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With the fireplace in the kitchen it appears the prior owner wapped the kitchen & LR. The minimal cabinetry it would not be a major project to swap them back. I like that it has a 2nd story and an additonal 1/2 bath. I was always taught that it's only your first home you won't live there forever. That said you can build equity and in a few years find what really does meet your needs...
Ranches aren't the only style of home you can find in Levittown. The capes are very nice, especially for a starter, and I feel they have some good charm. That being said, Levitt homes rarely have basements which can prove to be more of a PITA than walking into a kitchen.
Ranches aren't the only style of home you can find in Levittown. The capes are very nice, especially for a starter, and I feel they have some good charm. That being said, Levitt homes rarely have basements which can prove to be more of a PITA than walking into a kitchen.
Another thing about Levitt homes is that they run on oil heat. Very few have gas service/gas heat. Oil heating, on average, costs more $$.
@ Manhattantop: I'm in a similar situation, similar income, similar money down. The taxes are the killer on LI, because they figure into your monthly debt to income ratio. It can't be higher than 45% in most cases, should be under 40. To figure it out add up all monthly payments including mortgage, taxes and homeowner insurance, as well as car and divide by your monthly gross income. For instance if your total monthly payments will be $2300 and your gross monthly income is $4166 (50k annual) then your DTI ratio is 55% (2300/4166 = 0.552). That's too high. Since our situations are similar I'll tell you I qualified for a 185k loan. Got approved on a 265k house with $9200 annual taxes. It put my dti at about 42%. That's really the max. The house needs a lot of work. But I can do it all myself so I can do it. I couldn't if I had to pay for renovations.
You're best bet is a short sale or a fixer upper, unless you go for Hempstead or Freeport. I was able to find something in East Meadow, but there we plenty that fit my criteria in Levittown. You just need to watch those taxes. They are a deal breaker in most cases, forget 10k or 11k taxes, it just won't work for you.
Don't let people tell you it's not possible because they're full of it. You just need to make it work, figure out how to do that,
When my husband and I were searching for a house (we looked for a while on Long Island and then eventually settled in Westchester's Ossining), we looked on the criteria of being able to afford the house on one of our salaries in case anything happened to the other salary. Our other criteria: within a 90-minute commute to the city, preferably near the LIRR, minimum two bedroom, and not a condo/co-op.
You need to factor in being able to survive on one salary, even if your girlfriend will be contributing to this house. Things happen—people lose jobs, break up, get sick—and as others pointed out, someone's going to need to foot that bill. That means that even though my husband makes considerably more than me, we searched for a house that we'd be able to survive on my $65k salary. We decided on around $250k to live somewhat comfortably, and $300k would have been stretching a bit.
But given our criteria, most in that range fell into the short sale/rehab pools. Unless we were willing to go further out from the LIRR (increasing vehicular costs), head into the two-hour commute range (doable, but difficult), or look in an area like Freeport, there weren't as many options as we'd hoped given the down real estate market. Most of the short sales were rehab projects on their own, and if you buy a fixer upper, it's likely going to cost a lot more than you initially anticipate—so you have to factor those costs in too.
After searching Long Island high and low, my husband's job requirements changed, and we began looking in the Lower Hudson Valley. Same story up there, so we settled with trying out for a short sale.
You have to make sure you have a LOT of time to work with—and preferably not a lease in which you'd lose money breaking—if you're going to get involved in a short sale. We found a five-bedroom, three-bath short sale that needed rehab and was going for $230k. It needed at least $100k worth of work, including entirely new electrical and plumbing systems, so we offered accordingly and would get a 203k mortgage to help with the rehab. You also have to be comfortable with the fact that you'll have thousands tied up for potentially quite a while; and you should have a good lawyer to make sure the contract is iron-clad.
The sellers accepted our offer, but now it was up to the bank. (It wasn't in foreclosure yet, but the sellers had purchased it for nearly $400k and owed a lot of money on the house.) We signed all the contracts and put 5% down. We waited. And waited. And waited. About nine months later, our broker called us and said, "Did you see that the house is up for sale again?"
The bank had rejected our offer. But we never got any official correspondence saying so or a chance to up our offer, despite numerous phone calls and getting bounced around. We still had the thousands tied up in the house, but we started looking elsewhere despite technically still being in contract with this short sale.
We luckily found a four-bed, one bath a few blocks away, and it fit all of our criteria—and wasn't a short sale. It was over that $250k threshold, but in the time waiting for the other house, we had built quite a bit more savings. Mortgage rates were beginning to tick up again, so we immediately put in an offer and it was accepted. The house needs some work, but we were able to move in immediately. We bought the house with a month still left on the short sale contract, and crossed our fingers that the bank wasn't going to come back and say, "Okay, you can have it." We'd be out a considerable amount otherwise for breaking the contract.
Luckily, the other contract lapsed and even though we braced ourselves for a fight, the money was returned to us. We pass by that house every day, and it's falling worse and worse into disrepair and vacant going on three years now. The bank is now only accepting cash offers. We wonder who's going to buy it.
The short sale was a lot more stressful than buying the other house. I've had a few other friends get involved with short sales and the majority have painful stories attached to them. Who knows, you might be lucky—but you also need to be prepared.
Okay, here's the nuts and bolts of debt to income ratio.
62,000 / 12 mos = 5166.66 x 28% = 1446.66
62,000 12 mos = 5166.66 x 34% = 1756.66
Ideally, you want to be debt free - but that is not today's reality. Thus, you can extend your percentage of indebtedness to 34% of your monthly gross. PITI plus car payment or any other long term debt.
I would urge you NOT to go over 34%. You want to qualify for the best interest rate you can obtain.
Property taxes go up every year. You need that cushion.
Also you should have 6 months reserve in your bank account, so don't use all your $90k.
Not all homes or sellers will go VA. I would check with USAA or any of the military credit unions first, then see what some of the conventional banks are offering rate-wise.
I would not include your gf in the mortgage application. Her debt can adversely effect your debt to income ratio.
Also, how long have each of you been at your current jobs?
Unless your salary jumps to six figures in 2 years you maybe forced to sell or live on ramen.
If you may $62k, your take home pay after tax is no better than $3k month. That monthly mortgage will take more close to 50% of your paycheck.
This is not including expenses you gotta pay for your home. The biggest reality is how can you afford the property taxes.
Assuming a modest $6k in property tax, that will add another $500 to your monthly mortgage bill without any deductions.
Why can't people just rent? Renting is not terrible as long as you got a great lease.
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