Who can tell me about buying a home?

It can be heaven=sent or a nightmare.  I the whole central FL area it's HARD to find something not in an Association.  And I wasn't kidding -- some of them simply tell you you can NOT HAVE a dog.  Or that you can only have one that's under 20 pounds or ... all sorts of nonsense.

Or that your husband can't work on his own car in his driveway ... some of these things are absolutely nuts.  But it's all revolving around these manufactured communities (like Celebration near Disney) -- picture perfect (think "Stepford Wives"??)

There are several Associations we reprensent that are like $400 - $1200 a month.  And then others are $200 a year.  It's ... just plain strange.

If your jobs allow you to move just about anywhere (ie they are in high demand all over) then consider somewhere not on the coast if you can.  We live in IN and our house is the size of my parent's house in NY with a bigger yard, and it's less than half the price.  We make less here than if we had equivalent jobs in NY but I think the ratio is in our favor here.

If you're buying a house that is on the high end of what you can afford, don't buy one with problems.  And if possible, see it in the rain.     Our current house has floods in the back room when it rains really hard.  Plus our roof has leaked.  So we're looking at $15k in repairs to roof and siding (this is to replace whole roof and all siding which isn't necessary to fix the problem, but IS necessary because of the age) and that will put us at 100% of the value of our home in second mortgage and first mortgage.

Household repairs are expensive.  And stressful.  If BF and I make it through this haggle of cost to fix our place, then I think we'll make it for a long time.  But the stress is really hard on me right now.
 

alieliza

Right now we are paying 1650/mo on a large, rented 2br apartment with a back yard, and I figure we can have a mortgage for that price...

 Normally you can afford a higher mortgage than rent due to tax benefits since you can claim the interest on your home as a deduction. This tends to allow you to go a few hundred higher per month in a payment than you would be able to afford as rent.

I'm in the process of looking right now as well.  Unfortunately the banks are tightening up on "jumbo" loans.  If you have a credit union, talk to them and see what they can do for you. 

All I can add is make sure you get really good inspectors for whatever you might be considering buying. Get a land assessment or whatever it's called where they analyze flood risk, hurricane risk, fault lines, etc. Get a really good home inspector who goes over the place with a fine-toothed comb and, for example, tests all the electrical sockets. Checks the drainage pipes.

If the seller is honest, he/she will have done all of this already, but if it's a dishonest and/or ignorant person, it's AMAZING how many things can be wrong with a house that looks great. Having just sold my childhood home, I thought it was in perfect condition, then had some inspectors out who pointed out a good $5,000 or so worth of necessary repairs (a lot of plumbing, for example). Youch! 

OT perhaps but I was watching House Hunters in NY and WOW....are those people nuts! What they were paying and also...this thing they called a "co-op" where you have to be "approved" to live there? And apparently the approval board is all residents? That's a nasty neighbor-palooza waiting to happen. they actually REQUIRED the people applying to have 3MILLION in liquid assets before they even considered them. And the place wasn't that nice....at all...

That was in NYC...but man...it was an eye opener!

rwbeagles

OT perhaps but I was watching House Hunters in NY and WOW....are those people nuts! What they were paying and also...this thing they called a "co-op" where you have to be "approved" to live there? And apparently the approval board is all residents? That's a nasty neighbor-palooza waiting to happen. they actually REQUIRED the people applying to have 3MILLION in liquid assets before they even considered them. And the place wasn't that nice....at all...

That was in NYC...but man...it was an eye opener!

I cannot believe the prices you are talking about!!!  We would NEVER had been able to afford a house at that rate.  DH and I are looking right now and we are in the $170,000 price range.  With that in suburban Detroit area we can get 3-4 bedrooms, 2 - 2.5 baths, 2000+ square feet, finished basement, two car garage and pretty good size yard. 

In response to living in non-coastal areas. I suppose its a possibility, but my job necessitates living amongst ethnically diverse populations, in essence, a large amount of immigrant children. I teach English as a Second Language, and from what I understand, the coasts have the largest immigrant populations for practical reasons. I could be wrong, though....

alieliza

In response to living in non-coastal areas. I suppose its a possibility, but my job necessitates living amongst ethnically diverse populations, in essence, a large amount of immigrant children. I teach English as a Second Language, and from what I understand, the coasts have the largest immigrant populations for practical reasons.

Not necessarily.  In our neighborhood in Milwaukee, there are a TON of spanish speaking children (most signs are in Spanish) and I know my girlfriend teaches in a school in Detroit suburbs that has more than 10 different languages being spoken.  Personally, I would rather live on a coast too, but if you are flexible there are huge immigrant pockets within most major cities.

I guess we, too, would prefer to live on a coast. In fact, I've never been elsewhere. We will see what the future holds (maybe some vacations are in order!).

alieliza

In response to living in non-coastal areas. I suppose its a possibility, but my job necessitates living amongst ethnically diverse populations, in essence, a large amount of immigrant children. I teach English as a Second Language, and from what I understand, the coasts have the largest immigrant populations for practical reasons. I could be wrong

Move here!  hehehe  Texas has tons to offer and we have a lot of ESL programs.  You will find a huge spanish speaking community here.  In fact, my cousin's wife came here from Bolivia and she has taught both ESL and a dual program of some sort.  Plus, home prices are far more affordable.  We have almost a 2000 sq ft house in a really nice area with 3 beds, 2 baths, and a large yard.  We paid under $200,000 for ours.  We have a coast here too about 6 hours from DFW..not the nicest, but better than nothing.  Apparently DFW is ranked as one of the better places to find a job these days as well.   

Oh, and I second the good inspection recommendation!

Texas.  ;)  But then you have to deal with the Texans.  lol.....

I have a friend that lives there, so just kidding! 

Spot on Sarah....ESL flourishes here due to the hispanic and even here in Arlington...the decent sized Vietnamese population as well. I heard Dallas was desparate for bilingual teachers.

As an ESL teacher, I think you'll do fine almost anywhere in Calif, but some of the coastal areas where there's a lot of agriculture are definitely going to have more of a need. I think you can also find a huge demand in the central valley (Fresno, Bakersfield, etc.) but I'm not sure you'd want to live there. It's really a problem in this state to find teachers who can afford to live in the high cost areas with the salary they earn.