Is it completely hopeless? Want to buy home, no down payment.

[Anonymous]

First, the deed in lieu of foreclosure may impact your credit. It will be very difficult to buy a house with that on the record, particularly with no money down.

Second, you income limits you to about 250k, which may be doable in the distant suburbs. But, then, the schools will not be as good.

Third, it is hard to get to Tysons from any direction...I live 3 miles from there, and it can take a half hour.

Rent...live frugally....you get a job....and save.

[Anonymous]

The loan options PP pointed out will work.

Another option - you can buy a less expensive condo/townhouse, condo, or small townhouse in some outer areas like Springfield or Burke. There will be a modest appreciation over a 5 yr span. You can then spend the time saving more for a down payment and combine it with the modest profit you make to move up to a larger house. I did this twice and both times were in the last 12 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go away, spam PP. We don't have any debt.

Some of us reading do though, and appreciated the advice. Restrain your bitchiness op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The loan options PP pointed out will work.

Another option - you can buy a less expensive condo/townhouse, condo, or small townhouse in some outer areas like Springfield or Burke. There will be a modest appreciation over a 5 yr span. You can then spend the time saving more for a down payment and combine it with the modest profit you make to move up to a larger house. I did this twice and both times were in the last 12 years.

This is EXACTLY what we are doing now, including a previously mentioned loan option.

[Anonymous]

If you husband will be traveling a lot, then he can make extra money by staying at the cheapest place possible and eating as cheaply as possible. Save all his per diem money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who said anything about needing to be close in or in Arlington/McLean or in any sort of "most desirable" area? DH works sorta near Tysons with an easy exit to 495.

If 1000 square feet is working well for us now, I believe we will need no more than 1200 square feet. We would prefer a TH or a neat condo to a run-down SFH. Not new, but maybe 15 years old or so. The idea of old, moldy houses stresses me out.
I'm not trying to buy now, I know that's out and makes no sense anyway. I'm thinking/worried about being able to buy EVER. Or at least within the next five years. DH job is stable and we're pretty sure we will be here.
It just sucks SO MUCH because DH and I lived live poor students early in our marriage to save up a DP, all for naught.

Part of the problem is that there isn't a lot of what we're looking for - smaller, newer, maybe in Fairfax/Burke. Most of the newer stuff being built is big and expensive.

Right, because Tysons is cheap. Fairfax and Burke will be out of your reach also, unless you are ok with a tiny condo. Really, you don't have enough income to support a home purchase.

[Anonymous]

Unless you have access to a VA loan or FHA loan, you've got to hunker down and heal financially, OP.

I'm sorry about the deed-in-lieu. We did a short sale on a property, and it was pretty painful, both the experience and the loss of our down payment. We have since bought, but only because we could use a VA loan.

In your case, why not hunker down and save until DC2 is ready to enter kindergarten? Look at the job situation and see if you could find something that would put you in a similar location to DH's job---by which I mean, a job located in outer Fairfax as opposed to downtown DC.

By that time, you can sort out better what will work in the long run, and possibly DH will have gotten some raises.

Hang in there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who said anything about needing to be close in or in Arlington/McLean or in any sort of "most desirable" area? DH works sorta near Tysons with an easy exit to 495.

If 1000 square feet is working well for us now, I believe we will need no more than 1200 square feet. We would prefer a TH or a neat condo to a run-down SFH. Not new, but maybe 15 years old or so. The idea of old, moldy houses stresses me out.
I'm not trying to buy now, I know that's out and makes no sense anyway. I'm thinking/worried about being able to buy EVER. Or at least within the next five years. DH job is stable and we're pretty sure we will be here.
It just sucks SO MUCH because DH and I lived live poor students early in our marriage to save up a DP, all for naught.

Part of the problem is that there isn't a lot of what we're looking for - smaller, newer, maybe in Fairfax/Burke. Most of the newer stuff being built is big and expensive.

Right, because Tysons is cheap. Fairfax and Burke will be out of your reach also, unless you are ok with a tiny condo. Really, you don't have enough income to support a home purchase.

OP here. I do not want to live anywhere near Tysons - yuck. DH works kind of near to there but not actually in it and does not have to go through the worst part of it. Considering he spent 3 hours a day commuting before this, I don't think a 45-50 min commute is that big of a deal.
1200 square feet will be enough for us for our forever home/condo/TH whatever.
PPs are correct here mostly, we will wait and keep saving, and hope that the evil people who caused the real estate mess will get theirs. However, I don't agree that a 70k income should necessarily preclude a family from owning a very modest home. Most of you already own homes and only want to see the value go up, up, up. High home prices only benefit owners. Wherever there are winners, there are losers. We are paying rent - I disagree that this is throwing money away; we do need a place to live after all. But aside from the issue of the down payment, the way most of you are putting it is that it more expensive to own than to rent a similar home, but then why on earth would anyone buy?

We will probably wait until DC2 enters kindergarten. I just realized that's only 2.5 years away (a few months ago it seemed like forever away.) We'll see what, if any, reasonable work opportunities come up for me. I know that would raise our HHI - and our taxes. Amazing, but there are families that only earn 70k with both parents working.... imagine that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you husband will be traveling a lot, then he can make extra money by staying at the cheapest place possible and eating as cheaply as possible. Save all his per diem money.

I've never heard of a govt job that reimburses hotels at anything other than what you actually paid. You can save per diem money for food though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who said anything about needing to be close in or in Arlington/McLean or in any sort of "most desirable" area? DH works sorta near Tysons with an easy exit to 495.

If 1000 square feet is working well for us now, I believe we will need no more than 1200 square feet. We would prefer a TH or a neat condo to a run-down SFH. Not new, but maybe 15 years old or so. The idea of old, moldy houses stresses me out.
I'm not trying to buy now, I know that's out and makes no sense anyway. I'm thinking/worried about being able to buy EVER. Or at least within the next five years. DH job is stable and we're pretty sure we will be here.
It just sucks SO MUCH because DH and I lived live poor students early in our marriage to save up a DP, all for naught.

Part of the problem is that there isn't a lot of what we're looking for - smaller, newer, maybe in Fairfax/Burke. Most of the newer stuff being built is big and expensive.

Right, because Tysons is cheap. Fairfax and Burke will be out of your reach also, unless you are ok with a tiny condo. Really, you don't have enough income to support a home purchase.

OP here. I do not want to live anywhere near Tysons - yuck. DH works kind of near to there but not actually in it and does not have to go through the worst part of it. Considering he spent 3 hours a day commuting before this, I don't think a 45-50 min commute is that big of a deal.
1200 square feet will be enough for us for our forever home/condo/TH whatever.
PPs are correct here mostly, we will wait and keep saving, and hope that the evil people who caused the real estate mess will get theirs. However, I don't agree that a 70k income should necessarily preclude a family from owning a very modest home. Most of you already own homes and only want to see the value go up, up, up. High home prices only benefit owners. Wherever there are winners, there are losers. We are paying rent - I disagree that this is throwing money away; we do need a place to live after all. But aside from the issue of the down payment, the way most of you are putting it is that it more expensive to own than to rent a similar home, but then why on earth would anyone buy?

We will probably wait until DC2 enters kindergarten. I just realized that's only 2.5 years away (a few months ago it seemed like forever away.) We'll see what, if any, reasonable work opportunities come up for me. I know that would raise our HHI - and our taxes. Amazing, but there are families that only earn 70k with both parents working.... imagine that!

Your opinion on the issue is absolutely irrelevant. I don't agree that most companies provide no paid maternity leave, but there's nothing I can do about it. Same thing. There is no way, no how that you can afford a remotely decent home (and you want "newish"!) on your HHI anywhere in the DC metro area, especially if you are hoping for decent schools. I know you don't want to hear it, but you need to focus all of your energy on getting a job. It may not help in the short term, but it will go a long way toward securing your family's financial future. The longer you wait, the fewer opportunities you will have.

[Anonymous]

Take a year to build your down payment to $20k+5k towards closing costs.When you say you want to buy a home I assume you mean a condo! You can buy a 2-bedroom condo for less than $340k in upper NWDC or for less than $300k around Landmark.
Get your credit scores above 700 and go for 5% down mortgage.
Get a job opposite from your husband's work time and save on daycare.You can make good money working in a restaurant on weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I do not want to live anywhere near Tysons - yuck. DH works kind of near to there but not actually in it and does not have to go through the worst part of it. Considering he spent 3 hours a day commuting before this, I don't think a 45-50 min commute is that big of a deal.
1200 square feet will be enough for us for our forever home/condo/TH whatever.
PPs are correct here mostly, we will wait and keep saving, and hope that the evil people who caused the real estate mess will get theirs. However, I don't agree that a 70k income should necessarily preclude a family from owning a very modest home. Most of you already own homes and only want to see the value go up, up, up. High home prices only benefit owners. Wherever there are winners, there are losers. We are paying rent - I disagree that this is throwing money away; we do need a place to live after all. But aside from the issue of the down payment, the way most of you are putting it is that it more expensive to own than to rent a similar home, but then why on earth would anyone buy?

We will probably wait until DC2 enters kindergarten. I just realized that's only 2.5 years away (a few months ago it seemed like forever away.) We'll see what, if any, reasonable work opportunities come up for me. I know that would raise our HHI - and our taxes. Amazing, but there are families that only earn 70k with both parents working.... imagine that!

In a high COL area like DC in addition to having no downpayment, it does mean that. DC sucks that way and I feel your pain. Don't sacrifice your financial future by trying to by a house you can't afford just because you think you should have one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go away, spam PP. We don't have any debt.

Some of us reading do though, and appreciated the advice. Restrain your bitchiness op.

I'm done with the OP. Clearly she has it all figured out despite her train wreck of a financial plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go away, spam PP. We don't have any debt.

Some of us reading do though, and appreciated the advice. Restrain your bitchiness op.

I'm done with the OP. Clearly she has it all figured out despite her train wreck of a financial plan.

I was already done when she rejected the idea of going back to work out of hand.

[Anonymous]

OP here - I have not rejected outright the idea of going back to work. I was just working before the move, and there were a lot of positives but I know there are limitations to what it can do for us. I much prefer having my kids getting enough sleep and proper food. Now DH is away a lot and although we are making friends, but it will be a while before we have a strong support network for backup. I have a bachelor's only and a lot of jobs I've looked at want a Masters' for no particular good reason. I'm not going to just magically go from making 43K or so to 60 or 80. A job, unless it is a really perfect situation, just isn't likely to be a solution in the near term. And I may get flamed for this, but when I did go back to work a year ago, aside from the logistics of commuting and daycare it really wasn't a big deal to get into the swing of things, learn the new stuff and get a very good handle on my work responsibilities, despite having been home for 5 years. (There was WOHM in my department, who'd never taken leave, who seemed to be waiting for me to crash and burn.) I've done it before and I'll do it again, whether it's next month or in 2-3 years. I really don't think I'll become irrelevant in that time frame.

The way people are talking on here it's like they think we want to buy in Arlington or DC or Bethesda or something.
A home does not equal a SFH. It does not mean a dream house, or anything close. Or is that what it means around here? Maybe I'm speaking the wrong language. I just want a place to live. But don't worry, I know it just isn't the time for us now; I've just been venting.

I will be quiet now, and wait and see what interest rate changes do to all your lovely homes' prices.