How Much House Can I Afford?

🏡How much house can I afford? Interest rates are at all time lows. Is this the perfect time to buy your first house or refinance your current mortgage?

Two of the most common questions realtors get asked all the time. 🤔Is now the right time to to buy? 🤔Is now the right time to refinance? In this video I will share with you information and tools to help guide you in the right direction.

Transcript:

interest rates at all-time lows can you actually afford that dream house that's

the topic of my next video how much house can you afford well that's a topic

of today's video if you haven't heard I don't know where you've been but if you

haven't heard the mortgage rates are the lowest they've been in a very very long

time some mortgage brokers or bankers are telling me it's the lowest it's been

in recorded history I'm not a historian so I don't know if that's factual but

I'm hearing the hype all I can tell they're very low your buying power your

house buying power has gone up significantly whether you're looking to

buy first-time home buyer you're looking to move up or even if you're looking

just to refinance it's a great time to revisit your

mortgage professional your realtor and find out what's going on with the

numbers I'm gonna share with you a tool that I found online so you can do a

little research on your own and it's a basic mortgage calculator that I just

went to Google I typed in how much house can I afford Mortgage affordability

calculator I'm going to include the link below so you don't have to shop around

for it and you just type in your numbers we're gonna I'm gonna go through how to

use it and I'm gonna share with you a little story of a buyer that I had two

years ago that purchased a house right here on Long Island they loan a man on

the house not the purchase price the loan amount on the house was four

hundred thousand dollars four hundred thousand

their interest rate was five percent that means that their monthly payment

for just the mortgage not counting insurance and everything else but just

the mortgage was two thousand one hundred and forty seven dollars at a

five percent interest rate for a thirty-year fixed interest rates now

we're going to do a reduction about two points because that's the proximate

reduction from two years ago that I believe they're at hovering somewhere in

the threes so for argument's they could to make it easier for the math we're

gonna go to a three percent drops down to 1686 dollars a month let's

do it again five percent to one four seven three percent this is a lot of fun

saving a lot of money in 1686 dollars so what does that mean it means you get

more money in your pocket you can buy more of a house now I'm not a math

person so I did the math on a calculator before that's a four hundred and sixty

one dollar gain per month with a two percent drop that's five thousand five

hundred and thirty-two dollars a year I'll say it again five thousand five

hundred and thirty-two dollars a year in your pocket for you to do whatever you

want with that's pretty powerful so it means that if you want to

refinance yes there are closing costs involved but you can determine how long

it will take to get the return on your investment for these particular people

the buyers I mentioned they just bought their house two years ago so if they

refinance they're in it for the long term they plan on staying there they're

definitely gonna get the return on their investment in the long run now another

tool that I want to share with you before I do that if you are on the fence

about buying a house you're a little nervous about it I'm gonna include a

link on the bottom for a free e-book on a home buyers guide everything you need

to know about buying your home whether it's your first time of a move-up home

free buyer's guide click the link below and you can take advantage of that free

offer the other item I'm gonna share with you is another calculator and I

love these calculators and they're free and they're online I'm gonna type in the

same situation when you want to refi or you want to buy a house you can sit down

with the mortgage person and they say to you do you want to buy a point well what

does that mean if you want to buy a point that means you pay more interest

upfront in that front of the loan like its front loaded one point is

approximately 0.25 percent or a quarter percent on the interest rate on a

30-year loan that could be a substantial amount of money but is it worth it first

if you have the money and it's personal choice should you do it well this

calculator will help you decide now this is put out

nerd wallet as you can see here mortgage calculators should I buy points we're

gonna use their scenario $400,000 thirty year term three and a quarter percent

interest rate is what we're gonna say the interest rate is now one point one

point is one percent of the loan so that would be four thousand dollars interest

rate with points goes from three and a quarter we're going to use a quarter

point drop three percent breakeven is six point one years or seventy three

months and four thousand dollars is the points your monthly mortgage payment

with points 1686 compared to one thousand seven hundred and forty-one so

this is a great calculator to decide or help you decide if you want to buy the

points I'm also going to include a link down below for this mortgage calculator

so now that you see how much house you can't afford it's only you that can make

that decision some people just have analysis paralysis where they just keep

you know going on and on and on and I can tell you I was one of them many

years ago I finally made the plunge and it was one of the best decisions I've

ever made was to buy a house and yes I could be a little biased but no back at

the time when I bought my house I was not a realtor some twenty something

years ago so I hope this video was helpful please give me a thumbs up if

you liked it and definitely click the subscribe button and share it with

somebody that might be looking to buy a house and don't know if the numbers work

for them this is Mark Schreier from century 21 American homes and thanks for

watching 

How Long Does It Take To Close On A House? Offer To Contract

In this video I explain how long the home buying process takes from the time your offer is excepted to the time you close and walk away with the keys. Naturally cash is king and takes the shortest time. The cash transaction is buyer/seller dependent no bank to worry about. I also discuss the mortgage process, conventional, FHA, and the Va loan. Things to consider during the home inspection and the appraisal and much more.

If you would like to learn more about the home buying or selling process claim your free buyer/seller guide by clicking the link below.

         ✔Free Home Buyers or Sellers Guide:

Transcript of video

how long does it take to close on a house from the time your offer is

accepted to the time you walk out with your keys well that's the topic of my

next video

how long does it take to close on a house and the time your offer is

accepted to the time you leave the closing table with your keys in hand

that's the topic of this video hello everybody my name is Mark Schreier and

I'm a licensed sales associate with century 21 American Homes Real Estate

right here on Long Island New York so let's jump right into it the timeline

and yes it can vary I'm gonna give you an educated estimate of the process and

the timeline understand that things can vary also I'm going to include or make

an offer available to all of you for a free home buyers guide so make sure you

stay tuned a lot of part of the video and I will show you how to take

advantage of that free home buyers guide offer right down to it number one are

you paying cash for the property or are you using financing if you're using

financing and 85% at least of the people here along Island do what type of

financing are you using if you're using a conventional mortgage if you using a

government-backed either an FHA or a VA mortgage they all have to take they all

have different steps that you need to take into consideration and a

conventional could be a little shorter than a VA or an FHA loan let's touch on

the cash right now if you have cash and you're paying all cash for your property

you can close in as little as two weeks if not sooner

it's more seller buyer dependent what do I mean by that I mean that the seller

and the buyer make the circumstances of when you they want to leave and when

they our buyer wants to move in and it's totally up to them it's a wonderful

thing but if you do get an all-cash offer as a seller make sure you have

thoughtful funds that you know that you're holding up your sale and the

person actually has the money so make sure your realtor checks proof of funds

and you're satisfied with how they did it I'm going to be concentrating a

little more now on those people that choose finance

see if you have a conventional mortgage you are subject to appraisals home

inspections and things of that nature the home inspection is usually for you

most attorneys will not let you buy a house unless you get it inspected except

if you are a contractor yourself and then it's not much of an issue because

you are your own home inspector now when you buy the house you want to make sure

that you line your ducks up in a row what do I mean by that well I'm going to

include a video a link to a video down in the bottom there will be a link of

the home buyer checklist and that will get in much more detail about what you

need to know before you get ready to go out and shop because you don't want to

lose that great deal once you find it that perfect house I'm gonna touch on it

now basically you need to have all your documents whether it be tax returns

whether it be w-2s ready to show your mortgage person before you find the

house of your dreams so contact the mortgage person and get pre-approved

pre-qualified pre-approved there is a difference make sure your mortgage

person you say I want to show you the documents so you know everything that I

need I have don't just fill out some information online and they say you've

been pre-approved for X amount of dollars because when it comes down to it

you might have accidentally hit the wrong key and now you might be $50,000

off and you can't buy the house that you thought you could so make sure you get

those documents also by going through that exercise you have everything ready

for your pre-approval and it gets the process going I would suggest starting

about 18 months out so you're shopping for the house and everything so you have

plenty of time to work yourself through the process pre-plan you will definitely

go a long way how do you pick a lender pick somebody that has been recommended

by friends relatives by your realtor somebody that does this and they're easy

to communicate with the last thing you want to deal with is somebody that you

call and they don't get back to you for four days

because you're missing documents and that gets me to the next thing that's

very important you are you the type of person that's organized they you the

type of person that when they say I need your w-2 forms or I need your income tax

forms from the last amount of X years three years let's say just throwing that

out there I am NOT a mortgage person but the the last three years do you know

where they are are you gonna have to get them from somebody else so you need to

plan ahead to make sure all these documents are ready so you can furnish

them to your mortgage person and things can run as smoothly as possible I can

ask a mortgage guy or you know how long does the process take while their answer

usually is if I have all the documents it can run very quickly and very

smoothly but that's a big if I have so make sure you take do what you need to

do to get all your ducks lined up in a row and on that note I have another

video that I'm going to include a link in the bottom another video on the home

buying checklist it will give much more detail on what it is that you need to

know about the home buying process so make sure you check out that video after

you watch this video naturally one thing I can't stress enough particularly here

on Long Island when you get your offer accepted the house is not yours there's

actually no money in it on Long Island that's been transferred from anybody

it's just an agreement that I agree to sell the house under these terms and

conditions to the mr. bio mr. mrs. buyer but it's usually contingent on a home

inspection and going through the appraisal process getting funding for

the loan so let's talk about the actual home inspection you need to make sure on

Long Island particularly in a strong seller's market we're in that your house

is inspected I would say within 3 days 3 days from the time you have an accepted

offer and yes that includes weekends home inspectors do work weekends if your

home inspector tells you they are two to three weeks out find another home

inspector there are plenty of mouth there I get referrals from neighbors

friends Realtors that have used one recently and makes sure that they are

time friendly that they can work with you within that

three to five day window because you don't want to lose the deal because your

home inspection is taking forever so that's an important note again being

pre-act proactive finding your home inspector beforehand will help you and

help speed this timeline and could save you the actual house next thing to

consider is the appraisal process your appraisal process will happen after your

house is already under contract at least here on Long Island New York

you've got the home inspection everything worked out there you've now

given the contracts to your attorneys when both sides have signed the contract

it will go now for the appraisal the bank or the mortgage banker the

underwriters will start checking all the documents this and that making sure the

house appraised is now each bank or each lender government back loans as well

have a loan-to-value ratio they want to make sure that if you default on this

loan they're getting their money back so they're gonna go out within a certain

time frame and they're going to do an appraisal now yeah you have more videos

on that too there will be a length of the appraisal process you can check it

down below the appraisal process where I interviewed an actual mortgage appraiser

and he tells you what's involved in the mortgage process I will tell you that an

FHA or a government bank loan a VA as well are more strict in the process so

make sure that you ask them ahead of time so if anything is missing in your

house you can take care of that beforehand so you don't lose the deal

because the appraisal process is taking forever

that can upset the seller and also you as the buyer you want to be proactive

and naturally that would be a tip for the seller to make sure everything is in

line and your Realtor should be able to go through the house with you and give

you a lot of tips and pointers on that particular thing so after your your

house passes appraisal the next thing you want to do is you're gonna schedule

a closing date well should I say after the appraisal is over the underwriters

will give a commitment and once the commitment is done and the attorneys are

all satisfied they're gonna set a closing date the last thing in the

process is a walkthrough now I do have a video

on the final walkthrough I'm going to include a link in the bottom but that is

usually done two day before so you make sure everything that you agreed on in

the house is still there when you go to the closing tables the day after that or

two days after that if scheduling is a problem so the average time it should

take from the time you go you're from the time your offer is

accepted to the time you walk out with your keys I would say between two to

three months 60 to 90 days again depending on how things go all the

paperwork and everything else if and I did promise there's gonna be a free home

buyers guide the link is right below so make sure if you want to take advantage

of that you click the link below for the free home buyers guide I hope you

enjoyed the video definitely give me a thumbs up subscribe share the channel

this is Mark shreier from century 21 American Homes