Help me please...want to stop renting....

[chesire17201]

O.K. this whole home buying process just confuses the h@ll out of me, I mean i don't have the slightest clue as how to go about it. Here's some of my questions and fell free to add more info if you want. 1. Where to even start? do i find the house we want first, do we use a realtor or just find one ourselves, do we get a pre-approval for a loan first, or just what is the very first step? 2. after the first step, then what, basically if anyone can tell me the typical process for home buying, that would be great. 3. Obviously i have never done this before, so i would assume i want to try for a first time buyer program, what are they and what should i look for in them, are there better programs than others for first time buyers? 4. Fiancee' has perfect credit, right around 775-780 fico, me well i am here so guess not, i have a couple medical collections and 2-3 charge offs on my reports, not bad seeing as how i started with about 25 collections etc on each report, this board has done wonders for me, thank you , anywho my PG fako for EQ is about 650, and my score that came with a TU report was 620(their in house score) EX, don't really know, and it is my worst report, what type of lender should i be looking for? a hometown bank, a national mort. co., or someone else......5. lastly, we don't have very much in savings to spare, maybe a $1,000 and we would like to buy within the next year or so, how much is typically needed so i can start to save some? can we get a loan for everything, i.e. the purchase price, costs, fees etc, so we don't need any cash? well i guess those are the major questions, please fell free to share your experiences as well......hopefully i can figure out how this works as we really want to stop paying rent and have a place to call our own.....

[paw67]

Well, I'll start with a couple of things and let others chime in along the way with other tips/suggestions.

First thing that I would do is get all necessary paperwork in order that your broker &/or loan officer will need. Some of those things include, last 2 months bank statements, at least 12 but preferrably 24 months of cancelled rent payment checks, W-2's, copies of the 2 or 3 most recent pay stubs. I'm sure there are a few things that I have forgotten but this will at least get you started.

After getting all necessary paperwork together, I would contact a mortgage broker. Going with a broker, in my opinion, is a better choice because they will have more options available to them then dealing with a specific loan officer at a specific bank. You may want to interview a couple until you find one that you are comfortable with. You could also ask family & friends who they used.

Once the broker gets the process started you will get your preapproval. When dealing with a real estate agent they will want to see a preapproval. Obviously you do not have to have this to see homes but there are some agents that don't want to work with you unless you already have the preapproval. Also makes it a bit easier in a tight market because you may be 1 step ahead of someone else looking at the same property.

Once you have the preapproval in hand, look, look & look some more. Take you time to find the right home for you. DH & I looked at several before we found "the one". There were alot that we liked and could have easily live in but, when we walked into the home we purchased, we just knew this was it.

Remember that patience is very important. There may be a few bumps in the road but everything will work out in the end. Keep in close contact with your broker & your real estate agent. If you have a good working relationship with them that will help should any issues arise.

Good luck & enjoy shopping for your new home!!!

paw67

[blueranger]

charles will get you an 80/20 loan

with no down... and you negioate

with the seller and get them to pay closing..

so it won't cost you any thing...

go now and find a house you like that

has a motivated seller... write

into the sales agreement that the

seller pays closing cost up to 7000

offer the seller full price for the house..

most sellers will do this...and you will

have a home this month..

[paw67]

Yes, you can contact Charles & he should be able to help you. We used Charles and were/are very happy. Some people are not comfortable working with someone that isn't local. If you are ok with that, definately get ahold of Charles. Have him get the preapproval started.

We started with a preapproval in October 2003 and found a home in December of 2003. It helped us to have the preapproval in hand to give to the realtor when we made the offer. It let the realtor & seller know that we were already preapproved for more than the selling price. Our realtor didn't "require" the preapproval but said that it makes it easier. It lets the seller know that you have already started the process & made it through the 1st round.

Charles was easy to deal with. He was honest & helpful and worked with us from the beginning. It may seem odd to some, to deal with someone that you have never met face to face. DH & I spoke with Charles on the phone & had read several of his posts on the board. We felt very comfortable with him even though we never physically met him. He was always honest and straight forward. He was willing to answer any questions that we had along the way. If I had it to do all over again, I would definately use Charles again. In fact, when it is time for us to refi we will see what he can do for us.

Good luck!!

paw67

[chesire17201]

i am seriously considering using charles, which bureau does he use? i just got rid of a couple baddies from TU & hopefully the other two as well as the CA has closed all accounts they had in my name and are supposed to be updating by the 15th of this month, i am just really waiting till my reports are as clean as possible till i apply as i don't want to get a rejection or get stuck with an int. rate of like 8-9%.........wonder if i sent him a copy of my reports once they were clean if he could use that for a "ballpark" as to what i may be able to get and such?

[paw67]

Charles will pull all 3 reports. Normally they will go with the middle score of the 3. That is not all that they look at though. They will look at each individual report to see what is there. If you have some "baddies" left you may not have to worry about them depending on the age & type of account they are. DH had several things still on his credit but we didn't have to take care of any of it because the lender didn't require it.

When we started, I contacted Charles and just asked that he pull all 3 of mine & DH's reports & tell us what we needed to do to get approved. I figured that we were close but since dh still had baddies I didn't know how far we were. To our surprise, he said he was able to get us approved as we were & at that point there were no conditions. The interest rate was a bit high, but we knew that it probably would be because of DH's credit. We took the preapproval and started looking at houses but continued to work on paying down cc's & disputing. By the time we found a home Charles had to repull credit and we had gotten dh's middle score up just over 20 points which lowered our interest rate by nearly 1/2 of a percent.

You may want to contact Charles & have him pull your reports to see what he can do at this point. Then when you are ready, you will have a basic idea of where you are & if you are able to get your reports cleaner then you will be better off.

Good luck!

paw67

[chesire17201]

well, i have about 25 days till my disputes are over and will know better then what i am looking at, plus just applied for a auto loan through local credit union and want to see what happens there, so hopefully in the next month or so i will have a better idea whats going on....