Looking for ANOTHER MORTGAGE. Good Banks?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am looking to buy another house and wanted to know which banks are good ones to consider. This will be my 3rd house and the two I have now are both paid off. My mortgage company was Bank Of America, it was originally a different bank that sold them my loan. I been reading some news on BofA and thought maybe I should try another bank, or should I stay with the same bank since I have a good history (payoff) with them? Any lending companies, banks, or credit unions I should look into? I live in California if that helps. 

Also since we are on the topic of buying a house. Would Q1 of 2012 be a good time to buy or should I want for Q2 etc? I would like to purchase a used (bank owned) house. Any information or suggestions would help. Even though I have experience in home buying please school me like this is my first house. I would like to hear everyone's thoughts and knowledge. 

Thank you

[Booner72]

Hi GibsonJohn - Have you looked at Fannie Mae's HOMEPATH houses?  They are bank owned.  They do their own financing and give good closing credit.  (3.5%).  We loved working with them.  You can go to their website now and see what they have - they do have a "first look " period for first time homeowners to use the home as primary residence, so you might have to wait until the house is up for anyone to buy it after that period, I think 30 days.

Freddie does "homesteps" and that one comes with a warranty - some say it's a scam, some say it saved their arses.

I used Academy mortgage and they sold my loan to Wells - it was a G RE A T company.

Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, I'll look into it. Are you saying Academy was great or Wellsfrago? As for the warranty with used home I'm not sure about. I have bought a used home before and didn't even think about a warranty on a used home. How is having a warranty a scam or because it is an extra charge?

[Booner72]

Both have been great so far.

The "scam" is that they really don't repair anything - at least that is what I've read.  I don't have any firsthand knowledge.

[dbailey1010]

I worked with a company who did contract work for American Home Shield.  I thought it was a really good investment (I think about $400 a year) and worth the money if something goes bad.  I have seen them cover an entire AC or heating system minus some little pieces but covered 95% of the bill.  Even if you clog your toilet they came out and you only pay a copayment.  There are different plans you can chose from and you can have the agreement of sale include the warranty by the seller at settlement. That was a big thing around here when I was going real estate. Again, it depends what plan you buy but I think it is definitely worth it if you are buying a used home or even a new one after a year.

[IOBA]

My 2 cents...

Home Warranty -- the first one I had was awesome through the first two replacement appliances.   BUT after that, they kinda kept dropping the ball on replacing the third appliance that went out.   I got a new fridge (although not as good as the one I had) and a new dryer out of it.   They said I qualified for a new oven, but never seemed to decide one which one they would replace it with.  In the end, the warranty ran out and they wanted me to pay them another $450 for a new one and I would have to pay out another $50 deductible.

FreddieMac -- horrible, horrible experience (in the end) with them.  Their home warranty isn't worth much at all.  I read through all the information I could on the warranty program.   They have co-pays and financial limits on what they pay for.   In the end, due to the listing agent not doing his job, and what may have been an attempted scam,  our first offer was never fully presented to FM, and the counter offer was never even presented to FM, so walked away from the house.  (Ironically, the price dropped 30k the following week...go figure!)

Choose the home warranty with care - but yes, in my opinion, it's worth it, but not the one FM offers.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info. Does it matter which time of the year I apply for a new loan? Also should I apply for a loan in person with a bank I know or go through an online loan copy? Right now I was thinking of reapplying with BofA and one of our local credit union. 

Any more suggestions would be great.

Thanks

[IOBA]

I prefer making contact with a live person (either in person or over the phone) build a little repore, and have someone watching for my online application.  I found the house first, then app'd.   I needed the pre-approval right away, so made the phone call, then did the online app.

That worked out that someone was looking for the app and immediately processsed it to get the pre-approval letter done.

First quarter is good.   In the second quarter, more people list and sell their house -- just in time for school out and summer.   

[Anonymous]

I would feel better applying in person and locally as well. At least I know who I am talking to when I see them face to face.

Not sure if anyone knows this but if I apply with more than one bank (3 banks?) will that lower my credit score. Those inquires would be consider hard inquires when I try to apply for a house loans right?

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would feel better applying in person and locally as well. At least I know who I am talking to when I see them face to face.

Not sure if anyone knows this but if I apply with more than one bank (3 banks?) will that lower my credit score. Those inquires would be consider hard inquires when I try to apply for a house loans right?

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Welcome to myFICO.

FICO scoring has a "de-duplication window" and it looks at your history for the last 12 months, and when it sees two or more hard inqs for the same type of mortgage or auto loan it will ignore all but one of them as far as scoring is concerned. If the lender is using an older FICO scoring model the window is 14 days, if they are using the newest model it can be up to 45 days. Also keep in mind that even though the multiple inqs count as one in FICO scoring, all of the inqs will continue to show on your reports (that is, reports pulled from sites other than myfico) for up to 2 years.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".