Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Step 1: getting the money

As I've mentioned a *few* times, the ear doctor and I are looking to buy a house. Well, for some reason I've been dragging my feet on actually getting going. I admit it, part of me was a bit intimidated. And the thing I was most intimidated by? Talking to a lender.

Up to this point we've just been scouring the Internet and doing drive-bys after work. But then we found a house that looked really interesting and I realized that if we found the perfect house we could loose it because we hadn't even started talking to the bank! For some reason just calling someone up and asking for a few hundreds of thousands of dollars seemed daunting.

But guess what, it isn't. It's a piece of cake! I just filled out some forms online and the NICEST woman at Wells Fargo called me back in about 2 hours with some questions. Tomorrow I should get their answer and (hopefully) my pre-approval amount soon thereafter.

Turns out it was a total snap and now we're really off and running for the biggest purchase of our lives. Wish us luck!


One more thing...I've been told by a few friends that I should get multiple lenders to give me an estimate at the same time so I can compare. What do you think of that? Did you do it when you financed your house?

6 comments:

Jessica said...

I'm glad that you got a great person at Wells Fargo. We contacted them first and got terrible service from the mortgage officer we dealt with. We went with a mortgage officer and a local lender that several friends recommended to us, but our loan has since been sold to Wells Fargo and we've had no problems with them. :)

We got a GFE from both of those officers. If you do decide to get more estimates (I'd recommend at least getting a second one) this article can help you understand what all the items are on the GFE. Good luck!! It's stressful, but exciting!

Robyn said...

I got two when we bought... And when we refi'd. I ended up using the same guy both times, and I will recommend him to you if you want. He's in Lafayette. Our mortgage got sold both times, but he warned us that's what happens... he was able to shop around at a number of banks and give us some options. I think he's a straight shooter, though he can talk a lot!

Courtney said...

I would get at least 2. Kyle and I got 3... B of A, a mortgage broker in SF, and our credit union. Our credit union had, hands down, the best rate. But I've heard you can negotiate more with mortgage brokers (although I'm a TERRIBLE negotiator - so this didn't sound especially promising to me...)

Anyway - YAYAYAYAY!!!!!! Good luck!

poodle said...

i've never bought a house, but my sister did and got a GREAT rate. they went to several different banks, and her husband had done a lot of research and figured out what rate he should be able to get. when the bank said they couldn't give it to him, he said thank you and walked out. they called him the next day and offered him what he wanted.

Kelcie said...

I've worked in the mortgage business in AZ and now in VA for 10 years. I'd call or email at least one mortgage broker and one or two lenders. You want to get Good faith estimates from all of them. Some companies like to charge a little money up front to ensure you'll go with them. Don't pay it, as there are many companies that won't charge it.

k said...

yay! congrats on taking the first step!