So in the next 6-months to a year I would like to buy a house. Is there any good websites/books/info that people know of. Any experiences that anyone has gone threw and care to share? Also I’m a south towns guy so land is important to me, a good 10acres would suit me fine. Now would it be better/cheaper to buy land first and build on it later or try to buy land/house together? Also what about down payments, is there a set % of the value of the house that needs to be put down?
Edit: Also I don’t have any credit cards, I’ve had a few different loans for car/4-wheeler/personal/student so credit has been established for 7+ years. Would it be in my best interest to get a credit card or two to help with getting approved for a mortgage?
No mandatory downpayment, just a lot of banks/mortgage brokers will charge you mortgage insurance until you have paid 20%. Not all though. I mortgaged 100% and do not pay a PMI. Closing costs will probably run around $5,000, give or take, but that includes the first year’s escrow. Escrow is kind of like a bank account that you pay to every month that somebody else manages that is used to pay your taxes and homeowners insurance at the end of the year. Your mortgage, PMI if you have it, taxes, and homeowners get rolled up into a single monthly payment.
Nobody can tell you if you should buy land and build or buy an already built house. It all depends on what you want.
www.buffaloniagarahomes.com Decent website to browse for places. Don’t forget to consider the school district you’re moving into if you think you will have kids in this house.
Oh yeah, while some people think that they are helpful, I would HIGHLY recommend against getting a “buyer’s” realtor. There is no such thing. All realtors work for the seller and make their commission based on how much the home sells for. It’s just another person in the loop with their hand in your pocket. Your attorney can handle everything that a buying realtor will claim to be able to do for you. The realtor selling the house can open it for you to look at and do everything you want a realtor to do. Since you’re not looking in Tonawanda I won’t bother PM’ing you the name of the realtor that I worked with, who I would recommend not using. She was a frustrating waste of space. As far as attorneys go, I had good experience last year with Harris Beach.
Find reasonably priced realty lawyer. Usually costs only $300-$500 range for everything.
Research bank mortgage rates, apply for pre-approval / qualification. See how much you can afford.
Research property sizes, footages, room counts, design, etc. Reseach a lot. Since this is your 1st, it isn’t going to have everything you want, but try to get as much as possible.
The lawyer will help you to draft an offer to the seller or realtor. If the offer is approved, then you should have the home/property inspected. (Another few hundo).
Back to the bank, apply for loan, get approved, lots of fun paperwork. /end.
closing costs will kill you…i closed on my house in august…downpayment + closing costs was close to 9.5k…a lawyer should be like 500…
def do a home inspection the guy I used was awesome if u want his info I will give it to you…and fuck a bank go right to a mortgage broker…my friends dad is one I can give u his info as well
This is not true. I remember the posts you made about what a gem your agent was. haha.
When a property is listed a commission rate is established. We will say it is 6%. If you choose to go into a deal on your own, the selling agent will get commission for both sides of the sale (3% to him/her ,3% to the company). So why not find any agent that you feel comfortable with to represent you. Either way someone is getting that money. Everything that you find on the internet or in print has been on the market for a couple days. If it is a good deal it is gone. You cannot find the as fast as we can. House hunting is a lot easier with an agent. So is presenting and negotiating an offer. Personally I could give a shit about sale price and work my ass of for my buyers. Why? because I want repeat customers. I also mainly work with investors, and do a TON of volume. I really like finding people exactly what they want and keeping them comfortable payment-wise. Its a good feeling.
Although, there are more than enough money hungry cut throat agents out there. :tdown:
If sonniemae or fanniemae do not fly I would go to your bank over a mortgage broker. Its a little more work, but in the end you pay less. Also Bank of America has a bunch of grants that area geared towards people in certain fields. I told one woman about it who was a vet tech (it was supposed to be for people in medical professions) and she ended up gettting $5000.
One piece of advice I have is figure out your personal finances first.
What I mean by that is your net worth, real assets vs. Debt (not “I think my car is worth”, real stuff). Figure out your monthly expenses, make sure they are low, like 20% of your monthly income. Things like that. This will give you a real indication of what you can afford, not just “your guess”.
The SONYMA rate with closing cost assistance is 6.25%, not 5.75% plus 1 point. So, tack on 1% of your mortgage amount on top of the closing costs.
I was pre approved last week at 6.25%, 5% down payment, 30 yr. fixed. In my case, SONYMA is the exact same rate plus a point. Also, I know I won’t be in a house for 10 yrs. and would get hit with the payback tax.
In general, SONYMA rates are best during the summer.
Bank >>> Broker. The broker just makes their money by going to a bank, getting 5.75 %, and upping it 1/2 a point or whatever to you. If you can’t get the SonyMa loan (which you should be able to, and which actually still will go through a normal bank I think), just call your bank or a local bank of your choice. They will setup an appt. for you with one of their mortgage gurus - and that person does basically the same job that a broker does, except he is paid directly by the bank and doesn’t need to bump up the interest rate.
I know many of the grants are dependent on your income too…
A rough idea that actually proved to be pretty accurate for me is to not mortgage more than double your annual income. I.E. if you make 50k per year don’t buy a house for more than 100k.
Yeah, my agent was a REAL piece of work, so I guess my attitude towards them is biased. A good one could be pretty helpful, but they still make more money if the house sells for more. But like you indicated, how much a couple hundred bucks would sway the average agent probably depends on the individual.
you’re going to pay points no matter who you go through
i ended up getting the 5.75… i had to put off getting a raise and a bonus until the end of the year so i didn’t go over the income limit
and no doubt, if you dont plan to stay in the place for 10 years then you will have to pay back a chuck of the grant. that can be i pisser.
step 1: figure out how much You can afford. AFFORD. Just because You can MAKE the payment does not mean that You can afford it.
There are a ton of financing options out there, talk to a few loan officers about their products to see what will best fit Your situation (5 yr occupancy? 40 yr occupancy? gonna die in that house?).
Once You have a strong idea about the financial terms… rate shop.
Ehh… cards can help & can hurt. You need to understand how it works before You start opening cards/accounts for the helluvit. http://www.myfico.com/ <- FairIssac is the model that >80% of the financial institutions use. Read up. A mere 20 pt swing in Your score (at the time of application) can mean as much as 1.4% interest rate change.
dont forget to include taxes.
i pay more for taxes than my mortgage.
i also found my place through friends…
bought it from a family who’s mother had passed.
no realtors at all for me
i went through sony mae, and through the combinations of massive withdrawls and deposits because of my wedding, i managed to disqualify myself from teh damn closing cost assistance.
get a good inspector and a fixer upper for your 1st place
neighbors payed 51k more than me for the same cokkie cutter house in better condition
