What is a minimum down payment on a conventional home loan for say a $300k home? Is 5k accepted. I know it’s based on what I’d want the monthly payments to be exc. but I’m just trying to see if 5k would be accepted as a minimum or if I should save more. Thank you

As a first time home buyer never go to rocket. They not only taken advantage of me and not knowing much what to do, but somehow managed to mess up my credit because they told me a soft pull was happening but did a hard pull. Such a scam arrest company and unfair. Never ever go to rocket, you will lose money and get out into financial crisis.

been running numbers every night after my shift. we can swing 10% down on the houses in our range. that leaves PMI. or we wait another year and hit 20%. my wife says PMI is just burning money. i keep thinking the equity we build in that extra year might offset it. plus rent keeps climbing. my spreadsheet is a mess of conflicting scenarios. the thing I keep getting stuck on is whether PMI drops off automatically or if we have to refinance. heard both stories. also heard some loans let you buy it out upfront. i do not even know if that is a real thing or something a lender made up to sound good. anyone here done the math on this? did you go lower down payment and eat the PMI? did you wait? what changed your mind? i need to stop spinning my wheels and pick a path

Does anyone know of mortgage discounts better than Schwab? They provide a .5 interest rate discount for 1-5M and I was wondering if anyone found something better.

It’s safe to say it’s been a brutal start to the fall selling season as rates jumped roughly 1% since Labor Day. Homebuyers faced shockingly higher payments, leaving many paralyzed and rethinking their path forward. Sellers worried it was a terrible time to list, and all the “Date the Rate was a scam” posts started circulating. Not a fun 6 weeks…

But we’ve all heard the saying, “What goes up must come down…” and almost every investment class shows the same behavior. Maybe, just maybe, we're seeing mortgage bonds start to respect gravity.

To me, it’s starting to look like October 2023...rates peaked in mid-October as tech stocks were getting crushed. We then had a powerful 60-day rally, and the 10-year bond dropped roughly 1% from its high. Coincidentally, this time around, the 10-year bond reversed right at the 2007 high.

So what’s causing this abrupt shift in bond-market sentiment? Here are just a few thoughts circulating:

•  Safe-Haven Trade – Chip and AI infrastructure stocks have been selling off sharply, much like late 2023. Many are beginning to doubt the economics behind AI, and token costs are falling faster than for most technologies in history. Anthropic (Claude AI) reported revenue last night, and it grew much more slowly than expected. These AI hyperscalers are attracting global capital… capital that used to buy US Bonds. As debt yields spike for these companies (CoreWeave’s debt yields jumped to 15% yesterday, with implied default odds now around 50%), investors grow cautious, and US bonds now look very attractive.
• Fed Comments – several Fed speakers pushed back on the market yesterday, saying they would like to see more data before raising rates. As a result, expectations for a Fed rate hike in October fell from over 50% to the 20s.
• Retail Sales – today, the headline number looked hot, but strip out gasoline and focus on the control group, and it was down sharply, pointing to softening economic conditions.
• Momentum Unwinding – stocks and bonds are now a casino mostly run by computers. Momentum generally pushes prices far beyond where they should be…eventually, it reverses…and the question now is: does it overshoot to the downside?

All this to say, the fall market may still have some hope. If you’ve been waiting for a 6 in front of your rate, this might be your window to get it before the headlines catch up...and when they do, so does the competition.

I am curious to see how rates trade today. It’s not uncommon for lenders to drip rates down more slowly than they raise them. I’d expect lenders to pass along about half of today’s bond improvement, then drip the rest out over the next week.

I continue to say, "We are in a market where nothing will surprise me because anything and everything can happen"...and I am still in that camp. All of the above could reverse one random morning because of something we haven't thought about yet. For now, we can enjoy what looks to be the beginning of a much-needed rally!

Just waived contingencies and looking like I’ll be a homeowner next week.

I went to five lenders. Our initial quotes were 6.50-6.75% for 7/6 ARM. All fixed 30 year 7.25-7.375% as of last week.

Two lenders then battled back and forth and we ended up at 6.125% for 7/6 ARM with .25% origination/processing fee.

I didn’t realize lenders could just drop their rate when in a competitive process?

still house hunting for a first home. Does it makes sense to do 7/6 arm to get lower payment with no pmi knowing that in early 2027 I'll have an additional 60k to do a lump sum payment since the potential lender allows it. And then continue to make smaller additional payments. It would be over 1.4% lower than most 30 yr fixed. making sure to buy below what I can afford. So in 7 years I should be able to afford that possible max rate jump if im still in the house. But could also refi around year 5 if it made sense. Figuring out the best way to get my foot in the door. I do also have two decent emergencies funds as a worst case back up

Standard housing is far more than I can afford right now in my area, but looking at potentially moving in with the parents on their property and taking out a mortgage for an in-law suite, if the parents are on board with this. Moving to a different state or area is not in the cards unfortunately.

I've read that the mortgage would have to be under their name since it's their property. The plan would be to eventually pay off both the mortgage loan on the in-law suite, then the main house, at which point we would own the property.

For those that have gone through this, are there any crash courses or recommended resources for dummies that you would suggest I go to first before attempting to tackle all the big worded jargon that banks and companies will throw at me?

Thank you in advance for any resources or advice!

Edit for extra info: The in-law suite has not been built yet, their mortgage is around $700/month, we currently rent at $1500/month, and a house under 300k would cost us $2800/month and this is in a LCOL area for my location.

I work as an assistant to a loan officer, and honestly, I'm getting a little burned out from chasing borrowers for documents all day.

It's always something. Someone forgets their W-2, someone sends a pay stub that's 2 months old, someone uploads only the first page of their bank statement. So you email them, wait a couple of days, send another email, and sometimes end up calling them just to get one missing document.

Meanwhile, you have 10 other files waiting for you. 😅

I'm curious how other people deal with this because it feels like such a time suck.

A few questions:

1. Who checks the documents on your team? Does the LO do it, or do you have an assistant or processor handling everything before pre-approval?

2. What's the worst part for you? Getting incomplete documents, checking everything manually, or just trying to get borrowers to respond?

3. How much time do you spend chasing people every day? I feel like I spend more time sending follow-up emails than actually moving files forward some days.

4. Do Floify, Arive, Encompass, etc. actually help with this? We have tools, but I'm curious whether they really make a difference or if you're still doing most of the chasing yourself.

5. Would you trust something that automatically checks the documents and tells borrowers what's missing? Like, if someone uploads a bank statement with a page missing, it catches it and emails them directly asking for the complete statement. Would that be helpful, or would you rather handle it yourself?

6. Is there anything you've found that actually works? Templates, automated reminders, specific software, anything. I'm open to suggestions because this process is driving me crazy lately.

Would love to hear from other assistants, processors, and LOs. I can't be the only one dealing with this every single day.

So we’re closing on a home at the end of the month and negotiated with the sellers after the inspection. They’re paying $6500 of our closings costs (basically to cover items found during the inspection.)

Our closing costs + downpayment (20%) was to be $81,500. With their part of closing costs, the total I’ll be paying out on closing day is $75,000. However, because I didn’t assume anything, I have the full $81,500 ready to go.

Should I see if I can pay the full amount at closing to the lender? (Would that be like paying greater than 20% down?)
Should I use that money to make a first month mortgage payment and ask for it to be made directly to the principal?

I don’t know if one of these make a huge impact to the bottom line over the other, but I’m just trying to strategize the best savings for the long term.

To explain briefly, we know little to nothing about mortgages. We know the house has 400k-ish left on the loan. We know it's managed through Rosegate, on that website it states it's a conventional 30yr Freddie Mac loan with a 4.5 rate.

Are we (my wife and I) able to assume this loan? One parent passed that was the primary caretaker of the 2nd parent. Second parent is on the mortgage but lacks the mental capability to handle finances. The surviving parent could payoff mortgage or continue payments but we are dealing with some issues that may not allow that. Placing house in a trust likely not an option as well. We are capable of paying the mortgage but would not like to make payments if the house is not under our name/ownership.

Thanks for any info/advice!