Trying to get an idea of what my xj is worth. Possible feeler.

[Boss Cherokee]

Stay away from a house that you can barely afford. Buy smaller or further out, because you do not want a MI (mortgage insurance). That can be as much as your monthly property tax. Ive flipped them and built my own and know buying can be a bitch with minimum down. Small starter homes will always sell and lose less value when you are ready to upgrade. If selling the XJ gets you out of having to pay MI then do it!!

 

[bails85]

as of last year pmi or mortgage insurance is mandatory and stays the length of the loan. i just put in a a second offer on a nice house and hopefully will start escrow tomorrow or so. thanks for the advice eveyone. p.s. xjs not going anywhere.

 

[xtimmax]

Stay away from a house that you can barely afford. Buy smaller or further out, because you do not want a MI (mortgage insurance). That can be as much as your monthly property tax. Ive flipped them and built my own and know buying can be a bitch with minimum down. Small starter homes will always sell and lose less value when you are ready to upgrade. If selling the XJ gets you out of having to pay MI then do it!!

This.. I was able to find a buy a house that was less that half of what I was approved for. It a nice to not have to worry about making the payment if money gets tight, my house payment is less than a weeks pay.

 

[cracker]

I have PMI and it is only $123/month for me right now. We have enough equity now and will be refinancing here shortly to eliminate it but we just bought our home this past February.

 

[Lurch]

PMI is required if you put down less than 20% of the purchase price. Once your loan to value ratio reaches 78% and you've had the loan for 60 months, you can drop the PMI. Or you can refinance if you have enough equity in your house.

PMI sucks but there's little way to get around it unless you have a big nest egg or rich relatives, especially here in Socal with such inflated home prices.

 

[bails85]

the house is well under what im approved for and will be perfect for us. i try to keep the mortgage under 25 percent or less of my monthly earnings.

 

[Tony_SS]

Buy a small house... being house broke sucks! And when they say 'sign you're life away' they are NOT joking. When you see your first statement and all the $$$$ that goes toward just the interest you'll be sick. If I had to do it over I would've bought land and a doublewide.