Thats awesome.
Any ideas on what you are looking for? 2/3/4 bedroom? certain sq footage? new construction, renovate or built to spec?

Now that I am done with school I am actually on a 4 year plan. While my fiancee is getting her PhD saving for a down payment on a house.. Getting married next year in October... Most likely will sell the EVO to get the house of choice. The evo has been more or less a savings account to me.. How else would i ever save $20,000 ahaha... Im not very good at not spending.

Dont wanna sound gay but watch hgtv with house hunters, property virgins, flip this house etc etc and it really gives you a different perspective on how location plays the biggest part on the price of a home/condo...

 

Saw a new skyline in snow yesterday in wexford and it wasn't my friend that has one!! was pretty surprised seeing it being driven in snow

 

^^

How did it do?

 

3+ bedroom with at least a 1 car garage but hoping for a 2 car since she has a 350z and i have the evo. Basically we will take anything we like in the area we want to live (North Hills School District) that meets our budget. Were not looking to bury ourselves in a mortgage to have a super nice house, we just want something we can afford without living pay check to pay check, that is nice to us and we can do little things to fix it up as we go and hopefully get a return when were ready to sell down the road to upgrade.

wow connecting with your inner homo i see...

Yes location is the most important to us - we want to live in a good school district in a good neighborhood, a house we can fix up and do things to make it our own, etc which you cannot do to a bad neighborhood...

 

that's probably why i lost all that money on the house i renovated.

apparently no one is interested in imported italian marble and solid gold toilets if the house is in St. Clair Village.

go figure...

 

whats that old saying in real estate...

location, location, location......

 

I would pick a school district with the least amount of taxes ahaha...
normally people dont think about it when there are closing costs, school taxes, local taxes and all the other goodies that can add up to another $1000 a month total on top of your mortgage.

Oh, and if i ever EVER learned anything at all in any of my finance classes, take it out for 15 years, I know it sounds tough but you will save 30/40/80 thousand dollars in interest. Its amazing how much you pay over 30 years when you do amortization schedules on home loans.

$200,000 house for 30 years @ 5.2% you would pay $195,359.77 in interest at $1063 a month
$200,000 house for 15 years @ 5.2% you would pay $88,450.44 in interest but payment is another $600

Its like HOLLLLLY **** why are banks going under?? ? ?? ? ? ? every home loan that people actually pay for (key word PAY FOR) they are making BANK!
Think FIXED!!! Dont wanna be buying your house 4 years from now..

I bet its fun looking(when your serious), im not even ready yet and I enjoy lookin at houses...

 

The only reason they go under is by lending money to people that had no business receiving it in the first place. You have a job making $8/hr. You DO NOT qualify for a $200k mortgage.

 

Im not sure, i was going the opposite way and just looked over and saw it. I'd imagine pretty well. He was cruising pretty fast.

 

Yes there is more in a mortgage than just your house - unless you want to pay the taxes yearly out of pocket - just takes discipline which most people think they do but dont...for tat reason we will just have our taxes added into the mortgage and have no worries of getting the money together year to year

While a 15 year saves money over time - it makes the payment unaffordable for your most average joe people. While on paper it looks great and in a classroom it makes total sense. Get in the real world and you will see that most people like us (middle class folk), there is no way it could work unless we buy a 60k dollar house in the hill district.

We have already been pre-approved for an FHA 30 year fixed mortgage - only requires us to put 3.5% down which is a huge saving to us out of pocket. On top of the 8k tax credit (if we buy by April) which up to 5k is given to you upfront to cover your closing costs it makes buying a house right now a good time.

So far it has been frustrating......will be glad when its over, hoping something positive comes out of this round of looking.

 

that 8K tax cut is niiiice.. My sister just bought her house, and used it to furnish her whole downstairs.
(you might not actually get it till 2011 now though)

I think they are thinking about upping it sooner or later..

Also if you or anyone you know is a student (undergrad only) there is another $2500 tax cut, and you can receive 33% of that back in your return..

I will most likely do the same route, with the taxes but most likely sacrifice the evo and my other car when the time comes to put a large sum down so i can afford to keep my payment down (or year loan smaller)

 

if we bought now we wouldn't get the money until 2011, correct. But if we qualify for the upfront 5k towards closing costs we will get the other 3k on our 2011 return. Either way its a win / win situation really.

I have not heard they were extending it any further than April or raising the amount - while it might happen we don't want to take the chance of losing out on the $8k - but were also not just going to buy a house to buy one for the 8k either

Yeah were keeping both our cars, neither one of us want to part with them so were buying a house that fits our budget with our current bills and budget outlines.

 

yes it is a pain to find a house....we looked for a long time before we decided to purchase....now i wish i had bought a bigger place...

 

Obvious man here to fix obvious error in your post, which I highlinghted in BOLD.

 

1200hp on slicks ,, doesnt move in the snow.....had to move it with a 20hp craftsman....