Buying your first home in US. Headache or super fun time?

[Mononoke28 135]

So i need your help, We went to a small bank and talked to a mortgage consultant. My husband stoped paying on his student loan because he was on ships for 7 years, and out of touch with the "home reality". as soon as we got back on land he started paying on his student loan(march 2010), so now our mortgage person tells us that we need to wait till april so we have a have a year in good standings with the student loan. Then we need a letter from elecrtic, cable, rent, and cell phone where they mention that we are paying everything on time etc..

But when we called these companies they all said they don't do that. Also the interest rate was 4.87 or something like that. Should we try other banks as well?

The problem is that we have found the home of our dreams yesterday!!!, and in order to put an offer on it we have to have the pre-aproval letter, but i am afraid they will not give us that untill april. The mortgage person told us we qualify for a loan, as my hubby's credit score is ok, and he makes preety good money, so the debt to income ratio is very small in our case(like 25%). SOOO what i am saying is that we DO NOT want to lose this house because of technicalities...what should we do? should we try another bank? To be honest this is the first bank we went to, so should we also shop around?

One more thing...the home we found is a forclosure, it's listed at 184k, would it be ok to put an offer for 164k? what are the chances the bank will approve it?

Any advice?

thank you!!!!!!

You definitely need at least a couple of quotes from different lenders so that you can choose the best one. As other people said, getting pre-approved only takes a few minutes so you should call other people to see what they can offer you.

As for the offer, that's why it's always a good idea to have a realtor to walk you through the process. Foreclosures are totally different from regular homes that are on sale. The bank wants to sell it fast but also doesn't want to lose money on it. So what happens is that they review all offers they get on the house, which are several, and then they decide which is the best choice for them. So you may low-ball it because it's a foreclosure and why should you offer more than what they're asking, while others are the complete opposite and offer the asking price to beat out all other offers. This is also why closing on a foreclosure can take months, a friend of mine put down her offer in September of 2009 and didn't hear from the bank until March of last year, but it's all because foreclosures are handled differently.

Diana

[silvana.toma 15]

You definitely need at least a couple of quotes from different lenders so that you can choose the best one. As other people said, getting pre-approved only takes a few minutes so you should call other people to see what they can offer you.

As for the offer, that's why it's always a good idea to have a realtor to walk you through the process. Foreclosures are totally different from regular homes that are on sale. The bank wants to sell it fast but also doesn't want to lose money on it. So what happens is that they review all offers they get on the house, which are several, and then they decide which is the best choice for them. So you may low-ball it because it's a foreclosure and why should you offer more than what they're asking, while others are the complete opposite and offer the asking price to beat out all other offers. This is also why closing on a foreclosure can take months, a friend of mine put down her offer in September of 2009 and didn't hear from the bank until March of last year, but it's all because foreclosures are handled differently.

Diana

wow, i didn't know that!that's sucks then.

we really love this house and we would be sad to see it go to someone else i just hope our realtor knows what she is doing. she originally said we could offer 20% lower but we figured that would be insulting the bank ..so we only did 10% lower. i guess we will see what's going to happen.

[웃 910]

To be honest this is the first bank we went to, so should we also shop around?

One more thing...the home we found is a forclosure, it's listed at 184k, would it be ok to put an offer for 164k? what are the chances the bank will approve it?

Any advice?

thank you!!!!!!

Definitely shop around...You have a good 45 day window to apply for as many mortgages as you need to get the best rate....You may be worried that it will affect your credit file but to my understanding you are SUPPOSED TO shop around and all of your inquiries will be grouped together as 1 inquiry. In fact, you will probably get several notices in the mail or through email telling you to shop around!

I recommend PNC bank because I used them and they were great from start to finish...

But it is more the loan officer than the bank itself...

Now it sounds to me like you walked into a bank and said you wanted to apply for a mortgage. And that is how you got connected with that loan officer. You need to contact a good real estate agent. One that closes a lot of deals and has amazing connections....This type of agent is going to have several amazing loan officers that get sh!t done...

The most important player in the process is the loan officer. He is the one that will have to put together your file neatly and competently. It will be up for review by the loan underwriters (a team of bankers that will analyze your file to determine if you are qualified)....Any trouble such as a low credit score, an iffy job history, a student loan that had several missed payments, etc., it is the job of the LOAN OFFICER to convince the team of underwriters to approve of your file....He is basically your lawyer and representing you through the approval process.

I can guarantee one thing. They will ask your husband to write a letter of explanation on why he missed payments. Honestly, no excuse is a good excuse. But being overseas or on a ship is a halfway decent excuse so they may let him slide.

So you might as well tell him to write a paragraph or two explaining why he missed payments, or whatever the situation is....This letter of explanation will go into your file along with everything else (tax returns, IDs, pay stubs, etc.)

[silvana.toma 15]

Definitely shop around...You have a good 45 day window to apply for as many mortgages as you need to get the best rate....You may be worried that it will affect your credit file but to my understanding you are SUPPOSED TO shop around and all of your inquiries will be grouped together as 1 inquiry. In fact, you will probably get several notices in the mail or through email telling you to shop around!

I recommend PNC bank because I used them and they were great from start to finish...

But it is more the loan officer than the bank itself...

Now it sounds to me like you walked into a bank and said you wanted to apply for a mortgage. And that is how you got connected with that loan officer. You need to contact a good real estate agent. One that closes a lot of deals and has amazing connections....This type of agent is going to have several amazing loan officers that get sh!t done...

The most important player in the process is the loan officer. He is the one that will have to put together your file neatly and competently. It will be up for review by the loan underwriters (a team of bankers that will analyze your file to determine if you are qualified)....Any trouble such as a low credit score, an iffy job history, a student loan that had several missed payments, etc., it is the job of the LOAN OFFICER to convince the team of underwriters to approve of your file....He is basically your lawyer and representing you through the approval process.

I can guarantee one thing. They will ask your husband to write a letter of explanation on why he missed payments. Honestly, no excuse is a good excuse. But being overseas or on a ship is a halfway decent excuse so they may let him slide.

So you might as well tell him to write a paragraph or two explaining why he missed payments, or whatever the situation is....This letter of explanation will go into your file along with everything else (tax returns, IDs, pay stubs, etc.)

We have one realtor and two loan officers that we contacted to do this for us. When the time comes will choose the one that is more convenient for us. One of them asked for the sun and the moon, meaning all sorts of papers, phone numbers of tax lawyer that we used to file our taxes while we were on cruise ships, comcast, at&t, etc. Also she asked us to do an explanation letter as well. The other guy who we work for was really on top of things ...very quick, he got us a pre-aproval letter in a day, and he is not asking as much as the other lady. The only thing he told us to do is pay 1000 up front for the student loan to keep it under 5k, that's all.

We saw a home that was apraised at 320k, and the asking price is 184k, we put an offer on it for 164k and fingers crossed they will except it. Also i'm not sure if it's only in Virginia, but an option that we have is to do a agricultural loan, where we put no downpayment and we don't pay for the mortgage insurance , that can save you 100 dollars from your monthly mortgage, the only thing is that the house has to be in a specific area. Tis area we are looking into is up and comming, a lot of farm land, and a military base, no bad neighbourhoods or anything like that...it's just that is 30 min away from the city....but the home is 3200 sq/f so we are happy with driving

It's such an amazing time for us, as i will hopefully get my green card soon, and i can start going back to school, we are buying a home, it's so overwelming...in a few years when i will be a nurse, having a great home, i will look back and laugh at all the craziness that is happeneing right now...but hey..baby steps...will get you there!

i want to thank you all for beeing a part of everything we are trying to accomplish -house, school, green card...it's so amazing to have so much suport from people you never even met. I'm happy i have found you, and hopefully one day i can also be able to help others in their search.

[Fandango 1,439]

wow, i didn't know that!that's sucks then.

we really love this house and we would be sad to see it go to someone else i just hope our realtor knows what she is doing. she originally said we could offer 20% lower but we figured that would be insulting the bank ..so we only did 10% lower. i guess we will see what's going to happen.

When the mkt was at its highest, we were in what is called a 'highest and best' situation. Meaning: there are going to be multiple offers on the same property, so it's not a situation where you can do the standard offer-counteroffer-counter counteroffer, etc. Put your highest and best offer in, because in a multiple offer situation, one is going to be accepted/countered, and the others will be outright denied.

In my area, for an actual foreclosure, it's usually a gamble to lowball, because most foreclosures are going for so little money, that there are multiple offers, so it's a 'highest and best' situation.

I hope you get it though.

Here's a funny vid that always has me lolling....it's sarcastic, very exaggerated, but based in some truths in my experience.

Edited February 3, 2011 by Lisa C

[jjbandero 39]

We have one realtor and two loan officers that we contacted to do this for us. When the time comes will choose the one that is more convenient for us. One of them asked for the sun and the moon, meaning all sorts of papers, phone numbers of tax lawyer that we used to file our taxes while we were on cruise ships, comcast, at&t, etc. Also she asked us to do an explanation letter as well. The other guy who we work for was really on top of things ...very quick, he got us a pre-aproval letter in a day, and he is not asking as much as the other lady. The only thing he told us to do is pay 1000 up front for the student loan to keep it under 5k, that's all.

We saw a home that was apraised at 320k, and the asking price is 184k, we put an offer on it for 164k and fingers crossed they will except it. Also i'm not sure if it's only in Virginia, but an option that we have is to do a agricultural loan, where we put no downpayment and we don't pay for the mortgage insurance , that can save you 100 dollars from your monthly mortgage, the only thing is that the house has to be in a specific area. Tis area we are looking into is up and comming, a lot of farm land, and a military base, no bad neighbourhoods or anything like that...it's just that is 30 min away from the city....but the home is 3200 sq/f so we are happy with driving

It's such an amazing time for us, as i will hopefully get my green card soon, and i can start going back to school, we are buying a home, it's so overwelming...in a few years when i will be a nurse, having a great home, i will look back and laugh at all the craziness that is happeneing right now...but hey..baby steps...will get you there!

i want to thank you all for beeing a part of everything we are trying to accomplish -house, school, green card...it's so amazing to have so much suport from people you never even met. I'm happy i have found you, and hopefully one day i can also be able to help others in their search.

Congrats on finding a home you like so quickly, I hope it works out for you. Our home buying experience was pretty painful on the loan side, this was because both my husband and I were on the application, but I had only gotten my GV fairly recently. The problem was I not only had to prove my credit worthiness (I've working here for a few years), I had to prove my residency status to the bank. We also had some funds that were gifted to us from parents, which again took extra paperwork to prove validity. Luckily we had a good loan officer who responded to our questions outside of business hours and on weekends to get things done, he also chased the underwriter to speed hints up. Our agent also anticipated the delays and asked for a longer contingency period, I'm in CA and it's common to have 30 days but we had 45. We had to go down to the wire and it was real stressful.

Anyway, my advice is to start gathering the documents you will need for the loan now, so you are not in a rush later. Things like your tax records, proof of your cash, ID, pay slips, you will have to submit to pretty much any lender. Make a package with photocopies and electronic files so you can handover or email quickly. You don't want to be the bottleneck in the process, things take a long time as it is.

Best of luck!

[juliava 80]

We have one realtor and two loan officers that we contacted to do this for us. When the time comes will choose the one that is more convenient for us. One of them asked for the sun and the moon, meaning all sorts of papers, phone numbers of tax lawyer that we used to file our taxes while we were on cruise ships, comcast, at&t, etc. Also she asked us to do an explanation letter as well. The other guy who we work for was really on top of things ...very quick, he got us a pre-aproval letter in a day, and he is not asking as much as the other lady. The only thing he told us to do is pay 1000 up front for the student loan to keep it under 5k, that's all.

We saw a home that was apraised at 320k, and the asking price is 184k, we put an offer on it for 164k and fingers crossed they will except it. Also i'm not sure if it's only in Virginia, but an option that we have is to do a agricultural loan, where we put no downpayment and we don't pay for the mortgage insurance , that can save you 100 dollars from your monthly mortgage, the only thing is that the house has to be in a specific area. Tis area we are looking into is up and comming, a lot of farm land, and a military base, no bad neighbourhoods or anything like that...it's just that is 30 min away from the city....but the home is 3200 sq/f so we are happy with driving

It's such an amazing time for us, as i will hopefully get my green card soon, and i can start going back to school, we are buying a home, it's so overwelming...in a few years when i will be a nurse, having a great home, i will look back and laugh at all the craziness that is happeneing right now...but hey..baby steps...will get you there!

i want to thank you all for beeing a part of everything we are trying to accomplish -house, school, green card...it's so amazing to have so much suport from people you never even met. I'm happy i have found you, and hopefully one day i can also be able to help others in their search.

Oh, Silvana, I know very well how you feel. Be prepared for a lot of positive changes and jut let them be!I felt overwhelmed as well, as I was not used to go through so many changes/accomplishments in a very short time, at our age. Heck, given my Romanian background, I didn't even know how to dream about many of them, but they happened anyway and they are still happening.

Living away from big and noicy cities, but not too far, was our goal as well. We prefer enjoying a pretty quiet life. Be very careful what area you choose to live though, so your property value would not continue to go down. Check carefully on the condition of each house, especially basements. Stay away from mold, that's always bad news. I will keep my fingers crossed for you, as it's still a very good time to buy!

[tanyaru 3]

We have one realtor and two loan officers that we contacted to do this for us. When the time comes will choose the one that is more convenient for us. One of them asked for the sun and the moon, meaning all sorts of papers, phone numbers of tax lawyer that we used to file our taxes while we were on cruise ships, comcast, at&t, etc. Also she asked us to do an explanation letter as well. The other guy who we work for was really on top of things ...very quick, he got us a pre-aproval letter in a day, and he is not asking as much as the other lady. The only thing he told us to do is pay 1000 up front for the student loan to keep it under 5k, that's all.

We saw a home that was apraised at 320k, and the asking price is 184k, we put an offer on it for 164k and fingers crossed they will except it. Also i'm not sure if it's only in Virginia, but an option that we have is to do a agricultural loan, where we put no downpayment and we don't pay for the mortgage insurance , that can save you 100 dollars from your monthly mortgage, the only thing is that the house has to be in a specific area. Tis area we are looking into is up and comming, a lot of farm land, and a military base, no bad neighbourhoods or anything like that...it's just that is 30 min away from the city....but the home is 3200 sq/f so we are happy with driving

It's such an amazing time for us, as i will hopefully get my green card soon, and i can start going back to school, we are buying a home, it's so overwelming...in a few years when i will be a nurse, having a great home, i will look back and laugh at all the craziness that is happeneing right now...but hey..baby steps...will get you there!

i want to thank you all for beeing a part of everything we are trying to accomplish -house, school, green card...it's so amazing to have so much suport from people you never even met. I'm happy i have found you, and hopefully one day i can also be able to help others in their search.

Loan officer who is asking for all the papers is doing a right thing because numbers may not show the entire picture up front. You may get pre-approved based on numbers but then later on when it goes to underwriting things may change based on additional paperwork they need. When it comes tomortgage it is better to go an extra mile with pre-approval.

[luckytxn 2,264]

We have one realtor and two loan officers that we contacted to do this for us. When the time comes will choose the one that is more convenient for us. One of them asked for the sun and the moon, meaning all sorts of papers, phone numbers of tax lawyer that we used to file our taxes while we were on cruise ships, comcast, at&t, etc. Also she asked us to do an explanation letter as well. The other guy who we work for was really on top of things ...very quick, he got us a pre-aproval letter in a day, and he is not asking as much as the other lady. The only thing he told us to do is pay 1000 up front for the student loan to keep it under 5k, that's all.

We saw a home that was apraised at 320k, and the asking price is 184k, we put an offer on it for 164k and fingers crossed they will except it. Also i'm not sure if it's only in Virginia, but an option that we have is to do a agricultural loan, where we put no downpayment and we don't pay for the mortgage insurance , that can save you 100 dollars from your monthly mortgage, the only thing is that the house has to be in a specific area. Tis area we are looking into is up and comming, a lot of farm land, and a military base, no bad neighbourhoods or anything like that...it's just that is 30 min away from the city....but the home is 3200 sq/f so we are happy with driving

It's such an amazing time for us, as i will hopefully get my green card soon, and i can start going back to school, we are buying a home, it's so overwelming...in a few years when i will be a nurse, having a great home, i will look back and laugh at all the craziness that is happeneing right now...but hey..baby steps...will get you there!

i want to thank you all for beeing a part of everything we are trying to accomplish -house, school, green card...it's so amazing to have so much suport from people you never even met. I'm happy i have found you, and hopefully one day i can also be able to help others in their search.

First of all many congrats and God bless you both. The Realtor was right it is normal to make a 20% low ball as a start but banks usually reject the first offer and try to get you to pay the full amount they wanted. The reason they say to start at a 20% low ball is so that you can try to get the house for the 10 percent under. I am glad that you have found the house of your dreams but do not ever let them know that. In fact keep looking at a few more houses just in case. There are usually several houses of ones dreams. Banks want to rid themselves of homes but they also want to make a profit and many just say NO. Be prepared for this.

The best thing is to make sure you both gather everything needed to get the loan. Since this is y'alls first they will want all bills for the past year and some even want bank statements but they may want a letter from your landlord and if in your rental under a year a letter from past landlord. The not paying on the student loan for so long may bite y'all in the rear. They will try to raise the interest rate up so if they do make sure and ask them about being able to lower the rate in the future after paying faithfully for a set time. Some banks will do this. Also be ready for an employer letter.

Also make sure there are no liens at all on the property. Lenders usually make you buy lien protection for this reason. Buy it especially since it is a foreclosure. Make sure that the property is appraised and also make sure that it is inspected for insect infestation. (termites, carpenter ants, etc.) Many new owners get a surprise when they find that what is a cosmetic enhancement is really covering up a major problem.

Make sure that y'all have some money in savings when this is done. Things come up that need taken care of always. Do not totally drain the savings.

[silvana.toma 15]

First i would like to tahnk you guys for all the info.

Now I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

SO, we started working with this realtor, and as i was looking on realtor.com, i was sending her all the homes i am interested in so she can tell us what she knows about them since they are all in the area where she works. To all the homes i sent to her she said that they are either short sales, or in bad neighbourhoods.

Then i saw a home that i really liked and i called her, and she said that house was taken off the market in december. So i called the realtor for that house, and he said that the house is still on the market and he showed it to us. Right after we saw the house our realtor calls us to go and see the home we liked cause is still on the market, she told us she made a mistake or something like that. We already looked at the home, so we played along...we told her we will take a look at it. After 30 min we called her and told her we like the home and we would like to put an offer on it.

SO, few days ago we put an offer on it, and the bank made a counteroffer. As OUR reraltor was explaining to us the counteroffer, me and my hubby were trying to figure out our new offer, i felt she was more on the bank side then ours. I think she wants us to offer more(even if there are no other offers to the house and in this area people are not killing themselves to buy anyway), just so that the bank agrees, and so she can get her comision, and don't have to work too much...as she never came with us to any of the homes we saw...she gave us the code to get in and we did llooked at 3,4, homes ourselves. Even this house that i found that we love i found it myself on realtor.com, when she told me NOT to look on the website, because that's what SHE IS THERE FOR....

I noticed she was sending us to few homes in a neighbourhood called caroline pines, and as i was browsing the realtor.com last night i came across a home i liked, that she said it's in a bad neighbourhood....so when i looked at the subdivision name(as there are only 4 of them in this region)it was caroline pines!!!!!!!!!SO.....she told me this home is in a bad neighbourhood ...when a day later she sends us to see like 3 homes in that specific neighbourhood...#######?

Then i did some more research...and all the homes she sent us see are the homes she represents...and i don't mind that, but at least when i tell you i like something don't lie just so that i can go and buy the home you want me to buy cause you get more comision beeing the buyers and sellers realtor....

This home is 3200 sq/f, and needs brand new carpet, and tile in the kitchen,and walls painted(as there is cinderella and batman everywhere on the walls)...a handyman to fix the window where the dog chew on it....so we are looking at a lot our of pocket expenses...so i was hoping we get an agressive realtor that will watch our best interest, and not her own best interest. The bank wants us to put 4k in closing costs plus pay the full amount that they are asking...she told us to pay 6k more and reduce the closing cost by 1,500...####### negociating is that??????????????

my hubby is talking to someone who knows a good realtor, so we might just get someone else as this woman..is just not what we were hoping for....

what should we do?

[luckytxn 2,264]

First i would like to tahnk you guys for all the info.

Now I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

SO, we started working with this realtor, and as i was looking on realtor.com, i was sending her all the homes i am interested in so she can tell us what she knows about them since they are all in the area where she works. To all the homes i sent to her she said that they are either short sales, or in bad neighbourhoods.

Then i saw a home that i really liked and i called her, and she said that house was taken off the market in december. So i called the realtor for that house, and he said that the house is still on the market and he showed it to us. Right after we saw the house our realtor calls us to go and see the home we liked cause is still on the market, she told us she made a mistake or something like that. We already looked at the home, so we played along...we told her we will take a look at it. After 30 min we called her and told her we like the home and we would like to put an offer on it.

SO, few days ago we put an offer on it, and the bank made a counteroffer. As OUR reraltor was explaining to us the counteroffer, me and my hubby were trying to figure out our new offer, i felt she was more on the bank side then ours. I think she wants us to offer more(even if there are no other offers to the house and in this area people are not killing themselves to buy anyway), just so that the bank agrees, and so she can get her comision, and don't have to work too much...as she never came with us to any of the homes we saw...she gave us the code to get in and we did llooked at 3,4, homes ourselves. Even this house that i found that we love i found it myself on realtor.com, when she told me NOT to look on the website, because that's what SHE IS THERE FOR....

I noticed she was sending us to few homes in a neighbourhood called caroline pines, and as i was browsing the realtor.com last night i came across a home i liked, that she said it's in a bad neighbourhood....so when i looked at the subdivision name(as there are only 4 of them in this region)it was caroline pines!!!!!!!!!SO.....she told me this home is in a bad neighbourhood ...when a day later she sends us to see like 3 homes in that specific neighbourhood...#######?

Then i did some more research...and all the homes she sent us see are the homes she represents...and i don't mind that, but at least when i tell you i like something don't lie just so that i can go and buy the home you want me to buy cause you get more comision beeing the buyers and sellers realtor....

This home is 3200 sq/f, and needs brand new carpet, and tile in the kitchen,and walls painted(as there is cinderella and batman everywhere on the walls)...a handyman to fix the window where the dog chew on it....so we are looking at a lot our of pocket expenses...so i was hoping we get an agressive realtor that will watch our best interest, and not her own best interest. The bank wants us to put 4k in closing costs plus pay the full amount that they are asking...she told us to pay 6k more and reduce the closing cost by 1,500...####### negociating is that??????????????

my hubby is talking to someone who knows a good realtor, so we might just get someone else as this woman..is just not what we were hoping for....

what should we do?

See about the other Realtor. I have heard about these so called buyers Realtors before but they still get a commission off of the house being sold so they also are working for the seller too. Of course they are going to try to make sure you look at the houses they are themselves contracted to sell as they get full commission. If they show one they don't they will be paying a Realtor half of their commission. I am sure you know this by now.

The best thing is to just play tough and do as you both want and make the offer you want. If she balks too much then say she is fired and good bye. Since you are trying to get a house through the bank then it is hard to fight too much. Usually when it is a house from the seller you can negotiate that they pay half of the closing costs and also to have them pay for the inspections. Not so here so much. It used to be that banks would take any reasonable offer but now they get a lot of money from the Feds that they can sit on houses and wait to unload homes so their incentive has been lost. I have seen this down where I live. The banks are making counter offers that are usually over what they are worth or close to it. They are now in the housing market to make a profit and more. The good thing is that banks can now make loans at least anyway.

This is why I said before to not be in love with any one house and be prepared to walk away. When they see that you are walking away their incentive is to soften down and be more reasonable. The paying more closing costs sometimes means that you are paying points that means you save on interest and in the long run will save money. This can be good but since it is your first home maybe it is good but also unneeded. At the least be aware that NO Realtor is their solely for you. A buyers Realtor is just talk. They only make money from the sellers. Of course you need to pay for the house for the seller to make money to pay the Realtor but they make their money from the seller when the check is cashed and disbursements are made.

[juliava 80]

First i would like to tahnk you guys for all the info.

Now I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

SO, we started working with this realtor, and as i was looking on realtor.com, i was sending her all the homes i am interested in so she can tell us what she knows about them since they are all in the area where she works. To all the homes i sent to her she said that they are either short sales, or in bad neighbourhoods.

Then i saw a home that i really liked and i called her, and she said that house was taken off the market in december. So i called the realtor for that house, and he said that the house is still on the market and he showed it to us. Right after we saw the house our realtor calls us to go and see the home we liked cause is still on the market, she told us she made a mistake or something like that. We already looked at the home, so we played along...we told her we will take a look at it. After 30 min we called her and told her we like the home and we would like to put an offer on it.

SO, few days ago we put an offer on it, and the bank made a counteroffer. As OUR reraltor was explaining to us the counteroffer, me and my hubby were trying to figure out our new offer, i felt she was more on the bank side then ours. I think she wants us to offer more(even if there are no other offers to the house and in this area people are not killing themselves to buy anyway), just so that the bank agrees, and so she can get her comision, and don't have to work too much...as she never came with us to any of the homes we saw...she gave us the code to get in and we did llooked at 3,4, homes ourselves. Even this house that i found that we love i found it myself on realtor.com, when she told me NOT to look on the website, because that's what SHE IS THERE FOR....

I noticed she was sending us to few homes in a neighbourhood called caroline pines, and as i was browsing the realtor.com last night i came across a home i liked, that she said it's in a bad neighbourhood....so when i looked at the subdivision name(as there are only 4 of them in this region)it was caroline pines!!!!!!!!!SO.....she told me this home is in a bad neighbourhood ...when a day later she sends us to see like 3 homes in that specific neighbourhood...#######?

Then i did some more research...and all the homes she sent us see are the homes she represents...and i don't mind that, but at least when i tell you i like something don't lie just so that i can go and buy the home you want me to buy cause you get more comision beeing the buyers and sellers realtor....

This home is 3200 sq/f, and needs brand new carpet, and tile in the kitchen,and walls painted(as there is cinderella and batman everywhere on the walls)...a handyman to fix the window where the dog chew on it....so we are looking at a lot our of pocket expenses...so i was hoping we get an agressive realtor that will watch our best interest, and not her own best interest. The bank wants us to put 4k in closing costs plus pay the full amount that they are asking...she told us to pay 6k more and reduce the closing cost by 1,500...####### negociating is that??????????????

my hubby is talking to someone who knows a good realtor, so we might just get someone else as this woman..is just not what we were hoping for....

what should we do?

Take your time when you look at houses. Don't worry, the right one WILL come along, you don;t have to rush into the first one you see!It took us 3 months to find something that we liked and we placed several offers on different houses and obviously we "lost" several times. But the one we found after all these "failures" made up for all the frustration we went through.

I would say stay away from short sales and foreclosures, buying those are always a huge hassle!

[silvana.toma 15]

Yes, that's what we are going to do, stay away for a while(a week maybe) and then make another offer, so we don't look desperate...

This realtor drives me crazy, she was telling us that 30k more on a house equals $15 more on your mortgage...so if a home instead of 150k is 180k the difference is only $15 come on...how can you say such stupid things especially that you are a realtor, i understand the fact she is not a bank person, but that is just comon knowledge.

Not to mention she comes up with these ridiculous ideeas for our new offer...this house is listed at 154k...and our offer was at 144k, plus they pay all closing. The bank came back and said 154k plus we will have to pay half of closing costs-4500. So now this realtor tells me we should offer 160k and pay only 2500 in closing. What kind of negociating is this?? so i said we will pay 150k and they will pay 75% of closing...then hopefully they will say:ok we pay full price and they pay all closing....that's how you negociate...but then again this woman she just wants the comision, nothing more, she doesn't even try...

We tell her we don't want condo or just one story house, 60% of her ideeas were: -CONDO'S AND ONE STORY HOMES...it's like...are you serious?

Not to mention she is lying to us just so that we buy the homes she represents.

we need someone who knows what they are doing, because as much as i understand that they work on comision, i also understand that i am not an idiot, and i can always get rid of her.

She thinks we are first time homebuyers and don't know anything, so based on that she can just do whatever she wants with us, well she is right on the first part..i don't know much about real estate, but i am not stupid, i use to work in sales, i use to work with art(the biggest crooks there are, that's why we left), for god sakes, i know the dirty side of sales, but i never lied, or gave people misleading information just to get the sale.

As a sales person-weather you are selling a gym membership, or a house, or a picasso painting never asume anything about your potential client,because he might seem like a novice, and he might even be a novice in that area, but never underestimate someone's inteligence, we live in a world where you have internet in your bathroom, so you should always do the right thing even when nobody is watching...because it can always come back and bite you in the ####.

This home is 154k, and needs work for about 10k, so that would be 164k, this home is 3200 sq/f, 5 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 car garage, it'a an amazing home build in 2003. There is another home just like this one(same builder)for 184k, so we would be lucky to get it...

Now we were aproved for a lot more, but i stick to that- 2 and a half more than your anula salary that's how much your home should cost. I noticed this is or at least use to be a big problem some americans have/had...they buy homes they can not afford, and then they get their credit card maxed out, then they loose their job and things start to go downhill from there....

[Mononoke28 135]

She sounds like a horrible realtor to me. A realtor should be on your side, offer good advice if you ask for it, and do everything she can to keep you happy. My realtor, actually we had two because it was a married couple and they work as a team, only showed us homes in the area and the size we requested. Out of all the homes we went to see, only 1 was one was theirs, the rest were from all kinds of other realtors.

Also, what's this nonsense about her giving you the codes of the houses you're interested in seeing for you to see them yourselves? Was she not available? As a seller, I would feel very uncomfortable if I knew that buyers were coming in to see my house without their realtor. It sounds kind of unprofessional to me.

I hope you end up with a good realtor because that makes a whole lot of difference!

Diana

[juliava 80]

She sounds like a horrible realtor to me. A realtor should be on your side, offer good advice if you ask for it, and do everything she can to keep you happy. My realtor, actually we had two because it was a married couple and they work as a team, only showed us homes in the area and the size we requested. Out of all the homes we went to see, only 1 was one was theirs, the rest were from all kinds of other realtors.

Also, what's this nonsense about her giving you the codes of the houses you're interested in seeing for you to see them yourselves? Was she not available? As a seller, I would feel very uncomfortable if I knew that buyers were coming in to see my house without their realtor. It sounds kind of unprofessional to me.

I hope you end up with a good realtor because that makes a whole lot of difference!

Diana

I agree. As far as I know it is against the law for a realtor to provide the codes of the houses to his clients.