# I'm an idiot, and I'm buying a house! Please help me with my journey. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 14, 2019, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-idiot-and-im-buying-a-house-please-help-me-with-my-journey/840236 "2019-09-14T22:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-idiot-and-im-buying-a-house-please-help-me-with-my-journey/840236/63 "2019-10-03T04:32:41Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > As soon as I contacted the lenders recommended by the buyer’s agent, they wanted a huge amount of info, including scans of tax returns for the past few years. Can you get that directly from the IRS? I download any tax-related forms and certs I’m asked for directly from the agency involved, except for one that’s from my City Hall and… well, let’s just say that making such things available is a bit above their heads. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-idiot-and-im-buying-a-house-please-help-me-with-my-journey/840236/64 "2019-10-03T17:20:36Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > So I said no. My offer was based on what I really believe I can afford, after discussion with my financial advisor. More than that, and it would screw up my financial projections for a comfortable retirement over the long term. (I’m also not keen on being nickeled-and-dimed on the details - it doesn’t bode well for negotiating dealing with any problems the inspection might uncover.)Only one lender was prepared to give me rates on a 15 and 30 year mortgage on the spot. All the rest wanted to pre-qualify me first. Okay, sure - if I gather the info for one lender, I can gather it for all of them. But do I REALLY need to go through that whole process just to get simple interest rates on a loan? I had something similar when buying my current house. For context, this was at the bottom of the recession, and the house had been on the market for 9 months or more. I put in an offer at the maximum of what I could afford, but much less than the asking price. It seemed that the selling realtor was offended, and didn’t even bother to respond. My agent finally got a firm “no” from her. A couple months later we came back to the same house and made the same offer, with a cover letter basically saying, “we know the house is worth more, but this is the most we can afford.” By that point it had been on the market for a year, and they took the offer. That was the most I could afford, but probably not much less than the house was worth—I mean, nobody else was willing to pay any more than that. > [@CairoCarol](#): > > [ol] > [li]How fast might the rates change? Like, if I go through the pre-qual process and get rates three weeks from now, and then want to buy a house 7 weeks from now, will I have to review all the different lenders’ rates again to see if the best deal has changed?[/li][li]What the hell are basis points and why do I have to say how many I want? (The one lender who coughed up rates wanted to know what I want in that regard.) I’m real clueless on that one![/li][li]What’s the etiquette of finding another buyer’s agent? I’m not thrilled with the impatience I detected when I went through the offer letter. I mean, sure, I’m an idiot, I get that. But I swear, I was doing my best to be efficient and focused, not wasting her time. I had already gone through the whole document on my own and annotated it and looked things up, so I was prepared.[/li][/ol] As mentioned, once you’re pre-qualified or whatever, you’ll lock in the current rates, and be able to keep them for a time, even if they go up. If they go down, you can usually get the new rate. Basis points are extra money you can pay up front, usually to get a lower interest rate, or something. There are online calculators that can help you figure out if it is worth the up front cost. For example, maybe you pay $2500 extra up front, but then have a lower interest rate, so in 5 years you will have saved $2500. You also have to compare that to just paying $2500 more on the down payment or against the principle. Anyway, I’ve never seen basis points to be worth while, usually you just want a loan without them. It is probably best to shop around online. There are many websites which will compare different rates. If you prefer to work with a particular bank or broker, only consider that for the actual creation of the loan. Once the loan is done it will be sold, and serviced by somebody else. You have no control over that. When shopping for the loan, look at the interest rate, and any fees associated with issuing the loan. Just like the basis points, you can use calculators to figure out if a more expensive loan, but with a lower interest rate, is worth it. In some states and at some banks, some of the fees may be negotiable. In my state the lender is required to provide information about all of the fees up front, so there aren’t any surprises. It can still be (deliberately) confusing: origination fee, document fee, taxes, tax fee, filing fee, title fee, processing fee, fee fee, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-idiot-and-im-buying-a-house-please-help-me-with-my-journey/840236.md?page=3)