Especially when the market was booming. It was better to lock in a price then continue to save for the downpayment

My lender was able to beat any FHA program, piggyback, etc. with an LPMI because of my wife and my credit scores, and because we were buying so much under our "purchase potential" ($400k? Methinks no).

We bought a foreclosure from Countrywide. We got a killer deal on price, they paid all closing cost, and paid our taxes and insurance for the first year, as well as owners title insurance, AND they fixed some stuff in the house before we took possession :fawk:

nice going ben...i bought mine from the US marshalls, i am doing all the repairs though, it wasnt a foreclosure though, it was a seizure 4 years ago
but i dont mind doing the work, i enjoy it, only thing that sucks is that i have not had time to work on my car any...
if you dont mind, what kind of equity were you able to walk into? if youd rather not say i understand...no biggie, just trying to get an idea

The appraisal on move-in date was only 15k above purchase; however, once I did a bunch of my own clean-up, updating, etc., the appraisal was $42k higher than my purchase. Similar house down the street was put on the market the day my for sale sign came down for $40k more than my purchase. Conservatively, I'd say I have ~$25k-$30k equity if I were to sell today. Fortunately, houses are still actually selling in my neightborhood (well, the few that are for sale).

How did you guys find the properties?

here
there are many ways...lots of stuff in chicagoland

thats good, i was able to do something similar, i am spending a lot on it though and i hope to walk away with at least 15K after realtor fees and taxes etc....
charlotte market is still up about 3%, so i want to hurry up and put it on the market asap, and get this, its walking distance from an elementary school and most the neighbors are original owners in a 20 year old neighborhood...i am really hoping that will make a difference to potential buyers...

No go for yo

huh?

Seems like you did well. Congrats man. This is the one with the big @ss detached garage right? :)

Haha, I wish. Wife didn't like the location of that one. The house we ended up with is nicer, but the garage setup isn't as nice. We have a drive-under two-car...so no room for a lift, but the whole basement could be the garage. Right now I have 3 cars in it, plus two workshop areas...one for household, the other for car stuff. You're welcome to come by sometime.

renting may make more dollars and sense in some housing markets right now.

my mortgage is about 25% of my net. If you have other debts- car, credit cards etc then you need to subtract that from your net before calculating how much you can afford. don't be a dumbass and buy more than you can afford. 25% is a good max but in some areas like NOVA or SF or NYC you may have to spend more for the "privilege" of living in that area. deduct that from your entertainment budget :p

I need to learn how to budget. I want someone to give me net percentages to live by.

rent: 25% of net
food: 20% of net
utils: 5% of net
stupid shit: 0% of net


how's those numbers?

damn, your rent is low or your food bill is high...

mortgage is roughly 19% of my gross income... after taxes that jumps to 25-30%

those aren't my numbers. those are his numbers. i made them up for him.

The economy gets a lot better when you get a place together with your girl and share rent.














and then she starts to buy stuff.

$790 per month for rent, I bring home $2900 after taxes if I don't travel. When I travel though, its caviar and cris.

Rent is currently 22% of our net take-home after taxes. We're looking at houses now, preferably ones with garages (it's common to NOT have a garage around here) so I can stop keeping car parts in the bedroom and living room. I've run the numbers based on our actual expenditures and figured out what I think we can reasonably afford, and it works out to the ballpark of 28-30% of net. But I have some built-in safety margin to accommodate future offspring-related costs.

Once you start getting to 35%+ of your net, you are getting towards "house-poor" which is a bad spot to be if you don't have significant savings, especially with the market how it is now. In NoVA, 60% of homes on the market are either short sales or foreclosures, so there's just not going to be much rebound in prices for a couple years. It is one of the worst markets in the country right now, so yours may be different.

I would have thought that banks would be more careful about how big a loan they'd approve you for these days, and was a bit surprised when we were approved to buy waaaaay more house than I think would be prudent in this market. Maybe I'm a pessimist but I think the economy is going to be in the shitter for a few years, so it's more important now to stay comfortably below that 35% figure since house prices aren't rocketing upwards like they were 5 years ago. Everyone's budget is different, but for me, going to 40% of net would mean a lot of Top Ramen and a big dent in the fun budget. If you don't have any hobbies that cost money (nobody on this forum) and are content with dial-up internet and watching over-the-air TV, then you can buy more house.:)

Be thankful most of you don't live in Silcon Valley, CA as I do.

Looking at a townhome, even splitting it prolly close to 25% of gross.

I had a job offer in NorCal that was a nice 20% increase at the time.. too bad cost of living was an 80% increase.. i don't now how you folks do it ...

whatever. I moved from northern california to DC and my salary went down and my rent went up.

Just under 10%. That is my only debt and will be paid off in 4 years. Aging is not always a bad thing

+1

Taxes were filed on Saturday. The house removed ~$3k of my tax burden. But my ass still hurts
Avg Joe-->:ky:<--gubbamint

Living a stones throw from the capitol building has nothing to do with that?

it might... its probably closer to living in SF proper rather than a suburb of it.

though the house I'm renting now is probably a 700k house (for the moment) and that's not ridiculous for houses within a 5 mile radius of where I moved from. I was just in a shitty 4plex.

the increase in rent is primarily for the garage.

Don't forget your HUGE backyard :P

Lesse, ~2600 sqft 4-bedroom w/3-car garage, purchased with zero down and immediate equity = 28% net, 20% gross.

With the current rates available (especially to VA qualifiers) I am considering a refi to a 15-year note. Payments will increase by less than $100/mo, but will shave over a decade off the length of the note.

- L

Meg and I just signed a contract on a house on Saturday. I won't know for sure until October when we close, but from my math the mortgage, taxes, insurance would be around 50% of our net, about 30% of our gross.

So if anyone want's to make an offer on an nice 5 year old Condo in beautiful Ewing...Artie?

there were a lot of people at the open houses yesterday. and shockingly wide range in home condition between 450-500k. some 10k lots with gorgeous landscaping and lots of upgrades. some 900 square feet and bright blue and green mottled shag carpet. wtf.

I hear that. I was absolutely shocked to see how nasty some houses are compared to others of the same price.

Damn guys, some of you are saying some scary stuff when it comes to buyign a house...esp right now..

#1 LPMI is a front. The lender is simply charging you a higher interest rate in lieu of PMI. Short run, its pretty crappy but doable...long run its a joke..You can drop PMI mos of the time after 2-4yrs on the average...You pay that extra interest (usallu close to a point higher) for 30yrs, on what you owe... Yes its tax deductable, becuase its interest not actual MI. But not worth it... Also it pretty much went extinct with the subprime meltdown...

#2 Forget about 80/20, 80/10, etc.. (2nd loan to avoid PMI). They dont really exist anymore...Most lenders willing to give you a 2nd mtg (or line of credit) will be offering it to you below 80percent of your value, therefore futile..

#3 Loans are hard to get right now. FHA is great, but you better be good on paper. No stated/no doc loans...only full doc (w2, tax returns, etc). Give you an idea, take everything you pay on your CREDIT (the rest isnt considered in qualifying) + what your new total housing payment will be (PITI+MI), and divide the 2...if you get anything over 50 forget it...over 43 probably not, under 43 looking good..
Fannie Mae, otoh is more flexible...on paper do the same math, but you can closer to 65 and still qualify...also if credit is decent enough (680+) you can state (not document) your income...
rates between the 2 arent all that different...yes FHA are lower, but they also allow the broker/bank to make more money...also, not everyone can do fha, so there's alot of "referring" going on...meaning now there's more than 1 person looking to get paid to do your loan...end result, slight diff....typically its close to 1percent diff (advantage to fha), but doubt you'll see any more than .25-.50 diff, if that...
Also, haggle the crap out of the price of the house...but if you can get a loan, dont expect a free one...Dont get raped, but dont expect 0points or anything...brokers are now really having to work damn hard to fit you into a program...Unless you have 20percent down, over 700credit, and your gross income is more than double whatever your debts are on paper...then haggle cuz you cna go anywhere...

#4 Markets are shit right now...granted I'm in SFLA, so particularly shitty here, but many other regions are effected. If you seriously want to know what you have over your head, either get an appraisal done on your OWN (no bank/broker coercion) or get true sales in your area from a realtor...both have access to the same info...just used differently...

BUT for those of you who are actively looking for a place, you should really try not to go near market priced homes...its so volatile it may be worth less tomm, maybe not..but possible. Instead, what you want to ask for when you see a house you like is if the seller is open to a "short sale". Obviously if the seller is behind on the mortgage and going into foreclosure, the lender will be willing to let the house be sold for less than whats owed...how much less depends on the situation in the market and how far behind the seller is, the lender simply accepts less than whats owed on the mortgage, to make your offer work. House is worth 250k, 220k is owed...you offer 180k. Lender decides to forgive 40k of debt to get out of the situation, and not having to foreclose. This is what you want to be buying now...

Hope this helps, I got 10yrs exp in this and have bought 6properties, run my own mortgage business, and can walk anyone thru the process...so I'm open for any other ?'s you want a realdeal answer to....dont worry no charge lol
Not soliciting, just trying to help anyone here navigate the clusterfuk thats become realestate...

RE: LPMI
duh
Who says you'll stay in the house long-term?
Yup...most people pay 20% of their loan in 2-4 years. Right.
So 0.375% higher is pretty good then? ;) I'd rather pay $50/month extra in interest than $85/month in PMI (won't be in house long enough for the release in PMI to make up for lower costs at beginning years of loan).
to each his own, I say

PS: Blanket statements make no sense.

Monthly payment including mortgage, PMI, taxes, insurance and the garage I had added comes to 2160/month.
PMI sucks since we did not put 20% down. Will refinance this summer after the wedding, get a lower rate and incorporate the name change.
As for percentage, I think that is about 25-26%.
After the garage, and with current informal appraisals, we may be able to drop PMI when we refinance, and we only bought it in July 2007. One can only hope...

gawdamn double post

About 20% gross income. Made a killing when I sold my old house last year and was able to put 35% down on the new one.