How much money do I need to buy my first house?

[nageov3t]

if you're a first-time home buyer, look into any programs your state/HUD might be running.

NJ has a program for buyers in certain target areas (re: towns the gov wants to gentrify) that allow you to finance your down payment as part of your mortgage.

 

[DesiPower]

wow, OP if you are credit card's bitch then you need to get your life straightened out first before you think of buying a house. It's very possible that you credit score is not that good either, which will result if higher APR. That kind of CC use means that you have no self control on spending and if you buy a house with that kind of attitude you will spend even more on decorative stuff... I can see that not ending well...

 

[mike2fix]

Everything else aside, buying a house with the GF, that rarely ends well, unless you have your wife's permission.

 

[Jimzz]

Not a terrible question. I don't know why we have no money. We make enough, but somehow my CC bill is ridiculous every month.

I just want to turn our 1750/mo rent into 1750/mo mortgage.

Yea it does not work like that. You are not adding in the taxes, repairs, etc…

Right now if a water pipe burst in the night you call the landlord and they come out and fix it.

But if you owned your own home it would come down to several options.

A: If you’re real handy you shut the water off, grab the tools, sweat/crimp in a new pipe, and you make sweet love to your wife as her manly man fixed that horrible problem like it was nothing.

B: You shut the water off, call the plumber you know and trust, know you have some money saved up to pay for it, and he fixes the pipe. The wife makes sweet love to you on the wet floor for being frugal enough to save the money needed to cover unexpected repairs like this. But from this day forth she thinks of the manly man of a plumber any time she makes love to you.

C: You shut the water off, call the plumber you know and trust, think you have some money saved up to pay for it, and he fixes the pipe. You then realize you do not have the money. The plumber then looks at you and makes sweet love to you on the wet floor as a down payment as the wife sits in the corner watching the manly man of a plumber take you as she cries herself to sleep knowing she will have to pick up some extra shifts at the strip club to pay the rest.

D : You run around screaming HOW DO I TURN THE WATER OFF!!! The water keeps running as you panic. Your house now flooded the only sweet love making going on will be between the bacteria and mold that will fill up the house with their off spring. The wife leaves you and you die a slow death in the house the kids call the “mold house”.


So good luck on being a home owner. :awe:

 

[Insomniator]

wow, OP if you are credit card's bitch then you need to get your life straightened out first before you think of buying a house. It's very possible that you credit score is not that good either, which will result if higher APR. That kind of CC use means that you have no self control on spending and if you buy a house with that kind of attitude you will spend even more on decorative stuff... I can see that not ending well...

My score is 770, I don't have any CC debt. Its just actual spending that adds up each month starting from 0 on my card.

 

[Insomniator]

Yea it does not work like that. You are not adding in the taxes, repairs, etc…

Right now if a water pipe burst in the night you call the landlord and they come out and fix it.

But if you owned your own home it would come down to several options.

A: If you’re real handy you shut the water off, grab the tools, sweat/crimp in a new pipe, and you make sweet love to your wife as her manly man fixed that horrible problem like it was nothing.

B: You shut the water off, call the plumber you know and trust, know you have some money saved up to pay for it, and he fixes the pipe. The wife makes sweet love to you on the wet floor for being frugal enough to save the money needed to cover unexpected repairs like this. But from this day forth she thinks of the manly man of a plumber any time she makes love to you.

C: You shut the water off, call the plumber you know and trust, think you have some money saved up to pay for it, and he fixes the pipe. You then realize you do not have the money. The plumber then looks at you and makes sweet love to you on the wet floor as a down payment as the wife sits in the corner watching the manly man of a plumber take you as she cries herself to sleep knowing she will have to pick up some extra shifts at the strip club to pay the rest.

D : You run around screaming HOW DO I TURN THE WATER OFF!!! The water keeps running as you panic. Your house now flooded the only sweet love making going on will be between the bacteria and mold that will fill up the house with their off spring. The wife leaves you and you die a slow death in the house the kids call the “mold house”.


So good luck on being a home owner. :awe:

hahahahah well said

I see your point.

 

[Jimzz]

hahahahah well said

I see your point.

Example I forgot to add was in the last 7 years I have replaced my entire furnace/ac system, main water line, roof, etc...

I did my own work so it was cost of good but those still add up. the Furnace/ac parts were close to 5k with me doing the labor. That's a larger system than many homes but gives you a idea.

So there are a lot of cost many over look and can really hurt them. Not saying its not possible but need to balance your budget first then see what you can afford. If you are not handy then start looking into that as well. Even if you do not do any large repairs/projects you know what needs to be done and price ranges.

 

[NutBucket]

Yeah, homeownership isn't for everyone. I wish I could have bought a decent house in a decent area for under $300k. Ah, what a pipe dream.

 

[Scarpozzi]

My first house was under $100k....I renovated the place 1 room at a time and sold it 5 years later at a decent profit.

You should consider riding the real estate wave and plan to start with a smaller house...This is especially true if you depend on more than one income to make payments.

Between my wife and I, either one of us could cover our base living expenses each month without the other. (mortgage/insurance/food/utilities) It pays not to buy too much house.

 

[Jimzz]

Yeah, homeownership isn't for everyone. I wish I could have bought a decent house in a decent area for under $300k. Ah, what a pipe dream.

300k... I wish you could get a good house here for that. We paid $370k for a fixer upper we had to gut and do another 100k addition onto it. But my commute is 5-10mins when most its a hour or longer.

Of course when we sell we will move to a lower cost of living area. To cold and costly here.

 

[NutBucket]

Between my wife and I, either one of us could cover our base living expenses each month without the other. (mortgage/insurance/food/utilities) It pays not to buy too much house.

This is a pipe dream in SoCal.

But, the point is just because you're pre-approved for $500k doesn't mean you should buy a house that's $500k.

 

[ultimatebob]

If you get an FHA mortgage, you'll be able to get a good rate and still put down less than 20%.

Just keep in mind that there are additional restrictions with FHA mortgages, like them frowning on you on flipping the house for profit or renting it out for income.

 

[nageov3t]

This is a pipe dream in SoCal.

ditto for North Jersey... 100k would probably buy you a 1-bedroom condo in a bad section of Jersey City or a not-good section of Newark.

short of landing a job that paid 6 figures or some kind of financial windfall (eg: if my 93 year-old great aunt left her house to me, I'd probably sell it for $250k and use the profits to buy a $300-350k house), I couldn't see buying a home on a single income.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

check your states website and see if they have any programs for new home buyers.

 

[K1052]

This is a pipe dream in SoCal.

And the Bay Area as well.

 

[Blackjack200]

well navy fed is just an awesome credit union. they are the only place that i know that has something like that, which is why we used them. luckily my wife got an account with them when she was 17 (before i knew her) because her friend worked there and could get her an account. neither of us have ever been in the military.

no hidden costs or anything. they just own!

It's very unusual to see a loan like that because it's considered non-conforming, which means it won't be backed by FNMA or FDMC. That generally means the loan can't be sold on the secondary market.

 

[NutBucket]

If you get an FHA mortgage, you'll be able to get a good rate and still put down less than 20%.

Just keep in mind that there are additional restrictions with FHA mortgages, like them frowning on you on flipping the house for profit or renting it out for income.

10% down + PMI is really preferable to FHA these days. After they revised the terms of the program (within the last year) it's a really unattractive option IMHO.

 

[Imp]

You should move to Canada and buy here... The prices will never stop going up, apparently.

 

[Imp]

Edit: Double trouble... Don't know how it got past the prevention thing.

 

[fleshconsumed]

50k would take years and years to save. Doesn't seem feasible. I have ~15k right now, GF has zero. Even if we ate beans every night, I don't think my bank account is even capable of going over 20k... the gods would not allow it.

[. . .]

Not a terrible question. I don't know why we have no money. We make enough, but somehow my CC bill is ridiculous every month.

Out of curiosity, what's your typical CC bill excluding any utilities you may be putting on your CC?

For the record, based on what you said, buying a house would be a bad idea.

One, you guys are not married yet, either both of you are going to have to be on the title/mortgage, which is problematic if you ever split up, or only one of you is going to have title/mortgage which once again can prove problematic if you split up and one person can't pay the mortgage.

Two, with only 15K saved between two of you, buying a house with any kind of down payment (expect to pay 5-7K between closing fees, inspection, attorney, title fees, etc on top of down payment) you will be left with ZERO cash for emergencies, such as job loss or house repairs. House repairs aren't cheap, and ideally once you buy a house you should have enough cash saved up to handle any emergency. New driveway can cost 3-5K, new garage door 1K, new roof 10K, new furnace/ac 5-10K, new siding - you do not want to know. If you have zero in your bank account and you can't handle those repairs by borrowing from relatives/putting it on CC you lose the house.

I'd recommend having enough for desired down payment + 7K for closing fees plus another 20K for unexpected events such as job loss/major house repairs. You're not anywhere close to that with 15K.

 

[alkemyst]

If you have 100s of thousands laying around then sure, if you are staring fresh like OP then no, you need cash in hand for emergencies, emptying you bank on down payment is not a good idea.

QFT.

 

[soulcougher73]

Yea it does not work like that. You are not adding in the taxes, repairs, etc…

Right now if a water pipe burst in the night you call the landlord and they come out and fix it.

But if you owned your own home it would come down to several options.

A: If you’re real handy you shut the water off, grab the tools, sweat/crimp in a new pipe, and you make sweet love to your wife as her manly man fixed that horrible problem like it was nothing.

B: You shut the water off, call the plumber you know and trust, know you have some money saved up to pay for it, and he fixes the pipe. The wife makes sweet love to you on the wet floor for being frugal enough to save the money needed to cover unexpected repairs like this. But from this day forth she thinks of the manly man of a plumber any time she makes love to you.

C: You shut the water off, call the plumber you know and trust, think you have some money saved up to pay for it, and he fixes the pipe. You then realize you do not have the money. The plumber then looks at you and makes sweet love to you on the wet floor as a down payment as the wife sits in the corner watching the manly man of a plumber take you as she cries herself to sleep knowing she will have to pick up some extra shifts at the strip club to pay the rest.

D : You run around screaming HOW DO I TURN THE WATER OFF!!! The water keeps running as you panic. Your house now flooded the only sweet love making going on will be between the bacteria and mold that will fill up the house with their off spring. The wife leaves you and you die a slow death in the house the kids call the “mold house”.


So good luck on being a home owner. :awe:

ROFL

 

[Thebobo]

50k would take years and years to save. Doesn't seem feasible. I have ~15k right now, GF has zero. Even if we ate beans every night, I don't think my bank account is even capable of going over 20k... the gods would not allow it.

Get a FHA loan and get a house asap while the rates are still low.

FHA loans require just a 3.5 percent down payment

There are also FHA $100 down payment loans on HUD foreclosure homes.

Don’t Have 20% To Put Down?

FYI I have an FHA loan and it worked out great and with good credit you get the lowest %.

 

[Muadib]

Get a FHA loan and get a house asap while the rates are still low.

FHA loans require just a 3.5 percent down payment

There are also FHA $100 down payment loans on HUD foreclosure homes.

Don’t Have 20% To Put Down?

FYI I have an FHA loan and it worked out great and with good credit you get the lowest %.

Best info here for the OP IMO! I'll just add that he should go talk to a bank and get pre approved, so he can find out how much house he can afford.

 

[NutBucket]

FYI I have an FHA loan and it worked out great and with good credit you get the lowest %.

When did you get your loan?