Your Local Full time REALTOR®

There is nothing worse than realizing you've been wasting months, researching and attending open houses, only to find you don't want that monthly payment.  

The process:

1- Choose a REALTOR® to help you find a home

2- Ask the REALTOR® the who's, what, where, and why's about the mortgage process

3- Choose a convenient mortgage specialist that your REALTOR® and you have confidence in

4- Tell the mortgage originator everything up front and fill out the application with accurate information (they're going to find out anyways and it will save you tons of aggravations)

Some Buyers are pre-approved and shop at open houses until they meet me and we talk.

Sometimes, more than not, they realize they are looking at wrong price range. Simply because they realize they do not want the monthly payment.

Determining all factors are important because your credit, the taxes, the mortgage insurance, the homeowners insurance, and flood insurance costs may change your search.

Remember the monthly payment doesn't include heat, water, and electricity. I usually ask my customers to pay the mortgage payment to themselves for 3 months, then go shopping once they prove to themselves it can be done. That includes when the car breaks down and at gift giving seasons and events.

Some of the other major determining factors for total costs are the mortgage terms and rate, your credit score and debt, money down and gift money, retirement savings and student loans, PMI, and if the closing costs are financed into the mortgage.

Unless you continue the pre-approval on line, you will not know. The process a mortgage company continues for approval is to be pre-approved, check your credit, secure an offer to purchase then you get a "commitment". The mortgage originator will ask you to complete a mortgage application and begin the underwriting maybe by using the popular "automated desktop underwriting" process. Once you start this process, you shop for a home with more POWER. The mortgage originator continues contact with your REALTOR® until you provide them with a contract to purchase. Continuing to this process gives you real worth and speaks volumnes to your offer. You may be able to close quick, possibly saving the Seller thousands and maybe it is passed to you by reducing your mortgage.

I would rather not have you go online and check out a rate. Because to the inexperienced consumer, financing options and rates seem to vary dramatically, but usually the consumer is not comparing apples to apples. Many lending institutions have the same programs, but fees are described differently and maybe combining two or more similar fees to one line item. You should research programs to ensure you get the right type of mortgage to best meet your needs. With the different types of programs comes different rates.

I will help and assure you throughout the process. If you are having difficulty with the process I make myself available to you. And not that this will make you feel any better, but if you're like most Buyers, you'll probably continue to worry about your financing decision even after you close. It's part of the joy of being a home owner.

It is crucial to begin the mortgage process before you shop. Let a REALTOR^® help you with this process.

Make sure your REALTOR^® knows your financing options so when it is time to begin negotiations for your home, the offer will reflect terms that best fit your needs. 

Just as important as the rate, you need to be sure you are entering into a transaction with a reputable and dependable mortgage company and originator.

I consider we marry the mortgage company, we better be pleased with them.

I would be happy to refer you to some very good mortgage originators, just ask

Susan Condon  REALTOR^®, ABR^®,Broker Salesperson

^{This link to a site for some helpful information:}

HUD- US Department of Housing and Urban Development -http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/203k/faqs203k.cfm

and

http://www.hud.gov/

Your worth as a Buyer is not only determined by your offer, but by the security you can bring to the Seller as a Buyer who has "commitment" and quickness to close. You do not bringing this worth with your offer if you are only pre-approved.