The nice thing is that my Dad has literally "built" 10 homes in his lifetime, and my uncle 10-12 as well. The guys building my house are the same ones that did my uncles house, which is substantially more expensive than mine will be...

My uncle has a huge list of every single possible item you can think of, documented... so that not a damn thing is missed. It's rather mind-boggling really, but it assures we don't forget about anything.

My step-dad is an electrician so he and I will be wiring the entire house (which is great because of a lot of the custom stuff we're going to do), and my best friends dad is a professional cabinent maker so he's doing all my cabinents for me.

If I go to that Mazda my payments drop down to mid-400's a month with $0 down and thats where I'd want to be... $250 less is about $50,000 on the house, which should give me more than enough for what I need.

Another cool thing is my younger brother wants to buy a new car right now, and we're going to probably both end up getting the exact same car, just a different colour!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Woodson
You're building?

 

I think I've found a way to keep both my RSX and S2K but I think reality will set in once I move in and start making these $1500 mortgage payments+utilities etc. etc. The interest during these first 5 years is insane so I will probably want to pay it down as much as possible.

My solution is, get a part time job and two roommates

 

heheh... My brother is moving in with me... going to charge him $450 a month (he does get a garage spot so its a good deal).

I can afford it based on what I'm driving now. The problem is the banks look at it differently, and thats where I'm stuck.

Based on their formula, I'm going to have about 2 grand extra every month after everything is all said and done.

 

Congrats on the Pad. In the long run, especially with all the custom work you are doing, you'll be happy with it!

If you can afford the car and it's simply credit, then why not just let your brother assume ownership of the S, and you make the payments?

 

My brother just turned 18 today so he has no credit history... that won't work either unfortunately.

 

Ahhh the good old bank, what you need to do is inflate your income man......or get a co-signor, that should clear things up

 

hahah... I wish man, but not a lot of options there... plus I don't really want to lie about my income... they'll know sooner or later.

 

It's your money and your life, so spend it and live it how you wish.

But you posted here, so you must be looking for some comments/feedback.

Banks are all quite standard with lending limits based on income.

up to 40% of gross income. Make $5000/month - they'll allow up to $2000 in payments (all payments combined - mortgage, property taxes, sometimes heat/gas too, along with loans, lines of credit, credit cards, etc.)

Depending on your lifestyle, you might feel you can get away with spending more than the 40%, but stuff comes up - and when push comes to shove - the bank doesn't want to repo your home - they want you to pay interest on it for as long as possible. So it's a fine line on their part between maxing out the money they make from you and not giving you too much.

I can barely remember the old days when interest rates were in the teens, so I doubt you can either. Ask your parents... they'll tell you - it was a great time to have money in the bank, bad time to be stretched the to max on a mortage payment. Many people just turned over the keys to their houses and walked away - losing any equity they had. Rates go up, demand turns south and house prices fall.

You've no doubt seen what a difference interest rates make in payments. What happens if the rate shoots up?

I'm not suggesting this will happen again soon - just pointing out that unexpected stuff comes up

Anyhow, my suggestion is not to spend all that they offer - leave some room for other things. That $230 or $250K house will end up costing you double that if you go full term on 25 yr. ammortization.

It's nice being young and having a kick ass house, it's even better still being young and having a slightly cheaper house paid off.

My 2 cents - I used to work in a bank call center and got a chance to see the financial situations of 1000's of people I talked to.

 

Oh, and that Mazda is a sharp looking car - I've been impressed with just about everything they've redesigned lately! zoom, zoom