[GhettoDogAllStars]

Originally Posted by over the mountain

I am going to buy my first home in the next few months. The house we are currently renting in Locust Point, Balt is going up for sale when our lease ends in mid-October. I get the right of first refusal with the offer being 199k.

The prev owner bought the house for 173k in 2005. A few years before that the house was sold for less than 100k (im assuming alot of rehab was done, teh rehab isnt the top quality inner city living style we were hoping for with exposed interior brick, gourmet kitchen etc but the rehabs done is moderna and quality enough). The house base was built in 1875, its about 1100 - 1300 sq ft, 2 levels, good size backyard with about 70% of the back yard grass for my dogs. The neighborhood is amazing for Balt city. It is on the penisula that Fort McHenry is on. There are no bridges leading anywhere else so the only traffic on the roads are people who live in the community. There are joggers, a great huge dog park very close by, there's yuppies moving in and rehabing these houses from 200k range to 450k and up. On friday nights, the old people in the neighborhood sit out on their stoops and listen to the Os games.

Anyways, I really like the neighborhood. Im going to be 32 in august, my lady is going to 31 in aug., we are planning on getting married and having our fisrt child in the next 5 years. With that said, we still party hard and dont think we can move out to the burbs just yet. (living in locust feels like the burbs to us compared to fells point, I dont have to worry about my honey going to the store to get some beer type safe).

Anyways, for real i can talk on here,

I am an attorney. I make 40k with my 9-5 firm and make another 15-20k per year with another law firm i work for. I have about 50k i can put down up front. My parents said they could probably help me with 5-10k as well.

I am getting pre-approved loan offers now.

So far I got an offer of 5 and 1/8 percent on a 200k 30 yr trad fixed mortgage with a bunch of additional fees, etc totaling about (without looking at the offer again) 8k.

I just read the fed rate is 4.67%.

my credit score is 684.

QUEStions finally, so sorry man:

1) what is a good offer/percent i should expect? should i expect the 4.67 percent?

2) should i, as a buyer in this climate, be paying closing costs or should i tell the seller and agent to cover it?

3) can you PM me anyone who might give me 5 percent or lower on a 30 yr fixed mortgage of about 160 to 200k?

4) any first time home buyer incentives left?

I bought my first home (Colorado) in April for $212K and I got 4.875% FHA loan with 0.3 points. My credit rating is a little higher than yours, but not by much. I only put down the required 3.5% for FHA loans (~$7.5K). Hope that helps a bit.