another step toward irrelevance and old age

[bsdcat]

misphit and I are taking steps toward home ownership. We have been speaking, off and on, with a mortgage broker since last August(-ish), but thankfully didn't move past "talking" before I was laid off last October. Between changing our budget to more aggressively save, and the rather short period I was unemployed (and shorter than the approximate time-

Comments

[talldean]

Find a decent mortgage broker and realtor, preferably using recommendations of people you trust to choose.

Our realtor was good, but our mortgage broker was so bad she pretty much made us cry.

another step toward irrelevance and old age

[gwenix]

Since I now own a house, but was unemployed for almost a year soon after I bought it, here's my advice:

1) find a place in reasonable shape that would be less per month (including taxes, escrow, mortgage, and insurance) than what you're paying in rent now.

That's my big advice. I did that, and it means we didn't worry while I was unemployed, and in months now when the UB doesn't get paid (he's a startup company).

Now, the good news I didn't realize until after I bought: an owned house is an adult Lego set. Seriously. You can make any changes you want to it, as long as you can find the right pieces. I find this aspect to be so much fun now!

Re: another step toward irrelevance and old age

[bsdcat]

We've been living in the same place since moving to Austin 6 years ago, and our rent hasn't gone up at all in that entire time. Austin house prices have gone up, though, and haven't even been particularly impacted by the recession as far as I can tell.

Chances of us finding a place that costs even as much per month are pretty low. On the bright side, our income has close to doubled during that same period.

We are trying to follow the general shape of your advice, though, and we're planning to buy less house than some people tell us we can afford. I really don't want to sink all our money into a house, just enough to get an adult Lego set. ;-)

[ehowton]

Awesome. Its hard to be anti-establishment when you're in bed with them :D

I've owned four houses so I'll just say this: New homes are generally the same price as older homes. You almost never save money not buying new. Square footage is square footage pretty much across the board.

Also - especially in Texas - beware the tax! County appraisers like to artificially increase the value of your home for tax purposes. Since they can't "raise" taxes, this trick allows them to get more each year. You'll get a letter in the mail annually...always fight it.

Good luck!