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They are trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle. Unfortunately sometimes, when you give them one piece it indicates the need for another. The underwriter wants it off her desk as much as anyone but the puzzle has to be complete.

Are you and your husband looking to build the house yourselves, act as a general contractor, or just hire a builder? Do you already own some land?

Yes there are implications. Your settlement attorney can probably help you figure out what all the issues are. Does the developer want to pay you for this easement? Is it something the local government may force, if you choose to say no? Would you have to pay a sewer bill if your hooked in? Why not just keep the septic? Where does the easement go? across the driveway? across your septic field? Do they need to remove any permanent landscaping features? trees, retaining wall, etc. How badly are they going to tear up your lawn and to whose specifications will it be repaired? How long has the realtor known about this? Will this limit your future use of the property? Or future sale? There are probably lots more issues to think about and it may be perfectly fine but you want to make sure you have all your bases covered. Or you may have grounds to get out of your contract. Don't just let this slide by.

Your Mom needs to determine how much she feels the house is worth to her. The closing costs are a seperate issue. If she had a million dollars lying around and could just pay cash, how much would she want to pay. Let's pretend thats $245,000. That's the value of the house. If she needs or wants help with closing costs (no more than 6% of the total sales price) then she needs to determine what those costs will be and how much she will need to have paid by the sellers. There is no sense negotiating for maximum seller help if you don't even need it. Lets pretend that she wants about the maximum or $15,000. She will the offer $260,000 with $15,000 in seller help (or assist). The seller still ends up with $245,000. That's what everyone feels the house is worth. Of course all these numbers change depending on her needs and what she feels the property is really worth. I would first try to get a firm idea of what the closing costs will be on a property in this price rangeand how much seller help your lender/program allows. Then determine what she needs for seller help. She will want to pay what she can on her own without leaving herself broke. Then decide what that house is really worth to her, not to the realtor or the sellers. Put the numbers together and tell the realtor to put in the offer. As a side note, getting the full 6% help on a deal can sometimes cause appraisal issues, especially where there are lots of comparable properties showing the value of a house like this is $145,000.

I have found that appraisers don't care about stuff piled everywhere or dirty dishes and the like. They've seen so many houses where people are moving, it just doesn't phase them. On the other hand, walls being torn out could be a problem. Probably not in this case as you're getting money for home improvements, but one of the things an appraiser is doing is determining the salability of the house should the lender suddenly find themselves owning it. Half done projects are not popular.

The best way to do it is the way that is most comfortable and most likely to happen. The difference between the two different ways negligible. Pay the extra when you get it, if your IRA is fully funded and you have money set aside for family emergencies.

I would suggest you take a pack of post-it notes with you. Stick them on whatever the problem is (walls, faucets, etc.) so the guys that come back to fix stuff can see exactly what and where the issue is. The ones that do the work aren't usually there for the walk thru. From my experience, this allows them to get to a lot more stuff, right down to minute detail. I've seen houses that looked like a post-it note blizzard came through.

The equity in your home is the amount its worth more than what you owe. What its worth can be determined many different ways but it would be fair to say that you have $5,000 in equity.

Back in the day people used to get a thirty year mortgage and pay every month for thirty years until it was paid off. This typically matched their working years and the goal was to not have a mortgage when you were ready to retire. Once it was paid you would have family and friends over to burn a copy of the mortgage and have a party. Today people move up, down, sideways and to other parts of the country. The average mortgage is now held for 5 or 6 years so 30 years is really just an arbitrary number. Realtors, builders, lenders, etc. all make up a big part of the machine that keeps our economy going so that machine needs to be fed and kept growing. A major part of that is ever expanding housing prices and keeping people moving. Many people today just won't tolerate a house that years ago was perfectly acceptable for raising a family in. I can't believe I used to get by with one of those little closets. 2' x 6'? I have a huge walk-in now and it's not enough. So now we have a need to put people in 300, 400 , or 500 thousand dollar houses and make them affordable. Just make a new arbitrary number for the amortisation and keep the machine going. 40 years, 45 years, and coming soon 50 year mortgages. It doesn't matter if it gets refinanced in a few years anyway. By the way Europeans are freaking out about people being able to get 20 and 30 year mortgages now.

You are paying for a home. For yourself or for your landlord.

Since we're now not closing in 2-3 days, bag this guy and get with another company. Don't mess around though! Come back here with your Good Faith make sure everything is kosher.

"I have a broker that has been very good with responding and moving quickly on processing my loan." "I accepted of course b/c I'm ready to get it all over with we're so close to closing" This is why unscrupulous brokers get greedy. I know you've been through it with a couple of different brokers and you may end up going with this just to get it done, but I would make some noise and watch him like a hawk on all the figures.

ING is very picky. There's nothing wrong with that, they are building a portfolio of super clean loans. You just happened to pick one of the few lenders who don't want to deal with this. Almost any of the big lenders, her bank, any broker and who knows who else, will be happy to do this loan. Just shop around a little and post a couple of your best looking "Good Faith Estimates" (you need this from each lender) and we'll be happy to help.

They probably can't read anyway. I've made up incredible stories of aliens, the CIA, and wild sex parties, and no one bats an eyelash. Just put the truth and you'll be fine.

"ish" is never a financial term. The rates on the 1st option are too high. The rates on the second option don't mean anything until you find out the rate on the second mortgage. How much do you have saved up? How much of this can you comfortably use for a down payment and closing costs? Remember, you don't want to be broke at the end of this. What are your credit scores? What are your debts? Did either of those offers come with a Good Faith Estimate? Jebidiah's rates seem more in line if he's paying some points (although 5.99 with no points ain't happening) You still have questions to ask and answer before you're ready to buy. Don't rush! Patience pays money.