Checkpoint: a New House Readiness

  CheckPoint: A New House – Readiness
 
 
My fiancée and I have been talking about buying house. We wanted to buy one before the first time buyers credit was no longer valid. What we were looking for was a three bedroom home that had a nice size front yard and a big back yard. Location of buying a home plays a major factor in the process. The distance between jobs of both parties, is it a good neighborhood, is the school system at the standards you want your child to attend. Then you have your doctor’s, dentist and shopping centers.   Another aspect is how much the house will cost and what you need for closing costs.   Money is the first major part of home buying. Can you afford the mortgage payments and the taxes each year?
For us in purchasing a home, we have to have a room for the exotic animals that my fiancée sells, a room for the office were I will be keeping all records and household expenditures and three bedrooms.   Making sure that we have a nice size backyard is so our dog has room to run around, having a garden, picnic table set and possibly a pool. Having the school within walking distance has to be one of the key factors. As most kids in Philadelphia take public transportation, I don’t want my child to be one of them.
At the end of March of this year, we had the money for the down payment, but we need to have a co-signer for the loan. My soon to be father-in-law would be our co-signer, but purchasing a used vehicle had to come first as my car was totaled in the beginning of that month.   So putting aside purchasing a house at this time had to turn into moving out of the apartment and renting a house.
Finding the right mortgage rates versus how long the loan is for needs to fit into your budget.   The benefits on having a home is that its yours, you can do whatever you want with it.   The costs of owning a home is that you need home owners insurance, fire insurance, the upkeep of anything that needs fixing. Basically having a nest egg for emergency...