About Manassas City, VA

What's The Best Interest Rate On Mortgages

If you are looking to refinance or buy a home and get a mortgage you want the best interest rate available. But wait...... it's not all about "just" the interest rate. You say what? Most Banks and Mortgage companies charge fees referred to as the cost of money, orgination fees, doc fees, proccessing fees...... If you shop interest rate ONLY you could be paying a lot more for a rate that you could have gotten else where for a lot less.

Here is an example of the interest rate game. Lets say you have a $250,000 loan amount with a 6% interest rate that is fixed for 30 years your payment is appx $1498 (PI) per month. Since interest rates are so low right now you decide to refinance. If refinance that same $250,000 at 3.74% with a 15 years fixed rate you would have a payment of appx. $1635. (PI). Yes it's $136 more per month but you are saving THOUSANDS of dollars in interest and building the equity in the home.

$250,000 x 6% = $1498 (PI) for 30 years or $250,000 x 3.74 = $1635. for 15 years

Now lets take a look at the cost of getting the loan. If you purchased a few years back with a 6%, 30 year fixed rate your appx. closing cost could have been about 3% of the loan amount. You had 1 origination fee, 1 point, and misc underwriting fees, processing, fees, doc fees, courier fees .....that means on a $250,000 loan you could pay appx $7,500 to get that 6% interest rate.

Current interest rates on refinances are as low as 3.74% with no origination fees and appx $300. in closing cost fee's to as high as 4.5% with 1 origination fee ($2,500) and 1,500 in closing cost. That's a difference of $3,700.with a higher rate.

If you are shopping for a mortgage on a new home or looking to refinance you want to deal with someone local. You want to deal with a Bank that is servicing your loan and not selling it to a company in never never land. You want to be able to walk in and talk face to face with you loan servicer if you have questions of concern. Calling 800 #'s to nowhere and figuring out the web of what bottom to push is not the way it should be done.

Getting a mortgage or refinancing the current one is a major financial decision. Don't get scammed into thinking you are getting the best deal when you are speaking to a loan person who has a used car salesman attitude.

For additional information on getting a mortgage or refinancing give Amelia Stansell at BB&T a call. She is the Assistant Vice President, Financial Center Leader and Small Business Specialist. Amelia has 8 years of banking experience and financial background. Amelia can be reach at 703-468-2327. Give her a call today, she will be waiting for your call.

John: I have heard from co-workers that there are unbelievable prices on bank owned, foreclosed homes in Prince William…I am renting a townhouse near Fair Lakes and want buy something bigger than I am renting.

I work at Tysons Corner, and don’t mind the commute I have now... but I know I can’t get a single family home around here for under $400k. I think I could stand driving more, if I can get more house.

Is it possible to get some halfway decent bank owned homes under 10 years old in Prince William county?

Steve: Yes John, there are plenty available in Prince William, however you may want to consider Herndon and Sterling as well, which are a lot closer to where you work.

Jan and I recently showed 5 3+ bed, 2+ bath single family, detached homes in those communities under $400k that had sold in 2005-6 for over $500k. No joke...it's common.

However, you are faced with the classic choice that buyers face in every metro area...far out, bigger and cheaper...close in, smaller and more expensive. Should you decide to move further out in Loudoun or Prince William counties, we believe that you need to be able to commit to that home for…. at least 5 years.

No one knows when the market will turn for good and there is a lot of inventory that has to be bought up if prices are to continue their recovery.

Prince William builders are still building which adds to the problem. This situation can be found all the way over to the river in Woodbridge and down into Stafford and beyond.

On the following purple link below are 8 single family homes that have sold in Manassas City in the last 6 months. As you have probably seen John, these homes would be $100-$200k more in similar Fairfax County neighborhoods. So if you can handle the commute, you can still buy a single family home in Prince William at Fairfax town house prices.

However, average Prince William single family home prices bottomed at $220k in 2008, down from $535k in Dec. of 2005 and are now in the $320k range...so don't wait to long to start your home search. You can check out the statistics right here.

If you are interested in pursuing bank owned homes (or regular sales) in Northern Virginia and need real estate assistance, drop us a line. We're happy to help.

You can set up an easy home search at: JanAndSteveListingBook.com....no one will bother you and the data is as accurate and fresh as can be...unlike the big public search engines which can be days or weeks out of date.

If you live in Northern Virginia and would like to receive a free market analysis of your home's current value, please let us know and we'll get it to you.