txaggieacct85 said:

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OldArmyCT said:

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A lot of people will tell you to get a 15 year mortgage instead of a 30. Don't. Get the 30 and overpay monthly like it's a 15 if you want but if your finances change you can easily lower you mortgage payment. If you're in a 15 you have that payment and may have trouble re-fi'ing into a 30.

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in 1990 we bought a house and assumed a loan (cant do that now). Assuming cut a lot of closing cost.

Anyway it was an 8.5% 30 year mortgage that escalated to 9.5 then 10.5.

I refinanced a few years later to a 15 year 7% mortgage.

A few more years later to a 15% 6% mortgage.

Then sold the property in 1999 and didnt get have much gain since prices were basically flat back then.

I bought a new house in 1999 for $240,000 and I live in that house now.

I paid my mortgage off in I think 2006 and haven't owed a bank a penny since then.

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2%er/New Army said:

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12thMan9 said:

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txaggieacct85 said:

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OldArmyCT said:

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A lot of people will tell you to get a 15 year mortgage instead of a 30. Don't. Get the 30 and overpay monthly like it's a 15 if you want but if your finances change you can easily lower you mortgage payment. If you're in a 15 you have that payment and may have trouble re-fi'ing into a 30.

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in 1990 we bought a house and assumed a loan (cant do that now). Assuming cut a lot of closing cost.

Anyway it was an 8.5% 30 year mortgage that escalated to 9.5 then 10.5.

I refinanced a few years later to a 15 year 7% mortgage.

A few more years later to a 15% 6% mortgage.

Then sold the property in 1999 and didnt get have much gain since prices were basically flat back then.

I bought a new house in 1999 for $240,000 and I live in that house now.

I paid my mortgage off in I think 2006 and haven't owed a bank a penny since then.

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And all that dead money in your house is earning.... ?

Think of the income you're missing by not using those funds to generate income for you & your family.

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Wouldn't bother trying to discuss anything with that poster. He has it all figured out, haven't you gathered that by this thread?

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Michael Cera Palin said:

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jaggiemaggie said:

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You have the rest of your lives to play house to deal with property taxes, HVAC, water heaters and all the crap that comes with being a homeowner. Buy one of these and travel make memories

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We actually have our feet in the door at an employer located remotely in the mountains so all of that will be right next door. No offense to 99% of TexAgs posters, but the Texas suburban life sucks and we've set ourselves up to get out of it ASAP.

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2%er/New Army said:

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12thMan9 said:

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txaggieacct85 said:

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OldArmyCT said:

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A lot of people will tell you to get a 15 year mortgage instead of a 30. Don't. Get the 30 and overpay monthly like it's a 15 if you want but if your finances change you can easily lower you mortgage payment. If you're in a 15 you have that payment and may have trouble re-fi'ing into a 30.

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in 1990 we bought a house and assumed a loan (cant do that now). Assuming cut a lot of closing cost.

Anyway it was an 8.5% 30 year mortgage that escalated to 9.5 then 10.5.

I refinanced a few years later to a 15 year 7% mortgage.

A few more years later to a 15% 6% mortgage.

Then sold the property in 1999 and didnt get have much gain since prices were basically flat back then.

I bought a new house in 1999 for $240,000 and I live in that house now.

I paid my mortgage off in I think 2006 and haven't owed a bank a penny since then.

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And all that dead money in your house is earning.... ?

Think of the income you're missing by not using those funds to generate income for you & your family.

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Wouldn't bother trying to discuss anything with that poster. He has it all figured out, haven't you gathered that by this thread?

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JCRiley09 said:

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We got paid to buy or first home. Only one of us filed for the Home Sweet Texas grant instead of filing jointly and we were approved. It was free money. We had a slightly higher than average interest rate, but this wasn't a forever home, so that was fine. We walked away from closing with $3000 more than when we started the home buying process.

So look for any first time homebuyer down payment assistance opportunities.

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txaggieacct85 said:

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Huh? I've made over $1 million in the stock market in the last five years

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Aggie09Derek said:

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txaggieacct85 said:

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Huh? I've made over $1 million in the stock market in the last five years

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Was it 5 years or 6 or 7 like stated further down?

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Aggie09Derek said:

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Also…would love to see what you sold in 2021

Was it something had unrealized forever and finally sold or something that appreciated like crazy that year.

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Howdy Dammit said:

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Robinhood is currently offering 4% interest on uninvested money. Might be something to look at.

As far as the house. My wife and I purchased our first home in the 2021 craziness. We were only able to comfortably put down 15%, although I really did want 20. However, PMI is cheaper than I thought. Think we pay 118/month. A few things to note.

1. Our monthly payment was at 25% of my gross pay. This made things very tight since I fully fund my retirement.
2. I'm a couple raises down the road, so being strapped for one year wasn't the worst thing.
3. Furnishing is more expensive than I thought. Was another small down payment.
4. Our house was new, but something always breaks or is needed for the home. Seriously. Every single month we buy or fix something. Didn't anticipate that coming from an apartment.
5. A home is not the investment I thought it was. If you're buying just so you don't miss out, don't. Buy because you wanna be somewhere a minimum of 5 years.
6. Make sure you know what your wife is doing after a baby. Don't buy a house that needs both incomes. Seen several women think they will continue to work, and post baby realize they want to stay home, but can't because of the payment.

Goodluck!

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But for the primary residences I kind of agree. I disagree in the sense of what's the other option? To rent? If you're renting you'll still be paying those costs.

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htxag09 said:

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I mean buying, selling, and moving to 3 houses in 10-15 years has a cost to it as well.

I'm not saying to overextend. But if you're young, don't have a lot of responsibilities (like kids, debt, etc.) and are comfortable with your realistic potential career progression, buying a little more house isn't the worst thing in the world.

I sometimes kick myself for being so conservative when we bought our house. We love it, have been here for 11 years now, and the low mortgage has been a blessing. But if we would have pushed the budget a little to get into a more desirable neighborhood the appreciation would have been significantly more. Like sitting on an extra $200k right now if we pushed the budget by $50k.

And that extra $50k was nowhere near the max of what we were pre-approved for. Plus, within a couple years after buying, my income had more than doubled. So we would have never been house poor.

Obviously, this has risks, like losing a job, an unforeseen pandemic, etc. But there's more than one side to every situation.

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htxag09 said:

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Fredd said:

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I put down the 20% number on a home 4 years out of college. 30-35% of your net worth in your home/real estate is a good goal to keep when you're young. Keep all the other powder in wise investments.

Some people like to brag about having their house paid off: those people may feel better, but are missing out on higher upside of the market or other investments.

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This is a pretty broad statement. I agree with low interest rates it doesn't make as much sense to aggressively pay of your mortgage.

However, someone who's lived in their home for 30 years, has it paid off, and directly rolled over all that cash into investments going forward, is going to be an infinitely better position than someone who keeps rolling over equity into an upgraded house purchase every 5 years.

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Michael Cera Palin said:

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jaggiemaggie said:

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You have the rest of your lives to play house to deal with property taxes, HVAC, water heaters and all the crap that comes with being a homeowner. Buy one of these and travel make memories

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We actually have our feet in the door at an employer located remotely in the mountains so all of that will be right next door. No offense to 99% of TexAgs posters, but the Texas suburban life sucks and we've set ourselves up to get out of it ASAP.

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