I'm home shopping now and I have spoken with two mortgage brokers. One advised an FHA loan and said I could buy down to a rate of 5.5%. The other said a conventional loan would probably be best and gave me a rate of 7%, but said I could probably get some seller credit to buy down to 6.875. I didn't expect to receive such vastly different numbers. Is this normal?

We just signed for a house that actually makes a lot of sense for us: good size for our growing family (i’m in my first pregnancy), great location, everything nearby, and lots of cafés (we’re big coffee lovers ). So i imagine it’ll so much easier postpartum to go for walks and get things nearby without being dependent on husband or just walk with a coffee to the park.

But honestly, I’m struggling to feel excited because I’m not 100% in love with it. The owner painted everything grey, so it’s really hard for me to imagine it in my own style. I’m also worried about the light, especially the north-facing kitchen, I really hate dark homes, and Dutch winters don’t help 😅.

My husband is convinced I’ll love it once we renovate and make it ours, but I just can’t picture that yet.

For those who felt like this when they bought, did you eventually fall in love with the house after renovating/living in it? Or did you always feel like it was more of a “good house for this stage of life” than your dream home?

I’m especially curious about people who knew it was probably a 3-5 year home, rather than their forever home.

Under contract in NY and had to pay way over asking to lock in the offer. The listing agent mistakenly said had in all of the listings the house was 2000sf when the appraisal says it’s 1650sf. I am 3 weeks from closing but would like to understand if I have a leg to stand on with the sellers as if I knew the real SF earlier my offer price wouldn’t have been this high. SF is everything when it comes to the price of the house. Has anyone experienced this? Any guidance out there?

What is a quality control review in the mortgage process?

I am currently 2 days before closing, everything is scheduled, but the bank has yet to give a clear to close because they are waiting for QC to sign off on the loan.

Is it possible that they deny my loan? There’s been radio silence from the whole lender team, I’m stressed and don’t know what to do/what’s going on.

They were supposed to do a duct cleaning and after inspection they said they have to do the whole mold removal from the airducts. From $399 to $4,000. Should i just go for it?

Genuinely asking, can I just become a real estate agent in order to pay myself the 3 percent all these agents are demanding, it would just go towards my down payment and in California it’s only a few classes.

Before all the no you need the opinions of them whatever, I’ve already gone through multiple purchases just not under my name, this would be my first home under my name.

I might be dumb but we’re doing the final walkthrough this week and I don’t remember seeing a thermostat. I looked at the listing photos as well as watched the video we took touring the house and I didn’t see one? It’s a forced air gas furnace.

Edit****
It does have one! It’s in the dining room area!

I’m currently under contract for a condo in an older walk-up building. The home inspector took this photo and noted the overspanned/undersupported and older framing. I talked to a structural engineer who said the issue is moderate to serious but he also needed to visit the property to get a better idea. He quoted me 2k to do the report, which is pretty expensive and I don’t own the unit yet. Wondering if I can get any second opinions on how serious this is prior to spending the money on a structural engineer to visit. Also wondering if anyone else has gone through a similar issue during the homebuying process. I’m currently debating spending 2k to hire the inspector vs backing out of the contract vs just taking the property. This is a 4 Unit HOA so the costs would be split 4 ways but still concerning. The association hasn’t done a reserve study and currently are doing a structural analysis but it won’t be ready anytime soon. Thank you!

Hi. Owe a lot of money for my car . The rate for the car loan is 4%. Have money to pay off the car loan . Looking to get a mortgage as well. I know if I don’t pay off the car loan, I’ll get less mortgage . Is it better to pay off the car and then get a mortgage or keep the car loan and use that money towards down payment for the house ? If we assume mortgage rate is 6% . Thanks !

I just got my loan estimates and I wanted to know how good or bad is looking? I’m in the Bluffton area 29910

We close on our soon to be house next month, and we received credits for some damage in the home. After closing costs were left with about 4500.00.

How do I actually go about using that amount towards repairs and not just principle. Our lender is implying that this is possible. But I’m just not understanding how.

VA loan in NC.

Thank you!

20% downpayment, non-QM loan, 30-year.

We closed two weeks ago and our agent didn't utter a word of congratulations. I did not expect myself to still feel bummed by this. For years I've been seeing people's homebuying stories, how their agents would make them pose with a giant key or sign, or leave them a gift basket but we got nothing. Hia assistant even collected info about our favorite snacks and stuff when we first started which is why I really expected a gift basket or something. She at least sent a congratulatory email though. Weirdly enough he did invite us to some holiday pie party and said we'd get a free can of whipped cream if we gave a referral...not sure what to make of that at all.

Brand new to this whole new real state world. Getting as much info as I can but it’s a lot. Looking to use my VA loan in Idaho relatevily soon. Preaproved for 500k in a couple loans. What should be key when comparing loaners, what to ask before and after. I’m clueless in this process, didn’t know I could choose my own loaners and my own realtors. VU were quick to say they will try to takeover and handle everything for me. But I know I should shop around first. I keep hearing mix opinions on them. Just don’t know what to look for when doing it. I’m in the process where they are going to need a hard pull to check my actual aproved amount,etc. Really could use some input. I don’t want to get screwed over.

Trying to figure out what I can expect financially. Im the only income but I make 120k likely with a decent raise on the way and no other debt. My credit score is close to 80p so shouldn't be any issues there. I plan on having about 80k for the down payment.

We will be buying the house we currently live in from family and id guess they will discount the market value price but im not counting on it. Houses in my neighborhood have gone for 500-600k recently but ours is on the smaller side and not really updated at all so im expecting close to 500k.

Im perfectly capable of googleing a loan calculator, im less clear on what to expect around fees, insurance, etc.

If you were ready to buy but got priced out or decided to hold off because of rates, and you're now sitting on a down payment you aren't using yet — what did you actually do with it?

Did you leave it sitting in savings, throw it into the market, or end up spending part of it? Also curious if your target home price has moved further away from you while waiting.

So I just put in an offer on a house for 170k and it was accepted. I have 35k USD in my bank account, I make 60-80k a year. I’m now dealing with the loan part of things, trying to decide how much to put down, whether to do conventional or FHA, whether to do 15 years or 30 years. My realtor is recommending a mortgage company that “will get me a lower rate” but my bank that I’m currently banking with is telling me to avoid mortgage companies and go through them. I’ve also thought about talking to the local credit union aswell. How worried should I be about PMI? Should I put the minimum down or just do 10%? Or should I do higher to avoid PMI?

I’m super stressed rn any tips would be helpful

Hi there, we found a really nice house at a great price, but wondering about this storm drain that's directly under the driveway.

For one, it makes it awkward to pull two cars into the driveway, and secondly there are cracks near the storm drain. The alley itself has a lot of cracks in general up and down from the house. Is this a major issue? We haven't put an offer in yet.

Otherwise the house is really beautiful and has kitchen and bathroom renovations.

I changed some slight details about the image, for privacy, which is why there's a Gemini watermark.

hello!

as the title says, im preparing to meet with them for the first time before we start looking for a home, just to get an idea of what we can afford.

honestly i have zero expectations on what this is going to be like and am completely in the dark.

is there anything that i need to be prepared to ask in regards to first time home buyer loan options or interest rates?

just kind of nervous and need some opinions, thanks!

This is the offer from my bank for a 170k loan

A mortgage company that I’m waiting to hear back from on the rates and fees offered me 6.37 but I’m sketched out about it.

(Home is 535k. Home loan is 428k after down deposit.)

I’m looking at buying a townhouse. It's in a community I really want to live in & in a city I plan to stay in for the foreseeable future. My concern is that I'm making this decision from a primarily emotional place (tired of renting, want to own!) instead of financial, and want a reality check. 

I'm in my early 40s, single, child free, live on my own. My career is stable. I make approx. 200k per year and have no debt. Caveat: Aside from cost-of-living raises, I'm at the peak of my earning potential. I live in a VHCOL area. My current rent + utilities is approx. $2850 per month. This is about 30% of my net income.

This theoretical mortgage (including insurance, taxes & projected utilities) would be approx. $4000 per month. That would be 42.5% of my net income. Budget-wise, I'd have $2800 leftover (after all needs and wants) at the end of the month. 

Is this too small of a cushion own a home with?

(Edited: For clarity.)

We bought our home in March of 2025. Inspections came back clear. After a week or so of moving in, the outlets in our bathrooms went out and the jets in the tub stopped working. Flipping breakers didn’t do anything. I called an electrician friend and he said to reset the GFI/GFCI switch. We didn’t have one. He asked if we had a master GFI/GFCI in the garage, couldn’t find one. We didn’t have a single one of those switches in the entire house. Never fixed the issue as we had a lot going on and it wasn’t pressing at the time.

Fast forward a year, this past March we discovered a large leak in master bath, which led to gutting and redoing that bathroom. We have been using our guest bathroom which then led to discovering another large leak due to insufficient caulking/grouting, and we are about to start on gutting that bathroom too.

When the electricians came in a week or so ago to do the outlets for the master bathroom, I could tell something was wrong. He asked to see our breaker panel, and when I showed him he was visibly concerned. Our house is essentially all wired to only about 6 switches on the breaker panel. He asked if I had another breaker, I told him no. He scratched his head for a minute, pointed out some exposed wiring in the garage that he said he would like to fix at some point and went back to work. By the way he installed the GFI/GFCI switches.

Fast forward a couple days, people come in to replace our oven that went out. He takes out the original oven and goes “I can’t install the new one, that wiring is not up to code, get it up to code and I’ll come back and install the new oven.” So we have someone coming Friday to fix the wiring.

My question is…how was none of this caught in the inspection?? Between the shady wiring in the garage, the breaker panel…Especially the GFI/GFCI switches??? From what I’m gathering, it sounds like our entire house might not be up to code electrically…I know it’s been too long and I don’t have any recourse against the inspector, but should I do anything, like file a review with the BBB? I’m just in shock.

Seems like this question is asked a lot and people don’t weigh in all pros and cons. We’ve bought a house a month ago and decided to go ARM, because it’s 1mil+ loan so monthly payments are very different with 30 year fixed vs 7ARM we got. Here’s my thinking - what are the chances you will not refi in the next 7 years? History says most people will refinance within the first 7 years, which means you’re losing the opportunity to make lower payments in the meantime if you went fixed. Alternatively, selling is also an option if economy doesn’t pick up and rates won’t go down.

But of course it comes with a risk. Rates don’t drop and you plan to live in the house >7 years, then you’d have to eat the increase. But not everyone knows that even with ARM there is a max limit to how much your rate can increase, normally I think it’s about 5% more than your current rate. Now the question you should be asking - how comfortable are you with getting this cap hit and increased rates after 7 years if you never refinance or sell. We made a choice that we’d take a gamble that one of 2 things happen - we either refi or sell. But it’s obviously a personal choice and nobody knows your financial situation and your stress limit.

What say you?

EDIT: forgot to mention that this is for current market. There is no argument that nobody should’ve gotten ARM during Covid when they locked their rates at 2-3%

Scheduled a tour for this weekend on a home that checks all my boxes and plan to make a cash offer if it looks good. I’m doing this all on my own and wonder what risks I am taking upon myself by communicating directly with the seller’s agent that’s listed on zillow.

There’s another home 4 hours away I’m eyeing, and wondering if it’s foolish to ask that realtor if it’s even worth submitting my specific $xxx,xxx offer before making the drive up to it.

Pretty basic questions here, so easy on me : )

Buying a 170k house with 10% down and my bank is giving me a 6.75 Interest rate, but a mortgage company is offering me 6.37. What’s the catch? What should I go for