Movin_on_up, thnak you my friend!
Updating!!!
There have been a few exciting developments!!!
So I decided to summarize our journey in some sort of a chronologcial order so that you dont have to read all the way down or up (depending on your settings) to get the beginning of the story.
Before October 2014: Spoke with a lender, just to get a general idea of where we are and what we need, sent in some docs but were hesitant to pull the trigger. He didn't seem to really want to help us anyways. He said contact him back when we have some more money in the bank and when we are sure our credit score is better enough that we can justify a hard pull for him to see what it is. I know he was a right in a sense and would he have been more enthusiastic and more supportive, we would have felt more comfortable. I'm glad it turned out that way because we love our current lender!!!
October 17: Opened this thread. Saw a sign on the road with a number, called, didnt like the guy, but he said he worked with someone else in a different office, a different lender, gave us the number, thats how we found our current lender. He is always always pleasant, answers quickly, explains thoroughly and is always excited about his job and about helping us.
We sent in all the docs.
October 22: Lender said we are preapproved for up to $225k. He called it prequalified though and I got so nervous but he said they used interchangeably so it’s actually a preapproval. We will be using a downpayment assistance program that our city offers for first time homebuyers that provides up to $20k for downpayment and closing costs for qualified applicants. Of course they have income restrictions. That limits our search area.
We toyed with the idea of MPDU, which is a first time homebuyer program that enters you in a lottery for a brand new construction (townhome) that you get for about half of its actual value. The price of the home is “controlled” by the city (as well as how much you can resell it if you decide to). Went to the seminars and send docs but its too much bureaucracy, its on the back burner.
October 25: Our scores by lender pull are Experian: 649 Equifax: 654 Transunion:= 666
Middle score 654, exactly what it says here on my fico. They used the 04 version.
November 05: Our preapproval amount was increased to $250k after realizing there was nothing around in a 30-40 mile radius what would be acceptable and pass FHA. 40 miles means over an hour, actually close to an hour and a half in traffic in our DC area. Meeting with a realtor for the first time. It was okay…
November 11: Met with another realtor who really convinced us to work with him instead. It’s a tough world for realtors out there. The first one was a young, timid, petite lady in her early twenties who seemed really nice but over the months (since we have not signed any agreement with her, we haven’t told her we are not using her, simply because she has not found us anything, she says things are slow and she will try after the holidays… felt bad at first but, she really isn’t trying). The new realtor is active, dynamic, always in touch, and doesn’t text us saying “hey”.
December 26: Things got kind of slow and we were started to get a little frustrated mainly because the inventory in our area is so low for our budget. And just when we were getting annoyed, our realtor insisted we pick a couple of homes to go see among the listings even if nothing seemed appealing. That was a great call. One of the homes we saw really grew on us and it is great value for the price. It’s an approved short sale, the bank already took ownership of the home but the sellers still live in there. They are very motivated offering 3%. The home is $265k.
December 28: Put in an offer for $255k, it wont go much lower because its already in the end stages of the short sale process but instead of the 3% we are asking them to reduce the sales price by a similar amount.
Good Faith Estimate put the total amount needed for settlement at $20,000.68. We would need to bring 68 cents to the table!!! We were also preparing earnest money of $1,000.
December 29: Just got word from the lender that we have no reserve requirements which got us soooo excited!!! Just waiting for to hear back about the offer.
Three issues we have identified:
The parking situation. It looks as though we might only have 1 parking spot assigned in front of the home which is a problem. There is also a faint cigarette smell in the home. It’s really faint but it’s there, we would need to find a way to get rid of it. Finally, the 2 full baths upstairs will need redone. The value of the home is $290k says Zillow/Redfin/Trulia… but of course its to take with a grain of salt.
01/15 EQ 663 TU 669 EX 674 09/14 EQ 653 TU 635 EX 651
10/13 EQ 579 TU 580 EX 598
BoA 1.5k I Cap1Sec 0.6k I Cap1 QS 6k I Synchrony 1k I Barclays 1k
- Goals - Refi car loan 24% to 15% 12/13
Buy a home spring 2015: in progress; Pay off car loan spring 2016 balance $6200
Discover It $2200, 
Credit One $600, 
Ann Taylor $500, 
VS $150, 
Amazon Prime $100, 
Cap 1 $450, 
Navy Federal $200
