So. The apartment complex where I live is going condo with several buildings. I quite like my apartment complex, and I’d love to buy one of them. I have a good, steady job, and am confident that I could make a mortgage payment without too much pain.
But I wasn’t really thinking about buying property this soon, and I’ve been sending my extra money off to the student loan people instead of saving up for a down payment. Since I don’t think the student loan people are going to be up for sending my money back, I only have about $2000 handy.
The complex is offering convenient financing ‘starting at $250 down,’ but while I’m inexperienced, I’m not completely stupid, so while I’m going to ask about it, I’m not gettin’ my hopes up.
What are my choices? Do I have any choices? Borrowing from family isn’t really an option- my family’s mostly poor. Can I do this, or should I not even get my hopes up?
I’ve got a meeting in two weeks to discuss prices/ details with the management. Current residents get first dibs and a 5% discount, after June 1 they’ll go on sale to the rest of the world. So I have a couple of months to decide.
On reflection, I think maybe this should have gone in General Questions. Mods may feel free to move it or not, whatever is amusing for them. I live to provide entertainment to the mods.
I don’t see why not. Many lenders will make a ‘no downpayment’ loan providing your credit and income and indebtedness is sufficient to make the payments be less than a certain amount of your monthly income.
Heck, I’m buying a HOUSE no money down next month. I could put some money down if I wanted from the sale of the old house but this place is so cheap that I’d rather put the money into some repairs rather than reduce the priciple.
Note: With no downpayment you’ll be facing a higher interest rate and therefore higher payments.
It is almost always a better deal for you to buy - you will be able to itemize the interest on the condo, and therefore pay much less on April 15. You should watch the interest rate - but, even at 7.5%, years ago, we lived “free” after tax deductions and the proceeds from selling our houses. The mortgage company will likely give you way more credit than you’d like, so just be sure you can handle the monthly payment. Then, consult a tax expert if you aren’t sure how to itemize your interest/insurance. Good luck!
There are many mortgage companies that will finance 103% or 105% of your loan - meaning, no down payment - it is included in the loan amount. Also, if you would like to not put anything out of pocket, you can work that out too. Example - I bought my first condo for $49,000. We included the down payment into that amount. I also asked the seller if he would pay the closing costs if I offered more money. He accepted that offer. My final mortgage price was $53,000. Total out of pocket expenses - about $500. There are always ways of buying property with little or no cash. Just ask. Most people will be happy to help you out!
Golly gosh darn heck yes! My sister in law bought a condo a year and half ago with no money down and very little out of pocket and she has a decent job but tons of debt.
You should put as much down as possible, of course, or put (just a little is fine!) extra on your payment from the first one, this will go toward your principle and every little bit helps, especially if you start out that way.
Thanks for all the input. I’m starting to feel kind of unexpectedly optimistic about this whole thing. I never really pictured myself as a homeowner (do I still count as a homeowner if I just own a little box in a pile of boxes?) and the thought is surprisingly appealing. I hope that my meeting with the management shows them asking a fair price without unreasonable restrictions, 'cause I’d really like to pull this off.
I’ve never bought property before. It’s not obvious at all, is it?
I bought a house in December of 2002 with a ‘zero’ down loan. Basically, if your credit is good enough (and since you’re prepaying your student loans, I’m assuming you have no problems there), you can get a loan for 100% of the selling price. I had to pay closing costs, but at the end of the day, I think they amounted to about $1,200.
Also, I just started shopping for a home equity line of credit, and money is CHEAP. People are quoting me rates at prime minus 0.3%. Plus, everyone I talked to has offered to waive application fees, appraisal fees, processing fees…they’re talking about closing with zero dollars out of my pocket. So you might be able to do something like that too. Just make sure you shop around. Try lendingtree first, becasue it’s free and easy, and it’ll give you a starting point when you call lenders. If I’d have gone with the first couple offers I got for my house, my interest rate would be a point and a half higher, and my closing costs would have been about $7,500. Shop around.
Good luck, it’s an exciting process, and it feels good when you’re not paying rent to anyone.
Actually (and use your own judgment here), I wouldn’t recommend using lendingtree. If you have student loans and other debt, you aren’t going to have the best credit score in the world. Every time you talk to a mortgage company and have them prequalify you, they pull your credit report. Every time anyone pulls your credit report, your credit score goes down. By going to a company like lending tree (they pass your information on to 3 - 5 mortgage companies), your credit score will go down every time one of those companies pulls your credit report (which I can guarantee you, every one of them will do). By the time you are done shopping around, your score would be much lower than it is now.
I do, however, recommend talking to several mortgage companies. But just get the basics from them. Their average interest rate, application fees, any other “junk” fees they charge, etc. But don’t give them your social security number or they will pull your report and the above will happen.
When my ex husband and I wanted to purchase a house (the house we were living in), we had no money for a downpayment. The house belonged to his father and aunt, but that didn’t change the fact that money was expected if we were to take the house as our own.
So we thought creatively.
I’ve heard that there are sellers out there who are willing to do this to, in the right circumstances…
We had his father and aunt “quit-claim” the house to us - effectively signing over the title for “a dollar and other good and valuable consideration” ;).
Thus armed, we then went to a mortgage company and took out a refinance loan, as we now had 100% equity in the home. Got an appraisal at a value higher than what the father and aunt were expecting, got a refinance mortgage, paid them off, had a little more money left over for renovations. Worked like a charm.
For about 4 months, then he left me. LOL
But it worked in the beginning
By the way, I had discussed this WITH the mortgage company beforehand, so that we didn’t go through the quit claim process just to find out we were going to be denied. Incidentally, this also saved us from having to pay PMI.
