After all of the events surrounding my family this past 8 days (the dog attack, etc. -btw,thanks for everyone's concern and help)... We have purchased our next house! It was amazing. The process was smooth and quick. To anyone looking into buying a home, I TOTALLY recommend doing all of your loan application work in advance... get pre-approved! When you find "the house of your dreams" in your pre-approved range, it's easy as pie from there. Basically, the realtor had the assist in a slam dunk of a deal at fast break speed. When we bought a home in '97, we did it the long 30-45 day way, where we had the realtor help us first, then we got a loan through "Fannie Mae" at like 5% down (around $2000)... the whole process was stressful. That house was about $50,000. This time, aside from the incident last week, everything was butter. We found help through New Century Mortgage with a 100% financed loan (2 loans, one at 80%, one at 20%)... only closing is what the seller didn't pay or can't pay by law (about $500). This house is about $150,000 but it appraises at near $175,000. It's a 3 bedroom/2.5 bath/3 living (one can double as 4th bedroom with a sleeper sofa)/2 dining/2 car garage... approx 2,700 sq.ft. in Plano. We will pay $220 less per month to own a home with 700 more sq.ft. than the one were renting... So, I'm glad that this is done! We were really blessed on this deal. The original listing was at $179,900... so basically we're buying for 30.5k off! It has a clean history, no slab or termite problems, and we are buying from the original owner, who happens to be the realty broker/builder for that neighborhood. The house is immaculate. New granite kitchen countertops, all new appliances (that match our existing fridge!), new carpet, new paint, new stained wood 8 ft. privacy fence... the backyard is the size of a little league infield... and it has the oh-so-important built in basketball goal on the driveway with room to play 3-point line sized half court!! Thank the Lord! Anyway, for those that were following the other recent link of mine (no, not the celeb car wreck one), I thought you might like to hear a good report from our lives as well. Perhaps we can have a Dallas area ClutchFans Christmas party or something of that sort in the future??
Congrats on your new home IROC, and yes bnb, I can't relate to those numbers...man I can't wait to retire and move to the Texas area.
Congrats!!! That's funny about the Cali and NY ppl....come back to Texas! Plenty of room for everyone!
Congrats. After having bought my first house, I must say, it's a sweet sweet thing. I just wish I could pave the lawn with some asphalt or something, but other than that...
30 yr. @ 6.4% fixed (wish I coulda done it back when it was in the 4-5% range though... prime is already higher - I was locked in by pre-approval). My wife has the figures on how to make a 30 yr. get paid off in 15 (she is a loan officer/investment broker w/Compass Bank)... If we pay the equivalent of 13 payments a year (I think) instead of 12, it is paid off in 15. But then, my wife sells annuities, etc., also so all we need is about $1M in revenue for 3 years and we're done... and she's got that potential were she's officed at. Several celebs types (former NFL, current NFL analysts, certain famous R&B singing Houstonians... and the typical oil tycoon, execs, etc.) are her clients already, with room to build on that. We've truly been blessed in the income column as of late.
I have been monitoring various mortgage rates these days for a different purpose. IROC it, I am afraid you got yourself a bum deal on the 30-year fixed. Earlier I said mortgage rates had gone up in the last several weeks, but many 30-year fixed APRs (not rates, but APRs) offered today are still way lower than 6.4%. Check this out (Lender Rates For 30 yr fixed in Houston, TX) at bankrate.com: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/mt...ts=1&product=1&sort=4&pType=f&refi=0&svyList= Also the trend: You should seriously think about refi, espeically if you plan to live in your newly bought house for long-term. That's incorrect. For a 30-year fixed mortgage, making an extra month of payment (you have to make sure it goes to the principle) per year will reduce the length of payment to roughly 22-23 years.
We need to have a Stros'/Rox viewing party 4 Sure... Congrats...Me and my lady friends will help you break the house in...
RRJ_Gamz, The girl that is the second one from the right looks like someone that went to my high school. Is her name Tricia? Just curious.
I couldn't believe the amount of uninformed advices you received from the lender (IMO, he is either unscrupulous or in need of retraining for his profession). The 30-year fixed mortgage rate follows closely the yield of the 10-year T-bill. If you look at the graphic trends of these two, you'll see their shapes almost overlap. Compare this with this: On the other hand, the Prime Rate is the basis for the rate of HELOC. It has little, if anything, to do with 30-year fixed mortage rate.
You can call that lady that said "call YOUR insurance company" and tell her "thanks" for helping you buy the new house. After all, they WILL pay [for it].
IROC it, I'm up for that, dawg... I'm still waiting for all of us Dallas Rockets Fans to get together to see or go to a game!
rrj_gamz, you gotta bring those honeys over to IROC's house so we can kick it! Man, what a combo - Beer-Babes-Rockets...
I thought you were going to say, "I just saved a bundle on my car insurance." As for the hotties, I'll take the one on the far left. Ah thank you.
