So, like every single day of my life, I’m faced with a problem. One that my basic high school education and lack of real world knowledge is not apt to handle. This is that my wife and I want a house. We’re sick of living in a duplex, we’d like to be on our own. Now, the stats are that she doesn’t work (she has fibromyalgia and other problems) and I, personally, only make about $1,400 a month. So the low earning level is one strike. Living in Massachusetts is another strike. The third strike is that we have no credit. Another thing that wasn’t taught in high school – how to get a good credit rating. I’ve heard of government housing and other such things, I’m just wondering, if you were in these particular circumstances, what would you do? Do I have ANY hope of getting my own home within then next 100 years?
Not familiar with what Mass has to offer but you can check out: HUD mini-down mortgages-they add mortgage insurance to your payment because you’ve put down less than 10%. Once you reach 10%, via payments, market forces, or repairs effected to the property, that additional half or full point is dropped. Some states/cities have special programs for first time homebuyers. If you have military service, VA mortgages can be a route to explore.
You may end up buying a real POS, but if you’re handy and dedicated to the task, you can fix it up, reap the returns and move to a better POS. 
Talk to a real estate agent. Good luck.
Look for Habitat for Humanity, they’re near every major urban center. Here’s how it works. You volunteer your services weekends, nights, whatever to help build homes for people like yourself, they in turn help build your home. No down payment, or rather your services are your down payment, and the mortgage tends to be cheaper than rent. Here’s a link to the one in Boston Click own a home to see if you qualify. I volunteered on one of their projects a few years ago, and my Mom was a volunteeer for 16 years. If you’re not near Boston they should be able to point you in the right direction.
Wishing you luck! Here are a couple of thoughts. Around here, the YMCA teaches some classes to help people learn to become homeowners. They may also do this in your area.
I suspect Massachusetts is more expensive than a lot of places. If your job is something that can be done anywhere and you are not benefitting from a lot of family support where you are, your odds of owning a home might be better in a rural area with low cost of living. For example, a state like Kansas or Oklahoma.
Also, in warmer climates mobile homes are much more realistic and popular options. The make a lot more sense when you don’t have to worry about a seriously cold winter. Where I am, in North Carolina, they are very affordable common.
Finally, there are some landlords who do rent-to-own arrangements. From what I hear these actually don’t have a very high success rate, but it is another angle to look at. The idea is that part of your month’s rent gets applied to the down payment when you are ready in the future to apply for a mortgage and buy the house.
Do you have buy-to-let mortgages in the US? You could buy a big house with the explicit aim of letting. The tenants essentially pay your mortgage.
Habitat for Humanity might be a good option for you. They like people who try to earn money, and won’t build for those who won’t be able to pay back the minimal mortgage.
Unfortunately, Massachusetts has a terrible housing market for people with low incomes. Are you willing to move? Western MA is a lot cheaper, but perhaps not as cheap as you would need to go without benefit of government or charitable programs.
Not to be nosy, but how can you afford to live in Quincy on only $1400 a month? If you are involved in some sort of program that helps you out with rent, they might be able to point you in the direction of homeowner programs.
I’m able to live in Quincy but very barely. Rent is $900 a month (including all utilities except gas and, of course, telephone.) So… that leaves about $350-400 left a month. I don’t have a car or anything like that… so I don’t have to worry about other payments. Not all of Quincy is rich. 
You’re a shoo-in for Pell Grants and student loans out the wazoo. Why not go back to school?
Pell Grants – I think you need to be an undergrad to be a recipient of a Pell Grant. And student loans… who wants to add that on top of their already massive debt. Can’t really go to school AND pay for a place at the same time. Unfortunately.
You and your mom have way more experience with HFH than I do (I only volunteered with them a handful of times while in college), but I thought the family was only asked to put in sweat equity on their own house. Are they asked to work on other people’s houses, too?
(Yay, Habitat for Humanity! Great organization. 
)
You just said you have a high school education. Unless you’ve got a college degree, you’re an undergrad.
Student loans are an investment in yourself. You can continue the way you’re going and pretty much make 1400 bucks a month the rest of your life. OR, you can bite the bullet, go to college, live off student loans and end up making scads more once you get your degree. (You’re using debt as an excuse, IMHO, considering you want to buy a house which you’ll certainly go into debt for.) Even after paying back the loans, you’ll come out waaaaaaay ahead. You can pay off student loans over up to 30 years in some cases, and you don’t have to use them exclusively for school. Once they hand the money over to you, you can go blow it in a casino for all they care.
Lots of people live on student loans while in school, you can do it too. Don’t shortchange yourself!
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Hi neighbor!
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There’s been a severe cut in government-funded housing (particularly Section 8) in MA during the past couple of years. You can thank our governor for that :rolleyes: A couple of my coworkers live in the Germantown projects – they’ve been there forever – from what I understand (according to them), the waiting list is 5+ years long.
I’d definitely check out Habitat for Humanity. They just recently completed houses on the South Shore in towns where, at the moment, neither of us could afford to live.
I also believe there’s a program for first-time homebuyers with little or no money down, similar to what another poster mentioned earlier in the thread. I’ve seen them mentioned in the real estate section of the “Ledger” on occasion.
As for how my husband and I can afford to live here? If we weren’t taking care of my mother, I have absolutely no idea where we’d be :eek:
The definition of an undergrad is a “university student who has not yet received a first degree” – I don’t consider high school to be a “university” since you don’t earn a degree. To be an undergrad, I believe, one has to actually go to college. But I digress…
Let’s say that I do go to college… how will I support my wife, and pay for the duplex in which I live, and pay other expenses? I am certainly not using debt as an excuse, I know debt will follow me wherever I go. I’m simply stating the fact that I’ve always felt college to just not be for me, so it would be adding needless debt. Also, getting a degree doesn’t guarantee you a job in the upper echelons of society. In fact, I make more than a few of my college friends. Not by much, but still, they have degrees, I don’t.
Plenty of people don’t go to college and still do well in life. But this is a digression again, this time from my main topic. It is that I’d like to be able to know the best way to get a house, and how long it will probably take me. As well, I’d like to know what the routes are to expedite the process.