Preferably someone you've actually used and not just your local bank.

All I'm concerned about is the APR.

Also, any suggetions for an attorney to use would also be appreciated.

11/19/2006 9:40:02 AM

I know people who used Austin Herbert (former state punter) and were pleased. I used a friend of mine at American Home Mortgage.

11/19/2006 10:31:37 AM

herbert works for corchiani (sp?)

so you could hook up a total NC State mortgage if thats your thing

11/19/2006 10:34:15 AM

NC State mortgage?

11/19/2006 10:35:06 AM

you are officially too retarded to own a home

11/19/2006 10:35:36 AM

What makes you say that?

11/19/2006 10:38:34 AM

i've got two good referral sources that i use, please let me know where you are in the buying process and i'll see if im comfortable recommending you

i also have an attorney that i send people to, but you may want to ask your lender who they work with so you can be assured of good communication and a smooth closing process

and apr is not the only factor, trust is the big one, some of the people out there are just shady, flexibility is number two, you want the loan you want, not the one the lender wants to give you, if you see a non-market apr, get ready to take it on the fees

both of my contacts usually work someing out in the way of discounted fees since i'm sending them business, and no, i don't get compensated in any way for the referrals i make

[Edited on November 19, 2006 at 10:57 AM. Reason : -words]

11/19/2006 10:54:21 AM

if you are stupid enough to go to a mortgage broker instead of <insert large nationwide bank of your choice here> then just shoot yourself now

11/19/2006 10:58:36 AM

I never said I was against going with a bank. I plan on going with SECU most likely. I didn't want someone recommending Wachovia, BOA, etc. just because the have a checking account with them.

Drtaylor, I signed the papers for the house yesterday. I've got a week to tell my builder who I'm going to use and I am not supposed change lenders after a month.

11/19/2006 11:39:16 AM

June Fail - CTX Mortgage
919-783-7890 xt 3109

11/19/2006 11:59:03 AM

why is it a problem to go with a mortgage broker

11/19/2006 12:56:06 PM

http://www.daylightdiscountmortgage.com/

PM bous for more details

you won't beat the rates

11/19/2006 2:14:59 PM

i'll be beating the rates in florida soon. i got a 97 on my test

11/19/2006 2:16:40 PM

NO NO NO, don't just be concerned with APR! Do your homework. There are many things to consider -- closing costs, loan terms, variable rates, rate caps, how much to put down, if it's worth it to pay points to get a lower rate...

First, pick out exactly the type of loan you want to get. For example, 30 year fixed or 5/1 ARM with 2/2/6 caps. Figure out if you're putting 20% down or want to do something like an 80/10/10. DO NOT PAY PMI!!! There is no need for it. Split the loan with a HELOC if you don't have 20% to put down and you'll avoid PMI.

Then, get at least 10 good faith estimates of the same type of loan to compare apples to apples. Learn exactly what all the costs are. The Saturday N&O has a listing of lenders and their rates. Also check out bankrate.com to find lenders and their approximate current rates. You should only have your credit checked once. Do not have it checked for every estimate or there's a chance all of the checking will affect your score. I got my first good faith estimate from the NC employees credit union. They pulled my credit score and gave me a copy of the report. I then just told the other lenders I was getting estimates from my scores and they used that.

Your real estate agent will almost always refer you to a few brokers. DO NOT simply call them up and pick one. You'll get screwed. When I purchased my last house, my agent referred me to 3. She said she greatly preferred to work with these because she has relationships with them and trusts them, blah blah blah, and probably gets a cut.

I called them up and asked for the terms. 2 were way high on the rate and costs. One was competitive. I had this one to prepare all the paperwork and went in to sign things. Turns out, she added a "misc fee" to the good faith estimate for $900. I asked about this because it wasn't on any other good faith estimate I received and she said that's the fee to her company. This was on top of loan origination fee. Anyway, it was bullshit. She couldn't explain why I should be charged an origination fee and the misc fee and thought I'd just sign things and could screw me for $900.

It takes a lot of time to shop around for a loan but it is well worth it. Buyers sweat over negotiating to save $1000 on the price of a house and then blindly pick a loan, when they could have saved $1000 on closing costs and many $1000's over the course of the loan.

11/19/2006 3:46:48 PM

^^^i second daylight discount mortgage

they were in wall street journal recently as one of the top 5 most competitive mortgage companies in the nation

[Edited on November 19, 2006 at 3:49 PM. Reason : ^]

11/19/2006 3:48:28 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions. At least the constructive ones. I realize there are other things to worry about besides api, I just didn't want a long list of places that people recommend to first time buyers who want to put 0% down or a slew of other "special" programs. I just looked at the front of daylight's page and the rates look damn good. Do you guys know if they do a lock offhand?

11/19/2006 4:17:50 PM

also, don't be tied into a local bank or lender because "we're local - you can come in and talk to us whenever you want." That's simply their way of saying "please, oh please, don't go to the interweb and get a loan much cheaper than us".

I financed my mortgage through Fonville Morresy, and they gave me that line of crap - "we're right here in town, come on in if you ever have any questions".
We'll, it's been over 2 years since closing now, and i've had ZERO problems with my loan that couldn't be solved with an email or a phone call to an 800 number. There is hardly a reason to ever have to go back to the bank after closing and your fees are paid and stuff.
Plus, Fonville Morresy sold the mortgage to Citimortgage within about 3 months anyway, and of course Citibank doesn't have a branch around here. I've talked to Citimortgage a couple times about various questions on the phone, and the confirmed "well, technically we owned the mortgage the whole time anyway. FM was just the closer."

11/19/2006 4:38:39 PM

I'll take care of him.

11/19/2006 4:49:13 PM

I went with the 90% SECU Adjustable.

Yes, it's an ARM, but I didn't have to get a 2nd mortgage to get out of PMI. The rate is great for the first 4 years at least as well. The paperwork & closing costs are tiny in comparison to regular mortgages as well.

If you dont have 20%, this is definetly a great option.

[Edited on November 19, 2006 at 7:49 PM. Reason : ]

11/19/2006 7:49:03 PM

paid for in the rate

11/19/2006 8:09:20 PM

ya, because 5.75 is a terrible initial rate now for a 30 yr. loan..... years 3 & 4 it is 6.75 at most.

That is so bad The 2-3k savings in closing costs suck as well

11/19/2006 8:33:42 PM

6.75? Where did you get that from?

11/19/2006 9:20:23 PM

It's an Adjustable rate mortgage. The SECU does their mortgages as a 2yr./2yr. 1% adjustable rate.

That means your rate changes every 2 years. It can change by 1% each time. Your rate starts at 5.75, so it can go up to 6.75 for years 3 & 4. The reason I said it would likely be 6.75 is that the rate is based on current T-bill rates & that would increase it to 6.75, assuming rates do not go down.

If you assume the T-bill rate stays the same (in reality that's unlikely though), your ARM rate would be 5.75 the first 2 years, 6.75 years 3 & 4, & like 7.375 years 5-30. Most people who get ARM's, only plan on keeping them 5-8 years or less though.

If this is good for you depends on your plans about the house. I only plan to live in my house ~5 years.

If you plan on staying in your house a long time, then you are better off getting a fixed rate & buying points, because that will be better long term. ARM's with low closing costs are much better short term though. The break even point is like 5-8 years, depending on whether or not you can put 20% down on initially, to avoid PMI or a 2nd mortgage. (it's ~5yrs. if this is the case, more if you can't do this)

[Edited on November 19, 2006 at 10:07 PM. Reason : ]

11/19/2006 10:01:16 PM

Ok, that was a little more comprehensible compared to your previous post but still, 6.75 isn't very good.

11/19/2006 10:09:49 PM

daylight discount ftw.

11/19/2006 10:23:57 PM

Ya, that's not great, but it's not that bad either. But that's the most it can be & I'm saving a good bit of money the first 2 years, so that it is not a big deal. If I decide I'm gonna stay in my house longer, then I may refinance. I mainly went this route since I'm not sure how long I'll stay here & since I don't have 20%.

11/19/2006 10:27:39 PM

yeah, but when you refinance you'll have to pay more $$$ for closing costs, I'll probably stick with 30 yr fixed since the diff between that and a 5/1 arm is so small

How do you know of them slut?

[Edited on November 19, 2006 at 10:35 PM. Reason : ]

11/19/2006 10:34:31 PM

30 year = ass raped.

11/19/2006 10:47:12 PM

When the hell did the lounge turn into chit chat?

11/19/2006 10:52:05 PM

30 year = ass raped.?

leave the lounge please.


DEFINATELY recomment going with a 30f versus an ARM. ARMs are not what they were 3 years ago, only a .250% to the rate difference = not worth it versus refinancing at the end of the, say, 5 year term.


If you're 100% you're not staying in the home for x amount of time, an arm will be fine.

[Edited on November 19, 2006 at 11:18 PM. Reason : ]

11/19/2006 11:16:17 PM

i close on a home tomorrow, i went with First South Bank here in Raleigh, I qualified for their first time home buyers program which got me into a government program and my interest rate is 5.625% for a 30 year fixed loan... and that's with borrowing 100%. yeah, i gotta pay PMI but it will only be arond $50 per month and I will come out ahead doing it this way rather then settling for a 80/20 loan which would have a higher rate.

11/20/2006 8:46:05 AM

Quote :

"yeah, i gotta pay PMI but it will only be arond $50 per month and I will come out ahead doing it this way rather then settling for a 80/20 loan which would have a higher rate"

Could be close since your PMI payment would be pretty small. But you also have to consider that the PMI you pay is not tax deductable, whereas your payments for the "20" part of the 80/20 loan would be.

11/20/2006 9:43:29 AM

Just called First South. 30 yr was 6.5, worst % I've seen thus far out of the places I've called.

11/20/2006 9:58:17 AM

It seems life half the places I quote me at 6.25 and the other half quote me 5.875.

11/20/2006 11:02:18 AM

there are no refinancing costs if you go the secu route. I did same as other guy, except ours was 5.25, plan on refinancing with a fixed rate around 6% when I get my 20%. So in a year I have to pay for a new appraisal (to help with the equity) and thats the only refinancing cost assuming (and I will) refiance with secu.

11/20/2006 11:10:54 AM

I don't plan on refinancing.

11/20/2006 11:39:51 AM

Well that's just something else to consider the SECU. If you know you'll be there at least 5 years then go the fixed route. But with ARM, you can easily refinance to avoid the higher interest rates in the future, assuming you still are planning on staying long term. So I'll 5.75 for 2 yrs., then if I decide I'll be around, it's easy to refinance to get whatever their rate is then, which will probably be in the 6% neighborhood. The 6.75 in 3 & 4 is the most you'd pay & that's only if rates go up.

The savings in closing, no PMI, & in the first 2 yrs. (with 5.75) really do add up to alot of savings. With my 140k mortgage, I'll have saved 7k over the first 2 years compared to a fixed rate at 6.25.

So I have short term security & if I stay longer, I refinance & still come out okay, as long as rates don't skyrocket, which is highly unlikely.

[Edited on November 20, 2006 at 12:10 PM. Reason : ]

11/20/2006 12:09:11 PM

I'm not sure why you think the rate will be at 6% in two years.

11/20/2006 12:12:41 PM

I said maybe the rate is 6% because that is probably a high end estimate of where it will be, if you assume the economy continues a good pace of growth. It's likely to be much better than though.

The rate forcasts I have seen suggest the interest rates will continue to climb somewhat into early 2007. Then the cycle of rate cutting should begin again, with cuts possibly extending into 2008, to reestablish the feds "neutral" target funds level, which is ~4.5 (it's currently like 5-5.25). The housing downturn likely will create pressure for further downturn, pushing it to ~4 or even lower.

Here's one such forecast:

http://www.billcara.com/ML%20Oct%2024%202006%20Rosenberg's%20outlook%20for%202007%20rates.pdf

Of course this is just a forecast, if this is the case, then I'll refinance around 5%. A bad case senario would say 6%. Either way, I'll have saved money over going the fixed route already.

Fixed rates are good only if you can't see yourself moving within 5 years & you don't think rates will go down within 5 years. I'm just trying to help you make an educated decision.

[Edited on November 20, 2006 at 2:04 PM. Reason : ]

11/20/2006 1:56:01 PM

bttt

and thanks drtaylor for the recco

11/29/2006 1:14:50 PM

i went with a man named don percise at triangle lending group, he's good. They have a program whre you can borrow 100% and not pay PMI. All they request of you is to take this class downtown on a saturday afternoon. Thats it, no other gimmicks. The program is actually through bank of america though, so try going directly through them. I'm sure I got screwed a littel on closing costs since I had him broker it through BOA instead of me goign to them directly. In fact, the broker fee on the GFE was 1% of the cost, so about 1700 dollars out of my pocket. other than that everything is solid. check it out.

11/29/2006 1:24:19 PM

I'm using al floyd for bank of america but he's based in SC

check into there 1st time buyer loan...

1pt below market 100% financing no pmi

11/29/2006 1:47:44 PM

Are there any income restraints on that?

11/29/2006 2:37:19 PM

for mine it was a household income restraint. As long as the total income for the household is less than 75k you're golden.

11/29/2006 3:10:25 PM

Is this what you are talking about?

http://www.bankofamerica.com/loansandhomes/index.cfm?template=lc_mort_special_fha

11/29/2006 3:25:29 PM

try e-loan

im serious

11/29/2006 5:07:18 PM

Why?

11/29/2006 5:20:10 PM

I went through Coastal Federal Credit Union.

I tried Lending Tree, but found that the most of the lenders were higher than my credit union. The other lenders were only barely able to undercut my credit union and a couple of them tried to deceive me on the closing costs. Their "Good Faith Estimates" didn't match what they had told me verbally.

11/29/2006 5:27:00 PM

Quote :

"Are there any income restraints on that?"

yeah like 80% of the local avg

or... be in an approved census tract (which i am) that has a history of low income (history being 50 years ago works)

11/29/2006 6:44:40 PM

So much for that...

11/29/2006 6:57:24 PM