House time...

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1

It’s that time. Got my shit together and now it’s time to move on something so I can get this god damned $8k.

I will be chit-chatting with my realtor tomorrow, but I just have some intial questions. My cousin bought a house for ~$89k and recieved almost $30k in grants/bonus money etc from different organizations. I have no idea about her income, but I’d assume she makes less than $30k, and her boyfriend does remodeling, paid hourly so he’s probably making the same.

What are some things I may qualify for? What are some things that recent purchaser’s have qualified for? I don’t even know where to start/look. She got some assistance with down payment, etc etc.

Thanks in advance.

2

Is anyone familiar with any of these? I’ve only ever heard of HUD.

http://www.homebuyerfunds.com/funds_finder/FFNY_Results.asp

3

What you could qualify for will largely be based on your income. You are pretty baller so you might be SOL.

4

Meh, everything I’m finding disqualifies you if you make $150k+ single or $250K+ household.

I’m not there.

5

I did the sonyma first time home buyer thing a couple years ago. I got money for my closing costs. there was an income limit, and I can not sell the house for 10 years, or i will have to pay back the closing cost assistance money. I think I got $5k. The mortgage guy at M&T explained everything and went through all my options. His name was Joel Mahakian and he was at the downtown building.

6

:tup: thanks

7

Don’t go thru m&t, it took 10 months to close on my house with them. I was transferred to multiple people during the process, each of them saying the guy before screwed something up. Worst experience ever.

8

I know of the First Home Club but I was above the income cutoff. Its somewhere in the 50s. You deposit money into an account for 10 months and it gets matched 4 to 1.

9

Yeah, I can’t wait 10 months anyways.

10

I believe that’s just for the $8k credit. There are other programs, such as SONYMA, that have much lower income limits.

11

are we talking $30k?

or $75k?

12

The most common sonyma that Joe mentioned is high 50’s to mid 60’s for a single income. Somewhere in there.

And the stipulations on being in the house for 10 yrs minimum or having to repay some of the money sucks. That’s why I chose not to go through Sonyma when I purchased a few years ago. I knew i’d move within a few years.

Where are you looking to buy?

13

amherst/williamsville/snyder

14

Price range? There is a pretty cool looking house down the street for me that has been for sale since Summer/Fall.

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i would buy one if i had a downpayment ;
but getting that much money saved up at one time is tough ;p

17

Stop being so poor and just buy a house already.

I didn’t get anything towards my place except the 8k tax credit.

You can get a better rate on your loan though.

18

What I’ve ran into in my search for a home last he last month is that all of the houses that are out there are slim pickings. The $8k tax credit is making them go quick and it seems like everyone wants a <$150k house right now.

The dozens I’ve looked at and went to see were horrible. They were asking too much for a house that needed a lot of work.

I’m getting annoyed. I would love to get the $8k tax credit as well, but to have to settle on a P.O.S. house that is being over-priced, it almost starts to not seem worthwhile.

But, you may have better luck :tup:

As for any of those programs, I make over $50k/yr. and I wasn’t eligible for any of them. Only Sonyma and NACA were my choices and NACA takes too long for the limited time frame we have. Sonyma has the best interest rates, and some “deals” to help with cash and interest, but there is a lot of fine print. Make sure to read it.

19

I did a SONYMA loan with mine. You might make too much, the address to read up on it is nyhomes.com.

The SONYMA loan offers a real low interest rate, mine was 5.5& fixed, now they are under 5% I think. Also they offer a cash grant to pay for closing costs/downpayment.

The bank to go through is M&T bank. Only two banks in this area will do it, M&T and HSBC.

M&T Bank is great, you just need to be prepared to light a fire under their ass to get the loan pushed through, and be proactive about it. If you just expect them to do what they are supposed to do, it will sit on someones desk.

I got my house two years ago, so I got the interest free loan, not the free $8000 like you will get.

I got a grant for $5000 on top of this that was supposed to pay for closing costs. If your attorney is good like mine was, she spent like $4950 of that money. What they did was pay for everything… Attorney fee, title search, part of down payment, inspection, a year of homeowner insurance, and then they overloaded as much as they could into my escrow account.

So what happened a year later, when M&T reviewed my escrow, they cut me a check for $2000 for an overage.

The guy who did my loan is the manager of the loan department. He met with me, and did a really awesome job. He works downtown at the M&T. Basically they find ways to give you money, they gave me $200 to open a savings account with them. He told me to hold like 5 bucks in it, then close it in 90 days if you don’t want it.

They did a lot of other creative strategies so that I didn’t have to come out with money out of pocket. We did a 102% loan, and I ended up walking from the close with a check for about $1500 or so. I doubt they do this since the housing crisis hit.

I had the money to pay for close, but it was nice to have an extra 7500-9000 dollars in cash to upgrade the entire house, and put some in a nest egg for when something goes wrong.

The only thing I didn’t like was the inspector I chose, he had all the certifications, but he didn’t seem too sharp. He was paid $250 out of the grant money.

Adam, shoot me a PM if you want the name of the manager over at M&T, I’ll try to dig it up.

20

For the sake of god do not use M&T. I had THE WORST experiences with them EVER.