After spending weeks looking at older homes that either: (1) needed work (2) were too far away from downtown (3) cost too damn much …..we have decided to go with a builder. My wife is in love with the model home while I am completely freaked about buying something that is currently just an empty lot in the Heights. Anyone else done this? Any advice? This will be our first home; we are serial renters that are sick of paying someone else’s mortgage.
There was a great thread about buying a new home started about 2 months ago. Someone with the search option should be able to top ot for you.
Good Luck man! I am also looking for another home...we own one right now, but are looking to buy a 5-6 bedroom in the N-West side of town. When you are all settled in. let me know....We own a business in the Heights area.
Definitely use a realtor. I know of a good one in the NW/Heights area. *cough* IMADRUMMER2K knows one too. *cough*
I'm about to start getting serious about looking. My lease is up in August. My pre-approval stuff should be ready by this weekend.
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77314 http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76420
I think you may actually need to make a post in those threads to top them because I don't think us schlubs who haven't contributed yet can follow those links.
My father and I built my house from the ground up. I remember the first day of construction after getting the piers set (it's a pier-and-beam construction). We're standing in this empty lot with a big pile of 2x12s and I'm thinking "that's going to be my house?!" It seemed to me to be the height of foolishness to buy land and material and hire workers and try to build myself something that's supposed to last a lifetime. But, it's built and serving pretty well so far. Other than that, I don't have any actual advice for you since I didn't work with a builder. I don't know if you'll be saving any money over buying something that's already built, but I guess if you don't want to be fixing things all the time, that's out. And, I just pray this model your wife loves isn't one of those atrocious neo-yuppy things that are destroying the character of the Heights (but then, what do I care as long as my neighborhood is spared?).
My nephew will be moving to Houston in November and will be working downtown. He's going to need a house with a yard for his baby and dog and can go as high as 200K. His parents live in West U. and his wife needs easy access to Beltway 8@Westhiemer. My thoughts are that he should look in the Heights and maybe the Myerland area but I don't have any experience with these areas. So any thoughts will be appreciated. The idea of new construction in the Heights is interesting, who do I get in touch with? (I'd need to get it underway pretty quick)
GP, At first, I would say that Beltway 8 and Westheimer is hard to get to from West U/Bellaire/Meyerland/Heights. However, they just completed the Westpark Tollroad, so that makes it easier to get from there. IMO, Heights sounds like the best location from them. Easy to get into downtown in the morning and his wife would be going against traffice out I-10 to get to Beltway and Westheimer.
Do you have her new email address??? She got a new one a few months ago: charlotte@myonestoprealtor.com
I do now. GP, the Heights is a great place to live but just be prepared to fork over a lot of dough for a house that was probably built in the 1920's.
2400 sq ft new construction in Heights, with a small backyard but a 2-car garage (separate): around 270-290K. Oh, I think its an atrocious FULL-ON-YUPPIE thing, which is cool, since we're young, urban, and professional. Actually, we're worse than yuppies.....we're DINKs.
can you own a home without good credit me and the mrs have discussed this before but i have poor credit while hers is great and ive always been too nervous to go and find out what the results might be i just know that home ownership is very important
Dookie, you can find out for sure here. It cost's about 30 bucks, but it's good to know for sure where you stand instead of worrying about what it might be. That way, you can start taking steps to correct it.
well i know for a fact my credit is poor the thing i was unsure of is if we would get approved to buy a house with one persons credit being great and the others very poor and stuff like that im taking steps to correct my mistakes like ive gotten my debts together and am paying on them regularly but i have had some bad instances in the past and ive always been told its impossible to repair credit damage but i cant run from the debts they total about 6000 dollars not too bad compared to some but still got to get rid of it
Dookie, Primarily, alot of mortgage brokers look at debt to income ration. So even though you might be in debt $6000, its more about what your monthly payment is. Last time I refinanced, their debt/income ration ceiling was 45%. That is, they wouldnt approve me for anything that put all my monthly credit payments over 45% of my monthly income. Also, youd be suprised about having bad credit and getting a house. 4 years ago, when I bought mine, mine wasn't bad, but it was not great (mid 500 FICO), Yet, I was still approved to buy my house in my name only because I had the income to support it. And I still got a low interest rate. Here is a good website to check out (a local broker who my wife works with): www.pathfinderhomeloans.com
If you have less than stellar credit, go to a mortgage BANKER instead of a mortgage BROKER...the banker has more control of the money and can make decisions without it going thru the entire BS chain that a boker must to loan money.
If the other person's credit score is high enough they may qualify for a loan in their name alone and be able to include your income with their's in the paperwork. I can't remember the exact score it needs to be. You should really give Countrywide a call and you may be surprised on what you could actually do. http://my.countrywide.com/
