Home ownership

gihane Posted: Apr 21, 2015 12:46 PM

Home ownership

My fh and I are officially CRAZY we have begun the process to our home ownership!!! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

lilly2015 Posted: Apr 21, 2015 02:06 PM

Home ownership

Congratulations! That's a huge but awesome step, best of luck :)

Vimaheri Posted: Apr 21, 2015 02:27 PM

Home ownership

We have been in the home search for a while now! It is fun and scary at the same time! I suggest really doing your homework- we have found that all the open houses we go to is helpful because we really understand the market. I keep track of houses we possibly would like to make an offer on (but don't) and see what they go for because figuring out what to offer is tough. Good luck!

okellies Posted: Apr 21, 2015 02:38 PM

Home ownership

Just a few tips.

-Always use MLSLI.com to look at homes. The other sites aren't always accurate with their tax information. (especially if the town you're looking in has village taxes)

-Good homes go fast. We learned that the hard way a few times.

-You will end up making offers on a few houses and losing out on many. We lost out on one house by $3,000.

-Get a pre-approval! Most places will not let you look if you don't have this. It shows you are serious about buying.

-Never buy at the top end of your budget. You will run into issues in your future home and it's nice to not be 'house poor'

-Do a budget of what you think utilities will cost and overestimate on these. You want to make sure you can afford your mortgage and utilities every month, whether they swing high or low.

gihane Posted: Apr 21, 2015 03:50 PM

Re: Home ownership

@ Okellies thank you so much for this.
@ vimaheri you are so right.

By the way which town has the lowest taxes?

Jsabbatino Posted: Apr 21, 2015 04:58 PM

Home ownership

taxes will vary by town - as there are a lot of things which influence them (including house specific items such as a pool or apt) so its hard to say which towns have te lowest taxes

NoLiesJustLove Posted: Apr 21, 2015 05:28 PM

Home ownership

Congratulations!!! That's huge. We're going to begin house hunting after this weekend. Ahh!! So exciting, scary and all in between.

gihane Posted: Apr 21, 2015 07:40 PM

Re: Home ownership

Congratulations noliesjustlove. Your wedding is this weekend. I'm excited for you.

allie227 Posted: Apr 21, 2015 07:53 PM

Home ownership

Congrats on starting to look!! Taxes do vary by town - but Hicksville is cheap because they have a lot of industry in the town which helps with taxes.

lostdecoy Posted: Apr 21, 2015 09:48 PM

Home ownership

Best of luck! We've been house hunting for months, we finally put an offer on something almost 2 months ago and that house had EIGHT other offers. Even going above list didn't help...cash offer won. It's draining after awhile - we just want to be situated way before the wedding...would be nice to have a combined engagement/house warming party!

scrubsandheels Posted: Apr 22, 2015 03:44 AM

Home ownership

My FH and I just purchased our first home! We put in an offer and they accepted. We have finalized the contract and are now moving a head, hoping to close next month!

The process can be stressful but everything that okellies said can NOT be more accurate.
Get pre-approved first and really really thoroughly crunch your numbers. Overestimate what your monthly expenses are going to be so that you can safely figure out what you can spend for a home.

Also, its best to have 15-20% down payment and keep in mind closing costs can be anywhere from $10-$20,000 due at closing!! People never tell you that!

And it is true--- the nicer homes don't stay on the market for long!

We bought a great house but now our wedding will be very small. We will figure out our budget for the wedding in the next few months.

okellies Posted: Apr 22, 2015 07:57 AM

Home ownership

Scrubsandheels is definitely right about the closing costs and down payment.

Get to 20% as much as possible. It will save you on mortgage payments each month

And closing costs...ugh what a nightmare. We had to roll ours into our mortgage. Not fun!

gihane Posted: Apr 22, 2015 09:49 AM

Home ownership

You guys are the best! This is so helpful. Now I kinda wish I had not overdone it with the wedding planning. We might have to wait a little longer to accumulate a larger amount for downpayment.
What's killing us is the down payment.

As for the taxes My coworkers suggested looking into queens for cheaper taxes and looking into first time home buyer programs.

okellies Posted: Apr 22, 2015 12:24 PM

Home ownership

First time home buyers programs are very strict with income, I will say. We looked into it and make too much.

As for Queens, don't forget about the Personal Income Tax if you live and work in NYC.

gihane Posted: Apr 22, 2015 03:02 PM

Home ownership

Personal income tax? Wth is that?

gihane Posted: Apr 22, 2015 06:34 PM

Home ownership

So I've found that we too make too much money to be eligible for the first time home buying. The middle class gets NO BREAK.

NoLiesJustLove Posted: Apr 22, 2015 07:57 PM

Re: Home ownership

Posted by gihane

Congratulations noliesjustlove. Your wedding is this weekend. I'm excited for you.

Ty!! I'm so excited. Exhausted but excited. It's crazy how much and how fast money comes and goes. Makes my stomach turn to hear all the prices of houses. But I'm definitely hoping to finally own something. I've always rented, my family did too. My dream is to give my little boy a home he can grow up in and who knows maybe raise his own family in some day.

Niccolina Posted: Apr 22, 2015 09:45 PM

Home ownership

@okellies...you're def rt about not over extending yourself. The the biggest mistake most ppl make.

I'd also add research the school district. This is so important if you're planning on starting a family. I've heard so many of my friends say they were going to move to a better district before their kids started school and none of them did. Look for districts with full day kindergarten and universal pre-k programs. It sounds like its a long way off but time goes by quickly and you'll be happy you did the research.

rcotter90 Posted: Apr 23, 2015 06:19 AM

Home ownership

Definitely do the research!! The family I work for recently moved to Fort Salonga (Northport-East Northport Schools and Northport taxes). They were happy because the taxes were so low but if they did more research, they would have found that Northport hadn't been paying taxes on the LIPA stacks. So their taxes will go up over the next 7 years, and they'll be paying almost as much as they were in Dix Hills. They also learned Npt-ENpt only had 1/2 day Kindergarten. Luckily their son is special ed and got full day this year and starting next year, they'll have full day for everyone. They also do not have inclusion/intergrated classrooms for special education! They also bought on a private road, meaning they have to pay for plowing, sanding and maintenance of the road. There's also no natural gas on their road so they have no choice but to have oil heat and electric stove top and oven. There's SO MUCH to think about and research before deciding on an area.