have you purchased a house?

I could use some advice/vibes. My husband and I are trying to buy our first home. It is an "express delivery" home through a builder, it was built by someone who backed out, and has sat empty for about 8 months since its completion. We found it online, went to see it, were pre-approved for a loan, and then went into contract the next day.
We had filled out a pre-qualification online...using both of our incomes. We found out when we met with the salesperson to do a pre-qual after seeing the house, that we can not use my income as I work from home and have had the job less then 2 years, so we filled it out again with just my husbands information. When the salesman contacted the loan officer, she just pulled our original paperwork and pre-approved us based on that...our dual incomes. We discussed this when we went into contract but the salesperson didn't seem to think it would be an issue.
The loan officer contacted my husband a few days later asking about the difference in incomes and we explained it to her. She needed copies of paystubs, income verification, tax info...all kinds of things from him. He sent them all as of 2.5 weeks ago. On 3/8 they were supposed to re-run his credit. When we went into pre-approval, my husband still had a couple bad spots on his credit report from identity theft a few years back. He cleared that up in early/mid Feb and they wanted to run credit in March to make sure it went up (he has credit monitering online and it did go up) and get us our final interest rate and final approval. Well they never ran his credit.
We contacted the mortage person, no response. Contacted the builders salesperson we were working with and he was supposed to get in touch with the mortgage person.
This was on 3/10. On 3/15 I contacted our realtor and asked if she knew anything because we were pretty much in the dark. She wrote that as far as she knew, we were still closing on 3/28 as set up when we signed contracts, and she would find out if anything has changed and let us know. Still have not heard from her again. I emailed the builders salesperson again this morning asking if he had found anything out, or if he knows if the closing date has changed. We discussed on the day we signed contracts that we would have an inspection and a walk through before closing. I know he said the walk through would be right before closing but I don't remember them saying when an inspection should be. From what we found online, inspection should have taken place within a couple weeks of contract signing.
I am getting concerned. At this point, DH thinks we basically just didn't get approved on the house and they are giving us the run around. I would think that if we didn't get approved they would have told us as soon as it happened?
Has anyone bought a new home from a builder and know how the process works with inspections and anything? I am waiting to hear back from both the salesperson with the builder and our realtor, and DH is going to call the loan person after work today again...I am just stressed and trying to stay positive since he is freaking out about it and worrying that every little thing means we aren't getting the house. So if anyone had any advice or has been through the process and can tell me if this is normal....please let me know. Would they tell us if we weren't getting the house or would they keep waiting??
Does the realtor schedule the inspection, do we, or does the builder?? I know the builder salesperson said he does the walk through with us, and the realtor goes to closing but I can't get an answer from anyone about what is actually going on and when we get all of this out of the way....

Buying a home is a major purchase for all of us, the most expensive thing we buy. In reading your e-mail I noticed that you mention your realtor, the mortgage company, the builder. But I didn't see any mention of your lawyer.

There should be a lawyer reviewing the paperwork and handling all the details of the closing for you.

It is puzzling that your realtor and the mortgage broker are suddenly not communicating.

Good luck, and I hope you get the home you are looking forward to living in together with your furbabies.

I just heard from the sales rep from the building company...apparently the mortgage broker told him she called us on Tuesday and let us know that she has not yet pulled my husbands credit again and needs to wait until April to do so, so our tentative closing date is pushed back to April 21st. No real details, I am having my husband get ahold of her once he is off work to find out more details.
I didn't think about a lawyer...I thought the realtor was paid to review all the contracts and make sure everything was in order? There is a lot more to buying a home then I thought...!
Major sadfaces for the delayed closing though.

Buying and selling real estate varies from state to state. When I bought my first house I had to pay a lawyer who was assigned by the bank. In the state I live in now I did not have to hire a lawyer.

Usually the Realtor takes care of most of the details. They may not actually schedule the inspection but should at least help you with it. When I was moving to this state the Realtor did the walk thru for me since I was out of state.

I bought a condo a few years ago - I'm in IL - first thing my realtor told me to do was to get my own attorney to review everything. In my case, I think the whole attorney's fee was around $300 to 400. It's another, independent, set of eyes watching out for your interests. But, your state may differ - in Illinois, while you don't have to have an attorney, most people do - the attorney goes to the closing with you.

Buying a house is huge, and especially the first time, all of us are overwhelmed. For example, pre-qualified is not the same as being pre-approved for a loan - no one realizes that til you start going through the process. And, things are tougher now than just a few years ago (actually a good thing, but I know it's nerve-wracking). It's not you - everyone feels like it's all too much. I had a great loan officer, with a very conservative bank - and I still felt nuts. And, yes, lots and lots of paper goes to the loan officer - again, it's really a good thing in the end.

BTW, who's hiring the inspector? And, please please be sure you understand the mortgage, at least basically...lots of people really didn't not understand the adjustable rate mortgages and got themselves in trouble.

The realtor is not your friend, the realtor is not working for you. While the realtor gets a percentage of the selling price always remember that the realtor works for the seller, not the buyer.

I strongly urge you to get a lawyer that handles real estate transactions and have them review the paperwork for the purchase of this property.

From what we have discussed with the Realtor, she goes to closing with us, no one mentioned anything about an attorney to us.
I don't know the difference between pre-qual and pre approved...I just know that the pre-qual was a paper we filled out to get pre-approved and when the VP of the home companys finance dept signed off on our contract papers, the salesperson said we were pre-approved, so I guess I just went off of all that.
We only used my husbands credit rating because mine is not very good...and we can only use his income because mine is not "approved" since I have not had it for 2 years. I thought that if they were going to not approve us based on income, they would have already done it, they wouldn't wait to run credit again? But I am not sure. His credit score has improved by a good amount in the past month, and now we plan to pay his cards off completely (both have 500$ limits, one has 80$ on it the other 150$ and we are just going to pay off completely.) before they run his credit again.
As far as the inspection, I looked through our contracts, and the inspection is set up by the building company, at least 5 days before inspection to make sure everything in the home is correct/built properly.

When we bought our house everything was handled by our Realtor. If we had any questions we just called her. There was also a mortgage broker, but when we had questions regarding that process our Realtor handled that also. We had a Lawyer present at closing that represented us as the buyer, but we didn't hire him, the Realtor did.

Good luck!

Like a number of peopl here, we dealt with our bank (for the mortgage) our Realtor and a Real Estate Lawyer. I'm not in the US, so some of this might be a bit different, but for us "Pre-Qualified" was just an estimate, which we then took to our mortgage specialist to have "pre-approved."

Our realtor set up pretty much everything for us (inspections included), but strongly suggested we retain a lawyer for closing...which we did. After that, we had very few dealings with the paperwork - the lawyer did all of it, we just showed up on closing day, signed everything and got our keys and a congratulations.

As to why they have to wait before running it again, I have heard there's a limit to the number of times someone can check against your credit in a month...that must have been what happenned if you have to wait for April.

I think some things depend on what state you live in. DH had to schedule all our inspections and what not. Our realtor was great about guiding us through the process and explaining things. We did buy from a builder too. I believe the surveying was taken care of through our lawyer though. We closed on our house in June of 09; it seems like ages ago now. But I remember it was all kind of crazy. I laid awake thinking about it all a lot!

Originally Posted by Ms. Freya

Like a number of peopl here, we dealt with our bank (for the mortgage) our Realtor and a Real Estate Lawyer. I'm not in the US, so some of this might be a bit different, but for us "Pre-Qualified" was just an estimate, which we then took to our mortgage specialist to have "pre-approved."

Our realtor set up pretty much everything for us (inspections included), but strongly suggested we retain a lawyer for closing...which we did. After that, we had very few dealings with the paperwork - the lawyer did all of it, we just showed up on closing day, signed everything and got our keys and a congratulations.

As to why they have to wait before running it again, I have heard there's a limit to the number of times someone can check against your credit in a month...that must have been what happenned if you have to wait for April.

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I don't know if ours if different because we are buying a new house from a builder and to get the down payment grant we have to be approved through their own financing company, so we did the pre-qual, went into contract and sent all the paperwork to the company...I wish we were going through our own bank, I think at this point it would have been an easier situation.
They ran our credit early February....the whole reason they were planning on running our credit in March was because they couldn't run it in Feb again...however they don't plan on running it in March either.
The mortgage broker lied to our salesperson & realtor and told them she called us earlier this week to tell us this information, which she didn't...we actually tried to reach her this week and got no response...that makes me more angry then anything, that they have not gotten back to me and all blame each other as to why we are just now finding out we have to wait another month.
As for the lawyer thing, this is the first I have heard of getting a lawyer for closing, no one had mentioned that in any way until I posted on this site...I had never even thought about doing that.

Never heard of anyone getting a lawyer, our realtor did that stuff. And our realtor did work for us, the seller had a realtor and we the buyer had our own realtor, which is typical around here-Ohio.

Leslie

What an incompetent mortgage company!

I live in PA. State law says you must have your home inspection within 2 weeks of your offer being accepted. You have to arrange it yourself; your realtor usually will suggest a company they deal with--you should be offered a small discount if you use them. Home inspections here average about $360 or so. Also, make sure you don't use the same inspector as the seller, as this could be a conflict of interest.

A walk-through "inspection" is done with you and your realtor, usually within a day or so of settlement--you want this as close to settlement as possible, in case the sellers have damaged something, removed something that was in the contract (like the appliances), etc., since the real inspection. Some buyers even do this right before settlement.

I hope you get this resolved soon! This should be an exciting time for you, not such a stressful time as it seems to be!

Originally Posted by frankthetank

From what we have discussed with the Realtor, she goes to closing with us, no one mentioned anything about an attorney to us.
I don't know the difference between pre-qual and pre approved...I just know that the pre-qual was a paper we filled out to get pre-approved and when the VP of the home companys finance dept signed off on our contract papers, the salesperson said we were pre-approved, so I guess I just went off of all that.
We only used my husbands credit rating because mine is not very good...and we can only use his income because mine is not "approved" since I have not had it for 2 years. I thought that if they were going to not approve us based on income, they would have already done it, they wouldn't wait to run credit again? But I am not sure. His credit score has improved by a good amount in the past month, and now we plan to pay his cards off completely (both have 500$ limits, one has 80$ on it the other 150$ and we are just going to pay off completely.) before they run his credit again.
As far as the inspection, I looked through our contracts, and the inspection is set up by the building company, at least 5 days before inspection to make sure everything in the home is correct/built properly.

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Pre-qualification letters are almost useless. They simply mean that you MIGHT be qualified to get a loan; your credit report is not run, etc. Don't waste your time with them.

Pre-APPROVAL letters, however, are a much different animal, and you need one! This means that a lending institution has checked your credit rating, finances, etc., and will loan you a set amount.

Are you confusing a home inspection with a builder's home inspection, since it's new construction? I suppose you'd need both, in your case (I explained home inspections lower down--sorry--I didn't see this post until after I posted there). A home inspection in order to make settlement on a house differs from a builder's. You probably need to get a permit of occupancy, I would imagine--that's a builder thing. A home inspector, which every home-buyer needs, simply comes in, with you there, and checks the home so ensure that, for example, the roof is in good shape, the plumbing works, etc. He/she will also note any repairs that need doing (for example, the thermalpane in some of our windows was broken; he recommended that we replace the windows at a later date). All of this is also done in order to ensure the home is safe to move into, and also to compare notes with the seller's inspection. Example: the seller's inspector said our chimney was too short; our inspector said it was ok. This seems like a pain, but, if you get a good inspector, they will explain a LOT to you--it can be quite educational--so I recommend you take notes and ask questions. They will note necessary/recommended repairs and safety/code issues.

Attorney: All I can think of is that the realty company has their own; I don't think they show up at settlement. Your closing costs cover all of the legal fees, getting the deed, etc.

This is your first home purchase - paying for a real estate attorney doesn't cost that much, and may save you $$.

Also, when you do your walk through - be sure and make a list of everything that needs to be done, and if necessary, withhold some funds to be paid once everything the Builder promises you will be done is done. The $$ will go in to Escrow, and will be released upon your approval.

Dealing with mortgage brokers is a time consuming thing - patience is important - and last minute issues can surface - this is why it's good to get a real estate attorney on your side.

Who does your Real Estate Agent/Broker work for. How did you connect with him/her. Knowing that bit of information helps identify if the agent is working for you or just the commission.

Don't rely on the Agent - especially the Seller's Agent - to review all the information for any negatives pertaining to you.

Like others have said - a Real Estate Attorney is a good professional to look out for your interest - not the interest of the Seller, not the interest of the Agent - but for your interest.

I'm sure in this economy the Seller wants to sell - most likely the Mortgage Broker is working with the Seller - and he wants to make the deal, too. However - the Mortgage Broker is not the Banker, and it's the Banks that cause a lot of headache when they are deciding if they want to loan $$ to a home buyer. Like I said, patience is needed here, you don't want to get anyone associated with this deal mad at you.
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Originally Posted by MargeCat

What an incompetent mortgage company!

I live in PA. State law says you must have your home inspection within 2 weeks of your offer being accepted. You have to arrange it yourself; your realtor usually will suggest a company they deal with--you should be offered a small discount if you use them. Home inspections here average about $360 or so. Also, make sure you don't use the same inspector as the seller, as this could be a conflict of interest.

A walk-through "inspection" is done with you and your realtor, usually within a day or so of settlement--you want this as close to settlement as possible, in case the sellers have damaged something, removed something that was in the contract (like the appliances), etc., since the real inspection. Some buyers even do this right before settlement.

I hope you get this resolved soon! This should be an exciting time for you, not such a stressful time as it seems to be!

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We didn't even make an offer...the builder had just lowered the price on the house by about 18,000 so we just left it at that, I guess that was our "offer". Our papers we signed when we went into contract on the house, said that we need a pre-settlement inspection that takes place within a couple weeks before the closing date, to make sure the house is completely correct the way it should have been built. Other then that, they have not mentioned any inspections being done. Because it is a new build, we were told that was the only inspection needed. The house & everything in it is brand new and we have warranties from 1-5 years based on the item (like appliances & actual structure/walls/floors are 1 year, water heater & ac are 5 yrs etc...)

Originally Posted by MargeCat

Pre-qualification letters are almost useless. They simply mean that you MIGHT be qualified to get a loan; your credit report is not run, etc. Don't waste your time with them.

Pre-APPROVAL letters, however, are a much different animal, and you need one! This means that a lending institution has checked your credit rating, finances, etc., and will loan you a set amount.

Are you confusing a home inspection with a builder's home inspection, since it's new construction? I suppose you'd need both, in your case (I explained home inspections lower down--sorry--I didn't see this post until after I posted there). A home inspection in order to make settlement on a house differs from a builder's. You probably need to get a permit of occupancy, I would imagine--that's a builder thing. A home inspector, which every home-buyer needs, simply comes in, with you there, and checks the home so ensure that, for example, the roof is in good shape, the plumbing works, etc. He/she will also note any repairs that need doing (for example, the thermalpane in some of our windows was broken; he recommended that we replace the windows at a later date). All of this is also done in order to ensure the home is safe to move into, and also to compare notes with the seller's inspection. Example: the seller's inspector said our chimney was too short; our inspector said it was ok. This seems like a pain, but, if you get a good inspector, they will explain a LOT to you--it can be quite educational--so I recommend you take notes and ask questions. They will note necessary/recommended repairs and safety/code issues.

Attorney: All I can think of is that the realty company has their own; I don't think they show up at settlement. Your closing costs cover all of the legal fees, getting the deed, etc.

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When we did the pre-qual, they did run our credit. We also sent copies of all of our finances to the mortgage people...bank statements, paystubs, tax information. Apparently the reason she had not yet run our credit the second time is because she has not yet reviewed the final documents we sent on March 2nd. The day we signed our contract they told us we were at that point in pre-approval for the home, and final approval would come once they ran the credit again after his identity theft stuff dropped off, and they had went through all our income paperwork we sent.
The builder already has gotten the permit of occupancy as far as I know. I am doing some research now on inspections for new builds. I kinda feel like a dummy now, I feel like I don't know anything about buying a house.

No first time buyer, no matter how much they've read up, feels totally comfortable during the process. I took a first time homebuyers class and everything when I was shopping (presentations made by a realtor, a loan officer and a local agency that, with your approval, would pull your credit and counsel you regarding possible credit issues and work with you on budgeting for a house, including things like making sure you know how much the taxes are, insurance, setting aside a budgeted amount of repairs and landscaping) - and I still felt lost most of the time.

Even in a newly constructed home, you are well within your rights to hire your own home inspector to go through with you, creating a punch list of things that may need attention. Also, make sure the builder provides you with instructions on the heating/cooling systems, the appliances, all that good stuff.

One thing about real estate is that everything's local - if you decide you want your own attorney, you want someone specializing in real estate in your county. For example, I live in DuPage county - a zillion lawyers down the road work in Cook, but I wanted one who understands closings etc in DuPage.

Do you know what sort of mortgage you have? Is is a conventional 30 year fixed? An ARM? Many people these days are using HUD - which is totally fine - but just be sure you know what kind of you have - a RE attorney can help you with the fine print.

But don't feel stupid - at all!!! Looking back, there's so much I wish I knew first - and I honestly had done a fair amount of research before shopping around.

Many studies have indicated that buying a house is one of the most stressful situations in our lives, so don't feel like you're the only one who's ever felt overwhelmed. Even people on their fifth or sixth homes have questions.