Sunday, January 26, 2014

How To Negotiate Your Mortgage Rate


by Jim Thorpe


Getting a great mortgage rate, especially when it comes to constructing your own house, can take some investment and time. Not only do you have to invest time but you need to understand what you are doing.

Last week I was sitting at home caring for two children ages 4 and 18 months old. I am a live-in nanny and am responsible for the part-time care of these kids and their 3 older siblings who are school age. Normally I only work a few hours a week for the family, but this particular week, both parents had gone out of town on short notice so I found myself on child care duty 24/7.

I was sitting at the kitchen table getting some work done and the kids were in the other room playing quietly when a loud knock rapped on the door. I got up and walked to the door expecting a neighbor's child asking to play with the 4 year old. Instead, when I opened the door, I was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of natural gas.

2. Just Before Your Search Spend a few hours and research mortgage jargon. This will make you more knowledgeable and help you understand exactly what you are purchasing. It will also catch lenders off guard and dissuade them from trying to tack on extra expenses. Determine your budget and stick to it. This is a big decision and needs to be made before you speak with lenders. If you go with no budget you may end up taking a loan much too large for you needs.

Behind him I could see a neighbor lady, her kids in a stroller, with a concerned look on her face peering around the officer. I shut the door and went to inspect the various rooms of the home to see if I could smell anything inside. A few minutes later another knock sounded and I went to answer the door.

The USFA believes strongly that the routine maintenance of your fire alarm could protect more lives than just those of those in the home, and reducing fatalities from fire damage is the USFA's number one goal.

4. Compare Quotes Take all of the information that you have collected from the lenders and set them next to each other. The lenders should also have sent you a GFE (Good-Faith-Estimate) and a TIL (Truth in Lending). The TIL amortizes the costs of the loan over the life of the mortgage rate. It takes theses costs and adds them to the interest rates giving you your APR (Annual Percentage Rate).

Once I got the kids settled at her house, I walked back to wait and see what was wrong so that I could call the homeowners with the information. It must have been a slow week because no less than EIGHT response vehicles showed up.

Two fire trucks, three ambulances, a police truck, the original animal control officer's truck and the truck of another animal control officer (who was bored and in the area) were all parked in front of my house.

It will seem that you are the only one who is bothering them this much looking for a better rate. Do not budge! This is a business arrangement and not a friendly conversation. Negotiate for the price you want. Make sure the price is within your budget. If you were thinking of building a new house talk to a few general contractors to get a feel for what you want and can afford.

Luckily all of us were able to stay safe and the leak was small. If the situation had been worse we might have had to leave the home while they turned off the gas until the leak could be dug up and fixed or, if the leak had been inside, we would have had to tear down walls until the leak could be located and repaired. The moral of this story is, when it rains, it pours and it's better to be safe than sorry.

Many general contractors try and work their way around the tight regulations but these laws are strict and there have been many law suits in the past because people tried to bypass them. Safety should be everyone's #1 goal.




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