Friday, August 31, 2012
Exterior of the House--Before
Thursday, August 30, 2012
203(k) Loan
My husband and I are in the process of buying our first home with a 203(k) or "rehab" loan. This type of loan is handy when you want to purchase a property in need of some work, because you can combine the purchase price of the home with the cost of the remodel into one mortgage, right up front.
The first step is to locate a house. This took a bit of doing for us, because we are on a pretty tight budget and Seattle real estate is crazy town! We finally found a classic, little, old craftsman, in the Central District, in need of some serious love.
The next step was getting mutual acceptance, and it turned out that our offer to deal with all of the junk in the house (the woman who owned it passed away and all of her stuff is still inside) moved our offer to the top of the list. Since we already plan to do a total remodel on the house, a day of cleaning and dump runs aint no thang. At this point, you should have a contractor lined up--you technically cannot do the work yourself, unless you are licensed, bonded, and have the liquid funds for all materials and labor. Lucky for me, my husband is a carpenter and we're getting a screaming deal from his old boss who is a contractor.
We had a sewer scope scheduled and that went well. Tomorrow is the initial inspection. With a 203(k) loan, a HUD inspector is required. This is where we'll find out what work the bank and HUD will require. From there, we will be able to determine the rest of our budget and create an itemized work order of the things that we want to do.
I will post before pictures of the house soon and continue to track our progress and post ideas for the remodel.
The first step is to locate a house. This took a bit of doing for us, because we are on a pretty tight budget and Seattle real estate is crazy town! We finally found a classic, little, old craftsman, in the Central District, in need of some serious love.
The next step was getting mutual acceptance, and it turned out that our offer to deal with all of the junk in the house (the woman who owned it passed away and all of her stuff is still inside) moved our offer to the top of the list. Since we already plan to do a total remodel on the house, a day of cleaning and dump runs aint no thang. At this point, you should have a contractor lined up--you technically cannot do the work yourself, unless you are licensed, bonded, and have the liquid funds for all materials and labor. Lucky for me, my husband is a carpenter and we're getting a screaming deal from his old boss who is a contractor.
We had a sewer scope scheduled and that went well. Tomorrow is the initial inspection. With a 203(k) loan, a HUD inspector is required. This is where we'll find out what work the bank and HUD will require. From there, we will be able to determine the rest of our budget and create an itemized work order of the things that we want to do.
I will post before pictures of the house soon and continue to track our progress and post ideas for the remodel.
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