And don't forget fun money. I'm seroius.

 

I bought my home when I was self employed. I had a hard time getting a loan & had to get one with a higher rate to buy my house. I kept my credit clean & refinanced to a 10 yr loan after a few yrs & have my house about paid for now. Stay away from interest only loans. You can lose everything if the housing market goes south. I bought a home that cost 1/4 of my income a month & don't recomend anyone spending more than this amount on a house.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific...ts_%28movie%29

 

I would not walk, but instead run from a loan that exceeds that actual property value. As was duely noted, the interest rate sucks. These loans are becomming less common due to lenders getting stuck with houses that they'd loaned more on than they were worth. Deadbeats were killing lenders.

So what can you afford for a monthly PMI payment? On a monthly basis it's basically the total of all income sources minus total of all debt. Thus you can see that cars, trucks credit cards, etc etc lower your loan amount. Another rule of thumb is that your mortgage amount will be roughly 3X your annual income. Along with the prior list of expenses, add money for maintenance and repairs as well as improvements and upgrades. Finally, you should have at least a 5% down payment before you shop. The exception might be if you you are in a depressed area. In this case, you may find a desperate owner that will have "special" terms.

A final word of advice; your neighbors now and on your new house. Stop beating on them regardless of who starts it (self defense however is acceptable). As an owner, selling a home to flee the situation requires a 6% realtor commission (national average), excise taxes, and closing costs. And there's no telling what a buyer might want you to include and on your nickle. Then there's closing costs associated with the next house. I've got a few neighbors that I don't particularly care for too. Odds are most people would have a few things around them different if they could. I try to remain on neutral terms with the ones I don't really care for. Why? That's real easy. If I'm gone and someone is seen breaking into my house, or if smoke starts to roll out from the attic, etc etc I want them to call 911. Remember, these people are the ones I talk to just a handful of times a year. Much better to keep the lines of communication open than to build friction and tension.

Good luck and happy house hunting!

 

I dont know if I d buy a house now or not. With fuel prices incereasing all the time an the economy getting weaker we might have seen our peak prices an will start to go down from here. Theres nothing worsse then buying a home an then it loses a bunch off value over a period off time an your still paying off on an expensve purchase. The housing boom I believe is over. So if you could hold off an save some money I think it will pay over the long term. These fuel prices are slowly hurting the conomy an every day they get higher is another nail in the coffin. People forget how things can turn ugly in a hurrey. The economy goes south homes are a glut in the market. Layoffs increase an filings for bankrupties skyrocket. A lot off people have never seen hard times an forget what its like I have. Sorry for being so doom an gloom here but a man has to face reality once in a while.Im not sying it could happen tomorrow or the next day but when it does nobody knows an it can be very ugly. I f you have saved some money up you could buy a house alot cheaper

 

It's all cyclical, and now we seem to be peaking with real estate values. I don't expect any drastic declines in value (except in a few circumstances), but there's good advice here about avoiding the "creative" mortgage's available these days. Get a interest rate that won't increase, and then inflation will gradually make it easier on your wallet.

 

how about a two family?
the renter is not a roommate and the rent you get may be more than from a roomie.
also could have tax benefits. 1/2 the taxes, 1/2 the insurance, etc could possibly be deductable on your taxes.