My home buying journey....It's finally time

[futurehomeowner?]

can anyone answer a question about buying down the rate. I asked my loan officer if it was possible that way we could get pre approved for a higher amount and he said no. We are pre approved for FHA so I didn't know if that was only something that you could do on conventional or if there was another reason.

[futurehomeowner?]

bump for the question above and also a new one.

 

LO told me that with FHA the seller can give 6% towards closing and on conventional 3%. If we look at a bank owned property will the bank ever give you the closing costs credit? I was unsure if they are willing to fork out money or if they will never do it.

 

Also if we look at a REO for-closure that says as is with no warranty or repairs does that mean if we are approved for FHA we probably won't be able to get it unless it is in perfect condition?

[RBinAK]

FHO I'm in the final stages of my FHA purchase and ran into a few of the above issues on other properties I looked at. The banks we talked to were not going to put any money into a property to get it up to standards for an assisted buyer (someone using a program like FHA). But as is could also mean there are only cosmetic issues. If you are using a Realtor they should be able to give you a thumbs up or down on if you should consider even having the place inspected.

I had foreclosure that had "water damage" info provided by a neighbor who happen to be pulling in when I arrived, which is a huge red flag. Realtor said why not walk through it anyways and when we got inside there was no major problems visible. It was 20k under value for the area and $400 for an inspection might make it a good deal even if I need to replace some sheetrock. Realtor asked if I wanted to have someone inspect the place and I was intending to after considering it over lunch but the property I am finishing up on just listed while I was eating. The moral is I could have paid the $400 for the inspection and got enough info to see if I could get financed as is. It would cost me the inspection fee. Best case scenario the inspector would have said it's cosmetic and I earn 15k equity right off the bat after spending 5k to get it nice. With your question about closing assistance, is $5k something you can afford after all the other costs of moving in? Or are you better off with a walk in and live situation.

 

As for the closing costs assistance, if the property is worth more you could do what I did and tack on $5,000 on top of the price you want to pay and then ask for $5,000 in closing costs assistance.

[futurehomeowner?]

well we have made it absolutely no where in our house search. I worked so hard to get our credit cleaned and now we are at a standstill. We are basically trying to find a house in a specific area for way under market value. It may never happen but I have not been able to get my wife to budge on school districts.

[futurehomeowner?]

I had a new mortgage pull done today now that all 3 of my reports are clean. I now have a mid score of 758. I was able to get a conventional pre approval. We are looking at a possible house in the morning.

[FreeaAndClear]

I wish you luck!

[futurehomeowner?]

We just met with our RE at 11pm to sign papers for our offer. Of course timing is bad because she is leaving for vacation in a few hours. Luckily with everything electronic it won't be a problem but she did want to get the offer taken care of before she left instead of someone else in the office.

 

The house is assessed for taxes at 150k and we offered 70k because it needs a bunch of work but nothing major. The appraisal will be interesting. I guess we have entered the 6 week stress out period.

[futurehomeowner?]

Had to fire my RE today.

 

So last Sunday we put the offer in on the house. The offer was listed as having 2 days to respond. On tuesday night I sent her a text asking if she has heard anything. I get no response. Before bed I sent her an email asking the same thing. Wednesday I hear nothing. Thursday afternoon I send another email, text, and left a voicemail and again no response. My loan officer called meThursday night to ask if I need anything from him and to see how the offer went. I told him, if she ever responds to me I would be glad to give him an update. He calls me Friday afternoon and said that he just talked to her. She informed him that the people rejected the offer because of the loan program. They don't think it will pass appraisal so they want me to keep the price the same but do a 203k. I was so pissed that he was the one telling me.

 

This morning I get a text from my RE asking what we have decided to do with the house.

FYI, for the last 6 months almost all of our communication has been through email and text. She has always responded to me within 2 hours.

 

I sent her a short email saying her handling of this house left a lot to be desired and we no longer have use for your services.

[futurehomeowner?]

We finally found a house that just may work. It has been on the market for 9 months. It started at 124k, then dropped to 105, 99, and now 89. We offered 83500 at 11am. They countered us at 2pm with 88k. We are debating on what to do at this point. Either accept at 88 or make another counter at 86. If anyone reads this, what do you think?

[bkchild78]

I don't think I read which state you were in. When I was in the industry if we offer the full price we ask for closing costs. I don't see anything wrong with offering 86K, BUT if you really want it I would accept the 88K and move forward. 2K is not going to make that big of a difference in your payment. Never know who will come in and offer the full price or more & snatch it from you. Best of luck!

Edited September 11, 2014 by bkchild78

[Positivemotion]

I don't think I read which state you were in. When I was in the industry if we offer the full price we ask for closing costs. I don't see anything wrong with offering 86K, BUT if you really want it I would accept the 88K and move forward. 2K is not going to make that big of a difference in your payment. Never know who will come in and offer the full price or more & snatch it from you. Best of luck!

+1

[futurehomeowner?]

I don't think I read which state you were in. When I was in the industry if we offer the full price we ask for closing costs. I don't see anything wrong with offering 86K, BUT if you really want it I would accept the 88K and move forward. 2K is not going to make that big of a difference in your payment. Never know who will come in and offer the full price or more & snatch it from you. Best of luck!

 

We ended up offering 86k plus 3% towards closing. It was accepted quickly and we are now on to the next steps.

 

We made the offer mid morning and went back and forth a few times by 3pm.

 

We are excited to finally have a place, now on to the stressful next steps.

[futurehomeowner?]

We had our inspection/radon/pest done on Saturday. The inspection turned out pretty well for a 90 year old house. The house has 3 year old furnace, AC, and hot water tank. There were some minor issues but nothing to bad. However, it came back with an 8.6 radon level. Anything over a 4 is bad. The seller agreed to install a radon mitigation system at a cost of $1800.

 

Also today we received the conditions from the underwriter. Basically I need to submit a new bank statement and get the dispute removed from 1 line on my credit file. I did 1 better and had the entire trade line removed ;-). All 3 reports are now 100% clean. One small problem that we had was my wife is the only name on the savings account but she is not on the loan. She is on the deed though, so I don't understand why that is an issue. She has to sign some papers saying that she is gifting me the money for the home. The problem with that is, that was the entire amount of the closing costs that we are using and I have to have $1000 of my own money for the loan. I am hoping that I can just say my paycheck for next week is the 1k needed.

[futurehomeowner?]

well as written about in my other thread, the dispute notation on my report turned out to be a real pain in the flowers. It is gone now so that is the important thing but I really should have taken care of that prior to the pull since I knew it would be an issue.

 

The seller also agreed to place the Radon system in the house at her cost. To be honest I am not real thrilled about living in a house with a radon issue but I have talked to a lot of people who have had the same issue and people tell me what as long as it is fixed there is nothing to worry about.

 

We also got our appraisal back this week. It appraised for the exact penny that we are buying the house for which is weird. I don't know if that is common but I really thought it would appraise for more. Our buying price is 83600 and that is what the appraisal said. At first I thought maybe they limited the appraisal to the buying price since that is really all that matters but I am not sure. Although in a way it is good because now we can appeal our taxes since the taxes are based on $110,000 which will save us $35 a month in payment.

 

Our closing is still scheduled for 10/27 but if we can get the clear to close and the title stuff done earlier I am going to try to get it pused up as early as possible. I still worry that something bad will happen with my credit in the next 4 weeks since I did start the process out with a lot of demons.

Edited September 25, 2014 by futurehomeowner?

[IAmOnMyWay]

I wonder about the appraisal, how muxh are similar houses selling for in that community?

[futurehomeowner?]

I wonder about the appraisal, how muxh are similar houses selling for in that community?

the area that the house is in is an upper scale area (for our city anyways). The median house price is 158k and it is in a top 5 rated school district in the state. The comps that were used in the appraisal were from 95k-110k. Our house has a horrible driveway and not much of a yard so I am sure that plays a part as well, but the interior of the house is 100% remodeled.

[futurehomeowner?]

I went into this knowing that it can be very stressful. I told myself I would not stress over things since I was aware of the process.

 

HOWEVER, here I am starting to stress over the process. I fixed my credit so I knew credit would not be an issue but they just keep coming up with things. I work in the insurance industry and we all swear that insurance companies fire employees if they don't deny a certain amount of claims. We get denials for ludicrous reasons every day. Well, I think the mortgage insudtry is the same way. The newest problem is that I had a variation of my social on 1 of the 3 credit reports. I had noticed it before, but it was just 2 numbers switched around. I never thought to deal with it but the PHFA didn't like it. BTW, PHFA is a PA state program where you pay no PMI but you pay a higher interest rate instead. You also only need 3% down. The banks underwriter has me approved but they need final approval from the PHFA. It works kinda like FDA program. Anyways, so I fixed the issue which meant that they had to re run my credit for a 4th time in 30 days.

 

So I am waiting for the approval and my UW emails me and says that they need my wife to complete a tax transcript request. She is not on the loan so she didn't sign the original one. Whenever they received the transcript she would have been on it since we filed jointly. However, since she didn't sign the form they need it signed.

 

We fixed that issue and yesterday I was anxiously awaiting the final approval. I get another email from my UW and she says they are having an issue with the bank accounts. We did not include my wife on the mortgage because her credit isn't perfect, plus she has student loans in IBR and this program gives you a hard time with those since it is not a long term payment. We have been saving for our downpayment for the last few years and in May we transferred all of the money from our checking account into our savings account. Whenever we found a house we transferred it back into the checking account. The problem is, my name is not on the savings account. Now they are saying that that money is a loan. That is not a problem, EXCEPT I have to personally invest $1000 into the closing. They are having a hard time distinguising if I have the 1k needed. I explained it is not that hard. bank account shows $9500, I transferred $9100 so I have $400, but I also paid $2000 for the hand money. Obviously 2k+400=$2400 of my money. I guess math is not a strong suit for bank people. The PHFA lady said that she would have her boss review it to see if she would accept that. OK great, do that... of wait, she is on vacation until the 13th and the only one that can over ride it.

 

This morning my RE called and said that she has the closing date and time set up as the 20th. Now we are going to be pusing it super close because the home owners people told me that they can not set up the policy until I get some kind of paperwork from the UWs and it takes they 7 days to get the policy effective.

 

UGGGGGG, thanks for letting me ven.

[futurehomeowner?]

YAY just got the clear to close. All that worrying for nothing.

 

Now we have to wait 2 weeks for closing. Gonna be a long 2 weeks.

[Krish]

Congrats and good luck.

[DaniellaM]

Congratulations!!!

[futurehomeowner?]

these 3 days have felt like a month. The next 13 days are going to be excruciating. I wish I could just go to sleep and wake up on the 20th.

[futurehomeowner?]

wholly crap, this is horrible. Last night I was dreaming about new house all night. Today my wife won't stop talking about it. We got the closing scheduled for 10/20 12pm. 331 hours to go.

I think that I am so anxious because my pessimist in me is waiting for something bad to happen and screw it all up.

[graymidday]

Feels like the night before Christmas waiting doesn't it?!? Congratulations to you and your wife

[futurehomeowner?]

Feels like the night before Christmas waiting doesn't it?!? Congratulations to you and your wife

thank you very much, it was a tough process but I couldn't have done it without this website.

 

I am sitting here watching TV not thinking about the house finally. UNTIL my phone beeps with a new email. Of course it is my RE sending me stuff. Just got the local occupancy permit and dye test done today so she sent me the results. Now I am thinking about the house again.

[futurehomeowner?]

246 hours to go!!!!!