# Advice Greatly Accepted



## Dave J (Oct 25, 2007)

I have spent the last hour or so looking around this site and its looks great, especially when I see all the people who are trying to help each other out. I would appreciate some advice or a point in the right direction with an issue I have.

I am currently considering buying a property in Penn State. Due to the current melt down in the US property market the property is very cheap and an ideal investment but I am also considering moving out there and living in the house. I am aware that I would still need a visa in order to do this but I was wondering if anybody has any advice about issues like taxes in buying the house and costs like that. Any advice, good or bad will be gladly accepted.


----------



## jmspringbok (Oct 24, 2007)

I can tell you a little about taxes. If you own property you are going to be paying property tax annually. It varies from town to town as to how much you would have to pay. For example a house worth about $200,000 would have to pay taxes of about $1500/yr where we live. Where we live the taxes are due in the spring for the previous year. When you buy a house the people who owned it before you pay the taxes up until the day it was sold and you are responsible for the rest. They aren't due when you purchase the house. I suppose other costs could come up in closing. Depends on who is paying for the closing costs. You are also going to need home insurance especially if you have a mortgage. If you have a mortgage the mortgage company usually collect taxes and insurance premiums monthly in addition to your mortgage payment. That way you don't have a big surprise at tax time. So, I don't know if you would consider this good or bad advice.  Just a little info from my experience.


----------



## sloopskipper (Oct 23, 2007)

*Pennsylvania Property taxes*



Dave J said:


> I have spent the last hour or so looking around this site and its looks great, especially when I see all the people who are trying to help each other out. I would appreciate some advice or a point in the right direction with an issue I have.
> 
> I am currently considering buying a property in Penn State. Due to the current melt down in the US property market the property is very cheap and an ideal investment but I am also considering moving out there and living in the house. I am aware that I would still need a visa in order to do this but I was wondering if anybody has any advice about issues like taxes in buying the house and costs like that. Any advice, good or bad will be gladly accepted.


Dave, if you are talking about State College, Pennsylvania, I think you will pay a lot more than $1500 in taxes. I lived about 80 miles from there and, if I remember, my taxes for a house I sold for $250,000 were more than $3500, in 2001!


----------



## jmspringbok (Oct 24, 2007)

LIke I said, taxes vary according to where you buy. Some towns have horrible taxes and others are reasonable.


----------



## synthia (Apr 18, 2007)

Welcome to the forum, Dave. If by Penn State, you mean the State College, Pennsylvania area that surrounds Pennsylvania State University (known as Penn State), then you should rely on the numbers from sloopskipper. But if by Penn State you mean the state of Pennsylvania, you really can't tell about home prices and taxes without knowing the exact town. Pennsylvania has some very rural areas, big cities, and everything in between.

If you put less than 20% down when taking out a mortgage, you will also be required to pay PMI (Private Mortagage Insurance) until you have 20% equity in the house.

You mentioned that you would still have to obtain a visa. Are you planning to be a student or do you have other ways of gaining residency? You don't need one to buy a house, but you will need one to live there more than six months per year.


----------



## Ajijicalf (Nov 1, 2007)

Dave J said:


> I have spent the last hour or so looking around this site and its looks great, especially when I see all the people who are trying to help each other out. I would appreciate some advice or a point in the right direction with an issue I have.
> 
> I am currently considering buying a property in Penn State. Due to the current melt down in the US property market the property is very cheap and an ideal investment but I am also considering moving out there and living in the house. I am aware that I would still need a visa in order to do this but I was wondering if anybody has any advice about issues like taxes in buying the house and costs like that. Any advice, good or bad will be gladly accepted.


Like others, you need to specific about where in PA. PA has two large metropolitan areas (Phila. & Pittsburgh) and much of the rest of the state is rural as State College. In the Phila. area (including Phila, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester counties), real estate prices and property taxes aren't inexpensive. Before we left Chester Co., we paid about $3,000 on a $300k+ house.

Some counties in PA have their tax records available online. You might try that for the county you are looking into.


----------



## ZARTAN (Nov 18, 2007)

you dont need a visa to buy property. i dont think the american real estate has hit rock bottom yet. if you wait it out, it will drop even lower. the u.s. dollar is also expected to drop lower so it will be a double advantage. what you need to look for are foreclosures. thats people who cant pay their mortgages and want to bail out. you will find the best deals there. contact a good real estate agent, and tell them you will give them 3% of what the property is worth as commission.


----------



## synthia (Apr 18, 2007)

He doesn't need a visa to buy property, but he does need one to visit it.


----------



## sloopskipper (Oct 23, 2007)

Ajijicalf said:


> Like others, you need to specific about where in PA. PA has two large metropolitan areas (Phila. & Pittsburgh) and much of the rest of the state is rural as State College. In the Phila. area (including Phila, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester counties), real estate prices and property taxes aren't inexpensive. Before we left Chester Co., we paid about $3,000 on a $300k+ house.
> 
> Some counties in PA have their tax records available online. You might try that for the county you are looking into.


State College, home of PSU (with a total [including satellites & distance learning] of more than 60,000 students, in maybe year 2000), may be rural, but I think you may find it rather expensive. If you need a visa, the growing anti-immigrant sentiment (especially Latino) can be difficult to deal with, even in Pennsylvania. Search internet for Hazelton and immigrant, although this was mostly backlash against illegals.

Do not assume that the rural areas have lower tax rates, even if the real estate values might be lower. I lived in Perry county, across the river from Harrisburg, population was about 32,000 (with no traffic lights). They petitioned the state courts to get a real estate tax rate about 6 points(?) above the state maximum, making it the HIGHEST in the state.

If you read what I posted earlier, I paid more taxes on a $250K home (in 2000) than you did in Chester Co.


----------

