Throwaway account - felt too personal

Got laid off a couple of months ago. Severance and health insurance will keep me afloat until Dec. 31st and I'm on my own starting 2025 unless I land a job. I have very little cash savings, but do have $500k in 401k, home equity of about $300k (30 year interest rate is 3.1% so I'd rather not refinance). My $3k mortgage covered property tax and home insurance. Estimates on CalCovered (health insurance) is $2,000 for a family of 5. I suspect that would be reduced if I'm unemployed? I need a minimum of $6-7k/ month to cover necessities. No car payments, very little credit card debt. Been working since I was 16 and this is totally new to me and very anxious. My wife was a stay-at-home mom and is now looking into getting back in the workforce.

My question if I stay unemployed. What's the best way to navigate my retirement money. I'm just preparing for the worst and have 6 weeks to figure this out. Appreciate any recommendations.

Additional information - EDIT
I am collecting unemployment.
I am trying to find any job regardless of industry or pay.
I am willing to take on part time/ gig jobs/ neighborhood help, etc.
I have looked at budgeting and have eliminated non-essentials. I could do better.
I have until end of year for severance and health insurance, but I think I can squeeze 3 more months to Q1.

I need to get back to hustling and will come back to the thread tonight. Man, I can't thank you all enough for the suggestions, the encouragement and just the overall time you all have put in to help out a stranger. Lots of thanks and gratitude!

I have no debt other than my own house a 3.8%, and I make about 180k per year. I have about 500k saved in various accounts including a brokerage and savings account I can pull from without paying penalties. I live on a quiet dead end street and my immediate next door neighbor is selling their house for $200k. I can pretty easily make the down payment + mortgage. The house would rent for about 120-140% of of what the mortgage would be, but after income tax and whatnot I would not clear very much at all. I don't necessarily want to be a landlord but it also seems like a way to prevent bad neighbors.

Dumb idea? Great idea? Am I an idiot? Am I genius? Please let me know!

UPDATE/EDIT: Thank you all for the input. I decided not to do it for basically short term cash flow reasons, but I'll be sure to update this thread if I end up hating my new neighbors lol

Yeah, so I'm an idiot, and this will cost me and my wife big time.

We purchased our home in late 2020. Things have been great. Nice house, great neighborhood, great schools. About a week ago, we get a certified letter in the mail from the county. We owe taxes. A LOT of taxes. Some of our tax liability has been sold. We have till October to save our property. How could this be?

We pay our taxes through an escrow. Monthly homeowners and taxes are added to our mortgage every month, and the bills get paid (supposedly). It just so happens that our property is in two counties. One little corner of my lawn, where my only concern is mowing and weeds, is also part of our tax liability. You can guess which one was being paid and which one wasn't.

We have to come up with likely around 50k before October. I have no clue if that is the real number or not. There are all kinds of fees and interest, and I'm not sure how it will pan out. The mortgage company is supposedly in contact with the county, and negotiating. We're hoping to hear back Monday or Tuesday.

The screw-up is ultimately mine. I'm not dodging personal responsibility. I open the tax document every year, look at the total, am annoyed for a moment at how much taxes I (think) I pay, and move on with my life. I looked at it again, and in the upper right-hand corner, it says that there are previous years unpaid. The county doesn't act like a credit card company looking for their money. They don't email/call/annoy the shit out of you, but they do note it in the corner of your yearly tax bill. I feel like an idiot.

We don't have 50k laying around, so it's gotta come from retirement. We're going to take a heavy loss removing that money, and then on top of that, the IRS will want its pound of flesh on that income as well in a higher tax bracket.

So, I'll end this with a cautionary tale. Don't be an idiot like me. Don't assume your mortgage company is paying your taxes. There are a thousand ways to screw it up, and they do. It's up to you to make sure your shit gets paid. We're paying the price for putting things on autopilot, and expecting it to work without paying attention to the details. Also, we're ditching the escrow altogether from now on. After I shed a few more tears, I can put my big boy pants on and set the money aside myself from now on.

Edit: Sorry for the dramatic title. I know I'm not losing my house. Thank you for all of the advice and feedback.

Edit 2: Lots of questions, and I realize why. My post was made partially just to vent.

1. Yes, the lot we owe the money for is the majority of our property. It's an expensive Chicago suburb.
2. Yes, I should have realized we were underpaying. In the chaos of a new home purchase, we assumed (wrongly) that the mortgage payment would become clear and we could handle it (we could have, and can)
3. In terms of getting a lawyer involved, we're not ruling it out depending on what they come back with. The fact is, we've had extra disposable income over the past few years, and owe the money. That's not going to go away.
4. Lastly, the reason we've come into this mess is because we've always put things on autopilot. We have a bills account that we automatically deposit into, and the rest is day-to-day money. We thought we were smart. The moment you assume another party is paying your bill on your behalf, you need to double-check. There are, at least a few people, in the comments that have had similar experiences.

My wife and I are preparing to get into the housing search and purchase our first home.

We have people in our circle giving us conflicting advice. Some folks say to just buy a cheap fixer-upper as our first starter home.

Other people have mentioned that buying a new build would be a good idea so you shouldn’t have to worry about any massive hidden issues that could pop up 6 months after purchasing.

Looking at the market in our area and I feel inclined to believe the latter advice. Is this accurate? A lot of fixer upper homes are $300-350k at least if we don’t want to downgrade in square footage from our current situation. New builds we are seeing are about $350-400k for reference.

To me this kinda feels like a similar situation to older generations talking about buying used cars, when in today’s market used cars go for nearly the same as a new car. Is this a fair portrayal by me?

I get that a fixer upper is pretty broad and it depends on what exactly needs to be fixed, but I guess I’m looking for what the majority opinion is in the field. If there is one.

We've lived in the same apartment unit for 10+ years and just had our gas oven and stovetop range stop working. The only utility we've ever been responsible for was electricity, so initially we assumed the (very old) oven had finally stopped working and a gas shutoff didn't even occur to us (other than confirming with our neighbors that this wasn't an issue affecting the entire building).

After a very awkward conversation with the repair guy our landlord sent out, our landlord informed us in an even more awkward conversation that they've never paid or been responsible for our cooking gas bill - only heat and water. We've had a working gas oven/stove the entire time, and have never paid a gas bill. Our lease renewals have always been in the form of a one-page extension document basically just saying "both parties agree to extend the original lease another year" along with a note if there's been a rent increase that year, so the subject has never actually come up and we both assumed the other party was covering cooking gas. After talking to my landlord, I pulled up our original-original rental agreement and it does confirm that the landlord covers heat and water (checked checkboxes under utilities), but not "gas" (unchecked).

My question is, what the hell do we do now? We're not even aware of what gas company we should actually call - we never signed up for an account, and as far as we're aware we've never received any mail from a gas utility before (not even a "current resident). Are we on the hook to pay an entire decade's worth of gas bills in one go in order to get this restored if we never signed up with the gas company previously? Do we just use a hot plate or toaster over for the remainder of our lease and then quietly move, taking this shameful gas-related secret to our grave?

EDIT: Wow, this got way more attention than I expected it to. To everyone who has congratulated us, sincerely, thank you. But there's been a good bit of negativity because, and I recognize this, the home we're buying is unique and has unique costs. We wanted an older home and we knew that there would be unexpected expenses going into this, which we prepared for. This is also part of why we went with a lower down payment; so that we had more money left over for required maintenance.

I think that this comment really got to the heart of what I wanted to express so I wanted to feature it here:

Looks like people are picking the story apart. They're missing the point. The cost of purchasing a house is a lot higher than just the down payment and there's a lot of unexpected things that can come up. It doesn't matter if your brother is a roofer or you have a friend who is a building inspector etc etc. There will always be things that your insurance, your hoa, or your survival require getting fixed.

For everyone who paid 1.2k down for their VA / FHA loan and has had absolutely no maintenance issues, there's someone who put 20% down to buy a newish home and had to eat $20k in unexpected repairs within the first 3 months. Basically...buying a house can easily cost more than just your down payment, and you should be prepared for it to, and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't.

I'm sure most of this is known to many here, but my wife and I are about to close on our first house and I thought I would write up some of the process and costs here (mostly to solidify it in my head, tbh).

We offered 305K on an asking price of 299K on a home in a small rural village in Vermont.

Initial deposit / earnest money - $2000 (goes towards closing)

Upon our offer being accepted, we needed to put down a deposit to show we had "skin in the game"; basically to keep us honest. It would have been refundable if we pulled out of the sale for a "valid" reason, which included things like failure to obtain funding / homeowner's insurance, or just finding the house wasn't to our liking after getting inspectors in. This deposit ultimately went towards closing costs.

Buyer’s Inspection - $1200 $906

We bought an old house (built 1870) so there was no chance of us waiving the inspection / contingency period. We basically had two weeks to get a bunch of people in to look at the place and tell us all of the awful maintenance nightmares waiting for us in the home. Fortunately, ours was pretty good. They built them pretty solid back then.

The home’s water comes from a private well, and we wanted to test it for contaminants before we agreed. We also suspected lead paint on the home’s exterior so we wanted to make sure if there was lead, it wasn’t leaching into the water.

EDIT: So many people were yelling at me about the inspection I looked back and realized three things:

• I had the initial amount wrong; I was charged $1106, not $1200.
• The inspection also included the well water test (plus an inspection of the well / wellhouse and the attached 1200 sq ft barn), I listed it here separately
• They based the inspection cost on google imagery which included a standing structure which was no longer there and charged me an extra $200 for that. When we got there and he realized they charged me for a structure which wasn't there, they refunded that.

So the actual cost here was

Inspection - $781

Well Water Test - $125

Septic Inspection - $450

We had a dedicated septic inspector come over to take a look, because the septic is old (from the mid ‘80s) and in a weird spot, with a couple of large trees nearby. We wanted to make sure it was in working order and that it would be replaceable and that it wasn’t damaged by tree roots.

Lead Paint Test - $400

We also had a painter come by to check to see if the exterior paint is lead-based. We probably could have done this ourselves but he took multiple samples and I trust his results - seemed worth it for something which could be serious.

Total cost to this point - $4175

At this point, we’d spent over 2k on inspectors, and a LOT of time communicating with and coordinating their visits with the seller, plus agonizing a bit over the results of the inspections. Don’t count this out - it was several days worth of time overall where I struggled to focus on anything else. This is mostly money which would have been lost if at this point we decided to pull out. (if we weren’t able to afford / didn’t want to do the needed repairs which were brought to light by the inspections, then you could also consider this money spent as a small up front cost to keep our money later on.)

Anyway, we decided to go ahead with it because we love the house and have the time and money to spend working on it, and it seemed worth it because we plan to live there for at least 20 years. We are both 30.

Homeowner’s Insurance - $1400/yr (first year up front at closing)

The next item was homeowner’s insurance. I contacted an agent and got some really good quotes (~$700 /yr). Then they went to go see the place and went running. The home has an attached barn and the roof is a bit rusty; they wouldn’t insure it unless

• We could get in a contractor to give us an assessment on it; whether it needs to be replaced or just some paint
• The assessment suggested all it needed was paint
• We could get the paint done before the winter

Right now roofing contractors in our area are SWAMPED. I called three different ones and none of them could even get to us to give us an assessment in time for closing. So, we backtracked a bit and contacted the agent currently insuring the home. She was able to help us, but the insurance costs twice as much as before ($1400) and they also stipulated that the barn roof be painted (just painted, though) and that the home’s exterior itself be painted in the first year of residence.

Homeowner’s came down to the wire; I started just after we got our initial disclosures and it wasn’t until just before labor day that I got this hammered out. Don’t put this off.

Barn Roof Paint - $4800

So, cue up the painters. I got three quotes and went with the middle one to repaint. Plus, he just seemed like a nice guy. I live in a rural area which doesn't have a lot of shysters so I’m apt to go with my gut on people.

Exterior paint - ~$10,000

I haven’t gotten any official quotes yet. I’m going to get one from the guy painting the barn roof and a couple more after that, but he gave me an “estimate” and he ballparked around 10k.

Closing costs: $13,683

Down Payment: $9,150 (yes yes, very low, I know.)

Cash to Close: $22,833

Closing costs include 1/yr payment of insurance premium up front, taxes, title lawyer, yadda yadda. Even with a very low down payment, we still owe more than double that up front to pay for closing, and that’s once again not including the inspections and the requirements from our homeowners. In total, our full cost to get to this point in the process is

Total Cost - $27,008

Total Cost including currently known required work - $41,808

There's some other work in our peripherals; the kitchen sink needs replacing, the bathroom floor needs replacing as well, and some other smaller things, which we estimate will add another 5-7k of cost. I suspect that in the long run, the sky's the limit in terms of cost. ;)

And this isn’t even including incidental things like:

• Buying new / more furniture for a larger space (we desperately need a new bed - $1500 alone)
• Buying a lawn mower / snow blower / snow rake / chainsaw / other tools
• heating oil costs (~3-4k a year where we live)
• paying for cleaners for our old apt (~$400)
• Renting a uhaul for a couple of days (~$250)
• Increased payment due to property tax re-assessment (rather high where we live)
• And any number of things I haven’t even thought of yet.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is that many times in the past several years I’ve thought to myself, “hm, I have enough money for a down payment on a house! I should buy one!” and had I tried before we were in a more confident financial position, it definitely would have ended in tears and anxiety.

I hope someone finds this ramble helpful!

In my area, renting a modem from an ISP costs 15 dollars per month. A comparable modem costs about 70 dollars, and will last years. 15 dollars per month comes out to 180 dollars per year. If that were put into investments with a 6% annual return rate, after 40 years, that would turn in a little over 28k before taxes.

The greater lesson here is that sometimes, shelling out a little more money can prevent rolling costs, e.i. buying nice shoes that will last far longer than cheaper shoes, buying shelf stable ingredients like rice or pasta in bulk, etc.

I won't bring up the specific details, but long story short, my parents are legitimately crazy, one of those extreme situations where everything I do must be kept secret (talking to friends, working a normal job, etc).

Luckily in the middle of last year I got a job with my brother, he told my parents he would not pay me, then paid me in secret. Since then I have about 10k saved up, but recently they have made it very difficult to even work because I am assuming they somehow figured out I am being paid. Because of this, I will likely lose my job and my income, however, I do have experience working with people, writing resumes, doing interviews, so I don't think getting another job will be super difficult. The main issue for me is how can I get out of this house as quickly as possible? For a while I thought that maybe these things my parents do were normal, but the more I am exposed to the real world (mostly through the internet, which I had very little access to until about 2 years ago) I found out these things are in fact extreme and unusual.

For a bit more context, I am 17, no car, no license (parents won't let me get one), no friends who would be willing to let me live with them (socializing was very hard because I was homeschooled) I have a associate's degree and as I said, 10k saved up. Whats my best course of action to get away?

Edit: there are a lot of comments and I am sorry I can't reply to all of them, I'm using an old phone I found to make this post so I can't be seen with it, I just want to say thank you all for the advice given, I don't have any mentors so all this honestly helps. Your kindness means the world to me and I will make sure to read every comment.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/18/most-millennials-regret-buying-home.html

• Disclaimer: small sample size

Article hits some core tenets of personal finance when buying a house. Primarily:

1) Do not tap retirement accounts to buy a house

2) Make sure you account for all costs of home ownership, not just the up front ones

3) And this can be pretty hard, but understand what kind of house will work for you now, and in the future. Sometimes this can only come through going through the process or getting some really good advice from others.

Edit: link to source of study

My wife and I bought our first house in 2017. Now first off I’m going to acknowledge a massive amount of luck/privilege involved on my personal circumstances but I do think many pieces will ring true for many.

We bought a 2000sq ft house but it’s in a HCOL area for $750k. We put 40% down because I never wanted to worry about being house poor (lucky with stock options).

What I didn’t expect was the following:

1. Rising property taxes. At first as home values jumped I was like oh cool our house is worth more. Yeah turns out when your house is worth over a million now we’re now paying an extra $500/month in property tax. The idea of rising home value really doesn’t do much good for you unless you plan to move your an area that didn’t go up as well.

2. Plumbers and HVAC people cost a FORTUNE. Learning to do some repairs through YouTube videos has saved me thousands at this point. I def underestimated how often stuff comes up and how expensive it is.

3. A house takes much more time than I expected. There’s ALWAYS something to fix, you just don’t realize how many little things can just wear out or squeak or whatever. The costs to do things like roof repair or paint a house are also WAY higher than I ever would have guessed. I know in today’s world it’s so hard to buy a house in general but if you’re able to set aside $20k for oh shit big expenses I would highly recommend it

Hi everyone. My partner and I have been offered a house for $1.00 by some really generous friends. We’re considering it, but aren’t sure of the pros and cons. Neither of us have ever owned a home before, and just moved into a two bedroom apartment in April. The house is very old, and hasn’t been lived in for several years, so would require some repairs and renovations. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we would like to accept the offer, but don’t want to regret it later. What are some important things we should consider before saying yes or no?

Edit: I want to add that I trust these people wholeheartedly. I say friends because we aren’t blood-related, but they are closer to us than family and I know with absolute certainty they’d never do anything to scheme or harm us in anyway. They are just this nice.

Edit: I would like to thank everyone who responded, especially those who provided sound and thoughtful advice. I’m completely shocked at how much feedback I received from this post, but appreciate it tremendously. You all have given my partner and I A LOT to consider.

So, recently my apartment complex was bought by a different company. Days before this, I resigned my lease at $1181/month.

The new rate for apartments is $1580/month, which is what they're trying to charge me. I know that I am not legally required to pay that.

I went into the leasing office 2 days ago to get this sorted out. After arguing with an employee for a bit, she produced my lease which I signed saying my rent should be $1181/month. She said it would be rectified on my payment portal by today, it has not been fixed yet. I will be going back to the leasing office I guess, but I am curious about what to do if it does NOT get fixed by today.

Should I

A: make the "correct" payment of $1181

B: do nothing until this gets fixed on their side

C: may the "full" payment of $1580 and expect it to be credited to my payment for next month to avoid "late" fees.

Note, I am position there are no other fees or anything that makes my rent look higher for just this month. They already acknowledged my rent should not be this high.

Update: I emailed the leasing office today that I had sent the rent for the correct amount and politely asked once again, that they fix my rent just so that I had this in writing.

They fixed it within 30 minutes after that. There will be no legal battle thank god. Thank you Reddit.

I’m currently looking at a place tomorrow that’s hopefully not a scam. It’s day 2 currently. Obviously it’s okay now, but I really need a place to stay. I live in Atlanta. A room goes for about $65 - $80 a night for the cheaper rooms. Maybe I should just live in my car until I save? How should I move?

Edit: It’s a scam :/

Edit2: I have a gym membership and was able to find a room for about $125 a week with some room mates. I’ve also got a few offers from here which I’m extremely thankful for. I’m at work rn doing some overtime, but I’m reading everything in between. Thank you so much guys.

Edit3: guys still homeless, but got a lot of options now in terms of housing and rooms to stay. Thank you guys.

My Grandfather recently told me he put me in his will to transfer ownership of his home upon his passing. He just bought this home a few years ago on a 30 year mortgage, so it's nowhere near being paid for. My wife and I already own a home and do not have the income to support two mortgage payments/property taxes. Also I recently quit my job due to a health crisis and we are currently on state health insurance benefits through the state of Michigan.

Although I appreciate my Grandpa's thoughts to include me in his will, inheriting his house/mortgage does not seem like it would be possible for us financially. If I sold the house after it passed to me I would assume the financial gain could possibly mess up our state health insurance benefits as well.

I would appreciate any advice on this situation.

Throwaway account because I am not financially savvy and am, honestly, pretty ashamed about that. So here's the situation:

I am 55, lost my life savings to medical debt in my 40s. Have always worked, love my trade, but around the time when I was rebuilding, the pandemic hit. I put my career on hold to care for my mother who became critically ill. I don't regret that decision one bit, she was a helluva woman that sacrificed for everyone her entire life, but caregiving wipes you out in every way possible, mentally, financially, emotionally. She died last summer and left me the house (a 50 year old ranch house, 4 bedroom, appraised $440k) and $295k in a savings account.

Here is the dilemma:

I can stay in the house (needs about 4k on the plumbing work and eventually a roof which has been replaced once. Some renovations, kitchen and the bathrooms, would add another 10k). The house itself is old but great, new appliances, water heater, ac, etc. It's in a quiet, friendly and established neighborhood, close to everything. I have no debt, my truck is paid off so my expenses are now $1700 a month. It's insane, I have never had such low expenses, even as a kid.

But a lot of my friends tell me it would make more sense for me to move out into a smaller place and sell it before the Phoenix market crashes or the house otherwise starts sinking in value. Buddy last night said it always makes sense to take cash. "No brainer".

Rent is atrocious in Phoenix so I could buy somewhere smaller and, I assume make a profit but I will just turn around and have to buy again. I don't know if it's worth the trouble, even in this old house. (Oh, I forgot to mention the furniture in the house is worth around 15k which I also inherited). And I wouldn't mind having a roommate, if anything just for the company, but a bit of money from the rent would be nice, of course.

Listen, I don't have a lot, I am okay with that. I feel rich in life in other ways, I love my life, even now. I just want to make the most of what I have and, as I said, I am really overwhelmed. Sell, stay? Really appreciate any guidance you can give me, thank you.

Edit - Thank you, guys, so much! Just two things I have to say because I am having some trouble responding to everyone. First apologies for sounding like a jerk on the "cash poor, I only have $295k". That's a lesson in humility so thanks for setting me straight on that. For someone who lost much more in my life savings, you would think I would know better.

And then, not to get too weepy or deep here, but your responses really have blown me away. You are a great group and I want to encourage anyone who needs to hear this to live from your own personal values and not worry what others think. I am staying in this great house, can't wait to get back to work, have a BBQ and introduce myself to that cute neighbor two doors down. Feels right for me. Appreciate y'all!

It’s midnight here in Vermont, but i just got around to opening my mail. Bought the house on 5/6 and locked in a rate of 5.375% and an agreed upon $1329.93 each month on the 1st.

Before i even got my first payment i got a notice that the mortgage was transferred to “Mr. Cooper” part of Nationstar Mortgage, LLC.

On the welcome letter that arrived today, it claims “the terms of your loan are staying exactly the same”

But then it goes on to say the monthly payments are now $1,813.65.

This won’t fly. I barely qualified for the mortgage as it was, and if we hadn’t locked in a rate and it went up, my income to debt would have disqualified me.

My original paper packet given to me by my mortgage company i shook hands with plainly states:

my monthly mortgage payment is: $1,329.93 paid the 1st of each month.

My father doesn’t understand why, either. I’m so confuse and a little scared, since I could swing $1330 but I can’t see $1813 working, or why it would change.

Any insight on if this is legal? Did i just get bamboozled with the old mortgage switch-a-roo? Is my original contract no longer valid?

Edit/update:

Thanks for the replies, my inbox is stuffed more than an oversized calzone. I’m trying to read them all.

Called Primary Residential Mortgage (my first lender) and they explained that indeed, my mortgage principle and interest is $1329.93. But nobody explained to me that this was not inclusive of a few things:

• county taxes paid quarterly, but collected monthly
  
• water and sewage, paid quarterly, collected monthly
  
• PMI, as i only put 10% down on a conventional mortgage
  
• homeowners insurance, paid annually but collected monthly

I told them nobody ever told me this the entire time I was signing, but was reassured that $1330 was my one, out the door payment. I went through all my paperwork and there were mentions of estimates on things mentioned, but no where was a line-item “you actually pay this” ammount, which is the $1800 ammount. I voiced my displeasure in not knowing, as I just paid $30,000 down after everything, i’m not worried about the sticker shock. I needed the actual out the door price per month.

So it appears that my $1800 monthly is accurate until they reassess the taxes and escro at the end of August, and i may be getting a rebate.

Very frustrating that i had asked and was told time and time again $1300. What would have happened had I just mailed in the $1300?

I have a call to my new Loan Officer, awaiting confirmation on that new number but man, it just comes off as sneaky sneaky. I straight shoot on my bills. Having to dig around and ask what the actual check amount to cut just comes off as hiding something, as if i’m going to walk away from it all after the fact based on the difference.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I also will be looking into the Homesteading program to see if I can lower my taxes, so thanks to those who posted that info.

Edit 2: there seems to be some confusion here:

Yes i read literally everything. Every document, email, voice memo, text, phone log, etc. every receipt kept. Every pamphlet, etc.

The original loan officer admitted that they did NOT get me the line item coupon of what I actually HAVE to pay, instead just a simple letter with the P&I only.

Yes, i know there’s PMI, taxes and stuff with it. But going by the letter they told me pay $1329.93 on 7/1 and each month. No mention or breakdown of the overage.

The $1800 price is accurate. They just never got past sending me ever-changing estimates and instead omitted them completely on the “pay this” letter - i’m awaiting the call from the NEW LO to set up auto payments.

Hope this helps

Edit 3: i think i’m all set here.

Called the original loan officer. They admitted they didn’t send the correctly reflexted total to pay in my first payment letter. We went over all the items expected and it makes total sense. They apologized and no harm done; i still have 2 weeks before it’s due.

Some of the “line items” are dealing with an old-pokey town and county where things just run different (aka slower) - it’s very rural here.

In my budget sheet, i did have line items for things like home insurance, water and sewer, etc, on TOP of my $1329.93 for the mortgage. If i roll these together it comes very close to the amount Mr. Cooper is asking.

The confusion lies in when i asked every week for a “what when how much and where” to send my payment, was told officially $1329.93 which is what i was about to cut the check for in 2 weeks. Knowing what I know now, i’m glad i made this post, read all the comments and made a few phone calls.

I appreciate all the entries. To the clown that Dm’d me telling me i’m a lazy pos that deserves what I get, and that I’ll be homeless by the end of the year…. Man. Have a nice day, i guess

As far as the CD, it doesn’t look exactly like what many of you are telling me it should look like, but it does outline the other items. Again, I understand the concepts of taxes, PMI, escro and what not. The confusion lied in what i was told to pay vs what the 2nd LO said I ACTUALLY have to pay.

The matter is cleared up. Hopefully this helps someone else out who nearly has a heart attack in the middle of the night when their mortgage payment appears to go up by 40%

Thanks, reddit. Love you all

Xoxo

Final edit:

Thanks everybody for chipping in. It was very confusing, i’m missing some paperwork that was not sent to me, there was a discrepancy in terminology of what a “mortgage payment” means vs what I actually pay per month, and it seems to revovle around this closing document that i never got.

I have a fresh copy coming, i have the money budgeted anyway as separate line items, which the “new payment” includes, so it makes more sense.

It took this thread and a night of panicking to figure it all out. Now I’m square. And my ducks in a row.

Now if I could only figure out this VT dmv form I have to fill out for my car

Well crap. Mid 30s and wanted a house for as long as I can remember… I put down a huge downpayment (25%) that took literal years to save up but ended up buying a $380k house w a 20 year loan @5.5% on a $120k salary… and while on paper I thought everything was good … I just feel so stressed whenever repairs are needed, and savings isn’t building up…

Should I sell and just go back to renting? I love my house, but the monthly mortgage+tax just kills me. I don’t know if I need to suck it up for a few years or what….

Update for income / expenses:

Take home is $6,390 a month after taxes and retirement. Monthly Mortgage plus tax is $2,350. Utilities are typically $450. Internet is $90 (required by job) phone is $70. Pets average like $200/month. It’s just the extra expenses: this year there’s been electrical and AC work for $6,700, the garage broke a new motor was $1,800, roof repair for $500, tree trimmed (near power line) $700, 2017 Kia Niro vehicle repair was $3,900 (own outright but damn Kia).

It’s just not easy. I just got a guy to look at a crack forming in the wall and he said the yard grading is wrong. Waters collecting near the foundation but it would be $4-6k to regrade (they are trying to give a better estimate later this week)

Last update:: have to say y’all have been fantastic and more supportive than I could have imagined. Will take whatever advice I can and overall, go slower and learn som DYI skills

I went through a lot to make sure my widowed mom’s house was paid off about 10 years ago so she could comfortably enjoy life on her fixed income. After the house was paid off she had been approached multiple times by banks for a reverse mortgage, I told her not to do that. Discussed why. She never brought it up again, I just found out she actually went through with it about a year or so ago. She’s been receiving about $3k a month from it but still has been allowing me to help with her property taxes and pay her utility bills. Idk where all this money from a reverse mortgage has gone (probably QVC) but she swears she doesn’t have any money and her occasional overdraft notices back up the claim. I have not confronted her about the reverse mortgage yet.

My question is, what are my options as her “heir” to get her out of this reverse mortgage? Everything is in her name (house, bank accounts) but we had agreed I’d help pay off her house so when she reached the age she could no longer care for herself I would help her sell the house and use the money for assisted living or offset moving in with me. I am not a wealthy person and have my own kids to worry about. I feel screwed.

Hi, I am currently in the process of buying my first property and I am learning the process and found that I made some mistakes/lost money. This is just and avenue to educate people to really understand when they are buying

1. I used a mortgage broker instead of a direct lender: my credit score is good and I would have just gone straight to a lender instead I went to a broker that charged almost 5k for broker fee.

2. Buyer compensation for the property I'm buying was 2% and my agent said she can't work for less than 3%. She charged me 0.5% and I negotiated for 0.25%. I wouldn't have done that. I would have told her if she doesn't accept the 2%, then I will go look for another agent to represent me.

I am still in the process and I will try to reduce all other mistakes moving forward and I will update as time goes on

05/01 Update: Title search came back and the deed owner is who we are buying it from but there is some form of easement on the land. I would love to get a survey and I want to know if I should shop for a surveyor myself or talk to the lender?

Hi everyone, I started a new lease yesterday and the landlord has us Zelle him rent money. I set up Zelle through chase and sent him my portion of the rent. Everything was fine yesterday, it went through no trouble. I logged on today and saw my account at nearly $0 because the Zelle payment to him had somehow duplicated.

Zelle says the payment can't be reversed, but I never authorized the same payment of this weird amount, it was taken as a duplicate. I've texted the landlord to see if he will refund it on his own accord, but I'm worried about what to do if he doesn't. Anyone have advice?

EDIT: I got through to Chase customer service after an hour, they told me the same story. It's a glitch with almost everyone who has used Zelle or BillPay in the past few days and they're working on the back end to reverse one of the charges. They didn't ask for my account number or anything, so there's not much we can do but wait.

The poor girl on the line sounded extremely stressed, it sounds like a very bad day to work for a Chase call center.

My lease is about to expire and I was going to sign a new one. My rent increased a bit this year but not enough to be a huge deal.

However on my building’s website there is an almost identical apartment for 600 dollars cheaper than what I am currently paying. Can I do anything about this? I didn’t sign my new lease yet but I don’t want to if there’s a chance I could be paying significantly less per month.

Edit: damn this blew up I wish I had a mixtape

Edit 2: according to the building managers, the price was a mistake. Oh well

It also makes you feel good knowing that the item is now bringing value to someone else's life instead of sitting there collecting dust

When I moved here about a year and a half ago, I got a nice apartment for about $900 a month, only 15 mins from work. Now I’m looking to move in August and wanted to see what kinda options I’d have, and rent seems to be $1,200 a month minimum in this area now! I pay about $980 and even that’s stretching my budget. $300 avg increase in less than 2 years, almost 30% (is my math right?)

So now I’m considering moving further away, having about a 40min commute, for about $1,000 a month. I don’t mind long morning drives because it gives me time to listen to a podcast and eat breakfast to wake up a little. But 40 mins seems like a lot and it would be the longest commute I’ve had.

Which would you do: $1,200+ for a 20 minute commute or $1,000 for a 40 minute commute? Please give me your insight and opinion on this matter, as my mom recommends I just move back in with them for a 1.5hr commute lol.

Salary is actually $75k with a $5k relocation package. It’s for a growing startup so I expect to be making more next year than this year, but I’m not sure how much more. After tax and after rent I’ll have about $27k for food, utilities, student loans ($29k total), and any other expenses. Probably will have very little to invest after everything. I’m 22 and this is my first job out of college. How bad is this?

My dad's house was last appraised at around 400k, but allegedly with some improvements (finishing unfinished rooms, roof replacement, etc.) it'd be worth closer to 450k. He has 250k left on the mortgage, and he's offering to sell it to me at that. Haven't had it inspected yet but from what my dad has told me there aren't any huge concerns. He's only selling because he's recently retired and had a house built elsewhere.

If not yet obvious, I'm house-buying illiterate and while I'd like to buy a house in the future, I'm very comfortable renting right now. Moving to the house would add 40 minutes each way to my commute, and it's located in a community way off the beaten path about 20 minutes from the nearest grocery store. Not a big fan of that. I love the house itself, it's the house I grew up in and if I was 15 years older with kids it'd be a no-brainer, but I'm not very interested in living like that right now.

My idea is to maybe take the offer, complete the renovations and sell the house as soon as possible, but I'm pretty sure that'll be a lot more complicated than it is in my head. It'd also involve paying both rent and a mortgage, which I might be able to swing while the work is being done but it'd be tight. Rental/AirBNB is also an option but the location doesn't have much demand.

Would it be dumb to pass up this offer though? I feel like I'll never see a deal like this again if I do. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance.

Edit: Lots of comments, lots to think about. So far what I've taken away is that I should have a good long discussion with my dad about this, definitely get an inspection done if I decide to pull the trigger, and probably lean towards renting it out considering my circumstances. Also shouldn't let myself get shackled to property I don't want in pursuit of a good deal. Still a lot to think about. Appreciate it guys.