You could request to not have escrow and pay your property taxes and insurance yourself. Sometimes there is a fee to "waive" escrow. Also if you put down 20%+ you should not have PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance), so that will save you on your monthly payment.
so far, all i upgraded is Tile in the kitchen, to have my venthood vent to the outside, mini blindes from 1" to 2 " faux wood.....my cabinets are regular 30" cabinets....i dont want my monthly payments to go up too much...any other suggestions? do i not need some of thise stuff?
I would get them to throw in a lot of stuff, especially grass in the backyard and a sprinkler system.
rising rates .. killing demand more job losses.. more foreclosures.. more supply rising energy prices.. kills demand and housing recovery.. the only thing that helps housing right now is inflation.. and that's dependent on the above and monetary policy.. so it's really just a guess.
Despite what the previous poster is saying, I think the latest numbers showed a pretty good uptick in home sales. I know that in our neighborhood, all the stock is sold out and the builders are scrambling to get starts on the ground because they have seen a sudden uptick in demand.
Maybe they are. I'm not sure. They're among the worst builders in here in Dallas year after year according to JD Power, but the survey ranks them high in the Houston area.
Where in Katy? I just went through a grueling 4-week home search (new construction & resell). As far as being a first time homebuyer, you CAN you the $8,000 as a downpayment, regardless of the builder. It's the law. I never heard of the two builders, but stay away from anything that resembles tract housing. When buying a home, remember to factor in resell ability.
Considering you have to file a tax return after you purchase the home before you get the $8000, how can you use it for a down payment? What law describes this?
That has nothing to do with being able to use the $8000 as a down payment. You simply reduce your withholding so that you can pay less taxes on each paycheck. Heck, any home buyer can do that. Heck, any taxpayer can do that regardless of buying a house. I could adjust my withholding from 2 exemptions to 4 right now. Plus, there is no "law". If you go to purchase a home, you cannot say "apply my $8000 credit to my down payment".
Fair enough. The way I understood this credit is that I can reduce as much as I can afford per paycheck, above and beyond current allowable exemptions, up to the $8,000 credit amount. No, it's not a law. I refer to everything that I can legally do that is allowable by the gov't as a law. It's my own personal shortcoming that I'm trying to overcome.
you can tell your employer to decrease the withholdings.. there are also other ways to get this money before filing your 2009 return.
That is true, but you won't be getting the entire $8000 for a long time. Also, anyone at anytime can file a W-4 and request a withholding decrease. You just have to be prepared to pay extra (and possibly penalties if you withhold too much) when you file your taxes. Coma's post made it sound like a lender HAD to allow you to use the $8000 you don't have towards your down payment, especially since he wrote - "It's the law". What other ways can you get the $8000 other than filing an amended return for 2008, your actual return for 2009 or requesting a decrease in withholding or some sort of loan against the possibility you will receive the $8000?
