So, I'm buying my first home....

I broke down and got lazy. Below, my chronicle of this homebuying process from my Xanga blog. It's not over yet.....

October 27, 2008 - "So It Begins"
I finally took the plunge and scheduled a meeting with a mortgage lender. I wanted a clear picture of how much house I can afford at my present salary. It will also help me see if I'm actually ready to be a homeowner or not. Psychologically, I am. Financially...well, I don't know that I've been as diligent with my money as necessary. It's gotten better lately, but I haven't saved up much of a downpayment. So, we'll see.

October 29, 2008 - "Can I Borrow a Few Thousand Dollars?"
This was my lunch meeting with the home loan specialist at Washington Mutual/Chase, Sylvia. I was excited all morning for the meeting, had all of my paperwork, W-2s and paystubs in tow and ready to give to the lady. I was feeling good. Got to the bank, met Sylvia (who is super nice, btw) and got down to it. She told me that due to the recent happenings on Wall Street and the like, banks are no longer accepting anything less than a 10% downpayment. I'm not gonna put ALL my business out there, but in sum, she said that they could offer me a craptastic loan and that I would need a HUGETASTIC downpayment before they'd even consider giving me THAT. This would mean getting a gift from my parents and coming up with the rest myself. She told me that they don't work with any first-time homeowner's programs, (i.e. FHA), so it's 10% or nothing.

Needless to say, I walked out of the bank feeling discouraged. I did the math, and there is no way I could save that much money in a reasonable amount of time. There's no way my family can "gift" me with that much -- and besides, 50% of that downpayment would have to be from my own funds. I called my mom and lamented that I'd be renting for the rest of my life. We discussed my options, which weren't many. I was frustrated, because in an idealistic world, I would've been saving that sum of money since I finished school. However, due to my retardedness in undergrad, I had botched up credit that I've worked VERY hard to fix. And now that I have GOOD credit, I don't have the savings to allow me to get the home I want? I was SO frustrated. I told my mom that my only option was to hit the lottery.

Discouraged, but never defeated, I went back to work and told my co-worker the situation. She immediately gave me the number to her mortgage broker, Jane, who has worked with her on obtaining her two homes. I gave Jane a call and liked her immediately! Over the phone, we went over what just happened at WaMu and I shared with her my difficulties with obtaining the downpayment. She said, "the 3%, you mean?". I said, "they told me TEN!". Jane quickly reassured me that she works with FHA and other programs to reduce the downpayment and get folks into a home. We went over my credit scores, which I conveniently printed off last week, and she told me that due to my good credit and income, she could easily get me a loan that would get me into a nice home. I still need a downpayment, however, which I'll have to conjur up some sort of way. She informed me about the $7500 first-time homebuyers' tax credit, which I can use to repay a "gifted" down-payment, so all I have to do is see who is willing to lend me a few thousand bucks. I had a meeting scheduled with Jane for later that day.

THEN my mom called and told me that she's practically been offered the job in Virginia Beach! (YAY!!!!!) After talking about that for awhile, I told her that I have another mortgage meeting today. My mom told me that if ALL else fails, she'll loan me the money for the downpayment!
Etoshobasha!!!!*running around the room*
*falling to the floor*
THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!

October 31, 2008 - "Never Give Up!"
My meeting with my second prospective lender, Jane Floyd was on thr 29th. Found the building with no problem and went inside. To the left was a markerboard that said "Welcome Carla B". Really??

I liked this place already.

The receptionist offered me something to drink - I opted for a Coca-Cola - and Jane came out to meet me. This woman was tiny. Like 5'2". I liked her immediately. We went back to her office -- she owns the firm, btw -- and shot the breeze for a minute. As she was out of the office to get some paperwork, I turned around and checked out the back wall. All over were photos of churches that she had helped finance/plant all over the world: Kenya, Vietnam, Pakistan, etc. I was impressed! She returned and we talked about that for a minute. And inside, I thanked God that this woman was a Christian!

We got to talking about my current situation and what it is that I want. She had pulled the listings that I emailed to her, and went through the task of going through the numbers for me. She had good faith estimates on three properties that I had sent her, and three very different price points. This was just to show me how the dollars break down, what affects costs, etc. She answered every single one of my questions, no matter how dumb, and walked me through the process. Told me I was DEFINITELY pre-approved, all I have to do now is go out, find a place, and send her the info! How exciting!!!

I called my agent Monique IMMEDIATELY and told her the good news. She sent me some property listings that night. That night, we had plans to go visit some of the homes. My parents are also aware of what's going on - mentioned it to my dad, along with the $7500 tax credit I'll receive next year, so maybe he'll be willing to contribute to the Down-Payment charity fund. (BTW: all down payment assistance programs have been suspended until further notice. Bummer!)

November 3/4, 2008 - "House Hunter!"
This is all happening VERY fast.

I watch "House Hunters" on HGTV obsessively, along with "My First Place"/"My First Home" and "Property Virgins". That is nothing new. What's funny is, now I feel like I'm on one of those shows, since Monique started showing me properties.

Friday I ran out of work at 3:45 so that I could get home, change, pick up Cha Cha and get to Monique's condo. I made it there by 5, which was cool because we had an appointment to view the first property at 5:30. She also pointed out another property that she thought I might like, but we'd check that one out on Sunday. After sitting in 6 years of traffic, we made it to Westchase and the first condo. It was nice, spacious, but my main concerns were that the floor plan wasn't very open (kitchen and family room were far apart and separated by stairs), there weren't walk-in closets, and there was a set of train tracks not even 100 yards from the front door of the place. The price was right, and the townhouse was in walking distance from super-cute West Park Village, but those train tracks killed it for me.

Second place was around the corner and was a disaster. No balcony/patio, which is a must, and it smelled. The people hadn't even completely moved out, so there was food in the pantry, pests, etc. It was NASTY. We got out of there ASAP, but the burn of the stink stayed in my nostrils for another hour! Looked at two other places, the second was pretty nice and had an AMAZING master suite.It needed a little work, but nothing too major. I told Mo to keep that one on the list.

Sunday after Pastor's Appreciation service (it was themed after the Olympics: super FUN!) , we went to visit the next set of townhomes. These places were faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic!! Everything I was looking for, minus great location. Not that they're in the hood; just further east than I wanted to go. It's still a short commute to work, which is nice. They were also a little pricier than I wanted, but there are two units that are on sale for much cheaper. We went back last night to look at them those.

The first unit was the floor plan that I prefer, with three upstairs bedrooms and an open kitchen. The place was vacant, and the previous owners had painted the walls an interesting mix of orange and green. The walls weren't ugly actually, but the paint job was shoddy. The cons were that the washer/dryer weren't included, no closing costs were being offered and the property is a short sale.

The second unit was the OTHER floor plan, with a ground floor master bedroom and eat-in kitchen. The owners were home unexpectedly, which was awwwwkward! But they were gracious enough to let us come in and look around. I immediately loved this place. The eat-in kitchen was great, there were hardwood floor in the living room, the lanai was screened and HUGE, and the owners said that they will include their two flat screen tvs and surround sound in with the sale. AND they're paying 3% closing costs. So....what else is there to discuss? I told Monique that I'm pretty much ready to make an offer. I just want to confer with the parental units first, for any last minute advice.

Let the games begin!