Pros:
Lots of homes to choose from. Interest rates are still good. If I buy before July 1, I can take advantage of the $7500 first-time home buyer credit (realizing that I do have to pay back over 15 years). I have lots of money saved up – the price range I’m looking in, I figure I can put around 26% down for a down payment yet still keep a nice cushion left in my checking/savings combined. I have a stable, full-time job with good benefits. Even in the case something bad were to happen, there a lot of jobs in this area with my skills. Oh yeah, and I plan on staying in this area. I may be single, but so far a husband isn’t even close to being on the agenda. I have crunched the numbers and once my car loan is paid off, which I should be able to pay off early with the help of the $7500 (in 3 years instead of 5), I figure I should be back to having a monthly “savings” (income-expense) of more than I do now.

Cons:
The economy — despite my good, financial situation, people tell me I should still wait — at least until after the election, maybe longer. I’m in Madison, WI, by the way, one of, if not the highest, priced area in our state, but not nearly as bad as CA or anything.

What does everyone else think?
Yes, I do have excellent credit history. As for the car loan, the way I see it, is I can wait 5 years to pay that off and then buy a home and who knows how much homes will cost then or what the rates will be, or I can use the $7500 from the first-time home buyer credit, to shave off 2 years worth, and be in an even better financial situation than I am now, after it is paid off in those 3 years. Oh yeah, and I am renting now – I have been renting for 4.5+ years now.
Oh, btw, the car loan is a 5 yr. 0% interest car loan. I did it that way instead of paying the whole thing down, so that I wouldn’t make a huge dent in my savings, and wouldn’t severely affect a down payment for a home in the future. Besides, the home I’m currently looking at is well maintained, has newer windows, roof, siding, etc. and for the first year of ownership, I would still be able to save 25% of my after-tax income – it would only increase after that. I’m simply afraid that if I wait, and home prices increase, interest rates increase, it’ll cost me more in the long run.

i have bad credit but over the last 6 months i have paying off all the collections and it is almost @ a 0 balance

after this i want to get a secured credit card since i wont be able to get a normal one

after having a secured card for a while i would get a normal one

and then obtain some loans and pay them back maybe just take a loan out and not even use th emoney besides for paying the loan back?

all this will help my credit right??

my problem is saving money right now.. any tips or tricks?? what is a good % to put a way
??

any head games you play with your self to help you save?

will my plan with the credit help me @ all

thanks much

I want to buy a home thats between $10,000-$29,000 but no one will give a loan for under 30,000. any ideas?
My girlfriend and i are trying to purchase a home in south west florida for under 30,000 and we found the home that we want to purchase but the mortgage comp. that we’ve talked to wont give out a loan that is under 50,000.

we have about 2,000-3,000 for a down payment and ny wife has bad credit and i have little to no credit. we’re both in our early to mid twenty’s and we have a 10 month old that we want to give a better home and better neighborhood.

is there anyone out there that knows what we can do to obtain this type of a loan under these situations?

with bad/no credit and a loan for under 30,000 dollars.

To all that read thank you for your time on reviewing this.

Thank you ALL and god bless

I took out a loan from my step father who in turn took out a loan from 2 banks. His credit history allows him to buy homes and rent them out. So having an opportunity to go ahead and save myself almost $500 on overpaying for a rental property I decided to purchase a home. With economy the way it is, I found myself a phenomenal deal. A town home that was originally sold for twice that much and was in foreclosure. One of the incentives of course was the 8000 home buyer credit. When I first heard of it, my step father had no comment as program had just presented itself. So now.. almost a year later when its time for my taxes I cant get him to provide me a 1098 form which would allow me to fill out my deductions. When I did my deductions through Turbo Tax they came out to a greater refund than standart deduction but only by a few more dollars. So when I asked my step father to provide me with that information he said that I should just stick with standart deduction as he has no time to work on taxes now. (That’s coming from a guy who fills out taxes on April 14th and always mails them in late). Now me.. being the good boy have always filed for tax return the second I got my w2 form and all appropriate paperwork. This year I got 2 papers from my college loan lenders as well as my w2 but behold I do not have my form for the house loan. I do have a very nice paper that came to me from my realtor that outligns every single payment and tax and fee for the next 30 years. Paper came from PA and is called Amortization schedule.

My step father, I think, either does not know about the first time home buyer credit or knows about it and plans to file under the new program getting 6500 or whatever it is now all for himself. I am terrified to even bring this up in a conversation because me and him have a very uneasy relationship and everything to do with finances comes out to him requesting that every extra dollar that I make going straight to repay my loan. Speaking of which I have 3 college loans. One is through him and yet again he does not want to provide me with 1098 even for that. Its been like that ever since i graduated college. I strongly suspect that he is claiming all those loans as his tax write off for himself and of course the entire family with exception of myself since I moved out in 2002.

So here I am with an opportunity to get a tax refund of 8600 but I do not have 1098 form from him. After speaking with H&R block they advised me to file a regular tax refund and do an ammendment to that which would mean that I get 600 now and 8000 after the ammendment. Unfortunately though an ammendment is a paper that requires that dredded 1098 form meaning that I can not get the 8000 if the auditor at irs considers that my Amortization Schedule is not enough. I can not afford to not get this tax credit. I just cant. Every single penny that I would have gotten from this return would have gotten to pay for my home taxes, home owner association fees, Community District Developer fees, car registration renewal+insurance and home insurance. All of that is coming up in the following schedule.
3100 for taxes and HOA needs to be paid asap
CDD in amount of 1826 needs to be paid asap
800 Home insurance will need to be paid on April 30th
Car registration and renewal needs to be paid on Feb 26/March 30th in amount of 720

That totals to 6446 that I MUST pay without ifs buts or ands. I do not have that much money. I might be able to scramble that much by next year but with today’s economy where everything is going up in price every day.. I cant afford to make any more cuts in my budget, I already cut out 500 dollars by reducing my entertainment and food rations to a low low budget of “barely”. This year I lost 16lbs because of malnutrition to save an extra few dollars to pay for living expenses.

Total amount that I wanted to pay out in 1 short February comes out to 6446, I have 500 in my bank so with 8600 refund I was hoping to get my taxes out the way and set aside some money for next year’s taxes. As you can see I NEED this tax credit to get my life back into shape. I am a very responsible person who is very conservative with money. I have a great job but in today’s economy its just that much harder to keep moving forward.

I was wondering if I could “squeeze by” the IRS tax auditor with just the Amortization Schedule. From what I
Thank you for continuous feedback on this. This situation is weird in all aspects of it being weird. I do have HUD statement and all other paperwork. In every single document it lists myself as rightful homeowner and seller as a completely unrelated individual. That individual is person who’s property has been foreclosed on. My step father’s name is different and nowhere in any documents it shows any relation of him to me. He is also not a previous owner of the house so his role here is a solely as a lender. You are right in mentioning that interest paid did not matter much this tax return. I have come up to a difference of 10 dollars that I can live with. So since we established that 1098 is not required I am safe to file my tax return correct?
Thank you tax lady.
I wish I could explain this in terms that are simple but on condition of anonymity this is not as easy. Let me try anyways. Lets say that my name was ohh I dont know Mike Jones. On every single paper it shows Mike Jones as guy who bought the house and is paying loans etc etc and ONLY owner. Also in many documents it shows John Johnson as lender and all over the document it lists Stacy Petersen as previous owner and seller. There is no mention of the Bank on my side but there is also no mention of relationship between John Johnson and Mike Jones. None whatsoever. I have read IRS documents time and again and it says that I can not purchase from a family member or relative… true I have not purchased from either. There is a little mention of co-signer and it says that if I had a co-signer I would still be eligible for tax credit. I hope this clarifies a couple of things.

I truly appreciate all the feedback. Thank you guys.
To add to the above. He was not technically my co-signer since he never co-signed anything per say. He is just a lender as far as purchase of the house is concerned

I share a 2-br condo with a friend. My friend owns the condo and charges me $965/month all included. He also carries a real estate broker’s license so he will be assisting me with the home buying process.

I discovered a great condo near my current location which I believe I can get in at under $240k parking included. Assessments around $150/month. I am very familiar with the area and its real estate market and this will be a good home for years and a great rental property after I’ve moved on.

Now onto the bad stuff. I have roughly 14k in debt spread almost evenly across 2 credit cards and 1 loan. I have reduced this from 20k in the last 6 months.

Given my debt/credit/the market/income/first time buyer programs is this a good idea at this time?

Thanks in Advance for your Answer ,