Reminder: If you’re considering taking the landlord to court to recover your security deposit plus damages (which you totally should if they don’t send it to you on time), you should try to categorize any and all violations of landlord-tenant law to show that they are acting in bad faith across the board, rather than just being a little late returning your deposit.
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Thanks for reminding me of that, and I think you may have been the one to tip me off to them having to pay double, too.
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Are you holding AA again?
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Hey now, I’m pretty sure he reduced his rent burden significantly. The correct outcome for most negotiations is failure. It’s why being able to say no and pass without dying of FOMO is one life skill I plan to absolutely drill into my future kids.
Still you were kidding and I chuckled… so mission accomplished and take my like.
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I need some help from people with real estate/financial knowledge.
Let say hypothetically I wanted to cash out refinance my house and take out 50% of my equity.
I bought at 250K in 2012, 3.75% rate over 30 years. I owe 169K of principal. House is in not great shape currently, but real estate in general and this area especially have increased in value greatly since time of buying. Valuations like zillow and my home insurance both value it at 375K, obviously not based off an appraisal.
Among things to be done, whole house needs to have masonite removed and replaced with siding or at very least 5K+ of masonite repair of some kind as its rotted in several places badly.
The fence in the backyard needs about 20ft replaced due to tree falling, the treehouse in the backyard is mostly destroyed from tree falling and so would need to be demolished and removed. Inside of housue needs a number of smaller repairs, new carpet upstairs etc. Lots of things.
All that to say, I need to get an appraisal for them to even refinance cash out, can I get one on my own? I read that even if you did they would want one as well that the bank commissions so seemingly if i got one on my own then I would have to pay for another as part of the refinance?
Also with my current rate at 3.75% already, can i even refinance for a better rate? Or i would i just be able to get about the same rate but then have to pay a fat fee to do the refinance? I believe my credit score should be as solid as it was when we bought the house as we haven’t really had any issues since then but I dont believe i have access to it. Whats the easiest non scam way to check that or should i just wait until I apply to do the refinance and find out from thebank then?
I’m good at keeping up with my money but big shit like this is not my jam at all.
any help appreciated or if the answer is just go talk to a bank about the refinance to start, then thats good too.
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A lot of major credit card (Citi, Amex, Chase) companies now provide free scores, so if you have a card and poke around your online account, you should find an option to have them tell you your score. They might use a slightly different formula than the bank will use (because there are several different companies that produce scores, and different banks use different companies), but it should be in the ballpark.
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CreditKarma.com is pretty legit. They will try to market credit cards and other financial products to you, but I see that as the price I pay for getting the score and some of the record keeping services they provide.
You should be able to cash out plenty of money and substantially lower your interest rate. You have what’s known as a “conforming” mortgage, meaning it is ultimately government guaranteed. Watch out for closing costs. Your lender will handle the appraisal, don’t worry about that.
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How is it that i can get a substantially lower interest rate now? just because of the interest rate dropping since 2012? When i kinda looked around online the other day it seemed like most rates would be around what i have now which is what made me think about it.
I would call the fund company directly and have them walk you through the process.
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I’m not an insider or expert but my girlfriend and I are going through this process right now to fund a big remodel project at her house.
My overall recommendation would be to talk to an independent mortgage broker and tell them what you’re trying to do, i.e., why you want to do the refinance (do you need money out for a big expense, or do you want to reduce your monthly payment, or …?). Hopefully someone you know has worked with somebody they can recommend.
Some responses to parts of your post where I have picked up some knowledge…
The traditional “standard” maximum loan amount is/was 80% of what they call LTV, or Loan-To-Value. Using your numbers as an example, and assuming your house appraises at $375K:
0.80 * $375,000 = $300,000
Subtract the amount you owe:
$300,000 - $169,000 = $131,000 ← This is the max you could take out in cash if you borrow the maximum 80%
One thing we’ve found out is that there is a new (?) guideline of 75% LTV to get the best rates. I.e., it may be possible to get a loan for the full 80%, but you’ll have to pay a higher rate. This is where knowing what you’re trying to do is crucial. If you’re doing the refi to get money out and you need as much as possible, you might be stuck with 80% and the corresponding higher rate. But if you “only” need $50K, then you may be able to get a lower rate.
Re: appraisal, you’ll have to let the bank set it up. Supposedly there is some sort of “arms-reach” thing in place where they submit the appraisal jobs to a “pool” of appraisers, one of which takes it and does the appraisal. This is supposed to reduce the conflict of interest that’s possible when the bank hires the appraiser directly (briefly, the appraiser has an incentive to value that house such that the deal it’s contingent on doesn’t get blown up so the appraiser continues to get work with that bank). But you can’t hire your own appraiser either for a similar reason.
To try to get a sense of what your house might be worth before an appraisal is done, like you already know, Zillow is a resource. One mortgage person I talked to said they’re “50/50” in terms of accuracy, so don’t put too much stock in their number. Their number is obviously based on algorithms and data about your housing market, but they don’t know about things that might make your house worth more (nice finishes, etc.) or less (broken fence, treehouse on the ground, etc.).
Another source of an estimate is Redfin. They have an estimate in which they’re trying to guess how much you might be able to sell your house for. This is going to be a different number than the appraisal though. Appraisers use sales of comparable houses (“comps”) in the past 90 days, so their number is more “rearward-looking” and the Redfin number is more “forward-looking” (and of course also based on algorithms with the associated uncertainty and data gaps).
For specific rate information, I don’t really have any. I think though that a person with top-rate credit should be able to get around 3% these days? Although this is another place where there are a lot of options, like paying “points.” This is where you pay more up front to “buy down” the rate. Whether or not you want to do that depends on a bunch of factors. A good mortgage person will talk you through your needs and help you decide the best approach.
On closing costs (the “fat fee” you mentioned), these can vary a lot but it seems typical for them to total up to a few thousand dollars, to maybe around $5k? But this is another spot where there are options, e.g., you can often roll your closing costs into the loan, but you might end up with a higher rate (and of course you’ll be paying interest on the closing costs too). Paying points comes in here as well.
On your credit score, remember that you can get a free credit report from each of the big three bureaus. But make sure to go through the official site, there are imposters out there. Also even the legit site tries to upsell you on a bunch of stuff. When you go through it keep your eyes on the prize and remember that you are supposed to be able to get your full credit report for free, you shouldn’t have to pay for any additional “services.” Start here:
Just having your report won’t directly give you your “Fair Isaac” credit score (or whatever it’s called) but you can at least see what the banks will see when they pull your credit, and spot any errors or problems that you may be able to address.
Anyway, this got super long and is kind of disjointed but I hope you find something helpful in it. Like I said at the start, I’d recommend finding a “vouched-for” broker and just having a conversation with them about it. A good one will give you all the info you need and help you make a good choice.
Final disclaimer: I’m not a professional and could well be wrong about stuff. Other posters should feel free to chime in with corrections if needed.
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You can do it pretty quickly
Step 1: Dad opens up a new 529 account with daughter as beneficiary
Step 2: You and dad set up a rollover of funds from your 529 to that 529
It might take a week or two for the actual transfer.
I have Utah 529s for both my kids and they have a form on their site that you can fill out and mail in. Then they will move the money from any other 529 into their 529. So, I know if your dad opens a Utah account, then it’s very easy. Utah has a pretty good 529. It was top 2 when I got it, and I’d say it’s still top 10. If I were starting a new one, I’d probably go with NV or CA. You don’t need to live in a state to use their 529 plans.
I’d be surprised every state didn’t have a similar option.
These things were off by 50+ points for me (in a good way). Do you know if that’s weird or common?
The free credit scores you get from non credit bureau places are estimates by the CC company, they are not obtained directly from the credit bureau.
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Ahh makes more sense. I paid some debt off and my score went down according to them. Bought a car and expected them to be a bit weird about my score, but I was 90 pts higher than expected which was a pleasant surprise
First, while most scoring formulas max out at 850, some are on a 900 point scale, so I’d try to confirm whether the two scores were using the same scale.
Next, credit scores can have more variance if you have fewer inputs. If you only have one or two cards that you haven’t had for too long and you suddenly max them out, your score could take a big hit. Or, if you had a lot of credit inquiries 23 months ago (because you were shopping for a mortgage and every bank did a hard pull), your score might go up a lot next month because many formulas stop factoring credit inquiries into the score after 2 years (or, at least, greatly reduce the weight of that input).
Otoh, if I had a 50 point difference in two scores received at the same time and without a change in behavior, I would probably check my actual credit reports to see if something was getting reported to one bureau and not the others.
While holding 3-6 months of expenses in cash may seem like a lot of money at your age, if you continue saving and investing it will became an increasingly smaller percentage of your assets.
Conventional wisdom is 3-6 months. I think that’s fine. Less than 3 just seems unnecessary. You don’t need the +EV that badly.
We keep around 6 months at normal spending amounts so if shit got bad we could stretch it a lot further than that, just a peace of mind thing no need to stress over shit if we don’t need to. In your situation I think you could be a little more aggressive
Still no deposit from the landlord, it’s now been 33 days. I e-mailed them for an update and contacted a lawyer. By state law I’m entitled to double, but I’m also the little guy trying to hold a company accountable. We’ll see what happens.
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Get that money cuse!
I’ve had to fight landlords on stuff like this for myself a few times, and a couple times for real estate clients. It’s always a PITA, but they either paid out, or we’ve gone to small claims court and then they pay up. Nothing like a landlord full of hubris, getting agitated in front of a judge because they don’t understand the law. I wish I had video.
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