Finally I decided to put on my big girl panties.....
Over the last few years Steph and I have talked about someday maybe being able to buy a home. Don't get me wrong we love our little appartment and our little rent payment... but sometimes you just want more. Seems these conversations have been even more regular occurances and makes me nervous yet excited at the prospect.
About 3 months ago one of my tenants comes in and is talking (she is in Real Estate). She keeps talking about how even tho the market has the ass falling out of it, this is the prime time for purchasing homes because the prices have fallen so much. So we chit chatted and she left cards in my office and away she went. Last month she came in to pay her rent and get another unit (for a client to stage their home), so the conversations naturally start up again. Now after each of these meetings I am a lil more excited and a little more knowledable in the market. Yesterday she came in, paid her rent and began talking to me again, she is now slowly expanding into the Modesto Market because the Mortgage Lady she likes the most is based out of Modesto and they work well together. Business for her seems to be picking up some again so that makes her happy, but as she points out, its picking up so normal people can afford to buy a home again. First time home buyers are having a field day with the prices they are getting homes with. As we talk she says ya know it doesn't hurt to just feel it out some, get your questions answered (my concern of not sure if we have repaired our credit enough yet). She was having lunch with Dori she would give her my card and have her call and just talk to me to answer questions.
Dori called yesterday evening and we began talking about how the process works and what not. She basically said, you will never know if you will qualify unless you try (agreed). Besides even if we qualify we aren't obligated to purchase now or ever for that matter, but at least we would know...... true enough.
So today I finally put on my big girl panties and we went to meet with Dori. Extremely nice lady, and very informative. We went armed with our last 2 pay stubs, 2 years taxes each and a bank statement (as she requested). I told her going in that if we decided to do this I wasn't going to get anything huge and fancy, I wanted simple and comfortable.... I wanted home. Told her I had seen a few homes online that were in the price range we would be comfortable with, question is would the payment be as comfortable. I don't want payments that will bring our lives to a stop. So she went and ran our credit we filled out papers, income to debt ratios n shit like that.
Bottom line, we qualify for a FHA loan... the amount we are looking to spend would give us a payment of about $1,113 but that includes homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance, and property tax. Keeping in mind that for each $10,000 you add or remove for a purchase price changes your payment by about $85 per month.... all good to know.
She did tell us not to stress and certainly not to rush, and most of all do not settle for a home or neighborhood we aren't completely happy with. Once final approval of a loan takes place (up to 3 weeks cuz we are not in a rush), we can start looking with a full approval letter in hand. The approval is good for 60 days, if we don't find something in that 60 days, then they simply renew the credit report and the approval is updated and extended for another 60 days.... we do this until we find what we definately want and then we proceed if that is what we decide.
Now think possitive thoughts... this will all happen eventually...... then when Grover and Mollie have babies...... I GET ONE grinzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Will update as I have updates
About 3 months ago one of my tenants comes in and is talking (she is in Real Estate). She keeps talking about how even tho the market has the ass falling out of it, this is the prime time for purchasing homes because the prices have fallen so much. So we chit chatted and she left cards in my office and away she went. Last month she came in to pay her rent and get another unit (for a client to stage their home), so the conversations naturally start up again. Now after each of these meetings I am a lil more excited and a little more knowledable in the market. Yesterday she came in, paid her rent and began talking to me again, she is now slowly expanding into the Modesto Market because the Mortgage Lady she likes the most is based out of Modesto and they work well together. Business for her seems to be picking up some again so that makes her happy, but as she points out, its picking up so normal people can afford to buy a home again. First time home buyers are having a field day with the prices they are getting homes with. As we talk she says ya know it doesn't hurt to just feel it out some, get your questions answered (my concern of not sure if we have repaired our credit enough yet). She was having lunch with Dori she would give her my card and have her call and just talk to me to answer questions.
Dori called yesterday evening and we began talking about how the process works and what not. She basically said, you will never know if you will qualify unless you try (agreed). Besides even if we qualify we aren't obligated to purchase now or ever for that matter, but at least we would know...... true enough.
So today I finally put on my big girl panties and we went to meet with Dori. Extremely nice lady, and very informative. We went armed with our last 2 pay stubs, 2 years taxes each and a bank statement (as she requested). I told her going in that if we decided to do this I wasn't going to get anything huge and fancy, I wanted simple and comfortable.... I wanted home. Told her I had seen a few homes online that were in the price range we would be comfortable with, question is would the payment be as comfortable. I don't want payments that will bring our lives to a stop. So she went and ran our credit we filled out papers, income to debt ratios n shit like that.
Bottom line, we qualify for a FHA loan... the amount we are looking to spend would give us a payment of about $1,113 but that includes homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance, and property tax. Keeping in mind that for each $10,000 you add or remove for a purchase price changes your payment by about $85 per month.... all good to know.
She did tell us not to stress and certainly not to rush, and most of all do not settle for a home or neighborhood we aren't completely happy with. Once final approval of a loan takes place (up to 3 weeks cuz we are not in a rush), we can start looking with a full approval letter in hand. The approval is good for 60 days, if we don't find something in that 60 days, then they simply renew the credit report and the approval is updated and extended for another 60 days.... we do this until we find what we definately want and then we proceed if that is what we decide.
Now think possitive thoughts... this will all happen eventually...... then when Grover and Mollie have babies...... I GET ONE grinzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Will update as I have updates