Buying your first home in US. Headache or super fun time?

[Fandango 1,439]

Sorry but when you get sc##ewd by "profesionals" no wonder you don't know jack. No wonder you get confused. It's a very frustrating process, and with our experience i don't believe or trust anything i hear.

We showed them our bank account, we showed them that if we wanted to we could put 50%, but i guess the mortgage insurance doesn't care how much money you have..it's probably standard to charge you for it anyway.

We started the loan process in feb 18, the underwritter took 5 weeks, and the week before we were suposed to close we are told usda takes at least a month to aprove. I'm just saying ...i know our mrtg people haven't worked with usda, but when you know you have a time line should't they have checked to see how long does it usually take these days to get aproved by the gov?

We already asked for an extension-and we got it, now we will have to ask for another extension for at least another 30 days?? Our lease expires this month, and hopefully they will let us stay another month.

If we loose this house, maybe it's a sign that we should stay here until we save the rest of the money and then buy the home cash...

I can't really comment on why the underwriter took 5 weeks...it certainly does sound ridiculous. I don't understand it, but I'm assuming they had a really good reason for it? I dunno.

I don't like to talk badly of people when I don't know the situation, but this along with your lender saying he 'doesn't know much' about that kind of loan is very concerning.

Did you tell your lender you were able to put down 50%? I am scratching my head as to why, with that knowledge, he wouldn't put you in a conventional or FHA loan where you could avoid PMI and avoid the loan guarantee fee altogether.

Edited May 6, 2011 by Anita Cocktail

[Krikit 1,163]

As to not getting a survey, no offense Krikit, but that is penny wise and dollar foolish advice. You're committing to almost $200k, and the smartest thing would be to shell out the poxy $250 to make sure there are no encroachments since the last survey. Stranger things have happened, and if there was something really wrong, losing $250 is a lot better than losing $200k.

No offense taken, Lisa. I always get the survey, myself, also. Just making her aware that some costs can be deferred since it sounded like she was literally counting pennies..... but I would only do that if it was clearly not an issue with the property.

[silvana.toma 15]

To tell you the truth pinching pennies helped us save a lot of money...

[Fandango 1,439]

To tell you the truth pinching pennies helped us save a lot of money...

Generally speaking, I'd agree. In buying a home? Forgoing inspections or surveys is a terrible idea. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

[Kimbear 53]

Hey Silvana! Any updates on if you closed yet on your house? I hope you did and you will be moving soon!! We are still waiting on our. We were told today that the negotiator for underwriting has the package. I hope it goes fast now. We have just one more month left in this apartment then we live with family til we get the house.

[silvana.toma 15]

Ok...SO we finally closed on the home last friday. We are very excited to start our new life in this house even if we haven't moved yet, we would like to paint first, since we already payd our rent this month might as well use it, right?

Our short sale took 3 months, so i am very pleased even if there were many things that didn't go the way they should have been, but looking at the big picture it's worth it!

The house needs a lot of paint as we have purple and hot pink and all sorts of interesting colors in it, but unfortunately hiring people to paint is very expensive and i wish we could do it, but this house has high ceilings, and a lot of crown molding and i am afraid it will look bad if we do it ourselves since we have never done this before...

Yesterday we got a phone call from a guy who was standing in front of our house aparently to give us a deck estimate(????)..we were 30 min away when he called, so we had to turn around and go back to the house as we didn't know what is going on.

SOO..this guy came to give us a estimate on a deck(but we never called anyone for a deck)so my hubby asked him if they do windows(at least we did not turn around for nothing) as we also need to replace windows so he started his almost 2 hrs pitch for a super expensive window..me and my husband we kept on interupting him and teling him we are in a hurry and not looking to replace the 2 windows in the house with something very expensive as it makes no sense especially because all the other windows in the house are not high quality windows...but he kept going on and on..it was almost like a time share presentation..it was horrible! 2 hours of my life i will never get back! He was a good sales person but he just didn't know when to stop, i almost felt like telling him to get out...The 2 windows by the way were 2k!!

Ok...so i am not sure what happened here, someone must have gave our information away, because we never called anyone for a deck, and the only people who were supose to come to the house are lowe's. This is very shady thing to do, pretend we called and set an appintment and then try to sell me a window for 2 hours...

Anyway...we did got the house, and hopefully we will live in it till we are very very old. our realtor told us if we pay twice a month on our mortgage(half and half) that will reduce our 30 years to 23 years. Is that true?

Owning a home is expensive but renting is not a soultion either, with more and more people renting- rent prices went up, and what you do is basically are throwing money out the window. Our rent got 810/month for one bdr apartment, so i am happy we got the house.

All in all it buying a home is a pain, looking for homes was the most fun, but everything else was just not fun at all. I'm sure every experience is different, some people are lucky and they get the best realtor, and that is also improving your buying experience.

I wish you all that are still looking for a home or thinking about buying a home good luck, and keep your eyes open at all times! Happy shopping!

Edited June 1, 2011 by silvana.toma

[gelato 1]

Ok...SO we finally closed on the home last friday. We are very excited to start our new life in this house even if we haven't moved yet, we would like to paint first, since we already payd our rent this month might as well use it, right?

Our short sale took 3 months, so i am very pleased even if there were many things that didn't go the way they should have been, but looking at the big picture it's worth it!

The house needs a lot of paint as we have purple and hot pink and all sorts of interesting colors in it, but unfortunately hiring people to paint is very expensive and i wish we could do it, but this house has high ceilings, and a lot of crown molding and i am afraid it will look bad if we do it ourselves since we have never done this before...

Yesterday we got a phone call from a guy who was standing in front of our house aparently to give us a deck estimate(????)..we were 30 min away when he called, so we had to turn around and go back to the house as we didn't know what is going on.

SOO..this guy came to give us a estimate on a deck(but we never called anyone for a deck)so my hubby asked him if they do windows(at least we did not turn around for nothing) as we also need to replace windows so he started his almost 2 hrs pitch for a super expensive window..me and my husband we kept on interupting him and teling him we are in a hurry and not looking to replace the 2 windows in the house with something very expensive as it makes no sense especially because all the other windows in the house are not high quality windows...but he kept going on and on..it was almost like a time share presentation..it was horrible! 2 hours of my life i will never get back! He was a good sales person but he just didn't know when to stop, i almost felt like telling him to get out...The 2 windows by the way were 2k!!

Ok...so i am not sure what happened here, someone must have gave our information away, because we never called anyone for a deck, and the only people who were supose to come to the house are lowe's. This is very shady thing to do, pretend we called and set an appintment and then try to sell me a window for 2 hours...

Anyway...we did got the house, and hopefully we will live in it till we are very very old. our realtor told us if we pay twice a month on our mortgage(half and half) that will reduce our 30 years to 23 years. Is that true?

Owning a home is expensive but renting is not a soultion either, with more and more people renting- rent prices went up, and what you do is basically are throwing money out the window. Our rent got 810/month for one bdr apartment, so i am happy we got the house.

All in all it buying a home is a pain, looking for homes was the most fun, but everything else was just not fun at all. I'm sure every experience is different, some people are lucky and they get the best realtor, and that is also improving your buying experience.

I wish you all that are still looking for a home or thinking about buying a home good luck, and keep your eyes open at all times! Happy shopping!

COngratulations! Owning property is a great feeling. I have a beautiful apt back home in India. Would love to own a house here, in America.

[Robert&Liliya 31]

Anyway...we did got the house, and hopefully we will live in it till we are very very old. our realtor told us if we pay twice a month on our mortgage(half and half) that will reduce our 30 years to 23 years. Is that true?

This is true (about 23 years) as you end up making 1 extra payment a year that goes directly to principal. 52 weeks divided by 2 is 26 half payments so that equals out to 1 full extra payment off of your principal. Some people try to charge you to set this up but you can do it with your mortgage company on your own for no charge. Also make sure they know not to add the extra amount to your escrow and to apply it directly to the principal.

Here is a nice Amortization calculator that is fun to play with. You can also see the TRUE cost of your house which is close to 3 times what you will buy it for if you pay over 30 years depending on interest.

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/mortgages/amortization-calculator.aspx?ec_id=m1082524

[Kimbear 53]

This is true (about 23 years) as you end up making 1 extra payment a year that goes directly to principal. 52 weeks divided by 2 is 26 half payments so that equals out to 1 full extra payment off of your principal. Some people try to charge you to set this up but you can do it with your mortgage company on your own for no charge. Also make sure they know not to add the extra amount to your escrow and to apply it directly to the principal.

Here is a nice Amortization calculator that is fun to play with. You can also see the TRUE cost of your house which is close to 3 times what you will buy it for if you pay over 30 years depending on interest.

http://www.bankrate....?ec_id=m1082524

Agreed this is very true. With my house in Canada i did this, paid every two weeks instead of once a month. i think it was total 50$ more a month overall but at the end of the year oh my lord did you see it add up, after 5 years we had already knocked thousands of $$$ off the interest and saved so many years off the mortgage.

If you can make these bi-weekly payments go for it! And i was shocked to see so many places actually charge to set this up!! Apparently its not something done very often here, probably since they don't inform anyone of the savings you make!

[Kimbear 53]

Ok...SO we finally closed on the home last friday. We are very excited to start our new life in this house even if we haven't moved yet, we would like to paint first, since we already payd our rent this month might as well use it, right?

Our short sale took 3 months, so i am very pleased even if there were many things that didn't go the way they should have been, but looking at the big picture it's worth it!

The house needs a lot of paint as we have purple and hot pink and all sorts of interesting colors in it, but unfortunately hiring people to paint is very expensive and i wish we could do it, but this house has high ceilings, and a lot of crown molding and i am afraid it will look bad if we do it ourselves since we have never done this before...

Yesterday we got a phone call from a guy who was standing in front of our house aparently to give us a deck estimate(????)..we were 30 min away when he called, so we had to turn around and go back to the house as we didn't know what is going on.

SOO..this guy came to give us a estimate on a deck(but we never called anyone for a deck)so my hubby asked him if they do windows(at least we did not turn around for nothing) as we also need to replace windows so he started his almost 2 hrs pitch for a super expensive window..me and my husband we kept on interupting him and teling him we are in a hurry and not looking to replace the 2 windows in the house with something very expensive as it makes no sense especially because all the other windows in the house are not high quality windows...but he kept going on and on..it was almost like a time share presentation..it was horrible! 2 hours of my life i will never get back! He was a good sales person but he just didn't know when to stop, i almost felt like telling him to get out...The 2 windows by the way were 2k!!

Ok...so i am not sure what happened here, someone must have gave our information away, because we never called anyone for a deck, and the only people who were supose to come to the house are lowe's. This is very shady thing to do, pretend we called and set an appintment and then try to sell me a window for 2 hours...

Anyway...we did got the house, and hopefully we will live in it till we are very very old. our realtor told us if we pay twice a month on our mortgage(half and half) that will reduce our 30 years to 23 years. Is that true?

Owning a home is expensive but renting is not a soultion either, with more and more people renting- rent prices went up, and what you do is basically are throwing money out the window. Our rent got 810/month for one bdr apartment, so i am happy we got the house.

All in all it buying a home is a pain, looking for homes was the most fun, but everything else was just not fun at all. I'm sure every experience is different, some people are lucky and they get the best realtor, and that is also improving your buying experience.

I wish you all that are still looking for a home or thinking about buying a home good luck, and keep your eyes open at all times! Happy shopping!

I think it has more to do with the fact that alot of companies banks included give out names and addresses of people they do business with. So you name gets on a list and you end up with TONS of junk mail here. When we got our apartment, they did the same thing, i had to put our names on this national do not call list to stop all the credit card apps, spam mail and all the catalogues that got sent to us.

You can always hire a couple of teenagers to paint for cheap. just like mowing the lawn. Its really not very hard. And you get so much satisfaction when you see those old bright ugly colours just disappear! Every little bit makes it feel that much more like YOUR home. If you have the time and patience go for it. Lowes and home depot etc can all help you out with info and some even offer paint classes etc.

congratulations on the new home. I'm sure you guys will be living in it for a long long time!

[Krikit 1,163]

Congratulations Silvana!!!!!!!

[thetreble 19]

Congrats! Now here is a word of advice from a home owner who bought a house in the US in 2008. Make sure you love this house and can stay in it for a long time because many of us, including myself, are now belly-up in terms of what we owe on the house and what it's worth

[silvana.toma 15]

Tx guys, i really apreciate your input...like always

We will try to pay bi-weekly, and also make one extra payment a year, the fastest we pay for this the better. You are right when you say we have to love the home and stay in it for a while, because i'm sure this house will drop in price even more this year; the previous owners bought it for 300k and now the home is worth around what we payed for it-180k, so no wonder they wanted to get rid of it.

I will put a picture up as soon as i figure out how..i am not really "21st century tech friendly" yet

[Krikit 1,163]

I'd love to see a picture!