Moxie Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 After this thread yesterday http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299797, DH and I had a talk last night and I gave my tentative blessing to look at houses. Of course, we found a house that could not be more perfect if we had designed it ourselves :glare:. Beautiful yard, awesome neighborhood, everything we want in a house, in our price range, perfect. Except we have no down-payment besides the tiny amount (a couple thousand) we get from selling this house. So, can you really still buy a house without a down-payment? Is it financial suicide? My Dave Ramsey gland is having spasms!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 I think the only way it can be done is if one has excellent credit. Otherwise those days are long gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 I believe you can. We bought our first house that way, but that was years and years ago. Just make sure you budget for PMI. Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 I would call your bank and seek pre-approval on this now if you are serious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BamaTanya Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 I would call your bank and seek pre-approval on this now if you are serious. Yes. We're closing this afternoon and have spent the last few weeks running around getting proof of everything from accounts to jobs. It is more difficult than it used to be. This is our 4th time to close on a house and our financial position is better than ever. With a hefty downpayment from the sale of our previous house. Find out from a bank what it would take to qualify and get a preapproval letter. We purchased our last home (2004) by making a bid that was contingent upon the sale of our house. We had 60 days to sell and we were motivated. The purchasers had CASH. It can happen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 The housing market isn't going anywhere in the next year or two, so I would rent for now and try to save up at least 5%. It's going to take until mid-2012 for the last of the exotic mortgages to re-set (since those were written until mid-2007) and then another however long for many of those homes to go through the foreclosure pipeline. We had difficulty back in 2009 finding a lender willing to go with a 15% down payment (eventually we ended up borrowing from my parents to get to 20%) but Bay Area home prices mean pretty much any mortgage is considered a "jumbo" loan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 Four years ago we bought a house with basically no down payment. We had a thousand or two and that was it. I think when seeking pre-approval he mentioned that we had no down payment. We also asked the sellar to pay closing costs. We are so grateful for our house. It was a foreclosure and was in pretty bad shape but we are not paying rent anymore. All that said, we found Dave Ramsey two years ago and if we had it to do over we might have spent another year, maybe two, renting and getting in better financial shape before we bought. But it is doable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbecueMom Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 (edited) Check out USDA Guaranteed Loans. No down payment, no PMI (there is a 2% fee upfront, which you can pay cash for or finance), sellers can pay closing costs, 30-yr fixed rate. The catch is that the house has to be in "rural area", defined I think as an unincorporated area or township with less than 10,000 people per some defined area. It also cannot be on a flood plain, and the local USDA office will have maps and lists of participating banks to show you. We did this back in 2009 and had no problems. We were renting at the time, so you may have to sell the house first, and we had excellent credit. The payment when we bought the house was 30% of net income, which was as much as we could get (we're at about 15% now). We've had no problems. Chase owns our mortgage, but if we were to default the federal gov't would reimburse the bank (that's what that 2% fee was for). ETA: Don't think that rural = sticks. We live south of a major city and DH works in the north part of the city with a 40ish minute drive. I call it "ruralurbia". Edited August 9, 2011 by BarbecueMom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 we always have bought no money down. Usually there are programs for first time buyers this way, and as long as you haven't owned in 3 or 5 years prior you can qualify. But I believe those programs aren't for super high mortgages. I would call a few mortgage places in town to see what they tell you. I personally like a mortgage broker who gets me the best deal, but I know it will be sold the next day to a bank with no payment changes. so you know. I know you get better rates when you put deposits down though. but you will get a variety of answers so call multiple places to see what they can put together for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMamaBird Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 We're purchasing a home with no down payment but it's possible because my dh is eligible for a VA loan. With a VA loan you can do no down payment and you are guaranteed to get the same interest rate as you would with a down payment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 We're purchasing a home with no down payment but it's possible because my dh is eligible for a VA loan. With a VA loan you can do no down payment and you are guaranteed to get the same interest rate as you would with a down payment. That's what we did. Since we both served, we have another VA loan in the holster should we need it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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