We have had some inheritance. It’s in stovksxas well as low interest savings

For us it was equity we got when we sold the previous home. We didn’t have a large sum of cash for our first home (I think we started with like 5% down on a 400k house for our starter)…. So that first dp was just saved up in a bank savings account. When we sold that house in spring of ‘21 years ago we had 200k equity that we used for our next house purchase. Now a year and a half later, we have over 300k equity. We aren’t going to upgrade at this point but we could and we’d just roll that equity into the next purchase and so on and so forth. I think this is probably more common than people saving up massive sums for a first time purchase. Either that or peoples parents are rich and overly generous and give them the money.

Anonymous wrote:First time buyers who are normal do not have $100k+ for a down payment. Your typical first time buyer is putting 5-10% down. For a $500k house that's $25-30k. That's not too bad. Stories of people putting 20% down that equate to $100, 200, 300+ k are from people who got help from mommy and daddy or who built equity up.

Wrong. I saved and put down $150k. I bought my house all by myself. I am proud of it.

Banks. Multiple accounts so we don’t go over fdic limits.

We put down $200k and it was from savings account, mutual funds and other standard investments that were pretty liquid. Both in biglaw at the time and had savings.

It’s equity. 1st house 10k down payment. Sell for 300k profit. Used that as downpayment for next house. Luck.

We lucked out and bought in DC in the late 90s when no one wanted to live there and cashed out 13 yrs later with nearly $500k (I know!) in equity that we used immediately to buy our next house. We were still paying off student loans at the time, had kids in daycare, and had zero help from parents but we were very lucky that DC became “hot”.

Have a bunch in a HY savings and a decent amount in the market.

First home was about $60k from stock that DH accumulated from his job.

Second home was about $300k+ from home sale and $100k from Tesla stock that I bought pre-squeeze.

For our first purchase (2012) we borrowed from 401K, scrimped every penny, etc. For the two subsequent purchases since, we used equity from the home to fund the purchase of the next home.

I'm not sure, but the first three houses I bought were through HUD and required absolutely no money down. I never had family money and my first apartment in the 90's when I was 19 was $410/month and it had a fireplace and it was beautiful. They raised my rent to $450 and I said, I'll just buy a house before I pay that. They were sh*it shows and I worked on fixing them up and then saving up the profits from selling them to keep moving up to better houses, which I am in now (and was a fixer upper but I could likely now sell for triple profit, but truth be told, I sold my eggs to a fertility clinic to raise funds for renovations). I went to Home Depot courses and learned how to do a lot of stuff - putting siding on myself, flooring, bathroom remodeling, taking out walls, etc, but I didn't have kids back then. It would 100% not have worked doing that if I had a kid/kids to look after. I just saw my second house on the market and was so stoked to see that the siding I installed by myself is still on it and looking great. Those Home Depot DIY classes are great. If you don't have family money and don't have kids, buy rehabs and fix them up while you live in them! LOL, one of the houses I bought didn't even have a toilet and I had to go to the McDonald's down the street to use the bathroom until I took the class at Home Depot and was able to install a toilet, and also new tile flooring.

CDs or savings accounts depending on where we got the best interest rate. If you're in VA, there is a first time home buyer saving's account tax break so you don't pay interest on the savings account. I wish I'd know about this earlier. It wouldn't have made a huge difference, but every little bit helps!

Anonymous wrote:We put $200k down on our first home. It was in a combination of savings, bond funds, and stock. As we got closer to the time we wanted to buy, we progressively moved more and more into cash.

For our 2nd home purchase, which we closed on before we listed our 1st house, we sold stock and used our emergency fund. When the other house sold 2 months later we replenished the emergency fund and put the remaining proceeds against the principal of the new mortgage.

I have put 10% of my income into an employee stock purchase plan for the last 20 years and other than selling to diversify, we have sold shares only 4 times - wedding, IVF, house 1, house 2.

We put $200k down on our first home. It was in a combination of savings, bond funds, and stock. As we got closer to the time we wanted to buy, we progressively moved more and more into cash.

For our 2nd home purchase, which we closed on before we listed our 1st house, we sold stock and used our emergency fund. When the other house sold 2 months later we replenished the emergency fund and put the remaining proceeds against the principal of the new mortgage.

Interest bearing CDs.