I bought my condo almost a year ago this month and was reflecting back upon all the mistakes I made as a first time home buyer.
The first and biggest mistake I made was I trusted my real estate agent. Now I'm not saying all real estate agents are horrible but mine didn't really provide me with all the guidance she could of for someone who has been in the business for a long time. After going through the process, I'm not even sure why buyers even need agents with all the MLS sites out there now a days. As a result of trusting my agent, I ended up paying more for my unit than all the other owners by 10-20k.
The second mistake I made was using her mortgage broker referral. Turns out the lady I dealt with never presented me with any first time home buyer programs at all. Now I'm not sure if that's because I didn't qualify because of my income or not, but I find it hard to believe there wasn't any sort of program I could of utilized. On top of that, the difference in my monthly payment from the "Good faith estimate" to the actual HUD statement was about another 325 dollars plus an additional three thousand dollars at closing for a so called "no closing costs" loan. The bigger payment was composed of PMI and increased tax escrow. I won't waste your screen space with describing how happy I was on the day of my closing. Her defense for this was that the additional charges I incurred was a result of title insurance and bank attorney fees. Well, I'm sorry but as a first time home buyer, how am I supposed to know that?
The third mistake was I bought a condo in what's referred to as a non-warrantable building. The building had three units that were all redone by a developer so no one was living in it when I put my offer in. This eliminated a lot of potential banks to choose from.
The few things I did right was I purchased a condo in a very strong market that actually gained 11,000 dollars value in 11 months according to a bank appraisal I had a few weeks ago.
Another good decision I did was I didn't buy into those crazy adjustable mortgages. I'm not an economist but I know that I don't want my payment tied to how the feds think the economy is doing.
The last thing worth mentioning is I didn't take my real estate agent's referral for a home inspector and attorney. Even though they seemed legit, there was a clear conflict of interest.
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I'm sorry to hear the bad part of your story but it's fairly common. As a former mortgage loan underwriter I can attest that unless you are in a market with lots of condos, most real estate agents won't understand the nuances of warranting condo projects. So while that point IS frustrating it's not surprising. In the end, it seems like a good project and once it's established, as long as it doesn't go the rental route, future buyers should find financing easier.
Consumers should always be skeptical about mortgage lenders or title insurance agents recommended by the real estate agent. I am not saying don't use them, but I am saying be wary.
Always do some shopping on your own to establish where the better deal is for you.
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