First time home buyer any advice? (money, women, direct)

[Werdywerd]

Originally Posted by manimgarbage

Why are you getting married? Nothing for a man to gain in this day and age by getting married. The two of you are broke. You both have crappy jobs. Finance is the number one reason for divorce.

Whoa asked you?

[Henna]

Originally Posted by Luckyornot

My fiancé and I are getting married October 18th. Currently we rent an apartment and have been for 5 months. We would like to start looking for a house together. No townhomes, condos etc. We just want to look for a house for around up to $450,000 max. We currently reside in Staten Island.

We both have good jobs making $18 an hour 40 hours a week. We both usually accept extra hours so we usually get around 10 hours of overtime pay. Thats $27 an hour. The max overtime hours is 20. On top of that we both have part time jobs. We will be saving any money we get as a gift for our wedding for the future house too (not expecting but will be grateful)

We dont expect to start looking until Mid March 2020 - April 2020. We both have good credit always pay the bills on time.

Any tips for first time home buyers? Thanks in advance

Maybe rethink the "no townhomes, condos, etc." Ever hear of a "starter home"? Look it up. The concept is that it allows you entry into the housing market during your early years when you might not be making as much money (ie like you). You get to build equity, and then 5 years later, or whenever it makes sense, you sell that and buy something that costs more, since presumably by that time you have more money.

Your very first step, as someone already mentioned, is contacting some lenders and getting pre-approved. That will give you a sense of whether this is really going to be possible or not.

Also remember that there are a lot of upfront costs when you buy. So it's not just saving for the downpayment.

Maybe check out this place so you can get educated. First Time Homebuyers | Neighborhood Housing Services

[Henna]

There's also a downpayment assistance program if you qualify. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/hpd/owners...ssistance.page

[Energystream]

I am assuming you will be doing an FHA loan that only requires 5% down? Unless you have 90k saved up that is the most likely avenue you will go with.

At 5% down your loan amount is 428k, at 20% down your loan will be 360k. Prob looking at 3k a month for the 5% down, and 2.5k at 20% down.

I assume you have about 75k take home with your salaries. That means at 5% down, 50% of your budget is going to the home, at 20% down it will be 40% of your budget. Seems steep and likely doesn't leave much to put into retirement savings as you will need to build up emergency fund first for any emergencies with the home. Prob want to have a 15-25k emergency budget for things that go wrong.

As above users say you may want to look at a smaller starter home. But if your heart is set on the 450k home, you are going to have to penny pinch

[yodel]

In your situation, I'd only consider a house with an income producing apartment. Get past heating bills, they can be steep in detached houses (particularly old ones). An attached house will save you a lot of money with heating generally. Pref don't buy a flip and make sure you have some extra money on closing to take care of any unwelcome maintenance surprises.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a house that you can only afford working overtime, especially if you're thinking of having kids at some point. Also property taxes have been rising like crazy in NYC, so even if you have a fixed rate mortgage, you can't count on the overall costs staying fixed over the long term.

[Heidi60]

Originally Posted by NycLaidBack

Lots of advice. First one is to get preapproved from a bank, that will let you know your real budget.

Get a young and hungry real estate agent thats willing to take their time to close a deal, I had a veteran agent, she was already successful and didnt care to be genuine as much, only stuck with her because she showed me 10 homes and the last one was hers to sell exclusively, which I went with, otherwise I was ready to find another agent.

Find a real estate lawyer that handles contracts within that neighborhood or county, they’ll know what to look for.

My last piece of advice is to wait for the upcoming recession, the prices will take a good dip and you’ll get more for the money. Im waiting on it to buy a second property as an investment, and it can’t come soon enough.

Always use a real estate lawyer as most young folks just aren't experienced enough to see through the commissioned sales person's training on how to say anything to close the deal. When the ink is dry, they are gone so you need a professional to oversee them and act in your best interest. Filling in a standard blank form is not rocket science so consider For Sale By Owner properties also.

Remember there is always another house you will fall in love with so do not rush to sign an offer because of pressure to buy now or it will be gone. You can have lots of time to regret a bad decision so think, do not allow emotions to enter into the process. You can always change the inside of the house but not the neighborhood so don't buy in bad neighborhood, corner lot, or near a convenience store.

Never use any inspector anyone involved with the transaction recommends, they are all part of the same food chain to close the deal. Use separate inspectors for roof, plumbing and electrical as they will do a professional job.

If you wait for a recession, you will never know where the bottom is so use professional appraisers, not realtor guesses. The market will always go up, down, and sideways. Read lots of threads on this forum and learn from other's experience. Remember you are the driver in the process, not the sales person.

Get your finances in order and visit your local banker to see what you need to do before you even consider putting in an offer. Getting pre-approved is a strong negotiating tool to have.

Best of luck to you.

[pierrepont7731]

Originally Posted by Mr. Ryu

$450,000 max. I believe you need a reality check. You might want to reconsider your max. Maybe aim 250K or less. Also, maybe a condo or coop.

That's what I was thinking, with a decent downpayment... Still owning a condo or shares in a co-op. They can always move up later...

[RageX]

Originally Posted by manimgarbage

Why are you getting married? Nothing for a man to gain in this day and age by getting married. The two of you are broke. You both have crappy jobs. Finance is the number one reason for divorce.

This guy is right.

Originally Posted by shadypinesma

Not helpful, manimgarbage. Keep it scootin'. OP didn't ask for your philosophy on marriage.

Directly, no. However, the potential for divorce is, finacially, a very relevant question. I've seen quite a few men with my own eyes go from being finacially strong to sleeping in the back of the Honda Civic hatchback.

Originally Posted by Werdywerd

Whoa asked you?

The OP.

Originally Posted by Mr. Ryu

$450,000 max. I believe you need a reality check. You might want to reconsider your max. Maybe aim 250K or less. Also, maybe a condo or coop.

$18 an hour, maybe $27 overtime? At that salary he needs the South or the "Heartland" midwest or somewhere.

If you both NEED overtime to make minimum payments, you're doing it wrong.

So instead of naysaying, let me offer actual advice:

-Get a job that pays $25 an hour, try for more.
-Aim lower, at that pay it would still consume most of your natural life even for a $300K house.
-Factor in property taxes, utilities, cost of replacement appliances, wall building repair items, primary mortage insurance if you don't pony up 20%, gas costs for commuting.
-Don't get married.
-Get something that has a full kitchen, bedroom and, bath on each of the 2 floors, so you can get some rental income.
-Don't take Section 8 tenants, they always cause more trouble than they're worth. Personally seen dozens of cases of hoarders, loud-music ghetto-types, actual crazy people, landlords getting bit, beaten by multiple boyfriends...
-(bad joke part) Mr.Ryu is right, he trains by waterfalls and stuff.

[chaose]

450K for a house in NYC is very very difficult...not impossible, but you would be pretty far...also it would be very tiny and in really bad condition. Co-op or condo is more realistic.

[Mr. Ryu]

Originally Posted by RageX

This guy is right.

-(bad joke part) Mr.Ryu is right, he trains by waterfalls and stuff.