Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with buyingahome

How much good credit do I need if I want to buy a house in a few years?

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:54:25 -0800

How much good credit do I need if I want to buy a house in a few years? Hi, I'm a student, graduating in a year or two. I don't expect to have trouble finding low-paying salaried work ($20,000-$30,000) in my non-profit's field. I am in my mid-twenties. Up until a year or so ago, I had no credit. Then the housing market crashed, and I realized that I may want to be able to take out a loan to put toward a house in a few years. So I got a credit card. It initially had a $500 limit, and is now up to $1400. Once a month (always on time), I pay off my $35 phone bill through this credit card.

$1400 is nowhere near enough to buy a house! Lenders look at how much credit I have (and have had) available to me when they decide whether or not to loan me money for a house, don't they?

I could take a $5,500 interest-free student loan out and put it in some sort of online savings account or CD, then pay it back before I had to pay interest on it. (Speaking of which, do you have any good socially-conscious suggestions for either of those?) Would this make any sort of significant improvement on my credit as it will be looked at by potential lenders in a few years? Would it make more sense to just get a second credit card?

What other suggestions do you have?

I am in California for school, planning to move back to the Pacific Northwest in a couple of years.

Many thanks for all your answers.

Should I buy this home in a transitional neighborhood?

FlamingBore — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:55:42 -0800

I'm looking to buy a house. I live in Denver's Baker neighborhood and I'm a looking to stay in the area. I've been looking for about two months and I've let two places slip through my fingers that I thought were great... One went in a heartbeat and I needed to get my head around the amount of money they wanted - it was lovely, but more than I was prepared to spend at the time. The other was expensive for the location and had a few challenges, but great overall. I put in an offer of what I thought it was worth to me. On the same day (after 30 days on the market) there were two other offers presented - I was the low one.

Now I've found my dream. Truly, it's stunning. It was gutted to the studs and finished amazingly well. The problem is what's next door. There are five low/small former rental units, three of which are currently on the market for sale at just $48k. They are currently sad little places with no landscaping and just generally kind of a ghetto feel to them. The rest of the block is ok, not great, not horrid. There is one other home that's clearly been recently renovated. Gentrification is slowly moving through the neighborhood - and I'm seeing positive signs of several real estate agents buying and flipping recently.

The home is at the top of what I want to pay, but it's a great deal on a per square foot basis. The reality is that my agent and I both agree that if not for the place next door this property would have been gone within the first week on the market. It's been on the market for nearly three months.

Have any of you bought into transitioning neighborhoods - how did you fair? How likely do you think these little places are to be improved? Am I stupid for falling for this place?

What do you wish you would have asked?

elquien — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:50:01 -0800

What questions do I NEED to ask during the inspection of the home I just bought? Also, what questions should I ask the seller/seller's agent during the inspection? I have an agent representing me, but I just want to make sure we ask all the important questions.

Buy a home, make no money

amarynth — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 11:53:45 -0800

Does it make any sense to buy a home if you won't be able to get any equity from it for 30 years? Housing costs in my area are insane. There's a county program in which builders offer a certain number of new units at a discount price if you meet the maximum/minimum salary requirements. As an example, they offer one bedroom condos that sell at 400-500k for 150k. However, the programs controls don't expire for 30 years, so if you want to sell it, you have to sell it back to the county (presumably for more than you paid for it, but obviously far less than it's worth), you cannot rent it out, and the only equity loan that you can get is based on the county's resale price. If you stay for 30 years, you can make a mint, but how often do people do that?