Buying a Home

its best you speak to a reputable and experienced realtor. There are many programs for first time home owners if you are in fact a first time buyer

We're planning on buying a house before the end of this year and met with a mortgage company in our area to figure out where we stand financially. The minimum down payment we can put down 4% (So $8,000 if we want a $200,000 house). But any down payment less than 20% will require that you purchase mortgage insurance as well. So the minimum amount you can put it will depend on what kind of price tag is on the house you want. Your credit and annual income will determine the maximum mortgage that you are eligible for. We were also told that closing costs can fall on either the buyer or the seller, depending on negotiation. Sometimes it's more convenient for the seller to cover closing costs by including it in the price of the home so that's one less thing for the buyers to be concerned with.

It depends on your loan. If you're a first time home buyer and purchasing in a more rural area, you could get away with no down payment at all. I would reach out to a realtor and see what recommendations they have.

Our minimum deposit for the mortgage was 3% down, ($9000 for $300k house) and the closing costs came to about the same $9000. However, taxes/insurance can heavily influence your closing costs. Our insurance was $2k more than estimated by the mortgage company. We were able to estimate our taxes accurately by going on the county website, but it can depend a lot on local laws. States like California and Florida have laws to prevent taxes from rising too fast due to house price increase for long term owners, so when the house is sold the tax price jumps up to match the new house value.

Around here it is a down payment of around 15%. Any realtor can help you and see what you are pre-approved for and give you a better idea of what to start saving and doing to get you ready to buy a house.

We started talking to a realtor and went in to see our bank President as soon as we decided to start looking. (Small bank, super accessible president.) We discussed with the bank how much of a payment we were willing to make per month, and the bank estimated things to figure out what our maximum home loan should be for that.
We chose to put 20% down to avoid paying mortgage insurance. We had to pay for a full year of homeowner's insurance upfront. And our seller's were in the middle of what seemed to be a fairly gnarly divorce. After our first couple rounds of negotiations, we knew [were fairly certain] they would take whatever we offered them if we offered to pay closing costs. We also had to pay for a home inspection and an appraisal.

I would definitely talk to someone local - here the closing costs could be upwards of $15,000. plus they usually ask for 20% down payment on the house. It all really depends on the factors of the situation.

Every state is different. I'd call a few lenders and see who will talk to you before they run your credit. I'd have you and your fiance's income, debt, and credit scores ready to talk to them. Colorado has a new home buyer program where you put 3% down (put you pay mortgage insurance). Typically if you don't put 20% or more down, you pay mortgage insurance which makes your monthly payment higher. We were told a general rule of thumb is $500 a month for every $100,000 of the loan - before you pay HOA fees, homeowners insurance, mortgage insurance, and taxes. We personally used a VA loan so we put $0 down. Our closing costs were around $5,000. We paid $800 for an inspection then another $400 for an appraisal too.

It depends exactly on the loan VA,Conventional or FHA ... but most want 3-6% percent. My husband thankfully was in the military so it was a VA with no money down. So like mentioned prior check with your realtor and loan officer good reputable brokers will help to find the best options that will work. God Bless!

Oops should I also mention this is Colorado mind you each state is different...LOL

I think it also depends how competitive your market is. Where I live the real estate is HOT. The housing market here is always on fire and so it's competitive so if you've a lower down payment it's not gonna really work as well in bidding.

I'd definitely talk to a lender about this! It varies by the type of loan you're approved for and the type of home you're buying. I put down 3% when I bought my condo a little over 3 years ago. I had a Conventional Loan instead of an FHA (although, it was my first time buying a house) because the type of condo I bought didn't qualify for a FHA loan. Because I only put 3% down, I've had to pay a PMI (private mortage insurance) each month, but it'll, eventually, fall off based on various things being met.

We qualified (in our area) for a 0 money down USDA rural development loan. We asked for 3% closing help (which we told was standard). We ended up paying 0 money down and $1600 closing. We spent about $1000 on inspections (well/septic/house). And then all the furniture etc. We closed last February and our goal was to have the house stress out of the way before we added wedding stress (seeing that would likely be in the near future). Our house was $270 and our mortgage is about $1670/month @ 4.125% interest.

This is so highly area and situation-dependent that you may need to talk to experts. Also, keep in mind that if you buy a cheaper house that is older and/or a fixer-upper, you may have lower payments but also higher unanticipated costs (keep reading to find out about these!) . We are in a very high COL area and bought a house in a town where the average (large) house is about $450k. When we bought our house, it was the cheapest one listed in town ($250k) but it was an estate sale, it is just under 1400 sq ft, older, needs some work and we were able to chop $10k off because our inspection came back showing that the roof needed to be replaced and the attic was moldy. So we bought the house for $246k (seller took $4k off the price and paid $6k of our closing costs), put down a total of $21,500 plus $750 for inspection and about $1400 in loan costs and our appraisal and took out a $226k loan ($1386/mo including $64/mo PMI and about $300/mo in taxes). Our homeowners' insurance was $1390 for the year and had to be paid in advance, but it was abruptly cancelled about a month later because of the roof. Once we replaced the roof ($11k) I got our insurance reinstated without a problem. Also, our fridge shortcircuited the week after we closed, so we had to shell out another $2500 for new appliances. We also completely redid our bedroom in the first 6 weeks because the carpet was literally glued to the cement (no carpet pad, no subfloor)-- new drop ceiling because it was disgusting, installed a subfloor and carpet pad, ground down and sealed the concrete, replaced some drywall, repainted the entire room, installed a dehumidifier and new trim and replaced all the lights and had it re-wired because so.many.code.violations. DH did most of that himself, other than $250 to a carpet installer to finish installing the carpet and $400 to the electrician, who is the son of someone I work with. Also the basement flooded every time I did laundry, so we had a $700 plumbing bill to try to clear the pipes. All of the above was the first month to 6 weeks we owned the house. Also, my husband is self-employed and massively reduced his hours to do the DIY work. We bought the house in July and still owe about $200 on our appliances and $800 in materials for the bedroom re-do. We have a mile-long list of other repairs that need to be completed, but our mortgage is low for the area.

We purchased a condo in the city, and we had to put down 10k cash in earnest money with our offer, as it was a highly competitive market, and we had already lost out on a few things. This made our offer stronger, and it was then rolled into our down payment. That’s also something to consider when you speak with an agent, you also have to cover the inspection, appraisal etc, so factor that into your calculations, it’s not just the down payment & closing costs.