Taking the plunge!

[Star_Cards]

I put down 20% and if you can do the same I'd recommend it. It gets you out of having to pay for PMI (mortgage insurance). Also, I'd just do a 30 year mortgage, but still spend the same amount total. That way your monthly payments are lower and as long as you can pay extra... do so. I recommend that simply because mortgages are for such a long time... even if you did get a 15 year loan you never know where you will be in that amount of time. If you make one extra mortgage payment a year, that is supposed to cut 7 years off of your loan. Paying extra each month will help you cut that loan down a lot and then if something happens where you can't you still have a much more reasonable monthly payment to cover. The key is to not over extend yourself and make sure you find a home that you can afford.

Definitely do the fixed rate loan as well.

[jlzinck]

I put down 20% and if you can do the same I'd recommend it. It gets you out of having to pay for PMI (mortgage insurance). Also, I'd just do a 30 year mortgage, but still spend the same amount total. That way your monthly payments are lower and as long as you can pay extra... do so. I recommend that simply because mortgages are for such a long time... even if you did get a 15 year loan you never know where you will be in that amount of time. If you make one extra mortgage payment a year, that is supposed to cut 7 years off of your loan. Paying extra each month will help you cut that loan down a lot and then if something happens where you can't you still have a much more reasonable monthly payment to cover. The key is to not over extend yourself and make sure you find a home that you can afford.

Definitely do the fixed rate loan as well.

This is sage advice. Go with the 30/yr and make extra principle payments equal to what a 15 yr loan would be. This way if something unforseen happens you can scale your payments back.

PMI blows.

Buy the worst house in the best neighborhood. You will be glad you did.

[Star_Cards]

I'd also like to add thoughts about the fixer upper option.

Buying a home that needs some work is a great way to get a property a bit cheaper and build some sweat equity, but if you do plan to go that route be sure that you will be able to do the work yourself or pay the right people to do it. A lot of the fixer upper shows on TV make it look easy when they fit it all into one tidy hour long show, but if your house needs a lot of work it can become a burden and add to your stress. Unlike at work when there's stress you can;t just simply go home. If your house is in disarray it can become hard to relax and not feel like you should be working on it in every second of your free time. If you don't consider yourself handy and don't really enjoy that sort of thing I wouldn't recommend buying a fixer upper unless you want to just contract all of the work.

[McCallum12]

The people that suggested getting a 30yr loan are correct. Get a 30yr and just pay on it like you have a 10 or 15yr loan. Just on the off chance your income shrinks, the required amount each month will be low, or lower than what it would have been if you had a 15yr loan.

[Yanksfan396]

Very good advice, guys. Thanks a ton!

[shortking98]

I'm 22 and about to close on a condo this week so I'll try to help coming from your perspective. 10% is a decent amount to put down but you will find the cutoff is usually at 20%. If you can make 20% there won't be PMI which is a plus. If you are under 20% you will either have to have good credit to get PMI from a private insurer or go with a government loan which will cost a little more. Now is a great time to buy with low prices, low interest rates and for people like you and me, an 8k incentive waiting from Uncle Sam. However, you still have more leverage in negotiations than sellers right now so remember that when making offers. And of course as everyone has said, do your homework and don't overextend yourself

[OnePimpTiger]

Being married helps only in that you have two incomes paying for it instead of one...less strain financially. If there's a good chance you may be moving elsewhere with your gfs job, I probably would wait. Having a house for a year or two and then selling usually doesn't work out great...factoring in the closing costs, you have to ask more when you sell than what you paid for it and, especially in this market, the appreciation isn't enough to cover that.

I would definitely definitely definitely go with 30 yr mortgage. Most likely you won't be there long enough to pay it off even if it's only 10-15 years. Of course if you do pay more per month on a shorter loan, you'll have less money now (higher payments) and more when you sell (loan principle paid down farther). I'd rather pay less on a house payment and have that money available to spend or invest now.

[Star_Cards]

Agree. If you don't see yourself in the house that long there's no practical reason to buy. I've always heard that you need to stay in a house around five years before you'd see enough equity to not have it be a loss once closing costs are added in.