Journey of a Homeowner

A true story of a First Time Home Buyer.

Finally some pictures are going to get posted.  It came to be last minute. Other wise I would of had some pictures with all the wall paper still up. These will still make a good before and after down the road. My lender Stonegate Mortgage wanted me to keep track of my renovations as well. I think she just wants to use what I did as a sales pitch for other future home owners. My Realtor thinks the same thing.

This is the west wall of the Dining Room. I decided that I did not like the wall paper. It made the dining room feel more dated. I think a nice coat of primer and paint will go a long way. I will be replacing that light with a nice ceiling fan with built in lights. Being a larger room, that will help with the air flow.
 Here is the sliding glass door against the South wall. Other than the tracks needed to be clean, its a great door. I did purchase some vertical blinds for it. As you can see it gets very bright.
This is the North wall. It looks like thought about painting it before they put up the wall paper. I think they made a poor choice. Both in that paint they were thinking about and the wall paper that they chose. Of course someone may think that about me when I choose the colors for the house.
 Just thought I would take a picture of the ceiling to give you guys and gals an idea of the height of the room. This is why I really want to get a fan in here. Push that warm air back down. Considering its snowy out side, you can understand why I want it. I do plan to paint the ceiling. Most likely a shade of white.
Finally got all the wall paper off. As you can see, its not that great. At least I don't think so. Someone may think this is absolutely beautiful. Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Luckily they all came down in single strips without tearing or even applying water to the walls to loosen up the glue. Made clean up easy.
 The floors are really nice in here. I will spend a lot of time just trying not to scratch them. I do have a large area rug that I will lay down to help. Just need to get an under mat for it so it doesn't scratch the floor if it slides.
Here is the South opening to the Sun Room and fireplace. Not much will change with it. Just a new coat of paint. The exposure is really making that room a lot brighter than it really is at the moment. It still nice to have so much natural light coming in.
This is the easy wall of the Dining room. Not a fan of the shade of burgundy they chose. It just makes the room feel so much smaller. I will go with a much lighter paint. Make the room feel bigger and more open. Dark paint makes it feel like you are hiding things.



I will try and do much better with documenting everything with photos. This way not only Stonegate but I will also have an easier time referencing what I am talking about.


UPDATE: I have not painted anything. These colors are original from when I moved in.

I cant sleep. Today is the day I go see the Lender and the Title company. I must admit, I did not sleep well last night. I will be taking on an enormous amount of debt. Luckily my Realtor will also be there. He was been awesome through this entire process. He has helped me in so many ways. Always there to guide me and make the right decision.

I really don't know what to expect. All I know is that I will be signing A LOT of papers. Each of them protecting the Lender. I think about two are in my favor. Of course I know loop holes are built into them so the lender can still screw me. Of course, that's only if I default and go into foreclosure. Which I don't plan on doing. Knock on wood nothing happens. I see this as being a very sound investment. Im buying about 30k under the appraised value and if the market turns for the better I will see that number go up even more.

I plan to be in the house a minimum of two years. I will only sell for 40k profit after all selling expenses. After that the process will start all over again but with a bigger cushion to rehab the house with. Possibly even flip the home if the price is right.

The other option is to rent the home. That's something I have a lot to learn about. Probably wont even focus on it much for at least a year.

Back to what's at hand. Closing. I still need to go to the bank and get a cashiers check (yes, I don't have a checkbook. what's the point? That's what a debit card is for.). After that I will be making the trip this afternoon.

Heart is racing. What a day.

Ive been through several different lending firms and services. The first was LendingTree. What a waste of time. I had lenders from all over the country trying to sell me their services. Sure I could have chosen the guy in Main or Colorado but guess what, I'll never meat this person. Getting a mortgage is a huge commitment. I want to know the person that I am dealing with. See their offices. Know that they are going to be there next week. And most of all, know that they are not going to sell off my loan to someone else. I want to deal with one person and one person only.

I wanted to go with a 30 year Renovation Loan. Also know as a FHA 203K or Homepath Renovation Loan. These can have several others names as well. These are just the two that I researched. As they allow me to put down as little as 3% of the total loan. Unlike a Conventional that is 20%. Of course Dave Ramsey would not approve. He wants you to put 100% down and pay cash. In my reality that is not possible. Houses are the cheapest they have ever been. By the time I save the amount, they will have already gone back up.

Ive looked at the Loan Amortization Schedule (breaks out your entire loan in detail). I will end up paying for the house twice over if I stick with the entire 30 year term. Of course this is why I plan to pay it off early.

The first lender I went with was Wells Fargo. The guy was real nice. Told me all kinds of things. Approved me for over 220K. I was thrilled. This was to easy. Then we started to get into the fine print. Ohh what a rip off this was. I felt like I was being hit with a professional scam artist. They were pushing to roll all the closing cost into the loan. That way I am only out of pocket the down payment for the house. Their closing cost was some of the highest that I looked at. No wonder they were trying to make it sound like a great thing. I am so happy I did not go with them.

I ended up going with a smaller lender called Stonegate Mortgage. They have been around for a long time so I knew they were not going to disappear. They also had the best terms and the closing cost was not as much as others. They were certainly not the cheapest but they treated me fair. Minus one issue. I had to pay for the appraisal guy to go back out to look at some repairs. I thought that was a total rip off since I already paid him $450. Asking $150 was a little outrageous for 10 minutes of work. I'll get into more of that later. Still trying to get the story current.

It was a simple process getting approved. Of course I didn't like it. They ask for a lot of private items. I understand why they want it. Helps them reduce mortgage fraud. But it still hurt. Just so you know, by the end of the process they will know everything about you. The term signing away your soul really hits home with a lender.