https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 17 May 2026 01:37:26 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82955 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:10:59 +0000 mrsjyw 82955@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: all elements you've mentioned combined with historically low interest rates = good time to buy :) regardless of age, if you are financially stable and have a decent amount of savings, I don't see why you couldn't be in the market for a house! definitely see what your options are your bank and don't be afraid to ask questions here :) my dh is a bank manager and i know more than i'd like to about the current market and changes in law/etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82866 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:12:44 +0000 MrsBrewer 82866@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@yoursilverlining: I have to admit, I thank myself for our credit scores :-) The accountant in me is beaming :-)</p> <p>We officially set up a meeting with a Realtor to just look at a couple houses, make sure that they are "livable" and the pictures online aren't deceiving! If that goes well, then we will meet with a mortgage lender.</p> <p>Thanks everyone for your awesome input! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82861 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:09:02 +0000 yoursilverlining 82861@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: That’s awesome – wish I had been in your position at 23!! You might want to make an appointment with a mortgage lender then to go over your options. Just don’t overextend yourself and make yourself house poor (which can be easy to do!), and sounds like it might be a good time to buy. Good luck! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82856 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:02:00 +0000 MrsBrewer 82856@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@yoursilverlining: Even though we are young we both actually have amazing credit, both of us are above 720. We both have great job history, and have stable jobs as well. His car is paid off, and mine will be (I only have 1500 left!!) We pay our credit cards off every month, and the only debt we are carrying is our student loans. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82811 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:28:33 +0000 yoursilverlining 82811@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think you should sit down and talk to a mortgage lender first and see what they say. Do you have any idea what your credit scores are? We just recently sat down with our lender (we currently own, but will be building soon). The rules have tightened up quite a bit recently. For a conventional mortgage, we were told you’ll need scores of at least 680 and they are looking for at least 10% cash down as well as good job history (i.e., years at same jobs). FHA is a lower % down, but if you do a FHA loan and only put like 3.5% down, your PMI insurance will be several hundred a month on top of the actual monthly mortgage amount. Taxes are an additional expense which are usually at least several hundred more a month. </p> <p>Homes (even new ones in great condition) will have issues that will eat up $$. If you have consumer debt (cars, credit cards, other consumer type loans), I would probably try to pay those off before buying a home. You might also want to look into a consolidation loan through a private education lender if your rates are 9-10% for student loans. That’s crazy high! There are not that many lenders who do consolidation loans these days, but there are some. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82807 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:23:17 +0000 MrsBrewer 82807@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: We're planning on sending our future children to a private school when the time comes! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82800 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:18:59 +0000 HabesBabe 82800@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yeah, don't forget about property taxes and homeowner's insurance in your monthly payment. If $3k is the tax for the house, that's about $250/month. Plus insurance, which isn't much (about $600/year), so you'll be about even with the rent payments you have now.</p> <p>If you buy a home through an FHA loan, you only have to put about 3% down and you can have more cushion in your savings, or you can pay off more of your student loans. I don't know much about HELOCs, but I don't think many banks are doing 2nd mortgages anymore.</p> <p>Good luck! Prices around here (Orange County, CA) are SUPER low, so it's definitely a good time to think about buying! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82795 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:14:17 +0000 looch 82795@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>That's great, but then it makes me wonder about the quality of the schools...usually, if the taxes are higher, the spend per student is higher, but it does depend on the area. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82792 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:10:41 +0000 MrsBrewer 82792@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: Actually taxes on this house isn't that high at all, $3,000! Average around here is between 4-5k </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82790 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:07:32 +0000 looch 82790@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Check and see if you qualify for a first time homebuyer loan. My brother and his fiancee just bought a home using this kind of program, they didn't have much for a down payment either.</p> <p>You also have to include your property taxes into your monthly payment, so make sure you're putting the right figure into the calculator. I know a lot of people put in a guess and it ends up being way off the actual percentage.</p> <p>Good luck! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82788 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:02:43 +0000 MamaMoose 82788@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: That's my understanding. Essentially you can only lend against something you own. You don't own the portion of your home's value that is on your mortgage. If you were to default they could only sell the home once but they would have TWO loans that need to be repaid (the mortgage, and the HELOC). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82780 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:54:28 +0000 MrsBrewer 82780@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MamaMoose: I didn't know that about the home equity loan that you could only take out as much as the equity you have in your home. If that's the case that wouldn't be nearly enough to pay off our student loans......oh boy...maybe it's time to rethink </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82772 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:45:59 +0000 MamaMoose 82772@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would start by talking to a mortgage banker and getting a preapproval. You have a fair amount of debt and you are young which means you haven't had a lot of time to build a ton of credit, so you may not get as good of a rate as you expect to. Which would mean your monthly payment wouldn't be as low as you are thinking. Also, taxes and insurance will probably eat up that $300 difference right away (before you even start thinking about the extras that mamabolt talked about). Lastly, ask the mortgage broker about the HELOC. My understanding is you can only take out a HELOC on the amount of equity you have in the home. If you only have 10-15% equity then you don't have a lot of lending power. And if you take it all you could become house poor very quickly since the housing market hasn't stabilized yet. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82768 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:40:18 +0000 MrsBrewer 82768@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mamabolt: Awesome advise!</p> <p>See that's another thing though, we have a good amount in savings right now and would be able to put down roughly 10-15%....we are not quite at 20% even though I wish we were!! darned PMI!! but after the 10-15% we will still have right around 5k left in savings....not that much, but I think it would be an OK cushion? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82761 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:35:28 +0000 mamabolt 82761@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'd say if you have a decent amount saved for a down payment, and know with a good degree of certainty that you would want to be in that home (specific home, geographic area, school district, etc) for at least the next five years, I'd consider buying. I'd also caution you that even though your mortgage might be lower than your rent, home ownership comes with many unexpected expenses, from the small of needing to buy assorted lawn care tools that you've never thought about before to the big of having emergency repairs that can run thousands of dollars. So I'd think about how you are going to handle those expenses as they come up as well. Good luck! House hunting is such a fun time! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/when-to-buy-a-house#post-82752 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:29:43 +0000 MrsBrewer 82752@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>How do you figure out when the right time to buy a house is? My DH and I are young (23) and we just got married in October. We both have stable jobs though, and we make an average amount, we are middle working class. Right now in our neighborhood that we would love to buy a house, there are a ton of foreclosed homes, and we did that mortgage calculator thing, and our mortgage payment would be 300 less than what we pay for rent right now! But the catch is, combined we have right around 40-45k in student loans. What our plan would be if we bought a house is to take out an additional home equity loan to pay off all of our student loans (it would be at a much lower interest rate…..4-5% instead of 9-10%) and that way we have only 1 loan to pay each month versus 5-6 different payments.</p> <p>Does anyone have any experience in this kind of thing? Does anyone know who I could even talk to about this with DH? A financial planner or something? We are just clueless and completely unsure of what to do right now, but we would love to buy a house because of the housing market so low right now!</p> <p>Any advice? </p>