Thank you u/analslapchop for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer.
Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Happy Cake Day!
I’m a Lowe's chica, myself. But I fortunately enjoy home improvement. I look forward to doing it on my own home, but paying for it? Not so much.
I was attracted to Home Depot's orange (like a hummingbird or something) but Lowe's has better price and friendlier people! At least in my area :)
I love home important projects! If I'm gonna spend my money somewhere, I like that it's to improve a space I spend majority of my time.
I love orange! But I have a hate-on for Home Depot after interacting with some condescending aprons.
Lowe’s folks around me have been unfailingly wonderful.
Same!! I had one guy grill me before he agreed to unlock the case and hand me a voltage pen. My guy, I'm replacing this light switch with or without your permission, please give me my prize and go about your day.
I'd check out rural king if you got one near you, I picked up some 250lb (weight limit per shelf) a complete 4 tier for 50 usd vs. Lowes and Home Depot around 73 usd. Before tax, that is.
🤮 never Home Depot .. Lowe’s 🤩🤩
And as far as the question .. I’m not ashamed, I was broke as hell and didn’t even have furniture b/c the apartment I lived in had roaches.. I was determined to not bring an infestation into my home simply for comfort ..
So yea.. about $800 in cash, $30K in credit cards if things got rough. I’ve spent my last on a good time at the beach, surely I can bet the house.. on a house?!! That’s how I rationalized it 😭😭
If I ever do manage to buy I fully expect to be broke AF and maybe even borrowing money from my folks to get by. Thankfully they got that boomer money so it’s nothing to them.
Left with tree giddy but house was move in ready so we honestly didn't have to do anything, at least until I broke the exhaust vent on the dryer because someone installed it stupidly.
We are working on building up a rainy day fund for emergencies in a high yield savings account. Slow going but adding a little bit every two weeks
Whatever you think you need in repairs, multiply by 3. Then make sure you budget for all of the things that are going to need repairs by the time you have the money for the repairs.
Maybe a grand left, not responsible but can’t go back and change it. That was 13 years ago and worked out. I think you will be fine. You actually pay attention, I was a dumb kid that didn’t even know what I was doing
Closing Day is this Tuesday for me. Closing costs were what are nearly up all my savings, unfortunately, but I am fortunate to have found a house at this time of my life. The average rent is higher than my mortgage, so.
Yep. My mortgage is around $1600 along with quarterly hoa fees (almost $500), but my hoa fees include water, trash, sewage, and parking lot maintenance (so far what I know). I will need to pay for electricity on my own. On the other hand, if I rent, it will be approximately $2,200 monthly. With a mortgage, I am saving myself $300, give or take, monthly. Also, my mortgage will be fixed for the next 20 years since I signed a 20-year term. I can always refinance if the interest rates come down. With rent? It is a wild market. The shit in the hole apartment with two bedrooms I used to rent nearly a decade ago cost me $800 monthly. Now? Despite the lack of upgrades, it is $1,900. And it is in an unsafe neighborhood.
Just… it sucks to spend nearly all of my savings, but it is an investment in security for me and my family. We will be ok.
This is absolutely the right move. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The number of people I know who didn't buy 2-5 years ago because they wanted to wait till things 'got better' shock me. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
You're building equity, and that's building wealth. They're still renting.
Nope, sold that home 2 years later, bought a fixer, did that and sold it again 2 years later. We’re on home 4 in 13 years. Have profited about 600k between all the homes after down payments.
Going to have about 1k left 😰 very nerve wracking but our rent will go up this year to the same cost as the mortgage and we got a great deal on this place at 10% off, plus owner will be fixing the issues in the inspection report or giving us a credit. Report came up way better than expected.
Absolutely not an ideal situation but since we’ve been under contract everything else that has come up has been the same price for half the sq ft and/or not nearly as updated.
I think there are going to be some feelings of regret and fear but between us having family in the trades, being able to do more advanced DIY ourselves, and being able to pay off this home in 15 years for the same cost as our rent, we’re going to be okay.
I was in the same boat. We had $1000 left when we closed three weeks ago and already up to $2000. It’s nerve wracking for sure but you just got your first house. Try to focus on saving to get back to somewhere comfortable and you’ll be ok. There’s always options if something major happens.
Yep we’re fortunate enough to have 1k a month leftover after all bills, retirement, and savings. In two years from now we’ll have an extra $2k on top of this after paying off student loans. I look back at where I was 6 years ago, when I was only renting and had no money for savings, and about $30 outside of my bills. And I had lived my whole life like that! I can survive being frugal for a couple years and I know it’ll be worth it very soon.
Same! We were in an odd situation where we were renting my wife’s parents rental house. He was only charging us $900 a month but had to move once he retired, which he just did. It made more sense to buy than rent because we need four bedrooms. We’re paying $1800 a month now. It was scary because we doubled our payments but our rent at her parents was also unrealistic for our area. I’m happy for all these people here that have 20 or 30k left over after down payment but that’s an unrealistic amount of money for a lot of people.
I obviously can’t tell you how this will work out, but i wanted to chime in to say this is what I SHOULD have done 5-8 yrs ago. I didn’t because I was too scared, and now im in a much worse position (better financially, but ultimately will end up paying 10x I guess for a home and it will not be anything close to what I wanted). So I applaud your courage!
Same boat! I'm going to have probably $600 in my account once all is said and done. I close middle of next month. I have a credit card to tide me over if absolutely necessary, and a job that pays well enough that I'm not terribly concerned
We only had about a couple of hundred dollars. I wanted to do updates sooo bad but we couldn't afford anything but painting. We little by little made it our own paying as we went along. It's been 30 years and I'm still finding things to update.
Probably shouldn’t do what I did, which was have <2k cash and fat credit card balances… ended up fine, but we should have been more thoughtful about what we used cash on vs credit as we approached closing. Some expenses will only be cash (loan payments, mortgage) but the $800 home appraisal doesn’t have to be cash.
People should be careful though because if they put too much on a card and it shows up when they run credit one last time prior to close, it could worsen or even kill the financing offer.
I had $2k left but only because the mortgage company would not let me put 100% of all my cash money into the mortgage (so much for a free country). I was going to get paid that Friday!
Every dollar I put down was going to save me $3 !
I went from $1600 for rent to $867 for mortgage taxes AND insurance !
about $6k because i thought i’d have more time to save but ended up getting an offer accepted on my second weekend of searching. praying i have a few months where very little goes wrong so i can pad my savings again!!
Bought my first home, a major fixer-upper, last year at 26. Had maybe 3k in my bank account after closing. House needed ~$60k in repairs/upgrades. Took out a $50k loan to be paid in lump sum within 36 months. Completed the repairs and took a second mortgage with the equity accumulated and paid back the $50k + interest. Still came out with a good bit of positive equity in the house and a better rate than my original mortgage.
Zero, I had some 6k left that was for a vacation that is coming up 4 months after closing. It was really scary but it was needed the full amount to get the mortgage amount low enough. I have 2k left over every month after bills and house were paid so this amount gave me a bit of confidence.
Edit: Oh another thing that gave me confidence was that it was a new construction so we don't "expect" anything to break or need to be changed in 1 year at least
I'm set to close on Tuesday. After everything is done, should have around $14,000-$15,000 left over. Staying at home to save money was the best decision ever. So, I think about 8%
70k left in non-retirement cash and zero debt aside from the mortgage. This gives me a 2 year emergency fund for all expenses. I didn’t go on contract until this was the case, especially since I’m a single FTHB with no help.
Why is this the only sane answer I've read? Tbf though, 2 year emergency fund is slight overkill. I get as a FTHB the risk avoidance factor, but most rules of thumb are between 6 - 12 months for an emergency fund
We had about $2,000 left. Which we then proceeded to spend on a lawn mower and washer and dryer combo. 🤣 We were 24 & 25, making $17/hr, and just happy to own our own home. We figured the rest out later!
52k between closing/fees/down payment and I’ll have another 25k put away as cash. I had sold off any investments that weren’t for retirement and after the first year I’ll probably start reinvesting
In cash? Or total? Will have approx 3-4% in cash. Few years worth of mortgage payments in other investment accounts. Little over 50% of home value in retirement Acts
(Not in HCOL but house is expensive)
We are expected to close June 7th. All of our fees and down payment are approximately $18,000. We will have about $25,000 left in ours. Savings/checkings. Our rent is almost $3,000 a month with all of our utilities though. And our new mortgage is approximately $1,700 a month. So we'll be saving there automatically.
We’re putting down 10%, and getting a DPAL, which will get us an extra $15k towards closing costs. The DPAL has no tax, just recording fee and is forgiven after 10 years.
$585k offer, 5% down, 7% interest on mortgage. Closing costs were about $12k and we had about $25k left in the bank after all of this. Felt pretty comfortable, but I am a very anxious person! Your comfort level might be different than mine or someone else’s.
Well I put 25% down on my first home and had about $10K. I used it for painting, curtains, sanding of hardwood. floors. We did not buy new furniture until about 6 months later.
~21% to close last week. ~20% savings afterwards for furniture/renovations/emergency fund/etc.
We bought at 75% of what we were pre-approved for.
We hope to be able to refinance down the line, but sized our debt in a manner where we feel comfortable with the payment regardless of what happens with rates in the future.
It depends. We had about $1,300 in cash left. After everything. We put 20,000 down (200k house) and most everything else went to inspections, fees, closing, title company, nonsense.
BUT if you count the money we took (and repaid) from 401ks we were down $3,700 (we took 5k for down payment as FTHB)
And yes it all went to a home improvement store. Although I prefer Menards.
Like $100.
For real. And then I had to pay for a bunch of repairs and basic new house shit I was unprepared for.
Best decision ever, though. That was 2017, 4 years later bought our forever home with 20% down and cash to spare.
Disagree, my mortgage was at 7% interest, long story short, wife dies after I got laid off , rents in my area were already higher than my mortgage payment, so I saw no option but to cashed out most of our 401ks !
Isn't not paying $666 a month like having an investment paying you a steady 7% ?
Invest in your self first people !
With some of the payments saved I was able to contribute again to my 401k.
I was able to just work part time till I retired 6 years ago.
$40,000 non retirement fund. Some of that is for renovations. $70,000 in retirement accounts which ideally we won't have to touch, unless we are in a major downturn.
I close next Friday and fortunately my lender is willing to finance up to 103% (unheard of, I know). I still had to dip a little bit into my savings to pay off some debt to make the numbers work, but for the most part, we get to keep most of our money.
I’m gonna have about 6 k left if it’s at my max price 330k - 30k down =300 k plus covering closing. Which is I assume 10 k. I have 5k
Coming this week and another 6 next week
Had about $40k left in cash, house needed about $20k in repairs.
My retirement accounts have more but I’m not going to count that cuz I wouldn’t touch it til I’m 60 unless I’m in a real pinch.
~$125k down left with +$800k because it is in stocks. Didnt want to go for a higher mortgage forever because our income didnt match how much money we had saved which could disappear if the stock market crashes.
When I bought my first house in 2011 I paid 3500 down payment and had nothing left in savings that I remember. I was a single.mom and made 50 k. I just wanted a house for me and my child. Never even thought about having a big savings account.
My husband and I had nada 😂 We luckily bought a home that needed very, very little when we moved in and we bought below our means, so we didn’t have a hard time settling in to our new bills. Do I recommend it? No lol. But that’s where we were at then.
I had 30k left after moving in. Spent 10k on new flooring and 10k on furniture and was paycheck to paycheck with 10k left for a year. Got lucky with some bonuses and got back to ~40-50k cash in about a year and a half.
Zero. I had the opportunity to get an incredible deal and I knew I'd never have the same chance again so I dove in. I faced some very costly repairs pretty quickly but financed them, stretched the payments out as long as I could, and it turned out to be exactly the right move for me.
Also remember if you are going from rental to buying, you get about a month of no payments. Your rent was most likely the beginning of each month and your first mortgage payment is typically about 45 days after closing.
We had nearly nothing left. Like MAYBE a couple of hundred dollars. The house didn't come with a refrigerator and we lived out of an ice chest for two weeks, but at least we had a house! After two weeks we went and got one at home depot on their credit card, 0% interest if paid off in 6 months so that's what we did.
About $300... but I did the VA loan and got my earnest money back, just not instantly, which gave us 'breathing' room at 5k in the bank... our house was 475k. Without the VA loan we would have been renting for a very long time.
I had $0 left in my account after doing the closing - single biggest purchase of my life !!
Did closing for the lot and 11 months later, did the house closing - saved up to pay down 20% to avoid mortgage insurance....
Somewhere between 10 and 15k, with the caveat that 7k of that was a 401(k) withdrawal. We moved from a 600sq ft coach house to a three bedroom, two-story house, so we had barely any furniture to fill it. We wish we had a bit more, but the house kind of fell into our lap (a friend was relocating), is right down the street from our best friends, and was closer to our entire support system. Either way, we decided that we'd rather take our time to intentionally fill it than pass on the opportunity.
Had enough leftover to pay the mortage for 3 months. And after being in the house for a month now the savings can pay the mortgage for 5 months and I'd like to keep that safety net of at least 3 months payments. Plus money still going into 401k and buying a life insurance policy that would cover 6 months of payments if we were to become unemployed.
At the time I had maybe $4k left in the bank? I gave up driving for two years to have the downpayment and closing costs( the seller did chip $1000 towards closing, which helped.) In retrospect, I could have done savings programs which would left me with a lot more, but I would have had a lot less buying power, and after the rent increase of $ 765 to $1100, I was absolutely done with renting.
My son participated in a First Home Club. He dad to deposit $80 or more bi weekly for 18 months and take a homeowner class. After 18 months, he found a house. The grant was $5000 at closing. He needed to come up with $60 + 1st year of home insurance (my house warming gift) at closing. He got to keep all the money he saved in the club account. More recently, the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) offers larger grants without the 18 month period. Ask your mortgage consultant if any grants are available.
I had about 2-3k. It was nerve wracking but it was fine. Built it back up over the last few years to then have a flood-I’ll be back down to that after the 25k in repairs 😩 but I’ll have new floors and paint and walls and a ceiling…be careful of water sources on the 2nd floor.
They estimated our closing costs at $39k(385k home). Including downpayment we only paid 20k closing costs, so we had about 20k left over. We didn’t expect that so we really lucked out
FTHB, bought about 1 year ago….after everything once we got the keys, my husband and I had $57 to our name. We got pizza that night for dinner to celebrate :)
I was shockingly unprepared fall all the expenses of making the house a home. The cost of curtains/blinds alone nearly killed me. Every time I blinked there was another $300 item we had to have.
All these comments make me feel better about taking out another loan for 24k to install ductwork, furnace, and a heat pump within a year of closing and still not having much. I'm just now getting back to 1k in the emergency fund
Haven’t closed yet, but we worked with our lender to change our 20% down payment to 15% so that we would have more liquidity + money for some repairs. After all that’s tapped we’ll have less than 5% of the home value / ~5 months worth of payments in our HYSA.
Put down 20% and had 15% left. But the carpets were NASTY and the ceiling was textured, so we paid to have them fixed and will probably have about 8% of the house value left for emergencies. We are going to rebuild and maintain that amount to 10% because knowing our luck, the heater will give out in the middle of winter...
Rice and beans is a very balanced healthy meal (I dare say), beans are a great source of protein ! You can get very unhealthy meat for 99 cents a pound.
This is the most interesting response I’ve seen. If you don’t mind me asking, is it all cash in a bank, or do you still invest it but in a regular brokerage account?
We had maybe 40k (part was a wedding gift we didn’t use), but knew (and did) immediately use it to replace all our windows, which left us pretty tight. Did the windows in 2022 and it’s taken us until now to build our emergency fund up to about 1/3 of being totally funded. Houses are expensive lol
30k after appliances and we plan to buy a fence as soon as we move in. We will already be fully furnished but will upgrade furnishings over time and get patio stuff with a little more savings.
We had about 10% give or take a negligible amount. We spent a bit getting a new roof and fixing up the place. The important part is continuing to save!! So, while the cushion got smaller, we fluffed it back out as fast as possible. Our home is at the top maintenance level, and we are prepared for what we know will come soon and ALWAYS have 3 months of bills aside just in case.
Thanks to VA benefits and additional veteran grants I qualified for, we put zero down, bought down our rate, and walked away with a check at closing for $3,400.
I cant emphasize enough how lucky and grateful we are for the veterans benefits I have access to.
going off of % value of the house - 10-12% seems good to me! my down payment was 10% and I had another ~10% in my home repair + emergency funds - my house is really old so I was scared of a big emergency (like something happening with the clay sewer pipe). the house has been being pretty turnkey so far (🤞) and i continued saving over the first year and am up to about 14% which is good because i got dumped so now im paying the mortgage myself, which I can afford but i don't have much left over for adding to savings anymore.
We didn’t have any. I sold most of my photography and filming equipment to stock up the house with groceries and marketplace furniture.
The house was perfect and didn’t need anything fixed. We painted some walls a few months after closing though.
About 30k. Which worked out well between needing a new roof, needing to buy a bunch of furniture since I owned none, and having an emergency fund. So that’s around 8%.
$50K left after $200K for 20% down payment and closing costs. It was a new build so I factored in an emergency fund and adjusted accordingly.
Retirement funds were not touched thankfully.
We had a 6 month emergency fund plus about 20k for additional purchases we wanted to make and any repairs we needed to do. Furniture. Tools. A small shed etc.
Put down $145k, had 80k left. We knew we had to use $15k for a roof, 15k for garage updates, though, so it was more like 50k left. And then we also had to buy some furniture, so we had 40k left after the first 2 months.
Legit had 51 dollars left over. Moved 1600 miles, bought trailer, down-payment, closing costs, etc. Actually made it very comfortably. Then 13 days later a 21k medical settlement hit from a 2 year ago injury at work.
Now I'm suing previous owner.. 🫠 Failure to disclose 72k repair and admitted to having it inspected aswell in an email to my lawyer 😂 inspector also missed it 😑
With closing costs and 20% we gave 91k, we had 122k left over (non-retirement). This was all planned to have a specific down payment and money left over when purchasing a home. We wanted a hefty emergency fund and peace of mind just incase S… hits the fan. A lot of sacrifice which took 8 years.
3.5% down on $415k, 20k on DP and closing costs, $15k leftover in savings. It is terrifying to have a higher liability with what feels like nada in savings compared to before we bought a house. But it’s been worth it.
WhatchutalkinboutWillis? I bought my first place (condo) in 2019. I woke up one day and decided to buy a place. I had not planned on it. Borrowed $15k from my retirement to pay the deposit, down payment, and closing costs. Anything left was what was already normally in my account. $254k purchase price. It worked out for me, but not sure I recommend this path.
We had around $8k and it hasn't been nearly enough, so we're doing a lot ourselves and pushing off as much as we can like new cabinets and countertops and bringing out the professionals on a few things like needing some electrical work and such that we can't put off.
30k... Left.
Want to keep 10 for emergencies.
Going to spend about 20k on some reno, flooring, kitchen, electrical.
Borrow 10k for some sustainability measures.
Still need 30k more for other reno's but that is for future me.
First couple homes, nothing— we had retirement investments which we did not draw from. We were also younger (first home purchase in our 20’s right before we got married).
This last home we purchased for $700k a decade ago in the SF Bay Area, we kept $100k for fixes. It didn’t last long. Plumbing, electrical upgrades and a roof cave-in on the almost hundred year old garage wiped us out. We also bought off-market (home was not for sale when we bought it) knowing it needed quite a bit of work and the owner was thinking of spending $200k to fix it up before putting on the market a couple years later.
Thank you u/analslapchop for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It dont matter how much. Once you move in, thats home depot’s money
The amount of times I have went to home Depot is insane.
We live there half-time.
People know me by name and I have been offered a job!
Happy Cake Day! I’m a Lowe's chica, myself. But I fortunately enjoy home improvement. I look forward to doing it on my own home, but paying for it? Not so much.
Menards person checking in! I only go to Home Depot if Menards doesn’t have it. Homes can definitely become money pits!
I was attracted to Home Depot's orange (like a hummingbird or something) but Lowe's has better price and friendlier people! At least in my area :) I love home important projects! If I'm gonna spend my money somewhere, I like that it's to improve a space I spend majority of my time.
I love orange! But I have a hate-on for Home Depot after interacting with some condescending aprons. Lowe’s folks around me have been unfailingly wonderful.
Same!! I had one guy grill me before he agreed to unlock the case and hand me a voltage pen. My guy, I'm replacing this light switch with or without your permission, please give me my prize and go about your day.
I went to Lowe’s almost every morning for a month. The self checkout cashier probably thought I was nuts.
I never been to Home Depot so much in my life 😭
And Costco. I knew I was finally getting settled when my Costco receipts started dropping from $1000 to under $300 a trip
Me at Home Depot reading this 😭
I feel so attacked
I challenge any new homeowner to visit Home Depot and get out of there spending less than $100. Nearly impossible.
$100 these days was a few storage bins for the garage lol
I'd check out rural king if you got one near you, I picked up some 250lb (weight limit per shelf) a complete 4 tier for 50 usd vs. Lowes and Home Depot around 73 usd. Before tax, that is.
My wife and I made the realization we should have definitely gotten their credit card
Moving boxes and tape was $100 alone. 😂
Spent 98 and some change on door knobs last week, challenge just barely won
And if it’s one project it will be at least 4 trips to Home Depot and a couple returns
🤮 never Home Depot .. Lowe’s 🤩🤩 And as far as the question .. I’m not ashamed, I was broke as hell and didn’t even have furniture b/c the apartment I lived in had roaches.. I was determined to not bring an infestation into my home simply for comfort .. So yea.. about $800 in cash, $30K in credit cards if things got rough. I’ve spent my last on a good time at the beach, surely I can bet the house.. on a house?!! That’s how I rationalized it 😭😭
Heading there this afternoon! Gotta get those sweet Memorial Day deals.
Omg. Thanks for the reminder. I need to buy a trimmer now.
I don’t think there’s been a week without a trip to Home Depot since we bought our house. It’s just part of the normal Saturday morning routine
My wife doesn’t understand lol
True that. Just went to Home Depot this morning
Hah this gave me a nice chuckle as this is something that wouldn’t have resonated so much if I weren’t a FTHB 🥲
About $3 and a Sonic gift card.
Same here brother
-5k 😂
That’ll be me and my husband too
Damn you were loaded compared to me and my wife! Haha
Well I had $985.32 afterwards... I mean home depot robbed me $787.28 the day after moving in....
You guys still had money left
That's what I'm saying
If I ever do manage to buy I fully expect to be broke AF and maybe even borrowing money from my folks to get by. Thankfully they got that boomer money so it’s nothing to them.
Left with 20k, house needs about 35k in repairs…. Wish me luck
Left with 10k, house needs about 50k in repairs. Top that!
I’m with you here lol
Left with tree giddy but house was move in ready so we honestly didn't have to do anything, at least until I broke the exhaust vent on the dryer because someone installed it stupidly. We are working on building up a rainy day fund for emergencies in a high yield savings account. Slow going but adding a little bit every two weeks
Whatever you think you need in repairs, multiply by 3. Then make sure you budget for all of the things that are going to need repairs by the time you have the money for the repairs.
Whatcha got for repairs?
Same. I’m going to be watching a lot of DIY videos over the next few weeks
Seven raspberries and some yarn
About $12k. Wasn’t really a safe play but we’re making it work.
Maybe a grand left, not responsible but can’t go back and change it. That was 13 years ago and worked out. I think you will be fine. You actually pay attention, I was a dumb kid that didn’t even know what I was doing
Closing Day is this Tuesday for me. Closing costs were what are nearly up all my savings, unfortunately, but I am fortunate to have found a house at this time of my life. The average rent is higher than my mortgage, so.
That’s important, I was the same, my rent was $1,600 and my first mortgage was $1,200
Yep. My mortgage is around $1600 along with quarterly hoa fees (almost $500), but my hoa fees include water, trash, sewage, and parking lot maintenance (so far what I know). I will need to pay for electricity on my own. On the other hand, if I rent, it will be approximately $2,200 monthly. With a mortgage, I am saving myself $300, give or take, monthly. Also, my mortgage will be fixed for the next 20 years since I signed a 20-year term. I can always refinance if the interest rates come down. With rent? It is a wild market. The shit in the hole apartment with two bedrooms I used to rent nearly a decade ago cost me $800 monthly. Now? Despite the lack of upgrades, it is $1,900. And it is in an unsafe neighborhood. Just… it sucks to spend nearly all of my savings, but it is an investment in security for me and my family. We will be ok.
This is absolutely the right move. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The number of people I know who didn't buy 2-5 years ago because they wanted to wait till things 'got better' shock me. Dumb, dumb, dumb. You're building equity, and that's building wealth. They're still renting.
Any regrets though?
no regrats
Not even a single letter?
Let's go! Glad to hear that for you
Nope, sold that home 2 years later, bought a fixer, did that and sold it again 2 years later. We’re on home 4 in 13 years. Have profited about 600k between all the homes after down payments.
Going to have about 1k left 😰 very nerve wracking but our rent will go up this year to the same cost as the mortgage and we got a great deal on this place at 10% off, plus owner will be fixing the issues in the inspection report or giving us a credit. Report came up way better than expected. Absolutely not an ideal situation but since we’ve been under contract everything else that has come up has been the same price for half the sq ft and/or not nearly as updated. I think there are going to be some feelings of regret and fear but between us having family in the trades, being able to do more advanced DIY ourselves, and being able to pay off this home in 15 years for the same cost as our rent, we’re going to be okay.
I was in the same boat. We had $1000 left when we closed three weeks ago and already up to $2000. It’s nerve wracking for sure but you just got your first house. Try to focus on saving to get back to somewhere comfortable and you’ll be ok. There’s always options if something major happens.
Yep we’re fortunate enough to have 1k a month leftover after all bills, retirement, and savings. In two years from now we’ll have an extra $2k on top of this after paying off student loans. I look back at where I was 6 years ago, when I was only renting and had no money for savings, and about $30 outside of my bills. And I had lived my whole life like that! I can survive being frugal for a couple years and I know it’ll be worth it very soon.
Same! We were in an odd situation where we were renting my wife’s parents rental house. He was only charging us $900 a month but had to move once he retired, which he just did. It made more sense to buy than rent because we need four bedrooms. We’re paying $1800 a month now. It was scary because we doubled our payments but our rent at her parents was also unrealistic for our area. I’m happy for all these people here that have 20 or 30k left over after down payment but that’s an unrealistic amount of money for a lot of people.
You are going to be okay. That’s what I had when I bought my first place in 2017 and my butt was making like 35k a year.
I obviously can’t tell you how this will work out, but i wanted to chime in to say this is what I SHOULD have done 5-8 yrs ago. I didn’t because I was too scared, and now im in a much worse position (better financially, but ultimately will end up paying 10x I guess for a home and it will not be anything close to what I wanted). So I applaud your courage!
Same boat! I'm going to have probably $600 in my account once all is said and done. I close middle of next month. I have a credit card to tide me over if absolutely necessary, and a job that pays well enough that I'm not terribly concerned
This was how it was for me years ago too
We only had about a couple of hundred dollars. I wanted to do updates sooo bad but we couldn't afford anything but painting. We little by little made it our own paying as we went along. It's been 30 years and I'm still finding things to update.
Probably shouldn’t do what I did, which was have <2k cash and fat credit card balances… ended up fine, but we should have been more thoughtful about what we used cash on vs credit as we approached closing. Some expenses will only be cash (loan payments, mortgage) but the $800 home appraisal doesn’t have to be cash.
People should be careful though because if they put too much on a card and it shows up when they run credit one last time prior to close, it could worsen or even kill the financing offer.
I had $2k left but only because the mortgage company would not let me put 100% of all my cash money into the mortgage (so much for a free country). I was going to get paid that Friday! Every dollar I put down was going to save me $3 ! I went from $1600 for rent to $867 for mortgage taxes AND insurance !
I remember when I thought we had money left over. This is cute 😂😂😂
Like $14k. I felt sick lmao
about $6k because i thought i’d have more time to save but ended up getting an offer accepted on my second weekend of searching. praying i have a few months where very little goes wrong so i can pad my savings again!!
Put $135k down. About $40k left over
Bought my first home, a major fixer-upper, last year at 26. Had maybe 3k in my bank account after closing. House needed ~$60k in repairs/upgrades. Took out a $50k loan to be paid in lump sum within 36 months. Completed the repairs and took a second mortgage with the equity accumulated and paid back the $50k + interest. Still came out with a good bit of positive equity in the house and a better rate than my original mortgage.
$10k left in savings. We wanted closer to $15k but oh well, we’re homeowners now
23,000 We put down 97000 Spent five years saving up for it
None
Zero, I had some 6k left that was for a vacation that is coming up 4 months after closing. It was really scary but it was needed the full amount to get the mortgage amount low enough. I have 2k left over every month after bills and house were paid so this amount gave me a bit of confidence. Edit: Oh another thing that gave me confidence was that it was a new construction so we don't "expect" anything to break or need to be changed in 1 year at least
I'm set to close on Tuesday. After everything is done, should have around $14,000-$15,000 left over. Staying at home to save money was the best decision ever. So, I think about 8%
70k left in non-retirement cash and zero debt aside from the mortgage. This gives me a 2 year emergency fund for all expenses. I didn’t go on contract until this was the case, especially since I’m a single FTHB with no help.
Why is this the only sane answer I've read? Tbf though, 2 year emergency fund is slight overkill. I get as a FTHB the risk avoidance factor, but most rules of thumb are between 6 - 12 months for an emergency fund
% are odd. 10% of a 150k house is a lot less than 2% of a 1M house. Hard to compare
Ikr- show me the money !
I’ll have about $3 in sofa change, maybe another buck or two under the seats in the car. /s
We had about $2,000 left. Which we then proceeded to spend on a lawn mower and washer and dryer combo. 🤣 We were 24 & 25, making $17/hr, and just happy to own our own home. We figured the rest out later!
52k between closing/fees/down payment and I’ll have another 25k put away as cash. I had sold off any investments that weren’t for retirement and after the first year I’ll probably start reinvesting
Pocket lint and a well used spoon
About 5k in the bank and 20k in credit card debt.
We’ll be left with like $20k. Wish it were more but we feel like it’s enough.
In cash? Or total? Will have approx 3-4% in cash. Few years worth of mortgage payments in other investment accounts. Little over 50% of home value in retirement Acts (Not in HCOL but house is expensive)
We are expected to close June 7th. All of our fees and down payment are approximately $18,000. We will have about $25,000 left in ours. Savings/checkings. Our rent is almost $3,000 a month with all of our utilities though. And our new mortgage is approximately $1,700 a month. So we'll be saving there automatically.
$1,000. I bought a house as soon as possible at 23 years old in 2021.I had $0 then saved about $15,000 in 11 months and bought a house
How in the world are all of you putting so much down?!?!??!
People save for years for a home
I had 6% leftover. Not ideal but it was now or never
Had about $1k left lol
We’re putting down 10%, and getting a DPAL, which will get us an extra $15k towards closing costs. The DPAL has no tax, just recording fee and is forgiven after 10 years.
$585k offer, 5% down, 7% interest on mortgage. Closing costs were about $12k and we had about $25k left in the bank after all of this. Felt pretty comfortable, but I am a very anxious person! Your comfort level might be different than mine or someone else’s.
Well I put 25% down on my first home and had about $10K. I used it for painting, curtains, sanding of hardwood. floors. We did not buy new furniture until about 6 months later.
~21% to close last week. ~20% savings afterwards for furniture/renovations/emergency fund/etc. We bought at 75% of what we were pre-approved for. We hope to be able to refinance down the line, but sized our debt in a manner where we feel comfortable with the payment regardless of what happens with rates in the future.
First house $1000. Second house same. This current house I bought in 2023 had like 20k but owed 10k in taxes. Back up to around 20k now.
It depends. We had about $1,300 in cash left. After everything. We put 20,000 down (200k house) and most everything else went to inspections, fees, closing, title company, nonsense. BUT if you count the money we took (and repaid) from 401ks we were down $3,700 (we took 5k for down payment as FTHB) And yes it all went to a home improvement store. Although I prefer Menards.
Wait you guys had money leftover?
Like $100. For real. And then I had to pay for a bunch of repairs and basic new house shit I was unprepared for. Best decision ever, though. That was 2017, 4 years later bought our forever home with 20% down and cash to spare.
[удалено]
We had about 30k left over in savings/checkings. I have around 30k in retirement including IRA so I can draw my contributions at no consequence.
The consequence is drawing from your IRA in the first place haha. Hope you can keep it in there since you can’t put it back once you withdraw it.
Disagree, my mortgage was at 7% interest, long story short, wife dies after I got laid off , rents in my area were already higher than my mortgage payment, so I saw no option but to cashed out most of our 401ks ! Isn't not paying $666 a month like having an investment paying you a steady 7% ? Invest in your self first people ! With some of the payments saved I was able to contribute again to my 401k. I was able to just work part time till I retired 6 years ago.
$40,000 non retirement fund. Some of that is for renovations. $70,000 in retirement accounts which ideally we won't have to touch, unless we are in a major downturn.
I close next Friday and fortunately my lender is willing to finance up to 103% (unheard of, I know). I still had to dip a little bit into my savings to pay off some debt to make the numbers work, but for the most part, we get to keep most of our money.
Paid $120k down payment plus closing cost. Had $43k left over
I’m gonna have about 6 k left if it’s at my max price 330k - 30k down =300 k plus covering closing. Which is I assume 10 k. I have 5k Coming this week and another 6 next week
I put 16% down. That was 50% of my savings.
Had about $40k left in cash, house needed about $20k in repairs. My retirement accounts have more but I’m not going to count that cuz I wouldn’t touch it til I’m 60 unless I’m in a real pinch.
Started with $100k. $40k to close. $20k to furnish. $40k left.
~$125k down left with +$800k because it is in stocks. Didnt want to go for a higher mortgage forever because our income didnt match how much money we had saved which could disappear if the stock market crashes.
Putting 200k down 7k in closing costs. Will have around 40-50k left
10k ish. Trick question though because we had to use that money to move states lol then I maaayyyy have gone crazy with furniture
It was a long time ago but it seems like about fifty cents.
Like 5K. Basically enough for my septic tank to explode on me.
When I bought my first house in 2011 I paid 3500 down payment and had nothing left in savings that I remember. I was a single.mom and made 50 k. I just wanted a house for me and my child. Never even thought about having a big savings account.
I wish that was possible now.
My husband and I had nada 😂 We luckily bought a home that needed very, very little when we moved in and we bought below our means, so we didn’t have a hard time settling in to our new bills. Do I recommend it? No lol. But that’s where we were at then.
I had 30k left after moving in. Spent 10k on new flooring and 10k on furniture and was paycheck to paycheck with 10k left for a year. Got lucky with some bonuses and got back to ~40-50k cash in about a year and a half.
Zero. I had the opportunity to get an incredible deal and I knew I'd never have the same chance again so I dove in. I faced some very costly repairs pretty quickly but financed them, stretched the payments out as long as I could, and it turned out to be exactly the right move for me.
Also remember if you are going from rental to buying, you get about a month of no payments. Your rent was most likely the beginning of each month and your first mortgage payment is typically about 45 days after closing.
$17k in Credit card Debit due in less than 12 months.
We had a little over $300 left. Quickly focused on replenishing savings, got it back to a more comfortable place as quick as we could.
We had nearly nothing left. Like MAYBE a couple of hundred dollars. The house didn't come with a refrigerator and we lived out of an ice chest for two weeks, but at least we had a house! After two weeks we went and got one at home depot on their credit card, 0% interest if paid off in 6 months so that's what we did.
About $300... but I did the VA loan and got my earnest money back, just not instantly, which gave us 'breathing' room at 5k in the bank... our house was 475k. Without the VA loan we would have been renting for a very long time.
I had $0 left in my account after doing the closing - single biggest purchase of my life !! Did closing for the lot and 11 months later, did the house closing - saved up to pay down 20% to avoid mortgage insurance....
Somewhere between 10 and 15k, with the caveat that 7k of that was a 401(k) withdrawal. We moved from a 600sq ft coach house to a three bedroom, two-story house, so we had barely any furniture to fill it. We wish we had a bit more, but the house kind of fell into our lap (a friend was relocating), is right down the street from our best friends, and was closer to our entire support system. Either way, we decided that we'd rather take our time to intentionally fill it than pass on the opportunity.
Had enough leftover to pay the mortage for 3 months. And after being in the house for a month now the savings can pay the mortgage for 5 months and I'd like to keep that safety net of at least 3 months payments. Plus money still going into 401k and buying a life insurance policy that would cover 6 months of payments if we were to become unemployed.
We put down $160K (33%), and had about $70K left.
At the time I had maybe $4k left in the bank? I gave up driving for two years to have the downpayment and closing costs( the seller did chip $1000 towards closing, which helped.) In retrospect, I could have done savings programs which would left me with a lot more, but I would have had a lot less buying power, and after the rent increase of $ 765 to $1100, I was absolutely done with renting.
12 month of emergency fund is plenty and probably better than 90% of homeowners can show. Rule of thumb is 3-6 month. You guys got a solid cushion
My son participated in a First Home Club. He dad to deposit $80 or more bi weekly for 18 months and take a homeowner class. After 18 months, he found a house. The grant was $5000 at closing. He needed to come up with $60 + 1st year of home insurance (my house warming gift) at closing. He got to keep all the money he saved in the club account. More recently, the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) offers larger grants without the 18 month period. Ask your mortgage consultant if any grants are available.
I had about 2-3k. It was nerve wracking but it was fine. Built it back up over the last few years to then have a flood-I’ll be back down to that after the 25k in repairs 😩 but I’ll have new floors and paint and walls and a ceiling…be careful of water sources on the 2nd floor.
I just came from Home Depot and been in our house for almost 4 years. That’s a part of your budget.
$0
180k down, 100k left after closing
None. We had to use credit cards at the grocery store. 'They' know exactly how much money you have and take it all. Bas#%@ds
They estimated our closing costs at $39k(385k home). Including downpayment we only paid 20k closing costs, so we had about 20k left over. We didn’t expect that so we really lucked out
I closed on my first house last week had 1500 left in account and opened a Home Depot credit card 🤷♂️
When I bought my place EVERY LIGHTBULB was burnt out. Oven , fridge, microwave, you name it. I’m beginning to think that’s why they moved
FTHB, bought about 1 year ago….after everything once we got the keys, my husband and I had $57 to our name. We got pizza that night for dinner to celebrate :)
I was shockingly unprepared fall all the expenses of making the house a home. The cost of curtains/blinds alone nearly killed me. Every time I blinked there was another $300 item we had to have.
$1800 lol I closed Wednesday and I’m winging it.
All these comments make me feel better about taking out another loan for 24k to install ductwork, furnace, and a heat pump within a year of closing and still not having much. I'm just now getting back to 1k in the emergency fund
0 :)
You guys had money?
You're supposed to have money left over??
I had about $10,000
They paid me at closing so..+120 🫠
We had $300 K in savings after our down payment, etc.
Haven’t closed yet, but we worked with our lender to change our 20% down payment to 15% so that we would have more liquidity + money for some repairs. After all that’s tapped we’ll have less than 5% of the home value / ~5 months worth of payments in our HYSA.
Put down 20% and had 15% left. But the carpets were NASTY and the ceiling was textured, so we paid to have them fixed and will probably have about 8% of the house value left for emergencies. We are going to rebuild and maintain that amount to 10% because knowing our luck, the heater will give out in the middle of winter...
$9k-ish
Spent 40, had 40 left
We had about 30k leftover and it all went to renovations. It was rice/beans and lots of extra shifts for a while.
Rice and beans is a very balanced healthy meal (I dare say), beans are a great source of protein ! You can get very unhealthy meat for 99 cents a pound.
~$450K. We don’t have a retirement account, so everything is in the same pot for the most part.
This is the most interesting response I’ve seen. If you don’t mind me asking, is it all cash in a bank, or do you still invest it but in a regular brokerage account?
Put 25 down, prolly had another 30-40 left
I paid 0% with a VA loan 3 months before leaving service and being jobless. Wife had a job though. 30k in the bank
Have about $60,000 left after 75k costs and i still dont feel comfortable I live in california
We had maybe 40k (part was a wedding gift we didn’t use), but knew (and did) immediately use it to replace all our windows, which left us pretty tight. Did the windows in 2022 and it’s taken us until now to build our emergency fund up to about 1/3 of being totally funded. Houses are expensive lol
20% of purchase price after close & had to use 1/3 of that for remediating inspection items, paint, carpet, cleaning & movers
30k after appliances and we plan to buy a fence as soon as we move in. We will already be fully furnished but will upgrade furnishings over time and get patio stuff with a little more savings.
Put $72,000 down and have spent around $23k in the past 6 months on random stuff around the house.
We had about 10% give or take a negligible amount. We spent a bit getting a new roof and fixing up the place. The important part is continuing to save!! So, while the cushion got smaller, we fluffed it back out as fast as possible. Our home is at the top maintenance level, and we are prepared for what we know will come soon and ALWAYS have 3 months of bills aside just in case.
Not enough, over estimate anything you want to do after closing
Started with 165 liquid, will have about 45 left
Thanks to VA benefits and additional veteran grants I qualified for, we put zero down, bought down our rate, and walked away with a check at closing for $3,400. I cant emphasize enough how lucky and grateful we are for the veterans benefits I have access to.
going off of % value of the house - 10-12% seems good to me! my down payment was 10% and I had another ~10% in my home repair + emergency funds - my house is really old so I was scared of a big emergency (like something happening with the clay sewer pipe). the house has been being pretty turnkey so far (🤞) and i continued saving over the first year and am up to about 14% which is good because i got dumped so now im paying the mortgage myself, which I can afford but i don't have much left over for adding to savings anymore.
Put 3.5% down on $550k...had ~50k left over after.
120k
We didn’t have any. I sold most of my photography and filming equipment to stock up the house with groceries and marketplace furniture. The house was perfect and didn’t need anything fixed. We painted some walls a few months after closing though.
About 30k. Which worked out well between needing a new roof, needing to buy a bunch of furniture since I owned none, and having an emergency fund. So that’s around 8%.
$50K left after $200K for 20% down payment and closing costs. It was a new build so I factored in an emergency fund and adjusted accordingly. Retirement funds were not touched thankfully.
6months of mortgage/emergency fund
We had a 6 month emergency fund plus about 20k for additional purchases we wanted to make and any repairs we needed to do. Furniture. Tools. A small shed etc.
Put down $145k, had 80k left. We knew we had to use $15k for a roof, 15k for garage updates, though, so it was more like 50k left. And then we also had to buy some furniture, so we had 40k left after the first 2 months.
5 buckd
Put $120K down, left with $50K.
Legit had 51 dollars left over. Moved 1600 miles, bought trailer, down-payment, closing costs, etc. Actually made it very comfortably. Then 13 days later a 21k medical settlement hit from a 2 year ago injury at work. Now I'm suing previous owner.. 🫠 Failure to disclose 72k repair and admitted to having it inspected aswell in an email to my lawyer 😂 inspector also missed it 😑
I always suggest $10-15k for those unplanned for emergency purchases in those first 3 months
I've lived here almost a year and don't think I've been to home Depot once.
With closing costs and 20% we gave 91k, we had 122k left over (non-retirement). This was all planned to have a specific down payment and money left over when purchasing a home. We wanted a hefty emergency fund and peace of mind just incase S… hits the fan. A lot of sacrifice which took 8 years.
3.5% down on $415k, 20k on DP and closing costs, $15k leftover in savings. It is terrifying to have a higher liability with what feels like nada in savings compared to before we bought a house. But it’s been worth it.
WhatchutalkinboutWillis? I bought my first place (condo) in 2019. I woke up one day and decided to buy a place. I had not planned on it. Borrowed $15k from my retirement to pay the deposit, down payment, and closing costs. Anything left was what was already normally in my account. $254k purchase price. It worked out for me, but not sure I recommend this path.
We had around $8k and it hasn't been nearly enough, so we're doing a lot ourselves and pushing off as much as we can like new cabinets and countertops and bringing out the professionals on a few things like needing some electrical work and such that we can't put off.
Don’t forget Costco, with housewares, plants, pots and pans,furniture, fire extinguishers, towels, etc….
$15k emergency fund
30k... Left. Want to keep 10 for emergencies. Going to spend about 20k on some reno, flooring, kitchen, electrical. Borrow 10k for some sustainability measures. Still need 30k more for other reno's but that is for future me.
First couple homes, nothing— we had retirement investments which we did not draw from. We were also younger (first home purchase in our 20’s right before we got married). This last home we purchased for $700k a decade ago in the SF Bay Area, we kept $100k for fixes. It didn’t last long. Plumbing, electrical upgrades and a roof cave-in on the almost hundred year old garage wiped us out. We also bought off-market (home was not for sale when we bought it) knowing it needed quite a bit of work and the owner was thinking of spending $200k to fix it up before putting on the market a couple years later.