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May
24
24
Saving Up For A House? This Is How Much You'll Need
Saving up the money necessary to buy a house can seem overwhelming, especially if you don't know how much exactly you'll need to have on hand. Let our real estate agents break it down for you so that you have a better idea of how much you'll need to save to make your dream a reality.
- Down Payment
The most intimidating part of saving for a house is, of course, coming up with the down payment. Many experts recommend being able to pay 20 percent down, which can be a challenging amount to come up with for many people. For instance, South Bend homes for sale currently average around $160,000, so a 20 percent down payment would mean saving about $32,000. Hopefully, you're already starting to save, but if not, this doesn't mean a house is out of your reach. There are programs out there that can get you into a house with a down payment as low as 3 percent. - Closing Costs
The term closing costs is a catch-all term for many of the additional costs involved with buying a home, even those that aren't technically paid at closing. For instance, you'll need to pay out of pocket for a home inspection long before closing, and the earlier the better so that you can identify any potential issues with the home and renegotiate terms if needed. The mortgage company will also require an appraisal before the closing date in order to secure funding for the home. Closing costs due at signing include insurance prepayment, taxes, and the closing company's processing fees. Typically you should expect to pay 3 to 4 percent of the home's value in closing costs, which is $4,800 to $6,400 if we're still assuming an average of $160,000. - Move-in Costs
While we're talking about the various down payments and fees for buying a home, don't forget that you'll need to have cash on hand for your own purposes when you take possession of the home. This might be as minor as remodeling or redecoration costs, which could be put off if you really needed to, but is still so much easier to do before you're living in the home. However, you should still plan to have some cash saved for move-in expenses, as there may be repairs that need to be dealt with right away. This amount will depend on the results of the inspection and your plans for the home, but at minimum you should probably plan on having several thousand available to you when you move in. - Moving Costs
It's easy to forget all about the cost of moving in the rush to save money and the chaos of buying a home, so if you can start putting aside a little money for moving costs now, you should. Moving costs can vary quite a bit depending on the resources you have available to you. If you have a pickup truck and few friends to help, moving can be as little as the cost of gas (and pizza and beer for your friends). If you don't have a truck, you'll also need to plan for renting a truck. If you have to hire movers, you could be looking at spending up to a couple thousand for a local move and more for a long-distance move.
Buying a house requires savings to cover a number of costs, so if you're hoping to buy a home in the next few years, start saving now! If you've been saving for a while and you're ready to buy, contact us today to start the next step in the process.
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