In the market for a home. Met with a realtor but i want to ask people that arnt working for a commission and have their own mortgage lender recommendations. Just a few questions. What type of mortgage loan do you have and whats the best way to go in Texas. Are there any tax benefits to owning a home in texas? Any pointers?
We went with a 30 year fixed but overpay every month. Stay with a fixed rate. I think there is too much risk with adjustables right now.
If you have some land, you can get lower tax rates and also get some write offs on equipment and certain vehicles if you use them for ag purposes.
I'd say that most lenders are the same. Chances are they'll package and sell your loan anyway. I think most contracts are pretty standard.
Financed our home with Randolph-Brooks FCU. Great rates, service, and so much less paperwork than a bank/FHA loan it's not even funny. They don't sell their loans, either. Went with 15 years so only had to put 10% down to avoid the crappy and pricey mortgage insurance premium. People say "oh, no, give yourself flexibility and go with a 30-year note, you can always pay more" but most don't. Ours will be paid off well ahead of schedule, yay.
Not a lot of "Texas" tax benefits since you don't pay income tax here. You will get socked for 2-3% of your property value yearly in property taxes (make sure you file for a homestead exemption with your county appraisal district), your homeowners insurance will be high because the insurers will all say it costs more to pay claims in Texas than anywhere else in the country. You can write the interest and property taxes off of your income taxes but only to the extent they exceed the default deduction, which is substantial.
Good luck. Crazy time to buy a house in some parts of the state.
Do not let the Realtor convince you to work with their connects for financing. There is no reason to do so that's in your benefit. They are just trying to get their mortgage representative business, in exchange that the rep sends new home buyers to them. This will more than likely not get you the best deal.
Go with the lender that offers the best rate. When you do find a home you like and decide to place an offer make sure you use an "active option" so you can back out for whatever reason you like, mainly failed inspection. Do not hesitate to place an offer on the home you love. Time is of the essence.
Are you in SA? If so, get ready for a compe ive market. You need to be watching the MLS for new listings because good listings are off the market same day. I'll pull up to see a house, a buyer is coming out, and another is parked in the driveway waiting for you to leave. I would recommend you make the offer the most attractive to the seller. Don't ask them to cover closing costs, or make conditions that are even close to unreasonable. Also, if you find the perfect house, consider offering a little more than list price to help your chances. Because of the market, people are overpaying right now because it's really the only way to stand out in a sea of potential buyers.
Home buying is pretty annoying tbh, so be prepared for a journey.
Last edited by DJR210; 09-06-2014 at 12:08 PM.
Good advice by DJR210 ... people in the ATX are getting multiple offers over the asking price with some all-cash offers, so standing out is important.
Yeah, about the same here. Values are on the rise now, and it's a seller's market. It's to the point where my Realtor is walking door to door asking people if they would consider selling their homes because there are simply not enough move-in ready homes on the nice side of town.
If the market is anywhere near as hot as some in this thread are saying it is then don't buy. Just wait until it cools and the inventory rises. Unlike DJR210, I recommend never overpaying for a home. This type of emotional buying is bad for a number of reasons... mainly you'll hate yourself when in just a few short years you'll have neighbors moving in for 100k less than what you paid for the same house. I do agree with DJR210 on getting your own financing. If your realtor insists that he can get you a better deal then tell him to off and threaten to find another realtor.
If you truly want to be a responsible buyer then spend no more than 30% of one income on a home, and I'm being generous here. If that's not possible then look for a cheaper house, or condo, or wait until you make more money, or the market turns into a buyers market. Lenders, Realtors, and IDIOTS will tell you to spend more, but they don't consider college tuition for your kids. They don't consider your retirement, yearly vacations, escorts, and others things that are important. It is far more better to have money saved and invested than to own a home. You can easily do all three if you're smart and patient, but whatever you do don't get caught up into a buyers frenzy that will eventually cost you your home and family.
Do your homework on bank-managed bi-weekly payments vs self-managed bi-weekly payments... both can knock 5-7 years off of your mortgage and 10's of thousands or more off the interest paid. Now... you have some homework. One more bit of advice... try to accomplish this on your own before marriage and do everything possible to protect it before you get married. You work hard for your money and you should work harder trying to keep it.
the only chance of that happening is another gfc...which is highly unlikely...
Sticky this
Awesome. Good advice yall.
http://www.meetup.com/Real-Estate-In...f-San-Antonio/
Go here... or find one near you and scout out the local investors. Choose an old seasoned investor and allow him to bestow his wisdom on you.
I did misspeak. You can write off the amount of property tax and interest paid from your INCOME (to the extent it is exceeds your standard deduction), not your income TAXES. BIG difference. Where this comes in valuable is when you don't have enough itemized deductions on their own to make itemizing worthwhile, you can combine them with property tax/interest and reduce your taxable income.
Single standard deduction is $6,200 this year (easy to exceed for new home-buyers), for married, $12,400 (not so easy). What you save is your marginal tax rate (25-28% for most) times the amount of itemized deductions which exceed the standard deduction.
Get pre-approved up to a specific dollar amount. That's huge when you are one of competing offers on a house. Knowing you can close in 30 days can be the swing push to your offer.
I bought my daughter a house last year and had a competing offer that wasn't pre-approved and they went with mine even though my offer required them to pay more money out of pocket.
In my opinion you are nuts to put any more money down on a house than you absolutely have to in this interest rate environment. On my daughters house I put 5% down for 30 years fixed and the interest rate was 3.25%. It was a 150K house and I was 9K out of pocket at closing. The house is in a neighborhood (near Elan Market) that is appreciating at 5+% per year so it's a win/win.
Why not put more money down? Basically you are investing your money for a fixed return of 3.5% a year forever. A trained monkey can do better than that in the stock market.
We are at historical lows in interest rates. 10 years from now when interest rates have normalized at 6-9% you will look like a financial genius with your 30 year 3.5% fixed rate mortgage while your investments (from the money you didn't put in the house) are making 12%+.
Definitely one of the best and informative threads in this forum.
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