Homepath 3.5% closing cost incentive

[Anonymous]

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@Booner72 wrote:

OMG.  That totally sucks.  The hotline I'm referring to for homepath is for  something the along the lines of "If you think an investor is getting ahead of a first time homebuyer" type thing.  I called that number and was able to find out the status of the offer/counteroffer game a few times. 

You might try Homesteps hotline and see if you get anywhere.  I'll agree that our grass is dead too from poor maintenance.  They didn't flip the switch in the garage to have power so they used a hose-sprinkler instead of the sprinkler system.  Also didn't mow enough, so the long-dead-grass killed the good grass in patches covering 1/2 the lawn.  It's stupid too because we personally saw the maintenance guy here all the time before we moved in.

Good luck with the rest of it.  At least you left your mark, and maybe someone will read about freddie's shoddy homesteps and think again.

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+1

I also found the contact info for the HomeSteps regional manager. He will be receiving a nice long letter accompanied by pictures after we move in.

[Trondul]

Sorry to hear about your troubles with Homesteps.  I do have to say though, (to give props where they're due, not to rub it in) Homepath has been pretty painless so far. I've gone back and forth on two rounds of offer/counteroffer and finally accepted their latest counter this morning.   They didn't come down all that much, but to be honest it was a pretty good deal to start with.  I viewed the place last week and it is super clean and all the stuff is still there.  Heck, both garage door openers are included and one of them was obviously on the shelf and looks like it has never been used.

If everything goes right, I'll be closing on the 28th.  Wish me luck and thanks again for the good info.

[mindaugas]

Just wanted to say thanks for the post, this is good info. Jumping into the foray, put an offer in on Monday with homepath. We actually put in a pretty strong $4k off asking with a lender letter.

So you can use FHA with homepath? Doesn't that defeat the purpose since the benefit of homepath is no mortgage insurance?

[welshdan]

We were meant to close on a homepath today with FHA and 3.5% closing cost (and my agent gets a $1200 bonus)

But Fannie Mae kindly let us know 2 days ago that the bank haven't finished foreclosure proceedings on the house so they don't have a title/house to sell.

They jumped the gun a bit :'( But am not sure if this is Fannie Mae's fault or the previous owners banks fault for not closing the case.

House listed at $115,900 in August, reduced to $98,000 at end of August, I offered $90,000 at end of August and they stuck firm at $98k the whole time.

So we dealed at $98,000, house appraised for $107,000 so am very happy.

[Booner72]

It made more economic sense to go FHA for us.  The homepath financing doesn't require PMI, but the interest rate is about 1 point higher - and PMI goes away after 5 years, 1 percent doesn't. 

[Trondul]

>Doesn't that defeat the purpose since the benefit of homepath is no mortgage insurance?

Yeah, but like Booner said the rate is a fair bit higher.  I'm doing a 15 year so the MI is much lower than a 30 and will drop off in about 3.5 years.  Also in my case, I just rehabbed my student loans in July and the defaults are still showing on Equifax and TU (even though they are supposed to be removed and I have documentation from Dept. of Ed. saying that.)  That keeps me from qualifying for a conventional loan, which is how Homepath is underwritten.  So its either buy now with an FHA or wait until the credit bureaus get their stuff fixed. 

In any event, an FHA 15 year is a better deal than a Homepath 15 year unless your credit score is over 740 and/or you're putting 5-10%+ down.

[mindaugas]

Thanks, that what I was thinking but we really need our closing costs paid. We can try and get that from the bank but we already went in under homepath. We accepted a counter, see how it goes. We're just $500 under asking, appraised for about $2k more but there isn't anything in our area that is comporable without going up $20k.

Listed at $124,900, put in $120k with closing paid by homepath, bank countered with $124k all closing costs paid. We're accepting that.

[Booner72]

I still got the 3.5% closing cost assistance even though I didn't use their financing.  We went in with less than the FHA downpayment.

[mauve]

Ugh, Freddie was a PiTA.  Why did I have to have my broker and realtor EXPLAIN to them how the FHA 203(k) program works?  It was baffling that they didn't understand it.  My broker made a tactical error during re-negotiations when the appraisal came in low.  Also, their solution for "water leak during inspection" was "cut off water supply to the 2nd floor shower".  That's not the same thing as "fixed". 

Anyway, I still love my house and its value keeps going up and up.  I'm now in the opposite boat of a lot of my fellow homeowners.  As soon as I pay my cards back down (to get my scores back up), I'm going to more seriously pursue refinancing to get out of PMI, lower my interest rate, etc.

[Anonymous]

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@mauve wrote:

Ugh, Freddie was a PiTA.  Why did I have to have my broker and realtor EXPLAIN to them how the FHA 203(k) program works?  It was baffling that they didn't understand it.  My broker made a tactical error during re-negotiations when the appraisal came in low.  Also, their solution for "water leak during inspection" was "cut off water supply to the 2nd floor shower".  That's not the same thing as "fixed". 

Anyway, I still love my house and its value keeps going up and up.  I'm now in the opposite boat of a lot of my fellow homeowners.  As soon as I pay my cards back down (to get my scores back up), I'm going to more seriously pursue refinancing to get out of PMI, lower my interest rate, etc.

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+1

This was their solution for my leaky toilet! I am also in the same boat as you, I love my house and my value has already gone up, and I just closed! Don't wait too long to refi, rates are great!