He grosses close to $3K/mo. In normal times, 30% or about $900 can go toward the mortgage (and prop tax).
If $750/mo goes to the mortgage, this would buy you $140,000 mortgage at 5% fixed 30 year.
I think if you are in an area where there are foreclosures and found a short sale where the bank is just happy to get a family with steady income, you might get in, no money down. I'm not suggesting you move forward, just telling you that it's not out of the question.
You don't mention where you live, or what homes are going for.Good luck, let us know how you do.
Joe
Answered by
JoeTaxpayer
at
Jan 25, 2010 02:33 PM
My question is, how much cash on hand do you have? Unless you have 3-6 months expenses saved for an emergency fund (maybe even more since you only have one income), at least 10% downpayment, plus enough cash for closing costs, appraisals, inspections and earnest money, you're not ready.
Now, there are programs for first time home buyers that'll help you with a lot of this but you have to qualify for them and the criteria is getting more and more difficult. You can always ask a seller to pay closing costs but are you willing to walk away from the perfect house if they say no? Basically, you need a lot of cash on hand. And probably more than you think.
As a first time home-buyer, I almost lost the first house that I put an offer on and because of the circumstances, which were beyond my control, I was on the verge of losing all the money I put into it. In addition to earnest money, I had already paid for appraisal, inspection and termite inspection so I was about to lose around $1,000. Trouble was, I had put all my available money into a downpayment for the loan. If we lost the house, I didn't have another $1,000 of cash to put into another house. I would've had to stop my house hunt.
I got lucky and everything worked out. But don't make the same mistake. Keep paying off your debt but save, save, save so that you have as much money to work with as possible.
Answered by
femmeknitzi
at
Jan 25, 2010 02:51 PM
