My House Buying Experience!

[jetscarbie]

I am a newbie at house hunting and I was so lost on what to do to buy a house. I had no idea the work and problems that would come from my adventure. I thought I would share what I have learned.

My DH plays golf a lot. He seen this beautiful house and told me to check on the price. I did. They wanted $149,000. DH wanted me to see how you go about buying a house. I checked and read a lot of sites. I was still confused. I decided to try a broker b/c that seemed to be what most say to do when you just don't know.

I asked around and found one in my area. I emailed her and it wasn't long before she called back (this was all about 1 week before the big fallout with mortgages) She basically made me feel real good about our chances. She talked really fast and it was hard to keep up but she was very patience with me. The note and rates were terrible. She said she would mail me some papers and to fill them out and return ASAP, but in the meantime, I could go ahead and look at the golf course house. Lol

I called the agent listed…boy did she treat me kind of terrible when she found out who was brokering my deal. I met her at the house and we looked. I liked the house. Then the lady told me that the broker I was going through was NOT GOOD! She said that deals always fall out on that company. She said she knew a guy I should talk to that was really good.

By this point, I was already aggravated at the whole thing. I did call the guy she recommended and I did really like him. I don't feel like he gave me any BS when talking to me about DH's debts and what could happen. DH's scores were in the mid 600's except Exp which is high 500s. He has 8 collections all medical except an Oxford account (Cingular) All his medical equal to about 1800. He makes decent money, full docs, 17000 in 401k, and worked at his job (2 jobs) for over 11 years. We have rented the same house for 9 years (his company pays rent) so none of them are late. Our truck note was late once last year in May.

We found out DH was in the military so the broker said he would do VA.

In the meantime, the lady broker sent me a lot of papers. WOW did those scare me.

Even with me and DH not being house smart….we could see a bad thing from a mile away.

The finance rate was 13.083%

Finance charge was 431,339.11

Amount Financed 142,469.46

Total Payments 573,808.57

Not counting how the GFE was set up. That was one scary site for us. I did call and inform her that we were working with someone else. She called me back not 10 minutes later and said she found someone that would do it for 7% something interest but we still needed to sign those papers she sent. DH said he wasn't signing those papers even if they don't mean anything.

[jetscarbie]

Well, anyway we put in an offer on the golf course house using the guy broker. Guess what our broker found out? It was a manufactured home from 1972. It didn't look like one. VA or FHA would not do it. We would have to gone to a bank that doesn't sell their loans on the secondary market. DH decided he didn't want it b/c if the sellers were going to have trouble selling it….what would that mean for us later on if we tried? Our realtor tried like crazy to get us that house….she even had banks calling us offering to finance it for us. NO THANKS. Plus the banks wanted a lot of money down and they would only do the loan for 20 years.

We were so irritated at this point but decided to house look one more time. We decided to stick with the same ditzy realtor (she really is nice though) since her and my broker have worked together before. She says he has never not closed on a loan with her.

OMG….we found the prefect house. Just what we were looking for. It's only 1/2 mile up the road from where we live now. Prefect. We offered and it was accepted. We did the home inspection…prefect. The only thing was we needed to replace the shower head and have the heating unit serviced.

We had to wait on DH's Form 22 from Army. Oh no….we hit a snag. Hubby did not serve enough active duty time in the national guards. I still sent off of the certificate of elibigablty (the broker could not get his records online…he tried) I called VA and they said that he probably would not be approved for the loan even though he served 7 1/2 years….part in National guard and other in IRR. He does have an honorable discharge. I was giving a address to send his records to get updated b/c of the incorrect stuff listed. That would take to long.

Broker decided to switch to FHA….oh no! That don't loan that much money for the house we want.

So now broker says that we could get a non-confirming loan. So they redid the contract with the seller. Now I am waiting for the final approval which broker said there is no reason that we shouldn't get it. He did say we might have to pay off 2 truck notes and the Oxford account. He got it approved through the computer thingy…..but he sent off the stuff to the underwriters to get final approval. He should have known yesterday or later today. We are suppose to close in 1 1/2 weeks.

In between all of this…the other broker is still calling. Still offering me lower interest.

If this deal falls through….we are gonna wait until spring to look again. Don't feel like going through all the emotional drain anymore.

I did tell DH wouldn't it be funny if we get this loan, right after he signs the paperwork….the VA finally sends his approval. haha

[Quietman]

Love to hear to hear your story, thank you for sharing! I'm just starting my house hunting experience as well (not 1st one, but I'm very excited all the same!)

I had to chuckle at your comment (being a military vet myself):

"...we found out that DH was in the military."

All I could think was your DH concluding.."Oh! I always wondered why they forced me to cut my hair, shine boots, get up at the B-crack of dawn, wear uniform, charge machine gun nests, etc for those four years! I often wondered about that!"

Keep up the good work, and don't give up!

Quietman

[Slow Eddie]

Thats why you need to get preapproved before you go house hunting. And not prequalified, but preapproved. There is a difference. Prequalified is when you fill out a few forms and the broker gives you an estimate of what you "might" qualify for. Preapproved means the bank is on board and ready to give you the cash.

This way you don't waste anyones time (including your own) when you put in an offer on a home, they accept, then you can't come up with the financing.

Preapproval gives you more bargaining leverage as well. The seller knows your paper is good, and that you're dead serious about buying their home. They will take you more seriously than someone who doesn't yet have financing set up.

Eddie

[jetscarbie]

we found out that DH was in the military."

haha. I fingers work faster than my brain when typing.

We didn't think he could get a VA loan with National Guards.

Thats why you need to get preapproved before you go house hunting

We had preapproval pending VA's certificate of eligibility. When that didn't work b/c of the hang up at the VA office and waiting on retirement points from national guards, we decided to try a different loan so we wouldn't be waiting on the goverment.

My landlord found out the other day that we are trying to buy a house. I had to call her to see if she would write us a rent reciept for verfication of rent paid. She wanted the brokers number so she could find out exactly what he needed from her. I made a mistake. My landlord called the broker and basically went crazy. My broker said she was just fishing for information which he didn't give her any.

So nice old people that we have rented from for the last 8years went crazy on us and turned into impossible people to deal with. I must look up rental laws for Ohio now b/c I feel a serious problem coming on.

We have prefect rental history with these people. We signed a lease 8 yrs ago in October. The lease renews itself every year. They left no wiggle room in the lease at all to get out. .

[Slow Eddie]

We had preapproval pending VA's certificate of eligibility.

No, you were prequalified pending preapproval pending VA's certificate of eligibility. Just kidding.

Sorry to hear about your landlords. Its amazing how quickly they can turn on you. We rented a 2 bedroom condo for years and were never late on any payments. We had another child and decided it was time to look into a 3 bedroom place. Well, when the landlord found out all of the sudden things changed. The grass was too high, too many toys on walking surfaces, etc. Then one day there was a knock on the door and it was the property manager. They gave us 60 days to move out so that they can sell the place. But screw them, we were gone in 3 weeks, into our new 3 bedroom place.

I went by there not too long ago. Its still vacant 6 months later. I hope it was worth it to them. Jerks.

Eddie

[PolarBearnCO]

We found out DH was in the military so the broker said he would do VA.

You were previously unaware that your husband was in the military? Hmm, you should probably buy some communication devices or we'll be seeing you on Springer next season.