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My husband and I have a chance to buy a small nice house and we can afford it if we're careful. Now, my question....I am 63 and my husband is 67. Are we too old to buy another house ? Does it make more sense to rent the rest of our life and have someone else telling us what we can and cannot do with the property ? Right now our landlady is well, weird. In the lease we cannot flush toilet paper. We cannot use rubber backed rugs on the "plastic" wood floors, I had to buy a heating element for their oven at my expense 48. It goes on and on. Can you give me some input and help me. I really really love this little house we want to buy. Thanks
My parents sold their house and bought a new one when my dad retired at age 68. My grandmother bought a house when she was in her late 80s.
If you can afford it, go for it. Just make sure you get something you'll be able to maintain and take care of as you get older. My parents downsized when they retired.
My husband and I have a chance to buy a small nice house and we can afford it if we're careful. Now, my question....I am 63 and my husband is 67. Are we too old to buy another house ? Does it make more sense to rent the rest of our life and have someone else telling us what we can and cannot do with the property ? Right now our landlady is well, weird. In the lease we cannot flush toilet paper. We cannot use rubber backed rugs on the "plastic" wood floors, I had to buy a heating element for their oven at my expense 48. It goes on and on. Can you give me some input and help me. I really really love this little house we want to buy. Thanks
If the house, taxes, and maintenance is easily affordable on your retirement income, do it! That's what retirement is all about. Having the freedom to do what you want.
Your age doesn't matter as long as you have a stable and sufficient source of post-retirement income to cover the mortgage, property taxes, insurance and maintenance.
Currently, buying in said to be cheaper in all 100 major markets:
New research from the real estate website Trulia finds that homeownership is less expensive than renting in all of the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. The advantage narrows considerably, however, when the home buyer uses a low-down-payment loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
Nationally, the average cost of homeownership, including mortgage, insurance, taxes and maintenance, is 38 percent less than the cost of renting, according to the Trulia data. This is an even bigger gap than last year, when Trulia estimated homeownership was 35 percent cheaper.
Why put up with a landlord's demands if you have the money to own?
I rent. I am 59, soon to be 60. Husband and I used to own, but moved across country and decided to rent until we were sure we wanted to stay. That was 12 years ago, and I like renting. I have not yet run into a landlord who is so meticulous as to say what type of throw rugs we use. Maybe we've been lucky.
There is a huge freedom, imo, to renting as opposed to owning. It may be more expensive to rent, but when the roof leaks, when the furnace stops heating, when the sink stops up, you call the landlord and it's taken care of.
Again, IMO, owning is not necessarily the be all and end all. Nothing wrong with renting.
In order to be preapproved, get your important papers together (SSA info, tax returns, bank statements) and someone can actually pull your credit and point you in the right direction.
If it makes you feel better, I'm in the middle of refinancing a commercial property for a group of people where one of the principals is 87. He's 100% with it, on top of everything, and this kind of stuff keeps him going
If you have more questions, let me know. Every deal is different.
Example: I just did a condo loan on a lovely lady from Brooklyn, NY. No one else would do it. I found a lender for the condo which was $37,700.00. She put down 25% and we close tomorrow. Her total payment with principal, interest, insurance, taxes, and HOA is $446.00. (Interest rate 4.125% - 30 years)
For the last 34 years, she has lived in a rent controlled apartment and pays $806 - she is thrilled.
She is 73 and has never owned anything ever before. New life.
My husband and I have a chance to buy a small nice house and we can afford it if we're careful. Now, my question....I am 63 and my husband is 67. Are we too old to buy another house ? Does it make more sense to rent the rest of our life and have someone else telling us what we can and cannot do with the property ? Right now our landlady is well, weird. [/b] In the lease we cannot flush toilet paper[B]. We cannot use rubber backed rugs on the "plastic" wood floors, I had to buy a heating element for their oven at my expense 48. It goes on and on. Can you give me some input and help me. I really really love this little house we want to buy. Thanks
Do seniors get any type of breaks when they buy a house ? Never having been a senior before I'm pretty ignorant as to any benefits we 'OLD' people get.. Thank you.. I am closer and closer to giving them an answer about the house. I love you guys......
Do seniors get any type of breaks when they buy a house ? Never having been a senior before I'm pretty ignorant as to any benefits we 'OLD' people get.. Thank you.. I am closer and closer to giving them an answer about the house. I love you guys......
I can't imagine any kind of "senior" breaks on the purchase.
Anyone can, when putting in the initial "offer to purchase" with deposit of $500+ to hold the house while you get your inspections done (and please do that! here inspections cost $500+), stipulate that the offer is good if the owner pays the closing costs (which here are typically at least $2500). An owner desperate to sell may well offer to pay those closing costs, even though the buyer usually does. Get your lawyer to get that agreement in writing, of course, and this will go into the final "purchase and sale" document with which you put down your big down payment with your lender.
BTW, in many areas of the country, you can start off with an offer 10%–15% lower than the asking price, if the market is not too "hot" where you are. When the seller counters that offer with a lower price, come back with an offer that is halfway between your original offer and the counteroffer. You may have one more round after this. The point is, start your offer low and let it climb slowly as your lawyer and the seller's lawyer negotiate. Never talk directly to the seller, talk only thru your lawyers.
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From a mortgage broker in Florida
