Mortgages

[big44a4]

Truth, I'm looking at and trying out LE, my SIL has encouraged me to look into nursing which I'm looking at, or to stay more in my field is go get my construction management degree and try for construction management jobs. Would hate that work I presume, but it would help with the money side of life to try and really set us up long term.

Where I’m at a construction mgmt degree means nothing. Experience and time in field building relationships is what moves you up the pay scale. I have a masters degree in business with zero construction experience prior to 10 years ago starting out at square zero in the field.

Also can’t be scared to jump at a good opportunity. I had one come my way closing out change orders with one of my suppliers 5 years ago and glad I listened to the opportunity.

 

[Broadhead]

I'll start by saying that I have only read the first 5 pages of this thread, but one item I have not saw mentioned is the time value of money. Why they don't teach this in grade school is beyond me.

When figuring out what is best for you and your financial decisions, you should always be valuing the opportunity cost of giving up the money, rather than investing it, or what the additional payment you would be making for this mortgage or that mortgage should be worth in the future. Not all debt is bad debt, especially if you could be making more money in the market (on average) than what you're paying in interest. Essentially the overview is the longer you have money in the market, the more it will grow. Meaning, invest early and often and you will have vastly more money than if you start even 5 years later in life. Google "Time value of money calculator" and you can type in your inputs to see what the future value of $X will be in the future. Helpful for retirement and any type of payment comparison. My wife and I just calculated the difference between current mortgage, 30 year refi, and 15 year refi using this and a few other mortgage calculations to compare them all. 15 year for us in the current market, but that doesn't mean it suits everyone's needs.

 

[bone collector 13]

Can’t tell you all how much I appreciate the input, information, sidebar. I know it’s sappy to be appreciative of internet strangers. But I truly do appreciate it! Why this isn’t taught in school is beyond me, I know I know you can go to college for this I’m sure but that’s a whole other topic but as a first generation born American, growing up in a farming community, asking my “inner circle” constantly got me. Just save money and buy a cheaper house. Or I bought my house with cash and sweat equity.

Special shout out to @kfili who doesn’t know me from a stranger on the street, who has nothing to gain from talking to me yet still took a half hour + out of his day to jump on a phone call and give me a run down on mortgages and answer all my questions plus offer continued support. This is definitely what this forum is about!

 

[kfili]

Can’t tell you all how much I appreciate the input, information, sidebar. I know it’s sappy to be appreciative of internet strangers. But I truly do appreciate it! Why this isn’t taught in school is beyond me, I know I know you can go to college for this I’m sure but that’s a whole other topic but as a first generation born American, growing up in a farming community, asking my “inner circle” constantly got me. Just save money and buy a cheaper house. Or I bought my house with cash and sweat equity.

Special shout out to @kfili who doesn’t know me from a stranger on the street, who has nothing to gain from talking to me yet still took a half hour + out of his day to jump on a phone call and give me a run down on mortgages and answer all my questions plus offer continued support. This is definitely what this forum is about!

Happy to help!

 

[Fuzzy684]

Things to consider are:

*30 year average mortgage rate is in the 7.8% range. The days of 3's and such spoiled buyers to no end and they won't be coming back. However I wouldn't be surprised to see them hit the low 6's in the next 9 months or so. IMO, 6% give or take a bit will become the new normal.

*Personally I wouldn't touch an ARM

*Pretty darn sure you can get into a conventional with less than 20% down if you shop around a bit

*I would work with a local lender, by that I mean one that you can walk in and sit down and talk with. As well I do like my lenders to have their underwriters in state as well. And, I would speak to 2 or 3 different lenders and get their ideas/quotes from them.

*PMI to me isn't the end of the world as you can petition to have that removed after a couple years as long as you have enough equity in the property. (seems to me that magic number is 20%)

*One other thing to consider, there is roughly 5 million potential buyers out there waiting for the rates to drop to 6% that will engage when they do. What do you figure the prices of properties will do when the rates go that low (and they will) and all those buyers get into the market...? Prices will rocket up and inventory levels will get lower than they already are. Course there will be more people who have been waiting to sell that will put their homes on the market but there will still be a housing shortage and prices will head north!

Just a though or three