Down payments

[Jill]

Have anyone ever put a down payment down for a house? I see what the mortgage payment will be but that is with over $10,000.00 down. How do you do that? It will take us FOREVER to save up that much.

[Trey]

Can you use the VA loan after his out? I am not sure how that works, but there is no down payment with that.. it will affect your monthly payments and make them higher, but you only have to pay closing costs when you do that, and you can even get that rolled into the mortgage if necessary.

[Kelsey]

When you buy a house it is smart to be able to put down 20% of the home cost to avoid an extra tax on your mortgage (if your home is $100,000, you should be able to put down $20,000 for a down payment). It may take longer to save up for, but it's doable, and that way you know you can truly afford the home and it saves you a LOT of money in extra taxes.

We're going to be saving for the next 3 years to be able to buy a home, but it'll be worth it in the end! If you're worried about saving, try putting $$ in a high interest mutual fund. You can get some great returns on those and that will help the money build much faster!

[Genna]

We are planning on saving for a downpayment, our goal is $50K. We will be debt free in less than a year, so we are going to be saving everything we can after that. I will probably get a job and have my whole paycheck into savings as well. If we can build/ buy a house by the time we are 30 I will be very happy, we have plenty of time.

[Shaky]

We did put down payment ( thank God!) If you put the 20% you wont have to pay PMI which is property mortgage insurance (I think that's what it stands for) there are ways to get around that though. You can take a 80/20 mortgage which you will have a 2nd mortgage and not have to pay the PMI. I understand that not everyone can save all that for downpayment but it would be so ideal! your payments would be lower, you would avoid paying extra money on PMI when you can actually use that for your house.

[Brandi]

Unless you're going to be in your home forever (literally), I would not worry about trying to put much down. You can use first time home buyers grants or a VA loan to get around that.

[mary79]

We are going to try to buy a house in San Diego. There are alot of grants that some city's have that give you down payments. We are looking at one right now that is in a city we really want to live in, they will give us $100,000 for a down payment.

The draw backs are, We would have to pay it back if we were to re finance or sell the house. You also have to qualify and they only offer it at certain times.

[Trey]

Originally Posted by mary79 We are going to try to buy a house in San Diego. There are alot of grants that some city's have that give you down payments. We are looking at one right now that is in a city we really want to live in, they will give us $100,000 for a down payment. The draw backs are, We would have to pay it back if we were to re finance or sell the house. You also have to qualify and they only offer it at certain times.

Wow, what city is that? I saw some ads when I was browsing Craigslist.org the other day and it said something similar about buying homes in Vista area and something about $400K house for $300K loan or something, I wonder if that's the same thing. I usually just think they are scams, but it sounds like what you are talking about is government? Interesting...

[MontanaSweetie]

We've owned 2 homes already and have never put any $$ down for a down payment. If you use your VA loan, you don't need a down payment, and if you go conventional, yes you will have to pay PMI if you don't put 20% down, but you can still get a mortgage without putting the 20% down.

Is it a good idea to make a down payment, absolutely! If you can save up the $$ to do it, I would definitely suggest it.

[joanna766]

Originally Posted by Brandi Unless you're going to be in your home forever (literally), I would not worry about trying to put much down. You can use first time home buyers grants or a VA loan to get around that.

I agree, most buyers, including non-military, usually only keep a house for 5-7 years. If you are never transfered you will outgrow your house within that time frame unless you are buying a big one now.

Depending on the market at the time you sell house #1 and buy house #2 you should have a good chunk to put down. Example: I purchased my house in 2000 for $129,000 it is currently on the market for $254,000.

Also negotiate with the sellers. If the house has been on the market a while and they are anxious to sell then you might get them to pay part or all of your closing costs and have to put zero down. When I bought I offered my seller full selling price with all closing costs paid. The house was on the market back then for 9 months and they had already purchased another and needed to move it. I was in a winning situation.