I think you should first speak to a mortgage person at a couple of good reputable banks nearby and get a better idea of how financing works when buying houses. You don't usually just go out on your own and 'get a loan'. There are parameters that are followed to assure that you're qualified to buy and by how much, so you don't end up being short (nor does the bank, of course).

Do you realize that your P & I on a $100,000 loan will only be about $600 per month? I don't know how much your property taxes and insurance will run, but I wouldn't hesitate to get into home ownership sooner rather than later considering the relatively high rent you are paying.

Talk to a banker (or two or three). Remember, many times closing costs are paid by the sellers. And furniture can wait. If you qualify, start looking.

I would only hold off on buying if I had credit I was trying to repair, or I wasn't sure if I would be staying in the area.

For the price point you're talking, I would get into a house sooner, not later. My advice is to stop paying off someone else's mortgage, and start paying off your own.

I would be surprised if real estate agents see many buyers looking in the low 100K range with $20K down.

They'll roll the red carpet out for you. :)

Do you belong to a credit union? Other than that, talk to the Bank. And start monitering this site on how to buy a house. No ajustable rate loans, only fixed rate, do not take the mortgage company a RE agents seems to want you to do, and start looking. Check all fees, to see if you have to pay them, and are you a first time buyer? Lots of information and rates for first time buyers--go to open houses, sign nothing, ask lots of questions, keep notes, take pictures, look at neighborhoods, ask friends, and you will make a good decision.

In addition to the advice about talking to bankers, I would also start looking soon so that you can get an idea about what's out there, what the housing stock is like in your price range, and you can figure out what you like and hate in homes. The next few months will pass alot quicker than you think.

If you have to be out at the end of July, that only gives you 4 months. While I think it's a good idea for you to buy sooner rather than later, don't rush and settle for a house because you're on a time crunch. It would be better to pay the month-to-month fee for a short time than it would to be in a house in which you wind up being unhappy.

It isn't wise to rush into high level purchases, especially when it's a house. Only buy when you find the right one.

Having said that, start looking now. By the time you get a feel for the market, you will have an idea what you're looking for an in which areas.

Go to Open Houses on weekends. Register at real estate websites to get listings emailed to you that fit your parameters.

And when you put in an offer, don't forget to write a house inspection into the contract. Don't go with the inspector the realtor recco's. Start researching now on those. Ask friends who have bought homes to see if they were happy with their inspector.

Interview realtors. Don't go with the first realtor you talk to and don't sign anything! When you go to OH's, the realtor will ask if you're working with a realtor, tell them you are so that they don't start bugging you are lay claim to you.

Have you pre-qualified with a lender? Shop around for rates and get a feel for what the rates are doing.

If it's possible, since a 100K loan is about $600/month, you may want to consider putting 20% down so that you can avoid PMI - mortgage insurance. That adds up big time and is an added expense to your monthly mortgage payment. If you put 20% down, you save all that money.

Don't get into an ARM or any type of creative financing. Just look at 30 year fixed mortgages.

Thank you for all of your advice!

Right now, we're clearing up one thing on my husband's credit, and then we'll talk to some bankers and get idea of what we look like financially to get a loan for a house. And, sparksals, we definitely will not get into a house just so we can stop paying rent. I'm VERY picky, and it might be awhile before we find something that suits our needs. But, I think it's better to start sooner, rather than later, based on everyone's advice.

And definitely will go with traditional types of mortgages (learned too much from recent news, as well as people in my own family who went with ARMs).

Thanks again!

"we made together over 72K last year"

I'll bet that between that and the $20K down payment some banks will prequalify you for a $200K house. Of course, you shouldn't be fooled into thinking life would be good with a mortgage payment that high. If you stay under $130K there are a lot of good homes in the area. (I'm just west of the area you're looking in.)

mfbenson: I definitely agree that we would probably qualify for a larger mortgage! However, my husband is still in school, he somewhat recently got a new full-time job, and hasn't been in school this semester, but his previous job said they would work with his school schedule when they hired him, and then let him go (even though he was a great employee) because they couldn't work with his schedule. Which is why we're looking at homes in the $115K range, because, if it happens that his new job won't work with him, then I may be the one paying the mortgage for awhile (which is fine, since I make about $20-25K more a year than he does). Since this is our first house, and he's still in school, we don't want (or need) to overextend ourselves.

Once he gets his software engineering degree in a few years, THEN we can look at those $200K homes. ^_^

Well, I HATED renting. I hope never to have to go back to renting. Ever. I hate it! I hated sharing walls with others, hating putting up with others' noises, hated padding my landlord's pocketbook, hated not owning a piece of the American pie. So I'd be inclined to buy sooner, rather than later. But I agree that you should not rush into the single largest financial investment of your life. Take your time, look around, get a good handle on pricing, find a good loan, find a good realtor, etc. You could definitely start looking. It likely will take a while before you find something you like and can afford. Good luck!

Your husband is still in school, and the real estate market is not at the bottom yet. We just kept renting until my husband was finished with school. It kept the pressure off him and let him graduate. Owning a home is more than just the difference in payments--if a leak occurs, you or your DH have to fix it. There are unexpected assessments (we just got a bill for undergrounding utilities). Keep your life simple till he gets out of school, suppose he is offered a wonderful job when he graduates --someplace further from where you live.

And, sparksals, we definitely will not get into a house just so we can stop paying rent. I'm VERY picky, and it might be awhile before we find something that suits our needs. But, I think it's better to start sooner, rather than later, based on everyone's advice.

It took me 7 months to find a house. I walked about 50 or so used houses, then every new housing community in 3 counties, which was a good 100 houses. We drove by others and ruled them out due to location.

Well, I HATED renting. I hope never to have to go back to renting. Ever. I hate it! I hated sharing walls with others, hating putting up with others' noises, hated padding my landlord's pocketbook, hated not owning a piece of the American pie. So I'd be inclined to buy sooner, rather than later. But I agree that you should not rush into the single largest financial investment of your life. Take your time, look around, get a good handle on pricing, find a good loan, find a good realtor, etc.

I grew up on the bottom floor of a 2 family. It helped my dad get the American Dream. The problem was, the house was original when he sold as he came from a poor country and did not believe in "wasting money" to update as everything worked, nor did he have a lot of time to do things due to working 5-7 days per week.

Your husband is still in school, and the real estate market is not at the bottom yet. We just kept renting until my husband was finished with school. It kept the pressure off him and let him graduate. Owning a home is more than just the difference in payments--if a leak occurs, you or your DH have to fix it.

Depends on where the OP is. Some markets did not have an increase so it may not matter if they wait to buy.
After what I went through, I would get out there asap. There are a lot of houses for sale in most parts, it takes time to cover them all.

Yes, owning a home everything falls on you. With my truck driver hubby, something always happens the rare times he drives the roads. I've dealt with storms & tree branches as well as not having water due to the softener being clogged. A few months ago we put out $7,000 on a new furnace.

Not knowing what you can buy for the amount you are looking at, decide if you want an updated house or good mechanicals like newer roof, furnace, upgraded electric, central air, etc. I know someone that purchased a house they did not move into until 6 months after buying it as it needed floors redone, the master redone plus other cosmetics. The master had been torn apart by the original owner, so this was a must for them to live there. They then moved in to have all sorts of mechanical problems, water heater, electric. I see a heating/cooling truck there now, don't know if they are fixing something else or doing central air.

I can't stress enough to sign up on every site you can find, even the local smaller sites to get email updates. One site gives addresses in the emails where it may not say so in the listing. This site has been very helpful to me.

Good luck. It's a good time to buy a house in most areas.

marge727: I appreciate your advice, and it does make sense. However, we don't know when he'll be graduating at this point (there are many issues that I won't go into here), so it may be 2-3 years before he does, and I think that for what we're looking at, a house payment will be much lower than our rent (which, will be going up in price if we decide to renew or go month to month). Also, I have a degree and have been the "breadwinner" for the last several years, so there's really no pressure on him (except for me telling him to finish ^_-). But, again, thank you! It's refreshing to get another side of things.

roselvr: Thank you for your comments. Many years ago, after having lived out of the country for several years, my mother looked at over 70 houses here before she settled on one she liked, so I know it can take a long time. I'm looking more for something that has been updated recently (mostly concerned with items like roof, hvac, water heater), so that my hubby and I don't have to do a lot of work. There are some things I've seen online that I really like, so we'll see what's out there whe we do look. Question, though, on the sites you mentioned about updates -- did you do this just to see what was out there?

And I know there are things we'd have to take care of that we currently have a landlord for (but seeing as the service here takes forever, and they don't always fix things right, besides a mold problem that's affecting my health), I think getting a house is the right decision, as long as we approach it wisely (which is why I seek advice from all you lovely people!)

It never hurts to see what's out there - whether you have all your finances in order or not. LOOK - see what's out there. See what your money buys. See what you like and don't like. (when I first started looking I had to have a cape, a cape, a cape! As I started looking, I realized I DIDN'T want a cape! Land was more important to me.. just saying YOU figure out what you like and don't by LOOKING). Start looking now - as said above, it might take you 7 months to find what your looking for... could take less.

Wish you luck.

Ordinarily I'd say get out of renting and into your own home -- especially as you say the rental has a mold problem! I'm hesitant because I don't know three things: Where the economy is heading as a whole; Whether your area's RE market will stay strong or drop; Why your DH is doesn't go H-bent-for-leather and get the darn degree. (I can say the last bit because this so reminds me of our own DS.)

How about moving to another (non-mold) rental for a year until some things look clearer in the crystal ball?

Chisue: No one knows about the economy! As for the market in our area, Texas has actually been one of the few areas where it's been fairly stable, interestingly enough. The degree thing is SUCH a point of contention -- I know he wants to be done with school, but software engineering is proving to be more difficult than he thought, so he might be switching majors, which might prolong that graduation date. *sigh*

Anyway, as several people have mentioned, it doesn't hurt to look, right? And, I have a feeling that once we talk to some bankers and maybe start looking, we might get a better feeling of how things really look to be for us.

roselvr: Thank you for your comments. Many years ago, after having lived out of the country for several years, my mother looked at over 70 houses here before she settled on one she liked, so I know it can take a long time. I'm looking more for something that has been updated recently (mostly concerned with items like roof, hvac, water heater), so that my hubby and I don't have to do a lot of work. There are some things I've seen online that I really like, so we'll see what's out there whe we do look. Question, though, on the sites you mentioned about updates -- did you do this just to see what was out there?

We were selling and buying, so I watched what came on the market in areas we wanted to move to as well as what our competition was.

Where I am is a lot of starter houses, military people so we aren't talking about large expensive homes. My area seems to have been built up in the late 60's & 70's so there is a lot of paneling, either wood cabinets from the 70's or some have the ugly laminate from the 80's.

With the house we are in now, we chose to remove paneling from walls as well as faux brick. We chose not to touch the kitchen or bathroom as they are two personal choice rooms. I've walked many houses where I wouldn't buy them due to the updates they chose. Our one particular bath we chose not to do more then floor, counter, toilet & painting the wood vanity, is very large and could get redone many ways. Same for the kitchen, new floor, counters but the cabinets were fine due to them being restained a honey maple a few years ago.

We've put the bulk of our money into things that our neighbors don't have, central air, furnace, roof, upgraded electric; things that ended up going within one year on the house next door which had an updated kitchen using builder grade cabinets. We could have easily done the same update but as my new neighbor is finding out, paying for the kitchen would have been cheaper then having to do the stuff I listed above, which are things they are now going to do.

Our competition may have the builder grade kitchens & baths but most don't have central air and still have paneling in most of the house. Thankfully for us, it appears our choice paid off and we're now under contract with 3 offers coming within 2 weeks. We almost had a bidding war but hubby and I were fine with the price we ended up with and picked which couple we thought loved the house better and had the conventional mortgage.

If a house works for you and has a functional kitchen / bath but not the latest updates, I'd tell you to go for it as you can easily do those things later on to your tastes. Having to fix the mechanics of the house when they break is the pits, so the newer the better IMO. You can plan for updates but can't plan when something will go.

roselvr: I HAVE seen several places (online) that have been completely redone that I thought "who told them THAT looked good?", so I agree with you that "aesthetics" aren't as important for some things -- cabinets, for example, and like you said, can be repainted/restained, etc. But I know that those big items are something I want fairly recently updated, because if I want to re-tile a floor, I can probably do that fairly easily, but if I need to replace the roof or the water heater goes out, it's not really something *I* can do myself (and will cost a lot more).

Again, thanks for your advice!

You're welcome. Good luck