OT, maybe buying a house need advice

[NavyDood_ F/A18_Mech]

Also one more tip. If you do a 30 year note, make one extra payment a year and you can pay your house off in about half the time also. Just break up one payment into 12 months and add that figure into each payment. Or just make a payment every 4 weeks (not by calendar date) and that equals to 13 payments a year.

If coming up with a down payment is gonna be hard, do a FHA loan. You only need to come up with 3% down minimum.

Jim

[This message has been edited by NavyDood_ F/A18_Mech (edited 04-30-2000).]

[bdog]

Thanks for the replies. I have been looking at the site Ed_S posted. It is very informative. If we do get a house it will probably be a 15 yr note. We are not exactly sure how long we will live here though. It could be as short as 2 yrs but probably longer. If it happens to be two years, is it even worth the trouble of buying? I understand what you are saying about building up the equity, but how long does that take? I have heard that the first few years you are paying nothing but interest.

[Ed_S]

In two yrs you won't build enough regardless of the loan type!

Only way that's really workable is if the property values go up drastically. Would need to increase about 8% when you factor in the costs of reselling it. If you must do that through a realtor their fees will eat up anything you've paid and could actually leave you owing after the sale if values stay the same or (gulp) drop.

And yes, the first payments are mostly interest. Quicken has a loan calculator with amortization, MS Money probably does too. Check those out, you'll see how it works.

Ed

[desmocat]

Bdog, be sure and ask if there is any bond money available in the county/area you are thinking about buying in. I live in the D-Fw area and the FHA had funds for first time homebuyers. It gave me 3% back as downpayment assistance, and it cut my closing from about 5000 down to about 1900 dollars.
The only thing is that they have a cap on how much you and/or your spouse make,depending on how you qualify for the loan. Mp

[bdog]

My wife and I are considering buying a house. Does anyone know a website where we can get info on all associated costs, price of house we can afford based on income, etc. Also how long do you need to live in a house to make the costs of buying it worthwhile as opposed to just renting?

[Ed_S]

Realtor.com has some worksheets that might help here. (http://www.realtor.com/ResourceCenter/FinanceCenter.asp)

As to how long, that'll vary with the area. You've got to stay in one long enough to build equity.
Be sure to look into different length loans, it makes a huge difference. A 15 yr payoff will save you more in interest than you'd imagine possible, and it WON'T double the payment size!!
Shorter term usually carries lower int. rate as well as quicker amortization.
In our case, 15 yr cost $75 more monthly than a 30 yr, and saved about $80K in interest!
Long time ago now... IT WORKS!! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Ed



[This message has been edited by Ed_S (edited 04-30-2000).]

[narayan]

I closed on my house 1 year ago yesterday. With a small amount of work I have increased the value of the house by about $5000. Think about it this way... You make rent payments and live for one month. You make house payments that goes back to you, I mean that since the house is yours, each payment you make builds your equity. One day the house will be paid and you live for free (not really but it sounds good). My house payments are less than what many of my friends pay for rent. It's kinda scary the first time, but I think it is well worth it. Good luck http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif