All Forum Posts by: Christopher Phillips

There are two things happening... One, a listing agent can supply comps to an appraiser to better show how the price was estimated. Especially in a fast moving market and better comps come up... Two, comps aren't exact matches. The appraiser makes adjustments for any differences like number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, lot size. Appraisers take about five minutes worth photos and then leave. They don't climb on roofs. But if something is obvious they have to include it in the report. Appraisers rely on the information in the MLS sheet and the public record. They usually ask the agent that let them in if the information is correct, but sometimes it is not. One extra refrigerator won't make a difference, but not having a deck is a discrepancy. If the information is either incorrect or not adjusted in the report them contact the appraiser to clarify. If you think there is some monkey business going on then you need to take it to a different level...

Previous guidelines from Fannie Mae required you hold title for six months before you could pull cash out of the house. This changed back in 2011.

But that doesn't prevent banks from sticking to the old requirements.

So, you just have to shop around.

Usually, inspection period of around 10-12 days. This assumes you didn't wave it in your offer. So you have to get an inspector in there right away and then take time to review the inspection report (usually about 1-2 days to get report). Then you make your decision to proceed after that. If all is good with the inspection, you go to contract... Depending on local customs, the seller's attorney will write up the contract and send it to your attorney for review. You sign, with any necessary deposits, and then the contract is sent back to the seller's attorney. Once both parties have fully ratified the agreement (signed and initialed all required places), then you can proceed to financing.

Food for thought...

Have you set your financial goals? Have you decided what type of investment you want to start with? Do you have your team together (lawyer, inspectors, contractors, title company, insurance, clean out services, pest control)? Do you have your spreadsheets/software ready for analysis based on your investment strategy? Are you setup for handling tenant screening or will you use a mgmt. company? If you have tenants, will you do repair work yourself or will you need a handyman on call? If flipping, do you have a short list of contractors to call for walkthroughs/quotes?

Do you have access to emergency funds? Like having to replace an HVAC in the middle of summer (just had that problem).

I've been using Evernote lately. Very easy to save an article and put it in topic specific notebooks...

Hi Kevin,

Since you will be living in the house, you have two low down payment options. Traditional 3.5% down payment FHA financing, which does have Mortgage Insurance (upfront payment plus monthly payments). The other option is the Wells Fargo yourFirstMortgage 3% down payment program. The Wells Fargo program is a conventional loan, you can still use gift funds for the down payment, but you still require PMI... (It's called MI with FHA, PMI with conventional loans). There are other options like 5% down payment conventional loan programs as well.

To avoid PMI, you really have to look at 20% down. Sometimes you might find a program with less than 20% that says no PMI, but sometimes that is just the lender paying for it and charging you a higher interest rate, so you are really paying for it.

The drawback of using an FHA loan is that your overall costs are higher due to the mortgage insurance and other closing costs. However, the FHA credit guidelines tend to be more flexible than the conventional loan guidelines. As with anything, you have to compare the short term costs versus the long term costs and which is the easiest option based on your financial picture.

Thank you!

Hi,

Long time lurker. I've been visiting the site/watching the videos/listing to the podcasts and attending the webinars for a long time, but never officially signed up for membership until today. Real estate agent and investor hear on Long Island... Looking to continue learning, get advice, as well as provide value anywhere I can.