30 Year Mortgage Rate

Detroitgator

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It may be true at first glance that you’ll find a better rate for a 15 year note but that includes some assumptions that may not be true. As you pointed out in another post, the difference in monthly payment for a 30 vs 15 year note is significant, even on a moderately priced house. When you start computing debt-to-income ratios etc, many buyers wind up not qualifying for that sexy lower 15 year rate.

As for mortgage brokering, I can assure you the business is alive and well. Maybe not so much for folks who live a simple life, getting their trust W2 wage every month, and aren’t borrowing too much money. But where housing prices are high and you have alimony to the first wife and child support to the second wife, and some income from a W2 job and other income from a 1099 job, and a side business that has a partnership with some other guy, and you own a rental property somewhere etc etc etc....the underwriting of a loan gets to be a real chore. Especially if you’re buying an expensive house and your DTI ratios are hard to balance. This is the work that the mortgage broker does and it doesn’t really cost the borrower anything. It’s like a travel agent, they make their money based on rebates they have negotiated with the lenders.
This is exactly what I meant in the RE investing thread. I cannot imagine doing RE investing without a team member that wasn’t a great, creative, mortgage broker or lender that didn’t think/work like a great, creative, mortgage broker, and ANYONE can find one, even starting out. Ya start with google, then start interviewing them with what your plan is, pick one, and go. You don’t have to be “rich” or even particularly smart. You can figure all of it out on the interwebz now, you just have to be willing to actually do it/take the risk, and very few are. Plenty of people here on GC that are both smart enough and have enough means (takes practically nothing given cheap lending), they just don’t have the risk tolerance to do it... then will tell others here endlessly why it’s a bad idea or can’t be done. ;)
 

Concrete Helmet

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As for mortgage brokering, I can assure you the business is alive and well. Maybe not so much for folks who live a simple life, getting their trust W2 wage every month, and aren’t borrowing too much money. But where housing prices are high and you have alimony to the first wife and child support to the second wife, and some income from a W2 job and other income from a 1099 job, and a side business that has a partnership with some other guy, and you own a rental property somewhere etc etc etc....the underwriting of a loan gets to be a real chore. Especially if you’re buying an expensive house and your DTI ratios are hard to balance. This is the work that the mortgage broker does and it doesn’t really cost the borrower anything. It’s like a travel agent, they make their money based on rebates they have negotiated with the lenders.
Very good points and yes there is almost a dying appreciation of the work a legitimate, experienced Broker can do for the right person. I'm kinda sad that the numbers of these types are rapidly diminishing at least in our area. We still have half a dozen of such Brokers who bring us their loans to close and many have been clients for 20 plus years. A lot of times the deals they bring come from Investors or Corporations and are very complicated due to probate, estate, short sale, commercial transactions and other circumstances. Sadly most Realtors don't have a clue of what goes on in these situations and are useless as tits on a Bull. It's nice to have someone with their knowledge to prep the buyer/borrower and any other parties involved in the transaction...sadly most Realtors disappear once they send a contract because most don't want to say the wrong thing and be held responsible....few even bother to show up for their closings.
 

Zambo

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Very good points and yes there is almost a dying appreciation of the work a legitimate, experienced Broker can do for the right person. I'm kinda sad that the numbers of these types are rapidly diminishing at least in our area. We still have half a dozen of such Brokers who bring us their loans to close and many have been clients for 20 plus years. A lot of times the deals they bring come from Investors or Corporations and are very complicated due to probate, estate, short sale, commercial transactions and other circumstances. Sadly most Realtors don't have a clue of what goes on in these situations and are useless as tits on a Bull. It's nice to have someone with their knowledge to prep the buyer/borrower and any other parties involved in the transaction...sadly most Realtors disappear once they send a contract because most don't want to say the wrong thing and be held responsible....few even bother to show up for their closings.
You wouldn’t believe the absolute schyt show this morning when the buyers my wife represented showed up to their new house they just closed on only to find the previous owners still there and refusing to leave. Of course the realtor is nowhere to be found so my wife is the one trying to sort it all out. Some realtors are great and some I wouldn’t trust to walk my dog.
 

bradgator2

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You wouldn’t believe the absolute schyt show this morning when the buyers my wife represented showed up to their new house they just closed on only to find the previous owners still there and refusing to leave. Of course the realtor is nowhere to be found so my wife is the one trying to sort it all out. Some realtors are great and some I wouldn’t trust to walk my dog.

Ah man. This sounds likes a good story. What are some more details?
 

Zambo

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Ah man. This sounds likes a good story. What are some more details?
Nothing interesting, just the buyers and sellers started talking directly to each other during the process rather than going through their realtors....and of course things said off the cuff by one party are taken as contractual by the other party, blah blah blah. Herding cats. At minimum however you would think that on the day you get the keys to your new home that the realtor that just made many thousands of dollars on the sale would be there to hand you the keys and handle this sort of crap.
 

ChiefGator

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You wouldn’t believe the absolute schyt show this morning when the buyers my wife represented showed up to their new house they just closed on only to find the previous owners still there and refusing to leave. Of course the realtor is nowhere to be found so my wife is the one trying to sort it all out. Some realtors are great and some I wouldn’t trust to walk my dog.

I agree but if I bought a home, and they would not leave the police would be involved very quickly. Trespassing seems the minimum.

I dislike the process because it requires contracts for determining the price and conditions, why the buyer and seller could not personally and directly discuss the transaction without paperwork is annoying to me. Very costly as well.
 

Zambo

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I agree but if I bought a home, and they would not leave the police would be involved very quickly. Trespassing seems the minimum.

I dislike the process because it requires contracts for determining the price and conditions, why the buyer and seller could not personally and directly discuss the transaction without paperwork is annoying to me. Very costly as well.
The buyer and seller most certainly can discuss whatever conditions they want without paperwork. This is still America. The problem is what recourse you have if they don't perform their end of whatever bargain they shook hands on. In this case the buyer told the seller Hey don't worry if you need a day or two to get all your stuff out...but then the buyer's mom filled her with horror stories of squatters that wouldn't leave, so after the deal the buyer told the seller to get out and the seller was like WTF and it all snowballed from there.
 

Concrete Helmet

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Nothing interesting, just the buyers and sellers started talking directly to each other during the process rather than going through their realtors....and of course things said off the cuff by one party are taken as contractual by the other party, blah blah blah. Herding cats. At minimum however you would think that on the day you get the keys to your new home that the realtor that just made many thousands of dollars on the sale would be there to hand you the keys and handle this sort of crap.
Nope...most leave the keys at our office and don't even bother to attend closing.....like you said, not all Realtors but most think that this is standard practice in our area...then we have to listen to the sob stories about "we have nowhere to go" when the buyers "wholesale big bank lender" doesn't fund before 5PM on a Friday and WE can't give them the keys when they closed at 1PM and their moving truck is sitting outside in our parking lot...
Meanwhile were trying to cut funding on the 14 refi's we did 3 days prior to make sure funding hits contractors accounts for work that was done prior to closing....purchases in general pay more because of the simultaneous issue and usually more document preparation charges however between the drama and ******** that transpires involving buyer, seller, buyers agent, sellers agent and CLUELESS people working in the mortgage department at most banks we are more than happy that 70% of our business is refi's with the same 3 local Credit Unions.....
 
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ChiefGator

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The buyer and seller most certainly can discuss whatever conditions they want without paperwork. This is still America. The problem is what recourse you have if they don't perform their end of whatever bargain they shook hands on. In this case the buyer told the seller Hey don't worry if you need a day or two to get all your stuff out...but then the buyer's mom filled her with horror stories of squatters that wouldn't leave, so after the deal the buyer told the seller to get out and the seller was like WTF and it all snowballed from there.

My experience is that the realtors won't allow you to do that at all. I wanted to buy a piece of land, they insisted that I could not directly communicate with the sellers or even the sellers realtor.

More details show this to be different than I thought, I agree that if they needed a couple of days to get out the time to agree to that was at closing, not after and that it needed to be part of the contract.
 

BMF

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I can't believe 30 year rates have dropped back down to 4%.

I bought my first house in 1997 and had a 7.125% mortgage and I refinanced it about 6 months later for 6.75%. I remember saying, "I can't believe I got a mortgage for less than 7%!" My house now is a 30-year 3.25%. If I could have afforded a 15 year I would have done it, as they were in the low 2's in 2013/14 time frame.

When we leave DC, I plan to sell the house and a vacation home/cabin - and put down a fat down payment on a house in (hopefully) Tampa, get a 15 year mortgage and hopefully pay it off in less than 10 years.

Good discussion here!
 

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I can't believe 30 year rates have dropped back down to 4%.

I bought my first house in 1997 and had a 7.125% mortgage and I refinanced it about 6 months later for 6.75%. I remember saying, "I can't believe I got a mortgage for less than 7%!" My house now is a 30-year 3.25%. If I could have afforded a 15 year I would have done it, as they were in the low 2's in 2013/14 time frame.

When we leave DC, I plan to sell the house and a vacation home/cabin - and put down a fat down payment on a house in (hopefully) Tampa, get a 15 year mortgage and hopefully pay it off in less than 10 years.

Good discussion here!
Good plan. Hopefully, given how crazy the DC market is, you will do very well.
 

BMF

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Good plan. Hopefully, given how crazy the DC market is, you will do very well.

Fingers crossed! I bought 8 years ago for $415k and similar houses in my south Arlington neighborhood are going for $600+k. Honestly, there's so little inventory. Hardly anything makes it to listing (they sell before officially being listed). The same house across the street last year sold for $8k over asking. Amazon is opening about 3 miles away over the next few years. It's a ridiculous housing market. I don't know how young people do it....
 

Gator By Marriage

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Fingers crossed! I bought 8 years ago for $415k and similar houses in my south Arlington neighborhood are going for $600+k. Honestly, there's so little inventory. Hardly anything makes it to listing (they sell before officially being listed). The same house across the street last year sold for $8k over asking. Amazon is opening about 3 miles away over the next few years. It's a ridiculous housing market. I don't know how young people do it....
We lived in North Arlington (near 7 corners) and sold our house about 6 years ago at full asking price (which I initially thought was too high). House was on the market a whole 12 days. I suspect Amazon is going to have a large impact on Arlington, Alex, Falls Church, & Fairfax Co. I have no idea how a family starting out can live there anymore.
 

BMF

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We lived in North Arlington (near 7 corners) and sold our house about 6 years ago at full asking price (which I initially thought was too high). House was on the market a whole 12 days. I suspect Amazon is going to have a large impact on Arlington, Alex, Falls Church, & Fairfax Co. I have no idea how a family starting out can live there anymore.

I'm in the slums of south Arlington....not as fancy as where you were! If I can get $625k or more I'll be very happy! Where did you move to after Arlington?
 

Gator By Marriage

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I'm in the slums of south Arlington....not as fancy as where you were! If I can get $625k or more I'll be very happy! Where did you move to after Arlington?
North Atlanta suburbs. Previously when we transferred, we had kept the house and rented it. This time (like Cortez burning his ships), I wanted the whole fam to understand we weren’t going back! My “fancy” house was a super simple 3&2 that we build an addition on, doing most of the work ourselves. The original house was build in 1947 & had a lot of oddities. The floor joists were literally 2”x7”, but hardwood, not pine. I guess after the war, they built with whatever they could find. Couldn’t beat the location. Great parks, bike trails and restaurants all in walking distance. Don’t know if you ever go to Westover, but the whole family misses The Lost Dog. Best Pizza in NoVa. & 200+ different beers
 

BMF

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North Atlanta suburbs. Previously when we transferred, we had kept the house and rented it. This time (like Cortez burning his ships), I wanted the whole fam to understand we weren’t going back! My “fancy” house was a super simple 3&2 that we build an addition on, doing most of the work ourselves. The original house was build in 1947 & had a lot of oddities. The floor joists were literally 2”x7”, but hardwood, not pine. I guess after the war, they built with whatever they could find. Couldn’t beat the location. Great parks, bike trails and restaurants all in walking distance. Don’t know if you ever go to Westover, but the whole family misses The Lost Dog. Best Pizza in NoVa. & 200+ different beers

My house was built in 1946; it's a "Pentagon house" (from what I've bee told) - built for all of the government workers around WW2. It's a 3/2, counting the BR & bath in the basement. We did the basement egress window install so we can count the square footage in the basement. I should have added on, but being in the military I had no clue how long we'd be here (we did do 1 year in Baltimore and I commuted, and 2 in Norfolk - but I was a geo-bachelor). This is the longest I've "lived" in one house in my adult life (almost 49 years old now)....
 

Gator By Marriage

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My house was built in 1946; it's a "Pentagon house" (from what I've bee told) - built for all of the government workers around WW2. It's a 3/2, counting the BR & bath in the basement. We did the basement egress window install so we can count the square footage in the basement. I should have added on, but being in the military I had no clue how long we'd be here (we did do 1 year in Baltimore and I commuted, and 2 in Norfolk - but I was a geo-bachelor). This is the longest I've "lived" in one house in my adult life (almost 49 years old now)....
We usually would have 4-6 years in any one spot, but all roads would lead back to DC. When we got transferred to ATL. we figured it was as good a spot as any to wrap it up.
 

NVGator

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I can't believe 30 year rates have dropped back down to 4%.

I bought my first house in 1997 and had a 7.125% mortgage and I refinanced it about 6 months later for 6.75%. I remember saying, "I can't believe I got a mortgage for less than 7%!" My house now is a 30-year 3.25%. If I could have afforded a 15 year I would have done it, as they were in the low 2's in 2013/14 time frame.

When we leave DC, I plan to sell the house and a vacation home/cabin - and put down a fat down payment on a house in (hopefully) Tampa, get a 15 year mortgage and hopefully pay it off in less than 10 years.

Good discussion here!
Let me know if you need a Realtor. Happy to help a fellow Gator and you’d help me get a small referral.
 

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