Live in Kentucky and need one Kentucky Mortgage Broker.
We're shopping for our first house. We have a modest but reliable
income that doesn't depend on our location, so we're looking in
Kentucky, because it's famous for being a nice low-cost place to live.
Be we could just as easily look in Missouri or Oklahoma or anywhere in
the USA. We definitely want to remain in the USA, for reasons
unrelated to real estate, so Costa Rica etc. are out of the question.
I have questions about buying a house, and am not sure where to get
the answers.
My first question is where to look. Is Kentucky really the best place
for people who can live anywhere and just want to get the best place
for the least money? And where in Kentucky should we be looking? We
would like a fenced yard for our kids, and we would like reliable low
cost broadband internet access. If necessary we could live without
broadband and just get more than one phone line for dialup, but of
course we would strongly prefer broadband if possible. I assume
broadband would not be available in most "country" locations, so it
might be a hard choice between a bigger cheaper country place vs a
city house with broadband.
My second question is how to shop for a mortgage. We can pay a big
down payment, such as 30%, but we don't have good credit. Our credit
might be good enough to qualify for a high-interest mortgage, but what
we want is to leverage our big down payment to get a low-interest
mortgage.
Actually, our down payment is big only relative to the size of
mortgage we would want. We're looking for a relatively cheap house,
which is what really makes our down payment big.
My third question, is about mortgage calculators, such as the one at
bankrate.com, which tell you how much your monthly payments will be,
etc. Those don't take credit scores into account. How much your
monthly payments will be obviously depends on your credit score. The
mortgage calculators seem to assume you have perfect credit. Where
can I find one that takes credit scores into account?
My 4th question, which would become relevant once we find a house
we're interested in, is how to shop for a real estate lawyer, assuming
we need one. From reading this newsgroup I get the impression that in
most eastern states real estate transactions are normally done with
real estate lawyers, and that in a lot of western states they're
normally done by escrow companies instead of lawyers. I assume
Kentucky is an eastern state, so I would need to shop for a good real
estate lawyer. I get the impression that the competence and honesty
of the real estate lawyer is a major factor in how successful the real
estate transaction will be. So how do I shop for a competent and
honest real estate lawyer? And how much should I expect to pay? Also
how much should I expect to pay the appraiser, the inspector, etc.?
Where can I find a summary of such costs?
Kentucky seems to have a huge number of FSBO's. It seems like we
shouldn't get any brokers or agents involved if we end up buying any
FSBO, because brokers or agents could be harmful to FSBO transactions,
not only by charging commissions, but also by imposing restrictions,
and possibly annoying the seller, causing us to lose the transaction.
It all depends on what you are looking for. If it is minimizing
income taxes, there are states with no income tax. If you make
a lower income, that doesn't matter much, and a state with low
sales tax might be better. If it truely doesn't matter, check
out Kansas or South Dakota--they are offering incentives for
people to move there, such as $1 building lots. Kansas especially
has a lot of abandoned and low cost real estate.
The typical way to shop for a mortgage is visit a few banks,
lenders, and mortgage brokers. You first want to get pre-qualified.
That will tell you what you can afford, what range to shop in, and
what the payments will be. Once you make an offer, you go and
apply for the loan at the place that had the best deal for you.
With 30% down, you may be able to get a low-doc or no-doc loan.
Some of these loans, such as a stated-income loan, do not look
at your credit history. I am used to these loans being more in
the 40% down area, so you may have to save a little more for the
down payment.
No--credit score has nothing to do with your payment. Credit score
will affect getting approved for a mortgage, and it will impact that
interest rate you get. Once you get an interest rate nailed down,
you can use one of these calculators to estimate your mortgage
amortization.
Your real estate agent or Realtor can help you there. What is
traditional varies by state. If the transaction is relatively
stright-forward, you can do it without having an attorney
represent you. Make sure that you get title insurance.
I feel just the opposite. From the questions that you are asking, I
see you as a relative novice. It is essential that you have an agent
working for you. It really costs you nothing since an agent is going
to help avoid some of the problems you might get into, and will likely
help you get a batter deal.
FSBO's are a mess. It is normally people who have a mess of a house,
some big problem with the house, or something unusual that makes a
traditional sale difficult. This is exactly the time and place
where you need an agent the most. Most FSBO's screw themselves because
they think they can sell for a little less since there is no commission
to pay. But all buyers come in, and subtract the commission a 2nd time.