Quote Originally Posted by The Ren
The thing above about PMI is not true.. I put 30% down on my home.. but because I have a FTH loan for First Time homebuyer which got my interest rate down.. you have to pay PMI for 5 years...
i also did a fth loan i can apply to drop pmi after 15% of the home value is paid or it drops automatically after 20% is paid. so untill i can pay off $18-24k im stuck with it. the way it was explained to me was that if i had put down 20% pmi would be waived....but i didnt have $24,000 laying around for a down payment on my house.

regardless of the stipulations just make sure you educate yourself on what your bank is doing. make sure you have a full understanding of what you are getting into. i was expecting a $900/month house payment becuase i was under the impression that i could waive the escrow and pay it at the end of the year and i was not aware that i would be forced to have pmi...i would have had my $900/month payment but after escrow and pmi i pay $990/month.

also, the bank i went through kinda persuaded me to wait on the rate to drop (which is illegal) i was under the impression that if i didnt have a rate locked 3 days before closing the financing would not go through, i would lose my earnest money ($500) and we would have to submit an offer all over again and start from scratch. i was fione with this as i wanted a good rate. when i was pre-approved the rate was 5.875% i wanted to lock a week later when it was 6.125%...they told me i had plenty of time and it may come down. i waited and with 3 days left before closing i called my agent to tell them financing might not go through as im not ocked into a rate yet. they called the bank and then called me back to tell me that the bank had locked me in at 6.675% and the loan had already gone through...i had $120k waiting for me to hand over for my house! thanks shitty bank...im glad you made the choice for me!

sorry for yapping on and on but i just wanna let you know how shitty it was for me so you dont make the same mistakes i made. i thought i was doing fine but found out really fast that i was not as educated on the whole experience as i thought i was. anyways..good luck with it...its pretty exciting when you are done signing all those papers with the lawyers and they give you the keys to your own house!