TheCutlery said:
Make sure you can afford it on your own, Chaotic. You can"t rely on roommates to cover the cost. If they do, fantastic. But if they don"t, it"s your ass for the $1800 mortgage payment every month.
Rushing into things isn"t really the right way to do stuff, but you"ll basically know the right house when you see it. I put a bid on my house the same day I saw it.
That being said, there"s no fucking way in hell you could get me to live next door to my parents. Fuck. That.
Fawy , that was a fucking excellent post. Thank you for that, cleared up some things for me. So escrow fundamentally is the other shit that gets thrown at you minus the mortgage / interest. Rolling closing costs is also interesting too, and my buddy was explaining to me about the PMI the other night (worked as some kind of mortgage person for seven years) because I was explaining to him what Cutlery had said about eating the PMI and having that same cash on hand. I felt that was particularly prevalent for me due to the nature of my salary curve right now - that maybe to cushion that first year or so while my salary goes up i"d like to have that cash on hand to shore up anything that is a "must fix" and in case of emergencies etc. He explained, what you did basically - that once you pay X amount you no longer need to pay the PMI.. that works for me.
As far as living next to my parents, I view it as a pretty big plus. I"ve been living in a full basement for about 3 years now ever since I moved back in after I finished school and everything - that don"t harass me in the least or really care about anything I do. I have a very big family, 2 brothers , 3 sisters, two dogs, cats etc. I don"t know, call me gay but I"d kind of like to stay close to them.
Rushing isn"t good, of course not - that"s why I"ve been planning all of this for quite some time (on paper at least) as my little things in this thread alone reflect. Unfortunately, no one has the ability to just make money appear - which is really the issue - but with careful planning and not being ignorant - which is why i"m trying to educate myself - you can not get yourself in a situation wherein you"re over your head.
As I said, soon i"ll be netting $3300 monthly. I get other checks and what not that would likely bring that around $3600, base pay. With OT and what not, thats *easy* $4,000-$5000 but I won"t even include that.
All bills put together are ,as calculated - less then $2000. By, say, February i"d have about $25k upfront. I wouldn"t even put that down I don"t think.
I understand that relying on renters is never a good idea, which is why as demonstrated I could afford things on my own, with $1500 at a bare minimum to spare monthly. (I have no car payment, insurance and phone are about it @ maybe $175 monthly total) with that 25k cushion..
Never mind the fact that if I did have a few people move in with me, which I would, that cushion would rise that much more.
To be honest I"m not sure what I want to do, I"ve spent the last few days scoping out the house. It"s really not too bad, just old fashioned. An old man lived there and it"s obvious. Due to the nature of my profession I have many, many hookups for all things related to the house in terms of anykind of work that would need to be done. I"m just weighing options and this seems like a great opportunity, if I approach it cautiously and do my research.
Also, and I know i"ll draw some flak with this - but try to hear me out. Many peoples arguments against this are what I saw here (and in my personal life as well) maybe not so much arguments, but words of caution - which is not so much the "be careful with what you"re getting into" which is absolutely right - but more the "you"re going to be living here!! don"t get into something you"re not absolutely sure of!!"
Frankly, I don"t view it like that.
1) I want to get my foot in the door while it"s a good time to get my foot in the door. Anytime in the last year, and probably the next year to year and a half to come would represent this window.
2) I view a house like I view my car, it serves a function - I don"t have a family right now, i"m a single guy. I want somewhere to live - the concept is cool to me, but I don"t "need" anything in particular. If it functions, that"s fine. If it"s a good deal and represents a reasonable investment - that"s what I"m looking for. I dont need a high ranch with a brick chimney and a two car garage with an extended porch and vinyl siding. I could care less. People can"t seem to understand this.
3) This house is going to be a temporary thing. My five year goal, after getting in my first home, will be to use it to leap frog to my "real" home. Hopefully at that time I will be looking to start a family , and the things I describe in 2 won"t apply anymore. I plan to either sell the home, or rent it depending on the market - and use that to jump into something hopefully, really nice which I will spent all kinds of crazy time looking around for (because, as I said, at that time I will *need* certain things which I don"t at all right now)
These things apply to any home, not even necessarily this fixxer upper I"m looking at, or even my original plan of a 300k 40th percentile home. It"s just how i"m viewing my adventures into the housing market right now. The reason I bring up the 200k home in a more serious way is it seems to sit with these goals.
I feel like I have valid points, which is partially while I"m posting this. A lot of you guys are much more seasoned then me in this stuff. I"m approaching it intellectually, but maybe I"m just ignorant. Or maybe I"m doing it right, I just appreciate any food for thought that"s thrown at me.