Ugh, buying a house

[amtalx]

Well, it looks like I'll be buying a house soon. It's turning out to be a big pain. I'm trying to find a budget and make thinks work for the mortgage my wife wants. Problem is she hemorrhages money. Any advice for a first time home buyer?

[Sinue_v2]

You can get a great deal on deductions to your taxes as a first time home owner, so make sure it's something you're going to want to keep for awhile.

And put a turnaquet on your wife's purse.

Aside from that, I'm not sure what to tell you. I haven't purchased my own home yet. Renting is much easier for the time being.

[Aisha_Clan-Clan]

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hnt

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_988/text/0,,HGTV_22056_44772,00.html

Probobly more helpfull stuff too.

http://www.hgtv.com/

[ABDUR101]

You gotta put your foot down when it comes to her spending. Buying and owning a house is never a small thing, and if youre plotting out budgets, etc you can't have her blowing that budget.

Does she work and help pay bills, etc? You need to get her in the swing of having her own budget to work with, and keep firm about it if you really want to own a house. Trust me, you'll have some MAJOR issues if her (mis)spending causes you to miss payments which could cost you alot of effort into paying for a house. You need two commited people to buy a house, do NOT go into a bad scenario if there are money spending issues. You can't be the only one holding it all together; it will cause alot of problems in the long run.

Best of luck to you, but the only advice I can give is to make sure you're both on the same page of how important it is to keep a reign on frivolous spending.

[SabZero]

Quoth Dr. Phil (somewhat):

Marriage is a partner ship.

Don't get into a parent-child thing, the other person willl resent it. But they have to understand that each partner is responsible for making the partnership work.

Comunicate http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[amtalx]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Unfortunately, she just doesn't have the self control to manage her own money. We'll probably have to set it up so that only I have the card that's linked to our main checking account. Then I'll put money in her checking account based on the budget. If she runs out of money for the month..oh well.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: amtalx on 2007-05-16 06:13 ]</font>

[DurakkenX]

Remember...jsut because you can afford a house, doesn't mean you can afford living in that house. The cause of most people having financial problems when they buy a house is in fact they didn't calculate the heating, water, electricity, land taxes, etc into their budget which varies from place to place

[amtalx]

Indeed. I made sure to include all of the above plus some room for increase in utilities and a few hundred dollars a month for those unforseeable expenses that you can't really predict.

[Solstis]

Don't get a variable rate mortage. :/

or adjustable (or whatever the term), though they really can change your rate if they want to.

[amtalx]

Yea, I've heard too many tragedies about those. We got a fixed 30-year at 6.35%. The payments are a kick to the junk but at least it wont balloon in 2 years.

[Garroway]

I've only bought 2 houses now, so I'm pretty far from an expert but here are some things that I came across during both purchases.

1) For some reason the bank will probably want to give about 150% of what you can actualy afford. For example, if you can handle $100k, you'll qualify for $150k. Know what your budgut is and don't go over it no matter how much money the bank thinks you can handle.

2) Don't forget about taxes and insurance when you calculate what you can actualy afford. If you don't have an enourmous down payment you're going to get stuck with PMI which is also going to add additional monthly cost. All of that will also adjust your affective APR so dont be surprised if your 6.5% ends up looking like 11% when all is said and done.

When I bought my first house it looked like I was going to be looking in the $110k - $125k range. I fortunately work for someone who buys and sells houses regulary so he was able to break things down for me and steer me around some the early pitfalls. The end result was I was really only able to afford around $90k.