Anyone with experience buying a home...Help wanted. (Jackson: low income, real estate)

[MommyOf36]

Does anyone know if Mississippi has 100 Percent Financing options?
My family and I just relocated and all of our savings went to that.
We are first time home buyers and really have no idea where to start.
Are we suppose to find a Realtor first? Or do we get the loan first?
Does anyone know any good places to go for both?
My main question is about the 100 Percent Financing options though. If not we will Have to start looking next year.
Thanks so much for any help.

[linicx]

I do not have to live in Mississipi. But to tell you the truth, it iwll almost be impossible to get a 1000% loan unless you have low income, steady job and very good credit. You do not want to be conned into an ARM - Adjustable Rate Mortgage at any rate, even 0% because your interest rate and payment can be raised at any time for any reason. This is what happened to many of the people whose houses were foreclosed. They had a low rate and an ARM.

What you want is a FIXED RATE loan. Be patient and realistic. Go with your hometown bank. Open an account and keep money in it. Your banker will want at least 20% down. Your payment may not be greater than 1/4 of your monthly take home pay. That is to say .. $250 of each $1000 you earn in ONE month. Your total monthly house payment will include principle, interest, and insurance. Buy the worst house in the BEST neighorhood and fix it up. Build equity in it. And sell it 5 year later. By then the housing market will have stabilzed and you will have alittle profit. IF. IF you didn't go hogwild and by every expenive thing you saw to put in it. .

Closing costs include things sucn as House Inspection ( a absolute must - even if it is new), termite inspection, loan generation fees, stare and county fees, a year per-paid insurance and legal fees to read the Abstract. Closing costs can run from $1000-$5000. Do not get conned into paying ANY realtors fees. The realtors get their cut of the pie from the SELLERS closing costs after everything is signed and you go home. Buyers do not pay realty fees. IF you have even one doubt. Stop and call a lawyer. It may save you a bundle of money.

County and city taxes vary from county to county. Real estate taxes, depending upon where you live and the house you buy can run $200 to $5000 per year.

Do yourself a favor. Take a year to get your money together. During that time take some real estate courses. I found one realtor in 5 years that was absolutly honest. Before you buy talk to people who own, and find out who their realtor was and how pleased they were. The one name that keeps popping up is the only realtor you want. Then go to the realtor and talk about houses, what you want and what you can realisticlly afford. Most of the time, the numbers do not match.
Right now a small one bedroom will cost about $50k. That price will come down about 5K before the house market stabilizes. This is what most older one bedrooms houses are actually worth.

Home inspections can reveal everything from tornado damage to a roof double tapped circuits in an electrical panel in the basement to foundation problems. this is why you pay $250 to the nice man. Mold will kill you or make your kids very sick. It belongs outside. You belong insiide in a mold-free house. YOu keep it mold-free by not opening doors and windows in nice weather.

There is nothing wrong with well and septic as long as the state health depeartment passes it. If not, someone has to pay to seal the well, and dig the ditches and lay water and sewer lines and then pay to connect water and sewer to the nearest city. $10,000 minimum. A small roof is good for $5k. Two hundred for new toilet. $1000 for new plumbing. $2k for a furncse. It all adds up. This is why you need to cough up $1000 for the three inspections. I paid for inspections on three houses before one passed MOLD inspection. Any building that sits empty for six months with no heat or air conditioning is an expensive journey waiing to happen. To remitigate MOLD can cost as little as 30K for a basement and as much as 100k for a whole house.

This is a lot of information. Your area may not charge as much as mine. It's still money you do not want to spend unnecessarily.

Got questions? IM me.

[jacksonian]

Where are you looking to buy?

My wife and I bought our first house last year in Jackson with 100% financing with a fixed rate. The only up front costs to us were the closing costs, which came out to be $2-3k. Your best bet is to contact a local lender and they will tell you what your options are. They will take your info and see what you qualify for. We had a great experience with our lender, so if you want the contact info, just send me a pm.

[TimtheGuy]

Originally Posted by MommyOf36

Does anyone know if Mississippi has 100 Percent Financing options?
My family and I just relocated and all of our savings went to that.
We are first time home buyers and really have no idea where to start.
Are we suppose to find a Realtor first? Or do we get the loan first?
Does anyone know any good places to go for both?
My main question is about the 100 Percent Financing options though. If not we will Have to start looking next year.
Thanks so much for any help.

You are probably going to have to save up 3.5% down. This is the minimum down requirement for FHA loans. Find an FHA lender and get pre-approved.

It is unlikely that you will find any $0 down programs.

[Ceetee]

Hi

100% financing is available through a USDA Rural Development Loan. There are some restrictions especially with the location of the property. The property must be in an area that qualifies for the loan.

There are huge benefits to getting pre-approved for a loan prior to making contact with a realtor. You will know exactly how much you can afford and you can take your time to shop around for loans rather than having to do it in a hurry once you find the home of your dreams.

Let me know if you require any further info

Caroline

[auntbee]

I don't know what area you are looking at, but I've noticed that there area several lease to own properties in the Jackson paper lately. That might be a good option for you to start with. That way you would also know exactly which area you want to live in before you buy.

[mshomeinfo]

MommyOf 36 - there are 100% financing options in MS. As mentioned above, there is USDA Rural Development Loan. There is also MS Bond program and MS Downpayment Assistance. Find a Local Realtor who is knowladgeable about these programs. If you are looking in Northwest MS, I would be glad to help.

[poptones]

Keep in mind this IS a good time to buy - there's a glut of homes on the market now in foreclosure. My house was listed by the bank at 24,900 and I put it a bid of 11,500 and got it. I later found out they had previously turned down a bid of 14,000 but that was because the buyer could nto get financing and the deal fell through.

Buying a run down house is a commitment. I looked at my house and saw great opportunity but I love old stuff and the act of fixing things. If you're not one of those people, buying "the worse house on the block" is NOT the way to go, you'll just be miserable and stuck in the worse house on the block. But if you can get financing (my house at present could not be financed again because of its poor condition - its not a lot of money to fix if you diy but it is very involved work replacing major floor joists and shoring up footings) and you have the time or a good enough job you can afford to pay others to do much of the work for you over time, then "building equity" can be the way to go - otherwise, just "build equity" by buying a nicer, fairly NEW house now while they are cheap and keeping up the payments until the housing market recovers. Just remember that building equity means nothing if no one with money will want to live in your neighborhood... location is critical to building equity!