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When we'd first seriously considered moving out of the apartment in Pompton Lakes, neither of us had any idea of where to even start looking. Egg wanted to look at condos which wouldn't be large enough for her needs for the amount of money they cost.
"A house then... That's fine. Yeah, that would work out fine."
Says the one who owned a house prior to this and refused to keep up with even the most basic of home maintenance; maybe a condo would've been better for her, but it doesn't matter now.
"I'm gonna see if I can get a mortgage for one, use the money from [my grandmother] as a down payment."
There was a mortgage lender not far from the bank we dealt with. She got in contact with them and after saying she had no income outside of monthly social security, they laughed her off the phone.
"We could give you a mortgage for $50,000 maybe, but more than likely you wouldn't qualify for anything to purchase a house with."
"How do old people buy all these houses?!"
"With cash, in full," I said. "Not with a mortgage."
(They may also use a HELOC.)
"Well I don't wanna have to use all of my money and then end up house poor."
"Then don't use all your money to purchase a house and just purchase within a certain budget range." I wondered why I was the one explaining all of this to her. Me, who knew nothing about the real estate industry, just common sense. You know, if you only have x amount of dollars, keep things within that boundary. How much do you want to spend? What's the lowest and the highest points you're willing to go to?
With all of that in mind, we did look on Zillow in different towns and boroughs in New Jersey.
Expensive. More expensive. Too expensive. Out of control expensive. Just for purchasing a house, this didn't count things like property taxes. We were priced out of New Jersey.
Which I didn't care about because I wanted to leave it, honestly.
She suggested Arizona—priced out of there, not to mention moving across the country isn't cheap.
She suggested New Mexico—same story there.
"Plus those places have probably changed since 1974 when you last visited them."
"What about New York?"
( Read more... )
"A house then... That's fine. Yeah, that would work out fine."
Says the one who owned a house prior to this and refused to keep up with even the most basic of home maintenance; maybe a condo would've been better for her, but it doesn't matter now.
"I'm gonna see if I can get a mortgage for one, use the money from [my grandmother] as a down payment."
There was a mortgage lender not far from the bank we dealt with. She got in contact with them and after saying she had no income outside of monthly social security, they laughed her off the phone.
"We could give you a mortgage for $50,000 maybe, but more than likely you wouldn't qualify for anything to purchase a house with."
"How do old people buy all these houses?!"
"With cash, in full," I said. "Not with a mortgage."
(They may also use a HELOC.)
"Well I don't wanna have to use all of my money and then end up house poor."
"Then don't use all your money to purchase a house and just purchase within a certain budget range." I wondered why I was the one explaining all of this to her. Me, who knew nothing about the real estate industry, just common sense. You know, if you only have x amount of dollars, keep things within that boundary. How much do you want to spend? What's the lowest and the highest points you're willing to go to?
With all of that in mind, we did look on Zillow in different towns and boroughs in New Jersey.
Expensive. More expensive. Too expensive. Out of control expensive. Just for purchasing a house, this didn't count things like property taxes. We were priced out of New Jersey.
Which I didn't care about because I wanted to leave it, honestly.
She suggested Arizona—priced out of there, not to mention moving across the country isn't cheap.
She suggested New Mexico—same story there.
"Plus those places have probably changed since 1974 when you last visited them."
"What about New York?"
( Read more... )
