OT: Question for all Homeowners!

[BambiLady]

After hearing so many stories (good and bad) of people needing to borrow money for the closing and other people that buy a house and then gutt the whole thing, I am just curious....

How much money did you have left over after purchasing your first home?

If any, what did you do with it - put it in savings or use it towards things for the house, etc?

 

[JMSMommy]

we put 5% down and paid seller paid closing...then we were VERY VERY house poor broke! Of course at the time we bought too much house, interest rates were higher (8-9%)....and well...that was pre-Dave Ramsey.

The current house, we had the sellers pay closing, put down 5% used the rest of the savings and equity from other home for home improvements (like replacing the badly patched carpet and badly patched linonleum, replaced the broken stove/oven, bought a refrigerator since the house didn't come with one and the buyers of our other house wanted that one...not to mention the cream refrigerator didn't match the white and black kitchen in this house). Oh and we had to buy a microwave (this house didn't come with one). Had to pay teh home warranty fees for toilet repairs...then a/c repair...then wiring/electrical repair....feel like we bought "The Money Pit" but it's almost up to OUR standards and we really like the layout.

 

[tikilyn]

We bought our house just over a year ago! We went through a first time buyers program and didn't have to put anything down or pay closing cost. We're not house poor (ok maybe a little but not much). Of course our payment is 926.00 with all taxes and insurance. I think in the end we actually had to pay for the difference in the insureance cost because they messed up the amounts but it was only 500.00. Also our %age rate is 6.0%.

I think we did ok.
Sabrina

 

[EthansMom]

We purchased our first house in Maryland, where there are very high transfer taxes -- had to have the buyers give us $5000 toward closing costs (we paid $5000 more for the house, effectively rolling closing costs into the mortgage). I think we had on the order of $5000-$6000 left in the bank right after we closed on the house. Wisely, we kept that money for emergencies and we only did remodeling/renovations/furniture purchases after we had saved in full to pay for them. We have never taken out a Home Equity Loan and have always rolled all of the equity from one house into the next house purchase.

 

[marcyinPA]

For our first house, we had a "gift" from my dad and the seller helped pay our closing costs. We were BROKE and had no money left....

We sold that one in a crummy market, took a huge loss on it, paid on an interest free short-sale loan to sell it (we had moved out of state and the darn thing just would not sell for a whole year! Finally we were able to sell it but had to do a short sale).

We bought our current house, had enough for closing but not much leftover. We only put 5% down. We are finally in a house that has alot of equity in it thanks to a fantastic market. However, we can't afford to go ANYWHERE! We'll be in this house for quite some time, I'm sure!

 

[littlestix]

We bought our house just over 6 years ago. It was a HUD home and we got an excellent deal. Had instant equity. Our closing costs were minimal but, we were dirt poor. Since then we have managed to save a little and recently did ALOT of remoldeling. Still have a long way to go. Buying a HUD home was a great way for us to get the area we wanted without paying the high price.

 

[PrincessKitty]

We bought our house 12 years ago and put 10% down--we had been saving for quite a while and still had several thousand in the bank after the down payment and closing costs. We immediately put on a new roof, but that was rolled into the original mortgage. Other than that, we've fixed it up here and there, a little at a time. Still have a lot to do, fixing-up wise, but the house has appreciated nicely.

 

[tinaluis]

We bought our first house (we'd previously owned a loft) 10 years ago and put exactly 10% down (proceeds from the sale of the loft) and had just enough to cover our closing costs from the sale proceeds so we didn't have to tap into our savings. The mortgage payment seemed like such a stretch at the time but we've refinanced twice since buying -- the first time down to a 15 year mortgage and the second time down to a 10 year. We're on track to pay it off 2.5 years early and can't wait.

 

[bdcp]

We bought our first house using a VA loan and only put $500 down (1982 interest rates were 15%). We were DINKs at the time and money wasn't an issue. The townhouse was brand new. We're now in our fourth home. It was brand new also, we rolled money from our last house into this one, put 20% down (over 100K) and now have 40+% equity. We had money left over after that one, but with two kids in college at the same time, that's gone. I also paid cash for wood blinds, plantation shutters and good fabric blinds, and custom area rugs. Plantation shutters add value to a home because they're considered permanent so that was a good way to use some of the money. Anyway, most people have nothing left after buying their first home, but subsequent homes they usually do due to equity.