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To sum it up, my husband and I are relocating to the area and spent a few days visiting apartments and homes for rent in the West Ashley and Summerville area. A home we really enjoyed was located in the Lakes of Summerville development. On the way we noticed signs, 'from $541 a month'. I looked on their website at the house and floor plan this would be for, and its pretty comparable to all the apartments we were looking at except HALF the price of renting!
I was sort of wondering if there is a catch here. Why don't locals buy these houses and rent them out for more?
I was also wondering (never bought a home before) if say, we just decided to buy one, how long it would take from beginning (saying okay - we want to build/buy this house) to closing and moving in, on a development like this? I know there is a lot more to it than I just put, but just trying to be general here.
I figured I would get some insight because if all goes well and we really adapt to the area, we could be ready to buy in as soon as few months, and would really hate to be stuck in a year or more lease.
Thanks in advance!
Last edited by allisonkbye; 02-26-2012 at 08:36 PM..
Reason: typo
$541 is rent without, taxes, PMI, hoa, insurance, etc... which will add a few hundred more to the rent. Still cheaper then rent.
You can get a house cheaper then renting. Think about it people bought a house and have loans at a much higher interest rate then current homes. I mean I got my house at 3.75%, but just a few years ago 5-6% was not uncommon. Also they paid a higher price and have a bigger mortgage then current houses.
An example I bought a house, with HOA, insurance, pmi, taxes, etc.... it is also on a better lot, more upgraded, bigger yard, and is about 1,000 sq ft. bigger then a house I am renting. Both houses were in the same neighborhood, and I pay just slightly less for the new house vs what I was paying in rent.
To sum it up, my husband and I are relocating to the area and spent a few days visiting apartments and homes for rent in the West Ashley and Summerville area. A home we really enjoyed was located in the Lakes of Summerville development. On the way we noticed signs, 'from $541 a month'. I looked on their website at the house and floor plan this would be for, and its pretty comparable to all the apartments we were looking at except HALF the price of renting!
I was sort of wondering if there is a catch here. Why don't locals buy these houses and rent them out for more?
I was also wondering (never bought a home before) if say, we just decided to buy one, how long it would take from beginning (saying okay - we want to build/buy this house) to closing and moving in, on a development like this? I know there is a lot more to it than I just put, but just trying to be general here.
I figured I would get some insight because if all goes well and we really adapt to the area, we could be ready to buy in as soon as few months, and would really hate to be stuck in a year or more lease.
Thanks in advance!
What other people said... but don't forget to add property taxes, insurance and whatever their HOA is going to want. Also the "from X/month" part will change if you finance since rates will be around 1% higher (although you'll put 20%+ down so that changes the equation even more). As an investor I tend to stay away from new developments anyway, because it's less clear which direction the neighborhood will go and the super cheap ones tend to be out in the exurbs where demand is lower.
Over here I've been a lot more interested in the near downtown area and have had pretty good luck so far.
As a quick advice. Go to supple see what similar styled houses are in the immediate area. See what they paid in taxes.
There are even mortgage calculator apps out there. I used one called "karl's mortgage calculator". Helps you get the real view of costs. My guestimates on insurance were a little high but I was within $100 a month.
Thank you all so much for your input. I feel like if we sign a year lease we might be okay as far as waiting a few months, then taking a few months to build. This will give us plenty of time to do more research and explore the other areas you mentioned and make sure we are making the best decision!!
In this economy with interest rates so low it is cheaper to buy than rent, but the catch is that you have to qualify for the loan which is getting extremely difficult, banks are looking for perfect credit with substantial history....
Thank you all so much for your input. I feel like if we sign a year lease we might be okay as far as waiting a few months, then taking a few months to build. This will give us plenty of time to do more research and explore the other areas you mentioned and make sure we are making the best decision!!
I highly suggest that, find a place to rent preferably in the are of where you would like to buy, get to know the area, and always be looking for homes. Wife and I would browse the web, then find a half dozen places and spend about 1-2 hours just doing drive bys, seeing the neighborhoods, areas, etc... Also gave us an idea of the "areas" even if we bought there or not, and help us find things we liked and didn't like and see trends.
If you have a gps enabled smart phone trulia, zillow and realtor.com all have apps that were kind of handy. you could go in a neighborhood and pull up all the houses for sale.
We did notice some discrepancies, like houses that already sold listed, and houses that had for sale signs but were not listed. But it gives you a basic jist, most also have some pictures of the inside, and alot of foreclosures if you want to look around at it a little.
Obviously when you start narrowing down get a realtor to take you around.
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