Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

I personally would not, but I am not in your situation. there are many mortgage calculators online. I would plug in some #'s and see if you can afford the monthly mortgage payment and taxes.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

i know how it feels to want to move that badly. i feel for you.

from the little that i know, this is what i have to share (some of which might have already been stated):

credit is getting really tight right now. it's even harder to get sub-prime (which is where you are, since you're not putting anything down). the other side of that is that there are a lot more houses out there because no one is buying.

as a new homeowner, i also have this to share... owning your own home is a wonderful feeling, but it's not all fun and giggles. in the first two months, our bathroom sink was clogged, the dishwasher needed to be prepaired, the dryer died, and the dog had enough accidents that we have to take up the carpet in the family room. i'm tired just remembering it all.

just know it's a lot of work.

i'm not trying to talk you out of it, i just want you do it with your eyes open so there aren't any surprises.

oh, maybe you can look into a private sale. you might be able to get a seller to finance you. i don't know all the details of how that would work, so i'd advise that you do a lot of research on that.

i wish you the best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

fm me if you just want to talk and vent about the whole thing.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

What about getting a condo or a co-op which in some cases would be less than a house - this way you can still make an investment.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

We just bought a house in January and it is a lot of work. Hidden costs pop up everywhere and you just have no idea how much money goes into owning a home. Our mortgage is large because we put only 5%. It is very scary and I don't know that I would recommend doing it with no money down. Especially with the way the market is today. We had no idea what we were getting into. Don't get me wrong; I love my house but thinking back I might have gone smaller and cheaper if I knew what I know now.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

I understand your frustration, but you can have crappy, inconsiderate neighbors when you own a home too. If you can afford huge mortgage payments, why not sock that money away and buy in a year or two?

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

if you can afford it and can get the mortgage, then there is nothing wrong with no money down.
I don't really understand why people are saying you shouldn't put no money down because there will be expenses when you move into the house... what does putting anything down have to do with it? If you put money down, then you don't have the money available to you anymore.
The biggest thing is that if you don't put anything down, it will take more time to build equity. Banks like you to put money down because they feel then you have something in the house and then you won't run away so fast if things start going sour. But who would do that anyway? If you can afford the payments, I don't see any problems with doing 100% financing. Like others said though, it is much tougher to get these programs.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

I think it is NOT SMART AT ALL!

We put down a nice chunk of cashdown and our mortgage is almost 3k a month! think about how much it would be with no money down.


Why not look to rent something outside of the "ghetto"

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

I would not purchase a home with no money down.... your mortgage payments would be very high. Try and save some money ..good luck!

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Personally, I wouldn't do it because the mortgage payment would be too big for us to handle.

We saved for five years for our first house, and we put a lot of money down. Even so, the mortgage payment is still high because our taxes keep going up.

Best of luck to you!

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

I agree it's better to put off buying a house until you can put some money down. There are a lot of additional expenses you may or may not anticipate, closing costs, attorney fees, plus unexpected repairs. We had to put down $2400 to do some emergency electrical work at our place already, plus we know we need to spend some addtil. money on other repairs. The electrical was kind of a flukey thing and one the inspector didn't turn up, so this sort of stuff happens.

I do sympathize--I lived in an apartment that flooded when it rained heavily and I had next door neighbors who thought nothing of blasting music at 2:00 in the morning on weeknights. When I started getting mice and a group of 20 something year olds started drinking on the street at night, I had had it. I did wind up finding another rental, in a quieter building/area.

I would really suggest looking for another rental. Also, have you talked to the people upstairs? They may not do anything, but if they know you have a new baby, maybe they will try to calm down their child. Does your building have carpeting rules? You could also contact your landlord about that if the people above you have none.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Girl, I feel your pain, truly I do.....I rented an apartment in Patchogue for 3 years and it was an absolute nightmare. I had the downstairs apartment and I had the most INCONSIDERATE neighbors that you can imagine. Late night parties during the week, music blasting from the tenants next door, you name it. I used to blast my TV just to attempt to drown them out. It was a DAILY occurence and I dreaded going home. The management office couldn't have cared less, either (I made several complaints). I also called the cops and they told me they couldn't do anything about it. I was in tears MANY TIMES.

I finally couldn't take it one more day. I broke my lease (I took them to court to get my deposit back and I won) and moved into my mother's basement apartment. DH and I stayed there for about one year and with the money we received from the wedding, plus money we saved, we bought a home in NC. We had about 10% to put down.

My advice would be to move to another apartment -- one that is much quieter or a top floor. As much as it is stressful to move and you said your DH doesn't want to, you may have to in order to preserve some of your sanity. Then save every nickel you can for a down payment.

My heart goes out to you, I know EXACTLY how you feel!

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

I feel your pain...when DH and I first moved in together, we had the worst neighbors! They would make noise at all hours of the day and night and they were completely filthy...to the point that our apartment became infested with mice and roaches. We weren't ready to buy a house at that point, but we had to get out of there because the conditions were so unbearable. We wound up finding a great apartment and then were able to save enough money in less than a year to buy our house. It stinks to have to keep moving, but I think you owe it to yourself and your new little one to find a better apartment until you can afford a house. I hope it works out for you.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

I feel your pain...I rented an apartment in the "House of Hell" with the "Devil Children" and the 1.3 years we were there was pure torture. Between the husband doing carpentry work at 1am (in an old house with no insulation) to the children running around screaming at all hours of the day/night. It was torture.

That said...I would think strapping yourself down to a hefty (jumbo) mortgage with no money down would be even more torturous.

I would reconsider looking for an apartment in a different area and just savesavesave and purchase a home when you can put some money down with money in the bank.

Good luck

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

oooh, personally, I wouldn't do it. Depending upon the loan conditions, you may have balloon payments to make-up the difference between the house value and your principal amount, if the market declines (which is likely). you'll also have to pay for mortgage insurance.... another expense.

Why not just move into another apartment, and at least save 10%?

Message edited 8/27/2007 11:42:24 AM.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

I think the whole name of the game is trying to pay as little interest over the long term as possible. We are lucky enough to be putting 20 percent down and we still want to try to cut the length of the mortgage down to 20 years instead of 30. Over the entire length of the mortgage it works out to over 100,000 saved because you get a better interest rate.

Someone above suggested trying mortgage calculators and playing with different scenarios. I think this is an excellent idea. At first we wanted as low of a mortgage payment as possible so we were going to do 30 yrs but when we looked at what we would be paying out over the long term it was tough to not go for the 20.

If you make a plan it might be easier to live there knowing that every day you are contributing money for a new home and have an end goal in mind. Of course only you know your situation and what is right for you. Good luck!!

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Message edited 8/27/2007 3:44:45 PM.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Message edited 8/27/2007 6:37:46 PM.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

Message edited 8/27/2007 6:45:42 PM.

Re: Would it be wise to buy a home with no money down?

I would not do it. I'd surely find another apartment first.