Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

20%, but I've been saving since I was 21 (I'm 32 now)

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

My DH and I decided when we first started dating (we knew that we would marry each other ) that we would not move in together, stay at home, and save for a house. So we were able to save for a few years. We used my savings for our wedding and DH's for the house. We found an old small colonial that needed alot of work for under $300 and put 5% down. We did the split to avoid PMI, and we used the rest of DH's savings for the renovations. We did not touch our wedding money. We are using that for our next house!

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

We put down 5% on a house that was just under $300k.

The money came from savings & gifts/loans from our parents and my grandma.

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

Thank you so much for asking this question - I was starting to get really disappointed in our home search, but listening to you guys makes me feel much better. Our financail situation seems to be more typical than I had at first imagined. Thanks!

(Our plan is to put about 5% down, from wedding gifts, a small insurance settlement, and other family gifts)

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

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Posted by skew

we have been caretaking a home for the past 3 years, so we have been fortunate in that we do not have to pay rent (bills, yes). DH makes a very decent living and combined w/ my salary and the wedding money we have managed to save a great deal of money. we haven't decided if we are going to use the majority of it as a downpayment or use only a portion and allocate the rest for home improvements and mortgage payments.

if we were not in our current living situation, we would NEVER have been able to save the amount that we did.

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Wow, I could have written this post myself. The exception is that we do pay rent; it is very minimal and our bills, eg. heat, are included in that price. We couldn't even rent an apartment for the price we are lucky enough to be paying.

We have decided when the time comes to use the majority for our downpayment--we hope 1/3.

Also, luckily, as a result of our situation we are not in a rush to move out unless the right opportunity comes along!

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

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Posted by Eireann

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Posted by skew

we have been caretaking a home for the past 3 years, so we have been fortunate in that we do not have to pay rent (bills, yes). DH makes a very decent living and combined w/ my salary and the wedding money we have managed to save a great deal of money. we haven't decided if we are going to use the majority of it as a downpayment or use only a portion and allocate the rest for home improvements and mortgage payments.

if we were not in our current living situation, we would NEVER have been able to save the amount that we did.

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Wow, I could have written this post myself. The exception is that we do pay rent; it is very minimal and our bills, eg. heat, are included in that price. We couldn't even rent an apartment for the price we are lucky enough to be paying.

We have decided when the time comes to use the majority for our downpayment--we hope 1/3.

Also, luckily, as a result of our situation we are not in a rush to move out unless the right opportunity comes along!

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How do you become a caretaker?

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

LOL, I guess it did seem like a position you could apply for from the previous post! If only!

In our case, DH's grandmother went into a nursing home several years ago and her house was left vacant but kept up by DH's mother. A couple of years after that, he was looking to move and the family suggested he move into her house. The family can't sell it until she dies because of some tax issue of which I am admittedly ignorant!

The arrangement works for the family since we are physically there every day and they don't have to worry about break-ins, etc (even though we were robbed last year!), and obviously we are lucky to have this opportunity.

Unfortunately, she won't ever be coming back, so we're in until they need to sell.

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

friend of the family who had to relocate, but is returning next year. not the norm, but we walked into a great situation. we are extremely anxious to move and have a house of our own, but at the same time we are not in any rush. does that even make sense?

the one negative the house that we are in now is rather large, so for us to buy something smaller would be quite hard. we have become spoiled and accustomed to this type of living.

thankfully our budget does allow for such a house, but unfortunately we haven't find the right one yet.

EDITED for spelling. whatever happened to the spell check feature?

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

oh man...down payments are crazy, im reading this and wondering how the hell im gonna be able to do this and pay for a wedding within 10 months lol guess ill be borrowing more money for this wedding than i thought!!!!

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

the good news is that if your income is good enough, at least 80k combined, you can put down 5% down, as long as your credit is very good, and try to find a 2 -3 bedroom house maybe in Suffolk County in the low 300k area. They're out there! Get a 280-290k mortgage and the payment will be around 2300+taxes + insurance + pmi (170-200/mo) Mortgage will be in upper 2k range but if you have income of over 80k combined, this will absorb 50% of your income with some little debts included like credit cards and car loans. It will be a little tight for a while but it gets you in! Rates are still extremely low and you can even get an adjustable rate mortage in the low 5% area that will stay fixed for 3-5 years so you can keep your payments low. There are aslo the ever popular Interest only 30 year loans that give you the option of paying interest only when you wish. This will bring down your payments by at least $300 per month. It'll give you the chance to build equity in the home and keep you from choking yourself.
Ive been in the Mortgage biz for over 10 years as a Loan Officer and i can tell you that Newlyweds are 75% of my business!
Get Preapproved 1st for free and then go out and look...

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

For our first house (condo), we put exactly over 20% down (about $30,000) which I have saved. When we moved to our new house, we used the proceeds or profit from the condo (about $125K) to put down on our new home. This was over 20% of the price of the house.

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

We both saved money by living with our parents for over four years before the wedding. We put 20% down. My DH’s paycheck pays for the mortgage, taxes and savings, and my paycheck goes towards the food, clothing, entertainment, phone, utility bills, cable bills, etc.
I waill always have to work. We didn't buy a 'starter' home We plan on being there forever.

Re: For all you new homeowners- if you dont mind me asking

We put down about 1/3, or roughly $100,000 back in October 2000. Thankfully we did it then, because our house has now doubled in its appraisal. The money came from our savings, and the stock market. DH was a huge day trader and it helped big time.