It’s a week since I was told to move fast and get my mortgage person on board for getting the house I love, and two mortgage people later, I still don’t have anyone truly on board. Not from lack of trying, I call them constantly trying to get answers. No one wants to give a mortgage for less than about $30,000.
But anyway, let me tell you a little about this house. The house I want!
Sure, I can find other houses, but they aren’t deals like this. I was pre-qualified by the first mortgage person I contacted up to $35,000. There are plenty of houses on the market that fall in that price range, but none of them are even near the kid of deal this is.
I did a search for properties $0 – 50,000 in the area, and this is the only house that comes up. That’s because it is a good, low-crime neighborhood, and low-priced homes don’t last long. It also has the benefit of being a house that isn’t falling apart; It’s unfinished, and just needs a loving hammer to make it a good home. Some walls need to be built, some floors need to be covered (one needs to be replaced in a small area), the cedar shake needs some work, but otherwise it is in good shape. I guarantee that any of the houses I can get in the $30 – $35,000 price range aren’t anywhere near as good of a deal. I’d still need to do work on them, but I would need to take down walls, and take up floors to make it how I want it. This house has the advantage of not needing to be torn apart to be lived in and loved.
Furthermore, why spend more money than I need to for a house that isn’t exactly what I want?
Right now I’m trying to get into a “home renewal” mortgage, which is for houses that need to be refurbished. Honestly, the only reason I need this kind of mortgage is to bring what I’m spending on the house into the range of what the banks want me to finance.
Honestly, I don’t know what they are thinking. If I was a lender, I would rather fund someone looking to buy a home well within their means and make a little money off th deal than someone buying a house they really can’t afford and risk not making any money off the deal. Funding a $17,000 house for someone pre-qualified up to $35,000 should be a no-brainer. It’s guaranteed money, and you’ll never see a late payment.
There is also the fact that just fixing this house up a little will increase the value immensely (it’s assessed at $61,000)… so in a couple years I could roll it, buy another home and pay off most of my other debt.
Arrgh!