Author Topic: House hunting... (Read 1389 times)

CHIZZY · « **on:** February 19, 2006, 11:27:50 AM »

So I gotta buy a house.
Even though I have a sweet deal here, (I pay no rent, only electric...) it\'s too small to stay in for long. (730 sq. feet) We\'re not married yet, so Kyoko will buy the house. She qualifies for a Sonie Mae mortgage, (low interest rate, $5k cash closing costs incentive) so we have to stay under $100K.... we found an awesome 1925 Bungalow with a two-story, 3 car garage in a nice neighborhood, but it needs a lot of internal work. (around $20k worth). I love it, but it could be tough if kyoko can\'t go back to work right away. The basement has a 1930\'s era bar and summer kitchen. There is also enough room for a home studio. The problem is, the mtg on that house would be around $880 per month, not including utils. Our vehicles cost that much now. When K stops working, there will not be enough $ to do it. If I need to, I can take a loan out on my 401k, but I don\'t wanna fuck with that.

So anyway, that\'s the shit on my mind lately. Any constructive advice from daddys on board?

videoholic · « **Reply #1 on:** February 19, 2006, 04:45:10 PM »

Lona worked from home a bit and brought in a little bit of money, but for the most part we lived on my wage, which I think was around 45k at the time.

House payment was around a grand and cars were around 500 total.

It sucked. We never had money.

You will not want to do house work when the baby comes. The baby will have shit everywhere. It\'s amazing just how much crap those things need.

My god.. 100 grand doesn\'t buy you shit here in Tampa. You\'ve seen our house. It just got appraised for 235. That\'s ridiculous. We bought it for 92, which is about what it\'s worth.

You could try an interest only mortgage for a couple years. You\'ll need to refinance though before the principal payments kick in. Or just plan on only living there for about 5 years and sell. Our mortgage is about 350 bucks a month as interest only. It\'s what enabled us to buy our property.

I normally wouldn\'t suggest interest only if you are doing it to get into a house that\'s more than you can afford. I\'d only recommend it if you are going to use the extra money you save and invest it. But with a single income going, it would work.

A lot of the tricky mortgages get you buy rolling extra costs into the mortgage. If you have any way of using a regular mortgage, I would suggest that. I got my interest only from Meryl Lynch.

Loan on a 401k is alright since you aren\'t taking a tax penalty. As a matter of fact, check with your accountant. You can take money out of 401k one time for a house i think.... But of course you really shouldn\'t touch the 401k if you absolutely can help it.

« **Reply #2 on:** February 19, 2006, 08:00:59 PM »

Not a daddy but we just leased a townhouse. We couldn\'t afford to purchase one right now (the ones we look at around here are in the half a million range) but we are scrimping and saving to be in the same position as y\'all.

I did a good bit of research before we decided to rent and the most memorable piece of advice was try and put down at least 20% to avoid the extra insurance costs. You can even get an 80/20-type mortgage that will help alleviate that pita fee.

Also, find a good, experienced realtor. We went through 3 before finding a great one, referred to me by my boss. She knew the area very well and was always up-front about everything. She also questioned the home-owners over & over, like she was buying the place herself.

Anyway, good luck & have fun during the whole process. Home ownership is a GREAT feeling. Playing with your pets in your own backyard is better than cruising around in an expensive newly bought beamer.

videoholic · « **Reply #3 on:** February 19, 2006, 08:10:12 PM »

Yeah, but it\'s even more fun to leave your acre of property where you played ball with your kid to drive in your beemer to your house.

And definitely do the 80-20. We didn\'t and paid PMI for a couple years till we refinanced. We didn\'t have PSX2Central to get advice from at the time.

« **Reply #4 on:** February 19, 2006, 08:13:52 PM »

oh yea, you got the best of both worlds. You still need either or dog for bog log to play with or give him a brother so he doesn\'t turn into a douchebag

videoholic · « **Reply #5 on:** February 19, 2006, 08:21:03 PM »

He has a dog..

Stanley.

« **Reply #6 on:** February 19, 2006, 08:24:48 PM »

You have the ultimate family.

videoholic = supreme being

videoholic · « **Reply #7 on:** February 19, 2006, 08:26:49 PM »

« **Reply #8 on:** February 19, 2006, 10:35:24 PM »

CAN WE HAVE A PIC OF KYOKO PLEASE

Living-In-Clip · « **Reply #9 on:** February 20, 2006, 03:15:24 AM »

Agree with Vid on the part about not wanting to do home improvements. Trust me, with a new one on the wya, you WON\'T have time ot money to invest in home improvements.

« **Reply #10 on:** February 20, 2006, 06:25:27 AM »

I\'m closing on my house in two weeks, we bought it 2 years ago and it\'s already gone up in value over $20k.

So i\'m taking that money and using a good chunk of it (about 8k) on closing costs. Then the rest will pay off a few small credit cards and some new appliances.

The new house we are buying is a 1918 farmouse with a huge yard in a nice part of town. I\'m getting it for $105,000 and it needs a lot of work. I\'m going to be doing as much of it as I can. It\'s probably gonna take us 7-10 years until we get the house nice the way we want it, but seriously it\'s all we can afford with only me working.

We are in a good situation right now, we have family friends that own like 5 houses here in town, and one of them was empty. They are letting us live there for free (we have to pay the electric bill... that\'s it). It\'s a great house and they have been trying to get us to buy it, but I can\'t afford a 280,000 mort

. But they said we can stay in it until september, so it\'s a luxury that we can live there while i\'m tearing the shit out of the 1918 farmhouse.

Good luck with balancing your finances, it\'s tough to have to make concessions in your daily life, but doing it to own a home is worth it IMO.

(btw, my wife is due tomorrow with our second child)

videoholic · « **Reply #11 on:** February 20, 2006, 06:40:54 AM »

It\'s funny. IT all seems so complex and unattainable, but for some reason it all works out. You find the things you really didn\'t need and you get rid of that... You have at least a couple hundred bucks a month going out to crap you really don\'t need.

« **Reply #12 on:** February 20, 2006, 08:13:44 AM »

Chizz, you looking at the \'burbs or are you staying in the city? We live about a mile from the Boulevard Mall, and it\'s actually a nice area to live. Not too much traffic, and lots of stores around. Although there isn\'t a great way to get downtown. It would probably take you at least half hour to get to work.

I think there\'s even a house for sale a couple doors down. We could trade lesbian porn dvds and video games!

CHIZZY · « **Reply #13 on:** February 20, 2006, 09:07:34 AM »

I\'ve been looking in north Buffalo, but I\'m not picky. Actually, we\'re also looking at a house on callodine, near main st. (main & bailey area) it\'s small, but has a nice backyard. There are houses I could pay cash for on the east side.

Living-In-Clip · « **Reply #14 on:** February 20, 2006, 12:29:04 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by videoholic
It\'s funny. IT all seems so complex and unattainable, but for some reason it all works out. You find the things you really didn\'t need and you get rid of that... You have at least a couple hundred bucks a month going out to crap you really don\'t need.

That\'s the truth. A kid will do that to you. I know we was overwhelmed at first, worried about money, but to be honest, we haven\'t struggled yet. It just seems to work out, you just find things you can do without and you do without them.

We are in a spot now, where I\'m the only one workin\', \'till she finds a part time job. Once that happens, we\'ll double up on my car in hopes of paying it off this year, mid -next year at the latest, then we will start house hunting.

Hello

Author Topic: House hunting... (Read 1389 times)