so my wife and i are currently renting the first floor of a 2 story house. our landlord lives on the top story. the landlord is moving to pittsburgh and is looking to put the house on the market. we're considering buying it, but i know very little about owning or renting out a house. if we rent out the second floor like he did, it would probably pay for most of the monthly mortgage payment. which would be nice to save all that money, but i have no idea, it might not be worth it in the end. i don't know how long we're going to be living in this area, anything about being a landlord, property taxes or what the value of the house might be (it's pretty old, i have no idea what kind of condition it is really in). any advice?

10/31/2005 11:51:07 AM

Don't lease to anyone allergic to Miss Kitters !!

10/31/2005 11:57:09 AM

if you dont know how long you will be living here, dont buy a house. If you dont know anything about the house you are buying, you probly should not buy the house. Go to the wake county website, do a real estate records search, find out how much your house last sold for, how much the tax value is, how much property taxes are, and how much the other houses on your street recently sold for. Then go to trianlgemls.com and find out how much people are asking for houses in your neighborhood. That should give you a better idea on the house value.

10/31/2005 12:11:15 PM

Well there are people out there who are professionals at answering some of your questions. You can pay to have the house appraised and inspected to know what you are getting into. A poor man's way of guessing the value of the house is to look through the property and deeds database for recently sold houses in the same neighborhood. If you find 4 or 5 of those, you can usually get a ballpark of what the price / sq ft should be.


IMO, if you are considering staying here for a few years, I'd look into this. If you are going to move sooner than 3-5 years, it's probably not worth it to buy. The cost of selling the house will probably exceed any money you'd make in appreciation based on the rate house prices in this area have been growing.

10/31/2005 12:14:13 PM

^^ They live up north. Good advice though.

10/31/2005 12:24:35 PM

^ Use google and look up "---- County GIS Maps" for the county you live in. That should pull up the site for property maps and deeds.

The site you find should also tell you what the most recent property tax assessment was for the parcel you're looking at, break out the value of the building vs. the land, and list all the previous owners. Some counties even post photos of the house online. You can look up by street name, owner's name, or parcel ID.

10/31/2005 7:06:47 PM

Take into consideration closing costs. That alone can you $1,000. You will have attorney fees, document prep, inspections, title insurance, and filing fees.

10/31/2005 8:08:52 PM

if you do decide to have renters, the monthly rent that they pay will be counted as income for tax purposes, unless you can find a way around it

10/31/2005 8:11:14 PM

yeah, by not reporting it.

10/31/2005 8:23:31 PM

works for me

10/31/2005 9:20:00 PM

Quote :

" Use google and look up "---- County GIS Maps" for the county you live in. That should pull up the site for property maps and deeds. The site you find should also tell you what the most recent property tax assessment was for the parcel you're looking at, break out the value of the building vs. the land, and list all the previous owners. Some counties even post photos of the house online. You can look up by street name, owner's name, or parcel ID."

Actually, assessments are done in very long intervals and probably have no relation to what people will pay for the property today. It's better to look at sales records if they are available.

10/31/2005 10:03:56 PM

yeah i def. don't declare the rental income, and it's even handled through a management company.

10/31/2005 11:03:25 PM

^^of course. But you need to know your annual property tax too.

11/1/2005 8:06:48 AM

Quote :

"Take into consideration closing costs. That alone can you $1,000. You will have attorney fees, document prep, inspections, title insurance, and filing fees."

actually, these usually come in around $2500. Which is really nothing in the big picture.
Suggestion, if closing costs are hindering you, write into your offer to purchase that the seller must absorb these costs. He'll prolly say no, but usually they'll agree to pay at least half.

11/1/2005 9:46:28 AM

Or you can finance the closing costs into the mortgage. It artificially inflates the selling price of the house slightly, but if you plan on staying for a while it shouldn't matter.

Our closing costs were just over $3k on a $145k house, so I think even $2500 is a little low. That didn't include the inspection which was another $300. Apparently this is on the high end for an inspection as most people told me that you can get them for around $200. However, I highly recommend getting a good inspection from someone people can vouch for. I went with the same inspector BobbyDigital used and she did an awesome job. The report was so thorough that the seller spent about $2000 making repairs before we moved in.

11/1/2005 9:56:16 AM

^ ah sweet, i had forgotten to follow up with you on that to see how it went. Glad to hear you also had a good experience!

11/1/2005 10:09:57 AM

Quote :

"actually, these usually come in around $2500. "

closing costs are usually dependent on the cost of the house. from what i read, (and it worked well for me when i bought a house) it is a good idea to set aside about 3% of the cost of the house for closing costs.

...it may end up being a little less, but its good to be on the safe side. it really varies from where you are buying as well because tax laws are different.



[Edited on November 1, 2005 at 10:21 AM. Reason : t]

11/1/2005 10:15:54 AM

call 789-5200

talk to Ben Pierce, the agent that runs my call center - he can match you up with one of our Realtors who knows the area the house is located in

it only makes sense to talk to an agent first thing when you're buying a house, it's ABSOLUTELY FREE TO USE AN AGENT AS A BUYER and then you have somebody with experience and actual answers to all your questions looking out for your best interests

[Edited on November 1, 2005 at 10:24 AM. Reason : did i mention you don't pay them?]

11/1/2005 10:23:26 AM

Closing costs will also depend on your lender. I bought a brand new centex home and used their mortgage lender and actually got $36 back from my closing costs (this obviously included the $2000 I gave for earnest money).

Best advice is shop lenders, make them compete and throw money towards your closing.

11/1/2005 10:25:01 AM