How much money do you have to work with?
Find your basic dollar figures and note them. You’ll be plugging them into the calculator in a few minutes. Before you buy a home, it’s critical that you put together a sound budget. If you haven’t already done that, download our monthly budget worksheet to get started. But for this exercise, you need just four numbers:
$ Gross Annual Income
Include only what the earners in your household can really count on, before taxes.
$ Monthly Housing Debts
What are you paying right now in rent? Would you be comfortable paying more? Comfortable is the key word. Remember that as a homeowner, you’ll need to continually save for ongoing maintenance and repairs, and chances are, you’ll still want to go out for sushi burritos once in a while. Add it all up. You’re paying more than the minimum on any credit card debt, right? (We’ll show you the math on that some other time.)
$ Down Payment
How much have you saved for a down payment? Twenty percent is great, because you won’t have to add mortgage insurance to your monthly expenses. Yet 20 percent is definitely not the norm. Some loan First-Time Home Buyer Programs let you put as little as 3 percent down available.
Ready for Next Steps?
Because you don’t know what you don’t know, and when our Home Buyer Experts work with you, you’ll make decisions with confidence every step of the way.
Remember, almost every homeowner was in that place at some point. Your next step is to make a plan for shifting the balance in your favor. Make a monthly budget worksheet and make a plan to save for a down payment.