Up to date reality check. An acquaintance of mine has decided that he is tired of renting, the cheapest you can get a decent apartment is around $800.00 per month, he owns a dog, so he has been looking at buying a house. He saw a fixer-upper in Schenectady, quite a low price, quite a bit of work needed but he liked the location, and he is able to do some fairly heavy jobs himself.
I told him to start watching the market, and also go in and sit down and talk with some bank people before he gets too involved with realtors. He talked to his bank, looked at the particular house, and then went back to the bank to talk more specifically about the particular house. The bank is telling him not to touch it. Granted, banks have tightened up their lending requirements, but we're talking about a house that would cost about half what he would spend elsewhere, if he offered the asking price. The realtor is saying otherwise, and offering to put him in touch with a lender that will fund him, but we know where that leads. So, a house in a decent area, not high-crime, asking around $50k, a reputable lender says no. That's where we stand. A hard-working, law abiding young person can't get a break, but we've got the welcome mat out to half of NYC, so we can line the pockets of "investors". BTW, if this free section eight money is a good thing, why is Schenectady one of the few places still offering it?
The taxes on the house that a bank doesn't want to lend on, the house the owners can't unload for 50 thousand, are around $5,000. |
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