A First Time Home Owner Grant Update

What happens if you are doing the First Time Home Buyer program and your loan officer is refusing to work with you?

You find a new loan officer within the bank.

This is a terrifying thing. But if I can do it, so can you.

I have written and re-written this post many times. So here goes.

Once you find your agent, talk to them about what's going on. My agent was very, very helpful and understanding. She said for normal loans people switch loan officers and banks all the time. She had worked with someone at the bank I was using. My phone call that I made was a blathering mess.

My agent offered to call for me to explain and I found myself with a new loan officer.

(Other Things Happened. PSA talk to a real estate agent before working with a bank. Brokers are supposed to be better.)

She said that sometimes big banks won't talk to the agents, that it has to be just you. She also said that the little guys tend to let agents be your voice for checking on paper work.

We found that if all else fails, CC your lawyer onto the email. It's a jerk move but if you are getting a lot of run around it can make them take you seriously. Which sucks.

Would I ever seriously recommend someone to do this program?

I have to say yes because it was the only way I could get my house. Without it I would not have my house.

Mind, I will also be telling and warning people of Just What Happened. The drama of a personal re-telling is apparently hilarious. I also tell people to save as much as they possibly can because the more you have saved up the better the house you can get. It will also give you a better emergency cushion if the closing doesn't bleed you dry.

But... It's so evil. But good.  Proceed with caution.

House photos

I forgot to link my instagram CrzyArtist to this blog. Which sucks because I have started taking and posting house pics there thinking that they would show up here as well.

There might be mass photo posts because of this on the weekends while I take forever to move.

My mom says I only have a few more boxes in the basement, my room and a few bits of furniture left here. Then I have one and a half storage units left to get to my house.

Did I mention that my house is about an hour from my parents? So far we have averaged one trip each day of the weekend. One hour there and another hour back. My friend helped us do two trips one Saturday.

After I can actually live/sleep there I will be able to post pics of all the stuff/crap/jimmy hoffa. I will be having a moving company move the bits of large furniture. After I measure the stairwell because it's so tiny.

Then painting... Then more and more and more things.

House Hunt part 3

The house I want to put a bid on.

It is old.

It has character.

It has so many churches around it my mom and I started laughing our self's silly every time we saw another church. There were seven traditional styled churches at a glance and then we kept finding smaller subtle ones.

The house is even being sold by the church.

We think it's the former pastors house. It's an 1800's house but this one has a perfect foundation and beautifully large basement. There is an odd little part but I didn't explore it because spiders. (the farm one didn't have that many spiders now that I think about it.)

There are two kitchens.

The The one upstairs is apart of an apartment. They nailed a few doors shut and had renters upsatirs at some point. This kitchen is perfect for studio work where I need a sink or oven. Ther rooms are tiny but nice.

Down stairs is perfect and not updated at all. It looks like they had used it for a historical display of some sort. The wood floors are amazing. Super high ceilings throught the house. The kitchen down stairs is awkward but I love it.

The backyard and side yards are tiny and weird and there is a shared path to the church. There is a 'garage' that I call a barn. I can't put my car in it but it works for so many other things. There needs to be a property line check because everything is so close together.

The front bushes would be the first things to go.

There are so many original things and because it was owned by a church, it's been taken very good care of. The initial investment to build it must have been insane.

This... will hopefully be the house I will be writing about.

House Hunt part 2

Ok! So another house from my hunt had a drug bust going on across the street when we arrived.

I can't even begin to tell you how much my mom was NOT HAPPY about this. My agent and I were trying to covertly snoop from the attic window with little to no luck seeing anything relevant but we had fun speculating and it. I am betting it was a hydro pot farm in the basement.

But on to the house.

The house was only needing cosmetic things.

The floors were mostly stripped. Probably someone started sanding them and gave up. It would literally be a breeze to finish sanding them and then seal them. Super high ceilings. The basement was a little damp but good solid walls.

It had endless amounts of character. I loved it.

Just not were it was. If this house had been on the farm land? Pure perfection. But it wasn't.

The drug bust across the street kinda killed the neighborhood for me. It just had a lot of little things like the streets were very narrow and we think the house next door might have been abandoned. People were out and about but... It just didn't have that home feeling.

So we kept looking.

House Hunt part 1

Ok so.... I might have found a house.

One of the top houses on my list was the dream tiny farm property in a pretty quiet place. It needed two things done to it. the power cable to the house and... something else that wasn't too bad. But it's an 1800's house and it felt like it. There had been a lot of updates to it but none in atleast the last twenty years.

There is a room that I have dubbed the Red Room. It looks like it should be the wall paper in a bordello. I kid thee not.

There is a root cellar with labels going back at least as far as 1965. you have to duck down to walk around in it. there are parts of the root cellar that are made to be just the right storage humidity. There is a curing room for onions and garlic and squash. There is a second kitchen that is actually a prep room for canning with a second massive sink and an old stove to die for.

This is when my agent really understood just how much I had been researching about all of this. It wasn't shocking but I think it made my wild selections easier to understand.

This is not the house I am putting a bid on.

I love it but there are glaring problems that will take a lot of time to fix. The walls appear to be a booby-trap of layers on layers of paint and wallpaper. There is carpet in both bathrooms and in both kitchens.

The foundation is crumbling to a point that looked worry-some.

But the yard is to die for.

I am keeping it in mind. If it was $10k or $15k less then I would jump on it. So for now it's on my list but it's not the one at the top.

And this kills me. It has every thing that I would do to it but... for now it's just on my list.

On land and when your plans change

My whole goal is to have a nice tiny farm.

Currently, I think my tiny firm is going to be much, much smaller then I was hoping.

This is not a buyers market and most of the places that would be all the land I could possibly want? Way too far for me to commute to my job. It's a new one and I really love it. So now I am rather happy I was already making a list of things I could live without.

In order to get a house I can afford I have to let go of a dream of lots of land.

It... sounds easier then it was. I have been coming to terms with this for the last six months. I just can not afford it. I also can not live with out high speed internet and guess what? Way out in gods country the is no internet at speeds that don't bring me back to dial-up. I grew up with dial-up. I will not be doing that again.

What does this do? A lot of surprising things.

The first is that I can probably have a two story house. This was on my sacrifice list, but now not only could I have it, but I might also be able to get what is for me a move in ready house. I will be ripping up carpets and such but I could live in it.

The only new thing on my must have list is a garage. This is for my parents boat for the winter.

The hardest thing I found is that I have no idea what kind of a commute I am willing to live with. I was originally thinking of at most two hours. But that would mean possibly getting home at 8pm or later on some nights. Losing four hours of each weekday might be more then I can handle. I am still thinking about it for now.

It might be worth it if I was actually two hours closer to my sister.

So yes, my big mandatory land is now down to on that I can still feel comfortable with. This will change with the houses that I eventually get to look at because each will be different. If this was all happening 5 years ago then I would not worry about how much land I was getting because I would be selling the house after a few years as an investment. Not a flip.

But I don't want to start over again in five years. I'll be 40 by then. Personally I would rather be eating the fruit off my own trees instead of house hunting. But after this, who knows? maybe there would be another move.

But right now I just need to get my first house.

An Update full of Spite and Rage

So I am full of spite and rage. Which I posted about of my tumblr here.

Yes I am going to do this.

No, do not try this at home.

I have many reasons why I am able to do this. They are the same reasons I can't yet post about. I could also get screwed by doing this.

What I can talk about is that I now have a dead line to move out. My parents have finally planning to put the house up for sale in a few months. Since I am very obviously not moving with them, I now have the start of a dead line.

But I will say here that no, calling your bank person at 6:30 am and 7:00 am is not the way to their heart. I am hoping it'll be the way to the answers that they refuse to tell me via e-mail. Because saying yes or no when asked if I can start looking at houses and get a real estate agent is such a touchy subject.

The also refuse to give an estimate on what the final closing costs and escrow might be, but I was kinda expecting that.

So... I might have a few (Ha!) more rants showing up. But better you all learn from my bad experiences and plan your own what-would-you-do's to have just in case.

The backup plan

So, I have been slowly working on a backup plan if I can't get a house. It makes me twitchy saying that, but it has to be done.

Best case scenario?

I have a large cushion of savings. This will allow me to re-enter the First Time Home Buyers Program and try again. Which would also allow for more time to save and no weddings or multiple unexpected trips to eat it all up. It could be a good thing.

Worst case scenario?

I have money saved but I have to move with my parents and stay with them for how ever long. That is to say I would be stuck with them and if they sell their house before I can re-attempt my own hunt/purchase then I am stuck going to what ever state they might move to. I might have to get an apartment and another storage unit which would eat into my savings. I am pretty sure that if I move out of New York State that I will no longer qualify for the First Time Home Buyers Program.

That last bit is the worst.

Right now I have a few small ideas to get a little extra cash flow. Mostly I am getting my art & jewelry stuff going. I have a little writing but it isn't anywhere close to publishable yet. My first things to sell will be up on my art blog and cross-posted to tumblr. They will be sold with paypal invoices mostly because Etsy is doing weird things.

So, who knows until I get to talk to the bank. Once that happens I will have a followup post to this.

The Hunt is Closer

And the great house hunt is here!

Or it should be here... This is a qued post because I know my bank and my stress levels. My little sister will be getting married (and I'm the maid who is horrified of honor) that involved several trips to the city. A wonderful stomach flu that has a slow recovery. And did I mention that I don't trust my bank?

Yes, I will follow up with what actually happens, with out all the internal screaming that I know will be happening.

What should be happening is that The Bank will contact me that it's time to take the class! One that is supposed to teach you how to budget a house or something like that. Kinda in the vein of how having automatic transfers to a special account is supposed to mimic mortgage payments.

I don't know how many times the class meets or anything else that would be useful.

I do know that I don't feel that I have enough money saved up for the closing costs. I have an 'destash sale' planned to try an get closer to that goal. Unfortunately the wedding ate a lot more into my budget then I expected.

Once that class (or series of classes) is done? then I have to start house hunting.

That means I actually have to re-evaluate my need list. I plan on making a few 'need' lists so I can have options. I realize how strange that sounds, its more of if I sacrifice this, then these other things have to be there.

For example:
I will go with a one story house if it means I get a crap ton of land and a fishing stream. If it has a gas connection? I might sign then and there.

This is a harder method and I will be flipping through notes all the time... But it will keep me on track. Unlike my bank.

I really don't want to deal with the bank. I just want this done and over so I can start gardening.

Internet and a House in gods country

So... I use the internet. A lot. Not just for this blog but for fun and to sell art. It is a thing that i need to have access to. This is another not-so-small problem with my house hunt.

Because i want a good deal of land, i have no idea if the area would have cable or better internet. This might actually make or break a house. This is a need.

The only exception would be the perfect house on the perfect land that was way under budget. That would be the only reason i would happily go without internet. So i will probably have to make sacrifices on house, location, size or price.

To think i just found a site that made it look like i had more options then i knew. I don't think any of them mentioned internet. One or two had tvs on so they might have cable because i hadn't seen any satilight dishes.

This... This is a pain.  

The hidden evil of Closing Costs

It just kills me to see all of the emphasis put on the down payment. All the top articles in my searches are all about the big down payment. Blah this and blah that. Yes, a down payment will be a big chunk of cash.

Closing Costs are worse.

Closing costs are the devil in the detail of the realty world. No one likes to talk about them. Instead they seem to like springing an extra $20,000+ bill on you. Yes, it is mentioned when you go to get pre-approved, but it's mostly glossed over. Because who dosen't have that extra $20,000+ laying around for house hunting? On top of the fabled 20% down payment?

Doesn't everybody? *crickets chirp in the background*

Yes, people will talk about seller concessions. The TV shows certainly do, almost all of their house hunters seem to get sellers to cover 100% of the closing costs. That sellers will always pay closing costs! Blah, blah, blah!

This is, of course, a very big lie.

See, in New York Start sellers can only pay a max of 6% for closing costs. No more and probably less because even that small 6% can be a lot depending on the price of the house you want.

Think of it this way, 6% of $100,000 is $6,000. So that would be the max amount you could ask them to pay. Assuming 20% down payment, that would knock a $26,000 closing cash cost down to $20,000. If the math works out like that, which chances are it wont.

My goal is to save up as much as possible. I was originally also going to pull $5,000 from my 401k (but now thougs people are flipping around their own rules for what I can & can't take.) to bring my total cash on hand up to $12,000. Add in the $7,500 from the program grant and I will have $19,500.

But!!!

The bank wont do the mortgage unless you have 6-ish months worth of potential mortgage payments saved in the bank. That number gets taken away from what you are bring to this, not from the grant. This is why all the math is very, very muddy and no one wants to put their name on anything in case its wrong.

You really have to assume that you will be wheeling and dealing during the closing processes. This is one of the main reasons you want a great realtor and bank on your side.

In my case I am going to have to find the holy grail of realtors.

Personally I am going to try and find one with a lot of sales with the first time home buyer programs and a lot of experience on top of that. I do not want to be someones first foray into the world of realty. I also need to see about selling some things to bring my cash pool up. All's work in house hunting.

Oh Zillow

Oh... I have such a love hate relationship with this site.

Mine you, the site is fantastic. I just can't buy any of it right now.

I have a few that soundly hit everything on my list. A few I have seen come on and off the market over the last few years, so I always get excited again.

I do this to my self.

It's a great way to see what I want, as I always tell myself... The pangs of want are strong. Even in my small price range. Now, if I really want to suffer I just have to increase my price range by 10-20k more (which is soundly out of my range) and then the pangs are more... solid.

But in my wallet.

I'm going to try and not look again until I can actually make a purchase. So, 5-6 months. Yeah... We will see about that.

As for how I am limiting my price rage? I am going by the max I might have for closing costs. Which includes the down payment. Right now it is laughably low. about 12k. In theory I should be able to save another 5-6k which could bring it closer to my goal of 20k.

If I could actually sit my butt down and make &sell artwork and jewelry I might be able to bring that up a lot more. But I have a few kinks in that department that is holding it off. Namely taxes and how the heck do I pay social security? After I get some supplies in I will start to crank out the art& jewelry so I will be ready to sell.

I have so much to do. Definitely going to try and stay off of zillow for a bit.

All the time yet not enough

When I started with the First Time Home Buyer things... It seemed like I had so much time to do nothing but sit around and wait. Ten months seems like a very long time. The person at the bank I am working with further encouraged this thinking by saying when all was said and done I would only have six months to find & close on a house.

I will never say that my bank person was a good bank person. Never.

As I am writing this, I think that I will get in touch with a realty person. I think that they might have a much better hand on what and when I will need things. Plus they might be better able to answer some burning questions...

Such as:
-How often to first time home buyers get sellers concessions?
-Are there location limitations with in NYS?
-WTF are the time limits?
-Farm land, I can haz?
-Why did I do this to myself?

Just a basic run of the mill list of questions.

Oh who am I kidding? I'm going to be a gibbering mess when I finally get to talk to someone that knows how this all really works. 

First Time Home Buyers thing

Oh do I have a horror story for you. In fact, I am still living it because it's not over & has just barely begun. I live in New York State. So I contacted the local bank that had the highest recommendations. Things should have been easy. A lot of it was easy.

The hard part was my person at the bank didn't ask if I had any businesses.

They did ask if I was employed, but that doesn't cover if you own a business. Most micro business don't make money. Mine sure doesn't right now.

The road block here was that in April of 2016 they, the government, changed the rules for what you have to do differently if you own a business. They now require a professional accountant prepared Profit & loss statement for the prior year and the current year.

My bank person was very hands off and did not answer any of my questions but would only say that they would be taking care of things and to do the complete opposite of the information that they copy&pasted into the e-mails to me.

After a very calm but angry letter that I sent I finally got real answers that they thought I needed. I would have to resubmit some paperwork because they had expired after the month that the person had been trying to push my application through. That person insisted that another would send me what I needed and it ended up being them.

When I finally received my acceptance note so I could make my new account, it was on a holiday weekend and followed by a sudden trip the next. Why didn't I know that there was a 15 day limit to getting it set up? Because it hadn't been in the body of the email. it was tacked into the certificate itself.

Let me tell you, I have left panicky voicemails in my life. None as bad as this. My mom's friend's cousen worked at the same bank. I called her and then two days latter I stopped by because I hadn't heard anything from her. It was the last day to set it up. I found out the phones were messing up and she set everything up asap for me and was so very helpful. And mortified because she hadn't gotten back to me. She also asks if I have take the home owners class-thing yet. I said no.

So, after that near fiasco... I didn't hear anything for a bit. I shoot an e-mail to the original person that is suposed to be 'helping' an e-mail asking when I can take the class. They seemed put off that I would ask so soon because that happens 'later'. Considering the time crunch this person implied, that I only have two years total from the start of the prosses to the last minuet, to close on the house... Ten months that are taken to saving only with a 'few months' for setting up the closing paperwork...

Yes I am worried. Some people have had other problems with this bank. I just know that I will be writing some kind of letter about this person. God help me if they manage to screw this up and I don't get a house. I would flip out... and then write angry letters.

I will say, that for the grant of $7,500 it is almost worht the run around. Almost. I will be posting updates as I find out about them.