Quote Originally Posted by joycenalex
i had tons of questions too, first time is a learning experience. i was scared to death my first time. as for online payments, CW wanted almost $400 to set that up, check with your bank to see if you can do it without a fee, and if you can do bimonthly payments, you'll make 13 payments in a year, this can decrease the loan repayment time, alot.
i have a fixed rate 20yr, i think adjustable rate mortgages, or intrest only loans are too crazy for me. you still have to repay the principle, and a loan is a loan, the amount of money i borrowed is a finite amount, it doesn't go up and down, so why should the payments and the intrest? my property taxes, home insurance and PMI are bundled into my payments to CW, why are they charging so much, $1040, for you to pay those taxes and insurance yourself? that seems like a moneymaking scheme for them. what does your broker get from the bank s/he is recommending? have you read bankerate.com or home financing for dummies? and does your state/city offer home buying advice/grants for first timers? and really, if there are any changes from the good faith estimates that you get a few days before the signing, WALK AWAY. there are lots of other houses and mortgage companies, don't let them tell you at the last minute , you have to pay substantially more.
We do plan to go with a 30 year fix rate. Luckily for me, my loan amount is below the limit for jumbo loan, so I don't have to pay any PMI. I'm still debating whether I should pay the points to get a little bit lower rate. Like I said, it'll only benefit me if I keep the house for more than two years (which I will), and/or do not refinance during that period. With the lock-in rate at 5.875%, I doubt that it will come down enough to make the refinancing worthwhile - but of course, I'm not too sure about this, as anything could happen should we experience a massive loss of jobs, or great depression..

CW told me that I could roll everything (PITI) into one payment to them, then they pay for my insurance & property taxes once they're due, CW prefers it this way, becase it's within their control that I pay these things, but if we prefer to do so ourself, we have to pay them $1040, so they can have somebody (or some organization?) to monitor our tax & insurance payments.