I want a house!!! Any advice?

Question

Me and my husband want a house so bad but we are in a finacial struggle right now and have dwindled our savings. We have a child so we are really working with one income. I only work partime. Any advice on how we should go about getting that down payment saved and owning a house? I have never owned before so I really don't know much about buying.

I live in MA

Answer 1

There are still many lenders out there who will lend, with some pretty good financing terms, to consumers without a down payment at all. You may want to look into buying a home with 0 money down to see if you can find a home and a mortgage payment within your budget. First though before you do anything sit down with your spouse and figure out a budget and what you can comfortably afford for a mortgage payment before you go any further. Stick with this number and do not stray from it, this is how people get into trouble. You can also try contacting your local community and county agencies to see what kind of down payment assistance they may be able to offer.

Answer 2

Start by working on the things you can control - the main one being your credit. Having good credit is like an instant credit card when it comes to mortgage lending. SO, don't pay any of your payments late, ever. Then, try to get the balances of your credit cards down to less than 50% of the line of credit - meaning if you have a credit card with $3000 of available credit, make sure the balance stays below $1500 at any given time. Pay off small balance items if you can.

While you are working on your credit start saving as much money as you can. Open an online savings account at ING (www.ingdirect.com) and send whatever you can to it and don't touch it. Then, when you have $1000 in there, go to a local Edward Jones guy and start investing - every little bit. Ed Jones takes on anyone as a client - even if you have very little to invest - they will match you with someone that can help you diversify your investments to get a higher return.

When you have saved up enough money to cover your closing costs (which can be several thousand dollars) and 5% down, and your credit is looking good, you will be ready to go. Check out your credit for free on www.annualcreditreport.com to keep tabs on your progress.

When you are ready, visit a local mortgage broker AND the bank where you hold your checking and savings. Talk to both and tell them what you have been doing, what your credit is and how much money you have available to put towards this purchase. Tell them you want an 80/15/5 transaction - which means you will have 1 mortgage for 80% of the home's purchase price, a 2nd mortgage for 15% of the purchase price, and you will put down your 5%. This way you avoid having to pay mortgage insurance, which you don't want to have to do.

Get quotes from the broker and your local bank and make sure they give you Good Faith Estimates (a breakdown of costs, interest rates and fees) and compare the two and weigh the options. Don't be shy about telling them your are shopping around - make them compete for your business.

Find a good realtor and see if they can swing any financing concessions (having the seller credit some of your closing costs.

Bottom line, it IS possible, but only with good credit. Lenders can do almost anything for you if your credit score is above 720!

Answer 3

hi, my wife and I had the same problem in 2000. This may sound simple but it really worked for us. Pick up a book called the millionaire homeowner next door. Off the top of my head I can't remember the author but it's at any major book store. In this book the author talks about your latte factor, by this it means what in your life do you and your husband like doing that may be an added expense. If you look hard enough you'll find something you can cut out even if it's 5 dollars a day. Thats 35 dollars a week and 140dollars month just from saving 5 dollars a day. This really worked for my wife and I and it should work for you. Look inside your buget you should be able to find somwhere you can cut back I'll bet you could even save 10 if you really tried. It really comes down to how bad you and your husband want it. I hope this helped and go try this book it's really great

sincerly ,
I've made my dream come true.

Answer 4

There are all kinds of offers for first time home buyers. Before you even start looking, learn everything you can about buying a house. It will be the biggest purchase of your life so be prepared. Your best advice is to fix your finances before you buy anything else. Don't stretch your budget to buy a house or don't buy what you can't afford to own and be able to pay taxes, insurance and keep repaired. Too many couples lose their house when they can't keep up with what they have agreed to pay. Learn about all types of mortgages so you absolutely realize what you are getting into. Interest rates are going up so the payments on varied rates will increase. And most important-too many couples fight over money or the lack of it. Fix that first and learn about he other while you do. Hope your dreams come true. . .

Answer 5

Well, you don't say how much you earn, how much debt you have and how much houses cost in your area. A low cost house is not always a better deal than renting. Housing can depreciate. We also don't know how disciplined you are with money. Your current financial situation may or may not reflect how discplined you are with money if you have suffered some unusual financial hardships.

When your child gets older, you might want to work full time. You may also decide whether you want to give up certain activities (such as eating out, etc.) in order to build up savings. You will probably have to make some sacrifices in order to afford a house. You have to decide whether those sacrifices are worth it. Create a budget. See if you can save money. Also, determine approximately how much money you will actually need to buy the type of house you are looking for.

Answer 6

start looking to ways to increase your own income, you dont say what state you live in, but it's pretty expensive coming out the gate for the first time. My advise to you would be to spend the next year incresing income and banking it for your down payment and cleaning up any credit issues you have. Get your credit report and see if there are any inaccuaracies, and have them fixed. Pick up a night job at walmart or someplace that will help you get into a good saving position and dont touch the money . Once you have between 5000$ and 10K you can start looking and this will be your down payement. You probably wont be able to get into your "dream house" the firt one , but after a few years and building equity you cantrade up to a newer house. and use that equity to buy the new house. You can do it, dont worry they have excellent financing options for first time home buyers so once you have atleast the 5k and better credit they will be able to get you into something easy. good luck!

Answer 7

Find a Realtor in the area where you want to buy a home.
Sit down and talk to the agent. Tell him what you are looking for. He will ask questions about your finances, credit, and etc. Tell him the truth. Most of the time the agent can help you get a house without a down payment. But you may have to have $500.00-$1000.00 in what they call good faith money. It shows the seller of a home that you intend to buy their home if you can get a mortgage company to finance the loan.
Look for a Realtor agent that has been selling houses for at least ten years or more.That way you know, that they know, a lot of inside secrets that will help you.
Also, look on Realtor web sights. They have a lot of info. that tell buyers of homes what to do through the whole thing.
Good Luck!

Answer 8

Tough question.. I would say that since you only work part time, that you must somehow get by with just his income most of the time. So when you do work, save ALL of that money, and use his money to pay your bills. Even if you only average 150.00 a week, in 2 years you would have saved over 15,000 bucks. Pretty good down payment. Good Luck

Answer 9

Not a good idea to think about buying a house when you are having financial difficulties. You need to figure out why your savings dwindled. You need to sacrifice and start saving again. Get rid of the cell phones, sell a car, no more toys or videos for the kids, no going out to dinner, no vacations.

Answer 10

Depending on what part of the country you live in, you maybe able to get downpayment assistance through the county or state that you live in. You need to have a decent creidt score to do so (600+), but there are plans out there to help people "have the American Dream" of home ownership.

Good Luck!