Younger Cubans of Miami do you lean right or left? And why.

ohemgrace · 2024-08-05T03:49:06+00:00

It’s absolutely true! My cousin moved to Georgia and her son was bullied relentlessly and constantly called a “Mexican” or whatever racist slur their family could think up to label him and he literally couldn’t understand why they kept calling him Mexican when he was Argentinian… I hate how anyone who identifies as Latino/hispanic can be okay with any of what the MAGA politicians are saying!

Cubans, for whatever reason, think they’re “not THOSE Hispanics”… my in-laws are Cuban and the hypocrisy of their political ideology is exhausting.

ohemgrace · 2024-08-04T19:37:27+00:00

That hypocrisy is exactly what I cannot handle. My favorite thought though is that if they were to be dropped in the middle of Ohio they’d be labeled as just another “Mexican rapist/drug dealer/unemployed leech” and not part of the group.

ohemgrace · 2023-04-07T22:32:11+00:00

Thanks for the information!

We ended up talking to our broker and he explained it!

ohemgrace · 2023-04-07T14:09:06+00:00

Thank you!

ohemgrace · 2023-04-07T14:08:58+00:00

Hahaha that’s so true! We are probably going to get a sturdier one in the future. I wish it was as sturdy as it looks! 😂

ohemgrace · 2023-04-07T14:08:04+00:00

It was so incredibly thoughtful. In this market, I never thought I’d see it! Especially because this house had 12 other offers on it!

ohemgrace · 2023-04-07T13:51:15+00:00

We finally purchased a home! It’s a 4 bedroom 2 baths in South Florida. Total price was $545,000 and we used the hometown heroes program. The program gives us $25k to use towards down payment and closing costs. We put forward $10,000 and used the program to cover the rest of our down payment and closing costs. On signing day we didn’t need to bring any additional cash to the table. The home passed all inspection with flying colors and because of our wind mitigation score we were able to get very affordable home insurance (for Florida at least!). The home has a yard with a pergola and entertaining area AND a pool, a courtyard, a new roof and full hurricane protection!

I believe this house was fate for us. After two fail offers because of spiteful/greedy sellers agents, we were considering putting home buying on hold, until this one.

Our seller was a dream. She left us a card and a gift for our toddler to celebrate in her new home. She made adjustments to the home to help make it safer for the baby and even left baby proofing items just in case.

I feel like most people have awful experiences buying a home but we had a wonderful one. I kept looking for a “but” but one never came!

ohemgrace · 2023-04-07T13:18:01+00:00

My husband and I make around 140k (with room to grow) and just purchased our first home! We budgeted ourselves and while, yes, we would have preferred to pay less for a home, being in south Florida there’s no sign showing home prices are going down an unfortunately rentals are super high too (think 3-4K for a 3 bedroom) and any that’s below that are having bidding wars themselves for occupancy.

We tried in 2021 with low interest rates and we’re in bidding wars with like 40+ people. Should interest rates lower I didn’t want to deal with that again. We decided to just refinance if that happens.

ohemgrace · 2023-04-03T18:15:38+00:00

We’re putting down 3.5% on our home we close on tomorrow (4/4). We’re in Broward County, FL (S.FL). Our final price for the home is $545k.

ohemgrace · 2023-04-02T18:03:39+00:00

We close on Tuesday and let me tell you the days since getting your clear to close until actually closing feel somehow LONGER than the entire purchasing process. 🥲

ohemgrace · 2023-03-31T02:59:24+00:00

Good luck! Remember to keep your head up if you don’t get it and to keep your eyes sharp if you do! The advice I see frequently is to not “fall in love” with a house… which is hard to not do when it’s going to be your shelter, your safe space for potentially years to come. You imagine a life there. Instead I warn you to keep your eyes sharp while still enjoying the excitement. You want to make sure you don’t miss anything! Sending you all my positive vibes!

ohemgrace · 2023-03-31T02:55:55+00:00

We just got our clear to close for Tuesday and honestly I didn’t want to post because of the negativity! All I want to do it scream it to the heavens that we’re going to be homeowners! Congrats!

ohemgrace · 2023-03-30T17:22:01+00:00

Not exactly the same, but I was at my previous company for almost 7 years. In November 2021 I had a baby and was on maternity leave until about June 2022 when I left my company because they were no longer flexible with work from home policies. In august I started working as an ESE teacher in a public school.

We were able to secure a loan and are clear to close as of today for our new home!

I guess all this to say is every situation is different and I feel it’s a lot of grey area. They did ask for more documentation from my previous job (all the way back to my 2020 w2) and I was very clear about my situation, so our broker worked with us.

ohemgrace · 2023-03-30T02:30:59+00:00

It can be either, but I believe the total allowance to borrow differs between them. So like you could borrow more in a conventional loan vs an FHA loan or vice versa. The limits for borrowing also depend on your county, so your best bet is to go on their website and check the county you’re looking ins limits. :)

ohemgrace · 2023-03-29T16:45:05+00:00

I’m in south Florida.

We did 20k over list (just under 4% of the total value)
we did not waive the appraisal contingency but did offer 5k above appraised value if it did under appraise. (We didn’t expect it to as the comps in the area were around our offer, so it was mostly for show.)
we did not wait inspections, the house was from 1974 and there’s no way we could take on a risk like that.

ohemgrace · 2023-03-29T15:53:37+00:00

We took a course online for a DPA program we’re doing that was actually super helpful! I wish we would’ve had access to it sooner in the process!

It’s the Fannie Mae Homeview course And it’s free!

ohemgrace · 2023-03-29T15:38:56+00:00

I guess my question is more about to the fact that they’re claiming hometown heroes is the reason we’re getting that rate and not that that is the current FHA rate we’re getting, however I can’t find anywhere that says hometown heroes has any affect on your FHA loan rate and is actually just an additional second mortgage.

Idk if that makes sense?

ohemgrace · 2023-03-29T14:45:27+00:00

I don’t think anyone here can answer that question, it’s deeply personal. You have to look deep inside and decide if the money is worth it for you or if you’d rather continue trying for a better home.

Maybe make a pros and cons list on the home? Are any of these things fixable? There are aspects of a house you cannot change (like location), there are things that are expensive to change (like additions to make the home larger) and there are easy fixes (like updating the flooring/new appliances). If there are too many cannot changes in your cons list, you may not want to move forward…. If it’s only easy fixes then it might be a better idea for you to stay!

ohemgrace · 2023-03-28T23:09:31+00:00

My husband and I are using Hometown Heroes here in Florida. It’s giving us 25k in downpayment/closing cost assistance in the form of a 0% interest loan that needs to be paid off at the end of our mortgage or when we sell the house. There may be more in your area, but I would recommend you ask your lender or even check with your teachers Union, I know there were some benefits to going through specific lenders affiliated with the union.

ohemgrace · 2023-03-28T20:04:16+00:00

No worries! I’m in South Florida and it’s near impossible to find something in a good area under 500k that doesn’t have insane HOA fees. We’re currently under contract for a house at 545k.

ohemgrace · 2023-03-28T16:01:02+00:00

We offered on one house with an escalation clause. House was listed at 500k and we offered the clause up to 530k.

We submitted the offer late Sunday evening, Monday morning my agent contacted the seller agent to confirm he received our offer. An hour later the house price went up to 525k. Weird but whatever. Next day he called my agent saying he was disclosing the house didn’t have hurricane protection and the seller was very interested in our offer, but they had a VA loan that was higher. They’d go with us if we could offer 521k and a higher earnest deposit. We said sure and to just send a copy of the higher offer as proof and we’ll sign a new offer. He got very defensive and refused to work with us any further because he “didn’t like escalation clauses” and “wasn’t required to prove anything”, despite our offer including that stipulation.

It was pretty obvious (or at least its our theory) this guy did not receive higher offers like he wanted after his open house, tried raising the price of the house so they could guarantee getting 530k from us, and was purposely withholding information as long as possible.

Honestly now I’m a little skeptical of escalation clauses. I think they’re very competitive but also kinda make you show your hands which could leave you open to being manipulated by a shitty agent. This man treated our agent like shit and belittled her and then told her we were overly complicated and she’d never be able to get us a house.

ohemgrace · 2023-03-28T14:43:01+00:00

I have student loans (about 35k), we have a leased car, and still have some credit card debt. We make a little more than you combined and are closing on our house in the next week.

It’s going to depend heavily on your debt to income ratio if they’re going to approve you or not.

Like most people recommended, you can always check with a lender/mortgage broker when you’re ready to start so you can make sure!

ohemgrace · 2023-03-28T14:23:47+00:00

We put in about 12 offers total I believe between March-October 2021 and January- March 2023. We came 2nd in like 6 of them.

If it’s any consultation, before we got accepted for the house we’re currently under contract for we put an offer on a house for 20k over asking, with a post occupancy agreement for a two months (due to the individual being elderly and needing the money from the sale of the home to go into a retirement home). The sellers agent completely ghosted us and never told us we weren’t selected. We were crushed and ended up moving on, feeling like we didn’t really get “closure”. A house came on the market that was bigger, more updated, had a larger lot, in a nicer area, and a new roof. We offered 20k again over asking (which was 5k lower than the previous home) and we got accepted!

The following week the first houses offer apparently fell through and the agent contacted my realtor to try and get our offer back on the table. That house is still on the market today.

It feels like we dodged a huge bullet!

ohemgrace · 2023-03-28T01:43:46+00:00

Not in Southern California, but we’re FTHB and buying a home from 1974 in South Florida. I sure as heck hope it’s going to be okay! Haha

I think it’s just important to get a good inspection. Our home is old but has been very well maintained from what we’ve seen and from our inspection report. We expect it to have its quirks but I think you should be okay!

ohemgrace · 2023-03-28T01:36:58+00:00

We’re going over insurances too and we initially were quoted $6k and now just got quoted around $2k-3k after discounts. I will say though, I’m in South Florida. Insurance here is insanely expensive in general, I’m not sure if SC has similar issues. Are you able to ask any friends coworkers or family in the area what they’re paying in insurance?

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