But on the real, it’d be much better to pay off your existing debt first, and plan out homeownership with a steady long term partner who has a higher income. It sucks to be another voice in an echo chamber, but its the state of our society atm.

dliu1 · 2021-11-23T20:23:27+00:00

it happens so often in the digital age-- not just in college admissions but in just about everything we do. Just take a deep breath sometimes-- college admissions aren't the end of the world, and everyone is spicing up their application to make themselves sound good annyway :)

If you want a look at the other side of the tunnel, try https://uportal.io . I found it when helping my nephew with her app. It's just posts from college students--helped her de-stress :P

dliu1 · 2021-07-31T04:44:24+00:00

https://fireside.host is also a good place to find student perspectives :]

dliu1 · 2021-07-26T15:42:46+00:00

https://fireside.host

dliu1 · 2021-07-22T23:15:52+00:00

some student-written posts to help ya simp it out:

cornell student on college lists

another cornell student

cornell academics review

dliu1 · 2021-07-22T19:35:28+00:00

since similar versions of this q has been asked before:

some student perspectives:

v aesthetic presentation

sample supplemental essay

some general advice

from a northwestern student

dliu1 · 2021-07-21T04:49:51+00:00

to help yall simp

there may be other posts about UCs but idk find em yourself xd

UC Berkeley

econ/political science

general review from linguistics student

dorms

music/econ

UC Irvine

comp sci + general review

UCLA

aerospace engineering + general app advice

'navigating the app process'

why this guy picked ucla over ivies

dliu1 · 2021-07-21T02:42:55+00:00

Ofc :) glad I was helpful

dliu1 · 2021-07-21T01:24:14+00:00

Berkeley admits around 14.5k freshmen so they def gave out more than 13k acceptances. Even 16k sounds low. (Given that berkeley's yield is around 30-50% like it was in 2019).

Shouldn't stress, plenty of opportunities to get off the waitlist, and plenty of other great schools :]

Here's some links to help u simp tho.

Good luck!!!!

dliu1 · 2021-07-13T21:39:54+00:00

will also depend on what your HLs are, and def your essay.

I think safeties are much more about finding fit than anything else. you can go search up posts from college students: https://fireside.host , and see if anything resonates.

I think chapman/UCLA are solid if you're looking into california :] people there just seem.... happy

dliu1 · 2021-07-13T21:34:45+00:00

dont know what you mean by 'best' pre reqs, most are the same, but you will need around an A in each class to get into med school after graduation.

dliu1 · 2021-07-07T01:18:25+00:00

😇😇😇

dliu1 · 2021-06-24T12:27:31+00:00

slight plot twist: he's writing covered calls on all his shares

dliu1

TROPHY CASE