my husband and i went around the city and search for several afforatable houses for a couple of months. Majority of the houses are listed $ 250k or above. There a builder (houses that are being build) price listed $ 267,999 (which we compare to the rest was the most reasonable price). We have checked a close by community selling their price as $ 220K, but there are a couple things to fix up. Our saving only allows $ 220,000 (our plan is to have 20% down). Should my husband and I continue to save (which we afraid market price will going up) or put an offer for $ 220k.
How would they benefit from it .. ?
and how did that lead to the financial crisis ..?
How to Buy Your First Home
Take the fear out of buying your first homeFor many, the process of buying a home for the first time can seem intimidating and overwhelming. How to Buy Your First Home is your resource for information on the subject. This book guides you through the entire process, including:
Preliminaries-Renting versus buying, determining what you can afford, deciding where to live
Searching for Your Home-What to look for in a home, hiring a realtor
Finances-Mortgag
I am looking soon to buy a house and I was wondering if anyone could tell me what it means to buy down points and what the points have to do with a mortgage and the whole scheme of things.
for the series of interest payments
just like a bond, repayment of interest and principal
the mortgage backed securities were sliced and diced but often contained bits of sub-prime mortgages which have defaulted, resulting in questions regarding the overall value of the tranches.
the inability to value these securities and mark to market accounting rules required them to be marked down to essentially nothing, this under capitalized the banks, preventing them from lending until they build their asset base.
“Points” are a percentage of the loan you pay to get a cheaper interest rate. Each point is one percent of the loan. When a loan officer looks up loans for you they’re going to see a series of rates. Each rate will show what it will cost you in up front points to get that loan. The loan officer also get paids differently for each type of loan as well so be careful! They may put you into a loan that’s not so great for you because the lender will pay them more for doing it.
One thing to think about too is how long you plan to own the home. If it’s a long long time then maybe paying some points to get a lower (fixed) rate is worth it. If you plan to sell or re-fi in a few years then paying points is very rarely worth it.
Hope this helps.
It’s kind of like “paying off” the bank with a “bribe” to get a cheaper loan. It sounds goofy, but it’s legal.
points = %, (1 point = 1 %)
The points may be called discount points or origination points and you may be charged for one or the other or both. This allows for a lower interest rate for you, but with a greater up front cost. It may or may not make sense to pay for points. It largely depends on how long you will be in your house.
The more points and fees, the longer it will take to pay them off. Have them give you a “break even” time frame and then make your decision from there.
They aren’t really a good or bad thing but paying them may or may not make sense depending on your own situation.
Good first book on buying a home,
This is a basic book on home buying intended for the first time buyer. It’s’ fairly brief, only about 130 pages (minus the appendices), so it’s a quick read. If you’re a second time buyer it would probably be too basic for you, but I was looking for a quick primer before starting to read more technical books on investing in real estate.
It covers the essentials of mortgages, the bidding and negotiation process, working with agents and inspectors, the major government agencies that participate in the mortgage market, such as HUD, VA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so on. Although you don’t need to understand it to purchase a house, the secondary market is briefly discussed so you’ll know what that is when you hear real estate professionals mention the term.
Most of the information is quite practical, such as how to deal with real estate agents (don’t let them act like mothers-in-law and let them decide what’s best for you in the way of a house, no matter how well-meaning their intentions), and inspectors (don’t insist on being present during the inspection, it’ll just distract them).
After the chapters devoted to the mechanics of buying the house, there’s a chapter basically on “What now?” After the happy glow of buying your first house wears off, you’ll now have to face the reality of doing the required maintenance and repairs, keeping up the lawn and landscaping, making sure you save enough to pay taxes, and so on. There are even useful hints on how to conserve energy and how much you can save by having old furnaces and air conditioners replaced, and the author says hers paid for itself in about 18 months, although the initial cost was daunting (about $2500). But it was worth it over the long run.
Finally, there’s a chapter on foreclosure and what to do if you find yourself in that situation. There’s help available in that many cities or state government agencies can help with either grants, money or advice. The book also has a glossary, and two appendices of useful worksheets such as comparing house features and mortgage lenders, a HUD-1 worksheet, and a VA guaranteed loan application form.
The book is clearly and concisely written and should give anyone a basic understanding of the home buying process. After this I went on to reading more advanced books on investing in real estate and it was useful for getting the basic knowledge quickly and easily.
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|GREAT guide for a first-time buyer,
My roommate works at the library and brought me home a dozen different books on how to go about buying your first home and what you would need to know (including the dummy/idiot books which I normally love). After taking a look at this one, I sent all the other ones back and ordered it from amazon because it is by far the easiest, most comprehensive, and overall helpful guide for a first-time buyer. It answers all questions and can just be used as a good reference. It’s questions and answer format makes the book very easy to pick-up and less daunting– some of the books seems like a giant boring novel!! I even gave this book as a gift to a friend considering buying a place of his own.
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|Easy to Understand Valuable Information,
Customer Video Review Length:: 0:52 Mins
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