When did you decide to make the leap into home ownership?
I'm paying 3.4k in rent in downtown bellevue for a 2bdrm highrise. My lease is up in May and I have a baby due in December so I'd like to transition to home ownership and build equity. I'm looking at housing in Seattle or Eastside (redmond/bellevue/kirkland/issaquah/sammamish). All of these areas are expensive so I'm open to owning a condominium, townhouse, etc to sell in 4-5yrs and transition into a detached house with yard. Concerns: 1. What if I want to maximize TC and change companies every 2-3 years? Is that doable in Seattle area? Removing NYC/Bay Area would cut out a lot of opportunities. 2. What if the market retraces and I'm underwater on a condo? I could deal with being underwater on a house but I'd be upset being underwater on an apartment. 3. I wouldn't have cash upfront and plan on using VA loan and I read it's difficult to get housing with VA loan. These are just my concerns. What made you confident in homeownership? Did you wait until you were a senior engineer? My TC 170k (will be around 1.5 yoe when lease ends). Wife TC: 40k and will be sahm to avoid daycare costs.
I did it at a bad time and don't regret it. Purchased right before the 2007 crash, stayed for 12 years and bought a dream home with the equity. Different situation though being in Florida.
That area is extremely competitive. You can build wealth just fine without owning any real estate. Imo you should just look into earning more money and staying flexible until you feel like you can easily afford options you want. Stack some more YoE/tc first and put all focus on that goal.
If you aren’t planning to move for minimum 2 years than you can make the jump. VA loan is a very bad idea though as they are not actually a blessing. You should save up 10% minimum down payment . 170k in Seattle should leave you with about 3-4K a month you can set aside
Yeah I can definitely save that. My main expense besides rent is 40k into retirement between 401k, ira, and megabackdoor. I was hoping with the VA loan I could put more of that typical downpayment money towards retirement accounts instead.
I’d say pause that investing down to taking company match and save the rest for a down payment on a 750k ish place
When I had enough money to fully pay it in cash. Then I got a mortgage 30 year fixed with 20% down, because mortgage rates were ridiculously low at that time.
By pay in full cash do you mean the whole house price or just the down? What was the house price?
The whole house (actually a condo)