buying a house is stressin me out

[quadcam79]

my fiance and I have been looking at houses for a few months now, we would find one and before we had a chance to even go have a look it would be gone.
we were on our way to go look at 4 acres of land the other day and I told her we should stop off in this little area where there was a house for sale that we missed out on and see if there are others that arent listed . I had never been in that area so i wanted to see it anyway and some of my friends at work who live near there said it's "a nice quiet country area".

So she said ok and we jumped on the car ferry up the street and hit a1a north
anyway, we get to the little area and drive around just looking for places for sale and we find a few and some empty lots and I'm headed down this dead end street and I was about to turn when for some reason i decided to go just a little further down the road. thats when we found it, the perfect place.

I saw the for sale sign and a little box with flyers that had the home info on it. So I figure it's gonna be way overpriced, i was surprised to see they were only asking $99k for it. Just so happens the owners were out in the front yard at the time and a walked over to see how big the lot was, it was a little over an acre I had actually been looking for at least 2 acres but this was a really nice lot narrow (105' and long 450') and it was all surrounded with chain link fencing. So far so good, I ask about the house 2br/2ba...mmm not exactly what i was hoping for. So we went and had a look at it anyway, it was great, immaculate inside especially for a 9 yr old singlewide mobile home. I had expected it to be more cramped but it actually wasnt , it's 16'x66' and actually very roomy. It's also only about 3-4 miles to the beach and I can walk from this house to the river (ocean inlet really) 1/4 mile away where they are in the process of building a $3 million park area along the river and theres a boat launch just down the road where you can drop your boat in and access the atlantic ocean, Intracoastal waterway, and tons of small rivers and creeks

So on friday I told her we really need to get on it and make an offer on this place before someone else does. the realtor said "oh dont worry about an offer, I dont have anyone else looking at it, just concentrate on the financing"
I wasnt about to take any chances and we went and made an offer anyway. we offered $93k for it, I know the owners paid $89k for it a year ago so I figured with closing costs they should just about break even.

they have until 5pm Sunday to make a counter offer or accept our offer, meanwhile our mortgage broker is working on financing and it has me nervous.
for financial / credit and personal reasons we decided the place and the mortgage should just be in my fiances name alone. Her credit score is about the same as mine but where I have open debt on mine she has nothing open on hers just low scores under 600. Sh e was just hired as a nurse , making good $$ now , at least 4x what the mortgage would be on this place and has pretty much zero debt, she just has no revolving accounts to raise her scores

only thing concerning me at the moment is the mortgage industry is in a panic and tightening up on their lending criteria in a hurry as more and more lenders go under. She was prequalified for up to $130k with this lender but it's all still up to underwriting to approve the loan... We're stressed out, we are so close to being in our very own home for x-mas and yet still so far away..

I'm sure someone can relate to this situation...I just had to vent a little

[sammyd]

I think you are headed for disaster.
First you call it the perfect place then with every description it's "not what we really wanted"
You wanted 2+ you're settling for 1
You are getting 2BR 2 BA which is not exactly what you were hoping for.
You are letting your want of a house cloud your judgement and need to step back and take a deep breath and ask yourself if this is really waht you want. Once you do that I think your stress will go down a few notches.

[quadcam79]

Dont get me wrong we love this place, we just wanted more land but have to balance wants with the reality of just how much can we afford and not have to live paycheck to paycheck. We would rather settle for a smaller place and less land than have a $2000 a month mortgage hanging over our heads,

my fiance has been having issues with her back lately too so we have to take into account if she wasnt able to work for a few weeks could we afford the payments? With this place we can.

we figure we can keep this for awhile pay less then we pay in rent now and then sell it and use the equity to buy something a little bigger with more property.

I'm not even stressing out about the house as much as I am getting approval from the mortgage company, not that we couldn't make the payments, but banks area ll about the numbers. i have faith in our broker though,he'll make it work .

[Shinsan]

"We figure we can keep this for awhile, pay less then we pay in rent now, and then sell it and use the equity to buy something a little bigger with more property."

A very sensible approach. Put as much as you can possibly afford into the deposit, as this will reduce the ammount of interest. Then concentrate on reducing the mortgage as quickly as possible; the more equity you have in the property the more you will be able to 'afford' further down the track. Also, do as much as you can physically do yourself to improve the property; the returns on 'sweat equity' are much greater than paying someone else to do the work.

Do you have 'line of credit' loans in the US? Used properly, they can reduce the time of your loan by many years.

[HillsideHouse]

Have you called around for insurance rates? My sister is having to sell her home in FL because her insurance for a 900 sq ft house increased to $4,300 per year. Just a thought, you don't want to get shocked at the closing table!

Good Luck on your new house!!

Hillside

[quadcam79]

yeh the insurance on this place is $600 a year. But we were going to buy a different place and most companies wouldnt insure it all at all because it was right on the coast .alot of em wont write any new policies in florida at all. it's crazy, people paid in for years and years on insurance policies never filing loss claims, along come a few hurricanes in a row and when the insurance companies had to pay out on claims they all closed up shop and ran for the hills.

there needs to be some law that if you are an insurance provider and you actually have to honor your policies and pay up you cant just either close up and leave the state or make some ridiculous rate increase that nobody can afford to pay. your business is insurance "providing risk management to hedge against the risk of loss
in exchange for a premium" ...well some days your the bug and other days your the windshield...deal with it, pay for the losses you insured against and get back to business...but I'm getting OT and thats a whole other rant

[Wildwood Flower]

I think your approach is very sound too. One thing you don't want nowadays is a huge mortgage hanging over your heads. And 1 acre is a pretty good amount for a couple.

I also highly recommend that you add some extra to your monthly payments. And maybe even add a balloon payment every year. The sooner you pay it off, the better you'll feel.

Congratulations on the coming marriage, by the way.

I would have to ask, are you putting any money towards the down payment? Do you plan to help with the payments? If so, you should have this in BOTH your names. It will save a whole lot of grief later on.

Are you getting a good interest rate for the mortgage?

"Trust everybody, but make sure the cards are cut."

[chickenista]

Not to sound negative, but just wait!! It will get worse and much more stressful before it gets better... you can go back and find my house buying trauma/drama from June.. But it will all come to an end and there will be the exhausted first night in the new house where you can't see the floor for all of the boxes and a night spent on a mattress on the floor will be the best sleep of your life..hint.. unpack and plug in coffee pot the night before..you do not want to be digging for a cup of coffee in the morning! Enjoy and congratulations!

[jen74145]

Also, tyr to split your monthly payment into two parts; if it's say, eight hundred a month, see if the company will let you pay 400 on the first and another 400 on the fifteenth. Will save you alot of interest, as will just one extra payment a year... make sure you mark that payment "for principle only" or they'll apply it to your escrow or whereveer else they want and never say a thing to you about it.

[quietstar]

Please check all facts in the current home market. Do a Google search of the home foreclosure rate in Florida, how much values there are declining, not to mention difficulty in financing any manufactured home which likely explains the slow loan approval. You will find you are shopping in a Buyers market, driven by the fact that Florida is suffering record home foreclosures which are predicted to continue through 2008. Check it out, take advantage and good luck ...Glen

[quadcam79]

Thanks for the tips
Wildflower, yes I'm helping with the payments, most of the reason for being in her name only is as soon as my daughters mother finds out i'm buying a house she'll be hauling me back to court trying to get even more child support. this way, I'M not buying anything...my fiance is. secondly, my credit is pretty thrashed , chapter 7 etc etc.. as far as the interest rate, eh not too bad considering the low credit scores , 7% but once she has established a decent line of credit we can refinance for a lower rate, maybe a year from now.

Chickenista, lucky for me I dont have the coffee addiction, she does though...i'll keep the coffee maker tip in mind, could save me from having a real bad day in the future LOL

quietstar, I'm aware of the Florida market, it's a mess. I was starting to buy/sell real estate contracts when the market crashed. luckily i wasnt stuck with any contracts but I sure learned how it works.