Anyone recently bought or built a house, where did you get the best mortgage deal and what advice would you give?

 

I just bought my first home about a month ago and all I can say is find a first time home buyers class. It saved me THOUSANDS of dollars. The class was free and about 20 hours long. It will set you in the right direction, it did me.

 

Well, I could write for hours on this, a couple of things:

Get your credit report and SCORE from all 3 credit bureaus:

experian
transunion
equifax

all have website that allow you to do such online, right away. Your score will play a big factor in what interest rate you get.


Get "Pre-APPROVED" not "Pre-QUALIFIED". Pre-approved means the bank is ready to go and give you $, it's like going shopping with "cash-in-hand".... Some places might have you get "pre-qualified" first, fine, but I only suggest serious house shopping with a "Pre-Approved" letter, from the lender, stating how much cash they will let you borrow.

Scrutinize the itemized HUD, I've been to about 5 closings in the last 3 years and almost every time, someone messed up somewhere. My biggest catch was an $800 fee that should not have been charged.

Go over, LINE BY LINE, EVERY entry on that HUD, and FULLY understand the amounts on every single line. Take your time, it takes time to go through it all, don't rush.

As for who did I use, well, get "Good Faith" estimates from a couple of brokers, and go with the one that works best for you. And when you do decided to go with a particular broker, make damn sure you see how close they get to the estimate. GO OVER ALL ENTRIES THAT HAVE CHANGED.

You might need mortgage insurance if you don't have enough $ to put down (typically you must have 20% equity to avoid PMI), IMO, it usually isn't a BIG deal, but it can be.



everyone's situation is a little different, but those are general guidelines that are usually the most important!

 

I offer some suggestions when it comes to "selling", from my recent unpleasant experience selling my house.

I don't know how much of this will be applicable in America, but if it is, you will be better off, and if not, no harm done.

If one day in the future you decide to sell your home and you want to protect yourself against the shady antics of a slippery buyer, you must remember to always leave yourself "outs"

If you are selling your property and want to leave yourself a way to cancel the deal (for whatever reason)
Include the following condition: "Based on the condition that seller finds suitable accommodations"

This safe-guard will ensure you have a way to cancel the deal if the buyer screws you around, or tries to deal with you unfairly.

Another tip is to make the offer to sell "non-assignable".
This means that the person buying your house is the one who actually must buy it, and they are not buying for someone else.

I just had someone pull a slippery move on me.
The person tried twice to buy my property, then sent his wife (with different surname to buy)
After the deal was done, the original guy requested that his name be added to the offer.
Because the offer to purchase was "assignable" by default, I had no choice in the matter.

Hot water tank rental :
Suppose you are the type of person who doesn't want to rent a hot water tank, in the offer to purchase, if the seller has a rental unit, make sure you stipulate in the offer that the rental must be removed prior to the deal closing.
This places the responsibility on the seller to have the tank returned to the rental company, and makes him responsible for any related "account closing fees"

This way once you take possession, you just hook up your own hot water tank, and you don't have to worry about dealing with the hassles of returning a rental unit.

Hope this helps