1st time home buyer - need help

[Ja Rhule]

^^^ since you guys are dead set on a big wedding, I'd wait to buy as well...

should you change your mind about the wedding..then go for it..go ahead and buy

She pays for wedding pretty much all by her self. I'm responsible for the house. I want to get a house because renting is a sunk cost while house is an investment.

[dimbee]

Good luck, Arsen!

As was mentioned already, the only mortgage product that offers 0% down currently is a USDA loan which has limits on loan amount as well as how much income you can have to qualify. Basically, if you make more than "x" amount of dollars annually, then you cannot get a USDA loan. And it would have to be in what HUD determines to be in a rural area.

[Davidson Deac II]

Well, VA loans also offer 0% down. So my suggestion is go join the military. Join the Navy so you don't have to worry about going to Afghanistan. ;)

Seriously, I think most everyone is correct. There are very few avenues now for 0% down loans. With all the problems of the last few years, mortgage companies don't want to take as much risk.

[Ja Rhule]

Spoke with my fiance and we decided to decrease our wedding budget by 4-5k. So there is a good chance I will have more than 5% in my bank account by the end of this year. Thanks a lot guys.

[Niner National]

I want to put 0% down on my house and just do monthly payments. What loan is a way to go?

I'm doing a 100% loan through BB&T right now. They call it a CHIP loan. I can put you in touch with my mortgage agent if you want.

If you don't want to do a or can't do a 100% loan, there are down payment assistance programs. If you are willing to buy in a transitional area in Charlotte (like I'm doing), the city will give you $7500 in the form of a loan (which is free if you stay there for 10 years and depreciates annually). If you want to live anywhere else, there is a program from FHLB that will also give you $7500. This has to be paid back in full though I believe unlike the House Charlotte loan program.

The BB&T loan has a bit of a higher interest rate at 4.25%, but any 100% loan is going to. FHA loans are currently about 3.75%. BB&T does not require you to pay mortgage insurance (PMI) though, which is equal to about .5% interest, so it kinda balances out.

With the type of house you described wanting (single floor, brick, in the burbs), you should be able to pick a house up for very little.

Send me a PM and I'll give you the name of my realtor and my mortgage agent. You can

[KSpan]

FHA loans are good if you do not have a lot of money to put down. The bad part is (besides a lot more "paperwork")you are required to pay PMI for 5 years even if after 1 year your house appreciates 20%. In the same scenario but with a traditional loan after 1 year you could drop the PMI.

$150-200 a month based on the price range youre looking at.

We have an FHA loan and that's not how it works at all; we paid a certain percentage up front, and if we get re-appraised or pay 20% equity within the 5 years the MI goes away and we get a prorated portion of the up-front MI back (it's not private, as it's govt. subsidized). Also, since it's not private the cost is only $75/month on our $160K loan - PMI was running $150 - $200.

Also, one nice perk about FHA loans is that they are assumable, meaning that when you go to sell your home years from now, the buyer can qualify for your mortgage just like you did and just take over the payments at the current interest rate and cover the rest in cash/down payment. Given where rates are currently, I'd bet good money that they will be appreciably higher in 5-10 yrs.

[Niner National]

We have an FHA loan and that's not how it works at all; we paid a certain percentage up front, and if we get re-appraised or pay 20% equity within the 5 years the PMI goes away and we get a prorated portion of the up-front MI back (it's not private, as it's govt. subsidized). Also, since it's not private the cost is only $75/month on our $160K loan - PMI was running $150 - $200.

I originally applied for an FHA loan and my PMI was going to be $125/mo with $1,300 up front for 9 years. The loan amount was only for 136,500.

[KSpan]

I originally applied for an FHA loan and my PMI was going to be $125/mo with $1,300 up front for 9 years. The loan amount was only for 136,500.

Don't know what happened there, but the reason FHA MI seemed to be cheaper when we wee shopping was because of the up-front ~2% MI requirement. We are paying .5% of the loan balance annually for MI, which comes out to ~ $75 a month.

[charlotte49er]

A better place to check than realto.com is Carolina Home.

This is the Char/Meck MLS system. http://www.carolinahome.com/findahome.aspx

If you want Union County, you want to serach Area 51. Just kidding! I'ts area 10!

I did a search on Union County from $150,000-$200,000 there are 39 homes for sale that are "ranch" style homes.

I don't know what your taste are. But here is an older home, built in 1984, I think. 5+ acres of land, no HOA! 1500-1800 sq ft for $174,000!

http://www.searchpoint.net/SearchPoint/ListingDetail.asp?_account=idd&_org_id=nccmls-a&_sponsor_agent_id=&_style_account=mapsearch&_uid=&mls_property_id=995528&_sponsor_office_id=CMLS&_per_id=&_sponsor_org_id=nccmls-a&_lid=0

(I'm not sure if you can see this link.)

Normally, I would take my clients out for dinner, something relaxing and find out about them. (Not that you are my cleint, I'm out of the bizz.) That way, I could get to know them.

Too many times people look on-line and choose to look at a home on looks alone. A good agent, will have a few homes based on getting to know them, in his/her pocket to show them.

[charlottenian]

The only 0% Loans I have seen around was the doctors loan program offered by Suntrust. Even though it was offered to me, I opted to put 3.5% down this way I could avoid PMI payments. If your local bank is a pain, I would recommend looking into PenFed.com, I used them to finance my personal vehicle at 1.99% after I joined their credit union for free (you don't have to be a military member to do so). PenFed offers nice mortgage rates. I would recommend www.realtytrac.com to look at foreclosure listings. If you are not interested in that then I would look at REO property (already foreclosed and now sitting on the bank's book).

[PhillyB]

I just bought a foreclosed house for under 60k with a tax value that doubles what I paid for it. It's a bit of a project but it's structurally sound. I'm putting roughly 15k of work into it and stand to turn a decent profit when the market turns back up.

I bought it through HUD, had to pay a grand down, got a fifteen year mortgage with an exceptional rate. Get a foreclosure, no question.

[Carolina Husker]

Definitely FHA

[Niner National]

Yeah if you want to live in the burbs, you'd be foolish not to buy a foreclosure.

I wanted to live as close to Uptown as possible (or in) and none of the places were in foreclosure except one loft complex on Graham, but the units were small. I got a 1400 square foot townhome walking distance to Uptown for $132,400, so I feel like I still did pretty well. I'm going to rent the place out of the DNC hopefully. People a similar distance away have their's lists for $1100/night.

[Ja Rhule]

If I want to buy foreclosed, will FHA work with 4% down? How do I qualify to buy a foreclosed home?