When it comes to buying your first home, two questions typically surface: \u201chow much do I need for the down payment?\u201d, and \u201chow much can I afford per month?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Many people think having their down payment in the bank and making enough to cover the monthly payment is all that\u2019s needed, and in a way you\u2019re right, but there\u2019s more that should be expected in your initial planning.<\/p>\n
When purchasing a home there is a wide variety of down payment options ranging from 0% (down payment assistance)<\/em>, to 100% (cash)<\/em>. Once you know what you qualify for, you\u2019ll know what your down payment options are.<\/p>\n In addition to your down payment, you\u2019ll also need to have some cash set aside for loan costs \/ prepaid items.<\/p>\n Loan costs may include:<\/em><\/p>\n Prepaid items include:<\/em><\/p>\n A good rule of thumb when you\u2019re trying to anticipate loan costs \/ prepaid items is take 2% of the home value as a rough estimate (ie, a $400K home would have roughly $8K in costs \/ prepaids<\/em>)<\/p>\n Aside from down payment and costs \/ prepaids, what other expenses should you plan for? These next few will depend on each person going through the process but are worth a mention:<\/p>\n Sidebar: In my experience, the first home I bought didn\u2019t have ceiling fans installed, so I had to go buy three of them, and have electric ran to the junction boxes in each room. We also needed to get a fridge, and washer \/ dryer set\u2026<\/p>\n All of this to say that planning ahead will save you not only money, but a lot of unnecessary stress.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it comes to buying your first home, two questions typically surface: \u201chow much do I need for the down payment?\u201d, and \u201chow much can I afford per month?\u201d. Many people think having their down payment in the bank and making enough to cover the monthly payment is all that\u2019s needed, and in a way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-594165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drew-dodds"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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