Should We Buy A Home Now?
Jul 1, 2008 Ellie Kay, "America's Family Financial Expert," is the founder of SHOP, SAVE, & SHARE SEMINARS, a best-selling author, a frequent media guest on Fox News, CNN, and CNBC, and a commentator for Money Matters radio show. In 2003, her book, Heroes at Home was a finalist in the Gold Medallion Book Awards; President Bush issued a Presidential Initiative for the distribution of Heroes at Home to military families. Ellie Kay has also been the 2007 OnStar and GMAC spokesperson at the Satellite Media Tour NYC, and the 2006-2007 spokesperson for Consumer Credit Education for Washington Mutual. Ellie Kay has published 11 books, the most recent is A Tip A Day With Ellie Kay: Twelve Months Worth of Money Savings Ideas. For money savings tips, check out her blog at www.elliekay.com
My husband, Bob and I lived on military bases for the first dozen years of our marriage. When you move eleven times in thirteen years it doesn't make sense to buy! When we finally settled one place long enough to purchase our first home, we were thrilled and had "imposter syndrome" for the first month or so. We kept waiting for the "real" owners to show up and kick us out of the house! Alas, it was a dream come true and we truly enjoyed that home. Now...I know what some of you are thinking--is that a picture of my house? No, it's not, it's just one of the many, many gorgeous homes that are on the market in America. We sold that first home and the next year property values plummeted in the area. Not all Americans are having such good timing in buying and selling.
Earlier this month, the average fixed rate mortgage was at its highest since last October, 2007, with a 30 year averaging 6.32%, up from 6.09% but still below last year's rate of 6.74%. It appears that the rate will continue to creep upward, so if you were thinking of buying a home, now would probably be a good time. It can turn from a buyers market to a sellers market in a relatively short amount of time as those extra properties are purchased and taken off the market.
If you are considering buying a home, shop carefully for lenders and be sure that you negotiate, negotiate, negotiate with the LENDER as well as the SELLER. When discussing closing costs and fees, make sure that you don't over pay. Here are four key areas to keep in mind when negotiating fees and costs with your lender:
Don’t Pay for Inflated Credit-Report and Courier Fees - Some lenders are charging up to $65 for pulling your credit report. That is unusually high, considering the fact that credit reporting bureaus only charge $6 to $18 per report. Using the same tactics, some lenders charge courier fees for shipping your closing documents for as much as $100, while the majority of overnight express services only charge $22. Tell your lender, up front, that you refuse to pay any more than the going rate for these services.
Don’t Pay for Document Prep and Administration Fees - The origination fee should include these services, so don’t pay them! Ask your lender to waive these fees.
When You Buy A Home: Don’t Pay for Yield Spread Premiums - Lenders increase your interest rate slightly to include origination and other fees so you don’t have to pay them out-of-pocket at closing but some lenders and mortgage brokers are double dipping—by charging both the fees and the higher interest rate. Ask your broker directly if a firm charges you a yield spread premium. If so, you shouldn’t pay any additional fees.
Don’t Pay for Padded Title Insurance Fees - When you are shopping for lenders, look for all the above, plus look out for those who don’t tack on a lot of extra charges for services such as title search and document preparation. Theses can add hundreds of dollars to your closing costs and they really should be included in the price of title insurance, which depending on where you live, can be as high as $6,000.
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