First Time Homebuyer - Please look these terms over for me

[Anonymous]

Hello, I'm a first time homeowner and even though I've read all the books available on home buying and did extensive research on the Internet, I feel I'm still lost. Today I went to Countrywide to see what I'd qualify for and then I'll start looking at houses. I'm married, but my wife only works few hours here and there as a temp, so I'll be the one applying.

Here's my info: I'm looking at FHA 30 year fixed loans. Don't have any lates ever, bankruptcies or anything else on my credit report - I pulled all 3 reports and my scores are all about 715-725. My only problem is my high utilization, I make $6000 a month (before taxes) and my credit card and car payments are $1025 total. I have a full time and a part time job. My part time job started as a full time 3 years ago, but then I changed it to a part time after I received an offer to teach at the university full time, where I've been for a year now. I'm interested in about $150,000 houses in my city in Louisiana, so today I started the process to get pre-approved. I have $10,000 available for downpayment and closing costs. Here're Countrywide's terms. I think this looks fine and is acceptable, but could you please also look it over and see if it's OK and I'm not getting ripped off. Do you think with my stats I could qualify for lower rate, or should I also try at another bank just to have something to compare to?

Sales Price 150K
Down Payment 4500
Loan Amount 158,046
Note rate 6% for 30 years fixed FHA loan
1 Point @ $1,480
Appraisal fee $440
Credit Report $35
Tax Service Fee $107
Flood Determination fee $26
Underwriting Fee $410
Attorney's Fees $350
Title Insurance $650
Insured Closing Letter - Settlement Agent $25
Recording Fee $235
Total closing costs $3758.46

Thank you so much! This forum has been invaluable to me.

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

If you are looking at keeping your "cash to close" figure low - then FHA would be a good option for you.  If you had 10% or more down then I'd recommend you look into conventional financing.

At the time you posted, on 9/19/08, a 6% rate with 1 point wouldn't be very good for an FHA loan.  Rates got really low that week, and Countrywide is notorious for not having very competitive terms, so it's not surprising that was their offer at the time.  Today though, it's an OK offer, might be able to find 6% with less points but it's not a bad offer by any means.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for your answer, I had already given up on hearing back from anyone

If Countrywide is known for their high rates, can you please recommend where I can apply for a low rate for 30 year fixed, FHA loan with 0 points? Countrywide's current rate for those terms is 6.25%. I've already filled out request forms on the Internet - web-sites such as lendingtree, e-loan, etc. and I haven't since heard from any of them or their referrals. I also talked to Bank of America, and their rate is even higher at 6.5%, the same at my local bank - Regions. Please help me find a lower rate. Thanks a lot!

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

I think it's against the TOS to recommend certain banks and/or individuals (or at least that is what I been told, not sure if that has changed).  I prefer to do my FHA loans through a lender which is unavaiable on a retail level, they are only available through credit unions & brokering.  You would just have to search your prospective lender/loan officer out. 

I can tell you that since you've put your info on LendingTree & E-Loan, prepared to get phone calls for the next few months regarding the mortgage.  They say only a few lenders get them, but sometimes one of those lenders is actually re-selling your information to more lenders, etc. and that is when the snowball effect happens.  I'd never recommend anyone put information on a website that says it'll forward it to other lenders because #1 you don't know who those other lenders are, #2 you don't know how many credit inquiries it will rack up, and #3 you could get phone calls & emails for months longer than you want to.