so i'm looking to buy a house

[igo4bmx]

man this is such a scary thing to do :eek:

post some tips of your buying experience.
I have a brother who's my real estate agent, and a cousin who does mortgage brokering...
my broth has given me tips but maybe we can get a good discussion here about it

[coleycole]

I'm in the same boat as you are man. I'm a first time buyer looking to buy a house somewhat soon, I'm currently working on the money down part. The Real Estate market is just a difficult market to be in right now. I'm looking at Condo's in the $200-250k price range right now that I believe will give me a return of $300k+ when the market turns around. The way I look at it is anything is better then forking out cash on rent when all it does is pay someone else's mortgage.

[igo4bmx]

I'm in the same boat as you are man. I'm a first time buyer looking to buy a house somewhat soon, I'm currently working on the money down part. The Real Estate market is just a difficult market to be in right now. I'm looking at Condo's in the $200-250k price range right now that I believe will give me a return of $300k+ when the market turns around. The way I look at it is anything is better then forking out cash on rent when all it does is pay someone else's mortgage.


yeah
for some reason i got bit by the "house bug" starting looking at homes two weeks ago and finally found one me and the fiance like alot.
My only concern is we're spending money on 1, wedding, 2 honeymoon, 3 life and rent, and 4, getting a mortgage and DP.

this all scares me lol

[poisonivory]

dude my fiancee and I just made settlement April 30th. We also have our weeding coming up Fall 2009 so we're int he same boat. Trying to save, pay bills and take care of the house all at the same time. It's crazy but we manage. lol

Luckily for us we have a son, so we don;'t go out partying or blow needless money doing stuff ont he weekends, so it's a little bit easier to keep finances in order.

My main tip for you would be......look around. My fiancee and I looked at about 30 houses before we bid on one. We liked a few but kept looking for a while.

[coleycole]

I hear ya bro, and the thing is that all of these things you are saving for and spending money on are important and its hard to budget all of it at the same time. Personally I plan to buy a house within a year, originally I was jumping in full tilt w/ both feet but I slowed my role a little bit and decided to take my time. The wedding and honeymoon are very important events and I dont recommend cutting corners there. Unfortunately life is what has to take a back seat for awhile, put a strict budget on your spending habits and if possible take a second job part time for some additional cash flow. I work 50 hours a week and the last thing I want to do is work more but I am seriously considering getting a second job.

[igo4bmx]

dude my fiancee and I just made settlement April 30th. We also have our weeding coming up Fall 2009 so we're int he same boat. Trying to save, pay bills and take care of the house all at the same time. It's crazy but we manage. lol

Luckily for us we have a son, so we don;'t go out partying or blow needless money doing stuff ont he weekends, so it's a little bit easier to keep finances in order.

My main tip for you would be......look around. My fiancee and I looked at about 30 houses before we bid on one. We liked a few but kept looking for a while.

my fiance has been looking at houses for months but it's now where we're being serious about it.
my problem is i drink too much on weekends which may need to be on a hiatus.



or maybe not hahahaha

[HatchSurfer3]

Im going to be in that boat soon enough, so any tips would be helpful to me too

[poisonivory]

haha once u get a house...getting a case and having people over is always wayyyyyyy cheaper than going to bars.

Plus I hate driving drunk so I like partying at home better usually.

Other tips...i pack my lunch everyday as opposed to spending $60-70 a week on buying lunch everyday. Dont be afraid to use coupons..haha i used to hate the concept of coupons and shyt, but when we got the "supercard" thing and I saved like 50 bucks on one trip to the market....i am now a fan. lol

Dont leave lights and the TV on all night. It makes a bigger different than you think with your bill.

as far as tips for purcharsing in itself. Shop around. I know you said you have family helping you with mortgage but still shop it around. We had our mortgage run numerous different ways by different companies and its a good thing we did, because some were much higher than others.

[TROLL]

the 'buying a house' threads are starting to pile up so i'm going to close this one and ask you to direct your attention here: http://www.tristatetuners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53096

also, foreclosure talk: http://www.tristatetuners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57190

and and older 'first time buyer' thread here: http://www.tristatetuners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27488