How shall we buy our first house?

[bearishgurl]

Okay, back to the topic at hand.

UCguy, here’s my two-cents on your situation.

Firstly, I agree with the Pigg camp that states you absolutely need 20+% to put down in order to buy. But given your ages, I don’t think it is prudent to borrow from your 401K/403b plans. You never know what will happen in your life that could prevent you from paying it back after you purchase your home.

I agree with sdduuuuude. Especially that PMI is a nightmare and will add another time-consuming and bureaucratic layer of “qualifying” to your mortgage application process. Your lender’s PMI company will likely put your monthly income and outgo, etc., under a microscope during your escrow. Later, you will waste many months haggling with your lender and paying for an appraisal while you attempt to terminate it, IMO.

[quote=UCguy]Our rent is about $2200 for a 1800 sf home in PQ. Yes, of course the rent may vary in the next 10 years.[/quote]

This is high rent for an 1800 sf house. I’m not advocating that you move to South County, but it is only about $1850 mo for rent on a 2200 sf house in my neck of the woods. If you only have one small child, do you really NEED 1800 sf right now? School district doesn’t matter until your child will be entering the first grade. Attendance at a public kindergarten would be a good experience for your child anywhere, IMHO. In addition, kindergarten attendance is not mandatory in CA.

Your daycare costs of $1000 mo for one child is too high. Have you considered a good private or home daycare situation? Many of these caregivers are trained teachers and some even have a credential in CA or another state. Many home daycare providers offer a pre-K program in the mornings and also will pick up your child from morning or afternoon public kindergarten. I would venture that you can get FT care (incl meals & snacks, 3 hrs pre-K and naptime) for $600 – $750 mo for one child in a licensed daycare home F/T (may be less for kindergarteners). The Neighborhood House Assn gives home daycare providers in SD County vouchers for Food-4-Less to enable them to follow a strict nutritional menu for breakfast and lunch. They can either use convenience food (peel-off jellos/puddings and toaster waffles, for example) or make these items from scratch and return the unused vouchers every month for “Little Tike” vouchers. These points are used to buy “Little Tike” playground equipment for their backyards. Here are a couple of links to get a referral.

http://www.childcarecommunityreferralservice.com/

http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/attraction/childcare-resource-service-92000

If you can lower your rent for the next 2-3 years to =<$1500 and lower your daycare expense to $600-$700, you will free up another $1000+ per month to save for your downpayment.

I wouldn’t worry so much about accumulating a huge amt of cash reserves upon closing. Lenders requirements vary between 2 and 6 months. If your place isn’t perfect when you move in or (has an old frig, old carpet, etc.), I would just clean the carpet (if not done) and fix/replace minor things, paint as needed and move in, if there were no safety issues (i.e. a very old H/W heater). Contrary to popular belief, you don’t NEED to spend thousands the minute you take title to a house and before you move in. You can make repairs/improvements little by little.

And read the “Tightwad Gazette” as scaredy suggested here :=]

see: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Tightwad-Gazette-Amy-Dacyczyn/dp/0375752250

Good luck on your savings plan! You should be able to buy in 18-24 months if you can cut way back on these two (expensive) items.

[sdrealtor]

FWIW $1000 wasnt expensive for good quality daycare 10 years ago when my son needed it. Go retire, your days fo paying for day care were so long you have no frame of reference

[sdrealtor]

FWIW $1000 wasnt expensive for good quality daycare 10 years ago when my son needed it. Go retire, your days fo paying for day care were so long you have no frame of reference

[sdrealtor]

FWIW $1000 wasnt expensive for good quality daycare 10 years ago when my son needed it. Go retire, your days fo paying for day care were so long you have no frame of reference

[sdrealtor]

FWIW $1000 wasnt expensive for good quality daycare 10 years ago when my son needed it. Go retire, your days fo paying for day care were so long you have no frame of reference

[sdrealtor]

FWIW $1000 wasnt expensive for good quality daycare 10 years ago when my son needed it. Go retire, your days fo paying for day care were so long you have no frame of reference

[bearishgurl]

UCguy, you’re new on this blog. As you can see here, sdr has a “knee-jerk” tendency to “stalk” my posts in attempt to discredit me. I would challenge you to find out for yourself how much cheaper licensed home day care is than a day care center. This has always been the case and I think you will be shocked when you find out the price difference. Having used both in my lifetime, I felt the love, attention and care and even pre-K programs my children got with the licensed home daycare providers was superior to a more expensive center. However, my children did not have any “special needs.”

IIRC, a licensed family daycare home or center in CA has to have one helper when 7 children or more are present and 2 helpers when 11 children or more are present (usually after-school care). I believe the cap is 14 children at any one time for a licensed daycare home. For infants under one year old, there must be one caregiver to every four infants and they can’t have any other duties except to those infants.

[bearishgurl]

UCguy, you’re new on this blog. As you can see here, sdr has a “knee-jerk” tendency to “stalk” my posts in attempt to discredit me. I would challenge you to find out for yourself how much cheaper licensed home day care is than a day care center. This has always been the case and I think you will be shocked when you find out the price difference. Having used both in my lifetime, I felt the love, attention and care and even pre-K programs my children got with the licensed home daycare providers was superior to a more expensive center. However, my children did not have any “special needs.”

IIRC, a licensed family daycare home or center in CA has to have one helper when 7 children or more are present and 2 helpers when 11 children or more are present (usually after-school care). I believe the cap is 14 children at any one time for a licensed daycare home. For infants under one year old, there must be one caregiver to every four infants and they can’t have any other duties except to those infants.

[bearishgurl]

UCguy, you’re new on this blog. As you can see here, sdr has a “knee-jerk” tendency to “stalk” my posts in attempt to discredit me. I would challenge you to find out for yourself how much cheaper licensed home day care is than a day care center. This has always been the case and I think you will be shocked when you find out the price difference. Having used both in my lifetime, I felt the love, attention and care and even pre-K programs my children got with the licensed home daycare providers was superior to a more expensive center. However, my children did not have any “special needs.”

IIRC, a licensed family daycare home or center in CA has to have one helper when 7 children or more are present and 2 helpers when 11 children or more are present (usually after-school care). I believe the cap is 14 children at any one time for a licensed daycare home. For infants under one year old, there must be one caregiver to every four infants and they can’t have any other duties except to those infants.

[bearishgurl]

UCguy, you’re new on this blog. As you can see here, sdr has a “knee-jerk” tendency to “stalk” my posts in attempt to discredit me. I would challenge you to find out for yourself how much cheaper licensed home day care is than a day care center. This has always been the case and I think you will be shocked when you find out the price difference. Having used both in my lifetime, I felt the love, attention and care and even pre-K programs my children got with the licensed home daycare providers was superior to a more expensive center. However, my children did not have any “special needs.”

IIRC, a licensed family daycare home or center in CA has to have one helper when 7 children or more are present and 2 helpers when 11 children or more are present (usually after-school care). I believe the cap is 14 children at any one time for a licensed daycare home. For infants under one year old, there must be one caregiver to every four infants and they can’t have any other duties except to those infants.

[bearishgurl]

UCguy, you’re new on this blog. As you can see here, sdr has a “knee-jerk” tendency to “stalk” my posts in attempt to discredit me. I would challenge you to find out for yourself how much cheaper licensed home day care is than a day care center. This has always been the case and I think you will be shocked when you find out the price difference. Having used both in my lifetime, I felt the love, attention and care and even pre-K programs my children got with the licensed home daycare providers was superior to a more expensive center. However, my children did not have any “special needs.”

IIRC, a licensed family daycare home or center in CA has to have one helper when 7 children or more are present and 2 helpers when 11 children or more are present (usually after-school care). I believe the cap is 14 children at any one time for a licensed daycare home. For infants under one year old, there must be one caregiver to every four infants and they can’t have any other duties except to those infants.

[sdrealtor]

My son went to a licensed home day care. Actually 2 different ones in 2000. One in Mira Mesa and one in North Carlsbad. That was about 10 years ago and both were about $1000/month. I would challenge you to find me a good quality home day care in a decent area for $600 to 700/month. Please provide me a few as I always have clients looking for referrals to them but no one has ever found anything even close to that. I’m just saying…..

[sdrealtor]

My son went to a licensed home day care. Actually 2 different ones in 2000. One in Mira Mesa and one in North Carlsbad. That was about 10 years ago and both were about $1000/month. I would challenge you to find me a good quality home day care in a decent area for $600 to 700/month. Please provide me a few as I always have clients looking for referrals to them but no one has ever found anything even close to that. I’m just saying…..

[sdrealtor]

My son went to a licensed home day care. Actually 2 different ones in 2000. One in Mira Mesa and one in North Carlsbad. That was about 10 years ago and both were about $1000/month. I would challenge you to find me a good quality home day care in a decent area for $600 to 700/month. Please provide me a few as I always have clients looking for referrals to them but no one has ever found anything even close to that. I’m just saying…..

[sdrealtor]

My son went to a licensed home day care. Actually 2 different ones in 2000. One in Mira Mesa and one in North Carlsbad. That was about 10 years ago and both were about $1000/month. I would challenge you to find me a good quality home day care in a decent area for $600 to 700/month. Please provide me a few as I always have clients looking for referrals to them but no one has ever found anything even close to that. I’m just saying…..

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