So, my wife and I are safely inside our first house. Townhouse actually. We were freshly married and had no kids. Plus I didn’t have to do yard work! It had hardwood floors in the kitchen and basically had laminate and formica- just a nice basic living space. We got our loan through Countrywide- our first loan- the rate was over 7%- which wasn’t too bad at the time and we got a 30 year fixed mortgage.
HOA issues
I began to see the downside of not wanting to do yard-work- the Home Owners Association. First of all, your HOA dues always go up! That is because they have to pay a landscaping company to landscape and a pool company to maintain the cabana and then there will invariably be something wrong with the siding and with inflation these costs will rise. So lesson number one, expect your HOA dues to go up. I don’t worry about doing yard-work anymore- because I pay a landscaper and he charges less and does a better job than the landscapers hired by the HOA. Also, the older the building, the higher the HOA dues and there will eventually be assessments for windows and roofs and siding and painting- it’s just part and parcel of owning a townhouse or a condo. Don’t be surprised when they raise your HOA dues each year. Don’t be surprised if there are conflicts in your HOA- it’s hard to get a large number of people that do not know each other to work together.
My friend, the realtor who helped me by the townhouse, became very involved in his first condo HOA, and became the president. He began to suggest paint color changes as well as new garage doors etc… His suggestions were needed and implemented and increased the value of everyone’s properties and he put in the time and effort and guidance to add value. It added value to his unit as well and he sold his condo for a nice profit after a year or so.
Refinance World
A few years after I moved in- I had noticed that interest rates had dropped and I began to have some friends enter the mortgage industry. After examining my existing loan, I probably paid too much. So lesson number two, get a loan from someone you trust. If you don’t know anyone you trust in the lending industry- talk to me and I can connect you with many solid loan officers with integrity. You see, in the mortgage business- the higher the rate they charge you- the bigger the commission they can get paid on the “back-end”. That is a perverse system- but the reason why the secondary mortgage market and investors put up with this is because you are their investment and they want you paying the highest rate possible to increase their return.
Of course, as the borrower, you are looking to pay the lowest rate possible- so shopping your rates is the only way to keep mortgage broker’s honest- unless you have a rock solid relationship with a mortgage broker that you trust.
Leave a Reply