Mortgage Complications

I'm learning more and more about mortgages each time we can't get one. After looking at those houses last weekend, we decided we liked the latter one, on Courtney Avenue. It's an AMAZINGLY well maintained house with original floors, moldings, fireplaces... We loved it! The basement was clean and usable. Nobody had painted over the stair banister. The copper was still in place. As Eddie joked to our wonderfully wonderful realtor, Chris, it had us at "you-don't-need-a-drill-to-get-in" and "you-can-walk-around-without-flashlights."

Then...the mortgage. We talked to three new banks (not Wells Fargo, the one that approved us for our loan that we ended up not taking). All of them said that it looks like we would not qualify for a loan (although we would need to actually apply for pre-qualification before they could reject us officially).

This house costs $15,500 less than the other house and we are going to lay down 20% for this house rather than just 3% for the other house. So, technically, if we had gotten a loan for the other house, getting this one should be a piece of cake. The most informative person in the whole process was Keith at HVFCU. He kept plugging in numbers for me so we could troubleshoot our loan-worthiness.

It turns out that Wells Fargo was possibly very forgiving and allowed us a higher debt-to-income ratio than other banks would have because they assessed and took into consideration the increased value of the house after our renovations. Those few percentages of allowed ratio make a big difference. The difference, for us, between a 45% debt-to-income ratio ($45 per $100 of income we could spend on mortgage) and a 50% dti ratio is about $90,000.

The higher down payment you're willing to lay out and the better your credit score also bumps up those percentage points. If you have a credit score less than 720, you automatically have to pay an origination fee of .5% of your mortgage. So, it makes sense for us to take some money that we had saved to pay down our debt, and hopefully increase our credit score and lower our monthly debt expenses.

Well, the point of all this, is, I think the property (pictured in this post) we were all set to buy in June, and had a mortgage for, is now back on the market. I just saw it relisted on the CitiMortgage website, but that could be a glitch in their machinery. I hope not. If we can, we're going to buy it. With a straight mortgage and renovation loan and cross our fingers that the magic of its numbers still work.

Rewind

Ah, fall. When the slate is clean, again. Well, we pressed the rewind button, and we're where we were exactly a year ago. Eddie just found a job and we're attempting to buy a house. The only difference is that I'm in a social work program and now I have an internship on weekends, so I don't have any time to spend on a fixer-upper. We'll have to look at houses that are move-in ready. In many ways, this makes the prospect of buying a house less exciting.

One of the two properties we're going to look at tomorrow:

Unfortunately, it's not move-in ready, as our realtor revealed to us only after we decided it's perfect for us. It needs new plumbing and electrical wiring, but we're going to take a look anyway since it's in a great location (river views!!!).

Then the second place is only a few blocks away:



Anyhow, we're back in the market!!

Price Decrease

So...I'm still tracking the property on realtor.com and the price went down by $10,000! It all doesn't matter until Eddie finds a job, of course. On that front, he's had two interviews but no job offers.

Our apartment in Ditmas Park is pretty awesome, so maybe it's all a sign we need to stay in Brooklyn.

Mount Saint Mary/Saint Luke's Hospital Grant

Here's more information on applying for the Homeownership Incentive Grant from Mt. St. Mary and St. Luke's Hospital.

The grant is for $10,000 towards the downpayment/closing cost/renovation of your prospective home, if it is located within a certain radius of the college and hospital. It is basically within the boundaries of Robinson, North, Liberty and Broadway. Grants are first distributed to employees of either institutions, but the grant becomes available to community members in July (2009).

The grant is administered through Pathstone/Rural Opportunities. In order to be eligible, you have to meet the income requirements ($43,050 for a one-person household, $49,200 for a two-person, $55,350 for a three-person, $61,500 for four-person, etc.) and then attend the first-time homebuyer's course.

The next information session for the homebuyer's course is Monday, June 29, 2009. It takes place in Newburgh on 36 Chambers Street at 5pm.

The number for Pathstone/ROI is (845) 569-0770. For more information, there is a recorded message on ext.1.

Plan B

Our new timeline:

June
Eddie finds a job *right now*!

July
Receive grant from Mt. Saint Mary College/St. Luke's Hospital ($10,000)
Receive RECAP grant ($24,000)

August
Apply for mortgage. This time, if we get the grants (to cover the 20% downpayment), we'll try for a traditional mortgage and renovation loan. Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union offered a great rate for that combined loan (less than 5.5%) and the closing costs were half what it is for an FHA loan. Plus, no mortgage insurance.

September
Close on the house. Maybe. Hopefully.

In the Meantime...

While Eddie is looking for a new job, I'm thinking of how to fill up blog posts until we finally get our house. I'm not qualified to write about much...maybe post pictures of my stamp collection or my japanese pen collection. I'm obsessed with these Hi-Tec-C Pilot pens:

Backtracking

Everytime I think we're going to get the house, something happens and I have to backpedal. Well, Eddie lost his job and now we have to postpone buying the house - once more. Hopefully something will turn up soon before it gets vandalized, again. There is already an emaciated pit bull chained to the backyard and signs of squatters in the carriage house.