I'm getting ready to get the pre-approval for a home loan and I'm actually pretty nervous about everything..

Can anybody give me any tips or suggestions?

For those that have already purchased what would you have done different or what would you have done to improve things?

I've done alot of research but I'm still confused about a few things. Which I'm sure I'll figure as I go along.

Any tips on mortgage lenders or realtors?

Anything will help at this point..

Thansk in advance..

 

I used a buyers broker. She was recommended to me by my cousin, so ask people you know at work, friends, family, etc if you're going to use a buyers broker. Luckily for me, this broker was located in the town I wanted to buy in, and had alot of local contacts (other brokers, etc).

The only thing I would have done differently was to find my own financing. I used the place (gmac) that my broker recommended, and I wasn't as smooth as I had hoped. I ended up re-fining anyways, so in the long term it didn't really matter.

Before you contact a broker, make sure you know exactly what you want. I wanted a 3 bedroom (non-split level, I hate split level ranches) w/ 2 car garage on around a 1/2 acre minutes from the highway, and it took a couple of weeks for me and my broker to be on the same page. I looked a 1/2 dozen places before I started seeing stuff I liked. When I did see something that was close, I'd make sure I'd point out the strong points of the house, and it's weak ones. Once I got her to understand exactly what I wanted, we were fine (took about 2 months to find what I wanted, in the town I wanted).

 

Some topics are really particular to what you are in the market for, what you can afford, and what you can tolerate.

The only major difference (in the 'deal') between my first and second homes was to go with a personal banker and bank's loan, as opposed to a mortgage broker. No bs. Better rates. No middleman salesmanship to deal with. Not saying that all mortgage brokers are bad...working directly with a bank was much easier though.

 

I guess a good thing is my brother in law owns a mortage broker company. He has helped me with a few things but he is across the state (Philly).

Do you think my credit union would have competitive rates?

I also did my research on credit and credit scores. So I know what tier I fall in from www.myfico.com

 

Ask the credit union...no harm. If you have an 'in' with the mortage broker, then hopefully he can do better then what you could get otherwise.

 

Are you building?

The two things that my wife and I would do right now on our house that we built in '04 would be:
1. 3 car garage
2. Our two story great room is right in the middle of the house and all of the 5 bedrooms upstairs look into it. It is beautiful and looks sweet but we have noise issues with the bedrooms. So think about how it will be to live in your new house.

The other thing that I would change is that I'd like to have my own theater room. We planned for the great room to be the main viewing room and while it works well, I'd rather have a "guy room" in a different part of the house for sports viewing.

Good luck!

 

GM has great comments. Know what you want before you go trekking with a RE Agent.

Search www.realtor.com and other sites to get ideas.

 

Can't help too much since I've never purchased a resale, however, I can agree with Greenie. We used a buyer's agent who does exactly what the title suggests.. only works with the buyer's and never lists properties for sale. He was great, was able to keep an eye on our construction when we weren't in town, and did an all-around great job.

Even if you're not building, go with a buyer's agent. They know the area and can help you out tremendously. I do agree with NSX though, do some research online also. They never get offended if you bring listings to them... so do some research/homework on sites like move.com or realtor.com before going out. This will also give the agent an idea of what you're looking for so they can present properties to you which match your criteria.

As for the mortgage, again, we built, so we went with the builder's mortgage company since they gave us the best rate by Quite a bit, and we also had incentives thrown at us in the house for using their lender. However, before we commited to go with them I called around to probably 10 or so lenders... ranging from local mortgage shops to banks like Wells Fargo. I put them up against each other and got the best rate I could from each in case we decided not to go with our builder's financial company. So definitely call around, and don't be afraid to lowball them on the rate offers. We told our lender's financial company they would have to give us 5 1/4% for us to go with them even though the lowest rate we were getting from calling or online (lending tree) was around 5.625% - 5.75% (we were locked in with Wells at 6%). They bought it and we got a killer rate with no points (and after checking around you were only getting close to 5 1/4% with 1.5-2 points, sometimes more). So bluffing never hurts. If they want your business they'll make something good happen.

Not sure if any of that helps since my home buying experiences have been different, but figured I'd add what I could in the hopes that something helps out...

 

Yeah, research is the key... I started looking on realtor.com (and other local realtor websites) starting in Oct 2000 even tho' I didn't contact a buyers broker till that next May.

Start looking now online, and if something piques your interest, definitely so a drive by at least. Open houses are another way to get a feel for what you'd want to buy... You get to see what the insides look like without a lot of pressure to buy.

Once you figure out what you want to buy, you should have a good idea of what your budget is going to be... When I started, I was looking at 130K (2000 prices - double that now) houses, but I quickly discovered that for what I wanted, I had to move up to the 180K range... Champagne tastes on a beer budget

Jonesi, it sounds like you're looking to buy an existing home, right ?? (not looking to build).

EDIT: Jonesi, have you decided on a area you want to buy into ?? Even tho' you don't have kids now, you might want to research school systems. I've got no kids, but my towns school system is decent, so I figure that can't hurt when I go to sell.

I also got a 3 bedroom, even tho' I only needed one. Resale was the reason on that one. I did look at a 1 bedroom house w/ a 3 car garage. It was perfect for me, but I figured only a bachelor would want to buy it, so it would limit the buyers when/if I needed to sell.

 

I've been researching since April and have been online house hunting for about a year.. I am looking to buy a pre-existing house.. I am single and have a single income. I'm defintley not looking to break the bank on this purchase.. To be honest I just don't want to pay rent anymore and move on.

I'm looking more for a 2-3 bedroom but everything that is a 3 bedroom is too small 10 x10 bedrooms or is way out of my price range..

How long did it take to get pre-approved?

Do your FICO scores mean you are locked in at that rate?

(old image but all I could find) www.myfico.com has the updated one.

I am moving in the Cranberry area which is right outside of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh taxes) but is still within a very good school district and less taxes.. And is also close to work and still pretty close to family.. It also 3 minutes from the turnpike and 3 minutes to the interstate (Connected at Cranberry)

 

I think it was only a week (or two) for pre-approval. They'll tell you want they need at the first meeting (2 years W2's, last 4-5 paystubs)...

Sounds like you've got an area picked out, and have narrowed your search down to specific housing styles (via IM ), so it looks like you're good to go

 

I can't stress enough how important it is to find a reputable home inspector to thoroughly inspect the home you are interested in purchasing.

When purchasing my first home, I relied on an inspector suggested by my RE agent. BIG MISTAKE. The clown neglected to double check the sewer line and lo and behold, the first few days I move in to discover the line is broken and it cost me $3200 bucks to replace. Not so fun.

 

Me: Hello, I'd like to be pre-approved to purchase a home.
Them: OK, you're preapproved. Where would you like the letter fax'ed to?

About that long.



As said above, there are a lot of variables from person to person and situation to situation

 

Good advice...but also potentially a variable, as I said above...it depends what you'll tolerate. Remember, no home is perfect. All homes will have potential flaws.

If you got a great deal on the above home, say $20K below what you realistically thought it should sell for, $3200 in repairs might not be such a big deal.

 

A last note, before I bought my first home, I purchased and read 'The Idiot's Guide to Home Purchase'...one of those orange soft-covered books. Surprisingly, it really was a great guide and answered a lot of questions and kept me on the ball each step of the way.

 

Inspection, Inspection, INSPECTION!

And be patient... It's beginning to turn into a buyer's market. And that means w0000000t for j000000000000!

 

When getting a morgage, the thing is to shop around. Although most banks offer something around prime and are relatively close, that extra point-something off your rate will save you $$$$. So, shop around. In fact, if you can get banks bidding for your business, more power to you! Believe it or not, you can bargain a bit with the bank. So, if they are say offering 5.5%, ask for if they'll do it for 5.4% and see what happens.

As well, when going about for morgages, given the climate of the US economy these days, I would suggest getting a fixed rate.

Now, when it comes to realtors, my only advice is to work with someone who has a good track record and is recommended. So, ask around to see who people would recommend and then look up the agent's website to gather more info. The worst agent you want is the used-salesperson type who's pushy and aggressive. At the end of the day, he/she is supposed to be representing you and your interests above all else. And so, if you do not like your agent, do not be afraid to tell them to take a hike and find another...

Other tidbits to be ready for:
- home inspection is a must before purchase and PAY for it; make sure you get someone you know is reputable and thorough. Do not go cheap on this part.
- a good lawyer
- if a new home, make sure you are clear on your landscaping requirements and possible landscaping deposits that may be pending




G'luck, Indiana...!

 

I'm a home builder with a real esate license in Wisconsin. These guys pretty much have it down pat, but feel free to PM me if you have any questions they haven't already covered.

The only thing that stuck out to me is that you were thinking 2 bedrooms. In Wisconsin, that's practically the kiss of death for resale. Maybe that's different in your market...

In any large purchase, doing your homework is vital and working with someone you can trust and who knows what's going on is also very, very important.

Good luck and let me know if I can help!!!

 

Several people have mentioned it, but it may have been lost in their replies, so I'll just reiterate it for you...

Keep resale in mind when purchasing. Of course you need to buy what you need/want, however, always have resale in the back of your mind.

When we built our place in NY we turned the 3rd bedroom into an open den b/c I wanted a dedicated home office... essentially turning our place from a 3br to a 2br. Of course I never used it once... and luckily the community we were in was a highly desired area and most of the lookers were empty nesters, so we sold with no problem (actually had a bidding war)... but had it not been a sellers market at the time and had the community not been very saught after, we would have had trouble moving a 2br.

So keep resale in mind when looking at houses b/c the odds are that you will not be in this house for a long time, so you want to have whatever factors you can working in your favor when you sell...

 

I'm worried if I go the extra $20-$40K for the 3rd bedroom I'll get in a penny pinch and I don't want to have to rely on a roommate.. I want to be comfortable with what I have and my expenses.. I can't imagine buying a home and not making a little bit of money on it. I'd also like the chance of paying it off in 15-20years (if I'm there that long).

Most places I'm looking at have nice basements, atleast from what I've saw so that could always be turned into a 3rd bedroom if need be..

 

Thanks for the advice yesterday GreenThing..

 

I guess a thing I'm concerned about is at the moment I'm in the top tier for credit scores, several points above the 760 mark.. I'm afraid if I shop around that with all the Mortgage Inquiries on my credit report that it could bump me down several points and I'd lose some leverage. I don't want to pay a extra $50 a month for losing some points..

 

Well, when I shopped for a rate, it didn't go to the extent of checking my credit rating. Most of the initial process was over-the-phone and asking what the different major banks offered and if they were willing to budge below the advertised rate...In fact some did come back and offer me right off the bat that they were willing to move a bit.

Also, one other tidbit: different banks have different allowances when it comes to making extra payments to your morgage. Some are flexible and say that you can come in at any time during the month to toss in that extra few bucks to chip away at your principle whereas others are more stringent and state that it must be an X amount and can only be done on the second Friday (or something like that). So, this is also a factor worthy of consideration...

 

Same here. I told them what my credit score was since it was run by one bank already, then just asked them what their best rate was as we were cross-shopping a bunch of banks. Never did they go as far as checking my rating. They never even had any of my personal info. It was a quick on and off call and I kept a list of all of the banks and their rates. If they asked for my info I just said I'd call them if I was going to use their bank... got the person's name and extension, and hung up. This way no one was haunting me with follow-up calls and there was no way they were checking anything on me, b/c they had no info.

 

I'm well aware of my scores so I shouldn't have any issues.. I just thought they would have to run the credit everytime to give me some rates.

 

You cannot remarket a basement conversion into a bedroom.

A basement is always a basement and any improvements are generally considered (at least close to) a loss in resale.

Improve a basement for your own needs, but don't necessarily expect the next buyer to pay for it.

 

I wasn't saying I was going to, I was just saying "COULD" use it as a 3rd bedroom if need be. It was somewhat sarcastic..

 

a house thread that I reference from time to time.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...9&page=1&pp=25

 

Again I think this depends on where you live. Our place in NY came with an unfinished basement. We decided to finish it as we were selling our place. We had it listed at $515k, but were getting offers around $470k from people who said to leave the basement unfinished.

After all was said and done we finished the basement for about $11k, and sold the house for ~$540k, $25k over asking and $70k over the unfinished basement offers... so the basement and its 700 square feet added quite a bit to the value of the house.

 

Basement, full underground can add value but not considered as living space for appraisal purposes. As many others have said, get three bedrooms if at all possible. You will thank yourself at resale time. Only work with real estae and loan agents that you are comfortable with and that listen to your wants and needs. Your credit should not be checked without your written authorization, per law. It does happen sometimes though. Over 700 you will qualify for the best rate.

Multiple credit checks for mortgage over 30-60 days are counted as one check for your FICO score. Do read a good book about purchasing a home. Remember that everything can be negotiated before you come to final, signed agreement. If you are like most people, you will probably not be in the house for more than 5-7 years. Just my .02 as an appraiser that also happens to be a RE Broker and small time investor.