First time home buyer..what questions should I ask?

HI first time home buyer...make 32 g a year..looking for a house about 100-150 g..excellent credit..no credit card debt/have credit cards/payed rent for over 4 years/no bankruptacies/payed off student loan/own car..no debts

Extremely new to the house buying process..where is the best place to get a loan..bank or mortage company?..I know enough not to get an arm etc.

My friend said I should go to the bank and get preapproval..

should I have any problem getting a loan for 100-150 max mortage in your opinion

First time home buyer..what questions should I ask?

We just recently went through the home buying process ourselves and there are lots of questions you will want to ask!

1: Is there a pre payment penalty, if there is you do not want that loan. You will want the option to sell your home at some point and if you do and there is a prepayment penalty you will have to pay that when you sell.

2: Make sure you have a qualified realtor!! Although sometimes it makes the cost a bit higher you can usually have it in the offer that the seller pays all or atleast most of the closing costs!

3: Ask about the differences between a 15 year fixed and a 30 year fixed, a lot of the times there is only a few hundred dollar difference and the amount of time that you may plan on staying in that particular home may vary. So the time that you would like to spend paying on the home may be lessened if you plan on staying there for a while.

4: Do you make enough to cover the loan payments as well as Your PMI (mortgage insurance), Taxes and insurance all together in one payment a month. What they quote you on what your mortgage payment will be does not include those things and you will get a shock of reality at closing when they tell you what you will have to pay each month if you do not ask that question!!!!!!

5: If in doubt hire a real estate attorney to make sure that you have all of your i%26#039;s dotted and your t%26#039;s crossed!!! Usually the cost that you pay for that is well worth it in the end!

Wells Fargo has a great loan program available for first time homebuyers as does Country Wide!! Another one that is great that you would not normally thing of is Citi Financial! They have great rates and a great customer support team. We are working with Country Wide right now and are very pleased with them.

You will want a pre approval before you even start to look, a lot of home owners in the market right now will not even allow their home to be shown without it due to the housing market the way it is right now!

100,000 - 150K should not be a problem just remember what your cost will be with everything else added into all of that!

Hope this helps Happy House hunting!!!

First time home buyer..what questions should I ask?

You may not have a problem getting a loan in that price range. However, before you get a prequalification letter from a mortgage company, get a Realtor who will walk you thru the process.

First time home buyer..what questions should I ask?

Just going through this myself I was in your situation also. You dont want to be prequalified you want to be pre approved there is a world of differnce. What helped me was the books that David Bach puts out. His current one%26quot;the automatic millionaire homeowner%26quot; was the best thing I ever read.

It has easy to follow - step by step advice. He even gives some advice away for free on his site. Wells Fargo also has a bunch of pdf%26#039;s on their site about what a new homeowner should look for.

First time home buyer..what questions should I ask?

Sound like you are well prepared in the credit department!

I would ask around and find what mortgage loan officers friends have used and been happy with. Interview two of them. Their loan programs will be very similar because they all get their money from the same place (wall street). An incompetent loan officer can make you life hell- some of them also lie to get business and then spring on you the higher interest rate at the last minute when it is to late to change your mind. Do not use anyone just because you heard or saw an ad!

The most important part of this process is finding the house. Location is the most important because you can paint or re-carpet but you can%26#039;t change the neighborhood.

Find a good agent thru friends just like you found the loan officer. Buy in a good school area even if you don%26#039;t have kids.

There is a lot of advice about new home vs existing home and tons of other things, but a good agent can talk this all over with you.

Bring a camera and a note pad. If you are married bring your spouse on every house hunt. They need to see the bad houses so they will recognize the great houses.

We have enjoyed being homeowners and we hope you will also. Our thoughts are with you!

First time home buyer..what questions should I ask?

What is the true cost of owning that particular house? Taxes, utilities, maintenance, repairs, etc can be overwhelming.

First time home buyer..what questions should I ask?

Go get that home.....You will likely not regret it in the years to come. Stay within your means like I did and think about getting a friend to room w/ you (and pay most of the mortgage like I did!).

Try out Bank of America and ask about a 1st time homebuyer program called ACORN.....It is very solid. Other banks might have access as well. A link with more info on ACORN can be found on the site below as well.

First time home buyer..what questions should I ask?

There are some good answers here.

My two cents:

Talk to a few lenders in your area, stay away from the internet lenders, there have been too many issues and people getting ripped off.

Banks, mortgage lenders, all are about the same animal, but you really need to compare everything. Don%26#039;t get sucked into a decent interest rate only to find out there are all sorts of other undesirable things built into your loan. Obtain a truth-in-lending good faith estimate of closing costs, ask about pre-payment penalties, late fees and make sure you are getting an apples to apples comparison of the mortgages.

Once you are pre-approved, know your finances. Many get pre-approved for more than they can comfortably afford, so take a good look at your budget to determine what you want to spend.

Then go shopping! Good luck.