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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Homebuying Recs? (XP with MSP Knot)
So H and I have decided to at least give a real look into buying a house late this spring/early summer (our lease goes through June, but I think they'll be flexible by a few months.)
So. Where do we start? Any recommendations on mortgages good or bad? All of our banking stuff is at Wells Fargo right now, and we've had great customer service. I've heard not-so-good stuff about them in regards to mortgages though.
How about realtors? How do we choose one? Just go with whoever someone recommends or should we 'interview' a few first? H and I have definitely done some research/reading, but we're still first time homebuyers. I want someone who's going to be willing to walk us through the steps and info without being condescending. Any recommendations good or bad for realtors in the area?
Thanks 
Re: Homebuying Recs? (XP with MSP Knot)
I am not sure where you are looking in the Twin Cities, but we contacted ALOT of realtors and ended up using Nicole Johnsrud. She was awesome and referred to us by someone on here. It was fun to look at houses with her and she was super knowledgable. Most importantly--she answers her phone!!! We called so many that wouldn't answer and we would have to leave a message. I hated that. If you call her tell her Sherri sent you
Her cell is 612-799-5099 and her website is www.tchometeam.com. Goodluck!
I picked up a book about buying a first home from half priced books and it had a wealth of really good information in it. We bought our first home a year and a half ago. It was a NOLO book.
I would say preparation and research beforehand will definitely help you in the long run. Know exactly what the two of you want, what you will and won't settle for. It took us a couple of Saturdays of looking at 10+ houses before we were able to really narrow it down to what it was we really wanted in our home.
Once we narrowed it down we only looked at a few more in person before we found our house since we knew precisely what we were looking for.
One great tip in that book was to talk to the neighbors. We had an offer in on a house in IGH and were going back and forth with the seller. We drew our line in the sand, gave our final offer and the seller countered. I really thought that house was great and I thought I wanted it. Before doing anything rash like take his counter even though we drew our line and gave our final offer, we talked to the neighbor and walked around the neighborhood a bit and realized it wasn't where we wanted to live at all.
The very night we did that, and decided we weren't going to take his counter and that we were done with that one, our house we're in now went on the market. It didn't even have pics up on the MLS yet but I knew by the description it was exactly what we were looking for. We looked at it the next day and made our offer immediately.
Patience is hard, but it will pay off in the long run I think when making such huge decision.
We went with Molly Zimmerman with Prime Mortgage. I got a MERSC discount and a free moving truck to use. We also refinanced with her. She was great to work with and was able to put all of our stuff together and thru very fast. We added my husband to the mix at the last minute. (We weren't married yet and the house was originally going to be just in my name)
Best of luck, happy house hunting!
Thanks! Honestly, we have no idea where we want to look yet. I work at the U, and H works downtown Minneapolis, so it's not like one area of the suburbs is any better than another. We do want a yard, so I'm guessing we'll have to go into the 'burbs a little at least.
We're in St Paul/Como area right now. I love the area, but I don't love how old the houses are and how small the lots are. H would like Brooklyn Park area, so I'm guessing we'll stay North/East suburbs if possible. (Columbia Heights even?)
Akstanl- I always forget about my MERSC discount. I need to remember to start using my 'connections.' Did you just get a discount on the fees or what?
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.
Ditto this, I really enjoy having a mortgage payment that is closer to 20% vs. the usual 30% recommendation. My plan is to have it paid off within 10yrs. Once we added my H into the mix we could have gotten a mortgage for at least twice as much , I am VERY thankful we went with way less than what we could afford. Living below your means is much safer, and more comfortable than living at your means.
Yes, half off the origination fee I believe it was. The moving truck was a nice bonus that anyone gets that goes through their group at Prime Mortgage.
I've been through the process twice, once as a singleton and once after marriage.
My advice (take it for what it's worth):
1) Look closely at your finances and decide what you think you can afford before talking to a bank or mortgage broker. They will likely tell you that you can afford a lot more, but stick to your guns about your budget. Only you really know what it costs to maintain your lifestyle.
2) Ask friends, family and co-workers for referrals to mortgage brokers and real estate agents. It helps to get info from someone who has been through the process with a certain lender or agent, that will tell you a lot about how they do business. Don't just blindly agree to work with the first person you meet.
3) Decide what you're looking for. Make 3 lists: a list of "must have" items in the your new house, a list of "would like to have but not necessary" items, and a list of "dealbreakers" or things that you dislike enough that you would not buy a house that had those items. Use these lists to judge how well each house you visit fits what you're looking for.
4) Set up a search on one of the real estate websites so you can start looking at houses in your target area that meet your specifications for size and price. I personally like the Edina Realty website, I think their search functions are easiest to use, but there are lots of other ones out there. If you save your search, you'll get regular emails when there's a new property on the market that fits your search parameters. You can save properties you're interested in and get updates on those specific ones (price reductions, open houses, etc.)
5) When you look at houses, try to look at the house itself and not the furnishings of the current owner. Don't fall in love with a house that's decorated beautifully because you're not buying the furniture or wall art, you're buying the house. Try not to focus on cosmetic things too much, those are usually the easiest and cheapest things to change. If there are horrible paint colors, that's a quick/inexpensive fix. Light fixtures and faucets are easy & cheap to change. Carpet is not too expensive. But, if the layout is awkward, the house doesn't have enough space, or it's in a bad location ... those things are expensive and difficult (sometimes impossible) to change.
6) Some people don't agree with this, but personally, I do not like to look at houses over my price range. Houses that are more expensive are more expensive for a reason - there's something better about them. They're bigger or in a better location or more updated or have nicer finishes. If you look at something you can't really afford, you run the risk of falling in love with a house you can't have. Then, you either convince yourself you can afford it and spend too much money, or you get something less expensive and feel like you settled for a house that's less than you really wanted. Personally, I just wanted to get the best house within my price range, I didn't want to see what I could get if I spent a little too much.
That got really long ... but I hope it help, even a little :-)
Mr. Sammy Dog
Thanks! This all so helpful.
One more question (hopefully people will still be reading this!). I know there's the inspection fees, and the fees to run credit reports, etc. How much cash does that all add up to? H and I have a decent amount in savings, but I don't want any sticker shock going into this.
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.
I believe our lendor ran one free credit report for us. The home inspection/appraisal was around $350. Our loan also required us to put 3% down on the closing day. The seller paid all of the realtor fees.
I would also recommend using themlsonline.com because it is a database with all listings and you can search by area and specific criteria. You can also save favorites to your account.
We didn't pay for a credit report. Unless it was included in with the closing costs ... which we didn't pay (seller paid closing costs).
Our inspection was $350, which we paid out of pocket directly to the inspector, but that amount will vary based on the size/type of home. When I bought my condo, I think the inspection fee was only $175.
The appraisal was included as part of our closing costs, we didn't pay for that separately out of pocket. I think that was about $400. The seller paid our closing costs, though, so it wasn't an expense to us.
If you do end up paying closing costs yourselves, it's usually 2-4% of the purchase price. Ours was a little lower, about 1.7%.
Mr. Sammy Dog
We just refinanced with Molly (we also got the discount) and I thought she was great! We did the whole thing over email and it was quick and she was always willing to answer questions. I would definitely recommend her!
Inspections typically run from $275-$375 depending on the square footage of the house and such. Some cities have a Truth in Housing inspection (which is paid for by the sellers). But that would give you a good idea before you got too deep into a house that had major problems.
You won't pay anything to get pre-approved or have your credit run the lender does all that on their own and you won't see the costs on that.
Please keep in mind that depending on your financing approval (FHA, CONV, DVA, etc) you at the minimum put 3% down and for conventional up to 20% down. Keep in mind also that if you only put 3% down you'll have to figure PMI into your mortgage payment and that may affect the price range you want to look in.
Also, most brokerages charge a broker admin fee (which is assessed at closing) beware that some brokers are raising their rates...the company I work at is the lowest in the city...
PP mentioned that MLSonline.com is a database of all the listing, that isn't true, MLS online is a real estate company masked as the MLS, the MLS is a database that can ONLY be accessed by licensed real estate agents. It contains a LOT more information then any real estate website.
If you'd like to chat further I am a buyers specialist so this is all I do and I enjoy it. I work strictly with buyers and enjoy working most with first time buyers. PM me if you want me to send you my email address.
We looked at probably 75 houses. How does one do that? Start without discussing what you both want... Boo to us... BUT DH was the one that dragged me around. While we were looking we found what we liked and what we did not like. We got to the point where we'd drive up to a house and we'd just say no, we don't like it.
We went to tons of open houses and our realtor took us to several homes as well.
We qualified for WAY more money than we thought - look at your budget, decide what you can afford and stick to it. Do not buy a more expensive house just because the bank says you can. That's how people get in trouble. Try and stick to around 20 - 25% of your take home pay for your monthly mortgage payment.
Look at the structure of the house, is the layout what you want? Look at insulation in the attic, look at the walls of the basement for water damage, check out all the utilities and see if you can find the last repair date, ask about the main sewer line, untack a corner of carpet and look under neath - is it on subfloor or is there hardwood?
Pretend to cook in the kitchen, can you both move around easily? Can you fit your garbage can under the sink or will it have to sit out in the open?
Can you flush the toilet, run the sink and the shower at the same time without the water pressure dropping?
Look at all the windows, are they new? Old? Look at the roof - replacing a roof is expensive, how old is it?
Paint is superficial - anything can be painted, don't bother "liking" or "not liking" the paint colors, they can be changed.
If there's any new construction in an old house - look closely at the quality and stick your head in closets, around the back of sinks, etc... Make sure you know what you're getting into if they did not do a good job.
I could go on and on - I wish that I knew to look for all of these things when we were house hunting.
Good luck! It is a ton of fun looking at all the different layouts of houses and seeing the original tiling in 1940's - 1970's homes. In our house, if you look behind the fridge, the owners original paint color was bright avocado green.
Great tips! In regards to the garbage can, we would have had to have our garbage out in the open so I got a kit from Menards and one Saturday afternoon later we had the following. I later added a handle, so we have one cupboard with a handle which makes it easy to tell people where the garbage is.
Hm. That's kind of an unfortunately blanket statement to throw out. I have a few family members that live in Brooklyn Park, and they've never had any issues with crime at all, and their neighborhoods are actually really nice. I'm sure some areas of the city aren't the best, but the whole city? That's a little bit ignorant of a comment, IMO.
FTR, we have looked at some houses in BP, and they've been very nice and in completely safe areas.
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.
Thanks everyone! We went to 9 open houses thsi weekend, just to get a feel for areas/prices, and had some good insight. We were able to talk to some Realtors, too, which was really helpful. Two of them pretty much walked us through the entire process, with timelines and general ideas of cash we should have saved up, etc. It was stuff we had heard/read before, but it was really helpful to hear it again from someone who's 'in the business' so to speak.
We thought we were way ahead of the game (our lease ends in May/June), but it sounds like we're not too early. I think we're going to talk to someone about getting pre-approved next week after we finish our taxes. I'm excited!
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.