Drew Mendez WTR Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Hello y'all I am either looking for a place to rent from (wife and 3 dogs (1 German Shepherd (Service Dog) and 2 Weenie dogs) Any locations at this time OR Take on 1 renter We live in a small duplex 2 bedroom 1 bath pretty modest 1 car garage on 4803A Teri Rd. South Austin near Stassney and 35 Exit 230ish We are currently paying 800 rent plus utilities per month So roughly 550-600 with cable and internet and utilities for the renter my former roomate just moved out and left us in a bind (took a job in S.A.) I have a 150 gallon tank also lol. The location and place place is not that great but its home however we do not pay a pet deposit and are in no legally/binded contract. I am an excellent cook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew Mendez WTR Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 So I'm going to start looking into using my VA loan. Has anybody done this before, we've already got in contact with USAA who has sent us a realtor. Any homebuying tips at this point would be appreciated. That and I just applied to join the Australian Defence (Defense) force...hopefully they call me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+brian.srock Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 If you have a decent credit score and are looking into a house I would highly recommend looking for a USDA home. This was one of the best decisions I have made and I make sure and let everyone know about. Initially I was trying to save 5% for a house and my realtor www.skyrealtyaustin.com suggested the area where I live now which is Austin's Colony b/c it's USDA approved. With a USDA loan it's government approved so you put 0 down and don't have to pay PMI as well. I also have 0 traffic going just about everywhere compared to I35 and I was able to use the 5% on new home stuff like table and fridge. Check it out and hit me up for more info if you need it. http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/HSF_SFH.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew Mendez WTR Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 We def are at very low income haha....I'm looking at the areas and it would have to be outside city like you were saying...Which I'm not opposed to I dont like ppl anyway. This is def. another option if our VA loan doesnt go through for some reason. That program requires zero down and is 30 yr fixed. Please keep the tips coming I am going over this site, and the Texas Veterans Land Board as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+brian.srock Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 No prob. We originally were looking in the under 150k price range and not much in austin, you have to move to cedar park or buda and have you seen 35 and mopac traffic during rush hour? I live off of MLK/969 so to get to either south or north austin is exactly 18 minutes. I also drive to killeen and corpus a lot and we live off the toll so it's easier to get there. I hate sitting in traffic We're still city of Austin for our bills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Grog Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 When we started looking 13 years ago, we decided on Bastrop. Close to Austin, small town atmosphere, and a lot cheaper. No way I could have purchased this much land and home in Austin anywhere near this price. If you want to knock the price down, look in outlying areas as long as you are Ok with a heck of a commute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+C Lo Slice Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Buda is booming right now. Our house got appraised $20,000 over what we paid for it just one year ago, and its only gonna go up. Now is the time to buy, IMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew Mendez WTR Posted May 10, 2012 Author Share Posted May 10, 2012 C Lo...I search and found two nice places in our price range and get this theres even spare land...l ol one has 1 acre the other .75 acre the place we looked at in Austin for same price is .168 acres I saved it, its even approved for FHA/USDA that brian was talking about...Thanks guys...keep it coming I'm listening and following up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Grog Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 Buda is booming right now. Our house got appraised $20,000 over what we paid for it just one year ago, and its only gonna go up. Now is the time to buy, IMO Our value came in with a 3% reduction in taxable total this year. Knocked a lot more than that off the tax bill. Since I'm staying here, they could drop the appraisal to 0 as far as I'm concerned. Actually, that would tickle me pink. Funny part is they devalued the house and upped the value of the land. House had tons of repairs from the fire; new roof, paint, trim work, etc. Lost over 95 trees off the property but they upped the value of the land. O.o I don't know what the tax appraisers are smoking but the end result of less tax pleases me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 Must be nice to live in Buda. My house dropped 20,000$. Was thinking about moving. That killed that. Don't really have the time or energy to fight it. Maybe my payments will go down. Foreclosures and short sells are killing my houses value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew Mendez WTR Posted May 11, 2012 Author Share Posted May 11, 2012 Happy to write that today the Injured Marine "Semper Fi" Fund sent me 1200 dollars for rent and costs associated with my service dog. We paid rent so we're good thru July meaning those paychecks will be free to pay bills. I am thankful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 So I'm going to start looking into using my VA loan. Has anybody done this before, we've already got in contact with USAA who has sent us a realtor. Any homebuying tips at this point would be appreciated. That and I just applied to join the Australian Defence (Defense) force...hopefully they call me. I'm on my second VA-guaranteed loan. Make sure your realtor and/or the seller's realtor knows that's what you want to do. They'll need to do extra paperwork along with the title company. The first time in Elgin it was unnoticable - we had nothing different to do to buy the house. On our current house which we bought this last January, the VA appraiser came in about $12k less than the asking price. With a VA loan, if the VA appraiser says it's worth $Xk, then that's the maximum loan you can get. You have to make up the difference with cash or another (usually higher interest rate) loan. Luckily we got that $12k difference down $10k and could afford the $2k difference (interesting story there). At least we got the house $10k cheaper. Edit: More benefits of a VA loan: 1) you can do it with no money down at close, and 2) you don't need to purchase mortgage insurance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Awesome to hear that Drew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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