^^ Insert panties in wad. It wasn't a serious statement. Just a retort to some continued whining in this tread.

^ How long are you going to have to do that $175 PMI though? (honest question...I haven't read every post in this thread)

3/13/2013 10:34:17 AM

Until I hit 78% LTV but a minimum of 60 months

Or until I refinance because I'm only borrowing 82% of what the house appraised for.

From my math, I'll definitely come out ahead buying now rather than waiting until I've put back 20%

3/13/2013 10:41:37 AM

just got a call from the appraiser...it's happening on friday...we'll see what happens

how much do you think landscaping affects the appraised value? i ask because we're in the process of planting trees and some shrubbery, but we probably won't have a chance to mulch or line the beds with stone before friday...and the lawn sorta needs to be mowed (it's got more weeds than i'd like, and it's in that place where the weeds that did okay during the winter are taller than the grass that didn't)

and the only thing blooming right now is the forsythia and tulip tree...so everything's kinda bare

3/13/2013 11:28:41 AM

my appraisal makes no mention of landscaping. it looks like nothing more than a bunch of data on comparable sales that was entered and some computer spit out a damn number.

3/13/2013 3:57:17 PM

ditto

3/13/2013 4:52:59 PM

yeah appraisals vs what someone is willing to pay are obviously very different. Most appraisals for tax or mortgage reasons are pretty high-level black magic with not a lot of real specifics imo. They aren't always like that, bust most of them seem to be that way. It's no better than Zillow's Zestimate.

When you start getting into determining how much a house will actually sell for, that's a totally different ballgame and things like landscaping can obviously come into play.

3/13/2013 5:36:20 PM

bullshit made up by a bunch of worthless pencil pushers

3/13/2013 5:51:56 PM

This thread made it almost 3 pages with no trolling. I was proud.

I just talked to two of the eleventy billion lenders that have called back from Lending Tree. They both told me flat out they have nothing that can compete with the 5-5-5 Arm Promo with no CC PenFed is doing right now. It is such a big deal they were both familiar with it, and had the same discussion with other callers.

I also wanted to say word to the wise. Lending Tree is fucking bullshit. They call like psychos, I gave them my home number which is forwarded to my business google voice #. They got my company name from the recording, worked backwards and looked me up on the internet, found my cell phone number off the website, and started blowing up my cell phone for days on end. I am not really thrilled that they are using a number that they were not provided to contact me over and over.

I am in commission sales myself, so I understand why they are doing it, but the thing about lending tree that is BS is they act like you get all these instant quotes online to compare (which at best you might get 3-4 instant quotes) but your contact info is forwarded to 10-15 companies. Most of these companies can not do anything your local mortgage brokers (pricing & fee wise) can not do, so you might as well deal with someone local in that case.

My suggestion if you do lending tree is put a fax# or a GV# you don't use in the phone number box and make a horse shit email address to keep them separate from all your other stuff. Then you can just respond by email and send them all the quotes from the other companies to try to beat.

3/13/2013 5:58:23 PM

^same fucking thing happened to me. My phone was unusable for a week.

3/13/2013 5:59:20 PM

I really thought I was playing it safe putting my home number, it only rings at my desk, and the Google voice seemed like a good idea since it cant get full and you can read the messages vs. having to play them all. It never really crossed my mind that they would use my voicemail recording to figure out my employer and cell phone number.

3/13/2013 6:04:17 PM

i think it's awesome that a salesman is being annoyed by salesmen

3/13/2013 6:05:22 PM

I have never in my life been remotely as ruthless as these people are. I wish I had saved the online chat with the quicken loans guy that went on for like 15 pages of him trying to sell me a higher rate mortgage than I already have with $7,000 in CCs because they HAVE GREAT SERVICE, AND DO MORE LOANS THAN ANYONE, and ITS SO EASY!!!!!!

I finally stopped responding and he kept on for like an hour asking if I was there.

So I just forwarded the phone to the fax#, they cant leave a message or get my company info off there. Hopefully they stop calling now. I will wait a week or so until the heat dies down.

3/13/2013 6:12:34 PM

My wife and I refinanced our home last fall. We found our lender through Costco and it was an enjoyable experience and got as good of a rate I found anywhere else. A++++

3/13/2013 10:18:11 PM

Here is a list of the top 50 credit unions by assets.
http://creditunionaccess.com/top50creditunions.htm

The reason I post this is that some of these financial institutions loan their own money and keep the loans on their own books. This means they can make loans that other lenders just aren't making, most mortgage companies will not do ANYTHING outside of normal guidelines because if it does not match up they can not sell the loan off. I know for a fact that SECU does not sell any of their loans, so if they decide to do it there is absolutely no bureaucracy to deal with, they will do it. They charge higher rates on low down payment loans than many lenders, but I have never heard of them requiring PMI.

I was able to purchase this condo with a 20% down payment late last year through SECU.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/505-Gooseneck-Dr-UNIT-B1-Cary-NC-27513/6491415_zpid/

There was not a lender in town that would touch that loan, it was an investment loan, for a small amount (small commission for the lender), and it was a condo which are hard really hard to finance these days. Another thing SECU did that was great was charge the same rate on an investment loan that they would charge on any other loan at 80% LTV. Any other lender would have been a higher rate due to it being an investment property.

The moral of the story is check credit unions if you are having trouble finding a lender that will do what you want to do, they may be able to help.

3/14/2013 12:42:42 AM

Quote :

" I am not really thrilled that they are using a number that they were not provided to contact me over and over."

pulled some of that shit with me last year, I got my lawyer friend to write them a letter asking them if they would like to pay the cell phone bill, and they stopped

(i have unlimited minutes, but still)

3/14/2013 4:51:09 AM

appraisal's done...now the wait until...next week? the week after that? to find out what it comes back at

3/15/2013 1:07:35 PM

Mine only took a few days to get back

3/15/2013 1:10:05 PM

he said he'd put it in next week, then it had to be reviewed, and then i'd get a copy when they send it off to penfed

i assume that means snail mail and at best, it's going to be the end of next week

admittedly, i'm just anxious

[Edited on March 15, 2013 at 1:17 PM. Reason : .]

3/15/2013 1:16:42 PM

I am talking to another lender that told me the PenFed deal is nuts. He figured out my cell# somehow.

3/15/2013 1:35:12 PM

the guy asked how much we spent in improvements and i told him the real number

i easily could have thrown another $5k on that number to cover labor (of which we've paid little, since we've done most of the upgrades and remodeling ourselves)...it would have been perfectly reasonable

3/15/2013 1:39:03 PM

Ugh.

I am having second thoughts about going with the ARM. The gameplan on that was to pay extra principal to get in front of the potential rate increase down the road. I had it figured to use our savings to end up with a 16 year loan. My wife is saying she might want to change jobs and open an business or something.

PenFed has a 3.25 fixed option, but I can not figure out the difference in closing costs so I can make an educated comparison.

Everyone has been freaking out all day saying rates are going up. That is inevitable, its just a matter of when. So I am wondering if I am being stupid trying to be cheap now, and going to pay dearly down the road when we do not end up moving and this type of loan is not an option.

3/20/2013 10:31:36 PM

^ i think you have to pay closing costs and fees with the fixed...because i'm interested, here's some basic math for a $200k loan, assuming you stay for 10 years

FIXED (3.25%)
initial cost/fees: $4,000
points: $0
$870/month for 120 months = $104,400
TOTAL: $108,400

5/5 ARM (2.5% after points, assuming max increase of 2% after 60 months)
initial cost/fees: $0
points: $1500
$790/month for 60 months = $47,400
$979/month for 60 months = $58,740
TOTAL: $107,640

obviously, these are just assumptions using online calculators (though the closing costs estimation was from BoA)...but they should be close

in short, you come out about the same around the 10-year mark...assuming that your ARM rate jumps the maximum 2% at the first adjustment after 5 years...after that, assuming another maximum jump, the fixed is obviously better

oh, and i forgot they cover your first payment and you get another $200 in "rewards points" for their credit card, so that's almost another $1000 off with the 5/5 ARM option...that covers another couple of months of a higher rate if everything goes to crap and you still have the ARM

[Edited on March 21, 2013 at 8:42 AM. Reason : .]

3/21/2013 8:29:11 AM

I currently don't pay pmi, but I assume if the appraisal came in at less than 80% ltv then I'd have to pay pmi?

3/21/2013 11:32:05 AM

^ that's my understanding, yes...and i have no idea what PMI will cost with penfed, but i'm betting it'll be around $60/month for us

it will suck to have that added to our payment (we don't currently have it, either), but we'd be saving so much over our current loan, that i won't complain too loudly

assuming the appraisal comes back favorable, that is...i figure today is the earliest i'll hear back, and probably not until tomorrow or next week

3/21/2013 11:39:04 AM

What's your current rate? I'm at 4.0 now.

3/21/2013 11:45:04 AM

^^^probably, but remember it probably wont be as high as with an FHA loan. You can also drop it as soon as you get to 80%, whereas with FHA you have to pay it for 60 months.

[Edited on March 21, 2013 at 11:48 AM. Reason : gh]

3/21/2013 11:47:38 AM

^^ 4.75%

^ with penfed, i'm pretty sure PMI is removed (either automatically or on request, i'm not sure) once you hit 80% LTV and i don't think there's any time minimums outside of the 3 years that you must keep the loan (or else you pay all of the fees they waived at the beginning)

3/21/2013 11:58:19 AM

I am currently about even on my mortgage - I believe my house is worth about what I owe. When I purchased it I made a minimal down payment. Take into account the drop in home values in my area and I have no equity.

Is it silly to even look into refinancing? My current rate is in the 6% range. I don't have a ton of cash to bring to the table.

3/27/2013 3:56:05 PM

^^ Appraisal didn't come back yet?

3/27/2013 4:08:05 PM

^^ Not silly, if you have good credit.

3/27/2013 4:10:10 PM

^^^It would be hard without equity or cash, the main thing you want to think about is how long you plan on being in that house.

3/27/2013 4:26:58 PM

You could maybe qualify for a HARP refiance. I would definitely look into it.

3/27/2013 5:31:22 PM

Quote :

"Appraisal didn't come back yet?"

no

3/27/2013 9:09:29 PM

I think my lease ends in July. Wife and I plan to buy a house. Should I be looking now to get a pre-approved loan and find a realtor, or do I still have some time before needing to go through all of the steps?

Also, I've seen interest rates anywhere from 3-6%..if I'm doing no money down, what's the lowest interest rate I can come across? I have the cash to do 10% down, but I'd rather have some liquid assets and pay a little more interest, than to spend it all. Granted, maybe someone can provide an explanation as to why that might be a terrible idea.

3/27/2013 9:17:51 PM

You can get financing with 3% down if you meet the income requirements from BB&T. I can recommend you a person to talk to over there.

3/27/2013 9:21:19 PM

^^you'll get stuck paying PMI if you don't put enough down

3/27/2013 9:24:33 PM

Either way, he won't have enough of a down payment to avoid the PMI...

I know a couple of years ago, SECU members could get a mortgage with less than a 20% down payment and without PMI. If that's available to you, I'd see if it's still available.

3/27/2013 9:42:10 PM

Yeah but with a conventional loan you can get rid of PMI once you hit 78% LTV. With FHA you are fucked for a minimum of 5 years.

3/27/2013 9:45:08 PM

and soon to be fucked for the life of the loan on FHA loans

[Edited on March 27, 2013 at 10:00 PM. Reason : i think it switches over in May]

3/27/2013 9:59:51 PM

SECU is 4.25% for a 30 year ARM at 100% financing.

3/27/2013 11:29:20 PM

It seems like I have a client doing a 95% conventional. He is definitely paying PMI, but its likely much cheaper PMI than an FHA loan.

3/28/2013 12:11:06 AM

^^ that's what i did...it was a full 2% less than the lowest fixed rate i could find (at the time) and as a 2/1 ARM, it would take me a couple of max-percentage adjustments before i'd start "losing" money compared to the fixed (and my rate hasn't budged either of the times i've been up for a rate change)

if you don't have anything to put down (or if you were like me, you didn't want to put everything you had down in case something went wrong and you needed the cash), that's your best bet (or, it was...no idea what options there are these days)

3/28/2013 7:24:14 AM

Does anyone know of anyone doing lower than 3.375 fixed right now?

PenFed has 3.25 but apparently on the day I locked in the rate was a bit higher, so the best they will give me is 3.375.

3/28/2013 4:46:42 PM

$12/mo seems like its not worth freaking out over I guess.

3/28/2013 10:47:24 PM

FHA streamline brought my mortgage down $400/month, went from 5.75% down to 4.1 APR%

At about 4 years on this FHA, after another year and remodeling, I'll probably get an appraisal and convert to conventional to drop PMI/MIP and lower rater even further.

Almost in <78% LTV already since my house value has gone up 20% (subject to appraiser's discretion) although could easily sell it for 20% more.

[Edited on March 29, 2013 at 7:50 PM. Reason : .]

3/29/2013 7:48:43 PM

3.375 is the lowest at Navy Federal for a 30 year fixed. You can get VA and FHA for 3.125

3/29/2013 9:55:41 PM

it's been more than 2 weeks since the appraisal, so i called penfed...turns out they received it a couple of days after the guy came out, and it finished their internal review almost a week ago

house came back 2.5% higher than it appraised for in 2008

granted, that's after some bathroom remodeling (not total) and a near-complete kitchen remodel (didn't do the floors as they're already hardwood and look good), but the increase covered about half of our total cost (since we did most of the work ourselves)

we're currently right at 85% LTV, so we'll have to do PMI (which i'm guessing will be around $65/month) until it hits 78% (i thought they'd drop it at 80%, but they won't...you can petition them to drop it, but they require a second appraisal that you have to pay for, and depending on the market, might put you in a worse position)

anyway, one more smiley

3/30/2013 1:57:51 PM

looks like penfed's 5/5 ARM rate is down to 2.375%, though with 1 point (instead of the 0.75 points)

3/30/2013 10:57:24 PM

ugh I need to do this shit

I might try for a HARP2 loan

3/30/2013 11:13:11 PM

^^ from what I read, the 5/5 had no origination.


I'm going to call them and see what's up as soon as I can.

3/31/2013 12:00:36 AM