Down Payment (House)

I plan on getting a fixer-upper, so I’ll probably be doing work here and there. I just don’t want a $1200 mortgage payment. I figure a 70-80k house with a good down payment should make mortgage payments less than half.

I close in 5 weeks, closing cost are around 5k. Taxes and down payment are extra.

FHA requires a 3.5% down payment. When going FHA the sellers can offer you up to 6% of the asking price back on closing costs. Basically they jack the price of hte house up 6% and then apply that to your closing costs. It’s weird but works. If we didn’t have those seller concessions we would have had to pay about 10k out of pocket on closing costs and down payment. Instead with those we showed up and payed 3200. Done. That does not include your first year of homeowners insurance or your initial down payment to take the house off the market and your home inspection fee. All in all when you add that in it cost us about 5200. We used First Niagara and got a fixed rate of 4.375% It was a fast and easy process using them and our hunt realtor and Hogan Willig for our attorneys. I can’t say enough for our experience thus far. We closed last friday and from start to finish it was about a 2 month process.

Since you have the time do what Joe said and use the first time home buyer program that will help you considerably if you are concerned about down payments etc.

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If you are planning on getting a fixer upper hope that it’s worth more than the asking price or the bank will probably say no. The bank will do it’s own appraisal and inform you of whether or not they can help you at that point.

Also make sure you’re aware of the time commitment for a fixer upper, coming from a rental where you can just call the landlord. Things will break at the worst possible times.

I’ve got a house in west seneca/Winchester that’s small but move in ready for ~$68k on the market right now, I’ve got an accepted contingent offer right now, and have around 2 months to move mine. It’s been a busy few weeks between all the nonsense and viewings of my place, and an open house this coming sunday.

Yeah, that’s kinda what I’m concerned about. I work 7-5 Mon-Friday so I have a decent amount of time after work and time on the weekend. I also have an Uncle and Aunt that have flipped houses before and another one who is a landlord. I should have a good amount of help from family and friends to get shit done. I’m shooting for a house that mainly needs some updating and some remodeling, not something I’m going to have to gut and start over with.

for a house under 100 you can probably close the loan with $5k in cash, but one thing that nobody has mentioned is that you’ll probably blow through about another $5k during the first two months of ownership. I don’t know where it went, but everybody I know who has purchased a house has gone through this. You’ll probably be like me and say “I won’t, I’ll just suffer and buy stuff later” but you watch what happens - if you don’t have it in cash it will end up on a card. I’m just about caught up rebuilding my safety net cash that I used for this.

Yeah I hear ya. Between appliances, decorations, paint, etc. I’m sure 5k goes by quickly. Fortunately we have a TON of stuff already, besides major appliances. I think I can budget spending to about $3500 for the main stuff. We just acquired a whole bedroom set from family.

You may not like my advice, but here it is. I would hold out and save as much as you can between you and your soon to be wifey and buy a house after you are already married if its going in both your names. You don’t want to buy a house with her, and then for some reason you break up, and are stuck with that as an issue. (Not saying it’s going to happen, but it can). Also I would wait until you can get 20% down to avoid the PMI so you are not pissing $ away. No bank is doing an 80/20 loan right now for what I can find. Also if you don’t have any 6-9months of income saved for emergency’s I would say you may want to save for that as well before you buy. What happens if you buy the house, get laid off, or something major happens and you have no cash to fix/pay for your expenses? These things to happen unfortunatly. One thing about the Buffalo market is that you can wait, and still buy a house for the same money in another year or so, its not going to sky rocket in that area anytime soon.

I’m not factoring any of that luxury stuff into the $5k that got spent… that was the next $5k the following year…

Please PM me with details on the open house…

When we bought our 84k house, we put 5% down, and after paying a years taxes up front (Thanks Cheektowaga for having the highest school and town taxes in this already overtaxed state!), it cost me over 12k with lawyer fees, document fees, homeowners insurance etc etc… the little stuff adds up like you wouldn’t believe. I almost shat myself when they told me how much I had to bring to the closing and that was only for 5% down. If you don’t have that kind of money up front I would wait. Waiting until you have 20% is a good idea… Being upside down on a house you just moved into sucks. Luckily our house came with all the appliances left there by the previous owner, but we were still broke for a while afterwards b/c of having to buy other little miscellaneous stuff that added up considerably.

this is what I’m sayin’

I thought I didn’t spend a lot paying 140k for my house lol

I’d like to wait, but my fiancee is anxious to move out. We both are really. I know this doesn’t constitute packing everything and getting a house ASAP, but living 30minutes from each other is a bit of a nuisance. Lots of time, gas, and effort, and not to mention being concerned about my fiancees safety driving home especially in the winter (she is a woman after all). An apartment is a complete waste of time and money IMO. I plan on throwing all my tax refund into savings. I might even sell my guitars :’( for some extra cash.

Just do the first home club as mentioned. You will end up with almost 10k by just saving 1850 over 10 months. /thread

Also you should know that you closing has to be at or after 10 months but that doesn’t mean you can’t start house shopping after 6-7 months. That is how I did it and my closing was within a few weeks of finishing the first home club. Worked great for me.

Also I did not use this but they offer assistance as well. 5k IIRC
http://www.nyhomes.org/index.aspx?page=48

So there we now have you from a total 1850 invested to a budget of way over 10k.

Breakdown of what you can expect to pay at closing:

Origination Fee: $500
Appraisal: $350-400
Underwriting: $300
NYS Mortgage Tax: 1.75% of sale price (100k house would be $1,750)
Bank Attorney: $300-400
Title Insurance: ~$600 for a 100k house
Recording/Processing Fees: $300-400
Personal Attorney: $400

You would be looking at around 5k in just closing costs for a 100k house, that doesn’t include a down payment, 1 yr of homeowner’s insurance or taxes. The person who bought my last house used seller’s concession because they didn’t have enough upfront money, basically bumped up the purchase price a few thousand…it seemed easy for them but not sure if they ended up paying a higher int. rate.

My grandmother is a realtor of 30+ yrs, not sure if you are already working with someone…if you need someone PM me.

yeah…or a bathroom shower. :sigh:

Wait…you haven’t lived together yet? I’d get the apartment first and see how that engagement weathers that storm.

yikes, x2!