House Buying Log

By:  Abdul Habra
Email: ahabra@yahoo.com
Start Date:  April 27, 2004

Finally I decided to buy a house. This is a log of my experience and progress. It also shows the problems I am facing. First I will list what has happened so far, then I will add new entries.

Useful Links:

Link Description
www.realtor.com Search for a house, and get some background about the process
www.naeba.org National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents
www.domania.com Get information about a given property.
www.mctreas.org Montgomery county real estate system. Check taxes on a house.
www.co.greene.oh.us/website/gcParcels/ Green count real estate system.
www.bankrate.com Information about banks and loans

 

Summary

Location:

  1. I live in Dayton, OH.
  2. Wanted a suburb close to where I work.
  3. Considered then decided against Beavercreek. Nice areas are too expensive, while the rest seemed bad.
  4. Decided to check in Centerville, Miamisburg, and Bellbrook.

Real Estate Agent:

My friend Doug E. told me that his sister is a real estate agent, and that she is also honest, so I decide to go with her. I told him that if she cheats me, he will hear about it for as long as we work together :)

Her name is Debbie Montgomery and she works with Sibcy Cline.

She showed us more than 20 houses in our budget (<= $200K). So far she is great.

Banking:

Debbie gave me some names of bankers she has worked with, I did some shopping around and planned to go with Paul Lapsins with National City Mortgage. He was helpful but it took him few days to approve my application, he said because I am not an American citizen (I have a green card).

Next week he called me and told me that the interest rate went up, (I thought the new rate was higher than the actual market), so I shopped around again and decided to use a different bank.

I am using Tammy Strader with Fifth Third bank. She gave me a better rate and closing cost, and did the whole thing in less than two hours. Good job:)

After I switched the bank, Paul Lapsins called me and gave me a speech about how he was doing me a favor, and that it was better for him that I did not have the loan with him. (I am glad that I do not have to deal with him any more)

I also decided to take a loan against my 401K, which is with Fidelity, this should have been a no-brainer, but they are s...l...o...w... It took them two weeks to mail me an application form.

Home Inspection

 

 

Page Last Updated April 27, 2004.