Applying for a mortgage

[caitlinp2008]

Wondering if i could get some tips.

We are planning on going to the bank to apply for a mortgage. My credit isn't so good (I had a little hiccup almost 2 years ago), but my husbands is fine. I am a littler nervous about what the bank is going to tell us, we both really want to buy a house.

I am wondering if the mortgage is in his name only, will we be fine? I don't really know how the whole process works. Any advice would be great!

[sweetpolishgirl]

I know they have credit unions in Canada....they give you the best rates. Try them too. I used to belong to one when I lived in Vancouver, BC.

[weddinggirl]

A tip of advice........ you can apply for a zero down mortgage. It is not through CMHC but you go through GE Canada. As the way I understood it, it was created for first time home buyers ONLY! If you have had a home before you can not apply for this. Back when all the men came home from the war it became impossible for them all to afford homes because of the hard times. So Canada opened the 0 down mortgage so ppl were able to afford it.
Shane and I did this. You will have to pay a very small amount larger of an interest rate...it worked out to 2 cents more a month or something retarded like that. They GIVE you the down payment to put on the home. Paying the little higher interest rate (I can't remember exactly what ares is but its low and it was like 0.001 % difference) you end up paying it back in your first 5 years and you don't have a loan or anything with them. If you choose to sell your house before the 5 years is up you have to pay them back the remaining balance of course but if you live there for the full 5 years you owe them nothing more. They gave us the $10,000 we needed. We had the money saved up but that was all that we had. If we gave them that we had NOTHING to put into the house including food, furniture set up bills etc. I told our mortgage guy that at the bank and he said he wished more ppl thought like we would and that it was smart what we were doing. He had pretty good credit and I had absolutley nothing so hopefully this could work for the two of you!
All you do when you apply for your mortgage (that includes pre-approval) let them know you would like to apply for the GE 0% down mortgage instead and they can give you all the info you need. If you choose not too then you will just go through CMHC instead and put a down payment on it! Wow that was long.....if you have any more questions I have no problems trying to help you too!

[Denisa]

I'm not sure if it's the same in Canada as it is in the US but I know alot of banks have done away with the $0 down because so many people are defaulting on their loans. I would offer you more advice but I honestly don't know if things work the same way in Canada as they do in the US. :o

[weddinggirl]

No its only in Canada as far as I know...and its only GE Canada that does it. Its not really a bank, I would compare it to CMHC because if you get approved by them your bank doesn't have to go through CMHC. If they deny you then you would try through CMHC instead for approval. All banks have to go through that one place.

[allisonw1400]

I'm from the States so I'm not 100% sure how its done in Canada but I would say def put the mortgage in BOTH of your names. If anything, heave forbid, ever happened to you guys...the house would go to him.

Our credit wasn't so good either and we had to get a FHA loan which is for first time home buyers. We had to put down 3% and there were some rules about the stipulations of the house we were buying...has to have handrails, not allowed to buy houses that had been flipped etc.

[Denisa]

I'm from the States so I'm not 100% sure how its done in Canada but I would say def put the mortgage in BOTH of your names. If anything, heave forbid, ever happened to you guys...the house would go to him.

Our credit wasn't so good either and we had to get a FHA loan which is for first time home buyers. We had to put down 3% and there were some rules about the stipulations of the house we were buying...has to have handrails, not allowed to buy houses that had been flipped etc.
Do you have to pay PMI?

[allisonw1400]

Do you have to pay PMI?

No. I don't think so.

[kobfield2007]

Do you have to pay PMI?
We do, but we don't have an FHA loan. I don't think FHA loans have them.

[kobfield2007]

If anything, heave forbid, ever happened to you guys...the house would go to him.
Actualllyyy.. it doesn't matter who's name it is in, if it's usually a big purchase, like a house or a car, etc.. it's split. Regardless of who's name is on the "loan". The person who's name is on it can fight for sole ownership, but just b/c their name is on it, doesn't mean they're guranteed to get it..

Basically if it was bought while you were married, it's considered "joint ownership" even if just one name is on it. If it was bought before marriage, it's considered "single ownership", but it can still be used as "collateral" for something else (bills, etc..).

[caitlinp2008]

Thanks for the advice and the links.

I am just so nervous. I would hate to be denied for having been reckless with my finances in the past.

We have good deposit saved up to put down on the house. Now we just have to see what we get approved for, I guess, and if it will be enough to buy into the market in Toronto.

I am a stressball right now.

[kobfield2007]

Also I'm not if it's the same as in the CAN, but in the US, regardless of who's credit is better the person who makes more is listed on the app. first, so their credit is looked at first. I have 'ok' credit, but my hubby has excelent credit, but b/c I make more, I had to be listed first. But for as crappy as my credit is, we still got approved for $150K.

[Denisa]

We do, but we don't have an FHA loan. I don't think FHA loans have them.
We don't have an FHA loan either, it's possible they don't have PMI

[kobfield2007]

We don't have an FHA loan either, it's possible they don't have PMI
Yeah. But the d@mn PMI is a fortume. Ours is like an additional $100 a month!

[Denisa]

Yeah. But the d@mn PMI is a fortume. Ours is like an additional $100 a month!
yup, so is ours. But our mortgage company said that after a few months if we wanted to, we could refinance and our PMI and mortgage would also drop.... I'm not sure if this is a good thing to do or not because I'm not sure of how much it costs to refinance. It's been almost a year since we bought a house so I might do some researching and see if it wuld be worth it

[kobfield2007]

yup, so is ours. But our mortgage company said that after a few months if we wanted to, we could refinance and our PMI and mortgage would also drop.... I'm not sure if this is a good thing to do or not because I'm not sure of how much it costs to refinance. It's been almost a year since we bought a house so I might do some researching and see if it wuld be worth it
Yeah I was thinking of refinancing too. I think it's anywhere from $50-$100 per application. :eek: But right now, I'm not even sure if we'd wanna refinance with how the economy is. We got a good insterest rate: 6.25%.

[Denisa]

Yeah I was thinking of refinancing too. I think it's anywhere from $50-$100 per application. :eek: But right now, I'm not even sure if we'd wanna refinance with how the economy is. We got a good insterest rate: 6.25%.
Yeah you do have a good rate... our's is 6.5% :(

[kobfield2007]

Yeah you do have a good rate... our's is 6.5% :(
That's a pretty good rate too. My mom told me when she bought our condo back in 95 her rate was 7.33%!! :eek:

[Denisa]

That's a pretty good rate too. My mom told me when she bought our condo back in 95 her rate was 7.33%!! :eek:
yeah it's not too bad..... OMG 7.33?? holy...

My IL's just bought a house and I think their's is 6.75... I think, I could be wrong. But their house was only 100K and their mortgage is only like $700/month.. must be nice :( Ours is $1,057. If we could knock a couple hundred dollars off it'd be nice! Heck even $100 :p

[allisonw1400]

Wow!

Our house was $89,900 & we put $1000 down and we only pay $736 a month for our house.

I think our rate is 6.5 too.

[Denisa]

our house was $128K w/ $0 down, we financed at 100%

[kobfield2007]

yeah it's not too bad..... OMG 7.33?? holy...

My IL's just bought a house and I think their's is 6.75... I think, I could be wrong. But their house was only 100K and their mortgage is only like $700/month.. must be nice :( Ours is $1,057. If we could knock a couple hundred dollars off it'd be nice! Heck even $100 :p
Our house was $115,500. We put $5K down, so we mortgaged $109,500. We had to pay $1K when we put bid on the house, so techincally we put $6K down. But our mortgage payment is $898.48. That's one paycheck for me a month! :eek: :(

[caitlinp2008]

Our house was $89,900 & we put $1000 down and we only pay $736 a month for our house.


I don't think there is anything here we could get for under $100K. Real Estate is out of control in Toronto.

[caitlinp2008]

We're looking at spending at least $300k....which hurts so much every time I think of it!

[kobfield2007]

We're looking at spending at least $300k....which hurts so much every time I think of it!
Holy crapola!!!! :eek: That's just nuts!!!!

[caitlinp2008]

I know - we could spend a lot less, but we'd end up with a 500 sq ft condo, which is smaller than our rental right now, so i don't think that would cut it.

Toronto is just our of control right now!

[Denisa]

We're looking at spending at least $300k....which hurts so much every time I think of it!
Wow! What about looking into buying a condo instead?
lol.. nevermind, I didn't see your other reply :)

[kobfield2007]

I know - we could spend a lot less, but we'd end up with a 500 sq ft condo, which is smaller than our rental right now, so i don't think that would cut it.

Toronto is just our of control right now!
That's one thing I'm greatful for in the US. You can still get somewhat reasonable houses in nic neighborhoods that are close to the major city.

[weddinggirl]

WOW a house under $100000.00 thats nuts. Good luck finding a hole for that price here. Oour market has sky rocketed BIG TIME but when we bought our house we did it like 2 months before the boom thank god. So we paid $169,900.00 (with some dealing of course it was higher) with us not putting anything down, our intrest just went up a little and the money was given to us by GE (10,000). So we owed like $159,900.00. We pay bi-weekly so $491 every two weeks and out interest is 5% something but I know its in the 5's lol. So usually around $1000 a month sometimes $1500!

[weddinggirl]

Oh and our house is worth just under $400,000.00 because of the boom :D

[kobfield2007]

WOW a house under $100000.00 thats nuts. Good luck finding a hole for that price here. Oour market has sky rocketed BIG TIME but when we bought our house we did it like 2 months before the boom thank god. So we paid $169,900.00 (with some dealing of course it was higher) with us not putting anything down, our intrest just went up a little and the money was given to us by GE (10,000). So we owed like $159,900.00. We pay bi-weekly so $491 every two weeks and out interest is 5% something but I know its in the 5's lol. So usually around $1000 a month sometimes $1500!
You interest changes by the month???

We have a fixed rate. So even if the rates sky rocket to 8%, we'll still be in the 6.25% interest rate. Thank God.

[weddinggirl]

No its fixed for 5 years!

[kobfield2007]

Our house is valued at $148K, and it's the lowest on the block! :(

The US courts use Zillow.com to "guestimate" the price of a house.

[kobfield2007]

No its fixed for 5 years!
Oh ok. I misread that part. LOL

[weddinggirl]

we had the bank come and give us an apprasal for a line of credit we took out about a year ago and I was interested to see how much our investment really was ;)

[Denisa]

Houses here in Northwest Indiana are relatively inexpensive... you have to look in the right neighborhoods though, around here the average house is selling for about $130 to $150K. At least that's what it was when we were looking a year ago.

Our house was appraised at $157K when we bought it, but my dad and BIL sold us the house so we got a pretty good deal on it, plus my dad threw in some things (new a/c/furnace, basement water proofing system, 6 ft privacy fence.) They were wanting to get rid of the house big time. We've put in about $20,000 worth of improvements in the house, I hope we can get back what we've put into it!

[kobfield2007]

Houses here in Northwest Indiana are relatively inexpensive... you have to look in the right neighborhoods though
Yeah you can get a house dirt cheap, like $8K in Gary, but will I ever buy in Gary, not on my life, well I wouldn't have much a lifel eft if I move to Gary. LOL

[Denisa]

Yeah you can get a house dirt cheap, like $8K in Gary, but will I ever buy in Gary, not on my life, well I wouldn't have much a lifel eft if I move to Gary. LOL
I lived in Gary for over a year and it is definately one place I never ever want to live again.. I didn't live in the "bad" part, although it gets worse and worse everyday. James' mom and dad still live there (Black Oak) and everytime we go over there it's like, ugh... how did we ever put up with living here? James did for 25 years, but then again it never used to be bad.

[kobfield2007]

I lived in Gary for over a year and it is definately one place I never ever want to live again.. I didn't live in the "bad" part, although it gets worse and worse everyday. James' mom and dad still live there (Black Oak) and everytime we go over there it's like, ugh... how did we ever put up with living here? James did for 25 years, but then again it never used to be bad.
yeah! My mom's friend remodeled an old cabin looking housei n black oak, but had to sell it b/c he couldn't deal with the sh!t. My mom used to be the supervisor at the Tolsum (sp?)/Gary PO. Basically she dealt with most of 5th St. She was terrified to go to work sometimes, esp. in the dark. She's so glad she went back to Dyer.

[Denisa]

yeah! My mom's friend remodeled an old cabin looking housei n black oak, but had to sell it b/c he couldn't deal with the sh!t. My mom used to be the supervisor at the Tolsum (sp?)/Gary PO. Basically she dealt with most of 5th St. She was terrified to go to work sometimes, esp. in the dark. She's so glad she went back to Dyer.
what street is the house on?

I am terrified to drive down Broadway in downtown Gary whenever we go to Railcats games..... I am honestly so afraid of getting shot. James is like "we're fine" :p

[weddinggirl]

WOW 8K! Never could find a shack here for that bad neighbourhood or not. I don't even live in a "nicer new community" and you would not be able to find one for under $300000 probably not even in the hood lol. If you were looking in the newer areas of our city they are starting at $500,000 for a basic 2 bedroom house. Its insane!
I have friends who have bought the last few years and their mortgages are $2000 a month or more and thats on a 45 year mortgage, plus thier houses are half/quarter the size of ours

[kirstenh]

It sucks in Seattle too, even in the suburbs you can't even find a yucky house for under $200K. A decent 1 bedroom apt., again in suburbs, is $800-900 a month. Right now, the little 1100 sf house I am renting is $1,350/month. That is one whole paycheck plus $150. Ay yi yi......