Home Buying

My wife and I just put an offer in on what might become our first house. I'm fully expecting a counter-offer, but I believe we can get this pretty good house for well within our budget.

Any tips on riding out the escrow process without growing additional gray hairs?

 

Not sure what its like in CA, but here it's definitely still a buyer's market. Our escrow process was smooth and we were able to get our first offer accepted without argument. Most sellers around here are desperate to move their property. We paid below asking and no closing costs. Just hang in there, it's worth it in the end. And get your signature writing hand in shape; you'll be signing a lot of pages. Oh! Middle name, too! It was so strange signing my middle name...compared to the rest of my signature, it looks like two different people signed it!

 

My signature looks like I'm signing while being hit with a TASER. Guess I'll have to work on that. It's still pretty much a buyer's market out here, too. We offered $20K below asking plus closing costs.

 

Buying your first house is always intimidating....... It's been 16 years since we bought ours (still living in it).

Be responsible about your financials. If you can swing it....pay extra towards principle every month (ask your bank about paying towards principle only - every bank is different and may require a separate transaction). You'll be glad you did....... and can pay it off much earlier than 30 years. We just paid our house off last summer.

The first year....Expect to put money towards the house in various repairs & upgrades. It's a given...

Good Luck!!! and be proud....

 

Be sure to get 20% down cause PMI adds up quick to over $1,300/yr. And just know most of the process is out of your hands and if it falls thru u get ur money back, so after signing the docs dont worry.

GL w/ Closing!

 

I second the not paying PMI. If you put enough down, but not 20%, you may also be able to buy the PMI out. That was the route we took since we only had like 14% down. It was like $5200, but if staying in the house more than 4 years(which we plan to, at 2 already) it is worth it. PMI for us would have been an extra $300+ a month. Not a deal breaker, but it's nice to have $300 extra dollars at the end of the month. I don't think all banks offer the option, but ask.

 

Good luck with closing. I didn't find the process all that bad, just a lot of waiting. I thought it was much easier /smoother than others made it out too be. Hardest part is seeing nice big numbers in your account one day, and small numbers the next

 

PMI does suck....however..... 20% is a lot of money and not a lot of first-time home owners have $20,000 just laying around.

The reason I say this is.... My husband and I didn't have anywhere near 20% down. At the time, that would've been $28,000 on a $140,000 house. We paid PMI insurance for years. We made extra payments towards principle and were able to have the PMI removed as soon as the Mortgage-to-value reached 20%. I think we saved more money in interest in paying off the house 14 years early..... than it would've taken us to save that money in a bank account while paying $600 rent each month. I'm glad we didn't wait.

 

The seller has not yet accepted or rejected our offer, but they called the agent and wanted a copy of our pre-approval letter (understandable), but they also want a copy of our credit report! This sounds fishy to me. We're already pre-approved and have put down the good faith money. They don't need to know anything about our financing, only that we have it!

 

You aren't prior military by chance are you? If you were and wanted to use VA loan you don't have to pay PMI at all.

 

No military background. Going FHA due to our lack of a down payment funding.

 

That's too bad. Hopefully FHA hooks you up.

 

Not sure why they would want a copy of your report...didn't happen with us, but we've only bought one house. The only one who needs to worry about your credit should be the bank I should think.

 

My line of thinking. I told the agent to refer them to our lender.

 

Bingo!

As an Seller, they have no right to have access to your credit score. In fact, they have no right to know anything about your financial situation.

You've got a lender....and they'll get their money in whole by the lender.

Don't forget - as you pay your monthly payments (and pay extra), keep track of your 'Mortgage to Value'. Once your home/paydown reaches 20% value of the loan - you can call the bank and tell them to remove the PMI. They will not remove it for you

 

A good lawyer will make life simple and smooth when buying a home.

 

And so the games begin. Counter offer came back $13k over our offer and supposedly there is a competing offer (we are the first offer in the 3 months it's been on the market and now magically there is another?). Fortunately for us, we don't *need* this house and if they don't unconditionally accept our final, we walk.