First-time buyer (Williamsburg, Gainesville: rental, insurance, mortgage broker) - Virginia (VA) - City-Data Forum

meandb · 01-19-2007, 08:36 AM

Can you tell me what your experience was if you bought within the last year in Va - how does this all work; what type of "advantage" did you get? What kind of interest rates are out there right now - we're overseas and can't really re-evaluate our salary until fall...Thanks!

Mr Williamsburg · 01-19-2007, 09:02 AM

As an FYI I have worked with many first time buyers in Virginia. Depending on your situation i.e. credit scores,income, military or not. Quite a few have been able to buy with very little cash outlay. Most between $0 and $1000. Loan rates go up and down every day and range from around 6-6.5 % depending. You may want to talk to a lender now. They can explain how it works and how much cash you would need. If you do it in advance it will give you time to plan for what you need to do for a future purchase. If you would like to communicate with them PM me and I will put you in touch. They usually have the best rates available and the lowest monthly payments. Unfortunatelly there are a lot of mortgage companies that will charge uneccessary fees. If you are a first time buyer you may not be aware of this and it can be a little intimidating when you look at a good faith estimate with so many numbers and fees on it. If nothing else shop around, try to use one of the larger mortgage companies. Compare the cash needed to close along with the monthly payments. Look to see that they all are using the same numbers for insurance, taxes, closing costs, etc.
You should not have to pay an application fee, admin fee or numerous other charges. Hope this helps.

DavidS827 · 01-19-2007, 09:54 AM

An easy way to get a good guesstimate as to what the current rates are is to add 1.5 to the current yield on the 10 year t-bill. It's not perfect, but gives you a good place to start. As for programs, I would check out the programs offered by VHDA as well as a program called My Community Mortgage (MCM). The MCM program allows you to buy a house with as little as $500 down and many times the rates are a little better on this product than they would be on a standard product. Any competent loan officer should be able to explain the details, but feel free to ask away if you have any questions. I used to train loan officers and underwriters on this stuff, so I know it pretty well.

...one more thing...be careful when shopping around for your mortgage. Having your credit pulled too many times can (and often does) lower your credit score. I would suggest pulling your own credit when you're ready and knowing your credit score when you talk to the loan officer(s). They should be able to give you a very accurate estimate based on the info you give.

Good luck!

jmarkd · 01-19-2007, 01:44 PM

I am buying a house next week, actually.
I am getting a VHDA loan with the VA loan guarantee, so it's "VHDA-VA." From the VHDA side I get a low rate (5 7/8, which goes down to 5 1/8 with a 3-point buydown), and from the VA part of it, I can put nothing down and still don't have to pay mortgage insurance. The VA funding fee of 2.15% applies, but it can be rolled into the loan- in my case it was $150 a month for PMI vs. $50/month for the VA funding fee.
You're overseas...are you military? I got out of the Army and came back from Germany in May 06. We rented a place for the past several months until we found a house we wanted/ could afford. I highly recommend this course of action, as it will allow you to not only get to know the area, but you'll also be able to tell if "5 miles from work" is a 10-minute breeze or a 1-hour headache: you can't trust distances around northern Va.
Anyway, the VHDA program is for first-time buyers. Check out their site for current rates (vhda.com or just Google "VHDA"). The 5 1/8 is still an option. Their base rates are about .25 below the market, from what I've seen.
A good mortgage banker will know all about VHDA. Send me a private message if you want the info for my mortgage broker- he is a great guy and has helped me a lot.
There is a government-run Web site (www.annualcreditreport.com) that allows you to check your credit report for free from any of the three major bureaus. They will not give you a credit score for free, but seeing everything on the reports will allow you to clear up mistakes and problems before you buy in the fall.
Good luck! If you want more info or specifics feel free to send me a PM.

Lookingforasafehome · 01-23-2007, 12:21 PM

IF buying in Williamsburg, be esp wary of realtors, many are liars and are very dishonest people and some are ok too, but just beware! I been there and done that and got burnt really badly, and so has a few of my new friends where I live, you can sell and buy your home, you do not have to pay someone to do that you, you can go to sellyourownhome.com or helpusell.com and save thousands! I know people who did!!! Why not find out about it and at least be prepared..better than being burnt!

Lookingforasafehome · 01-23-2007, 12:38 PM

I would also do the following..

Take my time on finding a home, if you do work with a realtor, make them earn their money for you! They should be willing to show you many homes and not push you to take the first or even 8th one you seen...they should should show you home for as long as it takes you...and if they don't...run!

Know that some will not show you homes but will steer you to homes that will make them more money...even if you liked one better they may not put that offer in and say they did but that they did not hear back from the other agent, had that happen recently to me! They usually steer you to homes they make more commission on!

Get references! Some will actually be offended if you ask for one, as if you should know who they are and bow down to them! I am serious, ask anyhow and if they will not give you at least three..run away! Check them out well!

One actually charged me 800 dollars to sell me a home, and you are to never pay for someone to sell you a home, its against the law! But I was sooo trusting and niaeve back then...learn from my lessons! I have!

I could go on with more horror stories, but I really do think in todays world most people can buy or/and sell their homes if they have the will to do so, and the time and the desire to do so, if not then maybe a realtor is best for you but do know you do have options here and of course they will never tell you that, but you do!

Best of luck to you!~

shydimple5 · 05-05-2007, 08:46 AM

Hi there,

We would like to know more about the My Community Mortgage. We have been turned down for mortgage loans b/c of our low credit scores and it has been such a tideous journey!!!! I guess we have learned an expensive lesson as we have found out how our credit reports and scores work.
Right now, our highest scores are 500 and a 607, but we have some good credit tradelines and a great 2 year rental history. We would like to knpw if this type of mortgage can work for us and what needs to be done. We are in a very tight timeframe and we have very limited options. We have some money to put down, but we are hoping to not touch that unless it becomes necessary!

Thank you!!

DavidS827
Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Gainesville, VA
177 posts, read 30,791 times
Reputation: 23

An easy way to get a good guesstimate as to what the current rates are is to add 1.5 to the current yield on the 10 year t-bill. It's not perfect, but gives you a good place to start. As for programs, I would check out the programs offered by VHDA as well as a program called My Community Mortgage (MCM). The MCM program allows you to buy a house with as little as $500 down and many times the rates are a little better on this product than they would be on a standard product. Any competent loan officer should be able to explain the details, but feel free to ask away if you have any questions. I used to train loan officers and underwriters on this stuff, so I know it pretty well.

...one more thing...be careful when shopping around for your mortgage. Having your credit pulled too many times can (and often does) lower your credit score. I would suggest pulling your own credit when you're ready and knowing your credit score when you talk to the loan officer(s). They should be able to give you a very accurate estimate based on the info you give.

Good luck!

shellytc · 05-17-2007, 09:35 PM

it is always a good idea to pull your own credit report a couple of times a year to catch any "funny business" on your credit. However, when you are getting pre-approved for a loan the loan officer will have to pull credit again. It used to be each time your credit was pulled you would get dinged and your credit score's would lower. That has been changed now. you have the right to shop around for whatever loan is best for you and the only way to do that is to have your credit pulled. so don't worry, shop around. and now your scores first.

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