Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom52
DW and I will be coming to TV for the 3rd time this coming January. We hope to find us a home this trip for either snow-birding or maybe full time living. We are not very familiar with the intricacies of obtaining a mortgage in Florida. Is it necessary to be pre-approved for a mortgage ahead of a serious house search? If so can you recommend someone locally to contact?
We checked with our local small town bank and they would not make a 30 year fixed mortgage on a Florida property.
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Check what I am saying.
First of all a ore-approved mortgage means little or nothing. You supply the information. The bank does not spend money to verify the information you supply till you actually apply for the mortgage.
Our formerly local bank said they would do it BUT, they stalled on and on so we nevr got it from them.
We have excellent credit but having had a paid up mortgage etc we have little history. The fact is good credit is borrowing money and paying it back. No borrowing money does not get you a good credit rating.
We also used CITIZENS FIRST which as far as I know is owned by the villages. They were knowlegable and helpful.
Getting a mortgage is sadly amusing. There are rules that must be followed. As to amusining-we are no longer working. What we get from social security and a very small pension will not pay our bills the rest comes from savings. We needed to show more income to qualify for a morgage. Citizens first told us to get a statement from our brokerage that we have arranged to have them send a check for xxxxx every month. It was amusing. The brokerage told us they get this all the time. They even have a form for this. We completed the form, we got the mortgage and as the brokerage told us we cancelled the monthly withdrawal a week later-ALL THIS IS LEGAL.
Speaking of strange. The average age here is 70. They cannot hold your age against you. So a 70 year old can qualify for a 30 year mortgage. HUH? they will be 100 when they pay it off.
As to having come here 3x we did not buy until the fourth trip. As to snowbirding. We did not even consider it. Our parents on both sides had passed away. Our next door neighbor real trash was one of the reasons we were happy to leave. We escaped a 6% New York State tax, a 3% New York City tax, about 3x the real estate tax for a place half the size of what we now have.