For the last two years (or so), my wife and I have been building our house. So far, we have paid for this through a mixture of personal savings and a construction loan. We owe $98,000 on the construction loan to a local bank. We can borrow up to $164,000 at 5%. We should have enough cash to finish the house.
We own 22 acres - 1.1 acres of this lot was used as collateral for the construction loan. We couldn't do a construction to permanent loan at first because we didn't have an exact finish date and had zero/low credit.
In the next 4-6 weeks, we will be ready to apply for our mortgage. Both of us our first time home buyers and we have a few questions. Our financial state is also below (if it is needed)
Questions:
1. Because we don't have an exact finish date, does it make sense to apply at for a mortgage at other banks besides the local bank?
2. When applying, will the lot that was used for collateral count toward the down payment? Will the cash that we've put into the house count toward the down payment?
3. In the next few weeks, would it make more sense to use our remaining cash to finish the house or borrow the difference? The difference would be around $15,000
4. Anything special about going from a construction loan to a mortgage?
5. Anything else I should know or do?
Financial State:
Age: 26 (me), 25 (wife)
Location: South Georgia
Gross Salary: 4666 (me); 1058 (wife); 5724 (combined)
Side work: 1266 (me - average per month)
Assets: $212,500
Cash: $21,500
Land/House Tax Value: $135,300 (unfinished house accessed really low)
Cars: own two used priusi (rough value about $15,000)
IRAs: $9,800 (spilt between two accounts)
Teacher Retirement Accounts: $28,000
HSA: $2,900
Liabilities: $112,840
Construction loan: $98,448
Wife Student loans: $14,392 (In-laws pay this. Wife and Father in law are the borrowers on the seven loans)
Credit info: No long history - nothing bad either.
Score credit karma: 748 (me) ? (wife - credit karma can't find anything without us mailing in documents to validate identity)
One joint credit card with $7300 limit
Oldest account is two years.
Thank you all so much for any help!