What do you wish you had been told upon buying your first house?
How did you manage to buy a house (especially finding money)? How much did you spend on your house?
I've been considering purchasing my first home and am curious how much others on the FI path tend to spend on their homes.
Homeowners, how much money did you have in savings (beyond downpayment + closing costs) when you bought your house? How did that work out?
Property Advice / Discussions 🏡
Question from a prospective first-time buyer. :)
To buy a home, I know you need to save for a downpayment, plus closing costs, plus you need to be able to afford the monthly mortgage/tax/insurance payments.
But after the downpayment + closing costs, how much should you have leftover in savings? I haven't been able to find useful/realistic guidelines about this, and I figure the kinds of expenses your emergency fund needs to cover will increase when you own a home.
How did you handle this when you bought your home? Any regrets or advice?
I've already read what MMM has to say about housing, played with the New York Times buy-vs-rent calculator, heard the conventional wisdom about keeping your mortgage < 3 times your annual income. What I'm interested in is anecdata about how much you, personally, chose to spend and how you made that decision. Obviously context is hugely important here so please include as much information as you feel comfortable with re: location, income, FI goals, your net worth when you made the purchase, type of financing used, etc.
I've been considering purchasing my first home and am curious how much others on the FI path tend to spend on their homes.
Homeowners, how much money did you have in savings (beyond downpayment + closing costs) when you bought your house? How did that work out?
Property Advice / Discussions 🏡
Question from a prospective first-time buyer. :)
To buy a home, I know you need to save for a downpayment, plus closing costs, plus you need to be able to afford the monthly mortgage/tax/insurance payments.
But after the downpayment + closing costs, how much should you have leftover in savings? I haven't been able to find useful/realistic guidelines about this, and I figure the kinds of expenses your emergency fund needs to cover will increase when you own a home.
How did you handle this when you bought your home? Any regrets or advice?
I've already read what MMM has to say about housing, played with the New York Times buy-vs-rent calculator, heard the conventional wisdom about keeping your mortgage < 3 times your annual income. What I'm interested in is anecdata about how much you, personally, chose to spend and how you made that decision. Obviously context is hugely important here so please include as much information as you feel comfortable with re: location, income, FI goals, your net worth when you made the purchase, type of financing used, etc.
