Thoughts On Home Buying

[foxx278]

I've been doing a lot of thinking as of late about my living situation. Lately, I've been tooling around the Internet looking at real estate stuff...well, it's more like homes for sale. Seems like a lot of houses are fairly cheap enough these days that it would be much cheaper for me to buy a house than to keep on renting apartments (I'm sure

Comments

[foxx278]

Thanks!

[kishi_kat]

You, too? I've been poking around the housing situation over here in my area.

Right now I'm looking for a job, though. If I can find a good one, I'm going to start saving up for a place myself.

Best of luck with your house-hunting. I've been doing the same thing...checking out the different areas and seeing what people have to say about them.

[foxx278]

I'm mostly looking into it since I'm primarily renting right now and it's costing me a crap ton to stay there. It's like I was better off staying for free with my parents (but heaven knows I'd be going nuts if I did that considering my parents). With my job, I definitely can afford it and a little more, but I want to be smart about what I invest in. My dad has stupidly refinanced his house about three times and now it's gotten to the point where he can barely afford it anymore on his own. I'm not trying to do that which is why I want something affordable and manageable...something I can keep up and work on a little bit without spending too much time, energy, and money. Hopefully I get some useful and viable information about home buying.

[kishi_kat]

That's kind of what I noticed too. To get a half-way decent apartment, it's almost as much as the mortgage payment on a full sized house.

I know what you mean about the refinancing. My grandfather used to do that all the time. He'd get one almost paid off, then he would decide he wanted something and instead of saving up the money, he'd refinance his house. My grandma used to go nuts about it.

It's kind of the same thing with me...all I can find are these monstrously huge houses with three bathrooms. o.O Why would I need three? I could understand maybe having like a half-bathroom in a two story house for the guests to use, but seriously...three full bathrooms?

[foxx278]

You should limit your search options to a set minimum and maximum price range. That's how I was able to find places that were inexpensive and more affordable. I set my price range from at least $20,000 to $50,000 and got some good results with some decent to great looking single family houses, and all located within a moderate to good looking subdivision. I mean, if all you're looking for is just a small house, just look up single family houses (maximum 3 bedrooms and 1 full bath).

[foxx278]

That's $67 more than I pay in rent, and I'm trying to stay under that. Plus, I'm not trying to live in Missouri, remember? I want to be on the other side of the river for once.

[stryder619]

I'm a try before you buy kinda guy. Maybe you could rent in the area you want to stay for a bit. Get a feel for it and see if you like it. And Katie is right, buying these days costs as much as renting, and that doesn't include the hidden costs. I'm not saying that you shouldn't buy, but just be sure you're prepared.

[foxx278]

I think I stated this before but I do plan on doing some research into the matter before I go jumping into anything. And there's practically nothing in Cahokia to rent right off the bat. Most of the properties over there are somewhat foreclosures and small affordable single family homes (3 bedrooms or less). Prices for those homes, according to Century 21's listings, actually start at $14K and go up from there.

[stryder619]

However, for something as cheap as you want over the course of 30 years, it'd probably be less than what katie is predicting, but that's at the low end of your price range.

[foxx278]

According to Century 21, which most of these properties in Cahokia are being offered by, they're estimating around $160 to $210 a month on a 30 year fixed mortgage. Of course that's only an estimate via their mortgage estimation calculator, however, I do plan on taking a visit to the office in Columbia (IL) on Friday to get more information on the properties, neighborhoods, and all the costs and what not so I can maybe prepare for money savings. Like I also said earlier, this will not happen for another year since I'm stuck at my apartment until next October (which I will be keeping a close eye on the Cahokia market during that time frame).