Can someone advise me on applying for a mortgage? Our scores from My Fico are 677 anf 680. We don't have a lot of money to put down. Woudl FHA be best? Should I apply online for better rates or go with a locak mortgage company? This will be our first house. please help. I found one we love this weekend. Help jody
If your looking for mortgage info, jump over to Mortgage Grapevine. It's for mortgage brokers but you can read a lot of good info there. http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/cgi-bin/grapevine/rendermain.pl?1034283847 I should start charging them for advertising... I must have posted this url a dozen times!
try emailing fla-tan who posts on this board. he is a mortage broker and has helped a lot of CN with mortgages.
hurlee With the scores that you are reporting, you should be able to qualify for up to 100% financing with a conventional mortgage. This will naturally also be dependant on several other factors. As fas as how to apply, I think that going with a mortgage broker {I may be a bit biased here...} is the best way. A mortgage broker should ask you many questions about what your long term gols are and what you are trying to accomplish in the short term as well. A loan for someone that is planning to be in their home for 10-20 or more years should be a different type of loan than for someone who only plans to be in their home for 3-5 years. I don't think that an online lender will be able to discern that information unless you know in advance what type of answers to provide without knowing the questions. Hope this helps. fla-tan
Greg There are to many variables to provide a straight yes or no answer. FHA loans have caps on them plus there are FHA fees that have to paid, in a conventional mortgage there are no fees and the cap on a conventional mortgage is generally much higher. Also FHA, to my knowledge, does not allow 100% financing and there are a few conventional programs that do. FHA requires PMI to be paid until the mortgage amount is 78% of the original purchase price and does not allow for appreciation when figuring the 78%; with a conventional mortgage you are allowed to figure appreciation in plus there are ways to avoid PMI completely. Do not get me wrong, there are circumstances where an FHA mortgage is much better than conventional. Just as there are circumstances where, if possible, it makes much more sense to go conventional. So Greg, you tell me, which do you think sounds better and which type of mortgage is probably better for the consumer. Oh and BTW, rates are at least comparable between conventional and FHA. fla-tan
The worst thing about PMI is that it is NOT tax deductable like interest payments. I look at PMI as just a way for mortgage lenders to make money without providing anything in return. If I can find a way to provide the same type of mortgage essentially without PMI then that is what I do. fla-tan
I don't get it, call me dumb. You carry insurance on your home right? What is the difference betwwen home owner's ins. and PMI?
Aha, I just read it again, it is insurance in case you default. O.K. I think I get it. But how does it cover them? in other words, if you default, what does the insurance pay them? I did a 'A' paper 70% refinance so thefore I do not have this right?
I try not to speak in generalities-- there is no point when the subject is present. I'm not so presumptuous as to think I can tell hurleee how to proceed based on the smattering of information they gave (That business about "caps," for instance-- hurleee, what's the asking price, and in what county and state is the property?). My guess is that you don't have the authority to make FHA loans, so you're pushing only what you can make. The typical down payment assistance programs like Nehemiah and AmeriDream make loans with no-cash-required-to-close possible. Is that true with the program you describe? What do you do with the people whose situation warrants FHA? Are the "conventional" loans you're talking about Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac qualified? Or, are they subprime? If they're Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac agency qualified, then what are the names of them? Those scores place that consumer in the lowest 35% of all consumers-- surely there must be some price to pay for that. Is it the rate? Is it the points? All that marginal jazz about appreciation means nothing to a person who can't even buy a house.
yow, what an unwarranted post!.....I think if you read fla-tan's past postings on this board you'll find he provides a great deal of info, always responds to questions posted directly to him, and isn't trolling for business. Definitely check out your county/city/state first time homebuyer programs....they also often offer closing cost/downpayment assistance programs. I know from going through this almost 2 years ago, that the nehimiah and ameridream programs often present a hurdle for teh seller to accept your bid...they don't understand them and are afraid of what they don't understand. This is especially difficult in an seller's market. I ended up with a great deal using Bank of America neighborhood advantage program and my county's closing cost/downpayment program - ended up paying only about 1500 out of pocket.
Also, FYI incase the Bank of America program interests you.....I had similar scores and there were no points, and no pmi, and the interest rates compared to other lenders who were requiring at least one point. One caveat - there are income caps - i.e. in DC metro area you can't make more than the 80% of the area wide median.
Greg As usual, you guess wrong. I am authorized and qualified to offer FHA loans. I choose not to in most situations as I believe there are better options in many cases. I won't bore you with all the reasons why. Also, since you don't seem to know, all conventional lenders conform to either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or both. The sub-prime lenders are called "non-conforming" because they do not conform to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac quidelines. Also, Neighborhood Gold is accepted by many of the conventional lenders and is not just for FHA. Greg I would suggest that you try to become a little more familiar with both the subject and your potential target before you try to troll for a fight. This is the second time that you have tried to take what I have written and make it sound other than what it was. I don't know what your agenda is but... fla-tan
thanks for all the input and information. We only ended up qulifying for 73,000. That's with an income of 38,000 last year. I thought that was kind of low. I dont understand how other people get such huge loans with similar incomes. My friend's husband made 41,000 last year and just built a house for 150,000. The mortgage company said there is a program for rural housing that would eliminate the down payment for us. I guess if I could refinance out van(payment now of 333. due to 18% interest) and pay off a 1200 student loan maybe we could borrow more? but I don't know how much more.. ugh. well, i'll keep looking, but most houses for that price are total dives. We just dont' have the time to fix one up. thanks again. jody
That does seem a little low. What kind of interest rate did they offer you on the 73,000. We just qualified for 98500 with about the same income. Our rate is 5.75. Our county paid 25,400 of our down payment and we came up with the rest to get into a house for 128,000. Our debts add up to about $200 per month. I'd keep shopping. We originally qulaified for 110,000, then it got up to 120,000 and finally we ended up with 130,000. That was just with the interest rates changing. Kim
Do these other types of programs wowrk for anyone with a prior bk? Or are we pretty limited to FHA or Hud? I guess I always just assumed you needed a large DP with a conventional. Newstdt PS> I have to admit I soak up all of flan tan's posts, they're very imforative and helpful. I think Greg's posts just ask for more specifics, it didn't sound as bad as to me as I guess to others.. .
