Rustico. Well, I paid cash for my first house and then decided to take money out of it and financed half of it a few years later, then a little more after that. Not a smart move I realize. This time I plan to pay things down so that 2/3 of the value is equity. But yea, at first I can pay just over 20% down at the top of my range and 50% down on the low end. Indeed, there are a couple of houses we like on the low end.
I don’t want to buy and then “trade up” to what I really want. I want to get what I really want in my range and stay in it 20 yrs. If I can find that at the low end of my range, that would be ideal.
In terms of paying cash or financing. As long as you don’t go over 28% of income for home expenses like banks want you to, you can finance IMHO. My own preferance is to be below 10%-15% so I would pay down the mortgage to get me to that level. Even if you pay all cash, you still have property taxes and insurance to pay, HOA fees, and perhaps Mello Roos, and that is included in those percentages.
Many financial planners will tell you to never pay cash for anything and leverage your cash with debt. Well, we all march to the beat of our own drummers.
