Getting a Mortgage

[britbird 4]

Also, weigh the pros and cons of getting the tax credit versus the benefits of saving up a bit more money and putting down a larger deposit. If you have less than 20% at the moment then you may well have to pay PMI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenders_mortgage_insurance (just gives a brief overview).

[Mononoke28 135]

We've been looking into this as well and one realtor told us that the tax credit doesn't go out completely after 04/30/10. If you sign a contract before that date, you do get $8k. If you sign after 04/30-June, you get $6500 I believe it is, and then from June-Sep, you get about $4k. Does anyone know about this? We're also planning on buying a house to try to get advantage of the tax credit but want to know how much we would get if we have to sign after 04/30.

Thanks!

Diana

[milimelo 4,568]

We've been looking into this as well and one realtor told us that the tax credit doesn't go out completely after 04/30/10. If you sign a contract before that date, you do get $8k. If you sign after 04/30-June, you get $6500 I believe it is, and then from June-Sep, you get about $4k. Does anyone know about this? We're also planning on buying a house to try to get advantage of the tax credit but want to know how much we would get if we have to sign after 04/30.

Thanks!

Diana

The only official date I saw was 4/30 to have a contract signed and 6/30 to have the closing done. Nothing beyond that date and I do receive newsletter from our realtor.

Could you ask the realtor who told you about the extension to show you where he got the information from?

[Mononoke28 135]

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do because he's a pretty good realtor and was pretty firm about the information he gave us.

Diana

[Old Dominion 26]

I heard somebody talking about getting tax relief on mortgage interest? Anybody know how this works? I am living in Marlyand.

Interest paid on a mortage for one's primary residence is always deductible from your income, when calculating your income taxes and choosing to itemize your deductions. If your itemized deductions (medical, charitable giving, etc.) add up to more than the standard deduction, then the mortgage interest works in your favor. If the itemized total is less than the standard deduction, then there is no reason to itemize.

[Old Dominion 26]

OP, together your credit score is well above average for American borrowers. In my experience, it will take another year for the rating agencies to raise it above 700. It is respectable as is, so why not just go ahead and apply for the mortgage now? Interest rates are sure to increase as the economy recovers further. On the other hand, no matter what your credit score, some major banks just aren't accepting applications from new borrowers.

[milimelo 4,568]

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do because he's a pretty good realtor and was pretty firm about the information he gave us.

Diana

PM me your email address and I can forward you the newsletter I just received from our realtor - it has info on that credit.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Buying a house, eh? You know, I can give you some tips. Look for houses that people are willing to short sell.

[Mononoke28 135]

PM me your email address and I can forward you the newsletter I just received from our realtor - it has info on that credit.

Thanks! I just did.

Diana

[leith@Ievgeniia 8]

a few things to keep in mind,

have a monster down payment 20% or more,

buy a house u can afford today keep to 25% of your take home pay, (1 week)

if your in area that is still having falling home prices your in the best situation, and get a knowledgable and super strong agent to represtent you

do not overbuy a house, if you can afford 100k house do not look at 130k + house, it will only give you stress on such things,

if your handy and can do things yourslef, but the ugley house in the sweet neighborhood!

best return as long as it is not falling down, you know they orange paint and dirt grass, and yellow shag carpte, and big pink flower wallpaper with purple celings, such house is nice as a easy fixer up, and can get wonderful price

great luck!!!! and have fun, remember it is not your home until you buy it, keep it business i mean

[featherB 1]

OP, together your credit score is well above average for American borrowers. In my experience, it will take another year for the rating agencies to raise it above 700. It is respectable as is, so why not just go ahead and apply for the mortgage now? Interest rates are sure to increase as the economy recovers further. On the other hand, no matter what your credit score, some major banks just aren't accepting applications from new borrowers.

There's no reason to assume that (the bolded part) - it could be a matter of something so simple as having a credit card report a different balance (less than 5% but higher than nothing at all, ideally!), an existing tradeline becoming a year old, an inquiry dropping off, something like that... there are any number of things that could easily get the OP's FICO score above 700. A bit of reading on myfico.com will help figure out what you can do to 'polish' your scores, OP!

OP, also remember that mortgage lenders will look at the middle score of the loan applicant with the lowest scores (i.e. they look at both spouses FICO scores from Transunion, Equifax and Experian, and whichever spouse's mid-score is the lowest, that's the one they'll use when determining your interest rate). [edited to add - you cannot buy your Experian FICO score anymore. Don't waste money buying any other kind of EX score, as it will be just that - a waste of money]. myfico.com has a mortgage forum where I learned a ton of useful information when we were buying our home - my husband (the USC) actually had slightly lower scores than me, and my research on that site was as useful to me in house-buying (or at least, getting approved for a mortgage without getting ripped off) as my research on VJ has been for immigration! I'd highly recommend going there for a read and some advice - I went from being told on other forums that I didn't have a chance in hell of getting approved for a mortgage (including one memorably snotty response from an alleged loan officer who rudely informed me that "in case you didn't notice, this is the US, not the UK, and no lender is going to care about your credit or employment history in the UK" and told me I would NOT be getting a loan - charming), to finding out that actually, it could be done. We got an FHA loan with a fantastically low (at the time!) interest rate, and the lender did consider my 9 years of continuous employment in the UK when considering our application.

Good luck! Things have tightened up since we bought in May 2008, but I know it can still be done! All I ever heard on the news at the time we were househunting, getting approved for our loan, etc, was that it was IMPOSSIBLE to get a mortgage... and yet we managed to do so with relative ease. I have to say that the time between making the offer and closing was the most stressful thing ever, though - immigration has NOTHING on house-buying!

Edited January 17, 2010 by featherB

[aidankari 0]

Regarding the $8000 tax credit.

We are hoping to have a contract on a house by April 30, all going well. We are filing our tax returns in the next couple of weeks (once we have the w2s) as the mortgage broker needs tax returns for 2009 to complete the mortgage application.

Everything I have read about the first time buyer's tax credit online sees to suggest that you must apply for it in either your 2009 or 2010 tax returns. Is there any other way to apply for it?

[milimelo 4,568]

Regarding the $8000 tax credit.

We are hoping to have a contract on a house by April 30, all going well. We are filing our tax returns in the next couple of weeks (once we have the w2s) as the mortgage broker needs tax returns for 2009 to complete the mortgage application.

Everything I have read about the first time buyer's tax credit online sees to suggest that you must apply for it in either your 2009 or 2010 tax returns. Is there any other way to apply for it?

No other way as for you to get the $8000 you have to send in the proof of purchase. So no e-filing for that. You can go back and amend your 2009 tax return if you want to get the money right away after closing or you can wait for 2010 to claim it.

[Mononoke28 135]

Also, remember that anyone trying to get the the home tax credit needs to have a contract by April 30th; however, it is recommended that you sign it weeks before that deadline just in case. Example: you sign your contract on let's say April 29th, then the inspection doesn't go well or there are issues with your loan that make it impossible for you to buy the house so you'll need to buy a different house... in this scenario you're done with getting the tax credit. But if you sign weeks before the 30th of April, you can get almost everything done in time and if anything goes wrong, you still have time to sign a contract for another house before the deadline. Does that make sense?

Diana