ARE YOU A HOME OWNER???

FH and I have been going to open houses recently..

We have 5 months left til wedding.... We are torn because we found one we LOVE!!

But feel all the $ we saved for the wedding will go towards the house... HOW ARE YOU DOING IT?? What are your opinions??

this is why i seriously have panic attacks and am stressed out

we just hope for the best!

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Posted by gfield101

FH and I have been going to open houses recently..

We have 5 months left til wedding.... We are torn because we found one we LOVE!!

But feel all the $ we saved for the wedding will go towards the house... HOW ARE YOU DOING IT?? What are your opinions??

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We are in the SAME position. We own our co-op right now but we've also been going to open houses. We found a house we fell in love with but I don't know if we can swing it right before the wedding. I'm sorry I don't have an opinion because I'm in the same rut! Ok maybe I have a little opinion, I would wait until after the wedding, I think that's what we'll end up doing

FH and I are in similar situation for the fact he just built a home 4 years ago when we met. Now getting married and considering where we both work (in oppostite directions) we have to sell the house and start over Its really scary with the home market being so up and down lately. Honestly I am trying not to think about it until I absolutely HAVE TO.

WOW! It feels good to know, I'm not the only one out there... Now to those who do own a house.?? It is possible?

And please be honest, are parents helping somewhat? Did you not put any $ down? Were you able to take out a mortgage for more than the house to replace the wedding $ with???

we're in the same situation BUT we have just a little over 3 months until the wedding so were cutting it a bit close lol. Well it depends, you have a couple of options. However, this will depend alot on what your down payment is, dont know how small or large it is. One thing FH pointed out today is that by the time we have our closing it will be probably right after the wedding since the guy told us its typically 3.5 months to 4 months for the closing, so probably when we get back from the honeymoon lol. SO with that said, if it works out that way then we have money from the wedding to use, but this depends on your down payment, we saw one place today for an unbelievable price so the down payment won't be alot and i definitely know we'd have it after the wedding. OR one thing fh said he would do although i dont want him to is to take out money from his 401K but i cant have him do that.

Right now we basically are going through alot of our options to see what is best for us. If by chance we get a closing date before the wedding, which i honestly dont think we would then maybe i would refinance my apartment and then after the wedding from monetary gifts ill pay it all off, but dont want to really go through that. Theres also the option of borrowing from our parents and paying them right after the wedding. The thing about the place were looking at is that you have the option for 10% or 20% down, the guy priced it out for both and the difference in our mortgage payments between putting down 10% or 20% would only be $100 more a month so thats fine. With the 10% down and the place costing so low to begin with our down payment wouldnt be high at all so i would actually try to work it out to have the closing right after the wedding. Ideal would be to have the closing right after the wedding BUT before the honeymoon(we're going on our HM 6 days after the wedding) but yeah who knows how likely that will be. Since its already the middle of february i dont see the closing being before the wedding so i think it will work out

If it wasnt for the wedding then it'd be SO easy lol.

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Posted by gfield101

WOW! It feels good to know, I'm not the only one out there... Now to those who do own a house.?? It is possible?

And please be honest, are parents helping somewhat? Did you not put any $ down? Were you able to take out a mortgage for more than the house to replace the wedding $ with???

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if it was a year ago i would say that you'd have a chance at 100% financing, now that will be extremely hard. 100% financing is a big reason the market is what it is now, but on a positive note its a buyers market now. MANY and mean many places keep having to drop their prices bc people are not buying and as a buyer when you know the prices are dropping you are going to try now to get it at the best price you can get it. I am going to take FULL advantage of this market right now.

WOW Espo!! Good INFO!!!

you know.. I never even thought about the 401k.. I mean, if you can borrow without a penalty... I suppose buying a home would be a good reason to borrow..

I just read your post to my FH...we both think its very helpful!!

THANK YOU!

I do have to also say that if youre looking at a place with lets say $80,000, $100,000 down payment or anything in that range, even $50,000 then i wouldnt count on wedding money for that.

I think you also need to make sure that its a place you can afford. Don't get a place with a large down payment if you dont have anything saved and the money will be impossible to get. I won't even look at things above a certain price range. I told FH and he agrees and feels the exact same way, that i want to set a limit on what we'd spend a month so dont look just at the price of a house, price it out monthly. We set our limit per month and wont look at anything that would go above that. I wanted our monthly payments to be less than half of what we make a month bc i dont want to sit there and live paycheck to paycheck, its not worth it. I want to travel and save money and be able to just enjoy our first years of marriage. I dont want our mortgage and rest of house costs to consume us. I want to go out to dinners, go shopping and do things like that. Again i am not looking to move into a place were going to have kids in and settle down for many years. I want something for 2-3 years, sell it and money we make off of it to use as a down payment on a home.

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Posted by gfield101

WOW Espo!! Good INFO!!!

you know.. I never even thought about the 401k.. I mean, if you can borrow without a penalty... I suppose buying a home would be a good reason to borrow..

I just read your post to my FH...we both think its very helpful!!

THANK YOU!

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yeah without a penalty would be great. I mean its definitely there as an option and well it is your savings so it can be used for that. I guess before i was thinking of it just that you should have money in your 401k but when using your savings, whats more important than a house to use it for. But definitely check out your 401k policies first.

FH even suggested a personal loan from a bank but i told him i'd rather not and he doesnt really want to either but he just threw it out there when exploring our options. The interest rates for this can be high, and then to pay off that loan plus your mortgage can get you in trouble.

WOW thank you so much lol glad i can be helpful

you also have to remember

1. when you take from 401K, your paycheck will be less (loan payment)

2. a place may be a good price, but watch the maint. fees! some of them are outrageous and they go up every year

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Posted by Snowflake08

you also have to remember

1. when you take from 401K, your paycheck will be less (loan payment)

2. a place may be a good price, but watch the maint. fees! some of them are outrageous and they go up every year

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thats why i told fh not to take out money from his 401k especially since i dont think we'll need it

yeah when i calculate the monthly payments i include the maintenance to make sure its within the monthly budget we set for ourselves to pay. But yeah that can be a HUGE factor, and some ppl dont look at maintenance but just at mortgage payments. At first Fh would keep looking at these places that were just about the budget we set and then i'd always have to say 'OK but what about the maintenance' now he calculates with maintenance before even showing me anything

the first question we asked every agent today was about the maintenace. I also asked how much has it gone up in the past few years. Which wasnt that bad bc in 10 years its gone up just a little over $400...my apartment in 3.5 years has gone up $300. So our biggest question was about the maintenance and to get a better understand of how often it changes and by how much

We will be homeowners for a year on Feb 28th!!! Iy went by so fast. I don't live there yet though so, I can't wait to get married so I can enjoy it more!!

We have been homeowners since September 2006. We bought our house before we were engaged so we weren't saving for the wedding we started saving for the house then 6 months later after we bought the house we got engaged then the wedding expenses came but I am really glad we did it this way.

Don't stress!!!

FH and I bought our house in December and are planning our April wedding. I can't say that it is the easiest thing, but it will all be well worth it when it is finished. The feeling of accomplishment, I hope, will be great.

When house hunting, definitely do your homework. The mortgage industry is so bad right now that companies should be fighting for you. If you don't think you are getting the best rate possible, shop around. In hind-sight, getting a broker to shop for you is well worth the point you pay. Also, check your credit score before you start applying for mortgages and what not and see if you can improve it before you get locked into a rate.

Definitely check out how much utilities would cost and how taxes are. Figuring out your realistic monthly budget is a great help. Don't bit off more than you can chew. If you like to go out or go shopping, then maybe a big house isn't the best. Don't take out a bigger mortgage than you can afford, only something you feel comfortable with.

It is definitely all possible. I know FH and I aren't having as elaborate as a wedding as some other brides on here, but that is because that is just not us. If you plan out everything and budget you can have the best of both worlds.

(sorry if a lot of this sounded like common sense, but it's the truth)

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Posted by chrispar

We have been homeowners since September 2006. We bought our house before we were engaged so we weren't saving for the wedding we started saving for the house then 6 months later after we bought the house we got engaged then the wedding expenses came but I am really glad we did it this way.

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Wow we bought our house at the same time, before we were engaged or even thinking of being engaged

We got engaged a day after you as well!!!