Give me tips to help me buy my FIRST HOUSE for my family

Rural House Seeker wrote:

TIMETABLE

The contract with my landlord runs until Sept. 1, and I have to let him know by July 1st that I want to leave.

Additional info: we have a down payment of 100K already saved for that purpose.

Why would your wife’s aunt want you living with her every other week? And why would you want to? Sounds ridiculous to me.

How long did it take to save the 100k

Why do you not pay off your credit card debt before the 100k down payment or stocks?

750 sounds unreasonable. Where do you live?

You want to buy a mansion with a guest house 2 hours from work, socially isolate your wife and work from her aunt's house every other week?

Make sure you buy a new or recently renovated home. Old houses need lots of expensive work.

$750K sounds rough given your situation. Would recommend keeping it $600K or under. Do you live in CA? Sounds expensive for a "rural" area way outside of the city.

The work/commute/stay with aunt situation sounds ridiculous. $750K is a lot for a house you don’t plan to stay at every other week.

All around bad. Why move somewhere that you won't live? Buy a house near the aunt if you can commute that far. Otherwise, it is divorce in the making. One or both of you will have an affair if you live apart. $500k is a reasonable. You may not even qualify for $750k.

750k for a house in a rural area 1.5-2 hours away from a cty. That's crazy. Where do you live? In a lot of states a rural house with 20 acres would cost less than that.

You want house buying advice from a running forum? Good luck, dude.

All: thanks for the replies. We actually went to check 2 houses this afternoon in the same neighborhood. They looked much less nice than on the online listings!

Anyway, here are my answers: We live in NYC. I don't really like it, but that's where my job is. Since I can't leave my job right now, I'm looking at places within 2-hour commute of NYC. Believe or not, it's still expensive.

About my wife's aunt: she lives by herself in a pretty big house mid-way between my job in the city and the area where we're looking for a house, that's why I thought about it. We stayed a few times over the years for a couple of nights, and she has always been pretty chill. The commute from her house to my office is about 1h so that's easily doable, but I don't like that area to have my own house. Very sleepy area filled with people who commute to work, and nothing else.

Ideally: I would want to live in our new house full time, but I need to keep my job. I do plan on testing the idea with my boss. For the last 7 weeks I have been working remote because of Covid and that worked well, for me anyway. I'm just not sure my boss would be ok with that 100% of the time.

yaleftw wrote:

$750K sounds rough given your situation. Would recommend keeping it $600K or under. Do you live in CA? Sounds expensive for a "rural" area way outside of the city.

Ok, pretty much every poster says it's too high. I guess you're right!

That was my gut feeling too, but I got carried away by the 'dream house' thing.

Another house we like is listed at $690K. Would you consider that more doable? I also wonder if we can negotiate the asking prices.

About the credit cards: the interest rate for one is 0% and we have 2 other cards with low interest. We could potentially pay them off but I'd like to keep savings, emergency buffer, downpayment, and my stocks right now. Maybe just pay the ones with interest, and keep the 0% open?

LetsGetIt wrote:

How long did it take to save the 100k

Several years, but only after we were done with student loans. Then we saved all the "extra money": bonuses I got from work, tax returns, extra freelance work from my wife.

These things are relative. My wife and I combine for $210k per year, and our house cost $220k a few years ago. No kidding. Our mortgage was $1200 per month which was about 20% of my takehome, after taxes, without even including her income.

I know the coastal elites are used to spending like 60%+ of their income on housing, so maybe you can swing this. You're probably used to it.

You are looking in the wrong area if you can't find a house. Go near Deleware Water Gap or take the train from Jackson Township.

Yes that price seems a bit high.

But my number one piece of advice is always get the house you really want.

It’s a long term deal and you want to like where you are.

Also you lock in for years and as prices generally het higher over time.

Timmy Treadwell wrote:

I know the coastal elites are used to spending like 60%+ of their income on housing, so maybe you can swing this. You're probably used to it.

Funniest thing I've heard in a while! I am not and I don't know anybody who could remotely be described as 'coastal elites'.

Thanks XRunner. We definitely see ourselves settling down for the long run. That's why we want a big yard, enough space for entertaining/having visitors (my wife is very social), and good schools (we have 2 little kids). I can't explain how awesome that would be for me considering where I grew up as a kid.

X-Runner wrote:

Yes that price seems a bit high.

But my number one piece of advice is always get the house you really want.

It’s a long term deal and you want to like where you are.

Also you lock in for years and as prices generally het higher over time.

You want to buy the smallest house you can get away with.

Keep some cash to make improvements once you are in the house (30-50,000).

With this in mind you can get a little bit uglier (cheaper) house which you will fix up over the next couple of years.

Also make sure to have enough money for newer cars, when you old ones give out.

Don't fall into the trap to buy the biggest house you can barely afford. Think straight away about maintenance costs like getting a new roof, or a new AC. Smaller house, smaller maintenance costs.