Skip to main content

Advice on potential purchase

Sorry for the long post, I’m struggling with this decision so I added a bunch of details.

Our current house payment is 11% of our monthly income but it’s getting too small for us (3 bedroom, 1 bath for a family of 4 with hobbies that require a lot of indoor space). We have been looking at adding on (we have a double lot with a big back yard) but the estimate came in pretty high so we’re considering moving. The local market is crazy here (houses pending within 24 hours). I’m in a growing town 30-45 minutes away from a rapidly growing city center. We’ve been keeping an eye on the local houses for a few years, just in case, and we’ve never seen anything we like (not a fan of new construction but don’t want multiple story living areas, prefer certain areas).

But... there’s this house I absolutely love. It’s only a 5 minute walk from my house so I’ve walked by it so many times, I’ve had the old realtor.com listing bookmarked on my phone for years. It’s not on the market but the lady is willing to sell to us (old and in declining health). It’s basically my dream house and shouldn’t require any updating even though it’s old.

The problem is I have a hard time imagining having a house payment at 22% of our income and the owner is unwilling to budge on price, and while she’s probably over valuing a bit, I’m sure the house will sell at her asking price even if it takes a few weeks.

Both of our jobs are secure and we can ‘afford’ it... Is that a crazy amount? It’s more than we’ve ever paid (it would be our fourth house). I’d definitely need to buy furniture as it’s quite a bit bigger. We put roughly 15% of our income into various methods of savings and childcare and auto payments take another 22% combined (childcare costs will exist for at least a few more years). Insurance and food are our only other ‘big’ expenses as our student loans are almost paid off.

Would you pay 22% of your income for your dream house? For your ‘forever’ house? Would you go over your intended budget (but still within what you can afford) for your dream house? Is it stupid and I should just keep the cost down and settle? We’ve never had to struggle with a budget - does anyone have experience going from an attitude of ‘well, I’ve spent more on dumber stuff...’ to a strict budget?

submitted by /u/katiopeia
[link] [comments]

source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/i1k8qh/advice_on_potential_purchase/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

North Carolina – “One to Buy; Two to Sell”

I realize I will likely have to contact a real estate attorney but also hoping to hear insights and experiences from others! I have a house in NC that I bought by myself in 2009, and paid off, in full, in 2022. I got married in 2023. My spouse and I have not lived in the house as our "marital residence". We have maintained separate residences even after we got married. (That a separate topic!). I am now selling this house. Realtors have told us that my husband has to sign the deed at time of transfer but I am not convinced since the house has not been our marital residence. The realtors like to use the phrase "one to buy; two to sell", which seems like a broad-stroke statement which is not applicable under all circumstances. And of course, the realtors don’t realize the details of my specific circumstances: I purchased and paid for the house in full prior to marriage Only my name is on the deed And most importantly, we have never lived in the house as a marit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Aren't comps/CMAs useless with buyer credits at close happening now?

I'm looking into buying a new construction townhouse in my HCOL US city. I'm seeing builders offering interest rate buydowns worth $20k-$60k on $800k homes (rather than just lowering prices) in order to keep their comps high for their other units, now that buyer demand has been declining. I asked my agent about these, and he said these buydowns aren't even the full story: buyers can write all kinds of other credits into an offer, like their closing costs, prepaid sewer fees, etc. Apparently cash buyers can just write in a "buyer credit at close" for any amount in their offer. So a new townhouse that appeared to sell for $800k in the MLS might have actually been a cash offer with a $100k+ buyer credit at close, meaning the buyer only spent $700k or less in total, but to the rest of the world they can only see the $800k! So that made me realize I can't trust comps/CMAs for other new construction townhouses. The sales prices could be way lower than they appear...
1 comment
Read more

Co-signing as non-primary resident - effect on size of required downpayment & first time home buyer status?

Contemplating co-signing on a house with my mom and splitting the mortgage payment. I currently have a significantly higher income and much better credit than her. I'm looking at potential home costs and related downpayments but have difficulty using some of the online estimators. From my perspective, this would be somewhat of an investment purchase (I intend to stay in my current location in a different state and contribute to the mortgage), however, for my mom, this would be a primary residence. For purposes of the downpayment size and the type of mortgage arrangement, would it be an investment property or a primary residence? Many thanks for any help. submitted by /u/piercalicious [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/km4hvl/cosigning_as_nonprimary_resident_effect_on_size/
Post a Comment
Read more