OFFICIAL - Buying / Selling / Moving Thread (1 Viewer)

[Chadstroma]

@Chadstroma

Got pre-approved by BOA today in about 30 minutes over the phone. 500K to 1MM. If I just purchase and carry a mortgage on a new home for a few months while I sell our current home with 20% down the 30-year rate is 6.75%. A line of credit for that much would be 9.935% variable and 10.261% fixed.

That jive with current market conditions? I don't see any reason/advantage for not just getting a mortgage.

It is really impossible to answer that honestly in any way that isn't pure sales pitch. Here is why I say that...

Mortgage rates are not the same for everyone. There are a number of factors that feed into what rate/cost a loan may be at. Things like credit score, location, type of home, type of loan, LTV, DTI, loan size, and more can or do impact the rate/cost of a loan. It is why I hate hearing the question "Where are rates at?" when someone finds out I am a mortgage broker in real life (I do make it a point to let people know though so half of that is on me ) and the reason is I can either give a really vague answer or I can go into a dissertation on how there are a lot of variables in a loan and no one wants to hear that (I am sure you are not thrilled to read it either). Further, I am not fully understanding your scenario as you laid out there.

Also, if you notice above, I wrote rate/cost because rate is the thing most people focus on but it isn't the only factor to the cost of the mortgage. So, there are a lot of ways lenders try to make their loans look good or competitive and in truth with the full picture, they are not.

I can offer two things... one, you can do an application with me, I can do a soft credit pull and then price out the specifics for you or two, you can move forward with BOA and when you are under contract you will get a Loan Estimate. You can send that Loan Estimate to me (there is no sensitive information on LE's and they are meant to help you shop your loan), that and usually you telling me the credit score they used for it- I can tell you if it is a good deal and you can move forward with them or that I could save you X money and you can decide to switch.

I will say this about the big banks. They are usually horrible at mortgages. It is very rare for me to have been beat out on pricing for conventional, VA, FHA or USDA from a bank in general and almost never from a big bank. They also tend to not be very good at their jobs (though there are certainly many exceptions). I have done more than a couple of mortgages for mortgage loan officers at big banks including BofA. For the first few I did, I started out talking to them like I would with someone in the industry and made some assumptions that they knew some of the most basic things about mortgages.... to find out they didn't.... so I started talking to them like I would a first time homebuyer because that was honestly the level of their understanding of mortgages (which blew my mind). For pricing, banks tend to look at it like "We are BofA" or "We are Chase" or whatever.... "so, of course people will want to do their loans with us." when I worked for big banks, I would have people come in all the time wanting to do loans with us and they would say something like "you have all my information so it should be easier with you." or some other assumption..... me being the horrible salesperson that I am, I would correct them but then happily take their application (after all, that was my job). Now, with that all said, the one area that big banks will be aggressive in are with jumbo loans. From the range you gave, likely you are in jumbo territory. With jumbos, I have a 50/50 chance usually but if they really want you as their customer, they will blow me out of the water because they will take a loss on the loan just so they can have your customer relationship and cross sale you other things that they make their money off of you on such as wealth management.

I know that wasn't the answer you were looking for but hopefully it informs you well above getting a "I can do better! Do the loan with me." answer you will usually get from a mortgage loan officer.

Update on all of this....

My wife has turned into Goldilocks. A few houses (a couple I REALLY liked) have popped up within walking distance of the inlaws. Everything is too expensive or over priced or even..... it is facing the wrong direction at the end of the street (Filipino superstition).

 

[Beef Ravioli Part 2]

@krista4 update did you get moved AOK, end up hiring movers?

What we ended up doing (and things I learned):

Regular mortgage through BoA. Mortgage will be paid off as soon as we sell our current home that goes on sale next weekend. BoA was late doing some thing for closing, but, luckily the title company and our remote notary were flexible and we got it all done. I chose them because we have many of our accounts with them and in the end that did make everything smoother moving money around. I did have to go into the bank once when wiring the funds to the title company, but other than that we could just upload documents through our accounts page and now our mortgage shows up there. Making a payment is as simple as clicking a button from one account to the other. They need improvements during the process though, the lending specialists assigned to us were very attentive and reachable, but, when it came to getting approvals done and paperwork out the door it became apparent that they weren't actually the ones that were accomplishing the tasks (without going into too much details). After filling out a survey I had BoA management call me personally to discuss the specifics and it seems they are trying to get better. All in all I would do it again with them though.

We used AmeriFreight to transport the vehicles. I would highly highly recommend them. From the first phone call the lady said "I'm going to tell you how this really works" and explained the whole brokerage process. They don't collect any money until a transport truck puts in an offer and we accept it. She worked with them to get the lowest possible price, charges us $200 and the balance is due to the trucker when the vehicle is delivered.

We used American Van Lines to move all our stuff. They just left on Tuesday with all our crap loaded on a truck. The drivers here are brokered too. The driver leases the truck from AVL, so it's an actual AVL truck, and then does all the work under a contract he has with AVL while we pay AVL directly. We got two quotes, a second one from a smaller company and both were $22,000. One thing we were concerned about was not having an in person walk through for the estimate. If you don't have an in person estimate they can charge you more than what is shown on the line item estimate. We did insist on them doing a video walk through at the time. Working with the driver though, it helps having a bubbly attractive wife doing the talking, he kept it down to just adding an additional 20 boxes or so to the estimate. Up to $24,000 now. This is the part you really need to pay attention to, make sure you have everything in the estimate or get someone in person to do the estimate. The driver said the other family on the truck estimate went from 20k to 30k. I remember seeing my company's bill for moving us here 13 years ago and it was 25K, and we have a lot more stuff now than we did then so I'm really happy with the price. Not looking forward to the usual amount of damage and lost items, but, that's just part of the deal.

Wow. I'm floored by how expensive it is to move. How far did you go?

West Coast all the way to Virginia. 2500SF house full of crap, including a riding lawnmower and two motorcycles. Work bench, table saw bench, all kinds of power tools and gardening tools. 3 flat screens. I'm pleasantly surprised.

Curious what region of Virginia you ended up in and what brought you from one coast to the other coast?

Retirement.

Purely geographical, not because of family nor had we ever lived been there before. We wanted warmer summers but still close to mountains and not too far from a coastline - although protected from hurricanes that travel up the coast. If you look at a map the Appalachians run further south than any other mountain range. Plus it's drop dead gorgeous god's country.

And it's easier to travel abroad than the west coast.

We moved to Northern Virginia about five years ago for work. We don’t mind it here in NOVA but we have fallen in love with the Blue Ridge Mountains and desire to end up there eventually (I’m about ten years from retirement). Enjoy!!!

 

[Peggy]

Movers finally delivered all (most all) of our stuff. We talked them into and helped them unload everything in a 6 hour period last Thursday night just in time before Hurricane Helene hit and knocked out our power and soaked us with rain.

The good news is that the driver didn't upcharge for all our extra stuff as explained above. The bad news is the driver was cheap and didn't pack everything like they should and we have lost and damaged stuff.
1 - I haven't moved for 10+ years, but, the 5 or 6 times I had moved prior every single time they packed the televisions in wooden reinforced boxes. They didn't use any wood or Styrofoam reinforcement, they just threw them in mirror boxes and that's it. As a result my biggest TV got a bunch of scratches on the screen.
2 - I'm also used to - if it fits in a box it gets packed into a box. They didn't box a lot of stuff. They just stacked and shoved a bunch of things that resulted in scratches and damage.
3 - As a result of not using boxes for most everything and them just being generally disorganized we're missing a few items. Towards the end of loading us we could tell our unboxed stuff was getting comingled with other family's stuff. We did the best we could in the dark with a flash light trying to make sure we got everything that was ours during unloading. One large antique that was special to my wife is missing and some other unknow stuff (the driver has texted us back and forth and admits he found some of our stuff after unloading the next family). Everything on my list in my head of "can't lose" stuff is accounted for.

Not sure of our next actions, wife is pretty upset and want's to file a claim. I'm convinced the driver did help us out and didn't charge us a lot extra that he could have. All said I'm convinced we're ahead in the game. But, it's not our fault he didn't pack things correctly and got things damaged and lost. He wants to deliver our found items (he's got to be 1000 miles away by now) and keeps saying to not file a claim and he'll work it out with us. Apparently he has other big claims against him pending. I'm not sure he can make good on a $1500 flat screen.

Typing this out has me thinking, our contract is with Am Vanlines, not him. I think we have to file a claim if we want any real compensation. Thoughts?

 

[krista4]

@krista4 update did you get moved AOK, end up hiring movers?

I'm so sorry. I've not been around here much and just saw this. I will respond more fully soon!

 

[krista4]

Movers finally delivered all (most all) of our stuff. We talked them into and helped them unload everything in a 6 hour period last Thursday night just in time before Hurricane Helene hit and knocked out our power and soaked us with rain.

The good news is that the driver didn't upcharge for all our extra stuff as explained above. The bad news is the driver was cheap and didn't pack everything like they should and we have lost and damaged stuff.
1 - I haven't moved for 10+ years, but, the 5 or 6 times I had moved prior every single time they packed the televisions in wooden reinforced boxes. They didn't use any wood or Styrofoam reinforcement, they just threw them in mirror boxes and that's it. As a result my biggest TV got a bunch of scratches on the screen.
2 - I'm also used to - if it fits in a box it gets packed into a box. They didn't box a lot of stuff. They just stacked and shoved a bunch of things that resulted in scratches and damage.
3 - As a result of not using boxes for most everything and them just being generally disorganized we're missing a few items. Towards the end of loading us we could tell our unboxed stuff was getting comingled with other family's stuff. We did the best we could in the dark with a flash light trying to make sure we got everything that was ours during unloading. One large antique that was special to my wife is missing and some other unknow stuff (the driver has texted us back and forth and admits he found some of our stuff after unloading the next family). Everything on my list in my head of "can't lose" stuff is accounted for.

Not sure of our next move, wife is pretty upset and want's to file a claim. I'm convinced the driver did help us out and didn't charge us a lot extra that he could have. All said I'm convinced we're ahead in the game. But, it's not our fault he didn't pack things correctly and got things damaged and lost. He wants to deliver our found items (he's got to be 1000 miles away by now) and keeps saying to not file a claim and he'll work it out with us. Apparently he has other big claims against him pending. I'm not sure he can make good on a $1500 flat screen.

Typing this out, our contract is with Am Vanlines, not him. I think we have to file a claim if we want any compensation. Thoughts?

Ugh, and I'm just getting to this.

I have more thoughts, but you have 90 days to file a claim. Maybe see what the guy does to make it right before that?

 

[The Z Machine]

Our shipment from Baltimore to Geneva is finally going to get delivered this week. However, the shipping company gave us less than 24 hours notice prior to trying to deliver and 1) I'm out of the country and 2) My wife has all day workshops this week until Friday. As a result, they are charging us over $100 / day to store our things. My wife is PISSED. We asked repeatedly for delivery date estimates and they gave us nothing. Some times not ever returning phone calls or emails. Then they say they won't deliver on Friday unless we pay them the extra storage fees. Such ********. This is the 3rd "we have you over a barrel, so pay up" situation in the last month. I'm so over it.

 

[Chadstroma]

Our shipment from Baltimore to Geneva is finally going to get delivered this week. However, the shipping company gave us less than 24 hours notice prior to trying to deliver and 1) I'm out of the country and 2) My wife has all day workshops this week until Friday. As a result, they are charging us over $100 / day to store our things. My wife is PISSED. We asked repeatedly for delivery date estimates and they gave us nothing. Some times not ever returning phone calls or emails. Then they say they won't deliver on Friday unless we pay them the extra storage fees. Such ********. This is the 3rd "we have you over a barrel, so pay up" situation in the last month. I'm so over it.

I had my own situation with movers a number of years back. They showed up 12 hours late.... with two guys who clearly were just tapped out tired. One of them doing his best and the other doing his best not to do anything. At the time I had a small one bedroom apartment with not a ton of stuff in it. It was supposed to take something like 4 hours total of packing, moving and unpacking from the estimate when I booked it. 6 hours later (very early morning) they pulled up to my new place and demanded payment based on per hour and extra charges for packing which was not supposed to happen. It cost me three times the amount they quoted me. If I did not pay they would take it to storage and charge me for the storage until I paid. Basically as you said... "we have you over a barrel, so pay up." it was the worst situation I have ever gone through with a company.

 

[Peggy]

14-hour rule for the driver in the US. Hint at that if you know they've been driving all day and then want to unpack late at night, or vise versa. They can lose their CDL really easy.

 

[Peggy]

Movers finally delivered all (most all) of our stuff. We talked them into and helped them unload everything in a 6 hour period last Thursday night just in time before Hurricane Helene hit and knocked out our power and soaked us with rain.

The good news is that the driver didn't upcharge for all our extra stuff as explained above. The bad news is the driver was cheap and didn't pack everything like they should and we have lost and damaged stuff.
1 - I haven't moved for 10+ years, but, the 5 or 6 times I had moved prior every single time they packed the televisions in wooden reinforced boxes. They didn't use any wood or Styrofoam reinforcement, they just threw them in mirror boxes and that's it. As a result my biggest TV got a bunch of scratches on the screen.
2 - I'm also used to - if it fits in a box it gets packed into a box. They didn't box a lot of stuff. They just stacked and shoved a bunch of things that resulted in scratches and damage.
3 - As a result of not using boxes for most everything and them just being generally disorganized we're missing a few items. Towards the end of loading us we could tell our unboxed stuff was getting comingled with other family's stuff. We did the best we could in the dark with a flash light trying to make sure we got everything that was ours during unloading. One large antique that was special to my wife is missing and some other unknow stuff (the driver has texted us back and forth and admits he found some of our stuff after unloading the next family). Everything on my list in my head of "can't lose" stuff is accounted for.

Not sure of our next move, wife is pretty upset and want's to file a claim. I'm convinced the driver did help us out and didn't charge us a lot extra that he could have. All said I'm convinced we're ahead in the game. But, it's not our fault he didn't pack things correctly and got things damaged and lost. He wants to deliver our found items (he's got to be 1000 miles away by now) and keeps saying to not file a claim and he'll work it out with us. Apparently he has other big claims against him pending. I'm not sure he can make good on a $1500 flat screen.

Typing this out, our contract is with Am Vanlines, not him. I think we have to file a claim if we want any compensation. Thoughts?

Ugh, and I'm just getting to this.

I have more thoughts, but you have 90 days to file a claim. Maybe see what the guy does to make it right before that?

The guy admits he has my wife's large antique item, as well as "some other stuff". We don't know what that other stuff is and have asked him to send us photos. He hasn't responded.

 

[The Z Machine]

Movers finally delivered all (most all) of our stuff. We talked them into and helped them unload everything in a 6 hour period last Thursday night just in time before Hurricane Helene hit and knocked out our power and soaked us with rain.

The good news is that the driver didn't upcharge for all our extra stuff as explained above. The bad news is the driver was cheap and didn't pack everything like they should and we have lost and damaged stuff.
1 - I haven't moved for 10+ years, but, the 5 or 6 times I had moved prior every single time they packed the televisions in wooden reinforced boxes. They didn't use any wood or Styrofoam reinforcement, they just threw them in mirror boxes and that's it. As a result my biggest TV got a bunch of scratches on the screen.
2 - I'm also used to - if it fits in a box it gets packed into a box. They didn't box a lot of stuff. They just stacked and shoved a bunch of things that resulted in scratches and damage.
3 - As a result of not using boxes for most everything and them just being generally disorganized we're missing a few items. Towards the end of loading us we could tell our unboxed stuff was getting comingled with other family's stuff. We did the best we could in the dark with a flash light trying to make sure we got everything that was ours during unloading. One large antique that was special to my wife is missing and some other unknow stuff (the driver has texted us back and forth and admits he found some of our stuff after unloading the next family). Everything on my list in my head of "can't lose" stuff is accounted for.

Not sure of our next move, wife is pretty upset and want's to file a claim. I'm convinced the driver did help us out and didn't charge us a lot extra that he could have. All said I'm convinced we're ahead in the game. But, it's not our fault he didn't pack things correctly and got things damaged and lost. He wants to deliver our found items (he's got to be 1000 miles away by now) and keeps saying to not file a claim and he'll work it out with us. Apparently he has other big claims against him pending. I'm not sure he can make good on a $1500 flat screen.

Typing this out, our contract is with Am Vanlines, not him. I think we have to file a claim if we want any compensation. Thoughts?

Ugh, and I'm just getting to this.

I have more thoughts, but you have 90 days to file a claim. Maybe see what the guy does to make it right before that?

The guy admits he has my wife's large antique item, as well as "some other stuff". We don't know what that other stuff is and have asked him to send us photos. He hasn't responded.

 

[Chadstroma]

I saw a house that I liked but my wife won't consider (Asian superstition) still had a sign out so I was curious and jumped on Zillow. It wasn't on there but I saw a house not too far away from her parents that looked like it might be "perfect". 5 bed so each kid could have their own room plus an office, it has been well taken care of from pictures and has a full finished basement plus over a thousand more soft than what we have now. The price was good and they look motivated to sell.

Then we drove by. It is sorta at the end of a street (the whole Asian superstition thing) which I don't care about but something I do is that it backs right into a high voltage power line which has always been a no no for us and even more so now with her fighting cancer. I have to say, I am a little bummed because I was starting to get excited about this possibility.... it seemed to be "perfect".

There is another house that is super nice but stretching what we could make work budget wise. The kids LOVE it because it is nearby a few of my daughter's friends and a short walk from the brand new football/soccer fields they just put in a couple years ago plus a pool which my son was like "I will swim every day!"