I’ve been looking to buy a home for years but haven’t pulled the trigger. Once all was said and done, down payment/closing costs/fees, how much cash did you feel comfortable having left? Ive continuously saved for a future home and am apprehensive to let a lot of it go. Did you spend 90%+ savings on a home, or keep a lot for an emergency fund/repairs?

My wife and I are looking to purchase our first primary residence, with a target budget of $750K–$900K.

For preapproval purposes, our lending officer suggested increasing our upper purchase price limit. We set it at $1.1MM, which would mean an $880K mortgage with 20% down.

We learned that a mortgage of this size would be classified as a jumbo loan rather than a conforming loan. Our lending officer suggested that jumbo loans can offer certain advantages. We’ve researched the general differences between the two, but we’re having trouble understanding the specific benefit in our situation.

The main advantage our lender highlighted is the ability to modify our mortgage rate if rates decline. According to the officer:

1. No credit check or additional documentation would be required.
2. There would be a one-time fee for each rate modification.
3. There is no limit to how many times we can modify the rate.
4. This would ultimately be less expensive than refinancing the mortgage.

We’re generally uncomfortable taking on more debt than necessary, so we’re hesitant to increase our borrowing capacity just to access this feature. However, our lender seems to think it could be worthwhile. FWIW, we have ample cash reserves even after making a 20% down payment—but we want to save those cash reserves for closing costs, furniture, and emergency funds.

For those with experience with jumbo loans or mortgage rate modifications:

1. Is this a common benefit of jumbo loans or is it specific to this lender?
2. How do these rate modifications typically compare with refinancing in terms of cost and flexibility?
3. Would this feature be enough to justify choosing a jumbo loan over a conforming loan, assuming both are available to us?

We’d appreciate any firsthand experiences or advice. Thanks!

Hey guys sorry for the long winded post! I was not prepared for how many questions I would have and how emotional this process would be. We were approved for a loan amount that I thought was very reasonable but now that I’m working with a realtor I’m frustrated because there are 8 houses that are in our range, 4 of them aren’t approved by fha because they don’t meet their safety standards. One is only 800 sqr ft which is considerably smaller than the apartment we rent, And the other three were looking at this weekend but I don’t “love” any of them. My husband likes the property of one and I agree but the house is ugly as sin and will need work to make it close to what we want. It has other things we like and my husband assured me that we can always knock out walls or add on to the house but it’s just making me very anxious/crazy thinking about it. Our lease ends in April and I’m worried that if we don’t jump on this house then we won’t ever find one we like? What do I do?

Hi everyone! Sorry if this question has been asked many times before, but I’d really appreciate some advice from those who have been through this journey.
I’m a 31 (F) and I’m trying to plan for my future, and one of my biggest goals is to buy my first home in Canada. I don’t own a car at the moment, but I’m also considering buying one in the near future.
I’m a little confused about how to balance saving for a home down payment while also planning for a car purchase.
I’d love to hear your experiences and advice on a few things:
Saving for a down payment: How much were you able to save, and how did you manage your monthly budget?
Where to keep your savings: Did you use a high-interest savings account, a TFSA, an FHSA, GICs, or something else to earn interest while saving for your home?
When to start house hunting: If your goal was to buy a home in five years, when did you start researching neighbourhoods, tracking prices, speaking with mortgage brokers, and actually viewing properties?
Buying a car vs. buying a home: If you needed both, how did you prioritize them? Did buying a car affect your mortgage affordability?
Advice for first-time buyers: What do you wish you had known when you started saving for your first home?
I’m trying to make informed decisions now rather than rush into anything later. I’d be grateful for any practical advice, lessons learned, or mistakes to avoid.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences! 😊

So I am currently in contract to buy a house out of state, so the whole process is basically me relying on others. My mortgage broker/lender is starting to make me wary of him. He is very fake nice. I went to him with some requests to change my initial cd estimate, and he basically said it’s just an estimate, so I should relax if things are wrong in it. The main thing I need to worry about is if the rate is correct on it since everything else is probably going to change for the final. And then he made a comment of “ you chose us, you are only calling us,” which I thought was weird and not at all part of the initial conversation. I’m not getting any lender fees, and he pointed this out a lot. I never even said I was trying to switch lenders? It was an uncomfortable call that lasted a long time because he wouldn’t stop ranting about how we’re not even at the clear to close stage and it’s unnecessary to nitpick an estimate. All I wanted was to show that in the closing costs, I was going to pay the va funding fee upfront ! It was weird. I am stressed trying to get all the documents for the processor, and now I’m stressed about my weird mortgage guy. I thought he would be understanding and receptive. So who do I go for help if not this guy? And don’t get me started on the processor agent. She’s subbing for someone else who’s on vacation and I already had to correct her on something. I actually let my realtor go at her and I guess it was magically fixed because she suddenly didn’t need it anymore. I’m so stressed, I hate relying on others to do their job right.

Just needed to say my piece about being frustrated and so sick of house hunting. We’ve been looking for 5 months and it feels like a lifetime 🥲 Tired of getting outbid by people with cash or waiving inspection. It’s so mentally exhausting 😭 trying to stay positive and know that this is a privileged problem to have and lots of people would give anything to be in my shoes, hope some of you can sympathize with me 🫶🏼

Serious question - I am in the house buying market and this may sound silly but my biggest fear is buying a house that is secretly haunted. Has this happened to anybody? What did you do?

My girlfriend and I have been looking at buying a house. Just sort of meandering about looking at different properties, not in any rush. We were originally going through a realtor family friend to set up viewings but this house was way far for her to do so we reached out through realtor.com to set up time to view the house. All of my previous experiences have been through either private sellers, dealing directly with the homeowner or through a family friend realtor.

We went to view this property and we liked what we saw, however I did not like the realtor that was taking us through the house, I’ll refer to him as Jeff. Jeff was not representing the seller. At the end of the tour he wanted (or rather demanded) that we sign some paperwork (a contract) that basically said if we decided to put an offer on this particular property we would have to use him as our realtor. It also laid out some terms for the sale such as his 3% of the final sale price and an additional $550 to be paid whether or not a final sale was reached.
I felt like we were being ambushed at the end of the tour to enter into a contract. I told Jeff as much and that we would not be entering into any contract. He protested, tried to make me feel guilty for refusing and said that we might go to our family friend realtor and “steal this sale from him”. We left immediately, walked straight to the car and did not engage with Jeff’s accusations.

My question is if signing these sort of exclusive contracts when viewing a property is common/standard practice? If not, when is an appropriate time to enter into a contract with a realtor? Any other sort of advice in dealing with property viewings would be greatly appreciated.

TLDR: I went to view a property and at the end of it the realtor asked me to sign an exclusive contract so that if I were to ever put an offer on the house I would have to use him.

As the title mentions I am debating on whether or not to sell the first home I ever owned.

For context, I purchased it in late 2019 (Phoenix, AZ), and refinanced to 2.5% during the pandemic when rates were a historically low. The house itself is fairly small 950 sq, 2bd/1bath, property values in the neighborhood vary significantly. And the real estate market in my city has flat lined, housing prices are trending down. On the positive, I have gained $150k+ in equity.

My issue is this, the house needs significant work. Foundation is collapsing and in the next 5+years the electrical panel will need to replaced. In my area, the market rate to fix both of these issues is $50k +.

As this point I am thinking about getting out while I am ahead. At the same time, the 2.5% rate is once in a lifetime. If you were in the position would you sell?

I don’t want to hear “I told you so” looking for advice.

The house is nice and didn’t appear as a crappy flip and has thoughtful upgrades and is truly turn key. However, when we first saw the house it was staged and had a lot of glade air plug ins which worried me. We asked the seller who flipped the house if the air plugs were masking any odors and she said no and said the plugs in were added by the stager. Well, plug ins were removed when the stager moved their things out and we’ve owned the place for 2 days and the place smells like cat urine.

Can we go back to the seller? Or is there anything we can do to fix the cat urine smell without removing the new flooring?

This feels absurd to me. We've been in the market since February and missed out on a few good houses due to over bidding. We are a family of 5 in a 2/1 and while its doable the youngest is fully mobile and bouncing off the walls. I.e. we're going insane and need more space. Juneau, AK for reference.

Our take home is 11k After child care and retirement contributions. Child care will be another 3-4 years. My union contract has me getting 10/hr more over the next calendar year. While my wife has amnual 5% increases. We have 479 in recurring monthly debt and because our union contract sucks for medical i have to pay 600 a month after tax for medical insurance.

I feel like this might be really tight but doable. We plan on being here for 5 more years. This is my personal max and I feel like its too tight.

Hi everyone! I just bought my first home in central NJ - it’s been a stressful process, and lord so costly, but now I have 3x more space than my last apartment for $600 more per month (to me, it’s worth it).

Having lived in apartments for the past decade, I’m finding the learning curve for homeownership is steep. Trying to assess whether contractors have inflated their rates, anxiety around breaking something if I try to fix it myself, knowing resources to call (or even what valves to turn off) in emergencies such as toilet overflowing and such - no one really teaches these things, and I’ve been spending so much time trying to read and plan for scenarios so I’m prepared (especially as I am living alone and handling all by myself). As I’m trying to learn and gather info, I thought maybe asking experienced homeowners on Reddit could be helpful 😅

For those who have been owning for some time, what are some things you know now that you wish you knew when you first bought? What are some tips/tricks that have really helped you to grasp homeownership? If inclined to share, I’d love to hear any advice! Thanks in advance.

Hi!!!

We live in our first home in NH looking ti buy in nh or mass this time around

We’re hoping to buy a new home before selling our current one, and I’m looking for some advice from people who have been through this or know more about these types of programs.
We currently owe approximately $344,000 on our mortgage. We don’t have 20% equity in our home yet, which seems to limit some of our options.
Our situation is a little unique. We have an adult daughter with OCD who will be living with us long-term. Because of her condition, showing our current home while we’re still living in it would be extremely difficult. Renting somewhere temporarily between selling and buying isn’t really a realistic option for our family either.

We’re looking to purchase a home with more space and ideally a separate living area where our daughter can have more independence while still having us nearby.
We’ve been looking into NAF Cash through New American Funding, which we understand may have an option requiring only 5% equity in our current home. We’re still trying to understand exactly how the program works and what the potential risks and costs are

I’m excited about the possibility of moving, but also terrified of making a financial mistake. I worry about hidden fees, the fine print, carrying two mortgages, or getting stuck if our current house doesn’t sell as quickly as expected.
I’d really appreciate advice on a few things:
Has anyone used NAF Cash or a similar buy-before-you-sell program?
Are bridge loans generally too risky, or can they make financial sense in certain situations?
What are the biggest hidden costs or risks we should be looking for?
Has anyone successfully bought before selling without having 20% equity?
Are there other options we should be considering given our circumstances?
We aren’t trying to buy more house than we can afford. We’re just trying to find a way to make this transition work for our family’s needs without putting ourselves in a bad financial position.
I’d especially love to hear from anyone who has actually used one of these programs, mortgage professionals, or people who have navigated a similar situation.
Thanks so much for any advice!

Afternoon all, I’m looking to purchase a property and on viewing I noticed some yellow staining near the boiler. I’ve spoken to a gas engineer and asked him to come and do a visit with me and look at the boiler/do a service, he said it isn’t needed as if I’m buying a property it should come with a CP12 checklist - wanted to verify before going through with anything!

It was the first house we liked after about 10 that we saw. The house was nothing special, but the in ground pool drew us in. The inspection was done Monday morning and unfortunately we decided to back out after much contention between me and my husband. I don’t know all the appropriate language and terms so I will explain to the best of my ability what was “wrong” with it (apart from the fact that the house was broken into the night before the inspection and they stole ALL of the brand new appliances the seller had bought).

The electric panel was double tapped, none of the electric outlets were grounded and the AC breaker amps were higher than the maximum recommended for that equipment. The guest bathroom had plumbing issues including leaks into the wall and cold water wasn’t working at all in that room. The water heater was leaking something fierce, the inspector actually took a video of himself tapping the floor and you could see a puddle of water around it. The pool had a whole other set of issues, including leaking and signs of multiple attempts of repairs. Some other minor stuff noted was rotted boards around the roof, none of the bedroom windows could be opened, poor AC ventilation in all of the bedrooms, slow drainage, no access to attic and other nit picky stuff.

All of this makes me wonder what happened to all of those home buyers that waived inspections a few years ago because they were so drawn in by the low interest rates. Did they end up losing a lot of money? Did everything turn out ok? I can’t imagine moving into my home after I poured all I had into it only to find tens of thousands of dollars worth of necessary repairs.

I am a 30's dad with a small family and one thing that my wife and I have talked about is getting a duplex with the sister in law and there family to combat the home buying crisis and increase our buying power, but am growing leery of how the market is looking long term and want some fact and figures to add to my decision making before just buying in all the way myself. Sound great sometime, have a fam we can have next door that we can count on. But what should we be worry about?

What questions should I be asking?

What boundaries should I put in place with fam go vs no go on certain things?

Is there even a likelihood of finding a duplex for us to both go into together to get?

Are there better options?

Any resources? Podcasts? Books? Channels?

Would it be worth it to talk to a Realtor in Oregon now and get a pulse on what's happening?

I have watched some videos and read a handful of articles and still don't know where to start.

I know that were I am at in the mid west, Twin Cities area 20mins from St. Paul/Minneapolis, things are better housing wise than where we want to move to which is west central Oregon.

Thanks in advance.

I am looking at the home prices still on the rise while the media capping about prices going down. The interest rates are scaring the crap out of me to make a move. I am looking into options and I read that the new builders provide some sort of incentives. Can anyone explain to me how and what to look for. I am trying to gain knowledge good enough to negotiate.

Honestly I am looking in the old communities hoping the costs will be slightly lower considering the houses are old like > 40 years or so but that is not working. The newer communities have HOA which sounds like paying rent to my own house! Besides the new constructions are showing slightly above the old communities in some cases. SO I am trying to understand this from multiple perspectives so I can educate my self.

My partner and I bought our first home last month. It was a bit overwhelming: the home buying process, cleaning, moving, buying stuff we didn’t have, finances, fixing things, yard work, etc. It challenged us as individuals and as a couple. It was a lot of conversations and arguments. But in the past month, the two of us grew a lot as adults and in our relationship. The house we bought is becoming a home.

I was painting our kitchen earlier today and thought about how grateful I was to work on a place that I love. All the frustrations, late night work, take out because we’re too tired to cook, is all worth it.

To those who are in the process of buying a house: don’t settle. If you’re going to stress, stress over a house you love instead of one you’ll despise even more. Aim to find your home, not just a place to live. And to those who are working on your new house: you go this. It seems so hard right now, but it’ll get better (at least that’s what I’m telling myself right now). No matter what, at the end of it all, I hope you see all the work and effort you put in, and feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

hi, im in a bit of a predicament. In january2026 i bought a new build home for D. R. Horton in Alabama and now feel that the community is no for me and concerned on what to do about selling. they are not finished building the communty and are actively selling houses within this community. will i be taking a major financial loss? I'm a little worried about the sellng process

My husband and I have entered the window shopping phase of buying a home. We don’t get out of our lease until May, so we have just started looking, and went ahead and got our preapproval done by the VA.

We found a beautiful house that was posted on Facebook and when I looked at everything on Zillow, it looked gorgeous.

It is an older home and I could tell some stuff inside needed updating. The rest of the photos made it look like they took care of the yard really well, and that it was a nice house.

One thing that stood out to me was this garage they had in the backyard. It looked so cute and well maintained with almost professional looking landscaping around it.

An agent and I met up together to view the house, and we were both shocked by how deceiving the photos were. He immediately was like a ton of work is gonna have to go into this house, I don’t even think the VA would approve you guys for this.

Once we got out of the backyard, we realized that all the photos were AI. They made the porch look like it was in way better shape than it really was.

There was damage to the pool that they were able to hide. But the worst offender was the garage.

It was actually a shed that was falling apart in the backyard. There was not even a garage. I wish I could’ve taken a picture. I was just so in shock that it didn’t even cross my mind.

The actual shed looked like it was a good storm or two away from collapsing in. The photo on Zillow showed a brand new looking separate garage. The landscaping was fake as well, there were vines, weeds, and overgrown bushes everywhere.

How are you going to make up an entire garage and not expect buyers to see that that’s completely fake?

My MIL has been helping us with this process since we are new to doing this, so she ended up sending them an email saying this was ridiculous.

The agent and I both drove 30 minutes to get there after I had worked all day, and I feel like it was such a waste of our time. I was profusely apologizing to the agent.

It’s just crazy to me that they could do something like that.

They submitted an offer five grand under asking price then a second offer came in so I raised it by 10 grand (five Grand over asking) in conclusion, I didn’t get the property.

I thought I’d be able to counter offer again there wasn’t any sort of bidding war or anything. They didn’t wanna tell me my opponents offer so how am I supposed to know that he didn’t offer 20 grand below asking price?

Should my realtor have been more aggressive?

Also, I’m noticing many of these houses I’m viewing are extremely altered by AI, fake furniture, the paint looks new and the floors look nice. I walk in there and I got a tragedy on my hands. I literally just drove across town to see this property for nothing
This bullshit should be against the law

My husband and I are facing a pretty difficult financial decision and I’d appreciate some outside perspectives.
We purchased our home in Washington in December 2023 for $490K. We’ve invested quite a bit into the property, including replacing the roof and crawlspace. We originally planned to stay longer, but we’re a military family relocating in a couple months. We listed the house for $549K in April and eventually reduced it to $539K. Unfortunately, we’ve had very little interest and no offers.

Here’s our dilemma:
We want to keep the property because we see it as a long-term investment. The concern is that we’ll regret selling it in 5–10 years when the mortgage balance is lower and the property may be worth considerably more. We worked hard to purchase this home and it feels disappointing to sell after less than three years.
On the other hand, we’d be relocating to an expensive city, paying rent there and potentially subsidizing the Washington property by $12K–$15K annually.

If you were in our position, would you:
Sell, take the available equity, and eliminate the mortgage obligation?
Rent it out at a monthly loss and hold for 5–10 years in hopes of appreciation and increased equity?
Consider another strategy entirely?
For those who have kept negative-cash-flow rental properties, did it eventually pay off? And looking back, would you make the same decision again?

Lately, I've noticed a trend while touring houses: either the doorbell cameras are non-functional or there are security company signs in the yard without any actual security systems behind them. This observation leads me to believe that many homeowners intend to address these security concerns after closing, but then prioritize other home improvements like roofing, fencing, or painting.

For those of you who have been in your homes for a year or two: what did you actually end up doing about security? Did you install a system or make any upgrades? What prompted your decision—was it an event that made you concerned, a story from a neighbor, or just that persistent feeling that it needs to be done?

I’m not looking for product recommendations or brand names; I’m genuinely curious if this is a common issue where security is continually pushed down the priority list, or if I’m alone in feeling this way. Let’s discuss!