Zillow Advice: Home Buying - Home in Huntersville-poor scores/good income and strong employment history-Should we rent??

I wasn't aware we were talking ...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:19:00 GMT

I wasn't aware we were talking about your friends and acquaintances. Each individual/couple must make their own financial choices and/priorities their own and not by "keeping up with the Jones'"

I spend some volunteer time over more than a decade doing simple financial counseling those with incomes well below the median income of the area. It was fascinating the different perceptions of want vs need.

How's your saving for a down payment?

I would suggest you contact ...

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 11:14:00 GMT

I would suggest you contact a local lender and discuss your financial situation with them rather than these very public boards. I totally agree with you, its a pain to move and move again plus its a very competitive rental market and there appears (from your input) that you potentially could purchase at this point in time. Do you have to sell your current home to purchase the new one?
Charlotte, like this area, Raleigh ,NC area is a busier market than other areas of the country by the way. If you need a referral for a realtor, you can click on any of our names or lender for that matter. Or go to the Professionals tab up top.
Whatever your choice, best of luck to you .

It seems like it is possible ...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:46:00 GMT

It seems like it is possible that you need to understand a little more about credit and what might be dragging yours down. I have been forced to learn more than I cared to know about credit. There could be simple things you are doing that drag it down. Don't pay anything late, ever, if you can help it. And pay each of your credit cards down to 10% or less of the available credit. Set up as many things as possible to pay automatically. Busy people who would never let anything slip at work, often forget to pay a bill until it is late at home.

It almost seems like you could stand to sit down with a financial planner and see if there are ways to get your financial house in better order. Those credit scores are pretty low for people who are using credit. You might consider going to www.myfico.com and learn about working on your scores. It would likely save you a lot of money on financing in general if you were carrying a higher score. My situation is very different than yours, but I have been able to get our scores up about 100 points in just a few months.

your comment was that we ...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:32:00 GMT

your comment was that we should be able to afford more given our income, my answer was that the income alone does not mean people can afford what it may look like on paper-we should be able to afford a 450k-650k+ home on paper, but obviously we are not trying to buy more than is reasonable which is why i stated 2000-2400 a month or 250k-350k. When we complete the sale of our home, we should have about 50k down

250k sounds like a lot more ...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:05:00 GMT

250k sounds like a lot more that it actually comes out to- we fall in close to 50 % tax bracket so literally, we pay our mortgage car pymnts, kids college, a few credt cards, utilities, student loans and there is nothing left - most ppl i know in that income bracket are only looking at homes in the 250k-350k range- sad but true...

Yes, you should rent if you ...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:56:00 GMT

Yes, you should rent if you can't make progress in the months between now and moving lock in day.   Yes, it is a pain to move again.

It sounds like you need to evaluate what is continuing to keep your credit scores down.   A foreclosure 5 years ago is not likely to be pulling you below limits, are the medical collections recent?

You have a huge income relative to the payments you propose. If it isn't clear what you need to do to get your scores up spend some time with an excellent lender who will give you some clues.    Here's a link to a Zillow blog on the subject, of course it isn't customized for you.