Just went house shopping

[carcrazyguy]

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My wife and I just got back from looking at houses where she was accepted to med-school. HOLY COW..... a fixer upper by the school that was 940 sq ft was ...ASKING 195000. We searched as far as 10-15 miles out from the school and found homes that needed a lot of work in the 70-80k range. I guess I am still wondering how we are going to make ends meet now. I know she will most likely get a few student loans. But I am still wondering how much of that, we could use towards rent-house payments? I know that we where trying to get close enough to the school that my wife could walk to school and not buy a car. But it is going to be cheaper to "buy", not rent a house, and then buy a car and commute to school. I will be glad when August gets here and I can quit stressing about these things!

 

[Amy B]

ok, I can hlep you here seeing that we just did this.

I just bought a house. The lender used ONLY my husband on the loan, because I am not working and only bring my loans from undergrad to the table. The loan will be in his name only, but the house deed will be in both of our names.

You can use theloan money after you get the loan to pay for the payment, but the lender will not let you count the money as usable income, so you will have to qualify by your salary alone. Or not let them know she will be in school and you will lose her salary. That is if she is working now.

It is rough. I always thought lenders would want to help out future docs, but that was not the case I found.

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[carcrazyguy]

That is what we are doing. We are going with a 5 year ARM loan. However to get a good house it is still nearly a $1000 a month. That is not what we had hoped for. Anyway I am sure that things will work out.

Good luck to you also!

 

[Ryo-Ohki]

940 or 1940? Are you house shopping in CA?

 

[carcrazyguy]

NO it was 940.....NOT 1940. And it is in Fort Worth Texas!!! I love the school and the area but that is a little steep for a med-student and her husband.

 

[Ryo-Ohki]

There are several good houses in Ft Worth, TX under $200K like this 2300 sq. ft. one.
http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/Hom...282F05C0CD9C&snumxlid=1034423194&lnksrc=00002

You must have bought a shack in an extremely good location.

 

[carcrazyguy]

Originally posted by Ryo-Ohki
There are several good houses in Ft Worth, TX under $200K like this 2300 sq. ft. one.
http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/Hom...282F05C0CD9C&snumxlid=1034423194&lnksrc=00002

You must have bought a shack in an extremely good location.

We have not bought anything yet!! However anything over $90k is WAY OUT of our range. The payment on the house you posted would be almost $1600 with taxes and insurance. Not to mention how much your utilities would run in that monster. They had over 100 days last year the temp was over 100 degrees. Anyway we are looking in the 70-80k range. Not much out there!

 

[Ryo-Ohki]

Not much of a selection with only $90K budget

Although you can take $10K out of your IRA w/o penalty if you are using it for your first home purchase...

Spend the money to get a nice house, it's worth it.

 

[carcrazyguy]

I wish I had 10k in an IRA!!! We are poor folk from West Texas! We will be doing good to get moved to Fort Worth much less buy a house! But it will be worth it in the end!


My goal for the next four years is to

LIVE as cheap as we can and still be happy!!
Have fun when we can.
And enjoy every second we can be together!!!
And then try to save more money/live cheap!!!

 

[mpp]

If you are on a tight budget, a house might not be the best option. Especially an inexpensive older house. What is something terrible goes wrong with the electric or plumbing or roof or kitchen appliances such that you'll need to come up with several thousand dollars just to keep the place liveable? You might just want to look into renting or buying a townhouse/condo for which you might spend a bit more but not have to worry about shelling out any large sums of money. Buying the cheapest house in the neighborhood could become a big money-pit mistake.