to consider buying this house, another house, or paying bills (this is very, very long) - Page 2

[TTLLM]

We've been plugging away at it. It just seems that frequently when our checks are extra great, we also have needs come up such as back to school shopping, furtniture, etc. or things we've been putting off that we decide to go ahead and buy/pay/whatever.

[SuzyLee]

Originally Posted by TTLLM

We've been plugging away at it. It just seems that frequently when our checks are extra great, we also have needs come up such as back to school shopping, furtniture, etc. or things we've been putting off that we decide to go ahead and buy/pay/whatever.

We do that to, and it is fine, but you have to ask whether you want the furniture, etc or the house more? And if the answer is house, get what you need on CL and thrift stores, or do without, and save for the house.

[Drummer's Wife]

I agree - you should not consider buying a house right now. Even if you could come up with 10K for a downpayment, AND you were able to get approved with bad credt, it doesn't seem like a good idea considering your finances. Those are cheap (IMO) home prices, though - but I'd still rent a house, townhome, or apartment if you are going to be asked to leave your current home.

I don't know that's it's been mentioned, but I'm fairly certain that you won't be able to just keep the cash you get from the insurance company for hail damage. Yes, you can opt to not get the vehicles repaired, but since you said you owe $7k between the two loans, you don't own your cars, so the insurance money would go first to the finance companies. We have also had a vehicle with bad hail damage - and the insurance claim meant we were able to pay a huge chunk towards our loan. What happens is the insurance company is likely to decide the cars are totalled (b/c hail damage is pretty expensive to fix), and if you decide to keep the cars as is, you now owe the finance company money for cars that are basiclally worth nothing - or very little. I just don't see the option of using the insurance money for a down payment... unless you happened to have paid-off vehicles.

[kijip]

A downpayment on a 60k home is not $7000, it is $12,000. A downpayment on a 120k house is $20+ k alone. You do not, and will not have the money to buy this or any house right now. Rent, get out of debt and save towards that goal in the future.

[annekevdbroek]

Continue to rent, the smallest place you can, and save for a 20% down payment. The banks have much tighter regulations currently and I thikn it would be a stretch to qualify for either of the houses you describe. Houses have suprising, and seeminly unendedin expenses, - things break, you need a new lawn mower one month, then the water heater kicks out, then a branch falls on your roof, and a pipe springs a leak. It is truely unending at times.

As an aside, it makes absolutely no sense to stockpile if yo have to rent a space at $125 a month to hold all the stuff. You say it is the size of half a semi; you can't possibly use that much stuff before it goes bad/expires/is no longer needed. Getting free/cheap stuff can become such a habit, but really - that money per month could be put to a lot of other uses (not just the money for the storage space, but the money spent on the goods unless they are completely 100% free).

[TTLLM]

Oh, I wasn't talking about my stockpile. My stockpile was significantly smaller while we were in the apartment, taking up just one wall of the dining room space and the linen closet. I was talking about our furniture, off season clothing, home decor, books, toys, etc. etc. We had previously lived in a 3 bedroom home, so to downsize to an apartment where we were living for a year with the bare minimun, we had to store a lot of stuff! We are once again in a 3 bedroom (actually quite a bit larger than our previous 3 bedroom), and have been getting rid of a lot of stuff, but I am also pretty attached to a lot of my stuff, so yeah...need the space.

[Delicateflower]

Originally Posted by kijip

A downpayment on a 60k home is not $7000, it is $12,000. A downpayment on a 120k house is $20+ k alone. You do not, and will not have the money to buy this or any house right now. Rent, get out of debt and save towards that goal in the future.

No, you could have as little as $2,100 for a downpayment on a $60,000 house or $4,200 on a $120,000 house. But even if you have $60,000 to put down on a $120,000 house you still may be unable to afford it. If your income is low and your job unsure you'd better better off putting the minimum down (3.5% recently) and putting the rest of the money in a high interest savings or rolling CDs.

More relevant than having the money for a downpayment, is having a good emergency fund and having enough room in your budget to replenish your emergency fund in time for the next emergency. Housing maintenance does not scale in proportion to the size of your home, so while a new roof for my $300,000 house might be $10,000, it's still most likely going to be $8,000 for a $120,000 house (if the roof is any smaller, which it may not be). We just replaced our garage door. The door doesn't know the value of the house it's going into, it just sits on the shelf at Home Depot with its $160 price tag. The plumber doesn't ask how much our house was before writing the bill to fix a leaking pipe, etc.

The $130 credit card bill you're struggling to gather the cash for would barely cover a plumber visit. And you can't let a need for a plumber wait even a day, because water will destroy your house.

I was talking about our furniture, off season clothing, home decor, books, toys, etc. etc. We had previously lived in a 3 bedroom home, so to downsize to an apartment where we were living for a year with the bare minimun, we had to store a lot of stuff!

If you're going to be in a three bedroom apartment for the next three years while you save for a house and get rid of your debt, how much will it cost you to keep the extra furniture in storage for that long, vs replacing it when you're ready for a house? When we looked at storage between houses it would have been something like $2,000 a year. I could buy a decent amount of furniture for that, especially since I like to buy non-upholstered things on craigslist or unfinished. Recently I discovered this website http://ana-white.com/ where she takes furnitutre from gorgeous stores like Pottery barn and Crate and Barrel and gives you plans to make them for a pittance.

We would never even consider paying $120,000 for this house. We were considering offering him $60,000 if we could get pre-approved for a loan due to its current condition.

But, if you get the house for $60,000, where will the tens of thousands of dollars you need to make it safe and watertight come from?

[cappuccinosmom]

We've been plugging away at it. It just seems that frequently when our checks are extra great, we also have needs come up such as back to school shopping, furtniture, etc. or things we've been putting off that we decide to go ahead and buy/pay/whatever.

This is where having a budget and a plan would be helpful.

For neccessities, think ahead and budget accordingly.

Also, re-evaluate neccessities. Can you get by with a few additions with clothing? Can you thrift shop for what you need? Do you have to spend a lot of money every season on clothes?

For wants, consider what you want more. To get into your own home sooner, or have more furniture and decor in the home you're in. What's more important to you?

[TTLLM]

Thanks everyone for your input.

We got estimates on our cars today. The 2004 is now paid off and we got back $692.XX cash after we gave the check to the bank. We got just slightly under $2000 for the 2001, and I've sent that check off to the loan company also, so now I owe about $3000 to them still. I looked over our bills for October, and we will definately be paying off the credit card during the next billing cycle.

I haven't gotten anything from the landlord telling us we'll have to vacate or pay more rent beginning 11/1/10 yet, and I know he is required by law to give us 30 days notice, si for now I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing as far as renting this house goes. If he does raise our rent, I'll probably start getting a little more demanding as far as getting things fixed around here.

As far as the work that needs to be done around here were we to buy this house, my husband and my dad are very handy. My husband sided my parents' house all by himself a couple years ago. Obviously, something like the roof would need done professionally. I guess we'd just prioritize and tick them off as we could. I mean, the house is livable, it passed a city inspection just 2ish months ago.

I do have a budget, it is just a little difficult when your income is variable. I have a list of things that we need to do and/or purchase at some point, and I also just tick them off as funds are available.

Being a plus size woman with a plus size teenage daughter and a big husband, it's difficult to find used clothing for any of us. My 2 little ones are well stocked for clothes for several years yet, they are easy. I don't mind garage sales, but I am not a good thrift store shopper, I get overwhelmed. I like things to be in order visually, and just don't do well with the massive amounts of stuff in those places. I have very little by way of new furniture, but there are things I've been putting off that I am needing. We've lived here a year and my books are still in boxes. I need to buy a couple bookcases.

Our jobs are stable, just unpredictable by nature. We make $45,000 to $55,000 per year typically. We went without health insurance on my husband and I for about a year, and now we have a crappy policy thru my job which is why the medical bills.

[SleeplessMommy]

Buying on contract is great for the seller, bad for the buyer. Often something happens (like a missed payment) and the seller gets the house back, the "buyer" walks away with nothing. It is usually done for low income people with bad credit, and the house they are "buying" is usually overpriced.

If the seller is lucky, the "buyer" will make expensive improvements THEN default on the purchase .... once again buyer walks away with nothing.

You should expect to have 20% of purchase price to buy a house. I think you need to wait a year or two and pay off debt.