Does it Matter to your Partner?
And the thing about home mortgages: Most of your monthly payments for the first few years cover the interest. You don’t make much headway on the principal for a while, which means you aren’t building up equity. On the other hand, if everyone from your great-grandparents on down has lived in the same neighborhood and you aren’t about to break with tradition, now may be a great time to buy a house. The bottom line is this: Even if you live in a buyer’s market now, you may not be able to make much money if you try to sell your house within the first few years.
The down payment, which is the money you pay up front for your home, can vary from 0 to 20 percent or more depending on the loan type and your credit rating. Most conventional loans — not government sponsored — require more down. Credit unions and several government-backed programs — including the Veterans Administration (VA) and the Federal Housing Administration (FAH) — offer low-down-payment loans. Many first-time homebuyers have trouble saving enough for the down payment. Do your research and talk to lenders in your area about how much you will have to put down.
The opposite, a seller’s market, occurs when fewer houses are on the market than there are buyers. With several buyers often bidding for the same house, home prices kept reaching new heights. The run up to the recession was a booming seller’s market in most areas of the U.S. Talk to a real estate agent in your area who can help you understand the market and how it’s currently impacting buyers. Buying a house is not like buying groceries — or even a car.
Just because you’ve been preapproved for a certain amount doesn’t mean you have to max out that loan with your first home. In fact, you may not want to spend every penny on your home loan every month. Mortgage payments are the monthly payments you make to the bank to pay back your loan. Often these payments include not just the principal and interest on the loan, but also property taxes and homeowners insurance (https://bangkok.thaibounty.com/2022/06/18/golden-tulip-sovereign-hotel-bangkok-huay-kwang-hotel-4-star/).
As a former real-estate agent, I’ve seen lots of first-time home buyers make plenty of mistakes, from buying more house than they could afford to taking on a more decrepit house than they could realistically make habitable. The first-time buyers I saw who stayed happiest in their homes were the ones who had done their research, planned their purchases, communicated with their partners and agents and did not step too far outside of their comfort zones. Despite their best intentions, agents can only do so much with their advice.
The lucky ones have family who will give them money to help with it. If you have a large sum suddenly appear in an account, they are going to want to know where you got it. Before you get too excited, talk the gift over with your lender, who will want to be sure the money is in fact an outright gift and not a loan dressed up like a gift. Lenders check your bank statements, credit history, pay stubs and income tax returns before they decide to loan you money. There are a couple of things related to your job that are important when you’re thinking of buying a house.
