Buying A Home
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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.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
potentially silly FHA questions...
DH & I are considering applying for an FHA loan in order to purchase our first house. We've read up on it, but have aren't quite sure where to begin with the process..... Do all banks offer FHA loans? Or do we have to find an FHA approved bank? (if so, where/how do we find that information?) Can we still shop around for the best rate with the loan? I'm just confused as to how to get started.... should I be calling banks for rates? Or is the information available online? Sorry to ask so many silly little questions, I'm just a little overwhelmed with information at the moment... it seems the more I read, the less I know! Any help/advice would be amazing!! TIA!
Re: potentially silly FHA questions...
If you're doing standard FHA (NOT renovation) then most banks do them. Call up any bank you like or get a recommendation from your real estate agent.
You can shop around once you're under contract for a house, but there isn't much of a point this early on since rates can change daily.
The first step is pre-approval (different from pre-qualification). You'll let the lender know how much you think you want to spend on a house and they'll let you know if they'll approve you. You'll need to be able to tell them how much you and your H make, how much you have in savings, etc. They will run your credit, so have SS numbers on hand.
Most of the banks offer FHA loans. Some small/tiny banks may not though but you'd have to ask. Typically the big banks (Bank of america, wells Fargo, etc) publish their rates and break them down between conventional and FHA rates. You'll want to get preapproved for a loan at any bank. Then when you have put on an offer and it's accepted, then you can shop around for the best rates.
Not to add to the confusion but you might want to get a quote on an FHA loan vs a 5%conventional. We found that we would bring slightly more to closing but our monthly payment (due to the differences in PMI) would' be less for the conventional. A good mortgage broker will help you get quotes and compare the differences.
Edited by moderator.