Tag: sub-prime

Categories
Real Estate

11 Things To Think About When Buying A House

Buying a house is a very difficult decision – there are large sums of money involved, the transaction costs and hassle of moving mean that you can’t just buy another house if you don’t like the one you end up with, and you don’t have enough information to make a completely informed decision. The best you can do is try to educate yourself in all aspects of the house hunt, keep a clear head and buy a house that fits your situation.

Here are some things for house buyers to be aware of when looking for a new home.

1) Location

  • How far is it from where you work? Can you handle the time/money involved in the commute?
  • If you have young kids or are planning to have them – how far from the grandparents from the house? They tend to be the best babysitters.

2) Budget

It’s nice to say “buy within your budget” but that might not realistic. Do a quick budget estimate, look at some houses that you might be interested in and then revise the budget or revise the houses. If you really can’t afford a house then don’t buy one. There is nothing wrong with renting.

3) Know your market

It’s critical that you know the market you are looking in. The asking prices for houses are often not indicative of their true value and the only way to be able to estimate a house value is to look at as many houses as possible. Take notes and find out what they sold for.

4) Don’t trust your real estate agent

I would suggest that most house buyers use an agent but keep in mind that although they may be very competent, their commission structure ensure a huge conflict of interest. Please read this post on why you shouldn’t trust your real estate agent.

5) Don’t end up house poor

Sometimes house buyers “fall in love” with a house or neighborhood or even just the idea of owning a house and they place too high a priority on it. This can lead to regret when the novelty wears off and you don’t have any money to do the things you like to do. Try living for six months on a “pretend” mortgage payment and see how it goes.

6) Take your time

Until recently, many buyers were afraid of missing out on future price gains or being “priced out of the market”. If you are renting and saving as much as you can, then you will be fine. Here are some tips for renters to be able to keep up (or down as the case may be) with their house owning friends.  Note – this one isn’t as relevant as it was last year!

7) Make a decision

Previously, I said to look at lots of houses to learn the market. At that point you should be able to purchase a house fairly quickly. If you are looking for the perfect house or trying to time the market then you will never buy a house. I know people who did ten year house searches which is a big waste of time. The reality is that you will be happy with a good percentage of all the houses you look at, so as long as you can eliminate the worst choices then you will be thrilled with your new home.

8) Don’t worry about the down payment

Yes, I know – it sounds pretty shocking in the sub-prime era to suggest that a down payment of less than 20% is acceptable, but in my opinion, the ability to make the mortgage payments is the main factor for affordability. In other words, it’s the size of the mortgage that matters. Of course you can get better rates with a larger down payment so it’s better if you have one, but don’t sweat it if you have a small or zero down payment.

9) Don’t blow your budget on renovations and furniture

Most people end up buying a house that has mortgage payments large enough that the buyers have to “make the payments fit” into their budget. While this is not the best way to buy a house, some of these buyers then make things worse by spending more money on renovations and house decorations. Unless you buy a total wreck of a house, you do not need to spend big bucks on renovations. You can live with the non-granite kitchen counter and the couch set that doesn’t fit the room perfectly. I don’t care if the house has full-on 70’s decor – you can live with it for a year or more until you can fit the extra expense in your budget.

10) Be careful of flip properties

There are people and contractors who will buy a house, fix it up very quickly and turn around and sell it for profit. The problem with these houses is that they tend to look very good on the surface ie nice paint, trim, granite counters etc, but on the inside they are pretty ugly and might have substandard electrical, insulation etc.

If you are interested in one of these houses then make sure they have closed permits and check with the inspector to see if their inspection notes. Better yet, just don’t buy one.

11) Don’t buy the perfect house

If the house is livable and you have a good life, then you will be happy with whatever house you end up buying. If you spend more money on a “better” house, then you will quickly get used to it and will be no happier than if you had bought an “average” house.

My opinion is that it’s just a house. The people inside are what make it special.

Summary

Learn as much as you can about real estate, your budget and your local house market, but be prepared for the fact that buying a house is all about compromise, incomplete information and a lot of doubts! If you keep at it however, the odds are very good that you will end up with a home that suits your needs.

Other posts

10 mistakes I made as a first time home buyer.

Categories
Real Estate

Why The Subprime Crisis Has Not Affected Canada (Yet)

This post is part of a group writing project with the M-Network bloggers and friends. See the list of other posts in this project at the bottom of the post.

There has been a lot publicity around the subprime mortgage situation in the US. There are quite a few homeowners who have been or are about to be evicted from their houses because of a number of different factors. ARMs, NINJA loan, liar loans, fraudulent lending practices and worst of all…easy credit and low interest rates led to a situation where real estate prices went up and up. People who took the plunge five years ago with flipping houses made so much money that everyone wanted to get in on it. Now that the real estate prices are not going up anymore, the gravy train has stopped cold.

In Canada, we haven’t seen this situation (yet) and I think there are several reasons for this:

  1. Real estate prices haven’t gone up as much as in the US.
  2. Lending practices in Canada were stricter than in the US.
  3. Interest rates are stable.
  4. The economy is still going strong.

Real estate prices

Real estate prices did not rise as much in Canada as they have in the US over the last several years which might have helped prevent mass speculation. It’s easier to get excited about property investing/flipping when you see 30% annual returns compared to 10% returns which is roughly what we saw here in Toronto. I believe that people who are flipping properties are more likely to use excessive leverage in order to make more money. This works really well as long as the house goes up in value but if the house goes down (which is happening in the US) then the flipper might be in big trouble.

Stricter Lending Practices

The use of the word “stricter” is this case is a relative one. The last few years have seen changes in the mortgage market in Canada where you can buy a house with zero down, get a no interest mortgage and for those who are inclined to pay a smattering of interest there are 40 year amortization terms available. All of these features allow the Canadian home owner to increase the amount they borrow which will increase the odds of problems if any of the above factors come into play.

In the US it appears that anyone with a pulse and no paperwork or job or money could get a mortgage which obviously increases the odds that some of those borrowers won’t be able to make their payments. The availability of ARMs (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) is another product which can be very useful for some home owners but for some borrowers they were a way to get a house (for a few years at least) that they couldn’t afford. It was just recently that the US government passed legislation that makes lenders consider the payment after the mortgage reset (and not during the teaser rate period) when they look at the repayment ability of the borrower. Hard to believe that sort of common sense rule has to be legislated.

Interest Rates

This is another factor that applies to both Canada and the United States. While interest rates are higher than a couple of years ago, they are still fairly reasonable. If rates were to go up say 2% then I think that this will expose some sub-prime borrowers because they might not have any room to cut back in their budget to pay for a few more hundred dollars of interest each month. A borrower with a better credit rating would also feel the pinch with higher interest rates but they would likely have more flexibility in their budget.

Economy

The economy and job situation is still quite good in Canada which is not really different than the US but if we see a recession in either country and unemployment goes up, then that will certainly put more pressure on highly-leveraged home owners and foreclosure rates will go up.

Summary

Loose lending standards and rapidly increasing real estate values were the main reasons that led to some American borrowers taking out speculative mortgages that they couldn’t afford. Because these factors were not as prevalent in Canada I think that there are a lot less borrowers in Canada who are on the edge as far as being able to afford their mortgages. That said, lenders in Canada will still give borrowers a lot of mortgage which some people have taken advantage of, so if unemployment goes up and/or interest rates go up, we could still see a smaller version of the sub-prime mortgage crisis here in Canada.

The Globe and Mail recently had an excellent article ( free login required ) on subprime lending and some of the fraudulent sales methods used.

Finally I will leave you with link to a sub-prime mortgage discussion written by a senior employee at Pimco – it’s very informative and the format (the economist is talking with his pet rabbit) is very entertaining while at the same time, somewhat disturbing. 🙂

Other posts in this series

My Two Dollars posted My Thoughts On This Whole Mortgage Crisis And Why I Don’t Feel That Bad. This excellent post explains why David is a bit annoyed that people who overbought are getting helped by the government while fiscally responsible people (like him) don’t get anything.

Finance Freelance Life explains how renting a home and buying a home are not as different as they seem in Why renting is right for us right now.

Rocket Finance has a great post about his own real estate mistakes.

My Dollar Plan (yes, the one with 181 financial accounts) tells us a very unusual story of how she has an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) and not only is she happy with it – she doesn’t blame her mortgage broker, the government or space aliens for the fact that she has one.

Moolanomy explains Debt-To-Income Ratio and Why It Matters. This post covers why you shouldn’t spend too much of your net income on your house.

Millionaire Money Habits tries to decide between investing in stocks or real estate in Catch a Falling Knife – Buying the Housing Slump.

PaidTwice wrote an interesting post on the “Can we afford it” mentality which gets into the problem of people deciding if they can afford something (such as a house) based entirely on the monthly payments.

Debt Free Revolution talks about how maybe it’s not such a good idea to take advantage of increased equity in your house by paying off credits cards with a HELOC. (Home equity line of credit).

Remodeling This Life wrote a post about how she and her husband bought a house and totally gutted it. This post brought bad some unpleasant memories for me because of our own fixer-upper experience. She has a fair bit of advice and warnings for anyone who wants to buy a fixer upper.

Being Frugal wrote Frugal Hacks For Your Home. Still not sure exactly what a “hack” is but maybe this post will tell me….

Plonkee Money asks why anyone outside the US should care about the subprime mortgage crisis.

Cash Money Life explains how mortgage escrow accounts work. These are more common in the US although I have heard of house insurance payments being combined with mortgage payments. In a related article he discusses how his mortgage payment dropped recently because of changes in the escrow liability amounts.

Single Guy Money talks about the real cost of home ownership.

Categories
Opinion

Investment Recommendations For Friends

Everyone always loves to say “do your own research before purchase”, “make sure to do your own due diligence” or “this is just for informational purposes, not to recommendation to buy or sell” and garbage like that. People are clearly reading investing opinion pieces because they can’t reach their own conclusions, and are prepared to defer to someone they feel is more knowledgeable. The disclaimer is just a cop-out to avoid blame if things hit the fan.

With that in mind, I’ve been happy to write about pretty much anything on this blog, and am equally open with thoughts and ideas about investing to my real life friends and family.

After reading about Lending Club, my best friend and I went 50/50 on a $500 investment. We discussed all the available loans, would send back and forth loan options to fund, and after we’d loaned out the $500, all the loans were doing very well. We’d originally planned to re-invest the proceed, but instead we borrowed more from Lending Club to re-invest (leveraging my friend’s great credit rating since I didn’t have any American credit at the time). Another $2500 in and we were collecting loan proceeds to pay off our debt (and Mr. Cheap was feeling like a tycoon).

Then our first “post Christmas” crash hit, a bunch of our loans went into delinquency, and eventually bankruptcy. Our money has broke even (with the high interest loans JUST covering those who have been defaulting), and our hope is to break even or at least have a bit of our originally $500 left when we pay off the loan we took out.

More recently, in the middle of the sub-prime shakedown, Washington Mutual was yielding over 10%. I talked to my friend about how I love dividend stocks, how stable banks are, and how much they value investors’ long term confidence in their ability to pay dividends. Trusting my judgement, my friend bought in to WaMu at over $30. The stock prompt started nose diving. Partly because I wanted to share her pain, and partly because I honestly thought it was unwarranted pessimism, I bought it myself at $21, buying on margin (which wasn’t terribly smart since I’m not working right now and will have a very low income when I’m back at school). Neither of us invested more than we could lose, but it really sucked when they started saying they’re going to cut their dividend by 2/3rds (I can forgive a low stock price, but if you cut your dividend you’re dead to Mr. Cheap).

Recently when I was talking to my friend I expressed my amazement that she’d still listen to me babble about money since the only thing I seem to be able to do is lose it for her. “Experience is a great teacher but she’s a costly one” rings in my mind, and more and more I see the wisdom of not providing specific financial advice to people you care about. Talking about the thoughts and philosophies are fine, but making specific recommendations just sucks if they don’t work out (and there’s always a risk they won’t).

Of course, do your own due diligence and acquire your own experiences before following any of my advice ;-). A wussy, garbage cop-out, but perhaps a wise one.