HOME FIRST TIME
BUYERS HOME

The owners have decided to sell these units, direct to the Public, without the use of a RE Broker, and have decided to concentrate on sales to First Time Buyers (FTB’s), and have put into place exclusive financing through St. Mary’s Bank to accomplish this end. Please understand that, this does not mean that we will not sell these units to other than FTB’s. It does mean that, any financing opportunities quoted on this website WILL NOT be applicable to anyone other than FTB’s.

These units will be sold at the prices listed. Because there are no RE Broker’s involved, there will be no typical “offer/counteroffer” situations here. We expect that there will be many more prospective Buyers than we have units for. And because the units will never be sold for more than the listed prices, there will be no “bidding wars” (where the price of the unit gets “bid up” until the winning buyer is determined). Because of these limiting circumstances, the priority of the prospective Buyers will be determined by the first prospects who get pre-approved through St. Mary’s Bank.

All of our condos will sell for between $169,800 and $179,800. Therefore, if you wish to have an opportunity to purchase ANY of these units, we would suggest that you get pre-qualified for one of the $179,800 units.

The “Plan” is to use this website to recruit prospective Buyers which we will ask to get “pre-approved” through St. Mary’s Bank. Once the prospect has a “pre-approval letter” we will schedule a showing with this prospect. Date stamp on the St. Mary’s pre-approval email will determine the priority of the Buyers. If the prospect decides that they want the unit, they will then sign a Purchase and Sale Agreement with us, which will be the foundation for the final mortgage processing through St. Mary’s.

Additionally, closing costs (loan fees, appraisal costs, title insurance, attorney and closing costs, tax stamps, etc.) can often times add up to an additional 2%-3% of the purchase price. The Sellers (owners of FTBcondos.com) will rebate up to 6% of the purchase price to the Buyers at closing to cover both the downpayment and closing costs, which mean that the Buyers will effectively take ownership of these units with NO MONEY DOWN.

No Money Down does not mean that no Downpayment will be required. Upon signing the P+S (after Pre-Approval through St. Mary’s) buyers will be required to put down a $1000 Earnest Money Deposit, but this $1000 deposit will be returned to the Buyers, in full, at closing.

The MCC (Mortgage Credit Certificate) will be secured for you by St. Mary’s Bank as part of the closing process. The MCC is a refundable tax credit (meaning that you will get this back even if you do not pay any taxes for the previous year). The MCC allows you to “write off” up to 35% of your INTEREST cost for the previous year, not to exceed $2000/year. Based upon amortization of a $164,706 mortgage over 30 years at 7.375%, you will be able to claim this $2000 credit in full for the first 17 years of your mortgage. After the 17th year, this credit will gradually diminish over the balance of your mortgage ($1800 in year 18, $1500 in year 19, etc.)

The net reduction of principal is the second component of the Net Monthly Payment. When you first start paying your mortgage, the vast majority of the initial payments will be applied to interest cost, but a small amount will also be credited as principal reduction. For example, for a $164,706 loan at 7.375%, the initial $1137 monthly payment will be allocated to $1012 towards INTEREST and $125 towards PRINCIPAL. Effectively, this part of the mortgage is going to be “paid back to yourself” and, as an added bonus, this “principal reduction” will increase by $1-$2/month for the remainder of the mortgage.

Generally, we are looking for prospects with FICO scores in the 660-680 range or better, and with two years of steady employment/income. And, if you are a couple, as long as ONE of the buyers has not owned a home in the past 3 years (St. Mary’s definition of a “First Time Buyer”), you will likely qualify for one of these mortgages under their “Welcome Home” program.

The only differences between “renting costs” vs the “ownership costs” cited above, are the water/sewer and heating costs. The water/sewer bill will add $26/month to the above figures and you should likely budget between $50-$60/month for heat.

This will involve some effort and some upfront costs, but the “rule of thumb” is that if rates decline more than 1-1.5%, it would be worthwhile to consider a re-finance of your loan through St. Mary’s Bank. As an example, if the rates were to decrease 1.5% (from the 7.375% quoted above to 5.875%) the P+I payment on the above specified monthly costs would decrease from $1137/month to $974/month, a savings of $163/month.

Additionally, because of the lower rate, not only will the total monthly payment go down, the amount paid every month in interest will also go down, meaning that the amount applied to principal reduction in the above scenario will increase from $125/mo to $163/mo. Here is an overview of how a (speculative) 1.5% reduction in the interest rate would affect the Net Monthly Payment