Beginning the house hunting process

[shipo]

Yeah, moving money around is a pain, I would prefer to put it where I plan on getting a mortgage from and let it sit until I pull the trigger on a new home, unfortunately doing so would mean leaving a few hundred dollars per month of interest on the table.

[justbroke]

I have a few $$$$ over at AMEX but I'm not looking to move money around. I have some in my PenFed "Premium" Online Savings Account as well. I'm not looking to move a bunch around at this time.

[shipo]

shipo sounds like a very interesting move. I worked in the D.C. area for years. It is expensive to live in the counties and adjoining counties around the D.C. center. I think the prices would hold in that area simply because it's D.C. with a seemingly unending need for housing.

I have an NFCU certificate but have not looked at withdrawal. I don't recall seeing any exemptions for early withdrawal.

I think maybe just park it at PenFed or AMEX Bank?

I have a few thousand over at PenFed but they're "only" paying 3.00% interest (which is 12 times greater than the 0.25% paid by NFCU), however, the bulk of my money earmarked for the down payment is in a CapOne savings account which is currently paying 4.35% interest (which is just a hair higher than the AMEX HYSA). Yeah, some HYSAs out there are paying north of 5.00%, so CapOne isn't the absolute highest, but given I already do business with them, they got the nod.

[justbroke]

shipo sounds like a very interesting move. I worked in the D.C. area for years. It is expensive to live in the counties and adjoining counties around the D.C. center. I think the prices would hold in that area simply because it's D.C. with a seemingly unending need for housing.

I have an NFCU certificate but have not looked at withdrawal. I don't recall seeing any exemptions for early withdrawal.

I think maybe just park it at PenFed or AMEX Bank?

[shipo]

Hello folks, not sure if this is the right topic for this thread, but here goes...

As many of y'all know, my wife and I downsized from a nice home to a tiny apartment back in 2013 when our financial world collapsed and required the both of us to file for bankruptcy, her a Chapter 7 and me a Chapter 13; both bankruptcies are now off our records (hers fell off this month) and we're looking to buy something within the next several months. With this in mind we joined NFCU yesterday as they seem to have interest rates which are at or near mortgage industry lows, but I'd be interested to hear of some lenders can beat their rates.

As part of this move, our daughter, who recently relocated to Maryland just outside of DC wants us to move down there from New Hampshire, so that's going to sting a bit due to needing to pay sales tax and income tax (something I haven't needed to pay for over 20 years). Needless to say, lots of moving parts will need to be sorted before we can make an actual move. I know lots of folks would advise against buying within this timeframe due to the potential of falling home prices, we want to get down near our daughter but I really don't want to move twice, so either we pick up a rental for a year or two, or we buy now and trust the resale value of whatever we buy doesn't drop too far.

Circling back to NFCU, I'd like to stage my down payment with them so when the time comes to go for a mortgage that money is already on hand, however, I see the interest rates they pay for non-Certificate savings pretty much stink compared to current HYSAs out there. Do any of y'all know if I park the money in say, a 12-month certificate and then use that money as a down payment on a mortgage from NFCU, would they waive the early withdrawal penalty?