Six Months And Counting Down Until We House Shop!

[Anonymous]

I've been looking over the numbers and how to make buying a home work.  I finally have a goal and think that I will be in a position to start looking in April or May 2016.  My goal is to have a house purchased by the end of June 2016 so that my son can begin the new school year in something we can call our own.

I currently pay $2,250 a month in rent (yes, yikes, don't get me started, it's a long story how we ended up here).  My mortgage scores are EX 662, TU 681, EQ 684 so my mid-score is currently in decent shape and my discharge will be 2 years in December.  I started looking and found the FHA limits are $274,900 in my county AND I took a quick peak online and found that there are currently a lot of options in that price range with all of the things I want and still keep my son in his same school.

My only debt right now is my car loan ($645/month) and CC bills which will be PIF in December so I'm good there.  I figure I can have $15K saved by the end of April and $20K saved by the end of June.  That should be more than enough to cover the down payment at 3.5%-5% and closing costs plus still give me a buffer for anything unexpected.  In addition there is some money in my 401k but I don't want to touch it if I can avoid it.  My gross income is good so I don't think that will be a problem from a DTI (front or back end) perspective.

The only issue might be the 17, 9 30 inquiries but I don't want to wait 2 years for them to all fall off.  I figure if I stay on my best behavior, give them 6+ months to age a bit, I should be ok there too.

So that's it, there are my goals.  Need to post and keep myself accountable, save all the extra pennies (or pick them up from the sidewalk) I can to make this a reality!!!

[Anonymous]

Goodluck! Our goal is to speak with a LO in June to see if we can qualify for a mortgage.  It will be here before we know it!

[Anne1208]

My husband and I will probably get preapproved in February.  Do yourself a favor and go to a credit union or bank you trust and have them run numbers for you and go over your file and see what you will need for sure at the price you want.  My husband and I did it July 3 - the credit union lady spent 2+ hours with us going through everything. It was the best thing we could have ever done!!  We were completely elated in our moods walking out bc we felt like we knew where we stood and exactly what we had left to do.

My husband had low 600s scores and a lack of credit history, too, so she was able to set some stuff up for us (took out a secure loan on his Jeep to pay for all my credit card debt, opened up a new joint card, etc). Since then our scores have improved a lot.

It REALLY helped us and make us feel like we are super prepared when we go back. When we went to begin with we went in hoping she could help us get to where we need in 12-24 months. It was so helpful we will be plenty ready to go in 7-8 months instead! if there is something you're missing or overlooking, it's better to do it now when you've got 6 months worth of time on your side.

[Anonymous]

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@Anne1208 wrote:

My husband and I will probably get preapproved in February.  Do yourself a favor and go to a credit union or bank you trust and have them run numbers for you and go over your file and see what you will need for sure at the price you want.  My husband and I did it July 3 - the credit union lady spent 2+ hours with us going through everything. It was the best thing we could have ever done!!  We were completely elated in our moods walking out bc we felt like we knew where we stood and exactly what we had left to do.

My husband had low 600s scores and a lack of credit history, too, so she was able to set some stuff up for us (took out a secure loan on his Jeep to pay for all my credit card debt, opened up a new joint card, etc). Since then our scores have improved a lot.

It REALLY helped us and make us feel like we are super prepared when we go back. When we went to begin with we went in hoping she could help us get to where we need in 12-24 months. It was so helpful we will be plenty ready to go in 7-8 months instead! if there is something you're missing or overlooking, it's better to do it now when you've got 6 months worth of time on your side.

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Yes, I was planning on doing this in the next 2 weeks.  My local CU was awesome with my car loan and they do FHA loans according to their website.  I want to really make sure I understand what documents I'll need to get pre-approved and exactly what type of funds they think I'll need to bring to the table.  I want to understand what I might be looking at bare minimum cash wise since I only have real control over that right now.  My credit is what it is and the only thing I can do is garden until I'm ready.  

I never expected to be ready to look so quickly, I was thinking of waiting until 2018 to buy, but after really looking and running the numbers, it is realistic to do it sooner rather than later due to how much I pay in rent.  I don't want to move my son again temporarily in order to cut the rent, I'd rather just purchase and get him somewhere stable.

[Anne1208]

I understand!! As long as you've done all the leg work and had a little bit of time to get stuff on track you will probably be able to buy way sooner than you thought.

My credit union has been awesome as well. Plus, they changed their mortgage application policy to only show inquiries past 6 months instead of 12, and their PMI is discounted pretty much 50% off of what I thought we'd be paying...so once I saw when our credit inquiries would all fall off for mortgage purposes with them (January) and realized for us we will need $7k less upfront PMI than i thought, and our scores went up surprisingly fast, it just is all falling into place much quicker.  We are relieved. 

We are in a rental and have been for years. I am so tired of it!

[Anonymous]

Well, I changed the title of this post, I might not have to wait 6 months any more!!!  I contacted my realtor today about purchasing by the end of June and he gave me the name of two mortgage brokers he works with.  Called the first one, she sighed when I told her about the Ch7, but will have someone call me back.  Called the second one and WELL AWESOME!!!!

My scores have changed since I last pulled them - 664, 671, 693 (mid went down, high went up.......) but he's says they are fine, the ch7 isn't an issue for them and even with me aggressively rebuilding and my new car the past couple of months, he doesn't see any red flags on getting pre-qualified for the FHA max.  I explained that I did an aggressive rebuild and bought a new car, then turned right around and refinanced it all in the past two months because I originally wasn't going to buy a house for two more years and he didn't even flinch, lol.  He said not to worry about that!

He said not to stress about my scores, unless I can get the middle score above 700, which is pretty much impossible.  So now it's a race to see how quickly I can save for my downpayment!  They said they have lenders that there are options so that I don't have to pay closing costs and that they would work aggressively to try and make sure that all I have to come to the table with is my downpayment!

So far refreshing to know this may happen sooner, rather than later!  I'm trying to contain my excitement