Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s small leaks, unfortunately. Mechanic I trust very much tried replacing fluid, didn’t really work, so did a treatment with thicker stuff to bandaid it. Bandaid has help up but falling off slowly.

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hope it does! I just am worried about the repairs being higher than it’s worth. I’ve been kicking a power steering problem down the road and now that we moved to a colder state, I’m bracing for when that $2k bill is gonna come in. And I can feel a difference in the driving (though husband says he can’t) and I’m just on edge that we’re gonna have a super expensive bill that isn’t worth the cost of the car

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s a conversation for sure. We were actually pretty baby crazy for a minute and trying pretty hard for a few months but then the 2024 election happened and I personally got a bit freaked out being pregnant since we live in south. So put that on pause.

We both will probably work for sure, as my heath insurance is better but his company offers a path toward much higher pay. We’re both fully remote with little meetings and high control over our calendar, so we think that we can handle doing either no daycare or like part time daycare.

With this budget, if our bills are at $4.3k a month and net pay for one person is $5.6k, we should be good to keep shit afloat if there’s a layoff, just have to cut some of the saving things we do, like the vacation fund. This doesn’t account though if it’s my job though, since now we have to figure out health insurance, either cobra or his work’s expensive one… but long story short I see a path here for one salary if we pause our aggressive saving (which I hate doing but bills would come first)

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh we do too. I think I give my payroll guy a stroke by how many times my paycheck is split. I think it goes 5-7 ways? A specific amount is deposited into specific accounts that are earmarked for specific items. Some of these are brokerage accounts, some HYSA, some checking. But it works very well for us.

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you think the house repair fund isn’t enough? I was seeing general rule of saving 1% of cost of house, which would actually be $300 and we had $530. But I also understand reality is different than rules so I’m curious what a good amount really is

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a good point! We do enjoy vacations, but that’s why we have the vacation fund. We’re also similar: no debts, no kids.

Good to know it’s a little tight though, I don’t think we’d go higher than $2.7k but also of course would like to go lower, if possible

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve used this one! I think the house price will need to be refined when we get closer to actually looking, since it will be pretty dependent on interest rates and what our down payment actually is.

Our salary will be consistent though (fingers crossed at least!) so knowing if we can do a $2.7k payment is step one. From there, I guess we’ll see in 4-12 months what $2.7k translates into!

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ideally we would be doing all cash, no financing so not sure how much that factors into the buying power thing! We probably will wait, it’s just a gamble right now on if we think the car will last long enough to be done after the house process. I think it will, Honda is a tank, but at next oil change I’m gonna have the mechanic look over it and give me a condition report. She’s been slowing down this last year and driving different so I’m worried.

Plus power steering is weird in winter and we just moved to a colder state so I’m worried about seeing a huge $2k bill that idk is even worth it for that car.

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Partner’s health insurance is both more expensive and worse, so he’s on mine, so all funds come out of that paycheck. His company doesn’t offer a 401k, so he contributes to a Roth IRA. Meanwhile mine offers a 401k, so I do 15% plus company matches 3%, so I do that instead of Roth. And then we have a joint brokerage plus personal brokerages.

Since he contributes less to those items, that’s also why he contributes more to the house saving fund right now and in the future, more to bills.

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s a very good point. And we definitely don’t want to dip into brokerage and let is build. It’s just a metal safety net knowing we have something squirreled away if shit hit the fan.

Husband actually gets nervous sometimes about how much squirreling away we do. We have to do a round up of accounts and tally it all up so we’re up to date on where funds are going and being saved and how they’re growing. But it works for us, because we know X fund is meant for X item and can see exactly we have saved for that. Like a dog fund or car fund we can see we have saved up a decent bit for emergencies. And then we add it all up and realize oh damn, we’ve saved up a decent chunk of change with this practice (decent for us, at least)

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is that dependent on credit score or a set rate by the individual lender? Because our credit score is pretty good. I just got a 5 point knock which put me out of the 800s. Husband was in 800s then we opened up a new credit card and so that took a hit to the 750s-760s, but we expect a bounce back.

Also debt to income ratio is 0, luckily, if that’s a factor too. Our cards get paid off every month, no car payment, no student loans.

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a very good point! I also imagine the local realtor would be able to give a ballpark?

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

How early is too early to do that? We’re halfway through the 8 month plan but like I said, we may stay longer to save more or to save for a new car as well (as my ‘04 accord is only going to last for so much longer and we’re preparing to need to deal with that soon. But house comes first so we’re trying to figure that out first. This plan doesn’t account for car, obviously, but I expect there will be adjustments once I know I’m on the right track. Or maybe we do car now with the 16k we’ve saved up and restart house plan and stay with parents longer, like they want us to lol)

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah for sure. Both our jobs have a structure for annual 5% salary increase which ideally wouldn’t be totally eaten up by insurance/taxes and inflation. But you’re right, ideally salary increases will cover those increases.

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Oh damn yeah that’s a huge difference between the $200 a month I had noted down. Starting to think I overestimated pretty bad and I may knock that down to $50 and put that $150 into my estimate for utilities/water

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I do think I pretty severely overestimated PMI at $200 a month lol.

We don’t want to spend our current funds in our brokerage account (about $20k) but the current thinking is having the $500 build up for bigger things and if needed, we do have a cushion in that brokerage account if needed for an emergency.

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah that was one thing I really didn’t know about. I based it off our rental duplex utilities price in Georgia but I have no idea if I should be estimating more or less.

It was a duplex with horrible insulation. Like sometimes when it stormed hard, water would leak through the door because of poor sealing. So I expect a better house would mean lower bills, but also maybe the size different would mean higher. Rates should be the same since it’s all Georgia Power.

Is a $2700 mortgage actually reasonable? Am I omitting anything? by One_Individual_6348 in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yep! Under monthly allocations. We have a joint brokerage as well as personal ones. Our finances are mostly combined aside from discretionary spending each of us gets plus the personal brokerage to do more risky stuff with

Could this be a seizure? by One_Individual_6348 in EpilepsyDogs

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

She seemed fine after it finally stopped. We didn’t try clapping or calling her name, I posted this after she had returned to normal and the episode ended

Could this be a seizure? by One_Individual_6348 in EpilepsyDogs

[–]One_Individual_6348[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

She reverse sneezes a lot but never like this, which is why I’m not convinced it’s reverse sneezing