We're buying a house!

[Arisaka99]

Hey All!

For those of those that know me, I've been on the forum since I was 14 or so.

I just figured I would drop in and let everyone know my wife and I put an offer on our first house today.

It's a 1935 built Cape Cod. 3 beds, 2 baths and around 1600 sq. ft. with an unfinished basement (hello loading bench!). Should be a good starter house until our brood of 3 crumb snatchers gets bigger. :lol:

Wish us luck!
-Chris

[1911sw45]

Congrats !

[gpidaho]

Happy for you. Great having the basement. Gp

[Sig556r]

Congratulations!

[JBinMN]

Congrats!
:)

[pworley1]

Owning your on home is a great feeling. Congratulations!

[Jniedbalski]

Buying your first home can be very nerve racking. But it’s the best thing me and the wife did

[RED BEAR]

Congratulations. Its a great feeling owning your own home.

[sparky45]

I agree with the above statements, but I'll add one comment NOT intended to cause you any concern:
WELCOME TO THE MONEY PIT!!:bigsmyl2:

[georgerkahn]

My sincere congratulation to you and your wife!!! I've always rather pay rent to the government than to another (who also pays rent to the government) so with two parties getting your $$$$ -- dealing direct is the way to go. Oh -- re "rent to the government" you might inquire. The way I see it, if you buy a vehicle, financed through a bank, and miss a few payments, they RE-possess it, as they are truly the owners of said vehicle, until your loan obligation is satisfied. Re property, including houses, if you do not pay the taxes (to the city; to the town & county; and, to the school district where I reside -- three taxes!), then the government repossesses their property -- perhaps list it in the next tax-sale. PLUS -- if you make significant improvements -- e.g., build a garage, new siding, etc. -- you'll stand a great chance of a new, higher assessment, to enable your rent to be increased! ;)
AND, with this rhetoric, we "think" we own six properties, including one with out house on it. And (again), would NEVER EVER go back to renting. And, a third "and" -- BEST WISHES!!!
Oh -- having lost three different close friends through the years from fires, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make smoke and CO detector for each bedroom, as well as utility and other areas -- we have six working ones in our house -- your #1 highest priority when you move in.
geo

[Wheelguns 1961]

The only thing better than buying a house, is paying it off!

[dangitgriff]

Congrats and best of luck to you and your family.
Sounds like you’re in it for the long haul, so allow me to say this: a major economic downturn is in the cards soon, so you will likely see the value of your house plummet in the next couple of years after. Not a concern if you aren’t planning to sell in the next decade.
Gonna be a prime opportunity for cash home buyers during the next recession, however!
R/Griff

[reddog81]

Congrats! I just realized I'm 1/3 of the way through the 30 year mortgage on my first house. Time flies when you're having fun, or something like that...

2 pieces of advise -
1. Get rid of PMI ASAP. That's a money suck that does no good for you. Figure out how you can get rid off it and make sure that happens quickly. If you don't have PMI that's awesome.
2. Pay off a little extra every month. I add an extra $50 every single month and it only increases the payment by 5%, but the amount paid towards principal increases by about 15% (taxes and interest are a huge portion of your monthly payment assuming you're paying into escrow). This will cut 4 years off my mortgage. Living in Iowa my mortgage is probably much smaller than yours, so $50 might not go as far for you, but determine an amount you can easily afford and stick with it on every payment.

[Beerd]

Ah yes, the pride of home ownership!
Way better than paying rent (or living with your folks).
I'm on house number 3, but then I must be about 3 times your age.
reddog81 gives good advise. Ask your banker for a printout of your monthly payment schedule broken out by principal, interest, taxes & insurance. Might make you go "hmmmm".
..

[Hickory]

Home ownership.
The American dream realized.

[Winger Ed.]

Congrats.
At the end of the year, read the info on your statement about how much property tax you paid.
Then try to figure out where it went.

It'll make ya a Republican.

[reddog81]

Ask your banker for a printout of your monthly payment schedule broken out by principal, interest, taxes & insurance. Might make you go "hmmmm".
..

I just got a mortgage statement in the mail today and 10 years in I’m still paying more in interest every month than principal. And taxes are almost as much as the monthly interest charge��. Owning a home is a much better option than renting, at least in the long run, but you definitely need to know the details otherwise you’re just burying your head in the sand and hoping for the best.

[Love Life]

My houses make me money. Well, most of the time, lol.

[Wayne Smith]

Congrats Chris and Alyssia! Let us know when you will have a house warming - we might make it up there! Erv and Su just moved to Gloucester - a really nice house out in the woods - they keep talking about how far out and the the condition of the dirt road (really nice, both Lynne and I have driven far worse many times!) but they are city folks exploring the country.

What the guys above are telling you is that there is no 'prepayment penalty' on your mortgage - that means that every penny over the monthly payment that you send the bank is applied to the PRINCIPLE - and the faster that goes down the less interest you end up paying to the bank. Lynne and I paid off our last 15 year mortgage in nine years. Of course the boys were out and gone and we weren't feeding teenagers any more, either. You do what you can but keep in mind that the bank allows you to screw them out of the interest you would otherwise pay them.

[bedbugbilly]

Congrats to you and your wife! Hopefully your offer will be accepted and the two fo you can start "nesting". You buy a house . . . but you are it a "home". I built our "first" home and we lived in it for 45 years . . . . hard to leave it but we moved into a condo which is better for us. You'll get great satisfaction in owning your own home and you and your family will take some wonderful memories in it. Enjoy and have fun!

[MrWolf]

Congrats. Lot of good advise. If you can add extra to each payment and specify it is applied to the principal. If you have PMI, get rid of it ASAP. Your handy so will save a lot on repairs which will happen. Good luck

[Arisaka99]

Thanks everyone for the advise!

I just heard back from the realtor and WE GOT IT!

Now... to build a loading bench in the basement...

[1911sw45]

Woohooo congrats

[dangitgriff]

Congrats.
At the end of the year, read the info on your statement about how much property tax you paid.
Then try to figure out where it went.

It'll make ya a LIBERTARIAN.

Fixed that last statement for ya, Ed! [emoji1783]
—Griff

[dverna]

Reality….The bank owns the house and lets you live there until you pay it off.

It is the only item one should go into debt for as normally a house will appreciate in value.

Congratulations and are smart to pay a mortgage instead of rent. Even smarter for getting a house with a basement.

[6bg6ga]

congrats and good luck to you

[dangitgriff]

Congrats on the purchase of your new house...now you get to make it your HOME.
A man can get a lot of satisfaction building a family home. Working on it together with your wife will make for some good memories.
R/Griff

[Reverend Al]

I wholeheartedly agree with the idea of making extra mortgage payments paid against the principle outside of your regular payments. As a rule of thumb every dollar that you pay against the principle outside of your regular mortgage payments also saves you one dollar of future interest. When we still had a mortgage on our house my wife and I always set a bit aside every month to make additional, non-scheduled payments two to three times per year. Most mortgages allow extra payments without any penalty up to a certain percentage of the balance of the remaining owed mortgage. (Making additional payments also helps to strengthen your credit rating with the bank.) Making extra payments shortened the term of our mortgage by several years and saved us a ton of interest. We went without many things we would have liked to have had to do it, but it is a wonderful thing for both of us now being retired without having a mortgage hanging over our heads. A house is also an excellent retirement investment and eventually when you get old enough that you feel you need to downsize (we're getting close to that point now) your house should be worth far more than you originally paid for it. After 21 years our house is now worth about 2 1/2 times the original purchase price on our current local market. It's a win / win. Everything you invest buys you growing equity in the property value and eventually it becomes the best retirement investment that you could possibly make. (As a realtor friend of mine has always said: "The only thing that they're not making any more of is dirt!, so it just keeps going up in value.")

Congratulations on your first house ... enjoy it!

[lightman]

Congratulations! Buying your first home is a big accomplishment. I'm all for paying extra in order to get it payed off sooner but don't neglect having some cash set aside for emergencies. Things break. Houses, cars, appliances, ect all need attention, sooner or later.

[frkelly74]

The last two home we have bought to live in were cash deal/ fixer uppers. One was actually off of Craigs list and that was not the worst one. So far we have owned 11 houses but have only actually lived in 7 of them. We actually made money from 3 or 4 of them if you don't count labor. We now have two homes in Michigan and keep busy fixing them up. The one we live in now was going to be the last fixer upper but I am looking again, in Florida , for the last, last one. Plans keep changing. Anyway, God bless you in your new abode!

[nvbirdman]

When I bought my first house I was thirty-one years old, and a thirty year mortgage was literally a lifetime of payments, but time has a way of moving on and it will eventually get paid off, and then you can feel sorry for the people that have always rented and always will rent. Too bad they weren't as smart as you when they were younger.

[dangitgriff]

Just a thought:
Starting/owning your own business is how the wealthy got that way, not through owning real estate (unless that IS your business model).
Sadly, the 80% of Americans who claim most of their net worth in their homes are subjected to market manipulation by the Federal Reserve and government, which is exactly why the richest 20% of Americans have assets diversified away from real estate.
There will soon be an oversupply of homes available on the market when the government finally admits we are in a recession. Anybody here remember the interest rates from the 1980’s? Yep, that.
R/Griff

[Duckiller]

Don't worry about needing a bigger house. Wife and I raised two boys and a girl in a 1200 square foot house. We do have a big back yard that they could wander about and get their mids straight. They are now 40, 38 and 34. #1 son (40) is getting married on Labor day weekend. Siblings and I will be there. Wife passed away last October. I am ready to leave So. Cal but children don't want me to sell the house until I am sure I can endure Pacific Northwest weather. Also they want to use it when they need to get away from the rain and clouds. Will get my affairs in order so I can move either this fall or next spring. Buying this house and having a secure place to raise our children was probably one of the best decisions my wife and I made. Good luck with your new house.

[bob208]

any property ? nothing like setting up and shooting off your back porch. or having a 100 yd. range up in the field.