how the hades did you save a six figure deposit?!

[Anonymous]

Bought our first home for 375K well before we had kids in a crappy school district, but close in. Did an 80/10/10 and paid PMI for a while. Kids are now in elementary and we just moved to a 700K house a year ago, and had enough for 20% down plus some repairs from the sale of our first home. You don't start saving for your first home when you have two kids. You start saving for it at least 5-7 years before then. Oh, and you don't buy a starter home for 1M.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:took a VA loan on first house ( thank god Im a veteran) no money down, no PMI sold house made 260K, did this three more times. could have paid cash for house 4 decided to stick with 0 down VA loan because investments will do better than the house

Good call. Same here - VA loan x 2. No DP and no PMI. First house in rural NE produced a small gain.

[Anonymous]

We are now expecting our first child. We live cheaply in a condo I've owned for 14 years, and have managed to save enough for 20% down on a $530K home. If we had kids sooner there's no way we would have been able to save that much cash.

[Anonymous]

Um, we didn't. We got an FHA loan and put down 3%. No regrets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um, we didn't. We got an FHA loan and put down 3%. No regrets.

+1

[Anonymous]

Most people don't put down 20% on their first home in this area, unless they bought at the bottom of the market years ago in 2009-2011ish, their first home was an inexpensive condo, or they have family help for their down payment. People are able to put down more if they have some decent equity after selling their starter home. We put down 5% on our home and it was perfectly fine and our PITI is still quite affordable - we just had to get a loan with a slightly higher interest rate.

[Anonymous]

A six figure down payment makes no sense. A house is something you live in, not really an investment. Go invest your money.

[Anonymous]

Leverage

Buy something smaller with 10% down or less, let it appreciate and then sell it.

Our first house was 300K. We scraped together 30K to buy it. That was four houses ago and currently we owe around $500 on a house worth around $1.8M

Timing is everything. The first house is worth about $100K more than we sold it for 15 years ago and the second one is worth less that we sold it for in 2005.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We started when we were in our early 20s and didn't have kids and lived in crappy apts. It took 10 years.

This but we bought our first home in 1995. I lived in apartment that had no dishwasher or washer and dryer. It sucked but it made it made me save money.

[Anonymous]

You don't need a $1 million home. Take the FHA loan and buy a little place with a yard like the rest of the normal people do. Or move to Ashburn...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you waited until you had kids to start saving for a downpayment that’s the problem.

This.

I'm glad I went ahead and had my DD in my twenties, since I am now I fertile in my early thirties. Fertility treatments ain't cheap, and literally all the women in my office who waited until their late thirties and early forties are going through very expensive ivf treatments, and our insurance options offer zero coverage. Obviously, not everyone who waits has trouble, but the science doesn't lie about declining fertility rates. We had about $15K saved when I had DD at 28. We purchased our townhome when she was three weeks old. We will be here for 5+ years while we save for a sfh, but I'm glad I have her, and wouldn't trade her for any amount of down payment saved.

My friend is doing fertility treatments and said insurance paid for it up to a certain cap. I guess some insurance does cover it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um, we didn't. We got an FHA loan and put down 3%. No regrets.

How are people winning offers in this market with FHA loans? It seems like everyone I know who has bought their first place in the last 12-18 months has been outbid by cash buyers or buyers with conventional financing before finally getting a place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, we didn't. We got an FHA loan and put down 3%. No regrets.

How are people winning offers in this market with FHA loans? It seems like everyone I know who has bought their first place in the last 12-18 months has been outbid by cash buyers or buyers with conventional financing before finally getting a place.

I would assume these properties are in exurbs or less desirable neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, we didn't. We got an FHA loan and put down 3%. No regrets.

+1

+2. That's part of the reason FHA exists. We've also done Navy Federal's Homebuyer's choice loan (in 2013), 0% down with no PMI, but there are loan funding and other fees.

[Anonymous]

OP, it took us years and our combined income was $184,000 back then.