BryanJohnson

iTrader: (12)

never bought a house before so its all pretty much new to me. any advice on what to look for in a home loan company or would it better to use my personal bank. obviously i want to get the best interest rate and so forth. so what experiences have you had?

ZL1SS

iTrader: (4)

Well it depends on whether you are purchasing a new home or used home because if you buy new you can usually get a pretty good deal with the builders mortgage company. I just bought a new house and the builder gave me a hell of a deal with $10,000 off and no closing costs if I used there mortgage company. All I can say is make sure you have an agent! Our agent went through hell to get us a better deal on the house and even contacted the builders corporate offices and ended us saving us a substantial amount on the house. I bought brand new in Cinco Ranch out in Katy and she even helped us get the lowest possible tax appraisal to help us on property taxes!

96-speed

iTrader: (19)

ZL1SS mentioned a good point: New or used?

A buying agentis different from a realtor. A buying agent's job is to help get you a good price. A realtor works off commission, so there really isn't an incentive to help to get a better price.

I've been shopping off and on for the past few months, and here is what I've learned:

The housing market is generally slowing down. There are still tons of new houses popping up. New houses generally offer you option to whatever you'd like (granite kitchen, carpet, cabinents, etc), but offer small lots and small garages (20x40s). If you're ok with that, a new home could be a great deal. you can get a TON of house for 150k in Houston (loaded up 2500sq ft house if you don't mind a little extra driving). However, A used home offer an established neighborhood and you can find trends in taxes and home values.

Quick tidbit on realtors: Generally, realtor fees are around 6% of the cost of the home. However, on a resale, you have a buying and selling agent that split the associated brokerage. IOW, their pay is 3%. Therefore, they aren't really incling to negotiate lower, because that means less money for them. On the flip, a new home sale offer the realtor less work and 2x the comission. I had a realtor show me a builder of new homes (Pulte) and we went and looked. We didn't like what we saw, so we told the realtor things we liked and disliked about the builder (location, layout, lot size, etc). The next place he showed us was worse than the first community. I realied that the guy was only interested in showing us builder he was "in good" with. HE also discouraged me from buying resale, even though resale offers MANY more options on location. Resale takes time and lots of work, with less money to make.

I've realized I can do most everything on my own as long as I'm willing to put in the effort - just like cars .

www.har.com is a good site for Houston Area Real estate.

Good luck,
Ryan

The Red WS.6

iTrader: (4)

Our credit was not great enough to get an awesome deal but do yourself a favor. Get the deepest sink you can. That is our biggest mistake we made in the house. The sink is stupid shallow. The upgrade is worth it. Everyone I talked to after that told me well DUHHHH... How was I supposed to know. I have this nice house and an appartment sized sink... tsk tsk...

Gipraw

iTrader: (10)

Pay attention to the neighborhood .. quality of cars inthe driveway, how the other houses are kept up, etc.

pick one that has good schools .. might not be important to you, but will be a big help when you go to sell.

if you are buying new, do NOT buy anything next to an open, undeveloped area, no matter what the developer or agent claims is a "reserve" or "greenbelt" they can always change that crap later .. our edition was developed from 88 - 02 . when they sold the last plot in '02, about a month later they "found an error" on the master plot, they relabled it commercial, and now an area that was labled reserve greenbelt is home to a walgreens and a strip mall, and 30 homes that thought they backed up to a greenbelt now have to stare at Walgreens 24/7, and are worth about 15 - 20% less than they would have been .. buyer beware, so protect yourself.


don't settle for something you don't want .. figure out what your budget is, then decide how you want that money spent .. you will find exactly what you want, as long as you are realistic about your expectations.. there are houses everywhere right now..

ZL1SS

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, definitely don't settle for something you aren't 1,000% sure about because it's tough. My wife had a huge problem with that in that every house she saw was "the one", until she saw the next house of course. It's is very tempting when looking because they all typically look really great but pay close attention to details that could make a difference such as closet space, bedrooms and size of them if you plan to have a family, bathroom and showers, and the kitchen. Make sure the layout works for you and your family because it could be the nicest of everything in the house but if the floorplan doesn't work well why buy it. Also pay close attention to the neighborhood as mentioned above. Check out the place about 3-4 times a week at different times including weekday nights and saturday and sunday. This will give you a sense of what type of people live there. Good luck! Oh and definitely try to picture your furniture in there because you don't want to buy a new house and then go buy all new furniture because it didn't fit.

BryanJohnson

iTrader: (12)

great info guys. i'm really looking into a new house. the area that i'm looking at is close to ft worth, a place called granbury. i'll be welding in that area. i know that there are a lot of gated communities there, and some have regulations that say you cant leave before a certain time and cant come in later than a certain time so that wont work because my work schedule will vary. my "dream" would be have a custom home built, that way i can say what goes in and what doesnt. but i dont have that much time, as i will hopefully be closing on a home in the next few months. thanks for the pointers.

Urban Legend

iTrader: (5)

Buy the lot to the left and right of the property, this way you have no neighbors!

TchargedLS1TA

iTrader: (9)

Best advice is talk to your new surrounding neighbors. They are mostly idle in the situation and sometimes tell you things you want to know that could make or break the sale..
Our Realtor had her head so far up her *** and wanted nothing more than that comission check, she didnt point out obvious problem spots in the house which where in plain view.. We talked to the neighbor next door and she gave us a bunch of info on how the fountation cracked, but was repaired and had a 10 year warranty- something the realtor didnt feel like sharing..

Abe99

iTrader: (2)

good informartion, I am planning on buying a house in the next few months.

BryanJohnson

iTrader: (12)

yeah i'd rather not deal with a realtor, i dont want to deal with the bs. not saying all realtors are crooked, but one thing is for sure.....they are ultimately concerned about the sale going through

gearheads78

iTrader: (29)

I can't believe you have not talked to me about this. You need to get some stabilization in your life before you just up and buy a house. You need to start you new job and make sure you like it and make sure you are going to stay in the area.

I am proud you are moving out on your own but IMO you need to go in with a couple of your buddies and rent a place for a while or get an apartment so you can get used to the expences of living on your own. Save a good chunk of what you make and then look in to buying a house.

I am guessing you did not talk you me because you knew I would not tell you what you want to hear.

Good luck in whatever you decide. Call me if you want some pointers.

00TAProject

Here is another thing you have to look at as well and that is Debt....What you have in debt. Do you have anything in collections? What do you have financed, how your credit rating is......

Buying a house is more than just mere looking picking and purchasing.....Also when going through a realtor find someone who can do manual under writing....they look at more than just credit...(It's a good thing)...They look more at your work history, and **** like that. You also have to take into accord what your intrest rate is going to be like....What ever you do DO NOT get an adjustable intrest rate. That will destroy you if it goes up.....You want a fixed mortage rate, that way it doesnt go up or down...stay the same no matter what.

12ohhhhLS1

iTrader: (2)

make sure u can put down 10 or 20 percent whatever it is to avoid an escrow account

irbs

iTrader: (7)

If you like bowling then this is the perfect house. My family used this website it when looking for a new house.
http://www.seethehomes.com/search.cf...19&npp=10&sr=1

BryanJohnson

iTrader: (12)

i had planned on paying a pretty good percentage down to get the better interest rate and i wouldnt sign any kind of papers that have an adjustable interest rate.

jermstyle

Take it as you will, but I will only buy custom homes from smaller more prestigious builders that actually care about their customers. The most important part is knowing your market and having knowledge how the entire process works from the clearing of the lot to buying home owners insurance.

Splitz

iTrader: (1)

Don't use TexasLending.com as your broker!! That's my advice!

BryanJohnson

iTrader: (12)

i know they advertise alot on WBAP. have they ripped you off or something

Splitz

iTrader: (1)

Now, I'm being COMPLETELY HONEST with you on this subject. They did NOT rip us off, in fact they screwed up the closing cost in our favor by about $800.

However, aside from the above fact.

Last September, we started looking for mortgages and new homes. We finally picked "the one" that Choice Homes sells here in far South Fort Worth on the border with Crowly. Really nice home, stickered for aroud $102k which we were quite happy with. They said they could finish the house in 90 days etc etc. Choice Homes has a policy that they will not sign a contract on a house without pre approval. The sales manager for Choice said that "Texaslending.com will be at least Two weeks late for closing", he's dealt with them before, and we should have heeded the warning. Well, unfortunatly they were the only people that would accept the risk with our credit scoring (sub 600, started at 525), We do get pre approved from Texas Lending for $110k. We finish the upgrades and sign the contract on the house for just over $108k.

They were a night mare on the paperwork. Sending a billion documents via e-mail and faxes, they continued to "loose" paperwork, or not keeping track of the file. Very spotty with return phone calls. From the very beginning we said that we were first time home buyers with a LOT of questions. At first they wer ehappy with questions, but by March they weren't returning phone calls.

The house was finished 23 February, CHoice was ready to close, we had our final inspection on the house. Now, 2 weeks prior to 23 February, I had to call them to setup the VA Apprasial that was required before we could close the mortgage. They NEVER ordered the VA Appriasial, which can take up to 10 business days to get finished, submitted to the VA for final approval. We were in a holding pattern until the LAST minute.

LEt's just say that it wasn't as "smooth" as it SHOULD have been. Lessons learned, listen to what other people tell you/suggestion.

Knowledge pays!