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My husband and I are desparate to buy our first home. We are newlyweds so our savings were depleted slightly by our wedding.
We will have about $10-12k cash in hand and want to buy a $350 - 375k house in morris county. We both have good career history, ok credit and combined income close to $200k. My hope is that we can roll some of the closing costs into the mortgage. What do you think?
My husband and I are desparate to buy our first home. We are newlyweds so our savings were depleted slightly by our wedding.
We will have about $10-12k cash in hand and want to buy a $350 - 375k house in morris county. We both have good career history, ok credit and combined income close to $200k. My hope is that we can roll some of the closing costs into the mortgage. What do you think?
Save as much as u can and then in 2 or 3 years buy something. Just follow real estate trends and homes. Read all the real estate magazines and check websites like realor.com,zillow,trulia and so forth. Good luck.
assuming the downpayment amount isn't an issue, you should be fine IMHO. a $365K mortgage on a nearly $200K income is ok - of course another assumption being you aren't severely in debt.
You may want to also post this in either the real estate forum or mortgage forum. Personally, I don't think you have anywhere near enough savings to buy a house of that amount.
Question - if you two have a combined income of almost 200K, where is all the money going? Why don't you have more cash?
You may want to also post this in either the real estate forum or mortgage forum. Personally, I don't think you have anywhere near enough savings to buy a house of that amount.
Question - if you two have a combined income of almost 200K, where is all the money going? Why don't you have more cash?
As mentioned, we recently got married. The combined income is relatively new and the savings were depleted paying cash for the wedding. We are also paying down debt.
As mentioned, we recently got married. The combined income is relatively new and the savings were depleted paying cash for the wedding. We are also paying down debt.
ok, i take my statement back above, LOL. pay the debt off, increase your savings then buy a house. who knows, that $375K house may be $299k by then.
My husband and I are desparate to buy our first home. We are newlyweds so our savings were depleted slightly by our wedding.
We will have about $10-12k cash in hand and want to buy a $350 - 375k house in morris county. We both have good career history, ok credit and combined income close to $200k. My hope is that we can roll some of the closing costs into the mortgage. What do you think?
I'd save a bit more. With only 10-12k down, you are looking at an FHA loan. If the house you offer on, is nice and other offers come in, sellers will typically forgo your offer altogether since FHA loans have there own nuances (more hurdles).
In addition, rolling in closing costs will also deter sellers, as then they will have to worry about house appraising (another hurdle that could kill the deal).
At a min, save 10%, have enough to cover your own closing costs, and go from there. 350k house on a 200k income is fine provided your liabilities are in check.
As mentioned, we recently got married. The combined income is relatively new and the savings were depleted paying cash for the wedding. We are also paying down debt.
Just from that picture alone from your first post. If you have debt, that 10-12k cash will need to be applied to that first. Your jobs history sounds fairly newish, thats a a potential red flag for a lender. After the debts are paid how much money will you have liquid or will you be negative (ie owing more debt than you have liquid)? Lenders are notorisouly back to 'normal' if not slightly tighter ledning standards. Based on the low down payment you may only qualify for an FHA, if that. FHA loans can be extremely tight in its requirements.
Looking to drop 6 figures down on a house is not wise unless you really plan on living in the house for at least 10 years. Regardless of you both "feel" its the right thing to do. I have said this on other boards, but there is NOTHING wrong with renting. Especially given the circumstances you provided. Just like renting isn't for everyone, buying at any given isn' for everyone. The housing crash only proved that point. You just got married and have years ahead of you to buy a house and it seems like you just started new jobs?
A house is a major investment. Just remember, regardless of the monthly payment, look at it as if you had to pay for the whole house in cash. Sounds tough right? Well this is how I advise people on how to look at it, because it keeps things in perspective. Other countries dont have the luxuries we do in financing real estate, how do they do it? Simple, they save or have generations pass down properties to them. Its a humbling experience and actually may set an example for others around you.
Viewing month to month costs is ok, but in the grand scheme of things, you are essentially living month to month if all you are doing is borrowing money to pay off borrowed money.
200k salary a year is pretty good.
- pay off the debt
- save at least 20-25% for a down payment
- put money away in savings
- have a goal set and stick to it based on the above
We are NOT out of the woods yet with the economy. It could very well get slightly worse before it gets better so keep that in mind and stockpile. If you do that, you will be MILES ahead of others in cash flow and ability to live comfortably and WHEN you CAN afford it. Houses arent going anywhere.
Last edited by shmoov_groovzsd; 06-24-2011 at 11:14 AM..
My husband and I were in the same place sbout 2 years ago.
I don't know about your situation, but there is no way we would have been able to pay rent and "save" at the same time. And we didn't want to throw money into a house that we were not building any equity in.
Buying was the best thing we ever did! We had a bit more than a down payment than what you state, but our mortgage + taxes is significantly less than what our monthly rent would have been in a place we would have only liked 1/2 as much.
Just an aside though, Morris County taxes are HIGH. We loved that area too, but got much more for our money further south in Middlesex County.
The other thing to consider is how secure are your jobs? There's a good chance housing prices will decline more, so you could quickly be underwater. If you were to lose your job, can you make the mortgage payments on one salary? If you lose your job and need to move for new employment, you have no savings to bring to the table should you need to sell and your house is selling for less than you paid for it.
I would seriously consider getting out of debt first and saving more.
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